Nefarious Doings by Australian writer Ilsa Evans is the 1st in her Nell Forrest series of small town mysteries set in rural Australia starring a columnist as the amateur sleuth (this may or may not be on the cozy side), free courtesy of publisher Pan Macmillan Australia's Momentum imprint.
This has been nominated for the 14th Davitt Awards' Best Adult Novel in the crime category, according to the Amazon version of the blurb.
Currently free @
Amazon (not available to Canadians but free in the
UK),
Kobo &
iTunes (both available to Canadians and DRM-free at Kobo). May also pop up at the
publisher's webstore in a DRM-free Mobi/ePub bundle available worldwide like some of the other previous freebies Momentum has given us (it's currently listed at Free during a search, but still has a price on the actual product page).
Apparently, this is being made free to promote the upcoming 3rd book in the series, which is due out next week. As an additional tie-in promo, the 2nd book has been dropped in price to $2.99 (50% off regular) for a limited time. Here's Momentum's webstore page for it, since Macmillan's books aren't couponable via Kobo (at least not in Canada), and it's the only other place where they seem to be sold DRM-free:
Ill-Gotten Gains
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because it's pretty nice to not only get an interesting-looking freebie DRM-free from a major publisher imprint, but also be offered the sequel on discount sale as well to take advantage of the official promo, if it turns out one enjoys the freebie.
Enjoy!
Description
Welcome to the sleepy town of Majic, where neighbourhood watch is a killer.
For Nell Forrest, life in the little town of Majic is not going smoothly. One of her five daughters has just swapped university for fruit-picking, another is about to hit puberty, while a third keeps leaving aggrieved messages on the answering machine. On top of all this, her mother is infuriating and it’s only been a matter of months since Nell lost her husband of twenty-five years. It’s no surprise, then, that she is even struggling to write her weekly column.
But the floodgates of inspiration are about to swing open, almost knocking her out in the process. Murder and mayhem, arson and adultery, dungeons, death threats and disappearances are just around the corner. Despite Nell’s abysmal aptitude for investigative work, she manages to shine the light on the local Richard III Society and that’s when things really start to heat up. Throw in some suspicious widows, nosy neighbours, a canine witness, plus a detective who is getting a little closer than he should, and it’s clear that nefarious doings are well and truly afoot.