Archive for August 23, 2016

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This is a Tag Team Event hosted by myself and Sherry.

Read on to learn how you can win some great prizes!

After reading my review, head on over to Sherry’s blog at fundinmental. Check out her review and leave a comment for an additional entry!

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Deadly Catch

A Mac McClellan Mystery #1

by E. Michael Helms

17737094

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Genre: Mystery / Thriller

My Review

Take a dip into southern waters. And watch out for dead bodies.

Mac McClellan has just retired after 24 years as a U.S. Marine . He hits the road, next stop the Florida panhandle, figuring to drop a line in the water and see what he’ll catch. What he doesn’t expect is a dead body on the end of the hook.

This puts him on the suspect list. Years in the military help Mac maintain his cool, but then a bag of marijuana is found on his boat. Now they add drug smuggling to his crimes and he’s hard pressed to explain it. The local authorities don’t take his claim of being framed too seriously. Looks like Mac will have to do his own digging to get to the bottom of it and clear his name before more bodies pile up, including his own.

Mac has easily found a spot on my list of favorite characters. He’s smart, yet he fumbles with the females. Tough, yet he has a soft side. I bet he cries at sad endings in movies. Intuitive, probably from all those years in service. Charming, without realizing he is. And dedicated. He will not stop when injustice stares him in the face.

This has everything you want in a good mystery. A character at loose ends who finds a purpose and can easily move into and around the law. A potential romance with fun and snarky encounters. The good cop/bad cop thing going on. It seems the law enforcement officials switch roles as needed.

And last but not least, some darn good writing. The author puts you on the southern coast. You’ll smell the fishy odor of the wind off the ocean. Squint your eyes from the suns glare off the placid surface of the water. And feel the sweltering humidity that’s so heavy the air is hazy with moisture.

Any mystery lover will enjoy this one. And there’s two more adventures with Mac. Also, a little birdie told me there’s more coming. Get started now so you’ll be ready.

  5 Stars

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Synopsis

“The first cast of the day turned my dream vacation into a nightmare. . . .”

After twenty-four years in the U.S. Marines, recently retired Mac McClellan is happy to be a civilian again. He is enjoying a leisurely fishing vacation in the Florida panhandle when he hooks a badly decomposed body.
Then, when a bag of rare marijuana is discovered stashed aboard his rental boat, he realizes someone is setting him up to take the fall for murder and drug smuggling. Mac’s plans for a more laid-back life must be put on hold while he works to clear his name as the number one suspect.
Mac launches an investigation with the help of Kate Bell, a feisty saleslady at the local marina with whom he has struck up a promising relationship. Along the way he must butt heads and match wits with local law enforcement officials, shady politicians, and strong-armed thugs from the Eastern Seaboard to sniff out and bring the real smuggler and killer to justice.

Amazon

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Author E. Michael Helms

E.Michael Helms

I was born in Georgia way back in the last century but grew up and lived most of my life on the Gulf Coast of Florida in Panama City (beautiful beaches, girls galore–ah, the memories!). In 2004 my wife and I moved to the Upstate region of South Carolina in the shadows of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, a land of stunning vistas and numerous waterfalls.
I’ve been traditionally published since 1990 when my Vietnam War memoir, The Proud Bastards, launched. TPB chronicles my time as a combat U.S. Marine in 1967-68. It’s still in print after all these years, currently with Simon & Schuster/Pocket. I’ve since written a few novels in different genres. I’m also working on a collection of “Dinger, PI” short stories that are being published on Motive Means Opportunity, a crime/mystery blog I share with two other writers of the same ilk. Currently I’m writing the Mac McClellan Mystery series which is set along the coast of the Florida Panhandle where I grew up.
 
Links:
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E. Michael Helms has a fantastic giveaway for you!
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A $20 Amazon Gift Card (International, where allowed)
Four pdf eBook copies of Deadly Catch (International)
and two print copies of Deadly Catch (US ONLY)
.
All you need to do to enter is answer the question below, also let us know if you are US or International, and leave your email so I can contact you if you win.
“Do you read books because of the setting?”
.

Giveaway will run from 8/23/16 – 8/31/16

This is a Tag Team Event hosted by myself and Sherry at fundinmental.

Now hop on over and check out Sherry’s review and leave a comment for an additional entry  HERE.

