Pierce Danser is on the hunt for his soon-to-be ex-wife, the actress Pauline Place, who’s disappeared from the Black Island film set in the heat swarmed waters off the Mexican coast. A wealthy “collector” with a black heart and dangerous, evil mind has kidnapped her, planning a forced marriage to complete his manage of twisted museum pieces.
As Pierce starts down the winding, dark, and deadly path in pursuit, his journey is a roller coaster through a horror show. No matter the grisly and dangerous obstacles, he is determined to rescue Pauline, even if it means the loss of his own life. The clock is ticking, his resources are slim and he’s up against a man of great means as well as a twisted, cruel vision.
About the Author
Greg Jolley earned a Master of Arts in Writing from the University of San Francisco and lives in the very small town of Ormond Beach, Florida. When not writing, he researches historical crime, primarily those of the 1800s. Or goes surfing.
King Athan vanishes at sea. His children, prince Thalos and princess Thara, drift apart with age, their kingdom falling into ruin. Thalos stubbornly clings to the past; Thara, resentful of her father, looks to the future. In the wake of this decline, a beautiful enchantress usurps the throne from the estranged siblings. She exiles Thalos to the edge of the world and slowly enslaves Thara’s mind.
In his exile, Thalos finds another castaway—an old comrade of his father. Together they begin a voyage in search of the lost king. Thara, meanwhile, resists the new queen’s coercive spells and finds a resistance of creatures still loyal to her father.
With a vast world of enchanted islands and beings between them, Thalos and Thara struggle to restore their family and rekindle the hope of the true king’s return.
Excerpt
Then an even stranger sight drew Thalos’ eyes away from the wintry beauty of this new land. It was a thing made of hewn stones. When these stones were cut and by whom was beyond the Prince’s guess, for they were old and mossy. Brown grasses and weeds splintered the once-seamless joints of the blocks.
For miles around, there was neither sight nor sound of any living thing, which lent a mysterious air to the stone structure and the strange land. A hundred questions sprang up in Thalos’ mind, but only one thing was certain—powerful magic hung around this place, a magic older than the stones themselves. At the same time, it felt novel and gave Thalos the excitement of discovering something that no man had ever seen.
He nervously stretched a hand toward the stones. As his fingertips made contact, they twitched and withdrew—the stones were frigid!
The structure was large and cylindrical and taller than a man. Ancient hands had smoothed it, so that now it looked like the bottom portion of a column, except that around this drum of stone wound a little stairway which expired near the rim. Thalos ascended the steps running his hands along the column of stone as he neared the top. It wasn’t perfectly smooth, for veins of uneven ridges rippled on its surface.
With soft, padding footfalls, he climbed the steps until they ended abruptly in a small landing just high enough from the ground that Thalos could lean over and look at the top of this edifice. Thalos was shocked when he reached the top; it was more than a mere column of stone—it was a well.
What was more, it was a well of what seemed to be the purest, crystalline water that he had ever set eyes upon—purer than mountain snowmelt running through a bed of stones at the beginning of spring. It glimmered with a light of its own, for the morning sun had not yet risen so high as to shine its light over the brim of the ancient fountain.
It beckoned to Thalos, not in the lustful way that strong liquor calls to a drunk, but the way a warm bed promises health and rest to one who has traveled all day through bitter weather.
So, with little hesitation, Thalos dipped his hand into the water.
An electric jolt shot up his hand and arm. It was cold, but not too painful. He cupped enough for a little sip, brought it to his lips, and immediately was refreshed.
Here was true water—not the poison of Sundra. All other waters he had ever tasted were like bitter, brackish sludge compared to this!
When he had swallowed this drink (and it took only one sip to make him feel full and refreshed), he looked out to his right over the vista that it seemed no Antaranisian eye had ever seen. He felt a strange sensation course through his veins, penetrating—it seemed—to his very soul. Before this, his body had ached with the dull pains of hunger, soreness, and worse yet—despair; despair so deep and heavy that it felt as if it had been with him from birth. A new sensation replaced this despair at once. Was it hope? Or something like it? Hope so deep and true it made even the rising sun seem new! Now darkness must flee before the triumphant sun, an immortal light conquering the shadows of night. It was rapturous.
