Jeff Shelby is the best-selling author of The Noah Braddock series (Killer Swell, Wicked Break and Liquid Smoke) and has been compared by reviewers to Harlan Coben and Robert Crais. He tops today’s Buffet with Thread of Hope, a gut-wrenching tale of painful secrets and even more devastating truths as well as an exploration of how a single thread of hope can keep one man going. This book is the first installment in the “Joe Tyler” series of hard-boiled mysteries.

A graduate of the University of California, Irvine, Jeff now divides his time between Texas and Minnesota. In addition to his writing career, he’s a high school English teacher, a basketball coach and a dad.

As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours (except for the “Bargain Books” at the bottom of this page). 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.)

Thread of Hope (The Joe Tyler Series Book 1)

Mystery > Hard-Boiled

Thread of Hope (The Joe Tyler Series Book 1)

If someone took your child, how soon would you stop looking for her? If someone accused your best friend of a terrible crime, when would you stop defending him?

Seven years after Joe Tyler’s daughter Elizabeth was abducted, he hasn’t stopped looking for answers, and he hasn’t forgotten the friend who stood by him as he lost his wife, his home, and his career in his search. Now he’s been brought back to San Diego by the news that this friend has been arrested for beating up a teenage girl—a girl not much older than Elizabeth would be now.

Joe is convinced Chuck Winslow is innocent, but Chuck is in a coma and can’t explain what happened. And the more Joe hears about what Chuck’s been up to in the years he’s been gone, the less Joe recognizes his old friend. To find out the truth, he will have to face his ex-wife, his former bosses, and a hometown full of wealth, lies, and illicit privilege. When Chuck’s accuser goes missing, Joe must decide where his loyalties truly lie.

Greta’s Grace

Romance > Contemporary

Greta's Grace

Professional speaker Lindsey Foster is faced with losing her only child, Greta, when Greta is diagnosed with cancer. Desperate to be closer to her during this crisis, Lindsey heads to Simon’s Point, Wisconsin, where Greta lives. Although Lindsey finds her greatest joy from inspiring her audiences with the healing power of women’s stories, her heart aches over her inability to heal her emotionally distant relationship with her daughter.

Divorced from Greta’s blustery dad, Brian, Lindsey is drawn to him now as they share their fears about Greta. She never expects to experience the drama of becoming involved with her ex-husband or to confront the dilemma of another man falling for her, especially Sam, her son-in-law’s widowed father. But Sam, quiet and reflective, offers more than friendship and becomes her refuge in this time of crisis.

With her willingness to do anything to make her daughter happy, Lindsey makes questionable decisions and keeps secrets from Greta, causing more heartbreak. Feeling exiled once again, Lindsey faces choices that will define her future—and her relationship with her daughter. But will Lindsey ever receive Greta’s Grace?

Soul of a Tiger: A Miraculous True Story of a Family Who Survived the Cambodian Genocide

Biographies & Memoirs

Soul of a Tiger: A Miraculous True Story of a Family Who Survived the Cambodian Genocide

Throughout Asia, the tiger has long been a metaphorical creature of magnificent power, magic, tenacious will and independence. Born in the Year of the Tiger, Rachana’s undeniable symbolic life or death experiences prove that faith, belief, and the will to survive can prevail above all odds.

In what was one of the most appalling mass murders known to mankind, the Khmer Rouge inflicted evil upon the first class citizens of Cambodia from 1975-1979. Throughout the next gruesome four years of the Killing Fields, and even prior during the Cambodian Civil War, nearly a quarter of the entire country’s population was lost from starvation, torture, insurmountable tragedy, disease, and blatant atrocities. Families were broken and the entire landscape of the country was destroyed.

Inspired by a true story, one young woman defies all odds in this profound journey of love, anger, bravery, forgiveness and survival.

THE HELMSMAN: Director’s Cut Edition (The Helmsman Saga, Book 1)

Science Fiction > Space Opera

THE HELMSMAN: Director's Cut Edition (The Helmsman Saga Book 1)

Originally published in 1983, when the novel sold thousands of copies in its first printing, The Helmsman is the starting point for Bill Baldwin’s epic, eight-part militaristic space opera – The Helmsman Saga. Using actual histories of World Wars I and II as template, the novel chronicles the adventures of StarSailor and extraordinary Helmsman Wilf Brim during an epoch of discord and outright war among various star-nations within our own galaxy.

