If you like kick-ass heroines, who might happen to operate on the shady side of the law, you’ve come to the right place. As we get to know each other, I’ll introduce you to my characters via their stories — and between their stories, occasionally I’ll tell you a few of my own…
p.s. If you’re having trouble viewing some of the images on this site, it’s my fault, not yours. I’m pretty sure I toggled something during an update recently, and not quite sure what it is (the images appear on some browsers, but not others, and for the moment, the site still looks good on my phone. I’m so confused!). Apologies while we tear around in the walls and the wiring looking for the glitch… at least the text still appears to all be there, and it looks like the links are working.
A new Hit Lady story in “Hunted”
“…For all I knew, the winter blues were finally getting to me, and the gray man was nothing more than another soggy commuter just trying to get around in the gloom. But I didn’t really believe it. I’ve spent too many years being the person watching from the shadows not to recognize one of my own kind…”
It was probably my own, post-Covid, residual brain-fog that inspired me to send my Hit Lady, Meg Harrison, to the Pacific Northwest during a cold, wet, foggy winter, but she dealt with the challenge as only she can.
A Healthy Paranoia is just one of five thrill-filled, breathless mysteries in HUNTED. As one reviewer commented:
“This first-person story almost immediately infects the reader with the main character’s paranoia, which quickly becomes completely understandable. The constant rain of the story’s location, the Pacific Northwest, contributes considerably to this claustrophobic, absorbing tale as the tension ratchets higher and higher. The main character, Meg Harrison, shows us several different aspects of her skills, which are many and varied. Meg is a complex creation, and I have no doubt that the reader has seen only a small, yet impressive, fragment of what this character can deliver.”
Hunted – a limited-run short story anthology from Stories Rule Press.
Some Holiday Fun
I took the opportunity to submit some Christmas-themed stories for the Camden Park Press Holiday Hijinks project, and am pleased to report that they accepted two of them.
“The Party Planning Pickle,” which appears in Crazy Christmas Capers, is lighthearted escapade of the sort that happens in a small town when a rivalry leads to a favor and everything ends up a little topsy-turvy. It’s probably more of a farce than an actual caper, but I had a lot of fun writing it.
“Blitzmas,” which appears in Happy Holiday Historicals, is probably as close to the opposite end of the spectrum as it could be. As might be obvious from the title, I chose to write about three women living in London during the 1940 Christmas season, when the Germans were bombing the city. It was a hard time to feel festive, and I wanted to show people coming together, in spite of all odds.
However you celebrate your holidays – with whimsy, capers, or a bit of historical nostalgia, I hope you enjoy these small stocking-stuffers.
All three Holiday Hijinks anthologies are available
in print / ebook from your favorite online retailers.
Crazy Christmas Capers
Happy Holiday Historicals
Whimsical Winter Wonderland
“Nothing Personal” in a Mystery Storybundle
The secret’s out!
The SECRETS AND LIES StoryBundle is live!
Not only is my own “Hit Lady for Hire” novel, Nothing Personal, part of this collection, but I’m very proud to rub elbows with other great authors, including Kristine Kathryn Rusch, J.F. Penn, Mark Leslie, Rebecca Cantrell, Dean Wesley Smith, Rachel Amphlett, Lisa Silverthorne, and Bonnie Elizabeth in a collection that will keep you reading late into the night.
As Kris says in her introduction:
“…Nothing makes for a better foundation for a crime novel than a secret. The best way to keep a secret? Tell a lie. That’s why secrets and lies go so well together. … In this bundle, bestselling, award-winning authors from around the world bring crimes from around the world…”
And the best part? Not only can you choose how much you want to pay, but you can help support the efforts of the World Central Kitchen at the same time.
UPDATE: The Storybundle is no longer available, but the books are still available individually from most online retailers. I encourage you to find and read them!
“Memory Lane” – a short story collection
Since I was collecting short stories, I thought it might be fun to gather up some of my non-mystery shorts. Memory Lane contains a handful of historical short stories, written when I learned about some past event and wanted… more.
Memory Lane includes:
- Memory at Lascaux
With the world covered in ash and clouded in despair, there are only two choices: lie down in the ash, or find a way to survive. And perhaps, a way to thrive…
- Stolen Moments
In the long-ago days, when the Old Gods walked freely among the men of Midgard, Eirik Alreksson gained their attention and favor.
- El Tío Supay
On their way to work each day, the miners of Bolivia routinely say prayers and pay homage to the statue of The Virgin Mary in its niche outside the mine, asking her blessing in their labors. But when they enter the mine, the miners make a second offering. There, beyond reach of the light of day, they leave their gifts of coca leaves, alcohol, and cigarettes at the shrine of El Tío, the Devil of the Mine.
