Reader Magnet – Dateline: Belgrade

As with much of the trouble in the Balkans, the world learned of “ethnic cleansing” from the international media–international because the state-run media in Yugoslavia made Serbia out to be the victim, not the perpetrator.

What better cover, then, for U.N. spy Mai Fisher than a freelance journalist?

But being back in the fractious Yugoslavia in the election year 2000 has raised plenty of ghosts and created a lot more.

In this lead-in to the new series by P. A. Duncan, Self-Inflicted Wounds, read these dispatches from inside a country on the verge of disintegration but yearning for that elusive form of government–democracy.

Find the ebook and the paperback HERE.

Book One: Welcome to Belgrade

In the year 2000, two countries have different experiences with their elections, and U.N. spy Mai Fisher is out to affect the outcome of one of them.But first she has to find out who has been killing major and minor government officials in Yugoslavia and stop them.

As if that weren’t enough, she has to convince a reluctant candidate to run against the Serbian strongman, Slobodan Milošević.

After coming out of semi-retirement with reluctance, Alexei Bukharin joins his partner in what he hopes is their final mission. There are moments, though, where he remembers the most exciting aspects of the spy game: untangling plots, the occasional need to kick ass, the manipulation of an innocent, and the adrenaline rush.

However, there are those who will do anything to maintain the status quo, to stay in power. Even kill.

Find the ebook and the paperback HERE.

Book Two: Dangerous Truths

Seeing the mission through.

Whiskey doesn’t really drown sorrow, but it pushes it aside.

Mai Fisher won’t accept she’s lost her partner until she sees the body, and the whiskey prepares her for that until she receives a phone call bringing good news from an unlikely source.

Alexei Bukharin has perhaps stretched his luck one time too many, but he has a mission… No, he and Mai have a mission to finish, and the latest complication brings forth both an old adversary and also someone far too close for comfort.

Mai’s diplomatic skills have never been her strong point, but she manages to rise to the occasion when dealing with a candidate who, despite his calls for peace, could end up being the next Slobodan Milošević.

A hired assassin develops a conscience but isn’t sure whom he can turn to for help. Well, he knows exactly who would help him without question, but being beholden to Mai Fisher is not something he wants to deal with for, oh, the rest of his life.

Devious plots, political assassinations, blood vengeance, and hidden agendas, all dangerous truths.

Merely another day in the Balkans.

Find the ebook and the paperback HERE.

Book Three: And Justice for All

The game has rules?

Mai Fisher doesn’t like missions with no clear resolution. But this is the Balkans, and sometimes you have to accept small defeats among the overall victory.

Despite Alexei Bukharin’s insistence on this being their final mission, Mai won’t let herself think about that. She’s got an election to influence, assassinations to stop, justice to achieve, and errant relatives to save.

But that all strains both her professional and personal relationship with Alexei. Nothing new there, but it’s getting old. For both.

After having to fight, unexpectedly and literally, for her life, her mission does conclude, though the loose ends flap about willy-nilly. That, Mai finds unacceptable, especially when the aftermath uncovers a betrayal that could have gotten her killed for the basest of reasons–jealousy.

Being, as Alexei calls her, “the most stubborn woman on earth,” she manages to find closure for this mission, though it takes time. Alexei has his closure as well, along with the acceptance he is who he is, occasionally ruthless and always unforgiving.

Was this their final mission? Only time will tell.

Find the ebook and the paperback HERE.