Jack Daniels Stories

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JA Konrath, known for the Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels thrillers set in Chicago, offers this collection of short stories and novellas from the Jack Daniels universe.

Join Jack Daniels, her partner Herb Benedict, private eye Harry McGlade, and part-time criminal Phineas Troutt, in this omnibus of 15 stories.

These were previous published in magazines and anthologies, and many are long out of print.

On the Rocks - Suicide or murder? Lt. Jack Daniels solves a locked room mystery.

Whelp Wanted - P.I. Harry McGlade becomes a dognapper in order to stop a dognapper, or something like that.

Street Music - Phineas Troutt hunts a prostitute through the dangerous streets of Chicago. Are his intentions pure?

The One That Got Away - The Gingerbread Man (the villain from WHISKEY SOUR) hunts one final victim.

With a Twist - It looked like the man fell from a great height, but the body is in his living room. Jack Daniels solves another impossible crime.

Epitaph - Phin Troutt takes on a Chicago street gang with vengeance on his mind.

Taken to the Cleaners - Harry McGlade tries to solve a difficult mystery, but mostly just goofs off.

Body Shots - Jack Daniels faces her most challenging case yet; a school shooting. But does she know more about the perp than she realizes?

Suffer - Phineas Troutt has taken some questionable jobs, but will he murder a man's wife?

School Daze - P.I. Harry McGlade investigates a private school, but he's not entirely sure why.

Overproof - While shopping on the Gold Coast, Jack Daniels notices traffic has come to a stand-still. When she realizes what the problem is, she's confronted with her own mortality, and the possible deaths of hundreds.

Bereavement - How badly does Phineas Troutt need a fix? What is he willing to do?

Pot Shot - Detective Herb Benedict just wants a home cooked meal. But his plans get interrupted by a very determined sniper.

Last Request - Phineas Troutt picks up a hitchhiker, with deadly results.

The Necro File - Harry McGlade investigates some bizarre murders in this hilarious, gore-filled mini-epic. (Author's note: This is easily the funniest thing I've ever written, but it's also very offensive. Let the reader beware...)

That's about 65,000 words of Jack Daniels and friends. Also included in this collection are excerpts from some of Jack's other adventures, including:

An excerpt from Truck Stop by J.A. Konrath and Jack Kilborn, where Jack finds herself dueling with two serial killers at once.

An excerpt from Floaters by J.A. Konrath and Henry Perez, where Jack joins forces with Chicago reporter Alex Chapa to solve a bizarre disappearance.

An excerpt from Planter's Punch by J.A. Konrath and Tom Schreck, where Jack travels to NY and befriends professional boxer Duffy Dombrowski to break an extortion ring.

And excerpt from Suckers by J.A. Konrath and Jeff Strand, where Harry McGlade reluctantly teams up with Andrew Mayhem. Hilarity ensues.


About the Author

J.A. Konrath has written six Jack Daniels thrillers (Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini, Fuzzy Navel, and Cherry Bomb.) The seventh, Shaken, will be available this year.

Under the name Jack Kilborn, he wrote the horror novel Afraid, and under the name Joe Kimball, he wrote the sci-fi novel Timecaster (featuring Jack Daniels' grandson as the hero, and Harry McGlade III, coming out in 2011.)

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After the loss of her sister, Margaret Fairfax settles at Northbrook Hall – the country estate of her brother-in-law, Mr. Westfield, whose dislike of her is legendary – where she faces a major challenge of reconciling their many differences and proving to him that despite the rumours of schemes and scandals that followed her all the way from London she is worthy of his regard and affection. With time and many an exertion on her part and that of her new family, Margaret succeeds in altering Mr. Westfield’s opinion of her and attaching his heart, but fears the worst when her deceitful friend arrives.

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"A storyteller of immeasurable diversity and talent" (Publishers Weekly) who "just keeps getting better and better" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Nora Roberts is a master at depicting both the legends and lore of Ireland and the tender, enchanting passions of its people. Now, three of her favorite Irish stories-"Spellbound," "Ever After," and "In Dreams"-are available for the first time in one volume.

"Roberts has a warm feel for her characters and an eye for the evocative detail." (Chicago Tribune)

"Roberts weaves a story like no one else." (Denver Rocky Mountain News)

"A consistently entertaining writer." (USA Today)

About the Author

Nora Roberts is the author of more than one hundred novels, including The Villa and Heaven and Earth. She is also the author of the bestselling futuristic suspense series written under the pen name J. D. Robb. With more than 127 million copies of her books in print and more than forty New York Times bestsellers to date, Nora Roberts is indisputably the most celebrated and beloved women's fiction writer today.

