Bargain Mystery/Suspense

Bone by Bone ($2.60), by Carol O'Connell

Book Description
In the northern California town of Coventry, two teenage brothers go into the woods one day, but only one comes back. No one knows what happened to the younger brother, Josh, until twenty years later, when the older brother, Oren, now an ex-investigator for the Army CID, returns to Coventry for the first time in many years. His first morning back, he hears a thump on the front porch. Lying in front of the door is a human jawbone, the teeth still intact. And it is not the first such object, his father tells him. Other remains have been left there as well. Josh is coming home . . . bone by bone.Using all his investigative skills, Oren sets out to solve the mystery of his brother's murder, but Coventry is a town full of secrets and secret-keepers: the housekeeper with the fugitive past, the deputy with the old grudge, the reclusive ex-cop from L.A., the woman with the title of town monster, and, not least of all, Oren himself. But the greatest secret of all belonged to his brother, and it is only by unraveling it that Oren can begin to discover the truth that has haunted them all for twenty years.

"A" is for Alibi ($2.38), by Sue Grafton

Book Description
A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she’s got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes.

Eight years ago, Nikki Fife was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she’s out on parole and needs Kinsey’s help to find the real killer.

If there's one thing that makes Kinsey feel alive, it's playing on the edge. When her investigation turns up a second corpse, more suspects, and a new reason to kill, Kinsey discovers that the edge is closer—and sharper—than she imagined.

Don't Tell ($4.99), by Karen Rose (not to be confused with Karen Rose Smith, the Harlequin romance author)

Book Description
It was a desperate plan. But Mary Grace Winters knew the only way to save herself and her child from her abusive cop husband was to stage their own death. Now all that remains of their former life is at the bottom of a lake...

Armed with a new identity in a new town, she and her son have found refuge hundreds of miles away. As Caroline Stewart, she has almost forgotten the nightmare she left behind nine years ago. She is even taking a chance on love with Max Hunter, a man with wounds of his own. But her past is about to collide with the present when her husband uncovers her trail and threatens her hard-won peace. Step by step, he's closing in on her -- and everything and everyone she loves.

Don't look ... Don't trust... Don't Tell.

False Refuge ($1.99), by Steve Anderson. Also available at Smashwords.

Book Description
Army reservist Alex Swenson goes AWOL in 2004 to avoid Iraq duty. He's fled to the Big Island of Hawaii, where he finds himself attracted to cute and wily Kanani, a crime-world survivor searching for a better life. Yet Alex's old army buddy, Jerry, is hot on Alex's trail.

A secretive island haven, Krieger Estates, was supposed to grant Alex a new life and identity, but soon Alex finds that the estates' amoral founders thrive on absolute power, lockstep obedience, and unjust violence. Fleeing's no option this time. Alex refuses to play along and it brings his new overseers' full wrath.

To save Alex, Kanani and Jerry join forces with a hard-nosed plan, yet it's Alex who'll find a way free without relying on Kanani's doomed schemes, or Jerry's tragic sense of loyalty, or any savage methods. Alex will do it his way to the bitter end.

Executive Lunch ($1.99), by Maria E. Schneider. Also available at Smashwords.

Book Description
Sedona is given the opportunity of a lifetime: play an up-and-coming executive with all the trappings of wealth with someone else footing the bill. The catch: find out who is stealing company funds before the criminals find out that their program is being debugged.

Sedona runs into danger, the corporate glass ceiling, and an occasional chance at romance in her quest to figure out who is stealing money from Strandfrost. Unfortunately, Sedona is better at writing computer code than deciphering political vitriol, and if she doesn’t find a way to wade through the red tape and red herrings, she could lose both her job and her quarry!

Win a Kindle and The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Amazon is giving away four Kindles, each preloaded with The Road ($7.99), by Cormac McCarthy. The first winner has already been announced, but if your enter quickly you'll be in the running for this week's drawing. The rules state that only one entry per email address is allowed, but does not you can't enter multiple addresses into the contest (although you may get a lot more junk mail if you do). I'd suggest that you spread your entries out, if you make more than one, entering a different email address each week, in case they limit each week's winners to new entries during the previous week (it's unclear from the rules if entries carry over into future weeks).

Click HERE to enter the sweepstakes.

Fictionwise Magazine Sale

As some of you know, I tend to buy my fiction/short story magazines from Fictionwise. They are DRM-Free, in multiple formats (multiformat) and stay on your bookshelf "forever" (or as long as the store lasts), rather than being limited to just the last few copies. You can read them on any of your readers or your PC, also, rather than being limited to a single device, as is true of the subscriptions in the Amazon store.

This week (thru Sunday), Fictionwise is having a sale on their magazines - all of their one subscriptions have a 25% micropay rebate and and two year subscriptions get a 20% rebate (members get an additional 15% off the list price, as well). This is an instant credit to your account, which can then be used towards the purchase of any other books or subscriptions (although some rebates, including this one, don't work when you pay with Micropay Credit, the smaller percentages do).

