Tom Harper Books in Order
Browse Tom Harper books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and simple suggestions for where to start with his thrillers and historical adventures.
Last updated: June 11, 2026
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Publication Order
21 books
The Mosaic of Shadows
by Tom Harper
2003
When an assassin targets Emperor Alexios, Demetrios Askiates is drawn from the streets of Constantinople into court intrigue and imperial danger. With the first crusaders arriving at the gates, his hunt for the killer becomes a fight for the empire itself.
The Blighted Cliffs
by Tom Harper
2004
In Dover in 1806, disgraced lieutenant Martin Jerrold arrives hoping to repair his reputation and immediately finds himself suspected of murder. To save his skin, he must untangle smuggling, lies, and French threats before time runs out.
The Chains of Albion
by Tom Harper
2004
Martin Jerrold's quiet prison-hulk posting ends when a French captive escapes and powerful people demand his return. The chase drags Jerrold across England and into a knot of old secrets, politics, and danger far above his pay grade.
Knights of the Cross
by Tom Harper
2006
At the starving siege of Antioch, Demetrios Askiates is asked to investigate the murder of a Norman knight. His inquiry cuts through crusader rivalries, broken faith, and the fear that the whole campaign may collapse.
Siege Of Heaven
by Tom Harper
2006
As the First Crusade lurches toward Jerusalem, Demetrios Askiates longs to go home but is caught in fresh intrigues and bloodshed. To survive, he must navigate rival leaders, fanaticism, and the terrible cost of victory.
Treason's River
by Tom Harper
2006
Sent on what looks like a convenient escape from trouble in England, Lieutenant Martin Jerrold ends up crossing the Atlantic into a sweeping conspiracy. Pirates, frontier danger, and high politics carry him down the Mississippi with disaster close behind.
The Lost Temple
by Tom Harper
2007
Disgraced ex-SOE soldier Sam Grant holds transcripts from a hidden Cretan cave that may reveal a legendary treasure. Pursued by Cold War powers and shadowed by competing archaeologists, he is pulled into an ancient mystery with very modern consequences.
The Book of Secrets
by Tom Harper
2009
When Gillian disappears from a snowbound German village, her ex-boyfriend Nick Ash is the only one who can follow the clue she leaves behind, a strange medieval playing card. His search sparks a chase across Europe and into a five-hundred-year-old secret.
The Lazarus Vault
by Tom Harper
2010
Oxford graduate student Ellie Stanton is offered a dream job at a secretive London bank, then learns her new employers are guarding a deadly medieval secret. To escape them, she must uncover what lies hidden in their vaults and why it leads back to her.
Secrets of the Dead
by Tom Harper
2011
After her partner is murdered during a getaway in Montenegro, Abby Cormac follows a clue tied to the age of Constantine. Her search takes her across the Balkans and into buried Christian history, where someone is still willing to kill.
The Orpheus Descent
by Tom Harper
2013
When archaeologist Lily Barnes uncovers a new gold tablet in southern Italy and then vanishes, her husband Jonah refuses to believe she simply walked away. His search opens into a dark mystery linking Plato, the afterlife, and dangerous modern secrets.
The Twelfth Tablet
by Tom Harper
2013
Penniless graduate student Paul Mitchell knows where the last privately held gold tablet can be found. Chasing it draws him into danger, greed, and the hidden world behind the mysteries that later surface in The Orpheus Descent.
Polar Vortex
by Tom Harper
2014
On the Arctic island of Utgard, Andy MacDonald rescues a woman who steps out of a whiteout claiming to be a stranded activist. The encounter pulls him into a deadly cat-and-mouse game that hints at darker trouble to come.
Zodiac Station
by Tom Harper
2014
A half-frozen man is rescued from the pack ice and claims to be the sole survivor from remote Utgard research base. As he tells his story, the crew of the icebreaker realizes the disaster at Zodiac Station may be very different from what he says.
Black River
by Tom Harper
2015
Kel MacDonald joins an expedition into the Peruvian rainforest to find the lost Inca city of Paititi. As paranoia spreads and the jungle closes in, the treasure hunt turns into a fight to survive both the landscape and the people around him.
The Tiger's Prey
by Tom Harper
2017
Penniless Francis Courtney heads to South Africa bent on revenge, while Christopher Courtney tries to carve out a life of his own in the Indian Ocean world. Their paths converge in a harsh family adventure shaped by betrayal, ambition, and violent trade.
