Mystery Reads

Permafree eBook: The Enemy We Know by Donna White Glaser

Psychotherapist Letty Whittaker, a professional secret keeper, has a secret of her own. When one of her clients slips free from an abusive boyfriend, Letty becomes the target of his violent rage. Wayne invades Letty’s life, slithering his way past the barriers erected between her personal and professional lives, leaving gifts of dead rats, mutilated dolls, and freaky Shakespearian sonnets. Worst of all, Wayne uncovers Letty’s deepest shame, infiltrating her AA group and threatening to expose her to the state licensing board.

And then–good news–Wayne is murdered. The bad news? The police suspect Letty. Worse yet, the sonnets and bloody souvenirs keep coming. Someone else has been watching Letty. Someone eager to drop bodies at her feet like a cat offering dead mole trophies to his mistress.

Someone willing to kill again.

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About the Author
Donna White Glaser is the author of The Letty Whittaker 12 Step Mystery series. Like her main character, Donna is a psychotherapist and lives northwestern Wisconsin. As if that weren’t enough, she and her husband own a residential construction company where it’s Donna’s job to deal with any overly emotional, what-do-you-mean-you-can’t-put-roof-trusses-up-in-a-thunderstorm? clients. Strangely enough, she often comes up with ideas for creative murders and hiding bodies during business hours. Currently she is at work on the fourth Letty Whittaker 12 Step Mystery-THE BLOOD WE SPILL. Donna would love to hear from you via her website at www.donnawhiteglaser.com or on Twitter: @readdonnaglaser.

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Permafree eBook: She Belongs to Me by Carmen DeSousa @Author_Carmen

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A tightly woven tale of love, possession, and concealed histories, ‘She Belongs to Me’ follows a man who finds his wife unconscious, clinging to life. Was it a suicide attempt, or a sinister force from her former life?

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About the Author
A romantic-suspense writer, Carmen writes novels that overflow with romance, mystery, suspense, a hint of paranormal sometimes, and of course–tragedy. After all, what would a great story be without a heartrending event setting the stage? Her sensual and gripping stories have earned bestseller status on three continents because of her ability to make readers love, laugh, cry, gasp, and hope.

Her Southern Suspense Series starts with FREE 100k-word novel ‘She Belongs to Me’ from there, all her novels have a slight connection to each other, so you can continue the journey and meet different protagonists with different issues and tragedies to overcome. Every story has a mystery, there’s always a gentle message, and above all, there’s always romance and suspense.

#1 She Belongs to Me

#2 Split Decisions

#3 Land of the Noonday Sun

#4 Entangled Dreams

#5 When Noonday Ends

Creatus Series (New Romantic-Suspense with a Paranormal Edge)

#1 Creatus Now available!

#2 Rogue Coming Christmas 2013

Mystery Series with a Ghostly Edge

The Pit Stop (FREE Short Story)

The Depot (FREE Short Story)

Follow-up Novel ‘The Library’ coming Fall 2013

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Permafree eBook: GHOST IN THE MACHINE by Ed James @edjamesauthor

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Detective Constable Scott Cullen of Lothian and Borders has only been three months in CID as a full DC. He is assigned a Missing Persons case which has stretched his uniform colleagues. Caroline Adamson – a young, recently divorced mother from Edinburgh – has disappeared whilst on a date.

The more Cullen digs into her disappearance, the more he unravels her private life. Who was she on a date with? What happened during her divorce from Rob Thomson? As Cullen’s own private life gets messier and the relationship with his DI deteriorates, Caroline’s body turns up and he finds himself hunting for a ghost in the machine.

Book one of the Scott Cullen series.

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About the Author
Ed James writes crime fiction novels, predominantly the Scott Cullen series of police procedurals set in Edinburgh and the surrounding Lothians – the first four are available now, starting with GHOST IN THE MACHINE which has been downloaded over 100,000 times and is currently free. His next book – SHOT THROUGH THE HEART – features vampires and werewolves but not Scott Cullen and is out on 31-October.

Ed lives in the East Lothian countryside, 25 miles east of Edinburgh, with his girlfriend, six rescue moggies, two retired greyhounds, a flock of ex-battery chickens and eight rescue ducks across two breeds and two genders (though the boys don’t lay eggs).

He works in IT for a living, commuting from Edinburgh to London every week (not every day) and writes mainly on public transport.

