Customer Reviews

Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls is the first of a series of novels that follows the misfortunes of a Roman Army Medical Officer, Gaius Petreius Ruso, after his posting from the warm climes of North Africa to the dreary grey drizzle of Deva (pron. Dewa); that's modern day Chester.

Ruso is down on his luck and doesn't own much more than a few mounting debts. As well as trying to support his own life in the British garrison town, he is obliged to send funds home to his brother in southern Gaul lest his family find themselves destitute and homeless.

His medical colleague at the garrison hospital, who shares his squalid house with Ruso, takes life as it comes and has a wicked sense of humour, and is no help at all. Consequently, Ruso has very little support from anyone as he tries to traverse his difficult life. Almost by accident he finds himself burdened with further unmanageable debts, becomes the reluctant owner of an injured slave, Tilla, and is in continual conflict with the hospital administrator and many of the local Britons.

There are many reflections of twenty-first century society in this book, ranging from the financial and administrative pressures on the health service to the very serious issue of the white slave trade. I am sure that these parallels are deliberately drawn by the author to provoke the reader into thoughts beyond the main storyline.

Ruso becomes an unwilling detective, trying to track down the truth behind the disappearance of several dancing girls from the local brothel and bar. The story moves at a leisurely pace and, in the main, insinuates the brutality of the age rather than going into explicit detail.

I have always been a big fan of historical novels as, with conversations and images, they bring history to life around those dry, boring dates and names that I had to learn in the school classroom. Medicus does this for me and, at the same time, introduces some interesting characters whom I very much look forward to meeting again as the series unfolds. I strongly suspect that Ruso's slave, Tilla, will become his driving force.
This is an excellent detective story, and the links between Roman Britain and Modern Britain are particularly pleasing. I would recommend Medicus to anyone who enjoys a good historical fiction.

I received this book as an early 07 Christmas gift over a year+ ago by a friend who didnt realise I prefer my historical fiction to be all action, adventure with a dash of romance not investigative sleuthing in Ancient times. Then one day curiousity got the better of me and I thought: why not give it a go! After all I had read something similar set in Samurai times a few years ago and that was enjoyable. And the result was that I was very happy I did pull this work off the shelf and dust it off.

Set in old Briton, 117 AD. Having just joined the hospital staff at the Roman legionary fortress of Deva (modern day Chester), this work is about a surgeon Gaius Petreius Ruso who for some reason I cant stop thinking as being a Roman version of Hugh Lawrie from the TV series House MD given the way he seems to be eaten up by his profession and constantly at odds with the bureacratic incompetence of it all. He examines the murdered corpse of a young woman taken from the river. Then a tavern girl goes missing from Merula's establishment and suddenly things start pointing to the possibility of a serial murderer. Not that our principal character cares for he is too busy worrying about being saddled with the debts of his dead father, supporting his one asset - a one armed slave girl called Tilla- and propping up a material world obsessed sister-in-law in Gaul, our main character deems it in his best interests to complete his military first aid collective omnibus and get a promotion to keep the financial wolves at bay.

As Roman detective novels go this more than holds its own . The historical knowledge compliments the story rather than dominates. It has memorable characters you can definately enjoy welded into a satisfying mystery to wet the appetite of the amatuer sleuth within all of us and the feel of the story is true to its setting and not as if we were in a modern ER in a modern UK locality. As an added bonus the author has a penchant for combining humor into his characters dialogue and I do get the feeling he might have had few bad experiences with the NHS system as he doesnt miss many opportunities to poke fault in the writing with the Ancient Roman counterpart. Its kind of nice the way the author knits in the problems of the past in a way that retains the old world feel but leaves something we can relate to in the present without being too depressing.

In the end not a bad debut, and just might spawn a popular series.