Kindle Genre Watch (29 Sep 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:

FANTASY

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. Daw. Kindle edition $6.39. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Singer-songwriter McGuire adeptly infuses her debut with hardboiled sensibilities and a wide array of mythological influences, set against a moody San Francisco backdrop. October Toby Daye is half-human, half-faerie, a changeling PI with a foot in both worlds. After spending 14 years as a fish following a botched assignment, she's desperate to avoid magic, but the dying curse of a murdered elven lady forces her to investigate the killing, with the price of failure being Toby's own painful death. ...Well researched, sharply told, highly atmospheric and as brutal as any pulp detective tale, this promising start to a new urban fantasy series is sure to appeal to fans of Jim Butcher or Kim Harrison." - Publishers Weekly.

MYSTERIES/THRILLERS

Urge to Kill by John Lutz. Kensington Publishing. Kindle edition $0.00. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Homicide detective Frank Quinn can't stay retired when a new breed of murdering madman is on the prowl. In a city terrorized by bloody brutality, Quinn and his team hunt a psychopath who lures beautiful women into a night of unbridled passion, then wakes them to a vicious, drawn-out death. Stumbling over a trail of horribly defiled bodies, Quinn can't seem to catch up to the killer-because the killer is about to catch up to him." - Amazon.

The Spire by Richard North Patterson. Henry Holt. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Mark Darrow grew up in a small Ohio town with no real advantages beyond his intelligence and athletic ability. But thanks to the intervention of Lionel Farr - a professor at Caldwell, the local college - Darrow became an excellent student and, later, a superb trial lawyer. Now Farr asks his still-youthful protégé for a life-altering favor. An embezzlement scandal has threatened Caldwell's very existence - would Darrow consider becoming its new president? Darrow accepts, but returning to his alma mater opens old wounds. Sixteen years ago, on the night of his greatest triumph as Caldwell's star quarterback, he discovered the body of a black female student named Angela Hall at the base of the Spire, the bell tower that dominates the leafy campus. His best friend, Steve Tillman, was charged with Angela's murder and ultimately sent to prison for life. But now, even as Darrow begins the daunting task of leading Caldwell, he discovers that the case against his friend left crucial questions unanswered..." - fantasticfiction.co.uk.

Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods. Putnam. Kindle edition $13.22. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"After Special Agent Holly Barker lets international terrorist Teddy Fay slip through her fingers for a second time, the CIA thinks she might want a long vacation, at least until Teddy is captured and the bad publicity has blown over. So Holly returns to her hometown of Orchid Beach, Florida, where she had been police chief for many years. But a very unpleasant surprise awaits her. Many years earlier, Holly and another female army officer had brought charges against their commanding officer for sexual harassment, attempted rape, and rape. Holly had managed to fight him off, but the other woman, a young lieutenant, had not. The officer in question was acquitted of all charges, and has also left the army - for a job as Orchid Beach's new police chief." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: Santa Fe Rules - an earlier Woods mystery.

Hardball by Sara Paretsky. Putnam. Kindle edition $12.60. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Chicago's unique brand of ball is sixteen-inch slow pitch, played in leagues all over the city for more than a century. But in politics, in business, and in law enforcement, the game is hardball. When V. I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who's been missing for four decades, a search that she figured would be futile becomes lethal. Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history, as well as haunting family secrets - her own and those of the elderly sisters who hired her - rise up to brush her back from the plate with a vengeance. A young cousin whom she's never met arrives from Kansas City to work on a political campaign; a nun who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. dies without revealing crucial evidence; and on the city's South Side, people spit when she shows up. Afraid to learn that her adored father might have been a bent cop, V. I. still takes the investigation all the way to its frightening end." - Amazon.
$9.99 or less alternative: Sisters on the Case, an anthology of 25 short stories by a variety of women mystery writers including Paretsky.

ROMANCE

According to Jane by Marilyn Brant. Kensington. Kindle edition $0.00. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"It begins one day in sophomore English class, just as Ellie Barnett's teacher is assigning Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. From nowhere comes a quiet "tsk" of displeasure. The target: Sam Blaine, the cute bad boy who's teasing Ellie mercilessly, just as he has since kindergarten. Entirely unbidden, as Jane might say, the author's ghost has taken up residence in Ellie's mind, and seems determined to stay there. Jane's wise and witty advice guides Ellie through the hell of adolescence and beyond, serving as the voice she trusts, usually far more than her own. Years and boyfriends come and go - sometimes a little too quickly, sometimes not nearly fast enough. But Jane's counsel is constant, and on the subject of Sam, quite insistent. Stay away, Jane demands. He is your Mr. Wickham.

