The Fatal Scroll: A Herculaneum Mystery

A literary murder mystery about the shady side of the antiquities trade, ancient philosophy, and tech’s utopian promises.

Marcus Sinclair is a history teacher whose life is stuck in neutral when he inherits a papyrus scroll from his antiquarian uncle. The mysterious scroll might contain a lost masterpiece from ancient Rome or perhaps an ancient recipe for personal tranquility, but it’s unreadable unless Marcus can figure out a way to unroll the scroll without destroying it. His quest takes him to Naples, where he befriends a Google software engineer days before the man is found dead. Marcus is interviewed by an investigative journalist, Kristi Grainger, and they find themselves on parallel paths leading to a Neapolitan trafficker in antiquities, a tech mogul obsessed with the distant past, and a clutch of academics searching for the lost library of Herculaneum. In a seaside city that is by turns lush and lethal, Marcus must confront the unraveling of more than a scroll.

This novel is inspired by a real place -- the Villa dei Papri, the only library from antiquity to have survived -- and coincides with the Vesuvius Challenge, a real-life international competition to decipher Herculaneum scrolls.

Eric Siblin is the bestselling author of The Cello Suites, which was translated into 13 languages, named a Book of the Year in 2010 by The Economist, and nominated for five literary awards. He is also the author of Studio Grace, published alongside an album of original music. He lives in Montreal.