The Ben Canaan series follows the exploits of Ben Canaan, an East End tailor’s son and petty criminal, who over the course of a gripping series of historical thrillers, becomes a detective to rival Sherlock Holmes.
Murder in Constantinople was published by Pushkin Press in hardback in the UK in September 2024 and paperback in June 2025. The UK publication was selected as “Pick of the Month” in The Financial Times and received 5-star reviews in The New York Times, The Daily Mail, The Sun, The Literary Review and Glamour Magazine.
In October 2025, Pushkin Press published Murder in Constantinople in North America and released it globally on audiobook. North American distribution was through Penguin Random House and the audiobook was produced and released by Tantor Media.
The second book in the series, Death on the Pearl River, was published in the UK in June 2026 and was selected as Pick of the Month in both The Sunday Times and The Financial Times. It is published in North America in October 2026, together with an audiobook from Tantor Media.
In March 2026 Pushkin Press announced that they have acquired the third and fourth books in the Ben Canaan series.
“The latest in AE Goldin’s engrossing historical series and the second outing for Ben Canaan... Canaan is sent to Hong Kong - a place where warlords rule and danger mounts. Goldin conjures up a world of menace with verve and sparkling detail”.
The Financial Times
Death on the Pearl River
Published by Pushkin Press, June 2026
London, 1856. Ben Canaan is a young detective on the payroll of Her
Majesty’s Executive, riding high on a string of successful cases. Then a notorious crime boss turns up murdered in a country estate, the
latest in a series of brutal killings targeting the most powerful men in the global opium trade.
To track down the culprits and prevent more blood from being shed, Ben is sent out to the newly-founded British colony of Hong Kong: a lawless frontier town on the southern shores of China’s Great Qing Dynasty.
Ben is plunged headlong into a labyrinthine conspiracy, set against the backdrop of an empire in collapse. As his hunt brings him closer to the truth and the ruthless corporate interests that want him dead, Ben is forced to choose between what is necessary and what is just.
UK Paperback (June 18 2026)
US Paperback (October 14 2026)
Murder in Constantinople
Published by Pushkin Press, September 2024
London, 1854. Twenty-one-year-old Ben Canaan attracts trouble wherever he goes. His father wants him to be a good Jewish son, working for the family business on Whitechapel Road, but Ben and his friends, the ‘Good-for-Nothings’, just want adventure.
Then the discovery of an enigmatic letter and a photograph of a beautiful woman offer an escapade more dangerous than anything he had imagined. Suddenly Ben is thrown into a mystery that takes him all the way to Constantinople, the jewel of an empire and the centre of a world on the brink of war.
His only clue is three words: ‘The White Death’. Now he must find what links a string of grisly murders, following a trail through kingmaking and conspiracy, poison and high politics, bloodshed and betrayal. In a city of deadly secrets, no one is safe – and one wrong step could cost Ben his life.
UK Hardback (September 2024)
UK Paperback (June 2025)
US Paperback (October 2025)
