Includes bibliographical references (pages 290-292).

Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, have accompanied her friend Ivy Brandon on a trip to Pompeii. When they uncover a corpse and the police dismiss the murder as the work of local gangsters, Emily launches an investigation of her own. She seems to be aided by the archaeologists excavating the ruins, including a moody painter, the enigmatic site director, and a free-thinking American capable of sparring with even the Duke of Bainbridge. But each of them has secrets hiding among the ruins. When a young woman claims a shocking relationship to the Hargreaves family, Emily struggles to face an unsettling truth about Colin's past. -- adapted from jacket