Kindle Genre Watch (23 Jun 09)

Genre fiction - as opposed to nonfiction, graphic novels and picture books - lends itself to enjoyable Kindle reading because when you pick up a book of fiction you don't necessarily expect it to be illustrated. Authors of mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, romance novels and westerns paint word pictures and their readers use their own imagination to picture the scene of the crime or the stare of a vampire or the track of an alien space craft hurtling towards earth.

Now you can spend less time searching for new genre fiction and more time reading it as I watch for newly-released genre fiction in the Kindle Storeso you don't have to. Recent genre fiction releases include:

MYSTERIES

Relentless by Dean Koontz. Bantam. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Bestselling novelist Cullen 'Cubby' Greenwich is a lucky man and he knows it. He makes a handsome living doing what he enjoys. His wife, Penny, a children’s book author and illustrator, is the love of his life. Together they have a brilliant six-year-old,... and a non-collie named Lassie, who’s all but part of the family... So Cubby knows he shouldn’t let one bad review of his otherwise triumphant new book get to him - even if it does appear in the nation’s premier newspaper and is penned by the much-feared, seldom-seen critic, Shearman Waxx...Ignore Shearman Waxx and his poison pen is just what Cubby intends to do. Until he happens to learn where the great man is taking his lunch. Cubby just wants to get a look at the mysterious recluse whose mere opinion can make or break a career - or a life. But Shearman Waxx isn’t what Cubby expects; and neither is the escalating terror that follows..." - Amazon.

The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner. Bantam. Kindle edition $9.99.
"It was a case guaranteed to spark a media feeding frenzy - a young mother, blond and pretty, disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as the prime suspect. But from the moment Detective Sergeant D. D. Warren arrives at the Joneses’ snug little bungalow, she senses something off about the picture of wholesome normality the couple worked so hard to create... " - Amazon.

Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novelby Jeffery Deaver. Simon & Schuster. Kindle edition $9.99.
"The Monterey Peninsula is rocked when a killer begins to leave roadside crosses beside local highways - not in memoriam, but as announcements of his intention to kill. And to kill in particularly horrific and efficient ways: using the personal details about the victims that they've carelessly posted in blogs and on social networking websites. The case lands on the desk of Kathryn Dance, the California Bureau of Investigation's foremost kinesics - body language-expert. She and Deputy Michael O'Neil follow the leads to Travis Brigham, a troubled teenager whose role in a fatal car accident has inspired vicious attacks against him on a popular blog, The Chilton Report. As the investigation progresses, Travis vanishes...In signature Jeffery Deaver style, Roadside Crosses is filled with dozens of plot twists, cliff-hangers and heartrending personal subplots. It is also a searing look at the accountability of blogging and life in the online world. - Amazon.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Deceptionby Robert Ludlum and Eric Van Lustbader. Grand Central Publishing. Kindle edition $9.99.
"After Bourne is ambushed and nearly killed while in Indonesia, he fakes his death to take on a new identity and mission - to find out who is trying to assassinate him. In the process, Bourne begins to question who he really is and what he would become if he no longer carried the Bourne identity. Across the globe, an American passenger airliner is shot down over Egypt - apparently by an Iranian missile - leaving the world wondering if it was an accident or an act of aggression. A massive global team lead by Soraya Moore is assembled to investigate the attack before the situation escalates..." - Amazon.

FANTASY

Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four-Hour Book Storeby Robin Sloan. Robinsloan.com. Kindle edition $0.80. Short story.
"This is a modern fairy tale. It's a story about finding a job, having a weird boss, and meeting someone you like. But behind it all, there's a mystery: What is the secret of Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store? This is also a story about books, writing, and technology. So, if you're someone who's interested in the Kindle itself - if you're interested in what it suggests about the future - then you'll probably find something to enjoy here." - Amazon.

