DEATH ON A DEADLINE—EVEN BEFORE SHE TAKES THE CASE SHE’S ALMOST OUT OF TIME…

“She is smart, tough, and tenacious... a wonderfully entertaining read.”—Publisher’s Weekly,
Unlicensed P.I. Casey Jones is back in prison – just visiting – but even the death row inmate she’s come to interview can see she’s one shade of green away from a full-blown panic attack.

Fifteen years ago, this hard-boiled babe walked out of a Florida prison after serving an eighteen-month sentence, sporting160 pounds of “nobody kicks my ass” and a couple of inches of dark roots at the base of her bleach job (“simply to confuse people into underestimating me”)--and swearing she’d never set foot in a prison again. But the family of the convicted woman just isn’t buying the story that she killed her cop husband,, and they’ve hired North Carolina’s mouthiest female sleuth to find enough new evidence to get her a new trial and save her from lethal injection—in a month.

No way to hit that deadline! And nobody wants her to take this case-– not Bobby D., her super-size fellow private investigator, not Bill Butler, the lean and long-lashed Raleigh PD detective whom she is studiously “not dating,” and not even the convicted woman who abandoned all hope long before she entered prison. But Bill told her – twice – not to take the case, and no man tells Casey what to do. She’s definitely taking it,—and the ride begins…

OUT OF TIME manages to tag all the bases: all the suspense of a taut thriller, leavened by Casey’s hilarious wisecracks, and just when you think she’s as brittle as her bleached locks, her humanity breaks through, revealing that no matter how loosely she follows the rules, she is deeply committed to seeing justice done. For all her resemblance to Archie Goodwin, Rex Stout’s wisecracking leg man, Casey’s her own woman: Casey Jones, karmic avenger.

The only lead the family can offer is a call from the presiding judge. He’s convinced that justice went awry somewhere along the line, and is planning to share his suspicions with Casey, but he’s unable to keep the appointment due to his own untimely demise. Now Casey’s sure something’s hinky. Fortunately, she has all the right connections to sniff out the information she needs. Working at top speed, she puts it all together and makes enough trouble to land her on the 6:00 news. That gets the cops’ attention.

Still, while the law is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, it’s finally up to Casey to bring the killer to justice in a dramatic capture that is at once as harrowing as it is hilarious. And, in a case bumped all the way to the Supreme Court, the ruling is finally rendered: Casey Jones’s ass is every bit as gorgeous as she has always claimed.

OUT OF TIME (and the rest of this fine series) will appeal to fans of all female sleuth mysteries—private eyes like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski, Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan, Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone, and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, as well as their tough and witty male antecedents. If you ever flipped over Philip Marlowe, Spenser, or of course, the immortal Wolfe and his buddy Archie, you’ll fall in love with their direct descendant, Casey Jones, Private Eye.

Evanovich herself said: “Casey Jones joins the ranks of smart and gutsy heroines. The South will never be the same. Don't miss her."—Janet Evanovich

Florida transplant Georgia Lee Maxwell doesn't take to Paris at first, despite the fact that she's at least leaving a no-good man and a hated job as a society editor. Now she's a Paris correspondent, thank you very much—a dream come true for any journalist.

There's just a slight down side—she arrives in freezing rain, gets caught in a traffic jam caused by a bomb scare, and hates her apartment; but the real Bonjour is finding herself face down on a museum floor during a robbery. "Killed for a boring story!" she thinks. But as it happens, she isn't the one who dies. Three terrifying masked gunmen shoot the unfortunate security guard.

They could have stolen all the treasures of Monte Cristo's cave, so to speak, but it turns out they've made off with only a mirror. True, it once belonged to the French seer Nostradamus, but it may be the museum's least valuable item.

Does it have some prophetic ability? Does someone know something the gendarmes don't? Here's what Georgia Lee knows: If she finds out first, she's a journalistic hero. If she doesn't, she's dead.

