[Manabi]

This month's Kindle First selections are out, they are:

The Man of Legends by Kenneth Johnson [Genre: Supernatural Thriller]

Award-winning science-fiction mastermind Kenneth Johnson blends epic adventure, romance, and evocative drama into an intense supernatural thriller rooted in one of the great untold legends of human history.

New York City, New Year’s weekend, 2001. Jillian Guthrie, a troubled young journalist, stumbles onto a tantalizing mystery: the same man, unaged, stands alongside Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gandhi in three different photographs spanning eighty-five years of history.

In another part of town, Will—an enigmatic thirty-three-year-old of immense charm, wit, and intelligence—looks forward to the new year with hope and trepidation. Haunted by his secret past and shadowed by a dangerous stranger, he finds himself the object of an intense manhunt spearheaded by an ambitious Vatican emissary and an elderly former UN envoy named Hanna.

During the next forty-eight hours, a catastrophic event unites Will, Jillian, and Hanna—and puts them in the crosshairs of a centuries-old international conspiracy. Together, the three must unravel an ancient curse that stretches back two millennia and beyond, and face a primal evil that threatens their lives and thousands more.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Set in New York City at the turn of the millennium, The Man of Legends transpires in a forty-eight-hour span that flies along at a breakneck speed. It’s an epic, fast-paced blending of adventure, romance, and international conspiracy about an enigmatic man who has profoundly altered two thousand years of human history.

The book imagines one of the great untold legends through a kaleidoscope of fictional first-person-eyewitness accounts. Gathered and interwoven by an ambitious journalist who herself becomes a principal character in the drama, these individual stories chronicle a deeply felt search for redemption through tragic loss, heartfelt love, and the title character’s quest to discover his true mission in the world despite the ancient curse that binds him.

I was already a third of the way through devouring The Man of Legends before the author’s name rang a bell and I realized I was reading a new novel from the creator of the original V series, as well as The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, and the TV adaptation of Alien Nation. Given Johnson’s science-fiction pedigree, I admit that I turned to the rest of the book with even higher hopes. And it exceeded them, culminating in a raucous climax that left me wanting to read the book all over again.

Readers looking for an adventurous, addictive escape—with the high stakes of The Da Vinci Code and the page-turning blend of history and the supernatural of The Einstein Prophecy—need look no further.

- Jason Kirk, Editor

Soho Dead (The Soho Series Book 1) by Greg Keen [Genre: Crime Fiction]

Kenny Gabriel is three years away from turning sixty, has forty-three quid in the bank and is occasionally employed to find people who would rather not be found. Broke, clientless and depressed, he knows things can’t get much worse. Then he’s summoned to the office of London media magnate Frank Parr, whose daughter, Harry, is missing—and there’s ten grand on the table to get her back.

It’s a lot of money, and God knows Kenny needs the cash. But he and Frank have a history he’d rather not revisit. Kenny worked for him in the seventies, when Frank was the head of a Soho magazine empire and owner of an infamous nightclub. And Kenny might still be working for Frank now—if he hadn’t witnessed his boss brutally torturing another employee.

Kenny suspects taking this job is a mistake, and he’s probably right. Because while he may be done with the past, the past is far from done with him.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

When it comes to crime fiction, there’s nothing quite like a proper old-school PI. I’m talking about the loner under the lamppost, the cynic in a haze of cigarette smoke, the only guy with the guts to get to the bottom of the sensationally sordid story and expose the ugly truth below.

So when PI Kenny Gabriel showed up on my desk, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. (If the afterlife is littered with empty whiskey bottles and unpredictable henchmen.) And the case our down-but-not-quite-out PI finds himself drawn into in Soho Dead—the first in the Soho Series—is as dark and dangerous as you could hope. And personal.

Harry, the glamorous daughter of Frank Parr—infamous Soho media magnate and nightclub owner, and Kenny’s old boss—is missing. Kenny and Frank have some unpleasant history, but Kenny’s bank balance means he can’t walk away. Besides, he has a nagging feeling that something about this case is off from the start.

