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It’s Giveaway time! Get a free bonus entry into our monthly raffle and check out Alaska Home: A Romance Novel (Midnight Sons Book 3) by Debbie Macomber
It’s Giveaway time! Get a free bonus entry into our monthly raffle and check out Alaska Home: A Romance Novel (Midnight Sons Book 3) by Debbie Macomber
An unforgettable journey from A to Z! Boo Bear’s Light: An A B C Rhyming Picture Book for Children by Catherine Ann Russell
An unforgettable journey from A to Z! Boo Bear’s Light: An A B C Rhyming Picture Book for Children by Catherine Ann Russell
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hundreds of rave reviews! Serial Killer Trivia: 500 Insomnia-inducing True Crime Facts and Details to Keep You Up All Night by Kurtis-Giles Veysey and Nancy Veysey
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Hundreds of rave reviews! Serial Killer Trivia: 500 Insomnia-inducing True Crime Facts and Details to Keep You Up All Night by Kurtis-Giles Veysey and Nancy Veysey
A Duchess, her trusted butler, and a nose-it-all furry sidekick… Royally Snuffed by P.C. James and Kathryn Mykel
A Duchess, her trusted butler, and a nose-it-all furry sidekick… Royally Snuffed by P.C. James and Kathryn Mykel
FREE riveting sci-fi adventure! I, WARDEN: The Last Raptori – Book I by Charles Brass
FREE riveting sci-fi adventure! I, WARDEN: The Last Raptori – Book I by Charles Brass
Save $18 today only on this Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel by Shelby Van Pelt
Save $18 today only on this Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel by Shelby Van Pelt
It’s Giveaway time! Get a free bonus entry into our monthly raffle and check out Yours for Christmas (Fool’s Gold) by Susan Mallery
It’s Giveaway time! Get a free bonus entry into our monthly raffle and check out Yours for Christmas (Fool’s Gold) by Susan Mallery
A Thanksgiving Story of Family and Love: You Name It, Gram Made It by Carylee Carrington
A Thanksgiving Story of Family and Love: You Name It, Gram Made It by Carylee Carrington
Can Welsh detectives catch a cunning killer? Rise to The FlY (DI Winter Meadows Book 6) by Cheryl Rees-Price
Can Welsh detectives catch a cunning killer? Rise to The FlY (DI Winter Meadows Book 6) by Cheryl Rees-Price
Can they win at true love without losing the election? Dark Senator-Dom & Student BDSM Romance by Kathilee Riley and Dolliana Jeffries
Can they win at true love without losing the election? Dark Senator-Dom & Student BDSM Romance by Kathilee Riley and Dolliana Jeffries
An Ordinary Soldier Tasked With An Extraordinary Mission… Jeep Show: A Trouper at the Battle of the Bulge by Robert B. O’Connor
An Ordinary Soldier Tasked With An Extraordinary Mission… Jeep Show: A Trouper at the Battle of the Bulge by Robert B. O’Connor
He’s narcissistic, egocentric and politically incorrect — but don’t be surprised when you find yourself rooting for him! Call Me Pomeroy by James Hanna
He’s narcissistic, egocentric and politically incorrect — but don’t be surprised when you find yourself rooting for him! Call Me Pomeroy by James Hanna
Kindle Nation readers have already helped to make Maryland lawyer Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae one of the hottest hard-boiled fictional women in the Kindle Store by sending Debbi Mack’s debut novel Identity Crisis — still just 99 cents! — soaring up the bestseller lists.
Now Mack is back, and so is “Sam” McRae, in a sequel that you will not be able to put down: Least Wanted has joined Identity Crisis at just 99 cents on Kindle for a limited time, and both of Debbie Mack’s “Sam” McRae thrillers have soared into the top 100 among all Kindle bestsellers!
Here’s the set-up:
Least Wanted:Two murders, two suspects and two clients collide in the Nation’s Capital, intersecting in the strange worlds of girl gangs and computer porn.
Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae’s busy but orderly life as a Maryland lawyer takes a chaotic turn when two clients are accused of murder. A poor, black girl is accused of killing her mother. A young man suspected of embezzlement is accused of murdering his boss. The cases collide in a bizarre way involving girl gangs and computer pornography.
Sam ventures into the heart of DC’s suburban ghettos to find answers. A maniacal killer who’ll do anything to hide them stalks her. After a nearly disastrous confrontation, Sam must do business on the run. As the body count grows, Sam races to learn the truth and clear her clients before she becomes the next victim.
The stakes rise considerably as more people die at the hands of a maniacal killer who’ll do anything to keep Sam from learning the truth. Sam races to clear her clients before she becomes the next victim.
