Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (30 Mar 09)

Once you've purchased an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, the wonderful world of public domain, Creative Commons and free e-book promotions opens up to you. In this weekly Kindle Reader feature, I point you to a few of the most interesting new free (or very cheap) e-books available for download from the web.

Free e-book selections for this week include a brace of contemporary techno-thrillers, a novel of love, escape and reconciliation in the turbulent seventies, W. Somerset Maugham exploring the tragic results of a one-night stand, Dale Carnegie on the art of public speaking, and a biography of G. K. Chesterton, author of the Father Brown mystery stories.

Trust Network by Rick Osborne. TECHNO-THRILLER. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: FREE.
"Xochitl Green is a contemporary web programmer. She's faced with the issues of any techno-savvy person today, primary among them being the ethical implications of the arms race between content producing industries trying to protect their producers' rights and consumers who just want to get at that content and not be hassled with copy protection and other invasive technologies. Her friend Brian has an idea: take all of the online social interaction that we are building and turn it into a model of trust for our computers. Instead of thinking about firewalls and Internet privacy and protection at a software level, think of it at a social level. Xochitl takes the idea and writes the program, calling it 'Alfred'. Alfred turns out to be quite popular, and attracts both good and bad attention." - Rick Osborne.

Dark End of the Spectrum by Anthony S. Policastro. TECHNO-THRILLER. Download site: Smashwords. Format: Mobipocket/Kindle. Price: You set the price. Also available from the Amazon Kindle Bookstore.
"When digital terrorists take over the US power grid and the cell phone network, they give the government an ultimatum - bomb the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan with nuclear weapons to put an end to Al-Quada or they will start downing commercial airliners. Only security expert Dan Riker can stop them, but they have kidnapped Dan's family." - Smashwords.

Pacific Avenueby Anne L. Watson. NOVEL. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: $0.01.
"Where do you go from the end of the line? This is the question facing Kathy Woodbridge as she steps off the bus in the port city of San Pedro, California. Nineteen years old, from Louisiana, she is running away from her past. There’s a lot to run away from. What do you do when there’s no one to do for? That’s what Lacey Greer wants to know, with her only child off at college. When Kathy gets a job at the office where Lacey works, she can tell that Kathy’s in trouble. Lacey’s husband advises her to stay out of it—but what’s she supposed to do, buy a rocking chair? Set in San Pedro, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans in the early seventies, Pacific Avenue explores themes of love, belonging, helpfulness, hope, forgiveness, reconciliation, interracial marriage, and healing from the trauma of war." - annelwatson.com.

Up at the Villa by W. Somerset Maugham. NOVEL . Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: FREE.
"...a 1941 novella by William Somerset Maugham about a young widow caught between three men: her suitor, her one-night stand, and her confidant. A fast-paced story, Up at the Villa incorporates elements of the crime and suspense novel." - Wikipedia.
In 2000 a film versionbased loosely on the book and starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Anne Bancroft, James Fox, Derek Jacobi, and Sean Penn was released.

The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie. NONFICTION. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: Kindle. Price: FREE. Also available for $.80 in the Amazon Kindle Bookstore.
"Dale Carnegie...was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking and interpersonal skills. Born in poverty on a farm in Missouri, he was the author of books such as How to Win Friends and Influence People, and The Art of Public Speaking, which brought him fame and success and remain popular today." - Amazon.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton by Patrick Braybrooke. BIOGRAPHY. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: FREE.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a British essayist, novelist and poet who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1922, an event which greatly influenced his subsequent writings. He is best known in the United States as the author of the Father Brown mysteries. He was also an artist who illustrated several books by Hilaire Belloc. This study of the man and his work was first published in 1922. If you haven't met Father Brown, the engaging priest-detective , you may enjoy Chesterton's Father Brown Omnibus, also a free download from MobileRead.

