Here are a few bargain books at Amazon today:
The Fifth Woman ($1.99), the sixth in the
Kurt Wallander Mystery series by Henning Mankell, is today's Kindle Deal of the Day.
In an African convent, four nuns and an unidentified fifth woman are brutally murdered, and the death of the unknown woman is covered up by the local police. A year later in Sweden, Inspector Kurt Wallander is baffled and appalled by two strange murders. Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and bird watcher, is impaled on sharpened bamboo poles in a ditch behind his secluded home, while the body of a missing florist is discovered strangled and tied to a tree. The only clues Wallander has to go on are a skull, a diary, and a photo of three men. What ensues is a case that will test Wallander's strength and patience, for in order to solve these murders he will need to uncover their elusive connection to the earlier unsolved murder in Africa of the fifth woman.
Daniel ($3.25), by Henning Mankell, is a stand-alone novel by the same author.
Henning Mankell is a worldwide phenomenon: his books have been translated into forty languages with more than 35 million copies in print, and both his critical acclaim and fan base only continue to grow. His new novel Daniel is an elegiac, unexpected story that only he could have told.
In the 1870s, Hans Bengler arrives in Cape Town from Småland, Sweden, driven by a singular desire: to discover an insect no one has seen before and name it after himself. But then he impulsively adopts a young San orphan, a boy he christens Daniel and brings with him back to Sweden—a quite different specimen than he first contemplated. Daniel is told to call Bengler "Father," taught to knock on doors and bow, and continually struggles to understand this strange new land of mud and snow that surrounds and seemingly entraps him. At the same time, he is haunted by visions of his murdered parents calling him home to Africa. Knowing that the only way home is by sea, he decides he must learn to walk on water if he is ever to reclaim his true place in the world.
Evocative and sometimes brutal, the novel takes Daniel through a series of tragedies and betrayals that culminate in a shocking act. Mankell tells this indelible story with a ruthless elegance all his own.
Into The Dark Lands ($0.89),
Children of the Blood ($2.69),
Lady of Mercy ($0.89) and Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light ($2.69), by Michelle Sagara West, make up her
Sundered series, originally published under Michelle Sagara (her legal name) and reprinted by small press BenBella books. Her upcoming
Cast in Ruin, published by Luna, is a pre-order that is available on the current KSO offer for a
$1 Romance book.
Into The Dark Lands
War has its cost, and the Servants of the Bright Heart and the Servants of the Dark Heart have been locked in a struggle that has defined life—and death—for millennia. But the end is coming, and only the Lady who has served the Bright Heart for the whole of her immortal life has seen it, in a vision that spans time and demands the highest of prices.
Erin is a healer, and against the nature of her birthright she has learned to wield a sword and use it to bring death to the enemies of her people. Scarred by the losses that war always demands, she is the chosen champion of Light and the enemy of darkness.
But no magical sword or simple quest awaits Erin. Her journey and her doom lie in the Dark Heart’s stronghold, and in the hands of her people’s greatest enemy.
Children of the Blood
Continuing the struggle she began in Into the Dark Lands, Erin—newly dubbed Sara—is forcefully put to sleep for 300 years while her Lord finishes overtaking his enemies—and Sara's kinsmen.
After conquering and slaughtering the last of the Bright Heart lines, he awakens an amnesia-ridden Sara and assigns one of his slaves, a fellow "child of the blood," to comfort her. As Sara's memory slowly returns and her rage intensifies, the Servants of the Dark Heart and the Dark Heart itself become increasingly dangerous to both her and her caretaker.
Lady of Mercy
The heroine continues her struggle against the forces of evil. The harrowing tale of Erin Elliath, warrior and healer, continues in this episode of the battle between good and evil. When Erin rejects her position as Lady Sara, wife to the First Servant of the Dark Heart, she escapes from her husband's lands with the help of Darin, the Patriarch of Culverne and the last of his line. After combining forces with the deposed prince of Marantine and a mysterious old man - who has magic skills that neither Erin or Darin can identify - the foursome hatch a plan to wrestle control of the usurped kingdom of Marantine away from the priests of the Dark Heart. Meanwhile, Erin continues to struggle with her part in the betrayal of her people, the deaths of her most beloved friends, as well as her feelings for the man who doomed them for her sake.
Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light
Erin of Elliath returns in this conclusion to the epic saga begun in the first three books in the Sundered series. Erin, formerly Lady Sara and now the legendary Lady of Mercy to the slaves of the Dark Empire, has just helped Renar, the rightful heir to the throne of Marantine, reclaim his kingship from an usurper. With the power of the Bright Heart waning under growing shadows of the Dark Heart, Erin and her friends must once again journey back into the Dark Empire, where High Priests battle for supremacy and the First of the Sundered, Lord Stefanos, awaits the return of his Lady Sara. In this final volume, the old ways of the Light Heart and the Dark Heart will be changed forever.
Passionate Brood: A Novel of Richard the Lionheart and the Man Who Became Robin Hood ($1.95), by Margaret Campbell Barnes
In this compelling novel of love, loyalty, and lost chances, Margaret Campbell Barnes gives readers a new perspective on Richard the Lionheart's triumphs and tragedies. Drawing on folklore, Barnes explores what might have happened if King Richard's foster brother were none other than Robin Hood, a legendary figure more vibrant than most in authentic history. Thick as thieves as Richard builds a kingdom and marshals a crusade, the two clash when Robin Hood so provokes the king's white hot temper that Richard banishes him. The Passionate Brood is a tale of a man driven to win back the Holy Land, beset by the guilt of casting out his childhood friend, and shouldering the burden of being the lionhearted leader of the Plantagenets.
Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don't Seem to Matter. . . But Really Do ($1.17), by Melinda Blau and Karen L. Fingerman
Our barista, our mechanic, our coworker—they populate our days, but we often take them for granted. Yet these are the people who bring novelty and information into our lives, allow us to exercise different parts of ourselves, and open us up to new opportunities. In their unprecedented examination of people on the periphery, psychologist Karen Fingerman, who coined the term “consequential strangers,” collaborates with journalist Melinda Blau to expand on and make her own groundbreaking research come alive. Drawing as well from Blau’s more than two hundred interviews with specialists in psychology, sociology, marketing, and communication, the book presents compelling stories of individuals and institutions, past and present. A rich portrait of our social landscape—on and off the Internet—it presents the science of casual connection and chronicles the surprising impact that consequential strangers have on business, creativity, the work environment, our physical and mental health, and the strength of our communities.
Wonderfultales from the Land of the Seven Kingdoms ($1.67), by George W. Van Sise
The entire world loves folk tales, fairy tales and the stories handed down from earlier generations. Now delight in twenty tales you have never read before. Fateful decisions, evil promises, dangerous secrets, and daring rescues, along with brave girls and boys, await you when you step into The Land of the Seven Kingdoms.
Guided by your storyteller host, Mijel the Tellara, you can journey, or Travelon as we call it in Merrinwold, into The Land of the Seven Kingdoms anywhere, anytime! You will experience wondrous transformations, evil creatures, and binding friendships; there is lasting love, frightful dangers, and more.
Wonderfultales from the Land of the Seven Kingdoms, like classic tales from the past continues the telling of stories of wonder and amazement, and is certain to be the new standard in classic entertainment for all ages.
Brush Country: Two Texas Novels ($6.99), by Elmer Kelton, gets you both
Barbed Wire ($5.99 paperback; no Kindle edition) and
Llano River ($5.99 Kindle), in one volume.
To Elmer Kelton, the brush country of southwest Texas is home. Nobody knows Texas's history, people, beauty, and dangers as well as this greatest of Western writers.
Barbed Wire, the first novel in this omnibus, is the story of one-time cowboy Doug Monahan, who runs a fencing crew outside the town of Twin Wells. Monahan, a likeable, hard-working Irishman, and his workers dig post-holes and string red painted barb wire for ranchers as protection against wandering stock, rustlers, and land hungry cattle barons.
