Cyber Monday bargain mystery reads only $0.99!

 It's Cyber Monday, time for another round of bargains. Pick up the following Mysteries/thrillers for only 77p/$0.99.

getbook.at/AmazonLSPrather











                                           
                                  
 getbook.at/AmazonLPrather

 http://viewBook.at/CruelJustice     

  http://viewBook.at/ImpedingJustice 

http://getBook.at/AmazonMAComleyJustice 

Thanksgiving bargains! Three Justice books for only $0.99!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, to help celebrate I'm offering three of the Justice books for only $0.99/77p.

                                 

 http://viewBook.at/CruelJustice     

  http://viewBook.at/ImpedingJustice 

tp://getBook.at/AmazonMAComleyJustice 

Linda S. Prather--Author/Paranormal Investigator: Take a thrilling jaunt into some real criminal min...

Linda S. Prather--Author/Paranormal Investigator: Take a thrilling jaunt into some real criminal min...: Two great books--$.99 through Friday 11/8/13 - Read Chapter One of Sole Intention and the Prologue of Eternal Beauty and see what other read...

First Chapter of Virtual Justice - due for release first of November.

As promised here's a little teaser for you. Read the first chapter of Virtual Justice now. As soon as it comes back from the proofreader and the formatter she'll be uploaded, honestly. :-) 

Virtual Justice

Prologue.

Karen had preened and posed for hours, making sure every wrinkle was out of her suit and every hair was set firmly in place. She stood outside the designated rendezvous, waiting for her date to arrive. She shook her head, still unable to believe that she was meeting a man, in the flesh, for a date. For the past year, she’d been off the market. Her last encounter with the opposite sex had been a total disaster. She’d fallen in love with Paul the minute she’d laid eyes on him at the nightclub, but she’d taken a while to realise he’d only been attracted to her through a drunken haze. He’d finally pointed this fact out to her during a ferocious argument a month or so into their ill-fated relationship.

His words had been so vehement during their last argument that the memory still caused her to close her eyes in shame as she constantly relived the awful moment, even a year later. That day, he’d kicked her out onto the streets with nowhere to go. She had foolishly relinquished her flat and moved in with him within a week of meeting him—within a week. She’d never considered that he would be saddled with debt. She’d been shocked when he’d held out his hand, expecting her to pay all his bills while his wages mostly went towards his suped-up car or drunken nights out with his childish friends. Why did she let men treat her that way? More to the point, why had she let Paul treat her that way?

Never again. Not this time. It’d taken her a long time to get over that encounter, and she intended to enjoy her newfound confidence. She had no intention of rushing into another relationship this time. No, this time, she was going to be patient and hold on tight to her feelings.

She gasped as the car drew into the car park. Her thoughts turned to the evening ahead, hoping her date would help ease the pain of the past and teach her to live her life to the maximum once more—and to be happy and content, which she’d never really been in her thirty-three years on this earth.

The man locked his vehicle and strolled towards her. He was approximately a foot taller than her, around the six-feet mark. Paul had been a lot shorter. Stop it! Paul is the past. This man could be your future. Stop thinking like that and just enjoy the evening.

Morris Trotter shook hands with her before he tentatively kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Hello, Karen. It’s wonderful to meet you at last.”

“It’s wonderful to meet you, too, Morris, finally.”

“Shall we?” Morris tucked her arm under his, and when they entered the pub, the locals didn’t bother to look their way. He guided her to the only available table, which happened to be tucked away in an alcove off to the left. Karen sat down and smiled nervously at him. “What would you like to drink?”

“Oh, a gin and tonic would be lovely. Thank you.”

As he walked up to the bar, she watched his movements, including the way he leaned on the bar and ran a hand through his thick hair as he patiently waited his turn to be served. His photo hadn’t done him justice at all. He was far more handsome in real life, and he seemed to be a real gentleman, too, from the way he’d treated her so far. She was still in a daydream when he returned.

“What are you thinking?” His eyes crinkled up at the corner when he smiled.

 She liked that. In fact, she liked everything about this man. All he’d done so far was buy her a drink, but that in itself was some feat in most men’s books. “I wasn’t aware I was thinking anything really. Just enjoying the atmosphere and the company,” she told him, feeling heat creep into her cheeks.

“That makes two of us. I think we’re going to get on like the proverbial house on fire. Cheers.” He touched his glass against hers and gave her another dazzling smile that made her legs shake.

Another word of caution ran through her fuzzy brain. Stop it! Don’t go falling for him. Play it cool. During the next couple of hours, Karen batted away the insistent comments and questions from her inner voice.

