Courting Trouble
1925 Mystery ~ 2025 Challenge Achieved
In Summer 2025, I set a challenge to finish three connected novelettes, entitled Courting Trouble. Challenge taken and achieved.
The first novelette, “Spanish Moss”, I had written as a gift to newsletter subscribers for Christmas 2024. Last summer I needed to finish the second and third, and I published those in July and August, with the collection publishing in September.
While you can read about the individual stories below (and purchase them at the bottom of the page),
here are the links to the collection.
- Amazon ebook and paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FKKQBTKP
- Worldwide Books to Read https://books2read.com/u/mZMkY2
- View the Trailer: https://youtu.be/RzTINfZIs0U
The three novelettes created a tie-in Sailing Into Mystery stories and the Into Death novels, which feature the artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant.
Nedda Courtland enters 1925 America with these stories as she is Courting Trouble.
“Spanish Moss” introduced Nedda to New Orleans with a murder to solve.
A Death, a Will, and a Way
“Poison” is one of the last words Nedda Courtland’s employer says to her.
Private secretary to a wealthy financier, Nedda has maintained a very British poise as she traveled the world. The New Orleans of 1925 brings it own unique flavor to her experiences. Yet nothing prepares her for Hyatt Ingram’s claim of murder in the hours before his death.
With no evidence as proof, she can only fulfill Mr. Ingram’s last wishes. Holding his absent son’s voting proxy and a new will, Nedda expects the murderer to emerge in the chaos she will create as executrix.
She never expects another murder.
Second in the series is “Texas Sun”: an Attempted Murder in arid West Texas
Means. Motive. Opportunity
The grime of a working oil field draws together people at odds with the summer heat and with each other.
In the heady flush of a new romance, Nedda tries to ignore the blazing tensions, yet troubling shadows have gathered.
Then Death makes his entrance, and the grim pressures erupt.
Finishing this brief sub-series is “Gulf Storm”.
Bribe. Conspire. Die.
A hurricane threatens to disrupt the wedding festivities of Nedda and Hank.
With the approaching storm are a whirl of human crimes, and an accusation of a past misdeed rages from the shadows. Murder caps the danger.
Will the hurricane’s landfall shred Nedda’s dreams, or will the death wreak a lethal destruction?
Here are links for the Individual Novelettes:
“Spanish Moss” LINKS
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FF2PTG9W
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/bPM11l
For a sneak peak with the opening chapter, head over to the MA Lee blog: https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/spanish-moss-opening-and-links.html
“Texas Sun” LINKS
Available Now at these links:
Zon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FH5VHQ4V
B2R https://books2read.com/u/4XM6k6
Read the opening chapter on the MALblog: https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/08/texas-sun-opening-and-links.html
“Gulf Storm” LINKS
Available Here:
Zon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FK5TB4YW
B2R https://books2read.com/u/mZM2O2
The Opening Chapter is on the MALblog https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/08/gulf-storm-opening-and-links.html
The trio collection
Works in Progress Covers
