The Key for Spies ~ book 8 in the Hearts in Hazard series of historical mysteries/suspense.

Spies and traitors.  Lies and treachery.  Unexpected love where bullets fly.

One traitor destroys loyalty.  What will two traitors destroy?

The British spy Simon Pargeter scouts the terrain for Wellington’s army in French-controlled Spain.  Miriella de Teba ye Olivita, the famed Doñabella, wants to give him aid, but she must first find the traitor lurking in her band of guerillas.

Can Simon escape the French patrol hot on his trail?  With Major Pierre LeCuyer actively seeking Doñabella’s identity, can Miri hold her guerrillas together long enough to get the information Simon needs?  Can she locate the traitor before she is unmasked?

Or will the traitors reap the reward while Simon and Miri swing from a gallows?

https://books2read.com/u/3RKYpj

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MTSQTY7

trailer https://youtu.be/Ehc7VxUxCp4

Hero and Villain

Meet the protagonist Simon and one of the antagonists for The Key for Spies, a January release by M.A. Lee in her historical mystery / suspense series Hearts in Hazard.

1st April 1813, Thursday

Thieves night.

That’s what his older brother called it, back when they’d run together.  They’d taken to the dark streets, smashed locks to steal pastries or sausages, pried open windows to climb into dark rooms, and stolen locked boxes with stashes of coins.  He never knew who Mattias worked for.  Belly stuffed with iced rolls or spiced sausage, he had trailed behind his brother.  Until the gendarmes caught Mat with a hand stuck in the alms box.

Hidden behind a dark column, he’d frozen when the gendarmes appeared.  Then black wings flapped before his face.  He ran until his sides hurt and his too-tight shoes split along the worn sides.  He’d abandoned his brother, a betrayal that had never left him.

The next day he ran on to Marseilles.  There, he re-invented himself as Pierre LeCuyer.

Continue reading “Key for Spies ~ Meet Hero & Villain”

Start January off Right!

Three Books to Enjoy!

From M.A. Lee, we have two Regency mysteries with a dash of suspense.

From Remi Black, we have the second novella in the Fae Mark’d World series, Spells of Air.

We also have the audio Podcast from The Write Focus.

 

Mysteries Fused with Romance

First up, we have two of the three Key titles in the Hearts in Hazard series. All three have strong male protagonists. With The Key for Spies, Lee also achieved 1.5 million published fiction words. With all the titles that she’s published since 2019, she’s over 2 million published words.

The third book in the subseries is The Key with Hearts. We’ll celebrate that novel in February.

On January 15, The Key for Spies.

Spies and traitors.  Lies and treachery.  Unexpected love where bullets fly.

One traitor destroys loyalty.  What will two traitors destroy?

Here are three links.

  • View the trailer for The Key for Spies: https://youtu.be/Ehc7VxUxCp4 

The ebook and paperback can be published at online distributors everywhere or ask for it at the library:

A Trio of Keys with Intriguing Men

On January 20

The Key to Secrets, book 7 in the Hearts in Hazard series, published in 2018 and featuring one of Lee’s recurring characters, Constable Hector Evans.

Dark Hearts and Sharp Knives.

Hector Evans has plenty of suspects for a bloody death—including the woman he once loved.

View the trailer at this link: https://youtu.be/1Sj7NfvxzXg

The ebook and paperback can be found at online distributors or ask for it your library.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0795F86YW

B&N / Kobo and more: https://books2read.com/u/mZj0Ke

Fantasy Fused with Romance

On January 25 is Remi Black’s To Charm the Wind,  published in 2021 and now 2 years old!

To Charm the Wind has entered the terrible 2’s!

When Haven isn’t a Sanctuary—

When the untried wizard Orielle enters the Wilding on her journey to Iscleft Haven, she expects threats from bears and mountain lions, vipers and hornets.

Published January 31, 2021

She certainly doesn’t expect the creatures of legend: wraiths and gobbers, shape-shifting wyre, and the Dark Fae called the Kyrgy.

Grim, an outcast from Iscleft Haven, is the keen steel that stands with her against these dangers.

Yet when they reach the Haven, the elder arrests Grim. The Haveners aren’t interested in a renewed alliance with the Wizard Enclave.

Is her mission for the Enclave in vain?

Will she ever escape the Wilding?

 

For Writers, the January series of The Write Focus.

January starts with a free opening scene.

  • Last year was Remi Black’s short story, “Godriana’s Font”. You can get the entire story free with this Book Funnel link: click.
  • The year before was M.A. Lee’s “The Lion’s Den”, also available as a freebie through Book Funnel: here.
  • This year, things are little hectic. (Okay, a LOT hectic.) If we manage the recording, it will be the opening scene from “The Poisoner and the Faerie Huntsman”. You can access the story as a freebie through Book Funnel: also here.

The starting series for 2023, our fourth season, is Discovering Characters. Enjoy!

Visit The Write Focus website for more information and links to every episode.

Here’s the link to the blog site: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/

Enjoy January and look forward to February.

The thaw is coming!

Two hearts with dangerous pasts are twisted up into complex schemes in this 10th book of the Hearts in Hazard series ~ The Hazard of Secrets.

The Hazard of Secrets

Can these two hearts keep their secrets, or will murder force them to reveal all?

Clarey Parton crosses the Atlantic to steal an inheritance. She hopes that no one discovers the rightful heir lies in a cold grave.

Jem Baxter returns to the England he fled three years before. He assumes the name James Axminster to conceal his past, one littered with misdeeds.

When a press gang sees two people traveling alone, they seize the opportunity for quick cash: they plan to sell Clarey to a brothel and impress Jem on a merchant ship. Fate brings these two lonely souls together. Chance helps them escape.

Yet escape traps them in another secret—one with murder as a bloody solution.