A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 27 Mar 09

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the March 27th issue include:


The Believers by Zoe Heller. HarperCollins. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...marvelous, bighearted, gimlet-eyed novel..." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (13 reviews). Kindle edition $14.29.
"When radical New York lawyer Joel Litvinoff is felled by a stroke, his wife, Audrey, uncovers a secret that forces her to reexamine everything she thought she knew about their forty-year marriage. Joel’s children will soon have to come to terms with this discovery themselves, but for the meantime, they are struggling with their own dilemmas and doubts...The Believers explores big ideas with a light touch, delivering a tragic, comic family story as unsparing as it is filled with compassion." - Amazon.
Less expensive alternative: Notes on a Scandal,Heller's earlier novel made later into a critically-acclaimed filmstarring Kate Blanchett and Judi Dench.

Cheever: A Life, by Blake Bailey. Knopf. BIOGRAPHY. EW's slant: "...quite simply, the best example of literary biography I have ever read." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $18.90.
"Written with unprecedented access to essential sources -including Cheever’s massive journal, only a fraction of which has ever been published - Blake Bailey’s biography reveals the troubled but strangely lovable man behind the disguises... a soul in conflict...a proud Yankee who flaunted his lineage while deploring the provincialism of his Quincy, Massachusetts, family circle...Blake Bailey has written a luminous biography, a revelation of a writer of timeless fiction and of the man behind the page." - Amazon.
Less expensive alternative: No good choices here, although you might consider As Good As I Could Be, a memoir of Cheever's daughter.

Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Storyby Isabel Gillies. Scribner. MEMOIR. EW's slant: "...there's redemptive grace in her struggle, if not always in her prose." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (7 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"A story about love, marriage, family and heartbreak, Gillies' memoir - which reads like an intimate conversation between friends over a martini - is the moving story of how her perfect first marriage came to a shocking and sudden end...Gillies approaches her life with no axes to grind. Instead, she reminds herself and her readers that how we handle the bad stuff is what shapes us and our future..." - Amazon.

Murder in the Latin Quarterby Cara Black. Soho Crime. MYSTERY FICTION. EW's slant: "Movie Pitch: Kinsey Milhone turned loose in Before Sunset". Kindle edition $9.99. This is the 9th book in the Aimée Leduc mystery series - all set in Paris. For more on this series, check out the author's website.
"A Haitian woman arrives at the office of Leduc Detective and announces that she is Aimée’s sister, her father’s illegitimate daughter. Aimée is thrilled. A virtual orphan since her mother’s disappearance and her father’s death, she has always wanted a sister. Her partner, René, is wary of this stranger, but Aimée embraces her and soon finds herself involved in murky Haitian politics leading to murder. The setting is the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank of the Seine, in the old university district of Paris." - Amazon.

Las Vegas Review-Journal Now Available for the Kindle

The Las Vegas Review-Journalis the latest newspaper to be added to Amazon's list of dailies and the first newspaper from the state of Nevada to be made available for Kindle readers.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is Nevada's largest newspaper. It covers the local, state and world scenes and serves as an entertainment directory for visitors to a city that has been termed the entertainment capital of the world, as well as a guide to the attractions of southern Nevada.



The Kindle Edition of The Las Vegas Review-Journal contains most articles found in the print edition. It does not includes all images, tables, box scores, classifieds and crossword puzzles.

Daily wireless delivery. Monthly Price: $5.99, including free delivery via Amazon Whispernet within the United States. For those Kindle owners without Whispernet access, issues may be downloaded to your computer and moved to the Kindle manually via USB. Subscription includes a free 14-day trial period. The current issue is available for $.50.

Kindle Genre Watch (26 Mar 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. For readers like myself who are on a budget, I also recommend lower-priced alternatives for those books costing more than $9.99. Please let me know whether you find this a useful feature. New releases this week include:

FANTASY

Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead. Thomas Nelson. Book three of the King Raven trilogy. Kindle edition $14.84.
"King Raven has brought hope to the oppressed people of Wales - and fear to their Norman overlords. Along the way Friar Tuck has been the stalwart supporter of King Raven --bringing him much-needed guidance, wit, and faithful companionship. Deceived by the self-serving King William and hunted by the treacherous Abbot Hugo and Sheriff de Glanville, Rhi Bran is forced to take matters into his own hands as King Raven. Aided by Tuck and his small but determined band of forest-dwelling outlaws, he ignites a rebellion that spreads through the Welsh valleys, forcing the wily monarch to marshal his army and march against little Elfael. Filled with unforgettable characters, breathtaking suspense, and rousing battle scenes, Stephen R. Lawhead's masterful retelling of the Robin Hood legend reaches its stunning conclusion in Tuck. Steeped in Celtic mythology and the political intrigue of medieval Britain, Lawhead's trilogy conjures up an ancient past while holding a mirror to contemporary realities. Prepare for an epic tale that dares to shatter everything you thought you knew about Robin Hood." - thomasnelsom.com.
Less expensive alternatives: The first two books of this series Hoodand Scarlet. For more information on Lawhead and his work, check out his official web site.

