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Caveat Emptor
Ruth Downie
2011, 338 pages
Fiction
Gaius Petreius Ruso, a medical man from Rome, arrives back in Britannia with his wife, Tilla, who is a midwife and originally from Britannia. Ruso is asked by his friend, Valens, to find a missing tax man and his brother, who disappeared with the tax money from the town of Verulamium. Ruso protests that he is not a detective, but finally agrees to take the job.
Caveat Emptor means “Let the buyer beware,” and the unfortunate Ruso is led deeper and deeper into a web of treachery, trying to discover the truth about the missing men and money. Tilla and his former clerk Albanus try to help matters, but it takes many tries to finally unravel the truth.
Ruso is an interesting and sympathetic detective. The novel's setting in Britannia A.D.120 is intriguing, and it is filled with details of daily life in Verulamium at that time.