The Delphi Agenda by Rob Swigart is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Delphi Agenda by Rob Swigart as today's free mystery ebook (An Action Thriller; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, February 27, 2013 at 7:10 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

For a summary of all of today's featured titles, plus any that may have appeared before and are repeat freebies, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.

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The Delphi Agenda
Rob Swigart
An Action Thriller
Publisher: booksBnimble

Papyrologist Lisa Emmer's world flips when the Surete meets her at her Metro station with news of the savage murder of the esteemed Paris historian Dr. Raimond Foix, her friend and mentor in the study of ancient documents. Horrified, Lisa finds clues at the crime scene left behind for her by her mentor — clues to a secret kept hidden for centuries. These clues make her a prime suspect in the murder investigation, and also put her directly in the cross-hairs of a deadly commando group that proves to be none other than a contemporary offshoot of the Inquisition.

They want an ancient document that reveals a secret so explosive it could change the world — a document they've been tracking for centuries. Led by a sadistic priest and a vicious but very accomplished nun with excellent military cred, their mission is to destroy the document — no matter what the cost in blood.

Desperate to clear her name and to stay alive, with the help of a handsome yet mysterious banker, Lisa must solve the clues and uncover the millennia-old secret before her adversaries can find and destroy it. Since she was a child Lisa had suffered from uncontrollable fugue states. Now she discovers just in time that what she always thought was a liability may in fact be an almost paranormal ability to see things in ways others cannot. The trail leads everywhere from ancient cemeteries and tombs throughout France to Istanbul and Greece, as Lisa and Steve desperately stay one step ahead of their enemies, solving the clues to a dangerous treasure hunt their lives now depend upon.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

The Investigation by Stanislaw Lem is Today's Sci-Fi/Fantasy Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Investigation by Stanislaw Lem as today's Amazon Kindle Sci-Fi/Fantasy Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Wednesday, February 27, 2013.

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The Investigation
Stanislaw Lem
A Metaphysical Crime Novel
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

A young officer at Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate a puzzling and eerie case of missing — and apparently resurrected — bodies.

To unravel the mystery, Lt. Gregory consults scientific, philosophical, and theological experts, who supply him with a host of theories and clues.

First published in Poland in 1959, the author has ambivalent feelings about this book. "I am not entirely happy with The Investigation," he writes, "although it is quite well written and keeps the reader in suspense. The ending, a departure from the literary genre, addresses certain philosophical issues by showing possible explanations and courses of events. … My attachment to this idea results from the fact that I was always interested in the role played by pure chance, coincidence and fate."

Important Note: This book was listed at the price mentioned above on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond is Today's Kindle Romantic Suspense Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond as today's Amazon Kindle Romantic Suspense Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Wednesday, February 27, 2013.

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Whole Lotta Trouble
Stephanie Bond
A Humorous Romantic Mystery
NeedToRead Books

Sometimes the best laid plans go sideways …

Three single female mystery book editors living in Manhattan meet regularly for drinks to discuss their demanding jobs and their rollercoaster love lives. Tallie Blankenship is a small town girl made good, determined to leave her mark in publishing. Her senior editor is taking a leave of absence for mysterious reasons and has entrusted her with the manuscript of their most popular (and eccentric) author, and Tallie sees the responsibility as a huge stepping stone. But she's livid when the author's agent, infamous bad-boy Jerry Key yanks the project and gives it to her coworker who's willing to sleep with him in return.

Felecia Redmon is a city-bred senior editor with an impressive stable of writers, yet she fantasizes about being a homemaker, stocks her pantry with designer household products and bakes like Betty Crocker. Her brief relationship with agent Jerry Key was a demeaning disaster; he keeps resurfacing to make her life miserable, professionally and personally. When she receives a nude picture of herself in the office mail that she suspects Jerry sent, Felicia is desperate for revenge.

Jane Glass is a neurotic e-book editor with an identity crisis. She's adopted, and of unknown ethnic background, so she celebrates every cultural holiday and dresses flamboyantly with no apologies. Jane, too, has a beef with agent Jerry Key—a client of his plagiarized one of her e-book authors, and she knows that Jerry was fully aware.