Tempt Me at Twlight by Lisa Kleypas. Minotaur Books. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Poppy Hathaway loves her unconventional family, though she longs for normalcy. Then fate leads to a meeting with Harry Rutledge, an enigmatic hotel owner and inventor with wealth, power, and a dangerous hidden life. When their flirtation compromises her own reputation, Poppy shocks everyone by accepting his proposal - only to find that her new husband offers his passion, but not his trust." - us.macmillan.com.

Silent Killer by Beverly Barton. Zebra. Kindle edition $4.47. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Eighteen months after her husband’s unsolved murder, Cathy Cantrell has returned to her Alabama home, eager to build a new life for herself and her son. But pieces of her past are everywhere - including Jackson Perdue, the town’s deputy sheriff. The spate of recent deaths - each victim burned in the same horrifying manner - leave Jack and Cathy in no doubt that a serial killer is at work, one whose rage grows more vicious each day..." - www.beverlybarton.com.

Lord of Pleasure by Delilah Marvelle. Zebra. Kindle edition $3.19. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"It's been months since Lady Charlotte Chartwell's philandering husband met his untimely end at the hands of an angry mistress. But as miserable as he made Charlotte in life, his death proves to be an even harsher blow. For not a farthing of his fortune or estate have passed on to her, and as a ruined widow, she is destitute, penniless, and utterly without hope. Then, as Charlotte is considering the worst, a man steps into her carriage. His intentions are quite indecent at first, but the more he learns about her, the more an unfamiliar - and undesirable - emotion creeps over him. Could it be compassion? Never! For this is Alexander Baxendale, third Earl of Hawksford. He is known throughout the ton as the Lord of Pleasure, dedicated to passion, ruthless in his pursuit of sensual gratification. Yet never in all his exploits has he met a woman who could intrigue him as Charlotte does." - www.kensingtonbooks.com.

Easily Amused by Karen McQuestion. Kindle edition $1.79. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Twenty-nine year-old Lola Watson has two best friends, a dream job editing a parenting magazine, and a charming old house inherited from a great-aunt she barely knew. Life would be perfect if only she could avoid her intrusive neighbors. And for that matter, she also wouldn't mind being happily married like her friend Piper, or even engaged like her younger sister Mindy. Lola's peaceful existence is shattered when high school buddy Hubert moves in with her after a break-up, her sister changes her wedding date to Lola's thirtieth birthday, and the nosy neighbors take Hubert under their wing. Life gets more complicated when Piper sets Lola up with a good-looking stranger who turns out to be the talk of her neighborhood - the mystery man from across the street."

Show No Fear by Marliss Melton. Forever. Kindle edition $5.59. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Lucy Donovan always gets her man. As a fiercely independent CIA agent, she's survived hundreds of death-defying missions. But her latest may just get her killed. Weighed down with a secret she's desperate to keep, the last thing Lucy needs is to be sent undercover with a man who brings out the best and the worst in her. Navy SEAL Gus Atwater never turns down an assignment, even if it means working with the only woman he's ever loved and lost. So with a volatile mix of desire and distrust, Lucy and Gus confront their tangled past. Pretending to be man and wife is risky enough, but now the clock is running out. As their mission escalates from desperate to deadly, will Lucy's secret expose them both?" - Amazon.

SCIENCE FICTION

EVE: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales. Tor. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"A clone with no name or past awakens to a cruel existence, hunted mercilessly for crimes he may never know; yet he stands close to the pinnacle of power in New Eden. A disgraced ambassador is confronted by a mysterious woman who knows everything about him, and of the sinister plot against his government; his actions will one day unleash the vengeful wrath of an entire civilization. And among the downtrodden masses of a corporation-owned world, a man named Tibus Heth is about to launch a revolution that will change the course of history. The confluence of these dark events will lead humanity towards a tragic destiny..." - www.orionbooks.co.uk.

