Thomas Kirkwood tops today’s Buffet with The Quiet Assassin, a moving love story as well as a action/adventure novel filled with action, suspense, and strong and sympathetic characters. This thriller first appeared in hardcover in 1985, and Thomas updated it for the Kindle a couple of years ago.
Thomas is best known for his Cold War thrillers. Before moving to Amazon, he was published by Macmillan, Collier Macmillan, Donald I. Fine, Signet, and Stjerne-Spenning. After living in Europe for many years, he now makes his home in Denver, Colorado. In addition to writing fiction, Kirkwood is a graduate professor of European politics and an independent consultant to several law firms.
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The Quiet Assassin: Third Edition
Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure
Author: Thomas Kirkwood
Here is a truly original thriller, comparable to the very best of vintage Le Carré. It is set behind the Berlin Wall in the heart of the East German police state and it features one of the most unique and winning heroines since Lucy in Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle.
Her name is Käte Frassek, a resistance fighter since the age of eighteen, who over the course of twenty years leads a double life in her courageous campaign to rouse her countrymen to revolt against their repressive regime. She is a wife, a mother, a scientist, a lover… and an assassin.
Against a backdrop of the Cold War in the 1960s, an abiding love develops between Käte, while still the young wife of an East German official, and an American physician innocent of who she is and what she is doing. In the remarkable climax to her years of plotting against the head of the State’s secret police, she finally must risk not only her own life but her son’s and lover’s as well.
Night Swim
Women’s Fiction > Coming of Age
Author: Jessica Keener
Sixteen-year-old Sarah Kunitz lives in a posh, suburban world of 1970 Boston. From the outside, her parents’ lifestyle appears enviable – a world defined by cocktail parties, expensive cars, and live-in maids to care for their children – but inside their five-bedroom house, all is not well for the Kunitz family. Coming home from school, Sarah finds her well-dressed, pill-popping mother lying disheveled on their living room couch.
At night, to escape their parents’ arguments, Sarah and her oldest brother, Peter, find solace in music, while her two younger brothers retreat to their rooms and imaginary lives. Any vestige of decorum and stability drains away when a family tragedy occurs one terrible winter day. Soon after, their father, a self-absorbed, bombastic professor begins an affair with a younger colleague. Sarah, aggrieved, dives into two summer romances that lead to unforeseen consequences.
And Justice for Her: Boxed Set of Mystery, Suspense, and Romance Thrillers
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Crime Fiction
Author: Brenda Hill
Boxed set of 3 Mystery, Thriller & Suspense stories of passion, brutality, and justice.
Is it ever acceptable to commit murder? What if, as a good citizen, you waited for justice, but it never came?
In this stunning mystery thriller, a deadly secret society is dispensing justice by killing society’s undesirables, and the hits are so diabolically clever that no one even suspects it’s murder – until a traumatized food critic stumbles onto the scene.
Newspaper food critic Madison Young lives a safe, controlled life in a quiet California town below Big Bear, afraid of the dark, afraid to take chances. Since the night her parents were slaughtered, she’s haunted by his threats to return for her. But she’s forced out of her sheltered life when a paroled sex offender is murdered, and her out-of-town editor needs her to cover the story.
Reluctantly interviewing a witness, Madison jots down one word, a seemingly insignificant word that will link to a chain of murders across the country and to a secret society, a vast and deadly organization whose tentacles invade her own life. She traces clues, shocked when they reveal a connection to the man who murdered her parents, horrified when warnings to stop the investigation become deadly. When her editor dies mysteriously and a family member is threatened, Madison discovers no one is who they seem, and few can be trusted.
With the Society closing in, she turns to family friend, San Bernardino homicide detective Dexter Quinn, to unravel the deceit before she runs out of time. Together, they discover a terrifying adversary, one who’ll stop at nothing to protect the Society’s secrets.
Trail of Thread (Trail of Thread Series)
Historical Fiction
Author: Linda Hubalek
Taste the dust of the road and feel the wind in your face as you travel with a Kentucky family by wagon train to the new territory of Kansas in 1854.
Find out what it was like for the thousands of families who made the cross-country journey into the unknown.
In this first book of the Trail of Thread series; in the form of letters she wrote on the journey, Deborah Pieratt describes the scenery, the everyday events on the trail, and the task of taking care of her family. Stories of humor and despair, along with her ongoing remarks about camping, cooking, and quilting on the wagon trail make you feel as if you pulled up stakes and are traveling with the Pieratt’s, too.
