Nook Daily Find 5/14

The Getaway ($4.74 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Jim Thompson [Hachette], is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Doc McCoy is the most skilled criminal alive. But when for the first time in Doc's long criminal career, his shot doesn't hit the mark, everything begins to fall apart. And Doc begins to realize that the perfect bank robbery isn't complete without the perfect getaway to back it up.

THE GETAWAY is the classic story of a bank robbery gone horribly wrong, where the smallest mistakes have catastrophic consequences, and shifting loyalties lead to betrayals and chaos. The basis for the classic Steve McQueen film of the same name, as well as a 1994 remake with Alec Baldwin, Thompson's novel set the bar for every heist story that followed--but as Thompson's proved time and again, nobody's ever done it better than the master.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/13

Guilt By Association (£0.99 UK), the debut novel in the Rachel Knight series by Marcia Clark (the lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial), is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $2.99).

Book Description
When Deputy District Attorney Rachel Knight’s journey home is interrupted by screaming sirens, she decides to follow them.

But what she finds when she arrives at a sleazy LA motel shatters her world: her trusted colleague Jake lies dead beside the body of a teenage male prostitute.

The police say murder/suicide. Rachel’s gut says different.

Her search for proof will take her through the dark and tangled city, from its wealthy suburbs to its violent heart.

And a truth so dangerous it could kill her.

Rachel Knight returns in the novels Guilt by Degrees and Killer Ambition and the short stories If I’m Dead and Trouble In Paradise for more L.A. crime and court action!

Bargain Book Roundup

Most deals found on Amazon, but may be matched at B&N and/or Kobo.

The Nook Daily Deal from yesterday, The Gatekeepers #1: Raven's Gate ($1.99) is price matched on Amazon now. It should go over well with the middle-grade reading crowd and has a starred review from Booklist.

1,001 Best Grilling Recipes: Delicious, Easy-to-Make Recipes from Around the World ($5.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Rick Browne [Agate Surrey], is marked down in both stores (and may drop on Kindle tomorrow ... or it might go up on both).

Book Description
This newest addition to Surrey's 1,001 line of cookbooks is the definitive book on grilling everything from appetizers and side dishes, to lamb, beef, hamburgers, sausages, fish & shellfish, wild game, chicken, game birds, turkey, pork, and desserts. Also included are dozens of recipes for sauces, marinades, and rubs to use when cooking on a barbecue grill.

Author Rick Browne is one of the country's best-known authorities on grilling. The creator and host of the PBS TV series "Barbecue America," he is the author of seven cookbooks, most dealing with barbecue and grilling. In this new collection, he's created an encyclopedic collection of recipes drawn from cuisines around the world.

Browne begins with a brief, introductory primer on basic grilling techniques, but the real substance of this book is the dazzling array of recipes--all manner of meat and fish, plus numerous vegetarian options, from every corner of the globe, with a particular focus on North American and Asian traditions.

Never before have this many great grilling recipes been collected between two covers. If you love to grill--or know someone else who does--this is a must-have resource. It's the only grilling recipe book you'll ever need.

Half Way Home ($0.99 Kindle), by Hugh Howey, with the companion audiobook $1.99. It's self-published, just as his other books are, in ebook form, but look to pay a lot more when it releases in paper (just as Wool has done - he's sold millions in ebook format and won't let the publishers have anything but print rights). Howey is quickly earning his way to my "must buy" list (and it looks like I have several more of his titles to pick up).

Book Description
Five hundred of us were sent to colonize this planet. Only fifty or so survived.

We woke up fifteen years too early, we had only half our training, and they expected us to not only survive ... they expected us to conquer this place.

The problem is: it isn't safe here.

We aren't even safe from each other.

Bitter Legacy: A Matt Royal Mystery ($1.99 Kindle), by H. Terrell Griffin [Oceanview Publishing]

Book Description
After a week away, Matt Royals ready to get back to the Longboat Key good life good fishing, good food, good beer, and more good fishing. But Matt comes back to bad news: while he was away, a sniper tried to kill one of his best friends. Even worse, now that Matts back, someones trying to kill him. And whoever is trying to kill him is trying really hard.With no clue whos after him or why, Matt soon finds hes at the center of a mystery involving a lawyers murder, a tourist left for dead, a ruthless biker gang, a reclusive billionaire with nothing to lose, and an ancient document that could bring ruin to some of the most entrenched financial interests in Florida.Between solving the mystery and staying alive, Matts got his hands full. But hed better watch out or his hard-charging ways could get him sideways with the newest member of Longboat Keys police force, the undeniably attractive Jennifer Duncan.For Matt, its shaping up to be a really long week.

I first recommended Terms of Enlistment ($2.99 Kindle), by Marko Kloos, when it was self-published. This edition is from his brand-new publisher, 47North.

Book Description
The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements, where you're restricted to 2,000 calories of badly flavored soy every day:

You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world, or you can join the service.

With the colony lottery a pipe-dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price…and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.

The debut novel from Marko Kloos, Terms of Enlistment is a new addition to the great military sci-fi tradition of Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, and John Scalzi.

Liquid Fear ($0.99 Kindle), by Scott Nicholson, is on sale from another of Amazon's imprints, Thomas & Mercer, and the companion audiobook is also $0.99.

Book Description
When Roland Doyle wakes up in an unfamiliar motel room with a strange man’s wallet in his pocket and a woman’s dead body in the bathroom, he fears the worst…and that’s before he finds the vial of pills labeled "take one every 4 hrs or else." Or else what? Ten years ago, Dr. Sebastian Briggs’s clinical drug trial for a cutting-edge fear-response drug went horribly wrong — or did it? It’s true that one trial participant died and five others were left with no memory of what happened to them. But now several interested parties, including a major pharmaceutical company and an ambitious U.S. senator, are willing to back Briggs’s continued research. All he has to do is recall his five surviving "volunteers," whose addiction to a mysterious drug has left them largely at his disposal. They will do anything necessary to keep the pills coming and to stave off the creeping phobias, intense sexual impulses, and all-consuming madness that lurk on the edges of their minds. It’s easy enough for the good doctor to lure the survivors back to the remote Monkey House, where the original trials took place. But when the pills finally run out…that’s when the real show begins.

Rosary Murders ($0.99 Kindle), the first in The Father Koesler Mysteries series by William Kienzle [Andrews McMeel Publishing], starts you off at a great price and currently there are 23 in the Kindle store at under $4 apiece (which means one must be missing, although I didn't search too hard to see which one it might be).

Book Description
The Rosary Murders was William X. Kienzle's first Father Koesler mystery, published in 1978. Twenty-three more books followed, creating a best-selling mystery series mostly set in Detroit and reflecting the personality of its hero, Father Robert Koesler, a diocesan priest with a penchant for sleuthing. The Rosary Murders was named one of the top twenty-five mysteries of the twentieth century in spring 2000 by the Chicago Sun-Times. It was also made into a movie, with Donald Sutherland in the role of Father Koesler.

