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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Today's Deals

Comixology is having another 1/2 price sale, this time on the The Sixth Gun (ends 2/2).

Today is the last day to take advantage of the offer to Get $100 Cash Back from Audible on Kindle, iPods and other qualifying products with a new (or renewed) Audible Gold Listener subscription. If you sign up today, you'll get the credit within a few hours, but will have 90 days to use it on one (and only one) of the electronic devices listed on the eligibility page. I used a credit towards a GPS unit for a Christmas gift, but there are Kindles, iPods, MP3 players, tablets, laptops, camcorders and even headphones that are eligible.

Those of you with a nook reader know that it took Barnes & Noble quite a while to implement gifting for books (and it still only allows immediate gifting, not delayed as Amazon does). What you may not know is that you can send a greeting card to anyone with a nook reader and the first collection of holiday greeting cards available is heavily populated with Valentine's Day cards. OK, technically this isn't a "feature", but it's a cute use of the ability to send an ebook to someone (your personalized message will only be in the email, though, not in the actual book, which consists of four pages and includes a single month's calendar as one page. I expected to see this idea repeated over on Amazon and I wasn't disappointed - the exact same cards are available there. Here's where I see that some enterprising artists could make a good living, with a website that features individualized greeting cards (and with traditional interior contents or "write-your-own" content -- if you don't know what to write, Amazon has a Kindle book for that too!), that allow the sender to add their own info, attach a photo or scan in a signature. Then, email the card back to the sender, so they can send it directly to the Kindle or email address of their choice. If you sent to to someone as an attachment (in mobi format or even a small-format PDF), they can then email it to their own Kindle, generally free of charge. Greeting cards are expensive (and usually discarded soon after receipt), so a small charge for something like this would be a welcome alternative (although not appropriate for everyone) and a bit better than these early, impersonal choices.

Additional formats on these free books are now available:
Today is the last day to take advantage of this KSO deal:
Remember, for most of the rentals, you'll have four weeks before you have to start watching it (and usually two days to finish, once started), in case you want to use the credit for a rental, rather than a purchase.

The Best American Noir of the Century ($1.99), edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day. I've managed to get a few in this series for review and they are generally very well done; recommended for fans of the genre.
Book Description
James Ellroy and Otto Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories. From noir’s twenties-era infancy come gems like James M. Cain’s “Pastorale,” and its postwar heyday boasts giants like Mickey Spillane and Evan Hunter. Packing an undeniable punch, diverse contemporary incarnations include Elmore Leonard, Patricia Highsmith, Joyce Carol Oates, Dennis Lehane, and William Gay, with many page-turners appearing from the past decade.

Asylum Harbor ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), the first title in the Rachel Scott series by Traci Hohenstein, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is only $1.99, so this one is a bargain for us, as well!). If you pick this one up, you'll definite want to get the second in the series, Burn Out ($1.99 US; $2.19 / £1.42 UK), while it is also on sale.
Asylum Harbor
Amber Knowles, a beautiful high school senior and Florida governor John Knowles’s daughter, has everything going for her until she disappears during a cruise to the Bahamas. After an extensive search of the ship SeaStar, it’s clear that Amber has vanished without a trace. When Governor Knowles receives the distressing news, he asks for Rachel Scott’s help.

The teenager’s disappearance represents every parent’s worst fear, and Rachel, founder of Florida Omni Search, knows only too well what losing a daughter feels like. Her three-year-old, Mallory, went missing five years ago. As she works with FBI special agent, Drake Reynolds, Rachel discovers an organized crime ring linked to the cruise line. The last person known to see Amber aboard the ship was an incognito DEA agent, who also has vanished. Where is he? And where is Amber? Finally, where is Mallory?

Traci Hohenstein’s Asylum Harbor draws inspiration from the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005 and delves deeply into the mysteries and suspense of missing-person investigations and organized crime detection. The first in a series, Asylum Harbor introduces Rachel Scott and her team and compels readers to follow Florida Omni Search and all their investigations.


Burn Out
The week before she is to testify at her estranged husband’s trial on drug charges, firefighter Lieutenant Samantha Collins vanishes while combating a warehouse fire, leaving only her helmet behind.

With Sam missing, her mother seeks the help of Florida Omni Search, a nonprofit organization founded by Rachel Scott, whose own daughter, Mallory, disappeared when only three years old. Rachel has worked with law enforcement agencies all over the United States, but she can’t possibly anticipate how terrifying the Sam Collins case will be. Rachel learns of Sam’s husband’s drug operation, and as she digs deeper, not only does the investigator expose Sam’s surprising past, she also uncovers clues that could reveal what happened to her own daughter.

County Line ($3.99 Kindle, B&N), by Bill Cameron, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
When the steadfast Ruby Jane Whittaker drops out of sight, dogged ex-cop Skin Kadash sets out to discover what drove the woman he loves to leave her life behind so suddenly and without explanation. The discovery of a dead man in her apartment, followed by an attack by a mysterious stalker, leads Skin first to California, then across the country on a desperate journey deep into Ruby Jane?s haunted past—and toward an explosive confrontation which will determine if either has a future.
Today's backlist/small press/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long; double check prices before one-clicking):