It's the summer of AD 79, and Flavia Gemina the sea captain's daughter and her friends Jonathan the Jewish boy, Nubia the African slave-girl and Lupus the homeless beggar-boy set sail for the Bay of Naples, to stay with Flavia's uncle near Pompeii. They are soon consumed by a quest to solve a riddle that may lead to treasure. But then tragedy strikes: Mount Vesuvius erupts and the children are fleeing for their lives, in one of the worst natural disasters ever recorded. Not just a mystery - an absolutely thrilling action adventure that makes you feel you were there!
Read MoreTHE SECRETS OF VESUVIUS in the immensely readable Roman Mysteries series by Caroline Lawrence again features a kind of classical famous five: Flavia Gemina and her friends, Jonathan, Nubia and Lupus, plus Scuto the dog, meet the great Pliny while on holiday in Pompeii and end up near Mount Vesuvius on the fateful night it erupted. An enormous amount of information about the ancient world is conveyed under the guise of a jolly good romp - Fiona Lafferty