The End of Seven

There is an enigmatic quality about the number seven that transcends time and culture. It can symbolize luck – or represent an ominous warning. So it was in the time of the Roman Empire in the first century. For the citizens of Pompeii, it was the end of life as they knew it, and nothing would ever be the same again after the seventh month of AD 79. The first of July reunites an ancient dysfunctional family at their sumptuous new villa in the shadow of Vesuvius. The daughter is desperate to avoid her father’s intentions to arrange her marriage. She is romantic, longing to experience the emotions described by her favored poets. The only child of a first marriage, she suffers guilt over her mother’s death in childbirth. Every bit the gilded age debutante of another era, she finds herself tempted by feelings for someone most unsuitable. Her brother is an arrogant dandy with a passion for the games, whose indulgent excesses are cries for attention, his ambition fueled by massive gambling debts. Their father is a veteran of the Britannic campaigns. Aggressive to build his own empire, he ruthlessly married two women for their fortunes, but secretly prefers his relations with men. The last 18 years have been devoted to cultivating his business instead of his family, and he is a rich man. With the death of the Emperor, he fears time is running out to form his legacy. His second wife, sixteen years his junior, is struggling to cope with the insecurity of her position in life, and her dependence on alcohol. She relieves her hatred of men and sexual tensions by purchasing the services of the infamous. As July passes the harmony of the family is disturbed by the presence of a Greek slave, an artist commissioned to paint the murals adorning the villa. Possessed with the gift of prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi, he foretells an imminent warning, ‘the end of seven’. What does it mean? Was it a matter of destiny or fate? The rhetorical argument intrigues the Romans. Their world shakes with tremors and begins to fall apart as the eighth months unfolds. Who will heed the warning before the volcano erupts suddenly on August 24th? Who will live – and who will die… The End of Seven is an historical novel that portrays the evocative opulence of the pagan world in a time of moral ambiguity and diverse wealth. The catastrophic destruction of Pompeii has intrigued generations since its’ discovery. Here is a story with characters so compelling, so vivid, the reader will not want to put the book down to leave their world.