When Doctor Owen Orient, a prominent New York physician decides to renounce his practice and all the material comforts he has become accustomed to, his goal is to find a simpler, more meaningful existence for himself.

But Orient is not like ordinary men. For years he has been studying the secrets of the Occult and, though he seeks simplicity now, finds himself drawn more and more deeply into a horrifying series of events that challenge his scientific rationality, his occult powers, and the instincts and emotions that guide his manhood.

The puzzle that began in a Manhattan black magic commune eventually draws Orient to Tangier, Marrakech, and Rome to a confrontation with an ancient ravening evil–a battle in which telepathy, telekinesis, and even sex become weapons in a frenzied struggle to the death–and beyond…

For the first time E-Reads is collecting the seven novels in the Doctor Orient series in a new, unified format, and will make them available to readers all over the world. Written over a period of more than twenty years, the books narrate Doctor Orient’s discovery of his own psychic powers, his continuing research and his efforts to expand and deepen his understanding of the hidden level of reality in which psychic events occur and the monstrous and terrifying uses to which such powers are put to use by those who regard humans, and humanity as a whole, as play-things for exploitation of their dark desires. Frank Lauria, the author of the Doctor Orient series, is also at work on the first new Doctor Orient novel in almost two decades.

Raga Six : A Novel of Ancient Evil

“Hypnotically readable…Frank Lauria has written the most believable Vampire and Werewolf stories I have ever read.”
–William S. Burroughs.

You say you’re a fan of detective novels but you haven’t discovered Richard Prather’s Shell Scott?  Hmmm, I don’t know about you…

But you can atone for your sin by picking up just about any of the nearly forty novels and story collections penned by the late great Prather and joining his humorous private eye on another whacked-out caper, inevitably populated by plug-ugly goons and scantily clad ladies in jeopardy. Shell is an endearing, self-satirizing hero who is as likely to nail the bad guys by bumbling as by brilliant detection and bravado.

I was one of millions who feasted on Shell Scotts like popcorn and now I’m happy to introduce them to you.  For light summer reading there just is nothing better.

The books aren’t in any particular sequence, so you can start anywhere, but what the heck, start with A, Always Leave ‘Em Dying, and work your way down to W, Way of a Wanton.

Richard Curtis

His life all but ruined because of a bad rap he took for murdering two guys to prevent a rape, Reid Bennett relocates in a quaint backwater town in Canada. Then the corpses show up. German shepherd Sam by his side, Bennett does what he has to do, and none of it is in the police officer’s manual.

Dead in the Water launched Ted Wood’s mystery career and the fictional adventures of Reid Bennett. But what brings readers back for book after book is Sam, Reid’s German shepherd. Publisher’s Weekly described Sam thus: “…a multitalented utility infielder who can ‘keep,’ ‘track,’ ‘seek,’ “fight,’ ‘guard,’ sniff out cocaine and corpses, save lives and generally pinch-hit for a dozen patrolmen.” Fans plead, “Whatever happens to Reid Bennett, don’t touch a hair of that dog’s head!”

E-Reads is in the process of releasing all 10 titles in the Reid Bennett detective series. You’ll have to read them all to find out if anyone touched a hair of Sam’s head.

– Richard Curtis

Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana are a combustible mix – but if they combust they could ruin their professional careers. Passionately attracted to each other, they are equally passionate defenders of their clients even when their interests are completely adversarial.

Set all this tension against the sultry background of a Miami riddled with crime and corruption, drowning in drugs, illegal immigrants and shady deals, and simmering with a melting-pot clash of cultures and you have a recipe for a hotly explosive series of legal thrillers by Barbara Parker. You can find them on Barbara’s author page.

In the debut novel, Suspicion of Innocence, Gail Connor is a fast-rising attorney in a major law firm, about to make partner—until her life is derailed by the discovery of her sister’s murdered body and the possibility that Gail is the prime suspect. Gail must fight for her life as she gets a first-hand look at the dark underside of the legal system she is pledged to uphold.

