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Mr.Deen

The pen name of Ibrahim Tajudeen Umoru

Every new novel now comes out as Mr. Deen, along with the Storybook Sleuth mysteries for kids. The earlier books, starting with The Briar Bride, stay under his own name.

Portrait of author Ibrahim Tajudeen Umoru
Ibrahim Tajudeen Umoru · Mr. Deen

The Briar Series  ·  As Ibrahim Tajudeen Umoru

Curses, bargains, and debts

A dark fairy-tale romantasy in two volumes, published under the author's own name. Read them in order.

Cover of The Briar Bride

Book One

Every hundred years, the Briar King takes a bride. None has ever come back.

Maren Vale is a thief with a handmaid's apron. When Princess Elowen begs her to take her place, Maren puts on the veil and walks into the thorn wall herself. She expects a monster. She finds Caelan, a king who has worn a crown of thorns for nine hundred years.

Inside Thornhold, the Briar punishes every lie spoken aloud. For a girl who has lived by lying, it is the most dangerous house in the kingdom.

Out nowKindlePaperback · 324 pp
Buy on Amazon
Cover of The Winter Groom

Book Two

He has never been refused a bride. He has never asked for one.

Maren Vale broke the Briar's curse with a lie. Now the first snow has come, and with it a courteous guest who cannot lie and has never given anything away. Her bloodline owes him a life, nine hundred years overdue.

Winter's terms are simple: come north by midwinter and read every account he keeps.

Out nowKindlePaperback
Buy on Amazon

The shelf

All books

New books come out as Mr. Deen. Earlier novels carry the name Ibrahim Tajudeen Umoru. Tap a cover for the full blurb.

Mr. Deen  ·  Storybook Sleuth, Book 1

The Case of the Porridge Thief

Who stole Mama Bear's porridge?

The day before the Great Porridge Contest, Mama Bear's prize-winning honey porridge vanishes, pot and all. Everyone in the Once-Upon Woods is sure Goldilocks did it. But nine-year-old detective Nell Button has one rule: clues first, blame later.

With her notebook, her magnifying glass, and a grumpy frog named Hops who swears he's a prince, Nell follows giant footprints, gray fur, a trail of breadcrumbs, and a very surprising swarm of bees.

Ages 7 to 10Early chapter bookKindle · Paperback
Cover of Storybook Sleuth: The Case of the Porridge Thief by Mr. Deen
Ibrahim Tajudeen Umoru in a camel coat and mustard turtleneck

About the author

One storyteller, two names.

Mr. Deen is the pen name of Ibrahim Tajudeen Umoru. Every new novel he writes now comes out as Mr. Deen, and so do the Storybook Sleuth mysteries for young readers.

His first four novels were published under his own name. The Briar series follows Maren Vale from the thorn wall of Thornhold to the winter house of Rimehold. Shatter the Glass Kingdom turns Cinderella into a story about stolen shadows and a prince who signs the warrants. The Echo Room follows a memory specialist whose brother, dead for twelve years, sends her a message. All of them keep returning to one question: what does a bargain really cost, and who ends up paying?

He also trained as a professional cook in Modena, and a handbook on the Italian kitchen is on the way. Outside of books he makes music, designs, and animates.

5books published
2names: Mr. Deen and his own
900years the Briar King has waited

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