The Danilov Quintet

It is a story that begins in 1812, in what seems Russia's darkest hour. Yet in the midst of Napoleon's invasion, a new and terrifying danger emerges, on which will haunt the Danilov family across generations - just as it already has a far more prestigious Russian family.

It will end a hundred and fifteen years later - as the dynasty of the Tsars itself comes to and end - when the last of the Danilovs finally confronts the horror that his grandfather invited into the country, so many years before.

The Danilov Quintet comprises five novels:

Twelve

(Published 2009)

Twelve is the story of Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, a captain in the army of Tsar Alexander I, sworn to defend Russia against the onslaught of Napoleon's Grande Armée in the autumn of 1812. He joins forces with a band of twelve Wallachian mercenaries, whose zeal and success in slaughtering the French invaders seem too good to be true.

Soon, Aleksei unearths the gruesome secret behind the Wallachians' abilities, and discovers that they make little distinction between Frenchman or Russian. His fight becomes not simply one against Napoleon, but against a far more dangerous enemy.

To read an excerpt from Twelve, click here.

Click here to find what reviewers are saying about Twelve.

Thirteen Years later

(Published 2010)

1825, Europe – and Russia – have been at peace for a decade. Bonaparte is long dead and the threat of invasion is no more. For Colonel Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov, life is peaceful. Not only have the French been defeated, but so have the twelve monstrous creatures he once fought alongside, and then against, all those years before. His duty is still to his tsar, Aleksandr the First, but today the enemy is merely human. 

But the tsar knows that he can never be at peace. He is well aware of the uprising fermenting within his own army, but what troubles him is something far more terrible – something that threatens to bring damnation down upon him, his family and his country. Aleksandr cannot forget a promise: a promise sealed in blood … and broken a hundred years before.

Now the victim of the Romanovs’ betrayal has returned to demand what is his. The knowledge chills Aleksandr’s very soul. And for Aleksei, it seems the vile pestilence that once threatened all he held dear has returned, thirteen years later…

To read an excerpt from Thirteen Years Later, click here.

The Third Section

(Working title - scheduled for publication 2011)

The third instalment of the series is set during the Crimean War, when Tamara Valentinovna Komarova, an agent of The Third Section - Tsar Nicholas I's infamous secret police - discovers a new clue to a series of ancient Moscow murders. The tsar's sudden death brings the promise of new liberty for Russia, but Tamara discovers that there are those in Russia for whom freedom means only the freedom to kill.

Zmyeevich

The action moves to Wallachia - the home of the Oprichniki - during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, where the arch-voordalak is finally encountered in his lair.

Uncle Mitka

(Working Title)

On the eastern from in 1917 two Russian officers, bound to each other by blood, face the threat of Germany attack, of revolution at home, and of their fear of each other.