She saw no need to have any kind of reservations. Morris Trotter appeared to be a gentleman of honour, whom she had already concluded she wouldn’t mind knowing more about. The evening was filled with comical anecdotes of his job as an accountant, which she’d always thought was the world’s most boring profession, filled with equally boring people. At the end of the evening, he took her arm in his and asked if she fancied a walk down by the river.

The March air was fresh but a long way off being cold. “I’d love to.”

They chatted as they strolled. The gentle lapping of the water and the ducks happily quacking guided them through the moonlight along the riverbank.

 Unexpectedly, twenty minutes into the walk, he stopped and turned her to face him. “Mind if I do this?” He kissed her.

Fireworks erupted in her brain, and her heart quickly followed suit. His kiss was gentle but urgent as his tongue searched deep inside her mouth. Her knees weakened, and within seconds, she collapsed against his strong chest, longing for more. She was lost in a world she had never thought existed. She’d certainly never been kissed like that before.

He pulled away and held her face between his hands, not speaking, simply taking in every inch of her features. Again, her cheeks burned beneath his powerful gaze. Self-conscious, she wanted to pull away from his grasp, except she couldn’t. She loved the attention.

He lowered his head and brushed her lips with his, then whispered in her ear, “Close your eyes.”

At first, her embarrassment wouldn’t allow her to do as he’d asked. But then she gave an imaginary shrug, and her internal voice said, What the heck!

Her eyes fluttered shut as she waited for his lips to take hers again. He groaned, and then she felt his warm fingers tickle the front of her neck. She groaned in response as her ecstasy increased beneath his touch. She felt his fingers lace around her slim, flushed neck. They moved down to her exposed décolletage and slowly slid back up under her chin. His hands burned her flesh, sending chills shooting down her spinal cord. His hands massaged and moulded her flesh, and his groans grew louder. She sensed that, at any second, his hands would search out the swell of her breasts. Instead, his grip tightened around her throat.

Her eyes shot open in panic. His grin had turned sinister, and an angry glint coloured his hazel eyes. She tried to speak, but the pressure on her throat proved to be too strong.

“How foolish of you. How bloody foolish you are to think that any man would find such ugliness attractive.”

Again, she tried to speak, to refute his demeaning words. She wasn’t ugly, or was she? Was that really how men perceived her? She wriggled, but his grip held her firmly in place. Fearing for her life, she struck out with her arms, rotating them like a windmill, trying desperately to get out of his stranglehold.

“It won’t work. It never does. You all succumb in the end. Resist the urge to fight and accept your punishment.”

Karen’s breath was cut off from her lungs. A weakness she had never known existed took hold. This weakness was totally different from the one she had experienced only moments before. Happy childhood memories of family holidays and building sandcastles with her sister ran through her mind. She clung to those recollections as the light-headedness overwhelmed her and the final breath left her body.

Sole Intention - now available!

Well she's now available! Sole Intention has just been released at a special price of $0.99/77pence for the first 48 hours. 


Former police officers Ellen Brazil and Brian Lynx have joined forces to start a successful missing persons investigation firm which has just been contracted to find the wife of bodybuilder Will Endersbe. Ellen discovers that a number of women with similar features and hair colour have also vanished in the Worcester area. Ellen and Brian suspect a serial kidnapper is to blame, and without a body, the police are happy to leave the case in their hands to solve.

Hoping the women are still alive, Ellen digs for clues and races to find the women, despite her troubled private life and a meddlesome stepfather with a violent secret.

Amazon UK   Amazon US

Barnes and Noble

KOBO      iTunes

I hope you enjoy it folks! ♥

Sole Intention - cover reveal

Well here it it the fantastic new cover for the brand new series I've started writing about a missing persons' bureau.

SOLE INTENTION will be available in a couple of weeks guys. 

Will keep you up to date when I have more news on availability.

New Release - Torn Apart

I'm thrilled to tell you that I've just released the first book in the Hero Series.

Everyone understands about the no-go districts--areas of the city so overrun with gang violence even the police stay away. In this book, the first in a new series, DI Hero Nelson sets out to combat the issue.

When Saskia Hartley and her nine-year-old son are run down outside a restaurant, DI Nelson knows it is no ordinary hit-and-run incident. He's looking at a homicide case... and the evidence points to the brutal Krull Gang. When two prostitutes are murdered, but little interest is given to the women on the Krull's payroll, Nelson connects the dots. DI Nelson has to decide whether he's dealing with a turf war or something far more sinister.

 To celebrate the release of Torn Apart, Cruel Justice the first book of six in the Justice series is on offer for only US $0.99 or UK 49p.

I hope you enjoy this new thrilling series, be warned though, it's not for the faint-hearted.

Mel x

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble


KOBO

My week in a nutshell!

