Joseph Heywood is a former adjunct professor of professional writing at Western Michigan University. He’s an author, cartoonist, painter, poet, photographer, fisherman, and hiker who spends up to a month a year in trucks on patrol with Michigan conservation officers to gather information for his Woods Cop mystery series. The series is based on the lives of Upper Peninsula conservation officers, and Book 1, Ice Hunter, tops today’s Buffet.

joe

The Upper Peninsula is not just a setting for his stories, but but serves as a character in many of Joe’s novels.

Joe also worked for The Upjohn Company (now Pfizer) for 30 years, retiring in 2000 as vice president for worldwide public relations. Earlier, he’d been an instructor navigator for the U.S. Air Force from 1965 to 1970.

As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours (except for the “Kindle Daily Deals” on page 3). Warning: Kindle book promotions can end without notice, so before downloading click the link “See Kindle price at Amazon” to verify that the book is still free. (Prices and availability may differ outside USA.)

Ice Hunter: A Woods Cop Mystery

Thriller & Suspense > Police Procedurals
Author: Joseph Heywood
Ice Hunter: A Woods Cop Mystery

What if diamonds were found in the wilds of the Upper Peninsula? Would craze, greedy people descend on the area with picks and shovels and dreams of getting rich? Would scam artists be with them? Talk about a headache for a conservation officer who treasures silence and solitude.

Penzler Pick, November 2001: Grady Service is a Conservation Officer in the farthest reaches of Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula, a harshly demanding terrain with its own codes and rituals, all linked to the survival of both humans and the vast wilderness surrounding them.

Like his father before him, he’s entered the Conservation Service and sworn to police an environment where rules seem made to be broken. It’s a tough, taxing job, and of 5,000 candidates annually, “only four or five made it all the way through probation to full duty.”


Under the SS Shadow

Biographies & Memoirs > Military & Spies
Author: Traugott Vogel, Shirley Stephens
Under the SS Shadow

A true story of a Hitler Youth, an SS major’s son,who runs for his life in war-torn Europe. He sees his father shot down by guerrillas, rebuilds his life from the ruins, leaves Hitler’s SS emblem for another symbol.

Show Stopper (a Peter Brichter mystery)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Police Procedurals
Author: Mary Monica Pulver
Show Stopper (a Peter Brichter mystery)

When Kori Brichter took her horses to the Fourth Annual Lafite Class-A All-Arabian Horse Show, she wasn’t expecting murder. But the next morning, an unpopular horse trainer is found dead in one of her stalls, and her 18-year-old groom is the prime suspect. Convinced of the groom’s innocence, she sets out to solve the crime herself.


Follow the Star (Young Underground #7)

Children’s eBooks > History & Historical Fiction
Author: Robert Elmer
Follow the Star (Young Underground #7)

Peter and Elise Andersen and their friend Henrik Melchior are worried when Henrik’s mother and a family friend, Matthias Karlsson, fail to return from a short flight to Sweden. Has something happened to Matthias’s plane? Then a mysterious caller informs Peter that Ruth Melchior and Matthias are being held by the Russian forces occupying the Danish island of Bornholm. The charge: spying!

But the line goes dead before Peter can ask any questions. Frantic, Peter, Elise, and Henrik set sail for the island with Uncle Morten at the helm of the Anna Marie. But their arrival is met by secretive Russian soldiers who deny keeping any prisoners. How can Peter and the others persuade the Russians to release Mrs. Melchior and Matthias when the soldiers will not even admit they are there?

Every Secret Thing (Legacy Series)

Religious Fiction > Romance
Author: Ann Tatlock
Every Secret Thing (Legacy Series)

When Elizabeth Gunnar accepts a teaching position at the preparatory school she attended as a girl, she is returning to more than a place–to memories, mysteries, and an old love. Once there she meets unexpected challenges–and challenging new people. She revisits ghosts of the past and old self-doubts. And she is reminded of the faith that first captured her there in what she called her “moments of being.”

daynight

Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Megan Thomason
daynight

Meet The Second Chance Institute (SCI): Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. Their motto: Because Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Life(TM). Reality: the SCI subjects Second Chancers to strict controls and politically motivated science experiments like Cleaving–forced lifetime union between two people who have sex. Punishment for disobeying SCI edicts? Immediate Exile or death.

