The Key for Spies is an odd addition to the Hearts in Hazard series.
1st: It’s not set in England.
It is a Regency story, just in Spain. Our hero is a British liaison officer ~ a very British way of saying “spy”. Our heroine is a Spanish noblewoman … and a leader of guerillas, fighting against the French occupation of Spain.
2nd: It’s a novel of the Peninsular War.
Rather than a classic mystery, it’s a war story. We have the suspense of flying bullets and characters who are facing real jeopardy with the stakes not only themselves but the people around them.
- We have a spy seeking the route that Wellington’s army will take to southern France.
- We have traitors among the guerillas, willing to commit murder to protect their positions.
- We have a heroine who can shoot a pistol with the best of her guerrillas.
- We have her second-in-command who is lethal with his knife.
3rd: The Dash of Romance that is a part of the series is secondary to the war story.
Miriella and Simon do fall in love, but that love is threatened by the French leader of the garrison.
4th: The novel expanded on me and became an epic-length addition to the 12-book series.
I thought the story would be around 65,000 words. I struck a block around the 40,000 mark until I realized that Jesus Contreras needed his own plot arc (including his own love) in the novel. After I added in his scenes, I hit 65,000 words but hadn’t reached the 3/4 mark of the novel.
I continued writing … and everything was flying, flowing smoothly, but at 90,000 words the ending still had to be written.
At over 110,000 words, I finally neared the last bit of the novel. The Key for Spies is a tome!
View the Trailer at this link: https://youtu.be/Ehc7VxUxCp4
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Or purchase an ebook or a paperback from Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MTSQTY7
Here’s a Free Glimpse into the Novel.
Chapter 1 ~ 1813 April 20
He had already waited a day longer than anticipated. Major Hugo Stively had assured Simon that he would be met, and he’d given the name of the leader of the partisans in this area near Vittoria.
“Esperanza. Some kind of noble.” Stively had said. “Name means hope in Spanish. They need hope, poor sods, with the French army tightening its grip.”
Even though they were only in mid-April, the heat of late afternoon shimmered on the bare rocks. A coronella basked on a razor-edged slab of granite. A fawn-colored crested bird with black and white markings hooted at Simon. When it realized he was not going to move, it flew under a scrubby bush and scratched about.