Around the Fire New Release Spotlight with M. S. Spencer

The Wishing Tree: Love, Lies, and Spies on Chincoteague Island
by
M. S. Spencer
Will the wind whip her token from the Wishing Tree and make her wish come true?
 
My new mystery The Wishing Tree: Love, Lies, and Spies on Chincoteague Island, releases today!

About the Book
Book is PG; excerpt is G
Addison Steele dreams of the day her husband—lost at sea—returns to her. Instead, she meets Nick Savage, whose every word may be a lie. She is soon embroiled in mystery, all related to the top secret science station at Wallops Island, Virginia.
After a Belarusian scientist at Wallops is murdered, the questions multiply. Was it because he caught the person stealing classified documents or because he wanted to defect? Is Nick the spy—or is it his brother? How can she trust the man who is slowly claiming her heart when his story keeps shifting?
 
The Wishing Tree: Love, Lies, and Spies on Chincoteague Island
The Wild Rose Press, July 17, 2023
368 p.; PG
Murder mystery (Cozy), Romantic Suspense
 
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A further peek when Addison meets Nick
Addison circled the oak. Sure enough, the small strip of canvas still fluttered in the cold wind. She touched it, then drew her hand back and walked down to the water. Her eyes danced with the waves, searching, imagining what it would feel like to see Seth’s head pop up and watch his long arms battling the current to get to the shore. And to her.
“Surely Hurricane Thomas would have taken it.”
She jumped and whirled around. A man leaned against the wind-washed trunk. Tall and thin, his hair was a glossy espresso and his eyes the inky blue of a stormy ocean. He reminded her of the portrait of her great-great-grandfather which hung in her family’s Chincoteague house. “Taken what?”
“Whatever you left on the tree.” He peered at her. “Isn’t that what you wished for? To have your token carried off by the wind? Or is my guidebook wrong?”
She shook her head slowly. “No, it’s not wrong. I mean, the legend of the wishing tree says that if your offering blows away, you will find your true love. Or…he’ll come back to you.” She thought of little Starlyn. “Some folks think it just means your greatest wish will be granted.”
He took a step toward her. In the waning light, his eyes took on an even darker hue. His mobile face showed distress. “Which one are you hoping for: a new love…or that your lover will return to you?”
“What? No. I mean…Yes…I—”
He waited, his lean body bent slightly forward, his eyes attentive. She found herself wanting to tell him everything—about the boat and Seth and the accident. She opened her mouth, but he spoke before she could get a word out.
“Forgive me. I’m being impertinent. You just looked so lost that I had to try to cheer you up, and suddenly that seemed stupid and then it got all awkward and here I am apologizing before I’ve even asked your name.”
Addison shot a quick glance to see if he were laughing at her, but his expression was unreadable. Embarrassed? Indifferent? “It’s all right. You just startled me. I’m Addison Steele.” She removed a mitten and stuck out her hand. He took it in a very large one of his own. She could feel the calluses on his palm. A carpenter? Maybe a sailor?
“Nick. Nick Savage.”

​Chincoteague Island, on the Eastern Shore of the Delmarva Peninsula, is a barrier island. It is protected from the sea by Assateague Island, which is a national wildlife refuge and stop on the Atlantic Flyway. Assateague is jointly managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the national Park Service. It has a beautiful beach accessible through the refuge.
Colonists used it to graze cattle in the 17th century (local Indians only used it as a temporary camp) and began to settle there by 1800. It is a small town now, but Assateague is only inhabited by ponies and birds.
Addison Steele, the heroine, is a librarian in Washington, DC. Her family has owned land on Chincoteague for several generations She is recently widowed and comes down to stay in her family’s home to write a book. She meets a handsome stranger at the Wishing Tree, where she’s placed a token. The legend is that if the wind takes the token, her true love will come back to her.

​About the Author
Librarian, anthropologist, research assistant, Congressional aide, speechwriter, nonprofit director—award-winning, multi-published author M. S. Spencer has lived or traveled in five of the seven continents and holds degrees in Anthropology, Middle East Studies, and Library Science. She has published sixteen romantic suspense and mystery novels. She has two children, an exuberant granddaughter, and currently divides her time between the Gulf Coast of Florida and a tiny village in Maine.
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