Open Minds

Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Susan Kaye Quinn
Open Minds (Book One of the Mindjack Trilogy)

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden underworld of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality

Business & Investing > Psychology & Counseling
Author: Samuel Barondes
Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality (FT Press Science)

Every day, we evaluate the people around us: It’s one of the most important things we ever do. Making Sense of People provides the scientific frameworks and tools we need to improve our intuition, and assess people more consciously, systematically, and effectively.

Leading neuroscientist Samuel H. Barondes explains the research behind each standard personality category: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. He shows readers how to use these traits and assessments to do a better job of deciding who they’ll enjoy spending time with, whom to trust, and whom to keep at a distance.

Remembrance

Romance > Regency
Author: Michelle Madow
Remembrance (Transcend Time, #1)

Lizzie Davenport has been reincarnated from Regency Era, England … but she doesn’t know it yet.

Then Drew Carmichael transfers into Lizzie’s high school, and she feels a connection to him, almost like she knows him. She can’t stop thinking about him, but whenever she tries talking with him about the mysteries behind her feelings, he makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with her. Reaching him is even more difficult because she has a boyfriend, Jeremy, who has started to become full of himself after being elected co-captain of the varsity soccer team, and her flirtatious best friend Chelsea starts dating Drew soon after his arrival. So why can’t she get him out of her mind?

Even though Lizzie knows she should let go of her fascination with Drew, fighting fate isn’t going to be easy.

The Last Jump: A Novel of World War II

History > Military > World War II
Author: John E. Nevola
The Last Jump: A Novel of World War II

J.P. Kilroy, a middle-aged divorced journalist, regrets ignoring his mother’s deathbed request. Even her last letter, which told of the existence of a mysterious family secret, did not motivate him to reconcile with the father who left them 30 years ago. When he receives an invitation from the White House to attend a Medal of Honor awards ceremony for African-Americans, he also discovers his estranged father recently passed away.

Kilroy also discovers that four aging veterans, the only links to the past, not only know the secret but swore an oath never to reveal it. They are the free-spirited Sky Johnson, a rough and tumble paratrooper, Frank West, the studious company commander, Harley Tidrick, Omaha Beach veteran and cousin of his father’s best wartime buddy, and Lincoln Abraham, the only living black honoree at the ceremony.

With the aid of Cynthia Powers, an alluring Army press liaison, Kilroy accepts the challenge to cajole the veterans into revealing the mystery.

Sons of Cain

Drama > Religious & Liturgical > Political
Author: Val Bianco
SONS OF CAIN

An ancient group of twelve unspeakably powerful men are prepared to implement mass suicide in the United States. Already in control of the Congress and the Presidency, all that they lack is the Supreme Court. The only thing standing between these SONS OF CAIN and the lives of the Court is a small group of dedicated warriors.

Wealthy ex SEAL, Nick Rieper and his dozen “Knights of Longinus” have pledged their lives and fortunes to battle international Satanism. Battle is joined as they engage the Cainites and their demon leader, Namon, in mortal combat.

The Navy SEAL’s Promise

Romance > Contemporary
Author: Soraya Lane
THE NAVY SEAL'S PROMISE

With only 48 hours back on home soil, United States Army Corporal Saskia Cullen is desperate to spend every minute with her young son. So when heavy snowfall closes JFK airport and she misses her connecting flight, she’s devastated. Until Navy SEAL Luke Gray offers to keep her company… and then does everything within his power to get her home.

Luke is back in the US on leave, waiting to hear the details of his next mission, and Saskia proves to be a pleasant distraction. And when he hears that she needs to get home to see her son, he’s prepared to do anything to help the sexy single mom. Trouble is, he hadn’t planned on falling for anyone, let alone a beautiful soldier about to return overseas.

… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks and the Kindle Daily Deal here on page 2

[maxbutton id=”87″]