More theological noir from Árgos Panóptës

It all starts at the wedding of the god-father’s daughter. It was said that on days like this, you could ask Zev́s anything, and he’d grant your wish.

It ends in Tártaros, the serious offenders’ wing of the underworld, where Háidës torments lost souls for all eternity.

And on its winding path, we meet the most stupidly entitled king in all of ancient history. We meet a man brought back from the dead, who shacks up with Poseidón at the sea-god’s modest semi-detached underwater palace at Aigaí. We encounter a wildly over-protective father who plays a deadly game with the suitors of his beautiful daughter, who incidentally isn’t as chaste as her father believes. We see mortal royalty set out to build an empire. We witness the efforts of the war-god Árës to start the greatest conflict in world history, to elevate himself in the pantheon.

And we meet the araí, the curses who serve heaven. Those nameless incorporeal beings, so low in divine status that they don’t even get to live in the basement of the Bronze Palace – yet who are so vital to the workings of Olýmpian justice.

The curses do a lot of the leg-work in the matter of chastening mortal Héllenës. But how does a curse work? Can a whole family be cursed for the actions of one man?

Can a curse decide to go her own way, to act independently of the will of the goddess of retribution?

In a sweeping epic tale of ambition on earth and in heaven, of loyalty and betrayal, of sex and violence and miscellaneous skulduggery, The Godfather’s Curse answers all these and other important theological questions. Questions that could get you killed, or worse.

Is the king of the gods actually bound by the will of the Fates? Does the god of prophecy actually control the future? Should there be gender balance on the Olýmpian council?

And what might happen if War and Retribution get into bed, and not just metaphorically?

The Godfather’s Curse is the prequel to the prequel to the greatest mob story ever told.

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First published 2026 (first Kindle edition).

The greatest mob story ever told has a prequel

Another pulp epic by Árgos Panóptës

It didn’t all happen quite how people have always said.

Yes, there was a goddess who reacted badly when she wasn’t invited to a party. An impromptu divine beauty contest. Some weird sex involving a swan. A couple of political marriages and a controversial love affair. All these played their part in starting the Trojan war. But ultimately this is a story about who controls destiny – is it gods, ambitious kings, the three evil sisters called the fates, or something else?

Zev́s just wants to enjoy his quiet, comfortable life as god-father of the Olýmpian family, the deities who dominate the Héllenic world from their home atop Mount Ólympos.

His wife Héra mostly wants greater power as queen of heaven. And to put an end to her husband’s philandering.

And Apóllon, god of light, prophecy, healing and the arts, wants to expand his worship and his power to the east of the East.

Árës, the Olýmpian god of war, He Who is Strong in Arm and Doughty of Heart, may wish to assert himself too.

Meanwhile an extremely ambitious mortal prince called Agamémnon struggles to overcome his family curse. Can Agamémnon regain the kingdom which was stolen from him when he was sixteen? Can he learn how to manipulate the favour of gods and goddesses, to control his own destiny the way no mortal man ever did, and make himself the most powerful king in the world?

Based on his unrivalled access both to the underworld and to the Bronze Palace on Mount Ólympos, Titánic narrator Árgos Panóptës weaves together an epic story of love and war, intrigue and powerplay on earth and in heaven; of the rivalry of cities, the rise and fall of dynasties, the fortunes of families both mortal and divine.

More theological noir. The story of The Troían Godfather.

Buy Troían Godfather for Kindle.

First published 2026 (first Kindle edition).

The greatest mob story ever told

The original pulp epic by Árgos Panóptës

The first ever theological noir

One day, for the first time in a thousand years, a new god arrives at the Bronze Palace on Mount Ólympos. His name is Gaius Julius Caesar.

Most Olýmpians assume it was the god-father who has deified Caesar. Only Zev́s himself knows the truth. So the god-father must covertly find out who made Julius Caesar a god – and why.

Round about the same time, Zev́s has a dream in which a gang of hooded rivals overthrow him. And in the dream the rivals are led by one of Zev́s’s many sons. But which son?

Of course Zev́s became god-father by overthrowing his own father, Krónos, who in turn had become god-father by overthrowing his father Ouranós. So does this dream signal an impending rebellion amongst the Olýmpian family?

But how did Zev́s come to have a dream anyway? Everyone knows the dreams are noncorporeal minor divinities employed by Zev́s himself to send messages to mortals. The dreams very rarely get sent to gods, and they never get sent to the god-father. So what’s going on? Is this a rogue dream? Is one of the Olýmpians trying to warn Zev́s of an impending rebellion? Or is this some kind of trick played by a rival family of gods?

As the mystery unfolds, and the shocking events of two thousand years ago play themselves out, we finally learn the truth about what became of Zev́s and the other Greek gods and goddesses.

And in the process, we discover one of the most closely-guarded secrets of all divinity everywhere: where do deities get their power?

More about Olýmpian Godfather.

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First published in 2014 as The Father-God.

This is a glossary of places, people and other beings that feature in Greek mythology.