In The Rosary Murders, Detroit priests and nuns are being methodically murdered; all are found with a plain black rosary entwined between their fingers as a calling card. From Ash Wednesday, when the murderer first struck, the police seem helpless to solve the strong of senseless murders. The weeks that follow become a nightmare for the crack homicide team headed by Lieutenant Walter Koznicki, until Father Koesler breaks the madmen's code.

Here is a story with tension, excitement, intelligence, and a rare wit and humor. Kienzle painstakingly leads you through every step in an intensive police investigation of heinous series of murders. Police procedure and Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporting are as much a part of the action as the crimes themselves.

With superb control of the novel's movement, Kienzle can tantalize at a tortoise's pace and torment with a breakneck hare's pace.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Justice Denied ($1.99), the eighteenth novel in the (excellent) J P Beaumont mystery series by J. A. Jance, is on sale again, for those that missed it as a Deal of the Day a few months back.

Book Description
The murder of an ex-drug dealer ex-con—gunned down on his mother's doorstep—seems just another turf war fatality. Why then has Seattle homicide investigator J.P. Beaumont been instructed to keep this assignment hush-hush? Meanwhile, Beau's lover and fellow cop, Mel Soames, is involved in her own confidential investigation. Registered sex offenders from all over Washington State are dying at an alarming rate—and not all due to natural causes.

A metropolis the size of Seattle holds its fair share of brutal crime, corruption, and dirty little secrets. But when the separate trails they're following begin to shockingly intertwine, Beau and Mel realize that they have stumbled onto something bigger and more frightening than they anticipated—a deadly conspiracy that's leading them to lofty places they should not enter . . . and may not be allowed to leave alive.

Ice Hunt ($4.49 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), by James Rollins [HarperCollins], joins several other of his novels currently on sale (two under two bucks).

Book Description
Carved into a moving island of ice twice the size of the United States, Ice Station Grendel has been abandoned for more than seventy years. The twisted brainchild of the finest minds of the former Soviet Union, it was designed to be inaccessible and virtually invisible. But an American undersea research vessel has inadvertently pulled too close--and something has been sighted moving inside the allegedly deserted facility, something whose survival defies every natural law. And now, as scientists, soldiers, intelligence operatives, and unsuspecting civilians are drawn into Grendel's lethal vortex, the most extreme measures possible will be undertaken to protect its dark mysteries--because the terrible truths locked behind submerged walls of ice and steel could end human life on Earth.

Nook Daily Find 5/12

Avenged ($9.99 $2.99 Kindle, B&N), the third in the Pacific Coast Justice series by Janice Cantore [Tyndale House], is the Nook Daily Find. Update: Now price matched on Kindle.

Book Description
When Officer Carly Edwards finds three young gangbangers shot execution style, she and her husband, Sergeant Nick Anderson, head of the gang unit, fear Las Playas may be on the verge of a gang war. The Las Playas PD is put on high alert as tensions escalate between rival gangs, especially after Carly confiscates weapons from a gang leader and learns they were stolen from a military base along with explosive devices.

But something isn’t adding up, and Carly suspects there might be more going on. As she prepares to testify at a major trial, Carly’s reputation is shredded by a reporter apparently trying to discredit her professionally. Facing pressure on all fronts, Carly must rely on faith and trust God in a deeper way during one of the biggest struggles of her career.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/12

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is The First Four Novels in the Lovejoy Series by Jonathan Gash for £0.99 each (~76% off).

Every antique dealer is a bit of a detective, following clues to find the trophies that pay the rent. But Lovejoy finds himself playing the role time and again as he tracks down a pair of duelling pistols in The Judas Pair, stumbles across diaries that point to a fabled treasure in Gold from Gemini, goes in search of the Holy Grail in The Grail Tree and witnesses the death of one of his oldest friends in Spend Game.

The Judas Pair (Main/UK; US edition $7.89)

Every antique dealer is a bit of a detective, following clues to find the trophies that pay the rent, but when Lovejoy takes on the job of tracking down a pair of duelling pistols so rare that he's not even sure actually exist, he needs all the instincts of a detective to pick his way through an unsolved crime.

Along the way, he becomes convinced that the weapons do exist but that they have fallen into the hands of a vile murderer. Locating the ancient weapons seems like the least of his problems when Lovejoy then finds himself fighting for his life in a duel to the death!

Gold from Gemini (Main/UK; US edition $7.89)

Lovejoy discovers how the lure of gold brings out the worst kind of treasure seeker when, broke as usual and earning a crust as an unlikely babysitter, he stumbles across the diaries of a painter that appear to point to the whereabouts of a fabled hoard of Roman gold coins.

Lovejoy is tempted to dismiss the whole thing as a hoax, but vile threats and violent intimidation have a way of changing his mind. He sets out to unravel the clues in the diaries, with some particularly nasty characters dogging his every move.

The Grail Tree (Main/UK; US edition $7.89)

Lovejoy has heard of more nutters who have claimed to be in possession of the one, true Holy Grail than he has had hot dinners. He's not too impressed with the eccentric clergyman making the latest claim - especially when the good vicar turns out to be one of the finest forgers Lovejoy has ever met.

But when the vicar and his lady companion end up dead it becomes clear that someone else is after the old man's artefact. To solve the mystery and protect a precious piece of history, Lovejoy puts his life on the line and acquires a surprising new partner...

Spend Game (Main/UK; US edition $7.89)

When Lovejoy witnesses a car crash that turns out to be a murder - with one of his oldest antique-dealer friends the victim - he sets out on a trail of revenge that leaves him pondering several bewildering questions.

Why did his friend buy up a load of junk furniture? What did he want with an old doctor's bag? Why was his friend killed? Who was trying to kill Lovejoy and - most perplexing of all - what the hell is he doing potholing through underground tunnels dodging armed hit men?

Nook Daily Find 5/11

Raven's Gate ($6.15 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in the Gatekeepers series by Anthony Horowitz [Scholastic], is the Nook Daily Find. No price match yet on Kindle (although likely later this morning), where the companion audiobook is $3.49.

Book Description
As punishment for a crime he didn't really commit, Matt was given a choice: go to jail or go live with an old woman named Mrs. Deverill in a remote town called Lesser Malling.

He should have chosen jail.

A strange and sinister plan is coming together made in Lesser Malling, with Matt at the center of it all. People who try to help him disappear . . . or die. It all ties to an evil place named Raven's Gate - a place whose destiny is horrifyingly intertwined with Matt's own.

Bargain Book Roundup, Part II

Cursed ($3.79 Kindle), the twelfth novel in the Regan Reilly series by Carol Higgins Clark [Simon and Schuster]

Book Description
Private Investigator Regan Reilly moved from Los Angeles to New York City when she married her husband, Jack "no relation" Reilly, head of the NYPD Major Case Squad. To help a friend she ends up taking on a case that calls her back to her old stomping ground...

Cursed opens on a cold and gray January morning. Sleet and snow are swirling as Regan arrives at a warehouse in Long Island City with a trunk full of her old case files from Los Angeles. After carting all her boxes into a storage unit, she heads back out into the snow, and her cell phone rings.

