Goodreads meta-data is 119 pages, rated 4.51 by 101 litizens
Genre: krimi, period piece
Verdict: Ruso and Tilla are at it again.
By some mischance Ruso and Tilla have taken up residence in Gaul on his brother’s farm, while the latter is away. What Ruso knows about farming is zero. So he tries to look thoughtful when the foreman seeks his decisions. Meanwhile, he tries to make peace among his many quarrelling siblings, in-laws, relatives, and visitors. He means well but seldom succeeds. Tilla tries to be a good Roman wife and shut up, but she is not good at that either.
Then Ruso’s younger sister has an illicit boyfriend who seems to have murdered his employer. After much avuncular tsk, tsk, tsking, he hopes to let the law take its course. Not so his sister who throws herself into the defence of her beau and Ruso must extricate her, and the best way to do that is to find the real killer. He means well but seldom succeeds at this either.
Enter Tilla who is much better at getting people to talk to her, partly because she is such a foreign specimen no one takes her seriously – big mistake.
This title is an entry in Downie’s Medicus series. Much I sympathise with Ruso and love Tilla, I fear that the author is running out of steam.