His blog – edjamesauthor.com – is a log of his work, his thoughts on his writing, and a place for his word count OCD to express itself. His music tastes will creep in now and again.

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Permafree eBook: Altered Life by Keith Dixon @keithyd6

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THE No. 1 BESTSELLER IN THE FREE KINDLE STORE CRIME CATEGORY

Making a killing in business is one thing – doing it for real is another.

Private Investigator Sam Dyke turns down a job that would require skills that he doesn’t have – patience, computer-literacy, tact. Then he finds that the skills he does have – tenacity, aggression, street-smarts – are exactly the ones he needs for his next case – hunting down a cold-blooded murderer who seems to know what his every step will be.

To solve the case Sam must negotiate with his ex-wife, cement a relationship with a new love, unravel an office-based financial fraud and fight off an arrogant murderer armed only with a pen-knife.

Altered Life is fast-paced, bitterly comic and introduces a tough new English private eye who knows what he wants and, usually, how to get it.

What reviewers have said:

“Right out of the gate, this is an amazing novel for first-time author, Keith Dixon.” – Ron Peters, POD People.

“If you like private eye stories, you owe it to yourself to check out Keith Dixon’s Altered Life. I had a hard time putting it down and I bet you will too. With this book you’ll be in on the ground floor of what is sure to be a successful series of ‘Sam Dyke’ mysteries.” – Dan Marvin, The LL Book Review.

“Meet Sam Dyke, a shoot from the hip, slightly cynical, less than happy with how life has turned out private eye. A turned down job turns into a personal quest to do right by his ex-wife even if it is eighteen years too late. The plot escalates quickly and keeps going until the mystery solved with some death defying quick thinking from Dyke. The hook is baited for the second book nicely but not in such a way that you feel like you got thrown off the literary cliff wondering what happened.”

“This great read harkens back to the days of the straightforward in your face detective genre. The author does not try to be “cutsey” or politically correct. He just tells a great story with an extremely proficient hero, Sam Dyke. I usually can figure these types of tales out by the middle of the book, but not this one. It will hook you early with the deviously crafted characters. An example of this fine writer’s skill is an attempted murder by a forced car accident. When I was reading this heart stopping passage, I found myself literally holding my breath.

If you enjoy a good mystery with many surprises along the way, you’ll love this book.”

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About the Author
Keith Dixon has worked in higher education, as an advertising copywriter and as a business psychologist, and in most of these careers he was able to incorporate creative writing of one kind or another. About ten years ago he realised that he wanted to spend more time writing and less time earning a living, and since then he’s published three Sam Dyke private eye novels and a work of contemporary fiction called Actress. He’s currently working on another contemporary novel and there’s a further Sam Dyke book in the planning stage. He’s certainly spending more time writing, but he’s yet to crack the ‘earning a living’ part.

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Four Days with Hemingway's Ghost

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Four Days with Hemingway’s Ghost is not a story of spooks and goblins. It’s a powerful story about two men from two very different times. One man is mortal, the other is immortal. One is painfully ordinary, the other world famous.

Jack Phelan is a forty-two-year-old underachiever who lives in South Florida. Although he mows lawns for a living, he’s not what you might expect. He’s got an exceptionally sharp mind and is a self-educated Hemingway aficionado.

After Jack gets into an unlikely accident he’s flown by helicopter to the nearest hospital, where he remains in a coma for four days. But somehow, minutes after he blacks out, he finds himself in Key West, Florida–rubbing shoulders with an aged Ernest Hemingway.

Hem has been sent back down to help determine whether or not Jack has what it takes to write a book for “The Main Man above the clouds.” But what Ernest doesn’t know is that the book is to be about him. And that its purpose is to change the world’s perception of the swaggering, hard-knuckled, macho myth he has become.

Over the next four days, Jack Phelan and Ernest Hemingway travel to the legendary author’s old haunts and meet up with many of his long gone friends. Some of these reunions are rollicking good times, others are highly emotional tests of strength. But wait. When their time together comes to an end, the story is still not over. That’s when things really get interesting.