This special, “Director’s Cut” Edition is heavily re-written, a la George Lucas’ rewrite of the Star Wars Trilogy, to bring it more in line with later novels in the series, as well as existing “Director’s Cut” Editions of Galactic Convoy, The Trophy; the five other “Director’s Cut” editions to come; and the continuation novel now in the works: The Turning Tide.

The novel begins as Brim—a 21-year-old SubLieutenant in the Imperial Fleet—arrives at the Eorean Starwharves, a maintenance complex within the planet-spanning Fleet base on watery Gimmas-Haefdon. On first assignment since receiving his commission, Brim is fresh from The Helmsman’s Academy, where he weathered years of torment from wealthy classmates because of his impoverished background. Heretofore, the Academy had been a “private club” for the scions of Imperial wealth; however, enormous numbers of casualties during the present war with the League of Dark Stars has called for desperate measures to expedite replacement of these losses.

Nightblade (Nightblade Episodes, Book 1)

Horror > Dark Fantasy

Nightblade: Episode One (Nightblade Episodes Book 1)

Meet Loren, a forester’s daughter from a small village in Selvan. Born to mean, spiteful parents, she’s always hoped to escape and make a name for herself. When she meets Xain, a fugitive wizard, she thinks her dream may finally come true. But the nine kingdoms are more complicated and dangerous than she could have imagined…

Now, friends and foes will put Loren’s wit and bravery to the test as she becomes the woman she always hoped she would be: Nightblade, the most feared thief in all the land.

Where I Need to Be (B&S Series, Book 1)

Romantic Comedy

Where I Need to Be (B&S Series Book 1)

Spencer Marshall was done moping. After catching her boyfriend cheating with his secretary, she decides to have a girl’s weekend in Vegas with her best friend, Ryan. Lady Luck must be looking out for Spencer, because the hottie that has caught her eye at her new gym is on the same flight to Vegas.

Spencer is old-fashioned in the sense that she feels the guy should make the first move, but this hottie hasn’t approached her…until they have one hot dance in Vegas that leaves her questioning his motives.

Will her hottie finally speak to her, or will he continue playing a game of flirtation that may lead to nowhere? And will situations from their past keep them from taking the next step?

Island of Bones (Louis Kincaid, Book 5)

Mystery > Hard-Boiled

Island of Bones (Louis Kincaid Book 5)

In the wake of a hurricane a tiny skull washes up in front of detective Louis Kincaid’s cottage. Days later, the bullet-riddled body of a woman surfaces on a nearby island. She has no identification…except for a unique coral ring. Sensing a connection, Louis begins his investigation, a search for the truth that will lead him down a trail of secrets and lies—to the Island of Bones, where evil never dies and the living never escape.

The Frost of Springtime

Historical Romance

The Frost of Springtime

On a cold Parisian night, Vicomte Aleksender de Lefèvre forges an everlasting bond with a broken girl during her darkest hour, saving her from a life of abuse and misery. Tormented by his own demons, he finds his first bit of solace in sheltering little Sofia Rose.

But when Aleksender is drawn away by the Franco-Prussian war, the seasons pass. And in that long year, Sofia matures into a stunning young woman—a dancer with an understanding of devotion and redemption far surpassing her age.

Alongside his closest friend, Aleksender returns home to find that “home” is gone, replaced by revolution, bloodshed, betrayal—and a love always out of reach. Scarred both inside and out, he’s thrust into a world of sensuality and violence—a world in which all his hours have now grown dark, and where only Sofia might bring an end to the winter in his heart.

Inspired by the 1871 Paris Commune, The Frost of Springtime is a poignant tale of revolution, redemption, and the healing power of love.

TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?