Abigail Feeney, a young woman who had lived across the hall from Regan in an apartment complex in the Hollywood Hills, is on the line. Abigail believes her life has been cursed since birth. She was born on Friday the 13th of January, and her parents gave her a name with 13 letters. A hairdresser on movie sets, Abigail was recently injured at work when a piece of scaffolding fell and knocked her over, and her arm was broken in two places. But that isn't why she is calling. "Regan!" she exclaims. "The 'no good bum' has been spotted in town. I desperately need the money he owes me. Can you please come out here and help me find him?"

Regan immediately knows the identity of the "no good bum." From her L.A. apartment, Regan had often seen Abigail's ex, Cody Castle, sitting by the pool, bent over his cell phone, text messaging nonstop. Before he disappeared three months ago, he borrowed $100,000 from Abigail. He promised to pay her back in three months.

"Find him?" Regan asks.

"Yes! My grandmother is flying here tomorrow. There's a condo she wants to buy me. But we need that money. She can't find out I don't have it. Regan, can't you spend a few days with me?"

If Regan weren't freezing, she might have made an excuse. But Jack was away at a seminar, Regan had never liked the "no good bum," and Abigail had brought her chicken soup when she'd had the flu last winter. Within hours Regan is on a flight to Los Angeles where her adventure with Abigail will take her from the beaches of Malibu, to the mountains north of the city, to the renovated lofts of downtown L.A.

Regan starts to feel Abigail's curse is contagious as she encounters a cast of characters who aren't always welcoming. Some are downright dangerous. And there's one who is the most dangerous of all...

Mass Effect: Revelation ($0.99 Kindle), by Drew Karpyshyn [Del Rey]

Book Description
Every advanced society in the galaxy relies on the technology of the Protheans, an ancient species that vanished fifty thousand years ago. After discovering a cache of Prothean technology on Mars in 2148, humanity is spreading to the stars; the newest interstellar species, struggling to carve out its place in the greater galactic community.

On the edge of colonized space, ship commander and Alliance war hero David Anderson investigates the remains of a top secret military research station; smoking ruins littered with bodies and unanswered questions. Who attacked this post and for what purpose? And where is Kahlee Sanders, the young scientist who mysteriously vanished from the base–hours before her colleagues were slaughtered?

Sanders is now the prime suspect, but finding her creates more problems for Anderson than it solves. Partnered with a rogue alien agent he can’t trust and pursued by an assassin he can’t escape, Anderson battles impossible odds on uncharted worlds to uncover a sinister conspiracy . . . one he won’t live to tell about. Or so the enemy thinks.

Welcome Back to Pie Town ($1.99 Kindle), by Lynne Hinton [HarperCollins]

Book Description
Lynne Hinton of Friendship Cake fame delighted readers everywhere when she invited them to experience the simple joys and small triumphs of the endearing residents of Pie Town—a tiny New Mexico community once renowned for its unsurpassable baked desserts. And now, Welcome Back to Pie Town for a second slice of small-town life, as sweet and tasty as the first. The recently rejuvenated Pie Town is a tiny speck of heaven on earth for most of its inhabitants, but not for one recently returned veteran of the war in Afghanistan, who now feels ill at ease and out of place—and it will take the love of a good woman and the support of the whole town to truly bring him back home again. As an extra added treat, Welcome Back to Pie Town features recipes from the novel…for mouth-watering pies, of course.

A trio of books by Roxanne St. Claire [Simon and Schuster] have dropped in price (from the $15 range).

Tropical Getaway ($3.79 Kindle)

Roxanne St. Claire brings to life the beauty and danger of the Caribbean in her stunning debut novel, blending intrigue with white-hot passion for a suspenseful, sultry read.

Ava Santori is cooking up a storm in the family restaurant in Boston's North End when a call from the Coast Guard brings shattering news: her beloved brother was lost in a shipwreck. Determined to find out why the ship was steered into a hurricane, Ava packs her bags for the lush isle of St. Barts -- where she puts the blame squarely on the broad shoulders of the ship's owner.

Dane Erikson built the luxurious Utopia Adventures cruise line from the ground up and he's not about to let it sink. Enlisting Ava to help discover the truth about the doomed Paradisio, he finds himself unbearably tempted by this fiery, impetuous woman. And as their investigation causes danger to close in, he and Ava find their hearts leading them to the same place...straight into each other's arms.

French Twist ($3.79 Kindle)

Following her white-hot debut novel, Tropical Getaway, Roxanne St. Claire captures the passion and intrigue of France in a dazzling romantic suspense adventure.

Janine Coulter has just gotten her big chance to prove herself, managing a prestigious exhibit at the Palace of Versailles -- and Luc Tremont, the security specialist, is clearly trouble. He's making decisions without her, under-cutting her authority. He's also too smooth, too virile, too dangerously handsome, too...well...French! And Janine has the uneasy suspicion he's not all that he seems.

Luc resolutely ignores the powerful sizzle of attraction he feels when he meets Janine -- the quintessential California girl with her blond hair, blue eyes, and legs that seem to go on forever. But when thieves steal priceless treasures from the exhibit, and Luc and Janine give chase across the lush Burgundy countryside, their forced intimacy ignites the passion both have tried to ignore. Luc wonders what will happen when Janine learns his true identity -- but with dangerous men pursuing them, they may not live to find out....

Killer Curves ($3.99 Kindle)

He's fast. She's furious. They're in for the ride of their lives.

Rising star Roxanne St. Claire puts the pedal to the metal in a story of intrigue and passion that will get your heart racing!

When sexy NASCAR racer Beau Lansing tracks down high society debutante Celeste Bennett, it's a matter of life or death. Stunned at the secret Beau reveals, Celeste is forced to make a life-altering decision. But with her love life on the skids and her family life in a tailspin, escaping incognito into Beau's world is just what she needs -- especially if she can get answers about her past.

Beau needs Celeste to save a man's life -- he never expected a high-octane attraction that could wreck his well-protected heart. And when Celeste's life is threatened by someone who clearly knows her real identity, Beau has to risk everything -- including his own life -- to save her. With menacing forces in the driver's seat and time ticking too fast, the two must win the biggest race of all...the race for their lives and their love.

Not Your Mother's Midlife: A Ten-Step Guide to Fearless Aging ($3.82 Kindle), by Nancy Alspaugh and Marilyn Kentz [Andrews McMeel]

Book Description
Aging ain't what it used to be. For one thing, people are staying younger longer. For another, countless baby boomers are rising up against the notion that with age comes worthlessness.In fact, Not Your Mother's Mid-Life: A Ten-Step Guide to Fearless Aging is more than a book; it's a movement. This gloriously gutsy volume challenges society's worn-out perceptions that women become less valuable as they age. Instead, authors Nancy Alspaugh and Marilyn Kentz celebrate the fact that today's women can be more powerful, more efficient, more capable, and even more desirable as they age.In Not Your Mother's Mid-Life, readers will find 10 practical recommendations to help women face middle age with confidence and a positive attitude. From chapters like Let Go of What's Not Working, Shore Up Spiritually, and Find a New Passion, Not Your Mother's Mid-Life contains personal growth exercises, humorous and poignant stories, and questions and visualizations to inspire new ways of thinking.Not Your Mother's Mid-Life takes the crisis out of mid-life, replacing it with passion, fearlessness, and unlimited possibilities.

