Despite an overly long development of the characters which made the beginning of the book almost snooze worthy, I found this mystery story quite good.

I love the setting in the Roman occupied Britain of the 2nd century. The character of the doctor lends itself to great descriptions of the medical beliefs and practices of the time, some of them surprisingly sophisticated.
The very saucy slave might be a bit of a stretch but not completely unfeasible considering the character traits of the doctor and the conquered population.

An enjoyable, fun book and I expect the rest of the series will get better.