Spell Games by T. A. Pratt. Spectra. Kindle edition $5.59.
Mad sorcerers, psychic vampires, an army of vengeful demons, Marla Mason would rather face them all than a flesh-and-blood ghost from her dysfunctional family past: her con artist brother, Jason. As Felport’s chief sorcerer, Marla would ordinarily consider it her duty to protect her town from such an unscrupulous ne’er-do-well. As his sister, things are a lot…trickier. Now, as Marla attempts to train an apprentice oracle whose magical wires have gotten crossed, Jason is setting up an elaborate sting and drawing her ever-so-corruptible partner Rondeau into the ruse." - Amazon.

MYSTERIES/THRILLERS

True Detectives: A Novel by Jonathan Kellerman. Ballantine Books. Kindle edition $14.85.
"Bound by blood but divided by troubles as old as Cain and Abel, Moses Reed and Aaron Fox were first introduced in Kellerman’s bestselling Bones. They are sons of the same strong-willed mother, and their respective fathers were cops, partners, and friends. Their turbulent family history has set them at odds, despite their shared calling. Moses—part Boy Scout, part bulldog, man of few words—is a no-frills LAPD detective. Aaron, sharp dresser and smooth operator, is an ex-cop turned high-end private eye. Usually they go their separate ways. But the disappearance of Caitlin Frostig isn’t usual. For Moses, it’s an ice-cold mystery he just can’t outrun, even with the help of psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis. For Aaron, it’s a billable-hours bonanza from his most lucrative client. Like it or not, Moses and Aaron are in this one together–and the rivalry that rules them won’t let either man quit till the case is cracked." - Amazon.
Less expensive alternative: Kellerman's earlier novel Bones where he first introduced the principal characters in True Detectives.

Just Take My Heart: A Novel by Mary Higgins Clark. Simon & Schuster. Kindle edition $14.27.
"In her new thriller, America's #1 bestselling Queen of Suspense delves into a legal battle over the guilt or innocence of a man accused of murdering his wife. Woven into her plot is an eerie, little-understood but documented medical phenomenon -- the emergence of a donor's traits and memories in the recipient of a heart transplant." - Amazon.
Less expensive alternative:Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz.

The Long Fallby Walter Mosley. Riverhead. Kindle edition $14.27.
"Mosley leaves behind the Los Angeles setting of his Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones series (Devil in a Blue Dress), etc.) to introduce Leonid McGill, a New York City private detective, who promises to be as complex and rewarding a character as Mosley's ever produced. McGill, a 53-year-old former boxer who's still a fighter, finds out that putting his past life behind him isn't easy when someone like Tony The Suit Towers expects you to do a job; when an Albany PI hires you to track down four men known only by their youthful street names; and when your 16-year-old son, Twill, is getting in over his head with a suicidal girl..." - Publishers Weekly.
Less expensive alternative: for $3.99 you can read Fear Itself,another good Mosley crime novel set in 1950's Los Angeles.

ROMANCE

The Wild's Callby Jeri Smith-Ready. Luna. Kindle edition $0.00.
"It is seven years after the collapse of modern civilization, and the world is entering a new Dark Age. Can best friends Elysia and Darien trust the animal spirits that are beckoning them to escape into the wilderness and create a new way of life? And will they give in to the mutual passion they've always denied? This is a prequel story set in the same world as Jeri Smith-Ready's Aspect of Crow trilogy: Eyes of Crow, Voice of Crowand The Reawakened.

