Medical Error by Richard L. Mabry is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Medical Error by Richard L. Mabry as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically only until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.

— ◊ —

Medical Error by Richard L. Mabry
A Prescription for Trouble Medical Thriller
Abingdon Press

Originally published in trade paperback in July 2010, Medical Error is the second in this four book series that also includes Code Blue and Diagnosis Death. Lethal Remedy, the final book in the series, which the author collectively calls "medical suspense with heart", is due out in October.

About Medical Error (from the publisher): Dr. Anna McIntyre's life was going along just fine until someone else started living it. Her patient died because of an identity mix-up, her medical career is in jeopardy because of forged prescriptions, and her credit is in ruins. She thought things couldn't get worse, but that was before she opened the envelope and saw a positive HIV test with her name on it. Her allies are two men who are also competing for her affection. Dr. Nick Valentine is a cynic who carries a load of guilt. Attorney Ross Donovan is a recovering alcoholic. The deeper Anna digs to discover who's behind the identity thefts, the higher the stakes. Finally, when her life is on the line, Anna finds that her determination to clear her name might have been a prescription for trouble.

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

B&N Free Nook Book Download Link.

The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen by N. L. Wilson is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen by N. L. Wilson as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically only until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.

— ◊ —

The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen by N. L. Wilson
A Dix Dodd Mystery (1st in series)
Smashwords

N. L. Wilson is romance novelist Norah Wilson.

About The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen (from the publisher): Tired of getting no respect at the big P.I. firm where she’s worked for years, Dix Dodd has hung out her own shingle at the ripe age of 40. There are plenty of cheating husbands to go around, and Dix has a knack for busting them. Problem is, it doesn’t always pay so well. Conscious that the guys back at the old firm are laying bets about how soon she’ll come crawling back, she figures she’s got six months to make a go of it.

The going gets even tougher when she hires Dylan Foreman. When he told her about getting fired from his law firm and disbarred for putting common decency before the firm’s interests, she hired him on the spot. In addition to being smart, he’s gorgeous enough to remind her she’s a woman. And at 28, young enough to make her feel like a total cougar.

Things start looking up when Dix gets hired by millionaire businessman Ned Weatherby’s wife Jennifer Weatherby, to tail Ned 24/7 for a week, for a cool ten grand. Easy-peasy, right? Wrong! The job lands Dix in the middle of a murder investigation – with her as the prime suspect and her arch-enemy Detective Richard Head (a.k.a., Dickhead, one of the cheating husbands she’d nailed) gunning for her.

Dix will need all her ingenuity, as well as the help of Dylan and her oddball cast of supporters to extricate herself from this one.

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Apple Free iBook Download Link (via iTunes).

Smashwords Free Book Download Link.

Telemystery: TNT Announces Fall/Winter 2011 Crime Drama Dates

In a press release earlier today, TNT announced its Fall and Winter 2011 schedule, including returning dates for its crime dramas and the launch date for TNT Mystery Movie Night. (Yes, that's yet another new name for the series, dropping the word "Tuesday", but the reason for the change will soon become clear.)

Leverage returns with the first of eight new episodes on Sunday, November 27th, followed a day later with the first of five episodes of The Closer and the first of five episodes of Rizzoli & Isles. Then, on January 17th, the fourth season of Southland premieres.

The TNT Mystery Movie Night opens its six episode run on Tuesday, November 29th with an adaptation of Scott Turow's Innocent. The next day, Wednesday, November 30th, an adaptation of Sandra Brown's Ricochet airs. The following week, also on consecutive days, December 6th and 7th, we'll see adaptations of Hide by Lisa Gardner and Silent Witness by Richard North Patterson. Then on Tuesday, December 13th, TNT airs Good Morning, Killer, April Smith's adaptation of her own mystery featuring FBI agent Ana Grey. Finally, on Tuesday, December 20th, the holiday-themed Deck the Halls will air, an adaptation of a mystery by Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark.

At least one of the above made-for-television film adaptations — Good Morning, Killer by April Smith — is believed to be a pilot for a potential series.

(Source: TNT Press Release.)

The Mystery Bookshelf: A Hidden Affair by Pam Jenoff, a Jordan Weiss Mystery

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.

— ◊ —

A Hidden Affair by Pam Jenoff
A Jordan Weiss Mystery (2nd in series)
(Trade Paperback)
Publication Date: August 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-9072-9

About A Hidden Affair (from the publisher): Ten years ago, U.S. State Department intelligence officer Jordan Weiss’s life was turned upside down when she was told her college boyfriend, Jared, drowned in the River Cam. In a shocking discovery, though, she realizes that things weren’t as they seemed and that she had been lied to and betrayed by those closest to her. Reeling from the shock— and the knowledge that Jared is still alive—Jordan resigns her State Department post and sets off in search of answers. Traveling to Jared’s last known whereabouts on the French Riviera, she encounters Nicole, a mysterious woman who flees after refusing to disclose what she knows about Jared.