The women decide to give Jerry a taste of his own medicine, and as carefully as they would mold a bestselling plot, they concoct a plan to lure the bad-boy agent into a compromising situation, take a digital photo of him, then send it to everyone in his e-mail address book. The plan goes off without a glitch … until they discover the next morning that Jerry is dead, and not of humiliation. To make matters worse, half of Manhattan's publishing industry received a picture of him at the crime scene that they sent.

The shaken women realize how incriminating their escapade will look to the police. They agree to remain silent, but loyalties are strained, especially after another person close to them turns up dead. Toss in a missing manuscript worth millions, a sexy cop too smart for their good, and a plot twist on a scope larger than anyone could have imagined, and the women suddenly realize that when it comes to friendship, flirtation and felony, they're in a whole lotta trouble.

Important Note: This book was listed at the price mentioned above on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Dead Asleep by Jamie Freveletti is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Dead Asleep by Jamie Freveletti as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $0.99 is valid only for today, Wednesday, February 27, 2013.

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Dead Asleep
Jamie Freveletti
An Emma Caldridge Mystery
Harper

Biochemist Emma Caldridge comes to a remote tropical island in the Caribbean in search of minerals believed to reverse the aging process. What she finds instead are the bloody remnants of a bizarre religious ritual. And here, where the local people speak in whispers about sea monsters, ancient voodoo curses, and rampaging evil, she discovers something far more real … and more terrifying.

One by one the island's innocent inhabitants are descending into a paralyzing sleep of the dead — victims of a long-dormant, terrifying, and incurable pandemic that could once again wreak unimaginable havoc if it escapes from the island to spread like wildfire across the globe.

Trapped by a global quarantine, Emma must break through the fear and superstition to get to the truth, and stop the real evil, before she herself succumbs to the death sleep … along with millions of others.

Because the evil here has an all-too-human face …

Important Note: This book was listed at the price mentioned above on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Review: Mandarin Gate by Eliot Pattison

A Mysterious Review of …

Mandarin Gate by Eliot Pattison. A Shan Tao Yun Mystery.

Review summary: With such memorable characters and an often lyrical narrative, this truly intriguing murder mystery is hard to fault. It is, however, more than a little unbalanced, with not enough focus on Shan's intuitive deductive process and too much emphasis on China's abuse of the Tibetan land and its people. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Mandarin Gate
Eliot Pattison
A Shan Tao Yun Mystery
Minotaur Books (November 2012)

Publisher synopsis: In an earlier time, Shan Tao Yun was an Inspector stationed in Beijing. But he lost his position, his family and his freedom when he ran afoul of a powerful figure high in the Chinese government. Released unofficially from the work camp to which he'd been sentenced, Shan has been living in remote mountains of Tibet with a group of outlawed Buddhist monks. Without status, official identity, or the freedom to return to his former home in Beijing, Shan has just begun to settle into his menial job as an inspector of irrigation and sewer ditches in a remote Tibetan township when he encounters a wrenching crime scene.

Strewn across the grounds of an old Buddhist temple undergoing restoration are the bodies of two unidentified men and a Tibetan nun. Shan quickly realizes that the murders pose a riddle the Chinese police might in fact be trying to cover up. When he discovers that a nearby village has been converted into a new internment camp for Tibetan dissidents arrested in Beijing's latest pacification campaign, Shan recognizes the dangerous landscape he has entered.

To find justice for the victims and to protect an American woman who witnessed the murders, Shan must navigate through the treacherous worlds of the internment camp, the local criminal gang, and the government's rabid pacification teams, while coping with his growing doubts about his own identity and role in Tibet.

      

MystereBooks: March Violets, the 1st Bernie Gunther Mystery by Philip Kerr, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature March Violets by Philip Kerr, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Penguin Books.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $2.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/26/2013 at 3:30 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

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March Violets by Philip Kerr
A Bernie Gunther Mystery (1st)
Publisher: Penguin Books

Set in 1936, against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to power, this tense thriller begins with Berhard Gunther's investigation into the disappearance of a diamond necklace.

