The Novels
Ancient Egyptian Historical Thrillers
THE RIVER OF ETERNITY (The Harem Conspiracy #1)
2024 Pacific Book Award WINNER, Best Historical Fiction
2024-2025 Amazon #1 Bestseller
1184 BCE. Ramesses III, the crown prince who will become the last of the great pharaohs, is returning home from battle. He will one day assume the throne of the vast Egyptian empire, but the plots against him and his children have already started.
Ray has been raised with the teenage children of Ramesses as their friend, but his own mysterious past exposes him to threats both inside and outside of the Egyptian court.
Ray hopes to become a comfortable bureaucrat, maybe even settling down with the princess Tentopet, but when one of the princes is killed inside the palace, Ray finds himself framed for the murder and forced to run to protect Bull, the oldest surviving son of Ramesses. So begins Ray’s dangerous journey from the snake pit of royal palace intrigue into a violent world of treachery and enemies that will take years to conquer if he can survive.
An Ancient Egyptian historical series for fans of Wilbur Smith, J.K. Swift, Steven Saylor, Paul Doherty, Keith Moray.
"Intricate historical fiction with lots of action, danger, and deceit." --KIRKUS REVIEWS
THE HOUSE OF DEATH (The Harem Conspiracy #2)
2024-2025 Amazon Bestseller
1184 BCE. Future pharaoh Ramesses III has returned home from war to a palace that is even more dangerous than a battleground – full of threats, conspiracies, and apparent betrayals among his own family.
Ray is being hunted by the police and foreign assassins after being framed for murdering one of the princes. While searching the great city of Thebes for the missing princess Tentopet, who is now in hiding as a dancer, Ray learns that his foster father has been arrested for tomb robbing and may be executed unless Ray can rescue him.
The tense hunt for Ray and Bull, the oldest son of Ramesses, continues through the great House of Death in Thebes and across the vast western desert to the dreaded copper mines of Timna, where few captives survive in the dark and airless tunnels.
An Ancient Egyptian historical thriller series for fans of Wilbur Smith, J.K. Swift, Steven Saylor, Paul Doherty, and Keith Moray.
THE REVENGE OF SEKHMET (The Harem Conspiracy #3)
2024-2025 Amazon Bestseller
1169 BCE. Fifteen years have passed.
Khait is in the Great Prison of Thebes, assuming she will spend the rest of her life there being tormented by Queen Teya’s younger son, but an opportunity for escape changes everything. Khait can now follow her plan for vengeance on her enemies in the royal house, becoming Sekhmet the Destroyer, Mistress of Dread, Lady of Slaughter, the Goddess of War and Destruction.
Ray is still a prisoner in the royal mines of Timna, working as chief scribe to the overseer, but when the overseer dies, he is given a task that will take him back to Thebes and the village of the tomb builders, forcing him to leave Bull and his other friends behind in Timna.
An Ancient Egyptian epic adventure thriller series for fans of Wilbur Smith, Steven Saylor, Paul Doherty, and Colin Falconer. Ancient historical fiction based on true historical events in the Middle East.
"...Balfour captures ancient Egypt's internecine politics without slowing the momentum. He also effectively details the land and people...Intricate historical fiction with lots of action, danger, and deceit." -- KIRKUS REVIEWS
Crime Thrillers
A MEMORY OF FIRE (Carla Cruz Crime Thriller Series)
A mystery/pulp thriller with a strong female lead for fans of J.A. Jance, L.T. Ryan, Steven Konkoly, Lisa Gardner, Robert Campbell, Nic Pizzolatto, Daniel Pyne.
A disgraced former DEA agent haunted by her dark past must defeat drug lords in Hollywood to rescue her kidnapped daughter.
Carla Cruz is a medicated single mother, and former DEA agent, living a quiet life with her teenage daughter. When she is invited to a Hollywood party, she meets two film investors who turn out to be drug lords—and one of them is the man who murdered her DEA husband ten years earlier. When the drug lords realize who she is, they force her to search for sixty million in cash stolen by her husband. They kidnap her daughter as leverage, frame Carla for murder, and give her a deadline.
