Into Death

Into Death
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Coming Soon! 2nd novella in the Miss Beale Writes series: The Bride in Ghostly White. A touch of gothic, a touch of mystery.
In the Sketching Stage ~ Miss Beale Writes 3: The Captive in Green. A touch of gothic, a touch of mystery
Current Focus ~ Audiobooks from The Write Focus podcast. Published this year: Discovering Characters and Discovering Your Plot; Coming SOON: Defeat Writer's Block

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

The Dangers to Hearts


Do broken hearts destroy all 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 (from A Game of Secrets) 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   His cousin Agatha Helmes, he says, will hire anyone he sends to her.
Helmes Farm to assist the current steward.

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 fiancĂ©.

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  romantic suspense.  While the novel is the sixth in the Hazards to Hearts series, it is complete and contains no cliffhangers.  While 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 is not necessary.


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