But nothing is simple in this corrupt landscape, and Bernie soon finds himself caught in a web of Nazi politics and organized crime.

      

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

MystereBooks: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, HarperCollins.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $1.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/26/2013 at 2:30 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

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Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Publisher: HarperCollins

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals … a used hangman's noose … a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet.

I will "sell" my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder.

For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts — of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What's one more?

But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing.

And suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door … seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang … standing outside his window … staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting — with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand …

      

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (130226)

Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly; as an alternative, you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com, which includes a list of both the Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free Kindle Mysteries and Thrillers.

The Mystery Bookshelf: Cloudland by Joseph Olshan

The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a world of mystery and suspense, is pleased to feature a new crime novel we recently received from the publisher.

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Cloudland by Joseph Olshan
Minotaur Books (Trade Paperback)
Publication Date: February 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1-250-02157-1

An ingenious psychological trap baited with murder, deception and the intricacies of desire …

About Cloudland (from the publisher): Once a major reporter for a national newspaper, Catherine Winslow has retreated to the Upper Valley of Vermont to write a household hints column. While out walking during an early spring thaw, Catherine discovers the body of a woman leaning against an apple tree near her house. From the corpse's pink parka, Winslow recognizes her as the latest victim of a serial killer, a woman reported missing weeks before during a blizzard.

When her neighbor, a forensic psychiatrist, is pulled into the investigation, Catherine begins to discover some unexpected connections to the serial murders. One is that the murders might be based on a rare unfinished Wilkie Collins novel that is missing from her personal library. The other is her much younger lover from her failed affair has unexpectedly resurfaced and is trying to maneuver his way back into her affections.

Purchase Options for Cloudland:

        

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About the author: Joseph Olshan has written extensively for newspapers and magazines. During the 1990s, he was a regular contributor of book reviews to the Wall Street Journal. For six years was a professor of Creative Writing at New York University where he taught both graduate and undergraduate courses. His first novel, Clara's Heart, won the Times/Jonathan Cape Young Writers' Competition and went on to be made into a feature film. Learn more about the author and his work on his website, JosephOlshan.com.

Fatal Debt by Dorothy Howell is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Fatal Debt by Dorothy Howell as today's fourth free mystery ebook (A Dana MacKenzie Mystery; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, February 26, 2013 at 7:40 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

For a summary of all of today's featured titles, plus any that may have appeared before and are repeat freebies, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.

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Fatal Debt
Dorothy Howell
A Dana MacKenzie Mystery
Publisher: Dorothy Howell

Dana Mackenzie finds herself working for a faceless financial institution — it's either this or piercing ears at the mall — and while she's grateful for a job, she has no intentions of following the corporate offices' heartless orders.

When she's instructed to repossess a 42-inch Sony television from an elderly couple, Dana intends to put her own twist on the assignment. But upon arriving at their run down house in a gang infested neighborhood, she's horrified to find sweet old Mr. Sullivan murdered.

The homicide detective investigating the case is Nick Travis, Dana's high school crush. Sparks ignite, but a dark secret threatens to keep them apart — unless Nick comes clean about the past.

Dana agrees to help Mr. Sullivan's grieving family locate his grandson, a guy with a surprising new lifestyle who's been missing since the day of the murder. Her good intentions put her in the thick of the murder investigation and on a collision course with the killer.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

The Black Bullet by Tom Lowe is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Black Bullet by Tom Lowe as today's third free mystery ebook (A Sean O'Brien Mystery; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, February 26, 2013 at 7:30 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

For a summary of all of today's featured titles, plus any that may have appeared before and are repeat freebies, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.

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The Black Bullet
Tom Lowe
A Sean O'Brien Mystery
Publisher: Kingsbridge

Glenda Lawson believes her husband was the only U.S. serviceman shot and killed on American soil during World War II. But in 1945, investigators ruled that Billy Lawson died in a "mugging turned ugly."

In 2012, Sean O'Brien, learning the ropes of commercial fishing, gets his anchor caught on something underwater. He discovers a German U-boat partially buried in sand, and inside is a frightening cargo. The media pick up the story, and a 35-year-old woman who has a haunting tale, visits O'Brien. Her grandfather, Billy Lawson, was fishing one night on a Florida beach when he saw something very disturbing.