Following Nicole across Europe, Jordan soon discovers that she is not alone in her pursuit— Aaron, a handsome and enigmatic Israeli, is chasing Nicole for his own cryptic reasons. Though distrustful of each other, Jordan and Aaron join forces on a journey that takes them half a world away, and only steps ahead of grave peril.

As Jordan draws closer to finding the answers that have eluded her for a decade, larger questions remain: Can she reconcile her attraction to Aaron with her unresolved feelings for Jared, the only man she ever loved? Will the truth be too devastating to handle or finally set her free?

Will she have a chance at happiness at last? Thrilling, romantic, and impossible to put down, A Hidden Affair gives us a brave and relentless heroine who never gives up on her search for the truth.

— ◊ —

About the author: A former Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army and State Department officer, Pam Jenoff lives in the Philadelphia area, where she teaches law school. For more information about the author and her books, visit PamJenoff.com.

Purchase Options for A Hidden Affair:

Robert Harris to Adapt His Own Novel, The Fear Index, for Film

Robert Harris's latest novel, The Fear Index, hasn't even been published, but he's already working on writing the film adaptation, to be directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone). The financial thriller will be published in the UK next month by Hutchinson, and in the US this coming January by Knopf.

The book features Dr. Alex Hoffmann, whose name is carefully guarded from the general public. But within the secretive inner circles of the ultra-rich, he is a legend — a visionary scientist whose computer software turns everything it touches into gold.

Together with his partner, an investment banker, Hoffmann has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that tracks human emotions, enabling it to predict movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions.

But then in the early hours of the morning, while he lies asleep with his wife, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of their lakeside house. So begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.

His quest forces him to confront the deepest questions of what it is to be human. By the time night falls over Geneva, the financial markets will be in turmoil and Hoffmann's world — and ours — transformed forever.

Several of Harris's books have been filmed, most recently the political thriller The Ghost Writer (based on his novel The Ghost) … though our personal favorite is the 2002 film adaptation of his 1995 novel Enigma.

(Source: The Telegraph.)

New Poster for The Raven

Last month, a teaser poster for The Raven was distributed at Comic-Con. Now a new, but similarly dramatic, poster for the film has been released by the studio. The tagline reads, "The only one who can stop a serial killer is the one who inspired him." Click the image for a larger view.

Directed by James McTeigue, The Raven stars John Cusak as Edgar Allan Poe, who teams up with Detective Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) to stop the above-mentioned serial killer, who is using Poe's own work as inspiration for his crimes. It opens in theaters March 9th, 2012.

The Postmodern Mystery

Here's a subgenre of crime novels that caught our attention yesterday, the postmodern mystery. Paul Gioia — whose website bears the same name … and for all we know, coined the term — has recently published the eight memes of the postmodern mystery and asked us to take a look. We did, and it's a fascinating overview of subgenre, books that "possess a paradoxical beauty, both celebrating and undermining the precepts of crime fiction." He suggests that readers use his handy guide to search for tell-tale signs that a mystery may be postmodern … and then take all necessary precautions!

To help readers get started, Gioia lists 50 books that he believes best represent the postmodern mystery, each accompanied by a detailed analysis of how and why they fit into the subgenre. Although we've only read a couple of the books listed, we found ourselves making a checklist of several more that piqued our interest.

PostmodernMystery.com is an engaging website for mystery fans, but be forewarned: plan on allotting plenty of time to peruse all that's there.

Review: Killer Move by Michael Marshall

Killer Move by Michael Marshall. Non-series. William Morrow Hardcover, June 2011.

Two thirds of this suspense novel is mostly well crafted and intellectually thought out, but the final third is so sensational and lurid — and really quite unnecessarily so — that the overall impression it leaves is one of disappointment at this unexpected narrative turn.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Killer Move by Michael Marshall.

Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (110823)

Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, shown below are those that fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller and adventure categories.

— ◊ —

Purchase/Rental Options

Blitz (2011)

Though it was shown theatrically internationally, this film is a direct-to-DVD release in the US.

Tough, uncompromising and totally un-PC cop DS Tom Brant (Jason Statham) joins forces with officer DC Porter Nash (Paddy Considine) to hunt down a serial killer (Aiden Gillen), who has been targeting police officers. This fast-paced action-thriller is a raw, gritty tale of moral ambiguity, outsiders and the sacrifices the police make to keep crime off the streets.