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Use your Kindle 2 to send free Tweets over Sprint's 3G network

Even if you're not a big Twitter fan, it's easy to appreciate that nearly any device can be connected to it. Because it's such a simple text-based service, many unlikely devices have their own Twitter clients, like the Commodore 64, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the Nintendo DS. Just for fun last month, I connected an old Sony Clie NX-70V running Palm OS 5 to Twitter, and it actually worked reasonably well.

So today, owners of the Amazon Kindle can manually update the software of their E-readers to Version 2.5, and can start Tweeting. This is especially useful because the Kindle has a free connection to Sprint's 3G network, and you post semi-standalone Tweets (I'll explain further) or links to longer text segments.

Today's software upgrade includes several other important features which were unveiled last April, such as the ability to pan and zoom PDFs, and organize content into folders, but it's the free social network connection that I'm most interested in.

After installing the update, you must link your Kindle to Twitter or Facebook in the Kindle's experimental browser. Once that is finished, you can select text from within your e-books, and share them to the social networks. With the text selections, you are given a little space for an associated message. Because these messages contain a link and a #kindle hashtag, you have less than 140 characters to work with.

The text selection in the image above was then sent out as a link to this page hosted by Amazon.

Of course, you don't have to even link to text from the book you're reading. You can simply add a text annotation to your book and share that, just start typing and hit "save and share."

Here is an example of a plain Tweet from the Kindle.

As you can see, that text is also presented with a link and hashtag, so your space is limited. But since the Kindle has a free connection to Sprint's 3G network, it's easy to overlook such a shortcoming when you can freely send updates wherever there's coverage.

Amazon updates Kindle for iPad, iPhone/iPod touch with video and audio

Amazon has sweetened up the Kindle application that runs on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch with some extra multimedia support.

The latest version of the Kindle app, which is available for free in the iTunes app store, will allow for the support of embedded video and audio clips. So that includes stuff like hearing random bird calls to some awesome extras like an on-scene tour with Rick Steves’ Rome guidebook.

This seems like a great step in making e-reader apps (and e-book readers themselves) more exciting and better learning tools with more features to take advantage of. Clips will have to be small in size though, depending on the target gadget’s hard drive space. Hopefully Amazon expands this to more titles soon as well, as only 13 titles are tagged with ”Kindle Edition with Audio/Video” at the moment.

The Economics Of Kindle

When Amazon cut the price of its Kindle e-reader this week from $259 to $189, it marked the latest move in the transformation of a 21st-century industry--technology--to one resembling a 19th-century one--safety razors.

Amazon's price cut came a day after Barnes & Noble ( BKS - news - people ) cut $60 from the price of its Nook e-reader, which now can be had for $139. Analysts said both moves were a response to the apparent popularity of Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) new iPad, which has its own book reading software built in.

The price reduction caught the attention of iSuppli, an analysts' firm known for taking apart gadgets to estimate how much they cost their manufacturers to put together. According to iSuppli's figuring, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are no longer making money on the e-readers, as the costs of the "bills of materials" for the devices are equal to what they're being sold for.

"With zero profits on their hardware, both these companies now hope to make their money in this market through the sale of e-books," iSupply says. "This is the same 'razor/razor blade' business model successfully employed in the videogame console business, where the hardware is sold at a loss and profits are made on sales of content."

The razor/razor blade business model kicked off at the end of the 19th century, when a Chicago businessman by the name of King Camp Gillette began thinking of new ways to sell the various components involved in shaving products. Variations on the business model have become common; when film was still popular, Kodak flooded the market with cheap Brownie and Instamatic cameras, with the knowledge that they would get people taking pictures. In the case of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, of course, cheap e-readers presumably mean more book sales.

E-readers aren't the first gadget to be offered at little or no profit with the expectation of some future revenue stream, as that's essentially the model for many gadgets. Except, of course, those sold by Apple. A $500 iPad, says iSuppli, costs Apple just $259.60 to make.

Amazon's Kindle reader arrives in airports

HMSHost Corp., which operates shops and restaurants in airports, said Monday it will sell Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle electronic book reader in book stores in six airports.

The company says it will start selling the Kindle at Simply Books stores in the following airports: Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta; John Wayne in Orange County, California; Charlotte/Douglas in Charlotte, N.C.; Salt Lake City; Dallas Fort Worth; San Diego; George Bush airport in Houston; Miami; Tampa, Fla.; and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Seattle-based Amazon.com recently slashed the price of the Kindle by $70 to $189. The e-reader with a grayscale screen debuted in 2007 at $399. Amazon also sells a larger-screen Kindle, the Kindle DX, for $489.