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Barbara Parker was a dear friend, a dedicated professional writer and a beloved and esteemed client whose untimely passing was and remains a source of anguish to all who knew her. Trained as a lawyer, she worked as a prosecutor with the state attorney’s office in Dade County, Florida before moving into a private practice specializing in real estate and family law. Suspicion of Innocence, published in 1994, was her first legal thriller. It was followed by seven more titles featuring her two lawyer protagonists and sometime lovers, Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana. Suspicion of Innocence was a finalist for a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award, and two other Gail and Anthony novels, Suspicion of Deceit and Suspicion of Betrayal, were New York Times bestsellers. She died in March 2009, at age 62. Too young. Far, far too young.

RC

Meet Kate Jasper, Marin County, California’s own, organically grown, amateur sleuth.

In Jaqueline Girdner’s first Kate Jasper novel, Adjusted to Death, the heroine plunges into her career when she visits her chiropractor for a simple spinal adjustment, but instead finds a dead man on one of the tables…dead of a broken neck. And it seems everyone in the chiropractor’s office knew the victim, Scott Younger, in one way or another, except for Kate herself. Maggie, Kate’s friend and chiropractor, has known Scott for years, as has her staff. Her receptionist, Renee, even dated him. Devi knew Scott from college. Guru-follower, Valerie, accuses Scott of being a drug pusher! And Wayne, Scott’s now unnecessary bodyguard, a shy, homely man who almost makes Kate forget her husband has left her, knew him the best of all. But Kate can’t forget murder, especially since Wayne is the main suspect. And there’s the pesky matter of Kate’s fingerprints on the metal bar that broke Scott Younger’s neck. Kate Jasper’s in for a spine-tingling, bone-chilling adventure.

The Kate Jasper novels have been in e-book format for a while but now you can snuggle up with paperback editions. For a complete listing, click here. And read the author’s fascinating dossier on her heroine. Researching real people is hard enough, but researching your own fictional ones – that takes some clever doing!

RC

In an age of young superheroes, a 72 year old Laotian coroner is not at first glance the most promising selection for protagonist of a mystery series. That’s why Colin Cotterill’s Dr. Siri Paiboun deserves a second glance, and believe me, that’s all you’ll need to fall in love with one of the most engaging characters in the mystery field today.

E-Reads has e-books of the first two volumes in the series, The Coroner’s Lunch and Thirty-Three Teeth, and if you have a taste for faraway settings, they just don’t come further away than Colin Cotterill’s.

In The Coroner’s Lunch, Dr. Siri, one of the last doctors left in Laos after the Communist takeover, has been drafted to be national coroner. He is untrained for the job, but this independent 72-year-old has an outstanding qualification for it: curiosity. He has survived thirty years as a revolutionary and doesn’t mind incurring the wrath of the Party hierarchy as he unravels mysterious murders, because the spirits of the dead are on his side. When he performs an autopsy on the wife of a government official and on an unidentified body fished out of the river, it’s clear that all is not calm in the new Communist paradise of Laos.

In Thirty-Three Teeth, Dr. Siri investigates a series of deaths by what seem to be bear bites, to explain why the government official ran at full speed through a seventh story window and fell to his death, and to discover the origins of the two charred bodies from a crashed helicopter in the temple at Luang Prabang.

Some full-throated praise for The Coroner’s Lunch

”A wonderfully fresh and exotic mystery.”
–The New York Times Book Review

”The sights, smells and colors of Laos practically jump off the pages of this inspired, often wryly witty first novel.”
–Denver Post

”If Cotterill…had done nothing more than treat us to Siri’s views on the dramatic, even comic crises that mark periods of government upheaval, his debut mystery would still be fascinating. But the multiple cases spread out on Siri’s examining table…are not cozy entrtainments, but substantial crimes that take us into the thick of political intrigue,”
–The New York Times Book Review

And here’s what reviewers had to say about Thirty-Three Teeth:

”A crack storyteller and an impressive guide to a little-known culture.”
–Washington Post Book World