Transition by Iain M. Banks. Orbit. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Disabled.
"...a hallucinatory thriller about what happened to Earth - and specifically, Europe - in the time 'between the fall of the Wall and the fall of the Towers.' In other words, during the feverish years between the demise of the Berlin Wall that marked the end of communism's hold over Europe and the demise of the Twin Towers in New York City that marked the beginning of the 'war on terror.' When a novel begins with such heavy-handed references, you worry that it's about to become cliched balderdash about How The World Is Changing. Luckily, that is not the case here. Though Transition is an intensely political novel, it is not about party politics or East vs. West or the end of the state...Instead, it is about a group of renegade dimension-hoppers who dare to take on a shady, multiverse-manipulating institution called variously the Concern or L'Expedience." - Annalee Newitz for io9.com.

Choice of the Cat by E. E. Knight. Book two of The Vampire Earth series that began with Way of the Wolf. Roc. Kindle edition $6.39. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"... alien overlords have conquered Earth and are hungrily harvesting human souls. Standing in their way are pockets of resistance that have vowed to fight back against impossible odds to reclaim the planet. Lieutenant David Valentine is a member of the Wolves, an elite regiment proficient in tracking down and killing the enemy Kur and their minions of vampiric Reapers and troll-like Grogs. But when a battle with the enemy goes horribly wrong and Valentine is unjustly threatened with a court-martial, he's forced to resign his position with the Wolves. Fate intervenes, and he is offered a position as a Cat, a select stealth warrior who usually works alone and is sent into the most dangerous situations. Together with the deadly (and beautiful) Smoke, a female Cat, Valentine is sent on a mission across the Great Plains Gulag to find out why enemy soldiers are wearing the symbol of the Twisted Cross. Fans of postapocalyptic fiction should thoroughly enjoy this captivating and highly original series..." - Paul Goat Allen

Minority Report by Philip K. Dick. Pantheon. Kindle edition $9.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. Movie Tie-In: Minority Report,directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell.
"In the world of The Minority Report, Commissioner John Anderton is the one to thank for the lack of crime. He is the originator of the Precrime System, which uses 'precogs' - people with the power to see into the future - to identify criminals before they can do any harm. Unfortunately for Anderton, his precogs perceive him as the next criminal. But Anderton knows he has never contemplated such a thing, and this knowledge proves the precogs are fallible. Now, whichever way he turns, Anderton is doomed - unless he can find the precogs's 'minority report' - the dissenting voice that represents his one hope of getting at the truth in time to save himself from his own system." - Amazon.

The Works of H. Beam Piper. Kindle edition $0.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
Includes 32 science fiction works by H. Beam Piper - most of which are available at Project Gutenberg and other free e-book sites around the web. Fans of classic science fiction may, however, prefer the convenience of this omnibus collection.


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WESTERNS

Virgil Earp, Private Detective by J. R. Roberts. (The Gunsmith, 333). Jove. Kindle edition $4.79. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
When Wyatt Earp's brother Virgil needs help with his private detective agency, he turns to Clint Adams. Soon the Gunsmith is convinced that Earp's latest lady client is anything but a straight shooter.


Slocum and the Medicine Man by Jake Logan. (Slocum, 367). Jove. Kindle edition $4.79. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
When a young Mormon wife is kidnapped by an Apache medicine man, John Slocum follows their trail to the Sierra Madres - and encounters a very nasty surprise.

Hell Rides a Horse by Kurt Greystone and Remy Tahlis. Seven13 Productions. Kindle edition $7.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"The end of the world, as we know it, has come and an ancient evil has been awakened. In this bleak future, a gunfighter named Silas embarks on a journey to protect the one key that can prove to be human kind's redemption." - Amazon.

Whispering Smith by Frank H. Spearman. Kindle edition $1.00. Text-to-Speech: Enabled. Also available as a free download from Manybooks.net.
"Whispering Smith is just a plain story. It is a book of incident instead of introspection. When you read it you don't give a hang about soul struggles. What you wish to know is, is Smith going to get the drop on Du Sang in that fight to the death in the Williams Cache, or is he going to cash in before the bullets of that ruffian?" - Amazon.

Several Hollywood films have been based on this novel, the most memorable being the Alan Ladd vehicle Whispering Smith,also featuring Robert Preston, Brenda Marshall, Donald Crisp, and William Demarest.