What is involved here is property development and the tourist industry in the context of the coming together of the two cultures (aka the nuanced Romanisation of Britannia) as Romans seek to expand further their bath-building on the ancient sacred healing spa. That’s all you need to know plot-wise, really. Ruso’s best buddy’s wife has been murdered he, Valens, is the top suspect, and not without good reason as it turns out (no – not necessarily a spoiler). Among her many strengths as a writer, Ruth Downie really does do physical jeopardy superbly.Īquae Sulis – Bath to us – AD 143. Though I was, I must say – hurrah! – back in cheerleader mode well before it concluded. But what I will say is – Yes, please do read Ruso and Tilla’s tales, but don’t start with Memento mori (start at the beginning, of course, with Medicus). This could well have been down to the medium I don’t care what you say, it’s different. I made enough progress that there was no turning back, even though I’d found myself a bit less entranced than of yore. So when I had to take my partner for an evening hospital appointment and because of the Covid restrictions in place had to hang around waiting for her in the half-light of a semi-deserted hospital car park, the Kindle text had its moment to shine. I’d tried a few times and not got very far, what with all the ‘real’ books available to me.
But between library laxity and a publisher’s cock-up I had to purchase Memento mori for myself, to read on the iPad Kindle app, a medium I’m not that keen on.
I’m a big fan – as you’ll see if you put her into that little search box top right – she’s such an enjoyable, intelligent read. These ingenious tales of a Roman medicus-cum-reluctant detective and Tilla, his native North British wife, have at their heart one of the great double acts in contemporary crime and any other fiction. Given the context, shame about the title. I suppose I should thank Covid indirectly for my finally getting round to read Ruth Downie‘s Memento mori: a crime novel of the Roman Empire (2018), the 8th in the splendid Gaius Petreius Ruso sequence of novels.
0 kommentar(er)
