Happy National Reading Day!

I know this isn't my regular day to post, but I couldn't let National Reading Day pass without a quick mention.

I'm in the middle of Jerri Ledford's debut novel, Biloxi Sunrise, and don't want to put it down. It's a police procedural, suspense novel that truly has me spinning through the pages. I love her characters. You root for the deeply-drawn protagonists and her antagonist is chillingly evil. I'm thoroughly impressed with this novel.

If you're looking for an excellent read--and at an unreal price: just 99 cents--download Biloxi Sunrise. You won't be disappointed.

I'd love to know what you're reading today.

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BILOXI SUNRISE
by Jerri Lynn Ledford
Deep South Press


He hadn’t protected them.

When Homicide Special Investigator Jack Roe’s daughter is killed in an auto accident and his wife dies from a drug overdose, he abandons a promising career as a Military Police Officer. If only he’d been there when they needed him, he could have saved them both.

He didn’t protect her.

Six years later, Jack is in Biloxi, Mississippi to be close to his sister and her daughter, Lisa. As long as he’s around, nothing can happen to them. But then he’s called to the hospital in the middle of the night and learns that Lisa has been abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Jack must confront old wounds that never healed, and a burning anger that’s been buried for far too long. 

She can’t protect him. 

The same night, a woman’s body turns up on the beach. A few days later, so does another one. Jack must deal with his past and his present while he and his partner, Kate Giveans, race to find a killer before another woman dies. But Kate harbors a secret that just might get Jack killed.

Jerri Ledford has been a freelance business technology writer for more than 13 years. During that time, over 700 of her articles, profiles, news stories and reports have appeared online and in print. Her publishing credits include: Intelligent Enterprise, Network World, Information Security Magazine, DCM Magazine, CRM Magazine, IT Manager's Journal.


She develops and teaches technology training courses for both consumer and business users including courses on security, customer service, career skills, and various technologies for companies such as: IBT Financial, Writer's Village University, You Don't Say, LLC., Hewlett Packard, Sony, Gateway, Forbes and CNET.


When she's not writing for a consumer audience, Jerri writes suspense fiction. Her first novel, Biloxi Sunrise, is now available.


www.BiloxiSunrise.com
www.JerriLedford.com
*Like* Jerri Ledford on Facebook

(In the interest of full-disclosure, Jerri Ledford is a friend and critique partner, but I wouldn't brag on this book if I didn't completely believe in it. As you know, I'm a picky reader and will not recommend a novel that is substandard.)

Novel Anticipation ... The Drop

Finally, this November, Michael Connelly's next Harry Bosch mystery is coming out! Can you tell I'm excited?

For those of you who haven't read any of the Bosch series (17 books with a minor appearance in another Connelly novel), you're missing out.

Bosch is an LAPD officer who's a bit curmudgeonly and slightly maverick. Plus, he's got an impressionable teenage daughter at home so you know his stories will have more depth than the average mystery. The author, Connelly, always does an excellent job at blending plot and character, something I always look for in mystery/suspense.

No, you will not find any Michael Connelly works in your church library, (he does do a fair amount of swearing and periodically has sexual situations) but, his works are typically a fight of good vs. evil in addition to dealing with the shades of grey in between. I've read all of Connelly's novels and, unlike so many other authors in the general market, he does not denigrate Christians. He's occasionally had religious figures in his novels, and they've always been treated with respect. So, maybe it's not church library material, but I have no qualms recommending his books to Christians.

So, if you enjoy a good police procedural, if you're a fan of J. Mark Bertrand, Mark Mynheir, or Brandt Dodson, I recommend you pick up a Harry Bosch mystery from Michael Connelly. You can find his complete list of works on his website: http://www.michaelconnelly.com/extras/series/.

THE DROP

by Michael Connelly

Little, Brown and Company, November 2011

Harry Bosch has been given three years before he must retire from the LAPD, and he wants cases more fiercely than ever. In one morning, he gets two.

DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could compromise all of the lab's DNA cases currently in court.

Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics. Councilman Irvin Irving's son jumped or was pushed from a window at the Chateau Marmont. Irving, Bosch's longtime nemesis, has demanded that Harry handle the investigation.

Relentlessly pursuing both cases, Bosch makes two chilling discoveries: a killer operating unknown in the city for as many as three decades, and a political conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department.

Michael Connelly is the author of the recent #1 New York Times bestsellers The Fifth Witness, The Reversal, The Scarecrow, The Brass Verdict, and The Lincoln Lawyer, as well as the bestselling Harry Bosch series of novels. He is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He spends his time in California and Florida.

http://www.michaelconnelly.com/