Chuck Barrett tops today’s Buffet with The Toymaker, an action packed political thriller with a twist around every corner. If you like thrillers by great authors like David Baldacci, Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, and others, then you’ll likely enjoy this one. It’s the second installment in the “Jake Pendleton” series.
In addition to writing thrillers, Chuck conducts seminars and classes on the art of self publishing based on his book–Publishing Unchained: An Off-Beat Guide To Independent Publishing.He is a Florida native and a graduate of Auburn University. He is a retired air traffic controller with over 26 years experience and veteran commercial pilot & flight instructor spanning over three decades of flight experience.
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.)
The Toymaker Jake Pendleton, Book 2)
Former NTSB Investigator Jake Pendleton faces a dilemma as the line blurs between right and wrong. After his judgment comes into question, Jake is entrusted to his new mentor, an eccentric old man who sees beyond Jake’s flaws. A man who makes ‘toys for spies.’
A man known as The Toymaker.
Jake’s first assignment reunites him with Gregg Kaplan in a daredevil mission to rescue a fellow agent held captive in Yemen. He risks his life to stop the first attack of an al Qaeda mastermind. But now, with no one to trust but himself, can Jake stop the terrorist from destroying what is most precious to the free world?
Unfortunately, more trouble comes his way as a killer from his past threatens something more important to Jake than his own life, leaving him to make the hardest decision any man ever has to make—
Who to sacrifice.
Unlovable: The Case Files of Dr. Matilda Schmidt, Paranormal Psychologist
It isn’t every day a sexy demigod throws a pissed-off Cupid onto psychologist Matilda Schmidt’s couch and informs her the fate of the world depends on her ability to get him off his diapered ass and back to helping people fall in love.
Just when Matilda convinces herself she’s not hallucinating, in walks a Vegas hit man with a big gun and a bigger threat: pay back the million dollars she owes a notorious casino mogul, or wind up as fish food in Lake Mead.
Rocketing across country with a gun to her head, Matilda has a dysfunctional love-god in her laptop bag, a million dollar debt she has no knowledge of, and must convince the seductive hit man he’s snatched the wrong woman before he convinces her he might be the right man—for a night.
Can Matilda stay alive long enough to keep love from becoming history?
Bill The Vampire (The Tome of Bill Book 1)
There are reasons we fear the night. He isn’t one of them.
Bill Ryder was a dateless dweeb…then he died. Unfortunately for him that was just the beginning of his troubles. He awoke to find himself a vampire, one of the legendary predators of the night. Sadly, fangs or not, he was still at the bottom of the food chain.
Now he finds himself surrounded by creatures stronger, deadlier and a whole lot cooler than he is. Worst yet, they all want him dead…permanently this time.
Bill isn’t exactly average, though. A vampire like him hasn’t been seen in centuries. He’s got a few tricks up his sleeve, unlikely allies, and an attitude problem that makes him too damn obnoxious to quit.
Join him in this hilarious tale of monsters, mayhem, and the unlikely hero who’s not afraid to tell them all off…even if it gets his teeth kicked in.
The Solitude of Passion
When Lee Townsend’s past explodes back into her life, it does the only thing it can, it demands to reshape her future.
When Lee’s husband leaves the country on a community outreach, the last thing she expects is for him to never come back—for him to have tragically met his demise.
Lee goes on to marry his adversary and settles into life and business with him, merging her vineyard with his and creating a worldwide conglomerate.
Five years later a twist of fate brings the past back to her and forces Lee to make a decision that will change the landscape of her life forever.
Secrets emerge, forcing relationships to be examined—magnifying the surprising true underpinnings of her marriage.
Omega Dog (Joe Venn Book 1)
Joe Venn is down on his luck. A Marine and police detective lieutenant, he was kicked off the Chicago force for getting a little heavy-handed while cleaning up the streets. Now he’s eking out a living as a private eye in downtown Manhattan, on a road to nowhere.
His life’s about to get a whole lot worse…
When Venn is arrested for a murder he didn’t commit, he’s given a choice.
Track down a missing professor of neurochemistry, in an operation that’s so politically sensitive even the FBI can’t be allowed to touch it.
Or face life in prison.
Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood Book 3)
Polly Giller has had the worst luck with finding a good custodian for Sycamore House and the murder of her latest employee draws even more attention to her propensity for finding dead bodies. Sheriff Aaron Merritt just assumes that when she calls him, it’s because she’s found someone. The pool at the Elevator expands as the locals lay odds on Polly’s next find. When Beryl Watson ends up in the hospital because of an explosion, the last thing she wants is to be a statistic in Polly’s life.
Sal Kahane, Polly’s college roommate and best friend from Boston, comes to Iowa to see what all the fuss is about at Sycamore House. The city girl has to keep an open mind in order to understand why her friend loves living among the cornfields. Polly’s relationship with Henry Sturtz, her contractor and friend, continues to grow. When he left town for a couple of months, she discovered how important he was.
Polly takes a risk on a new custodian with a mysterious background and farm thefts disrupt the little town. She finds herself worrying about locking things up again; something she had ceased doing when she moved out of Boston.
Blood and Groom (Sasha Jackson Mysteries)
When not talking dirty at her part time phone sex job, or singing cheesy cover tunes in generic suburban bars, fledgling private investigator Sasha Jackson is spending her days trying to figure out how ‘till death do us part’ applies to her jilted client.
