The First Crusade Trilogy

My First Crusade trilogy comprises (in order) The Mosaic of Shadows, Knights of the Cross and Siege of Heaven. It follows Byzantine investigator Demetrios Askiates as he accompanies the army of the First Crusade from Byzantium to the sack of Jerusalem. One generous reviewer on Amazon hailed it as 'one of the greatest first trilogies of our time.'

In The Mosaic of Shadows, Demetrios is called on to investigate an assassination attempt against the emperor Alexios Komnenos using a strange barbarian weapon. But the poisonous politics of the Byzantine court stall his progress - even before a vast barbarian army arrives at the gates of Constantinople. They say they're going to liberate Jerusalem, but their leaders have eyes on another prize.

In Knights of the Cross, Demetrios and his friends Anna and Sigurd have accompanied the crusaders to the gates of Antioch, an impregnable walled city that controls the route to Jerusalem. Unable to break it, the crusade is on the verge of failure: when a Norman knight is murdered, the factions among the crusading army threaten to boil over into civil war. And from the east come rumours of a great new army hurrying to smash the crusade against the walls of Antioch.

In Siege of Heaven, as fighting over the spoils threatens to paralyse the crusaders. Demetrios is lured into a trap and almost killed. As the army struggles on towards Jerusalem, he begins to unravel the dark ambition at the heart of the crusaders' plans - and the cataclysmic violence they'll unleash to achieve it.