Detective mystery · Faith and Blood · Book One
Coming soonMurders
in Damascus
The sultan of Damascus is dead.
The dream of reclaiming Jerusalem is fading.
An officer. A physician. A friendship tested by the secrets of a divided city.
01 / The story
A city divided.
A truth worth finding.
The sultan of Damascus is dead. The dream of reclaiming Jerusalem is fading.
Plots and schemes have now given way to murders.
As the city awaits Salah al-Din, an officer and a physician investigate murders that draw them into the city’s rivalries and divided loyalties. To uncover the truth, they must understand not only what the evidence reveals, but why men lie.
The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance.
Set in 1174, Murders in Damascus combines a medieval murder mystery with political intrigue and the warmth of an enduring friendship. Ibrahim and Harun are friends, brothers-in-law and investigators whose different ways of understanding people make them formidable partners.
The first novel in Faith and Blood, a historical mystery series following Ibrahim and Harun through the divided lands of the Crusades. For readers who enjoy clever detection, divided loyalties and characters they want to meet again.
02 / Damascus, 1174
The city is waiting.
Its people are not.
After the death of Nur al-Din, Damascus awaits Salah al-Din. In its houses, workshops and places of business, people weigh their loyalties against the demands of everyday life.
For Ibrahim and Harun, an inquiry means entering that living city: listening to its people, understanding their obligations and asking what they stand to lose.
03 / Ibrahim and Harun
Two friends.
Different questions.
Friends, brothers-in-law and formidable investigating partners.
Ibrahim is an officer: curious about how things work and alert to the promises, ambitions and divided loyalties that shape a city. Harun is a practising physician whose attention to people and their immediate needs brings its own understanding.
They share the pleasure of a discovery, the inconvenience of an interrupted meal and the familiarity that lets an old friend ask an unwelcome question. Each has something the other needs.
04 / People and politics
What does a man
stand to lose?
Reputation. Livelihood. Influence. The ability to keep a promise. An answer may be shaped by any of them.
Ibrahim and Harun must understand the pressures behind a conversation as carefully as the words spoken. Cooperation has to be earned, loyalties can overlap, and a useful explanation still needs to be checked.
Political intrigue grows from people making choices in a city whose future is uncertain.
05 / The evidence
Look closely.
Then check.
Observation, practical experiments and independently tested accounts give the investigation its physical puzzles.
The partners bring patient curiosity to ordinary things: a distance, an opening, a remembered movement. Their understanding of people guides the questions; the evidence helps decide which answers hold.
A medieval mystery for readers who enjoy following an inquiry alongside its investigators.
06 / Faith and Blood
New cities.
The same two friends.
Murders in Damascus begins Faith and Blood, a historical mystery series following Ibrahim and Harun through the divided lands of the Crusades.
Each book takes the partnership to a different city, with new people to understand and new questions to answer.
Coming soon