Epic Historical Fiction / Adventure Books in Order

In this sequel to Fever Coast, Lachlan McKenzie is drawn into the vicious struggle between European powers for control of India. From the killing grounds of Carnatic campaigns to the horror of the Black Hole of Calcutta and the Battle of Plassey, he must decide what kind of man he wants to be in the middle of empire’s rise.

Set in the last years of Muslim Spain, Converso follows men and women forced to choose between faith, survival and love as the Inquisition tightens its grip. From Seville’s dungeons to the gardens of the Alhambra, their stories play out against cannon fire and the final fall of Granada.

After Rome’s crushing defeat at Carrhae in 53 BC, tribune Valerius is taken prisoner and marched deep into the Parthian Empire, farther than any Roman has gone. While he endures shipwrecks, storms, pirates and betrayal in his bid to return home, civil war tears Rome apart and the friend who abandoned him rises in power.

East Africa, 1750 – Lachlan McKenzie lives with his family at a lonely trading post on the slave coast, never knowing why his father brought them there. When three warships sail upriver and destroy everything he loves, Lachlan survives by chance and sets out on a quest for revenge that leads him to the brutal slave markets and battlefields of India.

In early twentieth century Morocco, an ex soldier adventurer is hired to help the sultan put down a rebellion led by the warlord known as the Lord of the Atlas. Drawn into a world of mountain fortresses, caged lions and shifting loyalties, he discovers too late that he is fighting not just for money but for his life.

Bavaria, 1933 – Jewish teenager Netanel Rosenberg and Marie Helder fall in love just as Nazism begins to poison their small town. When Netanel becomes the last Jew left, hiding in cupboards and cellars, Marie refuses to abandon him, and his promise to “live for her” carries him through ghettos, camps and the machinery of the Holocaust.

Set in the final years of the British Mandate, this companion to Live For Me follows characters on the Arab side of the struggle over Palestine. As villages are emptied and armies clash, love, loyalty and identity are torn apart and one family’s fight for their homeland collides with the birth of the state of Israel.

Babylon, 323 BC – Gajendra is a young elephant handler whose courage catches the eye of Alexander the Great and propels him into the heart of the Macedonian army. As Alexander turns his gaze west toward Carthage, man and elephant are swept through sieges, palace plots and betrayals that may decide the fate of an empire.

France, 1205 – battle scarred knight Philip of Vercy returns from crusade to find his wife dead and his little son close to dying. Desperate, he rides south in search of a mysterious young woman bearing Christ’s wounds, only to be swept into the brutal crusade against the Cathars and a love that could cost him his life and soul.

A European knight travels east along the great caravan routes to the court of a powerful khan, trading cold stone fortresses for deserts, mountains and cities of silk and spice. Along the way he becomes entangled in love, war and a clash of cultures that will change him more than any battle.

In the ruthless early days of the East India trade, a young captain and the woman who loves him are drawn into a web of company politics, piracy and private deals. Monsoon seas, crowded ports and hidden harbours form the backdrop to a story of ambition, betrayal and the price of empire.

This novel follows Cleopatra from her precarious youth in Alexandria through her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Balancing court politics, family treachery and her own desires, she fights to keep Egypt independent even as Rome tightens its grip on the Mediterranean world.

Told through the eyes of Malinali, an Aztec noblewoman sold into slavery and later taken by Hernán Cortés as his translator, this novel recreates the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Revered by some as the symbolic mother of a new nation and reviled by others as a traitor, she must choose sides as gods, prophecy and gunpowder bring an empire down.

Harem opens the doors of Suleiman the Magnificent’s palace to tell the intertwined stories of three women – Hurrem, a slave girl of Tartar origin, Julia, a kidnapped Italian noblewoman, and Gulbehar, mother of the heir. In a world of silks, secrets and sudden violence, their rivalries and alliances help decide the fate of an empire.

Drawn from the author’s own time in Southeast Asia, Venom follows a young expatriate caught up in Bangkok’s nightlife and the heroin trade that runs beneath it. What begins as adventure slides into a deadly game involving smugglers, corrupt officials and a drug that destroys everything it touches.