Part of Series
In the first of an extraordinary series from bestseller S.J.A. Turney, the fate of Empire hangs in the balance… Istanbul, 1481: The once great city of Constantine, a strange mix of Christians, Turks and Jews, now forms the heart of the Ottoman empire. The conquest, still a recent memory, means emotions run high; danger is never far away. Skiouros and Lykaion, sons of a Greek farmer, are conscripted into the infamous Janissary guards and taken to Istanbul. As Skiouros escapes into the Greek quarter, Lykaion remains with the slave chain, becomes an Islamic convert and guards the Imperial palace. But one fateful day Skiouros picks the wrong pocket and begins to unravel a plot reaching to the highest peaks of Imperial power... He and his brother are left with the most difficult decision faced by a conquered Greek: is the rule of the Ottoman Sultan is worth saving? The epic and unputdownable first book in S.J.A. Turney’s Ottoman Cycle, The Thief’s Tale is perfect for readers of Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell.
Author
Simon lives with his wife and children and a menagerie of animals in rural North Yorkshire, where he sits in an office, wired on coffee and digestive biscuits, and attempts to spin engrossing tales out of strands of imagination while his children drive toys across his desk and two dogs howl as they try to share a brain cell. A born and bred Yorkshireman with a love of country, history and architecture, Simon spends most of his rare free time travelling around ancient sites, writing, researching the ancient world and reading voraciously. Following an arcane and eclectic career path that wound through everything from sheep to Microsoft networks and from paint to car sales, Simon wrote Marius’ Mules and, with help and support, made a success of it. Now, with in excess of 20 novels under his belt, Simon writes full time and is represented by MMB Creative literary agents. Simon writes Roman military novels in the form of the bestselling Marius’ Mules series based on Julius Caesar’s campaigns, Roman thrillers in the Praetorian series, set during the troubled reign of Commodus, medieval adventures in the Ottoman Cycle, following a young Greek thief around the 15th century world, and a series of Historical Fantasy novels with a Roman flavour, called the Tales of the Empire. Simon can be found on Twitter as @SJATurney and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SJATurney/ as well as on his website http://www.sjaturney.co.uk
