By Zac Northup
Books & Novels
Historical and speculative thrillers and short fiction by Zac Northup, from the Virginia frontier of 1774 to the last days of World War II.
Novel series
The Fading Darkness Series
Three historical thrillers on the Virginia frontier, from Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774 to the winter of 1776. Each novel has a Pharos History Through Fiction course built around it.
Through the Fading Darkness
Book One in the Fading Darkness Series
The year is 1774, and the Virginia frontier is a powder keg.
As 1774 dawns on the Virginia backcountry, a British colonist driven by vengeance, an enslaved young woman fighting for survival, two rival Shawnee chiefs navigating shifting allegiances, and an Irish indentured servant collide in the chaos of Lord Dunmore’s War.
Pharos History Through Fiction: Through the Fading Darkness 18-Week Colonial History Course
Beyond the Fading Darkness
Book Two in the Fading Darkness Series
In the shadow of a gathering revolution, the Virginia frontier erupts into a deadly game of espionage and survival.
As 1775 ignites, Lord Dunmore returns to Williamsburg facing a chilling truth: the same Virginians he once rallied against the Shawnee are now on the brink of open rebellion against King George III.
Pharos History Through Fiction: Beyond the Fading Darkness 12-Week Revolutionary History Course
Winter’s Ghosts
Book Three in the Fading Darkness Series
The American Revolution has reached the brutal frontier, and no one is safe.
A blizzard has buried the Virginia frontier under an unforgiving blanket of snow. It’s the brutal winter of 1776, and at Dickinson’s Meadow, a solitary settlement clings to existence.
Pharos History Through Fiction: Winter’s Ghosts 12-Week Frontier History Course
90-Minute Reads
Written to be enjoyed in a single evening.
In the Ashes
A WWII Thriller About War and What’s Left Behind
As the German Reich collapses in fire and chaos, a squad of exhausted American infantrymen clears what remains of a Nazi concentration camp.
What should be a final, grim duty turns into something far worse when they accidentally kill a Jewish prisoner. With his last breath, the man begs them to save his wife, Elise, before the SS executes her in a nearby subcamp.
REMNANT
The Boreasby Blueprint
The nation is no longer what it once was.
When Fletcher is sent to interrogate Silas Boreasby, a mysterious hermit living in the mountains, he discovers a manuscript that shouldn’t exist: a perfect, step-by-step blueprint of the war written years before the first shot was fired.
Short Stories From Middle America
The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary People
In the quiet corners of Middle America, ordinary lives collide with the extraordinary.
This sharp collection of five stories—Places People Fall, The Thevenin Cipher, The Bar on Fuller Street, Seconds, and The Life and Death of an Unimportant Man—explores falls, hidden truths, regret, resilience, and the fragile line between survival and surrender.
The World War II Series
The Two Black Valleys
Book One in The World War II Series
In West Virginia’s high, dark Blackwater Valley, young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps clear roads and plant trees through the hard winter of 1937.
For Eddie, Bill, and Virgil, the work that feeds them also forces a reckoning with loyalty, loss, and the cost of second chances.
Looking for the courses built on these novels? See Premium Curriculum.