Sandman by Morgan Hannah MacDonald
341 pages, 105 of 111 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
BEWARE THE SANDMAN-HE’LL PUT YOU TO SLEEP. . .FOREVER.
A serial killer on the loose, a woman being stalked, and a homicide detective who must find the connection between the two before it’s too late.
He collects women. He imprisons them, plays with them, tortures them. Then removes a souvenir. They call him the SANDMAN.
Meagan McInnis is being plagued with late night calls, yet when she answers, no one is there. Then one night she makes a grisly discovery in her own backyard. The caller is silent no more.
Homicide Detective, J.J. Thomas, realizes Meagan is the key to finding the Sandman. Not only must he protect her, but he must find the connection between her and the killer before it’s too late.
Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie
316 pages, 67 of 73 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled, previously free
A gentle yet unflinching look at how we find our way home. A woman returns to her West Virginia roots to resolve the ghosts of her childhood. In the tradition of Rebecca Wells, Sue Monk Kidd, Olive Ann Burns, and Dorothy Allison. TENDER GRACES by Kathryn Magendie is strong literary women’s fiction written with exquisite style.
The death of her troubled mother and memories of her abused grandmother lure a young woman back to the Appalachian hollow where she was born. Virginia Kate, the daughter of a beautiful mountain wild-child and a slick, Shakespeare-quoting salesman, relives her turbulent childhood and the pain of her mother’s betrayals. Haunted by ghosts and buried family secrets, Virginia Kate struggles to reconcile three generations of her family’s lost innocence.
Lowcountry Bribe by C Hope Clark
272 pages, 60 of 61 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
A killer wants to make certain she buys the farm. Threats, a missing boss, a very dead co-worker, a high-level investigation and a sinister hog farmer: Lowcountry Ag Department manager Carolina Slade is a bean-counting civil servant in hot water. Carolina Slade is a by-the-book county manager for the Department of Agriculture-a civil servant who coordinates federal loans for farmers in the coastal lowcountry of South Carolina. When one of her clients, a hog farmer named Jessie Rawlings, offers her a bribe, Slade reports Jessie to her superiors. The next thing she knows, she’s besieged by Resident Agent-In-Charge Wayne Largo from the Feds’ IG Office in Atlanta. He and his partner have come to investigate Slade’s accusations, and if possible catch Jessie in the act of handing over money. However, the IG isn’t telling Slade everything. The agents are also investigating the disappearance of Slade’s boss the year before in connection to possible land fraud. And when the sting on Jessie goes bad, the case is put on hold and Wayne is called back to Atlanta, leaving Slade to fear not only for her life and job, but for her childrens’ safety.
Visions of Power by Jeffrey Quyle
310 pages, 29 of 37 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
Saving the Duke, and discovering that his act of healing will become a political act that plunges him into court intrigue, brings Alec face-to-face with new challenges and new people – allies and adversaries who seek to control him and his powers.
With his change in abilities, change in status, and his uncertainty about what he wants to do, Alec has to decide who to trust, and how to protect himself in a complex world.
Dark Star: Confessions of a Rock Idol by Creston Mapes
403 pages, 34 of 36 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
Now Endora is dead, and I’ve been charged with first-degree murder.
Everett Lester is headed down a perilous road of no apparent return. Will he recognize the spiritual battle raging for his soul?
Let Us Prey by Jamie Lee Scott
271 pages, 24 of 25 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
Mimi Capurro is trying to put her life back together after the sudden death of her husband. Using the skills she learned as a secret service agent, she runs the Gotcha Detective Agency, along with her skilled computer forensics partner Charles Parks. Gotcha specializes in executive protection (bodyguards), and tailing cheating spouses.
Nick Christianson is running from the demons of his past, and that has put him back in his old stomping grounds in Salinas, CA. Nick has transferred from the San Francisco Homicide Division and is now adjusting to this new police department.
Mimi never expects to run into her old college flame Nick, when she takes on an executive protection case for New York Times bestselling author Lauren Silke. But when Lauren’s assistant is murdered, the homicide case, along with Mimi, land in Nick’s lap. Will Mimi and Nick be able to solve this murder without killing each other first?
City of Darkness by Kim Wright
486 pages, 26 of 28 reviews are 5-star, Lending Enabled
City of Darkness takes place in 1888 London, where Jack the Ripper roams the streets with impunity and Scotland Yard seems helpless to stop him.