Hangman's Holiday ($3.49 Kindle), the ninth Peter Wimsey Mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers [Open Road Media], joins the three titles I previously reported (which are still on sale).

Book Description
A trove of short stories featuring two of the Jazz Age’s most famous sleuths

In the annals of mystery writing, Lord Peter Wimsey and Montague Egg are among the most memorable detectives. Lord Peter—noble by birth, brilliant by nature—is a fly in the ointment of criminals across Britain, turning up whenever the police ask him to lend his quick wit and keen eye to an investigation. Montague Egg is a free-spirited figure, a traveling wine salesman with an unfortunate habit of stumbling over murder scenes. Both are inimitably charming, and neither has ever failed to catch his man.

In this collection of stories, the two detectives confront cat killers, American zombies, and—most horrible of all—a poisoned bottle of fine old port. Several decades after their first publication, mystery maven Dorothy L. Sayers’s chilling puzzles remain as engaging as ever.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy L. Sayers including rare images from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.

The Stranger You Seek ($0.99 Kindle), by Amanda Kyle Williams [Random House]

Book Description
In the sweltering heat of an Atlanta summer, a killer is pushing the city to its breaking point, preying on the unsuspecting, writing taunting letters to the media, promising more death. Desperate to stop the Wishbone Killer, A.P.D. lieutenant Aaron Rauser turns to the one person he knows can penetrate a deranged mind: Keye Street, an ex–FBI profiler and former addict who now picks up jobs where she can get them. But the last thing Keye wants is to be pulled into the firestorm of Atlanta’s worst nightmare. And then it suddenly becomes clear that the hunter has become the hunted—and the stranger she seeks is far closer than she ever dared imagine.

Bread Alone ($1.99 Kindle), a novel by Judith R. Hendricks [William Morrow/ HarperCollins]

Book Description
The life of 31-year-old trophy wife Wynter Morrison suddenly changes course when her husband announces one evening that their marriage is over. Emotionally devastated and desperate for a change of scenery, Wyn moves to Seattle where she spends aimless hours at a local bakery, sipping coffee and inhaling the sweet aromas of freshly-made bread. These visits bring back memories of her long-ago apprenticeship at a French boulangerie, and when offered a position at the bakery, Wyn quickly accepts -- hoping that the rituals of baking will help her move on.

Working long hours among the bakery's cluster of eclectic women -- Linda, the irascible bread baker; earth mother Ellen and her partner Diane; and Tyler, the blue-haired barista -- Wyn awakens to the truths that she missed while living the good life in Hancock Park.

Soon Wyn discovers that making bread possesses an unexpected and wondrous healing power, helping her to rediscover that nothing stays the same... bread rises, pain fades, the heart heals, and the future beckons.

The Roots of the Olive Tree ($1.99 Kindle), by Courtney Miller Santo [William Morrow/ HarperCollins]

Book Description
An extraordinary new voice in contemporary woman’s fiction, Courtney Miller Santo makes her magnificent debut with The Roots of the Olive Tree, a novel that will delight fans of Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and the works of Kristin Hannah.

Set in a house on an olive grove in northern California, The Roots of the Olive Tree is a beautiful, touching story that brings to life five generations of women—including an unforgettable 112-year-old matriarch determined to break all Guinness longevity records—the secrets and lies that divide them and the love that ultimately ties them together.

Although you can pick up the self-published (in the US) Cooper & Fry Series Twin Pack - Books 1 & 2 , by Stephen Booth, for $5.99 on Kindle, you may instead want to grab the Avon/ HarperCollins pre-orders for the individual titles, Black Dog and Dancing with the Virgins, for $2.99 each (although if you do, you'll have to wait until October/November to read them). While you are ordering, you might as well grab the third in the series, Blood on the Tongue, also currently a $2.99 pre-order.

Meet young Derbyshire police detectives DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry, who operate in England's beautfiul and atmospheric Peak District.

Black Dog

Winner of the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel. Finalist for an Anthony Award for Best First Mystery

It's been a long, hot summer in England's beautiful Peak District national park. But summer comes to an end when the body of missing teenager Laura Vernon is found.

For young police detective Ben Cooper, the work has just begun. His community is hiding a young girl's killer, and a past as dark as the Derbyshire night. It seems Laura was the keeper of secrets beyond her years and, in a case where no-one is innocent, everyone is a suspect.

But Cooper's local knowledge and instincts are about to face an even greater challenge. The ambitious DC Diane Fry has been transferred from a nearby city, a woman as ruthless as she is attractive…

Dancing with the Virgins

Winner of the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel. Finalist for the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel.

An award-winning psychological thriller, the sequel to Stephen Booth's debut Cooper & Fry novel BLACK DOG.

In a remote part of England's Peak District stand the Nine Virgins, a ring of stones overshadowed by a dark legend. Now, as winter closes in, a tenth figure is added to the circle - the body of Jenny Weston is discovered, her limbs arranged so she appears to be dancing.

Weeks earlier another woman had been attacked on the moors. Maggie Crew was found by a local farmer's wife, severely traumatized, her face savagely cut open. Is there a maniac on the loose, knifing women at random?

Unlocking the memories trapped in Maggie's mind is now a matter of utmost urgency for the detectives of Derbyshire 'E' Division. But while DS Diane Fry attempts to draw out the truth, DC Ben Cooper is left with too many lines of enquiry leading to too few answers.

As they struggle to make sense of a murder that seems motiveless, it becomes clear that the moors have witnessed more bloodshed than either Ben or Diane could imagine. And there is more to come before an answer can be found...

Blood on the Tongue

Guilt, sacrifice and redemption in a freezing Peak District winter all feature in this tense psychological thriller from the acclaimed author of BLACK DOG and DANCING WITH THE VIRGINS.

It wasn’t the easiest way to commit suicide. Marie Tennent seems to have curled up in the freezing snow on Irontongue Hill and stayed there until her body was frosted over like a supermarket chicken. And hers isn’t the only death the Derbyshire police have to contend with – not after the discovery of a baby in the wreckage of an old Airforce bomber, and the body of a man dumped by the roadside.

As if three bodies on her hands isn’t enough, snow and ice have left half of ‘E’ Division out of action, and Detective Sergeant Diane Fry is forced to partner with DC Gavin Murfin. She and Ben Cooper were never a match made in heaven - but, next to Murfin, working with Ben starts to look like a dream.
Cooper is on a trail of his own, though – and one as cold as the Peak District January.

In an equally bitter winter in 1945 an RAF bomber crashed on Irontongue Hill, killing everyone except the pilot, who walked away and disappeared. Now the pilot's grand-daughter is in Derbyshire desperate to clear his name, and Ben can’t help taking an interest.

But is a fifty-year-old mystery really the best use of police time? Or does a vicious attack in the dark Edendale back streets prove that the trail isn't quite so cold as he thought?

