Dora Benley Writes About Volcanoes:
Volcanoes are the subject of the upcoming Dora Benley thriller Vesuvius Plot. They were also the subject of a young adult thriller entitled Mystery Volcano, also by Dora Benley.
In Mystery Volcano Sylvia heads to Mount Saint Helens Lake for the summer where her parents have bought a new resort. Once she arrives she is plunged into a tangled web of events that involve assault and murder.
Why does somebody follow Sylvia wherever she goes? Why do they ransack her cabin as if they are looking for something? Sylvia had better figure it all out soon. Or she could be dead next — as dead as the victims of the volcano when Mount Saint Helens blew its lid in this young adult thriller novel by Linda Cargill.
Who was Pliny the Elder? He is the hero of Vesuvius Plot.
Pliny the Elder, or Gaius Plinius Secundus, was an ancient Roman scientist, essayist, and thinker, probably the greatest mind of the first century AD. He had an office right next door to what later became the Porta Nigra in Trier.
What was he doing there, hundreds of miles away from his home in Rome? Trier was the oldest Roman city in Germany. He had been appointed Governor of the Province of Germany probably by the Emperor Vespasian and his son, the Emperor Titus. No doubt he studied the birds there as well as the flora and fauna since he was the first to write an encyclopedia called the Natural History, which was influential for centuries.
He was carrying on business as usual here early in the summer of 79AD before packing his bags and returning home for a summer at the seaside south of Rome at one of his villas near the Vesuvius Volcano which unknown to any mortal that summer was about to erupt.
According to legend that is how Pliny died. He was leading an expedition to save those too near the volcano when the volcano sent a rain of ash down upon him. Italian archaeologist now think they may have discovered his remains in a ship in the Bay of Naples near the volcano. See article on the website.
But the novel offers a different explanation for his mysterious disappearance. He was being pursued by German warriors for writing a derisive work about their peoples and culture called the Germania.
But did he escape or not? Vesuvius Plot may present surprising answers. It is the latest book in the Edward Ware Thrillers at War Series.
Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD by Turner