They also have a good deal on back issues of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine: From now until November 30, get all 2008 issues in a half-priced bundle for ONLY $24.00 ($20.40 for members).

Because of the way their searches work, I can't give you a link just to the subscriptions, but if you click HERE and then enter SUBSCRIPTION in the title search, you'll get a quick list of all the one and two year subscriptions.

To give you a quick idea of how the prices compare, Amazon charges $2.99/month for Analog Science Fiction & Fact, or $35.88/year. You can then read this on one Kindle device, but not on the iPhone or PC App and up to six issues remain on your device (although it could be fewer) unless you save them manually to your PC. Fictionwise charges $32.97/year for a subscription, so you save some right off the bat. This is then discounted to $28.02/year for members. If you pay by credit card/paypal, you get 25% of the price back as a credit ($8.24 or $7.01). If you were to purchase 4 subscriptions by credit card, you would have enough in your micropay account to then purchase a fifth subscription with credit (for which you would not get a rebate, in the current sale). Or, just save it and use on another book in the future.

If you happen to be a five-year member (which they charge for), you also get a 100% rebate on all books (not on magazines) paid for via credit card, up to $300, this week (on top of the usual 15% discount). Most of their books do have DRM and are not compatible with the Kindle, but their multiformat books (and magazines) are. Their ereader format will work with the upcoming Nook and their epub format works with the Nook and most of the Sony devices (and some others, as well). All the formats have at least one reader that works on PC's, as well.

If you have existing micropay credit, the magazine sale isn't as good a deal, since you'll accumulate more credit when extending your subscriptions ... in this case, I'd wait (unless you are about to expire) to see if they have another sale later on that lets you use your credit and still get the discount/rebate.

Araminta Spookie and Septimus Heap

Angie Sage has two series for children, Araminta Spookie and Septimus Heap. The entire first series is on sale (except for book 3, Frognapped, which isn't available on Kindle, yet) and a couple of the second are marked down and just squeaked under the $5 mark. The first series is aimed at grades 2-4, while the second is grades 5-8.

My Haunted House ($2.39), Book 1 in the Araminta Spookie series

Book Description
Araminta Spookie lives in a wonderful old haunted house, but her crabby aunt Tabby wants to move. Aunt Tabby is determined to sell their house -- Araminta has to stop her! With the help of a haunted suit of armor named Sir Horace, a ghost named Edmund, and a lot of imagination, Araminta hatches a plot for an Awful Ambush that is so ghoulish, it just might work!

The Sword in the Grotto ($2.39), Book 2 in the Araminta Spookie series

Book Description
Sir Horace is about to turn five hundred years old! Araminta and Wanda need to find him the perfect gift. Araminta finds an ancient sword in a grotto hidden under her haunted house and it should be a cinch to get it. But she wasn't planning on the nasty surprise of a portcullis-trap and a rising tide in the grotto. Will Araminta and Wanda make it to Sir Horace's birthday party?

Vampire Brat ($2.39), Book 4 in the Araminta Spookie series

Book Description
Araminta thinks something horrible is hiding in the deep, hidden passages of Spookie House -- could it be a werewolf? Add to that the arrival of Uncle Drac's creepy nephew, Max, and Araminta knows things will never be the same. Max is Wanda's new best friend, and Araminta finds him annoying. She comes up with a plan to figure out what Max is up to -- and also to capture the werewolf. But will it work?

Ghostsitters ($3.19), Book 5 in the Araminta Spookie series

Book Description
When Aunt Tabby and Uncle Drac head off to Transylvania, Araminta is upset they're going to be away on her birthday. However, when it turns out that her almost-grown-up cousin, Mathilda, will be babysitting, it seems things couldn't get any better. But Mathilda's brought along trouble: two rowdy teenage ghosts, Ned and Jed, who listen to no one. It's a disaster! Can the girls figure out a way to get Ned and Jed out of the house for good?

Magyk ($4.79), Book 1 in the Septimus Heap series

Book Description
The Magyk Begins Here Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow -- a newborn girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take her into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

Flyte ($4.79), Book 2 in the Septimus Heap series

Book Description
It's been a year since Septimus Heap discovered his real family and true calling to be a wizard. As Apprentice to Extra Ordinary Wizard Marcia Overstrand, he is learning the fine arts of Conjurations, Charms, and other Magyk, while Jenna is adapting to life as the Princess and enjoying the freedom of the Castle.

But there is something sinister at work. Marcia is constantly trailed by a menacing Darke Shadow, and Septimus's brother Simon seems bent on a revenge no one understands. Why is the Darke Magyk still lingering?