Ghost Fire
by Tom Harper
2019
Brother and sister Theo and Connie Courtney are torn apart after violence shatters their life in India. One is driven toward war, the other toward survival in France, and both are pulled toward a reckoning in the wider French and Indian War.
Storm Tide
by Tom Harper
2022
Rob Courtney leaves the east coast of Africa dreaming of adventure and lands in the turmoil of the American Revolution. As distant Courtney cousins choose opposite sides, family loyalty and political conviction collide on land and sea.
Nemesis
by Tom Harper
2023
A shadowy enemy returns to challenge Egypt’s fragile peace, leaving a trail of deaths and fear. Piay and his mentor, Taita, race to uncover the mastermind before panic turns into rebellion—and before the kingdom’s enemies strike from within.
Warrior King
by Tom Harper
2024
When a rival claimant rises, Piay is forced to back a young leader who must become a warrior king. With Taita advising, they fight on two fronts: the battlefield and the court, where betrayal can be deadlier than arrows.
Vengeance
by Tom Harper
2026
Ralph Courtney, Ann Waite, and Harry seek safety after bloodshed in southern Africa, but old enemies and imperial justice close in fast. Separation, exile, and a return to unfinished conflicts push them into another hard fight for survival.
Where should I start?
If you want Byzantine intrigue and crusades: The Mosaic of Shadows → Knights of the Cross → Siege Of Heaven
If you want puzzle-heavy historical thrillers: The Lost Temple → The Book of Secrets → The Lazarus Vault → Secrets of the Dead
If you want ice, isolation, and survival: Polar Vortex → Zodiac Station
If you want swashbuckling Napoleonic adventure: The Blighted Cliffs → The Chains of Albion → Treason's River
If you want big family-saga adventure: The Tiger's Prey → Ghost Fire → Storm Tide
Author bio
Tom Harper is the pen name of novelist Edwin Thomas, a writer who moves easily between very different kinds of story. He was born in West Germany in 1977 and grew up across Germany, Belgium, and the United States. That slightly rootless, international background fits the shape of his fiction, which is always crossing borders, languages, and competing versions of history, whether the setting is Byzantium, Napoleonic Europe, the Arctic, or southern Africa.
History came first.
He studied history at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he met his future wife, Emma. After university he spent several years working in pensions services while trying to build a writing life around ordinary paid work. It is a very unromantic beginning, which somehow suits him. There is something practical in the way he talks about becoming a novelist, less lightning bolt than steady persistence.
A near miss mattered.
The first chapter of what became The Blighted Cliffs was runner-up in the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger, and that helped open the door to agents and publishers. The Blighted Cliffs, published as Edwin Thomas, introduced Lieutenant Martin Jerrold, a funny, shabby, unexpectedly durable Royal Navy officer who went on to star in The Chains of Albion and Treason's River. Those books show one side of Harper's range: historical adventure with wit, mystery, and a hero who is usually at least a little hungover.
Under the name Tom Harper, he headed somewhere older and darker. The Mosaic of Shadows, followed by Knights of the Cross and Siege Of Heaven, follows Demetrios Askiates through Byzantium and the First Crusade, mixing investigation with siege warfare and political intrigue. Later books such as The Lost Temple, The Book of Secrets, The Lazarus Vault, Secrets of the Dead, and The Orpheus Descent move into globe-spanning thrillers where modern people keep tripping over dangerous pieces of the past.
He also likes extreme places.
That shows in Zodiac Station and Black River. One traps its characters in Arctic ice, where cold and mistrust are as dangerous as any human enemy. The other heads into South American rainforest country in search of a lost city, turning an expedition dream into a paranoia-filled survival story. Across all these books, a few things recur: outsiders under pressure, institutions hiding things, and people discovering that old history is not old at all once it starts killing in the present.
In more recent years, he has also worked within Wilbur Smith's fictional world, helping continue parts of the Courtney saga. That collaboration makes sense beside his own novels. He likes momentum, big historical stakes, and characters who have to think quickly while the ground is shifting under them. Readers who enjoy him tend to come back for that mix of research, pace, and clear storytelling rather than for one single type of book.
He now writes full time and lives in York with his wife Emma and their sons, Owen and Matthew. Along the way he has stayed active in the crime-writing world, including work with the Crime Writers' Association. But the clearest line through his career is still on the page: whether he is writing as Tom Harper or Edwin Thomas, he is drawn to people caught between private trouble and much larger events, trying to stay alive long enough to understand what they have walked into.
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