FREE E-Book - what a great "loss leader" idea!

You know how stores lure you in with good sales and while you're in the store you see other stuff you want/need and end up buying more than the sale items? The sale items are known as loss leaders because the store usually doesn't make any money on them, in fact they usually lose money but the store still comes out ahead on the profit they make from the non-sale stuff that people buy.

Of course "loss leader" was the first thing that came into my head when I saw this offer from St. Martin's Press for two free e-books written by Julia Spencer-Fleming. I'd never heard of her before but I thought what the heck, they're free books so if I don't like them it's no loss, right?

Like all writers, I love discovering a new "favorite" author and Spencer-Fleming is going on my author BOLO list. The two e-books are the first two books in Spencer-Fleming's Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series. Clare Fergusson is an Episcopalian priest and, as Clare explains it, she's chaste (meaning not have sex) not celibate (meaning not allowed to marry). The whole priest/celibate thing adds a touch of humor to Clare's encounters but also, interestingly enough, adds to the sexual tension between Clare and Russ VanAlstyne, the local police chief. Clare is automatically held to a higher standard than your typical heroine because she's . . . well . . . a priest.

Russ isn't your typical hero either. He wears glasses, has bad knees and is at least 10 years older than Clare. And as a Vietnam vet, he still carries baggage.

Spencer's website bills her work as "novels of Faith and Murder for readers of literary suspense". I'm hooked. I read the second book of the series - A Fountain Filled with Blood - first. I'd have to rate it as an excellent mystery with strong romantic elements. In addition to the scrappy Clare and wounded warrior Russ, the story held my interest because I couldn't figure out whodunit until the very end. And, Spencer-Fleming didn't wrap it up with a neat bow at the end, which is why despite the strong romantic elements the story doesn't qualify as a romance. The bad guy wins . . . sort of, and will no doubt show up in another story in the series.

Now I'm off to read the first book in the series - In the Bleak Midwinter. The free e-book offer is over, but it's well worth the $7 a piece for the books!