Physik ($4.79), Book 3 in the Septimus Heap series

Book Description
When Silas Heap unSeals a forgotten room in the Palace, he releases the ghost of a Queen who lived five hundred years earlier. Queen Etheldredda is as awful in death as she was in life, and she's still up to no good. Her diabolical plan to give herself everlasting life requires Jenna's compliance, Septimus's disappearance, and the talents of her son, Marcellus Pye, a famous Alchemist and Physician. And if Queen Etheldredda's plot involves Jenna and Septimus, then it will surely involve Nicko, Alther Mella, Marcia Overstrand, Beetle, Stanley, Sarah, Silas, Spit Fyre, Aunt Zelda, and all of the other wacky, wonderful characters that made magyk and flyte so memorable.

Queste ($4.79), Book 4 in the Septimus Heap series

Book Description
There's trouble at the Castle, and it's all because Merrin Meredith has returned with Darke plans for Septimus. More trouble awaits Septimus and Jenna in the form of Tertius Fume, the ghost of the very first Chief Hermetic Scribe, who is determined to send Septimus on a deadly Queste. But Septimus and Jenna have other plans -- they are headed for the mysterious House of Foryx, a place where all Time meets and the place where they fervently hope they will be able to find Nicko and Snorri, who were trapped back in time in physik. But how will Septimus escape the Queste?

That leaves just the last two in the series, Syren ($9.99) and The Magykal Papers ($9.71)..

The Chronicles of Narnia

It looks like the entire The Chronicles of Narnia series, by CS Lewis, has gone on sale and all but one of the title is now $3.99. The series is now 59 years old, but still finds readers with each generation. I've listed them in order, below.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ($3.99)

Book Description
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy find their way through an old wardrobe into the world of Narnia. There, they unite with Aslan to fight the White Witch and save Narnia from perpetual Darkness.

Prince Caspian ($3.99)

Book Description
Troubled times have come to Narnia as it is gripped by civil war. Prince Caspian is forced to blow The Great Horn of Narnia, summoning the help of past heroes, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. Now they must overthrow Caspian's uncle, King Miraz, to restore peace to Narnia.

One year later (in our world) after the adventures described in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are sitting on a railway station on their way back to school. Suddenly they feel something dragging them away.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ($4.79)

Book Description
Lucy, Edmund, and their cousin Eustace, are magically transported onto the ship, Dawn Treader, where King Caspian is searching for the seven lost friends of his father. On the voyage, the children meet many fantastical creatures, including the great Aslan himself.

Aslan does not always choose the most obvious people to enter Narnia, and C. S. Lewis begins The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by telling us, -There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.- Not surprisingly, Eustace does not like his cousins, Lucy and Edmund, and when they are sent to stay with him one summer, Eustace can only think how he can make their stay miserable. But this is before the three children see the picture in Lucy's room. Edmund and Lucy recognize it at once as a Narnian ship.

The Silver Chair ($3.99)

Book Description
King Caspian's beloved son Prince Rilian has disappeared. Aslan sends Eustace and his school friend Jill to Narnia on a quest to search for the young prince and defeat the evil Witch.

When Eustace Scrubb next goes to Narnia, he finds that more than seventy Narnian years have passed since The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. To Eustace, it has only been a few weeks, but once more Narnia is in great danger. Caspian's only son, the young Prince Rilian, has disappeared and there is no one to take the throne when the old King dies.

The Magician's Nephew ($3.99)

Book Description
When Digory and Polly are tricked by Digory's peculiar Uncle Andrew into becoming part of an experiment, they set off on the adventure of a lifetime. What happens to the children when they touch Uncle Andrew's magic rings is far beyond anything even the old magician could have imagined.

Hurtled into the Wood between the Worlds, the children soon find that they can enter many worlds through the mysterious pools there. In one world they encounter the evil Queen Jadis, who wreaks havoc in the streets of London when she is accidentally brought back with them. When they finally manage to pull her out of London, unintentionally taking along Uncle Andrew and a coachman with his horse, they find themselves in what will come to be known as the land of Narnia.

The Horse and His Boy ($3.99)

Book Description
Shasta escapes from the land of Calormen with a Narnian warhorse, Bree. Along with Aravis and her horse Hwin, they uncover a Calormene plot to conquer Narnia and must find a way to save Narnia and its people.

The Horse and His Boy takes place even before the adventures in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe have ended. It begins in Calormen, a land far to the south of Narnia, beyond Archenland, where animals cannot talk and humans can still be treated as slaves.

The Last Battle ($3.99)

Book Description
Many Narnian years have passed since Eustace and Jill helped ensure the Royal line. But when they are jerked back violently into this strangest of lands they find the present King in danger and Narnia facing its darkest hour. With Eustace and Jill at his side, the King, the noble unicorn Jewel and a few remaining loyal subjects must stand fast against the powers of evil and darkness and fight the Last Battle to decide the future of this once glorious kingdom.