Free (Kindle KDP) Widow by Billie Sue Mosiman [Award-Nom Murder Suspense Thriller]

[ATDrake]

So today is supposed to be the start of a 4-day holiday long weekend in which I can take a break and catch up on several things, including sleep. Thus naturally the insomnia decides to wake me up extra early when it knows it can stay in bed all day.

Anyway, KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile-wise it's another nice day for mystery/suspense thriller readers, with some quality backlist things, and as a speculative treat, a Bram Stoker-nominated horror-ish maybe-romantic mystery/suspense thriller as well by one of our own fellow MR member authors.

Widow by Edgar & Stoker Award-nominated Billie Sue Mosiman (ISFDB entry) is her 1995 Berkley-published mystery/suspense thriller with both horror and romance elements, which garnered her the oft-mentioned nomination for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Novel.

Mosiman, incidentally, had previously yanked things for KDP Select exclusivity, but has been returning several of her works to Smashwords, where she offers an additonal short story free as well: Linkage to her author page.

Free with DRM for who knows how long @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description (scroll down on the product page to the Editorial Reviews to see the author's own note on stuff which influenced the writing of the book, if you're interested)
NOMINATED FOR THE BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR SUPERIOR NOVEL.

A novel of feminism taken to the ultimate limit by a woman who no longer has anything to lose.

First her husband killed their children, then himself. Now she's on her own, and she's bent on making sure it never happens to another woman. It's too late for her...she's already damaged. She's already caught in the depths of despair where only taking the law into her hands holds out any sort of relief. Yet when she stops the evil she's felt compelled to commit, the murders continue. Someone is a copycat, pinning crimes on her, stalking her, teasing her with his devious plan. She can't make him stop. There may be no way out of the trap she's created out of loss, out of desperation.

There's another problem--she's falling in love with the detective who is in charge of tracking her down. Life is a complex series of paradoxes, a spiral of fear and murder where nothing is as it seems.

Lots of repeats in the slushpile today, which had several more pages than usual (with the corresponding eating up of my time; well, it's not like I was using it for sleep). Here's the (probably) non-repeat new stuff, which as I've mentioned, is of overall unusually high quality today.

Previously title-featured Julie Smith returns with a 1994 Ballantine-published 4th in her Edgar-nominated Skip Langdon, Debutante Turned Cop mystery series, originally titled New Orleans Beat but updated for a new internet age: Death Before Facebook

Sarah Shaber returns with a 2000 Minotaur-published installment in her forensic historian amateur sleuth series: Snipe Hunt (The Professor Simon Shaw Murder Mysteries)

I.J. Parker returns with a 2003 Minotaur-published installment in her historical Japanese professional sleuth series (I think this is actually a repeat, but it's old enough I don't have it in the just-for-KDP auxiliary account): The Hell Screen (Akitada Mysteries)

Julie Korzenko offers her 2009 Medallion Press "romantic ecothriller" starring a zoologist and a covert ops agent racing to track down a deadly virus: Devil's Gold (ZEBRA Chronicles)

Tony Dunbar repeats the 1994 Putnam-published 1st in his critically praised New Orleans foodie lawyer series, which expired early last time, so hopefully those who were disappointed to miss it can pick it up today: Crooked Man (Tubby Dubonnet Mystery)

Simon & Schuster-published UK writer Catherine Ryan Hyde, whose novel Pay It Forward was turned into a movie, returns to offer a literary fiction novel which was apparently published in the UK and quotes UK newspaper praise but only links up to CreateSpace paperback editions in the main store and I'm not going to bother tracking down the original, so: Don't Let Me Go

Margaret Tanner returns with another sweeping historical romantic drama set in Australia, which she says was a 2008 "Semi-Finalist in the Amazon Break Through Novel Award" under the title of Storm Girl, and now offered via Books We Love: Savage Possession Books We Love/BWLPP are offering their usual selection of repeats, if you're missing anything.

ISFDBed Canadian Cheryl Kaye Tardif returns with a possibly useful guide-ish thing for aspiring writers: How I Made Over $42,000 in 1 Month Selling My Kindle eBooks Her publisher Imajin also has a selection of repeats today.

The Sequart imprint, which is highly recommended by fellow MR member Blue Tyson, is offering another book of comics-related essays for you to enjy, with contributions by Paul Kupperberg and Chuck Dixon, who IIRC were both writers for the actual Batman comics at some point: Gotham City 14 Miles: 14 Essays on Why the 1960s Batman TV Series Matters

Happy reading if you manage to spot something you think you might like, especially if you didn't already have it before.

[sufue]

What a good day for mystery readers! Thanks as always, ATDrake...

[ATDrake]

Feature still free, preliminary updates from the slushpile, which was still shifting and settling with stuff being moved around while I was looking at it, so I finally gave up at 18 pages in.

A few nice things today but otherwise fairly light, even repeat-wise. No doubt everyone is saving what they think is the good stuff to flood the slushpile tomorrow for the traditional 1st of month deluge.

