It’s Mystery and Murder in 1921.

Into Death series with Isabella Newcombe

Portrait with Death continues with Isabella while introducing two new characters to the series.

Flick Sherborne, intrepid photographer. Flick is brand-new to this series, and she quite surprised me when she appeared.

DI Michael Wainwright of Scotland Yard. DI Wainwright first appeared in Christmas with Death. He has a stronger role now.

A Murderer paints with Blood.

Why would anyone kill a school master? Motives abound, and suspects increase. Fellow teaching masters. A former soldier haunted by the nightmares of the war. Three ladies were rivals for Webberly’s attentions. Their husbands may have clubbed him and cracked open his head. A photographer. Three fishermen. A medic. The pub owner and his wife. The local constable.

Who committed the murder? Can Isabella find the answer?

A tangle of motives and hidden evidence complicate the murder in Portrait with Death, an amateur sleuth mystery set in a 1920 sleepy English village.

Portrait with Death is the third novel in the series Into Death, with artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant.

What is Portrait with Death?

https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2021/07/portrait-with-death-3rd-in-into-death.html

Read the first chapter here.

https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2021/07/portrait-with-death-read-1st-chapter.html

Another bit with Isabella

https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2021/07/portrait-with-death-heres-more-with.html

A bit more with Flick

https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2021/07/portrait-with-death-heres-more-to.html

Meet Detective Inspector Michael Wainwright, sent by Scotland Yard to solve the murder … although someone else is on his mind.

https://maleebooks.blogspot.com/2021/07/meet-detective-inspector-portrait-with.html

Intrigued? More is here! https://youtu.be/6cfEOGy-fXQ

 

Portrait with Death Celebrates its Publication Anniversary this Month.

Mystery and Murder. 1921. Enjoy your last-of-summer reading.

Amazon, ebook and paperback https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0973GVKSQ

Online distributors Worldwide https://books2read.com/u/b6vrjZ 

The Hazard for Spies ~ Past and Present Murders

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

Meet Phinney ~ at this link

Meet Conrad ~ by following this link.

Vic the lockpick ~ is introduced here.

And have another Glimpse of the Danger ~ read it here.

Purchase it Here or at one of the online distributors at this link.

 

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.

 

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.

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?

Sailing With Mystery ~
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 “Purple Poison”.

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

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

In discussing with 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 “Amber Dreams” cover represents the rocky coasts that Isabella would have seen along the French and Spanish coastlines.

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!

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?

View M.A. Lee’s page on this site (click the link above) for more information about the Into Death series and to find links to the three novels and a bundle of the first three novels.

Spring is bursting forth,

birds are twittering around,

… and allergies have started.

Time for the April Book Birthdays!

photo by Magnus Manske, from Creative Commons

Celebrate! And discover more with one click!

On April 1st ~ Writing Craft!

Discovering Your Writing. Characters. Plot. Branding. Sentence Craft. A ready-reference to build your writing career.

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

April 5 ~ Fantasy!

The bundled series Spells of Air. Elemental magic. Dangerous Dark Fae allies. Treacherous shape-shifted. A twisted sorceress.

Find it here.

April 9 ~ Traditional Regency Mystery

The Dangers to Hearts

What can possibly go wrong in an idyll?

Arson uncovers a decade-old murder. Agatha’s vanished fiancé didn’t abandon her; someone murdered him.

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

Explore here and purchase here.

April 30 ~ Another Traditional Regency Mystery … with a bit of suspense!

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?

Explore … and purchase!

Conrad and Phinney
Cover by Deranged Doctor Design