In 1893, young army officer Cecil Hambrough was murdered at the sprawling Ardlamont estate in Scotland, unleashing one of the most gripping court cases Victorian Britain had ever known. Even more remarkably, the case brought together two pioneering forensic experts – Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn – two men upon whom Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock […]
The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper
A courtesan in Rome. Playing for power. Haunted by her past. Her name is Amara. How will her fortunes fall? Amara’s journey has taken her far, from a lowly slave in Pompeii’s brothel to a high-powered courtesan in Rome. Yet she is still drawn back to her past. For while Amara is caught up in […]
The Treason of Sparta by Christian Cameron
When the dust settled and the blood dried after the Battle of Plataea, Greeks might have thought that their freedom was secured. But before the corpse of the Great King’s general was cold, Athens and Sparta began to bicker over dividing up the spoils. After an autumn of victory, it’s a long cold winter among […]
A Day of Reckoning by Matthew Harffy
AD 796. Sailing in search of an object of great power, Hunlaf and his comrades are far from home when they are caught up in a violent skirmish against pirates. After the bloody onslaught, an encounter with ships from Islamic Spain soon sees them escorted under guard to the city of Qadis, one of the […]
The Burnings by Naomi Kelsey
1589. Scottish housemaid Geillis and Danish courtier Margareta lead opposite lives, but they both know one thing: when a man cries “witch”, no woman is safe. Yet when the marriage of King James VI and Princess Anna of Denmark brings Geillis and Margareta together, everything they supposed about good, evil, men, and women, is cast […]
1217 and the ideals of chivalry
In 1217 a man known as ‘the greatest knight’ broke a treaty to, as he saw it, save England from French rule. Catherine Hanley asks: did he go against the ideals of chivalry? “What, then, is chivalry?” This question is posed in the History of William Marshal, a 13th-century biography of a man who is […]
The Nightingale’s Castle by Sonia Velton
In 1573, Countess Erzsébet Báthory gave birth to an illegitimate child. The infant, a girl, was swiftly bundled up and handed to a local peasant family to be brought up in one of the hamlets surrounding the Castle. Many years later, 15-year-old Boróka reluctantly leaves the safety of the only home she has ever known […]
Birds of Prey by Damion Hunter
It has been 12 years since Faustus Valerianus first arrived in Britain, a centurion in the conquering Roman army. Many battles have been won, many allegiances gained. But those victories hide a more complex truth. In West Britain, the powerful Silures led by King Loarn plot their rebellion, fighting back against the now diminished strength […]