Nora Roberts is the bestselling author of more than 209 romance novels. She writes under the name J.D. Robb for her “In Death” mystery-thriller series, and tops today’s Buffet with the installment Midnight In Death.
Nora first began to write during a blizzard in February 1979 while housebound with her two young boys. With three feet of snow, a dwindling supply of chocolate, and no morning kindergarten she had little else to do — but she fell in love with the writing process, and quickly produced six manuscripts. After repeated snubs from Harlequin, a new publisher, Silhouette books, released Nora’s first book, Irish Thoroughbred, in 1981.
Nora secretly debuted her J.D. Robb books in 1995 and each of the books hit the New York Times bestseller list. Although fans had their suspicions, it wasn’t until the twelfth book in the series, Betrayal in Death (2001), that the publisher revealed that J.D. Robb was indeed a pseudonym for Nora.
Nora was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. As of 2011, her novels had spent a combined 861 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 176 weeks in the Number-one spot. Nora has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and as Sarah Hardesty for publications in the United Kingdom.
As usual, each book listed here has gone FREE within the past 24 hours. 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.)
Midnight in Death
Romantic Suspense > Mystery > Women Sleuths
Author: J. D. Robb
- $2.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
The number-one New York Times bestselling In Death series explodes with intrigue, passion, and suspense. Now, Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb, propels you into the darkest night of Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s life—when a killer comes to call…
Eve’s name has made a Christmas list, but it’s not for being naughty or nice. It’s for putting a serial killer behind bars. Now the escaped madman has her in his sights. With her husband, Roarke, at her side, Eve must stop the man from exacting his bloody vengeance—or die trying…
Bluegrass Undercover
Romance > Mystery & Suspense
Author: Kathleen Brooks
Cade Davies is an ex-Army Ranger, teacher, and the new head coach of the high school football team in Keeneston. He barely has time to adjust to all of the changes in his life before he runs into the school’s fiery new guidance counselor and a new threat to the peaceful town of Keeneston.
DEA Agent Annie Blake was undercover to bust a major drug ring preying on high school athletes across the South. After her transfer from Miami to Kentucky, Annie looks to make her career by solving the biggest case the DEA has open. What Annie didn’t count on was becoming the local gossip. Amid marriage bets placed by the entire town, a priest as a landlord, and a trio of thugs after her, Annie looks to Cade for help in bringing down the drug ring before anyone else is hurt. But can the unflappable Annie deal with the feelings that follow?
Born
Children’s eBooks > Science Fiction, Fantasy & Scary Stories
Author: Tara Brown
Emma ran when her daddy told her to. She hid like he said she should. He was the first person she turned her back on. The first one she let die. Ten years has gone by and she still lives by the simple rules he taught her when she was nine years old.
“Don’t help anyone. Don’t go where other people are unless you have to. Trust no one. Always pull the trigger.”
Until one night she hears the worst sound in the world, a knock. A simple, timid knock, on the door to her cabin. Only the voice of the brave little girl, ready to die for her brother, persuades Emma to open the door. As her fingers turn the lock, she has a terrible feeling she will regret her decision. But even as regret fills her world, so do love and companionship. Things she never imagined she would ever have again.
Everything comes at a cost, you decide what you’ll pay.
Diary of the Displaced: The Journal of James Halldon
Science Fiction > Adventure > Dystopian
Author: Glynn James
- $0.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
James Halldon woke up in the dark, alone, without any food or water, without a clue where he was, and with no memory of where he came from. It only got stranger.
James has somehow found his way to The Corridor, a midnight place that no human should ever see and the prison of a creature that has destroyed entire worlds. Somehow James has to learn to survive.
But he is not alone. The lost souls of others who have drifted into The Corridor, and died, also haunt this world, and they have been waiting a long time for someone to come along.
Crescent City Connection
Mystery > Police Procedurals
Author: Julie Smith
Sure, New Orleans is known for corruption, but suddenly the good guys get a break—an honest police chief. And then someone guns him down. When a terrifying organization called The Jury takes out the cop-killer, Detective Skip Langdon’s on the case. But no one cares! After all, the guy was a cop-killer.
Skip cares really a lot—because she suspects The Jury’s the brainchild of her old nemesis, self-described preacher Errol Jacomine. And because other lives are at stake—those of Jacomine’s granddaughter Lovelace and his younger son Isaac. Eager to add Lovelace to his maniacal fold, Jacomine has Lovelace kidnapped, but she escapes and flees to the bohemian home of her Uncle Isaac, an artist and true eccentric known as The White Monk. Isaac’s taken a vow of silence, but uncle and niece manage to communicate and form a bond that could save both their lives. And Langdon comes up with a plan so clever even the FBI can’t shout her down.
