Reading Order

The short answer: pick a thread

The books group into three threads. Each one keeps you in a single world, and each one is a complete reading experience on its own. Start wherever your taste points.

The Modern Thread — 20th century to now

If you read Kate Quinn, Kristin Hannah, or Michael Crichton. Real archival history and the science that grew out of it.

1. Nobody Lied to Her — Berlin & America, 1927–1955. The American law the Nazis copied, and the family that got sorted by it.
2. The Genesis Protocol — 2019–2025. A geneticist, an engineered bioweapon, and 72 hours.

These two are the closest thing the series has to a direct sequel pair — the second picks up a thread the first leaves deliberately unfinished.

The Medieval Thread — the age of coded manuscripts

If you read Umberto Eco, Ken Follett, or Dan Brown. Conspiracy, cipher, and the church.

1. The Split Pomegranate — Damascus & Jerusalem, 1140–1187. The Crusades, and a love written in coded seals.
2. The Aethelred Cipher — Medieval Germany, 1347. The Black Death, an iron key, a hunted scribe.

The Ancient World Thread — where it starts

If you read Sue Monk Kidd, Anita Diamant, or Wilbur Smith. The origin of the whole conflict, and the centuries that carried it.

1. The First Key — Bronze Age Egypt, 1177 BCE. The origin of everything.
2. Love Remembers in Silence — Roman Judea, 26–42 CE. Mary of Magdala's buried gospel.
3. What Augustine Hid — North Africa, 387–430 CE. A bishop, a courier, and a prophecy of collapse.

Finished this thread and want to see where the argument lands? What Augustine Hid and Nobody Lied to Her ask the same question fifteen centuries apart: what does an institution choose to keep, and what does it let burn?

Publication order

This is how the series was designed to unfold — the era jumps are the point, and each book recontextualizes the last:

1. The Aethelred Cipher — 1347 CE
2. The Genesis Protocol — 2019–2025
3. The First Key — 1177 BCE
4. Love Remembers in Silence — 26–42 CE
5. What Augustine Hid — 387–430 CE
6. The Split Pomegranate — 1140–1187 CE
7. Nobody Lied to Her — 1927–1955

Chronological order

For readers who want to travel time in a straight line:

The First Key (1177 BCE) → Love Remembers in Silence (26 CE) → What Augustine Hid (410 CE) → The Split Pomegranate (1140 CE) → The Aethelred Cipher (1347 CE) → Nobody Lied to Her (1927) → The Genesis Protocol (today).

It works — but you'll meet a few revelations before the books that set them up.

Do I have to read them in order?

No. Every book stands alone — a complete story, in its own era, with its own protagonist, and no cliffhanger that forces the next purchase. The connections reward series readers; they're never required.