Could the past be the only clue to present violence as an icy winter looks set to get even chillier?

The Dragon's Path ($2.99 Kindle), the first novel in The Dagger and Coin series by Daniel Abraham [Orbit], has been on sale before; for those that missed it, you get two books in one, as this also includes an advance reading copy of Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. If you already have it, the the companion audiobook is available for $3.99.

Book Description
All paths lead to war...

Marcus' hero days are behind him. He knows too well that even the smallest war still means somebody's death. When his men are impressed into a doomed army, staying out of a battle he wants no part of requires some unorthodox steps.

Cithrin is an orphan, ward of a banking house. Her job is to smuggle a nation's wealth across a war zone, hiding the gold from both sides. She knows the secret life of commerce like a second language, but the strategies of trade will not defend her from swords.

Geder, sole scion of a noble house, has more interest in philosophy than in swordplay. A poor excuse for a soldier, he is a pawn in these games. No one can predict what he will become.

Falling pebbles can start a landslide. A spat between the Free Cities and the Severed Throne is spiraling out of control. A new player rises from the depths of history, fanning the flames that will sweep the entire region onto The Dragon's Path-the path to war.

This e-book edition of The Dragon's Path includes an advance reading copy of Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Welcome to the future.

Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

A Soldier of the Great War ($2.51 Kindle), by Mark Helprin [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]

Book Description
For Alessandro Giullani, the young son of a prosperous Roman Lawyer, golden trees shimmer in the sun beneath a sky of perfect blue. At night the moon is amber and the city of Rome seethes with light. He races horses across the country to the sea, and in the Alps he practices the precise and sublime art of mountain climbing. At the ancient university in Bologna he is a student of painting and the science of beauty. And he falls in love. His is a world of adventure and dreams, of music, storm, and the spirit. Then the Great War intervenes.

Half a century later, in August of 1964, Alessandro, a white-haired professor, still tall and proud, finds himself unexpectedly on the road with an illiterate young factory worker. As they walk toward Monte Prato, a village seventy kilometers distant, the old man tells the story of his life. How he became a soldier. A hero. A prisoner. A deserter. A wanderer in the hell that claimed Europe. And how he tragically lost one family and gained another.

The boy is dazzled by the action and envious of the richness and color of the story, and realizes that the old man's magnificent tale of love and war is more than a tale: it is the recapitulation of his life, his reckoning with mortality, and above all, a love song for his family.

Bargain Book Roundup

For those reading online tonight, Amazon has finally price matched the Nook Daily Deal: The Sensualist: An Illustrated Novel by Barbara Hodgson ($1.99).

Left To Die ($0.99 Kindle), the first Selena Alvarez/Regan Pescoli novel by Lisa Jackson [Zebra Books], with the companion audiobook for $2.99. The fifth in the series, Ready To Die, can now be pre-ordered ($5.59).

Book Description
Nothing's More Terrifying....
One by one, the victims are carefully captured, toyed with, then subjected to a slow and agonizing death. Piece by piece, his exquisite plan takes shape. The police can't yet see the beauty in his work--but soon, very soon, they will. . .

Than Being Left Alone....
In the lonely woods around Grizzly Point, Montana, four bodies have been discovered. Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli have been hoping for a career-making case, but this is a nightmare. Even with the FBI involved, Selena and Regan have nothing to go on but a killer's cryptic notes, and the unsettling knowledge that there is much worse to come. . .

To Die....
When Jillian Rivers opens her eyes, she's trapped in a mangled car. Then a stranger, claiming to be a trail guide named Zane McGregor, pries her free. Though she's grateful, something about him sets Jillian on edge. And if she knew what lay out there in the woods of Montana, she'd be truly terrified. Because someone is waiting. . .watching. . .poised to strike and make Jillian the next victim....

Trust Me ($2.99 Kindle), by Jeff Abbot [Grand Central], is now available for pre-order. If you missed the pre-order for Fear, it's still $1.99 now that it has been released (the other two in the series are $4.74 now).

Book Description
Luke Dantry finds the bad guys. . .before they're bad guys. He works for a Washington, D.C. think tank as a minor academic who studies the online venting of would-be extremists, trying to identify those who will move from threatening words to deadly action. Anonymously typing from his computer as he monitors a loose collection of enraged loners, Luke thinks his identity is safe--but he is wrong.

Suddenly kidnapped and left for dead in an isolated cabin, Luke soon realizes that the people he's been watching and studying are more organized and dangerous than he ever imagined. And they aren't the only ones who've kept an eye on him. Now with his former targets-and the federal government--tracking every move he makes, Luke must decipher a murderous web of connections that reaches into his own broken past. Only Luke can stop a looming threat that may kill countless people--including himself.

One Reckless Summer ($0.99 Kindle), the first romance novel in the Destiny series by Toni Blake [HarperCollins]. The fourth in the series, Holly Lane, is also on sale ($3.79), as is The Red Diary ($3.99), a stand-alone novel.

Book Description
It's tough to play it cool on a sultry summer night . . .

The perfect daughter. The perfect prom queen. The perfect wife. Jenny Tolliver's been the good girl all her life, and it's gotten her nowhere. Now that her marriage has been busted up by her cheating ex, she's decided it's time to regroup and rediscover herself. This summer she's headed back to her hometown of Destiny, Ohio, to the very lakeshore cottage where she grew up, to figure out what life holds in store for her next.

She never dreamed the answer would be Mick Brody, Destiny's #1 hellraiser. He comes from the wrong side of the tracks (or in his case, the lake), and he's landed in hot water more times than he can count. He's exactly the kind of guy Jenny's always kept her distance from . . . but soon the good girl and the bad boy are caught in a raw heat that's out of control. Too bad Mick's got a secret that threatens to tear them apart and ruin Jenny's perfectly, passionately reckless summer . . .

Smart and Sexy ($1.99 Kindle), the first novel in the Sky High Air series by Jill Shalvis [Kensington Books], is one of four titles by this author currently on sale, from various publishers, one of which is a pre-order for Christmas.

Smart and Sexy

FLYING SOLO IS WAY OVERRATED

Noah Fisher has worked for months to make Sky High the most prestigious charter airline in California. He’s long overdue for a break—something involving ski slopes, cold beers, and hot ski bunny babes. The itinerary doesn’t include being hijacked by Bailey Sinclair, gorgeous widow of one of Sky High’s wealthiest (ex-) clients. But here they are, and being crammed in a cockpit with the scared, stubborn, unbelievably sexy former model could get Noah in serious trouble…

Simply Irresistible: A Lucky Harbor Novel ($2.99) [Hachette]

Maddie Moore's whole life needs a makeover.

In one fell swoop, Maddie loses her boyfriend (her decision) and her job (so not her decision). But rather than drowning her sorrows in bags of potato chips, Maddie leaves L.A. to claim the inheritance left by her free-spirited mother-a ramshackle inn nestled in the little coastal town of Lucky Harbor, Washington.

Starting over won't be easy. Yet Maddie sees the potential for a new home and a new career-if only she can convince her two half-sisters to join her in the adventure. But convincing Tara and Chloe will be difficult because the inn needs a big makeover too.

