#1 SILK ROAD
The Holy Land, 1260: Josseran Sarrazini is a Templar Knight, trained for war. But as the Christian garrisons in the Holy Land begin to fall to the Saracen, he must embark upon a mission of peace: to the golden palaces at Xanadu, to seek an alliance with Kublai Khan, ruler of the greatest empire in history and commander of the invincible Mongol horde.
Josseran’s task is formidable. To ride the treacherous Silk Road to the edge of the known world. To cheat hunger, thirst, and death. And to forge a crucial allegiance with a people who do not honor his cause, or his God.
From the Storehouse of Winds to the Palace of Myriad Tranquillities, from the Pamirs and Hindu Kush to the legendary Xanadu and the dazzling court of Kublai Khan, this is adventure on a breath-taking scale.
Silk Road weaves a spellbinding tale of courage, danger and human frailty onto the vast tapestry of the medieval Orient.
#2 STIGMATA
France, 1205: Philip of Vercy returns from fighting the infidel in the Holy Land to find his life in ruins and his only son near death.
He hears of a miracle healer, a young woman marked with the stigmata. Fleeing the Inquisition, she has sought refuge in the mist-shrouded mountains of the Languedoc. He sets out to find her to save his son.
But the south is home to a heretic Christian sect - the Cathars - and the Pope has ordered a crusade to crush them. As the Languedoc convulses into flame and revolt, Philip and his liege men must battle their way into hell itself.
Weaving the mystery of age-old secrets with the epic battles of the only medieval crusade ever launched against a Christian country, this is breathless action and intrigue from the first page to the last.
An epic tale of heresy, courage, loyalty and loss set against the tumultuous crusades of medieval France.
#3 LORD OF THE ATLAS
Marrakesh, 1893: His military career in disgrace, Harry Delhaze turns to a life of drink and gambling. But then he’s offered a way out – a small fortune to help the Sultan of Morocco quell a rebel uprising. It sounds like easy money.
Instead, Harry is forced to battle the wild bandit armies of ruthless prophet-warlord, Bou Hamra, through the snows of the Atlas Mountains and the baking deserts of the Sahara. And he finds himself in the fight of his life.
From the backstreets of Victorian London, to the kasbahs of Marrakesh, Lord of the Atlas is a gripping tale of intrigue, loyalty and courage, evoking the beautiful and the barbaric of nineteenth-century Morocco.
‘A proper adventure. Brutal and captivating.’
#4 HAREM
Istanbul, 1520: Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman’s greatest Sultan, must protect his legacy at all costs.
On the battlefields and behind the doors of the forbidden palace, his sons and viziers engage in a game of deadly intrigue for absolute power and his concubines vie for his favour, whatever the cost.
From medieval Venice to the slave markets of Algiers, from the mountains of Persia to the Topkapi palace of Istanbul, this is a gripping tale of betrayal, revenge and murder spanning four decades.
In the harem you love, you rule… or you die.
Harem has been translated into 15 languages, and on release sold 150,000 copies in Germany.
#5 WHEN WE WERE GODS
Alexandria, 51 BC: When Cleopatra VII assumes the throne of Egypt, the Roman empire rules the Mediterranean with an iron fist.
But Cleopatra has an audacious plan to change the course of history. Allied first with Caesar and then with his protégé Marc Antony, she dares to challenge the might of Rome.
What follows is a bloody game of thrones, in the palaces and on the battlefields of Greece, Syria and Egypt.
Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, Augustus. Only one can rule. Only one can live.
#6 COLOSSUS
What if Alexander the Great had not died young?
323 BC and Alexander has survived every effort to kill him. Restless, ruthless, he wonders which world to conquer next. He has a powerful new weapon – the war elephants he brought back with him from India. The largest and fiercest is Colossus.
As captain of the elephants, Gajendra is deeply loyal to Alexander, the great soldier who plucked him from obscurity. He begins a meteoric rise through the ranks of the Macedonian army, protected by the fiercely devoted Colossus. But the elephant is far more than a brute weapon of war, and the bond he forms with Gajendra ultimately threatens the ambition of the world’s greatest general.
Just as all he has dreamed of is within his grasp, Gajendra faces a terrible choice. Betray his beloved general or sell his soul.
An epic tale of alternative history, set against the brutal, ancient worlds of Babylon, Carthage and Sicily.
