Pompeii

This historical novel is set in the Bay of Naples in the days before Vesuvius erupts in AD 79. Marcus Attilius Primus, a young aquarius sent to restore the Aqua Augusta, finds the great aqueduct failing inland and traces the fault toward the mountain. In Pompeii he is drawn into the household of the former slave Numerius Popidius Ampliatus, whose wealth and political grip rest on water, building contracts, and fear. Corelia, Ampliatus's daughter, and Pliny the Elder at Misenum enter the plot as the springs die and the earth shakes. The book is an engineer's thriller about a city on the eve of burial, not a guidebook to the ruins.

Bound in screen-printed and blocked metallic paper with a wrap-around image in black, gold and orange. Plain slipcase.