Customer Reviews

Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls

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

 

 

I became totally absorbed in the lives and troubles of a cross section of civilizations in flux. Each influencing the others. Each being the only right way to live. Each destroying/modifying the other. Characters so believable that you can't help reacting to them. The prejudices of the conquerors haven't changed over eons and neither has war propaganda. Love the everyday lives of ancient cultures and the relationship between Ruso & Tilla. Crime mysteries are now the modern morality tale.

Downie writes a relaxed paced and humourous (multiple) murder mystery for the first in this series. Ruso, a Roman army doctor after combat experience in Africa, arrives in Britain with a head full of good intentions, a desire to make some money and a book to write. His family worries, a slave trader, a colleague, the hospital administrator, the girls at the local bar and the natives make life more unpredictable and time consuming than he can really deal with in this damp land. His new housekeeper can be both a blessing and a concern. There are some interesting historical facts of Roman surgery gently hidden in here too. Worth finding out how it ends - in this business things are rarely as straight forward as people can be led to believe or as Ruso himself intended.

Note, this is also published as Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire and available as an audio book Medicus and the Disappearing Dancing Girls (Unabridged)

The next book in the series is Ruso and the Demented Doctor (Medicus Investigations 2)