The contractor Maddie hires is a tall, dark-haired hottie whose eyes-and mouth-are making it hard for her to remember that she's sworn off men. Even harder will be Maddie's struggles to overcome the past, though she's about to discover that there's no better place to call home than Lucky Harbor.

Heating Up the Kitchen: Recipes with Love from Lucky Harbor ($0.99) [Hachette]

Hello Readers,

Thanks for coming to Lucky Harbor. I'm sure your presence has already been noted by Lucille and the rest of her blue-hair posse and will shortly be posted on their Facebook page. Hope you don't have toilet paper stuck to your shoe.

Or any secrets...

In these pages are recipes on how to catch a man, how to cope with sisters, and bunches of wisdom. Whoops, sorry. Wrong book. (See either Simply Irresistible, The Sweetest Thing, or Head Over Heels).

There are, however, some fantastic recipes from my very own kitchen, and in the cooking of these recipes, I can guarantee you a culinary experience that will make you forget your troubles.

Happy cooking, happy eating, and happy reading!

Tara Daniels

A Christmas to Remember ($1.99 pre-order) [Hachette]

Jill Shalvis, Kristen Ashley, Hope Ramsay, Molly Cannon, and Marilyn Pappano each contribute a short story to this anthology that celebrates true love at Christmastime.

Cloud Warrior ($1.99 Kindle), the first novel in The Amtrak Wars series by Patrick Tilley [Bloomsbury Reader]

Book Description
In 2015, nuclear war burns the cities of humanity to rubble, turns the air to poison, and grass to the color of blood: most of the world population dies. By the year is 2989, when THE AMTRAK WARS takes place, humanity is split into two groups - the Trackers, members of the Amtrak Federation who live in a complex of advanced underground cities, and the Mutes, who have survived on the surface, adapting to the radiation to become stronger through mutations. The Amtrak Federation is dedicated to reclaiming the surface world for humanity, and for centuries, the Amtrak Federation expands, and kills or enslaves Mutes in their path. But eventually the Mutes, with their magical powers, prove to be a match for even the Tracker’s advanced technology. Steve Brickman, a newly-trained Tracker wingman, joins an elite unit making an major strike against the Mutes. But when Steve is shot down and captured by Mutes, he falls in love with one of the ‘enemey’ and learns that there is more to these people than the Federation decrees. Cloud Warrior is the first in Patrick Tilley’s international bestselling futuristic epic, The Amtrak Wars. The film rights for the series have been optioned and are currently in development.

The Boy No One Loved: A Heartbreaking True Story of Abuse, Abandonment and Betrayal ($1.99 Kindle) and Crying for Help: The Shocking True Story of a Damaged Girl with a Dark Past ($1.99 Kindle), by Casey Watson [HarperCollins].

The Boy No One Loved

The first in a series of books from foster carer Casey Watson.

‘We’re hungry,’ his brother cried. ‘We’re hungry, Justin. Please find us some food.’

Justin was five years old; his brothers two and three. Their mother, a heroin addict, had left them alone again. Later that day, after trying to burn down the family home, Justin was taken into care.

Justin was taken into care at the age of five after deliberately burning down his family home. Six years on, after 20 failed placements, Justin arrives at Casey’s home. Casey and her husband Mike are specialist foster carers. They practice a new style of foster care that focuses on modifying the behaviour of profoundly damaged children. They are Justin’s last hope, and it quickly becomes clear that they are facing a big challenge.

Try as they might to make him welcome, he seems determined to strip his life of all the comforts they bring him, violently lashing out at schoolmates and family and throwing any affection they offer him back in their faces. After a childhood filled with hurt and rejection, Justin simply doesn’t want to know. But, as it soon emerges, this is only the tip of a chilling iceberg.

A visit to Justin’s mother on Boxing Day reveals that there are some very dark underlying problems that Justin has never spoken about. As the full picture becomes clearer, and the horrific truth of Justin’s early life is revealed, Casey and her family finally start to understand the pain he has suffered…

Crying for Help

The second book from Sunday Times bestselling author Casey Watson.

Two weeks after saying farewell to her first foster child, Casey is asked to look after Sophia, a troubled 12-year-old with a sad past. Sophia’s actions are disturbing and provocative and, before long, Casey and her family find themselves in a dark and dangerous situation.

Two years ago Sophia’s mother had a terrible accident. Sophia has been in care ever since.

Right away, Casey feels something isn’t right. Sophia’s a well-developed girl, who looks more like 18 than 12. She only seems to have eyes and ears for men, and treats all women with contempt and disgust. And she has everyone around her jumping through hoops.

Over time, as more details begin to emerge about Sophia’s past, it becomes clear that her behaviour is a front for an early life filled with pain and suffering. But although Casey feels she is gradually breaking through to Sophia and getting her to open up about things she has never spoken about before, her violence is threatening the safety of the whole family, forcing Casey to question whether she can really handle this lost and damaged girl.

Both shocking and inspiring, this true story will shed new light on the extreme and sometimes dangerous nature of foster care.

Morte d'Urban ($2.83 Kindle), by J.F. Powers [NYRB Classics], the winner of the 1963 National Book Award for Fiction.

Book Description
The hero of J.F. Powers’s comic masterpiece is Father Urban, a man of the cloth who is also a man of the world. Charming, with an expansive vision of the spiritual life and a high tolerance for moral ambiguity, Urban enjoys a national reputation as a speaker on the religious circuit and has big plans for the future. But then the provincial head of his dowdy religious order banishes him to a retreat house in the Minnesota hinterlands. Father Urban soon bounces back, carrying God’s word with undaunted enthusiasm through the golf courses, fishing lodges, and backyard barbecues of his new turf. Yet even as he triumphs his tribulations mount, and in the end his greatest success proves a setback from which he cannot recover.

First published in 1962, Morte D’Urban has been praised by writers as various as Gore Vidal, William Gass, Mary Gordon, and Philip Roth. This beautifully observed, often hilarious tale of a most unlikely Knight of Faith is among the finest achievements of an author whose singular vision assures him a permanent place in American literature.

Nook Daily Find 5/10

The Sensualist: An Illustrated Novel ($9.39 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), by Barbara Hodgson [Chronicle Books], is the Nook Daily Find for today.

Book Description
This potent mystery draws readers into a tangle of lost loves, vengeance, and murder. Set in the dark world of a European winter, and illuminated with Barbara Hodgson's haunting illustrations, The Sensualist is a visual and literary exploration of the limitations of looking and the boundless power of seeing.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/10

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is three books in the Phryne Fisher Mystery series by Kerry Greenwood for £0.99 each (~75% off).

Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates (Main/UK, US edition free, titled Cocaine Blues; companion audiobook $2.99)

Bored socialite Phryne Fisher leaves the tedium of the London season for adventure in Australia!

Tea-dances in West End hotels, weekends in the country with guns and dogs... Phryne Fisher - she of the grey-green eyes and diamante garters - is rapidly tiring of the boredom of chit-chatting with retired colonels and foxtrotting with weak-chinned wonders. Instead, Phryne decides it might be amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective - on the other side of the world!

