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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Today's Deals

Now also free on Kindle:

Well-Offed in Vermont (A Pret' Near Perfect Mystery) ($1.99), by Amy Patricia Meade, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
Manhattanites + Vermont = a pret' near perfect cozy debut

In bucolic small-town Vermont, Stella Thornton Buckley feels out of her element—and not just because she's fresh from Manhattan. Mere hours after moving to maple syrup country, she and her husband, Nick, find a dead man, Allen Weston, in their well. The police investigation forces the couple out of their lovely farmhouse and—since the motels are packed with leafpeepers—into a less than luxurius deer camp. Instead of mourning the loss of electricity and running water, Stella and Nick drive their Smart Car all over the Vermont hamlet to question the quirky locals about Weston, a shrewd businessman who rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way.

Stella and Nick may never shed their flatlander reputation, but they just might be able to make a few friends and help Sheriff Mills solve a murder.

That Summer in Ischia ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by Penny Feeny, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.99).
Book Description
In the long hot summer of 1979, best friends Helena and Liddy travel to the beautiful island of Ischia to be au pairs to the children of two wealthy Italian families: the Verduccis and the Baldinis. From the opulent hillside villas and sun-drenched beaches the girls plan their great adventure to find romance and excitement, whatever the cost, on the sleepy island. But when a little boy in their care goes missing, the spell is broken and the girls find themselves under suspicion from police. Under pressure, the cracks in their relationship begin to show and one will betray each other, changing the course of both of their lives forever. Twenty-five years later, Liddy, walking her dog on an English beach, spies a figure oddly reminiscent of her estranged friend. And so begins a startling quest to the villa where it all went so wrong for Helena and to the heart of the mystery of what really happened that summer in Ischia.

Guernica ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Dave Boling, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle.
Book Description
In 1935, Miguel Navarro finds himself on the wrong side of the Spanish Nationalists, so he flees to Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basque region. In the midst of this idyllic, isolated bastion of democratic values, Miguel finds more than a new life-he finds a love that not even war, tragedy or death can destroy.

The bombing of Guernica was a devastating experiment in total warfare by the German Luftwaffe in the run-up to World War II . For the Basques, it was an attack on the soul of their ancient nation. History and fiction merge seamlessly in this beautiful novel about the resilience of family, love, and tradition in the face of hardship.
Today's backlist/small press/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long; double check prices before one-clicking):
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Friday, February 3, 2012

Three Free Titles from PS Publishing (K)

UK publisher PS Publishing LTD has three free titles in the Kindle store today: a collection of short stories, what appears to be a novella and a third that is most likely a novelette.
  • Diversifications, by James Lovegrove

    James Lovegrove’s second collection of short fiction is a swirling kaleidoscope of ideas, language and wordplay. In this book you will meet robots living in a flesh world, travellers who vie to explore the most exotic alternate dimensions, and viruses that spread by speech. There’s a serial killer who preys on serial killers, a doctor who takes the concept of downsizing to hideous extremes, a hangman coming to terms with his guilt over the executions he performed, and a jogaholic forever trying to atone for the biggest mistake of his life.

    From the red plains of Mars to a back-garden party, from modern London as Jules Verne might have imagined it to a futuristic society out of Mary Shelley’s worst nightmares, Lovegrove demonstrates yet again the extraordinary diversity and depth of his talent. Here, from a writer described by the Bookseller as having “become to the 21st century what J.G. Ballard was to the 20th” and by SFX as “one of the UK SF scene’s most interesting, challenging and adventurous authors”, are sixteen unforgettable tales filled with powerful characterisation, vivid storytelling, and dazzling verbal dexterity.

  • Cliff Rhodes & The Most Important Journey (The Land at the End of The Working Day), by Peter Crowther

    On a windswept corner of Manhattan, just a stone's throw from the weathered facade of the legendary Chelsea Hotel, there's a small two-flight walkdown bar called The Land At The End Of The Working Day. Stop in and rest awhile... you'll meet the most fascinating people.

  • The City in These Pages, by John Grant

    City Hall is on Lewis-and-Clark Street, so it was the 14th Precinct that got the call, and very soon the 14th Precinct, in the persons of Detective Sergeants Moto and Pincus, was on the spot, bending down and looking into the car at the condom-shrouded figure of Ratty Scarlatti but not touching anything because the m.o. and the scene-of-crime crew hadn't gotten here yet, being stuck in the traffic jam on Eighth thanks to the burst sewer there...

    It might seem like just another case for the gallant boys of the 14th but, as the days progress and Moto (look, just don't make any jokes about his name, okay?) and Pincus delve deeper, the body count rises inexorably, with each murder reaching a new height of ludicrous surrealism—if not downright impossibility. It seems there's an avenger on the loose in the enigmatic city.
    Yet is the unknown perpetrator truly seeking vengeance. Or are there operators moving at an even deeper level than reality?

    John Grant has commented: “I've been a devotee of the works of Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) for decades—since puberty, perhaps longer—so that when the great man died in July 2005 it was almost like losing a family member. I wanted to write my own, very humble tribute to him by way of thanks for all the pleasure he'd given me, but it was some while before the right combination of ideas came along.”

