Full excerpt + character images below. Mr. Drydale studied Michael’s face. “I’ve known for months that I need more help than just the two of us, but it has been difficult finding people to trust. I was hoping you might join us in pursuing this group, but you seem reluctant.” Michael didn’t blame his job, but when he was focused on a mission, he rearranged his priorities and discarded what should be most important to him. He knew he couldn’t regain what he had lost, but he didn’t want to go back to being an agent again. “I quit my work for the government because I wanted to find Richard’s murderer, not uncover a plot for treason. I have been working toward that goal for the past year.” Perhaps he was so focused on Richard’s murderer because he didn’t want to face a future so completely the opposite of what he had thought his life would be. Or maybe he was so focused on the murderer because he didn’t want to face the fact that, if he had handled the situation better, his brother wo...

Michael Coulton-Jones — master of disguises and reluctant heir. My character, Mr. Michael Coulton-Jones, is a man who laughs easily, moves confidently, and seems untouchable … until you discover what he carries alone. Michael isn’t tormented in the obvious way. He doesn’t brood in corners or glare across rooms. He smiles. He jokes. He adapts. But beneath every disguise is a man who believes he failed the one person who trusted him most. This is a story about espionage, about secret societies hidden beneath Regency society. But it’s also a story about guilt, and whether a man who cannot forgive himself can ever believe that God might. The Spy Who Laughs At first glance, Michael is exactly the sort of Regency gentleman who should not be trusted. He is broad-shouldered and deceptively relaxed. His coffee-brown hair falls longer than fashion dictates, often into glass-green eyes that seem to be laughing at a joke no one else has heard. He speaks French like a commoner from the c...

The man he was waiting for opened the door to the study with barely a click of the door latch. His silhouette was partially outlined in the dim light from the candle he held, and he was far enough away that he shouldn’t have seen the predator in the shadows, but he grew still for a moment. Then he continued into the darkened room, although he did not head toward his desk, as might be expected. Instead, he set the candle on the mantle of the fireplace, with his back to his desk and the stranger waiting for him. —from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer Read the first few chapters free online.

As he waited in the darkened room for his quarry to appear, he felt like the shadows were loving arms clasped around his shoulders. He was comfortable in the dark—it blurred his many disguises, and it somehow made his emotions rest in slumber. Everything that felt messy inside of him was hidden by the dark so that he could pretend he was whole and without pain. —from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer Read the first few chapters free online.

The Spy You Don’t See Coming A closer look at Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 2 Some characters arrive quietly. They don’t announce themselves. They don’t command attention. And yet, the moment they step onto the page, everything begins to shift. That’s the role a certain prince plays in Volume 2. ⸻ When One Person Goes Missing At the end of the first volume, everything is already unraveling. The danger isn’t theoretical anymore. It has a name—a man willing to experiment with something no one fully understands. But Septimus, a member of the team, is missing. Instead of an investigation, the team must urgently search for their lost, but time begins to feel like the enemy. ⸻ A Man Alone While the others scramble to find him, Septimus is left to endure something very different. He is injured, isolated, and moving through a world that is no longer predictable. There is no safety in skill, no careful planning to rely on. He only has his instincts and endurance. He is determined ...

It was seeing the wardrobe and remembering those days that did it. Phoebe had a flash in her mind’s eye of a wooden floorboard, and a tiny symbol carved into the surface of the wood. The symbol had been barely visible since it hadn’t been filled with blacking to make it stand out, but with a child’s curiosity, she’d seen the strange flaw in the grain of the wood and crawled closer to investigate it. It had been near the wall, next to the back edge of the wardrobe. Here , in her uncle’s bedchamber. It had been the same symbol she’d seen just today, on the torn scrap of paper that had been caught by her arrow. —from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer Read the first few chapters free online.

It was possible Phoebe had just helped an immoral, albeit handsome, criminal. But good gracious, that man was intriguing. On the carriage ride back to town, the Misses Layton had initially congratulated themselves in a burst of high spirits over the successful archery party. But for the latter half of the trip, they lapsed in silence and dozed with exhaustion, and Phoebe was left to her own thoughts. Her curious interaction with Mr. Coulton-Jones was at the forefront, but the archery party had only postponed her inevitable ruminating over her new, dire situation. Now that she had had time for the shock to fade, Phoebe felt as if she had been completely routed, like an ill-equipped army that fell helplessly before Emperor Napoleon. Only now could she think of all the things she could have said, all the arguments she could have made in her defense. But could she have spoken with any semblance of calm in the face of Mrs. Lambert with her perfectly beautiful face and her hateful smile...