Britannia, 117 AD - Primitive, cold, and a touch damp. Welcome to the most remote corner of the Roman Empire. For army doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso, this overseas posting is no picnic. He has vast debts, a slave girl too clever for her own good and an overbearing hospital administrator to cope with ...not to mention a serial killer stalking the local bar. Washed-out dancing girls are being washed-up with the tide and everyone expects Ruso to investigate, even though the breakthroughs of forensic science lie centuries in the future. Will the gods smile on him before he too falls prey to the murderer? If only it were possible to find a good Falernian wine in Britannia, life would seem so much rosier - and perhaps the locals might stop killing each other ...