I really don’t want to tell you anything else; this is a smart, slow burn of a book without a single page out of place. Instead I leave you with Kenny Gabriel, destined to take his place among the greats—a bit broken, yes, but a good man in a world gone bad.

- Jane Snelgrove, Editor

Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine [Genre: Psychological Thriller]

Gina Royal is the definition of average—a shy Midwestern housewife with a happy marriage and two adorable children. But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.

With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.

But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

I recently read that at any given time there are between twenty-five and fifty active serial killers in the United States. Stillhouse Lake poses the question: What if one of those serial killers was your spouse? While reading this compelling thriller, I couldn’t help but wonder what I would do if I discovered that for years I had been sleeping next to a monster, blithely unaware of the crimes committed right under my nose.

Gina Royal was a dutiful wife and loving mother of two wonderful children living in a comfortable house in the Midwest. I know many women like her, and maybe you do, too. Her charismatic husband, Mel, was a good provider and an attentive father. They were the epitome of a perfectly average family. Until Mel’s horrid secret life was uncovered.

In the brutal aftermath, Gina becomes Gwen Proctor, the ex-wife of a serial killer, living in hiding with her traumatized children, and Mel is in prison. Even from a distance, he is a threat to her, manipulating both his fans and enemies against her. In response, Gwen teaches herself how to handle weapons expertly and gets in the best physical shape of her life. She exhibits almost superhuman strength—like those fabled mothers who can lift cars off their children.

Stillhouse Lake is a story of determination and guts that illustrates the lengths to which a person will go to start again. In Gwen Proctor, master storyteller Rachel Caine has created a woman transformed by evil, who is single-minded in her quest to keep her children safe. If I was in Gwen’s shoes, I hope I would also unflinchingly stare down the monster—even if that monster was once the love of my life.

- Liz Pearsons, Editor

Wives of War by Soraya M. Lane [Genre: Historical Fiction]

London, 1944. Two young nurses meet at a train station with a common purpose: to join the war effort. Scarlet longs for the chance to find her missing fiancé, Thomas, and to prove to her family—and to herself—that she’s stronger than everybody thinks. Nursing is in Ellie’s blood, but her humble background is vastly different from Scarlet’s privileged upbringing. Though Ellie puts on a brave face, she’s just as nervous as Scarlet about what awaits them in France.

In Normandy, the two friends soon encounter the seemingly unflappable Lucy. Scarlet and Ellie are in awe of her courage and competence, but the experienced nurse is well aware of the dangers of the job they’ve chosen—and even she is terrified they won’t make it home alive.

Pushed to their limits by the brutality of a world at war, Scarlet, Ellie and Lucy will need to rely on each other—and the power of their friendship—to survive.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

From the opening chapters of this novel, I was transported to the uncertainties of World War II Europe. Reading of the selfless way that young men and women gave up their secure surroundings to join the war effort left me awestruck at the sacrifices that were made by so many. Wives of War focuses on the lives of Lucy, Ellie, and Scarlet, three tenacious strangers whose paths cross in Normandy when they go to France as first-time nurses and are suddenly faced with the horrors of war.

The friendship of Lucy, Ellie, and Scarlet made me think about my own friendships—my closest ties are with people I have met in transitional periods of my life, when I was finding myself and relied on the support of those around me. So too for these three women, who encounter the highs and lows of love and the shared brutalities of the front line, bearing witness to experiences that will result in lifelong friendships.

This is a life-affirming novel about the bond of sisterhood: both heartwarming and inspirational, and for me, a much-needed reminder of the power of the human spirit. I hope you will be carried away by this book as much as I was.

- Sammia Hamer, Editor

The Man Who Could Be King: A Novel by John Ripin Miller [Genre: Biographical Fiction]

When young Josiah Penn Stockbridge accepts the position as aide-de-camp to George Washington at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he thinks only of the glory and romance of battle. He is unprepared for the reality of America’s bloody fight for independence. The Continental Army is starving, underpaid, and dangerously close to mutiny, and Washington fights not just to defeat the British but to maintain order and morale among his own men.

As anonymous letters by officers calling for revolt circulate through camp in Newburgh, New York, Washington must make a choice: preserve the young republic by keeping civilian control of the military, or reshape the new government by standing in solidarity with his troops and assuming greater power for himself.