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Other Books by E. Michael Helms

20819729  27400409  20972482

319249  17239254  18007062

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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AlohaExpress banner

Okay. I admit it. There’s no way I wouldn’t stop and pick this book up if I spotted it on a shelf. Look at that fun cover! And it sounds like a fun mystery too.

Take a look! Enjoy the peek inside the book.

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Wait a sec! There’s two giveaways!

AlohaExpress cover

Genre: Mystery

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Synopsis

Travel agent Gabby LeClair, a divorced big-city transplant trying to find some aloha spirit in her soul, prides herself on working hard to give the Aloha Lagoon Resort guests a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But that turns out to be more than anyone bargained for when the body of a client is found dead during one of Gabby’s island tours. The victim is a lawyer who’s escorted a small group to Aloha Lagoon for distribution of a deceased billionaire’s estate…but it looks like someone believes the only good lawyer is a dead lawyer. Between the bad press causing her phone to go silent and the police working on “island time,” it’s up to Gabby it find the killer before her business goes belly up. With the help of her good friends, and a hot helicopter pilot with a flirtatious streak, Gabby turns sleuth to figure out just which member of the lawyer’s party had it in for him. But before long it’s clear there’s way more at stake than her livelihood, and if Gabby isn’t careful, she and her friends may find themselves on an island getaway to death.

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Enjoy this fun excerpt.

The twang of a steel guitar broke into the post-dinner chatter, followed by drums, and the MC announced the Aloha Lagoon Ahi Fire Dancers. I had to say this was my favorite part of the show, and I turned away from my amateur sleuthing to give my full attention to those muscular young men in their loincloths. It was an intense blend of pounding music and visual conflagration. Anyone who wasn’t mesmerized by it was probably dead asleep.

One who was obviously wide-awake was Nina Wesley who leapt up, ran to the stage, and nearly incinerated herself and one poor dancer by scooting up beside him and shaking her personality at him.

“Oh, man.” TJ rose and headed for the stage.

Her gyrations brought resort security, and between TJ and two security guards, Aunt Nina was carted off the stage and away from the luau, singing at the top of her lungs.

As they passed by our table, she called out, “Rick! Room 270.” She made a phone with her thumb and little finger then blew a kiss.

Rick covered his face with both hands and shook his head.

“You’ve created a monster,” I said softly in his ear.

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About the authors:

AlohaExpress author

Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens, are partners in crime—crime writing, that is. They live in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona, awesome for eight months out of the year, an inferno the other four. They write bloody murder, flirty romance, and wicked humor all in one package.

Website / Email / Facebook / Twitter

 

Extra! Extra!

Murder on the Aloha Express will be $0.99 during the tour.

Amazon / B&N

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

ADDITIONALLY: (U.S. ONLY) We will also have a giveaway through our Website—http://www.smithandsteffens.com —consisting of a beach towel, coffee mug, and signed copy of Murder on the Aloha Express.

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Click on the banner below to follow the tour and comment.

The more you comment, the more chances to win!

Goddess Fish Promotions

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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Teaser

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB at Books And A Beat.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page.
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

My Teaser for this week is from

Bayou Shadow Hunter

A Bayou Magic Novel

by Debbie Herbert 

29386149

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Genre:

My teaser from page 100 in the paperback.

 Graceful as a woodland sprite, she walked across the field, her brown wavy hair tossing in the breeze. She seemed to draw energy to her, as if the natural world became more animated in her presence. A dark angel, a whimsical witch who heard music where others experienced only silence.

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Read on if you want to know more.

Synopsis

HOT, SULTRY, DEADLY… THESE ARE THE SECRETS THAT LURK IN THE BAYOU.

Bent on revenge, Native American Shadow Hunter Tombi Silver could turn to only one woman, the “witch” Annie Matthews, for help. Her ability to hear auras had allowed her to discover Tombi’s friend mystically trapped by forces that could destroy them all. The accompanying message of a traitor in their midst meant Tombi could trust no one. Dare he bring Annie along on his quest to fight shadow spirits? Putting his faith in someone outside his tribe, especially one who pulled at his tightly controlled desires, could prove just as dangerous as his mission…

AMAZON

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How about you? Got a tease? Tell me!

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew!

Check out my list of reviews HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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Things to be happy about:

cutting boards

movie posters

notebooks

the Sunday crossword

sponges