Feature still free, updates go here, and we actually have some surprisingly nice and proportionally-large genuinely backlist stuff, some of which looks pretty interesting.
A good day for mystery/thriller and historical readers, I think, and a surprising twist on the usual "the
Internet KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile is for porn" offerings.
Dennis Hamley offers his 1998-Scholastic children's/YA medieval historical adventure mystery/thriller set during Europe's Black Death, which, given the Relevant To My Interests subgenre and setting, may actually be one of the rare KDP freebies I actually end up reading:
A Pact with Death (The Long Journey of Joslin de Lay)
Christine Kling returns to offer a 2004-Ballantine installment of her seagoing female sleuth captain mystery/thrillers:
Cross Current (Seychelle Sullivan)
Janet Dawson returns to offer a 1994-Fawcett installment in her award-nominated PI series (I think this is 3rd, going from the publication date):
Take A Number (The Jeri Howard Series)
Fellow MR member author Paul Levine returns with a 2009-Bantam legal thriller:
Illegal
Ballantine-published Jeffrey Marks returns with a 2004-Grace Abraham small-pressed amateur sleuth murder mystery (may or may not be a cozy):
The Scent of Murder
Maggie Marr offers a 2007 Crown/Three Rivers Press-published satiric-looking chick-lit thriller which newspaper reviews compare to Jackie Collins:
Hollywood Girls Club
Rainy Kirkland offers an historical romance (may be a romantic suspense) set in 17th century America originally published by Zebra in 1992 under the title Ecstasy's Flame as part of their Heartfire imprint :
Silver Flames (Bewitching Kisses Series)
Kyra E. Hicks, who is a professional quilter and blogger who says that her works have appeared in exhibitions in specified museums, offers an educational historical younger children's storybook which was originally out from small press Brown Books Publishing Group in 2006, with illustrations by Lee Fodi:
Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria
ISFDBed small press Morrigan Books offers a collection of suspense/horror shorts by Carole Lanham (
ISFDB entry), with blurb praise from Stoker Award-winning fellow MR member author David Niall Wilson:
The Whisper Jar
Angry Robot-published ISFDBed John W. Campbell Award-nominee Lauren Beukes contributes to the following:
Something Wicked #08 (November2008) (Something Wicked SF & Horror Magazine)
Harlequin-published Patricia Watters returns with a contemporary romance which may be a repeat:
Broken Promises
HarperCollins-published Susan Sizemore offers an ancient Egyptian-set short which which looks like an adventure/interpersonal drama with maybe-romantic content:
That God Won't Hunt
Minor ISFDBed Kimberly Raiser returns to offer a horror short:
a Pound of Flesh
Small Christian-pressed Canadian Tom Roulstone returns with another of his inspirational western romance shorts:
Wyoming Gold (Cheyenne Springs)
R.J. Jagger, who claims to have been published and quotes blurb praise from J.A. Konrath and Booklist and other outlet reviews for their stuff, returns with:
Confidential Prey (Nick Teffinger Thriller 15 - Novella)
Harlequin Historical-published Tanya Anne Crosby offers a contemporary fiction novella (apparently general/women's fiction instead of primarily romantic):
Lady's Man
Jo Robertson, who says she has won that Romantic Writers of America Golden Heart Award which they give out like candy to newbies with promising manuscripts, quotes a favourable review in the blurb from Publisher's Weekly for what was apparently an entry into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. So if you want to try a probably-vetted indie, here's her early 1900s California-set historical romantic mystery/suspense thriller:
Frail Blood
Meghan Chavalier, whose Google search-provided WikiPorno entry I'm probably not supposed to link due to MR's family-friendly policy (although the actual site is remarkably tame, considering), has apparently had an extensive career and this is her 2007 self-published autobiography which I admit to being curious about now that it's shown up in the slushpile:
Confessions Of A Transsexual Porn Star: Deluxe Edition
Backlist/established author repeats from Ben Rehder, Gordon Ryan, Philippa Ballantine (one is actually
free to all via Smashwords, and a 2005 Dragon Moon small-pressed novel which I'll be adding to the
dedicated Smashwords et al. backlist freebie thread shortly), and James Macomber (actually also a bunch of KDP authors once again repeating their works originally released under by Oceanview Publishing and still claiming their imprint name; e.g. Barbara Levenson from yesterday for whom this is at least the 3rd go-round for one of her books).
New and repeat small press stuff from Deadly Niche Press, Books We Love/BWLPP, Dark Continents Publishing, Adventure Books of Seattle (a promising looking time-travel sfnal anthology from them, which a thoughtful customer review gives an honest 3 stars for).
Happy reading, if indeed you manage to spot something you think you might like, or you've ever been interested in how the transsexual porn industry works.