#7 FEATHERED SERPENT
Yucatan, 1519: Consumed with ambition, Hernan Cortes sails from Cuba to explore the coast of the lands to the west. He takes prisoner a young Mayan princess, Malinali, whose father has been murdered by the Mexica on the orders of their emperor, Montezuma. She hungers for revenge.
Their journey to the heart of ancient Mexico and the eventual conquest of the Aztec nation is one of the most astonishing and tragic stories in history. Cortes has his conquest and Malinali has her revenge – but neither of them could foresee the cost for the country – or for themselves.
Feathered Serpent stayed on the Mexican bestseller lists for four months. It has also been published as Aztec.
One of history’s most extraordinary stories.
#8 VENOM
Saigon 1946: Michel Christian is born in a pauper’s hospital during a tropical storm. The nuns call him a punishment from God. At five years old, he is thrown out on the dangerous streets to survive as best he can. He is bui doi – the dust of life.
He grows into a ferocious manhood in the back alleys of wartime Saigon and learns not only to survive, but to thrive, in a pitiless world. Brilliant, chilling and charismatic, there is no prison that can hold him, no policeman he cannot buy.
Michel remembers every beating and every betrayal, and declares vengeance on those who abandoned him.
From the notorious Tihar prison to Bangkok’s dark underbelly, along the 1970s hippie trails of Asia to the ancient Indian city of Varanasi, this is a tale of fate, love and obsession, loosely based on a true story.
A fast-paced psychological thriller of abandonment, retribution and justice.
#9 FURY: BOOK 1 - Live For Me
Bavaria 1933 and Netanel Rosenberg’s family has lived in Germany for centuries. Their factory keeps a whole town employed.
But when the Nazis take power, Netanel finds himself an outcast and an enemy in his own land.
His battle for survival takes him from Europe to the Holy Land, where everything is sacred - except life.
The Jews want a homeland. The Palestinian Arabs want to keep theirs. They both lay claim by right and by God.
From the horrors of Auschwitz to the ancient alleyways of Jerusalem; from the holocaust to the battle for Palestine, this is a gripping story about the dark side of man.
A powerhouse of a novel about the indomitable will to survive – and what evil can do to the soul.
Fury: Book 1 - Live for Me is a companion book to Fury: Book 2 - Sleeping with the Enemy, which tells the simultaneous story of three Arab brothers living in Palestine.
#10 FURY: BOOK 2 - Sleeping with the Enemy
Palestine 1933, and Rishou Hassan’s village borders a new kibbutz built by Jewish immigrants. The two communities get along – Rishou even falls in love with one of the Jewish girls while helping the kibbutz with their harvest.
But darker days are ahead. The Zionists in London and New York are pressing for a homeland. Hitler takes power in Germany. There is a war brewing in Europe.
Rishou’s family have lived in Palestine for a thousand years. The sudden influx of tens of thousands of Jewish refugees threatens to change everything.
Can Rishou save himself, his village, and his people – and at what cost?
In a world of ancient jezails and British-built tanks, home-made bombs and jewelled daggers, there seems to be no place for a man who wants to find peace.
Fury: Book 2 - Sleeping with the Enemy is a companion book to Fury: Book 1 - Live for Me.
#11 FEVER COAST
East Africa, 1750: Lachlan McKenzie doesn’t know why he and his family live on a remote trading post on the slave coast of Africa. The past is best left buried, is all his father will say about it. But then one day three warships sail downriver and turn their guns on their tiny fort.
Suddenly Lachlan is in the fight for his life against a formidable enemy.
His quest for survival and burning thirst for revenge take him from the African savannah and the slave markets of Mozambique to the Moghul palaces and British redcoat forts of Carnatic India, where he must ultimately decide between the life that he always dreamed of and his sworn promise of vengeance.
But how much revenge is enough?
A gripping adventure set against the lawless coasts of 18th century Africa and the brutal European wars in colonial India.
# 12 EAST INDIA
The Great Southland, 1626: The Utrecht leaves Holland on an epic journey to Batavia, on the other side of the world. The ship is overcrowded and navigation around the Horn is down to the skipper’s dead reckoning – guesswork.
Michiel van Texel is a captain on the company’s coin, on his way to fight the Mataram and escape his demons.
When the ship founders on the jagged reefs of the Houtman Rocks, and those around him begin to reveal their true natures, surviving the wreck is the least of his worries.
East India is a gripping 17th century adventure thriller about shipwreck, survival and the dark side of man.
