Consignment Shop Mysteries from Duffy Brown

There's always something to gossip about in Savannah, Georgia, and Reagan Summerside always seems to be in the middle of it. She's busy enough running her consignment shop, the Prissy Fox, with her vivacious auntie, KiKi, but now the gossip--and the sales--are about to pick up, after a gruesome discovery...

Reagan's messy divorce has left her with nothing but a run-down Victorian and a bunch of designer clothes. Strapped for cash, Reagan makes use of the two things she has left, turning the first floor of her home into a consignment shop and filling it with the remnants of her rich-wife wardrobe.

Thanks to his cunning lawyer, Walker Boone, her ex got everything else, including the Lexus--not to mention a young blonde cupcake. When Reagan finds the blonde dead in the Lexus, she's determined to beat Boone to finding the murderer. As it turns out, the gossip fiends flooding Reagan's shop can give her a lot more than just their unwanted clothes--they have information more precious than a vintage Louis Vuitton...

It’s August in Savannah, Georgia—hardly the season for a traditional Southern wedding with hoopskirts and crinolines. One could die from the heat—or from a cake knife in the back...

Reagan Summerside should be devoting all her energy to her consignment shop the Prissy Fox. But when her dear friend Chantilly Parker is arrested for murder, Reagan vows to clear her name. The victim is Simon Ambrose, who’s found lying in his own wedding cake with a knife in his back.

Chantilly has motive (Simon broke her heart to marry wealthy Waynetta Waverly) and opportunity (crashing the wedding in her UPS delivery truck). And she has cake on her face, and the stolen bridesmaid dress the killer wore is in her truck. But Chantilly would never wear crinoline to kill a man!

With the help of her flamboyant auntie, KiKi, and vexing but attractive attorney Walker Boone, Reagan is determined to save her friend—before she’s forced to turn in her brown uniform for an orange jumpsuit…

It’s election time in Savannah, Georgia, and Judge Guillotine Gloria—aka Reagan Summerside’s mom—is neck and neck in the polls with Kip "Scummy” Seymour. But the already dirty campaign is about to get downright filthy—with one candidate getting buried six feet under….

With her strong opinions and knack for getting into trouble, Reagan is not an ideal volunteer for her mother’s alderman campaign. Plus, she’d rather be running her consignment shop, the Prissy Fox, and eating doughnuts with her dog, Bruce Willis. But when her mother’s opponent, Kip, is found poisoned and her mother is pegged as a suspect, Reagan nominates herself as lead murder investigator.

Reagan is intent on finding Kip’s killer and clearing her mother’s good name, but she soon finds herself on the bad side of Kip’s enemies-turned-suspects. This time, no amount of costumes and makeup can keep her inconspicuous and out of danger. Because the closer Reagan gets to the truth, the hotter things get….

For more information on these and other books by Duffy Brown visit Goodreads or the author's website at www.duffybrown.com

Kindle Bargain: Waterkill by Mark Donovan

With the mysterious outbreak of a deadly disease in a Yemeni village, followed by an increase in terrorist chatter after the crash of a small airplane in eastern Alaska, CEO Dr. Dave Henson and colleague Ron Blackwell of NSurv Inc. are tapped by the Department of Homeland Security to locate the aircraft wreckage and its suspected deadly contents.

While Henson and Blackwell are in the eastern mountains of Alaska helping the U.S. Border Patrol locate the missing aircraft and its contents, Dave’s wife, internationally known journalist Dana Cogswell, goes missing while covering another sudden and suspicious epidemic in a small town in Germany.

Dave races from Alaska to Germany to rescue Dana and ends up on a quest to the Middle East to find her. Along the way he learns of a shocking betrayal of friendship and that the path to Dana ultimately leads to the terrorist leader behind the deadly outbreaks.

File Size: 1736 KB
Print Length: 303 pages
Publication Date: November 17, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B017Q9593K

Purchase here for only 99 cents!

