In 1936 all eyes are on Munich for the upcoming Olympic Games. As athletes fight for gold and the Nazis fight for power, Detective Sebastian Wolff faces a battle of his own. A famous actress has disappeared and Wolff has been ordered to find her, fast. But Elena Lang is no ordinary film-star: she is […]
The Second Traitor by Alex Gerlis
It’s September 1940, and British intelligence is on high alert: the Nazi invasion of Britain is imminent. The German navy is assembling a vast fleet in Rotterdam to ferry men and materiel across the Channel. Meanwhile, a sinister organisation called The Group, a collection of British and Irish Nazi collaborators, is at work within the […]
Historical books to look out for in 2026
Welcome to Historia’s most popular regular feature, our round-up of historical books published by members of the Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) to look out for this year. In 2026, there are more than 130 books so far — historical fiction, history, and biography. They range from Ancient Greece and Rome to the mid-20th century via the Viking […]
Cover Story by RN Morris
Things aren’t going well for writer Col Newton. It’s ten years since he published his only novel, a critically acclaimed commercial flop. Then out of the blue, he hears from his old university friend, Chris Lazenby. There had always been rumours Lazenby was a spy. Turns out the rumours were true. Lazenby has a tempting […]
The Second Traitor by Alex Gerlis
It’s September, 1940, and British intelligence is desperately worried: the Nazi invasion of Britain is imminent. A sinister organisation called The Group, a collection of British and Irish Nazi collaborators, is at work trying to support Hitler’s plans… But that is not the only concern for the spy chiefs: the search for double agent ‘Archie’ […]
Review: The Second Traitor by Alex Gerlis
Alan Bardos reviews the new Second World War spy thriller from Alex Gerlis, The Second Traitor. The Second Traitor is the latest novel in Alex Gerlis’s Double Agent quartet, which follows the trials of two Soviet spies in the British Secret Service from the 1930s to the late 1950s; from the rise of Nazism to […]
Rebuilding St Peter’s in Renaissance Rome
Richard Kurti writes about the inspiration behind his Basilica Diaries thriller series, set in Renaissance Rome at the time of the rebuilding of St Peter’s Basilica. He finds contemporary echoes, some unexpected… It was extraordinary to witness. Even in the tech-driven 21st century, with 10,000 satellites circling the Earth and information flowing between eight billion […]
Death of an Officer by Mark Ellis
London in the Spring of 1943. While Europe continues to suffer under the iron fist of Nazi occupation, Britain remains battered but unbowed. DCI Frank Merlin, already contending with a booming wartime crime wave in the capital, is confronted with a baffling case: the brutal murder of a respected doctor. Following a puzzling trail that […]