”The quasi-mystical story keeps a perfect balance between the modern mysteries of forensic science and the ancient secrets of the spirit world”
–The New York Times Book Review

”Readers who were charmed by Cotterill’s first novel, last year’s The Coroner’s Lunch, will be delighted to hear that his hero, the witty seventy-something Dr. Siri Paiboun, is back again.”
”Day to Day,” NPR

Permed to Death introduces sassy salon owner Marla Shore, and what an introduction it is! Here’s Marla giving grumpy Mrs. Kravitz a perm when the old lady croaks in the shampoo chair. If that isn’t enough to give her a bad hair day, handsome Detective Vail suspects Marla of poisoning the woman’s coffee creamer! Figuring she’d better expose the real killer before the next victim frizzes out, Marla sets on the trail of a wave of wacky suspects.

Looks like Marla’s heading for a bad hair day, but you’re heading for some delicious reading as E-Reads publishes nine delightful whodunnits in the Bad Hair Day series by one of America’s most beloved women’s novelists. The rave reviews will absolutely curl your hair. Oops! Bad hair pun. The thrills will stand your hair up on end. Um, no, not that one either. Well, read all nine books and see how many plays on words you can make up. E-Reads offers them both as e-books and paperbacks.

Read the first chapter of Permed to Death.

RC
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PRAISE FOR PERMED TO DEATH

Sun-Sentinel: “…an amusing tale, buoyed by a likable amateur sleuth and enhanced by the South Florida atmosphere.”

I Love a Mystery: “PERMED TO DEATH is a beauty of a read. The characters are believable,
the mystery is well-plotted, and the suspense is a real manicure ruiner.”

Kirkus Reviews: “…a plot with more tangles than an uncombed perm…”

Mysterious Women: “…a fascinating story, with intriguing, sometimes quirky characters, a touch of humor,
a hint of romantic possibilities, and a look at a profession we don’t often see in mysteries.”

GO Riverwalk Magazine: “Cohen fills her book not only with a close look at the South Florida scene, but a rash of well delineated murders, which keeps the reader’s attention right to the end.”

Murder on Miami Beach: “A pleasing and interesting cozy that will keep you entertained all evening…The atmosphere is definitely South Florida, the heat, the crazy drivers, the Santeria, but with none of the Miami overtones.”

Under the Covers: “PERMED TO DEATH is propelled by strong characters set in a plot full of interesting kinks.” (Highly recommended)

Cozies, Capers, & Crimes: “…a funny, suspenseful story…PERMED TO DEATH is a good book to start reading while waiting at your favorite salon for your hair appointment. Just the title alone, ought to get you great service.”

MyShelf.com: “Nancy Cohen has styled a novel that is to curl up and die for. A permanent solution to the doldrums.”

The Mystery Reader: “…exceptionally clever, amusing, and lively…”

Crescent Blues: “Cohen captures Marla’s voice perfectly and makes the Cut ‘N Dye salon so real
I could swear I’ve sat in its chairs.”

About.com: “Even if you don’t like your current hairstyle, you will love PERMED TO DEATH.”

BookBrowser: “PERMED TO DEATH is an entertaining amateur sleuth tale that sub-genre fans will fully enjoy.”

Southern Scribe: “…a nail-biting adventure, so schedule a manicure. PERMED TO DEATH is a witty and a well-crafted mystery that will have you guessing till the intense end.”

Romantic Times: “…a nicely woven story…” (4 stars)

Fort Myers Life Magazine: “This is a very successful mystery in a new series.”

Chris Norgren is a museum curator and Renaissance art expert. He is also an authority on murder and mayhem through no fault of his own. Aaron Elkins brings you a trio of Norgren mysteries that put all of those skills to the test.

