Flat Crazy by Ben Rehder is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Flat Crazy by Ben Rehder as today's free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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Flat Crazy by Ben Rehder
A John Marlin, Blanco County Mystery
Publisher: Minotaur Books/CreateSpace

This is the third comic crime novel to feature the Texas game warden.

About Flat Crazy (from the publisher): Some kind of unidentified wild creature is on the loose in Blanco County, and, over the protests of sensible game warden John Marlin, the local population has convinced itself that they're dealing with a mythical beast called a chupacabra. Of course it doesn't help Marlin's cause when a dead body turns up with a suspicious fang-like wound in its neck …

Then things really get out of hand: tabloid news programs invade Blanco, good ol' boys Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock develop a cockamamie get-rich-quick scheme involving the animal, and everyone is a little surprised at the booming population of voluptuous Chinese dwarfs who've turned up in town.

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.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $0.99 is valid only for today, Monday, March 05, 2012.

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Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez
A Giordano Sisters Mystery
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

This middle-school mystery — the first of five to date in the series — introduces Rose and Daisy Giordano.

About Dead is the New Black (from the publisher): Welcome to Nightshade, California — a small town full of secrets. It’s home to the psychic Giordano sisters, who have a way of getting mixed up in mysteries. During their investigations, they run across everything from pom-pom-shaking vampires to shape-shifting boyfriends to a clue-spewing jukebox. With their psychic powers and some sisterly support, they can crack any case!

Teenage girls are being mysteriously attacked all over town, including at Nightshade High School, where Daisy Giordano is a junior. When Daisy discovers that a vampire may be the culprit, she can’t help but suspect head cheerleader Samantha Devereaux, who returned from summer break with a new “look.” Samantha appears a little … well, dead, and all the most popular kids at school are copying her style.

Is looking dead just another fashion trend for Samantha, or is there something more sinister going on? To find out, Daisy joins the cheerleading squad.

Important Note: Amazon.com updates its Kindle book deal every day at approximately midnight PT. The title referenced above is available at a discounted price for Monday, March 05, 2012 only.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for March 05, 2012

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!).

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This week's letters and mystery clue:

A D E H K N O S W

Joel Goldman introduced ex-FBI Agent Jack Davis in this 2008 thriller (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!

March 2012 Selection of Amazon Kindle Books Priced $3.99 or less

Every month, Amazon selects 100 Kindle books and prices them at $3.99 or less. We've scoured through the March selection and picked out the really important ones — crime fiction, mystery/suspense novels and thrillers — and listed them below. Click on the title for more information or to purchase.

Important Note: The prices listed are only available through the month of March 2012 and may change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of book before completing your purchase.

$1.99 titles …

• The Past Came Hunting by Donnell Ann Bell.
• As the Crow Dies by Ken Casper.
• Flying Blind by Max Allan Collins. A Nathan Heller Mystery (10th in series).
• No Way Out by Joel Goldman. A Jack Davis Mystery (3rd in series).
• Death by the Glass by Nadia Gordon. A Sunny McCoskey Mystery (2nd in series).
• The Savage Day by Jack Higgins. A Simon Vaughn Thriller.
• Girl's Best Friend by Leslie Margolis. A Maggie Brooklyn Mystery (1st in series).
• Into Thin Air by Thomas Zigal. A Kurt Muller Mystery (1st in series).

$2.99 titles …

• Deadly Appraisal by Jane K. Cleland. A Josie Prescott, Antiques Mystery (2nd in series).
• Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry. A Joe Ledger Mystery (1st in series).
• Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming. A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery (3rd in series).
• A Little Death in Dexie by Lisa Turner. A Billy Able Mystery (1st in series).

indicates a review is available on Mysterious Reviews. Click on the icon to visit the review page.

Mr. E. Reviews Midsomer Murders Set 19

Purchase/Rental Option(s)

This crime drama is one of the few series that manages to stay fresh season after season even though the principal characters do not (often) change, the supporting cast in each episode is different yet somehow familiar, and the storylines manage to explore new facets of a murder mystery while basically confined to the same environment. One of the episodes in this set introduces Barnaby's replacement after the current season, his cousin DCI John Barnaby.

Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews Midsomer Murders Set 19.

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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.

F+W Media Announces Crime eBook Imprint Prologue Books

F+W Media officially announced this past week the acquisition of more than 250 out-of-print crime novels, originally published between 1940 and 1970, to be reissued as ebooks under its Prologue Books imprint. Formats supported include Kindle, Nook, Apple iBook, Sony, and Kobo.

