Free (Kindle DRM-free) Wake Up Little Susie by Ed Gorman [Retro 50s PI Mystery/Crime]

[ATDrake]

Well, after two months, Amazon's finally reinstated the "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" product info keyword which is the secret code phrase for "this title is DRM-free". Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in and complain to them about that.

However, they've disimproved their site in other ways, most notably by fiddling with the way the official Time Limited Promotional Offers listing sorts the new stuff, which is now generally scattered throughout all 27 or so of the current pages, rather than lumping the new arrivals on the last few pages when sorted by "Popularity" as it used to. And the influx of first-of-month official freebies also inflated the eReaderIQ freebie auto-listings as well.

Pro-tip for KDP freebie-ing authors: bad times to do it are on the 1st of each month, and on Tuesdays when the weekly new releases are out. You will get lost in the deluge.

Anyway, today's title feature author actually does have ISFDB credits and a Stoker award nomination, no less, but he's probably best known for his crime fiction, which is also award winning and which I have never read.

For those who also haven't read him, we've also a fairly decent set of sf/fantasy/horror from established authors, plus some promising historicals and there's even some Christian stuff for the Christian stuff readers.

Wake Up Little Susie by Ed Gorman (ISFDB, Wikipedia which also says that there's a Canadian hockey player who also goes by that name) is apparently the 2nd in his popular PI Sam McCain series of retro crime mystery/thrillers set in the 50s. This has been much reprinted, and the various HC/PB listings are a bit confusing, but it seems to have been originally out from Carroll & Graf in hardcover in 2000 and paperbacked by Berkley Crime in 2001.

Free without DRM for who knows how long @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
Ed Gorman's Sam McCain has become one of the most beloved characters in the American pantheon of literary private investigators. Beginning with The Day The Music Died, set in the late 1950s, Sam McCain sees through the Ozzie and Harriet veneer of the decade and reveals the racism, hypocrisy, and adultery that existed just under the surface, and does so with grace and humor. Sam, a young lawyer and part time private investigator in the small Iowa town of Black River Falls, uses humor and a keen eye for the truth to look past the obvious suspects—particularly the ones the local sheriff insists are guilty—to find the real perpetrators. Sam McCain is not only an exciting, unique character, he is the honest voice of the 1950s that is rarely heard.

Wake Up Little Susie, Gorman's sequel to his first Sam McCain mystery, is set in the late summer of 1957 on the day that Ford introduced its new "revolutionary" Edsel automobile to America. When the dead body of the District Attorney's wife is found in the trunk of one of the new Edsels, Sam is tapped to find the real killer while the sheriff makes plans to hang the most obvious suspect.

At this point I've probably waded through 40 pages of assorted slush for today alone. If you want sorting, do it yourself.

Baker-published Christian fiction author Angela Hunt returns with a YA short: No More Broken Promises (The Cassie Perkins Series)

Also Baker/Bethany House alumnus Ted Kluck claims that his inspirational book about faith lessons from the sporting star just came out today from Bethany House, but it's not attached to even a pre-order paperback and Christian Book turns up entirely different titles from other publishers when I run the search. So either it's premature e-book anticipation, or author wishful thinking (or just plain bearing false witness) but if you're still interested: Jeremy Lin: Faith, Joy, and Basketball

Also Baker-published Lorena McCourtney offers a more definitively backlist inspirational contemporary romance, 1999-Multnomah-published: Searching for Stardust

The 3rd issue of this graphic novel series for your collection: JAZAN WILD'S FUNHOUSE OF HORRORS "IT'S A MADHOUSE" (B&W Edition)

Zebra-published Doreen Owens Malek probably-repeats her Civil War historical romance, which is old enough that I don't have it in the newer account: Torchlight

St. Martin's/Minotaur & Severn House-published I.J. Parker offers the 1st in her historical Japanese warring-states period drama trilogy, for which we've had subsequent volumes free (so this is probably a repeat, but may have been missed earlier): Dream of a Spring Night (Hollow Reed series)

Minor ISFDBed Five Star-published Jon F. Baxley returns with the 2nd in an epic fantasy trilogy, for which we got the first free some months ago: The Regents of Rhum (THE SCYTHIAN STONE SAGA) The author says that even though it is part 2, this book can be read standalone, and he offers the 1st book for 99 cents if you missed it earlier and want to start reading in order.