Reviews and recommendations:
“Least Wanted is a brave, heartbreaking, and thrilling book with a complex plot that takes attorney Sam McRae on a dizzying tour of several circles of urban hell, against a backdrop of white-collar crime. I loved it, and I admire Mack for writing it without flinching or suggesting easy answers. It’s a sequel that outdoes IDENTITY CRISIS and holds the promise of a great series.” — Timothy Hallinan, author of THE QUEEN OF PATPONG and CRASHED
“In Least Wanted, Debbi Mack serves up a solid mystery plot wired together with high octane suspense. — Austin S. Camacho, author of the Hannibal Jones mystery series
“Sam McRae is back and as brash as ever, with a colorful cast, a relentless plot, and enough twists to leave you breathless. Debbi Mack has carved her own niche in the mystery pantheon.” — Scott Nicholson, author of DISINTEGRATION
“Least Wanted hooks you from the start and never lets go. A fascinating and absorbing mystery.” — Simon Wood, author of LOWLIFES
“Fast-paced and brimming with dark, twisting plot turns, Least Wanted will keep crime and mystery buffs off balance and guessing until the very end.” — J.T. Cummins, author of COBBLESTONES
Debbi Mack studied and practiced law for more than 12 years before turning back to her dream career of writing. She is now a full-time author, using her legal background to craft hard-boiled mysteries.
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
IF YOU ARE READING THIS POST ON YOUR KINDLE, JUST ENTER
It would be hard to miss the Amazon marketing theme that aims to make us feel that a Kindle can transform and transport us anywhere, anytime in a matter of seconds. But that’s especially true when we’re reading a fully realized, fully imagined historical novel like N. Gemini Sasson’sWorth Dying For….
It’s 1314, Robert the Bruce is preparing for battle at Bannockburn, and he’s waiting for you. Here’s the set-up:
Robert the Bruce has known nothing but hardship since seizing Scotland’s crown. Parted from his wife and daughter and forced to flee through the Highland wilderness, he struggles to unite a kingdom divided by centuries old blood feuds. The price, however, must be paid in lives and honor.
Falling to temptation, Robert’s only means of redemption―and to one day win his wife Elizabeth back―is to forgive those who have wronged him. One by one, Robert must win back Scotland’s clans and castles. The one man who can help him purge the land of English tyranny is the cunning young nobleman, James ‘the Black’ Douglas, who seeks vengeance on those who took both his inheritance and his father’s life.
With the death of Longshanks, Edward II ascends to the throne of England. His first act as king is to recall the banished Piers Gaveston. Too soon, Edward learns that he cannot protect the one he loves most and still preserve his own life and crown. To those who demand the ultimate sacrifice, he must relinquish all power. To have his revenge, he must do what his father never believed him capable of―defeat Robert the Bruce on the field of battle.
Review
N. Gemini Sasson’s new book, “Worth Dying For” is a fitting successor to the first book of her seminal series on the life of Robert the Bruce, “The Crown in the Heather“.
The book opens with a vivid, brutal, no-holds-barred account of the Battle of Bannockburn, just outside Stirling in Scotland, where King Robert and his motley army of Scots overcame the vastly superior army of King Edward the Second. Written in present tense using the voice of King Edward, the prologue is at once harrowing and terrifying as the King of England sees his invincible army swept away, leaving him in mortal danger of capture. And thus is set the scene for the rest of the book as the author leads us from Robert’s greatest defeat to this shining pinnacle of his success.
We join Robert where we left him at the end of `The Crown in the Heather’, bowed and battered, penniless, without an army and with very little hope after his crushing defeat at Balqhidder. If he is to succeed, he needs money and a strategy to unite the warring families of Scotland. His stoutest ally, James Douglas, has his own demons to fight. To Robert’s strategic leadership he adds his skill as a tactician. Sasson shows these two threads as the two men claw their way back to a position where they can once again tackle the Eternal Enemy – England.
Meanwhile, Longshanks, scourge of the Scots, loses his final battle and is succeeded by his petulant, self-centred son, Edward II. While the Scots scrabble to rebuild, Edward brawls with his Lords. The author draws a sensitive portrait of Edward and his love for Piers Gaveston as well as his strained relationship with his beautiful French wife, Isabella. As in `The Crown in the Heather’, the story is told in the first person from the points of view of these three, very different, men.
Once again, Sasson takes the reader there, to the wind-swept hills of Scotland where Robert runs for his life, to the islands of the Irish Sea, to London where Edward I, in one of his last acts of malicious cruelty, commits his outrageous act against Robert’s women. The description is vivid, the attention to detail meticulous.
This is a first class book. I look forward to reading the final chapter.–Greta van der Rol
About the Author
N. Gemini Sasson writes historical fiction set in 14th-15th century Scotland, England and Wales. Her research has explored the lives of Owain Glyndwr, Robert the Bruce, James Douglas, Edward I, Edward II, Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella. Her fascination with the genre began with Alexandre Dumas’s The Three Musketeers and Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. When her imagination began to run rampant, she wrote to gain control over it.
