D.J. McIntosh Books In Order

Publication Order of Mesopotamian Trilogy Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

D.J. McIntosh is a Canadian writer of mystery and thriller novels. She quit her professional career to focus on her longtime passion as an author. It took McIntosh almost one decade to research and write the manuscript for her debut novel, The Witch of Babylon which is also the first book in her Mesopotamian Trilogy. The author’s debut novel has been sold in over 20 countries and has won Arthur Ellis Award and shortlisted for Crime Writer Association’s Debut Dagger Award. CNN International also chose the Witch of Babylon as one of the most enduring historical thrillers along with famous writers like Umberto Eco, Dan Brown and Agatha Christie.

D.J. McIntosh became a published author in 2011 when The Witch of Babylon, the first book in Mesopotamian Trilogy. The author has also authored a standalone novel, The Winter Wolf. She is a strong advocate of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies and even a staunch supporter of Committee to Protect Journalist and Reporters without Borders.

The Witch of Babylon

The Witch of Babylon, the first book in Mesopotamia Trilogy, is a well-researched and real page-turner about precious artifacts, ancient myths, hidden treasures, and alchemy. The fantastic research, original plot and the ability to capture the reader’s attention from the get-go makes D.J. McIntosh one of the best mystery & thrillers author of the 21st century.

The Witch of Babylon introduces us to John Madison, an art dealer from New York in his early thirties. He lost both parents in a mining accident aged three years and raised by his elder brother Samuel who helped him get started with his art business. When the reader meets John for the first time, he’s recuperating from a car crash in which his brother died. Before his death, Samuel had made a very shocking discovery. During his stay in Iraq, he came across an ancient artifact of great importance. A stone tablet which is one of the most significant historical finds in Iraqi history.

Protecting the precious stone tablet became an obsession for John’s brother. To save it from thieves, Samuel smuggled the artifact from Iraqi to the United States. After Samuels dies in a car crash, the stone tablet is then stolen by his childhood friend Hall Vanderlin who is also killed before he can sell it. Now John Madison finds himself entangled in a cat and mouse game staged by Hall. To spare his life, he must find the whereabouts of the tablet with Alchemy Archives, a deadly group tracking his every move.

The Witch of Babylon is a fantastic novel to read for some reasons. It entertaining, engaging and yet light read. Additionally, it’s filled with interesting bits of information about the rich history of Iraq and other info including Mesopotamian mythology, art, religious ideas, and symbols.

D.J. McIntosh has mastered the art of action thriller and suspense and thanks to her great knowledge and understanding; this thrilling, action-packed narrative has a wonderful historical & mythological background. The author skillfully intertwines historical facts and myths into the plot hence creating a well “balanced” novel. In general, The Witch of Babylon is a brain teaser, a novel that engages the reader’s mind in a quest to solve the puzzle even before the characters do.

The Book of Stolen Tales

The second book in Mesopotamia Trilogy picks up where the first book The Witch of Babylon left off narrating the further laborious efforts of the art dealer John Madison from London, southern France, Naples, and Iraq.

McIntosh in creating John’s latest adventure digs deeper than before, exploring the secret power of the fairy tales fascinatingly and disturbingly through an investigation of the unknown origins. Some more exciting characters appear in this second book among them is unwearied book thief who seems to have popped out of the 17th century to stalk John Madison with a Terminator-like determination, off-the-records special forces soldier and a traumatized young unmarried woman. The author is at her strongest when John’s hunt for the cursed book of fairy tales sends him into situations similar to childhood nightmares.

D.J. McIntosh richest insight in the second novel is that such tales and myths often directly or indirectly reflect the darkest side of the human nature. The story’s extensive passages in French Camargue and Iraq are well rendered as the writer vividly describes the landscape with skill. Fairy tales are the keys to the depths of heart and mind, McIntosh seems to advocate. The second book in Mesopotamia Trilogy takes the reader on a quest through some of the hell-holes and splendor of each, and its images reecho after the last pages of the novel has been turned.

The Angel of Eden

When David John Moore Cornwell under the pen name John le Carre wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold featuring George Smiley, it wasn’t just the novel’s powerful plot that made the book a classic bestseller. Instead, it was George Smiley’s complex character and its dark setting. What transforms an adventure narrative into fine literature is writing beyond the genre.

That’s what Mesopotamia Trilogy author does in her third novel in the trilogy. While the first two novels in the trilogy are quite engaging, The Angel of Eden, the last in the trilogy reaches new heights of character development. The antiquities dealers continue his adventures but this time round faces even darker dimensions of the past and what he finally discovers about himself leaves him questioning everything he believed.

The author treats this personal transformation with a range of considerations- turning the entire story into an intriguing examination of character development. The last in the trilogy is interesting in its references to the Garden of Eden, and the possible links that archaeologists have shown Turkey, Iran, and Iraq to be among Mesopotamian-era locations. It remains true, even though the entire trilogy is a magnificent work of story-telling. The Angel of Eden will hook you right from the first page to the last.