The science of forensics is in its infancy but a few detectives – Trevor Welles among them – recognize that they are dealing with a different sort of killer, a “modern criminal” who chooses his victims at random. If Jack is to be caught, he won’t be caught with Scotland Yard’s normal methods of deduction for there is no logic to this madness. The question is no longer “Why was the victim killed?” but rather “How was the victim killed?” For the first time in the history of detection, science is trumping deductive reasoning.
When a twist of fate puts Trevor in charge of the case, he hastily assembles Scotland Yard’s first forensics team: Davy Mabrey, the first bobby on the scene of the grisliest of the murders, whose working class common sense proves an invaluable asset, Rayley Abrams, a cautious intellectual whose future at the Yard is marginalized due to his Jewish heritage, Tom Bainbridge, a medical student with aristocratic connections and a secret drinking problem, and Emma Kelly, sister of the Ripper’s last victim who has a troubled past and a gift for linguistics. The team finds an unlikely ally in the form of Queen Victoria herself, who takes an unusual level of interest in the Ripper case and secretly funds the unit. But will they stop Jack in time to spare Leanna Bainbridge, the young heiress with whom Trevor has fallen madly and improbably in love?
While City of Darkness takes place in London, its sequel, City of Light, will travel to Paris on the eve of the Exposition Universalle, the ultimate World’s Fair which debuted Edison’s phonograph, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and the Eiffel Tower The third book, City of Silence, will take place in St. Petersburg where Victoria’s beloved granddaughter Alexandria is on the verge of marrying the young czar Nicolas, much to her grandmother’s dismay. Throughout the series the Scotland Yard forensics team, which serves as a sort of Victorian-era CSI, will circle the world to investigate high-profile cases, most often at the urging of the Queen.
Whom God Would Destroy by Commander Pants
316 pages, 19 of 25 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
It’s 1987, and “God” has returned to Earth to goof on humanity once more. Equipped with a new message and a bell that makes people happy, he opens up a new age store, ready to have some fun. Fortunately, things don’t turn out quite like He’d planned.
Luke Rhinehart, author of the cult classic, “The Dice Man,” called “Whom God Would Destroy,” “a wonderful novel, with an original comic vision and style that had me laughing aloud.”
Whom God Would Destroy is a thought provoking novel about God, insanity, Big Macs, space aliens and the search for the Ultimate Orgasm…but mostly it’s about taking reality with a pillar of salt.
Russian Roulette by Mike Faricy
298 pages, 18 of 18 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
At no surprise, dysfuntional PI Devlin Haskell falls in bed with his latest client. She’s gone by the time he wakes and hasn’t the foggiest notion that, from now on, he’ll be dealing with the Russian mob. Along the way he finds himself at odds with a Russian butcher, local police and an FBI task force investigating human trafficking. In the process of getting answers Dev washes up on the far side of the law. He’s shot, beaten, car bombed and used as a human shield, all in the name of justice, at least as he comes to see it. An entertaining tale of rank ineptitude and one night stands. Russian Roulette is another fast paced tale from the master of the bizarre, Mike Faricy.
Hetaera: Suspense in Ancient Athens by Suzanne Tyrpak
224 pages, 17 of 19 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
Born a bastard and a slave, Hestia has a gift: the power to read people’s hearts. And yet, the secrets of her own heart remain a mystery. Hestia’s keen intellect makes her a match for any man. But even a literate slave has little control over destiny. Sold to a prominent statesman with sadistic tendencies, Hestia becomes his hetaera (consort). As her wealth and fame increase so does her despair. She dreams of freedom, but she faces enemies at every turn. When Hestia is accused of murder, the mystery of her past unravels and fate takes another turn.
Due to the subject matter, there are some sexual scenes–suggestive rather than explicit.
Happy Birthday to Me Again by Brian Rowe
314 pages, 9 of 12 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
Cameron Martin has a huge problem: he’s aging a whole year of his life with each passing day… again. And this time… he’s going backward!
When Cameron proposes to his beloved witch of a girlfriend Liesel, he thinks life can’t get any better. But when he reluctantly breaks off the engagement just days before the wedding, Liesel angrily unleashes another curse on the unlucky guy, this time making him age backward, from eighteen, all the way to zero.
