Welcome to Litsy!

The mystery takes second place to the characters' convoluted personal lives, but in the last third or so the author manages to build up a doom-laden atmosphere while keeping us in suspense as to which particular disaster is actually going to happen.

It is unfortunate that after an Author's Note explaining her use of BCE/CE rather than BC/AD, the author manages to get the Volscians'' struggle against the Romans in the wrong 5th century.

What gay friends? Ruth doesn't seem to have many friends. There's Shona and Cathbad and their families and Nelson's squad and that's about it. There is Nelson's lesbian underling - but she's more somebody Ruth knows than a friend.