But hints of the brewing trouble ahead plagued them along the way as people questions their motive for settling in the new territory. If they are from the South, why don’t they have slaves with them? Would the Pieratt’s vote for or against legal slavery in the new state? Though Deborah does not realize it, her letters show how this trip affected her family for generations to come.
This series is based on author Linda K. Hubalek’s ancestors that traveled from Kentucky to Kansas in 1854. Twelve old quilt patterns are mentioned in the letters, and the sketched designs are in the back of the book for reference.
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Romance > Paranormal > Ghosts
Author: Jools Sinclair
Last year after falling through the ice, seventeen-year-old Abby Craig woke up from death.
But she woke into a world she barely recognizes. She can’t see colors, memories have been erased, and her friends all hate her. And then there’s Jesse, who she loves, but who refuses to forgive her the one mistake she made long ago.
Just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, the visions begin. In them, she sees a faceless serial killer roaming the streets. While the police believe that there have been a lot of accidents in town lately, Abby knows differently. And she soon realizes that it’s up to her to find him.
But to stop him, she’ll have to confront more than just the killer. She’ll have to face something else that was lost in those dark waters. The truth.
HOMBRE (A Jess Williams Western)
Genre Fiction > Westerns
Author: Robert J. Thomas
Jess is back on the hunt for more wanted men when he runs into an old friend, Alex Brand, who has decided to go into the bounty hunting business himself. He gets Jess to agree to teach him the business.
A United States Senator’s wife is brutally murdered by an outlaw gang led by a man called Hombre. Senator Thibadough calls on United States Marshal Frank Reedy to make sure that Hombre and his band of outlaws are dealt with in the most serious manner. The Senator, being a very rich and powerful man, puts up a fifty thousand dollar personal bounty for Hombre’s dead body.
When Reedy informs the Senator that Jess Williams is on the hunt for Hombre, the Senator offers Jess one hundred thousand dollars if he will personally bring him the dead body of Hombre. Hombre continues his killing spree, even wiping out an entire town and burning it to the ground.
Jess is hot on the trail of Hombre and his men, but he is hampered with the job of training Alex Brand at the same time. To make his job even harder, two other bounty hunters are following him, hoping that Jess will lead them straight to Hombre.
Hungry Moon-Quicksilver
Horror > Occult
Author: Claudy Conn
Ravena MacAllister doesn’t want to admit what she is. She wants to continue pretending she’s just human … only human, like her mother, like her friends.
But she isn’t human.
Heartbreak and betrayal send her off rushing to Scotland, to a familiar haven where she has spent so many summers with her father, but she soon discovers that everything has changed.
From the moment she meets Quinn MacValdane, shock waves travel through him to her and back again, wrapping them in a tide of passion she had never dreamt possible. But if they are to have a future together, she must confront who and what she is, for she will need to call on the powers within her as she becomes embroiled in an adventure that will alter her life forever.
The time for pretending is over.
USA ed. How to Own Your Home Years Sooner & Retire Debt Free
Business & Money > Real Estate
Author: Harj Gill
If You Are the Kind of Person Who Wants to BREAK FREE from your mortgage and finally get ahead financially in Life, then there is a solution that will set you FREE!
I feel your pain. You’ve been to “Wealth Creation” seminars and workshops. You’ve listed to financial gurus on TV. You’ve scoured the shelves in bookstores for hours trying to find something that will answer the one question that has haunted you for years; “Why do I still owe so much on my mortgage after so many years and NOT where I want to be financially?” You’ve done everything that you can . . . but there’s still something holding you back.
What is it?
For years, countless homeowners all over the world, just like you, have asked this very same question.
So what is the answer?
The answer lies in cutting through all the smoke. And cutting through all the smoke is the hard part. In fact, if you’re fed up with your never decreasing mortgage balance and not where you want to be financially, it likely has nothing to do with you because lenders DO NOT want you to learn the powerful Mortgage Acceleration SECRET in this book. But all that’s about to change. It’s time to take a deep breath and relax. We’re about to take aim at this confusion, blow away the smoke and make things as simple as possible for you to Own Your Home Years Sooner & Retire Debt FREE!
TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?
Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II
History > Military > World War II
Author: Mitchell Zuckoff
Regularly $9.99, Today $1.99
Frozen in Time is a gripping true story of survival, bravery, and honor in the vast Arctic wilderness during World War II, from the author of New York Times bestseller Lost in Shangri-La.