Free for Kindle: Noble Intentions Season One by L. T. Ryan

Jack Noble. Assassin for hire. Spy. Thief. He makes no mistakes. Passes no judgement. Feels no remorse. So why does he stop to help a lost child moments before he's supposed to complete a deal with one of the east coast's top crime bosses?

A simple decision that places Jack in unfamiliar territory. He's become the hunted and finds himself in a race against time to save those closest to him.

Noble Intentions: Season One is a fast-paced, suspense thriller full of underworld crime and government secrets from USA Today bestselling author L.T. Ryan. Fans of Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne, and Mitch Rapp will likely enjoy this series.


Season One is a compilation of Episodes 1 through 5.

File Size: 1027 KB
Print Length: 531 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publication Date: January 15, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B0092ETUTC


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Upcoming Release: Journey to Death by Leigh Russell

Lucy Hall arrives in the Seychelles determined to leave her worries behind. The tropical paradise looks sun-soaked and picture-perfect—but as Lucy soon discovers, appearances can be very deceptive. A deadly secret lurks in the island’s history, buried deep but not forgotten. And it is about to come to light.

As black clouds begin to gather over what promised to be a relaxing family break, Lucy realises that her father stands in the eye of the coming storm. A shadow from his past is threatening to destroy all that he holds dear—including the lives of his loved ones.

A dark truth is about to explode into their lives, and that truth is going to hit them right between the eyes.

Series: A Lucy Hall Mystery (Book 1)

Paperback: 322 pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (February 9, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1503951928
ISBN-13: 978-1503951921


Pre-order:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Upcoming Release: Baggage by S.G. Redling

Over the years, terrible things keep happening to Anna Ray on February 17. First, there was the childhood trauma she’s never been able to speak about. Then, to her horror, her husband killed himself on that date.

A year later and a thousand miles away, Anna tries to find solace in the fresh start of a new job in a new place. She takes comfort in her outspoken cousin Jeannie, the confidant and best friend who’s there whenever she needs help. On the eve of the dreaded anniversary, Anna and Jeannie hit the town, planning to ease the pain with an alcohol-induced stupor and then sleep…

But when Anna awakes on the darkest day of her year, she has no idea that fate is about to intervene in the form of a pair of gruesome murders with eerie similarities to her violent past. This time, however, she won’t be an abandoned daughter or a grieving widow. This time, she’ll be a suspect.


Hardcover
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (February 9, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1503952207
ISBN-13: 978-1503952201

Pre-order:

Amazon
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Indiebound.org

Book Spotlight: The Last Dinner Party by Carly M. Duncan

I was supposed to review this book today, but I had to reschedule to February 19. Love what I have read so far!

When Jeanie D'Alisa is found murdered in her bedroom after hosting a dinner party in her home, detectives Anna Cole and Kristy Hicks are called to investigate the crime. Known within her community for her generous, yet unpredictable nature, Jeanie's secrets unfold as family, friends and neighbors become suspects. Anna and Kristy discover stamped passport pages revealing travels unknown and a curious relationship between Jeanie and the charming salesman who frequents the apartment building. Meryl, Jeanie's devoted and needy friend, further complicates the investigation when she phones Jeanie's sister who is studying abroad and lies to her about the cause of death. Through a muddied pool of misdirection and betrayal, will Anna and Kristy be able to assemble the clues in order to bring Jeanie's killer to justice? The path to solving the mystery becomes tangled with faces of loved ones who are revealed to be foes in this story about the lengths people will go to in order to save themselves.

Book Excerpt:

She opened her eyes only once she heard the apartment’s front door close. She couldn’t even bring herself to turn over in the bed despite her discomfort, for she didn’t want a single mattress coil’s shift to alert him to the fact that she was awake. She waited a moment, lying in her bed, pausing in case he had forgotten anything, but the sound of footsteps faded into the distance.

