Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Daughter of New York by Aylerion
In this fast-paced thriller, NYC becomes the chessboard for an elaborate cat-and-mouse game. Arthur Torpeddo, mogul by day, stealthy crime boss by night, wields his strategies to capture the elusive Lauren, 'Sewer Rat'. But while he launches the largest sweep imaginable, Lauren awakens to her true purpose forcing this villain to contend with one that could dangerously oppose him. Added 12/30/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Natalya's Great Game by M.M. Schulz
Corporate espionage bleeds into international intrigue when a few cookie-cutter corpses in Armani suits are found floating in the lakes around Seattle. Twenty years ago, her parents were killed in a political plot called an accident. Natalya was hidden away or held prisoner, she was never quite sure either way. But with such a brilliant mind, she was inducted into the KGB at 15. When the Soviet Union fell, Natalya made her way back to her father's family in Seattle. She now runs a corporate security agency that is doing very well. But a body is dumped at her front door, only one of many recently killed. Is it a threat from old enemies that have now found her here or an offering on the altar of revenge? To read, scroll down to "Full Manuscript" link at the bottom of the page. Added 12/30/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Refuge of Delayed Souls by Miladysa
The price of this novel is $1.99 to download, but until Jan. 29 it is FREE on Smashwords by entering coupon code XT73U at the time of checkout. In a story spanning many lifetimes, we follow Elizabeth Whyte's journey as she investigates the supernatural & seeks information about her own past, all while trying to keep a balance between the light & the darkness in her work for an agency known as the Refuge of Delayed Souls. A world where ghosts, angels, the Living & others exist side by side, although not always in harmony. Added 12/30/09. FANTASY and MYSTERY / THRILLER
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Long Journey: Deveran Conflict Series Book II by Robert Luis Rabello
As a brutal civil war encroaches on the Tamarian border, Garrick Ravenwood undertakes officer training in preparation to stop the humanitarian crisis. Brenna Velez, the girl he loves, worries that the civil war will destroy her family's estate and their high-tech light forges. Meanwhile Garrick's younger brother, Algernon, travels to war-torn Kameron to find and rescue his wayward twin sister. Added 12/29/09. ADVENTURE
Miss Humbug by Marnie L. Pehrson
It's Christmastime. Cold, competitive Elaina Houston would rather work than celebrate. Not only is Christmas a complete waste of time and money in her opinion, but also it brings with it haunting memories that drive Elaina further into her frigid shell. Work is the only answer, but she's surrounded by coworkers who bask in the holiday glow, constantly reminding her of painful memories from Christmases gone by. Then one night, a week before Christmas, her past comes back to haunt her, and she's given an ultimatum. Either she learns the Spirit of Christmas or she won't live to see another December 25th.
Can Elaina experience a change of heart before she runs out of time? Added 12/29/09. ROMANCE
Thin Blood by Vicki Tyley LIMITED TIME
The price of this novel is $3.97 to download, but through Jan. 31 it is FREE on Smashwords by entering coupon code LU76K at the time of checkout. A stockbroker’s wife disappears. Blood on his hands and an adulterous affair with the missing woman’s younger sister sees him charged with murder. With no body and only circumstantial evidence he walks free. Ten years later, journalist Jacinta Deller decides to investigate, only to become embroiled in a warped game of delusion and murder. Added 12/29/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Monday, December 28, 2009
Invitation to Ruin by Ann Vremont
An Invitation to Ruin is a collection of the letters and journals of France’s well-born daughters before the revolution, revealing their hidden desires - a willful noblewoman and her mother’s groom, a virgin and her masked lover, a brazen temptress playing the repentant sinner, a betrayal come full circle and forbidden love. Added 12/28/09. WOMEN'S
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The Last Days of Las Vegas by Roy Hayes
The Last Days of Las Vegas is the story of Ashor dur-Shamshi, a powerful military exile from Iraq who pulls the strings of an international conspiracy that will return him as Iraq's new dictator, and of Charles Remly, who struggles to dismantle the centerpiece of the ex-general's conspiracy. Fueled with billions of dollars from Saddam's looted fortune, the tentacles of Ashor's plot reach from his war-torn homeland to the glittery streets of Las Vegas, and much of the world in between. At the heart of the plan is an event that will wake up the American people and confront the power brokers inside the Beltway with grim alternatives.
