Tasha Alexander, And Only to Deceive.
After learning of her husband’s death on safari, a Victorian woman tries to learn more about his interest in antiquities and uncovers a ring of thieves.
Sequels: A Poisoned Season; A Fatal Waltz; Tears of Pearl; Dangerous to Know; A Crimson Warning; Death in the Floating City
Maggie Anton, Rashi’s Daughters: Joheved.
In medieval France, a Talmudic scholar with no sons teaches his three daughters even though it is forbidden.
Sequels: Miriam; Rachel
Jeffrey Archer, Only Time Will Tell.
Harry Clifton, a Bristol dock worker of uncertain parentage, receives a scholarship to an exclusive school that changes the course of his life.
Clifton Chronicles: Sins of the Father; Best Kept Secret (coming March 2013)
Kevin Baker, Paradise Alley.
When President Lincoln announces a draft in 1863, riots break out among the immigrants and working class in New York City.
Sequels: Dreamland; Strivers Row
Pat Barker, Regeneration.
In 1917, decorated officer and poet Siegfried Sassoon publicly condemns the war and is sent to a psychiatric institution under the care of Dr. William Rivers, who begins to question his role in “curing” soldiers so they can return to the front.
Sequels: The Eye in the Door; The Ghost Road
John Biggins, A Sailor of Austria.
An old man looks back on his career in the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy.
Sequels: The Emperor’s Coloured Coat; The Two-Headed Eagle; Tomorrow the World
Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom.
During the reign of Alfred the Great, a nobleman who was captured and raised by the Danes sets out to regain his father’s land in Northumbria.
Saxon Chronicles: The Pale Horseman; The Lords of the North; Sword Song; The Burning Land; Death of Kings
Sara Donati, Into the Wilderness.
In 1792, an English schoolteacher comes to America and is drawn to a man who was raised as a Mohawk by his father Hawkeye.
Sequels: Dawn on a Distant Shore, Lake in the Clouds, Fire along the Sky, Queen of Swords; The Endless Forest
Dorothy Dunnett, Niccolo Rising.
During the Renaissance, a dyer’s apprentice from Flanders rises to the heights of merchant banking and international political intrigue.
House of Niccolo: The Spring of the Ram; Race of Scorpions; Scales of Gold; The Unicorn Hunt; To Lie with Lions; Caprice and Rondo; Gemini
Ken Follett, Fall of Giants.
An interlinked saga of several families from different countries whose lives are changed by the events of World War I and the Russian Revolution.
Century trilogy: Winter of the World; TBA
Diana Gabaldon, Outlander.
An Englishwoman travels back in time to 1743 and is caught up in the Jacobite uprising with a Scotsman and his clan.
Sequels: Dragonfly in Amber; Voyager; Drums of Autumn; The Fiery Cross; Breath of Snow and Ashes; An Echo in the Bone
John Gobbell, The Last Lieutenant.
After the fall of Corregidor, a Navy lieutenant leads his men to safety and prevents a Nazi mole from revealing Allied plans for the Japanese at Midway.
Sequels: A Code for Tomorrow; When Duty Whispers Low; The Neptune Strategy
Sandra Gulland, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
Leaving Martinique for an arranged marriage in France, Josephine survives the Revolution and catches the eye of Napoleon.
Sequels: Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe; The Last Great Dance on Earth
Conn Iggulden, Genghis: Birth of an Empire.
When the Khan of a Mongol tribe is killed by invading Tartars, his son vows revenge and dreams of becoming a conqueror.
Sequels: Lords of the Bow; Bones of the Hills; Empire of Silver; Conqueror
Ben Kane, The Forgotten Legion.
In ancient Rome, a slave girl is sent to a brothel where she attracts the attention of a powerful man, while her twin brother trains as a gladiator and ends up in a legion invading the Parthian Empire.
Sequels: The Silver Eagle; The Road to Rome
David Liss, A Conspiracy of Paper.
In 18th century London, a thief-taker is hired to investigate a murder that may be related to his own father’s death.
Sequels: Spectacle of Corruption; Devil’s Company
Naguib Mahfouz, Palace Walk.
In Egypt after World War I, a merchant rules his family with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence.
Cairo trilogy: Palace of Desire; Sugar Street
Sharon Kay Penman, When Christ and His Saints Slept.
After the death of King Henry I, his daughter Maude stands to inherit the throne but her cousin Stephen usurps it, leading to a 20-year civil war.
Sequels: Time and Chance; Devil’s Brood
Arturo Perez-Reverte, Captain Alatriste.
In 17th century Spain, Captain Alatriste is hired to kill two Englishmen but when he spares their lives he finds himself caught up in political intrigue.
Sequels: Purity of Blood; The Sun Over Breda; The King's Gold; The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet; The Pirates of the Levant
Judith Merkle Riley, A Vision of Light.
A medieval woman convinces a penniless scribe to help her write her memoirs, chronicling how she survived marriage to a sadist and the Plague to become a midwife and healer.
Sequels: In Pursuit of the Green Lion; Water Devil
Alex Rutherford, Raiders from the North.
Twelve-year-old Babur inherits the throne of a small kingdom after his father’s death and defends himself against rivals to found the Moghul Empire.
Sequels: A Kingdom Divided; Ruler of the World
Paul Scott, The Jewel in the Crown.
In a time of unrest against British rule in India, an Englishwoman falls in love with an Indian man but they are parted when he’s accused of a terrible crime.
Raj Quartet: The Day of the Scorpion; The Towers of Silence; A Division of the Spoils
Lisa See, Shanghai Girls.
When the Japanese attack Shanghai in 1937, two sisters flee to America where the husbands their father arranged for them to marry live.
Sequel: Dreams of Joy
Jeff Shaara, Gods and Generals.
Generals Lee, Hancock, Jackson and Chamberlain are put to the test as the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg approaches.
Sequels: The Killer Angels (by Michael Shaara); The Last Full Measure
Paullina Simons, The Bronze Horseman.
During the siege of Leningrad, a woman falls in love with a Red Army officer, but war, rivalry and secrets threaten to tear them apart.
Sequels: Tatiana & Alexander; Summer Garden
Wilbur Smith, Birds of Prey.
Lying in wait for a Dutch galleon off the coast of Africa, Sir Francis Courtney is betrayed and captured, leaving his son Hal to become captain and avenge his father.
Courtneys: Monsoon; Blue Horizon; When the Lion Feeds; Triumph of the Sun; Sound of Thunder; Assegai; A Sparrow Falls; The Burning Shore; Power of the Sword; Rage; Golden Fox; A Time To Die
Nancy Turner, These Is My Words.
Sarah Agnes Prine begins a diary recounting her life on the Arizona frontier in the late 1800s.
Sequels: Sarah’s Quilt; The Star Garden
Penny Vincenzi, No Angel.
At the turn of the century, a woman marries into a publishing family and rises to the top of the company.
Sequels: Something Dangerous; Into Temptation
Jack Whyte, The Skystone.
A retired centurion-turned-ironsmith finds the secret of the mysterious ore-bearing stones that fell from the sky, forging a link to a legend born two centuries later with the arrival of King Arthur.
Camulod Chronicles: The Singing Sword; The Eagles’ Brood; The Saxon Shore; The Fort at River’s Bend; The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis; Uther; The Lance Thrower; The Eagle
Robyn Young, Brethren.
A Knight Templar risks his life to recover the stolen Book of the Grail containing vital secrets while the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria plans a Holy War.
Sequels: Crusade; The Fall of the Templars