From My TBR Pile: Due Date by Nancy Woods

I'm thinking I picked this up as a Kindle freebie one day. It is currently offered for $3.99.

Surrogate mother Shelby McDougall just fell for the biggest con of all—a scam that risks her life and the lives of her unborn twins.

Shelby McDougall, recent college graduate, is facing a mountain of student debt and carting a burden she'd like to exorcise. A Rolling Stone ad for a surrogate mother offers her a way to erase the loans and right her karmic place in the cosmos. Within a month, she's signed a contract with intended parents Jackson and Diane Entwistle, relocated to Santa Cruz, California, and started fertility treatments.

But Jackson and Diane have their own secret agenda, one that has nothing to do with diapers and lullabies. With her due date looming and the clues piling up, Shelby must save herself and her twins, and outwit those who wish her ill... She learns the real meaning of the word “family.”


File Size: 721 KB
Print Length: 458 pages
Publisher: Solstice Publishing (May 28, 2012)
Publication Date: May 28, 2012
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00876174M

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From My TBR Pile: Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner

Come into my parlor . . .

For Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too horrifying to be true—but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care.

Said the spider to the fly . . .

As a member of the Evidence Response Team, dead hookers aren’t exactly Kimberly’s specialty. The young agent is five months pregnant—she has other things to worry about than an alleged lunatic who uses spiders to do his dirty work. But Kimberly’s own mother and sister were victims of a serial killer. And now, without any bodies and with precious few clues, it’s all too clear that a serial killer has found the key to the perfect murder . . . or Kimberly is chasing a crime that never happened.

Kimberly’s caught in a web more lethal than any spider’s, and the more she fights for answers, the more tightly she’s trapped. What she doesn’t know is that she’s close—too close—to a psychopath who makes women’ s nightmares come alive, and if he has his twisted way, it won’t be long before it’ s time for Kimberly to . . .

SAY GOODBYE

First sentence:

"In the U.S., the dangerous spiders include the Widows and the Recluse spiders."
From Spiders and Their Kin, by Herbert W. and Lorna R. Levi, A Golden Guide From St. Martin's Press, 2002

He was moaning, a guttural sound in the back of his throat as his fingers tightened their grip in her hair.

Series: FBI Profiler (Book 6)
Mass Market Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (May 19, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553588095
ISBN-13: 978-0553588095

From My TBR Pile: The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

There's a serial killer on the loose, bent on working his way through the alphabet. And as a macabre calling card he leaves beside each victim's corpe the ABC Railway Guide open at the name of the town where the murder has taken place. Having begun with Andover, Bexhill and then Churston, there seems little chance of the murderer being caught - until he makes the crucial and vain mistake of challenging Hercule Poirot to frustrate his plans.

Series: Poirot (Book 13)
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins; Masterpiece Ed edition (June 4, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0007119291
ISBN-13: 978-0007119295

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Reading Now: When the Amish Needs an Alibi by Vannetta Chapman

Amish bishop Henry Lapp eagerly awaits the annual arrival of 20,000 sandhill cranes to the San Luis Valley of Colorado. But his visit to the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge reveals more than just a miracle of God’s creation. Hidden among the bulrushes and cattails is the deceased body of a young woman.

As the local authorities attempt to unravel the mystery, Henry feels God’s calling to use his extraordinary talent to aid in the investigation. His ability to draw from memory in photographic detail could help solve this puzzling case.

Henry’s closest friend, Emma Fisher, has always urged him to embrace his gift. As their relationship deepens, Henry realizes his involvement could put him and those he loves in the direct path of a killer, one who is willing to do anything to cover up a brutal crime, including framing the bishop.

When the Bishop Needs an Alibi is a compelling story of faith, friendship, and finding courage only God can provide.

Release Date: September 2017
Page Count: 352
ISBN: 978-0-7369-6649-8

From My TBR Pile: Strong Light of Day by Jon Land

Texas ranger Caitlin Strong is involved in an international plot rooted in secrets from the Cold War in this seventh installment of the New York Times bestselling series

Afghanistan, 2003: During a mountain raid, a team of Navy SEALs discovers plans for a new and ingenious attack on the United States.

