Amazon Publishing Announces 32 Diverse Books for Late Summer and Early Fall

(Press Release) SEATTLE, June 13, 2011—Amazon.com today announced that Amazon Publishing will publish 32 books in late summer and early fall under its various imprints, including AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing and Thomas & Mercer. The Amazon Publishing editions of these titles will be available in print format at www.amazon.com and national and independent booksellers, and as wireless digital downloads in less than 60 seconds from the Kindle Store.

"We're excited to be growing Amazon Publishing's imprints, as well as the number and variety of titles we're able to make available to more readers," said Victoria Griffith, Publisher, Amazon Publishing. "We hope readers enjoy books from both the new and established authors on our list."

Shaun Morey's "Wahoo Rhapsody" is a madcap adventure, following a smuggler's attempts to cheat a notorious drug lord and the resulting chain of events that sends a trio of anglers scrambling for their lives across Mexico and California. Morey is the author of the bestselling "Incredible Fishing Stories" series, a three-time winner of the Los Angeles Times novel-writing contest, and a contributor to Sun magazine. An original manuscript, "Wahoo Rhapsody" will be published by AmazonEncore on July 5.

"King of the Road" and "One Dead Hen" are the third and fourth installments of Charlie Williams' darkly comic Mangel series, which The Guardian called "gloriously funny." Both books will be published by AmazonEncore: "King of the Road" will be published on July 12, and "One Dead Hen" will make its worldwide debut on August 9. Williams lives in Worchester, England.

In Audrey Braun's "A Small Fortune," a woman's vacation to Mexico takes a turn for the worse, and she finds herself on the run with a handsome stranger, hunting for the truth behind a betrayal that threatens her life. Braun lives in the Pacific Northwest and "A Small Fortune" is her first novel. It will be published by AmazonEncore on July 19.

"Blair S. Walker has a keen knack for entertaining," wrote USA Today about the author of the Darryl Billups series, which follows the exploits of a Baltimore Herald crime-solving reporter. The Washington Post Book World wrote, "Kudos to Walker for creating a character who is realistic and entertaining-and who challenges the reader's sensibilities. . . .[Walker] writes about Billups with depth, humor and wit." AmazonEncore will re-introduce three books in this series: "Up Jumped the Devil," "Hidden in Plain View" and "Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes." All three books will be published on July 26.

Rex Kusler's "Ashes to Dust," a sequel to his AmazonEncore novel "Punctured," continues the adventures of Las Vegas private detectives Jim Snow and Alice James, who are now tasked by a murdered cocktail waitress' father to find her killer. Kusler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. "Ashes to Dust" will be published by AmazonEncore on July 26.

Uyen Nicole Duong's "Postcards from Nam" is the third book in the author's Saigon Trilogy, which includes "Daughters of the River Huong" and "Mimi and Her Mirror" (both published by AmazonEncore). In "Postcards from Nam," which will be released on August 15, a Vietnamese immigrant in the United States begins receiving hand-drawn postcards from a long-lost friend, and she embarks upon a quest to find the artist and uncover the truth of his tragic life.

"Pepita Jimenez" by Juan Valera is the best known of the 19th century diplomat's eight novels, and this English translation is the first in many years since the original publication in 1874. When a priest-in-training leaves the seminary to return to the village of his birth, he becomes captivated by his father's lovely fiancée and is torn between his human desires and his sacred calling. This engaging introduction to a Spanish literary master, translated by Katherine Illescas, will be published by AmazonCrossing on August 16.

In "Alison Wonderland," a jaded divorcee joins an all-female detective agency in London, where she finds herself caught up in a series of misadventures with an eclectic cast of characters who may just change her life forever. Author Helen Smith is a novelist and playwright and the recipient of an Arts Council of England Award. "Alison Wonderland" will be published by AmazonEncore on August 16.

"Black as Snow" is Nick Nolan's deconstruction of the classic "Snow White." In it, Nolan twists intrigue, suspense and greed around an arrogant messiah rocked by tragedy, who is thrust into the everyday world to discover meaning and love. "Black as Snow" will be published by AmazonEncore on August 30.

Johnny Shaw's "Dove Season" was a finalist for the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. When protagonist Jimmy Veeder returns home to the Southern California desert, his efforts to grant his father's dying wish lead him deep into the Mexicali underworld, where friendship and love vie for survival amid violence and vice. Shaw is a novelist and screenwriter who lives in Portland. "Dove Season" will be published by AmazonEncore on September 13.

Francine Thomas Howard's "Paris Noire" is a novel based on oral history: a remarkable tale of an immigrant woman's struggle to carve out a better life for herself and her children in Paris in the waning days of World War II. Howard is the author of "Page from a Tennessee Journal," which USA Today hailed as a "remarkable debut" and which will be released in paperback this September. Her second novel, "Paris Noire," will be published by AmazonEncore on September 20.

Giannina Braschi is one of Puerto Rico's most influential writers; her cutting-edge work has been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts, NY Foundation for the Arts, El Diario, PEN, Ford Foundation, Reed Foundation, Danforth Scholarship and Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. AmazonCrossing will publish three of her novels on September 27, two of which have been translated by Tess O'Dwyer. "United States of Banana" is an allegorical novel in which Braschi creates a post-9/11 world rocked by an unexpected power shift and which is struggling to realign itself in favor of liberty. In her energetic novel "Yo-Yo Boing!," Braschi reveals the Hispanic-American experience by taking on the voices of New Yorkers from varied backgrounds. "Empire of Dreams" is a work of postmodern fiction in which the author chronicles a decade-long love affair with 1980s New York. David Foster Wallace called Braschi's work a "synergetic fusion that marks in a determinant fashion the lived experiences of U.S. Hispanics."

In Deborah Reed's gritty, lyrical and suspenseful novel "Carry Yourself Back to Me," alt-country artist Annie Walsh comes to terms with her own heartbreak when a murder connected to her brother forces her to mine the depths of love and loss, regret and redemption. Reed currently resides in the Pacific Northwest, where she also writes suspense fiction under the name of Audrey Braun. "Carry Yourself Back to Me" will be published by AmazonEncore on September 20.

Award-winning author Max Allan Collins' "Chicago Lightning: The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories," to be published by Thomas & Mercer on October 4, features Chicago PI Nathan Heller as the narrator of thirteen crime stories based on real cases from the 1930s and 1940s. Known for his graphic novel, "Road to Perdition," the basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, Max Allan Collins is a recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America lifetime achievement award, the Eye, and is the writer and director of five feature films and two documentaries. Leading up to the publication of "Chicago Lightning," AmazonEncore will re-release twelve other Nathan Heller books in August.

Amazon Publishing is the publishing arm of Amazon and encompasses the imprints AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, The Domino Project Powered by Amazon, Montlake Romance and Thomas & Mercer. For more information about all imprints of Amazon Publishing, visit www.amazon.com/amazonpublishing. Amazon Publishing is a brand used by Amazon Content Services, LLC.