Terra Incognita by Ruth Downie
Posted by IronMac on March 7th, 2009
Well, I was very pleasantly surprised to get my hands on this book after really enjoying the first one, Medicus. This time around, we follow our hapless doctor/sleuth as he generously takes his slave/housekeeper/girlfriend up to the northern reaches of the Empire to revisit her familial homeland. Unfortunately, some of said homeland happens to be inhabited by tribes hostile to Rome and its minions of which our hero is one.
This time around, our story has branched way out from the earlier one where our doctor seems to be battling more the medical bureaucracy than crime. He’s now not only dealing with a gruesome murder but also backstabbing Romans, indifferent superiors, rebellious tribes, and conniving businessmen. He also has to work through his feelings for a slave girl who seems to care little for what he thinks and just does what she wants. (Sell her, you fool!)
It’s a bit of a meander through all of this but it’s still quite pleasant. Enough so that you tend to forget that a crime has been committed and you’re more engrossed in the day-to-day grittiness of survival on the frontier.
