EPIC TALES IN EPIC FORMS
Novels
WHAT GIRLS ARE GOOD FOR
Author: David Blixt
Nellie Bly has the story of a lifetime. But will she survive to tell it?
Enraged by an article entitled ‘What Girls Are Good For’, Elizabeth Cochrane pens an angry letter to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, never imagining a Victorian newspaper would hire a woman reporter. Taking the name Nellie Bly, she struggles against the male-dominated industry, reporting stories no one else will tell – the stories of downtrodden women.
Chased out of Mexico for revealing government corruption, her romantic advances rejected by a married colleague, Bly earns the chance to break into New York’s Newspaper Row if she can nab a major scoop – life inside a madhouse. Feigning madness, she dupes the court into committing her to the Insane Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. But matters are far worse than she ever dreamed. Stripped, drugged, beaten, she must endure a week of terror, reliving the darkest days of her childhood, in order to escape and tell the world her story. Only, at the end of the week, no rescue comes, and she fears she may be trapped forever...
Reader's Favorite Five-Star Review
CHARITY GIRL
Author: David Blixt
A gripping sequel to the bestselling novel What Girls Are Good For, following the real-life reporting of undercover journalist Nellie Bly!
Fresh from her escape from the madhouse on Blackwell's Island, undercover reporter Nellie Bly investigates the doctors who buy and sell babies in Victorian New York. Based on real events and her own reporting, this novelette follows Nellie Bly as she asks the devastating question - what becomes of babies?
CLEVER GIRL
Author: David Blixt​
Nellie Bly gets political, setting her sights on the slipperiest fish of them all - a powerful lobbyist. Can Bly expose his misdeeds before he tumbles to her trap? Can she make her charges stick when they're both called to testify?
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Praise for What Girls Are Good For:
★★★★★ - "With rich imagination and meticulous research, David Blixt has brought the hectic, exciting world of nineteenth-century journalism vividly to life. His Nellie Bly is determined, independent, crafty, irresistible -- a heroine any reader would be delighted to get to know." - Matthew Goodman, New York Times bestselling author
THE MASTER OF VERONA
Author: David Blixt

Romeo & Juliet is the greatest love story ever told. Every story has a beginning.
A sweeping novel of Renaissance Italy, THE MASTER OF VERONA follows Pietro Alaghieri, eldest son of the poet Dante, as he’s caught up by the charisma and genius of Verona’s ruler, Cangrande della Scala. Pietro risks battles, duels, and murder to impress his new lord. At the heart of the story is an infernal plot against Cangrande’s bastard heir, and the rivalry of two friends over the affections of a girl - a rivalry will sever a friendship, divide a city, and spark a feud that will someday produce the star-cross’d lovers.
Based on the plays of William Shakespeare, the poetry of Dante, and the history of Italy, THE MASTER OF VERONA is a novel of brutal warfare, lost friendship, and dire conspiracy, combining to create an epic journey into the birth of the Renaissance that recalls the best of Bernard Cornwell and Dorothy Dunnett.
VOICE OF THE FALCONER
Author: David Blixt
Eight years after the tumultuous events of THE MASTER OF VERONA, Pietro Alaghieri is living in exile in Ravenna, enduring the loss of his famous father while secretly raising Cesco, the bastard heir to Verona's prince, Cangrande della Scala.
But when word of Cangrande's death reaches him, Pietro must race back to Verona to prevent Cesco's rivals from usurping his rightful place. But young Cesco is determined not to be anyone's pawn. Willful and brilliant, he defies even the stars. And far behind the scenes is a mastermind pulling the strings, one who stands to lose - or gain - the most.
Born from Shakespeare's Italian plays, this novel explores the danger, deceit, and deviltry of early Renaissance Italy, and the terrible choices one must make just to stay alive.
2012 Editor's Choice - Historical Novel Society
FORTUNE'S FOOL
Author: David Blixt
Italy, 1326. While the brilliant and wily Cesco is schooled in his new duties at the hand of a hard master, Pietro Alaghieri travels to Avignon, current seat of the Papacy, to fight his excommunication and plead for Cesco's legitimacy. He doesn't know an old foe has been waiting to ruin Pietro’s life and seize control of Verona for himself.