Michaela Thompson's ability to bring alive a locale shines here, and when the locale is Paris, what's not to like? The writing is crisp, the protagonist witty, and the mystery is twisty. A great choice for armchair travelers! Also for fans of Cara Black, Michael Bond, and of course, the great Georges Simenon. Admirers of Hank Phillippi Ryan and the HBO show, THE NEWSROOM, will love the journalistic background.

Excerpt:
The first hint of anything extraordinary was a loud clattering on the staircase we had just descended. A moment later, three people burst violently into the room.

One of them, stumbling as if he’d been pushed, was the blue-uniformed guard I’d seen upstairs. The other two wore jeans, burgundy-colored ski masks, brown leather bomber jackets, and gloves. Both of them held stubby black guns. They looked around at us. One of them spat out some sort of order in French.

It was the most ungodly nightmare. Here were these killers, or terrorists, or who knew what, telling us to do something, and they were telling us in French. At that moment, I couldn’t have understood Bonjour. But the others— the guard, Mallet, Overton— were getting on the floor and lying face down, so I did the same. In a second, one of the intruders grabbed my wrists and taped them together, tight. I heard them shuffling around taping the others.

I lay with my nose pressed against the cold linoleum, wishing to God I’d never left Florida. Any indignity I’d had to put up with at the Sun was nothing compared to this. I was going to be killed, and all because of a story about art conservation that probably wouldn’t have worked out anyway. I thought about Mama and Daddy, and about Twinkie, who was just getting adjusted to Paris. I’m happy to say I didn’t give more than a passing thought to Ray Brown, the man I’d left in Bay City who wasn’t worth a damn.

All of this took just seconds. I heard a drawer opening and closing. The back of my head prickled. In everything I’d read about these situations, people got shot in the back of the head. The prickling became a numbness that crawled down my neck and along my spine.

Only a moment later, the shot came.

A yet heartbreakingly honest, endearing memoir of incredible weight loss by a young food blogger who battles body image issues and overcomes food addiction to find self-acceptance.
 
All her life, Andie Mitchell had eaten lustily and mindlessly. Food was her babysitter, her best friend, her confidant, and it provided a refuge from her fractured family. But when she stepped on the scale on her twentieth birthday and it registered a shocking 268 pounds, she knew she had to change the way she thought about food and herself; that her life was at stake.

It Was Me All Along takes Andie from working class Boston to the romantic streets of Rome, from morbidly obese to half her size, from seeking comfort in anything that came cream-filled and two-to-a-pack to finding balance in exquisite (but modest) bowls of handmade pasta. This story is about much more than a woman who loves food and abhors her body. It is about someone who made changes when her situation seemed too far gone and how she discovered balance in an off-kilter world. More than anything, though, it is the story of her finding beauty in acceptance and learning to love all parts of herself.

“A roaring good read.”—FORBES.com
 
Master sniper Bob Lee Swagger returns in this riveting novel by bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Hunter.
 
Ryan Philippe currently stars as Bob Lee Swagger on the hit USA Network series Shooter.

The Great Depression was marked by an epidemic of bank robberies and Tommy-gun-toting outlaws who became household names. Hunting them down was the new U.S. Division of Investigation—soon to become the FBI—which was determined to nab the most dangerous gangster this country has ever produced: Baby Face Nelson. To stop him, the Bureau recruited talented gunman Charles Swagger, World War I hero and sheriff of Polk County, Arkansas.

Eighty years later, Charles’s grandson Bob Lee Swagger uncovers a strongbox containing an array of memorabilia dating back to 1934—a federal lawman’s badge, a .45 automatic preserved in cosmoline, a mysterious gun part, and a cryptic diagram—all belonging to Charles Swagger. Bob becomes determined to find out what happened to his grandfather— and why his own father never spoke of Charles. But as he investigates, Bob learns that someone is following him—and shares his obsession.

Told in alternating timeframes, G-Man is a thrilling addition to Stephen Hunter’s bestselling Bob Lee Swagger series.

