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Home / Series / The First Crusade Trilogy

Series

The First Crusade Trilogy

The First Crusade Trilogy follows Byzantine investigator Demetrios Askiates from Constantinople in 1096 to the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. Working for Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, Demetrios first investigates an assassination attempt in a capital unsettled by the arrival of western crusading armies, then accompanies the expedition across Anatolia and into the Levant.

Across The Mosaic of Shadows, Knights of the Cross and Siege of Heaven, criminal investigations expose the rivalries beneath the crusade’s declared religious purpose. Byzantine diplomacy, Norman ambition, famine, siege warfare and competing claims to conquered territory place Demetrios between imperial duty and the increasing violence of an army advancing towards Jerusalem.

Reading order

Books in this series (3 books)

The Mosaic of Shadows cover

#1 – The Mosaic of Shadows

Tom Harper

Constantinople, 1096. An assassin using a western crossbow attempts to kill Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, and Demetrios Askiates is ordered to identify the attacker before a second strike can destabilise the Byzantine Empire. His investigation leads from palaces and monasteries to markets, military barracks and the…

Knights of the Cross cover

#2 – Knights of the Cross

Tom Harper

During the First Crusade’s prolonged siege of Antioch, Demetrios Askiates serves with the Byzantine contingent while hunger, disease and desertion erode the crusading army. When a Norman knight is found murdered, Bohemond orders Demetrios to investigate, suspecting that the killing may be connected to the rivalry…

Siege of Heaven cover

#3 – Siege of Heaven

Tom Harper

In August 1098, the survivors of the First Crusade remain divided by disputes over Antioch and the spoils of conquest. Demetrios Askiates wants to abandon the expedition and return to Constantinople, but a diplomatic mission intended to secure an alliance with the Fatimid rulers of Egypt…