Making matters worse, Liesel mysteriously disappears, leaving Cameron with no options, except watching himself rapidly shrink into a helpless child. Will Liesel be able to save his life again? Or will Cameron ultimately fall prey to his girlfriend’s wicked spell?
278 pages, 20 of 21 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
Government and corporate business have merged in an attempt to keep the country from going bankrupt, the effects of global warming and antibiotic-resistant disease having caused a full collapse in infrastructure. The class divide has become profound, leaving most people trapped in an impoverished, working class world with little room for improvement. Complacency and corporate hierarchy control and confound the masses, run by the elite few, collectively referred to as “Corporate.”
The Canker Death by James Bottino
418 pages, 10 of 10 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
When the reclusive, cynical systems administrator, Petor Fidelistro, discovers that one of his own servers has been cracked late one night, he makes it his personal business to track down the perpetrator. What his search uncovers thrusts him, unaware, into a mad shifting between worlds, time and alien minds.
Fighting to keep his grip on reality, and forcing him to cope with his past, Petor finds himself uncontrollably transitioning between sentient minds that range from semi-conscious to dominant, from beings whose bodies and identities he can control, to those who control him so fully as to be unaware of his presence. As the story unfolds, Petor gathers clues in a twisting mystery that sends him shifting between the mourning child Nanzicwital; the golem giant Faskin; the lascivious, female ambassador Desidia; and Nokinis, an insane prisoner with whom Petor battles for mastery of his own memories. As he struggles to make sense of what is happening to him, Petor finds himself embroiled in the tumultuous upheaval of a ubiquitous society that transcends life, itself.
Sliding on the Snow Stone by Andy Szpuk
239 pages, 8 of 8 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
It is astonishing that anyone lived this story. It is even more astonishing that anyone survived it.
Stefan grows up in the grip of a raging famine. Stalin’s Five Year Plan brings genocide to Ukraine – millions of people starve to death. To free themselves from the daily terrors of Soviet rule, Stefan and his friends fight imaginary battles in nearby woods to defend their land. The games they play are their only escape.
‘Sliding on the Snow Stone’ is the true story of Stefan’s extraordinary journey across a landscape of hunger, fear and devastating loss. With Europe on the brink of World War Two, Stefan and his family pray they’ll survive in their uncertain world. They long to be free.
(In 1932-33, as part of their drive towards industrialisation, the Soviet Union demanded impossibly high requisitions of grain from rural areas in Ukraine. In a deliberate act of genocide, Ukrainian smallholdings were stripped of food, and the population began to perish, with some estimates as high as 10 million deaths, from starvation. In Ukraine, this atrocity became known as the Holodomor (death by hunger). The following years saw Soviet purges and terrors resulting in the elimination of academics and intellectuals, or of anyone who spoke out against Soviet rule. When World War Two arrived on Ukraine’s doorstep, many people viewed the Nazis as liberators – a view that was quickly proved wrong. ‘Sliding on the Snow Stone’ is Stefan’s personal account of a historical period drenched in the blood of a nation, and of his yearning for freedom).
Burnt Offerings by Michael Lister
364 pages, 3 of 3 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled
The scratch of a single match—spark, heat, chemical reaction, fire being born—and an intense thriller begins.
Terror reigns over the North Florida National Forest, the coastal town of Bayshore, and the barrier island of Pine Key—a fiery terror whose flame threatens to consume the whole world.
An exacting and methodical killer whose weapon is fire is working on his masterpiece, and only a wounded and scarred FDLE agent and a retired ritual crimes expert hiding from the world in a cabin in the woods have any hope of stopping him.
Rich and textured, yet fast-paced and pulse-pounding, BURNT OFFERINGS will leave you breathless right up until its heart-stopping conclusion.
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I have not read any of these books, so they may not be any good. Some of the books from previous Free Book posts are still available for free. If you want to see all free books as they come out you should follow Books on the Knob on their RSS or Twitter Feed. Or Ireaderreview or the many free book threads on Amazon’s Message Boards.
As always please check to make sure the books are still free before you “buy” them, especially from Amazon. Prices can change quickly. This may be a one day offer. Pick it up quick. If you do buy a book and realize later you have been charged for it, here is a guide on how to return a kindle book.
