The Desert Debris Press launched The Muhammad Amalfi Mysteries, a series of international award-winning historical novels of adventure and intrigue.

Set in a time and a place misunderstood and misrepresented by western historical narratives, the Mysteries bring to life the rich but troubled civilization of North Africa during the final decades of Ottoman rule. From the southern shores of the Mediterranean, the Deys of Algiers navigated the treacherous waters churned up by revolution in France as one European power after another struggled with the choice to make peace or make war. For the Deys, the choice was between trading and raiding.

While the French Revolution rages, and Benjamin Franklin quips, “If there were no Algiers, it would be worth England’s while to build one,” the jewel on the southern shore of the Mediterranean sparkles with intrigue. From the slave markets of this city of exotic tastes and ethnicities, a renegade English sea captain dreams of a Mediterranean Amsterdam where trade and ideas may flow freely, and an Italian orphan with a gift for languages and a knack for learning so impresses the Turkish Dey that he appoints him Chief Commissioner of the Hinterlands of Algiers. Or did the Dey have other reasons? 

With close attention to historical and cultural details, the books in the series bring to life an obscure chapter in history through the keen observations of a gifted but inexperienced young man with the perspective of an outsider. In the later books of the series, Muhammad’s observations are balanced by his older and more experienced wife whose knowledge of the inner workings of society, especially the society of women, far outstrips that of her husband.

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