Valentin

by Maria Hammarblad

When Anette’s car breaks down, she knows asking her ex-boyfriend for help isn’t the best idea. Sadly, it’s still the only idea she has. She doesn’t expect the encounter to go smoothly, but she also doesn’t expect him to drop the car off with a Russian gangster. The chop shop boys don’t even bother with picking it apart for parts – they dump it in the junkyard. Valentin Abarnikov has problems of his own, millions of dollars’ worth of them. An old lost Impala isn’t high on his list of things to deal with, but the crying woman in his garage is definitely more interesting than his business partners. It doesn’t take long until the people chasing him takes interest in her, and suddenly, finding a way out has become urgent. A novella.

84 pages, Paperback

Published January 26, 2020

About the author

Born in Sweden in the early 1970's, Maria showed a large interest for books early in her life. Even before she was able to read or write, she made her mom staple papers together that she drew suns in, and proudly declared them to be the "Sun Book." They were all about the sun. This fascination with books and writing lasted through her teens, but as an adult, her career veered off towards desktop publishing and technical literature.

Even on this winding road through very different employers, she managed to always incorporate writing in her work, making a living by making user manuals and documentations for computer systems. Not until the year 2000 did she find what would be her professional home at SSAB Swedish Steel, where she worked with logistics for the better part of a decade.

During 2008 she felt that it was time for a change, and she promptly enrolled in college and relocated to Florida in November that year. This change of lifestyle gave her the peace of mind and time she needed to pursue her interest in writing fiction, and this far it has resulted in three published novels; "Kidnapped," "Touch of the Goddess," and "Undercover," and several more are on the way.