It was originally intended to support the Olympian Godfather novels, but it may be of interest to a broader audience. It contains hundreds of entries, with variant English and Latin spellings, and Ancient Greek spellings alongside.

It also contains a detailed note on pronunciation, which readers unfamiliar with Ancient or Modern Greek pronunciation might find helpful.

Buy A glossary of Greek mythology for Kindle.

Third edition, 2026. First published in 2025.

By Laurence Watkinson

Minority Rapport is the latest novel in Laurence Watkinson's crime series set in Britain's favourite seaside resort.

When a reggae singer is brutally murdered in a quiet flat in Blackpool, local police come to suspect that the murderer may have been Henry Middleton-Smith - a local councillor and leader of the British National Party.

Then when a member of the BNP is gunned down in a street not far from Blackpool Metropolitan Police headquarters, it appears the city might be witnessing the onset of a spate of racially-motivated murders.

Unfortunately it turns out it's worse than that...

Buy Minority Rapport for Kindle.

More about Minority Rapport.

First published 2012 (first Kindle edition).

A tale of love, celebrity and the Republican presidential nomination

By Stuart Moston

Set in the relatively sedate and differently-unpredictable pre-Trump era, Stars is a film within a film within a novel, with two love triangles and a Republican presidential nomination thrown in.

David Molteno, world number one box office draw, has started dreaming in screenplay and thinks he must be entering a pre-mid-life crisis. Is he growing tired of playing a formulaic True American Hero in Hollywood blockbusters? Should he move onto the Shakespearian stage and be paid in peanuts but be more fulfilled? Should he turn his hand to writing and directing? Or should he do something completely different, like quit Hollywood and go into politics? Clearly he feels he needs a change of direction. But maybe he'll find his answer if he looks more closely at his love life.

Stars is an epic story of actors, their adventures, their aspirations, their addictions, their crises and opportunities, their agents and their analysts, their loves and their laughter, the journalists who write about them and the politicians who cosy up to them in a bid to make politics more entertaining.

Buy Stars for Kindle.

More information on Stars.

First published November 2012 (first Kindle edition)

By Laurence Watkinson

The second of Laurence Watkinson's crime stories featuring DCI Bill Ramsbottom and DS Lucy Brown is now available for Kindle.

The story begins where Rock and a Hard Place ended, and charts the efforts of Blackpool's leading criminal gang to consolidate its position following the warfare described in the previous story.

The story also follows the fortunes of the city's great cannabis mogul and one of his loyal lieutenants, and their dealings with two of the lesser gangs who are dissatisfied with the terms of trade in Blackpool's illegal cannabis market.

The plot thickens with a new spate of attacks on Arab women staying in Blackpool hotels.

Buy The Fireworks Start at Midnight for Kindle.

More information on The Fireworks Start at Midnight.

First published September 2012 (first Kindle edition)

By Laurence Watkinson

The first of Laurence Watkinson's crime stories is now available from Amazon for Kindle.

When there’s a bomb alert at Blackpool Tower, DCI Bill Ramsbottom thinks it’s further evidence of a new wave of extortion that’s sweeping the city. The national Counter-Terrorism Unit and the Home Office, on the other hand, seem keen to prove it’s the work of Al-Qaeda. The plot thickens when a leading figure in the leisure industry is murdered in an especially tasteless manner on the Golden Mile, and an Arab dissident with an explosive background appears to have joined one of Blackpool’s violent gangs. What will happen when battle is joined for control of the city’s extortion, prostitution and boiled-sugar confectionery interests?

Rock and a Hard Place begins a series of crime-fighting comedies set in Britain's favourite seaside resort.

Buy Rock and a Hard Place for Kindle.

More information about Rock and a Hard Place.

First published 2012 (first Kindle edition)

The second in the series, The Fireworks Start at Midnight, and the third, Minority Rapport, are now also available now from Spiky Books.

By Stuart Moston

Three months after firing her lovable but penniless upper-class English boyfriend, American heiress Saffron Alexander decides she's made a mistake.

But as she heads for England to tell Julian Penvellyn-FitzNorbert he must propose to her, Saffron is unaware that in the meantime he’s got engaged to someone else.

As it happens, Julian has now realised he’s still in love with Saffron. But, being a man of honour and sometimes of considerable stupidity, he’s determined not to let down his old friend and new fiancée Melanie Bird. Although perhaps he might, if only he knew Melanie was secretly seeing another woman.

The Happy News is a hilarious tale of overlapping love triangles, failures of communication, personal crises, and how the timely intervention of a friend in need can make a bad situation horribly worse.

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First published 2012 (first Kindle edition)

By Wilfred Southall

Joseph Spike was discharged from the British army years ago on the grounds that he was mentally subnormal and also profoundly mentally subnormal. Now a series of wartime cock-ups results in Spike's return to the Parachute Regiment in time to intervene in the Falklands Crisis.

Buy The Good Soldier Spike and his Fortunes in the Falklands War for Kindle.

More information about The Good Soldier Spike and his Fortunes in the Falklands War.

Published 2012 (first Kindle edition).