WESTERNS

Killerby Wade Everett. Leisure Books. Kindle edition $3.99.
"No one has ever seen the man known as Tass Creel, a hired gun who strikes silently and disappears, leaving only tragedy in his wake. For twenty years he’s been wanted by the Texas Rangers. No one has ever come close to catching him until Burke Pine picks up a tenuous lead. Fueled by a relentless need to bring down such a ruthless murderer, Pine will follow the trail, no matter how long or how hard it might be—even knowing that when he reaches the end, he may become one more victim of the man he hunts." - Dorchester Publishing.

Only the Strongby David Thompson. Wilderness #59. Leisure Books. Kindle edition $4.79.
"Nate and Winona King know the frontier is a dangerous place. Even more so for a family of runaway slaves. The Kings thought they saved their new friends from the worst of their troubles, a gang of vicious slave hunters. But two of the hunters survived—and have hired a seasoned frontiersman and four killers to track the Kings and the runaways down. Nate and Winona continue to lead their party across the vast prairie to the far distant Rockies. Little do they realize that a pack of two-legged wolves are nipping at their heels...and that eventually the prairie will run red with blood." - Dorchester Books.

East of the Riverby J. R. Roberts. #328 in the Gunsmith series. Jove. Kindle edition $4.79.
"Clint Adams has crossed the Mississippi for a poker game in Indiana. But everyone backs out, leaving him with nothing to do but help the locals nab four brothers - model citizens by day, assassins by night." - Amazon.

SCIENCE FICTION

The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton. Ballantine Books. Kindle edition $15.40.
"The shelf-bending and vastly satisfying sequel to 2008's The Dreaming Void continues the epic narrative chronicling humankind's potentially self-destructive search for existential and spiritual fulfillment inside an ever-expanding black hole at the galactic core. Hamilton seamlessly weaves together numerous unwieldy plot lines: as the millions of followers of the Living Dream plan a mass pilgrimage into the Void, others plot to stop their exodus, which they believe will only increase the Void's expansion and hasten the end of the galaxy. To complicate matters, the alien Ocisen Empire has allied with an old nemesis of humanity, the Primes, and their combined military might stands poised as a tremendous threat. Fusing elements of hard SF with adventure fantasy tropes, Hamilton has singlehandedly raised the bar for grand-scale speculative storytelling." - Publishers Weekly.
Less expensive alternative: If you haven't read Hamilton's earlier work, The Dreaming Voice, you can pick up the Kindle version for $8.99.

The Second Shipby Richard Phillips. (The Rho Agenda : Book One). Synergy Books. Kindle edition $0.99.
"Top-Secret Los Alamos, New Mexico. In 1945 its scientists unlocked the secrets of the atomic bomb. Now they've cracked the very lock on hell itself. Once again the quiet scientific community spawned by the Manhattan Project comes face to face with a technological breakthrough for which the world is completely unprepared. Now, as a special team of operatives struggles to stop the project codenamed Rho while containment is still possible, what it means to be human is about to change -- forever. In this heart pounding new series, acclaimed author Richard Phillips gives us a terrifying glimpse into what lies just around the future's corner." - Amazon.
The second book in this series - Immune - is also available for the Kindle.


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A Week of Entertainment: Books Reviewed in Entertainment Weekly 20 Mar 09

Each week Entertainment Weekly reviews a small selection of popular new books. Titles available for the Kindle reviewed in the March 20th issue include:

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected Worldby Jacqueline Novogratz. Rodale Books. NONFICTION. EW's slant: "...flip to the chapter that knits together the tales of Rwandan genocide survivors, and you just might be inspired to start your own charity..." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (52 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"...inspiring story of a woman who left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to understand global poverty and find powerful new ways of tackling it. It all started back home in Virginia, with the blue sweater, a gift that quickly became her prized possession—until the day she outgrew it and gave it away to Goodwill. Eleven years later in Africa, she spotted a young boy wearing that very sweater, with her name still on the tag inside. That the sweater had made its trek all the way to Rwanda was ample evidence, she thought, of how we are all connected, how our actions—and inaction—touch people every day across the globe, people we may never know or meet." - Amazon.
"This is a wonderful book by a remarkable woman. It's a story about doing enormous good while having some extraordinary experiences and even adventures. It touches the heart and the mind. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about what's really going on in the world out there." - Fareed Zakaria, Author of The Post-American World and editor of Newsweek International.

