My books

All of my books are available on Amazon. The easiest way to find them is to click or tap here: 

viewauthor.at/MartinLake

Most of my books are available as e-books or paperbacks. You can read e-books on Kindle and on the free Kindle App on your phone, tablet or laptop.

 

Novels.

The Lost King Series.  

The story of the true heir to the English throne and his fight against the Norman invaders.

Book 1: The Flame of Resistance.  

The story of Edgar Atheling’s early life, of his acclamation as king weeks after the Battle of Hastings, his betrayal to William, his captivity in Normandy, his flight and the beginnings of his resistance to the invasion.

Book 2: Triumph and Catastrophe.  Edgar enters an alliance with the Vikings, the ancient enemies of his race. They invade England. Edgar experiences bitter betrayal and the north of England experiences the vengeance and wrath of an angry and desperate William.

Book 3. Blood of Ironside. Edgar takes the war to his enemy and by doing so faces the greatest threat to himself and his friends.

Book 4. In Search of Glory. Edgar has been forced to make peace with William but is treated with little more than contempt. When William exacts worse tribute upon the English he decides to fight once again.

 

 

 

 

 

Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem means disaster and turmoil for the men who fought against him and their families. They become outcasts and their world will never be the same again.

 

 

 

 

She gave away her child to save his life. Another woman took him in, at risk to herself.

Viviane Renaud is a young mother living on the French Riviera in the Second World War. Times are hard but she is not the sort to be dismayed by circumstances. One day her life changes forever. A young Jewish woman, fleeing from the authorities, begs her to take care of her four year old boy, David. Almost without thinking, Viviane agrees.

Viviane’s life is never the same again. She fabricates a story to explain how David came to be with her and must tip-toe around the suspicions of her neighbours, her friends and most of all her mother and sister. She and her husband, Alain, find allies in unlikely places, particularly an American woman, Dorothy Pine.

But then, the world crashes around them. Threatened by Allied military success, Hitler sends the German army to occupy the south of France. With them come the SS and the Gestapo. The peril for Jews and for those, like Viviane, who hide them, appears overwhelming. The challenge for them now is to survive.

 

Miriam Rosenfeld is fifteen years old. Almost an adult yet still a child, craving independence while needing support, truculent and loving, exasperating and a joy. Typical in so many ways.

Except the year is 1940, Miriam is a Jew and lives in Nazi Germany. Life is terrifying, especially as her younger brother Oscar has Down’s Syndrome and is, therefore, targeted by the Nazis for extermination. When Oscar is caught by the police, their parents fight to save him, their mother is savagely beaten and their father killed. Their mother’s last words to Miriam are to take care of Oscar and flee.

Miriam and Oscar embark on a journey across the continent to an aunt they have never seen. It calls on all of Miriam’s intelligence, resourcefulness and determination, all her boldness and spirit. Every step they take is dogged by the menace of an ever-expanding Nazi empire.

And finally, when she believes that that they are safe, Miriam agrees to return to Germany to discover the secret of the Nazi’s terror weapons. And there she discovers something that will haunt her for ever.

 

 

 

 

A life and death struggle for control of the skies

Claire Lamb believes she is as good as any man and being a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force gives her the opportunity to prove it. Harry Smith joins the Royal Air Force because he wants to fly. Frank Trent, an American pilot, risks prison to join the fight against Nazi Germany. When Hitler invades Poland, he begins a conflict which eventually engulfs the whole world. Within eight months his army and air force conquer most of Europe.

Only one adversary remains. Great Britain, led by Winston Churchill, refuses to surrender. Yet people fear that, in the coming weeks, the German Luftwaffe will bomb British cities to rubble and strew the country with poison gas. Worse yet. A huge German army prepares to cross the English Channel to conquer its last remaining enemy.One foe stands in their way. The Royal Air Force remains defiant. Hitler is reluctant to attempt an invasion while the RAF controls the skies above England. He unleashes the hitherto all-conquering Luftwaffe against it.

Throughout the summer and autumn of 1940, three thousand RAF pilots, the men Churchill called the Few, fight a grim life and death struggle for command of the skies. They are supported by the courageous and unstinting effort of thousands of others, many of them women. The Battle of Britain will decide the fate of the world.

A Love Most Dangerous.

Her beauty was a blessing…and a dangerous burden…

As a Maid of Honor at the Court of King Henry VIII, beautiful Alice Petherton receives her share of admirers. But when the powerful, philandering Sir Richard Rich attempts to seduce her, she knows she cannot thwart his advances for long. She turns to the most powerful man in England for protection: the King himself.

As beautiful as she is intelligent, Alice easily captures the King’s interest. He takes her to bed on the day of his son Edward’s birth. But the King is capricious, and he casts out Alice when Queen Jane dies. Although Alice knows well the risk of becoming the King’s wife, it isn’t long before she charms her way back into Court and the King’s heart. The challenge is remaining his favorite while avoiding the dangers of becoming his next bride.

Reveling in her newfound power, Alice soon forgets that enemies lurk behind every corner at court…and there are some who are eagerly plotting her fall…

Very Like a Queen.

