Tabula Rasa: A Crime Novel of the Roman Empire (Medicus Novels Book 6)

This is the latest adventure of the Gallo-Roman medicus, Gaius Petreius Rusa and his now-wife, the Briton Tilla. In it they find themselves at a Roman camp tasked with building a section of the great wall the emperor Hadrian has decreed be built to divide the more or less pacified Britons of the south from the Scots and Picts of the north. A young Briton boy sees a shadowy figure dump what looks like a human body into the gap between two stone walls that will later be filled in with rubble to yield a much thicker wall without requiring the amount of finishing that would have been required to make it solid stone all the way through. Tilla, meanwhile, has become friendly with a Briton family who live near the camp after having lost about half their farm when the wall was run across it. Someone kidnaps the younger son of the family (nine years old), thinking he was the one who saw the body put into the wall. So Ruso and Tilla, working sometimes together and sometimes separately, have to find the boy before the situation blows up into another British rebellion against Rome. Lots of action and some good witty dialog as well.

Roman military doctor Gaius Ruso and British wife Tilla are assigned to the northern frontier of Roman Britain as Emperor Hadrian's directive to build a defensive wall across the northern neck of the territory is being carried out. Building exclusionary barriers always has its downsides and the Roman project causes plenty of unquiet among the local British tribes. In this context, Medicus Gaius Ruso finds himself trying to ingratiate himself with his wife's suspicious relatives while a neighbor's child goes missing. The young boy had passed a rumor that a murder had been committed near the wall construction site and the victim was subsequently buried in the wall. This is bad news for everyone as nobody wants to halt the building to retrieve a body.This episode of the well-written historic mystery series has thoughtful storyline, fine characters and the usual detailed explanation of how people of the period lived and interacted socially and politically. Everything about the context feels authentic, and the action line that takes place within is intelligent and satisfying. For readers following the series, there will be some interesting developments for the principal characters that will definitely carry over to the next book. Look forward to it.

This is my favorite of the Ruso books so far, I think because this is the first where the characters are interwoven into a conspiracy of kindness. ***SPOILERS*** In her previous books, Downie's characters have spent a lot of time alienated from one another; even the characters who like each other, like Ruso, Tilla, Valens, and Albanus, don't really gel as a coherent team--instead they tend to work separately and intersect at random. But in this book, strangers help recover a stolen child, kindness is reciprocated, families are mended, and merit receives a little recognition. Pertinax compliments Ruso & offers him a job, Tilla's newfound family welcomes her, Tilla arranges the freeing of the nice soldier's girlfriend, and Virana rewards R&T for their kindness to her. It isn't that everything is sunshine and roses--Ruso and Tilla still tend to tackle problems independently rather than in tandem, which isn't surprising given their differences in values and world view--it's just that the cruelty and injustice have a little more counterbalance in this book. Also, Ruso's wry little zingers are getting funnier.

As a mystery, it is kind of confused. Get that out of the way. It is trivial and silly and pointless, but some people care about it.This book really shines on important stuff: character and attention to detail and sympathy for very different characters. We also get very interesting history lessons. Stuff I don't care for is treated very well and made interesting.I really like the way ms Downie handles the relation between Tilla and Russo. She handles their competing needs, desires and perspectives with care and attention. Russo has to deal with Tilla's exasperating world view, as must Tilla. Roman and Britain are sometimes confused about what the other regards as normal, necessary, or even important, which the other regards as ridiculous or just plain wrong. It makes for sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking times in their relationship. There are also the others in the mix. Attention is paid to what happens to them. The centurion who gets crippled in an industrial accident makes very clear what happened to those people.I recommend this. Read it often because it is fun. read it often because it helps you learn from it

I like Ruso and Tilla and I enjoyed Tabula Rasa very much. In fact, I read it in almost one sitting because it was so hard to put it down. I’m a bit odd in that I don’t read mysteries primarily for the mystery or crime to be solved; I read them for the same reasons I read any other novel. Ruso and Tilla are three-dimensional characters and the problems they face coming from different cultures are realistically portrayed. Downie does an excellent job of recreating Roman Britain during the reign of Hadrian, which is another reason I enjoy the Ruso mysteries. In the case of Tabula Rasa, it was the crimes to be solved that held my attention and made it so difficult to put the book down. I think if a reader enjoys historical mysteries, then he or she should enjoy this novel, but it is the latest in a series and I highly recommend reading the previous books first to understand how Ruso and Tilla’s relationship has evolved over time.12/01/15 I recently re-read this and realized I should’ve mentioned one of my favorite scenes is when Russo is trying to recite the Aeneid from memory and gets help from Valens and Albanus. Really funny!