Santa Oliviaby Jacqueline Carey. Grand Central Publishing. Kindle edition $9.99.
"After her mother dies, Loup goes to live among the misfit orphans at the parish church, where they seethe from the injustices visited upon the locals by the soldiers. Eventually, the orphans find an outlet for their frustrations: They form a vigilante group to support Loup Garron who, costumed as their patron saint, Santa Olivia, uses her special abilities to avenge the town..." - Amazon.

ROMANCE

Finding Julietby Frank Sennett. Soft Touch Press. Kindle edition $0.99.
"Dearest Juliet, Rather than kill myself, I have decided to pour my grief into a letter this night. Would only that you had done the same upon finding your lover dead with lips still warm and touched with poison." ...Lia Cattaneo never thought she’d be living back home in Verona, Italy, at 28. But here she is, hiding from the world and her philandering husband in her father Salvatore’s apartment for yet another day as she works up the courage to take an intensive cooking class she’s had her eye on...Nick Moore, a literature grad student at Southern Oregon University, home of the well-regarded Ashland Shakespeare Festival, meanwhile has written the above letter as a seminar assignment. Every year, the professor sends the best letter to Juliet’s Club in Verona, where volunteer scribes reply to letters addressed to Shakespeare’s Juliet. Nick has recently ended a long-term relationship, and he drew on this pain to craft his note. Soon, Nick receives a reply so moving that it inspires him to meet the real woman behind it during Verona's annual Juliet festival, setting in motion a series of events that leads to a dramatic, romantic and suitably Shakespearean climax on the festival’s closing day... - Amazon.

Hidden Currentsby Christine Feehan. Jove. Kindle edition $6.39.
"Kidnapped by Stavros Gratsos, a powerful and sadistic psychic businessman, Elle Drake, the fiery-tempered telepathic youngest of the magically gifted Drake sisters, is rescued by her family and the man she loves, Jackson Deveau, but returns home a shattered shell. Jackson gradually draws her out of her mental hell, but Stavros wants Elle back, and he threatens to destroy everyone she loves to make it happen." - Kristin Ramsdell for Library Journal.

Matters of the Heart by Danielle Steel. Delacorte Press. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Hope Dunne is one of the best photographers in the world, so naturally National Book Award winner Finn O’Neill wants her to do the portrait for his next book cover. Hope goes to London, expecting a photo shoot that lasts a couple of days, tops, but soon succumbs to Finn’s devilish good looks and endless charm. The trip to love is short, and Finn soon talks Hope into staying at his Irish family’s ancestral home. But Ireland isn’t the paradise Hope imagined. Discovering that Finn has told her one untruth after another, Hope has to accept that he is a sociopathic liar..." - Shelley Mosley for Booklist.

The Angelby Carla Neggers. Mira. Kindle edition $5.76.
"...When Keira Sullivan, a young Boston illustrator and folklorist, decides to travel to Ireland to research a Celtic legend about three brothers battling for a stone angel, she pays no heed to warnings not to go from eccentric antiques collector Victor Sarakis, even after Victor drowns under suspicious circumstances in the Public Garden pond. At a Beacon Hill benefit, Keira fortuitously meets FBI agent and search-and-rescue expert Simon Cahill, who later volunteers to locate Keira after she goes missing in southwest Ireland. When Simon rescues the trapped Keira from an ancient ruin, the stone angel she claims to have found disappears and mysteriously reappears in the United States. Is it magic or the work of a madman? Either way, fans of romantic suspense will be charmed." - Publishers Weekly.

Rogue of My Own by Johanna Lindsey. Pocket Ebooks. Kindle edition $14.29.
"How does an innocent lady find herself forced to wed a royal spy who seduced her - by mistake? For Lady Rebecca Marshall, a whirlwind of passion and excitement begins when, to her mother's great delight, she becomes a maid of honor at the court of Queen Victoria. Rebecca's mother sees this appointment as a golden opportunity for Rebecca to make a good match. At court, Rebecca innocently steps into the rivalry between the queen's spymaster and the noblewoman in charge of the maids of honor who is using the maids to spy on powerful courtiers. Soon Rebecca is entangled in a web of deceit with the charming marquis Rupert St. John...What she doesn't know is that Rupert is a secret agent of the crown who leads a double life. " - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: The Devil Who Tamed Her- an earlier historical romance by Lindsey.