The King’s favor was her sanctuary—until his desire turned dangerous.

Alice Petherton is well practiced at using her beauty and wits to survive in the Court of King Henry VIII. As the King’s favorite, she enjoys his protection, but after seeing the downfall of three of his wives, she’s determined to avoid the same fate. Alice must walk a fine line between mistress and wife.

She finds a powerful protector in Thomas Cromwell, and Alice has every reason to believe that she will continue to enjoy a life of wealth and comfort at Court…until she puts everything at risk by falling in love with a Frenchman, Nicholas Bourbon.

When Cromwell is executed, Alice loses her only ally and flees to France. There she hopes to live in peace with Nicholas. But Alice is lured into a perilous game of treason, and peace doesn’t last long. Will Alice get back the life and love she’s fought for? Or will she lose herself to the whims of a capricious monarch?

A Dance of Pride and Peril.

As a young woman living in the high mountains of Crete Talita knows nothing of the opulent and sophisticated civilisation developing in the cities of the coast. Yet when her uncle sells her and she is taken to the city of Mulia she determines to make the best of her new life.

Mulia is famous for its thrilling and deadly acrobatic displays, where young men face the fierce charges of giant bulls, leaping over them or dying in the attempt. Talita is sold to the owner of the arena and trains as a dancer, her job to entertain the audience and goad the raging bulls.

Yet she wants more than this. In the high mountains she had protected her flocks from bears and wolves and was undaunted by them. Now she yearns to be a bull-leaper, a profession reserved only for men.

When she realises that she has a bond with Torq, the greatest of the bulls, her ambition grows even stronger. Yet her dreams are thwarted when priests arrive from the Kingdom of Egypt and steal Torq away.

Her enemies accuse Talita of taking him and she and her lover Pellon are condemned to a hideous death. Will she find the strength and courage to escape, find Torq and prove her innocence?

Land of Blood and Water

A fugitive King. A family at the mercy of men of power and violence.

Brand and his family live simple lives in their quiet corner of Somerset. The war that Wessex wages against the heathen Danes takes place far away and is of no concern to them.

But when a desperate war-band descends upon them one winter night their lives are changed forever. They are thrown into a dark world of savage warfare, lust, revenge and murder.

Brand believes he can decide the path that he and his family must tread. But others have very different ideas. At stake is the survival of the kingdom. And now their lives are bound up with the fugitive King Alfred of Wessex.

“A gripping story from an accomplished author.” Elaine Jeremiah. Author.

“The emotional content of the book is one of the highlights of the narrative. The characters are well written, the action flows seamlessly and the reader is left with a feeling as if they had been there.” Paul Bennett, author and reviewer.

“Fast paced from the start, the story blossoms as you read.”

King Alfred was their lord and protector – until savagery shatters the bonds of love and loyalty.

Twins Ulf and Inga have risen quickly in the service of King Alfred of Wessex. Ulf is a King’s-thegn, one of his trusted household warriors. Inga is servant and friend of the King’s eldest daughter Aethelflaed.

The peace between Alfred and Guthrum, King of Danelaw East Anglia still holds. But when the Norse chieftain Hrólfr attacks Ulf’s village it unleashes a chain of events which will change forever the lives of Ulf, Inga and their friends.

Ulf falls prey to powerful demons and loses his sense of worth, his position and his liberty. Aethelflaed and Inga become pawns in Alfred’s plans to enlarge his kingdom. And a heathen army returns to threaten a precarious peace and stability.

Killers of kings, destroyers of kingdoms. A fast-moving story of the great Viking army.

Leif Ormson is a Skald, a story-teller, renowned for his witty tales. His brother, Sigurd is a black-smith, making knives, scythes and horse-shoes. And magnificent weapons of war.

But one day, Ivar the Boneless, son of Ragnar Lothbrok, commands the brothers to make him a great sword. And he demands that they accompany his army to England.

Leif and Sigurd are thrown into a maelstrom of war and violence. The great Viking army blazes across England, murdering, plundering, killing kings and setting up puppet-rulers in their place. Until now the Vikings had come only to raid and plunder. Now they have come to conquer.

Leif and Sigurd face an agonising choice. Do they seek to return to their familiar lives? Or do they stay in England and embrace this uncertain new world of war, wealth and glory?

The Viking army is about to face its greatest challenge, the Kingdom of Wessex. 

The Great Viking Army has conquered Northumbria and East Anglia. Two English kingdoms remain independent, Mercia and Wessex. The sons of Ragnar, leaders of the army, must decide which to attack next. They move to conquer Wessex where King Æthelred and his brother Alfred are determined to wage war to the death.

Leif Ormson, once Skald to Ivar the Boneless, has now been made a jarl. He is a reluctant warrior and is grateful and relieved when he is given rich lands in which to live in peace and prosperity.

But the Vikings’ relentless lust for conquest sweeps him and his family into peril and war. As the army marches towards Wessex he wonders if he will again have dealings with Prince Alfred and his dangerous friends. He wonders if he will even survive.

An epic tale of the great war for England.