The last thing Sean O'Brien wants is to investigate a sixty-seven-year-old murder. But Billy Lawson's granddaughter and his cancer-stricken widow are desperate for closure. For O'Brien to bring it to them he has to pry the lid off a secret buried with the Manhattan Project. It's information that got Billy Lawson killed, and O'Brien soon learns the old murder and his new discovery at the bottom of the sea are inextricably knotted. O'Brien is thrust into a world where nothing is as it appears, and everything is riding on a secret Billy Lawson took to his grave.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Louisiana Hotshot by Julie Smith is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Louisiana Hotshot by Julie Smith as today's second free mystery ebook (A Talba Wallis Mystery; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, February 26, 2013 at 7:20 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

For a summary of all of today's featured titles, plus any that may have appeared before and are repeat freebies, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.

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Louisiana Hotshot
Julie Smith
A Talba Wallis Mystery
Publisher: booksBnimble

"Wanted: Hotshot P.I. with near super-human skills."

Confirmed grump Eddie Valentino placed the ad. Hotshot twenty-something Talba Wallis knew exactly how to answer it.

And thus was born the dynamic duo of New Orleans private detectives, one cynical, sixty-five-year-old Luddite white dude with street smarts, and one young, bright-eyed, twenty-first century African-American female poet, performance artist, mistress of disguise, and computer jock extraordinaire. Think Queen Latifah and Danny DeVito.

Their job is to hunt down a sociopath and pedophile who's molested the fourteen-year-old daughter of their client, hangs out on the ragged edges of the rap and recording industries, and has more powerful allies than a Cabinet member.

But both detectives have unfinished business from the past — in Eddie's case, something he deeply regrets; in Talba's, a personal mystery, one so frightening no one will help her investigate. But she knows she won't sleep till she solves it — and the truth will change her forever.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Claw Back by P. J. Parrish is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Claw Back by P. J. Parrish as today's free mystery ebook (A Louis Kincaid Mystery; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, February 26, 2013 at 7:10 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

For a summary of all of today's featured titles, plus any that may have appeared before and are repeat freebies, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.

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Claw Back
P. J. Parrish
A Louis Kincaid Mystery
Publisher: Panther Books

Her name is Grace. She's eight years old. And she's missing in the Florida Everglades. Can Louis Kincaid find her in time to save her — and himself?

Louis is desperate to wear a badge again and redeem himself in the eyes of his lover Joe Frye. He's cleaning up his credit and getting in shape. But there's one big obstacle in his way — his old nemesis Sheriff Lance Mobley. He's willing to give Louis a shot but only if he proves himself on one of the weirdest cases Louis has ever worked. If he can find a missing endangered Florida panther in the steamy Everglades maybe he can claw his way back to his dream and his identity as a man.

This novella is a prequel to the 11th book in the series, Heart of Ice.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Nominees for the 2012 Hammett Prize Announced

The nominees for the 2012 Hammett Prize have been announced by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers honoring excellence in crime writing.

The winner will be announced during the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) Fall Conference later this year.

The nominees are …

• Defending Jacob by William Landay (Delacorte Press)
• Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch (Knopf)
• Oregon Hill by Howard Owen (Permanent Press)
• Patient Number 7 by Kurt Palka (McClelland & Stewart)
• Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (Grove Press)

(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare for alerting us to this news.)

Winners of the 2012 Florida Book Awards Announced

The winners of the 2012 Florida Book Awards were announced earlier this month … and we're more than a little embarrassed that we missed the news, especially since we're residents of the state!

Three winners — gold, silver, and bronze — were chosen in each of ten categories, and while there is no separate category for crime fiction, two of the three winners in the General Fiction category are crime novels; and all three winners in the Popular Fiction category are mysteries or thrillers.

The winners are:

General Fiction …
Gold — Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
Bronze — Plunder by Mary Anna Evans

Popular Fiction …
Gold — The Tenth Saint by D. J. Niko
Silver — Blood Sacrifice by Michael Lister
Bronze — Plunder by Mary Anna Evans