As soon as she books into the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, drug smuggling rings and corrupt cops... not to mention erotic encounters with beautiful Russian ballet star Sasha de Lisse; England's green and pleasant land just can't compete with these new, exotic pleasures!

Flying Too High (Main/UK, US edition $2.99)

Whether foiling kidnappers' plans, walking the wings of a Tiger Moth or simply deciding what to wear for dinner, Phryne handles everything with her usual panache and flair!

Here, the 1920's most glamorous detective flies even higher, handling an abduction and a murder with style and ease... all before it's time to adjourn to the Queenscliff Hotel for breakfast. Whether she's flying planes, clearing a friend of homicide charges or saving a child from kidnapping, she handles everything with the same dash and elan with which she drives her red Hispano-Suiza.

Murder on the Ballarat Train (Main/UK, US edition $2.99, companion audiobook $2.99)

When Phryne Fisher arranges to go to Ballarat for a week, she eschews the excitement of her Hispano-Suiza for the sedate safety of the train. But as the passengers sleep, they are all overcome by chloroform poisoning.

In the morning Phryne is left to piece together all the clues: a young girl suffering from amnesia, the body of an old woman missing her emerald rings and rumours of white slavery and black magic... the last thing Phryne was expecting of this train journey was that she will have to use her trusty Beretta .32 to save lives!

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/8

Natural Causes (£0.99 UK), the first novel from James Oswald in the Detective Inspector McLean series, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $2.99).

Book Description
A young girl's mutilated body is discovered in a sealed room. Her remains are carefully arranged, in what seems to have been a cruel and macabre ritual, which appears to have taken place over 60 years ago.

For newly appointed Edinburgh Detective Inspector Tony McLean this baffling cold case ought to be a low priority - but he is haunted by the young victim and her grisly death.

Meanwhile, the city is horrified by a series of bloody killings. Deaths for which there appears to be neither rhyme nor reason, and which leave Edinburgh's police at a loss.

McLean is convinced that these deaths are somehow connected to the terrible ceremonial killing of the girl, all those years ago. It is an irrational, almost supernatural theory.

And one which will lead McLean closer to the heart of a terrifying and ancient evil . . .

James Oswald's Detective Inspector McLean appears here for the first time. Natural Causes is the opening to an electrifying new series. Subsequent titles include The Book of Souls and The Hangman's Song. Fans of Ian Rankin, Peter James and Stuart McBride will love James Oswald's work.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/6

Ratking (£0.99 UK), by Michael Dibdin, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $11.99).

Book Description
In this masterpiece of psychological suspense, Italian Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen is dispatched to investigate the kidnapping of Ruggiero Miletti, a powerful Perugian industrialist. But nobody much wants Zen to succeed: not the local authorities, who view him as an interloper, and certainly not Miletti's children, who seem content to let the head of the family languish in the hands of his abductors -- if he's still alive.

Was Miletti truly the victim of professionals? Or might his kidnapper be someone closer to home: his preening son Daniele, with his million-lire wardrobe and his profitable drug business? His daughter, Cinzia, whose vapid beauty conceals a devastating secret? The perverse Silvio, or the eldest son Pietro, the unscrupulous fixer who manipulates the plots of others for his own ends? As Zen tries to unravel this rat's nest of family intrigue and official complicity, Michael Dibdin gives us one of his most accomplished thrillers, a chilling masterpiece of police procedure and psychological suspense.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 5/5

Daddy's Home (£0.99 UK), by AK Alexander [Thomas & Mercer], is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $3.99 and the the companion audiobook $1.99).

Book Description
They call him “the Family Man,” the cunning killer who preys upon single mothers and their innocent children, hunting for a family to call his own. But when they fail to meet his unyielding demands for perfection—and they always do—he kills.

Holly Jennings is the San Diego PD’s top crime scene investigator. She’s also a single mother struggling to raise her daughter alone and to dealing with her feelings for another man in the wake of her husband’s death. The Family Man case hits her hard—but even harder when her friend becomes his latest victim.

Determined to stop this psychopath once and for all, Holly delves deep into the investigation, combing through evidence for clues to his identity. But the closer she gets to the truth, the further she must venture down a dark path that could cost her everything: her family, her newfound love—even her life. A Wall Street Journal bestseller, this edgy page-turner is guaranteed to keep readers riveted into the wee hours of the morning.

Nook Daily Find 5/1

The Dark Winter ($9.99 Kindle, $2.99 B&N), the first Aector McAvoy novel by David Mark [Penguin], is the Nook Daily Find. It should be price matched later this morning on Kindle, where the companion audiobook is $4.49.

Book Description
A series of suspicious deaths have rocked Hull, a port city in England as old and mysterious as its bordering sea. They have captured the attention of Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy. He notices a pattern missed by his fellow officers, who would rather get a quick arrest than bother themselves with finding the true killer. Torn between his police duties and his aching desire to spend more time with his pregnant wife and young son, McAvoy is an unlikely hero: a physically imposing man far more comfortable exploring computer databases than throwing around his muscle. Compelled by his keen sense of justice, he decides to strike out alone—but in the depths of the dark winter, it’s difficult to forget what happened the last time he found himself on the wrong side of a killer’s blade…

Month End Bargain Books: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Horror

Since it's the end of the month and it takes me quite a bit of time to look up books on B&N, Kobo, etc, to check for matching prices, I'm going to skip that for today's posts. I've linked both stores here, for those that prefer those formats; I suspect some of the larger publishers will have matching prices in all the stores (definitely Random House, which is still under Agency Pricing).

Red Rain ($2.99), by R.L. Stine [Touchstone/Simon and Schuster]

Book Description
R.L. Stine, New York Times bestselling author of the Goosebumps and Fear Street series—two of the bestselling children’s book series of all time—now sets his sights on adults with a terrifying new horror novel centered on a town in the grip of a sinister revolt.

Before there was J. K. Rowling, before there was Stephenie Meyer or Suzanne Collins, there was R.L. Stine. Witty, creepy, and compulsively readable, his books defined horror for a generation of young readers— readers who have now come of age. In Red Rain, Stine uses his unerring knack for creating terror to tap into some very grownup fears. Travel writer Lea Sutter finds herself on a small island off the coast of South Carolina, the wrong place at the wrong time. A merciless, unanticipated hurricane cuts a path of destruction through the island and Lea barely escapes with her life.

In the storm’s aftermath, she discovers two orphaned boys—twins. Filled with a desire to do something to help, to make something good of all she witnessed, Lea impulsively decides to adopt them. The boys, Samuel and Daniel, seem amiable and immensely grateful; Lea’s family back on Long Island—husband Mark, a child psychologist, and their two children, Ira and Elena—aren’t quite so pleased. But even they can’t anticipate the twins’ true nature—or predict that, within a few weeks’ time, Mark will wind up implicated in two brutal murders, with the police narrowing in.

For the millions of readers who grew up on Goosebumps, and for every fan of deviously inventive horror, this is a must-read from a beloved master of the genre.

