Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

I did not want to waste another minute without telling you all how I feel about Ruth Downie's debut novel, Medicus. I bought it as a Christmas present for my mom so that I could read it before I gave it to her, but alas, it did not arrive in time for me to get to it before it had to be wrapped. So I had to wait for Mom to finish it and give it back to me. Now for my prognosis: To borrow a phrase from Joshua Unruh (which he used in conjunction with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), "I hearted it so bad." Which, in case you didn't know, is FAR BEYOND love.
I cannot think of a single thing in Medicus that I didn't love.

The characters? Check. Both the main character and the secondary characters were deep and creative. Ruso's attempts at writing the "Concise Guide" might have been my favorite, as I feel it is something all writers can relate to. Valens, Ruso's co-worker and roommate, and his puppies were especially entertaining. Even the minor characters like Chloe and Daphne I felt were well-rounded. Tilla was the only one that didn't have much explained, but I have a feeling that is another mystery for another time.

The plot? Awesome. It's a murder mystery, and yet you're so busy reading trying to solve it that you don't even think about it as a murder mystery. The story opens as Ruso starts his work as a surgeon for a Roman outpost in Britain. A girl from a certain place of bad reputation is found dead in the river, and her body is brought to Ruso, who can't understand why he is the only one interrogating people about her death. And so the mystery begins...

The writing? Spectacular! I literally laughed out loud at the dry humor on nearly every page. Since nothing was wrong with it, I'm not really sure what to say about it other than that it was good.

Okay. I thought of something negative. I didn't like the part where it switched to Tilla's point of view and she was being all melodramatic. That was annoying.

Needless to say, I will be reading the next three books in this series. And...oh, my! Terra Incognita is only 99c on my Kindle!