Earlier this week we mentioned that specialty mystery publisher Poisoned Pen Press had discounted the first two ebooks in the "David Mapstone" series by Jon Talton.
Today we're learning that two additional first-in-series titles have been discounted to just 99 cents (but currently available free from iTunes). All three books are listed below.
We've had the pleasure to read and review two of these titles.
In 2009, Judy Clemens, the author of the "Stella Crown" mysteries, began a new series, introducing Casey Maldonado and her constant companion Death in Embrace the Grim Reaper. In our review, we said, "In an odd couple sort of way, they make a good pair of amateur sleuths and their first case (as it were) is a remarkably impressive debut." (Mysterious Reviews, 2009.)
Mark de Castrique published his first mystery in 2003, introducing funeral home owner "Buryin'" Barry Clayton, who would appear in a total of five books in the series. We've read three of them, including the first, Dangerous Undertaking, appreciating not only the character but the rich description of the North Carolina setting. (The author has gone on to write another series featuring PI Sam Blackman and most recently, a stand-alone that could serve as the first in a third series, The 13th Target. You can find links to all our reviews of this author's books on Mysterious Reviews.)
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Concrete Desert
Jon Talton
A David Mapstone Mystery (1st in series)
Having recently lost his job as a history professor, Mapstone returns to his boyhood home of Phoenix, Arizona, but finds the Southwest city he knew dramatically changed. It's now a haven for wealthy retirees and a seasonal retreat for West Coast "sophisticates".
To Mapstone, who has a strong personal feeling for the area's history, it seems a foreign place. There remain, however, pockets of his earlier life, some welcome, some not. Mapstone eagerly accepts a temporary job from his old friend and Maricopa County Chief Deputy Mike Peralta: Look into still-open cases that have languished for years in the department's file cabinets and see if he can close any.
A less welcome voice from the past is the college sweetheart, who appears at his door one evening. True to his memory of her, she is there because she wants something. Never mind that she had abruptly abandoned him 20 years ago for a wealthier lover. Now her sister is missing. Will Mapstone look for her? Although Mapstone's search for the missing woman is quickly resolved when her body is discovered in the desert, he is stunned to find an echo of the past in the grisly discovery. The dead sister has been found in circumstances identical to a sensational 40-year-old unsolved murder he is researching for Peralta.
Mapstone's dogged investigation of both murders bridges the chasm of clashing cultures, meshing his own long-ago memories and the stories from some of the city's old inhabitants with the tangled doings of newcomers and their acolytes, young women eager to share the lifestyle of tainted wealth, drugs, and careless violence.
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Embrace the Grim Reaper
Judy Clemens
A Casey Maldonado, "Grim Reaper" Mystery (1st in series)
Casey Maldonado’s life is over – at least as she knows it. In one brief moment of fire and wrenching metal, everything important was gone. The car manufacturer was generous with its settlement, but it can never be enough. Her family and friends – not to mention her lawyers – want her to go for more. More money. More publicity. More everything. But Casey is done. No financial gain or courtroom retribution will bring back what really matters. So she packs up, puts her house on the market, and leaves town. Her only companion – Death, who won’t take her, but won’t leave her alone.
Stopping on a whim in Clymer, a small blue-collar town in the midst of Ohio farmland, Casey discovers a town wrapped in tragedy. Not only is HomeMaker, the town’s appliance factory and main employer, moving to Mexico, but the town has been rocked by the suicide of a beloved single mother. Casey is drawn to the town, and soon realizes that many of the citizens don’t believe the verdict of suicide at all. Death encourages her to investigate, and she uncovers information that points to the factory. Was the victim’s death a cover-up? Did she truly have the means – as she claimed – to keep the factory from leaving town? When Casey begins to receive messages that she should leave well enough alone, she decides she’d be better off back on the road, but the murderer can’t let her go with everything she knows …
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Dangerous Undertaking
Mark de Castrique
A Barry Clayton Mystery (1st in series)
Barry Clayton has a job he doesn't want. When his father is stricken with Alzheimer's, Barry leaves the Charlotte police force for the small mountain community of Gainesboro, North Carolina, where his family runs the local funeral home. "Buryin' Barry" reluctantly assumes the mantle of town undertaker, trying to fit his life into this somber profession.
Almost at once it turns deadly. At the graveside service for an elderly woman, a grieving grandson strides in like Clint Eastwood in a duster, rips out a shotgun, and murders his family. Then the shooter turns the weapon on Barry. "Take a message to my grandmother," Dallas Willard shouts. "Tell her they tried to take the land. Tell her I love her." The blast hits Barry in the shoulder.
Barry is not cut from the same black cloth as his father, and his irreverent wit and independence have already won him the friendship of the county sheriff, Vietnam War hero Tommy Lee Wadkins. Besides, Barry's a police pro. Though his wounds are in the hands of local surgeon Susan Miller, Barry begins search for both the killer and the reason for his crime. It isn't long before a second shooting occurs — but Dallas Willard's body is then discovered at the bottom of a quarry pond, indisputable evidence that someone else committed the second crime, someone who now has his sights set on Barry …
Important Note: Any prices mentioned above were correct as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
