Audi's Last Race, New Editions, and 'Conspiracies'!

New Cover for Book One in my Meg Sheppard Mystery Series!

Do you like the new cover?

Why have I had a new cover designed, you might ask?!

The update is below, followed by my latest story, and then Audi's last race.

Meg Sheppard Mystery Series Update

The company I used for formatting the text, designing the covers and distributing to IngramSpark and ebook retailers, had become cost-prohibitive.

The most unaffordable part was having my books printed and shipped from the US (by IngramSpark). Last time I checked, to have one book printed and shipped would cost about $57.

So, I'm pleased to have found a Canadian printer (thanks to a fellow member of Sisters in Crime), and a cover designer. I am pleased with the proof for What Happened to Frank? and have placed an order for more copies.

I have my own ISBNs and have edited the copyright page.

I will do this for all 6 books and for my 7th book once the editing is complete.

I am using Draft2Digital for my ebooks. I used them years ago and was pleased with their service, and they now offer print-on-demand (I haven't got the cover formatted to fit their print program yet, but it's almost ready).

Since I am reissuing my books, I seized the opportunity to improve the cover designs. I hope you like the first one!

My website, links, etc. need to be updated, and my Amazon author account must be fixed.

Here's the link to What Happened to Frank? on Draft2Digital (books2read). This link includes links to each of the ebook retailers that have my ebook available:

https://books2read.com/u/4jlQjX

Once all 6 books are updated and uploaded/printed, I plan to finish editing the 7th book in the series. The working title is Buried Secrets.

This is another word challenge piece I wrote for a meeting of the Uxbridge Writers' Circle. The words I had to use are: hypertension; craft; wake; bond; wrinkle; barn; chippery; conspiracy; potato; enigmatic.

Yes, it was a challenge!

Conspiracies

Looking at him now, you’d never believe he worked in a chippery, peeling and slicing potatoes. He was only there for about six months, but it was enough of that sweaty, tedious experience for him to decide to do something with his life.

It didn’t come upon him as a sudden urge. It wasn’t like an epiphany, but a slow building of realization that he was going nowhere.

Elinor told me all this as we walked along the seawall, pulling our jackets around us as salty spray tingled our cheeks and gusts of wind sent shivers down our spines. I didn’t believe her at first, but as she continued the story, I could see it added up. After all, she’d got to know him quite well in recent years.

We sat on a bench and watched the white-capped waves crash below us. She was about to tell me the most incredulous part of his story.

One evening, he was exhausted more than usual and felt wobbly as he walked home. There was a cinema on his route and, on impulse, he went in, bought a ticket, some popcorn and a drink, and joined a small group in velveteen chairs. It was a spy film. Elinor said she didn’t know which one. Perhaps it was ‘The Night Train to Munich’.

Now, that was like an epiphany, Elinor said. He knew he wanted to be a spy like the secret agent Rex Harrison portrayed in the movie. But his mission would be to save the world from evil dictators. He knew at least three who should be gone. He would probably be knighted, and every good person would dance and sing at all three of their wakes.

I thought of James Bond and how we could do with a real-life secret agent to rid this world of sociopathic dictators.

Anyway, the crazy part of the story is that he somehow eventually managed to get a job at MI6. Now, he wasn’t hired to be a spy out in the field, but he worked on all the enigmatic stuff—including coded, covert messages sent by the Germans. Elinor said she didn’t know how he came to be fluent in German, but that’s probably what got him the job.

He received his knighthood from King George for unearthing a dangerous conspiracy. A group of three rogue British spies, who were double agents, planned to assassinate Winston Churchill. Elinor said he became suspicious of one of the agents who acted furtively. One morning this agent passed a slip of paper to another agent who glanced around, scanned the note, and then made the fatal error of scrunching it up and throwing it into a wastepaper basket.

It was in German.

Elinor had tears in her eyes. And look at him now, she said. He has hypertension, he’s all wrinkles, he can barely walk, and the worst thing of all is he gets no respect. He deserves to live his life with dignity.

My craft is writing. Elinor shared all this with me because she’d asked me to write his biography before he died. She said he was willing to talk but probably would be self-deprecating. She wanted the truth told so he’d be recognized as the hero he was.

I drove her back to her beautiful home. It was a magnificent converted old-stone barn. She grew agitated as I parked on the square of pinkish gravel.

She turned to me and told me she’d uncovered a conspiracy and didn’t know what to do. By pure chance, she’d met the sister of one of the double agents who had a huge chip on her shoulder. She believed her brother had been ruined by MI6 and it was all lies. She was planning revenge.

That’s when I learned why Elinor was so keen to have the biography written, and within such a short timeline. She wanted this sister to learn the truth and face up to the fact that her brother was a traitor. Where’s the brother now? I asked.

He was found dead in prison. It was a mystery how he died.

I asked her why she cared about all this. She told me she was the wife of one of the other double-agents and dreadfully ashamed that she’d married a traitor. And, she added, she searched out the man who discovered the deadly conspiracy to thank him. She’d only just managed to track him down after many years, and all she could think to do to show her appreciation was to have his biography written.

I asked what happened to her marriage, and she blurted out that she shot her traitorous husband. He was buried in the floor of the barn, which is now her home. He was covered in concrete and beautiful oak flooring.

Vicky Earle Copyright 2026

Audi's Last Race

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUcSIQO7vPI

We didn't know this would be Audi's last race at the time.

You might be able to see that he was pushed out by another horse, and he lost ground and momentum at a critical moment.

You will also notice he was officially placed 3rd although he came 4th. The end of the video shows that the horse which pushed Audi out was placed 4th, as a result of the inquiry.

Some time later, Audi developed a crack in his hoof. It will heal, but the partnership agreed that he shouldn't race anymore. So, he will start a new career (there are many options!).

Thank you for reading my post

Vicky