fiction – Nicholas Huntley

Emma Monique: Problem-Solver – Book 5 – Mastermind

Mastermind

The City of Harlech is a new city, but the path of this city is up for decision with the 1984 municipal election. Both Emma Monique and Kaj Kejsaren are apathetic to the political election. Emma now runs a bustling private investigations company, and Kaj faces a disciplinary hearing for his past actions, but both are anxious for the future of the city nonetheless. They take out their anxieties as they separately investigate those in control of the city, hoping to learn who or what criminal organization aims to take control, or continue to control, the city in a position of absolute power and consolidate the criminal activities of the city for their own doing. To aid their efforts, they come to reflect on the past again, where a power struggle ensued fifteen years ago for control of the city, but now continues to struggle for control of the Greater Harlech region. This final battle for control pushes both Emma and Kaj to their limits, transforming each of them for better or for worse, as they action their own plans in opposition to the hostile powers that lurk.

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Emma Monique: Problem-Solver – Book 4 – Vertigo

vertigo

Emma Monique, a private investigator, and Kaj Kejsaren, a police detective, have found themselves apart from each other in the last few months. Kaj is not himself and so Emma keeps an eye on him as he takes on a new assignment to investigate drug trafficking between the Yakuza and the Triad groups in the city. During her investigation, Emma comes across an old high school flame who now runs his own mercenary team and who she suspects to be involved in a scheme to pit the Yakuza and Triad who have been increasingly engaged in a gang war to annihilate the other from the city. The opposition between Emma and Kaj mirror the opposition the two experienced in a similar time fifteen years ago, where Kaj had become a member of the football team and was indicted into a scheme that the team had taken up to secure victory in the regional football tournament. Emma and Kaj face off against each other, looking to secure and defend those they love from those that threaten them.

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Emma Monique: Problem-Solver – Book 3 – In Our Time

Time

In the aftermath of their most recent investigation, private investigator, Emma Monique, and police detective, Kaj Kejsaren, have found themselves in a different world than they had departed from. Kaj is promoted into Major Crimes, Abductions Unit, and investigates the disappearance of a 17-year-old female in the community, Ansley Wharton, while Emma is approached by a former schoolmate from high school, Cassandra Bates, who is now a famous actress, and encourages her to investigate a movie producer for his suspected sex crimes involving other actors and actresses. Each investigation leads the two to a different criminal syndicate, but also through difficult memories and experiences that take their toll but push each forward to deliver justice, although, in different forms, to avenge those that are now dead.

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Emma Monique: Problem-Solver – Book 2 – Paradise Lost

Paradise

A few months since private investigator, Emma Monique, and police officer, Kaj Kejsaren, had earned their prestige for their efforts that led to the dismantling of a major criminal organization in Harlech, they now return with a new assignment that involves the notorious Medici crime family. Emma is tasked to retrieve lost money in the hands of the nefarious mafia whereas Kaj is tasked to go undercover and expose the financial crimes of Medici Bank. Both investigators eventually come together again as their pains in this investigation become too familiar for them and they reflect on a similar situation fifteen years ago where together they had investigated rumors of a romantic affair. Just as the investigation fifteen years ago had its hardship on the duo, so too does the investigation fifteen years later, but not without lessons learned that could aid the two lest either of them lose their grace.

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The Fourth Level – Book 16 – Contingent

Contingent

Diana Cambridge and Tristan Merrick have set their lives at a change of course, but as the time ticks, Tristan’s anxieties are mixed with uncertainty of the future ahead of him. When Charlemagne invites the couple to the manor, they announce the changes in their lives to a troubled Charlemagne who reveals the magnum opus of his innovations: a device he believes can take him into the future.

However, the completion of this long-time project is not what troubles Charlemagne as the couple soon find out when their guardian quietly leaves them in order to correct the mistakes of his past, which has resulted in close friends of theirs, or family really, to have wandered into the time machine and become lost in a different world to their own. Diana and Tristan instantly go after Charlemagne, but only for themselves to become lost in a different world where they are forced to confront the issues at hand, which for Tristan, takes the form of confronting his own demons, himself, and then evil itself in order to become the man that he needs to be in order to save Diana, his family, and all those that he loves.

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The Fourth Level – Book 15 – Jeopardy

Jeopardy

When Diana Cambridge and her mercenary unit within the Harlech Syndicate are betrayed in a top-secret mission within Harlech, Diana is the lone survivor who vows revenge against the conspirators that betrayed her comrades. In an effort to achieve her goal, Diana allies with Allodia de la Cabernet, and takes on a secret identity as a vigilante as she goes against the Neo-Harlech Syndicate that forms, and includes the Harlech Police Department and Mayor’s Office.

