The Hazard of Secrets

Posted on September 5, 2025May 23, 2025 by writer35_bg

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?

Read the first chapter at this link.
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.
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

The Dangers to Hearts: Hearts in Hazard 6

Posted on April 15, 2025January 20, 2025 by writer35_bg

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.