Meryl Brunetti had been awake for twenty minutes, but she wasn’t prepared to begin the day. Not until he was gone. She didn’t want to see him, she didn’t want to talk, and she certainly wasn’t prepared to deal with anything they’d discussed the night before. She needed more time, and she needed to figure out how she felt.

Instead of waking up at seven o’clock to make him breakfast as usual, to start his day on a pleasant note, and see him out the door, she slept. Or, rather, she pretended to sleep. She’d been unable to sleep the night before. Her mind twirled with anger, despair, and uncertainty.

When she heard the sound of the shower signally the beginning of his day this morning, she felt drowsiness weigh on her eyelids, as though his impending exit might cause her relief. She felt her mind quiet, and forced herself to keep her eyes shut. She wouldn’t rise and she wouldn’t make a sound. She couldn’t bear to see his face. Not after last night. She’d have to pretend later that she’d accidentally slept in.

Maybe she could blame oversleeping on the alcohol. She’d need some excuse, given the average schedule she kept, which rivaled military rising hours. She might be able to blame a hangover for her tardiness depending how closely anyone was counting her cocktails last night. As a rule, she vowed always to have a drink in hand at any social gathering both as an accessory (she could never figure out a comfortable, natural place for her hands), and an ordinary pause in conversation (she often took a sip when she couldn’t think of the next thing she wanted to say.) As a result, she appeared to always have a glass in hand, but she rarely drank with the same fury as some of her louder, and more entertaining friends.

After he left their home, when she heard the click of the lock in place behind him, she emerged from the bed and walked with purpose to the coffee maker. She brewed the first pot of coffee for the day. There would be at least one and perhaps two that followed, depending on her afternoon.

The morning light that flooded into the apartment seemed excessive this particular morning. On any other morning, Meryl would relish in the beautiful daylight that overtook her home, but today she had the beginning of a headache, perhaps from lack of sleep, and she pulled the living room curtains closed.

She wanted to spend a rare day in her pajamas without responsibility, but she couldn’t afford such a day. She never could. Every day, there were endless duties to address. There was the grocery shopping, preparing for her next book club meeting, picking up or dropping off the dry cleaning, meeting with other mothers on various committees, baking for fundraisers, and sometimes making multiple trips to the high school to drop off a meal or some piece of sports equipment that her son had forgotten.

Meryl loved to be busy. The constant buzz of her life made her feel like more than the housewife she was, but she sometimes secretly dreamed of a day off from cooking dinner, and wished she didn’t have to have the answers to every question her family members posed. They trusted her to know all, and she usually did, but the exhausting task of running more lives than her own was far too much for her to think about today. She wished she could sleep away her thoughts and responsibilities.

For More Information

• The Last Dinner Party is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

Carly M. Duncan is a television producer and writer. Working in television, she has prolifically created visual narratives for more than a decade for networks including TLC, Discovery Health, MTV, NatGeo, Travel Channel, FYI and more.

Her writing career officially began when one of her short stories, First Place, was published when she was a high school student in California. Her first two novels, Marcie and Behind You, are mysteries that touch on family bonds and the events that can strengthen or destroy them.

Her third novel, The Last Dinner Party, introduces a pair of female detectives who will return in future stories. In addition, she is a mentor and editor to other writers as well as an avid reader. Her favorite authors include Agatha Christie and Stephen King.

Carly lives in New York with her husband and two daughters.

For More Information

• Visit Carly M. Duncan’s website.
• Connect with Carly on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about Carly at Goodreads.

Free for Kindle: The Candidate's Daughter by Catherine Lea

The plan is simple: kidnap the daughter of Senate candidate Richard McClaine, take the money and run. Nobody gets hurt, the kid goes home alive.

Twenty-two-year-old car thief Kelsey Money thinks it’s the worst idea Matt and his drug-fueled brother have ever come up with. But Matt’s the planner. He’s the one Kelsey has always depended on.

