cover by Deranged Doctor Design

“Purple Poison”

the 2nd Short Story with the artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant

A flurry of poison pen letters unsettle the passengers on the ship Nomadic. Even Isabella is not immune from the vicious invective.

Will the culprit be discovered before dangerous secrets are revealed?

“Purple Poison” is part of the collection Sailing with Mystery.

The collection continues the mystery adventures of Isabella Tarrant, featured in the Into Death series. Her introduction is in the novel Digging into Death.

Link to Worldwide Distribution.

Link to Amazon here.

. ~ . ~ . ~ .

Sailing With Mystery ~ A Short Story Collection

Travel presents opportunities to meet new friends and see new places. Isabella also encounters puzzling crimes and dangerous intrigue as she sails from England to India.

The next short story is “Black Heart”.

In discussing  the covers with Kim, the design project manager at Deranged Doctor Design, we decided to avoid the problem with so few accurate images from 1921. Instead, we chose to emphasize the protagonist Isabella’s art with five watercolor images. Finding similar images became the next design challenge. We hope that the ones we have picked not only represent Isabella’s venture into watercolors but also the atmosphere and settings for the story.

The covers represent the coastlines that Isabella would have seen during her ocean voyage. “Amber Dreams” focuses on the French and Spanish coasts. “Purple Poison” would be anything she saw from Gibraltar to Rhodes.

The primary cover harks to Isabella standing to one side of the image. The ocean and the railing of the ship evoke where she is while the tumultuous sky echoes the mysteries she encounters while aboard the passenger ship.

Enjoy!

 

What do you get when Faeries are Fused with the Legends of Robin Hood?

Into Wild Sherwood

an Anthology of 5 Short Stories

For lovers of #fantasy and #medievaltimes & the legends of #Robinhood

 

View the Trailer https://youtu.be/O9qWTwRZgoI

I love this music!

 

Dangerous Faeries Lurk in the Forest

Pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham and his guards, five people take refuge in the wilds of Sherwood Forest ~ only to encounter the Faeries of British legend.

~ ~ ~

Cover by Deranged Doctor Design

“Tod the Fox and the Faeries in the Ring”

Never enter a Faerie Ring. The Faeries like to play.
How can Tod escape them?
~ ~ ~

“The Poisoner and the Faerie Huntsman”

Never reveal weakness to a Faerie.
Melly and her hound encounter strange black hounds. Then the Huntsman of the Wild Hunt arrives. Has she fallen into greater trouble?
~ ~ ~

“Three Yule Feasts for Faeries”

Will the cook become the final dish?
A Faerie sentinel tempts Ellen to cook three dinners. For each, she’ll receive three purses, copper and silver and gold. But what does the Faerie mean by final feast?
~ ~ ~

“Friar Tuck and the Faerie at the Pool”

Beauty is terrifyingly dangerous.
Friar Tuck encounters a Faerie at a forest pool. Can he convince her that he is a man of peace?
~ ~ ~

“Alan-a-Dale and the Harp of Elandrielle”

Who can trust a Faerie?
At his lowest point, a Faerie finds Alan and offers her aid. Should he accept her bargain?
~ ~ ~

If you love the historical legends surrounding Robin Hood and you’re intrigued by perilous Faeries, then explore the world of Wild Sherwood, from Edie Roones and M.A. Lee.

Paperback and Ebook available at Kobo, Apple, Google, Barnes & Noble, and other online distributors.

 

LINKS

Worldwide outlets, ebook only https://books2read.com/u/bOzoDE

Amazon, ebook and paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YX79TMH

1st Short Story in the Sailing with Mystery anthology

featuring Isabella Newcombe Tarrant from the Into Death series.

Aboard the Passenger Ship Nomadic

A short story mystery featuring Isabella Newcombe Tarrant from the Into Death series.

Amber Dreams ~~

Blackmail threatens a young bride when her secret diary is stolen. Her marriage of convenience is threatened if the contents are revealed to her new husband and his autocratic mother.

Can Isabella recover the diary before the bride loses all hope?

Find the individual short story at these links:

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1YG2J6Q

Books2Read  https://books2read.com/u/3yWAAl

The “Amber Dreams” cover represents the rocky coasts that Isabella would have seen along the French and Spanish coastlines during her ocean voyage.

Visit this website for the first section and more links. https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/02/amber-dreams-opening-and-links.html

Sailing With Mystery ~ the short Story Collection

Travel presents opportunities to meet new friends and see new places. And confront DANGER!

Follow Isabella through the Mediterranean Sea and into the Indian Ocean as she sails from England to India … and encounters puzzling crimes and mysterious intrigue.

All five short stories are available in the collection.

Link for Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1YG2J6Q

Link to Wide Distribution ~ Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/3yWAAl

A Word on the Covers: My designers manipulate stock photos to create vibrant colors. Few images are available that present 1921 accurately. Rather than be limited in cover choices, we avoided that problem and chose to emphasize Isabella’s art. Five similar watercolor images became the covers for the short stories, each one symbolically depicting the story’s conflict or theme or setting. Finding those similar images became the next design challenge.

The cover for the collection Sailing with Mystery echoes the covers for the original three-book series Into Death. The ocean and the railing of the ship depict her location while the tumultuous sky echoes the mysteries she encounters while aboard the passenger ship.

Enjoy!

The Into Death series:

Digging into Death ~ Love and murder on an archaeological dig. Has the love of her life beguiled Isabella straight into death?

Christmas with Death ~ An English country manor offers Christmas merriment, miracles, and murder. Will Isabella be the next victim?

