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Some of my earliest memories are of exploring megalithic sites such as Stonehenge. I guess I can blame my parents for making me a history buff, fascinated by ancient cultures, ancient religions and ancient mysteries. It’s no surprise then that I ended up a fan of mystery fiction. Most people would turn immediately to Dan Brown for this genre, but there are many excellent authors in this genre for fans to discover. I didn’t end up as a historian, but a scientist. So, when I began writing thrillers, I combined my scientific knowledge with my love of ancient mysteries. The result, The Bergamese Sect, is a religious conspiracy thriller masquerading as science fiction!
I first discovered author Steve Berry with the publication of his excellent novel, The Templar Legacy, one of a series involving Cotton Malone, a retired security operative turned conspiracy investigator. Berry weaves a complex story about the lost treasures of the medieval Knights Templar, and their modern-day attempts to regain power. As in all of Berry’s books, there is a well-researched historical background, plenty of plot twists, and, of course, murders. I particularly like Berry’s attention to historical detail, his rich description, and sense of fatality. Berry’s writing inspired me enough to ask him to be a cover reviewer for my book.
The first explosive thriller in the Cotton Malone series from a New York Times megaselling author.
The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power, until the Inquisition destroyed them and their riches were lost forever.
But some people don't believe in 'forever'.
Ex-agent Cotton Malone used to work for Stephanie Nelle in the US Justice Department. Now Nelle wants his help to crack a series of puzzles that have confounded experts for centuries - and could lead to the legendary lost treasure of the Knights Templar.
Some of my earliest memories are of exploring megalithic sites such as Stonehenge. I guess I can blame my parents for making me a history buff, fascinated by ancient cultures, ancient religions and ancient mysteries. It’s no surprise then that I ended up a fan of mystery fiction. Most people would turn immediately to Dan Brown for this genre, but there are many excellent authors in this genre for fans to discover. I didn’t end up as a historian, but a scientist. So, when I began writing thrillers, I combined my scientific knowledge with my love of ancient mysteries. The result, The Bergamese Sect, is a religious conspiracy thriller masquerading as science fiction!
Sam Bourne (a pseudonym of British author Jonathan Freedland) is an unfairly neglected writer of religious conspiracy thrillers. It’s difficult to recommend just one of Bourne’s books; they are, without fail, perfect examples of the ‘Dan Brown’ genre of fiction. However, The Last Testament is an excellent place to start. Here, Bourne manages to seamlessly meld modern geopolitics with ancient religious mythology. As the protagonists hunt for a stolen relic from the time of Abraham, its significance for peace or war in the Bible lands becomes clear. Hold on to your hats with this one!
From the Number One bestselling author of The Righteous Men comes this staggering religious conspiracy thriller. The Last Testament: It was written. It was lost. It will save us all.
April 2003: as the Baghdad Museum of Antiquities is looted, a teenage Iraqi boy finds an ancient clay tablet in a long-forgotten vault. He takes it and runs off into the night ...
Several years later, at a peace rally in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister is about to sign a historic deal with the Palestinians. A man approaches from the crowd and seems to reach for a gun -…
Some of my earliest memories are of exploring megalithic sites such as Stonehenge. I guess I can blame my parents for making me a history buff, fascinated by ancient cultures, ancient religions and ancient mysteries. It’s no surprise then that I ended up a fan of mystery fiction. Most people would turn immediately to Dan Brown for this genre, but there are many excellent authors in this genre for fans to discover. I didn’t end up as a historian, but a scientist. So, when I began writing thrillers, I combined my scientific knowledge with my love of ancient mysteries. The result, The Bergamese Sect, is a religious conspiracy thriller masquerading as science fiction!
Despite the similar title to my previous recommendation, James Becker’sThe Lost Testament is a very different beast. The sixth installment of Becker’s Chris Bronson series, the testament concerned is an ancient parchment stolen from the Vatican Archives. It later shows up for sale in Cairo; soon the body count rises as various factions fall over themselves to find it and protect its damaging revelation. I think Becker is a vastly underrated author; his use of plot decoys and his descriptive passages are second-to-none. Becker is another author I admired enough to ask him to cover-review my book.
For thousands of years we guarded it. But now it has been found. This could be the end – for us; for our organisation; for the world. You must destroy it, and those who have taken it.
An ancient object is discovered in a Cairo souk. Hours later, the market trader who sold it is tortured to death. As the bodies begin to pile up, a request for help is sent to British Museum historian Angela Lewis.
Angela travels to Spain with her ex-husband, undercover police officer Chris Bronson. There they discover…
Some of my earliest memories are of exploring megalithic sites such as Stonehenge. I guess I can blame my parents for making me a history buff, fascinated by ancient cultures, ancient religions and ancient mysteries. It’s no surprise then that I ended up a fan of mystery fiction. Most people would turn immediately to Dan Brown for this genre, but there are many excellent authors in this genre for fans to discover. I didn’t end up as a historian, but a scientist. So, when I began writing thrillers, I combined my scientific knowledge with my love of ancient mysteries. The result, The Bergamese Sect, is a religious conspiracy thriller masquerading as science fiction!