About the Author
Frazier Alexander lives in Denton, Texas with his wife Nicole.
He began writing around the age of nine, inspired by movies such as The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and “sword-and-sandal” epics like Jason and the Argonauts. As a reader, his interests gravitate towards older works and the classics, such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, Beowulf, and Le Morte D’Arthur. Along with creating his own mythological backdrop for his stories, Frazier is an amateur calligrapher, map-maker, and artist.
Drama student Gabrielle is distressed to find herself lusting after her best friend and improv partner Paul. Refusing to give in to her desire and ruin their relationship, she attributes it to having gone too long without sex. G’s friend Natalie proposes the perfect solution—a Halloween party featuring a special guy for her horny friend.
But the party is more complicated than Gabrielle imagines. Since they’re actors, when she and Paul get in costume, they become different people—the rakish ‘Mississippi Gambler’ Colonel Bartholomew W. Davis and sexy ‘Bourbon Street Madam’ Miss Tiffany. She is shocked when Paul comes on to her! Is he as attracted to her as she is to him? Or wait! Is this just another round of ‘improv chicken’—a game they play in which they try to rattle the other so much they break character?
Natalie asks for the green light to seduce Paul. Gabrielle’s ‘sure thing’ fails to show. Three horny witches tempt Paul with a foursome. He agrees! Or does he? And what about The Colonel’s offer to pay Miss Tiffany for a night of pleasure? Gabrielle’s head is spinning. Jealousy, lust, such confusion! Oh my!
Could it all be a trick that leads to a romantic treat?
About the Author
Jane Colt began writing romances to deal with the stress of a ‘day job’ that’s mainly about examining the various ways people treat one another badly. An incurable romantic, her stories give her hope that we really can live happily ever after—even if only in our imaginations. She writes erotic romances because, having been raised in a morally rigid home, she wants to encourage in her readers a healthier, ‘sex positive’ outlook. She especially wants her heroines to be as sexy and passionate as they desire. You can count on the fact that her couples end up in love and having great sex! … OK, maybe they have the sex first!
Her stories aim to be light-hearted, fun, upbeat—and sexy! No dark, brooding, broken, tortured guys who need fixing. Just great, handsome, smart, sexy, ‘real men’ whose only weakness is being unable to resist the women she pairs them with. Think Lifetime or Hallmark movies plus hot sex!
She’s lived on both coasts of the U.S., recently leaving the beaches of Los Angeles to return home to the glorious autumn foliage of western Massachusetts. Married, she and her spouse are happy to be the devoted servants of two adorable cats. She loves traveling. Favorite cities: San Francisco, Boston, Venice, London, London, London!
By the way, anyone who knows her would be shocked to learn she writes erotic romances. “Jane Colt” is a pen name. So, shhhhhh.
Frankie Shep is still mourning the deaths of her husband and young son when she finds a bone in the far corner of her Wyoming cattle ranch.
Excited to think she may have discovered an ancient Native American village, she takes the bone to a lifelong friend who is now a forensic anthropologist on contract with her county.
After a cursory inspection, he turns a blood-chilling stare at Frankie. The bone isn’t ancient. Worse, the victim could be the remains of Frankie’s mother. She disappeared from her own bed more than a decade ago.
And now her retired father is missing.
As Frankie digs deeper, she discovers the terrifying truth that a serial killer is using her land to bury his victims, all members of her family and inner circle.
And now he’s watching her.
Mystery Bones Murders is a story of love, heart-wrenching deception, and finding redemption.
Available exclusively in the Notorious Minds box set!
What does it take to commit the perfect crime?
Delve into these dark and twisted tales by twenty USA Today and International Bestselling Authors.
No matter what kind of crime story typically catches your imagination, there’s sure to be something for everyone.
Conspiracies, political plots, and yes, even murder, are just a few of the crimes waiting inside this box set.
