Into Death

Texas Sun ~ Means. Motive. OpportunityThe 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.. ~ . ~ . ~ ."Texas Sun" is the second of three novelettes in this tie-in series to M.A. Lee's Sailing Into Mystery stories and Into Death novels featuring the artist Isabella Newcombe Tarrant. Nedda Courtland enters 1925 America with these stories as she is Courting Trouble.. ~ . ~ . ~ .M.A. Lee is the multi-published author of over 15 historical mystery novels and two novellas. Her Into Death series, including Digging into Death, Christmas with Death, and Portrait with Death, features Isabella Newcombe. The 12-book Hearts in Hazard series combines mystery and suspense with a Regency England setting.With Edie Roones, she penned 10 short stories in the Wild Sherwood series, featuring characters in the Robin Hood legends and dangerous faeries of British mythology.

Has the love of her life enticed her straight into death? Stranded on Crete, Isabella Newcombe finesses a refuge with English archaeologists resuming their dig after WWI. Her sketches fortuitously land her a job illustrating the dig for Prof. Gawen Tarrant. His magnetic brother Madoc charms her with his interest. The dig seethes with undercurrents, revealed when a worker is murdered. The archaeologists dismiss his death as a village vendetta. Then the dig sites are vandalized. Artifacts go missing. And Isabella's former employer may be involved in buying stolen artifacts. With evidence amassing, they must admit the worker was killed when he spied something incriminating-but what? And who murdered him? Suspicions escalate. All three professors have motives beyond simple profit. Are the Tarrant brothers stealing to fund more digs? Is Nigel Arkwright undermining the dig as revenge for Gawen's flirtation with Nigel's wife? Is Monty Standings damaging Gawen's reputation? Even the archaeological students could be involved, for their own profit or to assist a professor. Falling in love with Madoc, Isabella doesn't know who to trust. Then one of the students is murdered while his photographic archive is destroyed. With her illustrations as the only record of the artifacts, Isabella belatedly recognizes the dangers of Digging into Death. Digging into Death is the first book in the Into Death series featuring Isabella Newcombe.