The Present: Fifth-generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong is summoned when thirty high school kids from a Houston prep school vanish during a field trip, including the son of her lover, Cort Wesley Masters. As if that wasn’t enough, Caitlin also has to deal with a crazed rancher whose entire herd of cattle has been picked clean to the bone.

The link between these two inexplicable events dates back to the contents of that Afghan cave raided by the SEALs, and a plot by forces within Russia to a win a war they never stopped fighting. At the center of that plot are billionaire Calum Dane and his multinational conglomerate, currently embroiled in controversy over a genetically engineered pesticide that has the potential to eradicate hunger across the world. Dane doesn’t know that this pesticide has spawned a new and deadly enemy capable of destroying the very fabric of American life.

Caitlin’s race to save the country weaves through the present and the past, confronting her with the most powerful and dangerous foes she’s ever faced. The Cold War hasn’t just heated up; it’s boiling over under the spill of a strong light only Caitlin can shut off before it’s too late.

First Sentence:

San Antonio, Texas; 1983

Jim Strong entered the Menger Bar via the street entrance, the Texas Ranger badge pinned to the lapel of his shirt struggling to glisten in the dull light.

Series: Caitlin Strong Novels (Book 7)
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (October 13, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765335123
ISBN-13: 978-0765335128

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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

From My TBR Pile: Lust, Money & Murder by Mike Wells

Born in the worst suburb in Pittsburgh, Elaine Brogan is bright, beautiful and bold. When her father is falsely arrested for passing counterfeit $100 bills, Elaine fights her way into the Secret Service, determined to punish the man responsible. Join Elaine on a dangerous, romantic journey that takes her halfway around the globe and into the hands of the most ruthless counterfeiter in the world.

First Sentence:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--1985

The day Elaine Brogan was born, Patrick Brogan's life underwent a dramatic change.


File Size: 289 KB
Print Length: 106 pages
Publisher: Mike Wells (January 18, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B005638LWK

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From My TBR Pile: What Comes Next by John Katzenbach

A retired university professor is diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease that will lead him to lose his memory and die within a few years. On his way home from the doctor’s office, he witnesses a pretty young girl being kidnapped right off the street. As the police drag their heels, he realizes that if he doesn’t act the girl may never be found alive.

Jennifer Riggins, the kidnapped girl, is being held prisoner by a perverted couple who run an exclusive Web site called “What Comes Next,” on which viewers can watch, in real time, the horrors inflicted on their victims. Given the moniker “Number Four,” Jennifer is at the mercy of the depraved pair, with thousands tuning in for every episode of her ongoing nightmare.

What Comes Next is a bold and timely thriller about what lurks within the depths of society’s most depraved minds, and how the only hope for a girl whose life is just beginning is a man whose life is nearing its end.

First sentence:

As soon as the door opened he knew he was dead.

Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Mysterious Press (June 11, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 080212125X
ISBN-13: 978-0802121257

From My TBR Pile: The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen

She may be thirty-fifth in line for the throne, but Lady Georgiana Rannoch cannot wait to ring in the New Year—before a Christmas killer wrings another neck…

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me—well, actually, my true love, Darcy O’Mara, is spending a feliz navidad tramping around South America. Meanwhile Mummy is holed up in a tiny village called Tiddleton-under-Lovey with that droll Noel Coward! And I’m snowed in at Castle Rannoch with my bumbling brother, Binky, and sourpuss sister-in-law, Fig.

So it’s a miracle when I contrive to land a position as hostess to a posh holiday party in Tiddleton. The village is like something out of A Christmas Carol! But no sooner have I arrived than a neighborhood nuisance, a fellow named Freddie, falls out of a tree dead. On my second day, another so-called accident results in a death – and there’s yet another on my third. Perhaps a recent prison break could have something to do with it…that, or a long-standing witch’s curse. But after Darcy shows up beneath the mistletoe, anything could be possible in this wicked wonderland.