Well, as you probably know we're in the middle of renovating our French farmhouse at the moment. Since last August we've plasterboarded/dry walled and everything else that has been needed in six rooms. We're in the final stretch now, the master bedroom ensuite and dressing room should be completed in the next week or so. It's been hard work but we've thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, however, we've decided to leave the kitchen renovations until later on in the year, until our backs are better and our hands have recovered. 

During the renovations I've been amazed that I've still managed to write three thrillers, two in the Justice series, Guaranteed and Ultimate Justice and also the first book in a brand new series titled Torn Apart. Maybe that shows how determined I am to succeed at this writing lark.

It's been a very exciting week for me this week in other ways too. A couple of weeks ago I pulled the Justice series out of Amazon's exclusive scheme called Select. As a Brit, living in France, I'm unable to upload my books direct to the other major sites such as, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and iTunes, instead I have to upload through a new site I've discovered which acts as a go-between called Draft2Digital. Boy, am I glad I came away from Smashwords, D2D have been wonderful and bent over backwards sorting out any problems I've had with my books on these sites. 

This week I advertised Foul Justice at the reduced price of $0.99 and it romped up the B&N chart to #13, which I was over the moon about but then something very bizarre happened. The first book in the series, my best-selling thriller Cruel Justice suddenly took off on B&N too and shot up to #21 in the chart, instead of dropping however Cruel Justice has remained in the top #100 for the past four days.

Imagine my surprise to wake up to someone sharing a link on my Facebook page for this article on GalleyCat, in which Cruel Justice is named as one of the must read mysteries for April on the B&N site. Foul Justice and Cruel Justice are both named in the best-selling Indie list for April at #4 and #9 on Barnes and Noble GalleyCat BestSellers List and Foul Justice was named at #10 on iTunes also.

At this moment I'm feeling more than a little shell-shocked as you can understand.

What a year it has been, I'm physically and emotionally exhausted but elated beyond words at the same time.

Thank you to everyone for their support since this incredible journey began. It doesn't get better than this folks if you're an Indie author, and I'm without doubt proudly one of those.

Go Indies!

Ultimate Justice released today!

Read the first chapter of Ultimate Justice book 6 in the Justice series which has been released today!

Ultimate Justice

Prologue

The swell of the sea had doubled in size in the last thirty minutes.

“Skipper, it’s no good. We won’t make it,” Taylor shouted above the thunder and the howling wind that surrounded them.

The captain threw back his right arm, which connected hard with Taylor’s face. Taylor staggered unsteadily on his feet and landed heavily against the door to the tiny bridge. “Get away from me, you imbecile. I give the orders around here, not you. You hear me?”

Taylor righted himself and surged forward, determined to make the captain change his mind. It would be foolish for them to try to enter the port in a storm like this. He watched out the starboard porthole at the waves continually bombarding the deck, and knew they wouldn’t have long before the sea welcomed them with open arms and sucked the life out of them. Thoughts of his wife, Sonia, and his three adorable children entered his mind and stayed there, as if mocking him for undertaking this perilous voyage, despite the huge risk involved. Unexpectedly, his family’s beautiful smiles and the shocking thought that he’d never see any of them again spurred him into action.

He scanned the wheelhouse for a possible weapon. He saw a metal bar in the corner and pounced on it. “Skipper, stand away from the helm.”

Captain Smythe, a man built like a heavy weight boxer, snarled at Taylor before his gaze drifted to the bar he was holding. “Think you can take me on, sonny? Fancy a bit of mutiny, do ya?”

“Our lives are in danger, Skipper. Surely you can see that?” Taylor watched as madness seemed to settle in his aggressor’s eyes.

“I see no such thing. It’s a storm, and a tiny one at that. I’ve been at sea longer than you’ve been out of nappies, lad. Now, let me bring this old girl and her cargo in. Have a day off from your foolishness for a change. Leave this job for a real man to handle.”

The captain’s undermining of him incensed Taylor. He gritted his teeth and his knuckles turned white around the bar he was holding. Smythe turned his attention back to fighting the helm. “You fucking idiot.” Taylor ran at him, screaming like a banshee with the bar high above his head. “I’ll be damned if I’ll stand by and let you kill us all.”

Smythe cried out in pain as the bar crashed against his skull, but he didn’t go down as Taylor had expected. “Ya bastard. Think you can take me on, do ya? You’re the fucking idiot around here if you think that.” Smythe’s iron-like hands connected with first the right and then the left side of Taylor’s face, leaving him dazed. The bar crashed to the floor, and stunned, Taylor held his head in his hands. He’d never been hit so hard by a man before, and he’d been in several fights over his thirty-odd years on Earth.

The boat swayed violently as both men stood their ground, eyeing each other with caution and contempt, but at the same time unaware of the screams coming from the hold below.

