Elizabeth R. Andersen Books In Order

Publication Order of The Alewives of Colmar Books

Publication Order of The Two Daggers Books

Elizabeth R. Andersen
Elizabeth R. Andersen spent many years as an independent fashion designer, a journalist, and overworked tech employee, there have always been two consistent loves in her life. History and writing. She decided to finally put them together and found her true love.

Elizabeth lives in the Pacific Northwest in the United States, where she spends most of her time hiking and exploring the Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges. This is where she goes to hide from people and dream up new characters and plotlines. Otherwise, she is cooking, reading, and writing. Or she’s inside if it is raining, which it will do quite a lot.

Her experience in historical fiction comes from a lifetime of writing and reading tales about the past, and she has an insatiable love of research, which is fueled by her journalism degree.

“The Scribe” is the first novel in the “Two Daggers” series and was released in 2021. A Mamluk soldier, a spoiled nobleman, and a brilliant orphan. War threatens their city, are they going to overcome their prejudice in order to work together?

While the sun starts setting on the crusades in 13th century Palestine, Henri of Maron is going to encounter the biggest challenge of his entire life. Indulged and angry, young Henri’s dad forced him to train and live among men that hated him for what he was: half-Arab and half-French, and wealthier than any other private citizen in the entire city.

Robbed of his childhood and steeped in cruelty, this unexpected encounter with this kindly scribe is going to present Henri with this opportunity that he is not really sure he even wanted: the chance to rediscover his humanity and potentially save a life along the way. When he is forced to pick sides between the knights that he idolizes and what he knows to be right, he will have to overcome his greatest foe: himself.

This 2022 Chaucer Award Finalist pulls readers along while history sweeps these three young people toward the infamous Siege of Acre, and toward one another.

Elizabeth expertly and slowly weaves her stories together into this thrilling story of intrigue and deceit which keeps you guessing all the way until the final chapters. The attention to historical detail is amazing, and you truly feel yourself being transported back 600 years to this climate filled with tension. It tells a compelling story and the characters are well developed. The historical perspective is both thought provoking and new.

“The Land of God” is the second novel in the “Two Daggers” series and was released in 2021. His sister’s screams. Pain. And this beautiful face in the jeering crowd. Once Henri of Maron woke, he just had these few memories of that brutal flogging, however he knew that the world had changed. That he too had changed.

Now, while he grapples with the fallout from the disastrous choices he made, war with the Mamluk army is looming closer. In order to convince the city leaders to take this threat more seriously, Henri and the grand master of the Templars have to rely on unlikely allies and some bold risks in order to avoid a siege.

Sidka, meanwhile, is just trying to find some way of putting her life back together. She gets forced to flee from her home, her chance encounters with this handsome amir and this oddly familiar old woman are going to have consequences for her future.

“The Land of God” weaves real historical figures with these complex and rich characters and this edge-of-your-seat plot.

“The Alewives” is the first novel in the “Alewives of Colmar” series and was released in 2023. Colmar in 1353 CE. Appel, Gritta, and Efi all managed to survive the Black Death, just to find that they’re in desperate need of funds. With a bunch of obstacles and limited options, they all band together to become alewives, brewing and selling off ale in the free Alsatian town of Colmar.

However once an elderly neighbor is found dead in her home, the alewives can’t convince the sheriff and the town council that her death was not an accident, but murder. While the body count starts to pile up, the ale flows while mystery is afoot.

Set during the tumultuous years after the worst pandemic the world’s ever experienced, The Alewives is a playful romp through a dark time, while society was reeling from loss and this grieving population tried returning back to normal, proving that with the bonds of friendship, love, and humor, the human spirit will continue to shine.

This is a sharp, short, snappy, and hugely entertaining medieval mystery novel which depicts the realities of life back at this time, with the right amount of humor that makes it totally entertaining. It’s a novel laid out with great compassion, insight, and humor and the reader comes to fully care for these people. The growing and strong working relationship and friendship among the three alewives is profound and moving.

“Sleight of Hand” is the second novel in the “Alewives of Colmar” series and was released in 2024. During the spring of 1354, all was well in Comar, up until Efi Kleven found this hand in her pot of new ale she was brewing. It was a hand not attached to a body. Now, Efi, Gritta, and Appel (the three Alewives of Colmar) have to solve the mystery of the severed hand before suspicion can fall on them. As they try to keep their fledgling brewery afloat, there are more bodies showing up just outside of town, along with more suspects.

With very few allies and several powerful men working against them, the alewives find themselves becoming flummoxed: how could the hand of a man from Vogelgrun wind up in a cooking pot in Colmar? Why weren’t any of the victims local? And would this most inconvenient ingredient get in the way of Efi’s efforts to find herself a new husband?

This novel follows the three alewives while they face life after the Black Death with wicked humor and bravery, showing determination and resourcefulness in the face of misogyny, poverty, and murder.