Memento Mori: A Crime Novel of the Roman Empire

Written by Ruth Downie

Narrated by Simon Vance

A scandal is threatening to engulf the popular spa town of Aquae Sulis (modern-day Bath). The wife of Ruso's best friend, Valens, has been found dead in the sacred hot spring, stabbed through the heart. Fearing the wrath of the goddess and the ruin of the tourist trade, the temple officials are keen to cover up what's happened. But the dead woman's father is demanding justice, and he's accusing Valens of murder.

If Valens turns up to face trial, he will risk execution. If he doesn't, he'll lose his children.

Ruso and Tilla do their best to help, but it's difficult to get anyone-even Valens himself-to reveal what really happened. Could Ruso's friend really be guilty as charged?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781494572808

Ruth Downie

Ruth Downie is the author of the New York Times bestselling Medicus, Terra Incognita, Persona Non Grata, and Caveat Emptor. She is married with two sons and lives in Devon, England.

Reviews for Memento Mori

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the eighth installment of an entertaining historical crime fiction series set in the Ancient Roman Empire. It is A.D. 123 and Roman Army medic Gaius Petreius Ruso and his small family - his wife Tilla and their adopted baby Mara, along with their two servants, have been summoned to the spa town of Aquae Sulis (Bath, England today), the greatest healing shrine in Britannia. Ruso’s oldest and best friend Valens has been accused of killing his wife Serena. Serena was found three weeks ago floating in the sacred hot springs, having been stabbed in the heart. It turns out she had a lover, and he is now missing. Serena’s father, Pertinax, believed that Valens discovered the affair and killed Serena in revenge. Pertinax has taken the two sons of Serena and Valens into his own custody, and vows that Valens will never see them again. As for Valens, he is in hiding, and it doesn’t look good for him. Ruso, with the help of Tilla as always, needs to find out who really killed Serena before the governor arrives for a trial and Valens faces almost certain execution.As typical, Ruso has a late, accidental insight that sheds light on what really happened and who is guilty, but not before both Ruso and Tilla get into life-threatening circumstances of their own.Evaluation: I continue to find this series entertaining. Tilla is a wonderful character, even with her faults, or perhaps even because of them, and Ruso is always adapting in interesting ways. Although I don’t learn as much Roman history as I would like (and as one does with the similar Falco series by Linsey Davis, readers do get exposed to a great deal about how medicine was practiced in Ancient Rome.

[janerawoof · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was a hard wait for the latest in my favorite Roman mystery series but I wasn't disappointed. This time Ruso, Tilla, Baby Mara and their two slaves travel to Aquae Sulis [Bath] to prove Valens, Ruso's doctor friend from legionary days, has not killed his wife, Serena, contrary to what everyone else seems to believe and to find the real culprit. Yes, the couple had not got along; yes, Valens' wife did have a boyfriend, and yes, Valens was tempted to do away with her. Although possible motive was damning, he didn't act on it. The practical, levelheaded Ruso and the somewhat whimsical Tilla seek the truth. Their friend, Albanus, Ruso's former clerk, and his flighty wife arrive to help. Serena's father, the redoubtable Ex-Second Spear, Pertinax, who has settled in Aquae Sulis after retirement, is convinced of Valens' guilt and is fiercely protective of his twin grandsons. The governor is coming for a festival in honor of the city's patron goddess and Pertinax is insisting on a trial. Valens and the boys seek sanctuary in the temple of the goddess.Downie has outdone herself in the progress of the mystery: how she's worked in the events having to do with it--a fire: arson?, disappearances of major characters, the possible expansion of the baths, an assassination gone wrong, and the final reveal. Her trademark dry gentle humor is a large part of the story. Ruso has become less dour and hapless and he and Tilla work well as a team in their sleuthing. Their dialogue was priceless.Highly recommended.