Janet McGiffin Books In Order

Publication Order of Empress Irini Books

Publication Order of Maxine St. Clair Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Janet McGiffin started out her series-writing career with three mystery novels published by Fawcett in New York and moved on to writing historical fiction after becoming fascinated with Byzantine history while living in Greece. Her work as a press officer for the Washington state Senate and teaching business English to foreign business executives at Berlitz in Manhattan contributed to the depth of her historical fiction as well as her talks and workshops. The Empress Irini series began as one book which grew until it was had to be divided into four. She lives in Manhattan and in Washington state and travels often to Greece where a Greek actress is recording her series as English-language audiobooks, and where she continues to write the next books in the series.

The four-book Empress Irini series is set in the medieval, 8th century, Byzantine capitol of Constantinople, at a time when four great empires, from four religious beliefs, battled for control of trade, wealth, and power. In the center of these empires, Empress Irini held the throne of the Romans of the East as they called themselves (‘Byzantine’ was coined by an historian). As one of only two women to hold that throne in her own right, she fought invasions from The Bulgar Khanate on the north, Caliph Harun al-Rashid on the east, and Charles the Great (Charlemagne) of the Franks who alternately wooed Irini and attacked her.

Irini’s ruthless rise to power makes a page-turner of this historically-accurate series in which all characters, with few exceptions, are based on real people. McGiffin shows how the seeds of Irini’s lust for power are planted when she was an orphan raised in her uncle’s household in Athens, followed by her removal to Constantinople by Emperor Constantine the Fifth, ostensibly to to marry her to his son and heir but more to keep her within reach. In a few years, Constantine mysteriously dies, raising Irini to Empress as wife of his son and heir. Five years later, her husband also mysteriously dies, leaving Irini with total control as Empress Regent for her five-year-old son. But gaining the throne and keeping it are different matters and, as a woman defied by the church, the military, and then her son, Irini’s grip on power is only tenuous.

Narrated by a nun whom Irini names to be abbess of an island convent near Constantinople—the only place Irini feels safe—the story is told over four books, and follows Irini for thirty-five years as she fills the Great Palace with eunuchs loyal only to her, manipulates the clergy, tricks the generals, and has a clandestine love affair, all while stashing secret wealth in the island convent. A true story from beginning to end, the series leaves the reader with a strong understanding of the famed Byzantine empire and of a stunningly beautiful and intelligent woman who refused to comply with the role of females and rose to be the most powerful woman in the known world.

(Thank you to Janet for this biography!)