In 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 […]
The Barbarian by Douglas Jackson
AD 406. Abandoned by friends and hounded by enemies, Roman cavalry commander Marcus Flavius Victor and a small band of loyal warriors know that the time has come to leave an increasingly fractured Britannia. Their journey takes them across the bleak, pirate-infested seas of the Mare Germanicum to Saxonia and on into the dark heart […]
Piccadilly: The Circus at the Heart of London by Midge Gillies
There’s nowhere quite like Piccadilly Circus. From the moment they emerge, blinking from the underground station, visitors to Piccadilly Circus face a sensory onslaught. Its streets and alleyways merge into an intoxicating thoroughfare, with the power to propel an individual onwards to adventure, romance, or something more sinister. Ever since its iconic Eros statue appeared […]
Forest of Foes by Matthew Harffy
It’s AD652, and Beobrand has been ordered to lead a group of pilgrims to the holy city of Rome. Chief among them is Wilfrid, a novice of the church with some surprisingly important connections. Taking only Cynan and some of his best men, Beobrand hopes to make the journey through Frankia quickly and return to […]
The Wall by Douglas Jackson
In AD 400, Rome and its Empire are failing… Veteran cavalry commander Marcus Flavius Victor sets out with his regiment to make what may be his final tour of the forts along Hadrian’s Wall. Through a combination of military prowess, brutality and bribery, Marcus has spent twenty years keeping the savage Picts at bay. Feared […]
The Night of the Wolf by Cassandra Clark
Chester, 1400. Riding for his life, with a copy of Chaucer’s heretical Canterbury Tales in his possession, friar-sleuth Brother Chandler is ambushed on the road and wakes up in a stranger’s house. Is his ‘rescuer’, wool merchant John Willoughby, friend… or foe? Willoughby declares that he, like Chandler, has renounced the self-crowned King Henry IV […]
Ritual of Fire by DV Bishop
Florence. Summer, 1538, and a night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main square. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way. Does this new killing mean his fanatical […]
Historia extract: Ritual of Fire by DV Bishop
To celebrate the publication of Ritual of Fire, DV Bishop’s third Cesare Aldo crime thriller set in 16th-century Florence, Historia is publishing an extract from the book – the whole first chapter. Thursday, May 23rd 1538. Cesare Aldo could still smell flesh burning, even from this distance. In Florence it would have been one scent […]