[NightBird]

Another repeat freebie from Michael A. Smith - Marginal People.

By circumstances of birth, choice and happenstance, many people are on the outside, with their noses pressed against the glass of life. In a country that inextricably links happiness with fame and fortune, they are the unfulfilled. Richey Stanton is an aging actor who never made it beyond regional theater. His artistic girlfriend, Carmen Salazar, bears the childhood scars inflicted by an alcoholic father. Marshon Johnson has overcome poverty and racism to become a criminal kingpin of the city’s poverty-stricken East Side. He plans to liquidate his many business interests and begin life anew in the Caribbean with his girlfriend, Gail Thomas, daughter of a conservative African-American judge. Kandie Givens is a young, single mother of three recently transplanted to the city, where she ekes out a living as a waitress, and waits for her “prince on a white horse.” She mistakenly thinks that a new arrival in town, Ace Semanski, will love and care for her and her children. Semanski, an ex-con and racist, is the catalyst who uses guile, blackmail and murder to force the others to participate in a kidnapping/ransom plot. The efforts of these marginalized people to extricate themselves from this maelstrom make some of them stronger, and cost others their lives. Marginal People is a psychological thriller and an examination of our society’s values, and their impact on individual lives. The characters from this gritty, realistic story will linger in the minds of readers and compel them to redefine happiness and the means of achieving it.

Dance of the Winnebagos (Jackrabbit Junction Mystery Series #1) by Ann Charles from Corvallis Press is free 9/19 and 9/20.

DANCE OF THE WINNEBAGOS, a Kindle Bestseller in Women Sleuth and Western Romance genres from the national award-winning author of the Deadwood Mystery Series, Ann Charles.

When Claire's grandfather and his army buddies converge in the Arizona desert to find new wives, it's her thankless job to keep them out of trouble with the opposite sex.

But when she finds a human leg bone and partners with a reluctant geotechnician to dig up secrets from the past, trouble finds her. If she doesn't stop digging, she could end up dead.