I’ve been fairly restrained lately when it comes to buying books, but of course there were a few deals that I just couldn’t pass up. LOL

Here are a few titles that I’ve picked up in recent weeks.

Total expenditure $13.44

“Water’s Edge” by G.R. Jordan  $4.99

Highlands & Islands Detective series Book 1

“Murder the Boys” by Judith Cutler     .99¢

D.S. Kate Power series Book 1

“I Am Dust” by Louise Beech     .99¢

The Dean Wilson Theatre is believed to be haunted by a long-dead actress, singing her last song, waiting for her final cue, looking for her killer…

Now Dust, the iconic musical, is returning after twenty years. But who will be brave enough to take on the role of ghostly goddess Esme Black, last played by Morgan Miller, who was murdered in her dressing room?

Theatre usher Chloe Dee is caught up in the spectacle. As the new actors arrive, including an unexpected face from her past, everything changes. Are the eerie sounds and sightings backstage real or just her imagination? Is someone playing games?

Is the role of Esme Black cursed? Could witchcraft be at the heart of the tragedy? And are dark deeds from Chloe’s past about to catch up with her?

Not all the drama takes place onstage. Sometimes murder, magic, obsession and the biggest of betrayals are real life. When you’re in the theatre shadows, you see everything.

And Chloe has been watching…

“Rabbit Hole” by Jon Richter       $1.49

How far would you go to solve a murder?

Elaine Napier, an investigative journalist who is made redundant from her job, decides to record a true-crime podcast.  All she needs is a story.

When Elaine stumbles upon the five-year-old cold case of Katrin, she begins an investigation that will quickly become a fixation.

After an early breakthrough, Elaine’s investigation leads her to Hannibal Heights, an apartment building that Katrin helped to design. The building is home to a sinister taxidermy museum, a host of intriguing residents, and more than its share of secrets.

But despite the obvious danger, Elaine’s obsession continues to grow.

As her investigation threatens to spiral out of control, Napier receives threats and police pressure to shut the broadcast down.

Can Elaine solve the mystery and keep her own sense of right and wrong intact?

Or will the shocking truth distort everything Elaine holds dear?

“Folly” by Stella Cameron      .99¢

“The Crackie” by Gary Collins    $3.99

Jake is born at the turn of the twentieth century on a small outport island on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. He is distinguished from everyone else by a full head of red hair. And to single him out further, Jake has a pronounced speech impediment. Scorned, abused physically and mentally by his father for his stuttering tongue and especially for his questionable parentage, Jake endures. Then still a boy, Jake is found alone in a punt upon an empty sea, on the fishing grounds without his father, whose fate is suspect.

Jake lies about his age and secures a berth aboard the SS Stephano, captained by the famous Old Man of the seal hunt, where he witnesses the SS Newfoundland disaster of 1914. On the ice, Jake comes face to face with one of the Newfoundland’s sealers known as the Culler. He is a mirror image of Jake—complete with red hair. With the other sealers, the Culler is ordered to leave the Stephano despite the brewing storm. Jake doesn’t know if he survived the ensuing disaster or was among the many victims.

Returning from the seal hunt with fewer dollars than he expected, Jake learns that evidence has been hauled from the sea which could incriminate him in his father’s death. Again he lies about his age, this time to earn real money by fighting overseas in the First World War. In the diseased filth and terror of a Gallipoli trench, he learns that sometimes a salary can come the hard way. Thoughts of a girl back home keep him motivated to push on through the horrors of war.

On returning home, Jake learns the Culler had not only survived the Newfoundland disaster but is now living on his island, where the two are destined to meet again in a dramatic conclusion.