SCIENCE FICTION

Hazeby L. E. Modesitt, Jr. Tor. Kindle edition $9.99.
"What lies beneath the millions of orbiting nanotech satellites that shroud the world called Haze? Major Keir Roget’s mission is to make planetfall in secret, find out, and report back to his superiors in the Federation, the Chinese-dominated government that rules Earth and the colonized planets. For all his effectiveness as a security agent, Roget is troubled by memories of an earlier mission. When he was assigned to covert duty in the Noram backcountry town of St. George, he not only discovered that the long-standing Saint culture was neither as backward nor as harmless as his superiors believed, but he barely emerged with his life and sanity whole. Now, scouting Haze, he finds a culture seemingly familiar, yet frighteningly alien..." - Amazon.

The Works of Andre Alice Norton. Douglas Editions. Kindle edition $0.80.
13 works of A. A. Norton in one collection. Includes All Cats Are Gray, The Defiant Agents, The Gifts of Asti, Key Out of Time, Plague Ship, Ralestone Luck, Rebel Spurs, Ride Proud, Rebel!, Star Born, Star Hunter, Storm Over Warlock, The Time Traders and Voodoo Planet. Please note that all these books are also available individually for free download from Manybooks.net.

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi. Omen by Christie Golden. LucasBooks. Kindle edition $14.85.
"...Han and Leia are at home on Coruscant, as more Jedi go crazy, government pressure on the Jedi increases, and the media swarm the Temple. Ben and Luke continue their quest to uncover Jacen’s secrets as each of the crazed Jedi was in contact with him and is exhibiting powers previously only displayed by Jacen. They travel deep into the Rift to encounter a mysterious group of beings with a strange relationship with the Force, using it to power their ships and see the future. A new complication is introduced with a secret lost planet full of Sith...and Jacen’s trail appears to be leading Luke and Ben into their midst... - Jessica Moyer for Booklist.
$9.99 or less alternative: The first book in this series - Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi. Outcast by Aaron Allston. Text-to-speech is disabled for this book.

Star Trek: The Original Series. Troublesome Minds by Dave Galanter. PKT HC JV eBooks. Kindle edition $7.99.
"While exploring the unmapped frontier, the Starship Enterprise responds to a distress call from an unknown ship. Captain James T. Kirk turns first contact into a threat of interstellar war - by saving the life of a man left to die by his own people. Berlis, colony leader of a telepathic race calling themselves the Isitri, claims not to know why those from his homeworld want him dead. Kirk wants to believe him, but it matters little since the damage is already done: the Enterprise can neither leave the stranger to die nor turn him over to those who would kill him without trial..." - Amazon.


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WESTERNS

The Log of a Cowboy A Narrative of the Old Trail Daysby Andy Adams. Kindle edition $0.99. Also available for free download from Manybooks.net.
"The most significant fictional treatment of the cattle drive alongside Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove." - Richard W. Etulain, in his introduction.

Smoke from This Altarby Louis L'Amour. Bantam. Kindle edition $9.99. Not a western, but I thought that Louis L'Amour fans might like to know it is now available for the Kindle.
"...a book that has become legendary among Louis L'Amour readers - the very first book he ever published. It appeared, to great critical praise, for sale only in Oklahoma bookstores more than fifty years ago. Since then it has become the most sought-after L'Amour title of all, with the few circulating copies from the small print run commanding top dollar from rare book collectors...the poems in this book are inspired by his experiences and memories of his journeys across oceans and continents. It is vintage L'Amour storytelling - in verse - about nature, the land, and the people who loved and braved it." - from the publisher.

The Man With The Iron Badgeby J. R. Roberts. (The Gunsmith, 331). Jove. Kindle edition $4.79.
"Young Sheriff Dan Starkweather sure hates his outlaw father - but he sure can shoot. Clint Adams is impressed and agrees to help track the senior Starkweather’s ruthless gang." - penguingroup.com.