Sasson is the author of The Crown in the Heather (The Bruce Trilogy: Book I), Worth Dying For (The Bruce Trilogy: Book II). The Honor Due A King: Book III, is expected this summer. Her other historical fiction novel,Isabeau, A Novel of Queen Isabella and Sir Roger Mortimer, is in the Kindle Store.
Sasson holds an M.S. in Biology from Wright State University, where she ran cross country on athletic scholarship. She has worked as an aquatic toxicologist, an environmental engineer, a teacher and a track and cross country coach. A longtime breeder of Australian Shepherds, her articles on bobtail genetics have been translated into seven languages.
Since truth is relative to one’s perspective, she firmly believes there are two (or more) sides to every story and she has every intention of redeeming some rather infamous historical figures.
Wild Sight, Highest Stakes, and the first novel in a classic famly saga by Howard Fast top this morning’s latest additions to our 200+ Free Book Alert listings….
But first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor
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“I’d like to be Alexis Stanton for a day!” –Lynn Fullmer
About the Author
J.C. Phelps has been writing since she can remember. But The Alexis Stanton Chronicles have been the most enjoyable works she’s written. Color Me Grey, the first book in the series, introduces the characters she has come to love. Shades of Grey and Reflections of Grey continue with the same characters and were equally as fun to write.
J.C. is considering another in the Alexis Stanton Chronicles, but is currently working on a couple other different stories to put to paper.
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.
Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store
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Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser!Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies.
Fair Warning: You May Not Want to Start Reading Today’s Free Excerpt if You Have Other Things to Do, Something Cooking on the Stove, or Anything Else Going On That You Can’t Afford to Ignore….
As Top 500 Amazon Reviewer Detra Fitch put it:
“This tale will keep readers engrossed to the point that they forget all else going on around them.
Truly fantastic!”
It’s Sunday, and there’s a fair chance that, as a citizen of Kindle Nation in good standing, you’ve set aside some time to read.
What works for you?
A murder mystery?
A frightening conspiracy thriller?
A new “female sleuth” protagonist in the form of a heroine with advanced degrees who has risen to the highest rungs on Big Oil’s corporate ladder but now must fight threats against her own life, disloyal employees, catastrophic hurricanes, international espionage, and a French saboteur?
A gripping, global-stakes mix of suspense and thrills ripped from today’s headlines, written with so much intelligence and experience that you’ll be moved to think in new ways about turmoil in the Arab world, skyrocketing gas prices, and the relentless series of catastrophes that have challenged New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico the past few years.
Energy executive Lynn Dayton thinks her challenge is fixing the troubled Houston refinery her company just bought. But she discovers she must save it, and hundreds of people in nearby Ship Channel plants, from injuries and deaths directed by a French saboteur. Simultaneously, she fights off threats to her own life. As Lynn deals with chemical leaks, disloyal employees, a new season of hurricanes, and mounting casualties, corrupted idealist Robert Guillard plans to manipulate her through her vulnerable sister. But Robert underestimates his prey…
Click here to download13 Days – The Pythagoras Conspiracy (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!
UK CUSTOMERS: Click on the title below to download
“13 Days has an excellent plot….L.A. Starks has contributed a fine murder mystery to the genre.”
— Alan Paul Curtis, Who-dunnit.com
“A knock-down conspiracy exposing the darkest secrets of the oil industry. Starks has made an impressive debut….”
— Michael Lucker, Screenwriter, Vampire In Brooklyn, Mulan II
“We never seem to learn. No matter the price of gasoline we just keep on truckin’. L. A. Stark was inspired by our gluttony to pen 13 Days. 13 Days takes readers on a fast paced ride into the world of petroleum. I would describe this book as espionage, thriller, suspense and entertaining. The quality of the plot and character make it difficult to believe this is a debut novel. The characterization is exquisite. The plot is exciting and informative.”
–Readers Favorite, Vine Voice
Notes for Understanding
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a colorless, potentially deadly gas routinely produced in oil refineries when sulfur is removed from crude oil, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and heating oil. H2S never leaves the refinery. It is converted to a safer, more useful, solid form-elemental sulfur. The OSHA safe limit for H2S is a maximum of 10 parts per million (ppm) over eight hours. Low concentrations of 100-200 ppm irritate the eyes and upper respiratory tract. A half-hour exposure to 500 ppm results in headache, dizziness, staggering, and other symptoms, sometimes followed by bronchitis or pneumonia. Higher concentrations paralyze respiration. Exposure to 800-1000 ppm may be fatal in half an hour. Even higher concentrations can be fatal instantly.