Then she discovers she only knew half the plan. By the time she finds out the rest, she’s been framed for murder, and six-year-old Holly McClaine won’t be found alive.

Across town, Elizabeth McClaine has no idea what her daughter was wearing when she disappeared. When Holly was born with Down syndrome and a cleft palate, Elizabeth placed her only child in the care of a nanny while she fought postpartum depression.

But when Holly is kidnapped and Elizabeth discovers the detective leading the hunt has already failed one kidnapped child, Elizabeth knows she cannot fail hers.

Now both women have twenty-four hours to find Holly. Because in twenty-five, she’ll be dead.

File Size: 1831 KB
Print Length: 345 pages
Publisher: Brakelight Press; 1 edition (January 31, 2014)
Publication Date: January 31, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00D3DDNJQ

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Kindle Freebie: Stateline by Dave Stanton

Cancel the wedding–the groom is dead.

When a tycoon’s son is murdered the night before his wedding, the enraged and grief- stricken father offers private detective Dan Reno (that’s Reno, as in no problemo), a life-changing bounty to find the killer. Reno, nearly broke, figures he’s finally landed in the right place at the right time. It’s a nice thought, but when a band of crooked cops get involved, Reno finds himself not only earning every penny of his paycheck, but also fighting for his life.

Who committed the murder, and why? Which cops can he trust, if any? Haunted by his murdered father and a violent, hard drinking past, Reno wants no more blood on his hands. But a man’s got to make a living, and backing off is not in his DNA. Traversing the snowy alpine winter in the Sierras and the lonely deserts of Nevada, Reno must revert to his old ways to survive. Because the fat bounty won’t do him much good if he’s dead…

File Size: 749 KB
Print Length: 313 pages
Publisher: LaSalle Davis Books (January 4, 2014)
Publication Date: January 4, 2014
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00HOV4GEO

Purchase here!

10 Things You Need to Know About Virtual Book Tours By Dorothy Thompson, Founder of Pump Up Your Book

10 Things You Need to Know About Virtual Book Tours

By Dorothy Thompson, CEO & Founder of

 Pump Up Your Book

By now, most authors know what virtual book tours are or at least have heard of them.  They’re that wonderful marketing tool that should be a must have in every new book’s campaign.  With each new book I write, I’m making a game plan before the book is even published, and a virtual book tour is the first promotional venue on that list.

While most of us know what they are, there are still a few authors who might have heard of them but have no idea what they involve.  I give you my top 10 things you need to know about virtual book tours so you know what to expect.

