Free (Kindle KDP) Mantis by Richard La Plante [Martial Artist Pathologist vs Killer]

[ATDrake]

So, a very late entry from the KDP Select exclusive or else slushpile today, in part due to the fact that my browser kept locking up (and eventually crashing) and that I also elected to spend my time earlier catching up on my sleep rather than trawling for unpaid promo for authors who are happy to shut out their readers at other stores.

Anyway, we do have something moderately interesting as a vaguely sfnal-ish backlist treat (hey, it was published by Tor and involves some kind of maybe-supernatural/cultist elements and most importantly of all, it's got a martial artist pathologist who solves stuff based on karate clues and what's not to love about that?), so here it is for those of you who can catch it before it expires, and the other stuff from the past couple of days, too.

Mantis by Richard La Plante (ISFDB entry) is the 1st in his Fogarty-Tanaka thriller series teaming up a hard-boiled cop and a martial artist pathologist (together, they fight crime!) vs assorted serial killers, originally out from Tor Books in 1993.

Publisher's Weekly review says that the author is married to Lynda La Plante, herself an author who has written a bunch of UK crime novels and created the popular TV series Prime Suspect.

Free with DRM for who knows how long (it originally showed up last night, but I may have already mentioned that I value my sleep) @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
In recent weeks, three young women have been brutally assaulted and murdered in the city of Philadelphia. Lt. William Fogarty, a time-toughened cop, hardened by personal tragedy, is shocked by the brutality of the crimes. His only lead comes from medical examiner Josef Tanaka. Half Japanese and half American, Tanaka, a skilled practitioner of the martial arts, claims to recognize the method used in the attacks: a karate strike known as nukite, or spear hand. Fogarty has nowhere else to turn.

An unlikely combination, Fogarty and Tanaka, forced together by circumstance and neither completely trusting the other, they conduct a desperate hunt, trawling the city streets of Philadelphia and into the dangerous underbelly of the killing arts.

Pursuing the Mantis, a creature who uses the flesh of his victims in a sadistic, macabre ritual of self-purification, while Fogarty and Tanaka endanger the lives of those closest to them as they inch perilously close to the precipice of their own worst fears and weaknesses.

For those of you who are not into martial arts pathologists vs serial killer thrillers, we do have a few other nice-looking backlist and established author works from the past few days:

Norma Beishir returns with a 1989 Berkley-published corporate family revenge thriller with romantic elements, which has praise from Publisher's Weekly: Angels at Midnight

Gennita Low offers a 2005 Avon-published military romantic suspense: Protector (Crossfire)

UK writer Carmen Reid offers a 2007 Corgi-published chick-lit maybe-romance which is not available to Canadians, but may be in your region : The Personal Shopper (Annie Valentine)

Thorndike-published Christian fiction author Michelle Stimpson, who says that one of her books has been an Essence magazine bestseller, offers a 2006 Walk Worthy small-pressed inspirational women's fiction novel: Divas of Damascus Road

Chris Ward (ISFDB entry), who has had a handful of short stories printed in small press magazines, offers one of the published ones : Castles Made of Sand

Jinx Schwartz returns with the 2006 Whoodoo small-pressed start of her yachting civil engineer turned amateur sleuth series, which she says won the EPPIE newbie/indie writer award: Just Add Water (Hetta Coffey Mystery Series (Book 1))

The Wild Rose Press-published Diana Rubino offers the 1st in her medieval historical romance series, originally small-pressed (or self-pubbed; I'm not going to bother looking up to see if there are any other authors under that imprint because my browser keeps locking up) in 2006 by Domham: Destiny Lies Waiting (The Yorkist Saga)

HarperCollins-published Australian author Ian Moffitt returns with a sweeping literary personal/family drama based loosely on greek mythology themes: The Birth of Aphrodite

Stoker award-winning fellow MR member author Alexandra Solokoff returns with the 1st in a new law enforcement vs serial killer thriller series: Huntress Moon (The Huntress/FBI Thrillers) [Kindle Edition]

ISFDBed horror writer Tracy Carbone returns with a "Twilight Zone-esque" short: One Minute and also has a repeat.

Paul D. Marks, who has had several printed stories in small pressed crime anthologies, returns with: Free Fall - A Noir Short Story

ISFDBed David Bain returns with a mini-collection of assorted fantasy & suspense shorts including a new tale: Streetlights Filled with Flowers: Three Tales of Urban Fantasy

Andersen Prunty won a 2006 online fiction-writing contest judged by prominent horror writers Ramsey Campbell and Brian Keene. He offers two mini-collection of his horror shorts: Linkage for them both

Avalon-published Mona Ingram returns with a contemporary romance set at a fishing lodge in British Columbia: The Lure of Love

New assorted genre titles from small publishers Crossroad Press, Imajin, Books We Love, MuseItUp Publishing, Steel Magnolia Press, Xcite Books (erotic romance & erotica), Audio Digest (medical stuff).

For more assorted backlist stuff, don't forget to check the July Romance and various other threads floating through the forum today.

Happy reading, if indeed you manage to spot something you think you might like and it happens to still be free by the time you see it.

[kg3]

-I just noticed not all of the freebies from Xcite are showing up in your link above.

-There are 10 Free Titles total from Xcite right now (some are new, some have been free previously), the 10 Free Titles are spread throughout Pages 1-3 of the search link below:

---Xcite-Search-Price from low to high


-Also, Thanks again ATDrake for all the great Freebies!!