Spring is springing…

I had a lovely long walk yesterday, which was just as well because I’ve been working my little socks off on the blog design.

So, all I’m going to do is to say ‘On Sea and On Land’ is due out on Thursday, and please can let you know what you think about this new promotions format? As always, they’re on at 99p in the UK, and 99c in the US.

A Prayer for Peace

All Amy Hammond she wants to do is enjoy her job running a craft centre at a stately home, get on with her quilting and cross at least a few things off her apparently endless to-do list. Only she's never been any good at walking away when people need help, so maybe her beloved but bossy big sister is right to claim that she might as well have 'mug' tattooed across her forehead.

Now her best friend and next-door neighbour, enigmatic retired Brigadier Peter Cunningham, is revisiting his past after he decided to find out whether his ex-wife was right when she claimed that the child who was born at the end of his marriage wasn’t his son. It may well be embarrassing, but surely it can't be dangerous, can it?

Oh yes it can, and an attempted murder is only the start as Peter's past has literally come back with a vengeance. and Amy's finally starting to understand why so many strange things have been happening since he moved in next door to her. Can Peter begin to resolve his past, and will they both survive their most dangerous adventure yet? If they do, then how will they handle their growing feelings for each other?

To have and to hold

People have started accusing Amy Hammond of being her little Dorset town's very own Miss Marple. She hates it, not least because she's only in her very early fifties, but there's no way she can tell them that most of the trouble she's found has involved her close friendship with her next door neighbour, retired Brigadier and nothing like as retired as he wants to be, spy Peter Cunningham.

She loves sewing, quilting and embroidery and her job at the Swansmere Craft Centre, which is part of a stately home. Once, she'd dreamed of escaping from the rut that it felt as if she'd lived in all her life, but she'd never got around to making it happen. Now, she's living proof that the old Chinese proverb 'be careful what you ask for...' is all too accurate.

Still, nothing should happen while her favourite niece is getting married at Swansmere's new wedding facilities because her hyper-organised big sister Laura is definitely not panicking, no matter what it looks like. Everything seems to be going perfectly until the chef gets stabbed by one of his staff at the rehearsal dinner.

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Can Amy and Peter find the attacker before anything else can happen to spoil the wedding? Can they find another chef in time, or will the wedding reception have to be supermarket sandwiches and cream cakes? Why are so many pretty foreign students disappearing? And will either of them admit how much they mean to each other, and if they do admit it, can they work out what they want to happen next?

Let the Dead

Middle-aged Amy Hammond always wanted an adventure until she started having them. At first she didn't understand why, but now she's realised that her neighbour and increasingly more than good friend Brigadier Peter Cunningham is actually a nothing like as retired as he wants to be spy!

Friendship seems to be turning to love, so she's nervous when he invites her to go on holiday with him, meet his cousin and see an archaeological dig.

What can possibly go wrong on a lovely farm that's nestled among the beautiful Black Mountains where there are three quilt shops within easy reach and museums with plenty more quilts in them nearby? Doesn't Amy deserve a break after all their adventures? There doesn't have to be crime and murder and intrigue everywhere she goes, does there?

She kept telling herself that until the archaeologists unearthed a body that's only been in the ground for a few months. It's Peter's cousin's former lover, who vanished in Berlin just before the Cold War fell and was long ago presumed dead, so guess who's the obvious suspect?

Add in a childhood feud with the local Police Superintendent, an attempted murder and a Russian gunman and Amy starts wondering if she and Peter are going to live long enough for her to admit that she loves him, let alone visit all those shops and museums.

Knights Move

A prominent politician narrowly escapes death after his driver is killed by a crossbow arrow. A whisper is heard that terrorists are planning to gather under the guise of a tournament and medieval reconstruction that's being held at an authentic English castle while they plan how to wreak havoc at a political conference. That makes it a job for British Intelligence's elite MI27, which is known as the Shadows to its agents.

Protection specialist Andrew Stannard is an avid reconstructor who took part in the tournament the previous year, so he’s the obvious choice to lead the team, with former three-day event star Maria Jordan as his squire. It’s hard having to suspect his friends, and it gets harder still when a woman he had a brief affair with dies in a horrific fire. He’s still coping with that when he narrowly avoids death after a prop malfunctions, and his determination not to have any sort of emotional relationship with Maria because this is his first time as a team leader and he intends to follow all the rules vanishes when he sees how upset she is.