During one fateful week in American history, Josiah will watch a conflicted general become a legend and will discover for himself that the greatest struggles of war are those within the hearts and minds of fallible men.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

Pop quiz. What was George Washington’s most important legacy? Don’t worry, there are many possible answers. After all, he was a hero in the Revolutionary War, the first to sign the Constitution, and our first president. But perhaps his greatest legacy is what he did not do.

Washington never sought autocratic power for himself, and that legacy is brilliantly captured in John Ripin Miller’s masterful novel, The Man Who Could Be King. The book is a fictional retelling of one momentous week in the life of Washington, a week that foretold his greatness as a leader and arguably saved the colonies from losing the war for American independence. What made Washington so remarkable was his ability to stop a mutiny from forming without taking power for himself.

The story is told through the fictional voice of Washington’s aide-de-camp, and it’s this witty and eloquent narrator that makes this read so pleasurable and entertaining. I saw and understood how George Washington wrestled with the question of whether to preserve the young republic by keeping civilian control of the army or reshape the new government by standing in solidarity with his troops and assuming greater power for himself. His decision impacted the course of American history. This is a novel for fans of Ron Chernow’s book Alexander Hamilton and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical based on it, a novel that feels as relevant as ever and that has changed my view of this incredible time in our past.

- Carmen Johnson, Editor

Lost in Arcadia: A Novel by Sean Gandert [Genre: Dystopian Fiction]

“Prescient, funny, smart, a story to disappear into and come out the other side.” —Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night

“A fascinating and ambitious first novel by a very talented writer.…An indispensable read.” —Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima

The America of 2037 is a country distracted by, infatuated with, and addicted to Arcadia.

The brainchild of reclusive genius Juan Diego Reyes, Arcadia is a wickedly immersive, all-encompassing social-media platform and virtual-reality interface. Although Arcadia has made the Reyes family fabulously wealthy, it’s left them—and the rest of the country—impoverished of that rare currency: intimacy. When Juan Diego mysteriously vanishes, the consequences shatter the lives of the entire Reyes clan.

As matriarch Autumn struggles to hold the family together, siblings Gideon, Holly, and Devon wrestle with questions of purpose and meaning—seeking self-worth in a world where everything has been cheapened. Outside the artificial safety of Arcadia, America has crumbled into an unrecognizable nation where a fundamentalist ex-preacher occupies the Oval Office, megacorporations blithely exploit their full citizenship, and a twenty-foot-high Great Wall of Freedom plastered with lucrative advertising bestrides the US-Mexican border.

In a polarized society now cripplingly hooked on manufactured highs, the Reyes family must overcome the seduction of simulation to find the kind of authentic human connection that offers salvation for all.

From the Editor:

Spoiler:

This audacious and thought-provoking literary novel is not merely entertaining—though it is certainly that, with both humor and heartbreak in spades—it is also important, and I could not be more excited to introduce this work and its debut author to the world.

At its core, Lost in Arcadia tells the story of a broken family, but it’s how it tells that story that makes it the most remarkable novel I’ve had the privilege to edit. First, it sets the drama of a mother and her three children in search of their vanished husband and father in an imagined near-future United States, circa 2037, when certain contemporary trends have matured along their logical paths. Video gaming and social media have merged and evolved. Corporations enjoy better-than-full citizenship. A border wall bristles along the entire length of the southern United States. If this world is not our own, it may only differ in that it’s not our own just yet.

But what elevates this novel to one of those handful-in-a-lifetime kind of reading experiences is the symphony of voices through which it portrays nine months of the Reyes family’s wrenching search for human connection in a world where everything is cheapened and mediated. Mirroring this world, the book intersperses news stories, chat-room banter, stream of consciousness, email messages, and chapters told only in dialogue.

Granted, Lost in Arcadia is decidedly not for the faint of art. It will confound some readers, get under the skin of others, and cause still others to fall deeply in love. And for some, like me, it will elicit all these reactions and more. I’ll be talking about this astounding novel for years.

- Jason Kirk, Editor