Christine Arvisais was dumped by her gold plated fiancé days before mailing the wedding invitations. Four months later, he was shot in a Toronto ravine during his Saturday morning jog. Christine says she was wrapped in seaweed and bathing in mud when Gordon Hanes went to the mahogany paneled VIP room in the sky.
Then another former fiancé falls victim to another femme fatale and it appears Cupid’s bow is no match for the Grim Reaper’s scythe. As Sasha continues her investigation, she uncovers a pattern of guys who skipped ‘I do’ and now never will. It seems a coincidence, until Sasha learns the real meaning of Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
A Good-Hearted Man
Sarina Bridges is alone, broke, and homeless. On her quest to find the safe place promised by God, she reluctantly trespasses onto private property with the notion she won’t be discovered. She just needs a good night’s sleep under a roof. In the morning, she’ll be long gone. At least that’s her plan. What happens next is straight out of her dreams, but quickly turns nightmarish.
Jess Slinger, former wrestler turned farrier, desires a wife and family to share the fifty-five acre farm he inherited from the couple who took him in and led him to the Lord. When he discovers Sarina asleep in his garden shed, Jess knows in his heart it’s a divine act of God. Instead of calling the law, Jess extends a helping hand, a move that enrages locals not keen having strangers in their midst, especially the law breaking kind.
Sarina suddenly finds herself a target of hate then accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Willing to risk it all, Jess vows to protect Sarina no matter what. The two are drawn to each other, but dark secrets they each carry endanger their chance for love and happiness. Only a strong faith in God can help them overcome the obstacles that keep them apart.
A Well-tempered Heart (Art of Hearing Heartbeats Book 2)
The sequel to the international best-selling novel The Art of Hearing Heartbeats.
Almost ten years have passed since Julia Win came back from Burma, her father’s native country. Though she is a successful Manhattan lawyer, her private life is at a crossroads; her boyfriend has recently left her and she is, despite her wealth, unhappy with her professional life. Julia is lost and exhausted.
One day, in the middle of an important business meeting, she hears a stranger’s voice in her head that causes her to leave the office without explanation. In the following days, her crisis only deepens. Not only does the female voice refuse to disappear, but it starts to ask questions Julia has been trying to avoid. Why do you live alone? To whom do you feel close? What do you want in life?
Interwoven with Julia’s story is that of a Burmese woman named Nu Nu who finds her world turned upside down when Burma goes to war and calls on her two young sons to be child soldiers. This spirited sequel, like The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, explores the most inspiring and passionate terrain: the human heart.
Ready for Romance (Dryden Brothers Book 1)
At the age of fourteen, Jessica Kellerman was wildly infatuated with Evan Dryden. But that was just a teenage crush and now, almost ten years later, she’s in love—truly in love—with his older brother, Damian. But everyone, including Damian, believes she’s carrying a torch for Evan!
Gotham Central Book 1: In The Line of Duty
Collecting the first ten issues of the Eisner and Harvey Award-winning series. Written by Ed Brubaker (Captain America) and Greg Rucka (52, DETECTIVE COMICS), this series pitted the detectives of Gotham City’s Special Crimes Unit against the city’s greatest villains — in the shadow of Batman himself.
Deliver Us From Darkness: The Untold Story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment during Market Garden
Ian Gardner, co-author of Tonight We Die as Men, is back with the second installment of the exploits of the 3/506 in WWII. Drawing on years of research and more than seventy extended interviews with veterans and civilians caught up in the fighting, Deliver Us from Darkness begins where the earlier book ended, with the troops taking R&R back in England after weeks of grueling fighting in Normandy.
Deliver Us from Darkness explains how, with little notice on Sept 17, 1944, the 101st Airborne Division parachuted into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden. Their mission was to secure the main highway that passed through the city of Eindhoven and facilitate the advance of Gen. Sir Miles Dempsey’s Second British Army towards Arnhem. The soldiers had been lead to believe that after the capture of Eindhoven their mission would be over. In the end, however, it was only the beginning of a bloody 72-day campaign that would see no quarter given by either side.
Thousands of heavily armed enemy troops trapped behind Allied lines were reorganized into temporary fighting groups and sent on the offensive. Supported by Tiger tanks and self propelled artillery, the German army began an audacious series of counter attacks along the road to Nijmegen that became known as ‘Hell’s Highway.’
A Sword Into Darkness
Aerospace tycoon Gordon Elliot Lee cannot stand idly by while a mysterious alien presence from Delta Pavonis bears down upon mankind’s only home. Shut out from NASA and military support, Gordon is forced to go it alone, to sow the seeds for an entirely new sort of planetary defense: a space-based naval force.
Joined by Nathan Kelley — a bloodied naval warrior, scarred by his own actions in the waters off North Korea — and Kris Munoz — an avant garde scientific genius with more ideas than sense — these three will scour the very edges of fringe science and engineering to attempt development of Earth’s first space navy in time to oppose the Deltan invasion.
Beset by ridicule, government obstruction, industrial espionage, and their own personal demons, it will take a miracle just to get off the ground. But the challenges on Earth are nothing compared to what awaits them in space. Against an unknown alien enemy with vastly superior technology, a handful of human scientists and warriors must become the sword that holds the darkness at bay.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2