Add into the mix bondage and domination, a blackmailed knight, kidnap and drug dealing and the couple who were both wishing for a proper adventure might well decide that they need to be a lot more careful what they wish for in future!

Knight to Pawn

Welcome to the Shadowy world of British Intelligence’s most secret department, MI27. They get the strange jobs and count their successes by what nobody knows could have happened.

Agent Suze Lomax is a brilliant administrator, who's second to none with a spreadsheet, but the closest she's come to the adventure she's always longed for was a job at Cerne Castle, where she protected professional knight in shining armour Bedevere Morgan, who was taking part in a medieval reconstruction and fighting in tournaments every day.

Vere’s interest in bondage and domination got him blackmailed by the terrorists who are aiming to wipe out the British Government. One of the reasons why he's so attracted to Suze is her natural air of control, so who better to infiltrate the local bondage and domination scene as Mistress and Slave?

Can they stop the terrorists? Can they find a way to have the relationship they want? Can Suze work with Vere's aggressive and domineering father without giving in to the temptation to tell him exactly what she thinks of him? And why won’t Vere walk away from his father?

There are mysteries within mysteries within mysteries, yet they’re having the time of their lives when they're not terrified, so for once the hyper-organised Suze has to let the future take care of itself.

Pawn to Queen

Welcome to the Shadowy world of British Intelligence’s most secret department, MI27. They get the strangest jobs and count their successes by what doesn’t happen or doesn’t get noticed. 

Millionaire computer security genius Gavin Allender was attacked after he discovered something vital about a terrorist threat against the government's party conference. He was savagely whipped and badly concussed and now can’t remember what he knew. He needs nursing, but refuses to go to hospital and is too independent and arrogant to be an easy patient.

Nurse protection specialist Cheney Stannard is assigned to care for and protect him, but her boss warns her off having a relationship with him. Unfortunately, the more people seem to be determined to protect her alleged innocence, the more the attraction between them grows and the more curious she gets about exploring a world she's never considered before.

Can he remember in time to stop the Prime Minister from being assassinated?

Can they escape in time to save him when they’re kidnapped and held hostages?

And can two driven people who have very different dreams and goals ever build a lasting relationship?

Happy Never After

Single parent and childminder Ellie Foster’s daughter is leaving home. Her son’s happy in the Navy, and everyone’s united that it’s time for her to live her own life, preferably with a nice man. Her husband was a total rat, so as far as she’s concerned, it’s less of a case of living happily ever after with a man than living happily never after by not getting involved again.

She’s known Steve Grey for most of their lives, and he’s always been a rotten tease who doesn't want involvement either. Yet now he needs her help as he applies to foster two troubled boys and she needs his help when  her daughter brings home a visitor that she never expected to see.

Can they weather the storms together? And could happy never after  become an entirely new kind of happily ever after in this latest very cosy instalment of the ‘Oldcastle’ series?

Amy Hammond 3 Shadows 5 Windy Bay 5 * to 18/3

Ghost of Christmas Past

Craft-loving middle-aged Amy Hammond and not as retired as he'd like to be spy Peter Cunningham are both determined not to find any more rouble while Peter's cousin Drew has joined them for Christmas. 

Only Amy’s niece Ellie needs their help after a man fell from the roof of the stately home where her new fiance's family have lived for centuries. Her fiancé is suspected of murder, and there are dark undercurrents and a link to a scandal involving the British Royal Family. The two young spies that Peter is mentoring are just as far out of their depths as she is, so this is one Christmas that Amy won't be able forget for all the wrong reasons.

Can Amy's belief that people matter more than great causes save the day?

And what will happen if her beloved but bossy big sister, almost as bossy niece and her niece's mother in law ever bond  enough to decide to organise her for her own good?

Sometimes, murder and mystery can be the least of her problems!

The Past is Always With us

Avid crafter Amy Hammond always wanted to have an adventure but she was too busy with everyday life until her new neighbour, the nothing like as retired as he claims that he wants to be spy Brigadier Peter Cunningham draws her into his strange world.  She's much happier working at the craft centre at the beautiful Swansmere Estate, which is in the heart of the equally beautiful Dorset countryside.

She's getting ready to teach her first-ever course on quilting, but she isn't sure that she wants to do it or can do it, so the last thing she needs is her niece finding an old photograph and a letter in a chest of drawers that she’s restoring. Her attempts to reunite them with their owners lead Amy and Peter to an old mystery, and some very modern threats.

Can they see justice done after so many years?

How is Liam, the talented woodworker who also works at Swansmere, involved?