A Vampire’s Saving Embrace
Romance > Paranormal > Vampires
Author: Darlene Kuncytes, Linda Boulanger
Abigail Montgomery was happy with her life. She was independent, strong, and had managed on her own for a very long time. That was, until the dark, handsome Desmond LaGrange showed up at the bar where she worked. How could she know that this mysterious man would end up saving her from the evil that she didn’t even know existed? And why was she so drawn to him? Why did he make her body heat with just a simple look?
Desmond LaGrange was fighting a past he was trying hard to forget. But when he sees the beautiful Abby working behind the bar – something deep inside compels him to get closer. The only question is why?
Get On The Shelf: How to get your Invention Selling & Making Money
Small Business & Entrepreneurship > New Business Enterprises
Author: Mark Christopher
Relying on his market savvy and years of experience, Christopher identifies the steps necessary to bring a good idea to market. This information is crucial to new inventors, because the failure rate for the uninitiated is huge. To quote one of the largest invention advisers and inventor helpers’ websites:
“From 2008-2010, we signed Submission Agreements with 4,756 clients. As a result of our services, 106 clients have received license agreements for their products, and 30 clients have received more money than they paid us for these services.”
The average fee for those services was $21,500 per inventor. So that means that in three years only 30 people out of 4,756 made more than $21,500 with their inventions. But the invention advisers did well in spite of that, because their model, as is true of most “inventor helpers,” is to make money off the inventors and not the inventions.
You don’t have to fall victim to this type of “help.”
Sliding Beneath the Surface
Teen & Young Adult > Paranormal & Urban
Author: Doug Dillon
- $3.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
A new resident of America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida, fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden suddenly finds himself up to his eyeballs in frightening paranormal experiences. At the end of his rope in trying to figure out what is happening to him, Jeff decides to rely on his friend Carla Rodriguez, and Lobo, an old Native American shaman, for help.
Despite this guidance, things get even worse. Jeff’s spine tingling encounters increase in number and intensity at an alarming rate, scaring him even more. Eventually, he makes the startling discovery that unresolved circumstances involving a bloody event directly out of Florida’s distant past threatens his sanity and possibly his life.
Finally, overwhelmed by forces he cannot understand or control, Jeff’s world shifts from frightening to downright terrifying. In desperation, and on Lobo’s advice, he leaps headlong into the unknown in order to save himself. What Jeff discovers though is that he has entered a level of reality he is completely unprepared to handle while unwittingly dragging Carla with him.
Ladies and Gentlemen…The Redeemers
Teen & Young Adult > Contemporary Fiction
Author: Michael Scott Miller
- $0.99 List Price
- See Kindle Price at Amazon.com
The story of Bert Ingram, once a successful rep in the music industry, who has lost his way. Desperate for redemption, the perpetual dreamer decides to put together a band, recruiting musicians who have only one thing in common: the need to overcome a significant obstacle in their lives. The volatile mix of the musicians’ personalities and backgrounds threatens to derail the band at every opportunity, but in time, the Redeemers begin to realize they have more to gain from one another than they ever could have imagined.
Ripper, My Love
Historical Romance > Victorian
Author: Glynis Smy
Growing up in late nineteenth century East London, Kitty Harper’s life is filled with danger and death – from her mother, her beloved neighbour and the working women of the streets.
With her ever-watchful father and living surrogate family though, Kitty feels protected from harm. In fact, she feels so safe that while Whitechapel cowers under the cloud of a fearsome murderer, she strikes out on her own, moving into new premises to accommodate her sewing business.
But danger is closer than she thinks. In truth, it has burrowed itself right into her heart in the form of a handsome yet troubled bachelor, threatening everything she holds dear. Will Kitty fall prey to lust – and death – herself, or can she find the strength inside to fight for her business, sanity and her future?
And who is the man terrifying the streets of East London?
Ghost
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author: Wayne Thomas Batson, Mary Lu Batson
John Spector, aka GHOST, isn’t your ordinary investigator.
He carries a shiny badge, a billfold ID, and a mysterious silver suitcase. His mission? Seek the forgotten ones, the abandoned ones, the ones no one else can or will help. Visit blunt force trauma upon the world’s blackest souls and deny the devil his day by any means necessary. And never stop. Never.
For more than a decade, the “Smiling Jack” killer has been posting photos of his victims on the Web, daring anyone to catch him, daring anyone to care. But when no missing person files match and no victims are ever found, the FBI closes the case.
Years later, a digital camera washes up on shore, and GHOST finds it. Each macabre photo becomes a clue that will lead GHOST and FBI Special Agent Deanna Rezvani on the trail of one of the most diabolical killers of this world…or beyond.
… See the rest of today’s Editor’s Picks here on page 2