Getting help from the kinds of criminals she used to arrest, Carla must race across the country to track down clues in the dying small town where she and her husband were raised, digging up secrets about her painful family history so that she and her daughter will have a future.
Chased by the police and the cartel, Carla must confront her past, overcome her fears, rely on criminals for help, fight the side effects of her anti-psychotic medication, and defeat the drug cartel to rescue her daughter—and herself—before they are both killed.
A Memory of Fire is first in the Carla Cruz series, followed by Shooting Stars, but all books in the series can be read as standalone novels.
SHOOTING STARS (Carla Cruz Crime Thriller Series)
He’s famous.
He’s wealthy.
He’s a serial killer.
Former DEA agent Carla Cruz is trying to qualify for a new career as a private investigator when she gets involved in the high-profile case of a famous actress framed for murder. The police have enough evidence to send the actress to prison, but Carla can’t shake the feeling that the Church of the Golden is involved.
The Goldies teach their members that they can do anything if they learn to unleash the Sleeping Gods within them, but now they’ve created a monster. Ryan Dane, one of the world’s biggest action stars and the church’s biggest donor, is killing the competition—literally.
When you’re famous, you can get away with murder.
Hunted by relentless assassins from her past, Carla must infiltrate the self-improvement cult as celebrities continue to be killed in unusually dramatic ways. When the murders strike closer to home, Carla must decide if she can fight monsters without becoming one herself.
They’ve always said the film industry is a cutthroat business.
Shooting Stars is second in the Carla Cruz crime thriller series, and the first is A Memory of Fire, but all books in the series can be read as standalone novels.
BURNING SEASON (Ben Wright #1)
At a small California college, the chancellor is impaled on a stone gargoyle high above the campus.
In the cold waters beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, a woman’s body is pulled from the water, but she wasn’t a
suicide—her body was burned first.
In a quiet grove of coastal redwoods, a burning woman lights up the night.
Former Special Agent Ben Wright has agreed to track his last serial killer as a low-profile consultant for the FBI. Despite his fear of fire, Ben’s task is to put out the elusive Firebug, who uses high-tech methods to lure his victims to their fiery deaths. But this time, Ben needs help.
Computer scientist Maria Fiore studied many serial killers on Death Row, then created a new tool for this
manhunt—a computer simulation of the Firebug’s mind.
Can a killer be used to catch a killer, or will the hunters become the hunted?
Comedy Mysteries
DEADFALL (Ed Beckett Comedy Mystery Series)
Amazon #1 Bestseller (October 2024)
A dark comedy mystery novel for fans of Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey, Dave Barry, Richard Osman, and Steve Higgs.
When a frozen corpse drops out of the sky and lands in his pool, science writer Ed Beckett must outwit a murderer, dodge a tiny assassin, and survive a high-flying NASA conspiracy—or risk becoming the next punchline in a deadly cosmic joke.
It all started when a NASA scientist mysteriously turned into a human popsicle. Now, Ed is racing through wind tunnels and flying in a high-altitude research jet at the Ames Research Center to clear his name. Along the way, he’s stalked by Condor, a pint-sized hitman with the tenacity of a mosquito and the skills of...well, someone who probably shouldn't have been hired to kill anyone. And if that’s not enough, the real villain, Tal Blackadder, a sleazy real estate developer fronting for the Russian Mafia, is ready to send Ed on a one-way trip to the bottom of the San Francisco Bay.
Amid high-altitude escapades, love triangles, and explosive confrontations, Beckett must use his wits and the help of his quirky team to stay one step ahead. The odds may be stacked against him, but he's not going down without a fight—or at least a few good one-liners. Join Beckett on this rollercoaster of comedy and chaos, and find out if he can outsmart the killers before he becomes the final punchline.
Science Fiction
THE FORGE OF MARS (Tau Wolfsinger Series #1)
National Bestseller (October 2002)
A NASA team has discovered alien ruins buried in the canyons of Mars, at the site called Vulcan’s Forge. The first man who touched them died. NASA needs to figure out who left them, and what they might mean to Earth exploration.