Pythagoras was a Greek mathematician and philosopher who lived from 582-496 BCE. He is best known for the Pythagorean Theorem, which states that the sum of the squares of the short sides of a right triangle equals the square of the longest side, the hypotenuse. Pythagoreans-Pythagoras and his students-discovered the relationship between musical notes could be expressed in numerical ratios of whole numbers. Indeed, Pythagoras and his students believed everything was related to mathematics. They were the first to describe something we now take for granted-the abstraction of numbers. For example, two stones plus two stones equal four stones is abstracted and generalized to 2+2=4. Pythagoreans believed whole numbers and their ratios could account for everything in nature, and that these geometrical relationships were sacred. One Pythagorean belief which resonates today is equality of the sexes. The group of students that gathered around Pythagoras was similar to a cult in its communal living and its insistence on secrecy. A student named Hippasus challenged Pythagoras by postulating the existence of irrational numbers, such as the square root of two. When, in the eyes of the Pythagoreans he worsened the crime by publicizing the disagreement, he was killed.
This book is dedicated to my family, to the memory of Karen Phillips, and to all who care for New Orleans.
1.
Thursday morning, Houston, Texas
Summer
“What’s wrong with the flare?” Lynn Dayton, executive vice president for TriCoast Energy’s US oil refining operations, pointed to one of the giant, sentry-like structures visible through the refinery’s conference room window. The yellow flame should have been soaring at least fifteen feet above its 120-foot stack. The three executives meeting with Lynn turned to look a quarter mile away at the feeble smear of orange and smoke.
Lynn’s job had traditionally been held by men, a tradition hard to change. Khakis she’d thrown on at four thirty this morning for the flight to Houston hinted at her long runner’s legs. “Is a unit down?”
“I’ll check.” Reese Spencer’s short, white hair seemed to bristle to attention. He hurried out of the conference room with his cell phone. She’d hired Reese, ex-navy pilot and long-time friend, to run this refinery she had convinced TriCoast’s board to buy just before it hit bankruptcy court. She’d promised the board she would make it profitable by refitting the refinery to produce more gasoline at lower cost.
Four weeks left. A blink of an eye compared to the time required to find the perfect piping changes that would increase efficiency, make the calculations, bid it out, get the welders on site to install it, and restart the unit, hoping the whole time the fix worked and you didn’t have a fire on start-up. A nanosecond when it took weeks to find additional crude-oil supply, unload tankers, run the crude, pipeline the resulting gasoline to wholesalers, and get paid. And you’re the only one in this room who cares if you don’t meet the deadline because you’re the only one who’ll be toast.
This too-small flare meant yet another setback.
A group of the refinery’s executives, including the two resentful people in front of her, had also tried to purchase the refinery in a management buyout but hadn’t been able to raise the cash.
A frown pulled at Dwayne Thomas’s tobacco-stained lips. Lynn glanced at him and the woman sitting next to him, angled back in metal-frame chairs.
She wondered if she could get all four of the VPs to pull together before she and they lost their jobs or worse, were reassigned to suffocate in Special Projects. “We want to answer questions about the merger of Centennial with TriCoast. Where are the others?”
Dwayne hacked a smoker’s cough and clamped his ham-sized hands together. “Riley Stevens told me he had a morning meeting.”
Riley’s probably at a banker’s breakfast. If he valued his job he’d be here. Lynn had met the Centennial CFO only twice. But in the last few weeks she had heard rumors about his attitude toward women.
Jean-Marie Taylor, a six-foot-tall woman who was VP in charge of safety and pronounced her name “John-Marie,” nudged Dwayne and rolled her eyes. “And Jay’s on a golf course somewhere.”
They’re accounted for so your worry is irrational. Hurricane season was starting. Luckily, only a few TriCoast employees had been missing after Katrina. But it took weeks to find their bodies.
Dwayne kept staring out the window. Lynn followed the gaze of the operations VP. An easy-to-read beacon of the refinery’s health, the flame atop the ten-story, needle-like structure telegraphed in a glance whether operations were normal. The same flame was still too short, too skinny. Dwayne turned. “Lynn, when you combine your existing Ship Channel refinery with ours, how many of us will you fire?”
What will you say this time to reassure him? “We need everyone. Now more than ever.” Except one.
“I don’t mean now. I mean . . .”
“Five operators down!” They heard Reese’s yell just before the wail of hydrogen sulfide alarms echoed off every tower, exchanger, and furnace.
The three of them jumped and rushed to the window, as if they could spot the source of the poisonous gas. But they knew hydrogen sulfide had no color.
“Where?” Lynn strained to hear over the high whine of the alarms.
Reese sprinted in from the hallway. “Adric thinks the leak is at a pretreater.” That’s why the flame on the flare is so short and skinny. The control center supervisor, Adric Washington, had likely turned off oil flowing into the pretreater to isolate it. By stopping the oil he was stopping the production of deadly gas.
“How many souls on board?” Reese asked quietly.
Souls on board. What a pilot says when the plane’s going down.