In the fourth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series featuring everyone's favorite wizard for hire, Harry Dresden is suckered into the tangled—and dangerous—affairs of Faerie...

Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out in Chicago. He can’t pay his rent. He’s alienating his friends. He can’t even recall the last time he took a shower. The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man.
 
And just when it seems things can’t get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can’t refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him—and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen’s right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen’s name.
 
It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case. No pressure or anything...

"With a dose of Southern charm and a bad boy you won't want to forget, A Cutthroat Business has enough wit and sexual chemistry to rival Janet Evanovich!" - New York Times bestselling author Tasha Alexander

"VERDICT: The hilarious dialog and the tension between Savannah and Rafe will delight fans of chick-lit mysteries and romantic suspense." - Jo Ann Vicarel, Library Journal


Savannah Martin has always been a good girl, doing what was expected and fully expecting life to fall into place in its turn. But when her perfect husband turns out to be a lying, cheating slimeball—and bad in bed to boot—Savannah kicks the jerk to the curb and embarks on life on her own terms. With a new apartment, a new career, and a brand new outlook on life, she’s all set to take the world by storm.

If only the world would stop throwing her curveballs...

Everyone has warned new-minted realtor Savannah Martin that real estate is a cutthroat business. But Savannah doesn’t think she’s supposed to take the warning literally ... until an early morning phone call sends her to an empty house on the ‘bad’ side of town, where she finds herself standing over the butchered body of a competitor, face to face with the boy her mother always warned her about.

Rafe Collier is six feet three inches of testosterone and trouble; tall, dark, and dangerous, with a murky past and no future—not the kind of guy a perfect Southern Belle should want to tangle with. In any way. But wherever Savannah turns, there he is, and making no bones about what he wants from her.

Now Savannah must figure out who killed real estate queen Brenda Puckett, make a success of her new career, and avoid getting killed—or kissed—by Rafe, all before the money in her savings account runs out and she has to go back to selling make-up at the mall.

"A frothy girl drink of houses, hunks and whodunit narrated in a breezy first person ... If you love an umbrella in your drink, grab A Cutthroat Business for a quick beach read." -Lyda Phillips, Nashville Scene

An epic LitRPG saga for fans of The Lord of The Rings, Grimgar, and Dungeons and Dragons.
#1 in Role Playing & Fantasy and Science Fiction & Fantasy Gaming

Will refused to admit to the HR lady at Radical Interactive that he’d never played their debut virtual reality MMORPG The Realm. From what he’d seen in videos and heard from reviewers, the game sucked. With the company’s failed attempt at entering the gaming industry, they switched their sights to focus on smaller scale educational programs.

Being a beta tester for Radical Interactive was not the dream job that Will had envisioned, but he had hoped it would get his foot in the door to one day becoming a graphic designer for the company. As he filled out his new hire paperwork, he never realized that he was literally signing his life away.

Now a phenomenally successful company, Radical Interactive was secretly working on something behind closed doors that would change both the medical and gaming industries forever. The Realm was reborn. The only problem was that it wasn’t a game—at least not to those trapped inside.

Dumped into a fantasy world filled with nightmarish monsters, awe-inspiring magic, and way more walking than Will thought he was physically capable of as a nerdy desk jockey, he has to navigate the perils of The Realm and unravel the mystery of how he came to be here and how to get out. Fantasy meets real-life consequences in a game that could mean the difference between life and death. But first, Will must get over being a noob…

They lost the war, but the peace is still within their grasp.

Five years have passed since the Hameji conquered James McCoy's homeworld, all but enslaving his people. Now, the occupation threatens to destroy them.

Deep in the heart of the Good Hope Nebula, there is a place where they can start over. But it will take a strong leader to get them there, and the temptation to trade freedom for security has never been greater. Even if they manage to escape from the Hameji, the greatest threat to their future may come from within.