Portrait with Death ~ When murder paints with blood, will Isabella and her new friend Flick discover that the murderer? Or will the murderer stop them?

Collected into Into Death

LINKS:

https://books2read.com/u/baDN1L

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MRBNCH7

Available ebook and paperback

Spring is bursting forth, birds are twittering around,

… and allergies have started.

Time for April Book Birthdays!

discover with one click!

By Dejan Krsmanovic - Birthday Cake Details, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134047258
Who doesn’t want chocolate cake? Image free from Wikimedia Commons, see alt text for attribution

 

 On April 1st ~ Writing Craft!

Discovering Your Writing

The epic journey for all writers is discovering the many areas of our writing craft.

Characters.

Plot.

Branding.

Sentence Craft.

A ready-reference to build your writing career. Designed for writers at any skill level.

One-click link for the book description, trailer, and purchase.

 

April 5 ~ Fantasy!

Spells of Aircover by Deranged Doctor Design

On a mission for the Wizard Enclave, Orielle ventures into the Wilding, a strange frontier filled with magical creatures. There she discovers sprites and wraiths, gobbers and wyre, and the mysterious Dark Fae called the Kyrgy.

All view her as prey.

What can you expect from this trilogy? Elemental magic. Dangerous Dark Fae allies. Treacherous shape-shifted. A twisted sorceress.

This book bundles the three novellas, To Wield the Wind, To Charm the Wind, and To Curse the Wyre. 

Amazon has the ebook and paperback options. Worldwide is ebook only.

LINKS:

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Spells-Air-Fae-Markd-World/dp/1737422646/
Worldwide https://books2read.com/u/mlq96v

View the Trailer here: https://youtu.be/PqjouEJtbjY

April 9 ~ Traditional Regency Mystery

The Dangers to Hearts

What can possibly go wrong in an idyll? Arson uncovers a baffling murder from the past. 

When Agatha’s lover abandoned her years ago, she poured herself into her family’s property, Helmes Farm. Mismanaged by three stewards, the estate suffers financial trouble. Agatha needs someone honest to help.

Jess Carter evaded arrest for smuggling. The smuggler’s fence offers him a job at Helmes Farm. When Agatha hires Jess as her new steward, his loyalties are divided.

Then hatred burns into a fire in the night. The arson reveals an old murder. The vanished fiancé didn’t leave—he was murdered.

Who is the arsonist? Who is the murderer? Are the arsonist and the murderer the same person? Or have two people been poisoned by hatred?

Troubles past and present swirl around destructive hatred in this twisty romantic mystery.

LINKS

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y59XB7N

https://books2read.com/u/31qlQ7

View the trailer. https://youtu.be/kFhnthIuYks

April 30 ~ Another Traditional Regency Mystery

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.

Then 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 they face two bullets?

LINKS

https://books2read.com/u/4j2JEl

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087WJ8TJD

View the Trailer https://youtu.be/YrnFtNhzwQs

 

All cover images by Deranged Doctor Designs!

The Danger for Spies brings back the character of Toby Kennitt from A Game of Spies. 

The Dangers for Spies

Released March 10, 2017

Past actions cause present dangers.

The French spy, a double Agent

Eugenie DesChamps thinks she is safe, hidden in the English village of Little Houghton.  She paints landscapes to supplement her income.  She embarks on a flirtation with Charles Audley.  To her the world seems radiant, so very different from eight years ago.

No one knows that she once was a toast of Paris, a pretense she used to acquire information to pass on to English spies.  Eugenie hated the corrupt French government that had caused the deaths of her family.  Then a French agent discovered her double game.  She barely escaped with her life.

The English Spy, Undercover

Eight years ago, Tobias Kennit worked with Eugenie, stealing information about Napoleon’s troop movements.  Then their operation crashed.  He fled, believing that Eugenie was executed as a traitor to her home country.  Toby abandoned his undercover spying and became a gamester and a rake.

Yet now the English spycatcher Roger Nazenby has approached Toby once more.  He wants him to protect a cryptographer living in the village of Little Houghton.  French spies have infiltrated England to capture Charles Audley and return with him to France.  Toby agrees to the assignment only because the woman he wants to marry (Melly Ratcliffe) lives in that village.

The Master Cryptographer

Charles Audley returned to his home village for peace and quiet after stressful years in London developing a series of ciphers for English agents.  His latest ciphers led to English victories in the Peninsular War. 

In Little Houghton, he is charmed by Eugenie DesChamps, a mysterious French artist.  Their flirtation distracts him from his cryptography, but he feels no guilt whenever he is in her company.

Lives Collide

When Toby sees Eugenie, he is shocked.  Eugenie is not dead, and he wants answers from a woman he thought was a double agent.  Is she in Little Houghton to help kidnap the cryptographer?  She convinces him that she is not—but who is the threat to Charles Audley?  And can they protect Audley when they do not know when or where the attack will strike?

And Danger Returns

French agent Didier Poulaine has spent eight years weaving together the snippets of threads to help him locate the only two spies who ever escaped him:  Eugenie de la Croix and an Englishman masquerading as a French military officer.  He tracks them to Little Houghton, the location of the cryptographer he came to England to kidnap—or kill.

Poulaine’s threads have woven together.  Three lives intersect again and involve a fourth.  Blood will be shed before the past is purged.  Whose blood?

Investigate more: Click here.

The Dangers for Spies is a romantic historical suspense set in Regency England, part of the Hearts in Hazard series.  While this novel and The Game of Spies have interconnected characters, D4Spies is a complete work on its own.  However, readers will have a richer experience if they have also read The Game of Spies

View the Trailer: