Dead End Job

Frances works the night shift at a local convenience store, dividing her time between restocking shelves and working on her art. Her routine is broken one night when Devin comes into the store. He claims to be the son of a famous local artist and offers her advice on her drawings. Although he seems to know way too much about her, Frances decides, against the advice of her boyfriend, that he is odd but harmless. By the time she realizes the danger she is in, Devin is completely obsessed with her and convinced that if he can't have her, no one will. Frances will be forced to use all her strength to escape from Devin. Also available in Spanish.

Fans of Terry Pratchett and Shane Kuhn’s THE INTERN’S HANDBOOK will love this noir supernatural thriller. hr Death needs a vacation. Badly. But there’s a catch: There are people who cheat the system, always falling through the cracks and not dying like they’re supposed to. Who’s going to take care of them while Death’s sipping on sangria? The answer is simple: Death needs an intern, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that one prospect, Buck Palasinksia—a bankrupt hitman with a roleplaying addiction—might have what it takes. While scoping out his next target, Buck gets drilled in the forehead by a bullet and falls right into Death’s lap. If they shove him back into his body, he’ll have a few weeks to prove that he has what it takes to be Death’s right-hand. All he has to do is take out Public Enemy No. 1, John Dillinger, and quit smoking.

Men today long for a calling but often settle for the next best thing: a job. They aspire for a higher purpose but still have bills to pay and family to support. But what if men could find their calling in the work they are already doing? In his new book Calling: Awaken to the Purpose of Your Work, author Pierce Brantley uses practical language and shares actionable steps to show men how to redefine the purpose of their work and discover what it means to have a “called career.” Brantley shows men they can find a meaningful connection with God in the work they are doing right now. Men were designed for this partnership, and once they embrace it they will be awakened to the true purpose of their work—not just a career but a calling.

Husband and wife PI team Helen Hawthorne and Phil Sagemont both have their hands full, but only Helen has to carry drink trays—as part of her latest undercover assignment as a stewardess on a private yacht… Lost at Sea To catch a jewel smuggler on a luxury yacht, Helen needs to pose as the ship’s new stewardess—but between serving drinks to the snobs, scrubbing floors, and cleaning up after seasick passengers, she’s starting to miss dry land almost as much as she misses Phil. While Helen’s cruising to the Bahamas, Phil’s got his own job—trying to catch a sexy gold digger who may have killed her elderly husband for his fortune. Good thing he’s a self-proclaimed master of disguise, playing it cool as everything from an air-conditioning repairman to a Rastafarian. Helen’s a help to Phil on his case, but when she’s on her own on the high seas, Helen needs to watch her step as she searches out the smuggler—or she may end up going from undercover to overboard…

Brock Morrison works a DEAD END JOB from Hell: He could have just gotten a job at Kroger's Starbucks kiosk a-crossed the street, but Brock Morrison is too vain (everyone knows that Starbucks is Fine-Arts-Graduate purgatory), so he takes a job with "The Father" as a maintenance man at The City Village (a low rent apartment complex in the city). It's a temporary work situation, Brock assures us, while he makes enough money to pay off his fiancé's engagement ring and networks in the city to become recognized for his clear artistic genius.Little does Brock know, The City Village is under the influence, if you will, of an ancient and evil order, and Brock isn't leaving anytime soon, if ever. ALSO: Don't go into Apartment Building 666, as if you needed to be told that. The Father would just like to remind him that, quote, "Books are great, but The Beating is coming Son and it's going to be a bloodbath."Speak in hushed tones; The Rats hear everything you're saying. Jose the Central-American dry-waller is trying to warn you that Jerry has enough weapons to take down the whole property, as in: kill everyone. Iced coffee makes the world go round. There is a Duchampian-esc contemporary art display at an undisclosed location on the property.The City Village has a strict No Drinking & Drugs policy during the day. This is a well known fact.

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Elaine Viets—the thrilling mystery series about one woman trying to make a living... while other people are making a killing. After all she’s endured with her own marriage, divorce, and subsequent flight from alimony, Helen Hawthorne getting a job at Millicent’s Bridal Salon is ironic in the extreme. But the pay is in cash and that’s what matters for Helen to stay incognito. But there’s no amount of cash worth having to deal with the abominable Kiki—a wealthy witch who’s lording it over her daughter’s wedding plans with the aim of making the day all about Kiki, not the bride. She also thinks her money makes her invulnerable...but she’s proven wrong when she’s found smothered to death with her daughter’s wedding dress. And worse, the cops seem to think Helen is responsible. Now, Helen has to keep her identity secret and prove her innocence before the bride and groom read their wedding vows—and the police read Helen her rights...

The national bestselling author presents a high society murder mystery... At Snapdragon, a high-end designer consignment shop, Helen is at the beck and call of snobby- yet frugal-customers. That alone is a deadly combination, especially with Chrissy, a drool-worthy fashionista who walks in with a purse to sell, and ends up screaming at her husband and another customer. Helen is used to dealing with snobby women, controlling husbands, and fashionable politicians. But she's about to have to handle a brand new type of unsatisfied customer-a murderer. Chrissy is found dead in Snapdragon's dressing room, with the hand-painted scarf Helen was just holding tied around her neck. And Helen goes from being low on society's totem pole to high on the police's suspect list.

BIMBOS, BUSTIERS, AND BOTOX! MURDER MOST FASHIONABLE... Author Elaine Viets kicks off this funny and fresh cozy series—about a woman on the run from her ex—with a rollicking tale of crime and vanity in the shadow world of wannabe molls. When unlikely sleuth Helen Hawthorne flees St. Louis, she fetches up in Fort Lauderdale, suddenly surrounded by the beautiful and the Botoxed. They all shop at the same place—Juliana’s, the overpriced boutique where Helen works. And they’re all looking for a wealthy wise guy to take to the cleaners. It’s a dead-end job with no perks—but one that pays in cash. A little shady, but it beats leaving a paper trail. Turns out shady’s only the beginning. Juliana’s holds more secrets than a confessional, beginning with theft and drug sales, progressing to ever more ambitious scams, and inevitably, given the escalating level of crime, the murder of a felonious fashionista. The good news is there’s a reward—and Helen needs money. The bad is that she could die before she collects it. Readers will find Helen the perfect cozy protagonist—an ordinary woman squeezed by circumstance, feeling her way as she takes control of her life whatever way she has to do it, innocent yet growing savvier by the second. You root hard for her as she settles into the role of amateur detective because you just can’t help identifying with her and hoping you’d rise to the occasion as well. And you’ll laugh out loud at the sly way author Viets skewers the South Florida culture of vanity and money. Fans of everywoman heroines like those created by Joanna Campbell Slan, Donna Andrews, Joanne Fluke, CeeCee James, Jana DeLeon, and Janet Evanovich will fall in love with this plucky investigator. And they can settle in for a long and beautiful relationship. The best news is the series is fifteen books strong, and counting!