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James Becker is the pseudonym of British author Peter Stuart Smith.

He uses the pen name when writing conspiracy, espionage, action thrillers and historical mystery novels.

Born in Cambridge, England, James has vast experience in the Royal Navy where he served as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War.

Although he was also part of several covert operations in Northern Ireland, Russia, and Yemen, James was transferred from the Navy to the Air Traffic Control branch due to a medical issue. He remained there until the end of his time with the army, serving his country for more than two decades.

Since leaving the army, James has been residing in the Eastern Pyrenees in the Principality of Andorra.

He writes under multiple pseudonyms, including Max Adams, Tom Kasey, Thomas Payne, Peter Lee and Jack Steel.

More about James Becker

Genres: Historical Mystery, Thriller

United Kingdom

Pseudonym: James Becker

Non Series

  • The Ripper Secret (2018)
  • The Titanic Secret (2018)
  • The Dante Conspiracy (2013)

Chris Bronson

  1. The First Apostle (2008)
  2. The Moses Stone (2009)
  3. The Messiah Secret (2010)
  4. The Nosferatu Scroll (2011)
  5. Echo of the Reich (2012)
  6. The Lost Testament (2013)
  7. The Templar Heresy (2017)
  8. The Last Secret of the Ark (2020)

Steven Hunter

  1. Trade-Off (2014)
  2. Cold Kill (2014)

The Lost Treasure of the Templars

  1. The Lost Treasure of the Templars (2015)
  2. The Templar Archive (2016)
  3. The Templar Brotherhood (2017)

Detailed book overview

Non Series

The Ripper Secret

A priceless relic… and a monster that will do anything to get hold of it.

In the summer of 1888, a killer is about to rampage through East London. But what are the real motives behind the murders?

Police Commissioner Charles Warren has in his possession an ancient artefact of incredible value, and unknowable danger. Discovered on a mission to Jerusalem, he smuggled the relic back to England, never imagining the peril he would place himself in, and more devastatingly, the women of Whitechapel.

As the Ripper strikes, again and again, the truth may finally be uncovered…

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1788633772
Publisher: Canelo
The Titanic Secret

Was it really an iceberg that sunk the Titanic? Or is that just what they want you to think?

On Sunday 15 April 1912, the 'unsinkable' RMS Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage to New York. But the truth is quickly suppressed.

On board she carries three men scheming to create a new military alliance between the USA and Germany. Their goal war with Great Britain and the destruction of the British Empire. Alex Tremayne and his American colleague Maria Weston are sent by British Intelligence to stop the spies, and with them the greatest war in history.

On a voyage bristling with intrigue, Alex and Maria have one aim: to stop the conspirators from reaching America at any cost...

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1788633789
Publisher: Canelo
The Dante Conspiracy

An ancient secret means the difference between life or death...

When the body of a poetry professor is found tortured in a deserted barn outside Florence, Inspector Perini is assigned to the case.

No murder of passion, it is clearly a professional job. When, hours later, thieves break into Dante’s cenotaph, it seems the two crimes may be connected by some missing verses from the ‘Divine Comedy’.

They could contain a code so valuable someone is willing to murder for it. But who? And why? As the bodies pile up, Perini is in a deadly race to find the secret before the killers. The truth will prove more shocking than he could have possibly imagined…

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2013
Ebook: B07D3SWGW9
Publisher: Canelo Adventure

Chris Bronson

The First Apostle

An Englishwoman is found dead in a house near Rome, her neck broken. Her distraught husband enlists the help of his closest friend, policeman Chris Bronson, who discovers an ancient inscription on a slab of stone above their fireplace. It translates as ‘Here Lie the Liars.’ 

Pursued across Europe, Bronson and his ex-wife uncover a trail of clues that lead them back to the shadowy beginnings of Christianity; to an ancient code inscribed upon a stone; to a chalice decorated with mysterious symbols. And to a deadly conspiracy which will rock the foundations of our modern world if revealed.

