Ancient Suspense

As twilight descends on the third century AD, the Roman Empire is but a shadow of its former self. Decades of usurping emperors, splinter kingdoms and savage wars have left the people beleaguered, the armies weary and the future uncertain. And into this chaos Emperor Diocletian steps, reforming the succession to allow for not one emperor to rule the world, but four. Meanwhile, two boys share a chance meeting in the great city of Treverorum as Diocletian's dream is announced to the imperial court.

Athens, 460 B.C. Life's tough for Nicolaos, sole investigating agent in Athens. His girlfriend's left him and his boss wants to fire him. But when an Athenian official is murdered, Pericles has no choice but to put Nico on the job. The case takes Nico, with a beautiful slave girl, to the land of Ionia within the Persian Empire. The Persians will execute him on the spot if they think he's a spy.

The Ancients, a race of creatures between gods and monsters, are trapped in Canderfey. Fighting for their home, the University, and the remaining residents of the town, Joanna and her coven are in daily peril. When one of the Ancients escapes the boundary, the coven is separated, Isaac traveling in search of a solution to the turmoil of the summer. As days wear on, can Joanna and her coven keep their warrior spirit, or have they been fighting too hard and too long? Perhaps the Ancients - older, more powerful, and impossible to kill-are an obstacle too enormous to overcome.

Book Summary for The Lantern's Curse In the fog-blanketed village of Eldermoor, an ancient tradition binds the community to the spirits of the land—every night, the villagers light lanterns to guide the souls of the departed safely to the afterlife. But when the Red Lantern, the most sacred of all, mysteriously goes dark, an unsettling curse begins to descend upon the village. Crops wither, the wind grows cold, and restless spirits stir, hungry for what was promised to them. Elara, the daughter of the village’s head lantern keeper, is drawn into a web of mystery and danger when a ...

Princeton. Good Friday, 1999. On the eve of graduation, two students are a hairsbreadth from solving the mysteries of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Famous for its hypnotic power over those who study it, the 500-year-old Hypnerotomachia may finally reveal its secrets to Tom Sullivan, whose father was obsessed with the book, and Paul Harris, whose future depends on it. As the deadline looms, research has stalled, until an ancient diary surfaces.

Born a bastard and a slave, Hestia has a gift: the power to read people's hearts. And yet, the secrets of her own heart remain a mystery. Hestia's keen intellect makes her a match for any man. But even a literate slave has little control over destiny. Sold to a prominent statesman with sadistic tendencies, Hestia becomes his hetaera (consort).

When acclaimed literary critic Dr Eleanor Croft finds herself framed for the murder of a celebrated, arrogant poet, her meticulously ordered world shatters. With a relentless detective's deadline ticking down, Eleanor must embark on a perilous intellectual scavenger hunt through Cambridge's ancient secrets. The victim's cryptic clues, hidden within forgotten manuscripts and centuries-old mechanisms, lead her to the heart of the shadowy Pelican Society – a clandestine organization with a terrifying legacy of influence and a ruthless willingness to silence those who threaten its power. As ...

Who protects you and the world from supernatural destruction? This novella will give you the answer in the most exhilarating and unexpected way. A battle-hardened centurion is sent on a special mission to the wilds of Roman Britain to investigate the strange and ghastly murders of his brothers-in-arms. With the help of a warrior Queen, Magnus will encounter deathly forces, battle rival clans, and transform, not only himself but an entire nation. The Order of St. Michael forms in tenuous times, under dour circumstances, and stands as the world's foremost defense against darkness.

Joseph Miller and Mike Samson are closing in on one of the Fallen on the busy streets of New York City, with the help of a young woman who just happens to grow fur and fangs. Little do they know that someone from Miller's past is hunting them, intending to settle a grudge over a thousand years old. Meanwhile, Lizzie Namgung is desperately searching for her missing friend, Ann. Much to her surprise, so is the FBI. As a new evil spreads across the city of Newark, Lizzie finds herself caught in a web of murder, mayhem, and monsters.

