First Clues

Hidden Keys #2

by Jacie Middlemann

Disappearing or moving from one place to another wasn’t going to be enough…they needed a plan.

It’s the middle of the twenty-third century and while there have been staggering and unique technological and environmental advances, human nature is still very much the same as it has always been. One woman unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the middle of a long simmering struggle between power, greed, and an overwhelming effort to keep long hidden secrets buried.Luckily she isn’t on her own. An old childhood friend that she hasn’t seen in years is proving once again that he can be trusted even as they just barely avoid one near miss after another.

Worse, they’re on the run but have no idea who they are running from…at least not yet.

Hidden Keys is a series of short stories, each revealing key pieces of information that are not always obvious to Ava Sullivan and Harper Riley as they do everything they can to identify her pursuers, find the answers about why they are after Ava, and somehow stay alive after surviving the first attempt on her life only days after her father’s death...not an easy task for an experienced detective let alone an amateur at digging for answers.

The Hidden Keys Short Story series is filled with long hidden secrets, generations of family and friends, and some surprises. If you enjoy compelling and clean Women's Crime Fiction with slightly entangled romances and complicated relationships, and a puzzling mystery from the past with twists and turns that needs to be unraveled…Hidden Keys may be the series for you any season of the year. Cozy up with this captivating page turner and your favorite hot or cold drink and enjoy!

This is part two of the Hidden Keys short story series that is best read in sequence.

Audible Audio

Published February 3, 2024

About the author

I fell in love with books when I was in the 4th grade and my free period was spent volunteering in the school library. I read every Nancy Drew book there was to check out, discovered collections of myths and fairy tales from around the world, Louisa May Alcott and C.S. Lewis, and decided I wanted my own library. By the end of that summer with the supplies our school librarian graciously provided me my books had due date slips, card pockets, book cards, and black electrical tape on the spine with the first three letters of the author's last name. I still have most of those books.
In the hope she could get me involved in something else my mother gave me a camera. Right around the same time my father told me I could use his typewriter when he wasn't using it. The typewriter won. We shared his typewriter but I also filled notebooks with stories scribbled before school, after school, and often when I was supposed to be asleep. Thanks to my mother, who saved just about every single one of those notebooks, I still have them as well.
Several years ago my father gave me his typewriter…the same one we shared all those summers ago. Every time I look at it I remember the young 4th grade girl who was quietly encouraged to do what she loved…and years later reminded with a box filled with notebooks crammed full of handwritten stories and dreams.
And it’s still not unheard of that I stay up way later than I should with a good book that’s just impossible to put down.

Reviews

[Richard Goodrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent continuation of the story. Ava and Harley have extricated themselves from the unknown situation in Book 1, but still have no real clues as to why she is being hunted. This is a much more interesting episode than Book 1. An action/adventure story by nature. Potentially a romance as well. Definitely a mystery as well. With this episode, I would recommend going forward to learn where the story leads.

Easy-to-read. Entertaining. Great world building. Haunting. Romantic. Scary. Twisted. Unpredictable. Wonderful characters.