- The Last Sigh of the Moor
There is a place, outside the walls of Granada, and in the shadow of the mighty Alhambra, where history tells us the city’s last caliph turned and wept at the sight of his beautiful, lost city… and, perhaps, at the loss of the friend who betrayed her.
- The Unflattering Portrait of Jiang Zhaojun
The daughter of a merchant, and lady-in-waiting in the Emperor’s court, Jiang Zhaojun is recorded as one of the “Four Beauties of Ancient China.” But she is not celebrated merely for her beauty, but also for her bravery.
- Fences
This story of the American West illustrates the conflicts between a group of homesteading farmers and the local cattle ranchers.
Memory Lane
Available in print and ebook from your favorite retailer:
https://books2read.com/LaurynC-MemoryLane
Nothing Personal
Meg’s back – and she’s not happy.
It was just another job,
until someone crossed a line…
The quick assignment in Charleston promised to be a simple job – but the target’s dying words changed everything. A human trafficking operation has been smuggling teenage girls into the country.
The target offers Meg a new contract: avenge her death, shut down the operation, and save the girls.
The first hit was easy. Working for a dead woman turned out to be much more complicated.
Nothing Personal
a Hit Lady for Hire novel
available in print and ebook from your favorite online retailers
“Secrets and Lies” – a short story collection
Just for kicks, I thought I’d gather up a few of my short stories and put them into a collection for you.
Secrets and Lies includes:
- Lemonade and Larceny
When a silly law forbids Effie Birmingham from practicing her trade as a psychic, she feels obliged to break it!
- A Little Casual Blackmail
Eavesdropping on the neighbors escalates from entertainment to entrepreneurship…
- The Goddess Killer
A serial killer forces Tommy to choose which of the women in his life – his mother, his wife, or his daughter – he loves the best, and which will die.
- The Man in the Gabardine Suit
Who was the “man in the gabardine suit” from the Simon & Garfunkel song? Why was he on that bus in the first place?
- Mistletoe and Murder
When the members of a highly dysfunctional family are snowed-in for the holidays, tempers flare, secrets are revealed, and someone’s bound to die…
Secrets and Lies
Available in print and ebook from your favorite retailer:
https://books2read.com/LaurynC-SecretsLies
For your summer reading pleasure…
I’m thrilled to welcome the newest title to the Hit Lady for Hire family!
Pro Bono
Book #1 in the Hit Lady for Hire series
Now available on Amazon
(and coming soon in paperback and to other ebook retailers)
You didn’t read that wrong – I’ve tagged this as “book #1” in the series, because along with a compelling present-day story, Pro Bono answers questions so many of you have asked about how and why Meg became a hit lady. It just seemed right to *suggest* it as a starting point for the series.
Some jobs just need to be done – even if nobody’s paying…
When a friend is accused of murdering her deadbeat ex-husband – a man Meg had on her hit-list for reasons of her own – Meg Harrison sets aside her usual paid assassin’s role and takes it on herself to discover what really happened.
But what begins as a routine inquiry dredges up long-buried memories, forcing Meg to deal with her own demons while simultaneously hunt for a man her instincts tell her might not really be dead.
Can Meg reverse-engineer the murderer’s scheme and bring down the real killer before her friend becomes their next victim?
Pro Bono
I’ve been promising this one for a very long time – and love you all for being patient with me (the next one won’t take so long, I swear!)
Some jobs just need to be done –
even if nobody’s paying…
When a friend is accused of murdering her deadbeat ex-husband – a man Meg had on her hit-list for reasons of her own – Meg sets aside her usual paid assassin’s role and takes it on herself to discover what really happened.
But what begins as a routine inquiry dredges up long-buried memories, forcing Meg to deal with her own demons while simultaneously hunt for a man her instincts tell her might not really be dead.
Can Meg reverse-engineer the murderer’s scheme and bring down the real killer before her friend becomes their next victim?
Pro Bono
a Hit Lady for Hire novel
Available in print and ebook from your favorite online retailer
2019 Holiday Spectacular
I’m delighted to have a wicked little story in the the WMG Publishing Holiday Spectacular – a fiction-filled “advent calendar” giving readers a new story every day from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. (It’s not too late to subscribe – and they’ll make sure you get every story!).
Some of the Holiday Spectacular stories are sweet, some are very traditional, and others are… well… bloody. My contribution, Some Folks Just Need Killin‘, falls into this last category, of course, and introduces us to Ashley, a North-Texas barmaid with a holiday tradition you’ll die for…
Happy holidays!