My Booky Wook by Russell Brand. HarperCollins. AUTOBIOGRAPHY. EW's slant: "Many will find Brand to be a somewhat reprehensible character - but he's definitely a funny writer..." Amazon customer rating: 5 stars (4 reviews). Kindle edition $9.99.
"Russell Brand learned early on to make a joke of fear and failure. From a troubled childhood in industrial Essex, England, to his descent into addictions to alcohol, drugs, and sex in the seamy underbelly of London, Brand has seen his share of both and miraculously lived to tell the tale. In My Booky Wook he leads readers on a rollicking journey through his disastrous school career, his infamous antics on MTV, and his multifarious sexual adventures. But this irreverent memoir is a story not simply of struggle but also of redemption, a testament to the difficulty of discovering what you want from life and the remarkable power of a bloody-minded determination to get it...a giddy trip through the brilliant mind of one of Britain's most valuable exports." - Amazon.

Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (22 Mar 09)

Once you've purchased an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, the wonderful world of public domain, Creative Commons and free e-book promotions opens up to you. In this weekly Kindle Reader feature, I point you to a few of the most interesting new free (or very cheap) e-books available for download from the web.

Cheapskate e-book selections for this week include an amusing chick lit mystery, two science fiction novels, a work of speculative fiction based on a recent anthropological discovery, a history of Western Europe, essays on ten great events in history, and an omnibus collection of thirteen classic Max Brand westerns.

Still Watersby Kate Johnson. CHICK LIT MYSTERY. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: FREE until March 27th. Book four of the Sophie Green Mysteries. The first three are I, Spy?, Ugley Businessand A is for Apple.
It’s a week before Christmas. Sophie is out of work, out of love and out of her depth - literally. Stuck in Cornwall on the holiday from hell with her ex-boyfriend, her boyfriend’s ex, and two intimidating colleagues. If that’s not enough, Sophie’s got her hands full trying to prevent her best friend’s perfect engagement from blowing up in her face. When a corpse turns up in the local harbor it’s the perfect distraction...at least until someone tries to add Sophie to the body count. Warning, this title contains bad language, bad behavior and bad puns. There are scenes of violence, gore, and unashamed sentimentality.

Deathworld by Harry Harrison. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: MobileRead. Format: MOBI. Price: FREE.
"Harry Harrison...is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973)...Deathworld centers on Jason dinAlt, a professional gambler who uses his erratic psionic abilities to tip the odds in his favor. He is challenged by a man named Kerk Pyrrus (who turns out to be the ambassador from the planet Pyrrus) to turn a large amount of money into an immense sum by gambling at a government-run casino. He succeeds and survives the planetary government's desperate efforts to steal back the money. In a fit of ennui, he decides to accompany Kerk to his home, despite being warned that it is the deadliest world ever colonized by humans." - mtravellerh for MobileRead.

Thoth: A Romance by Joseph Shield Nicholson. SCIENCE FICTION. Download site: MobileRead. Format: MOBI. Price: FREE.
"Daphne is rescued by a mysterious man from a plague in ancient Athens, and transported to a city somewhere in Africa which he rules. The city is full of technological wonders far beyond those of Daphne's Greece, and she is invited by him to become his queen. However, Daphne soon discovers that dark secrets lie behind the marvels she has seen; and her powerful stranger is secretly plotting the destruction of all mankind!" Joseph Shield Nicholson (1850-1927) was a highly regarded British economist, political theorist and academic. The author of many books and articles on economic theory, he published Thoth anonymously." - Sparrow for MobileRead.

Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot by Erik John Bertel. SPECULATIVE THRILLER. Download site: Author's web site. Format: PDF. Price: FREE. Please note that you can either download the free PDF version of this book to your computer and e-mail it to your Amazon e-mail address for conversion to Kindle format or you can purchase itat Amazon for $2.39.
"From the headlines of today comes the ultimate adventure novel of prehistoric discovery. Two scientists unwittingly introduce a small tribe of prehistoric people living in isolation for a million years to the ultimate modern predator: humanity. This is their adventure, combining a clash of cultures, religious ardor with the oldest stories of all: the meaning of friendship and true love. This is the first of a trilogy of novels!" - Flores Girl web site.