Back in Verona, separated from everyone he trusts, Cesco must confront his ambitious cousin, a mysterious young killer, and the Holy Roman Emperor himself. A harrowing series of adventures reveal a secret long hidden, one that threatens Cesco's only chance for true happiness.
Inspired by Shakespeare, Dante, and Petrarch, this Renaissance novel of intrigue and passion reflects the heights of drama, exploring the capricious whims of lady Fortune, who has her favorites – and her fools.
2013 Editor's Choice - Historical Novel Society
THE PRINCE'S DOOM
Author: David Blixt​
The explosive fourth novel in the Star-Cross'd series! Verona has won its war with Padua, but the architect of the peace has lost his war with the stars. The young prodigy Cesco now turns his troubled brilliance to darker purposes, undermining years of work on his behalf. Alienating friends and family, embracing a riotous life and sharing his home with a wife he can barely look upon, he is on the road to his own destruction, challenging not only the lord of Verona and the Chruch, but God Himself. Trying desperately to salvage what's left of his spirit is Pietro Alaghieri, knight and newly-named Count. But even as Pietro reaches heights he had never dreamed of, his heart breaks as he watches his foster son spiral into dissolution and despair. For once Pietro welcomes the many plots and intrigues of the Veronese court, hoping they will shake the young man out of his torpor. But when the first body falls, it becomes clear that this new game is deadly, and will lead only to doom them all.
Finalist for the 2015 M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction
VARNISHED FACES: STAR-CROSS'D SHORT STORIES
Author: David Blixt
Some stories are part of a grand narrative. Some are small, insular, intimate, yet no less deserving to be told. Taken together, these pieces form a tapestry of life, love, and longing in early Renaissance Italy. At their heart are the false faces people wear to hide their true selves. Like the Venetian Carnivale masks, they are hardened, often grotesque, always mischievous. These are the Varnished Faces.
Collected here are several short stories from the acclaimed Star-Cross'd series set both within Verona and the world outside its wall. Join Dante's son and Shakespeare's most mercurial creation as they live, love, and lose, seeking their hearts' ease.
HER MAJESTY'S WILL
Author: David Blixt
Before he was famous, he was a fugitive.
Before he wrote of humanity, he lived it.
Before he was the Bard of Avon, he was a spy.
A very poor spy.
England, 1586. Swept up in the skirts of a mysterious stranger, Will Shakespeare becomes entangled in a deadly and hilarious misadventure as he accidentally uncovers the Babington Plot, an attempt to murder Queen Elizabeth herself. Aided by the mercurial wit of Kit Marlowe, Will enters London for the first time, chased by rebels, spies, his own government, his past, and a bear. Through it all he demonstrates his loyalty and genius, proving himself to be - HER MAJESTY'S WILL.
2012 Editor's Choice - Historical Novel Society
COLOSSUS: STONE & STEEL
Author: David Blixt​
Judea, 66 AD. A Roman legion suffers a smashing and catastrophic defeat at the hands of an angry band of Hebrews armed with only slings and spears. Knowing Emperor Nero's revenge will be swift and merciless, they must decide how to defend their land against the Roman invasion. Caught up in the tumult is the mason Judah, inadvertent hero of Beth Horon, who now finds himself rubbing shoulders with priests, revolutionaries, generals, and nobles, drafted to help defend the land of Galilee. Denied the chance to marry where he will, he turns all his energy into defending the beseiged city of Jotapata. But with a general suffering delusions of grandeur, friends falling each day, and the Roman menace at the walls, Judah must brave a nightmare to save those he loves and preserve his honor. First book of the Colossus series.
COLOSSUS: THE FOUR EMPERORS
Author: David Blixt
Rome under Nero is a dangerous place. His cruel artistic whims border on madness, and any man who dares rise too high has his wings clipped, with fatal results.
For one family, Nero means either promotion or destruction. While his uncle Vespasian goes off to put down a rebellion in Judea, Titus Flavius Sabinus struggles to walk the perilous line between success and notoriety as he climbs Rome’s ladder. When Nero is impaled on his own artistry, the whole world is thrown into chaos and Sabinus must navigate shifting allegiances and murderous alliances as his family tries to survive the year of the Four Emperors.
The second novel in the Colossus series.