However, Tristan Merrick quickly realizes that the love of his life is this mysterious vigilante and becomes uncomfortable and fearful for Diana as she places herself in harm’s way. Tristan allies with Charlemagne de la Cabernet and develop a mitigation strategy so that they can safely capture Diana before she can harm herself. Inevitably, Diana and Tristan land themselves in conflict with each other as one seeks to save the other, while the other seeks to save others from a dastardly plot left behind from an old enemy.

Will Tristan be able to stop Diana? Will Diana avenge her fallen comrade? Who are these conspirators, and what is their plot that has Diana so invested in bringing them to justice…?

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The Fourth Level – Book 14 – Evolution

The end of summer is nigh and it is time for Diana Cambridge and Tristan Merrick to return from Isla Paraiso and come to their new home in the City of Harlech, where they are set to begin their first semester at university.

However, this change of scenery, livelihood, and environment unsettles both Diana and Tristan, who grow distant from each other. The changes are most dire within Tristan whose unstable psyche grows increasingly to a tipping point as all that he thought he knew, hoped, and dreamed becomes fantasy, and the weight of responsibility and expectation become too much on him. These changes are more subtle for Diana, but she holds steady as she comes closer to her Christian faith, but even the sanctity of the Church is not free from the subversion of evil and she comes under as well.

Will Diana and Tristan’s relationship hold steady in the face of this inevitable storm, or is this the end of the couple? Can anyone save them, or were they doomed from the start? Will they be able to adapt to the changes and overcome the darkness ahead…?

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The Fourth Level – Book 13 – Masquerade

In celebration of Diana Cambridge and Tristan Merrick’s graduation from high school, Allodia de la Cabernet decides to take the couple, and her brother, Charlemagne de la Cabernet, to the utopian island of Isla Paraiso in the Caribbean to meet with the Cabernet parents, Everest and Vienna de la Cabernet, who are on a humanitarian mission to assist some displaced islanders.

However, seeking to assist the islanders in his own manner, Charlemagne de la Cabernet focuses on assisting an islander child that has come down with a mysterious illness. Charlemagne’s efforts soon find himself face-to-face with a mysterious Witch Doctor he believes to be responsible for the kidnapping of children on the island, or so it initially seems. Both Diana and Tristan assist Charlemagne in his endeavor to unmask the evil that lurks within this island paradise.

Will Charlemagne and the couple be able to unmask the evil on the island? The Witch Doctor? Is this island truly a paradise, or a façade of one? Are the evildoers the only ones that are wearing masks…?

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The Fourth Level – Book 11 – Advent

Advent

In the aftermath of the last adventure, only Tristan Merrick is certain of what had occurred to be true, while Charlemagne de la Cabernet and Diana Cambridge are less certain. Nonetheless, in an effort to come to an understanding in what really happened last Halloween, Charlemagne and the kids attend psychotherapy sessions at the local hospital.

However, when Tristan suddenly recalls a traumatic memory from his early childhood during one of these sessions, he quickly becomes obsessed as he starts to question his family origins and where he came from. This obsession takes him and Diana on their own adventure in the form of a road trip as Tristan pursues the truth in who he is and who his parents were, seeking to come home. Meanwhile, Charlemagne as well as other parties chase after Tristan as he recklessly abandons the safety of Allabrese to learn what he wants to know about himself.

Who were Tristan’s parents? Is this memory real, or a stain from the last adventure? To what extent will Tristan’s emotions drive him in this obsessive journey sourced on a whim, and likewise, to what extent will Diana’s emotions exhaust as she stays loyal to Tristan in this seemingly crazed state…?

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The Fourth Level – Book 10 – Containment

Containment

In the small town of Allabrese, all have come together to the Curtia Dawson Memorial Library where Charlemagne de la Cabernet is hosting a Halloween party to raise money to help keep Cabernet Technologies in business and give life to the brilliant innovations within. However, on this same night, Charlemagne is approached by a mysterious man who has confidential information and bears a warning to Charlemagne on a devastating technology in development by Zimmerman Corporation that could threaten his family and townsfolk.

Several days later, a mysterious and widespread illness begins to infect the town, which inevitably results in a quarantine enforced by the national army. Suspicious and seeking to aid his townsfolk, Charlemagne investigates the illness that has plagued the town and entrapped his friends in a zone where he believes death awaits them, especially as he sees that this is no mere quarantine effort, but a military occupation with sinister purposes related to this secret, deadly technology. What has taken hold of the townspeople of Allabrese?

What has caused this tragedy to overcome the beloved town of Allabrese? Is it within the townsfolk to allow themselves to be occupied, or will they find the will to rise up…?

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