Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pentecost | 2011 | J.F. Penn | N/A |
| 2 | Pentecost / Stone of Fire | 2011 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 3 | Prophecy / Crypt of Bone | 2011 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 4 | Exodus | 2012 | J.F. Penn | N/A |
| 5 | Exodus / Ark of Blood | 2012 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 6 | One Day in Budapest | 2013 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 7 | Day of the Vikings | 2014 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 8 | Gates of Hell | 2015 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 9 | One Day in New York | 2015 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 10 | Destroyer of Worlds | 2016 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 11 | End of Days | 2017 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 12 | Valley of Dry Bones | 2018 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 13 | Tree of Life | 2020 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 14 | Tomb of Relics | 2021 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 15 | Soldiers of God | 2024 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
| 16 | Spear of Destiny | 2024 | J.F. Penn | Buy |
ARKANE is a secret British government agency that investigates paranormal and religious phenomena, and Morgan Sierra is its most compelling operative. A British-Israeli psychologist specializing in religious cults at Oxford, she is also a trained Krav Maga practitioner, which makes her as capable in the field as she is in the archive. Her partner, Jake Timber, brings a more traditional intelligence background, and together they make a strong pair across the series’ sixteen books.
The books send Morgan to locations around the world, each story built around a historical artifact, religious site, or ancient mystery. Stone of Fire opens in Israel and involves a hunt for the nine stones of fire mentioned in the Bible’s book of Ezekiel. Later entries take the series to Hungary, the Viking world, the gates of the underworld, and beyond. Penn draws on real history and religious texts, so each book carries a layer of factual grounding beneath the thriller plotting.
Readers who enjoy the kind of globe-trotting, artifact-chase adventure found in James Rollins or Dan Brown tend to find the ARKANE series a good fit. Penn adds a distinctive edge through Morgan’s military background and the series’ willingness to lean into genuinely dark supernatural territory rather than keeping everything safely explained away by science.