James once gave everything to save the ones he loved. This time, his sacrifice could make him a legend.

This book is rated T! according to the AO3 content rating system.

Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the single best writer on the subject of race in the United States” (The New York Observer)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER | NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER | PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST | NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST | NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Praise for Between the World and Me

“Powerful . . . a searing meditation on what it means to be black in America today.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Eloquent . . . in the tradition of James Baldwin with echoes of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man . . . an autobiography of the black body in America.”—The Boston Globe

“Brilliant . . . [Coates] is firing on all cylinders.”—The Washington Post

“Urgent, lyrical, and devastating . . . a new classic of our time.”—Vogue

“A crucial book during this moment of generational awakening.”—The New Yorker

“Titanic and timely . . . essential reading.”—Entertainment Weekly

Everyone loves a steaming mug of hot cocoa! With this fantastic collection of 120 Hot Chocolate Recipes from home and around the globe, you're sure to find a recipe to warm you inside and out.

These aren't just your grandma's cocoa recipes. Everyone's favorite comfort beverage, hot chocolate, is as varied as the nations in which it's found. There are even some new twists to the traditional winter hot drink - you'll find frozen cocoa and alcohol-laced versions. Variations like:

HEAT UP YOUR NIGHTS! 10 steamy books from bestselling authors fill this limited-time winter boxed set! If you love alpha heroes and sexy romance, this one's for you...

"5 Stars! I went into this expecting brilliance... and that's exactly what I got. Compellingly authentic characters, addictive writing, smart, real dialogue, and a love story that got me in all my feels, this is new adult at its very, very best." - Samantha Young, New York Times bestselling author, on ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY

"Highly recommend! Shayla Black delivers once again with this passionate and sexy novel... A beautiful love story with a twist that you'll never see coming!" - Meredith Wild, #1 New York Times bestselling author, on MORE THAN WANT YOU

"Gritty, edgy, addictive and seductive, Tijan brings heart to a ruthless hero that loves as hard as he hurts." --Vi Keeland, New York Times Bestselling author, on CARTER REED

Author's Note: WINTER NIGHTS is a brand new boxed set for the season as a gift to our readers and to introduce you to new series to love!

TEN BOOKS INCLUDE:
Carter Reed by Tijan
Elements of Chemistry by Penny Reid
Wicked Grind by J. Kenner
Feeling Hot by Elle Kennedy
More Than Want You by Shayla Black
Survival of the Richest by Skye Warren
The Space Between by Kate Canterbary
Her Seductive Dare by Lena Hart
Black Edge by Charlotte Byrd
Bidding on Brooks by Katy Regnery

His best friend’s hot older sister.
Her younger brother’s annoying sidekick.
And one forbidden kiss in high school…

It was complicated back then. It’s even more so now.

Because former mean girl Sloane rolls back in town to find Rick stripping at a charity event like he was born with biceps.
And single dad Rick is her landlord.

And her brother will murder him if he has sex with her.

But sometimes you have to strip it all down to see what was there all along...

One night. One contract. One kiss, and Victor Newcomb will never be the same.

By age 24, Vic has accomplished more than most men achieve in a lifetime. Since childhood he's tried to be the perfect son, the perfect executive, the perfect heir—and as next in line for the throne of his father's multibillion dollar textile empire, he's made his life entirely about discipline and control.

But he doesn't know what discipline truly means—until he meets Amani Idrissi.

University student. Part-time masseuse. Cello virtuoso. The serene, reserved Moroccan American femme fascinates Vic with his cool allure, changing everything Vic thought he knew about power, about control, about his own sexuality. Yet when cello lessons turn into a business deal of an entirely different nature, Vic quickly realizes he'll pay anything for the chance to see Amani again. To submit to his touch.

To discover the complete and utter freedom in giving up control.