Can Amy teach a course? Does she want to?'

And are the couple ever going to move in together rather than living happily in a pair of semi-detached cottages?

Sweet Revenge

Crafter Amy Hammond and her neighbour and partner, the nothing like as retired as he wants to be spy Brigadier Peter Cunningham, are finding trouble again when an important local businessman collapses and dies at a Fun Day that’s being held at the Dorset stately home where Amy runs the craft complex.

Could it have been poisoned fudge from their newest shop? It's got to be possible because the businessman used dodgy tactics to try to force them out of their old shop, but they're such nice people, and lots of people loathed the businessman

What’s going on with their new local MP, and why is Peter's old boss so interested in him?

And are Peter and Amy ever going to move in together rather than living happily in a pair of semi-detached houses? 

Warriors Way

Ros Madoc needs a hero to help her to rescue her sister from a sinister cult. Former SAS officer Gray Lennox needs a new life because he can’t face the Army any more.

Neither of them expected to be caught up in the ultra-secret world of British Intelligence’s MI27 but they discover that the cult leader is developing a computer programme that’d allow him to take over any computer in the world without anyone knowing that he's been there.

Can they rescue Ros’s sister and show her that there’s a better world away from the cult, save the world, rebuild their tattered self-confidence and find a future together? And that’s assuming that there is a future and that the world isn’t actually in the End Times that The Earth Family are prophesying.

All in all, that's quite a big ask...

Cynics Way

Cybercop and good-guy hacker Luke Hallam hates everything that the establishment stands for so much that he’s the last man that any sane spymistress would send to infiltrate a doomsday cult. A senior government minister wants him brought under control so the head of the ultra-secretive M27, who exist to resolve the problems that would give the rest of us nightmares if we knew about them, has decided to kill two birds with one stone without bothering with the formality of recruiting him.

Shadow agent Alix Somerville has already infiltrated the cult and is working to delay the program that’d allow them to take over any computer with no one any the wiser She’s struggling, and struggles even more when the man she once loved turns up because she knows about his dual identity but didn’t tell her bosses.

Can an unlikely hero save the world and come to terms with his past?

Can he find the courage to love after a massive betrayal?

Can Alix overcome her fear of involvement?

Most importantly of all, can they literally save the world?

It takes a village

Nanny Freya comes back to Windy Bay to live with her grandmother when she gets her dream job up at Druett Manor, but all her plans come crashing down when she finds her grandmother dead. They had so many dreams about what they'd do together, so she decides to honour them by doing them with the help of her grandmother's friends. As she makes friends across the generations, she's more certain than ever that this is where she belongs, but will a flood and a visit from her parents derail all her plans?

And what's going on with handsome Oliver, the accountant who's given up his dreams to train as a carpenter?

What was her grandmother planning?

Luckily, this is Windy Bay, where time goes more slowly, and people are kind and things happen that couldn't happen anywhere else.

A Village Spring

Doctor's receptionist Lottie Jackson is fighting a polite war with locum Doctor Chris Cameron, who thinks she's too young, too blonde, and pretty much too much of everything he doesn't want. Everyone else thinks he's great, but she thinks of him as Doctor Grumpy or Doctor Dark Cloud.

Her world is turned upside down when she realises that she's not only who she thought she was but she has a younger sister who needs a bone marrow donation. As she navigates the process she has to handle parents she never knew she had, a so-called mother who's lied to her all her life and a painful procedure that may not work.

Luckily, this is Windy Bay, where time goes more slowly, people are kind, and there's a welcome for anyone who needs it, so even Doctor Grumpy may not be quite what he seems. In fact, he may even be Doctor Exactly Who She Needs.

Weddings in the Village

Freya, Jess and Lottie all want to be married to the men they love but none of them want the fuss of a big wedding so their octogenarian friend and mentor Cyndy suggests the idea of an old-fashioned joint wedding . At first, they want to keep it secret as long as possible, but they rapidly realise that that won't be an option in the beautiful seaside village of Windy Bay and instead support each other both as they work for the simple wedding they want and deal with old memories while they make new ones.

Can Freya cope with her ever-so-slightly domineering mother?

Can Jess get past her grief because her mother can't be there and her complicated family?

Can Lottie work out a way to juggle the family she's recently discovered adopted her, her original family and her feelings of never being good enough?

They're all tough asks, but luckily, this is Windy Bay where time goes more slowly, people are kind, things happen that can't anywhere else, and happy endings sometimes aren't what you're expecting them to be.