The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: April 2012

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: April 2012

Okay, every thriller reader out there HAS to sign up for this giveaway, if you have not read this yet, of course. Lisa Gardner is my new favorite mystery/thriller author. She takes you on a crazy psychological ride that you can not get off of!

So mystery fans, spread the news around. I have a copy to giveaway!

Check this one out from Goodreads!

In New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner's latest D.D. Warren thriller, the relentless Boston investigator must solve a coldly calculated murder--before it happens.
In four days, someone is going to kill me . . .
Detective D. D. Warren is hard to surprise. But a lone woman outside D.D.'s latest crime scene shocks her with a remarkable proposition: Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant believes she will be murdered in four days. And she wants Boston's top detective to handle the death investigation.
It will be up close and personal. No evidence of forced entry, no sign of struggle.
Charlie tells a chilling story: Each year at 8:00 p.m. on January 21st, a woman has died. The victims have been childhood best friends from a small town in New Hampshire; the motive remains unknown. Now only one friend, Charlie, remains to count down her final hours.
But as D.D. quickly learns, Charlie Grant doesn't plan on going down without a fight. By her own admission, the girl can outshoot, outfight, and outrun anyone in Boston. Which begs the question, is Charlie the next victim, or the perfect perpetrator? As D.D. tracks a vigilante gunman who is killing pedophiles in Boston, she must also delve into the murders of Charlie's friends, racing to find answers before the next gruesome January 21 anniversary. Is Charlie truly in danger, or is she hiding a secret that may turn out to be the biggest threat of all?
In four days, someone is going to kill me. But the son of a bitch has gotta catch me first.

Are you terrified yet?

Contest Rules:

*Contest Runs from April 4-April 30

*Please leave your email address

* Please reside in the United States

*Please be a follower of my blog

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: March winner

Thank you to all who entered!

Carol is our winner!

Historical fiction and mystery are my very most favorite genres. This books sounds like a dream. I would really love to read it.

CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

I am a follower.

Please send me your address Carol and the book is all yours!

Stay tuned for next month's giveaway.

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: March 2012

The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J Rose

I've only read M.J. Rose's novels, not her mystery/thrillers. These all sound fascinating. I had a chance to meet her last year at BEA and get a signed copy of The Hypnotist.

I've seen this book circulating around the blogosphere and have read some wonderfully passionate reviews. I am happy to have an extra ARC of this to give away to one of you.

Here's the description from Goodreads:

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

Contest Rules:

* Contest Runs from March 7- April 4

* Please leave an email address

* Please reside in the United States

* Please be a follower

Thank you!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: February Winner

Thanks to all for entering my latest Mysterious Giveaway.

The winner of Defending Jacob by William Landay is...

Jess!

"This book sounds very exciting and I bet reading it would put me right on the edge of my seat! I like that you got to meet the author- how cool.

I am a GFC follower: Jess/Fairday Morrow

email: haightjess at gmail dot com

I am looking forward to checking out his site!"

I will be sending out January, February and March's winner at the same time so it will be a little bit before you all get your packages. Thanks for the patience!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: February 2012

I am extremely excited to be able to give a copy of this new thriller away to one of you. I had the pleasure of meeting the author last fall at MIBA (Midwest Booksellers Association show). He was one of the authors who came to sign his book. I flapped books while he signed them to get them ready to give away at the event. He was a really nice man, very happy to be there and seemed excited about his newest work. I told him mystery/thrillers was one of my favorite genres and that I looked forward to reading it. I was able to get an extra copy so I can now put it in the hand of a lucky reader!

Check out the description from Goodreads and

be sure to check out his website below as well.

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

Author Website:

William Landay

Contest Rules:

* Runs from February 3- February 29

* Please leave an email address

* Please reside in the United States

* Please be a follower of my blog

Thank you!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: January winner!

Always a few days late, I am....

Thanks to all who entered my January Mysterious Giveaway!

The winner is...

Ann

Ann said...

Thanks for the giveaway!

summergal05(at)gmail(dot)com

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: January 2012

Are you all ready for year 2 of The Year of Mysterious Giveaways?!

(I'm imaging crowds screaming...whoooooooo!)

Well, alrighty then!