Adapted from the novel Blitz by Ken Bruen, the third in the series to feature this character.

(Rated R; 95 minutes)

— ◊ —

Purchase/Rental Options

Hostage (2005)

Not a new release, but a reissue of this suspenseful and entertaining — in our opinion — film on DVD and Blu-ray disc.

Bruce Willis stars as Jeff Talley, a big-city hostage negotiator who voluntarily trades trauma for house calls when he becomes Chief of Police in a sleepy town. But when a random crime escalates into a deadly standoff, Talley finds himself thrust into a situation far more volatile and terrifying than anything he could ever imagine.

Adapted from the 2001 stand-alone thriller Hostage by Robert Crais, it is the only one of the author's many bestselling novels to be adapted for film. (He has reportedly been made offers, but has refused all involving his series characters Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.)

(Rated R; 113 minutes)

Chosen by Paula Bradley is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Chosen by Paula Bradley as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically only until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.

— ◊ —

Chosen by Paula Bradley
A Mariah Carpenter Mystery (1st in series)
Fiction Studios

About Chosen (from the publisher): Due to a talent she has kept secret since childhood, Mariah becomes reclusive and shies away from lasting relationships. However, one night a man steps out of a hole in space, injects her with an alien substance and her secret – an extraordinary psychic ability – becomes enhanced to the degree that she now can telepathically find abducted children.

Her safe, anonymous world is shattered when one of her Findings is filmed, sold to a news journalist, and blasted on every news media for the world to see.

At first, hailed as a hero for her supernatural abilities – possibly a messenger from God? – doubt creeps into the minds of the populace when her ever-increasing talents causes a man to die. Can she be bought by the highest bidder? Can she control her ever burgeoning powers? Can she even be controlled?

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

B&N Free Nook Book Download Link.

Apple Free iBook Download Link (via iTunes).

Telemystery: The Event, NCIS, and NCIS LA, New This Week on DVD

Telemystery, your source for one of the most comprehensive listings of crime drama, amateur sleuth, private investigator, mystery and suspense television series, mini-series and made-for-television movies, now available on or coming soon to DVD or Blu-ray disc, is profiling three series being released this week.

— ◊ —

 

A drama with a lot of promise, but completely — in our opinion — mismanaged by NBC, The Event launched to great fanfare only to fade quickly and be canceled after airing just one season.

Jason Ritter stars as Sean Walker, an everyman who investigates the mysterious disappearance of his would-be fiancée Leila (Sarah Roemer), and unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history.

Sean's quest will send ripples through the lives of an eclectic band of strangers, including newly elected U.S. President Elias Martinez (Blair Underwood); Sophia Maguire (Laura Innes), who is the leader of a mysterious group of detainees; and Leila's shadowy father (Scott Patterson). Their futures are on a collision course in a global conspiracy that could ultimately change the fate of mankind.

The Event: The Complete Series is available on DVD and iTunes (click on the icons above for more details), and consists of 22 episodes that originally on NBC during the Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011.

— ◊ —

 

Mark Harmon stars as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in NCIS, the Naval Criminal Investigation Service.

The sometimes complex but always entertaining dynamics of a team of special agents are forced to work together in high-stress situations. From murder and espionage to terrorism and stolen submarines, these men and women with specialized talents travel the globe to investigate all crimes with Navy or Marine Corps ties.

NCIS: Season Eight is available on DVD and iTunes (click on the icons above for more details), and consists of 24 episodes that originally aired on CBS from September 2010 through May 2011.

— ◊ —

 

Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J star as Special Agents "G" Callen and Sam Hanna in the NCIS spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles.

These agents are members of a division of NCIS responsible for apprehending dangerous and elusive criminals who pose a threat to national security. By assuming false identities and utilizing the most advanced technology, this team of highly trained agents goes deep undercover, putting their lives on the line in the field to bring down their targets.

NCIS: Los Angeles: Season Two is available on DVD and iTunes (click on the icons above for more details), and consists of 24 episodes that originally aired on CBS during the 2010/2011 television season.

— ◊ —

Visit the Telemystery website to discover more television mystery series currently available on and coming soon to DVD, Blu-ray disc, or video on demand.

BBC Announces, Provides Information for, Three Crime Dramas

The BBC published three "press packs" last week, introducing and expanding on crime dramas in development by the network.