But the deeper Vic falls headlong into love, the more he realizes he doesn't know Amani at all. Secretive, withdrawn, Amani seems determined to keep their relationship strictly business. Even if Vic can see the quiet hurts, the old wounds hiding behind those dark, enticing eyes...

How far will he have to go, to win the love of his cocky cellist?

The SIXTH subtle and humorous adventure in the Tubby Dubonnet series.

WHEN THE D.A. HIMSELF SETS YOU UP, YOU KNOW YOU'RE GOING DOWN…
In Tony Dunbar’s books, New Orleans is The Big Sleazy squared. No one is safe, especially from their elected officials. Even if they are an elected official.

It's a city of sin. And murder is only one of them.
So what if Judge Hughes shared a few special moments with Sultana Patel—why is this a matter of public interest? “The stench from that courthouse fills the city,” roars D.A. Marcus Dementhe. “Those hypocritical men and women who wear the robes are filthy with deception.” And Dementhe has a zany plan to snare them.

Hughes, happily, has had the good sense to hire epicurean lawyer Tubby Dubonnet, whose laconic air is belied by his zeal to protect his clients. And what a web they’re ensnared in! But no matter how dire things get, Dunbar never loses his sense of humor:

"I think he's going to shoot us once we're out in the Gulf," Tubby whispered to the girl.
“His aura is green,” she agreed.

Half the fun of a Tubby Dubonnet book is watching his sly creator fit together a plethora of fascinating yet seemingly unrelated jigsaw pieces to form a picture you never saw coming. And the other half is hanging out with Tubby and his crew of eccentrics, sleazeballs, goofballs, and enticing, confusing babes in the Big Easy-to-Love.

WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of Tremé, softshell crab po’ boys, Domilise’s, the Upperline Restaurant…wait, let’s start over—ok, legal mysteries, particularly Parnell Hall’s Steve Winslow series and anything by Lia Matera, comic mysteries, Elmore Leonard, funny lawyer movies like My Cousin Vinny, TV shows like Ally McBeal and Night Court; and everyone’s favorite New Orleans yarn, Confederacy of Dunces.

STANDALONE novel in a brand new series by Heatherly Bell.

A second chance...

A scandal ended the careers of the Wilder Sisters, the chart topping country rock band. But Lexi Wilder is okay with that, thanks for asking. She's been on the road since roughly forever, and even if the scandal has followed her home to Whistle Cove, California, Lexi is going to enjoy the break. After all, there's quite nothing like the beautiful sandy beaches of Monterey Bay to calm a woman's soul.

Luke Wyatt never asked to trade fame and fortune for the only woman he's ever loved. Now that he's finished a punishing year-long national tour, all bets are off. He's coming back to his hometown of Whistle Cove for the quiet, the beaches, the inspiration, and the girl. Not necessarily in that order. There's pressure from Nashville to deliver more country gold like the #1 song he co-wrote with Lexi Wilder.

But Lexi can’t forgive Luke for choosing fame over her…

"Bell writes romance that will capture your heart." ~ Marina Adair, #1 National bestselling author of Summer in Napa

"Bell's romances are the perfect escape." ~ Jamie Farrell, national bestselling author of The Officers Ex-Wives Club

Romance fans will find all the usual meet-cutes and secluded moments that they know and love from the genre, mingled with an original emotional narrative on Scott's part. I would definitely recommend Unforgettable You to contemporary romance fans everywhere." ~ Readers' Favorite Book Reviews, 5 Stars on Unforgettable You

A bloody past haunts him. A devastating present calls him back…

Nao hides from his violent past in the Japanese mob by opening a teahouse in Japan's cultural center, Kyoto. His past comes flooding back when he discovers a gravely injured man with a tattooed chest, a bloody knife, and a Korean business card.

Saehyun would've died if not for Nao's help. He knows nothing of his savior's connection with the local mafia, but Saehyun has his own secrets. He commands the Korean mafia, the mortal enemy of Nao’s former syndicate.

