Stay or flee? Life or family? An impossible choice.

It's Aug 13, 1961, in Berlin Germany. Nationale Volksarmee soldiers roll barbed wire across the war-torn city to create the first Berlin Wall. Families are separated, livelihoods destroyed, death comes easily as crippling fear paralyzes the occupants on both sides of the wall. Fifteen-year-old Ella is faced with an agonizing decision. Does she risk crossing the wall and possible death to reach her family? Or does she embrace her new life and blossoming love that could be wrenched from her at any moment? West Germany and possible freedom or East Germany and controlled chaos?

Ensnare, the first book in the “Berlin Butterfly” series, is a story of life, love, survival and the struggle of living through the dark early years of the Berlin Wall. Readers will be captivated with Ella’s strength, determination, and vulnerability as she opens her heart amidst a dangerous and terrifying journey.

Fans of German war fiction and historical romance will love this extraordinary twentieth-century political drama.

In the Company of Like-Minded Women explores the complexities of bonds between sisters and family at the start of the 20th century when women struggled to determine their future and the “New Woman” demanded an equal voice. Three sisters are reunited in 1901 Denver following a family rift many years before. Each sister faces critical decisions regarding love, work, and the strength of her convictions. The success of Colorado women in gaining the right to vote in 1893--twenty-seven years before the passage of national suffrage--and their continued fight for women's rights, provides the background as the story unfolds.

The long siege of Troy, the battles fought over it, and the city's eventual capitulation and incineration are events which have often been retold since their first recitation by Homer. Seldom, however, will they have been narrated with such close attention to the minute particulars of battle, to its reek and terror and pain, as in this startling account by Daniel Kelly. Kelly looks minutely at every detail of archaic combat, as well as at the lives and feelings shaped by it. His Troy is not only a scene of shining glory, but also a grimy struggle for survival and mastery. And he introduces surprising questions: what if not everything in the Trojan war came to pass just as Homer tells us? What if the future of the Roman empire were hidden in the burning ashes of Troy's - and not in the way we might expect?

Great fortunes draw the worst suitors...

Tenochtitlan, 1519. Motecuhzoma, leader of the Mexica Confederacy, rules over the largest domain in all of Mesoamerica and has every expectation that his nation will continue to reign supreme… but the arrival of strange foreigners will test that confidence.

Driven by God, gold, and glory, the uncouth interlopers are led by Hernando Cortes and command weapons that can shake the sky. Their disruptive presence demands a response, but Motecuhzoma knows better than to rush into war and sends out envoys to discover more. The information they return with is nothing short of shocking, and a decision is thrust upon Motecuhzoma that will either elevate his nation to new heights or cause its ruin.

Combining the political intrigue of Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall Series with the gripping battles of Conn Iggulden's Conqueror Series, this award-winning novel draws upon modern scholarship to recount an event still unique today: the epic collision of two civilizations separated for millennia.

Editorial Reviews

“The epic encounter of Aztecs and conquistadors has attracted—and tested—many a novelist. The challenge is one of staying believably true to the historical tale and its Mexican setting, while at the same time offering the reader some surprises. Rickford rises to that challenge with considerable aplomb, balancing evidence with imagination, research with flights of fiction. Fueled by a complex narrative tension and a deft deployment of detail, The Serpent and the Eagle is unpredictable in all the right ways.”
—Matthew Restall, Professor of Colonial Latin American history, Director of Latin American studies at Penn State, author of When Montezuma Met Cortés and Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest

"Edward Rickford knows his history. The Serpent and the Eagle is a masterpiece of historical fiction. It's filled with surprises and heart-rending characters, but it's Rickford's attention to cultural details, both native Mexica and Spanish, that puts this book one step above its competition. Plan a long weekend of reading. You're going to love this book."
Kathleen O'Neal Gear, New York Times bestselling author of People of the Canyons

“A captivating, well-plotted, bicultural dramatization of the months prior to Motecuhzoma’s meeting with Cortés, deftly transporting the reader 500 years back into the eyes and intimate relationships of key participants—Mesoamerican and European, emperor and counselor, conqueror and slave.”
—Andrew Rowen, author of Encounters Unforeseen: 1492 Retold

“A wonderful premiere novel.”
—N.D. Jones, USA Today bestselling author

"Difficult to put down. Well-written, fascinating, and full of wonderfully diverse points of view!"
—Zoe Saadia, author of the Pre-Aztec Trilogy and the Rise of the Aztec Series

“When two cultures collide, there are always multiple versions of history. A brave and expansive look into the bygone era of exploration by the Spaniards into Aztec lands. A thinking person’s novel. Fascinating!”—Chanticleer Reviews

“The Serpent and the Eagle is another literary text that may offer the reader exits out of the colonial wound of indignity and entrances into the enunciative reclamation of silenced historical, social, and cultural spaces.”
—C.T. Mexica, Ph. D, Arizona State University

Grand Prize Winner in the 2018 Chaucer Book Awards

In WHEN WE WERE BRAVE, we find a conflicted SS officer, Wilhelm Falk, who risks everything to escape the Wehrmacht and get out the message about the death camps. Izaak is a young Jewish boy whose positive outlook is challenged daily as each new perilous situation comes along. American citizens, Herbert Müller and his family, are sent back to the hellish landscape of Germany because of the DNA coursing through their veins. In the panorama of World War II, these are the high-stakes plots and endearing characters whose braided fates we pray will work out in the end.