The ragtag team that defends Vegas against a nuclear meltdown is led by Remly, a middle-aged spook who was forced into early retirement during the runup to the war against Iraq because he insisted on sending proof to his headquarters in Virginia that there were no N-B-C weapons in Iraq. Cynical and burned out, Remly has a serious heart condition and is a significantly less-than-heroic hero. Spiritually and philosophically Remly is closer to Leamas of le Carré's spy who came in from the cold - and perhaps Meursault of The Stranger - than he is to the heroic characters of modern espionage fiction. He's not entirely disconnected, but he is devious, seemingly unprincipled, and isn't above shooting someone in the back if that's the most expedient option. Best illustrating Remly's take on the world is the opening of Chapter 10:
"Reality is negotiable, or so Remly was given to understand his first week on the Campus in Virginia. By the time he retired and moved to Las Vegas he concluded that reality was merely optional, and Vegas did nothing to disabuse him of the idea."
Similarly betrayed, two old men on the team - retired from the upper echelons of the nameless intell agency in Virginia - were denied follow-on consultancy contracts because they refused to drink the Koolaid coming from inside the Beltway. One of them - an amateur magician - has a bit of a drinking problem … Leopold Gourmel cognac, not Koolaid. The other - a cranky old black-ops and regime-change specialist - has spinal disc damage and must use a walker to get about.
Another intelligence operative, described as being "a little light in his loafers," was fired because of his sexual orientation, despite Remly's defense of him. Then there's a voodooman - an electronics genius - also retired from the agency, who verges on a paranoid breakdown toward the end, when he's strung out on sleep deprivation and gets wired on uppers. Rounding out the group are three sociopathic thugs from South Boston - "Neanderthals" the voodooman calls them - recruited for their black-bag skills.
Obviously, this is not a team of super-heroes.
Complicating their task are the alliances that Ashor forms with K Street lobbyists, pols on the Hill, and a cabal within the agency in Virginia - thus turning Virginia, which should be resisting Ashor, against Remly's team.
Remly's adversaries are equally complex and dysfunctional. Ashor is a loving husband, father, and grandfather who decides to nuke Las Vegas without a moment's hesitation. The coördinator of the strike against Vegas is a pious, one-time Dzerzhinsky Square black-arts cadet who chose the Service over the Seminary on the flip of a coin … his piety no obstacle to his job of bringing death and disaster to Las Vegas. Then there's a flashy Crimean - a remote-control assassin - also a one-time Dzerzhinsky Square cadet, who trolls the vodka bars of Moscow in his Student Prince parade-ground uniform looking for casual sex.
Finally, the important conflict in The Last Days of Las Vegas doesn't come from people shooting at each other. Oh, there are gunfights and bombings and whole buildings destroyed, and all sorts of similar daring-do, but the real conflict comes from people trying to overcome one another through a sort-of mental kung fu - each trying to bring down his adversary with ideas and working deviously to sandbag the other's emotions - something at which Remly excels. He likes to think of it as "manipulative empathy." (Some might call it "mind ****ing" - though you and I and Remly never would!) To read, click on "the last days of las vegas" link on author's web page. Added 12/27/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wake by Lisa McMann LIMITED TIME
Offered by Simon & Schuster until Dec. 31. Not all dreams are sweet. For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime. She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control. Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant.... Added 12/26/09. YOUNG ADULT
Friday, December 25, 2009
The Edge of Justice: Deveran Conflict Series Book I by Robert Luis Rabello
As the Azgaril Northern Liberation Army invades the tiny nation of Tamaria, Centurion Dathan Herulus faces the difficulty of harmonizing his orders with his conscience. As the Azgaril move north, Garrick Ravenwood, a young Tamarian soldier, meets Brenna Velez, a refugee who has fled the destruction of her homeland. Their courage helps Tamaria resist the might of the invading force. Added 12/25/09. ADVENTURE
Save Me by Rebecca Abbott Miller
Requires free registration on Obooko site. Out of Control... There was nothing exciting about Crossdale, North Carolina. For Hannah Doherty, that was a good thing. After twenty-one years of unpredictability, sadness and disappointment, she needed boring. A serious illness kept her close to home, and she believed that's where she would live and die -- alone in that small town. Max Fitzgerald was living a dream as a member of the hottest "boyband" in the history of the world. He had it all, including a hole in his heart that he couldn't fill with fame, fortune, women and parties. When Max finds himself stranded in Crossdale, it's the beginning of an adventure that neither he or Hannah are prepared for. Added 12/25/09. ROMANCE