The Sequart people return with another set of comic book essays. Planetary, incidentally, is excellent and I wish DC would reprint the Absolute Editions. They could be making easy money off of me, instead of it going to some price-gouging reseller: Keeping the World Strange: A Planetary Guide

Dorchester Leisure/published Jennifer Malin returns with a maybe-romantic historical short set in ancient Sumeria: Seventh Sanctuary

Robert W. Walker returns with the 5th installment in his Jessica Coran Forensic Pathologist mystery/thriller series, originally out from Jove in 1996 (may be a repeat, but old enough I don't have it in the KDP-auxiliary account): Darkest Instinct

Berkley-published Natalie R. Collins offers a mystical suspense thriller (may have romantic elements, definitely has supernatural ones): Killer Instincts (Navajo Brother)

Onyx-published Anne Frasier/Theresa Weir returns with a gothic paranormal horror short: Woman in a Black Veil

Small-pressed Canadian Kin Kinrade's border-crossing transcontinental maglev train construction conspiracy-ish thriller is technically a repeat, but one I'm pretty sure expired before I got a chance to include it last time: The Polar Track He also offers a repeat today.

Once again, Xcite Books offers some new erotic romance/erotica freebies for your collection of such: Linkage for the lot

And the Audio Digest people return with more medical info/study guide type things: Linkage for the lot

Happy reading, if you manage to spot something you think you might like.

[Blue Tyson]

Yes, Keeping the World Strange is really good. And Planetary is great, Absolutely. :-)

[Blue Tyson]

Darkest Instinct is a repeat from January, by the looks.

[ATDrake]

Feature still free, updates go here. A flood of stuff as expected, but I must say that that one erotica author who deluged the slushpile with several dozen of her "books" seems actually remarkably helpful in giving descriptive names, pairing/fetish tags, and subgenres right in her titles so that any prospective readers can immediately zoom in on whatever stories seem most Relevant To Their Interests without even having to do the pop-up blurb hover-over on the eReader IQ listings.

Anyway, we have a few nice things today, including some continuations of series and a couple of titles by award-nominee authors.

Loose ID-published Lauren Gallagher offers a probably-erotic f/m contemporary romance: Cold Feet In Hot Sand

Signet-published YA fantasy author Barbara Bartholomew returns with an sf colonization teen adventure drama: Dreams of Earth (Among the Chosen)

David DeLee has had some short stories appear in Star Trek anthologies and Mystery Writers of America collections. He offers a mystery/thriller set starring a female bounty hunter and a female sheriff's deputy: Bling, Bling (Grace deHaviland)

Sourcebooks-published Lisa Renee Jones returns with yet another hot supersoldier paranormal romance: Touched by Fire (Sons of Gabriel/Knights of White)

Grant McKenzie returns with a suspense thriller (not available to Canadians, but may be in your region) originally out from Bantam in 2008: Switch

Barbara Samuel writing as Ruth Wind returns with a 2000 HarperTorch contemporary romance/women's fiction which she says was a RITA award finalist: In the Midnight Rain

Small publisher Camel Press returns with a quirky literary fiction novel by Cole Alpaugh: The Bear in a Muddy Tutu They also have some repeats today.

Small publisher Story Merchant Books offers a late Roman Empire historical suspense/adventure drama by astrology columnist Elaine Edelson which apparently has romantic elements as well. Something for everyone, then, in: Aries Fire (Sign of the Times)

ISFDBed Stoker award finalist Daniel G. Keohane returns with a biblically-inspired apocalyptic fantasy/horror suspense novel: Margaret's Ark

Christian fiction writer Robert Elmer returns with a 1995 Bethany House-published installment in his Denmark-set YA historical WWII adventure series: Into the Flames (Young Underground)

Russell Atwood offers a PI novel which seems to have come out from the Hard Case Crime imprint: LOSERS LIVE LONGER (a Payton Sherwood Mystery Novel) He also offers a tie-in short story originally printed in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine free to all via Smashwords.

Molly Zenk offers some kind of semi-biographical romance about poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, originally out from Fictionwise-available Wings ePress in 2008: Unheard Melodies: Confessions Of A Poetic Muse

R.J. Jagger whose actual publication info I never did bother to track down returns with another novella in his detective series: The Zero File (Nick Teffinger Thriller - Novella)

Mary Ann Mitchell offers a possibly f/m/m romantic suspense originally out from Medallion Press in 2005: Siren's Call

Xcite Books has added even more erotic romance and erotica freebies for you to add to your collection of such; same links as above.

And just because it's Canada Day, I will mention repeats by Canadian mystery writer Nicola Furlong (praised by CBC Radio) and Canadian writer of economics and construction articles Alex Carrick (apparently got some honourable mentions in a fiction writing contest).

Happy reading, especially if you happen to be Canadian today and thus get tomorrow off to do even more of your reading.

[Joykins]

Lauren Gallagher also writes m/m erotic romance under the name L.A. Witt. She's crackalicious. I have to try her m/f stuff now