As Nao and Saehyun grow closer, so does the strength of the Korean mob. A shocking murder pulls Nao back into a past he'd all but abandoned. War is looming, and Nao must choose between protecting Saehyun or avenging the honor of his old mafia family..

The Yakuza Path: Blood Stained Tea is the first book in a series of Japanese mafia thrillers. If you like complex characters, blood-soaked violence, and twists you won't see coming, then you'll love Amy Tasukada's gritty crime masterpiece.

Buy Blood Stained Tea to dive deep into the Asian mafia tale today!

"Stephen King's Stand by Me collides with Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects in this exceptional thriller. Gutsy, gripping—and pitch-perfect in its resurrection of an era long gone."—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

When her sister disappears, the only clue Leah has is a cryptic message: Underground. By the Woods.

It's 1989 in the sleepy town of Longview, Texas, when ten-year-old Lucy disappears. Her parents, the police, and the community all brace for the worst, assuming her body will soon be found in Big Woods. Just like the other unsolved kidnappings.

But then Lucy's fourteen-year-old sister, Leah, starts having dreams about Lucy—dreams that reveal startling clues as to what happened. Leah begins her own investigation, and soon she meets a reclusive widow who may hold the key to finding Lucy...if only she can find the courage to come forward.

Delving into the paranoia surrounding satanic cults in the 1980s, Big Woods is an emotionally wrought, propulsive thriller about the enormity of grief, the magical bond between sisters, and a small town's dark secrets.

Praise:

"Big Woods is perfectly timed to take advantage of the 1980s horror revival. Its historic details are excellent, down to the songs on Leah's car stereo. Cobb paints in Day-Glo and brings terrors of the night to life."—Foreword Magazine

"Readers will be grabbed by Big Woods and sucked into the mysterious story. Hold on tight—it's worth it."—Criminal Element

"Cobb's intense, heart-wrenching debut introduces a courageous, determined teen who must find her lost sister amid a disturbing atmosphere of paranoia and fear, crafting a compelling, suspenseful story reminiscent of William Kent Krueger's Ordinary Grace."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Big Woods is a nuanced family story and also a heart-stopping thriller with surprising twists. Cobb taps into the fabulous '80s sensibility of Stranger Things and also into our deepest fears about safety, evil, trust, and the power of faith in what we don't understand. I couldn't put it down."—Amanda Eyre Ward, author of The Nearness of You and The Same Sky

"Compulsively readable."—Rosamund Lupton, New York Times bestselling author of Sister

"Big Woods is brilliant! Cobb has crafted a haunting thriller that dives deep into grief, family connections, and the dreadful power of fear. The novel succeeds as a rich exploration of emotion and a not-so-distant time while also shining as a riveting page-turner."—Owen Egerton, author of Hollow and writer/director of horror-comedy Bloodfest

"Big Woods is such a blast—a page-turning thriller with '80s hair, like a Texan Stranger Things."—Amy Gentry, author of Good as Gone

"Literally the best thriller I've read in years. Intensely gripping, so evocative of the late '80s, and a brilliant, original storyline. It's blinding."—Clare Empson, author of Him

MOTIVE: POSSIBLE TERRORISM.
M.O.: ARSON.
TARGET: CHICAGO; ALL OF IT.
 

It’s already been a rough year for the Chicago Journal’s first-rate journalistic sleuth, Deuce Mora. After two agonizing investigations – one of which won her a Pulitzer Prize, the other of which forced her to kill a man – she claims she’s sworn off action-packed chases that cause nightmares. Still…from the moment she hears the earliest details of the first fire, her detective-instincts say the pieces don’t fit, and every other instinct tells the hard-hitting reporter she can’t walk away from the story – even though she knows she’ll regret it.

As a series of deadly fires destroys landmarks first, then occupied structures, the body count rises by scores and the city is gripped by terror at Christmastime, adding lost revenue to property damage in the hundreds of millions. Whole blocks of Chicago real estate are falling to an arsonist, but no one knows why and everyone suspects the worst – terrorism.

