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Author: Hindmarsh, John
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Space Fleet Science Fiction

His first cruise just became the most dangerous ride of Jack Foster’s life.

It’s the final stage of training at the Royal Space Navy Academy, a shakedown cruise on a battered old minesweeper.

It should have been a walk in the park. But when a sniper targets you, and then your ship gets an unwelcome new hole in the side, following a collision, it’s anything but.

Trapped in the unforgiving void of space, Jack and his girlfriend, Sofia, emerge as the sole survivors, their lives dependent on dwindling supplies of air, food, and hope. As the clock relentlessly counts down, tensions mount, the wrath of the Royal Family simmers, and a deadly bounty remains on Jack’s head.

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Author: Murray, Jack
FREE
Historical Murder Mystery

Black-eyed Nick played a trick, and poor old Fred, lost his head

It’s 1876 and a dead body is found near the mansion of Lady Agatha Aston in Grosvenor Square, London.

The newly formed Detective Branch at Scotland Yard is baffled by the series of grisly murders that seem to come straight from the pages of a ‘penny dreadful’. Who is the demon stalking the streets of London?

Lady Agatha takes matters in hand, ably supported by golf fanatic friend, Betty Stevens, former school hockey captain, ‘Sausage’ Gossage and Talleyrand, her unlucky-in-love Basset hound.

The first Agatha Aston murder mystery is full of laughs, twists and truly abysmal verse. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and historical mysteries featuring real life detectives from the period: Jack Whicher, ‘Paddington’ Pollaky and Dolly Williamson.

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Author: Richardson, KA
FREE
Crime Thriller

When Crime Scene Manager, Cass Hunt, is called to a fatal road traffic collision in the dead of the night, not all is as it seems. Working alongside Detective Chief Inspector, Alex McKay, they soon realise they’re dealing with murder.

When another body turns up, along with a startling revelation that leaves the whole force reeling, Cass and Alex step up the pace to find the killer before his latest prize becomes another victim.

Can they gather the evidence and link the crimes together, or will the person watching stop them in their tracks?

The hunt is on.

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Author: Pence, Joanne
FREE
Paranormal Suspense

Over two hundred years ago, a covert expedition shadowing Lewis and Clark disappeared into the wilderness of Central Idaho. Now, seven anthropology students and their professor vanish in the same area. The key to finding them lies in an ancient secret, one involving alchemy, gold, and immortality…a secret that men throughout history have sought to unveil.

Michael Rempart is a brilliant archeologist whose colorful and controversial career has earned him admiring fans and implacable foes, but he is plagued by a troubling sense of the supernatural and a mysterious spiritual intuitiveness. Joining Rempart in this adventure are a CIA consultant on paranormal phenomena, a washed-up local sheriff, and a former scholar of Egyptology. All must overcome their personal demons as they attempt to save the students and, ultimately, the world.

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Author: Slan, Joanna Campbell
FREE
Amateur Sleuth Mystery
Decatur, Illinois/1986 – A nasty divorce leaves Cragan Collins with a mountain of bills and her grandmother to support. She takes a job as an ad salesperson for The Gazette. The market is tough, but Cragan finds a mentor in business reporter, Robert Smithson. One icy January day, Robert is found dead in a city park. His murder is dismissed as gay-on-gay crime. Cragan asks The Friday Night Mystery Club to find justice for Robert. Will Cragan’s quest for the truth land her on the obituary page?
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Author: Merrick, Gordon
Regularly $33.99, Today $3.99
Mystery Erotica

Five pulp novels of passionate romance between men from the New York Times–bestselling author of the Peter and Charlie Trilogy.

An Idol For Others: In the 1940s, Walter Makin’s stage career is red-hot—but so is his insatiable hunger for men. He marries an heiress to cover up his secret, but a handsome young writer makes him feel ready to risk the consequences.

The Quirk: A bohemian painter in Paris’s Left Bank, Rod has his youth, his money, and an active sex life. That’s all he thinks he needs, until an attractive male model enters his life.

Now Let’s Talk About Music: After a stream of meaningless flings, Gerry takes time for himself on the sweltering shores of Bangkok. He finally wants a love that’s real. But then Ernst, an international playboy, sends him an invitation.