I'm going to give it a go and deliver up a variety of mysteries to give away;

from cozy to thriller.

This month I wanted to start out with a little cozy.

The White House Chef Mysteries are really fun reads! I've only read one, Buffalo West Wing, and had a lot of fun with it. My mom has read all of them and just wants to borrow this before I give it away!

Click here for a full description!

I did not feel like I missed out on much not having read the first three books.

Contest Rules:

Contest runs from January 5-January 31

Please reside in the United States

Please be a follower

Please leave an email address

Thanks to Dana Kaye @ Kaye Publicity for sending me a copy to give away!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways December 2011 winner!

Once again, I'm behind on all things with due dates!

Sorry!

The winner of Darkness all Around by Doug Magee is...

skkorman said...

Sounds like a good read—please enter me to win! I'm a GFC follower (skkorman)!

skkorman AT bellsouth DOT net

Thanks all for entering!

Happy reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: December 2011

I can't believe it's been one whole of year of Mysterious Giveaways!!! I want to thank all of those who stopped by and entered. Thanks especially to those that stopped by almost every month. I sure do appreciate the support from all of you to spread the love of mysteries out there in the reading world.

I also thank the wonderful publishers, publicists, and authors who have been kind enough to partner with me in my giveaways by supplying me with copies to feature and send to you all. My goal was to discover different mysteries and to share them. I think we had a pretty good selection.

I hope for those who won, that you enjoyed the reads. I hope for those that stopped by and entered, that you had some great titles to add to your reading list.

I wouldn't mind a little feedback from you lovely readers of mine.

Did you guys really like these monthly contests?

Should I do it again next year?

Would you want to see any different kinds of mystery/thrillers?

Before I get to the newest month's giveaway, here is the winner of last month's copy of

Bad Moon by Todd Ritter!

Karen!

She says...

"Thanks for the chance to read these mystery novels :)
karenk
kmkuka at yahoo dot com"

Thank you Karen for stopping by and entering!

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: December 2011

This is a very exciting thriller for you all. Suspenseful, thrilling with a little bit of a love story there too. Check out the description from Amazon and then sign up below!!

Darkness All Around by Doug Magee

When there’s DARKNESS ALL AROUND . . . some memories are best forgotten

Within the span of one harrowing week, Risa’s alcoholic husband, Sean, disappears, and her best friend, Carol, is brutally murdered. Eleven years later, Risa has seemingly put her life back together again, comforted by the love of her new husband, who is a local politician, and the knowledge that Carol’s killer has been convicted. But then just as suddenly as he disappeared, Sean resurfaces— sober, plagued by horrific recollections of Carol’s murder, and convinced he was the real killer.

Sean’s startling claim buzzes through the small, football-crazy Pennsylvania community, and Risa is left to wonder if the man she still loves actually committed the grisly murder. Her growing belief in his innocence sends her on a treacherous search for the truth: a search that reveals ugly secrets that her new husband and the town’s law enforcement community are hiding.

Contest Rules:

Contest runs from December 3- December 31

Please be a follower of my blog

Please leave an email

Please reside in the United States

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: November 2011

Hello Everyone! I am a few days late on getting the winner for The Ninth Day!

Thanks for your patience. Ryan from Wordsmithonia is our winner!!!!

Thanks to him and to all who signed up!

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: November 2011

Bad Moon by Todd Ritter

I am very excited to give this one away. New author to me. Very thrilling story line! Check out the description from Amazon.

On the same night that Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, ten-year-old Charlie Olmstead jumped on his bike to see if there was some way he could get a better look. It was the last anyone ever saw of him. After Perry Hollow Police Chief Jim Campbell found Charlie’s bike caught in the water above Sunset Falls, he assumed the worst. Everyone did—except Charlie’s mother.

Years later, Eric Olmstead—now a famous author and Charlie’s younger brother—has come back to Perry Hollow to bury his mother and fulfill her last request: Find Charlie. To do so, he goes to the current police chief, his former sweetheart, Kat Campbell, who happens to be Jim Campbell’s daughter. Together they soon discover that Eric’s mother was convinced Charlie was kidnapped, and that finding him—whether he was dead or alive—was her secret obsession. While she never succeeded, she did uncover clues that suggested he wasn’t the only boy across Pennsylvania to vanish into thin air during that time.

