Friday, June 16, 2017

BookTown's Indie Summer Reading List!



Our summer reading list is finally here!




Sometimes half an inch is all that stands between life and death.

Abraham Snow’s career ended with a single shot. Left for dead, the undercover operative barely survived an assassin’s bullet. After a long and painful recovery, Snow retires. He returns home to rest and recuperate only to get swept up in the family business, one just as dangerous as his previous profession. When he thwarts an assassination attempt on a diplomat that endangers his sister, Snow leaps into action to keep his family out of a highly trained killer’s cross hairs.

SNOW FALLS is the first book in the continuing adventures of Abraham Snow.


Praise for USA Today bestselling author, Connie Shelton, and her first novel: "An impressive debut mystery!" -- Albuquerque Journal "Charlie is slick, appealing and nobody's fool--just what readers want in an amateur sleuth." -- Booklist "This is a dandy. Don't miss it!" -- Book Talk In this debut mystery series novel, Charlie Parker, accountant and partner in an Albuquerque private investigation firm, is visited by her old school friend, Stacy North. Stacy's Rolex watch is missing and she begs Charlie to help locate it before her husband finds out.




By the author of the Amazon bestselling thriller Wisdom Spring.
"I come from a long line of idiots."
Those were the last words his father uttered before dying, and from what he knew of his family tree and the unfortunate end that came to so many of his ancestors, Del Honeycutt couldn't disagree. What he didn't know was that his family held dark secrets--secrets that were about to come crashing down upon him.

A seemingly innocent date gone tragically wrong plunges Del into a web of murder, lies, greed, and a hidden fortune dating back to a crime committed 85 years earlier by his great-grandfather. Accompanied by Sabrina, the sister of Del's brutally murdered date, a violent journey of discovery and fear begins. Pursued by vicious killers intent on eliminating anyone with knowledge of the 85-year-old crime, their only hope of survival is to find the reason behind the original crime and why, decades later, someone is still willing to kill to keep it hidden. But Sabrina is concealing a monstrous lie of her own. Is she who she says she is?


A Silver Human Trafficking terrifies her. Seeing it face-to-face forces her to act.

A Silver Medallion is a gripping, action-packed adventure from talented author James Callan. Crystal Moore is a tough and savvy heroine ... New York Times Bestselling Author Bobbi Smith
In 2015, Crystal Moore encounters a slave in Dallas, Texas -- a slave held not by chains, but by threats her two girls held hostage in the jungles of Mexico will be killed if she escapes.
To naïve Crystal, it's clear. The children must be rescued first, or the mother will never escape.
Crystal would like to forget it, but her conscience will not let her.
She goes to Mexico and secures the help of mysterious Juan Grande. If she succeeds, mother and children will be free -- but Crystal will have two powerful and ruthless men, one in Texas and one in Mexico, who will want her dead.

When out of work graphic designer Verity Long accidentally traps a ghost on her property, she’s saddled with more than a supernatural sidekick—she gains the ability see spirits. It leads to an offer she can’t refuse from the town’s bad boy, the brother of her ex and the last man she should ever partner with. Ellis Wyatt is in possession of a stunning historic property haunted by some of Sugarland Tennessee’s finest former citizens. 

Only some of them are growing restless—and destructive. He hires Verity to put an end to the disturbances. But soon, Verity learns there’s more to the mysterious estate than floating specters, secret passageways, and hidden rooms. There’s a modern day mystery afoot, one that hinges on a decades-old murder. Verity isn't above questioning the living, or the dead. But can she discover the truth before the killer finds her?


Daniel carried me in his arms like I'd watched Superman carry Lois Lane countless times, except Daniel didn't wear a unitard.  This time I forced my eyes to stay open so I could watch the town pass beneath our feet.  No easy feat for someone with my anxiety issues.  It was, for lack of a better word, magical.  I saw the church spire on a distant hill and the clock tower in the town square.  The town was bustling with people, or creatures that looked remarkably like people, and the buildings seemed to stretch beyond the horizon. 

I still felt the need to pinch myself.  Today I'd met an angel, two fairies, and what I was fairly certain was an elf.  And now I was bout to meet a coven of witches.  It was an amazingly lucid dream and I was sure I'd awaken at any moment.  Never again would I eat the entire bag of Doritos before bed.




He felt a contraction in his heart and a cold tingling in his face, and couldn't utter a word.  Two years Travis thought.  He lost the power of sight for an instant, but he conquered his emotion by a strong effort of willpower, almost a transport of rage.  Why had she waited two years before telling him?  He felt numb, lost, and as if he had just awakened from a coma and was being downloaded with events he missed.  The words two years rolled through his mind - Union has been dead for two years.  He heard her say something about coffee, and he followed her into the house, his mind returning to reality.