Uniform Justice: A Commissario Brunetti Novel

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Uniform Justice: A Commissario Brunetti Novel (A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery)

As Uniform Justice opens, Venetian detective Commissario Guido Brunetti is called to investigate a parent’s worst nightmare. A young cadet has been found hanged, a presumed suicide, in Venice’s elite military academy. Brunetti’s sorrow for the boy, so close in age to his own son, is rivaled only by his contempt for a community that is more concerned with protecting the reputation of the school, and its privileged students, than understanding this tragedy.
The young man is the son of a doctor and former politician, a man of an impeccable integrity all too rare in Italian politics. Dr. Moro is clearly and understandably devastated by his son’s death; but while both he and his apparently estranged wife seem convinced that the boy’s death could not have been suicide, neither appears eager to talk to the police or involve Brunetti in any investigation of the circumstances in which he died. As Brunetti pursues his inquiry, he is faced with a wall of silence. Is the military protecting its own? And what of the other witnesses? Is this the natural reluctance of Italians to involve themselves with the authorities, or is Brunetti facing a conspiracy far greater than this one death?

Hate Mail from Cheerleaders: And Other Adventures in the Life of Reilly

Biographies

Hate Mail from Cheerleaders: And Other Adventures in the Life of Reilly

For years, many of Sports Illustrated’s 21 million readers turned first to the magazine’s last page, because that’s where they find SI’s most popular feature: the Life of Reilly column, written by best-selling author Rick Reilly.

A 22-year veteran of Sports Illustrated and a 10-time National Sportswriter of the Year, Reilly took over SI’s back page in 1998, and his column immediately attracted a devoted following, including the legions of fans who helped make his first collection, The Life of Reilly, a New York Times best seller in 2000.

Now comes Hate Mail from Cheerleaders, 100 of Reilly’s favorites, along with a new foreword and column postscripts by the author. Alternately sidesplitting and heartwarming but always opinionated and provocative, these pieces are the best work by the best columnist in the business.

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

Biographies & Memoirs > Entertainers

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee

Demonstrating that her penchant for swearing began at an early age, comedian Silverman begins her hilarious memoir by describing how, at age three, she gleefully responded to her grandmother’s offer of brownies with shove ’em up your ass. Growing up in New Hampshire (where cows are well done and Jews are rare), Silverman naturally gravitated toward performing and moved to New York, where she attended and eventually dropped out of New York University to pursue a standup comedy career.

Mixing show business moments (she wrote for Saturday Night Live for one season, but none of her sketches made it past dress rehearsal) with stories of her childhood and adolescence (punctuated by a persistent bedwetting problem), Silverman never shies away from poking fun at her own expense. Though she’s best known for sexually explicit jokes, Silverman is able to address more serious subjects in the book without losing her edge, particularly her teenage struggle with depression and that her often abrasive public persona allowed her to say what I didn’t mean, even preach the opposite of what I believed…. It was a funny way of being sincere.

Coming Clean: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs > Coming of Age

Coming Clean: A Memoir

Kim Miller is an immaculately put-together woman with a great career, a loving boyfriend, and a tidy apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. You would never guess that Kim grew up behind the closed doors of her family’s idyllic Long Island house, navigating between teetering stacks of aging newspapers, broken computers, and boxes upon boxes of unused junk festering in every room—the product of her father’s painful and unending struggle with hoarding.

In this moving coming-of-age story, Kim brings to life her rat-infested home, her childhood consumed by concealing her father’s shameful secret from friends, and the emotional burden that ultimately led to an attempt to take her own life. And in beautiful prose, Miller sheds light on her complicated yet loving relationship with her parents that has thrived in spite of the odds.

Coming Clean is a story about recognizing where we come from and the relationships that define us—and about finding peace in the homes we make for ourselves.

If Only in My Dreams

Romance > Time Travel

If Only in My Dreams

Actress Clara McCallum just got her big break. She’s thrilled about landing the lead role in a big WWII film. But her dream-come-true excitement is short-lived. She’s just received devastating news and has been reeling ever since. The last thing Clara wants is to spend Christmas alone in New York City, but she’s determined to stay on location for the movie. Anything for her craft, right? Which is perfect since she’s playing a woman who’ll do anything for the love of doomed soldier Jed Landry.

But Clara’s resolve turns to astonishment when she steps off an old-fashioned locomotive from the set and finds herself whisked back in time-and into the arms of the real-life Jed. She’s convinced it’s some sort of hallucination. But before long she finds herself swept away by the handsome soldier, and wondering if her plunge into the past could change the course of the future…and turn out to be the best Christmas present ever.

… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2

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