Bestselling comics author Robert Kirkman tops today’s buffet with Book 1 of 130 in his “The Walking Dead” series. It chronicles the travels of Rick Grimes, his family, and other survivors of a zombie apocalypse.
The series received the 2010 Eisner Award for “Best Continuing Series” at Comic-Con International. A TV series bearing the same name premiered on Halloween, 2010, on AMC. The series has inspired a prequel series of novels prologuing the comic book’s timeline.
Robert is also known for the “Invincible” series in addition to “Ultimate X-Men” and “Marvel Zombies.” He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series “Haunt.”
A Kentucky native, Robert’s first comic book work was the 2000 superhero parody “Battle Pope,” which he co-created with artist Tony Moore, and self-published under the Funk-O-Tron label.
Robert and his wife live in Kentucky. He named his son Peter Parker Kirkman after Spider-Man’s civilian identity, Peter Parker.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours (except for the “Kindle Daily Deals” on page 3). Warning: Kindle book promotions can end without notice, so before downloading click the link “See Kindle price at Amazon” to verify that the book is still free. (Prices and availability may differ outside USA.)
The Walking Dead #1
Comics & Graphic Novels > Horror
Author: Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore
Rick Grimes, sheriff of a small town in Kentucky, awakes in a hospital. Comatose after being shot while on duty, Rick finds the world abandoned of all things living and is faced with walking undead, who attack him on sight. He returns home to find his family, son Carl and wife Lori, gone. He meets his new neighbor, who points him towards Atlanta. After retrieving supplies from the abandoned Police Station, Rick sets off to Atlanta to search for his family.
Sleeping Roses (Dead Roses)
Romantic Suspense
Author: RaShelle Workman
Her marriage may be dangerous, but leaving could be deadly.
Sophie married into a lie. Sick of her dangerous marriage, Sophie leaves her husband, determined to start a new life. But her husband isn’t going to let her go that easily. If he can’t have her, no one can. It’s hunter versus hunted.
Born of Persuasion: 1 (Price of Privilege)
Christian Fiction > Romance > Historical
Author: Jessica Dotta
The year is 1838, and seventeen-year-old Julia Elliston’s position has never been more fragile. Orphaned and unmarried in a time when women are legal property of their fathers, husbands, and guardians, she finds herself at the mercy of an anonymous guardian who plans to establish her as a servant in far-off Scotland.
With two months to devise a better plan, Julia’s first choice to marry her childhood sweetheart is denied. But when a titled dowager offers to introduce Julia into society, a realm of possibilities opens. However, treachery and deception are as much a part of Victorian society as titles and decorum, and Julia quickly discovers her present is deeply entangled with her mother’s mysterious past. Before she knows what’s happening, Julia finds herself a pawn in a deadly game between two of the country’s most powerful men. With no laws to protect her, she must unravel the secrets on her own. But sometimes truth is elusive and knowledge is deadly.
The Synchronicity War Part 1
Science Fiction > First Contact
Author: Dietmar Wehr
After almost a century of peaceful exploration and colonization of space, the United Earth Space Force stumbles across a shockingly xenophobic alien race that has more and better armed ships and refuses all attempts at contact. As the outgunned Space Force is driven back in battle after battle in what appears to be a war of extermination, one officer experiences precognitive visions that help him blunt the enemy onslaught but he can’t control or predict when they occur.
With the Senior Brass convinced that he’s a tactical genius, he’s given more and more responsibility and is terrified by the belief that Humanity’s Fate will be determined by a battle with himself in overall command. This is Volume 1 of a military SF series about desperate space battles and the men, women and Artificial Intelligences, who fight and die in them.
Mountain Man
Horror
Author: Keith C Blackmore
Augustus Berry lives a day-to-day existence comprised of waking up, getting drunk, and preparing for the inevitable day when “they” will come up the side of his mountain and penetrate his fortress. Living on the outskirts of a city and scavenging for whatever supplies remain after civilization died two years ago, Gus knows that every time he goes down into undead suburbia could be his last.
A DEAD RED HEART (The Dead Red Mystery series)
Mystery > Women Sleuths > Humor
Author: RP Dahlke
What would you do if the love of your life lost their chance at a heart transplant because the donor organ went to a convicted felon? Grieve and let go–or wait until the convict is released and then hunt him down and make him pay?
Lalla Bains certainly doesn’t need any more distractions during the simmering summers in the San Joaquin Valley of California; her tight-wad, widowed father is now a born-again lady’s man, a disreputable crop-dusting competitor threatens her business, and last but not least, she worries whether the sultry redhead in the local police department is taking more than a professional interest in her honey, Sheriff Caleb Stone.
But when a homeless vet is stabbed and dies at her feet, Lalla Bains, being the exasperating, pushy, tenacious gal she is, Lalla believes the dead man deserves a better homicide investigation than what he’s getting.
Deathwatch (Broslin Creek 1)
Romance > Mystery & Suspense
Author: Dana Marton
The only person who can identify the most notorious hit man in the country, Kate Bridges is running for her life. Murphy Dolan is in the Army Reserves, returning from his 2nd tour of duty, only to find a stranger hiding in his house. She’s scared spitless. He’s completely burned-out on violence. Neither of them has any trust left to give.