Union Miller and Travis Gibbs had grown up together.   They were best friends.  Yet, he had been dead for two years and Travis never knew until he received a letter from Union's mother stating 'My Union was murdered.  Please come.  He didn't do it.'  So he went to Riverfield to find out who killed Union and why.




Place all ingredients except the potatoes into a large stew pot. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer 2-3 hours. About 30-45 minutes before you plan to serve, peel and cut the potatoes and add them to the stew. Serve with corn bread, warm flour tortillas or other favorite bread. For a somewhat different taste, I’ve made this with either pinto beans or hominy in place of the potatoes. The meat can, alternately, be beef or wild game.





Alex Steele, P.I. has been investigating the murder of a millionaire's wife and the pool boy.  Their murder is quite a suspense.  They were found inside the pool house with the doors locked from the inside.  There was no evidence showing how anyone could have gotten inside.  And then there was their actual deaths.  No gunshot nor knife wounds and it appeared that neither victim had been beaten to death. 

At present his suspects consist of the chef, the gardener, the maid, the butler, the sister-in-law and, of course, the millionaire himself.  So with his list of possibilities and lack of evidence, how will he ever solve the mystery of who killed the rich wife and her pool boy lover?  Especially now that someone has him locked in a room with vapors that can only leave another body.



The killer held her with his left hand while he retrieved a knife from its holster on his waist.  He flipped open the blade and pulled it from right to left against the soft flesh of her throat.  Blood spurted from both carotid arteries and spilled from her neck.  She was breathing more and more slowly when she slipped to the concrete.  Her fluttering eyes became fixed as life drained from her body.  The killer smiled with satisfaction as he bent over and used his knife to slice the running shorts from her lifeless body. 
When he started his slow jog back to the hotel, he felt a few drops of blood, trickling from his cheek.  He used her shorts to stem the flow.  I'll probably have to explain a Band-Aid on my cheek to my audience this morning as a shaving cut, he thought.  As he continued his job, he smiled.  She was number three.  Forty-seven to go.









His hands still on the rope, then dropped away as he stared with shock and terror, mouth agape, at the water.  As if the table had suddenly transformed into a deep reservoir, water gushed from it, spilling onto the floor, flooding it, then spiking up suddenly as if alive, like thrusting fingers, reaching for him.  He gasped and lost his footing, tumbling off the ladder and bringing it down on top of him.  

Laying on his back on the floor, his terror-filled eyes were riveted on the horror unfolding before him.  Even as he managed to get back up on his feet, his eyes never once left the visage that Julie thought had to be the results of some sort of conjoined hysteria, since they were both witnessing it...As he backed away from what her rational mind insisted had to be some trick of the imagination, long skeletal fingers shot out of the water and clamped around his wrist.  Beneath his screams, she heard the sirens in the distance, but that did not quite register, perhaps only existed in some other realm, some alternate universe, for Julie was aware of nothing except what was happening here and now...  Adam was here.


Trudy, Madly, Deeply (A Working Stiffs Mystery) (Volume 1) 



Trudy, Madly, Deeply - Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of: Stir, Laugh, Repeat; Think With Your Taste Buds; and A Book and a Dish
After human lie detector Charmaine Digby scores a job as the County Coroner's new investigative assistant, the unthinkable happens—a doctor reports the suspicious death of Trudy, a family friend and one of several elderly patients at the hospital whose heart mysteriously stopped. With no physical evidence of foul play, Char's on the case, much to the irritation of Detective Steve Sixkiller, who doesn't want her to stick her pretty nose for trouble in his investigation. But she's a woman on a mission to uncover the truth, and she'd better keep her eyes open or the next body on the way to the morgue could be hers.


7 comments:

  1. Thank you for including SNOW FALLS on your list. I am honored.

    Bobby

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    1. You're welcome, if you want to guest blog about any author promotional tools you're using for your novel contact us with a post. :)

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    2. Thanks, Lauren. I'll see what I can put together for you.

      Bobby

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  2. Thank you for including two of my books! I am so honored to be on your list.

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    1. You're welcome Connie! Do you have any book marketing tips with any other authors?

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    2. The most important thing, I think, is to just stick with it. I have titles that were published more than 20 years ago that are still selling well. I continue to feature these early books on my website, and I regularly do paid promotions for them. Writing your book is Step 1; publishing it is Step 2. Step 3, letting people know it's out there ... that goes on for the rest of time.

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  3. Although my latest novel, The Inheritance, was not included on the list, I hope mystery readers will include it in their choices for summer reading.

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