An Introduction to the History of Western Europe by James Harvey Robinson. NONFICTION/HISTORY. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: AZW. Price: FREE.
Robinson, James Harvey was an American historian with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard. In 1890 he received a Ph.D. from the University of Freiberg and in the following year he began an illustrious teaching career teaching European history at the University of Pennsylvania and at Columbia University.
"In Introduction to the History of Western Europe (1903) and other writings, Robinson was innovative in the attention he gave to the development of progressive ideas rather than to the traditional concern with political and military history...His position that the study of the past was important primarily in guiding the development of modern institutions was criticized by many colleagues but was influential in enlarging the scope of the teaching of history. In 1919 Robinson resigned from Columbia to help found the New School for Social Research." - Robinson, James Harvey ." Encyclopedia Americana. 2009. Grolier Online.

Ten Great Events in Historyby James Johonnot, 1823-1888. NONFICTION/HISTORY. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: FREE.
Johonnot was a teacher and a scientist who wrote a number of books for children as well as this account of ten great events in history defined by the author as "...those where, upon special occasions, a man or a people have made a stand against tyranny, and have preserved or advanced freedom for the people. Sometimes tyranny has taken the form of the oppression of the many by the few in the same nation, and sometimes it has been the oppression of a weak nation by a stronger one..."

Classic Westerns: 13 Novels in a single file, with active table of contentsby Max Brand. WESTERNS. Download site: Amazon. Format: AZW. Price: $0.99.
"...includes: Alcatraz, Black Jack, Bull Hunter, Gunman's Reckoning, Harrigan, The Night Horseman, The Rangeland Avenger, Riders of the Silences, Ronicky Doone, The Seventh Man, Trailin', The Untamed, and Way of the Lawless...Frederick Schiller Faust (1892-1944) was an American fiction author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns. Faust wrote mostly under pen names, and today is primarily known by one, Max Brand...Faust managed a massive outpouring of fiction, rivaling Edgar Wallace and especially Isaac Asimov as one of the most prolific authors of all time." - Amazon.

Kindle Hangs Out With Tough-Guy Bibliophile Cliff Janeway

If you are a bibliophile and a reader of mystery and crime novels, you may already have read Dunning. If not, you might enjoy his Cliff Janeway mystery series that combines mystery and tidbits about books, bookselling and rare book dealers.

Formerly the proprietor of The Old Algonquin Bookstore in Denver, Dunning now sells book online from the Old Algonquin Books website. In Cliff Janeway he has created a fascinating gumshoe, a former policeman turned rare book dealer - perhaps the first tough guy bookworm.

There are five books in the Cliff Janeway series. The last three are available in Kindle editions.

Booked to Die(1992).
"Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he is an avid collector of rare and first editions. After a local bookscout is killed on his turf, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect's spine. But the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway's wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge. Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop -- all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. But when prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies." - Amazon.

The Bookman's Wake(1995).
"...Former Denver cop Janeway is intrigued by his newest case: he's supposed to find a young woman named Eleanor Rigby, who appears to have stolen a valuable collector's edition of The Raven. The book was printed by the Grayson Press, a highly respected Seattle publisher run by two maverick brothers in the fifties and sixties. Dunning writes catchy prose and engaging dialogue, and his hero is an intriguing blend of the erudite and the down-to-earth. The liberal sprinkling of rare-book factoids throughout the narrative may not fascinate everyone, but the action-packed story, mounting suspense, and riveting plot twists are certain to draw readers..." - Emily Melton for Booklist.

The Bookman's Promise(2004).
"...a richly nuanced new Janeway novel that juxtaposes past and present as Denver ex-cop and bookman Cliff Janeway searches for a book and a killer. The quest begins when an old woman, Josephine Gallant, learns that Janeway has recently bought at auction a signed first edition by the legendary nineteenth-century explorer Richard Francis Burton. The book is a true classic, telling of Burton's journey (disguised as a Muslim) to the forbidden holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Boston auction house was a distinguished and trustworthy firm, but provenance is sometimes murky and Josephine says the book is rightfully hers. She believes that her grandfather, who was living in Baltimore more than eighty years ago, had a fabulous collection of Burton material, including a handwritten journal allegedly detailing Burton's undercover trip deep into the troubled American South in 1860. Josephine remembers the books from her childhood, but everything mysteriously disappeared shortly after her grandfather's death. With little time left in her own life, Josephine begs for Janeway's promise: he must find her grandfather's collection..." - Amazon.