Tau Wolfsinger is the NASA researcher to do that. Brilliant and intuitive, he’s as much an outsider at the agency as he has been everywhere, all his life. Nobody likes using him, but he’s the best.
What Tau doesn’t know is that the Mars ruins aren’t the first of their kind. The others are in the hands of the Davos Group, a shadowy international organization whose members have been hiding similar artifacts for decades, trying to unlock their secrets. Tau has sworn that his talents will not be put to military use, but dangerous people are watching him now, and they do not intend to be stopped.
“Balfour expertly speculates on many fronts that make NASA and the Martian environment credible . . . Tau and his trip to Mars make a good story.” -- The Denver Post
“Strap in and get ready for an exciting ride.” -- William C. Dietz
THE DIGITAL DEAD (Tau Wolfsinger Series #2)
National Bestseller (October 2002)
SOME PEOPLE WOULD DIE TO LIVE FOREVER.
Bruce Balfour, the national bestselling author of The Forge of Mars, brings us to a future age in which virtual versions of the dead control the desires of those they've left behind-with terrifying results.
Elysian Fields is a new company promising eternal life. Simply implant a computer chip at the back of your neck, and when you die an electronic copy of your personality will be able to live forever in a computer-generated afterlife. But virtual versions of the dead can control the desires of those they've left behind--and also reveal priceless secrets.
NASA researcher Tau Wolfsinger and his archaeologist girlfriend Kate suddenly find themselves trapped in a conspiracy to take over the U.S. presidency. Centering around Elysian Fields, it involves the new religion of a virtual-reality Entity, eco-cultists who survive through cybernetic implants that allow them to photosynthesize, and an incredibly powerful and malevolent artificial intelligence. To get to the truth, Tau and Kate will have to face them all as they prepare to cross the digital divide between life and death itself.
“Another wild ride with alien ruins, government plots, conversations with the dead, and Egyptian gods.”
-- Jack McDevitt, author of Chindi
“Dense, complex, yet easy to read and enjoy, the trappings of SF, cyberpunk and the techno-thriller are all present here, wrapped up neatly by Balfour’s prose.” -- Zone SF
PROMETHEUS ROAD
Bruce Balfour, national bestselling author of The Forge of Mars and The Digital Dead, transports readers to a future Earth--and a virtual reality hell.
Tom has always lived in the shadow of Nova Olympus--a mountain that marks were the gods cast the heathen city of San Francisco into the sea centuries ago. He cannot resist the allure of the forbidden zones near the sunken city, and the rare relics of the people who lived there.
Tom's defiance brings down the wrath of the gods and sends him running for his life, his only friend a mysterious hermit who promises him a safe haven. However, there is no safe haven and Tom discovers that the gods are a lie--they are artificial intelligences created by a humanity they now control. Only Tom can follow the Prometheus Road, a terrifying, mystical pathway that will lead him from a face-off with enemies that are half-human, half-machine to a virtual reality battleground where war-faring computer programs demand Tom's destruction.
“Balfour has a wonderful style. ”
-- SF Site
"In a future northern California farm community strictly governed by a council of unseen artificial intelligences known as the Dominion, Tom Eliot is a dangerous anomaly, an adventuresome 20-year-old who scavenges among the forbidden zones near the submerged ruins of San Francisco. During one nocturnal foray, Tom attracts the unwelcome attention of the community's overseers and unwittingly summons a nanobomb that destroys his family. On the run from Dominion cyborgs, Tom is taken under the wing of eccentric hermit Magnus, who enlightens him on the violent history of the Dominion and mentors him in navigating a frightening, Dominion-based virtual world called the Stronghold. With his talent for subterfuge, Tom may be humanity's last hope to walk a virtual "Prometheus Road" and gain backdoor entry into the Stronghold and the power to cast off Dominion oppression. Balfour's quirky characters and suspenseful narration raise the familiar sf theme of humanity enslaved by wayward computer technology above the level of the routine, making for must reading for virtual-reality fans.”
-- Carl Hays, BOOKLIST. Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
"Balfour expertly speculates on many fronts."
-- The Denver Post
★★★★★