Bargain (Agency) 2 Jamie Freveletti thriller/crime fiction $2.99

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Newly reduced from HarperCollins for $2.99

Running from the Devil (Emma Caldridge #1) Kindle / B&N

On a fact-finding mission, a female biochemist for a cosmetics company takes a flight from Miami to Bogota and ends up in a fiery crash landing. The pace of Freveletti’s plot is quickly established: chemist Emma Caldridge is thrown from the wreckage, along with some other surviving passengers. She, however, has been thrown the farthest and witnesses guerrilla soldiers closing in on the passengers from a seemingly safe distance in the jungle. Caldridge tracks the band of hostages, gaining an ally in another passenger separated from the group, a government agent. The action shuttles between the wilds of the rain forest and D.C., as a military contractor tries to rescue the survivors of the crash. A hidden biological weapon, a terrorist timetable, and Caldridge’s survival skills all help hold readers’ interest in this pulse-pounding thriller. The writing runs to the hysterical, the characterization is romance-novel believable at best, but the action saves the book.

Running Dark (Emma Caldridge #2) Kindle / B&N

Emma Caldridge, ultramarathon runner, chemist, and survivor of the events described in Running from the Devil (2009), is nearing the end of an endurance race in Africa when a roadside bomb blows up the course. In the aftermath of the explosion, Emma is given a mysterious shot, returns to the course fully refreshed, and completes the race in her best-ever time. Meanwhile, Banner and Summer, agents with a private security company (and friends of Emma), are hot on the case of Somali pirates about to attack a cruise ship. When a chemical weapon is suspected, Emma is the only chemist close enough to help out; but she still must endure a harrowing journey to reach the besieged cruise ship. This fast-paced thriller makes good use of a timely topic (this is one of the first times Somali pirates have appeared in crime fiction), and the “ripped from the headlines” angle adds further frisson to the story. Many of the characters here were first introduced in Running from the Devil, but it is not essential to have read it before tackling this one