Books

1608. Remote in the Virginia wilderness, a lone wood fort nestles on a bank of the mighty James River. It is the front line, a symbol of colonial ambition and an English desire for land grab and empire. Yet for the settlers, dangers press in all about. For within there are traitors and saboteurs answering to different masters and beyond the palisade are the hostile natives. Murder stalks and starvation encroaches. Among the carnage and despair is Christian Hardy, the intelligencer sent by a young Prince of Wales to save the imperial dream. The stakes are high and the risks many. And out in the forest sits Realm, arch-enemy and English renegade, intent on wreaking destruction. The Indians call the land Tsenacomoco, a territory that will spawn America. Blood and scalps are the price.

JJ says: "There was an obvious draw to writing this thriller. An isolated wood fort inhabited by a hundred English settlers, danger everywhere and intrigue within: there are few better ingredients for a story-line. Coming just a few years after the Gunpowder Plot, Cradle was a logical follow on to Treason and allowed me to launch the intelligence agent Christian Hardy back on a mission. Hopefully there is an epic quality to the tale that will keep the reader hooked."

Christian Hardy is back. Tasked by the English spymaster Robert Cecil to hunt down the enemies of the state, he finds himself on the trail of Catholic plotters intent on killing the King and changing forever the course of history. Gunpowder is at the centre of the conspiracy. Guarding thirty-six barrels of the explosive beneath the Palace of Westminster is Guido Fawkes and in a stately home north of Warwick is a young princess chosen by the traitors to be their future monarch. It is the intelligencer Hardy who must find the link. Regicide and treason are in the air and overthrow is imminent. For Hardy, there is threat at every turn and old enemies in wait.

JJ says: "The Gunpowder Plot is the big one, the terrorist spectacular that might have been. It seemed to be crying out for the thriller treatment, so I hope I managed to deliver. It is compelling history. Given that my first thriller (Dead Headers) was written as a warning of future mass terrorism, there was a certain logic in turning to the original article. Treason is the result."

Almost two hundred years have passed since the Crusader armies took Jerusalem. Now it is the turn of the Saracen to seek revenge and for the Mameluk Sultan of Egypt to send his massed force against the last key Christian enclaves in the holy land. In the royal city of Acre, the defenders prepare and await their fate. Knight and bishop, mercenary and merchant, all will be tested and may perish. For this is the endgame, the closing moments in a sprawling religious conflict. No quarter will be given and no mercy shown.

William of Beaujeu, Grand Master of the Templars, will stop at little to secure the city and preserve his legendary Military Order. Time is running out and resources are few and the princes of Europe will not come to his aid. But among the garrison are allies – the adventurer De Flor, Theobald the young Hospitaller, the court dwarf Amethyst, the camel master Selim, and the orphan boy and spy Benedict – individuals who must stay alive in the chaos to be unleashed. In their midst prowl the feared Assassins and sinister enemies from among a rabble army of Italians. Everyone is trapped and everywhere is danger. And the Grand Master knows that final judgement is approaching.

JJ says: "Both Walsingham, the great spy chief, and Drake, the legendary seafarer, have always been heroes of mine. They are giants of English history and are part of that handful of people who dominated and defined the Elizabethan era. To have the opportunity to set a thriller against the epic backdrop of their struggles against an ever-threatening Spain was too good to pass up. It showed me how much of that period remains invisible below the water-line: perfect conditions for the writer. The book also features an Irish dog – Fearnot – based on the beloved Irish Terriers that have delighted so many generations of my family. I owe it to the breed to include one of its number."

1588. In Lisbon the great Spanish Armada prepares to set sail for England. Along the coast of the Low Countries, the army of the Duke of Parma readies itself for embarkation. Threat is imminent. Yet behind it is a darker and more secretive game, one of espionage and murder, of treachery and deceit. The stiletto-blade to the back, the poison in the chalice, the tortuerer’s rack in the dungeon. This is the realm of the spy. And at its heart is the legendary Elizabethan spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. One-by-one his intelligence sources vanish, day-by-day the danger to his queen and country grows. Finally, he sends the young soldier and agent Christian Hardy to discover the truth. But to reach it, Hardy must confront the deadliest of foes, the Spanish Inquisition, turncoats among his own, and the might of the enemy fleet. Time is running out. For Hardy, for England, for its sovereign queen Elizabeth…

JJ says: "Any siege an every last stand has a particular poignancy. Events at Acre marked the end of the Crusader age and the start of the rapid decline of the Templars. It was a turning point on which much depended. Because the stakes were high for both Christians and Moslems – and because it involved a clash of ideas as well as armies – the Siege of Acre is a gift for the thriller-writer. I hope I have brought the story to life".