I may be uncommon in my likes and dislikes, but I’m a fan of carefully constructed prose. I prefer the challenge of interpretation, to be left without all the facts, to be enticed, teased, and misled. For me, author Simon Toyne does all this, and more. His Sancti trilogy begins with the epitome Sanctus. The plot, concerning an ancient secret passed down through generations of monks, is complex, sometimes disturbing, and always compelling. Toyne’s writing, for me, is both intelligent and dynamic, exactly how this genre should be done!
The bestselling thriller debut of 2011 - the apocalyptic conspiracy thriller that has set the world alight...
REVELATION OR DEVASTATION?
The certainties of the modern world are about to be blown apart by a three thousand year-old conspiracy nurtured by blood and lies ...
A man throws himself to his death from the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, a mountainous citadel in the historic Turkish city of Ruin. This is no ordinary suicide but a symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is witnessed by the entire world.
I am an award-winning author of sex-positive contemporary romance and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. As a reader, I’ve grown weary of Native American romance characters who are mostly caricatures and stereotypes. Last year, I went on a quest to find romance stories that portrayed contemporary Native characters experiencing love as they navigated real life in the 21st century. And who better to tell those stories than Native authors using their own voice? Now that I’ve found several great Native romance authors, I want to share these recommendations far and wide. Come, come, read Native romance!
I don’t usually read billionaire romance because the billionaires are often crappy humans, and I don’t enjoy reading about crappy people getting a happily-ever-after. This book was a great exception. Adam Redhawk isn’t just a billionaire, he’s an Eastern Band Cherokee billionaire who was taken from his home and community when he was a child. Now he’s hired a PI to help him find his long-lost siblings to reconnect with the past that was stolen from him. I enjoyed the romance and the characters a lot. If you read billionaire romance, let this be one of them.
Will the woman he can’t resist be his downfall? Find out, only from USA TODAY bestselling author Robin Covington!
In the boardroom—and the bedroom—they’re on fire.
But will her secrets destroy them both?
Investigator Tess Lynch once helped Adam Redhawk find his Cherokee family. Now the self-made tech billionaire wants her to root out his company’s saboteur—and share his bed. But as passion builds between them, the private eye pursues a plan of her own—to get even for the way Adam’s adoptive father ruined hers. Until an unexpected pregnancy changes everything…
From Harlequin Desire: Luxury, scandal, desire—welcome to the lives…
I’m a Roman historian (associate professor at the University of Birmingham, UK), who’s particularly interested in understanding the nature of Roman power and how Rome’s presence and impact within the Mediterranean changed over time. I’m dyslexic and I think this, in part, might explain why I am quite a visual learner and find material culture a really valuable way to engage with the past, just as much as through written sources. I really hope that my selection of books offers you various different (and perhaps new) ways to think about ancient Rome!
I love historical detective novels, and this one, set in AD 70, is a great way to immerse yourself in the Roman world. Lindsey Davis does her research, creating a real, lived-in space that makes the ancient past feel alive and present.
Another big plus is that it’s hilariously entertaining: I’m regularly guffawing out loud while reading it. Best of all? It’s the first book in a fantastic series, and I’ve enjoyed following private instigator Marcus Didius Falco, and then later his daughter, Flavia Alba, over a number of adventures across the city of Rome and the wider Empire.
Rome. AD 70. Private eye Marcus Didius Falco knows his way round the eternal city. He can handle the muggers, the police and most of the girls. But one fresh 16 year old, Sosia Camillina, finds him a case no Roman should be getting his nose into . . . Sosia's uncle is a Senator with suspicions. Some friends, Romans and countryment are doing a highly profitable, if highly illegal, trade in silver ingots or pigs. For Falco it's the start of a murderous trail that leads far beyond the seven hills. To a godforsaken land called Britain, to Emperor…
Ever since I stumbled through the “Early Roman Empire” paper in Finals using I, Claudius by Robert Graves, I have held a deep admiration of those authors who can portray the complex world of Rome with such authority. I went on to teach the Greeks and Romans for 25 years, so I have grown to love these characters—Caesar is a philandering schemer, Augustus has ice for blood, Livia is a skilled practitioner of poisons… How can one resist such entertaining people who operate in a system where the upper classes must compete through bribery, intrigue and occasional revolutions?
This is the first book in Saylor’s “Roma sub rosa” series, and introduces one of the nicest heroes in historical mystery! Gordianus the Finder is the Roman equivalent of our private detective and he works for a young politician and orator, Cicero. Based on a real lawsuit from 80 BCE, Saylor makes great use of the actual speech made, and conveys the skill and showmanship of the lawyer at a time when a good speech was seen as entertainment for the masses. Into this original material though he weaves a hideous and complex murder plot. Riveting stuff!
I am a huge fan of Cicero, and it was really interesting—if a little hard at times!—to see him portrayed with all his flaws and weaknesses.
