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Saturday, August 8, 2009

Free Weekend Reading - PDF's

I've found several PDF's available for free download lately and I'm combining them into one post. First, two from Simon & Schuster. They ask for your email address, zip code and birthdate, but none of the info is validated, so just enter anything you wish (and leave today's date as the birthdate). Uncheck the box to receive their email updates (unless you used your own email address) and click submit and the download link is displayed immediately. The first one is A Knight to Remember, by Karin Tabke. They are promoting her latest book, Master of Craving ($5.59), the third book in her Blood Sword Legacy series. Click HERE for the download.

Next up, get Uglies ($7.19), by Scott Westerfeld. The newest in his children's/young adult's series, Leviathan is schedule for release in November, so you have plenty of time to get caught up, if you start now.

Book Description
"Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there. But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever."

Click HERE for the download.

The third PDF is direct from the author, In Over Her Head ($24.95 paperback), by Elsie Russell. Visiting her web site is worth the time, just to see the samples of paintings.

Book Description
The debut of Penny Bell's's musical composition, featuring the use of mysterious extremely low frequency waves takes a tragic turn when several concert-goers die in their seats during the performance. The once-bright horizons of Penny's career collapse, and she retreats to a dank Soho basement apartment lit only by the glow of computer monitors and electronic displays. There, using herself as a guinea pig, she sets out to unlock the secrets of her beautiful and deadly symphonies. A series of strange coincidences intrude upon her solitary quest. Her neighbor, the erotic performance artist Ula Nova's, disappears after her studio is broken into. And then Ula's charming and damaged young choreographer appears, and sweeps Penny off to Europe to search for the diva, plunging Penny into a seedy and unfamiliar world of jet set artists and international intrigue where the threads of every encounter always seem to lead back to those ELF waves and their pint-sized progenitor.

Click HERE for the download.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Free Book: A Soldier's Love

It's L.K. Campbell's birthday and she is making one of her novels, A Soldier's Love, available as a free download to celebrate. The offer says "24 hours" and the first reference I found was yesterday evening, but it is free as of this momemt. Download it now and if you have an account at Smashwords (which is free), you can add it to your library and you should be able to download it again at any time. There are several formats and the one for the Kindle is clearly marked - just save it to your computer and copy to the Kindle's \documents folder or save it there in the first place, or email it to your Kindle account (not the @free.kindle.com address; no conversion is needed for this one) for wireless delivery.

Book Description
Katie McNeill is a shy clerk at the University of Maryland when in the fall of 1941, she finds herself caught between two very different men. One is Army officer, Ron Miller. The other is Jimmy Garrett, a young student determined to win Katie. On Sunday, December 7, all three of their lives are changed forever when innocence is lost and the future becomes uncertain.

B1G1F on Kindle: Brian Haig

From August 1st-August 31st, 2009, buy Brian Haig's Secret Sanction ($6.39) and receive a free download of Mortal Allies ($6.39). Secret Sanction is the first novel by Brian Haig, military strategist and son of former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, but he's written quite a few since.

This one works like the other B1G1F offers from Amazon - only click and order Secret Sanction; Mortal Allies will also appear in your library and on your Kindle, but you don't click the buy button for it (I don't believe it appears on your receipt/order summary either, which I don't like).

Secret Sanction
Word of Honor meets A Few Good Men in this gripping thriller that pits the Green Berets, the CIA and the U.S. government against a top Army lawyer conducting an investigation everyone wants quashed.

Mortal Allies
Army lawyer Sean Drummond has gotten himself in way over his head-with a case that challenges his deepest fears and a co-counselor who challenges just about everything else.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Oprah Update!

Don't forget to download your PDF copy of Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. See my earlier post for more details.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Weekend Thrillers

There are several thrillers on special currently, at least one of which promises to raise his price after the weekend: A Treasured Threat ($0.99), by Tim K. Scott. I had not heard of the book, nor known it was on sale until I chanced upon a forum announcement that this sale would end July 31. He extended that until the end of the weekend, so I'd grab this one quickly, if it tickles your fancy (I did, after reading the sample).

Book Description
A Treasured Threat is a historical “What if” of a group of Floridians that are thrown into the deadly repercussions of an Old Testament generational curse. The author integrates several historical, unrelated events and laces them together in fiction. A Treasured Threat was heavily researched with an eye for accuracy and continuity.

With an exciting combination of wit, drama and tragedy, A Treasured Threat will hold the readers' attention until its unexpected, high impact conclusion.

In literary style, there are several sub plots and character building that brings A Treasured Threat to life.

The central character, a retired Naval Commander and salvage diver Malcolm “Johnny” Johns, operates a SCUBA diving charter for tourists from West Palm Beach. He and his crew occasionally search for lost Spanish treasure off shore of the Gold Coast of Florida.

A lead from an old navy buddy guides him and his crew to the discovery of a Biblical artifact. Despite a multitude of tragic events that has surrounded the relic, he is reluctant to acknowledge the obvious destructive power it possesses.

Certain language and situations may keep A Treasured Threat from being categorized as a Christian book, but the main plot is based on Old Testament passages from the books of Kings and Deuteronomy.


Luggage By Kroger: A True Crime Memoir ($0.99), by Gary Taylor, is a true life tale that has been made into made into two movies and three TV documentaries. The sale price should be good thru Aug 15.