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2008
Ebook: B001PYO3CQ
Publisher: Berkley
The Moses Stone

AN ANCIENT CODE

A clay tablet covered in ancient writing is found by an English couple in Morocco. A day later they are dead, killed in a car crash. But where is the relic they died to protect?

A SINISTER SECRET

Determined to uncover a secret that's endured for two millennia, Chris Bronson follows a trail of clues that lead him from the hustle of a Moroccan souk to the deserted caves of Qumran; from the sinister echoes of a water-filled tunnel under the city of Jerusalem to a windswept fortress whose name spells death.

A DEADLY CHASE FOR THE TRUTH ...

Threatened on every side by violent extremists, Bronson is plunged into a mystery rooted in biblical times. For the stone he must find is older and far more dangerous than he could ever have imagined ...

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2009
ISBN: 978-0451412874
Publisher: Berkley
The Messiah Secret

Assessing the contents of a lavish English estate, museum conservator Angela Lewis discovers a crate full of sealed pottery jars-one of which holds a parchment which describes the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

For Angela, the find is a miracle-a written reference to Jesus outside of the New Testament. But her discovery draws her and her husband, Chris, into a centuries-old race for the truth that they may not win...or survive.

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2010
ISBN: 978-0451412980
Publisher: Berkley
The Nosferatu Scroll

BOHEMIA, 1741

On the northern banks of the Vltava River, an extraordinary event is taking place. Inside a private chapel, a high-born Hungarian lady is being laid to rest. But not before her heart is removed from her body, and she is buried beneath a layer of heavy stones -- lest she rise again to prey upon her victims.

VENICE, 2010

Holidaying in the world's most beautiful city, Chris Bronson and Angela Lewis discover a desecrated tomb. Inside it is a female skeleton and an arcane diary dating back hundreds of years. Written in Latin, it references a scroll that will provide an answer to an ancient secret. Soon corpses of young women, all killed in the same ritualistic manner, start appearing throughout the city. And when Angela disappears, Bronson knows that he must find her before she too is slaughtered.

But Bronson's hunt for Angela leads him back to the Island of the Dead, and into a conspiracy more deadly than he could ever have imagined.

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-0451236197
Publisher: Berkley
Echo of the Reich

A deadly weapon uncovered...

A decades-old conspiracy...

A race to save a city...

Berlin, 1936: When African-American Jesse Owens wins four gold medals in the Olympic Games, Hitler refuses to place the medals around Owens’s neck and vows to develop a means of wiping “inferior” races from the earth....

London, 2012: Chris Bronson is ordered to infiltrate a group of anarchists who plan to disrupt the Olympic Games with destruction and violence. When Bronson’s cover is blown, the police call off the operation. But Bronson is convinced that there’s something more sinister at play. On the run from both the police and the militant anarchists, Bronson soon finds himself immersed in a long-buried secret surrounding a Nazi weapon, and a deadly revenge plot that he must stop before it’s too late....

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2012
ISBN: 978-0451238290
Publisher: Berkley
The Lost Testament

One man, one woman. One chance to expose the truth.

Angela Lewis and Chris Bronson return in a high-adrenaline flight across Europe in pursuit of an ancient and world-shattering secret, chased by a band of fearsome assassins.

For thousands of years we guarded it. But now it has been found. This could be the end -- for us; for our organisation; for the world. You must destroy it, and those who have taken it.

An object is discovered in a Cairo souk. A market trader is tortured to death. A tantalising request for help is sent to British Museum historian Angela Lewis. She and policeman Chris Bronson travel to Egypt, where they become targets of a ruthless Masonic lodge. Only they have the key to the secret. Their only problem is deciphering it before their time runs out. Everything they think to be true is false. Everyone they trust must be distrusted.

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-0857500915
Publisher: Bantam
The Templar Heresy

An extraordinary discovery. An ancient mystery.

Chris Bronson is looking forward to catching up with his old friend Angela unearthing ancient treasures on an archaeological dig in the Iraqi desert.

But they are met with a scene of bloody devastation: Angela's colleagues killed and a recent discovery defaced.