Della Van Hise once wrote an Original Star Trek novel (ISFDB entry) and has some minor story credits. She offers two m/m romances, one a backlist philosophical vampire paranormal small-pressed in 1997 which comes with praise from also Star Trek tie-in sf writer Jacqueline Lichtenberg and a bonus slapfight with a reviewer who criticized the book's dedication in the comments for your further entertainment, the other a sci-fi space opera romance co-written with Fegan Black: Linkage for them both

Speaking of paranormal vampire romance (f/m), Taylor Tryst has been published by Ellora's Cave and I guess we can figure out at least part of what her editor's job entailed, judging by her admittedly very descriptive official title: Seduced by Blood (Erotic Paranormal/Vampire Romance) Do you like plot, action and suspense with your sizzling vamp-erotica? (A Sangre Novel)

Our 2nd Stoker-nominee of the day, Billie Sue Mosiman, returns with another supernatural thriller which turns out to be the sequel to one offered a couple of monhts ago: BANISHED

Brian M. Logan teams up with Steven Savile, who has gotten a nod from Phoenix Pick Press as one of the newbie writers paired with an old pro in their Stellar Guild series, to offer a horror thing: Monster Town

HarperCollins steampunk writer Phillippa "Pip" Ballantine returns with another sf short involving "clones, rebellion and poets": The Thorns of Life

Agatha Award nominee Elena Santangelo returns with an historical murder mystery short set during the American Revolution: True To His Country (short story)

Five Star-published Maria Hudgins who writes those Dotsy Lamb cozy travel mysteries returns to offer a self-pub mystery/thriller involving Egyptian archaeology and non-mummified corpses: Scorpion House

Patricia Rosemoor who's written romantic suspenses for Harlequin & Carina returns to offer a looks-non-romantic sister vs serial killer thriller: Skin

Daniel Oldis offers a short story collection of which he says one particular story was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The Pushcart people don't list nominees online at their website, so I'm not going to bother to check and you can just read for yourself to determine if the accolades are deserved for: False Tales

Carnegie Award-nominated UK children's writer Michael Coleman's sfnal alien spy adventure tale for the kiddies originally came out from small press Bodley Head in 1993 and quotes blurb praise from the Glasgow Herald: Gizzmo Lewis, Fairly Secret Agent

Michael Yarwood who writes for British TV returns with an historical family drama set during the Holocaust: One Moonlit Night (The Zamenhof Trilogy)

Some of the backlist series repeats I noticed were from Barbara Bartholomew, Valerie Douglas, David J. Walker, and Books We Love/BWLPP in case you're missing stuff.

Happy reading, if indeed you manage to spot something you think you might like, or are looking forward to indoctrinating the kiddies with sfnal alien spy adventures in the hopes that they'll one day grow up to want to sit in one of these (not available in grown-up sizes, alas).

[carpetmojo]

"Wake Up Little Susie "

Not too suddenly, she'll roll all the way down Blueberry Hill.......

[Dr. Drib]

Found one or two.

Thank you.



Don

[Sigyn]

if I was your friend I'd be tremendously compelled to get you a really terrific gift for my new favorite word "disimproved". I knit, bake bread from scratch, cook, sew, garden, etc all with varying degrees of success. Still working on getting crochet to work other-handed-ly though. So don't ask me to crochet you something. I would cry.

[ATDrake]

Feature still free, minor updates below. I just did a quick skim of the slushpile, which thankfully is rather smaller than yesterday. A decent batch of actual previously-published backlist and thriller-readers should be very happy.

Dell-published Brent Battles offers: Little Girl Gone (A Logan Harper Thriller)

J.D. Rhoades returns with a 2008 Minotaur-published thriller starring a rogue FBI agent: Breaking Cover

Bram Stoker and Anthony award-nominee Alexandra Solokoff offers her debut novel, a supernatural thriller out from St. Martin's Press in 2006: The Harrowing

Joel Goldman offers his 2008 Kensington/Pinnacle-paperbacked: Shakedown (Jack Davis Thrillers)

Joel Gross offers his 1979 Seaview-printed grand sweeping historical saga about a Jewish family starting in the 15th century which is "highly recommended" by the quoted Library Journal review: THE BOOKS OF RACHEL

Colin Bowles is an Australian writer who's had some humour non-fic/novels published by Angus & Robertson and Allan & Unwin. He offers: True Love and Graverobbing for Absolute Beginners I'll note that he has the 5th best set of brazen author lies in the blurb for another work of his (not free).

Happy reading, if you manage to spot something you think you might like, or happen not to get caught during the graverobbing gig, which is about two or three centuries out of fashion for relatively-practical purposes and profit, I'll note.

[melmac]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

I'll note that he has the 5th best set of brazen author lies in the blurb for another work of his (not free).

That's seriously tickled my funny bone thanks

Spoiler:

COLIN BOWLES was educated at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and the Sorbonne, gaining masters degree in Nuclear Physics, Mathematics and English Literature by the age of nineteen. He has climbed Mount Everest three times and won gold medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. Last year he won the highest civilian bravery award for an unsuccessful attempt to seduce Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia. He has been married three times, to Michelle Pfeiffer, Scarlett Johansen and Jennifer Aniston. When not writing he undergoes treatment for delusional fantasies at an inner London hospital.