FREE Book Alert: "THE SEVENTH TAKING: A Mountain Mystery" by BJ Bourg

Author BJ Bourg has announced that, in honor of Mother's Day and all mothers everywhere, he has made THE SEVENTH TAKING: A Mountain Mystery free for the week.

Amazon Synopsis:

"THE SEVENTH TAKING is the chilling tale of a young man’s journey through harsh mountain country in his search for the girl he loves, and the two friends who dare to brave the dangerous elements—both human and natural—to support a friend.

When Joy Vincent disappears in the Blue Summit Mountains of Tennessee while vacationing with her family, park rangers begin an intensive search for the Louisiana high school junior. Seven weeks later, the search is abandoned and authorities conclude that Joy voluntarily ran away because of a fight with her father.

Unwilling to believe it, Abraham Wilson makes the long drive to the mountains and sets off on a journey that will change his life--and the lives of his friends, Brett Lester and Charlie Rickman--forever. Will they discover the secret behind Joy's disappearance, or will they meet with the same fate?

(NOTE: Originally published on April 5, 2015 by Amber Quill Press, LLC)"

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FREE Book Alert--- After the First Death (The Classic Crime Library Book 1) by Lawrence Block

Author Lawrence Block is once again making several books free over the next five days as announced in his newsletter. Each book is free for 24 hours until midnight. His offering today is After the First Death (The Classic Crime Library Book 1). Amazon synopsis:

Alex Penn wakes up in a squalid Times Square hotel room. This is what he sees when he finally opens his eyes:

“The floor was a sea of blood. A body floated upon this ocean. A girl—black hair, staring blue eyes, bloodless lips. Naked. Dead. Her throat slashed deeply.

“It had to be a dream. It had to, had to be a dream. It was not a dream. It was not a dream at all.

“I’ve done it again, I thought. Sweet Jesus, I’ve done it again.”

Years before, Alex Penn woke up in similar circumstances, called the police, went to prison. A technicality freed him—and now there’s been another drunken blackout, another dead streetwalker.

But something nags at his memory, and he begins to suspect some other hand wielded the knife. And if he didn’t murder this woman, maybe he didn’t kill the other one, either.

So he runs, adrift in an urban jungle, hoping to steer clear of the police long enough to solve the crime.

AFTER THE FIRST DEATH is sure to appeal to fans of David Goodis and Cornell Woolrich. And, with its gritty New York setting and its undercurrent of alcoholism, it can be considered a precursor to Lawrence Block’s iconic Matthew Scudder series.

THE CLASSIC CRIME LIBRARY brings together Lawrence Block's early crime novels, reformatted and with new uniform cover art. This first volume in the series contains as a bonus the first chapter of DEADLY HONEYMOON.

Mystery Free Book Alert: "Live Free or Tri: A Collection of Three Short Mystery Stories" by Judy Penz Sheluk

Mystery author and occasional guest blogger Judy Penz Sheluk sends word that this short story collection is currently free in e-book form at Amazon right now. I picked up my copy.

Amazon Synopsis for Live Free or Tri: A Collection of Three Short Mystery Stories:

 A collection of three short mystery stories by Judy Penz Sheluk, author of the critically acclaimed debut mystery novel, THE HANGED MAN’S NOOSE: A GLASS DOLPHIN MYSTERY (Barking Rain Press, July 2015).

Death and Deception
Appearances are often deceiving and that is the underlying premise in this collection of short crime fiction:

In “Live Free or Die,” naive 21-year-old Emmy falls hard for 31-year-old Jack, an efficiency expert from New Hampshire who is not all that he seems.

In “Murder in the Marsh,” cyclist Carrie Anne Camack discovers more than she bargained for in the fertile farmlands of Ontario’s Holland Marsh.

In the final story, “The Cycopaths,” a triathlon team’s open-water swim training in Collingwood, Ontario, has deadly consequences.

Judy's short crime fiction has appeared in THE WHOLE SHE-BANG 2 (Toronto Sisters in Crime, Nov. 2014), WORLD ENOUGH AND CRIME (Carrick Publishing, Oct. 2014), and FLASH AND BANG: the first anthology by members of the Short Mystery Fiction Society (Untreed Reads, Nov. 2015). Her literary fiction has been published in THEMA, a New Orleans-based literary journal, on three occasions. LIVE FREE OR TRI is Judy's first independently published collection.

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