Free (nook/Kindle/Kobo/iTunes) Karma by S. Dunlap [Quirky Berkeley Police Procedural]

[ATDrake]

Karma by Susan Dunlap (SYKM), a multiple Anthony Award-finalist (for a different set of mystery novels) and founding member of the Sisters in Crime organization that supports women mystery writers, is the 1st in her Jill Smith series of quirky (and apparently slightly satirical) police procedurals set in Berkeley, California, starring the eponymous homicide detective in a now-retro setting chock-full of 80s-era New Agers and other eccentric West Coast types, this installment involving the investigation of the murder of a Buddhist guru, free courtesy of publisher Open Road Media.

This was originally out as #70 in Harlequin's Worldwide Enterprises division's Raven House Mysteries imprint in 1981 and has since been reprinted multiple times by Dell Publishing, Severn House, and others.

And now Open Road Media are making it their selected daily free ebook for November 13th, for no particular reason I can discern (Dunlap's Wikipedia entry, if that was indeed for her and not someone insufficiently notable with an identical name, has been deleted, so I can't tell if it's her birthday or some kind of significant anniversary), but is much appreciated as a nice change of pace from their usual US public domain pick, especially since it seems to have been a rather popular book to go through at least 8 different paper editions over the years, if the Amazon listings are accurate.

I will remind you that ORM titles are couponable @ Kobo, though it doesn't appear that there are any of Dunlap's many reprint titles from them on special sale at the moment (though she does have a money-saving omnibus of one series).

Currently free, just for one day @ B&N (not in the UK this time, but linked if you're feeling optimistic about a possible drop since the last one did, though I still think that was a glitch), Kobo & iTunes & Google Play (all available to Canadians), and slated to drop at Amazon after midnight Pacific Time (probably won't be available to Canadians: at some point several weeks ago, Amazon decided to stop freebie-ing the daily Open Road freebies for us for no discernible reason; well, at least we'll always have Paris've still got the other stores, for now ).

And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because once upon a time, I did go through a (brief) New Age phase (somewhat later than the 80s, though) and now look back on it with a slightly satirical retrospective. So it should be fun to see how the tropes play out in another West Coast locale during a different decade. <-- hey, we have a hippie smiley; that seems close enough, or at least closer than the punk one --> <-- actually looks like more like a guy with a verdigrised crown than a mohawk, Y/N?

Enjoy!

Description
Hard-nosed beat cop Jill Smith combs Berkeley for a Buddhist guru-killing cultist

In Berkeley, California, Telegraph Avenue is the headquarters for the city’s strangest inhabitants. Cultists, drug addicts, and hippie burnouts wander its streets, looking to raise their consciousness or, if that fails, to just get high. And Jill Smith walks with them, a beat cop with her finger on the pulse of one of the most unique neighborhoods in America.

With time on her hands after her divorce, Jill lets a friend drag her to hear the district’s hot new guru, a Buddhist holy man from Bhutan. As his disciples clap and cheer, Jill tries to keep from smirking. The guru finally draws her attention, however, when he slumps forward with a knife in his back. She calls for backup and cordons off the temple. Jill doesn’t care about karma, but she knows when justice is due.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Susan Dunlap including rare images from the author’s personal collection.