Category: M.A. Lee

mysteries and romantic suspense

Courting Trouble ~ Summer Writing Challenge

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Courting Trouble

1925 Mystery ~ 2025 Summer Writing Challenge

Courting Trouble
70% Complete
35,000 of 50,000 words
Get Your Own Progress Bar

 

These three novelettes create a tie-in series to M.A. Lee’s Sailing Into Mystery stories and 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” is now available.

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.

LINKS

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FF2PTG9W

Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/bPM11l

MA Lee blog https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/spanish-moss-opening-and-links.html

Coming in July is “Texas Sun”. Look for it on July 23.

Texas Sun ~ 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.

Following and Finishing is “Gulf Storm”. Look for it on August 23 ~ fingers crossed.

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.

Will the hurricane’s landfall shred Nedda’s dreams, or will Death wreak its lethal destruction?

The trio collection should release in late September.

 

Anniversary ~ “Purple Poison” / Short Story

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cover by Deranged Doctor Design

“Purple Poison”

Another 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 the second short story in 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 (not yet available)

. ~ . ~ . ~ .

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!

 

Enjoy *The Hazard for Spies*

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It’s Anniversary Day for The Hazard for Spies.

Disguised to Spy.

A young constable tracks treacherous traitors. A spinster hopes to find a killer. Will murder destroy their chance for love?

Conrad Hoppock left his village and the girl he secretly loved for a chance at a better livelihood. He joined the London constabulary and began working with the Bow Street Runners. Now he hunts the master spy stealing information for Bonapartist France. His search sends him undercover in a lawyer’s office.

When Phinney Darracott’s sister and brother-in-law died, their children whispered “murder”. She dismissed that claim as unreasonable terrors caused by the tragic loss. Yet after repeated burglaries and an arson that destroyed their home, Phinney believed the whispers. Now she wants justice for their murders.

The clues lead her to London. There, she disguises herself as a cleaning maid for the very law office where Conrad is disguised as a clerk. Phinney’s young niece Elise and the street urchin Vic secretly pursue a different tangle of clues to the murders.

In the night hours, when all is still, Phinney prowls for the evidence. Then she encounters Conrad.

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

Can Conrad discover the identity of the French mastermind? Will Phinney’s single-minded pursuit lead her into the murderer’s snare? Will the children be caught and sold into London’s underworld?

Will they discover the connection between past and present murders?

Or will two bullets allow the murderer and the French master spy to continue their work against the British government?

The Hazard for Spies is Book 11 in M.A. Lee’s Hearts in Hazard series of Regency mysteries and suspense. The novels are loosely connected, and each story is complete in one book.

Vic the lockpick and Phinney (disguised as Mrs. Coates) were minor characters in The Hazard of Secrets. Chief Constable Hector Evans, who returns here after his inclusion in The Hazard of Secrets, had his introduction in The Dangers to Hearts and received his own story in The Key to Secrets. The fight against French spies on British soil began with the first Hearts in Hazard

Find it here, ebook or paperback, from online distributors everywhere

OR Amazon.

View the Trailer here:

 

 

Fuse Faeries with the Legends of Robin Hood

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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

 

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.

 

Visit Amazon, with this link.

View

the Trailer on

YouTube.

The Dangers to Hearts: Hearts in Hazard 6

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The Dangers to Hearts

Do broken hearts destroy all dreams?

Or will murder destroy the dreams?

 

Years ago, Agatha Helmes’ lover abandoned her.  When her baby died at birth, she thought all her hopes for the future had ended.

She poured herself into her family’s farm, but in the last year, mismanagement by three different stewards has the farm losing more money than she can pour into it.

Jess Carter occasionally crewed for a known smuggler to bring a little extra into his home.  He fell for a maid working at the Hawthorn Inn.  Then the smuggling ring was arrested.  The woman he thought he loved married another man.  With a bruised heart for company, he packed up all his possessions and left his home.

Not knowing where to go, Jess consulted the smugglers’ fence Richard Helmes who directed him to Helmes Farm to assist the current steward.  His cousin Agatha Helmes, he says, will hire anyone he sends to her.

When Jess arrives, the current steward is assaulting Agatha.  He routs the old steward and finds himself in a job he doesn’t understand, taking advice and orders from a woman.

Agatha knows only one thing about her new steward:  he doesn’t lie.  Jess admits what he knows and doesn’t know about farming.  He admits that he is avoiding arrest for smuggling.  That is more than she can say about her former stewards and her former fiancé.

Trust between Agatha and Jess grows from a seed to a mighty oak.  Attraction entwines them with compatibility and grows the first tendrils of love.

Then the steward’s cottage is set on fire, and Jess barely escapes.

The burned house reveals an old murder as the bones of Agatha’s former lover are discovered—with a bullet hole in the skull.

And the deed to Helmes Farm and other documents go missing.

With Agatha’s cousin trying to steal her farm, can Jess reveal her cousin hired him to watch out for his interests?

Will the constable investigating the new arson and the old murder think Agatha guilty of murdering her lover when he wouldn’t marry her?

And will their new love survive the questions and confusion?

The Dangers to Hearts is a sweet romantic suspense of approximately 50,000 words.  While the novel is the sixth in the Hazards to Hearts series, it is complete and contains no cliffhangers.  The character of Jess Carter was introduced in the first Hearts in Hazard book, A Game of Secrets.  Reading that novel will enrich your experience, but it is not necessary.

View the trailer. 

Purchase at online book distributors like Kobo and Barnes & Noble, Apple and Google, and many others. 

Or head over to Amazon for the Kindle ebook or paperback version.