Death & Taxes
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Death and Taxes
The Third of The Tales of The Lesser Evil
A teenage assassin and the uncle who trained her, a trio of backstabbing killers, and a man Merie knows for a fact wants her dead. And that’s just the people she works with.
Ever since the night her husband burnt alive, Merie has wanted to escape her job and leave the city of Fea Little, the largest still standing in the Interior, The Crossroads of the North and trade centre of a vast area.
In charge of collecting taxes in The Petals district, for too many years Merie has been undermined by others. All her trust has gone, leaving only steely determination and an overwhelming need to give her family a better life. She knows she needs to watch her team carefully—each is dangerous, with secrets of their own.
But Merie has a plan, one she has worked on for years and her last, best chance to escape. She knows it is not foolproof and she knows it could all still go wrong—especially when the night is full of those who want her murdered, and nothing and no one are what they seem.
Death and Taxes—the only certainties in life—examines the lengths one woman will go to in order to provide security for her family. Lengths which keep getting longer and longer. Get it right and Merie will be free. If not, there’ll be four more orphans on the streets.
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Following Only One Death and Dust and Death, this novella—Death and Taxes—introduces new locations and characters to the reader, all the while adding new levels of intrigue and mystery to The Tales of The Lesser Evil.
Each Tale (there are currently six, with a final two on their way) is essentially standalone, but each also features returning characters or locations which give the reader a deeper experience when read in order. They are a part of what essentially became a rather long prologue to a trilogy of epic fantasy novels, outlined and currently being tentatively drafted.
Each chapter of Death and Taxes will feature an original photograph which fits the story, taken by me. I think it makes sense to have one image per chapter.
The serialisation (I’m from Scotland, hence the spelling) of this novella was released over October, November, and December 2023, with weekly episodes. As with all my fiction, it was initially free to read but, once complete, the archive was paywalled for paying subscribers, with additional download options also soon to be made available.
The next Tale, A Clean Death, followed in January 2024.
Contents:
To read more about my map making process, click here.
Episode One: A Merry Band of Civil Servants
Episode Two: A Remit of Execution
Episode Three: Unexpected Fingers
Episode Four: Leaving One Alive
Episode Six: Lines From Stories
Episode Seven: Preparation and The Petals
Episode Eight: A Brilliant Smile
Episode Ten: Gone With the Dawn
Episode Eleven: Plan For the Worst
Episode Twelve: An Assumption of Honey
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