Tasha Alexander brings together two women from different eras in The Shadow of Vesuvius. Emily, in 1902, while excavating the ruins of Pompeii, discovers a body in a plaster cast. Unlike the other bodies of the tragic volcanic eruption, this one has sideburns and with looks unlike the others. In alternate chapters, the story goes back between the fateful day in AD 79 and the life of Kassandra, a poet and slave and Emily sleuthing around Pompeii and Naples trying to discover who the victim was and who killed him.
I enjoyed the glimpse into life in Pompeii both during the early 1900s excavations and at the time before the eruption. It is difficult to take in the immense area and how large the wealthy and bustling city of Pompeii was.
