In this book, Ruso and Tilla (and their young daughter and household) are called to Aquae Sulis (Bath) to help an old friend of Ruso's. This friend's wife has been murdered and the friend charged with the crime.

Ruso and Tilla are always fun to read about. Their lives feel so very real that it's easy for me to put myself back in time, seeing what it was like to stay in Roman era British inns, go to the public baths, travel the waterways. It brings home the idea that people have always been people and the ancients' problems may not have been too different from modern ones. What happens when a birth mother meets the daughter that she gave up for adoption? Who is going to come out ahead in the race to construct a new public bath and whose investors will be disappointed? How do you keep people coming to a bath where someone has been murdered? What if you build a new business in an area that looks to be up-and-coming until a fire drives investment away? What are the motives of that woman who's trying to get close to your father-in-law?

Downie goes to some effort to show the sadness and loss experienced by the people close to the dead woman. There are little boys whose future is up in the air- will they live with their father or with their grandfather? She does an excellent job of laying out a complex political situation and making it clear what the stakes are to each person involved.

The mystery itself? I'm not quite as sure. Honestly, I'd be happy to read about Ruso and Tilla's family without a murder to solve at this point. But a murder there must be (probably more than one), and that's how the author moves her characters around and explores this fascinating world.

Another great Medicus mystery from Ruth Downie! Although the mystery itself (who killed the wife of Ruso's friend, Valens) is interesting, much of the joy of this series is the interaction between Tilla (a native Briton) and Ruso, the Roman "medicus." While some of their misunderstandings arise from cultural differences, many are simply the bewilderment between the sexes.. Love this series!