Now available for pre-order!
Only the rich and the ruthless survive.
Upon discovering a rock bearing ancient microfossils, exobiologist Dr. Miguel Hernandez seeks to preserve a tract of Mars for further research. But Lowell Colony Mayor Andre Rand covets the same area for expansion. Framed for sabotage, Miguel must flee into the deadly Martian wilderness and, if possible, collect additional evidence before it’s destroyed by construction.
In a society driven by greed and ruled by corruption, Miguel stands to lose all. His friends betray him and his top students become targets. Even his secret weapon, Andre’s duplicitous wife, turns on him. And then Miguel discovers a truth more terrifying still: behind everything lurks a shadowy figure from the asteroid belt. And she doesn’t just want Mars. She wants Miguel and his students.
The Belt is available for pre-order at your favorite bookseller. Release date is July 31, 2023.
Tales of warmth, wit, and wickedness.
You never know what you’ll find along this road. Minds and machines rend space and time. The doomed and the immortal discover new life. Justice turns criminal while crime serves justice. And at every turn, ordinary people find inspiration in the unexpected.
In this eclectic gathering of thirty-one short tales by award-winning author Dale E. Lehman, you’ll tour the most extreme moon in the solar system, open doors to distant realms, and find hope at the end of the world. Some will chill you, some will lift your spirits, and some will have you laughing out loud.
Whatever you find by this road, it’s always a surprise!
Get Found by the Road at your favorite bookseller or from my online store.
Tales of mirth, imagination, and mayhem.
Nothing is quite what it seems in this realm. Partners cross each other, intentionally or otherwise. Late-night visitors appear from nowhere and linger long after they’re gone. Mountain lakes, forests, and caves harbor secrets best not revealed. And every day, curious encounters change lives.
In this eclectic gathering of thirty-one short tales, including award-winning flash fiction and longer stories, you’ll encounter crimes gone wrong, one-way journeys to other worlds, and ordinary people entangled with extraordinary circumstance. Some will chill you, some will get you thinking, and some will have you laughing out loud.
Because in The Realm of Tiny Giants, something unexpected is always just around the bend.
Get The Realm of Tiny Giants at your favorite bookseller or from my online store.
Those weasels are up to something!
Between them, Bernard and Melody Earls have looks, charm, brains … everything but money. That’s why they steal from the rich and give to themselves. So when Alexander Hamilton Plaskett hires them to nick a silver statuette of a pine marten from his brother Paul Revere Plaskett, they’re happy to oblige. But it won’t be as easy as it looks. For one thing, the little beast is guarded by Fitzroy Fortresses, the best security system money can buy. For another, the five Plaskett siblings are obnoxious buffoons. Still, a job is a job, and this one may offer more than it appears.
At least, that’s Bernard’s theory. The pine marten isn’t particularly valuable, so why do the Plasketts contest its ownership so fiercely? To find out, he and Melody insinuate themselves into the Plasketts’ world and enlist a college geek to hack the unhackable Fitzroy system. Failure means poverty. Discovery means prison. And the biggest obstacle to Bernard’s brilliant schemes? Melody’s penchant for running off-script!
Weasel Words, applauded by Independent Book Review and winner of the first-ever Diabolic Shrimp Golden Shrimpy Award (yes, that’s for real!), can be fliched…er, purchased..at your favorite bookseller or my online store. Order your copy today!
Fly off the edge of the map!
Space Operatic is a tale of high culture on the fringes of our solar system, surrounded by corporate greed, abuse of power, rebellious miners, bloodthirsty mercenaries, outrageous lies, intense loathing, inane conversations, and more unintended consequences than you can shake a baton at.
And best of all, you can experience it all from the comfort of your favorite reading chair. No spaceship required. Just hop over to your favorite bookseller or my online store.
Howard County Mystery Novels
Detective Lieutenant Rick Peller and his colleagues Detective Sergeants Corina Montufar and Eric Dumas investigate crime in central Maryland, from robberies that turn deadly to serial murder. Click the covers to purchase from your favorite bookseller or find them in my online store.
“…stellar… Admirers of intelligent crime fiction will be eager for a sequel.” ~Publishers Weekly on A Day for Bones
“…a refreshingly traditional-style mystery that will captivate the reader. The plot is smart, twisty, and complex… Lehman has created a rich, complex setting populated with well-defined and varied characters. This is a wholly original and very enjoyable read.” ~The BookLife Prize on A Day for Bones, 2022 quarterfinalist
You get the ebook edition of The Fibonacci Murders free when you join Story Corner.
The Belt: A science fiction drama
A stunning discovery doomed by greed. A renegade professor hunted by powerful enemies. A band of young scientists betrayed by the law and the lawless. Across the frigid wastes of Mars, among the airless rocks of the asteroid belt, Dr. Miguel Hernandez and his protégés fight for life and legacy.
See full episode descriptions and details here.
The Belt is available on Kindle Vella. Read Vella stories on the Amazon website or the Amazon app for IOS. The first three episodes free. After that, buy tokens from Amazon to unlock additional episodes. New Vella users get 200 free tokens. Additional tokens can be bought in bundles, starting at $1.99 for 200 tokens. Episodes of The Belt typically cost about 30 tokens.
Don’t wait! Launch yourself into The Belt today!
Short Stories
Here are a few of my short stories from Medium.com. I’m giving these to you free of charge. (Medium charges $5/month for unlimited access.) Story Corner subscribers receive more of these every month, so be sure to sign up. Plus, you’ll get a free gift just for subscribing.
| One Chicago Night And old medicine man at the top of the world. |
| On the Beach A nice place to be stranded, no matter how far from home. |
| The Forest Not of trees but deadly metal. |
| Erased The queen is safe. Or is she? |
| In the Butcher Shop Time to leave, but there’s nowhere to run. |
| The Fortune Teller Do spirits whisper in her ear, or is it just your face? |
Works in Progress
Penitence, a near-future post-apocalyptic tale about a world in which psychoactive biological weapons have run amok, is about half written (as of mid-January 2023). Based on a short story I wrote decades ago, it seems strangely relevant to the COVID-19 world, although I swear I started work on the novelization well before this particular coronavirus appeared.
Rooftop Sonata (Bernard and Melody Caper #2) is in the very early planning stages.
A few months before she passed away, my late wife Kathleen gave me some material for Howard County Mystery #5. I don’t have a title or even a plot for it yet, just an idea, but it will materialize in due course.