Another gentle if occasionally bloody, romp set in Roman Britain during the building of Hadrian’s Wall. A soldier disappears, Ruso’s clerk, a local child witnesses the disposal of the body - in the wall - or not as the witness is a young boy. Another boy is kidnapped and Ruso rides to the rescue whilst Tillia tries to defuse the unrest cause by the boy’s possible death. Success! The problem is that the beginning and middle are pedestrian and packed with inconsequential details ie not about the crime; the last part is the opposite with some tasty plotting and everything being resolved and explained. The ending is almost sickly sentimental.

Only an excellent writer with a superb set of characters and an imagination full of fresh ideas can fuel a series to last more than maybe 4 or 5 books in a series. The fact that Tabula Rasa is book 6 in Ruth Downie’s series, then, is telling. The fact that, yet again, it is an absolutely cracking tale is even better.I figure I’m past having to explain why I love Ruth’s books at this point, but to recap my view over the whole series, this is it in a nutshell: Truly believable, very sympathetic and engaging characters Intricate, carefully-crafted plots Deep, realistic, historically accurate portrayal of the ancient world Fascinating details that add colour and realism Quirky sense of humour that always hits the spot True historical mysteries, shot through with shrewd social observationsSo there you go. That’s why I love the Ruso books. This book, in particular, brings in some of my favourite characters in the whole series. Some returning, some new. Tribune Accius, Valens, Albanus, Virana… and in particular Pertinax and Fabius. Oh, boy but Fabius is one of my fabourite supporting characters of any book I’ve read.Tabula Rasa (‘Clean Slate’) is set in the forts on the Stanegate during the building of Hadrian’s wall. Ruso is back with the army, along with his better half, Tilla. He is serving as the medic in a tiny fort in the middle of nowhere that happens (much to his chagrin) to be close to the farm of one of Tilla’s relatives. Essentially the root of the tale is a case of ‘missing person’. Well, missing persons, at least. Ruso’s clerk has vanished, while his uncle Albinus is coming north to see him. And a local boy has vanished. As if the tension between locals and Roman invaders were not enough, the medicus pulls what I am coming to think of as ‘a Ruso’ and exacerbates the situation completely by accident. What follows is an excellent investigation that roams across the Stanegate forts and even beyond the wall, searching for the boy and trying to piece together why he was taken.This area is somewhat home turf for me, so it was fascinating to read about places I know well. And I have to say I’d not twigged what was going on until Ruth revealed the truth towards the end of the book, so kudos there.As usual, Tabula Rasa is pacy, clever, witty, thought-provoking and fascinating. I am starting to twitch at the thought that I now only have one Ruso book left before I will have to wait like everyone else.Highly recommended as always. Ruth Downie’s books sell themselves.

My husband and I are addicted to this series. So much so that when I heard it was out in the US but not yet in the UK, I ordered it from over the pond. I was not disappointed. Ruth Downie is in sparkling form in this latest adventure of Ruso and Tilla. The characters are as strongly drawn as ever and the mystery - involving a missing child and a body in Hadrian's wall - is poignant and intriguing. I was born and lived in Corbridge as a child. This is the 'Coria' in the novel. As I read it I imagined my ancestors walking the streets and frowning at the looming edifice the Romans were building, separating families from families in much the way the Berlin wall did in more recent times. A powerful historical novel with echoes of modern events.

Another great read from Ruth Downie - can't wait to read the next in the series!

Love the characters and their interactions. Thoughtful plot developments and generally just makes want to read the next one. A bit like Corionatate Street.