Discover a narcissistic grandmother running an underground syndicate, or a support group bent on murder…and even a serial killer who turns his victims into fairytale creatures.
Uncover the passion, jealousy, and fear lingering in every tale.
This box set is packed with thousands of pages that will hold you on the edge of your seat, crying for answers.
Excerpt
Frankie set the rifle next to her knee and avoided thorns as she reached in to untangle Diesel. The calf was too panicked. He struggled against her, causing a bruise and a muscle cramp in her forearm. As she pulled back, barbs tore the skin on her wrist. She sucked on the deepest wound while returning to Concho to retrieve a rope and a utility knife from the saddlebag.
Back at Diesel, she wrestled with the calf to loop the rope around his neck. She cut the branches that pinned him to the bush and pulled on the rope. Diesel kicked and fell, then bawled and tried to run. When he realized he was freed from the bush, he stood still, panting and shivering.
Frankie wiped water from her eyes while inspecting a cut in the calf’s left hind leg. It wasn’t so serious to keep him from walking home before she doctored it. With a grunt, she pulled on the rope and led Diesel toward Concho.
As they approached, the horse pranced and snorted like crazy. Frankie caught Concho’s reins and rubbed his nose. “What’s wrong with you?” He stood still long enough for her to secure Diesel’s rope to the saddle horn, then returned to his dance.
His hoof clicked against the thing she had seen sticking up from the ground earlier.
“What did you find?” She knelt and dug dirt and mud away from a bone.
“Concho, did we find an ancient guy’s campsite? Is that what has you so spooked?”
As kids, Frankie and her friends had often daydreamed about finding a nomadic Native American tribe’s village on the ranch. But where they sledded every winter?
“Cool.” She moved more dirt until she could pull the bone from the ground and examine it.
The bone seemed small for a man. Her former friend, Harbin Williams, now a professor in the anthropology department at the University of Wyoming, could confirm her exciting suspicions. But…
She couldn’t force herself to attend his son’s funeral five years ago. Their kids died together in the accident her husband caused. She had isolated herself in her struggle to heal her grief, and she couldn’t face helping her best friends with their recovery.
A growl jolted her attention from the bone to the bared teeth of a gray wolf—ten feet from her.
The rifle lay six feet away, behind the fallen log.
She hopped over the log and took a fighting stance between her animals and the wolf, and then rushed to pull the repellent from under her rain poncho.
The predator stepped closer. Saliva dripped from its huge teeth.
About the Author
Karen Randau authors fast-paced stories with intricate plots and lots of actione. Her debut novel, Deadly Deceit, was the first in her four-book Rim Country Mysteries and has twice reached the #1 slot in Amazon’s amateur sleuth category. The fourth book in the series, Deadly Payload, was a finalist in the 2019 Book Excellence Awards and the 2018 Beverly Hills Book Awards®. She was one of seven authors in the Tawnee Mountain Mystery Series with Deadly Reception and now is joining 19 other others in the Notorious Minds Crime Mystery/Thriller boxset.
A native of the southwestern U.S., Karen has traveled internationally and witnessed famines, violence, and hopeful people working to overcome abject poverty. She draws on both her creativity and personal experience to weave together an interesting cast of characters with rollercoaster-like twists and turns.
BLOOD MONEY is the true legal thriller of a terrifying David vs. Goliath fight against massive healthcare fraud by a brave Whistleblower. It includes attempted murder, extortion, money-laundering, fraudsters hiding money in the Cayman Islands, gold buried in a storage container in a CEO’s backyard, an Assistant Attorney General sabotaging her state’s case, and a corrupt Governor torpedoing litigation by his own Attorney General. From Silicon Valley to the Sunshine State, in a showdown that reads like a Hollywood movie, Chris Riedel survives to share it all. His actions have resulted in more than $550 million in settlements and a court verdict… and counting.