"I envision Prologue Books not simply an e-book publisher for out-of-print titles, but as a living record of the crime, science fiction, and fantasy genres," said Ben LeRoy, publisher of Tyrus Books, who is spearheading the project. "There's a great opportunity to shine the spotlight on authors who may have been significantly influential on the current state of publishing, but who have never really received their due for one reason or another. With the help of luminaries in the genres—authors, readers, reviewers — we are excited to find and share those stories."

Authors whose books are currently available include Robert Colby, Richard Deming, Fletcher Flora, William Campbell Gault, Orrie Hitt, Frank Kane, Henry Kane, M. E. Kerr, Ed Lacy, Whit Masterson, Marijane Meaker, Wade Miller, Vin Packer, Kin Platt, Talmade Powell, Peter Rabe, and Charles Runyon.

(Source: Press release.)

Snake Skin by C. J. Lyons is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Snake Skin by C. J. Lyons as today's second free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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Snake Skin by C. J. Lyons
Publisher: CreateSpace

This stand-alone is a repeat freebie from last year.

About Snake Skin (from the publisher): Just your average Pittsburgh soccer mom, baking brownies and carrying a loaded forty-caliber Glock ...

Lucille Teresa Guardino. A woman of many identities. Lucille to her doting mother, Lulu to her devoted husband, Mom to her pre-teen daughter, Lucy to her friends, LT to her co-workers, and Supervisory Special Agent Guardino to the criminals she captures for the FBI's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement squad.

A loving mom and wife, dutiful daughter, consummate professional, and kick-ass federal agent, Lucy is living the perfect life.

Until the day she comes up against a predator more vicious and cunning than any she's ever tackled before, one who forces Lucy to choose between the life of the young victim she is fighting to save and her own daughter's ... and Lucy's dream life is shattered.

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.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline as today's free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline
A Peri Minneopa Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace

In our review of this second book in the series, we said, "Peri is an appealing sleuth, a 50-something woman whose life experience as a house cleaner provides her with an eye for detail and gives her an edge when it comes to knowing where to find the skeletons in family closets."

About Hit or Missus (from the publisher): Surveillance assignments are low-stress, easy money for private investigator Peri Minneopa. Take some pictures, write a nice report and collect the fee. Her new case is a routine one: a rich husband suspects his wife of infidelity. Just because bad things start happening to her when she takes the job doesn’t mean anything.

Peri’s boyfriend, Detective Skip Carlton, is investigating the death of Peri’s elderly neighbor. It looks like a heart attack, which is how her husband died two weeks ago. He realizes elderly couples sometimes die within a short time of each other. It’s not unusual.

Skip’s elderly couple had left legal papers lying out on the table, involving a year-old real estate purchase. There’s a note on the papers from Peri’s client. He is a real estate developer, so it’s not that odd.

Peri doesn’t believe in coincidences, any more than Skip does. When their cases collide, she begins poking her nose into police business and immediately butts heads with her boyfriend. She wants to know who is harassing her, and what happened to her neighbor. Skip wants to keep her out of danger and keep his case from being compromised.

For Peri, getting to the truth will require more help than Skip and the police are willing to give. She is forced to rely on an unlikely partner, an annoying lit­tle man who is obsessed with Dean Martin.

If she can keep her sanity and her life ...

She might just solve this case.

Read our review of Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline.

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.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

First Poster for AMC's The Killing, Season Two

AMC has released the first official poster for the second season of The Killing (right; click for slightly larger version). Its tagline: "Be careful what you uncover."

We're still torn about whether or not we will give this series another chance. We were bitterly disappointed in how the first season ended, without a resolution to the murder mystery, "Who killed Rosie Larsen?" And then we later learned that we wouldn't know the answer to that until the end of the second season. It's probably not too much of a stretch to opine that this is no way to treat your audience.

Still, we enjoyed the show right up to the final seconds of the last episode of the first season, so may — may — give it another chance this season. It will feature a new murder mystery to solve, hopefully within the context of a single season.

The Killing returns on Sunday, April 1st, 2012 with a 2-hour season premiere at 8 PM (ET/PT) on AMC.

Casting News for Cinemax's Original Crime Drama Banshee

Cinemax has announced some of the principal cast for its upcoming original crime drama Banshee. Set in a small town of the same name in Pennsylvania Amish Country, the series premise involves an ex-con, who assumes the identity of a murdered sheriff, imposing his own brand of justice on the community.

Matt Servitto (Harry's Law) will play Brock Lotus, a deputy with the Banshee sheriff's department; Trieste Dunn (Canterbury's Law) will play Siobhan Kelly, another deputy; and Daniel Ross will play Banshee's mayor.