A beautiful American spy flees into the night. On her own, she must live by her wits to evade capture and make it to the safety of the Allied forces.
Lily Saint James grew up traveling the European continent, learning languages as she went. In 1938, her mother’s abrupt death brings her back home to Washington, D.C., and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Lily comes to the attention of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Her knowledge of German, French, and Italian makes her the perfect OSS Agent, and her quick thinking places her as a nanny in the household of an important German Army Colonel, where she is able to gather intelligence for the Allies. After her marketplace contact goes missing, she makes a late-night trip to her secondary contact only to find him under interrogation by the SS. When he commits suicide, she flees into the frigid winter night carrying false identification papers that are now dangerous and a mini film cartridge with vital strategic information. In order to survive, Lily must make it out of Germany, into the hands of Allied-controlled France, through a path fraught with peril.

'He had no way to tell her he'd saved her life: no right to tell her to abandon hope.'
GOLD MEDAL WINNER historical fiction - event/era Readers' Favorite Book Awards 2019.
As a young man, Walt was an infirmary doctor in Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp in Poland. The horrors of that time and the loss of the woman he loved haunt him all his life. He suffers the guilt of having survived when he should have died, and also, the burden of having stolen evidence that should have been used to convict Nazi war criminals, but which he kept secret to protect his post-war family. The truth and his own cowardice weigh heavily on his mind and, as a way of dealing with it, he sets in place an elaborate puzzle, not expecting his determined granddaughter to unravel it. A fictional tale of love, faith, cowardice, and courage, and a tribute to everyone who bore the Auschwitz tattoo or were interred in Nazi death camps throughout WW2, this novel is inspired by real events. An inescapable part of Jewish history, the Holocaust experiments carried out under the auspices of war and Hitler's obsession with a master race are hard to understand, impossible to condone, and difficult to imagine forgiving. The human spirit that can find love in such a place must be rare indeed, but a person in dire circumstances will grab at a kindness where it is offered. Such is the premise of this story, and it asks the question, could you forgive? Touching the Wire is split into two parts and is as much a present-day mystery as an historical fiction. Part One transitions between 1944/45 Auschwitz and 1970s England and tells the story of Walt's love for Miriam, a Jewish nurse who helps him save patients from the gas chambers and who joins the camp resistance. More of their story is revealed in Part Two during Charlotte's present-day search for the truth her grandfather couldn't tell her - a truth that blows her 'safe' world apart. The research for this tale was harrowing, and I make no apology for describing what happened in equally harrowing terms: to 'sanitise' it or omit it would be an insult to those who suffered. However, I'm not Jewish, though family history and DNA tests show I may well be of German Jewish origin, and I apologise if my research into the Jewish people and their faith, and the German people in general, is less than complete and accurate. Any errors are my own. Excerpt: "A young woman bent to retrieve her possessions. An SS officer strode past. 'Leave. Luggage afterwards.' She stood wide-eyed like a startled deer, one arm cradling a baby. Beside her, an elderly woman clutched a battered suitcase. The girl's eyes darted from soldier to painted signboard and back. 'What are we doing here, Grandmother? Why have they brought us here?' The wind teased at her cheerful red shawl, revealing and lifting long black hair. She straightened and attempted a smile. 'It'll be all right, Grandmother. God has protected us on our journey.' Voices rasped, whips cracked, dogs barked. An SS officer pushed towards a woman of about fifty. 'How old?' She didn't respond, so the officer shouted. He edged closer. As a doctor, he held a privileged position, but he'd also discovered he had a gift for languages. He translated the German to stilted Hungarian, adding quietly. 'Say you're under forty-five. Say you are well. Stand here with the younger women.' He moved from woman to woman, intercepting those he could. 'Say you are well. Say your daughter is sixteen. Say you can work or have a skill. Say you aren't pregnant.' Miriam's eyes glistened. 'May He rescue us from every foe.' She touched her grandmother's cheek, a gentle, lingering movement, and placed a tender kiss on her baby's forehead. She moved to stand where he pointed. Miriam's eyes met his. He had no way to tell her he'd given her life: no right to tell her to abandon hope. 'Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.' "
Readers' reviews are hugely appreciated.

Coming of age in Prague in the 1930s, Lena Kulkova is inspired by the left-wing activists who resist the rise of fascism. She meets Otto, a refugee from Hitler’s Germany, and follows him to Paris to work for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. As the war in Spain ends and a far greater war engulfs the continent, Lena gets stuck in Paris with no news from her Jewish family, including her beloved baby sister, left behind in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Otto, meanwhile, has fled to a village in England, and urges Lena to join him, but she can’t obtain a visa.