In the unseasonable heat of a spring morning in 80 B.C., Gordianus the Finder is summoned to the house of Cicero, a young advocate staking his reputation on a case involving the savage murder of the wealthy, sybaritic Sextus Roscius. Charged with the murder is Sextus's son, greed being the apparent motive. The punishment, rooted deep in Roman tradition, is horrific beyond imagining.
The case becomes a political nightmare when Gordianus's investigation takes him through the city's raucous, pungent streets and deep into rural Umbria. Now, one man's fate may threaten the very leaders of Rome itself.
Ever since I stumbled through the “Early Roman Empire” paper in Finals using I, Claudius by Robert Graves, I have held a deep admiration of those authors who can portray the complex world of Rome with such authority. I went on to teach the Greeks and Romans for 25 years, so I have grown to love these characters—Caesar is a philandering schemer, Augustus has ice for blood, Livia is a skilled practitioner of poisons… How can one resist such entertaining people who operate in a system where the upper classes must compete through bribery, intrigue and occasional revolutions?
Maddox Roberts has written the superb SPQR series of historical mysteries, named after the Latin phrase meaning “The Senate and The People of Rome”. The whole series, with its cynical and arrogant hero, Decius Caecilius Metellus, is full of energy and wonderfully colorful characters, but I chose this book for one scene: the ritual of the October Horse. I defy you to read this and not end up exhausted as you cheer on our hero’s magnificent victory. The author’s research is impeccable and is used so skilfully you don’t notice it’s there. I cannot think of a higher compliment to give an historical writer. Cicero gets a nice write-up, which I appreciate!
It was a summer of glorious triumph for the mighty Roman Republic. Her invincible legions had brought all foreign enemies to their knees. But in Rome there was no peace. The streets were flooded with the blood of murdered citizens, and there were rumors of more atrocities to come. Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger was convinced a conspiracy existed to overthrow the government-a sinister cabal that could only be destroyed from within. But admission into the traitorous society of evil carried a grim price: the life of Decius's closest friend...and maybe his own.
I am a writer, classical historian, and journalist. While there is no shortage of Roman historians in Britain and the US, I have long felt that English-speaking historians have had a blind spot as far as Roman Germany goes. Fascinated by the Battle of Teutoburg Forest for many years, while there were numerous accounts in German, it frustrated me that there was no general account of what happened in English. So I wrote it! I wasclearly not alone in my interest in Roman Germany and have presented a number of documentaries on the battle on the History Channel and National Geographic since.
The fourth book in Lindsay Davis’ magnificent series of detective novels featuring Marcus Didius Falco, The Iron Hand of Mars is set in 71CE, several years after the events of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.
Although much of the action takes place in the aftermath of the Batavian Revolt in 69–70CE, Davis both captures daily life in the Roman cities in Germany, but also how the events of 9CE continued to haunt Roman Germany – the Roman empire – even a generation later.
With the great characterisation, fast-paced plotting and wry humour that we've come to expect from multi-million copy bestselling author Lindsey Davis, this is an addictive mystery that will transport you back to Britain at the time of the Roman invasion. Readers of S. J. Parris, Donna Leon, Steven Saylor and C. J. Sansom will be hooked from page one...
'Her most ambitious to date... Davis has found a winning formula.' -- Daily Telegraph 'Lindsey Davis doesn't merely make history come alive - she turns it into spanking entertainment, and wraps it around an intriguing mystery. She is incapable of writing…
I’m an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, and my taste in fiction is as unconventional as my career. I love books set in obscure periods of the past, with underdog characters who rise to the occasion through cleverness and grit. I write the kind of books I love to read, which explains why I set my novels in ancient Rome. The engineer side of my brain thrives on doing historical research while my creative side imagines quirky, imperfect characters who find unconventional ways to solve tricky mysteries. I hope you enjoy my list of clever, spunky sleuths from various periods who solve murders in unique ways.
Reading a Lindsey Davis novel is a guilty pleasure. Why? She’s wickedly funny. She brings ancient Rome to vivid life, from the fancy fringe on a tunic hem to the steaming pile of donkey dung in the street. Her sleuth, a tough, no-nonsense woman named Flavia Albia, is assisted (whether she likes it or not) by an extended family of eccentric and sometimes meddlesome characters. I also appreciate how Davis adds just enough historical detail to bring the plot to life without bogging down the action.
In this book, I particularly enjoyed the interplay between Albia and the officious aedile, Manlius Faustus, who turns out to be nicer (and more interesting) than he first appeared. While each novel is stand-alone, I recommend starting here to get the full backstory.
Chosen by The Times as one of the Top Ten Crime Novels Written by Women since 2000
Flavia Albia is the adopted daughter of a famous investigating family. In defiance of tradition, she lives alone on the colourful Aventine Hill, and battles out a solo career in a male-dominated world. As a woman and an outsider, Albia has special insight into the best, and worst, of life in ancient Rome.
A female client dies in mysterious circumstances. Albia investigates and discovers there have been many other strange deaths all over the city, yet she is warned off by the authorities.…
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