Thursday, December 24, 2009
All God's Creatures by Carolyn McSparren Kindle for PC - LIMITED TIME
For information on Kindle for PC, see this blog's introduction. "All God's Creatures is a full fledged local color novel chock full of vivid characters, of both the two and four legged varieties. The novel traces the life of Maggie McLain, the spunky woman vet. Masterfully written, All God's Creatures weaves together a series of vignettes into a beautiful testament to the power of love, devotion and spirit. Whether you are an animal lover or not, you will chuckle at the antics of Maggie and company as they build a thriving veterinary practice and struggle to keep their human relationships on an even keel. Ms. McSparren has done her research and writes with authority. Page by page, she pulls you into her book with her wonderful humor and descriptive prose." Reader review. Added 12/24/09. WOMEN'S
The Crossroads Café by Deborah Smith Kindle for PC - LIMITED TIME
For information on Kindle for PC, see this blog's introduction. "Cathy is on top of the world--beautiful, rich, a top movie star about to launch a new career as a cosmetics queen--when an unscrupulous photographer in search of a story causes her car to crash and burn, destroying her perfect body as well as her career and sending her scurrying for a place to hide her scars. Thomas, on the other hand, is still mourning the deaths of his wife and young son in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and is slowly drinking himself to death while sleeping in the bed of his truck in an isolated hamlet in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. Together, however, they find they are stronger and better people, and they begin to take an active interest in the mountain community that has taken them both into their hearts, and into their kitchens. Once again, Smith has created an unforgettably poignant story in the best tradition of contemporary southern romantic women's fiction." Booklist. Added 12/24/09. ROMANCE
Mossy Creek by Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, Virginia Ellis, Nancy Knight, and Donna Ball Kindle for PC - LIMITED TIME
For information on Kindle for PC, see this blog's introduction. A delightful new collection of original Southern stories set in the charming, fictitious down-home town of Mossy Creek, where there's a friendly face on every corner and a heartfelt story behind every door... Added 12/24/09. GENERAL
Murder Takes The Cake by Gayle Trent Kindle for PC - LIMITED TIME
For information on Kindle for PC, see this blog's introduction. Cozy murder mystery. When the meanest gossip in Brea Ridge dies mysteriously, suspicions turn to cake decorator Daphne Martin. But all Daphne did was deliver a spice cake with cream cheese frosting--and find Yodel's body. Now Daphne's got to help solve the murder and clear her good name. Problem is, her Virginia hometown is brimming with people who had good reason to kill Yodel, and Daphne's whole family is among them. Added 12/24/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Once Bitten by Kalayna Price Kindle for PC - LIMITED TIME
For information on Kindle for PC, see this blog's introduction. Vampires and Shapeshifters. Kita Nekai, on the run and the smallest of her shifter clan-a calico cat among lions and tigers-is being hunted. She was expected to accept her role as her father's successor whether or not her cat was up to the task of leading the clan. She disagreed. Now she's less than a step ahead of the hunters, bone-tired, cold, and living hand-to-mouth in the city of Haven. And that's the high point of her day. She's also drugged, "accidentally" turned into a vampire, and sentenced to death for recklessly creating a rogue shifter who tortures its human prey. She's got seventy-two hours to find the rogue, evade a city full of hunters, prove she's not responsible for the rogue, and keep the vampire council from killing her. All while sorting out an apprentice mage, a married ex-boyfriend shifter-hunter, and the vampire who made her. Added 12/24/09. FANTASY
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson Kindle for PC - LIMITED TIME
