Carolyn McCray tops today’s Buffet with 9th Circle: The Serial Killer Wants to Bring Seattle to Its Knees, the first installment in her “Darc Murder” mystery series.

Born in San Francisco, Carolyn grew up in Napa Valley, California. A natural-born storyteller, she used to “direct” the other kids from her neighborhood in recorded readings of Nancy Drew mysteries. A lifelong animal lover whose first word was “rhinoceros,” she managed to fulfill her twin passions by growing up to become a veterinarian and a writer.

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9th Circle: The Serial Killer Wants to Bring Seattle to Its Knees (Darc Murder Series Book 1)

 Mystery > Hard-Boiled

9th Circle: The Serial Killer Wants to Bring Seattle to Its Knees (Darc Murder Series Book 1)

A serial killer terrorizes Seattle, attempting to recreate the nine circles of hell by using the blood and bodies of the innocent.

Detective Robi Darcmel, a gifted yet troubled savant, is the only man standing in the path of this pathological killer.

As the fate of the Emerald City hangs in the balance, can Darcmel overcome his failings or will Seattle burn to ash?

The Key (The True Reign Series Book 1)

 Romance > Historical > Medieval

The Key (The True Reign Series Book 1)

His father’s kingdom is on the brink of upheaval and at the center of it all is an ordinary girl who could be the key to its undoing. When faced with the ultimate choice, will he choose the girl he’s falling in love with or the kingdom he has sworn to protect?

An ordinary girl with an extraordinary past… All she wants is to be free. What she doesn’t realize is that freedom comes with a price she can’t afford to pay. She’s forced to accept the proposal of a prince she despises, even though her heart belongs to someone else… his brother.

Seventeen-year-old Rema lives in a brutal kingdom where travel between regions is forbidden, people are starving, and looking at someone the wrong way can mean death. Nineteen-year-old Darmik is the king’s son and Commander of the King’s Army. He spends his days roving the island, doing his father’s bidding and trying to maintain control over the people.

When a chance encounter throws Rema and Darmik together, they share an instantaneous connection, but any sort of relationship between them is strictly forbidden. Darmik’s brother, the Crown Prince, notices Darmik’s interest in Rema and, in a calculated, political move, blackmails her. Faced with an impossible choice, Rema is forced to sacrifice her heart in order to save her family.

When No One is Watching

 Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

When No One is Watching

On the eve of announcing his run for Congress, a charismatic Chicago politician causes a deadly accident. Panicked, he frames his best friend, a good-hearted alcoholic, and flees the scene. As one man tries to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, the other embarks on a meteoric rise to political stardom. But when a dogged detective digs deeper into the case, the political superstar must decide just how far he is willing to go to keep his dark secret. Author Joseph Hayes combines page-turning suspense with a poignant tale of inspiration and redemption as he asks, is “the greater good” just a lie we tell ourselves to justify the sins we commit when no one is watching?

Planet Urth (Book 1)

 Young Adult > Action & Adventure > Survival Stories

Planet Urth (Book 1)

I worry we are the only humans left.

Humans have been hunted for centuries, to the brink of extinction. I must fight each day to protect my sister. It is the reason I wake, the reason I breathe. But how long can I go on fighting? How long will it be before they find us?

More than two hundred years into the future, human beings are an endangered species. The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen.

Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror.

After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task.

Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind.

But are they truly alone?

A Diamond In My Pocket (The Unaltered Book 1)

 Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

A Diamond In My Pocket (The Unaltered Book 1)

Sixteen-year-old Calli Courtnae is shocked when she breaks the 100-meter world record at her track meet and is whisked off to Montana to train for Olympic tryouts. In this strange setting she finds something totally unexpected: her fellow athletes are mysterious, paranoid, and endowed with the same gift of super-speed. The truth, Calli learns, is she has been brought to Montana to join an elite group of superhuman Runners who train for secret missions so complex they’re boggling. Just as she tries to figure it all out, she discovers the next assignment includes delivering a valuable diamond sought after by evil forces . . . and she’s the one to carry the diamond. When Calli touches the diamond, her body is infused with multiple supernatural powers—for this is no ordinary diamond. Even with her new powers, she knows she isn’t any match for those who vow to obtain the diamond at any cost.

Bex Carter 1: Aunt Jeanie’s Revenge (The Bex Carter Series)

 Children’s Books > Humor

Bex Carter 1: Aunt Jeanie's Revenge (The Bex Carter Series)

Thirteen-year-old Bex Carter has a lot on her plate. Her biggest challenge is living with her Aunt Jeanie. As much as Bex tries to please her aunt, they always seem to butt heads. Sometimes Bex feels as if Aunt Jeanie goes out of her way to make her life miserable.

Aunt Jeanie enrolls Bex in a social group called the Silver Roses, a group that’s supposed to teach young girls how to be proper ladies, however it turns out to be nothing more than a club for snobs. Bex wants out, but she’s made a deal with Aunt Jeanie. Will Bex take a stand against the Silver Roses or will their snobbery rub off on her?

An Accidental Death: A DC Smith Investigation

 Mystery > British Detectives

An Accidental Death: A DC Smith Investigation

The story opens with the apparently accidental drowning of a sixth form student in the Norfolk countryside. As a matter of routine, or so it seems, the case passes across the desk of Detective Sergeant Smith, recently returned to work after an internal investigation into another case that has led to tensions between officers at Kings Lake police headquarters. As an ex DCI, Smith could have retired by now, and it is clear that some of his superiors wish that he would do so. The latest trainee detective to work with him is the son of a member of his former team, and together they begin to unravel the truth about what happened to Wayne Fletcher. As the investigation proceeds, it becomes clear that others are involved – some seem determined to prevent it, some seem to be taking too much interest. In the end Smith operates alone, having stepped too far outside standard procedures to ask for support. He knows that his own life might be at risk but he has not calculated on the life of his young assistant also being put in danger.