Julius Caesar left his gardens to the citizens of Rome, a peaceful sanctuary across the Tiber. Now the gardens and their sacred grove are dangerous haunts, especially for women alone. 'Don't go to the Grove,' people mutter, but when her husband has to leave Rome, it falls to Albia to supervise his building project in an old grotto. Why has someone buried tattered scrolls by obscure philosophers - and does it involve a worse crime than terrible writing? Soon that puzzle is overtaken.

An ancient abbey. A missing stone. A legend that could change everything. True facts. In a centuries-old monastery south of Rome, a mysterious mosaic stone is stolen—one the monks believe holds the power of resurrection. Colonel Camarata turns to Professor Cariello, who happens to be conducting excavations nearby. But the case quickly deepens. The stone may have once belonged to none other than Saint Thomas Aquinas—the philosopher who shaped Christian theology, argued for the existence of God, and, as legend has it, possessed the elusive Philosopher’s Stone. As shadowy forces emerge ...

Elle Newmark's richly seductive prose brings to life the color and scandal of 15th-century Venice. Through Luciano, a street urchin apprenticed to a great chef in the palace of the doge, Newmark tells a wicked tale of political and papal intrigue. In Venice where every whisper is a secret or a lie, Luciano's initiation into the chef's spicy world makes for deliciously suspenseful listening.

Bringing ancient myth to life with passion, humour and humanity, Lindsay Clarke vividly retells the story of Troy and of the heroes who fought there in the third instalment of the Troy Quartet. Troy has fallen. After 10 years of fighting and a savage final massacre, the victors quarrel over what remains and turn their minds to home. Menelaus must decide the fate of Helen, whose incomparable beauty ignited the war. And Agamemnon must return to the fury of Clytaemnestra, who has neither forgotten nor forgiven his choice to sacrifice their daughter.

When several people involved in bidding for an oil refinery are murdered, the situation becomes far more than a billion-dollar business deal. A self-made woman in the oil industry, Lynn Dayton fights to save lives when escalating attacks reveal a hired assassin’s plan to disrupt energy trade, wreck world economies, and draw another global power into dangerous confrontation with the United States. Are the killers rogue civil servants challenging the Cherokees’ financial independence, Sansei operatives again wreaking violence, or sinister investors swapping the bidding war for a real one?...

When Broadway star Maggie Hamilton disappeared five years ago, it was a mystery that captured the imaginations of everyone. When her body turns up in the tomb of a Mayan god, it opens the door for an evil that could consume the world. Dan Kolter and Agent Roland Denzel are back, and just in time, as a new threat emerges that could mean the end of all humanity. A mysterious figure has his sights on the contents of a lost Mayan tomb, and Kotler and company will need to use all of their resources, intelligence, and any luck they may have to keep an ancient curse at bay. In this fourth full-...

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?

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.

A young man, James Johnson, illegitimate son of the legendary Wyatt Earp, dreams of adventure and following in his daddy's footsteps. James and his mentally disabled friend, Carson, are about to come face to face with an evil previously unimaginable in their little town. An evil they invited in.

Scottish noblemen with ties to the Knights Templar failed to find a trove of priceless icons hidden by the Knights of Rhodes. Centuries later, Katina Papamissios Bason makes discoveries of her own. With a lighthearted excitement, she discovers riddles left by the Scotsmen and a heartbreaking diary written during the blockade by Suleiman the Magnificent. These would give anyone what they needed to succeed. Almost.

In the heart of modern-day New York City, Alex, a young professional, finds himself entangled in a web of ancestral spirits, forbidden rituals, and long-forgotten tales. When unusual occurrences begin to disrupt his daily life, he embarks on a journey that takes him far from the skyscrapers of the metropolis to an ancient excavation site. Here, amid the whispers of a lost tribe with the power to bridge our world with the spirit realm, Alex must work alongside a team of archaeologists to uncover a truth that has been buried for millennia.