Ancient Mystery Fiction

What if your wildest imagination... wasn’t imagination at all? Jacob and Isaac are just two curious brothers growing up in Darwin, Australia—until the night strange lights flash across the sky and a glowing crystal appears in their backyard. With the help of their wise grandmother and a set of forgotten journals, the boys uncover a secret that links them to an ancient race of star travelers—and a mother they barely remember. When they discover a hidden alien ship deep in the bush, their lives take a thrilling turn that rockets them beyond Earth and into the stars. But with discovery ...

Mysterious necromancers. Wicked summoners. Fierce witches. Occasional familiars. Military experiments. Secret councils. Forbidden alliances. The Academy of Ancients will suck you in. Briar’s free. Or is she? With the necromancers and the undead still loose, the masters that control these heinous creatures might as well be.

Book number two of the award winning Brooke & Abby cozy mystery series, where clues from the past help solve modern murder cases. Why does Abby tarot card her way back to Ancient Rome when there’s no need to? After all, the recent death in town has been declared by the local pathologist to be simply an accidental, epileptic tragedy and nothing more. Or is it?

This is the classic story of the young Theseus - Prince of Troizen, King of Eleusis and Athens, slayer of the Minotaur. Mary Renault's powerful novel captures the modern imagination by weaving myth, legend, history, and fiction into the story of a young hero's search for his destiny, or moira. If you like The King Must Die, try The Bull from the Sea.

It’s festival time in Athens, and Philocles is looking forward to the holiday. Visitors are coming from across the Hellenic world for eight days of sporting competitions, musical contests and sacred rites to honour Athena, the city’s patron goddess. Thousands will flock to the Pnyx to be enthralled by three-day performance of Homer’s Iliad, an entertainment unique to the Great Panathenaia. Taking part is the highest honour and greatest challenge for an epic poet.

The Persian War is over, and an unaccustomed decade of peace has come to ancient Athens. Philocles, an aspiring comic playwright, is making his living as a writer for hire, but this year is the highlight of his career - he has a play in a drama competition at a prestigious festival. The last thing he wants to find on his doorstep the day before is a dead body. Just who is this dead man? Is it just a robbery gone wrong? With the play that could make his name on the horizon, Philocles must find out who this man is, why he has been murdered - and why the corpse was in his doorway.

An ancient drug will determine humanity's futureMakry ypno. Long Sleep. Lost in the darkness of history for millennia, referenced only in obscure Greek medical texts, this strange plant holds the key to allowing humanity to survive global threats by escaping to the stars. That is, if a team of mercenaries with a grudge doesn't get it first. Dr. Dan Kotler—polymathic anthropologist and FBI consultant—teams with his FBI partner, Agent Roland Denzel, to investigate the murder of an archaeobiologist, hot on the trail of a source for makry ypno. All signs point to the possibility of its ...

101 A.D. Emperor Trajan, the heralded new Caesar of the Roman Empire, seeks to reverse 15 years of humiliating losses for Rome in wars against Dacia and its brilliant military leader King Decebal. To punish Dacia and Decebal, Trajan launches an invasion of Dacia with the largest army ever assembled in the history of Rome.

Indie Blackwood is a popular cheerleader with a football-star boyfriend. On the surface, her life looks perfect. But when a guy dies right before her eyes and an ancient family Bible is stolen, Indie's world spirals into darkness. Turns out, Indie has a destiny. And it involves much more than pom-poms and parties. If she doesn't get the Bible back, every witch on the planet will die. And that's seriously bad news for Indie, because according to Bishop, the hot warlock who has an uncanny knowledge of everything that matters, she's a witch, too.

History awaits an unsuspecting young man, fleeing the imperial capital and Nero's wrath. Arriving in Pompeii, Marcellus witnesses the funeral of a local man; the course of his life will be altered by this stranger's death. Unable to stop the murder of a mysterious woman named Helen, Marcellus becomes the caretaker of the dead woman's newborn baby. Hiding in plain sight at a brothel, Marcellus is left to decipher Helen's secrets. With the help of his overbearing servant and a seductive oracle, Marcellus must deduce who in Pompeii has blood on their hands.

It is AD 81. The Roman emperor Domitian seizes power. Afflicted by classic paranoia, the self-styled Master and God sees enemies everywhere - and he is right. The Senate loathes him, his advisers are terrified, he cannot trust his wife, and barbarians menace the frontiers. As he vents his suspicions, no one is safe.

Craig Henriksen and Danny Walsh: two contemporary warriors in a struggle they barely understand. Despite the losses they've endured at his hands, they draw closer to the enemy and learn more about his nature and goals. Craig and Danny have become important targets.

Caesar and Brutus. Marius and Sulla. Cicero, Antony, Clodius, and Augustus. The end of the Roman Republic gave us a host of larger-than-life characters hailing from Rome. Only one was named Great. In the year 90 B.C.E., chaos and unrest erupts across the Italian peninsula. Rome's allies have rebelled and taken up arms against the most powerful military on Earth. Leading Rome's legions - and his only son - to the city's defense, an unproven and unloved commander will taste victory and defeat outside the capital's gates.

AD 312 is a year of horrific and brutal warfare. Constantine's northern army is a small force, plagued by religious rivalries, but seemingly unstoppable as they invade Maxentius' Italian heartlands. These relentless clashes, incidents of treachery and twists of fortune see Maxentius' armies driven back to Rome.

When Julien Bonnet finds the remains of an ancient city under the Red Sea, he unleashes the might of the Guardians of Egypt. They carry the burden of destroying ancient sites - and anyone who discovers them - to keep their secret safe. Only this time, they messed with the wrong guy. Killing him will not be as simple as it seems.

On the banks of the Nile, a hero will rise. Across the lush plains of Egypt, Taita, a freed eunuch slave, wears his authority lightly. Not only is he the close advisor to the Pharaoh, but he is guardian to Pharaoh Tamose's two teenage sisters, the young beauties Tehuti and Bekatha. But the kingdom is not at peace. They have been fighting Southern Egypt's constant and historic enemy, the Hyksos people in the north, since time began. To finally crush them, Pharaoh must turn to his most trusted friend.

Incomplete sections of the book of dead found in Ramesses’ tomb and the murder of a prominent tomb scribe sparks fears of the curse of Anubis in Deir el-Medina. While the lack of witnesses and a close-knit worker community hampers, Neti-Kerty and Shabaka’s investigation at a time when the whole of Thebes awaits the arrival of the pharaoh for the beautiful festival of the valley. When Neti starts to experience strange sensations and the pharaoh’s life is endangered it becomes evident that there is a larger, more sinister scheme to the events...

Enga Dancing Flower knows her Neanderthal tribe is in trouble. The dark seasons are becoming longer, and the mammoth herds are fleeing south. When the tribal leader is found stabbed to death, the new leader thinks Enga did it. Expulsion and certain death loom. Enga must find the murderer to save her tribe - and herself.

A gripping historical thriller and the third instalment in the Rome's Invincibles saga. The battle for control of Rome continues. Octavian has defeated and killed Caesar's assassins, but the road to absolute power is still long and treacherous. A threat now comes from Sextus Pompeius – a cunning pirate who rules the Italian coastline, terrorising Perugia's citizens. Suddenly, Civil War seems like child's play in comparison to a campaign against piracy. Octavian is close to defeat and death.

After a career with a shadowy security firm with interests on both sides of the law, Dante has come home to put all that behind him and has gone to work for a private investigator. A call alerts him early one morning that Bill Owens, a fellow P.I., has been charged with a notorious 30-year-old killing. Bill was involved in a political group in the late 60s, which among other pranks and small-time crimes, held up a bank....