When Claudia is caught doping racehorses, an island in the Adriatic seems the perfect refuge. Shaded by figs and pomegranates, Leo's villa is surrounded by plunging cliffs, sandy coves and hillsides scented by carpets of wild herbs. Then a pirate ship anchors in the bay, and almost immediately a fire breaks out, an apprentice is murdered, and sinister messages are

delivered on the point of a spear. Too late, Claudia discovers that three hundred miles isn't far enough from Rome to escape the law. Or a bloodlust that goes way beyond evil.