The Hazard of Secrets offers twists and turns as tight as knots.

Can Clarey and Jem keep their secrets, or will murder force them to reveal all?

  1. Read the first chapter at this link.
  2. Here’s the second chapter of the newest release by M. A. Lee, The Hazard of Secrets, historical mystery set in 1814 Liverpool, England, with just a dash of romance. Find it at this link.
  3. Writers will tell you that sometimes characters take control of a story, and writers are just along for the write. That’s the case with Vic, a boy on the streets of 1814 Liverpool in M.A. Lee’s newest historical mystery. I liked Vic so much I might even ask him to write another story with me. Find Vic’s introduction at this link.

And watch the trailer: 

 

This is the book that became ever-expanding, blowing past the original length of 55,000 words, climbing on to 78,000 words, and then achieving 109,000 words.

I kept thinking about dividing it out, but events at the beginning cause events in the middle and connect to events at the end.

And I hate to read cliff-hangers which require two separate books. Better to have the cliff-hangers at the end of chapters!

 

Available Worldwide as an ebook https://books2read.com/u/4DWRJr

 

Available ebook and paperback on Amazon

 

 

Regency Mystery with an Eerie Touch of the Gothic and a Dash of Romance

The Hazard with Hearts concludes the Hearts in Hazard series.

Two wives haunt the castle. Will she be the third to die?

Vivienne Northrup agreed to a marriage of convenience to reap the benefits of becoming the Countess of Sheldrake. While she explores the ruins of Sheldrake Castle, a falling stone dislodged from a tower nearly kills her.

cover by Deranged Doctor Design

Only then does Vivienne discover that the earl’s previous two wives died tragically. The first had jumped to her death from that very tower.

Or had the woman been pushed?

Had someone tried to Kill Vivienne with the stone?

In the gothic tradition of Victoria Holt and Dorothy Eden, The Hazard with Hearts offers a determined heroine who confronts doubts, superstition, and the dark passions of a killer who wants every countess of Sheldrake dead and buried.

The Hazard with Hearts is book 12 in the Hearts in Hazard series of mysteries and suspense, with just a dash of sweet romance. The stories are loosely connected with each story complete in one book.

2 Free Glimpses and 2 Audio Files

For an audio narrated by the Author M.A. Lee: Click the link to listen on PodBean. 

If you prefer to read the first chapter, please click this document file:

Haz with Hearts 1st chapter

You can listen to an audio file about Maxwell Herrick, 9th Earl of Sheldrake at this link

Or you can read this document file: Haz with Hearts Meet Max

They whisper that he is Bluebeard. His first two wives haunt the castle?  Will his third wife be next to die?

Want to Read about Writing Problems?

“What’s in a Name?” That was a major question at the beginning of the rough draft for M.A. Lee’s The Hazard with Hearts.

Read about her problems here!

Enjoy.

 

 

LINKS 

Trailer https://youtu.be/y9gELz8G6-E

Ebook only :: https://books2read.com/u/boEVg1

For ebook and paperback :: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GJXKK2N/

Welcome to A Trio of Hazards

twisty mysteries in Regency England

A Trio of Hazards offers people from the many spheres of life as they clash against each other—

and against murderers!

 

Complex Schemes, Dangerous Pasts :: The Hazard of Secrets

Clarey Parton crosses the Atlantic to steal an inheritance. She hopes that no one discovers the rightful heir lies in a cold grave.

Jem Baxter returns to the England he fled three years before. He assumes the name James Axminster to conceal his past, one littered with misdeeds.

When a press gang sees two people traveling alone, they seize the opportunity for quick cash: they plan to sell Clarey to a brothel and impress Jem on a merchant ship. Fate brings these two lonely souls together. Chance helps them escape.

Yet escape traps them in another secret—one with murder as a bloody solution.

The Hazard of Secrets offers twists and turns as tight as knots. Can Clarey and Jem keep their secrets, or will murder force them to reveal all?

 

 Treacherous Traitors, Murders Past and Present :: The Hazard for Spies

Disguised to Spy.

Conrad Hoppock works with the Bow Street Runners to locate a French master spy. His search sends him undercover in a firm of solicitors.

Phinney Darracott wants justice for the murders of her sister and brother-in-law. Clues lead her to a firm of London solicitors. Disguised as a cleaning maid, Phinney prowls for the evidence. There she encounters Conrad.

And the lawyer at the center of the tangle of clues is shot dead while they watch from hiding.

Will Phinney and Conrad discover the connection between past and present murders? Or will two bullets solve the problem for the murderer and the French master spy?

Will murder destroy their chance for love?

Knotty problems turn into bloody events in The Hazard for Spies.

 

Rumors, Lies, Superstition, & Murder :: The Hazard with Hearts

The bride of the Earl of Sheldrake, Vivienne Northrup encounters ghost stories from venomous neighbors when she arrives at the Hall. Her husband is busy with the concerns of the estate, and his relatives are less than welcoming.

Then, while exploring the ruins of Sheldrake Castle, she barely escapes a stone dislodged from a tower.

Rumors whisper the Earl is a Bluebeard, killing his two previous wives. Others claim the first  committed suicide while the second fell on the stairs. Which version is the truth?

Or were his wives murdered?

Two wives haunt the castle. Will Vivienne the third to die?

The Hazard with Hearts offers a determined heroine who confronts doubts, superstition, and the dark passions of a killer who wants every countess of Sheldrake dead and buried.

A Trio of Hazards

This collection is the last three books in the Hearts in Hazard series, mysteries and suspense with a dash of sweet romance. Set in Regency England, the novels are loosely connected and are complete, without cliffhangers.

Amazon shoppers: Ebook and Paperback Find it here!

Online distributors worldwide: here is that link, ebook only.