Book Description
Recognized as one of 2009's top true crime thrillers with medals from ForeWord Magazine, the IPPYs and the National Indie Excellence Awards.

"Remember the movie 'Fatal Attraction'? And the movie 'Basic Instinct'? And the movie 'Play Misty For Me'? Toss all three of the movies in a blender, hit frappe and stand back. What comes out would be Gary Taylor’s new book – 'Luggage By Kroger'."--Randall Radic in "Self-Publishing Review" magazine.

In this true crime memoir, former Houston Post reporter Gary Taylor recounts his true-life fatal attraction involvement in the trail of violence that has dogged Texas attorney Catherine Mehaffey Shelton for nearly three decades, prompting coverage by newspapers, TV, movies and even Oprah Winfrey. Now Taylor invites readers to grab a ringside seat for viewing the wreckage of an obsessive relationship, from its erotic beginning through the violent end and the trials required to clean up the mess. The result is an adventure odyssey of self-discovery through an encounter that nearly cost him his life.


Crack-Up ($1.99), by Eric Christopherson, garnered a five-star review from a reviewer that is quite stingy with them. There is also a one-star review, that is just a complaint the sample has a formatting problem; although true, this does happen now and then, but should be reported to Amazon (or the author, so they can attempt to work with Amazon to correct it), not be the basis for a review that sticks with the book (especially as the "review" is only about the error in the sample.

Book Description
Argus Ward is a former U.S. Secret Service agent who runs a protection agency catering to the rich and famous. His best-kept secret--which he shares with lawyers and doctors and even psychiatrists--is his status as a high-functioning paranoid schizophrenic. One day, with little warning, he turns psychotic for the first time in twenty years. He lands in a secure psychiatric facility, charged with the murder of his most famous client, high tech industry billionaire John Helms, the wealthiest man in America.

Argus has no memory of the killing. A blood test suggests to him that some unknown enemy had switched his anti-psychotic medication with identical-looking dummy pills to purposely drive him insane.

A sign of lingering paranoia? His doctor thinks so. Even his wife.

Yet Argus escapes incarceration to prove his theory. With the law on his trail and a ticking time bomb in his head--due to a lack of medication--he discovers that his disease had been "weaponized" by a powerful group to secretly assassinate John Helms as part of a multiple assassination conspiracy of world-wide significance.

Or has Argus simply lost his mind again? What in the end is "real" and what is only imagination in his story?

And what is justice for the criminally insane?

Come lose your grip on reality. Read "Crack-Up."


Kill The Story and Secrets of the Dead ($1.99 each) are both from John Luciew, author of Fatal Dead Lines ($6.99). The only problem I have with them: Death Notice, which fits between Fatal Dead Lines and Secrets of the Dead, isn't available on Kindle or in print.

Kill The Story
A serial killer known as “The Reader” is murdering journalists in the manner of their most famous stories. Dubbed the “Media Murders” by the press, the killings baffle authorities, turn once-aggressive reporters into prey and shock the country in what soon becomes a national story. The cunning killer’s first strike is cleverly disguised as a political assassination, mirroring John Hinckley’s attempt on Ronald Reagan. As it turns out, the fallen reporter had covered Reagan’s shooting. It’s the first of several bizarre killings with eerie similarities to sensational stories the murdered journalists once covered. The story is so big, The New York Times assigns its new national reporter, Cassandra “Cassie” Jordan, to cover its every development. The assignment returns Cassie to her familiar stomping grounds of Harrisburg, Pa., reuniting her with Frank “Telly” Tellis, chief political reporter for The Harrisburg Herald. Only Telly can put together the murderous truth as the secret motive for the killings is buried deep in his journalistic past. But can he solve the puzzle before falling under The Reader’s deadly crosshairs?

Secrets of the Dead

In the streets of Harrisburg, a man is killed in what appears to be a straightforward hit-and-run – until the victim turns out to have no identity whatsoever. Obituary writer Lenny Holcomb’s ability to glimpse the secrets of his column’s subjects leads him to suspect that his old friend, ex-congressman George Packard, may have had a hand in the “accident.” But if so, why do all the clues point to Packard’s slick political rival? With the help of ambitious reporter Jacqueline Towers, Lenny follows a trail of political spin and corruption to the highest levels of Pennsylvania government – where the right influence can make any problem disappear. Unfortunately, some very powerful people think Lenny Holcomb has just become a problem …

Hope Town ($1.19), by Brendan P. Myers , who also has Sumner Gardens ($1.29), a young adult title, and the short story A Truck Story ($1.00) available on Kindle, is the only one I haven't bought already. I just haven't had time to read thru the sample and decide, though, so it may end up in my TBR stack eventually.

Book Description
The sleepy, seaside village of Hopeton is not all it appears . . .

At the end of a bad day, Parker nurses his wounds at a local watering hole. There he meets a woman. Turns out, her day was almost as bad as his. Almost. After seeking solace in each other's arms, they find themselves unwittingly thrown together in a deadly race for survival.

Because two others are in the bar that evening, one predator: the town bigwig with a cash flow problem, and one prey, the bank president who refuses to help. Big mistake. Because Bobby Jo knows a dark secret and will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

From the high-rises of downtown Boston, to the high seas of the Atlantic, to the dirty sandlots of a sleepy south shore town, events move inexorably towards their pulse-pounding climax . . .

It's a small town. Maybe even something like your town. But all may already be lost for the good citizens of . . . Hope Town.