Joe Konrath’s novel Shaken, the seventh book in his Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels detective series, arrived quietly on thousands of Kindles overnight, but I’m guessing the book’s effect on the publishing world will be anything but quiet. After publishing the first six books with traditional publishers, Konrath jumped their sinking ship and swam for shore via AmazonEncore, which has just released the direct-to-Kindle version with bonus chapters and will bring Shaken out in paperback in February.

Kindle Nation was honored to play a small role in the launch of Shaken with free installments of the first 75 percent of the book (still available here!), and we will be watching with great interest to see where it debuts on the Kindle Store bestseller list later today! I will be very surprised if I don’t see it among the top 50 bestselling Kindle books very soon. And, as we learned from Amazon’s press release earlier this week, if you are in the top 50 Kindle books, that probably means you are in the top 50, period.

Amazon has posted a 5-star review by author Tess Gerritsen on the Kindle page for Shaken, and we faithfully reproduce it here:

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: Tess Gerritsen Reviews Shaken

Tess Gerritsen is a physician and an internationally bestselling author. She gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest. She is also the author of the bestsellers Ice Cold, The Keepsake, The Bone Garden, The Mephisto Club, and more. Read her exclusive guest review of J.A. Konrath‘s Shaken:

J.A. Konrath achieves the stupendous feat of blending both a prequel and a sequel in this timeline-hopping thriller, expertly making the pieces click together like an intricate Swiss watch.

Over the course of her decades-long career, Detective Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels has pursued her own great white whale: a sickeningly twisted serial killer named Mr. K. Years ago, Jack came heartbreakingly close to catching him, but he managed to slip away. Now Mr. K is back from her nightmares, and she’s his captive, in a secret place where she’s beyond rescue. Bound and gagged, the clock ticking down till zero, Jack faces a death more excruciating than anyone’s worst imaginings. She has seen Mr. K.’s other victims, so she knows how terrible her end will be.

In flashback, we see just how Jack ended up at this moment in her life. From her first exposure as a rookie to Mr. K’s handiwork, through her career-long pursuit of her nemesis, we watch Jack grow as a cop, as a woman, and as a friend to her two eccentric colleagues, Harry and Herb. That journey is both terrifying and wildly hilarious, a wacky combination that only a writer as good as Konrath can pull off. Throw in a deeply moving denouement, and you have a story that hits every single mark.

The pace is frantic, the horrors truly horrifying, and the dialogue will have you laughing out loud even as you’re gripping the pages in terror. Konrath is so good, he makes other novelists jealous–and count me as one of them.

Five very enthusiastic stars out of five. –Tess Gerritsen