In A Deceptive Clarity Norgren heads to Berlin to assist in mounting a sensational exhibit: “The Plundered Past” – twenty priceless Old Masters looted by the Nazis, thought for decades to be lost forever, and only recently rediscovered. But things quickly get out of hand when Norgren’s patrician, fastidious boss, after smelling a forgery in the lot, turns up dead the very next day – on the steps of a dismal Frankfurt brothel, of all places. Now Norgren faces two daunting tasks: finding a fake painting among the masterpieces, and a real killer whose sights are now set on him.

**************
A Glancing Light : Mild-mannered and law-abiding Norgren, is an unlikely undercover investigator, but when a priceless Rubens portrait is discovered in a shipment of “authentic reproductions” in a local warehouse, Chris is pressed into service to find out how it got there. The quest leads him to the medieval city of Bologna, one of his favorite places, but all too soon what might have been a welcome Italian interlude turns into a bizarre journey into shady art world doings and murderous secrets….

In Old Scores It’s a headline-making story: the discovery of a previously unknown Rembrandt. René Vachey, the iconoclastic art dealer who claims to have uncovered it, wants to make a gift of it to the Seattle Art Museum, but curator Chris Norgren is wary. Vachey is notorious in art circles for perpetrating scandalous shams; not for profit but for the sheer fun of embarrassing the elite and snobbish “experts” of the art establishment. And thanks to the web of strings attached to Vachey’s donation (e.g., no scientific testing permitted), even Rembrandt expert Norgren is uncertain as to whether or not the painting is authentic.

His doubts multiply when he goes to Dijon to examine it, and finds himself in the middle of a host of controversies of which Vachey is the devilish focus. But there’s no doubt that the bullet soon found in Vachey’s head is authentic. And there’s no telling how much time Chris has to find the truth about the “masterpiece”—and the murder—before he finds himself painted into a corner by a shrewd and villainous murderer.

Ready for more mysteries by this award-winning author?  We have a bunch of Gideon Olivers and more.  They’re on Elkins’ author page.
RC

Reid Bennett, our favorite policeman north of the border and maybe south of it too, is back for another thriller.  And of course, by his side is Sam, the greatest attack dog on either side of the border.

Ted Wood’s Flashback is set in tiny Murphy’s Harbour, where Bennett serves as the one-man police force and where questions and dead bodies tend to pile up all at once.

The morning starts with Reid chasing off a gang of threatening teens with a baseball bat. Minutes later, Reid learns that a bank robber might be headed his way looking for vengeance. But, the day doesn’t really start rolling until Reid finds a dead woman in the trunk of a waterlogged car.

What follows is a fast-paced thriller involving rich lawyers, a questionable movie producer and quite a few shifting identities. Everyone seems to be circling everyone else in a complicated orbit of sex and money. Can all these events be tied together?

Just an everyday mystery for Reid Bennett, except that with his wife about to have a baby, the danger feels real and much closer to home. Can Reid and his police dog Sam connect all the dots before death shows up at his doorstep? Author Ted Wood keeps the action crisp and the nerves on edge in this latest Reid Bennett mystery.

If you love Flashback and want to read the other Reid Bennett (and Sam, don’t forget Sam!) novels, visit Ted Wood’s author page for a complete list.
RC

His life all but ruined because of a bad rap he took for murdering two guys to prevent a rape, Reid Bennett relocates in a quaint backwater town in Canada. Then the corpses show up. German shepherd Sam by his side, Bennett does what he has to do, and none of it is in the police officer’s manual.

Dead in the Water launched Ted Wood’s mystery career and the fictional adventures of Reid Bennett. But what brings readers back for book after book is Sam, Reid’s German shepherd. Publisher’s Weekly described Sam thus: “…a multitalented utility infielder who can ‘keep,’ ‘track,’ ‘seek,’ “fight,’ ‘guard,’ sniff out cocaine and corpses, save lives and generally pinch-hit for a dozen patrolmen.” Fans plead, “Whatever happens to Reid Bennett, don’t touch a hair of that dog’s head!”

E-Reads is in the process of releasing all 10 titles in the Reid Bennett detective series. You’ll have to read them all to find out if anyone touched a hair of Sam’s head.

– Richard Curtis