After the initial tip from the lead arson investigator (aka her boyfriend), Deuce is on her own to solve the mystery. Their relationship could endanger his reputation and his job if he’s even suspected of leaking information to her, so they’ve called a temporary halt. But she’s not exactly lacking for company – her old adversary, FBI agent Colter, has a tail on her, and Colter himself keeps popping out of the shadows. His presence at the crime scene and, even more revealingly, that of an NSA agent point to the suspicion of jihadist terrorism. But no terrorist group has claimed the mayhem.

Heller’s chilling, diabolical plot promises fans of hard-boiled mysteries a substantial feast to sink their teeth into and a knock-your-socks-off ending.

“Good reporters do not always good novelists make, but Jean Heller is both.” -- The Boston Sunday Globe

WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of Chicago private investigators VI Warshawski and Libby Fischer Hellman’s Georgia Davis, get-the-story-or-die reporters like Hank Philippi Ryan’s Jane Ryland and Kelly Lange’s Maxi Poole, hard-boiled female protagonists like Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone and Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan; and anyone who admires tough-minded women sleuths who’re good in a fight.

For Logan Dillon, it’s a beautiful day to get married. She stands with her bridesmaids in the dressing room of a large church that’s packed to the rafters with wedding guests. She’s only moments from walking down the aisle and giving her hand in marriage when there’s a knock at the door. Logan opens the door and there stands the groom—the man of her dreams, resplendent and handsome in his tuxedo—holding the hand of another woman. This woman is tall, gorgeous, perfect looking—and she wears a bridal gown. A few frantic and chaotic moments later, Logan’s fiancé is replacing her with this other woman—his new bride—and throwing Logan out of her own wedding. Crushed and devastated, not knowing what to do, Logan decides to take her best friend along with her and go on the honeymoon that she had planned for herself and her new husband-to-be. Two days later, walking alone in the evening on a tropical beach, she watches as a mysterious man comes swimming to shore. He stands from the surf—wet, glistening, shining golden in the light of a setting sun—and with one penetrating look into her eyes—he takes her breath away.

The next seven days of Logan’s life will be dark, sad, funny, exciting, and dangerous. They will be the most suspenseful that she, or any other jilted bride, has ever experienced. Indeed, she will almost lose her life, but in the end, her lonesome honeymoon will be as romantic and passionate as she’s ever dared to dream.

Read Sailor Stone’s new romance novel, The Passion Brokers, Honeymoon Beach, today.

Two bad ass bikers, one sassy bartender with a heart of gold and the mouth of a sailor, will their fight for a happily ever after end in a fight for their lives?

Olive:

When I took a job bartending at the Bucktail Saloon, the local dive owned by the Mountain Misfits MC, I ended up with a lot more than I bargained for.
These men are my family, this club is my world, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I have a place I can call home.
I would do anything to protect the patch and my reputation, even if it means I’ll spend the rest of my life single and alone.
Besides, if it came down to choosing between the men I loved the most, I don’t think I could.
Red and Tank, the enforcers for the MC, have been on my radar since the day I walked through that door.
There’s Mr. Right, Tank, dark, brooding, and a master motorcycle mechanic who really has his life together. He’s way too good for a girl like me.
Then there’s Red, aspiring MMA fighter with the random tattoos and abs for days to prove it, Mr. Right Up My Alley. I’m sure if we hooked up, it’d only be a matter of time before we ended up dead or in jail.
When Red approaches me with a proposition that I can’t turn down, one that almost seems too good to be true, it becomes apparent that sometimes the right choice is no choice at all. And sometimes a perfect, violent, quiet storm comes along and makes all the choices for you.


Bound By Steel is a steamy full length novel featuring a MFM romance. Can be enjoyed as a standalone, but if you’ve been following the Mountain Misfits MC, there’s lots of cameos from all your favorite characters! Warning: motorcycle club violence and language.