Kathleen Bacus is currently working on her seventh Calamity Jayne mystery. Topping today’s Buffet is Book 1, a romantic suspense story featuring plenty of small-town charm and oddball characters, notably ditzy blonde Tressa Jayne Turner, who has earned the moniker Calamity Jayne for the disastrous events that follow wherever she goes.
Kathy’s unconventional path to publication can certainly be described as the “road less traveled.” She was one of the first female state troopers in Iowa. On her way to becoming a full-time novelist, she learned two valuable lessons: never give up and never stop laughing. Kathy began writing when she was homebound with four children under the age of three, including a set of triplets. Kathy says, “Writing was my way of getting away from it all–without ever leaving the house!”
Kathy has been a Romantic Times American Title finalist, a Golden Heart finalist, and a finalist in the prestigious Daphne Du Maurier Award of Excellence contest, among other writing accolades.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours. 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.)
Calamity Jayne (Calamity Jayne Mysteries)
Mystery > Women Sleuths > Humor
Author: Kathleen Bacus
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HOW DOES A BLONDE SPELL ‘FARM’?
E-I-E-I-O
Tressa Jayne Turner has had it up to here with the never-ending string of dumb-blonde jokes and a longtime nickname that’s harder to get rid of than lint from a belly button. Dubbed ‘Calamity Jayne’ by Iowa Department of Natural Resources officer, Rick Townsend, Tressa’s out to gain a little hometown respect–or die trying. Unfortunately, that may be the case. She’s just been handed the perfect opportunity to get “Ranger Rick,” the doubting Don Juan of the DNR, and a skeptical citizenry to take her seriously. How? By solving a murder no one else believes happened…No one, that is, except the killer.
The Soulkeepers
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: G. P. Ching
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When 15-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother’s car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can’t find his mother’s body. Made a ward of his uncle and thousands of miles from home, a beautiful and mysterious neighbor, Dr. Abigail Silva, offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. In exchange, she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a gifted warrior charged with protecting human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother’s disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths, and questions Dr. Silva’s motives for helping him.
Trouble in Mudbug
Mystery > Women Sleuths > Humor
Author: Jana DeLeon
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Scientist Maryse Robicheaux thought that a lot of her problems had gone away with her mother-in-law’s death. The woman was rude, pushy, manipulative and used her considerable wealth to run herd over the entire town of Mudbug, Louisiana.
Unfortunately, death doesn’t slow down Helena one bit.
DEA Agent Luc LeJeune is wondering what his undercover assignment investigating the sexy scientist has gotten him into – especially as it seems someone wants her dead. Keeping his secrets while protecting Maryse proves to be easier than fighting his attraction for the brainy beauty.
Fire Burn And Cauldron Bubble
Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic
Author: H.P. Mallory
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Life isn’t bad for psychic Jolie Wilkins. True, she doesn’t have a love life to speak of, but she has a cute house in the suburbs of Los Angeles, a cat and a quirky best friend.
Enter Rand Balfour, a sinfully attractive warlock who insists she’s a witch and who just might turn her life upside down. Rand hires her to help him solve a mystery regarding the death of his client who also happens to be a ghost. Jolie not only uncovers the cause of the ghost’s demise but, in the process, she brings him back to life!
Word of Jolie’s incredible ability to bring back the dead spreads like wildfire, putting her at the top of the Underworld’s most wanted list. Consequently, she finds herself at the center of a custody battle between a villainous witch, a dangerous but oh-so-sexy vampire, and her warlock boss, Rand.
Vampire Elite
Romance > Paranormal > Vampires
Author: Irina Argo
A millennia-long war between two immortal races is about to come to an end. Long ago, the Vampire Elite began capturing the immortals called the Amiti, attracted by their unique blood properties. Now most Amiti live in underground cells, forced to serve as vampires’ bloodstock. The few surviving free Amiti, preparing a final strike, have declared their Queen a traitor. Her execution makes possible the rise of a new Queen, her young daughter Arianna, who will inherit her mother’s mystical powers. Working with the Keepers of the Key, Arianna may be able to eliminate the vampires, once and for all, from the face of the earth.
The new Queen is the last hope to save her dying race–and she’s ready to fight to the last drop of her blood.
But the King of the Vampires has other plans.
The Mother Road
Religion & Spirituality > Fiction
Author: Jennifer AlLee
Within the course of a week, Natalie is dumped by her husband, receives an urgent call home from her father, and discovers her estranged sister is pregnant. A road trip on Route 66 may not help, but it sure couldn’t hurt. Or so Natalie thinks, until Lindsay’s boyfriend starts stalking them. Will their
trip down the Mother Road bring the two sisters closer together or turn out to be the biggest wrong turn yet?
Past Imperfect #1
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: John Matthews
A car accident in California, a deadly assault in Provence, and two boys 30 years apart are left battling for their lives.
Dominic Fornier is the detective who finds himself at the heart of the investigation. A simple provincial case that becomes one of the largest and most important in French criminal history.
Fornier’s only hope is to prove the link between the two boys thirty years apart. A compulsive journey through forensic, medical and psychiatric evidence between France, the USA and London; a breathless paper chase of clues from a young boy’s psyche… and a desperate race against time with a killer who will stop at nothing.
No Game for a Dame
Mystery > Hard-Boiled
Author: M. Ruth Myers
- $1.99 List Price
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A .38, a nip of gin and sensational legs get Depression-era private eye Maggie Sullivan out of most scrapes – until a stranger threatens to bust her nose, she’s hauled in on suspicion of his murder and she finds herself in the cross-hairs of a crime boss with connections at City Hall.
Moving through streets where people line up at soup kitchens, Maggie draws information from sources others overlook: The waitress at the dime store lunch counter where she has breakfast; a ragged newsboy; the other career girls at her rooming house.
Her digging gets her chloroformed and left in a ditch behind the wheel of her DeSoto. She makes her way to an upscale bordello and gets tea – and information – from the madam herself.
The Delphi Chronicle, Book 1 – The Manuscript
Thrillers > Conspiracies
Author: Russell Blake
Follow New York private eye Michael Derrigan as he unwittingly comes into possession of a manuscript that will change the world order if its secrets are aired. Clandestine factions of the U.S. government will do anything to keep the story buried, & a trail of butchery follows Derrigan as he races for his life in a chase that spans from New York, to Mexico, to Havana.
Loose Screw (Dusty Deals Mystery Series)
Mystery > Cozy > Women Sleuths
Author: Rae Davies, Lori Devoti
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Lucy Mathews, crime reporter turned antiques dealer, avoids confrontation like a home perm. She even lets a cat shove her around.
When Lucy trips over the body of a buckskin-clad relics trader, her ex-boss asks her to cover the story. She tries to tell him no, but old habits die hard and soon she finds herself directly in the path of a killer and the exasperating, if attractive, detective in charge.
Can Lucy catch a killer or is this the last confrontation for her—period?
Keys to High School Success: Get Your Homeschool High School Started Right
Education & Reference > Homeschooling
Author: Lee Binz
Many parents sail through homeschooling in the early years, but when faced with the prospect of homeschooling high school, they get ready to bail, for all the wrong reasons. If you’re concerned about homeschooling high school, “Keys to High School Success” will start you on the right path, and encourage you to keep going.
Kane
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Police Procedurals
Author: Steve Gannon
- $7.99 List Price
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Los Angeles is terrorized by a series of murders. One man can stop the killer: Detective Daniel Kane. But for Kane–devastated by personal tragedy and haunted by a secret that could destroy his family–to do so may cost him everything, even his life . . .
At times chilling, funny, and occasionally brutal, Kane is a nonstop thriller filled with complex characters, surprising twists, and unforgettable scenes. From a political firestorm that sends the investigation spinning out of control to an unexpected, breathtaking climax, Kane will keep you in suspense until the turn of the final heart-pounding page.
Bubba and the Dead Woman
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: C.L. Bevill
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Bubba Snoddy is a good old country boy with a big problem. Although he’s personable, handsome, and lives in a historical Southern mansion in a small Texas town, he has just discovered the dead body of a woman to whom he was once engaged to marry. His ex-fiancée was responsible for Bubba being thrown out of the military which in turn caused his shameful return to the tiny town of Pegramville, where everyone is a consummate gossip and no one has any secrets.
Regent
Genre Fiction > Action & Adventure
Author: Brian Rathbone
- $4.99 List Price
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In the years since the end of The Herald War, the world has become complacent despite Catrin Volker’s warnings. When the darkness of her visions comes to pass, no one is prepared, and the fate of humanity will rest in her hands.
The Gemini Factor
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Philip Fleishman M.D.
Murders are common. Serial murders are less common. Serial murders committed in two different countries at exactly the same time, in exactly the same way, are unheard of. ..until now.
In Toronto, Inspector Raid McTavish stares at the body of a young woman carefully posed in a bed of purple iris, her throat slashed, almost beheaded, her hands placed to cover her empty eye sockets. He knows this is not a random murder, but the first of more to come. What he doesn’t know is that 2,000 miles away in Tucson, Arizona, Sergeant Gary Ronstadt is viewing an identical crime scene.
Months later, McTavish and Ronstadt meet at a seminar on telepathy between identical twins, where they are shocked to discover that not only are they investigating identical murders, but their lives are intimately linked by a number of inexplicable similarities and coincidences.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2