“A hundred and twenty of our own. Thirty-five contractors.” Dwayne wrapped big hands around the rim of his hard hat. “We gotta go see.”
Jean-Marie blocked the exit, hands on hips. “Stay here and don’t panic.”
“You can’t stop us,” Reese said.
“Yes, I can.” And she could. The safety officer pulled up to her six-foot-plus height. “The operators don’t need you big cheese in the way.”
After she strode away toward the refinery gate her command kept the room silent and motionless for only a moment.
“Now look at it!” Lynn ground her teeth in frustration as she put her hands on the conference room window and wrenched sideways for the best viewing angle. Pressurized liquid spilled out of a smaller flare and ignited as it hit oxygen and heat. Bright orange fireballs splattered the ground. She felt the glass vibrate against her fingers. We have to help those who might be hurt!
“I can’t let my men drop like flies!” Dwayne shouted, echoing her thoughts. “I don’t need Jean-Marie’s permission to go into my own refinery. Reese, you?”
Exclusion happens. Lynn interrupted, “Adric thinks the release is near the catalytic crackers. We’ll detour around them. Let’s find our folks.”
“You’re too pricey a chief to take a chance out there,” Dwayne said.
“Taking chances ‘out there,’ as you call it, is one reason I am the chief. We’ll go together. Reese has a truck.”
She grabbed a hard hat and safety glasses from a peg board in the bright white hallway. She and Dwayne raced outside to an old, red refinery truck with Reese and crammed themselves into it.
The truck rattled as the former navy airman ground gears. A guard waved them past razor wire fence and through the gate separating Centennial’s office building from its several acres of giant, spiky refining hardware.
Lynn heard the normal thunder of gas and liquids rushing through masses of pipes all around. Hot, sticky air swept in until they rolled up the truck’s open windows.
The processing towers were clumped in one area. Huge vessels two to five stories tall, each with manhole-sized inlets and outlets, were connected by bundles of either battleship gray or shiny insulated pipe. Pipelines of various diameters formed trellises over the roads. A complex network of more piping, heat exchangers, chillers, compressors, and pumps filled between the towers like metallic kudzu.
Everything had a number. Rushing through the C-200 area, they all jumped as a siren blast ricocheted off every exposed metal pipe, drum, and vessel in the refinery.
“Pull over!” Dwayne shouted. “That’s the H2S alarm again. We could be in the middle of another release!”
“We’ll be safer at the control center,” Reese said. He gunned the engine.
Staring over the black asphalt between the silver pipes, Lynn saw five mounds she at first thought were sacks of blue jumpsuits. “No! Stop! Our people are over there!” Oh Lord, none of them is moving.
Reese braked so hard his passengers braced themselves against the dashboard. Dwayne reached across Lynn to open the door but Reese yelled, “Don’t get out! You need respirators.” He gunned the truck again and they screeched up to a bright yellow kiosk.
“Hot zone!” Lynn shouted when they jumped from the truck and grabbed their equipment. Rotten-egg odor filled her nostrils. It’ll be even deadlier when you can’t smell it once your nerves are paralyzed.
“Drive to the control center,” Lynn told Reese. “Tell Adric to clear a space near the lockers. We’ll drag them in. We can’t wait for body boards.” She flipped on her oxygen mask making voice communication no longer possible.
Dwayne put a finger between the mask and Lynn’s face to check that her respirator was sealed tightly. She did the same for him. His practiced care with this simple safety gesture touched her.
They ran toward the bodies.
Two limp forms lay motionless next to an orange flag at the huge metal drum known as the catalytic cracking pretreater. Another operator was draped over the big bypass valve wheel. Two more lay twenty feet farther. Hydrogen sulfide for sure.
Thousands of butterflies wanted out of her stomach. Lynn told herself to stay calm. Slow down. Don’t screw up. Everyone’s depending on you.
She saw the first person. His shirt was pulled up over his mouth and his eyes were open.
Maybe they’re just unconscious. Maybe the concentration’s not high enough to kill them. Have to get them out and start CPR. Lynn pointed to a gap in the pipe near the valve and dragged her finger across her throat. The source.
Dwayne nodded and pointed toward the bodies farthest from the gap, the ones most likely to survive.
He knelt next to a man, Lynn behind a woman lying face up. They hoisted the operators under their armpits and dragged them toward the control center. Steel reinforcing in the toes of the woman’s boots caused her feet to splay out and hit the ground. The boot heels scraped mercilessly on the cement pad and caught in cracks as Lynn dragged her. The woman’s hard hat banged into Lynn’s chest with each step. She tried to forget that the most she’d lifted in a weight room was forty pounds. She tried not to think the words “dead weight.”
Her mask began to slip on her sweaty face. Surely Dwayne didn’t loosen the seal when he checked it. She smelled sour gas but didn’t dare lay the woman down to tighten the seal. If only she could make it to the control center.
