content: I won't go into the details of the plot itself. The professional and readers' reviews on this page do that. I want to comment on the flow of the plot and the characters which inhabit it. This book moves very slowly. There is very little tension. What does it matter if someone stole this or destroyed that? There can be no real resolution of these matters because the reader knows that virtually everyone in the town of Pompeii will soon die when the volcano erupts. The characters might have been able to carry the reader along if they had been interesting, exciting people. But, they are cliches. The completely evil villain; the sad, ever moral good guy. And they talk and talk and talk. Until the last third of the book, there is virtually no action in this supposed thriller. If you want a fast paced novel with vivid characters, you might want to look elsewhere.