Tom Harper

Tom Harper is the pen name of British novelist Edwin Thomas, who was born in 1977 and grew up in West Germany, Belgium and the United States. He returned to Britain to study history at Lincoln College, Oxford, before working in financial services and becoming a full-time author. Writing under his own name, he published the Martin Jerrold series of naval adventures set during the Napoleonic Wars; as Tom Harper, he has produced historical fiction and thrillers noted for their fast-moving plots, detailed settings and political intrigue.

Harper’s principal historical work is the First Crusade trilogy, comprising The Mosaic of Shadows, Knights of the Cross and Siege of Heaven. The novels follow Byzantine investigator Demetrios Askiates from Constantinople through the campaigns, rivalries and sieges that culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. He has also written archaeological and historical thrillers including The Lost Temple, The Book of Secrets and Secrets of the Dead. His fiction combines murder, espionage and adventure with the religious conflict, military hardship and competing ambitions of the medieval Mediterranean world.