The Sign of the Book(2005).
"The crime genre's only hard-boiled bibliophile, Cliff Janeway, is back, this time helping his lover, attorney Erin D'Angelo, defend a woman accused of murdering her husband. Cliff leaves his bookshop in Denver and journeys to remote Paradise, Colorado, hoping to determine if the accused really did kill her husband, or if she is trying to protect her son. That's the tip of the iceberg, of course, in a case that involves old friends, deep-seated jealousies, and, naturally, rare books..." - Bill Ott for Booklist.

The Bookwoman's Last Fling(2006).
"...Denver bookman Cliff Janeway would have liked Candice Geiger. She loved books with a true bookwoman's passion. Her collection of first-edition children's books is the best that Janeway ever hopes to see. Sadly, Janeway and Candice Geiger will never meet. She died much too young. Now, twenty years later, her books remain a testament to an extraordinary woman's remarkable vision. Janeway first learns about the juvenilia collection when Candice's elderly husband, H. R. Geiger, passes away and Janeway travels to their Idaho home to assess the collection...Two decades after Candice's strange death, Janeway finds himself deep in a book mystery that may turn out to be much more than a cataloging exercise. It may even involve murder..." - Amazon.

Kindle Genre Watch (18 Mar 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. New releases this week include:

FANTASY

Turn Coatby Jim Butcher. Roc. Kindle edition $14.27. Book twelve in the Dresden Filesseries.
"The Warden Morgan has been accused of treason against the Wizards of the White Council - and there's only one, final punishment for that crime. He's on the run, wants his name cleared, and needs someone with a knack for backing the underdog. Someone like Harry Dresden...Now, Harry must uncover a traitor within the Council, keep a less-than-agreeable Morgan under wraps, and avoid coming under scrutiny himself. And a single mistake may cost someone his head - someone like Harry." - Amazon.

Curse the Dawnby Karen Chance. Onyx. Kindle edition $6.39. Book four of the Cassandra Palmer series. The first three volumes - all available for the Kindle - are Touch the Dark(2006), Claimed by Shadow (2007), and Embrace the Night (2008).
"Cassandra Palmer may be the all-powerful Pythia now, but that doesn’t mean people have stopped trying to kill her. Most of the supernatural power players don’t want the independent minded Cassie as chief clairvoyant—and they’ll stop at nothing to see her six feet under..." - book jacket.
"Karen Chance will enthrall you with her world of vampires, mages, and a fair maiden tough enough to kick their butts." -Rebecca York.

MYSTERIES/THRILLERS

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman. HarperCollins. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success by baring her life on the page. Her two widely popular memoirs continue to sell briskly, acclaimed for their brutal, unexpurgated candor about friends, family, lovers — and herself. But now, after a singularly unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to nonfiction...growing up in a racially diverse middle-class neighborhood in Baltimore, her best friends were all black: elegant, privileged Donna; sharp, shrewd Tisha; wild and worldly Fatima. A fifth girl orbited their world—a shy, quiet, unobtrusive child named Calliope Jenkins—who, years later, would be accused of killing her infant son. Yet the boy's body was never found and Calliope's unrelenting silence on the subject forced a judge to jail her for contempt. For seven years, Calliope refused to speak and the court was finally forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this still unsolved real-life mystery, largely unknown outside Baltimore, could be her next bestseller." - Amazon.

Fault Line by Barry Eisler. Ballantine Books. Kindle edition $9.99.
"Silicon Valley: the eccentric inventor of a new encryption application is murdered in an apparent drug deal. Istanbul: a cynical undercover operative receives a frantic call from his estranged brother, a patent lawyer who believes he’ll be the next victim. And on the sun-drenched slopes of Sand Hill Road, California’s nerve center of money and technology, old family hurts sting anew as two brothers who share nothing but blood and bitterness wage a desperate battle against a faceless enemy." - Amazon.