Tom Winton was born and raised in New York City. During his working career he has done everything from working on a railroad gang in the Colorado Rockies to driving a taxicab in Manhattan. He has also been a mailman, a salesman, an entrepreneur and more. He lives in Hobe Sound, Florida, with his wife Blanche and their ill-tempered, but loveable, Jack Russell terrier, Ginger. They spend part of their time in Carmel, Maine. Tom’s debut novel, Beyond Nostalgia, was released in February of 2011. This book has more than once been likened to such classics as Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird. Praised as “a 20th century Gone with the Wind,” Beyond Nostalgia has been on four different Amazon Bestseller lists. Mr. Winton’s second novel, The Last American Martyr, came out in August of 2011. It has been on six Bestseller lists, at the same time.

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Chill Run by Russell Brooks @authorrussell

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Sometimes publicity stunts go bad…Real Bad!

Starving author Eddie Barrow, Jr., will do anything to get a book deal with a NYC publisher. Even if it means getting caught by the media while engaging in S&M with a female celebrity as a publicity stunt. What Eddie gets instead are details of a billion dollar fraud scheme from a suicidal client who’s fatally shot minutes later. Now on the run from the law and the killers, Eddie seeks help from two unlikely friends–an alcoholic and a dominatrix. With few resources, Eddie races to clear his name, unveil the fraud scheme, and expose the killers before he becomes their next victim.

Targeted Age Group:
18-60

How is Writing In Your Genre Different from Others?
My writing has been described as cinematic, in that I’m so detailed in terms of what is seen, heard, and felt, that you feel as though a film is playing in your mind as you read.

What Advice Would You Give Aspiring Writers?
Be persistent, persevere, and patient. The payoff will follow.

Author Bio:
I’m the author of the spy-thriller, Pandora’s Succession, the short story anthology, Unsavory Delicacies, and the suspense thriller, Chill Run. I consider myself fortunate to have been selected to the Canadian Track Team in the 100 metre and 200 metre sprint events and have a degree in Biology from Indiana University. As for my books, I’ve has been compared to a young Robert Ludlum. My books have also attracted fans of New York Times bestselling author Barry Eisler.

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I wrote this right after the Norbourg scandal that rocked Quebec the same way the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme rocked the USA. The Norbourg scandal hit an emotional chord with me when I saw how the company’s CEO, Vincent Lacroix, swindled his clients blindly. Many of them who were retired and having to seek employment–most likely for life. What also inspired me were celebrities and politicians who became famous or infamous because of publicity stunts or bad behavior. So, I thought of having a starving author as the protagonist, and you have the perfect mash-up.

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THE MEXICAN ROSE: HOUSE OF CARTELS BOOK I BY ALEX ST. CLAIR

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When her husband is brutally murdered in broad daylight, activist-turned-schoolteacher Rosa Rios finds herself immersed in the blood soaked world of the Mexican drug cartels. She and her fly-by-night sister Mercedes travel across a lush, storied Latin American landscape, from the decaying seaside city of Acapulco to the mystical pyramids of Palenque.

Rosa’s quest for vengeance leads her to Ponchis, a brash young assassin whose actions determine the future of La Familia, the most prominent of the cartels. With him is Bruce, the charming American pilot with a nightmarish past. When American and Mexican politics collide with the world of organized crime and corruption is the norm, who can be trusted? Only the supposedly psychic healer Tamara Castro may know for sure.

The Mexican Rose is the first book in the House Of Cartels Trilogy by author Alex St. Clair. It bluntly depicts the erosion of the Mexican way of life in a way that shocks, educates and entertains.

From photo-journalist to journalist to novelist. One goes through on ideological evolutionary journey to land at your desk, night and day, day and night, to get it right.

I soul-searched for years before venturing onto this controversial theme laced with passion and romanticism. This story is about Rosa Rios, the main protaganist, and the process of changes in Mexican citizens’ psyche as a whole as they experience one of the most upheaving decades in memory. The events which are coincidentally concurrent with the chaotic cartel news in Mexico are but a backdrop for the underlying message of addressing the monumental issue of ending the viscious feuding cycle and the beginning a healing of the nation.

Having lived and travelled throughout the country has educated me more than any book guide or video could accomplish. It gave me a true feel for the landscapes I painted across the dystopian canvas with broad brush strokes and wove into the book a fine fabric mosaic of motherhood, sisterhood, brotherhood and brutal cartels and politicians. Class warfare meets a surreal urban fantasyland that is the reality of Mexico.

The next installment, American Beauty Destroyed, will be an even more in-depth soul-searching voyage for Rosa Rios and her American romantic counterpart.