Written by novelists Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler, ten episodes have been ordered by the cable network with an anticipated premiere date in 2013. Filming is expected to begin in North Carolina this spring.

Middle School Comic Crime Novel Wins 2012 Sid Fleischman Award

The winner of the 2012 Sid Fleischman Award for exemplary writing for children in the genre of humor has gone to Chris Rylander for his comic middle school crime novel The Fourth Stall. The announcement was made together with the winners of the annual Golden Kite Awards by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).

In The Fourth Stall, middle school just got a lot more criminal.

Do you need something? Mac can get it for you. It's what he does. He and his best friend and business manager, Vince. Their methods might sometimes run afoul of the law, or at least the school code of conduct, but if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can pay him, Mac is on your side. His office is located in the East Wing boy's bathroom, fourth stall from the high window. And business is booming.

Or at least it was, until one particular Monday. It starts with a third grader in need of protection. And before this ordeal is over, it's going to involve a legendary high school crime boss named Staples, an intramural gambling ring, a graffiti ninja, the nine most dangerous bullies in school, and the first Chicago Cubs World Series game in almost seventy years. And that's just the beginning. Mac and Vince soon realize that the trouble with solving everyone else's problems is that there's no one left to solve yours.

A sequel to the book, The Fouth Stall Part II, was published last month.

(Source: Press release.)

Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman Recipes Available as Free Download

Readers of Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman's mysteries know that the amateur sleuth creates gastronomical delights in her bakery Heavenly Pleasures. And now you can too!

Greenwood's publisher, Allen & Unwin, is making available Recipes from Corinna Chapman — "mouth-watering morsels to make your man melt" — as a free PDF download. The 28-page document includes dinner ideas, bread recipes, and of course desserts.

There are currently six books in the Corinna Chapman mystery series, the most recent, Cooking the Books, being published this month in the US by Poisoned Pen Press. (Kerry Greenwood is also the author of the Phyne Fisher mysteries set in 1920s Melbourne.)

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

Don Winslow's The King of Cool Publication Date Now June 26th

When we reported in January on the publication of Don Winslow's prequel to Savages, The Kings of Cool, the book was scheduled to be published in August to coincide with the release of the film Savages in September.

The studio has since moved the release date of the film to July 6th, and now Simon & Schuster, the book's publisher, has moved the publication date of the prequel to June 26th, 2012.

In The Kings of Cool, Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben, Chon, and O became the people they are. Spanning from 1960s Southern California to the recent past, it is a tale of family in all its forms — fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers. As the younger generation does battle with a cabal of drug dealers and crooked cops, they come to learn that their future is inextricably linked with their parents' history. A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon, and O to choose between their real families and their love for each other.

Film Adaptation of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol Gets New Screenwriter

The film adaptation of Dan Brown's 2009 thriller The Lost Symbol is taking a step forward with the announcement of a new screenwriter, Danny Strong. The Lost Symbol is the third book to feature Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. The first two in the series, Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, were also adapted for film, both directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as Langdon. Howard has already announced he will not return as director for this third film, and though Hanks has not yet been signed, he is expected to reprise his role.

In The Lost Symbol, Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object — artfully encoded with five symbols — is discovered in the building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation … one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon — a prominent Mason and philanthropist — is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations — all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.

(Related article: Deadline.)

The Woman by David Bishop is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Woman by David Bishop as today's third free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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The Woman by David Bishop
Publisher: Telemachus Press

About The Woman (from the publisher): Linda Darby is a seven-year divorcee, living quietly in a small let-the-world-go-by beach town on the coast of Oregon, who day trades for a living. Her only close friend is a widowed elderly woman who manages a small consulting company which, as is later discovered, never has visitors, sends and receives its business correspondence only by courier, and is not listed in any phone directories. No one in town knows what kind of consulting the company does, but the rumor is that whatever they do, they do it for the government.

Linda doesn’t date local men. When her celibacy grows intolerable, she visits nearby towns to frequent the watering holes of successful men. Her motto: No relationships. No second dates. No use of her real name during one-night stands.

Then one evening, Linda goes for a walk and nothing for her is ever the same. She is dragged into an alley by two men, but saved by a third, a stranger who disappears as suddenly as he had appeared. He warns her that the local police cannot be trusted. The following day she learns that hours before she had been dragged into the alley, her best friend had been tortured and killed. The next night, she awakens several hours after going to sleep to find a man sitting in her bedroom, watching her …

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.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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