When Lena and Otto are finally reunited, the safe haven Lena has hoped for doesn’t last long. Their relationship becomes strained, and Lena is torn between her loyalty to Otto and her growing attraction to Milton, the son of the eccentric Lady of the Manor. As the war continues, she yearns to be reunited with her sister, while Milton is preoccupied with the political turmoil that leads to the landslide defeat of Churchill in the 1945 election.




Based on a true story, When It’s Over is a moving, resonant, and timely read about the lives of war refugees, dramatic political changes, and the importance of family, love, and hope.

"The Displaced is an engaging work set in one of the most intriguing locales in Canadian history." — Kirkus Reviews

Excerpt from the Book: Chapter 1
The sound of sheep's hooves thundering against the sun-hardened road was the first sign that something was not right. The island fortress that housed the city of Louisbourg saw many interesting characters enter its port, but panicked sheep surging through the wide main street on a June afternoon was unheard of. The fortress of Louisbourg sat on the eastern edge of Île-Royale, the last vestige of the French Empire on the east coast of the continent. The guardian of the mighty Gulf of the Saint-Laurent, the massive structure was an intimidating reminder to anyone who travelled the North Atlantic to Quebec, the centre of France’s power in North America.

Though cut off from the rest of the French Empire by the ocean and by British lands, the fortress’s stone walls rose proudly above the stormy Atlantic. A bustling city second only to the capital, Louisbourg provided all the modern comforts for its citizens and garrison, and as an international port, it played host to ships from all over the globe. Unfortunately, at the moment, it was being terrorized by sheep.

Pierre was the sixteen-year-old son of Augustus Thibault, a very successful, widowed merchant in the city. Pierre’s father had a hand in everything from wheat and livestock to shoes and pots. One of his largest ships, the Jonas, had sailed from the capital with this cargo of sheep, which were meant to supplement the failing flocks of the farmers around the fortress. Pierre had been placed in charge of transporting the summer flock to the farms surrounding the city, but the animals, after so many days cramped aboard the rocking vessel, found the promise of dry land too appealing and rushed to freedom the moment the little delivery boats reached the wharf.

Louisbourg boasted a market, where cattle, fruit, vegetables, and fresh fish were sold. Located in the heart of the city, it was an unofficial gathering place for many of the townspeople. The vendors heard the commotion and shouts of warning, but it was too late. The flood of sheep rounded the corner. Terrified by the other livestock and the mass of people in the marketplace, what had hitherto been a chase turned into a stampede. The flock splintered, overturning tables of vegetables and leaving terrified poultry in their wake. Oblivious to the traffic, they raced between the legs of horses and surged along the busy thoroughfares, knocking children and pedestrians down as they went.

Pierre ran helplessly behind the pack. Being the son of a merchant, he had very little shepherding experience. Though just sixteen, he stood head and shoulders above most people. His broad shoulders promised strength to come, but his large bones held very little meat—and he had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to contain the thirty charging balls of wool currently streaking through the dirt streets.

Marie-Christine Lévesque had the misfortune of stepping out of the apothecary’s shop near the hospital just as one group of ewes came charging by. Unaware of the over-anxious sheep until it was too late, she tried her best to jump out of the way but lost her balance on the stone step and went tumbling to the ground, the headache cure she’d recently purchased for her aunt stomped to bits by the hooves of the rampaging beasts.

Pierre came running up behind them, cursing under his breath. He paused, bending to help Marie up. Even in his distressed state, he noticed how slim she was and how easy it was to pull her up.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

Marie shook her chestnut hair, looking around for the glass vial which, until a moment ago, had contained lavender oil. “Are those your sheep?” she asked, annoyed but trying to straighten her hat and keep some sense of decorum about her.

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Is not the very meaning of love that it surpasses every objection against it?

Jilted. Never did Mr. Darcy imagine it could happen to him.

But it has, and by Elizabeth Bennet, the woman who first hated and rejected him but then came to love him—he believed—and agree to be his wife. Alas, it is a short-lived, ill-fated romance that ends nearly as soon as it has begun. No reason is given.
More than a year since he last saw her—a year of anger, confusion, and despair—he receives an invitation from the Bingleys to a house party at Netherfield. Darcy is first tempted to refuse, but with the understanding that Elizabeth will not attend, he decides to accept.

When a letter arrives, confirming Elizabeth’s intention to join them, Darcy resolves to meet her with indifference. He is determined that he will not demand answers to the questions that plague him. Elizabeth is also resolved to remain silent and hold fast to the secret behind her refusal. Once they are together, however, it proves difficult to deny the intense passion that still exists. Fury, grief, and profound love prove to be a combustible mixture. But will the secrets between them be their undoing?