ROMANCE

Dancing in the Moonlightby RaeAnne Thayne. Silhouette. Kindle edition $0.00.
"Lieutenant Magdalena Cruz had come home. And though all she wanted was to be alone, infuriatingly handsome Dr. Jake Dalton - of the enemy Daltons - wouldn't cooperate. And she needed him to, because the walls around her heart were dangerously close to crumbling every time he came near." - Amazon.

The Bride's Babyby Liz Fielding. Harlequin. Kindle edition $0.00.
"Events manager Sylvie Smith is organizing a glittering fund-raising event: a wedding show in a stately home. She has even been roped into pretending to be a bride...a bride who's five months pregnant! The bride everyone is talking about! It should be every girl's dream to design a wedding with no expense spared, but it's not Sylvie's. Longbourne Court was her ancestral home, and she's just discovered that the new owner is Tom McFarlane - her baby's secret father. Now Tom's standing in front of her, looking at her bump..." - Amazon.

SCIENCE FICTION

Maxby James Patterson. Little, Brown and Company. Kindle edition $9.99. Book five in the Maximum Rideseries for young adult readers. Patterson has an extensive presence on the web, including the James Patterson Official Web Site, the James Patterson Community and the recently-founded the online social community, ReadKiddoRead, dedicated to making kids readers for life.
"Maximum Ride and the other members of the Flock have barely recovered from their last arctic adventure, when they are confronted by the most frightening catastrophe yet. Millions of fish are dying off the coast of Hawaii and someone - or something - is destroying hundreds of ships. Unable to discover the cause, the government enlists the Flock to help them get to the bottom of the disaster before it is too late. While Max and her team are exploring the depths of the ocean, their every move is being carefully tracked by Mr. Chu - a criminal mastermind with his own plans for the Flock. Can they protect themselves from Mr. Chu's army of mercenaries and save the ocean from utter destruction?" - Amazon.

People of the Craterby Andre Norton. Wonder eBooks. Kindle edition $1.91.
"A flight to a lost world of Antarctica. Garin Featherstone has been sent to explore a mysterious blue haze that was spotted in the polar region. There he discovers a lost civilization and a strange environment of vivid green lands, crimson tree trunks, and golden rivers. He most save Thrala of the light against the lizard men. This is Andre Norton's first professional published story from 1947. Even the Grand Dame of Science Fiction had to have her first sale. And she shows her strengths in her first fantastic adventure story." - Amazon.

WESTERNS

Riders From Long Pinesby Ralph Cotton. Signet. Kindle edition $4.79.
"...When four drovers stumble upon the bloody aftermath of a stagecoach robbery, they discover a cache of money belonging to the most powerful man in the county. They decide to do the right thing and return the cash. But the outlaw responsible for the robbery is dead-set on getting back his money, and he has a stolen badge to hide behind. Arizona Ranger Sam Burrack and his shotgun-toting partner Maria are determined to catch the outlaw and get to the drovers before they meet with serious harm for doing good." - Amazon.

The Sundown Chaserby Dusty Richards. Berkley. Kindle edition $4.79.
"Ther's a hard-as-nails horse thief riding up from Mexico with a woman on the run, a body count of criminals, and a gun hand as quick as Herschel's. But this is no mere bad man. His name is Thurman Baker...and Herschel calls him Father." - Amazon.

Leadvilleby James D. Best. Queenbeach. Kindle edition $3.99. This is the second book featuring Easterner-in-the-Old West Steve Dancy. The first was The Shopkeeper - published in 2007 and still enjoying excellent 4 1/2 star reviews on Amazon.
"When New York City shopkeeper Steve Dancy moved west to experience the frontier, he wound up embroiled in a deadly feud...a feud that he was forced to settle with guns. Now, all he wants to do is follow up on a few business interests, write about his adventures, and continue his exploration of the West. But in the autumn of 1879, Joseph McAllen asks Dancy for help. Ute renegades have abducted a young girl near Mesa Verde, Colorado, and the Pinkerton captain wants him to join the rescue party. Surprisingly, the trail doesn't lead into the San Juan Mountains, but to Leadville — a rich mining town teeming with the worst elements of a raw frontier." - Amazon.


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