The Cast
Darwin Lacroix Series Character Guide
Three people carry the series: archaeologist Darwin Lacroix, volcanologist Eyrún Stefansdóttir, and Zac Johnson. Everyone else moves in and out around them. Nothing here gives away how a story ends.
Who is Darwin Lacroix?
Darwin Lacroix is a fictional archaeologist created by Dave Bartell, and the protagonist of the ten-novel Darwin Lacroix Adventure series. He is the Founder of the Agrippa Centre for Archaeology, an independent NGO based in Corsica, and Special Director of Archaeology by Papal appointment, which gives him access to the Vatican archive without making him an employee of it. He is introduced in Roman Ice.
Colleagues call him the Great Finder, usually without much affection. What drives him is the protection of the archaeological record itself, and he will go around an institution rather than through it if the institution is the thing in the way. His own publisher’s series description puts the flaw plainly: his poor judgement of character frequently lands him with the wrong crowd. It has cost him.
Who is Eyrún Stefansdóttir?
Eyrún Stefansdóttir is an Icelandic volcanologist, Darwin’s wife, and co-founder and co-director of the Agrippa Centre for Archaeology. She is introduced in Roman Ice, where she and Darwin meet in Iceland’s lava tube systems.
She is not a sidekick and she does not wait at base camp. The geology in these books is her department, and when Darwin’s judgement slips she is usually the first person in the room to say so. By the later novels she runs her own operations while Darwin runs his.
Who is Zac Johnson?
Zac Johnson is an American former Army Ranger and a principal scientist, a Department of Energy Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Both halves of that are real at once, and the combination is why he ends up on every dig that goes wrong. He appears in every Darwin Lacroix book from Roman Ice onward.
He came out of the Palo Alto science world through the USGS and the earthquake-prediction work at Quake Predict, and he is Darwin’s closest friend as well as his field partner. That dual identity also makes him the bridge into Dave Bartell’s second series: Zac leads Containment, the first Zac Johnson thriller.
The Agrippa Centre and Darwin’s circle
The ACA is Darwin and Eyrún’s independent power base in Corsica, and the people below are the ones who keep it standing.
Emelio Lacroix
Emelio Lacroix is Darwin’s grandfather and the intellectual origin of his entire career. The family obsession with a Roman treasure convoy that vanished in the far north started with him, and Darwin inherits both the research and the grudge. He appears in Roman Ice, Tuscan Hoax and Celtic Omen, and is referenced across the series.
Barry Hodgson
Barry Hodgson is the Chief Archaeologist at the Agrippa Centre for Archaeology. He appears from Tuscan Hoax (Book 4) onward as an ongoing part of the ACA team, running the archaeological work that keeps going while Darwin is off chasing something.
Richard Ndembele
Richard Ndembele is a colleague and ally who appears in Lost Library and Templar’s Bank (Books 2 and 3), and he officiates Darwin and Eyrún’s wedding at the Siwa Oasis in Egypt. He has a dry wit that tends to arrive at the least convenient moment for whoever is being pompous.
Who is Jasmin Kahn?
Jasmin Kahn is the recurring antagonist of the Darwin Lacroix series, and the closest thing Darwin has to a nemesis. She appears in Tuscan Hoax, Louvre Escape and Celtic Omen, the three books that form one continuous arc.
Darwin will not discuss her. The history there is too personal and too complicated, and readers meeting her for the first time should meet her in Book 4 rather than on a web page.
Characters introduced in a single book
These are the people who arrive for one story, and each entry stops at the introduction.
Tessa Santarossa
A brilliant Italian operator who plays by her own rules and never shows her full hand. She sets the trail Darwin follows in Lost Library.
Valentín Reiter
The leader of Heilige Stürm, a Nazi fringe group that escaped justice, and the antagonist of Signal Code. He believes markings found in Antarctica are the lost language of the Hyperboreans.
Leyla Ibrahimova
A museum curator and ally who joins Darwin and Zac on the Alexander the Great coin cache in Alexander’s Gold, and whose knowledge of the region is the reason they get anywhere at all.
Viktor Tarasov
A cold-blooded former GRU operative turned antiquities smuggler, hungry for his first big score. He tracks Darwin’s team through Alexander’s Gold.
Chloe Fox-Parker
A bold filmmaker whose wit and charm are as sharp as her instincts. She and Darwin cross paths in Corsican Gold, the series prequel.
Pierre Kramer
A ruthless treasure hunter with a violent streak, and the rival closing in on the same prize in Corsican Gold.
Zac Johnson series characters
The Zac Johnson thrillers are Dave Bartell’s second series, and SPEAR Ops is the covert unit at their center. Zac Johnson is the one character who appears in both, and there is no shared storyline running between them.
Piper Collins
Piper Collins is a named character in Containment, the Zac Johnson origin novella. She vanishes, and the search for her is what pulls Zac Johnson into the story.
Darwin Lacroix does not appear in Containment.
Where to Meet Them
Start with Roman Ice
Everyone above starts with Roman Ice, the first Darwin Lacroix novel. Iceland, a diamond cache, and a family name to clear.
Zac Johnson’s origin story, Containment, is on Amazon and free in Kindle Unlimited. For a free Darwin Lacroix novella, Vulcan Legacy goes to newsletter subscribers at davebartell.com/join.