The captain beckoned to Taylor. “Come on, then, if you think you’re hard enough. Give me what you’ve got, you nancy boy, with your snooty redheaded wife and your two point four children.”

The captain’s intentional goading worked, and Taylor charged him with all his might. The captain’s chest puffed out and his fists clenched into tight balls. Taylor was clobbered around both ears before he got within a foot of Smythe, but he kept up his charge, despite being almost knocked senseless. Taylor bowed his head low and charged into the captain’s portly stomach. Smythe only laughed at his inept attempt to bring him down.

Taylor, his blood boiling with anger, stooped to the floor and retrieved the bar. He swung it like a golf club at the captain’s lower leg. With the boat being tossed in the high waves, the captain lost his balance and hollered as he went down. His head hit the side of the binnacle supporting the helm, and blood erupted from a wound above his right eye. Taylor tried to stop the wheel from spinning out of control, catching his hand several times in the spokes in the process. “Fuck!” he cried out as a bone snapped in his little finger.

The captain, who was lying on the floor, laughed.

Taylor glared at him, then turned his attention back to the helm, and, watching it intently, he waited for the opportune moment to come his way. Finally, he grabbed one of the spokes firmly with both hands while he anchored himself behind the wheel, his feet spread wide apart. Feeling calmer now that he appeared to have the vessel under control, he guided the ship out to sea and away from the port they had been heading towards.

“Turn this ship around. If you don’t, we’ll go under for sure,” the captain insisted.

“Shut your mouth. If I’d left things for you to sort out, we would have been smashed to pieces on the rocks by now.”

“It takes decades of experienced sailing to become a captain. You’ve got neither the balls nor the stamina, sonny, to bring this ship home safely.”

“We’ll see about that, old man.” Taylor focused fully on the task at hand and chose to ignore anything else the captain had to say. In the distance, he could hear the ghostly screams of their cargo riding on the howling wind. He gulped down the frustration building within him and steered the vessel through the tumultuous waves. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the captain struggle to his feet. But there was little Taylor could do about the captain’s impending attack. His back took the force of the captain’s strike. He gasped for breath as the air was driven from his lungs. Excruciating pain shot through his body.

“Take that, you bastard. I’m taking control of my ship. My ship, you hear me?” The captain ran to the wheel.

Taylor’s hand went in search of what was causing the pain in his back, and his heart sank when he discovered the six-inch blade embedded there. He crumpled to his knees as the blood started to drain from his body. The beautiful faces of his young family flashed before his eyes once again. He asked only one thing: “Why?”

The captain took his eye off the sea for a split second to glance at Taylor, and that was when disaster struck. The wheel spun out of Smythe’s hand, and the force sent him reeling across to the other side of the bridge. The whole boat lurched sideways and water flooded through the open bulkhead door as it flew open. With his life slipping away, Taylor didn’t have the strength to stop himself from being swept out the doorway and onto the deck.

Smythe did nothing to prevent his exit for, despite his hulking frame, the water dragged the captain through the doorway after Taylor. They both choked on the salt water as the mighty energy of the unforgiving, raging sea pulled their heads under the surface. Taylor watched his captain resurface three or four times, his body smashing against the taffrail a few times before being washed overboard and out to sea. Taylor finally succumbed to the sea’s beckoning call.

It wasn’t long before the ship, in her last death throes, finally sank.

The sea sighed with satisfaction at the devastation it had caused, yet no one was there to hear it. Even the ship’s valuable cargo had been silenced.

Amazon UK      Amazon US   Barnes and Noble   Apple

New release! GUARANTEED JUSTICE.

Now that the festivities are out of the way it's time for me to shout from the rooftops that Justice five, GUARANTEED JUSTICE has finally been released as an ebook.

Here's what you can expect for the next thrilling episode in the Lorne Simpkins adventures.

 

Retired DCI Lorne Simpkins thought she knew what she wanted when she started an animal rescue centre with her husband Tony. Although saving and retraining exploited dogs is
fulfilling, Lorne can't help but feel that something vital is missing from her life. Linda Carter is brutally raped and left for dead in an alley. By some miracle, she survives, but now she lives each day terrified by the perpetrator's final threatening words--that her sister, Fiona, will be his next victim.

The sisters decide to adopt a watch dog and contact the rescue centre. During a home check to see if the girls and their flat are suited for a German Shepherd, Lorne witnesses Linda's horrendous injuries. The young woman knows the identity of her rapist--wealthy, playboy Graham Gibson--however, the police haven't made an arrest. The shocking story turns into a life-altering moment for Lorne. She decides to become a Private Investigator, and urges the girls to let her take up their case. Little does she know that more victims will come forward to accuse Gibson of rape.

Lorne is determined to see this vicious criminal behind bars, but is anyone ever guaranteed justice?

 

Amazon US

 

Amazon UK