Front Cover
Whispers of Nystad
Book One • The Cipher Wheel Chronicles
"Some empires are built on salt. Others on secrets."
Stockholm, 1709. Elsa Voss inherits more than her husband's merchant empire—she inherits the cipher wheel that built it. When war and plague converge, survival isn't about profit. It's about secrets.
Author
SJ Ellery
Released
January 11, 2026
Ebook
$4.99
Paperback
Coming Soon
The Cipher Wheel Chronicles
An epic multi-generational saga spanning 200 years of Baltic history. Three generations of women inherit a shadow network of information brokers that shaped European trade, moved grain during famines, and decided which cities starved and which survived.
Whispers of Nystad
Stockholm, 1709. A merchant widow discovers her father's empire was built on secrets, not salt.
The Nystad Gambit
The Treaty of Nystad is three years away, but the game is already being played...
Legacy of Nystad
Three generations. One cipher wheel. The final reckoning.
About SJ Ellery
SJ Ellery writes historical fiction that explores the quiet mechanics of power, survival, and legacy. Rather than focusing on famous figures or grand battles, Ellery's work centers on ordinary people navigating extraordinary historical pressures—where personal decisions carry long shadows.
Ellery's stories are shaped by a deep interest in how systems—economic, political, and social—intersect with individual lives, particularly during periods of transition and uncertainty. Themes of moral compromise, competence, and generational inheritance recur throughout the work.
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