Showing results by author "Joan Fallon" in All Categories

It is September 1940. Maggie and her young siblings, Grace and Billy, are living in the East End of London with their mother. Their father has been killed at Dunkirk, and their mother goes into hospital to have her fourth child, leaving the children with a neighbor. In one of the worst bombing raids of the war, their home is destroyed, and the neighbor is killed. Bewildered and frightened, the children wander the streets until they are taken in by some nuns.

Makoud, a middle-aged apothecary, has come to Málaga with his family to work. Shortly after they arrive, the khalifa Yahya I dies. Rumors say he was poisoned. Makoud is worried that the poison used by the assassins was bought from his shop. His son Umar, now a soldier in the khalifa’s army, decides to investigate - but soon finds himself arrested and accused of murder. His father, family, and friends pool all their resources to try and help him, but the closer they get to the truth, the greater the danger they find themselves in.

A young Moorish prince wakes to the filth and stench of his new home. His brother is the new khalifa of Málaga, but instead of welcoming Ben-Yahya with open arms, he has him thrown into prison. The young prince can only guess what Hasan is plotting, but one thing he does know is that no one gets out of these dungeons alive.

Early one morning, the ambitious pirate Captain al-Awar makes a lightning raid on the shipyard in Málaga and kidnaps Bakr, a master shipbuilder, and two of his workmen. Before anyone can do anything about it, they have disappeared. No one has any idea why the pirates have taken them or where they have gone, but everyone agrees that only one of two fates await them: death or slavery.