She spared Dwayne a glance. Intent on moving another victim, he grunted, his face revealing only the strain.
They were still fifty yards from the cement-block control center when Jean-Marie, Adric, and a man Lynn didn’t recognize ran past. Also bulked up with respirators, they were looking for victims, too. Lynn nodded toward the pretreater valve.
The harder she panted, the more the sulfurous smell seeped into her nose. Twenty yards to go.
Reese held open the door of the control building that led to the lockers. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Jean-Marie and the others found the remaining operators. Can’t leave anyone behind.
Lynn pulled the woman in, laid her down on the tiled floor, and cradled her head as it rolled to one side. She ripped off the mask she’d put on only minutes before, pressing her fingers to the woman’s smooth, brown throat, then to her wrist. Where’s her pulse? God, help me find it! The woman’s black curls were damp against her head. The smell of hydrogen sulfide steamed from her skin.
“I can’t feel anything,” Dwayne yelled.
The door opened. Jean-Marie, Adric, and the third man dragged in the other three operators. They looked even worse than the woman Lynn was treating.
“Medics are on the way. They said to focus on the ones we can save.” Jean-Marie’s words tapered off until they were almost inaudible.
Lynn pumped the woman’s chest through her thick blue shirt. Nothing. When she glanced up she saw heads shaking. Lynn kept pushing. “We have to try harder!”
“Christ, none of ’em has a pulse or is breathing,” Dwayne said.
“My man’s got a heartbeat!” Adric shouted. “Help me!”
Lynn pumped the woman’s chest again. She hadn’t breathed nor had her heart pumped a beat during the time Lynn had been with her. Probably not for fifteen to twenty minutes before that.
“We have to help the ones we can save,” Jean-Marie repeated.
Lynn made the horrible choice she had to make and placed the woman’s hands across her chest. Her palms were already cool. She shuddered and moved next to Adric. Her throat burned with the sob she stifled.
Adric’s black forehead glistened. He shook the man’s thin shoulders. “Are you okay?”
No response.
Lynn tilted the man’s head back and lifted his chin to establish an airway while Adric put his ear next to the man’s nose and mouth so he could listen and watch his chest.
The door to the adjacent room opened and other operators crowded in. “What’s wrong?” “Who’s hurt?” Voices rose to shouts.
“Get them out!” Lynn heard panic in Dwayne’s yell. The voices stilled and the door closed. The heat from the extra bodies abated.
Pinching the man’s nose shut, Adric breathed twice into his mouth.
“Come on buddy, you can do it,” Lynn implored.
“Breathe, goddamn you! Breathe!” The big engineer knelt over another body nearby.
Still no response. Adric repositioned the man’s head and blew breath into his lungs again.
Lynn heard a gasp. Thank God. She clamped an oxygen mask to the man’s mouth. The man gasped several times more and coughed. Every person in the room sighed deeply, as if holding extra air for him. Adric leaned against the lockers.
“He’s going to make it,” Dwayne said.
The applause stopped as soon as it started. We saved only one, not five. The muscles in Dwayne’s arms convulsed.
Lynn stood up and moved back to the woman she’d brought in. The woman wore no ring because safety rules forbade jewelry. Wonder if she’s married. Has kids. Sifting out thoughts of her own boyfriend and his children, she clasped the woman’s cold hands, then those of each of the three men on the floor nearby. Tears she’d been trying to hold back gathered in her eyes.
“Let’s get him next door to the monitor room and wait for the ambulances,” Dwayne said. “It’s not good for him to see these others.”
“But Reese, would you . . .?” Lynn didn’t have to complete her question before Reese nodded. He would wait behind with those they hadn’t found fast enough.
She and Adric carried the lightly built man into a room lit with dozens of glowing screens. They laid him on a pallet of raincoats.
“Dwayne, have you met this man?” Jean-Marie asked.
“Armando Garza. Contractor, but he used to work here full-time. Knows Centennial as well as any of us.”
The now-conscious man stiffened, tried to sit up, and fell back. He clutched the oxygen to his face and took longer, deeper breaths.
“Easy, cher,” Jean-Marie said.
After a few minutes, two operators boosted Armando up and led him to the eyewash basin.
“Water’s the next course,” Dwayne murmured to silent nods. They’d all seen mild hydrogen sulfide poisoning before. Usually the victim went to the hospital, rested awhile, then stood up and went back to living. This was much worse.
The bigger operator braced himself and clamped his arms around Armando’s chest. The other held the man’s head over the basin. They opened jets and water shot into his face. Armando jumped back when the water hit his eyelids, then slumped to allow his face and eyes to be flushed.
Lynn asked Adric what had happened.
“My operators went out about eight thirty to do a pipe inspection. I can’t believe it. Not all four . . .” He stopped, choked.
A cramp knifed through Lynn’s calves. A cramp as fast as a light switch being flipped. She stretched up and down through her toes to ease the excruciating clutch, a physical betrayal of the emotion she always had to hide.
After a few minutes over the sink, the husky operator tilted the man’s head back and the other rinsed his eyes with saline solution. Then they led him to a shower around the corner.
A squinty-eyed man pushed in next to Adric. His mustache almost covering his big teeth, he was the stranger who’d helped Jean-Marie and Adric with the victims. “Like Adric said, the operators had left for rounds. Armando was standing around telling jokes and got a call-out to the cracking unit. When he radioed his crew chief for help, they notified us because we were a half mile closer. Said they thought it was H2S.”
Adric recovered his voice and picked up the story. “After the call, I had my crew turn off flow, then sound the alarms.”
“I’m glad you were right on top of the situation,” Lynn said.
Turning off the oil had also cut the gas flow to the flare and explained the flare’s dimming they’d seen from the conference room, as Lynn had assumed. This refinery still has its expert operators. But what caused the leak?
The waters off the Outer Cape have been taking seamen’s lives for centuries. Now, in a very contemporary sea yarn by John M. Urban, they give back A Single Deadly Truth:
Here’s the set-up:
On the stormy February night in 1952, the 500-foot oil tanker Pendleton snapped in half in 60-foot seas off Cape Cod. The ensuing rescue of the Pendleton ranks as one of the most heroic stories in the history of the US Coast Guard. That much is true. John M. Urban’s novel A Single Deadly Truth explores another story that might have begun that same stormy night – Just $2.99 in the Kindle Store!
In a work of fiction, A Single Deadly Truth tells that another ship sank that same night, just a few miles from where the Pendleton went down. The ship’s sole survivor remained committed to taking the story, and the ship’s location, to his grave. Until now.
A Single Deadly Truth features a thirty-five year old college professor and part-time harbormaster named Steve Decatur. He spends summers living aboard an old wooden sailboat in the town of Harbor Point, Massachusetts. When Decatur’s friend, a lobsterman and diver named Chris Blanchard, is found dead off Cape Cod, Decatur is called on to retrieve the man’s boat. Along the way, there’s growing evidence that Blanchard’s death was a murder, not an accident.
To the end, Decatur remains persistent in uncovering the truth. In doing so he uncovers a much larger crime.
About the Author:
Like his protagonist, John Urban has worked as a college professor and he sails the waters of Southern New England on an old wooden sailboat that he restored. He is a regular contributor to the blog Write On The Water. His short stories have appeared in the anthologies Seasmoke and Deadfall.
The ocean was his desired destination from an early age. As a boy living a landlocked life in Western Massachusetts, nights were dedicated to reading about boats and watching Flipper and weekends were spent boating and fishing, April-to-October, on Long Island Sound.
Thoughts of a career at sea ended early after a stint at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, but the circle of life has come around some years later in the form of the fictional world of Steve Decatur.
Urban lives just outside Boston and spends his summers near the waters edge of Buzzards Bay and Rhode Island Sound. A Single Deadly Truth, published on Amazon Kindle, is Urban’s debut novel. A second Steve Decatur mystery is due out in 2011. For more information: http://www.johnmurban.com/
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
Did you know that you can download the classic Philip K. Dick story behind Matt Damon’s new movie The Adjustment Bureau for just 99 cents on Kindle? That’s just one of the treats in store for you in today’s Top Ten List, followed by a complete and freshly updated listing of hundreds of free contemporary titles in the Kindle Store….
But first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor
Here’s your chance to go behind the scenes of reality TV. Personal trainer Cassidy Novak thinks that her appearance on a reality show will help fund her dream, but it turns out that not only does she have to walk the plank, she is now being stalked by a crazed murderer. Can she trust hunky photographer Zach Gallagher to help her?
“Reading Sink or Swim made me feel like I was Cassidy. People don’t ever know what happens behind the scenes. I thought it was a great read and kept me in suspense.” –Michelle Costa, former contestant Big Brother 10
“I loved this book! – Great suspense, tight writing, interesting plot, excellent character development.“ –Stacy L. Daniels
Here’s the set-up:
When reality TV turns to murder, it’s sink, swim or die. Ambitious personal trainer Cassidy Novak has gained national fame for starring on Sink or Swim, nicknamed SOS, a hit reality game show set aboard a Tall Ship. She hopes the prize money will help to launch her dream of owning a chain of fitness centers. Not only does she lose the competition and have to walk the plank in the finale, after the game show ends, the terror begins. Upon returning to her small Massachusetts hometown, Cassidy discovers she has attracted a stalker masterminding his own twisted game. She struggles to focus on her health club job and celebrity endorsement opportunities, but her stalker has other plans. As her former competitors get knocked off one-by-one, Cassidy refuses to play by his bizarre rules. She’s also being shadowed by hunky photographer Zach Gallagher, who has been assigned to capture her personal moments for a spread in the local newspaper. She wants to trust Zach, but fears he may not be the nice guy that he seems. With or without Zach’s help, when the stalker forces a showdown by threatening her family, Cassidy must once again walk the plank – this time for her life.
Kindle edition includes bonus excerpts from authors Darcia Helle and Maria Savva, and a sample chapter of Stacy Juba’s mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today.
What the Reviewers Say
“Sink or Swim was an easy read and extremely well written… I would love to see it come out as a movie one day!” –Stephenie LaGrossa, former contestant Survivor: Palau, Guatemala, Heroes vs. Villains
“With Sink or Swim, Stacy Juba takes a look at our reality TV craze. Whether you enjoy reality shows or not, it’s hard to miss the famous and the infamous that these shows create. Sink or Swim takes us behind the scenes and shows us what happens after the cameras have stopped filming.” –BookAddict
“As with the first book, 25 Years Ago Today, I could not put this book down until the end. Well written with real characters that come alive as the story unfolds. Just how paranoid can you get when you know you have a stalker? How can anything be normal in every day life? Considering I got the stalker wrong, you’ll be surprised at the twists and turns that will make you second guess the identity of the stalker. Again, I highly recommend this book to everyone out there who enjoys a good mystery.” –Fettwolf
About the Author
Award-winning writer Stacy Juba is the author of arresting mysteries from light to literary, including Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and Sink or Swim. She is also the author of the recently released patriotic children’s picture book The Flag Keeper. Her paranormal young adult thriller Dark Before Dawn will be released in early 2012.
Stacy is a past recipient of the William F. Deeck – Malice Domestic Grant for new mystery writers. Her young adult novel Face-Off, about twin brothers competing on the hockey rink for their father’s approval, was published by Avon Books when she was 18 years old under her maiden name, Stacy Drumtra. Stacy has written more than 2,000 articles and won over a dozen writing awards.
Click here to downloadSink or Swim (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!
UK CUSTOMERS: Click on the title below to download
When an alien entity lands in remote Southern Appalachia, a clairvoyant psychology professor, a drunken dirt farmer, and a disillusioned tycoon team up to stop it before the infection spreads. From the author of Kindle Nation favorites like The Red Church and Disintegration, anew kind of zombie, an otherworldly reaper…
Here’s the set-up for Scott Nicholson’s Forever Never Ends, just 99 cents on Kindle:
The alien roots spread into the forest and feed on the surrounding organisms, altering the life forms it encounters. Plants wilt from the contact, trees wither, animals become deformed monstrosities, and people become botanical zombies driven to convert their neighbors.
Tamara Leon must control the telepathic connection she develops with the alien and attempt to understand it in order to destroy it. But the psychic bond could consume her as she leads her unlikely partners into battle.
The alien doesn’t want to devastate the world. It only wants to survive. But so do the people whose metabolism has become food for an otherworldly reaper.
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Plaudits from other authors:
“Fast paced and always creepy, this is one author that aims to kill and never misses.” – Jeremy Robinson, author of INSTINCT and THRESHOLD
“Hold onto your pants, because Nicholson is about to scare them off.”– J.A. Konrath, ORIGIN
“Always surprises and always entertains.“- Jonathan Maberry, PATIENT ZERO and ROT & RUIN
“A gallery of fine characters, a remote location, and an alien entity bent on feeding. Nicholson has cooked up a perfect tale from this simple recipe, and the result will fill your dreams.”–William Meikle, author of THE INVASION and THE VALLEY
“A fresh and true voice that will affect you, disturb you, enrage you, or make you laugh. He will not, however, leave you cold.”–Kevin J. Anderson, co-author of the Dune series
“I live in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and much of my fiction is based on mountain legends, local haunted places, and strange events. I was inspired by my grandmother’s storytelling, and have always written as long as I can remember.
“My novels include the Kindle bestsellers Disintegration, The Red Church, Speed Dating with the Dead, and The Skull Ring, as well as eight other novels, including the urban fantasy Cursed! with J.R. Rain and the paranormal romance series October Girls. I’ve also created the comics Grave Conditions and DIRT and have written six screenplays, several of which are available on Kindle.
“Look for my new thriller LIQUID FEAR on April 1.
“My web site http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/ has writing advice, fiction excerpts, art and samples from my comic books, my movie work, and numerous essays.”
And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample:
has joined Identity Crisis at just 99 cents on Kindle for a limited time, and both of Debbie Mack’s “Sam” McRae thrillers have soared into the top 100 among all Kindle bestsellers! 
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made me feel like I was Cassidy. People don’t ever know what happens behind the scenes. I thought it was a great read and kept me in suspense.”
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