title: Legacy of Flame and Ash
author: Chapel, Rosie
description: An unremarkable family ring - lost when its owner was killed in the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius - is excavated after nearly two millennia buried under tons of lava, setting off an extraordinary sequence of events.A brazen robbery, and the ring is lost again. The theft and subsequent investigation, inspire twelve-year-old Cristiano Rossi to dedicate his life to the search and recovery of stolen artefacts. Fast forward twenty years. Whispers of a rare item being offered for sale on the black market, initiates a joint operation between the Italian and British branches of the, colloquially named, Art Squad. Hannah Vallier and her tech savvy assistant, Bryony Emerson - whose abilities to track down the untraceable, led to them assisting the UK Art and Antiquities Unit - have unearthed an intriguing thread. Reluctantly, Cristiano agrees to team up with the pair to thwart the traffickers, retrieve the artefact and, hopefully, dismantle the site. What ought to be a routine assignment is complicated by a rogue operative, an unexpected romance, an ancient connection, and a very angry ghost!