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The Vampire Murders

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In an early-20th century Seattle that never was, someone is rampaging through Chinatown and committing murders with unheard of barbarity. Assigned to work the case, Detective Fekhal is determined to stop the killings and bring the murderer to justice. But as the murders continue, he starts to suspect that the killer might not be of this world…

Matthew Blake lives in Spokane, Washington. He has been a fan of writing and reading horror since he was a boy. He keeps busy between writing and his three-year-old daughter. He was a soldier in the US Army and attained a degree in web development after his time in the service. When he has free time he likes to play disc golf (a popular sport that a lot of people don’t know about, you should try it), and take long walks.

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Born Under A Bad Sign – A Noir Story

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Two brothers are haunted by their past and a mother they never really knew. Which one of the brothers will fall from grace in this dark Oedipal tale? Or will obsession and guilt destroy them both when the past rears its ugly head?

If you like dark, L.A. based noir mystery stories with neon pink flamingos, moody cafes and murder, check out award-winning author Paul D. Marks’ story Born Under a Bad Sign.

Paul D. Marks is the author of over thirty published detective, noir, crime, and sometimes satire, stories. Though not only genre fiction, serious fiction as well. His short stories have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies and have won several awards. His Award-Winning noir-thriller, WHITE HEAT, is also available on Amazon.

He is also the last person to have shot on the fabled MGM backlot before it bit the dust to make way for housing. According to Steven Bingen, one of the authors of the well-received book, MGM: HOLLYWOOD’S GREATEST BACKLOT: “That 40 page chronological list I mentioned of films shot at the studio ends with his [Paul D. Marks’] name on it.”

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Exile on Slain Street: A Clancy Parker Mystery by P.J. Morse

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In the comic mystery “Exile on Slain Street,” undercover detective Clancy Parker must find the killer on the set of a reality TV dating show before she gets eliminated—permanently.

Clancy thought she’d been hired to protect the show’s star, grunge-rock guitar god Patrick Price, from a stalker, but she quickly realizes she’s dealing with a clever murderer whose arsenal includes booby-trapped stripper poles and sabotaged stretch Hummers. As members of the cast and production team are killed one by one, Clancy finds herself with few allies. She’s at the mercy of a nosy camera crew and, even worse, reality show contestants who will do anything for fame.

However, Clancy is the right woman for this challenge. She plays guitar for a band, and she fancies herself a rock ‘n’ roll detective, like Kinky Friedman, only a whole lot prettier. With her music background, Patrick Price can’t resist her, but the attentions of a horny rock star threaten to distract her from her original purpose, which is to save her client’s life.

Targeted Age Group:
25-55

How is Writing In Your Genre Different from Others?
Because when I was writing “Heavy Mental,” I fretted that I was stepping outside of cozy bounds. I love cozies because they mix murder with two of my favorite things — cute animals and food.But, when I decided to write a mystery, I thought I might have two teensy-tiny problems. First, my main character, Clancy Parker, does not have pets. Harold, her landlord, is allergic, and it would be impossible to take a pet on tour with her band, the Marquee Idols. (As if Shane, Wayne or Muriel could handle the responsibilities of caring for a pet! If you have read “Heavy Mental,” can you imagine what Wayne would try to feed the pet?)Second, I am not a good cook, so I can’t add recipes. I don’t need to regale you with tales of my cooking mishaps, but there’s a reason Clancy’s favorite foods are Fritos and takeout beef and broccoli.So, I admit, I was a little nervous when I put the book on Amazon. I know not all cozies have pets and recipes, but a lot of them do. The good review over at Cozy Mystery Book Review makes me feel like I got something right. Not only did I capture the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, but maybe I captured the spirit of the cozy, too.

What Advice Would You Give Aspiring Writers?
I love spreadsheets. Keep spreadsheets of details about each of your characters so you can always refer to them. That way, you stay true to the character, and your reader will be happy because they know you’re not writing a bunch of stuff without editing.

Author Bio:
I write cozies your nana might not like. Then again, that depends on your nana.

I have two mystery series in the works — one featuring the rock ‘n’ roll detective Clancy Parker and the other starring the erotic bakery entrepreneur Muriel Kovacs. The first novel in the Clancy Parker series, Heavy Mental, is out now. The first novel in the Muriel Kovacs series, Missionary Position, made me a quarterfinalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. It will be out soon.

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