Literature & Fiction
Helminth (Bargain Read)
Rei would do anything for those she loves.
As her best friend, Abby, struggles to cope with the sudden loss of her husband, Rei and her closest girlfriends take her to a beautiful lakeside house nestled in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, hoping that a weekend of support from long-time friends will help Abby along her road of emotional recovery.
But as the young women get settled, Rei begins to notice there’s something wrong with the place. Could this peaceful, idyllic location be hiding an ancient evil below the waters of the lake? Or are the problems wholly within Abby herself, who seems to be losing her grip on reality? When unexplainable, nightmarish things occur, Rei realizes this weekend getaway may turn into their last outing.
Meet S. Alessandro Martinez
Back to Troy
She could lose her heart, mind, life—or all three.
Murders and disappearances. Spicy rumors and family secrets. A childhood crush turned ladies’ man.
This could not end well.
What really brought Emma Dill back to Troy? The need to remember—or to forget? The desire to solve a ruthless murder—or to move on? The hope for a blossoming new romance—or an old flame that just won’t die?
The murderer is a sociopath: a savage hiding in plain sight.
The victim is her mother: a former stripper, a hot-headed, cold-blooded enigma.
She is a twenty-two-year-old orphan: a spunky poodlehead, a spitfire in the guise of a songbird.
Her partner in crime is her old heartache: an irresistible freewheeler, a shameless tease…and a delicious, impertinent kiss.
Charged with fast-paced suspense and slow-burn romance, BACK TO TROY kicks off the series with two hundred pages of heat, adrenaline, and humor.
Buy your copy today and settle in for a ride. Welcome to Troy.
Meet Maki Matsui
Born and raised in Japan, Maki Matsui has been a lifelong reader and writer, first in Japanese and then in English. Besides being the author of two books—Back to Troy (2020) and Daisy Fields (2020)—she is also a classical singer. She makes her home in the hills of Western Massachusetts and is currently working on her third title.
The Good Know Nothing (Bargain Read)
“Kuhlken works real people and events into the story (evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and William Randolph Hearst, for example) and vividly anchors the reader in the story’s time and place. The social consciousness and the L.A. setting across decades make this series a fine choice for fans of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins novels.” ~ Booklist
During the summer of 1936, destitute farmers from the Dust Bowl swarm into California, and an old friend brings L.A. police detective Tom Hickey a book manuscript, a clue to the mystery of his father Charlie’s long-ago disappearance. Tom chooses to risk losing his job and family to follow the lead, though even his oldest friend and mentor, fellow detective Leo Weiss, passionately opposes Tom’s decision.
In his relentless effort to find out what happened to Charlie, Tom lures the novelist B. Traven to Catalina Island and accuses him of homicide. Traven’s tale is that the Sundance Kid, having escaped from his reputed death in Bolivia, killed Charlie.
Tom crosses the desert to Tucson, pursuing the legendary outlaw. En route, he meets a young Dust Bowl refugee intent on avenging the enslavement of his sister by an L.A. cop on temporary border duty in Yuma. Tom frees the sister, delivers the boy’s revenge, and becomes a fugitive, wanted for felony assault by the L.A.P.D., his now former employer.
What he learns in Tucson sends Tom up against newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst. He hopes to enlist Leo before confronting Hearst. But instead, Leo reveals the reason he has tried to keep Tom from investigating: evidence that Tom’s father was hardly the gentle fellow his children believed.
For Tom and his sister, both victims of Charlie’s wife, their crazy mother, the question is: what now?
Meet Ken Kuhlken