For information on Kindle for PC, see this blog's introduction. "Johnson certainly seems to have the formula for good, clean, readable chick-lit down pat, and this title does not disappoint. According to tradition, when the Martin children turn 15, they inherit a suite in the family's small Manhattan hotel and a job: to take care of the rooms and their occupant. On Scarlett's 15th birthday, Amy Amberson sweeps into the suite that Scarlett has just inherited. The woman is demanding and brash, but she does have her charms (and large amounts of cash). In the beginning, Scarlett is overwhelmed, but then her role becomes that of Mrs. Amberson's assistant for her projects, which change on a whim. When Amy decides to help the theater troupe that Scarlett's brother is involved in put on Hamlet, the teen begins a romance with one of the actors. Then everything starts to go awry, and when things get tough, Amy abandons ship, and plucky Scarlett is left to step in and save what needs saving, something that she does with flair. Scarlett's brand of humor is particularly dry and well articulated. This novel blends sibling rivalry and the importance of family, friendship, and romance into a plot that is charming and well delivered." School Library Journal. Added 12/24/09. YOUNG ADULT
Wake Up and Smell the Bacon by Steve Syder
Glyn Jones is a young tearaway from the rough side of Cardiff. The son of a brutal stepfather and an ineffectual mother, he grows up to an inevitable life of crime. Needing money to pay off a large debt, established by his cocaine dealing business, he plans a one-man armed robbery. In the meantime, he is contacted by a man acting on behalf of an unnamed person, who wants to hire him to kill someone. He agrees to do the job, but only after he has done the armed robbery. His story concludes as he walks into a Cardiff building society to rob it.
Lucy Evans is a beautiful girl from the most exclusive part of Cardiff. Her father first raped her when she was ten years of age, and continued up to and beyond the time she left to study at Liverpool University. Struggling to make ends meet, Lucy turns to prostitution to both finance her time at university and to pay someone to kill her father. Her story concludes as Lucy walks into the same Cardiff building society to collect the cash to pay the killer. Mike Winchester is a loathsome Detective Constable based in Cardiff. He is married to Karen but has a girlfriend. He knows his girlfriend as “Jane”, but she is really Lucy Evans. Winchester is as corrupt as they come. He takes cocaine, supplied by Glyn Jones and bribes, perverts the course of justice, and is more bent than most of the villains he arrests. His story concludes as the final chapter unfolds. He walks into the building society to be confronted by his girlfriend, a gunman and his wife. The way their lives are interwoven becomes clear as he tries to negotiate a way out of the hostage situation. Someone has to die before it ends, but who will that be? Added 12/24/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Bounty Hunters of the Palace of Amin by Peter Fothergill
2388 AD - The galaxy's most depraved lord of doom is back, and he knows the secret location of the Palace of Amino. Only the awesome bounty hunters can save the palace from certain destruction. Added 12/22/09. SCIENCE FICTION
The Purification Ceremony by Mark T. Sullivan
The Free Download link on Sullivan's site is to Smashwords where the book costs $1.99, but is free if you provide the author with your email address. At a young age in the Maine woods, Diana Jackman learned to move freely in the wilderness, to sense a world invisible to most. A natural tracker from a long line of hunters, she has been taught by betrayal and loss to guard her feelings behind a wall of half truths and silence. It has cost her many things: her family, her happiness, her peace. And it has brought her to a beautiful, frozen place of magic... and death. Eight hunters have gathered on a vast, isolated estate in northern British Columbia, to track record book whitetail deer. Diana Jackman is among them, hoping to find the self she has somehow lost. But someone else is in the woods - an insane and violent force of nature. One by one, the hunters are stalked and murdered. The killer is quick, relentless, frightening efficient. And he knows his quarry: what they think, what they feel ... what they fear. The madman has a passion and a purpose. And he will not rest until he achieves his one great goal: to purify the hunt by killing them all. To survive, Diana will have to face her past, resurrect skills she learned as a child and set out alone to hunt the hunter. A Los Angeles Times best book of the year. [Webmaster's Note: excellent]. Added 12/22/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Monday, December 21, 2009
The Diary of a Murder by Lee Jackson
Jacob Jones is a respectable clerk at the Crystal Palace Company, with a pretty young bride and a delightful new home in Islington. When his wife is murdered, everything points to his guilt, even a handwritten confession. But the police discover Jacob Jones's diary, which tells a different story. They learn of a husband trying to bury his sordid past; a wife afflicted by a deep personal tragedy; an unlikely love affair that leads to a fatal conclusion. Is Jones' diary a confession? An attempt to exonerate himself? A study in madness?