Contest Rules:

* Please be a follower of my blog

* Please leave an email address

* Please reside in the United States.

Contest Runs from November 4- November 30

Thanks to Dana Kaye Publicity for providing me a copy to give away!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: October 2011

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: October 2011

The Ninth Day by Jamie Freveletti

I liked the cover for this one. It fits the October/Fall theme. It also sounds like a fantastic mystery thriller. Who's with me? Ready to enter another fabulous give away in the

Year of Mysterious Giveaways?!

Description from Goodreads:

In less than nine days, terror crosses the border . . .

Hiking in Arizona, biochemist Emma Caldridge inadvertently interrupts the operations of dangerous traffickers in human cargo—and is chased south into the arms of millionaire drug merchants. Suddenly a prisoner of Mexico’s most feared cartel, Emma makes a shocking discovery in the marijuana fields outside Ciudad Juarez: plants rotting with a flesh-eating toxin that causes a truly horrible death within nine days of exposure. And there is no antidote.

The cartel believes that U.S. agents contaminated the plants, and, determined to make their enemy pay, they prepare to spread their lethal product across America. Emma Caldridge searches desperately for a cure, but time is running out more quickly than she anticipated. For Emma herself has been infected—and, barring a miracle, she will die before the terrible dawning of . . .

Contest Rules:

Runs October 3- October 30

*Please be a follower of my blog.

*Please leave an email address.

* Please reside in the United States.

Thanks to Dana Kaye Publicity for sending me a copy to give away.

Happy reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

Contest Winners!

CONTEST WINNERS!

I had multiple giveaways going this month and they ended around the same day so I am lumping the winners in one post!

Thanks to everyone who entered in both the Learning to Breathe contest and my current Year of Mysterious Giveaways contest. I appreciate all of you for stopping by! I wish I had gifts for you all.

:)

The winner of Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta is Miranda....

I follow on GFC ~ Miranda Ward
freebiegoddess03@aol.com
USA

Thanks Miranda! You will be notified!

The winner of Learning to Breathe and the very special extra gift from the author is Gayle...

I could probably benefit from this book even though I haven't had a panic attack for about a year. Sometimes I feel one close by and have to stop and remember how to breathe also. I have empathy for anyone who suffers this condition.

gaylelin@hotmail.com

Thanks Gayle! You too will be notified.

Both winners will be receiving their prizes straight from the publishers. Thank you to them for giving me and you this opportunity to win these wonderful items.

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: September 2011

* The Winner of last month's Giveaway of

William Kent Krueger's Northwest Angle is...

"I am a new Follower of yours; and a new Follower of William Kent Krueger!

I would really like to win this Giveaway!
Email:
madley (AT) cogeco (DOT) ca
Thank you for this opportunity!
Patricia"

Thanks Patricia!

And now on to this month...

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: September

I have yet to give away a cozy type of mystery so I thought this month would be a good time to do that! I have never read this series before but I have heard good things. I was lucky to be able to partner with the publisher, Tor/Forge to share a copy with you all this month.

Thank you to them for being so kind!

Here is a little description of this series:

Midnight Louie Series

Temple Barr is an ace P.R. wizard when it comes to promoting Las Vegas’ hottest clients. She’s also an amateur sleuth who has caught her share of bad guys.

B-movie actress Savannah Ashleigh begs Temple to investigate the suspicious death of her rich aunt’s handyman. Temple happily takes the case, if for no other reason than to take her mind off her chaotic private life. Her ex-fiancé, the Mystifying Max, is back–minus his memory. And current fiancé Matt Devine has shown up from a stint in Chicago with the promise of a surprising future. Which may or may not include Temple.

As Temple digs into the man’s untimely demise she finds plenty of suspect and greedy humans swarming around the ailing Aunt Violet, who means to leave her estate to her resident cats. Temple thinks she’s close to solving the case, but it becomes clear to Midnight Louie, Temple’s roommate and ace feline detective, that there are more deaths both human and feline coming. Add in the return of a mysterious stalker from the past, and it's murder and mayhem on all fronts for Temple, Louie, and the ones they love in the newest story in the Midnight Louie mystery series.

Contest Rules:

* Please be a follower of my blog

* Please leave an email address

* Please reside in the US or Canada

* Please let me know if you have read this series before

Contest Runs from September 1- September 30

Thanks to all who entered last month and I look forward to seeing who enters

this month!!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: August 2011

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: July 2011

Are you ready for this one? I am really excited to give away this new thriller by William Kent Krueger. If you have not read him, he is an extremely talented writer. He will suck you in.

This book is #11 in the Cork O'Connor series but I've been told you do not have to read them in order, unless you are super OCD about that kind of stuff.

He is a local author for me. He lives in St. Paul, MN. I had the chance to meet him many years ago during a drop by signing of his stock at my bookstore. The one thing I remember was his comment to me. He said "You are a really good bookseller!". To explain, I had to help several customers while he was waiting for me to gather up his stock to sign. He watched me for about 10 minutes bustling around! Thanks to him for that comment.

Here is a description of Northwest Angle from the author's website:

During a houseboat vacation on the remote Lake of the Woods, a violent gale sweeps through unexpectedly, stranding Cork and his daughter, Jenny, on a devastated island where the wind has ushered in a force far darker and more deadly than any storm. Amid the wreckage, Cork and Jenny discover an old trapper’s cabin where they find the body of a teenage girl. She wasn’t killed by the storm, however; she’d been bound and tortured before she died. Whimpering sounds coming from outside the cabin lead them to a tangle of branches toppled by the vicious winds. Underneath the debris, they find a baby boy, hungry and dehydrated, but still very much alive. Powerful forces intent on securing the child pursue them to the isolated Northwest Angle, where it’s impossible to tell who among the residents is in league with the devil. Cork understands that to save his family he must solve the puzzle of this mysterious child whom death follows like a shadow.

Author Website:

William Kent Krueger

Contest Rules:

Runs August 2- August 30

* Please be a follower

* Please leave an email address

* Please reside in the United States or Canada.

Extra Note: For my mystery/thriller readers, could you please post about this giveaway? I am trying to branch out and find more mystery/thriller readers and I know they are out there!!!

I will add an extra entry for those that do!!!

I appreciate it!

Thank you to the publisher Atria for offering a copy to give away!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways July winner

Thank you to everyone who entered in July's Mysterious Giveaway!

Thank you to the publisher for offering a copy to give away!

Ann from Cozy in Texas is the winner!

She writes...

What a fun book.
Ann
cozyintexas@yahoo.com

Stay tuned for next month's giveaway title!

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: July

No Rest For The Dead

26 Writers. One Mystery.

I was SO excited to come across this book AND to be given the opportunity to give one copy away to one of my readers. Thank you to the publisher for doing this with me!

I took a break from my Year of Mysterious Giveaways last month due to feeling very tired, sick, overwhelmed and crazy after my trip to NYC and BEA. This is a PERFECT book to come back with. You don't just get ONE new mystery author, you get 26! How cool is that?

Check out this description from the publisher's website and also click on the title above and it will take you to the official book page.

More than twenty New York Times bestselling authors team up to create a first-rate serial novel -- a collaboration that combines the skills of America's greatest storytellers to produce a gripping, spellbinding mystery.

"The lineup of writers who have contributed to this mystery is akin to the Murderers' Row of the 1927 New York Yankees. There is not a weak spot in the bunch."
—David Baldacci, from the Introduction

Alexander McCall Smith. Sandra Brown. Faye Kellerman. J.A. Jance. Jeffery Deaver. Kathy Reichs. Lisa Scottoline. Jeff Lindsay.These are only a handful of the names that make up the all-star lineup of authors behind No Rest for the Dead, a tale of vengeance, greed, and love that flows seamlessly, in the words of David Baldacci, "as it passes from one creator's mind to the next."

When Christopher Thomas, a ruthless curator at San Francisco's McFall Art Museum, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in a Berlin museum, his wife, Rosemary, is the primary suspect, and she is tried, convicted and executed. Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, is convinced that the wrong person was put to death. In the years since the case was closed, he's discovered a web of deceit and betrayal surrounding the Thomases that could implicate any number of people in the crime. With the help of the dead woman's friend, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth, suspect by suspect. Solving this case may be Nunn's last chance for redemption … but the shadowy forces behind Christopher's death will stop at nothing to silence the past forever.

In this innovative storytelling approach, each of these twenty-five bestselling writers brings their distinctive voice to a chapter of the narrative, building the tension to a shocking, explosive finale. No Rest for the Dead is a thrilling, page-turning accomplishment that only America's very best authors could achieve.

From the Introduction of No Rest for the Dead:

There is always that case, the one that keeps me awake at night, the one that got away. It'll always be there, gnawing at the edges of my mind. It doesn't matter that ten years have passed, it doesn't matter that the case is officially closed. An innocent woman was executed, I was the one who helped make it happen, and on the sad night when the needle was inserted into her arm, injecting her with death, part of my life ended too.
It never felt right, never made sense. Sure, there was motive and opportunity, there was the physical evidence. But if you met her, if you knew her the way I got to know her . . . It wasn't until later, after I'd taken a step back from the case, that I realized it had angles I hadn't seen, layers I hadn't uncovered, back when it mattered, back when I could have saved her….

With contributions from:
David Baldacci (Introduction)
Jeff Abbott
Lori Armstrong
Sandra Brown
Thomas Cook
Jeffery Deaver
Diana Gabaldon
Tess Gerritsen
Andrew F. Gulli
Peter James
J.A. Jance
Faye Kellerman
Raymond Khoury
John Lescroart
Jeff Lindsay
Gayle Lynds
Philip Margolin
Alexander McCall Smith
Michael Palmer
T. Jefferson Parker
Matthew Pearl
Kathy Reichs
Marcus Sakey
Jonathan Santlofer
Lisa Scottoline
R.L. Stine
Marcia Talley

Contest Rules:

July 1- July 30

Winner will be picked on July 30

Please be a follower

Please leave an email

Please reside in the United States and/or Canada.

The book will be sent directly from the publisher.

Happy Reading, and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child

The Year of Mysterious Giveaways: May

I am very excited this month to give away this new mystery. For those of you who have followed my blog before, you know how big of fan I am of Sandra Brannan. She was one of the authors I met last year the Book Blogger Convention. I read her first mystery novel, In the Belly of Jonah, on the plane ride home and I lOVED it!

I was lucky enough to kick off her blog tour last September for its release and I am lucky and honored to be here giving away an ARC of her second book in this series starring Liv Bergen.

I started this book right when I got it but I wanted to save it for my plane ride to NYC and have it fresh in my mind when I see Sandra again! She will be at the Book Blogger Convention again this year and she was kind enough to offer to take me to dinner in thanks! Can't wait!

Here is the description from Amazon. The book is out in June and I hope to have more to give away at that time and do other fun posts about it and about her!

The Annual sturgis Motorcycle Rally is no place for buttoned-down citizens - unless, of course, they are trying to hide a murder or two. In this second book in the eponymous series, Liv Bergen is back with a vengeance - a righteous one. The gutsy, sharp-witted amateur sleuth pulls out all the stops as she solves the murder of her brother Jens' fiancee, Michelle, and clears his name. As it turns out, more than one person in Liv's sleepy hometown wanted Michelle dead. A trail of clues leads Liv through the Black Hills, where she encounters half a million hardcore bikers and sideline gawkers - many clad in nothing but black leather thongs and bikinis - who have turned the place into a sodomitical playground saturated in booze. Further complicating matters, Liv is an eyewitness to a second homicide, which calls down upon her the uninvited attentions of the men- acing leader of a biker gang called Lucifer's Lot. The cat-and-mouse game that ensues puts Liv in the path of her admirer Streeter Pierce, who has gone undercover with a fellow FBI agent to find both Michelle's murderer and a perp the agency calls the Crooked Man. Liv taps every ounce of brains and brawn she has to avoid becoming the killer's next victim, which wins her the further respect of Streeter. By the end of "Lot's Return to Sodom", Streeter has shown his admiration for Liv by giving her Beulah, an FBI bloodhound who is certain to help them track down the still-at-large Crooked Man in book three.

Here is my review of In the Belly of Jonah if you are new to it.

Contest Rules:

* Please be a follower of my blog.

*Please reside in the United States.

*Please leave an email address

* Let me know if you have read In the Belly of Jonah

Contest runs May 3- May 31

Happy reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child