    The result, The City in These Pages, is a McBain-style police procedural, full of crackling wit and sharp one-liners, that's also a multi-layered cosmological fantasy in whose shifting perspectives nothing is ever quite as it appears. You've never read anything like it.
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Free Short Story - Career Day (K)

Career Day, by Barry Lyga, is free to pre-order in the Kindle store. It does, unfortunately, come with a bloated, 10-chapter sampler of his upcoming novel, but you can still the advertising copy and just read the short story. If it weren't for the included short story, I would not even include it here, as it only encourages the publishers to continue using these to jack up their sales rankings (and to falsify their "books sold" numbers). Currently there are 33 of these free in the Kindle store (including two by indie authors!) and that only includes the ones that actually admit to being "previews" in the title; "excerpts" and "samplers" add nearly 40 more to this number.
Book Description
A 3,000 word short-story prequel CAREER DAY!

When your dad is a serial killer, things like Career Day don't go over so well. While classmates might be looking forward to joining the family business, Jazz knows he needs to find a new path in this original short story by Barry Lyga.
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Free Book - How to Survive The Hunger Games (K)

How to Survive The Hunger Games: A Brief Look at Katniss's Survival Strategy, by Lois H. Gresh, is free to pre-order in the Kindle store.
Book Description
Katniss Everdeen operates in survival mode on a daily basis. How to Survive The Hunger Games explores how Katniss’s childhood experience, combined with her survival instinct, makes her the ultimate opponent in The Hunger Games.

How to Survive The Hunger Games is a chapter taken straight from The Hunger Games Companion, the ultimate companion guide to the blockbuster Hunger Games trilogy—this book is not authorized by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic Press or anyone involved in the Hunger Games movie.
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Today's Deals

For those shopping at KobobBooks, there are some new coupon codes this weekend for 20% off a non-Agency title: feb3row20, feb3ca20, feb3uk20, feb3us20 and feb3au20. I've seen some rumors that some of the permanent coupon codes are no longer working, but have no way to check them; if you are a brand new customoer there, you can try the codes in the right sidebar and leave me a comment if you find one that doesn't work.

Today is the last day to take advantage of this KSO deal:

The Siege of Washington: The Untold Story of the Twelve Days That Shook the Union ($1.99), by John Lockwood and Charles Lockwood, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
Book Description
On April 14, 1861, following the surrender of Fort Sumter, Washington was "put into the condition of a siege," declared Abraham Lincoln. Located sixty miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the nation's capital was surrounded by the slave states of Maryland and Virginia. With no fortifications and only a handful of trained soldiers, Washington was an ideal target for the Confederacy. The South echoed with cries of "On to Washington!" and Jefferson Davis's wife sent out cards inviting her friends to a reception at the White House on May 1.

Lincoln issued an emergency proclamation on April 15, calling for 75,000 troops to suppress the rebellion and protect the capital. One question now transfixed the nation: Whose forces would reach Washington first: Northern defenders or Southern attackers?

For 12 days, the city's fate hung in the balance. Washington was entirely isolated from the North--without trains, telegraph, or mail. Sandbags were stacked around major landmarks, and the unfinished Capitol was transformed into a barracks, with volunteer troops camping out in the House and Senate chambers. Meanwhile, Maryland secessionists blocked the passage of Union reinforcements trying to reach Washington, and a rumored force of 20,000 Confederate soldiers lay in wait just across the Potomac River.

Drawing on firsthand accounts, The Siege of Washington tells this story from the perspective of leading officials, residents trapped inside the city, Confederates plotting to seize it, and Union troops racing to save it, capturing with brilliance and immediacy the precarious first days of the Civil War.

Ed King ($1.56 / £0.99 UK), by David Guterson, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $13.99).
Book Description
In 1962, actuary Walter Cousins makes the biggest mistake of his life. When mild-mannered Walter - ‘a man who weighs risk for a living' - sleeps with the sharp-tongued, not-quite-legal British au pair, Diane Burroughs, he can have no sense of the magnitude of his error.

For this brief affair sets in motion a tragedy of epic proportions, upending Sophocles's immortal tale of fate, free will, and forbidden desire. At the centre is Ed King, an infant given up for adoption who becomes one of the world's richest and most powerful men. But beneath the sizzling story of Ed's seemingly inexorable rise to fame and fortune is a dark and unsettling destiny, one that approaches with ever-increasing suspense as the book reaches its shattering and surprising conclusion.

An assured, propulsively written epic novel of unstoppable force, Ed King is a classic of contemporary American life: a daringly told story of a man and a myth, of blindness and narcissism, and of the precarious foundations on which carefully constructed lives are built - and timeless stories are created. From the bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars, a dazzling, darkly funny, extraordinary modern take on an ancient tragedy, quite unlike anything we've seen before.

Torn ($2.99 Kindle, B&N), by Erica O'Rourke, is the Nook Daily Find, price matched on Kindle. This young adult title, published by Kensington, has very good reviews; I'm grabbing a sample myself to read thru this afternoon.
Book Description
Everyone has secrets.
Even best friends.

Swirling black descends like ravens, large enough to block the glow of the streetlights. A dull roar starts like a train on the ‘L', a far-away rumbling that grows louder as it pulls closer, until it's directly overhead and you feel it in your chest, except this doesn't pass you by. Verity, white-faced and eyes blazing, shouts through the din, "Run, Mo!"

Mo Fitzgerald knows about secrets. But when she witnesses her best friend's murder, she discovers Verity was hiding things she never could have guessed. To find the answers she needs and the vengeance she craves, Mo--quiet, ordinary, unmagical Mo--will have to enter a world of raw magic and shifting alliances. And she'll have to choose between two very different, equally dangerous guys--protective, duty-bound Colin and brash, mysterious Luc. One wants to save her, one wants to claim her. Which would you choose?
Today's backlist/small press/indie free books on Kindle (not likely to be free for long; double check prices before one-clicking):
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