A body on the banks of the Elbe. A promise made in 1974. And an icon that must never have existed.
Crime fiction
Crime novels between Hamburg and Cyprus. Two detectives, two countries, two systems — and cases whose roots reach back decades.
A body on a Hamburg riverbank, a secret trip to Cyprus and a Byzantine icon entrusted to a German shipowner in the harbour of Limassol in 1974. Sealed with a handshake, no names. Missing ever since.
Available as ebook, paperback and hardcover — and included in Kindle Unlimited.
Buy Book 1Historical time-travel romance
One amulet, three books, two eras: in 1925 Annie Cole finds a piece of gold and silver in the tomb of Ramesses I — and wakes three thousand years earlier.
Journalist Annie Cole finds an amulet in the tomb of Ramesses I. The moment she touches it, the desert is gone — and Memphis is alive.
Buy Book 1
Cairo, 1930. Some encounters change more than just the present.
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Memphis, 1279 BC. On a night in May, Pharaoh Seti vanishes — leaving a ten-year-old son on the throne.
Buy Book 3The tomb smelled of three thousand years of silence.
I have often tried, since then, to describe that smell to someone, and failed every time. Cold stone, yes. Ancient dust. But beneath it there was something else, something I could not name that morning and still cannot name now, after everything that happened. Perhaps it was simply time itself. Perhaps that is what time smells like when it has been left alone long enough.
I stood in the entrance and breathed it in, my heart beating so loudly I was afraid the desert behind me might hear.
A current of air drifted up from inside the tomb, cooler than the morning outside, and brushed across my bare forearms. My body hesitated. I did not.
Christina Baumgartner writes about women who are at home in two places at once — and about what remains when time shifts. The Amulet Trilogy is her first major project.
Frequently asked
A crime series set between Hamburg and Cyprus. Book 1, “The Promise of Limassol”, came out in October 2026. The investigation alternates between Detective Chief Inspector Frank Rothenbach in Hamburg and Inspector Georgos Georgiou on Cyprus, whose cases reach back to the war year of 1974.
No. They are two independent series in different genres. The Amulet Trilogy is historical time-travel romance; the Cyprus Crime novels are detective fiction. You can start with either.
In October 1925, journalist Annie Cole finds an amulet of gold and silver in the tomb of Ramesses I, eighty kilometres south of Luxor. When she touches it, the desert is gone and Memphis is alive — she wakes three thousand years earlier. The trilogy follows what grows between the two eras, and what survives of it.
Three: “The Scent of Amber Across Time” (Book 1), “The Weight of Stone Across Time” (Book 2) and “The Silence of Sand Across Time” (Book 3). The story runs continuously — Book 1 is where it starts.
Book 1 is out now on Amazon: the English edition on amazon.com, the German edition on amazon.de. It is included in Kindle Unlimited at no extra cost.
Yes. Chapter 1 is available in full on this website, no sign-up required. Chapters 2 to 4 come as a PDF through the newsletter.
Yes. Book 1 is published in German as „Der Duft von Amber und Zeit“. Books 2 and 3 are „Die Schwere von Stein und Zeit“ and „Die Stille von Sand und Zeit“. The German version of this website links to the German editions.
Yes, the trilogy is complete. “The Weight of Stone Across Time” (Book 2) is set in Cairo, 1930, and has been out since September 2026. “The Silence of Sand Across Time” (Book 3) opens in Memphis, 1279 BC, and has been out since October 2026. All three are available as ebook, paperback and hardcover on amazon.com, with the ebooks included in Kindle Unlimited at no extra cost.
Two genres. The Cyprus Crime series is detective fiction set between Hamburg and Cyprus. The Amulet Trilogy is historical time-travel romance, connecting 1920s Egypt — the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Cairo — with ancient Egypt under Ramesses I.