The Field of Blood is adapted from the novel by Denise Mina and is set in 1982. Would-be journalist Paddy Meehan (Jayd Johnson), a young copygirl working in a Glasgow newspaper office is stuck in an almost exclusively male-dominated world of limited opportunities and cynicism. Paddy dreams of becoming an investigative journalist, believing that in miscarriages of justice, reporters are sometimes the only hope. She seizes an opportunity to kick-start her career and becomes embroiled in a dark murder case. For Paddy, it's the opportunity of a lifetime but it comes at a great personal cost. (Note: Though it isn't explicitly stated as such, we think this is a made-for-television movie adaptation of the book and not a multi-part series … though it could easily be one. The Field of Blood is the first in the Paddy Meehan series of mysteries by Mina, of which there are currently three entries.)

Two more feature-length films have been commissioned for George Gently, in addition to the two that are already scheduled to begin production next year. Based on a character created by crime novelist Alan Hunter, who featured the character in a large number of books published from 1955 through 1999, the series stars Martin Shaw as Commander George Gently, a 1960s-era Scotland Yard cop transferred from the city to England's rural North Country.

Finally, the network introduces its newest crime drama series, The Body Farm. A spin-off (of sorts) from Waking the Dead — and no doubt inspired to no small degree by the series of novels by Jefferson Bass and one by Patricia Cornwell, which are set in and around the "body farm", a real scientific facility at the University of Tennessee — Tara FitzGerald reprises her role as forensic expert Dr. Eve Lockhart. Her base is a remote farm from which, with the aid of donor bodies, she conducts research on behalf of Police forces around the world into the many ways in which murders can be committed and sometimes disguised. As the harsh economic climate eats into their funding, and the Home Office's own forensic facility falls victim to cutbacks, Eve accepts an offer by Detective Inspector Hale (Keith Allen) to leave the body farm to the hidden world of academic research, and work on the visceral front line of murder detection. Eve, of course, is no stranger to murder in its many forms, but her new team find themselves rapidly thrust into an unexpectedly brutal new world.

(Source: BBC Press Office.)

Winner of the 2011 Ngaio Marsh Award Announced

The winner of this year's Ngaio Marsh Award, announced yesterday in Christchurch and given for the best crime novel by a New Zealand citizen or resident, is Blood Men by Paul Cleave (Random House, 2010).

Though the fourth novel written by Cleave, it is the first (we believe) to be available here in the US, published in trade paperback last year by Atria.

(Hat tip: The Rap Sheet.)

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for August 22, 2011

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the editors of the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is now available on our website.

Godoku is similar to Sudoku, but uses letters instead of numbers. To give you a headstart, we provide you a mystery clue to fill in a complete row or column (if you choose to use it!).

— ◊ —

This week's letters and mystery clue:

A D E H L M N O T

It was a brewski for this person in the title of the 3rd Sherri Travis mystery by Phyllis Smallman (9 letters).

We now have two weeks of our puzzles on one page in PDF format for easier printing. Print this week's puzzle here.

Previous puzzles are stored in the Mystery Godoku Archives.

Enjoy the weekly Mystery Godoku Puzzle from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, and Thanks for visiting our website!

A Dirty Business by Joe Humphrey is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Dirty Business by Joe Humphrey as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically only until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.

— ◊ —

A Dirty Business by Joe Humphrey
A Kevin Bailey Mystery (1st in series)
Cliffhanger Press

About A Dirty Business (from the publisher): When Kevin Bailey, a black, jobless twenty-something returns to New York City from a recent hermitage in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, he finds himself both broke and homeless. Armed with a degree in criminal justice, he immediately leans on an associate and former employer for a needed job referral. This leads to a position with the Frank Givens detective agency in Midtown. Bailey is hired for various reasons, three of which are the fact that he comes cheap, he's green enough to be taught, and his boss is swamped with cases. Frank Givens tosses Bailey a case that should have been fairly routine: a New York City socialite requires dirt on her son's fiancée based on her suspicions of gold digging.

After the client, Selena Eldritch, supplies Bailey with a photo of her son Edward Eldritch and his blonde fiancée, Donna Greenwood, the investigation is underway, and Bailey eventually tails Edward Eldritch to a quaint historical village hours outside of Manhattan. There, Edward meets with a brunette, and Bailey soon follows the pair into a local tavern where he then discovers that the brunette's name is in fact Donna Greenwood. Who, then, is the blonde in the photo? And why does Selena Eldritch believe her to be Donna Greenwood? Bailey sets out to uncover the truth behind this mystery, but as he begins to dig deeper, he soon learns a few intriguing facts. The blonde in the photo, Norma Vidon, has actually been missing for quite some time, and the police have even given up their investigation into her disappearance.

Bailey continues to dig even further, uncovering weird obsessions, betrayals, and not a little deceit and, of course, dead bodies begin turning up. What started out as an average, relatively simple assignment soon develops into a complex case full of pretzel twists; one difficult enough for Kevin Bailey to truly prove himself. But he is up to the task?

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.