Phantom Pleasures (Book 1, Phantom Series)
Romance > Gothic
Author: Julie Leto
A hotel developer who wants to turn an abandoned island into an exclusive resort unwittingly unleashes a phantom cursed centuries ago-a spectral man who turns her secret desires into reality…
Insight (Book One)
Romance > Paranormal & Fantasy
Author: Jamie Magee
Willow Haywood has always been trapped between the worlds of the Light and the Dark. Her waking hours are plagued by her ability to feel the emotions of those around her. No matter how inward she draws, she cannot shut out the feelings of others. Sometimes she will see images – echoes of other people and places – that she can enter to influence the emotions of people she has never met.
By night, Willow experiences her only escape from this terrible insight – entering into the world of dreams. Most of these dreams are shared in blissful silence with a stunning blue-eyed boy. But every new moon she lives through something much darker: a horrific nightmare shared by another mysterious boy who is always shrouded by shadows.
One night, this shadowy figure invades her dreams outside of his appointed time. In this new nightmare, Willow is marked; a mark which follows her into the waking world and sets her on a momentous path through light and darkness, through fragmented myth and half-truths, through past lives and disturbing family secrets, all in the face of the ever-dominant Zodiac. What she finds will endanger the lives of those closest to her and will force her to make a decision that will change her world forever.
TODAY’S BARGAINS……………What’s this?
Hidden (A Bone Secrets Novel)
Romance > Mystery & Suspense
Author: Kendra Elliot
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
Eleven years ago, the Co-ed Slayer murdered nine female students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely escaped his attack, but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. As the sole surviving victim, Lacey helped send the sadistic serial killer to prison for life. Now a forensic odontologist examining teeth and bones for the state Medical Examiner, Lacey is devastated when she arrives at a crime scene and identifies the skeletal remains as her college friend’s.
The remains are discovered on the land of ex-cop Jack Harper. Sparks fly between him and Lacey, even as they realize that the prosecution’s witnesses from a decade ago are now being murdered one by one. All the evidence points to the Co-ed Slayer as the culprit—only, he’s long since dead. So who’s the new killer? And is Lacey next in line to die?
Down and Out in Beverly Heels
Romantic Comedy
Author: Kathryn Leigh Scott
Regularly $3.99, Today $2.00
Former actress Meg Barnes used to have it all: tony Beverly Hills address, Amex Black card, Manolos for every day of the month. Not to mention a career as a popular TV detective that made her glittering life possible. But her lifestyle of the rich and famous has turned into a reality show for d-listed starlets. Lost in her Louboutins, she has one man to thank: her con man of a husband.
Handsome FBI agent Jack Mitchell knows a suspect when he sees one—even if she’s as beautiful and gutsy as Meg. Meg’s ex “made off” with half of Hollywood’s wealth in an epic real estate scam. And Jack thinks Meg may have been involved.
Determined to prove her innocence Meg teams up with her quirky, movie-mad best friend to track down her fugitive husband and exact justice. But getting her life, and her career, back on track is harder than auditioning for Spielberg. Especially when her life is threatened. Meg has to trust Jack, the man who may want her behind bars…or as his leading lady for life.
Paris Letters
Biographies & Memoirs
Author: Janice MacLeod
Regularly $14.99, Today $2.99
Exhausted and on the verge of burnout, Janice poses this questions to herself as she doodles on a notepad at her desk. Surprisingly, the answer isn’t as daunting as she expected. With a little math and a lot of determination, Janice cuts back, saves up, and buys herself two years of freedom in Europe.
A few days into her stop in Paris, Janice meets Christophe, the cute butcher down the street—who doesn’t speak English. Through a combination of sign language and franglais, they embark on a whirlwind Paris romance. She soon realizes that she can never return to the world of twelve-hour workdays and greasy corporate lingo. But her dwindling savings force her to find a way to fund her dreams again. So Janice turns to her three loves—words, art, and Christophe—to figure out a way to make her happily-ever-after in Paris last forever.
Sanctum (Guards of the Shadowlands, Book 1)
Science Fiction > Dystopian
Author: Sarah Fine
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
A week ago, seventeen-year-old Lela Santos’s best friend, Nadia, killed herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance – hell. No one willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness and infested with depraved creatures. But Lela isn’t just anyone – she’s determined to save her best friend’s soul, even if it means sacrificing her eternal afterlife.
As Lela struggles to find Nadia, she’s captured by the Guards, enormous, not-quite-human creatures that patrol the dark city’s endless streets. Their all-too human leader, Malachi, is unlike them in every way except one: his deadly efficiency. When he meets Lela, Malachi forms his own plan: get her out of the city, even if it means she must leave Nadia behind. Malachi knows something Lela doesn’t – the dark city isn’t the worst place Lela could end up, and he will stop at nothing to keep her from that fate.
Fractured (Guards of the Shadowlands, Book 2)
Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author: Sarah Fine
Regularly $3.99, Today $1.99
In the week since Lela returned to Rhode Island as Captain of the Guard with Malachi as her second in command, local news has been dominated by chilling sightings of human-like creatures running on all fours. Lela knows there’s only one explanation: the Mazikin have arrived in the land of the living.
Needing to maintain the appearance of a normal life for her foster mother, her probation officer, and her classmates, Lela returns to Warwick High along with Malachi. At night they secretly hunt for the Mazikin nest. To assist, two new Guards from very different parts of the Shadowlands are assigned to Lela’s unit, including the bad boy Jim, who repeatedly challenges Lela’s authority. Lela struggles to keep all her Guards on the right side of the law, but their mistakes come at a terrible cost.
As one painful revelation follows another and the Mazikin start targeting those closest to her, Lela finds herself more vulnerable than she’s ever been, wanting a future more than she ever has. With an enemy determined to separate soul from body, one question remains: how much is she willing to sacrifice to protect those she loves?
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2