Friday, June 28, 2013

Free Kindle Books 6-28-13

PLEASE. Do everyone a favor and write an Amazon review if you end up reading a book (or trying to and giving up in disgust). It does not have to be much. Just tell what you think of the book. By the way, many times I have found the 1 and 2 star reviews on self published works to be far more revealing about the book than the more stellar reviews.

Most times these books are only free for a day or two, so you have to grab them while you can. Worry about whether you really want to read it later if it seems interesting.

From the top 100 free list
As is typical, there are several religious and recipe books on the list today. I don't call them out because they don't interest me. Click on the link above and search through the Free List Tab if you are interested in such books.

The List - A Thriller
THE LIST is a bit of a departure for Konrath. It's a technothriller about a group of ten people who each have tattoos of numbers on the bottoms their feet, and don't know why.

One of them, a Chicago Homicide cop named Tom Mankowski, has had one of these strange tattoos since birth. When he investigates a violent murder and discovers the victim also has a tattooed number, it sets the ball rolling for an adventure of historic proportions.

To say more would give away too much.

Like the Jack Daniels series, THE LIST combines laugh out loud humor with serious suspense and thrills.

THE LIST is approximately 82,000 words long, and is specially formatted for Kindle with an active table of contents.

5 star:(167)
4 star:(157)
3 star:(43)
2 star:(23)
1 star:(44)

[#1. Its been free before. I read it. I gave it 2 stars. This author is regularly on the list. The distribution of reviews suggests the book has issues for many people (like me) but others found it enjoyable.]

A Short History of the World
[#35. 2nd day. A good concept. How well it is executed remains to be seen.]

[#38. 6th day. Lots of reviews - mostly positive. It was also free back in April, but I have not looked at it.]

This is the second edition of the book, and the errors noted in several of the reviews have been corrected.

In the Fall of 1955, the state of Nevada used the electric chair to execute a prisoner for the first time.

It was also the last time. 

Molly Blackburn, nicknamed Jane the Ripper by the Las Vegas press after killing eleven men while posing as a prostitute, was strapped to the chair without incident. The switch was flipped.

Everything after that went horribly wrong.

Since that day, a copycat Jane the Ripper has appeared almost every decade in a different city, mimicking Molly's choice in victims as well as her methods of murder. She kills eleven men then disappears, never to be found. The similarities between the bodies left behind each decade is uncanny. As if they are all the victims of the same murderer, not a copycat.

But that's impossible, of course, because Molly Blackburn is dead, her execution witnessed by a dozen people.

FBI Agent Jack Shaw, the lead investigator in the Jane the Ripper cases since the seventies, finally catches a break in 2009 when the intended fifth victim manages to turn the tables on the newest copycat . Everyone believes that the horror has finally ended with her capture. Shaw is not so sure, though, wondering if someone else will take up the mantle and kill seven more men to complete the cycle. But when no more bodies with her distinctive markings show up over the next two years, Shaw allows himself to believe that maybe he has seen the end of the Jane the Ripper murders.

As it turns out, what he thought was the end was only the beginning.

His hunt will take him across the country, and even when he thinks he's finally discovered the truth, he quickly learns that not everything is as it seems.

That not every monster is created equal.

That the nature of good and evil is not as black and white as he has always believed.

That not everything that is broken can be put back together.

That not every fractured soul can be saved.

When blood, smoke and ashes rise, no one comes out the same on the other side.

Blood, Smoke and Ashes is a 115,00 [sic] word supernatural thriller that also contains the first half of my crime/thriller novella "I Never"

From the Author
Recently, for a contest, I was asked to write a 150 word explanation of what made Blood, Smoke and Ashes different from other books.  What made it stand out.  I hate being constrained by word counts, but since I had to do it, I did it.  And  this this is what I had to say about my first true novel. in 150 words or less:

Blood,Smoke and Ashes combines the fast-paced nature of a traditional thriller with a complex human element found in traditional horror stories.  It is a supernatural thriller/horror, a hybrid tale that blends genres and appeals to readers of both thrillers and dark fiction.  It never gets bogged down with too much history but enough backstory is presented to allow the reader to truly understand the characters and their motives. It is a character driven story, and while it is a supernatural tale, at its heart it is a story about the human spirit and the human condition: what drives us, what breaks us, what defines us. As FBI agent Jack Shaw discovers at the end of the book, not every monster is created equal, good and evil is not as black and white as he has always believed and not everything that is broken can be put back together.

5 star:(15)
4 star:(9)
3 star:(5)
2 star:(1)
1 star:(1)

[#39. Seems to have potential. How well that potential is used I cannot say.]


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