1212. The forces of Christendom are on the march again. There is much to avenge. Twenty-five years ago, the Christian army lay shattered on the desolate plain of the Horns of Hattin, slaughtered by mighty Saladin, ruler of the Moslem world. The Holy Land seemed lost. But now the pope has called for crusade. Many take the cross for pilgrimage or battle. Among them is Otto, a young noble in search of his vanished Hospitaller knight father, and Brother Luke, a mysterious Franciscan on a mission of his own. And then there are the children – tens of thousands of them – pledged to recapture Jerusalem and find the True Cross, the holiest of relics lost to the forces of Islam. But nothing can prepare them for what they will face. From the island fortress of the Templars to the mountain redoubts of the murderous Assassins, from the secret lair of leper knights to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the pilgrims’ journey is beset by treachery and horror, violence and dread. There are allies at hand – the beautiful Lady Matilda of Acre and the wayward Sergeant Hugh, former bodyguard to Richard the Lionheart himself – but they may not be enough. For dangers press in and the way ahead is perilous. Some will not survive.

JJ says: "The story of the Children’s Crusade has always haunted me. When you consider that the distance between Cologne and Genoa is almost seven hundred miles, that the children covered this in two months without adequate food, shelter or footwear, then their feat becomes even more remarkable. It was an extraordinary period of superstition, violence and religious fervour. I hope I have captured it with Pilgrim."

1565, Malta – and the greatest siege the world has ever known…

The legendary Hospitaller Knights of St. John stand alone on the small Mediterranean island of Malta against the tide of Islam. The Ottoman emperor, Suleiman the Magnificent, has sent the greatest armada ever to set sail to wipe them off the face of the earth. And there is a traitor among them. Time is running out and Matla’s doom is sealed. But one man will never yield. Englishman Christian Hardy will stop at nothing to save the island. With a band of close companions – the Moor, genius inventor of demonic weapons; Hubert, the would-be warrior priest; the young orphan Luqa and Maria, the beautiful noblewoman who risks all to be with him – Christian must unmask the spy within, take a stand against an unbeatable foe, and change the course of history.

JJ says: "Even as a small child I was fascinated in the story of the 1565 Great Siege of Malta. The fact that the Hospitaller Knights were the last of the great military orders left from the era of crusade, that they were essentially making their final stand, always appealed to me. They were outcasts, despised and distrusted by much of Europe. Yet their defence of this small island defined the political and military map of Europe for decades afterwards. That makes for a great story."

1170. On a dark December evening in the candlelit cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral, Archbishop Thomas Beckett is hacked to pieces by four murderous knights. As the monks flee, one young novice stands his ground as witness to the bloody events. His name is Edward and what he sees will haunt him for the rest of his life. Some twenty years later, as a healer who has renounced monastic life, Edward becomes physician to the Lionheart – the legendary King Richard of England – and embarks with him on Crusade for the Holy Land. Yet waiting are three of the surviving killers of Beckett, knights excommunicated and banished by a remorseful King Henry II, father of Richard. These rogue knights have not forgotten or forgiven. What they now seek is revenge on the royal house of Plantagenet. What they seek is blood, the death of Richard the Lionheart. The physician Edward too remembers the past. It is left to him to thwart the threat and save the life of his king.

JJ says: "This thriller is the third in my Crusader trilogy, coming after Pilgrim and Perdition. I had always wanted to write about the Lionheart, so a plot that wove in the death of Beckett and the fate of the knights who murdered him provided the perfect opportunity. It also gave me the excuse for a lot of location research – a chance that any writer welcomes."

1942. The war grinds on, losses mount, and the Allies search for a magic bullet that will bring a swift conclusion. When their intelligence services are approached by a senior officer of the German Abwehr, a process begins that could shatteringly alter the course of history.

JJ says: "While visiting locations linked to Operation Foxley - the embryonic British intelligence plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler - I became immersed in the subject. Having then discovered that the wartime heads of both MI6 and the American OSS met Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of Germany's military intelligence in Spain to discuss a possible overthrow, the pieces for a thriller fell into place. This is the result."

1943. On the Eastern Front the Germans are losing the battle; to the west, they are assailed by the Allied Powers. But in a snow-clad valley in the Hartz mountains of central Germany, a British agent observes the visit of a senior Nazi to a top secret location. That Nazi is Hermann Goering and the Reichsmarschall does not have surrender on his mind.

JJ says: "It was a moving and salutary experience to visit the tunnels of Nordhausen in which the Nazis built their V2 rockets. Given this facility was controlled by the SS while Goering was in charge of Germany's nuclear programme, the plot-lines started to form. Sixty thousand slave labourers worked on those tunnels and only half emerged alive. It is history worth remembering".