The Perfect Pie: A Handbook for Pie Lovers

 Cookbooks, Food & Wine

The Perfect Pie: A Handbook for Pie Lovers

A handbook for pie lovers is exactly what this E-book is. See tips, techniques and recipes galore to help you make the perfect pie. Have you always had trouble making a perfect crust? Find advice from the experts right here! Never make an “ok” pie crust ever again.

You’ll see recipes for fruit pies, cream and custard pies, and other pies such as pink lemonade pie and strawberry rhubarb pie.

Get over 30 pages of nothing but helpful tips, techniques and recipes to make the perfect pie.

TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?

Calling Me Home: A Novel

 Women’s Fiction

Calling Me Home: A Novel

Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It’s a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black single mom in her thirties, to drop everything to drive her from her home in Arlington, Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why. Tomorrow.

Dorrie, fleeing problems of her own and curious whether she can unlock the secrets of Isabelle’s guarded past, scarcely hesitates before agreeing, not knowing it will be a journey that changes both their lives.

Over the years, Dorrie and Isabelle have developed more than just a business relationship. They are friends. But Dorrie, fretting over the new man in her life and her teenage son’s irresponsible choices, still wonders why Isabelle chose her.

Isabelle confesses that, as a willful teen in 1930s Kentucky, she fell deeply in love with Robert Prewitt, a would-be doctor and the black son of her family’s housekeeper–in a town where blacks weren’t allowed after dark. The tale of their forbidden relationship and its tragic consequences makes it clear Dorrie and Isabelle are headed for a gathering of the utmost importance and that the history of Isabelle’s first and greatest love just might help Dorrie find her own way.

Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen Book 1)

 Action & Adventure > Fantasy

Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen Book 1)

The world is broken…

Corban wants nothing more than to be a warrior under King Brenin’s rule – to protect and serve. But that day will come all too soon. And the price he pays will be in blood.

Evnis has sacrificed – too much it seems. But what he wants – the power to rule — will soon be in his grasp. And nothing will stop him once he has started on his path.

Veradis is the newest member of the warband for the High Prince, Nathair. He is one of the most skilled swordsman to come out of his homeland, yet he is always under the shadow of his older brother.

Nathair has ideas – and a lot of plans. Many of them don’t involve his father, the High King Aquilus. Nor does he agree with his father’s idea to summon his fellow kings to council.

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed in battle, but now giants are seen, the stones weep blood and giant wyrms are stirring. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars. For if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind’s hopes and dreams will fall to dust…

…and it can never be made whole again.

Best Kind of Broken (Finding Fate Book 1)

 Women’s Fiction > Romance

Best Kind of Broken (Finding Fate Book 1)

Pixie Marshall wishes every day she could turn back time and fix the past. But she can’t. And the damage is done. She’s hoping that a summer of free room and board working with her aunt at the Willow Inn will help her forget. Except there’s a problem: the resident handyman is none other than Levi Andrews. The handsome quarterback was once her friend-and maybe more–until everything changed in a life-shattering instant. She was hoping to avoid him, possibly forever. Now he’s right down the hall and stirring up feelings Pixie thought she’d long buried . . .

Levi can’t believe he’s living with the one person who holds all his painful memories. More than anything he wants to make things right, but a simple “sorry” won’t suffice–not when the tragedy that scarred them was his fault. Levi knows Pixie’s better off without him, but every part of him screams to touch her, protect her, wrap her in his arms, and kiss away the pain. Yet even though she’s so close, Pixie’s heart seems more unreachable than ever. Seeing those stunning green eyes again has made one thing perfectly clear–he can’t live without her.

The Secret Woman (Casablanca Classics)

 Mystery > Historical

The Secret Woman (Casablanca Classics)

Dark Secrets. Lost Treasure. Delicious Scandal.

Anna Brett fears she’s doomed to be a governess to an English family for the rest of her life. But when the dashing captain Redvers Stretton struts back into her life, she is whisked away from the bleak English countryside forever. But is that such a good thing?

While the charming blue-eyed captain makes Anna forget her troubled past, he is hiding dark secrets of his own. It’s no coincidence that Stretton’s ship is named The Secret Woman. During their voyage to the South Seas, with a murder dogging her steps and the mystery of a missing treasure haunting her dreams, Anna is forced to confront the clever captain—a man who may have just as many secrets as she.

“One of the best romantic-suspense novelists.”—Associated Press

My Own Mr. Darcy

 Romantic Comedy

My Own Mr. Darcy

After being dragged to the 2005 movie Pride and Prejudice by her mother, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth’s life changes when Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy appears on the screen. Lizzie falls hard and makes a promise to herself that she will settle for nothing less than her own Mr. Darcy. This ill-advised pledge threatens to ruin any chance of finding true love. During the six intervening years, she has refused to give any interested suitors a chance. They weren’t Mr. Darcy enough.

Coerced by her roommate, Elizabeth agrees to give the next interested guy ten dates before she dumps him. That guy is Chad, a kind and thoughtful science teacher and swim coach. While she’s dating Chad, her dream comes true in the form of a wealthy bookstore owner named Matt Dawson, who looks and acts like her Mr. Darcy. Of course she has to follow her dream. But as Elizabeth simultaneously dates a regular guy and the dazzling Mr. Dawson, she’s forced to re-evaluate what it was she loved about Mr. Darcy in the first place.

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

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