Infected ($3.99), by Scott Sigler [Broadway/Random House]. I've got an older edition of this, from when it was self-published; if you missed it then, now is a good time to grab it.

Book Description
Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families.

Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.

Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected.

The fate of the human race may well depend on the bloody war Perry must wage with his own body, because the parasites want something from him, something that goes beyond mere murder.

Infected is the first major print release from Internet phenom Scott Sigler, whose podcast-only audiobooks have drawn an immense cult following, with more than three million individual episodes downloaded. Now Sigler storms the bookstore shelves with this cinematic, relentlessly paced novel that mixes and matches genres, combining horror, technothriller, and suspense in a heady mix that is equal parts Chuck Palahniuk, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King.
Infected will crawl beneath your skin and leave fresh blood on every page.

Bloodland ($3.99), by Alan Glynn [Picador/Macmillan]

Book Description
A helicopter crash off the coast of Ireland sends unexpected ripples through the international community in this intricate new thriller from the author of Winterland and Limitless (now a major motion picture).

Susie Monaghan was on the cusp of stardom when her life was cut short by a tragic helicopter crash. After a full investigation, her death was ruled an accident: case closed. But a hungry young journalist named Jimmy Gilroy isn't buying the official story. Before dying, Susie's path had crossed with an unlikely gallery of powerful men: an ex-Prime minister with a carefully guarded secret; the businessman brother of a U.S. Senator angling for the Oval Office; and a billionaire investor with his eye on an extremely rare commodity. Might there also be a link between Susie's death and a deranged security contractor operating in Congo? Piece by piece, Jimmy uncovers a bizarre nexus of coincidence among these disparate people and events, revealing a conspiracy of frightening reach and consequence--one that could cost him his life.

Set against a vividly drawn world of corporate and political intrigue, Alan Glynn's Bloodland is a riveting paranoid thriller of uncommon depth and page-turning suspense.

The Third Pig Detective Agency ($1.99), the first in the series by Bob Burke [HarperCollins], is an even better deal for those in Canada, where it is $0.99, and those in the UK, where it is free. In the UK store, the second in the series is also deeply discounted, at just under a pound (the third is £1.99), while in the States, The Ho Ho Ho Mystery is sale-priced at $3.79 (and only $1.99 in Canada).

Book Description
A rather silly detective story in the spirit of Jasper Fforde.

Harry Pigg, the only surviving brother from the Big Bad Wolf attacks, has set up business as a private detective in Grimmtown, only things aren't going too well. Down on his luck, with bills to pay and no clients in sight the outlook is poor. But then in walks local businessman Aladdin who needs someone to help him track down an old lamp.

What follows is a case of nursery rhyme-noir. Funny, thrilling and always entertaining, Harry Pigg is an old breed of hero for a new generation. It's as if Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney had walked into the middle of a bedtime story.

A comedy caper for all ages. The first in a major new series.

Viral ($1.99), by James Lilliefors [Soho], with the companion audiobook for $5.99.

Book Description
Two brothers race to stop a political mastermind's massive bioterrorist plot in this terrifying espionage thriller.

In remote pockets of the Third World, a deadly virus is quietly sweeping through impoverished farming villages and shanty towns with frightening speed and potency. Meanwhile, in Washington, a three-word message left in a safe-deposit box may be the key to stopping the crisis—if, that is, Charles Mallory, a private intelligence contractor and former CIA operative, can decipher the puzzle before time runs out.

What Mallory begins to discover are the traces of a secret war, with a bold objective—to create a new, technologically advanced society. With the help of his brother Jon, an investigative reporter, can he break the story to the world before it is too late—before a planned “humane depopulation” takes place?

As the stakes and strategies of this secret war become more evident, the Mallory brothers find themselves in a complex game of wits with an enemy they can’t see: a new sort of superpower led by a brilliant, elusive tactician who believes that ends justify means.

Long Gone ($1.99), by Alafair Burke [HarperCollins]

Book Description
Echoing the intensity of Harlan Coben’s Tell No One and the psychological depth of Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know, Alafair Burke’s first stand-alone novel catapults her into the top ranks of modern suspense. In New York City’s cut-throat world of art, appearances can be deceiving—especially when art world newcomer Alice Humphrey becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder at a Chelsea gallery, and is thrown into a treacherous labyrinth of intrigue, crime, and conspiracy. Now, Alice must discover the truth behind the murder before the unsolved mystery claims her as its next victim.

A Dram of Poison ($1.99), the 1957 Edgar-winning mystery by Charlotte Armstrong [Open Road].

Book Description
A longtime bachelor finally marries—only to learn the corrosive power of jealousy

For fifty-five years, Kenneth Gibson has lived in backwaters. A former army clerk, he makes a quiet living teaching poetry to indifferent undergrads. His life is happily dull until the day he meets Rosemary, a damaged girl whose frailty compels Kenneth to try to make her well. They wed, and as Rosemary recovers from her depression, Gibson falls in love, transforming his world. But his wife will never love him.

She is smitten with their landlord, a dashing young chemical engineer named Paul. Gibson wants to let her go, but he cannot bear to be parted with the first love he has ever known. In Paul’s house is a case of poison, and this love triangle can only end in death.

A Dark-Adapted Eye ($1.99), by Ruth Rendell [Open Road]

Book Description
In the Edgar Award–winning classic, a niece investigates the shocking secrets that condemned her once proud family

Faith Severn has never understood why the willful matriarch of her high-society family, aunt Vera Hillyard, snapped and murdered her own beloved sister. But long after Vera is condemned to hang, a journalist’s startling discoveries allow Faith to perceive her family’s story in a new light.

Set in post–World War II Britain, A Dark-Adapted Eye is both a gripping mystery and a harrowing psychological portrait of a complex woman at the head of a troubled family.

Secret of the Seventh Son ($1.99), the first Will Piper novel by Glenn Cooper [HarperCollins], with the companion audiobook for $3.99.

Book Description
There are secrets that must remain buried . . .

Nine people have been slain in New York City—nine strangers with nothing in common—the apparent victims of a frighteningly elusive serial killer. Only one thing links the dead: postcards they received, mailed from Las Vegas, announcing the day they would die.

Assigned to the case is a legendary FBI profiler with a troubled past, a drinking problem, and nothing left to lose . . .

Abandoned to a monastery is an unwanted son born under a curse on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year 777 . . .

Unprepared for a momentous discovery is a post-World War II expedition into the crypts of a clandestine medieval society . . .

. . . but all lead to a secret embroiled in destiny, history, evil, faith, and corruption . . . and one terrifying truth that no one must ever know . . .

Book of Souls ($1.99), the second Will Piper novel by Glenn Cooper [HarperCollins]

Book Description
The thrilling sequel to the international bestseller Secret of the Seventh Son, Glen Cooper’s Book of Souls sets FBI agent Will Piper on the trail of an ancient volume that has had a profound and shocking effect on human history. An exciting new voice in the thriller genre, author Glen Cooper is ideal for readers who simply can’t get enough of Dan Brown, Steve Berry, Raymond Khoury, and James Rollins.