Their fencing operation is opposed by Captain Andrew Rinehart, a former Confederate officer and an old-school open range cowman of the huge R Cross spread. With his brutal foreman, Archer Spann--who does the violent work of chasing squatters off the range--Rinehart wages a barb wire war against Doug Monahan.
A second colorful tale of the brush country is Llano River. Dundee, a onetime cowboy, one of Monahan's fencing crew in Barbed Wire, wanders into the town of Titusville, broke, tired, and itching for a fight. Town patriarch John Titus hires Dundee to find out who is rustling his cattle, but he already has a culprit in mind--Blue Roan Hardesty. Once a friend, now a sworn enemy of the powerful Titus clan, Hardesty is Titus's choice for villain--but Dundee is determined to find out the truth, even if it costs him his job.
Mail-Order Marriage & Husband by Inheritance: Mail-Order Marriage\Husband by Inheritance ($2.28), by Cara Colter and Margaret Way, is a double novel from Harlequin.
Mail-Order Marriage by Margaret Way
After backbreaking years spent building up his Outback cattle station, Matthew Carlyle was ready for family life. With little time for courting, he'd advertised in the paper, and one reply in particular stood out. Why was the beautiful Cassie Sterling, of all people, applying to become his wife? He knew her privileged background and, although he believed her claim to want the same things he did, he couldn't imagine her adapting to isolated Outback life. Besides, Cassie deserved the best and he was a man with a scandal in his past. But then, Cassie was hiding a secret of her own.…
Husband by Inheritance by Cara Colter
Due to a mysterious bequest, Abby Blakely had just inherited her dream house—complete with a cranky ex-cop her little girl had decided would make a perfect daddy! Dare she dream that they could be a family? Shane McCall had had dreams of a family once, too. But he knew those kinds of fantasies led only to pain and he'd long ago locked away his heart. Could Abby and her adorable toddler hold the key?
Michael Harvey's
2-Book Bundle: The Chicago Way, The Fifth Floor ($7.99), gets you the first two books in his
Michael Kelly series at the same cost as either standalone, along with an excerpt for
We All Fall Down, which came out this summer.
The Chicago Way
Private detective Michael Kelly is hired by his former partner to solve an eight-year old rape and battery case long gone cold. But when the partner turns up dead, Kelly enlists a team of his savviest colleagues to connect the dots between the recent murder and the cold case it revived: a television reporter whose relationship with Kelly is not strictly professional; his best friend from childhood, a forensic DNA expert; and an old ally from the DA's office. To close the case, Kelly will have to face the mob, a serial killer, his own double-crossing friends, and the mean streets of the city he loves.
The Fifth Floor
Private detective Michael Kelly returns in a lightning-paced, intricately woven mystery. When Kelly is hired by an old girlfriend to tail her abusive husband, he expects trouble of a domestic rather than a historical nature. Life, however, is not so simple.
The trail leads to a dead body in an abandoned house on Chicago's North Side and then to places Kelly would rather not go: specifically, City Hall's fabled fifth floor, where the mayor is feeling the heat. Kelly becomes embroiled in a scam that stretches from current politics back to the night Chicago burned to the ground. Along the way, he finds himself framed for murder, before finally facing a killer bent on rewriting history.
The Heart's Voice and A Family to Share: The Heart's Voice\A Family to Share ($1.74), by Arlene James, is another double volume from Harlequin, this time under the imprint of Steeple Hill Love (which focuses on "Christian romance").
The Heart's Voice
When Dan Holden lost his hearing, he also lost all hope. Now Becca Kinder needs help fixing her ramshackle house. And as the petite widow and her children work their way into his heart, faith can show them the way to an unexpected future—together.
A Family to Share
Kendal Oakes would do anything for his daughter, Larissa. He'll even propose a marriage of convenience to single mom Connie Wheeler. But little Larissa isn't the only one drawn to Connie's nurturing ways. A real union is in reach—if they can forgive their imperfect pasts.