The Pirates Of Pompeii (The Roman Mysteries, Bk. 3)

It's late August, AD 79. The Roman world is reeling from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Volcanic ash covers the land, sunsets are blood-red and the sea gives up corpses of the dead. At a makeshift camp south of Stabia, hundreds of refugees from the cities of Vesuvius try to come to terms with the disaster. When children begin to go missing from the camp, Flavia Gemina and her friends Jonathan, Nubia and Lupus investigate a powerful and charismatic man known as the Patron. The latest of the Roman Mysteries leads the four friends on a dangerous mission where they encounter pirates, slave-dealers and death.