On November 5, 1942, a US cargo plane slammed into the Greenland Ice Cap. Four days later, the B-17 assigned to the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on board survived, and the US military launched a daring rescue operation. But after picking up one man, the Grumman Duck amphibious plane flew into a severe storm and vanished.
Frozen in Time tells the story of these crashes and the fate of the survivors, bringing vividly to life their battle to endure 148 days of the brutal Arctic winter, until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen brought them to safety. Mitchell Zuckoff takes the reader deep into the most hostile environment on earth, through hurricane-force winds, vicious blizzards, and subzero temperatures.
Moving forward to today, he recounts the efforts of the Coast Guard and North South Polar Inc. – led by indefatigable dreamer Lou Sapienza – who worked for years to solve the mystery of the Duck’s last flight and recover the remains of its crew.
Watch Over Me
Women’s Fiction > Romance
Author: Tara Sivec
Regularly $2.99, Today $0.99
Addison Snow is your typical teenager. She has a family that loves her, friends that make her laugh, and she’s wrapped up in the excitement of graduating high school and going off to college to pursue her dream of becoming an author. When her mother, who also happens to be Addison’s best friend, dies unexpectedly, her world comes to a crashing halt.
Death changes everyone…
To make the pain go away, Addison and her father travel down separate, dark paths. She chooses to end her grief forever, while he drowns his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. How do you learn to live again when the most important person in your life is gone?
Addison struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. Instead of getting back to being the carefree teenager she once was, she’s stuck handling all of the responsibilities that should have been her father’s. She has no time to grieve, no time for emotions, and no time for happiness…until Zander Reinhardt walks in. All it takes is one little handwritten note on a napkin to kick-start her back to life and help her realize that maybe there’s more to that life than pain.
But can it really be that simple? Can she really trust this man who makes her feel alive again for the first time in a year?
Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, Book 1)
Fantasy > Magic & Wizards
Author: Scott Meyer
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Martin Banks is just a normal guy who has made an abnormal discovery: he can manipulate reality, thanks to reality being nothing more than a computer program. With every use of this ability, though, Martin finds his little “tweaks” have not escaped notice. Rather than face prosecution, he decides instead to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and pose as a wizard.
What could possibly go wrong?
An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin…and not, y’know, die or anything.
Poison Candy: The Murderous Madam: Inside Dalia Dippolito’s Plot to Kill
Biographies & Memoirs > Crime & Criminals
Author: Elizabeth Parker
Regularly $26.95, Today $1.99
In August 2009, former madam Dalia Dippolito conspired with a hit man to arrange her ex-con husband’s murder. Days later, it seemed as if all had gone according to plan. The beautiful, young Dalia came home from her health club to an elaborate crime scene, complete with yellow tape outlining her townhome and police milling about. When Sgt. Frank Ranzie of the Boynton Beach, Florida, police informed her of her husband Michael’s apparent murder, the newlywed Dippolito can be seen on surveillance video collapsing into the cop’s arms, like any loving wife wouldor any wife who was pretending to be loving would. The only thing missing from her performance were actual tears.
… And the only thing missing from the murder scene was an actual murder.
Tipped off by one of Dalia’s lovers, an undercover detective posing as a hit man met with Dalia to plot her husband’s murder while his team planned, then staged the murder scenariobrazenly inviting the reality TV show Cops along for the ride. The Cops video went viral, sparking a media frenzy: twisted tales of illicit drugs, secret boyfriends, sex-for-hire, a cuckolded former con man, and the defense’s ludicrous claim that the entire hit had been staged by the intended victim for reality TV fame.
A Thread Unbroken
Contemporary Fiction
Author: Kay Bratt
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Chai and Josi share a bond that transcends ordinary friendship. While Chai has always been Josi’s protector—ever since they were toddlers, growing up together in a small Chinese village—she finds herself helpless when they are both abducted from their families and sold to faraway strangers. In their new home, with the family of the fisherman who bought them, their old lives are torn away piece by piece. But Chai knows she must stay strong if they’re to have any chance of escaping.
That same tenacious hope guides Chai’s father, Jun, who fights to find the girls and bring them home, despite seemingly insurmountable odds and a corrupt legal system. The days since the girls were taken soon stretch to weeks and months, but Chai’s spirit remains unbroken and Jun’s resolve unwavering.
Set against the backdrop of modern day China, A Thread Unbroken is an inspiring story of remarkable courage, indefatigable hope, and the invisible ties that hold people together, even when everything around them is falling apart.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2