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Poe's Deadly Daughters are getting an early start on the gift-giving season by offering our readers a chance to win free copies of our books. Leave a comment with your first and second choices, and you'll be entered in a drawing for a free book. Come back tomorrow to see a list of winners. Good luck -- and we hope you enjoy the books!
FROM JERI WESTERSON:
I'm giving away one signed copy of Troubled Bones, my hot-off-the-press newest release in the Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series.
The retelling of the unfinished Canterbury Tales as it might have happened…Disgraced knight Crispin Guest gets himself into some serious trouble in London and as a result is forced to accept an assignment far out of town. The archbishop of Canterbury has specifically requested Crispin to investigate a threat against the bones of saint and martyr Thomas a Becket, which are housed in a shrine in Canterbury Cathedral. The archbishop has received letters threatening the safety of the artifacts, and he wants Crispin to protect them and uncover whoever is after them. But when he arrives at Canterbury, Crispin is accosted by an old acquaintance from court—one Geoffrey Chaucer—who has arrived with a group of pilgrims. Trapped in Canterbury, looking for a murderer, a hidden heretic, and a solution to the riddle that will allow him to go back home, Crispin Guest finds his considerable wit and intellect taxed to its very limit.
I had been wanting to tell this story for a while. I've had a longtime association with Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales (see that here) and so to be able to include some of the Pilgrims in my story as well as Geoffrey Chaucer has been a joy. I hope you'll feel the same way.
FROM JULIA BUCKLEY:
I'm giving away Kindle versions of Madeline Mann (the first in the Madeline Mann trilogy, which Kirkus called "a bright debut" and Library Journal dubbed "a welcome addition to the cozy scene") and of my newest title, The Ghosts of Lovely Women, which is the first in the Teddy Thurber series.
Madeline is a small-town reporter who decides to investigate the disappearance of an old friend; this leads her into some humorous scrapes, but also into some very serious crime and corruption. Truly, to paraphrase Hamlet, something is rotten in the town of Webley.
Teddy is an English teacher who is horrified to learn of the death of a former student. The dead girl, Jessica Halliday, has left Teddy some cryptic messages that relate to the literature they read in class. Only Teddy, who has immersed herself in the truths of the great classics, can see the patterns in the words that Jessica has left behind.
Both books have spunky and literary heroines!
FROM ELIZABETH ZELVIN:
I'm giving away a signed hardcover first edition of Death Will Get You Sober, the first novel in my series featuring recovering alcoholic Bruce Kohler and his friends, Barbara the world-class codependent and Jimmy the computer genius. One reviewer, bless her heart, praised my "ability to bring us both tragedy and humor, sometimes in the same sentence."
Death Will Get You Sober tackles a subject that is not only serious but emotionally charged for many readers, with a combination of lighthearted fun, authenticity, and heart. As it opens, Bruce's denial is cracking as he wakes up in detox on the Bowery on Christmas Day. A couple of murders and an unexpected burst of genuine feeling set him off on a quest to find the murderer, stay off the booze for good, and get his life back.
FROM SHEILA CONNOLLY:
I'm giving away one copy (signed) each of the most recent book in my two current series.
Let's Play Dead (Museum Mystery #2): Nell Pratt, president of the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society in Philadelphia, is jolted into action when someone is electrocuted at the beloved Philadelphia children's museum, Let's Play. When Nell is invited to a sneak preview of a newly installed exhibit, she's in for quite a shock: while she's there, one of the installers gets a severe jolt while working on an animated creature.
He recovers, but when a second man gets zapped, this time fatally, it sparks a homicide investigation, and it's up to Nell to channel her energy into finding the killer—before she gets burned herself.
Bitter Harvest (Orchard Mystery #5): Now that Meg Corey's first apple crop has been harvested and sold, she's enjoying some free time, and cleaning out her 1760 house.
In a dusty corner Meg finds an early 19th century silk sampler, but she doesn't recognize the names on it as any of the earlier owners of her house. Then she starts being plagued by a series of small but annoying mishaps. If she doesn't figure out how the sampler she found is connected to the motive of her modern day tormentor, her first harvest could be her last.
