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Secret Agents, Secret Lives #2
Expendable
Secret Agent Martine and her spymaster lover, Philip Marsden, are back in action and on the trail of international bad guy Bartos Rigo.
Will they have to compromise their love or their honour to get the job done?
Will they have to compromise their love or their honour to get the job done?
ebook
First published July 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
2 people want to read
About the author
Narrelle M. Harris
66 books120 followersI grew up in a home bursting with books. My father was in the Royal Australian Air Force – we moved roughly every three years – and my parents were passionate advocates of reading and the importance of access to a library of ideas, no matter where we lived.
Between a childhood spent on the move yet steeped in literature, and a naturally dramatic personality, it’s no surprise I became a storyteller.
At home, and at libraries all over Australia, I read everything from Little Golden Books to The World Book Encyclopaedia. As my family moved so frequently, my companions wherever I went were the Pevensies of Narnia, a horse named Flicka and the Hardy Boys. I grew up with the characters created by Diana Wynne Jones as they too learned independence and responsibility. Miss Marple and the Dragonriders of Pern were always at my side.
Writers like Eric Frank Russell and Lois McMaster Bujold were as influential on my character and my writing as surely as Shakespeare and the Brontes. I’m still always picking up new influences, from modern writers like Emily Larkin and Neil Gaiman as well as classics by PG Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Before you figure I am always and forever reading, I’m a traveller too. My early years spent moving from state to state led to itchy feet. After moving out of the family home, I lived in Perth, then met Tim Richards and we decided to have adventures of our own. We moved to Egypt to teach English as a Foreign Language, then went on to Poland.
After we finished teaching, we kept travelling: we’ve been to the UK and US, to Thailand, Germany, Hungary, Syria, Jordan, France, Italy, Slovenia, Czech, and Canada – and we’re not done travelling yet.
The places I’ve visited – London, Hungary, Canada – often appear in my work, but the home of my heart is the place I write about most often.
Melbourne, Australia. The town we chose to live in always. The city I love so much she is practically a character in her own right in books like The Opposite of Life and short stories like Near Miss. I even researched the Marvellous Melbourne of the 1890s for my Holmes♥Watson romance, The Adventure of the Colonial Boy.
Given my background and all my literary influences, it’s hardly astonishing that my storytelling is eclectic: crime, adventure, fantasy, horror and romance – separately or combined.
For all the different genres I write in, everything I write generally includes the same tone and the same type of themes. They are full of the families one is born with and the families we make for ourselves. The protagonists all face challenges they’ve made for themselves as well as external threats that test them. They’re full of people who’ve made mistakes who seek to learn and to make better choices.
Whether you’re reading a vampire adventure in modern Melbourne, a Holmesian mystery in London or a racy lesbian romance in the Middle East, you’ll find humour, heart, friendships and love.
Awards
Jane: In 2017, my ghost/crime story Jane won the Athenaeum Library’s Body in the Library prize at the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, hosted by Sisters in Crime Australia.
Other nominations and shortlistings include:
Fly By Night (nominated for a Ned Kelly Award 2004)
Witch Honour (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize as Witching Ways in 1998)
Witch Faith (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize in 1999)
Walking Shadows (Chronos Awards; Davitt Awards in 2012)
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Narrelle's erotica published as NM Harris is listed on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Between a childhood spent on the move yet steeped in literature, and a naturally dramatic personality, it’s no surprise I became a storyteller.
At home, and at libraries all over Australia, I read everything from Little Golden Books to The World Book Encyclopaedia. As my family moved so frequently, my companions wherever I went were the Pevensies of Narnia, a horse named Flicka and the Hardy Boys. I grew up with the characters created by Diana Wynne Jones as they too learned independence and responsibility. Miss Marple and the Dragonriders of Pern were always at my side.
Writers like Eric Frank Russell and Lois McMaster Bujold were as influential on my character and my writing as surely as Shakespeare and the Brontes. I’m still always picking up new influences, from modern writers like Emily Larkin and Neil Gaiman as well as classics by PG Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Before you figure I am always and forever reading, I’m a traveller too. My early years spent moving from state to state led to itchy feet. After moving out of the family home, I lived in Perth, then met Tim Richards and we decided to have adventures of our own. We moved to Egypt to teach English as a Foreign Language, then went on to Poland.
After we finished teaching, we kept travelling: we’ve been to the UK and US, to Thailand, Germany, Hungary, Syria, Jordan, France, Italy, Slovenia, Czech, and Canada – and we’re not done travelling yet.
The places I’ve visited – London, Hungary, Canada – often appear in my work, but the home of my heart is the place I write about most often.
Melbourne, Australia. The town we chose to live in always. The city I love so much she is practically a character in her own right in books like The Opposite of Life and short stories like Near Miss. I even researched the Marvellous Melbourne of the 1890s for my Holmes♥Watson romance, The Adventure of the Colonial Boy.
Given my background and all my literary influences, it’s hardly astonishing that my storytelling is eclectic: crime, adventure, fantasy, horror and romance – separately or combined.
For all the different genres I write in, everything I write generally includes the same tone and the same type of themes. They are full of the families one is born with and the families we make for ourselves. The protagonists all face challenges they’ve made for themselves as well as external threats that test them. They’re full of people who’ve made mistakes who seek to learn and to make better choices.
Whether you’re reading a vampire adventure in modern Melbourne, a Holmesian mystery in London or a racy lesbian romance in the Middle East, you’ll find humour, heart, friendships and love.
Awards
Jane: In 2017, my ghost/crime story Jane won the Athenaeum Library’s Body in the Library prize at the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, hosted by Sisters in Crime Australia.
Other nominations and shortlistings include:
Fly By Night (nominated for a Ned Kelly Award 2004)
Witch Honour (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize as Witching Ways in 1998)
Witch Faith (shortlisted for the George Turner Prize in 1999)
Walking Shadows (Chronos Awards; Davitt Awards in 2012)
__
Narrelle's erotica published as NM Harris is listed on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 11, 2016
Expendable is the second instalment in Narrelle Harris’s erotic spy series following the adventures of Australian spies Philip and Martine. The next chapter opens with our spy duo recovering from the events of Double Edged.
Happily, it is not their relationship that is in recovery but as the two of them move back into their roles as spy master and spy, the divisions between work and home life, duty and love, become more difficult to keep separate and stay true to. It is a bit of a relief to read a couple who actually make intelligent, logical choices when they have to make a call between their relationship and their work.
Philip and Martine’s relationship is so much fun to read—though perhaps not so much fun to be them at certain points!—and this new novella is another neat fast-paced read full of adventure, romance and tantalising hints to a wider story from Philip’s past.
Happily, it is not their relationship that is in recovery but as the two of them move back into their roles as spy master and spy, the divisions between work and home life, duty and love, become more difficult to keep separate and stay true to. It is a bit of a relief to read a couple who actually make intelligent, logical choices when they have to make a call between their relationship and their work.
Philip and Martine’s relationship is so much fun to read—though perhaps not so much fun to be them at certain points!—and this new novella is another neat fast-paced read full of adventure, romance and tantalising hints to a wider story from Philip’s past.
October 13, 2013
An exciting sequel, featuring terrific set pieces in the bedroom and out on the job, along with an interesting thread considering the conflicting demands of love and honour. Nicely done! And I'm looking forward to more. :-)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews