When her high school English students dared her to write a novel, teacher Jo Robertson responded with The Watcher, a terrifyingly terrific debut crime thriller. The book, which tops today’s Buffet, won the Romance Writers of America’s “Golden Heart” Award for romantic suspense in 2006. The follow-up in this loosely-connected trilogy is The Avenger, which won the 2007 Daphne du Maurier Overall Award for Excellence.
Jo’s books are romantic thrillers, which means they straddle the line between mainstream thriller-suspense and romance. She feels that a strong relationship in a book makes the danger more intense, and her readers seem to agree–they especially enjoy her complex, three-dimensional villains.
Jo lives in northern California, near the beautiful Sierra Nevada foothills. She enjoys reading, scrap booking, and discussing the latest in books, movies, and television shows.
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The Watcher (The Bigler County Romantic Thriller Series)
Romance > Mystery & Suspense
Author: Jo Robertson
This psychological suspense follows forensic psychiatrist Kate Myers who believes the killer of two teenage girls in Bigler County, California, is the same man who savagely murdered her twin sister over fifteen years ago. Working with a single-minded tenacity, she sets out to prove it.
Deputy Sheriff Ben Slater hides his personal pain behind the job, but Kate’s arrival in his county knocks his world on its axis and makes him believe in romance again. He wants to believe her wild theory, but the idea of a serial killer with the kind of pathology she proposes is too bizarre.
Together they work to find a killer whose roots began in a small town in Bigler County, but whose violence spread across the nation. A Janus-like killer, more monster than man, he fixates on Kate and wants nothing more than to kill the “purple-eyed girl again.”
As this crime thriller builds to a conclusion, Kate finds herself in grave danger, while Slater uses his forensics skills to discover who the madman is and where he’s taken her.
High Moor
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Graeme Reynolds
When John Simpson hears of a bizarre animal attack in his old home town of High Moor, it stirs memories of a long forgotten horror. John knows the truth. A werewolf stalks the town once more, and on the night of the next full moon, the killing will begin again. He should know. He survived a werewolf attack in 1986, during the worst year of his life.
It’s 1986 and the town is gripped in terror after the mutilated corpse of a young boy is found in the woods. When Sergeant Steven Wilkinson begins an investigation, with the help of a specialist hunter, he soon realises that this is no ordinary animal attack. Werewolves are real, and the trail of bodies is just beginning, with young John and his friends smack in the middle of it.
Twenty years later, John returns to High Moor. The latest attack involved one of his childhood enemies, but there’s more going on than meets the eye. The consequences of his past actions, the reappearance of an old flame and a dying man who will either save or damn him are the least of his problems. The night of the full moon is approaching and time is running out.
But how can he hope to stop a werewolf, when every full moon he transforms into a bloodthirsty monster himself?
Kiss Me, I’m Irish (Tennessee Waltz)
Romance > Time Travel
Author: Bella Street
Emily Musgrave is heading a direction she never wanted to go in Regency England–namely a convent to turn her from her waywardness. But it’s more loneliness than rebellion that motivates her to escape her certain fate.
Liam Jackson is going nowhere fast in modern-day Tennessee. Playing his Dobro in seedy bars and backward dives along with his fiddling sister, Tinker, is doing nothing for his music career–and even less for the dark places in his soul.
Pixie mischief can not only change time-lines, it can change hearts. Because sometimes a girl just needs a little magic in her life.
The Afterlife series Box Set (Books 1-3)
Fantasy > Paranormal & Urban
Author: Willow Rose
The first three books in the Afterlife series by international Best-Selling Author Willow Rose.
Death is only the beginning … Meghan is 16 when she dies. She wakes up on a flying steamboat on her way to a school run by Angels in a white marble castle. On the boat she meets Mick who has been dead for more than a hundred years but still looks like a teenager. He helps her past the difficult beginning at the new school in a new world filled with magic.
One day some of Meghan’s roommates find a mirror in the cellar of the school and they persuade her to go through it with them – well knowing it is strictly against the rules of the school. Meghan ends up back on earth where she meets Jason. But Jason is in danger and Meghan knows something important. Something that is a matter of life and death. Soon she is forced to choose between the two worlds. The one she belongs to now and the one she left.
Death Comes eCalling (Book 1, Molly Masters Mysteries)
Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: Leslie O’Kane
Meet Molly Masters, a zany mother and accidental sleuth who owns a one-woman business that creates humorous eCards. After a twenty-year absence, Molly has relocated her family to her childhood home in a suburb of Albany, NY, only to have her husband’s reassignment abruptly changed to overseas.
Molly’s least-favorite high school teacher dies on the very same day that Molly receives both a letter from that teacher and an anonymous email that threatens Molly’s life. All too soon, Molly finds herself knee deep in gossip…and murder.
Otherworld: A Novel
Christian Fiction > Suspense
Author: Jared C. Wilson
Something strange is happening in Houston and its rural suburb, Trumbull. It starts with the bizarre mutilation of a farmer’s cow, sparking rumors of UFO sightings and alien visitations. It’s all an annoyance for the police, who would prefer to focus on the recent murders in the area. Mike Walsh is a journalist with a nagging editor and a troubled marriage who finds himself inexorably drawn into the deeper story creeping up on all who dare get close enough: a grizzled small town police captain, a depressed journalist, a disillusioned pastor, and a little old man. They are unlikely allies against the otherworld.
15 Recipes For Gourmet Food Gifts: Edible Handmade Gifts From Your Kitchen
Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Occasions
Author: Jill Swanson
Whether you are an experienced or beginner cook, 15 Recipes for Gourmet Food Gifts is the ideal guide for great food gift ideas, recipes, and step-by-step directions to help you give the perfect and most original gift to your loved ones! Gourmet homemade food gifts are guaranteed to be unique, thoughtful, and frugal. You’ll also have a great story to tell when you give your gift!
• Give a jar of Home Cured Olives as a gift for fathers who have everything and really don’t need another pair of socks.
• A jar of Homemade Bitters fits the bill for making the perfect cocktail to celebrate a promotion.
• Sweet and Hot Homemade Mustard is perfect when you need a hostess gift for Christmas.
• Give a pound of Home Roasted Coffee Beans for your coffee-loving friend’s birthday.
• Homemade Chocolate Truffles recipe is great for mothers or sweethearts with a sweet tooth.
• Zesty Marinated Goat Cheese adds zest to any housewarming or holiday party.
Second Chance Valentines
Romance > Contemporary
Author: Shawn Inmon
Not everyone gets a second chance at love, but it’s happening for Steve and Elizabeth. Separated for twenty years, they reconnected with each other through a Christmas miracle. Now they have a chance to find out what they missed out on decades earlier. Can true love bridge the space of the years that came between them?
Kindergarten Baby: a novel
Romance > Contemporary
Author: Cricket Rohman
Lindsey Lark, orphaned as a young child, often turned to fairy tales for comfort, joy, and survival. Now she’s all grown up and appears to live the perfect life; she’s pretty, she’s smart, and she’s the best kindergarten teacher in the southwest. The students, with all their hilarious classroom antics, keep her smiling—most of the time.
But this school year is different. A sudden emotional shock ignites an odd internal journey as Lindsey attempts to reclaim an inkling of happiness, confidence, and dignity. Fate leads her to a life and death situation at the Grand Canyon, a career-changing event in a barn in North Dakota, and, finally, an emotional rebirth in the Zuni Mountain wilderness.
Lindsey cherishes the companionship of her delightful dog, Wendell. The students’ heart wrenching traumas and their comical comments, combined with her desire to be a shining light in their lives, provide an escape from her problems … sometimes.
TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?
A Murder Is Announced (Miss Marple Mysteries)
Mystery > British Detectives
Author: Agatha Christie
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
When an evening of fun and games turns to murder, Miss Marple plays by her own rules to solve the whodunit.
The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which reads: ‘A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.’ A childish practical joke? Or a hoax intended to scare poor Letitia Blacklock? Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the appointed time when, without warning, the lights go out…
A Risk Worth Taking
Historical Romance
Author: Laura Landon
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
Griffin Blackmoor blames himself for the tragic accident that claimed his wife and young son. Riddled with guilt, he prays that during the Crimean War an enemy’s bullet will end the consuming torture he can’t escape. Instead, that bullet finds his best friend. Now there isn’t enough whiskey in England to make him forget all the people who have died because of him. But before he can drown himself in an endless sea of liquor, he must keep the promise he made his dying friend. Except that promise is sure to risk an innocent woman’s life—and his own battered heart.
When her brother’s sudden death leaves her destitute, Lady Anne Carmichael knows she must marry. Although her dark beauty earns her the attention of London’s most eligible bachelors, only one man can stir her soul with his kisses. Griffin Blackmoor is everything she swore she never wanted. So why does his love feel like exactly what she needs?
Aberrant
Science Fiction > Dystopian
Author: Ruth Silver
Regularly $4.99, Today $1.99
In the future dystopian society of Cabal, the government instills equality for all and offers its citizens the perfect system. There is food, shelter and jobs for everyone. The one requirement is to follow the rules without question, including the government’s match in marriage and “The Day of the Chosen”, a lottery that randomly selects families to conceive children as natural means hasn’t existed in generations. Following her eighteenth birthday, Olivia Parker accepts her requirement to marry her childhood best friend, Joshua Warren, and is eager to start her work assignment and new life when it all comes abruptly to an end as she’s arrested and thrown in prison. The only crime committed, her existence. Olivia is unlike the rest of the world born not from “The Day of the Chosen.” The truth haunts the government and puts her life in grave danger as one simple fact would destroy the perfect system.
With Joshua’s help, Olivia breaks free of prison and is forced on the run. Together they set out to find the promised rebel town in search of a new home and new life together. Their situation seems less than promising as they reach the town of Haven. New rules and customs must be adhered to in order to stay. Leaving would mean most certain death in the large expanse of the Gravelands. Time is running out as the government mounts an attack to destroy Olivia and bury her secret with her. Thrown into a world unlike their own, they must quickly adapt to survive.
American Brother
Biographies & Memoirs
Author: Elisa M. Camara
Regularly $14.95, Today $2.99
On October 23, 1983, a suicide bomber rammed a truck filled with explosives into barracks housing United States Marines in Beirut, Lebanon. Two hundred forty-one Americans died that day. Among them, Sgt. Mecot Camara. His little sister, Elisa, their family and the small town of Hinton, West Virginia would never be the same.
In this moving tribute to her big brother, and all the brave men and women of our Armed Forces, Elisa Camara recounts the life, the loves, and the adventures of an ordinary small town American boy who grew up to become an extraordinary man, a devoted son, husband and father, and, ultimately, a proud United States Marine who gave his life for his country. For Elisa, this is meant to serve not only as a cathartic telling of her brother’s amazing story, but also as a reminder of the importance of courage, respect and selflessness–the very qualities that Mecot Camara embodied. The qualities that made him the quintessential American Brother.
Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland
Children’s eBooks > Biographies > Religious
Author: Tomie dePaola
Regularly $7.99, Today $1.99
The story of Patrick’s life, from his noble birth in Britain, to his being captured and taken to Ireland by a group of bandits, to the “dreams” that led him to convert the Irish people to the Christian faith. DePaola also retells several well-known legends, including the story of how Patrick got rid of all the snakes in Ireland. Full color.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2