Very much surprised by this. I only picked it up because I was after fiction set in Pompeii, and from the blurb my expectations were low. This is very good, though. The historic and archaeological research is mostly spot-on (I only say mostly because I think there might not have been such dangerous animals as tigers in the beast hunts, because it doesn't look like the amphitheatre had barricades to keep them from the spectators). More importantly, Harper's words brilliantly capture the brutality and general grinding misery of being a slave, without the novel itself becoming miserable.
I feel, though, that the melodrama of the scene in the necropolis and the two scenes at Saturnalia was rather clunky, contrived and OTT, slightly marring an otherwise excellent novel.
I am probably running straight into the sequel!