About the Author
CHRIS RIEDEL is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has founded five healthcare companies and served as the Chairman and CEO of all. Chris achieved the Silicon Valley dream when he took his third company public in 1991. A few months later, it was ranked by Business Week as the 40th best small company in America. Soon after founding a fourth company, his battle against healthcare fraud began. In 2011, he received the Taxpayers Against Fraud Whistleblower of the Year award.
Her citizens are oppressed. His society is diminishing. In a frantic bid for survival, can their fiery union save their peoples?
On a scorched and barren future Earth, Yolanda is her people’s only hope. As Matriarch of an all-female nation, the battle-hardened commander fights an impossible war while desperately seeking a way to stop her subjects from dying of thirst. But when the enemy king is beheaded by his own warrior son, she’s offered a truce that will bring the water they urgently need… in return for leaving her populace defenseless.
With his father dead by his hand, the Hammer is determined to rebuild the shattered community the warmongering king’s brutality almost destroyed. In a bold move to strengthen his dwindling numbers, he offers armistice to a dangerous queen and her bloodthirsty horde of fighting women. All he asks in exchange is for her to accompany him to petition the Council to drop their poisonous sanctions…
As they uncover the truth behind the horrific war, Yolanda is surprised when her begrudging respect for her capable companion blossoms into unexpected desire. And though the Hammer learns there’s more to the impassioned fighter than her brutal reputation suggests, he fears giving himself to her could make him a traitor to his own kind.
When their united strength pits them against oppressive factions, will their growing bond become an unbreakable force?
The Matriarch is the thrilling first novel in the Women of the Dust dystopian romance series. If you like enemies-to-lovers, dynamic couples, and empowered feminism, then you’ll adore Annabelle McInnes’s gritty tale.
Buy The Matriarch to fight for freedom today!
About the Author
From the age of sixteen, Annabelle lived in a homeless youth refuge while she remained committed to her education. She spent two years within a section of society that most overlook.
Her experiences are the foundations that drive her stories and her characters. They fight for their freedoms, have courage in the face of adversity and always aspire for greatness.
Annabelle is the author of True Refuge, an International Bestseller and a finalist for the Australian Romantic Book of the Year in 2018. She is privileged to live in a small rural town in country New South Wales and writes to a distinctive Australian backdrop with its captivating change of seasons.
Outside of her love for reading, she spends her time with her husband, son and her fifteen year old poodle named Serendipity. She drinks her whisky neat and can often be found at the local market hunting for blue cheese and artisan bread.
“Dear Diary, On September 3, 1982, two things happened that I’ll never forget: I acquired an older sister, and I fell in real love. But tell me, what does an eight-year-old know about love?”
For nearly a decade, Hosea Felix and Gomer Williams were inseparable. She loved him from the moment she laid eyes on him.Their friendship was iron-clad until temptation rocked Gomer to her core. Somewhere along the way, she fell for another guy and traded young love for instant pleasure. Not only is Jeri Cole fine—he is a bonafide gangsta, unattainable, and off-limits. Jeri was all Gomer could think about, and the only thing she thought she wanted. Despite her big sister already laying claim to him, not much could stop Gomer from clawing at the possibility of love and diva status. Getting with Jeri felt right…but at what cost?
Gomer never backed down. She is the original bad girl—ratchet, bougie, and insatiable.Feel like you wanna dislike her? Well, get in line.
They Call me Gomer…JC Miller’s sophomore spin-off novel enthralls readers with a deeply woven, emotionally heart-tugging take on the Book of Hosea. By examining rape culture, drug addiction, family secrets, and the vulnerabilities of young Black girls in pursuit of fortune and fame, this contemporary tale gives those in search of a good dra-mance all the feelings!
She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, “I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now. Hosea 2:7
JC Miller lives in the scenic Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania with her husband, children, and floppy-eared Bassador pup.
Raised by a single-mother in the Bronx, JC pulls from early experiences to showcase the soul of the ghetto through faith-based novels. She also dedicates much of her time uplifting women via her blog and creating content with partner MR Spain, through their publishing company, Jess, Mo’ Books LLC.
On her days off, you can findJC whipping up her famous Red Velvet Cake and listening to songs from her impressive vinyl record collection.