Perfect Freedom: The son of a wealthy American father and a French mother, Robbie Cosling grew up in Saint-Tropez. But after the handsome young man discovers pleasure in the arms of a man, he ventures off to find the love he deserves . . .

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Author: Colucci, Jim
Regularly $34.99, Today $3.99
Television History

The complete, first-ever Golden Girls retrospective, packed with hundreds of exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes and never-before-revealed stories, more than two hundred color and black-and-white photos, commentary, and more.

They were four women of a certain age, living together under one roof in Miami—smart and strong Dorothy, airhead Rose, man-hungry belle Blanche, and smart-mouthed matriarch Sophia. They were the Golden Girls, and for seven seasons, this hilarious quartet enchanted millions of viewers with their witty banter, verve, sass, and love, and reaffirmed the power of friendship and family.

Over thirty years after it first aired, The Golden Girls has become a cult classic, thanks to fan fiction, arts and crafts, podcasts, hundreds of fan blogs and websites, and syndication. Now, Golden Girls Forever pays homage to this wildly popular, acclaimed, and award-winning sitcom. Drawing on interviews with the show’s creators, actors, guest stars, producers, writers, and crew members, Jim Colucci paints a comprehensive portrait of the Girls both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes.

Illustrated with hundreds of photos, including stills from the show and a treasure trove of never-before-seen and newly rediscovered photos.

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Author: Mitenbuler, Reid
Regularly $17.99, Today $2.99
Animation Graphic Design

In 1911, famed cartoonist Winsor McCay debuted one of the first animated cartoons, based on his sophisticated newspaper strip “Little Nemo in Slumberland,” itself inspired by Freud’s recent research on dreams. McCay is largely forgotten today, but he unleashed an art form, and the creative energy of artists from Otto Messmer and Max Fleischer to Walt Disney and Warner Bros.’ Chuck Jones. Their origin stories, rivalries, and sheer genius, as Reid Mitenbuler skillfully relates, were as colorful and subversive as their creations—from Felix the Cat to Bugs Bunny to feature films such as Fantasia—which became an integral part and reflection of American culture over the next five decades.

Pre-television, animated cartoons were aimed squarely at adults; comic preludes to movies, they were often “little hand grenades of social and political satire.” Early Betty Boop cartoons included nudity; Popeye stories contained sly references to the injustices of unchecked capitalism. During WWII, animation also played a significant role in propaganda. The Golden Age of animation ended with the advent of television, when cartoons were sanitized to appeal to children and help advertisers sell sugary breakfast cereals.

Sea of Lost Love: A Novel (affiliate link)

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Author: Montefiore, Santa
Regularly $17.99, Today $3.99
Women’s Historical Fiction

A breathless novel that sweeps its heroine from the Cornish coast to the rugged beauty of Puglia Italy, where she discovers a shocking truth about her family and the way to save her ancestral home.

Celestria Montague always spends her summers at Pendrift Hall, the rambling, shabby mansion adorned with wisteria and clematis that has been home to the Montague family for generations. It is 1958, and the family is celebrating her father’s fiftieth birthday at a lavish ball. The celebratory night ends in death and tragedy, however, and young Celestria learns that the family may lose Pendrift Hall. Her grandfather urges Celestria to play detective, to solve the mysteries surrounding the night’s events, and to save the ancient mansion if at all possible. Her quest takes her to Italy’s rugged and beautiful Puglia, and into the dark, cool cloisters of the Convento di Santa Maria del Mare. Here Celestria meets an enigmatic stranger and confronts unwelcome truths about her family—and herself.

Taylor’s Ark (affiliate link)

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Author: Nye, Jody Lynn
Regularly $8.99, Today $1.99
Space Opera Science Fiction
Dr. Shona Taylor, a specialist in environmental medicine, discovers that a mysterious epidemic is killing the entire population of colony worlds. With the help of her special menagerie, including a cat that can detect environmental hazards, a dog whose system can synthesize vaccines, and an intelligent alien named Chirwl, Shona is determined to stop the epidemic in its tracks, but the people causing the epidemic have set her up to take the blame, spreading the rumor that she is an Angel of Death. Can she find a cure before the disease kills again and puts her and her menagerie in danger?
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Author: Twitty, Michael W.
Regularly $23.99, Today $3.99
American South Cooking

A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom.

Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who “owns” it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine.

From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors’ survival across three centuries. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia.

… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2