We Need More Shelves...
  • Home
  • About This Site
    • Site Index
  • My Favorite Book Links
  • Contact Jan

Review: Caveat Emptor

By Jan 
on June 8, 2012
Print 🖨 PDF 📄 eBook 📱

Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie;

Caveat Emptor coverBloomsbury USA (2010), Hardcover, 352 pages;

This fourth volume in the series finds Ruso back in Britain and reluctantly as usual on the case of a missing tax collector. I say as usual because he seldom has his way with anything, it seems, and for a Roman citizen with a trade is rarely pleased with the way his life is going. His discontent is wearing off on me as a reader, and I slogged through this book like a legionnaire does mud.

Downie makes the atmosphere feel real, and her descriptions are usually right on. The cast of co-stars is rather large, something I don’t enjoy, but most of the major players were well-identified. I don’t like the fact that Ruso is left in the dark for so long while he bumbles about looking like a amateur. Tilla is constantly causing more trouble, which I realize is fuel for the fire.

I would like something more positive from this series in order to continue. Ruso as the inept detective may have been fun at the beginning, but has now worn off as a plot device.

[I received this book gratis as part of the Early Reviewers program from LibraryThing.]

© Jan McClintock of We Need More Shelves

Categories Book Review, Historical Mystery Tags LibraryThing, roman empire
← Previous Post
Next Post →

Search this site

Categories

2020 Reading Challenge

2020 Reading Challenge
Jan has read 5 books toward her goal of 120 books.
hide
5 of 120 (4%)
view books

Follow this blog

RSS Feed

Currently-reading

Quite Ready To Be Sent Somewhere: The Civil War Letters Of Aldace Freeman Walker
Quite Ready To Be Sent Somewhere: The Civil War Letters Of Aldace Freeman Walker
by Thomas LeDoux
tagged: currently-reading
A Journey Through Texas, Or, A Saddle-trip on the Southwestern Frontier
A Journey Through Texas, Or, A Saddle-trip on the Southwestern Frontier
by Frederick Law Olmsted
tagged: currently-reading
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues
by Graham Hancock
tagged: currently-reading, audiobook, and history

goodreads.com

Recent Posts:

  • Why This Blog is Waning
  • Fun Gifts for Readers and Book Lovers
  • Review: The First Girl Child
  • Review: The Society of the Sword Trilogy
  • Review: Children of Time
  • Review: The City & The City
  • Review: The Monastery Murders
  • Review: Patient 3

Contact JanContact Jan about this site.

I Love Book Covers

Visit Me

LibThing logo

Goodreads

LibThing Early Reviews

Audible logo

NetGalley Reader badge

FTC Disclosure

I have an affiliate relationship with Amazon.com. Some of the links on this site may go there. If you purchase something using one of those links, I may receive a small compensation. I am never paid to review books and am always brazenly honest (ask my husband). Thank you!

Home | About This Site | My Favorite Book Links | Privacy Policy

2021 - Copyright © Jan McClintock, All Rights Reserved