1. Virtual book tours are the BEST way to get the MOST online exposure for your book. Not only are you presenting your book--and yourself--to thousands of people, all of your interviews, guest posts and reviews are archived, which means months down the road you’re still selling your book because of that one tour.
2. Virtual book tours ARE a lot of work. Not only are you searching for the perfect blogs to host you, you are acting as the middle man between you and the blogger unless you are using a paid service, such as Pump Up Your Book, who will do all that work for you.  Even if you do sign up with Pump Up Your Book, there is still work to do--filling out interviews and writing guest posts (unless you choose an all review tour).  Even though it requires a little bit of your time to fill out interviews and write guest posts, it’s well worth it.
3. You will learn more about your book than you ever did. I had an author tell me that through the interviews and guest posts she had to complete she learned so much about her book, which caught her off guard.  Now, when she is interviewed on radio shows and makes television appearances she is better prepared.
4. Virtual book tours will build up your author platform.  No matter if you’re a fiction author or a nonfiction author, virtual book tours will build up your author platform using your key search words.
5. Your reviews are guaranteed. Offline publicists, while they mean well, do it all wrong.  They query a book blogger, make arrangements to send the book, then that’s where it stops.  The review is not a guaranteed thing.  The reviewer can post the review anytime they see fit.  With virtual book tours, your review is guaranteed on a certain date unless the reviewer jumps ship, which rarely happens.  I had an author tell me she signed up with an offline publicist who sent out tons of books, but only one or two reviewers actually came through for them.  That was money lost for the author.  Books don’t come cheap these days, so scheduling a date the reviewer can agree upon guarantees that review will happen.
6. Many reviewers now take eBooks, which save you money. Thank goodness someone was smart enough to invent a device that automatically loads a book in a few seconds (no waiting to go to the book store anymore, my friend) and makes it fun to read.  When Amazon lowered their price of the Kindle, sales soared and book lovers started talking about getting one.  It opened up a wonderful way to get these books to the book reviewers quickly and less expensively.  Have you noticed how much books are and how much it takes to ship them?  Not saying all reviewers will take eBooks, but as time goes on, most will have an e-reader and might prefer an eBook.
7. More website hits, more blog hits, more Twitter hits and more Facebook Fan Page hits. All authors should have a website or blog and accounts at Twitter and Facebook.  No matter if you think they’re all a waste of time.  A virtual book tour will definitely give you more hits at all places--as long as your links are in your bio.
8. Going on a virtual book tour raises your Alexa rankings. What is Alexa?  Alexa measures how well you are doing in the search engines.  When you go on a virtual book tour, your website and blog links are included in every bio (or should be!) whether it be an interview or guest post.  Those are incoming links that Alexa uses to measure your ranking.  The more your website or blog link shows up on other sites, the more valuable your site is to them, and thus, your rankings soar.
9. You will learn how to sell your book through media exposure. Not all authors take advantage of their interviews and guest posts by gearing them toward their audience, thus luring them to their book and/or website/blog.  I’ve had many authors on tour. The ones who really take the time to make their interviews and guest posts effective selling tools are the ones who profit the most.  The key thing here is to make your audience curious.  One liners, in the case of interviews, may not cut it.  Of course, there are only so many ways you can answer “What’s your book about?” but take your time and get your audience’s curiosity piqued so that they make their way over to your website or your book’s buying link.
10. Virtual book tours teach you how to connect well with others. There is no better way to learn how to network.  All these wonderful book bloggers who agree to host you are your new friends in your extended network, and they will be there for you the next time you have a book to promote (unless they completely panned it of course).  You’ll also learn how to use the social networks effectively as you study how to get people over to your tour stops with persuasive wording.  Remember to talk to your audience, not at them.

There you have it.  Ten things you need to know about virtual book tours in a nutshell.  If you have a tour coordinator as opposed to setting one up yourself, she will walk you through it so that your tour will be a fun experience for all.  Your book will thank you for it.

Dorothy Thompson is CEO/Founder of Pump Up Your Book, an award-winning public relations company specializing in online book publicity.  You can visit her website at www.PumpUpYourBook.com or follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pumpupyourbook and Facebook at www.facebook.com/pumpupyourbook.

Kindle Bargain: Murder Freshly Baked by Vannetta Chapman

The Amish Artisan Village of Middlebury, Indiana, might be the last place you would ever expect to find a murderer. But Amber has been managing the Village for decades and there’s nothing she hasn’t seen. Or so she thought.

When poetic notes begin appearing around the bakery, warning that some of the pies have been poisoned, Amber is as confused as she is concerned. Who poisons pies? And more to the point, who leaves poems of warning after they’ve done it? When Amber decides to help the police track down the sweet-toothed saboteur, she enlists Hannah Troyer for another round of Amish-style detective work.

Can Amber and Hannah help the police before the Poison Poet strikes? Both women will need to draw on their faith to preserve the peaceful community they’ve built in Middlebury . . . and to protect the girls who work in the Amish Artisan Village.

File Size: 2328 KB
Print Length: 340 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
Publisher: Zondervan (June 9, 2015)
Publication Date: June 9, 2015
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishing
Language: English
ASIN: B00PFBNZQU


Purchase here for only $1.99!