Memento Mori cover art

Memento Mori

Roman Empire Series, Book 8

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Memento Mori

By: Ruth Downie
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

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?

©2018 Ruth Downie (P)2018 Tantor Crime Fiction Historical Mystery Fiction Crime Heartfelt

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As usual a really great listen and I am looking forward to the next....
hope it won't be too long on coming....

Very very good

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Russo and Tilla are wonderful characters and as always Ruth Downie’s plot and craft does them justice. More twists and turns than a road through the mountains this is another cracking read. It has pace and action, intrigue and historical accuracy. Can’t wait till she publishes the next one in the series.

Great read

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I really enjoy what I call the Ruso series of books and snapped this up as soon as I saw it. It didn't disappoint, it was as nail biting and funny as always. A new location for Ruso and company that inspired me to look up the Roman history of this city. This was a very good listen and well narrated. If you enjoy historic drama type books with a capable but fallible characters, you may well become a Ruso fan too.

Yay, Ruso's back

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I enjoy the Medicus series more with each new entry. I thought it was a good mystery but as I've said in earlier reviews what I enjoy most is the way Downie handles the relationships among her characters. In this book the relationship between Russo and his friend and fellow medicus, Valens, is as important as his relationship with his wife,Tilla. Also I like the way Tilla talks to Valens' deceased wife:

"She paused, wondering if the dead needed time to think about what they heard or whether you could just rattle on. It must be very annoying to be told lots of things all at once and have no chance to reply."

All the relationships rang true for me and Downie also does an excellent job recreating Roman Britain during the reign of Hadrian.

Remember that you must die

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Loved this latest Roman murder-mystery from Ruth Downie - why this author is not more widely known I can’t understand, she should regularly be in the bestsellers list in my opinion.
This one is based in Aqua Sulis (Bath) and I found it fascinating, having recently visited here. I could envisage things so clearly and, as ever, history really came to life under Ruth Downie’s story-telling skills. Ruso’s best friend is accused of murdering his wife - so of course he must go to help investigate, taking his family with him, and meeting up with well-known characters Albanus and Varina when he arrives.
I love how the narrator voices Ruso but always had a question mark over why his wife Tilla (who hails from ‘north of the wall’) is given an Irish accent . . But now Albanus, Ruso’s one time earnest clerk and now school-teacher, has suddenly developed the oddest accent which he didn’t have in the other books . . Trying to pin this down, it could be Scottish, could be Italian, or a strange mix of European accents? I’m not sure even the narrator knew. It’s very uncomfortable and jarring. Albanus had the perfect voice before, gently English, intelligent yet deferential; why was it changed?
So (sadly), I had to mark the performance down, but everything else about this book is brilliant.
Loved it!
Keep ‘em coming, Ms Downie!

The best yet! But weird accent for Albany’s?

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Absolutely fascinating and getting better with each new book. This narrator is one of the best.

Murder mystery in Solus Minerva

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Perhaps the first things to do is to urge listeners who have not yet tried Ruth Downie’s wonderful Roman crime series to give it a hearing. All the novels (8) are extremely well constructed, the crimes always hold the interest, and the relationships are very well drawn. I have yet to listen to the novella. There are moments of fun, too. All the novels are expertly performed by Simon Vance - and I know that the author is rates him highly. This novel has the location of the Roman baths and the more native Sulis springs. The main protagonists are their usual reliable selves which means true to their natures there are always surprises to please. Downie’s skill in the series is to ensure that there is a developing story arc so listeners can be sure that there is no formulaic recipe. The novels are far better than that and provide hours of listening pleasure. It is fair to say that you quickly feel at home in these novels and look forward to the next. As pre-told the performance of this audio-book by Simon Vance is really well done, and convincing. My only reservation in the outing is the accent of Albanus, but this is quibble only. Listeners can select this audio-book with confidence.

Eighth in the Series and One of the Best

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Another fun story with Ruso, Tilla, and several of the characters we’ve learn to enjoy, be annoyed with, and appreciate. As always it’s thoroughly enjoyable the entire time, with maybe no real high peaks but definitely no lows in entertainment. The narrator is as always doing a solid job.

Back to Britannia.

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Well narrated by Simon Vance. Mystery sustained throughout. The setting in Aquae Sulis takes note of recent archeological finds and scholarship but provides clarification in a postscript between imagination and history (which evolves over centuries, anyway). I know Bath quite well (my daughter was at uni there) and although the remaining Roman structures, including the baths, are substantial, they are generally overlaid by Georgian and Victorian developments, obscuring our view of this Romano-British tourist resort, long before the arrival of the various Germanic tribes who became the English.
I think Simon Vance made good decisions about accents - the upper class Roman citizens, second or third generation from long pacified provinces (like southern Gaul) probably did speak Latin approximately similar to the ruling class of Rome, but evidence even from Bath itself (those wonderful curses) indicates a British Vulgar Latin; vulgar in this sense is no insult, it’s the spoken language, which evolved into French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian etc. Be grateful agreeing pluperfect subjunctives has gone out of fashion. It seems reasonable to me to differentiate native Britons using accents of their descendants and/or tribal homelands. The Vindolanda tablets and other discoveries of my lifetime tell just how multi-ethnic was the Roman province of Britannia, as was the Roman Empire throughout- Koiné Greek was still important, and Greek the language of civil servants in Rome, and scholarship (Ruso and Valens use it, as doctors, to communicate without being understood, and Ruso’s medical texts are in Greek - of course - so Tilla, now literate in Latin, cannot consult them in his absence.
Technical aspects apart, I like this odd couple, who come from different worlds, from different “wisdoms”, one “rational” and practical, the other “intuitive” and eclectically spiritual, but who have learned each other’s language. Not too bad for the occupying colonist from a colony, in the less than prestigious profession of doctor, and the aristocratic ex-slave from a small, but utterly bloody-minded clan of a big tribe.

The odd couple in Bath

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Ruth Downie once again has produced a highly entertaining whodunnit set within the beautifully recreated world of Roman Britain. Twisting plots and light, dry humour go to make a fun novel. All set against the interplay of Russo and Tillas’ less than conventional marriage. Simon Vance reads brilliantly.

Keeps you guessing right to the very end.

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