3.5 stars. Army doctor Ruso moves to the Roman Empire outpost of Britannia to start over. He soon finds himself a reluctant slave owner investigating the deaths of two prostitutes from a local watering hole.

Overall, this was an entertaining, engaging book. The characters are well-drawn and range from horrible, nasty characters to truly sympathetic ones. My only real problem with the book was that it did not read like it was set at the time of the Roman Empire, especially for the first several chapters. I had to keep turning back to the description on the book flap to remind myself of when this book was taking place.