Includes an English Christmas companion, full of holiday recipes, games, and more!

First sentence:

Castle Rannoch
Perthshire, Scotland
December 14, 1933

Weather: cold, dreary, bleak.
Atmosphere here: cold, dreary, bleak.
Outlook: cold, dreary, bleak. Not in a good mood today. I wonder why. Could it have something to do with the fact that Christmas is coming and it will be utterly bloody?

Ah, Christmas; chestnuts roasting; Yule logs crackling merrily; tables groaning under roast goose, turkey, mince pies and flaming plum puddings; carols and mistletoe; goodwill to all men.

Series: A Royal Spyness Mystery (Book 6)
Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Berkley; Reprint edition (November 5, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425252345
ISBN-13: 978-0425252345

From My TBR Pile: The Execution by Dick Wolf

NYPD Detective Jeremy Fisk—introduced in Law & Order creator Dick Wolf’s New York Times bestselling debut The Intercept—must stop an assassin in the pay of a shadowy cartel in The Execution, a tense thriller that superbly blends suspense, politics, intrigue and high-flying action in the tradition of Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, and Robert Crais.

Ten days after the Mexican presidential election, twenty-three bodies are discovered beheaded on the United States border, each marked with a carving of a Hummingbird. Detective Cecilia Garza of the Mexican intelligence agency recognizes it: it is the signature of an assassin called Chuparosa. Garza has been pursuing the killer for years, yet knows little about him, except that he’s heading to New York—with the rest of the world.

It’s United Nations Week in Manhattan and Jeremy Fisk can’t let grief over a devastating loss keep him from safeguarding his city. Complicating matters is the startling news of a mass murder in nearby Rockaway—and the arrival of a disturbingly beautiful and assertive Mexican cop.

To have a chance at finding Chuparosa, these uneasy allies must learn to work together and fast. As they soon discover, there’s more to this threat than meets the eye—and that justice is not always blind.

First sentence:


PROLOGUE

January 9
Upstate New York
Half a mile from the Canadian border,
somewhere west of Lake Champlain

The explosive noise of the guns had set off a chain reaction, sheets of wet snow dropping from the limbs of the pine trees surrounding Jeremy Fisk.


Series: Jeremy Fisk Novels (Book 2)
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition / First Printing edition (January 7, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062064851
ISBN-13: 978-0062064851

From My TBR Pile: The Intercept by Dick Wolf

Dick Wolf, the celebrated creator of the Law & Order television franchise, makes his literary debut with The Intercept, a taut, driving thriller reminiscent of the classic The Day of the Jackal.

Days before the July Fourth holiday and the dedication of One World Trade Center at Ground Zero, an incident aboard a commercial jet reminds everyone involved that vigilance saves lives.

But New York Police detective Jeremy Fisk—from the department’s Intelligence Division, a well-funded anti-terror unit modeled upon the CIA—suspects that the event is a warning sign that another, potentially more extraordinary scheme has been set in motion. So when a passenger from the same plane disappears into the crowds of Manhattan, it’s up to Fisk and his partner Krina Gersten to find him before the celebrations begin... And time is running out.

First sentence:

Bassam Shah has driven through a day and two nights from Denver, stopping only for gas, eating fried pies, drinking Red Bull, and urinating into a plastic milk jug between gas station fill-ups.



Series: Jeremy Fisk Novels (Book 1)
Mass Market Paperback: 433 pages
Publisher: Harper; 1st edition (May 28, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062068490
ISBN-13: 978-0062068491

From My TBR Pile: Pearls and Poison by Duffy Brown

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…

First sentence:

"People are going to hate me if I do this," I said to Auntie Kiki.

Series: A Consignment Shop Mystery (Book 3)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley (March 4, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425252485
ISBN-13: 978-0425252482

From My TBR Pile: Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell

GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL'S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts." Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.

First sentence:

London, 1854

Titian, Rubens, and Van Dyke, it is said, always practiced their art in full dress.

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Mulholland Books; First Edition edition (May 7, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316216798
ISBN-13: 978-0316216791