Thera Idema Book order (chronological)

Oorspr. titel: The last empress (2007). Sinds de dood van de keizer van China in 1861 wordt de keizerin-weduwe steeds machtiger als regentes voor haar zoon.

To rescue her family from poverty and avoid marrying her slope-shouldered cousin, seventeen-year-old Orchid competes to be one of the Emperor's wives. When she is chosen as a lower-ranking concubine she enters the erotically charged and ritualised Forbidden City. But beneath its immaculate façade lie whispers of murders and ghosts, and the thousands of concubines will stoop to any lengths to bear the Emperor's son. Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed, and seduces the monarch, drawing the attention of dangerous foes. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and that she will be its last Empress.

Maura Ryan was the queen of the criminal underworld when she pulled off the most audacious gold bullion robbery of all time. Since then she’s retired from a life of crime to be with the only man she’s ever loved. But enemies from her past are closing in and they’re about to learn that they should never cross Maura Ryan. The dangerous lady is back and she’s as lethal as ever... MAURA’S GAME is an explosive novel of East End violence and corruption from one of the most original voices in fiction today. Martina Cole’s unique blend of emotional drama and shocking realism combine in this electrifying new bestseller.