Doctor Gaius Petreius Ruso has arrived back in Britannia with his new wife Tilla and a trunk full of wedding crockery. His friend and colleague Valens has promised to help him find work, so while Tilla yearns for somewhere to make a home, Ruso is tasked with hunting down missing tax man Julius Asper. Of course there's something else missing: money. And the Council of the town of Verulamium is bickering over what's become of it. Compelled to delve deeper when Asper is found murdered, Ruso discovers that the good townsfolk may not be as loyal to Rome as they claim. Despite Ruso's best efforts to get fired from the job of investigator, he and Tilla find themselves trapped at the heart of a treacherous conspiracy involving theft, forgery, buried treasure, and the legacy of Boudica, the rebel queen. The fourth novel in the bestselling Gaius Petreius Ruso series. Formerly published as Ruso and the River of Darkness.