Take your pick--city or country, electronic animals or apples!
FROM SANDRA PARSHALL:
I’m offering a copy of my latest book, Under the Dog Star, and a copy of my first Rachel Goddard novel, The Heat of the Moon – to two different readers.
Veterinarian Rachel Goddard can’t stand by while animals suffer -- and she feels equally driven to act if she believes a child is mistreated. In Under the Dog Star, she makes deadly enemies when she scrambles to save feral dogs wrongly accused of killing a prominent doctor, and at the same time becomes entangled in the sad lives of the doctor’s adopted children. This fast-paced mystery, praised by Kirkus Reviews for “spine-chilling tension from cover to cover,” is also a story about the meaning of family, the power of compassion, and the duty we have to the animals that share our lives. Award-winning author Deborah Crombie calls it a “tense and compelling entry in one of my favorite series” and adds, “Believable, sympathetic protagonists; a beautifully evoked setting; a haunting crime -- Under the Dog Star is one of the un-put-down-able reads of the year.”
If you haven’t read any of my books and would like to start with the one that introduces Rachel, you can enter the drawing for a copy of The Heat of the Moon. When Rachel begins having strange dreams and experiencing flashes of long-buried memories that make her question her family’s background, she must fight a devastating battle of wills with her controlling psychologist mother to get at the truth. Publishers Weekly called The Heat of the Moon a “frightening psychological mystery” with a “mesmerizing plot.” The book won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.
Ex-Special Forces Sergeant Benny Kirkpatrick is one week away from marrying Lorraine Fulford and, as he puts it, “I’’ve seen courts martial that required less preparation than this wedding.” Then Benny’s mother is abducted. When her abductor’s body is discovered, Benny, Avivah and Pepper put their own romantic entanglements aside to help Benny find the killer. The price of justice may tear Benny’’s family apart forever.
FROM SHEILA CONNOLLY:
I'm giving away one copy (signed) each of the most recent book in my two current series.
He recovers, but when a second man gets zapped, this time fatally, it sparks a homicide investigation, and it's up to Nell to channel her energy into finding the killer—before she gets burned herself.
In a dusty corner Meg finds an early 19th century silk sampler, but she doesn't recognize the names on it as any of the earlier owners of her house. Then she starts being plagued by a series of small but annoying mishaps. If she doesn't figure out how the sampler she found is connected to the motive of her modern day tormentor, her first harvest could be her last.
Take your pick--city or country, electronic animals or apples!
FROM SANDRA PARSHALL:I’m offering a copy of my latest book, Under the Dog Star, and a copy of my first Rachel Goddard novel, The Heat of the Moon – to two different readers.
Veterinarian Rachel Goddard can’t stand by while animals suffer -- and she feels equally driven to act if she believes a child is mistreated. In Under the Dog Star, she makes deadly enemies when she scrambles to save feral dogs wrongly accused of killing a prominent doctor, and at the same time becomes entangled in the sad lives of the doctor’s adopted children. This fast-paced mystery, praised by Kirkus Reviews for “spine-chilling tension from cover to cover,” is also a story about the meaning of family, the power of compassion, and the duty we have to the animals that share our lives. Award-winning author Deborah Crombie calls it a “tense and compelling entry in one of my favorite series” and adds, “Believable, sympathetic protagonists; a beautifully evoked setting; a haunting crime -- Under the Dog Star is one of the un-put-down-able reads of the year.”
If you haven’t read any of my books and would like to start with the one that introduces Rachel, you can enter the drawing for a copy of The Heat of the Moon. When Rachel begins having strange dreams and experiencing flashes of long-buried memories that make her question her family’s background, she must fight a devastating battle of wills with her controlling psychologist mother to get at the truth. Publishers Weekly called The Heat of the Moon a “frightening psychological mystery” with a “mesmerizing plot.” The book won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel.
From Sharon Wildwind:
I'm giving away a copy of Missing, Presumed Wed, fourth in the Elizabeth Pepperhawk/Avivah Rosen Viet Nam veterans mystery series.
