Dorothy Dunnett

January 1474, in the deep cold of an ice-bound Danzig: a man is spending a frivolous winter not facing up to his responsibilities ... It is the merchant Niccolo, diviner, soldier, banker to Kings; shunned by all who know him after revelations of hismurderous mischief-making. But his talents are too great to be squandered, and a subtle political dance ensues as rivals in Poland, Venice, and Persia bid for his services in trade and war and diplomacy. Niccolo has lost his family; but he will discover a new purpose in life...

It is 1557, and legendary Scottish warrior Francis Crawford of Lymond is once more in France. There he is leading an army to rout the hated English from Calais. The final moves are made in a great game that has been playing out over an extraordinary decade of war, love and struggle - bringing the Lymond Chronicles to a spellbinding close.  Book 6 of series.

The year is 1551, and Scottish nobleman Francis Crawford of Lymond has been called to fight with the Knights of Hospitallers to defend the island of Malta against the Turks.  Book 3 of series.

It's August 1547, and unrest in Europe is rife. The notorious rebel, Crawford of Lymond, is rumoured to be back in Edinburgh. As usual, he leaves a characteristic trail of hue and cry. Stories about him abound, agreeing only that he's not a man to sit idle. With Europe recently unbalanced by royal deaths, he'll soon take a hand in The Game Of Kings. Book 1 of series.

GEMINI represents the final appearance of Nicholas de Fleury, who opened this series as a carefree, clumsy 18 year old apprentice in Flanders. Now he is in his thirties. The culmination of this amazing series sees Niccolo face his toughest battle yet, against an enemy who will tax every skill he has acquired over the course of the last few years...

The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges, the good-natured dyers apprentice who schemes and swashbucukes his way to the helm of a merchantile empire. NICCOLO RISING, Book One of the series, finds us in Bruges, 1460. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett's hero rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure that wins him the love of the strongest woman in Bruges and the hatred of two powerful enemies.

Lymond is travelling a desperate path across the Ottoman Empire of Sulemain the Magnificent in search of a kidnapped child. In the subtle and savage game of treachery, enslavement and torture, Lymond is compelled to make an unthinkable choice - and face the darkest ambiguities of his own nature.  Book 4 of series.

Riven by internal discord, Scotland in 1548 clung to a single hope of survival as a nation - an alliance with France to be sealed by the betrothal of the five-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, to the Dauphin. Francis Crawford of Lymond is dispatched to France and embarks upon a nightmare game of hide-and-seek at the very heart of the decadent court of Henri II.  Book 2 of series.

This is the third book in the "House of Niccolo" series. Set in 15th-century Cyprus, this novel continues the saga of Nicholas van der Poel, international mercenary who started out as a dyer's apprentice, as he plays for the highest stakes with the greatest super-powers in Europe.

Lymond leaves Tudor England to journey to Muscovy, where he becomes advisor to the half-mad czar and finds himself caught up in the intrgues of barbaric Russia, while his enemies at home continue to conspire against him.  Book 5 of series.

The year 1464 finds our hero Nicholas in Venice. Plagued by enemies bent on dissolving his assets and smearing his character, he sets sail for Africa, legendary location of the Fountain of Youth and the source of gold in such abundance that men prefer to barter in shells. He will discover the charms of the beautiful Gelis - a woman whose passion for Nicholas is rivalled only by her desire to punish him for his role in her sister's death.

In 1461, the mysterious enigmatic Nicholas is in Florence. Backed by none other than Cosimo de' Medici, he will sail the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas's step-daughter - at the tender age of thirteen - has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port. And time is of the essence: Trebizond may fall tot he Turks at any moment.

Merchant-banker Nicholas de Fleury, having wrested his infant son from the boy's formidable mother, pauses en route to the land of golden light to set in train a deception that will ensnare nations in the triumphant ruin of his enemies. This is volume six in the "House of Niccolo".

The fifth title in the "House of Niccolo" sequence, recreating the perilous world of trade, war and banking in Renaissance Europe. Niccolo has returned to Venice from Africa - richer, wiser yet ever unpredictable. He journeys to Scotland, closer at hand to the secrets of his birth.