Their only clue is an incomplete inscription which holds the key to a centuries-old secret, one that they must uncover if they want to survive. Pursued by faceless assassins, the race is on for the last piece of the puzzle, one that will mean the difference between life and death…

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-0857502308
Publisher: Bantam
The Last Secret of the Ark

The world's most sacred and mysterious object and a race for survival... 

In Ethiopia, Chris Bronson and Angela Lewis are on the hunt for the Ark of the Covenant. But it looks like their luck is running out. Until, that is, a new avenue springs open in southern France.

Meanwhile, the Vatican is getting worried. Their best people are tracking the Ark, but so are a mysterious group operating from Jerusalem. Both are prepared to use deadly force.

As the net closes in around the most powerful artefact in history and the greatest mystery, it's also tightening around Bronson and Lewis. They'll need all their smarts to escape this time...

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1800320277
Publisher: Canelo

Steven Hunter

Trade-Off

A corrupt government, a deadly killer on the loose and only one man standing in their way.

Seconded to the FBI, British policeman Steven Hunter is assigned to a bizarre case too complex for the local police. A body is discovered with a human femur driven through the top of its skull. Hunter must find out who killed them, and why.

But someone high-up doesn’t want the case solved. Facing the deadliest test of his career, Hunter must stay one step ahead, uncover the killer and, somehow, stay alive

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2014
Ebook: B07FNMBC7V
Publisher: Canelo Action
Cold Kill

Time is running out to catch a gruesome killer...

When mutilated cattle are found in New Mexico, it’s only a matter of time before the killer will seek out human victims. And when a series of eviscerated corpses appear on the prairie, British detective Steven Hunter, seconded to the FBI, is assigned the task of finding the twisted murderer.

But his investigations pull in two conflicting directions. Who is flying the mysterious jet-black helicopters that have been spotted flying over the crime scenes? And do they have anything to do with the killings?

With no forensic evidence left on the bodies, and a series of loner victims with nothing to connect them, these cold kills will stretch Hunter to his limits if he wants to stop this predator from finding his next prey…

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2014
Ebook: B07FNGJ1KJ
Publisher: Canelo Action

The Lost Treasure of the Templars

The Lost Treasure of the Templars

In a quiet English seaside town, antiquarian bookseller Robin Jessop has acquired an odd medieval volume. What appears to be a book isn’t a book at all, but a cleverly disguised safe, in which she finds a single rolled parchment, written in code.

For encryption expert David Mallory, the text is impenetrable. Until an invaluable clue opens the door to a mystery, and a conspiracy, stretching back seven centuries, when the most powerful man in Europe declared war on the most powerful clan, the Knights Templar.

Now, Jessop and Mallory find themselves on a global hunt for an unsurpassed treasure and this much closer to the keys to secrets that could change history, topple an empire, and bury them both alive. Because they’re not only the hunters. They’re also the hunted.

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-0451466464
Publisher: Berkley
The Templar Archive

While trying to decipher what few clues they have managed to recover about the Templar’s secrets, Jessop and Mallory discover that the legendary “treasure” they have been searching for may not be what they thought. Rather than gold or precious jewels, their long-sought prize may, in fact, be something far more valuable...

Information.

For the Templar Knights were the original inventors of international trade. And not all of it was in money. Lands, titles, the fates of entire noble houses were placed in their keeping. The records of such transactions, though centuries old, may possibly yield the greatest wealth in the world. But hunting for such an archive places Jessop and Mallory in the cross hairs of Europe's most powerful families...

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-0451473967
Publisher: Berkley
The Templar Brotherhood

Having barely escaping the crosshairs of a deadly cult, Robin Jessop and David Mallory crisscross Europe, seeking to unlock the truth behind a conspiracy unresolved for seven hundred years—the mystery of what has given the enigmatic Templars their unwavering power.

Infiltrating the group’s vast archives, Jessop and Mallory make a startling find. An ancient Templar passport hints at a sacred mission: the transportation of a priceless treasure, an artifact of incomprehensible value. Delving through centuries of clues and deception, the two come face-to-face with a secret that could shake Christendom to its core—and cost their own lives along the way.

Author: James Becker
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-0451473974
Publisher: Berkley