Jesse Bullington – författare

In the plague-wracked and devil-haunted darkness of Medieval Europe, an elite few enjoy opulent lives while the majority eke out a miserable existence in abject poverty. Hungry creatures stalk the deep woods and desolate mountains, and both sea and sky teem with unspeakable horrors. For those ill-fated masses not born into wealth, life is but a vicious trial to be endured before the end of days.

Hegel and Manfried Grossbart could give a toss. Being of low birth means little, after all, when the riches of the mighty wait just inside the next crypt. The grave-robbing twins know enough about crusading to realise that if one is to make a living from the dead, what better destination than the fabled tomb-cities of Egypt?

But the Brothers Grossbart are about to discover that all legends have their truths, and worse fates than death await those who would take the red road of villainy . . .

As the witch-pyres of the Spanish Inquisition blanket Renaissance Europe in a moral haze, a young African slave finds herself the unwilling apprentice of an ancient necromancer. Unfortunately, quitting his company proves even more hazardous than remaining his pupil when she is afflicted with a terrible curse. Yet salvation may lie in a mysterious tome her tutor has hidden somewhere on the war-torn continent. She sets out on a seemingly impossible journey to find the book, never suspecting her fate is tied to three strangers: the artist Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, the alchemist Dr Paracelsus and a gun-slinging Dutch mercenary. As Manuel paints her macabre story on canvas, plank and church wall, the apprentice becomes increasingly aware of the great dangers that surround her. She realises she must revisit the fell necromancy of her childhood - or death will be the least of her concerns.

Even disaster can yield riches for the right sort of criminal... The great flood killed thousands overnight - turning the towns between the warring cities of Dordrecht and Geertruidenburg into a desolate inland sea. Into this ruined land sail three uneasy conspirators: a ruthless conman, a thug at the edge of madness and a half-feral girl who swims like a fish. Working together they could find fortune beyond reckoning beneath the waves, but the lost souls below will not give up their treasures so easily. And even if these three can survive the dark waters, that''s no guarantee they will survive each other.