Read the police investigation — read the diary itself — and uncover the truth. Added 12/21/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
The Scripture by Robert Bowen
It all started with a secret. One so large in scope that no one would ever dare believe it alone. It was covered up by a conspiracy. One whose depths reach so far that no one would be able to escape it. It all unravels with a writer. One who has lived for years chasing wild theories and drinking away the estrangement of his younger brother Jeremiah, before Toben had the wool ripped from his eyes and he was shown a glimpse at the truth. The end begins with a whisper. One desperate call from Jeremiah to his brother Toben in the calm, cold hours of the morning to tell him what deadly secrets he has uncovered…and to tell his brother good-bye… And so the fight to find the truth and bring it to light gets underway in the first book of this exciting new trilogy! Added 12/21/09. MYSTERY / THRILLER
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa
Set in the slums of New Orleans, among clusters of crack houses and abandoned buildings, Dirty Little Angels is the story of sixteen year old Hailey Trosclair. When the Trosclair family suffers a string of financial hardships and a miscarriage, Hailey finds herself looking to God to save her family. When her prayers go unanswered, Hailey puts her faith in Moses Watkins, a failed preacher and ex-con. Fascinated by Moses’s lopsided view of religion, Hailey, and her brother Cyrus, begin spending time down at an abandoned bank that Moses plans to convert into a drive-through church. Gradually, though, Moses’s twisted religious beliefs become increasingly more violent, and Hailey and Cyrus soon find themselves trapped in a world of danger and fear from which there may be no escape. Added 12/20/09. GENERAL
HEREafter Book One: A Mild Case of Death by James C. Harwood
HEREafter is about a long ago expedition to Earth, which fails. A violent mutiny results in the ship falling from orbit and being destroyed. Eventually the souls of the dead aliens are reincarnated, born into Earth human life. As they grow up on present day Earth, they begin to remember their past in dreams and nightmares. Slowly by various methods they become reunited and recover their star ship technology. Then by other methods they raise the money needed to construct a new star ship. 12,301 alien souls were on the expedition to Earth. Each of them from their own different perspectives has at least one story to tell, about their home planets, the long voyage and failed expedition, their many human reincarnations, and now their present day quest to find a way back to the home and way of life they remember. These are their stories. [HEREafter Book One A Mild Case of Death is the original version of The Novel Travelers first published as a paperback in May 2003, then as an ebook in May 2004, and now is a free blog novel. Both blog novels are listed separately at this website.] Added 12/20/09. SCIENCE FICTION
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Honest, the Martian Ate Your Dog by Fahim Farook
A man on the run from his wife's wrath after selling her dog. A dozen crash-landed bounty hunter clones. An alien on the tracks of the man who scammed him. An intergalactic detective looking for a mysterious artefact. Above all, a world which is familiar but yet is slightly off - legalized bribery, cities run by gangsters, mysterious sects which believe in the power of jokes. Added 12/19/09. HUMOROUS
Friday, December 18, 2009
Dirty Girl by Leo White
Holly Mauer is at a crossroads. The advancing years have brought little to enhance her sedate way of life, But within her a yearning cries out for change. A chance to experience the unholy while she lay sleeping. It is a fantasy ripe with pleasure until the fantasy becomes a reality and her once tranquil life becomes threatened should she dare to partake in the sin. Justin Mauer is living his dream. But his inability to understand his wife’s needs casts a pall over all that means so much to him. His superficial wants and manly pride cancel out the message she is trying to send. He is a potential victim to a duplicity that threatens to take away his prize in life so he must fight it as only he knows how.
Bryce Pyliotis is a man strong on ideals and asked to lend the hand a struggling couple needs to find their way back. But he is a means to an end for one and an obstacle to the other. He must wrestle with what is right and what is wrong while trying to answer the question buried deep within his heart. A three way collision wrought with the needs of the flesh. The opportunity to explore an unsacred act while disregarding a solemn vow. One last chance to exhibit carnal misbehavior before biding it farewell. A chance to dance with the devil while he still desires you. But beware! Sometimes the price of the penance is greater than the sin is worth. Added 12/18/09. WOMEN'S
