We've just published our Review of The Mastermind Plot by Angie Frazier. A Suzanna Snow Mystery. Scholastic Hardcover, March 2012.
Our rating:
Available to purchase from …
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120422)
Here is today's list of the top bestselling free Kindle mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers.
We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.
Mysterious Press Publishes Dozens of New eBook Titles
Here's some good news we missed seeing earlier in the week. Mysterious Press has just released 37 new ebook editions of mysteries written by Jeremiah Healy (9 books), Gar Anthony Haywood (6 books), Jane Langton (7 books), and Stephen Marlowe (14 books). (Each author's name above is linked to the list of Kindle titles on Amazon.com, though other formats are also available.)
Of these, we are probably most excited by the Healy books, all of which we've read. We were living in Boston at the time they were originally published — the late 1980s and early 1990s — so some of the appeal was no doubt that we were familiar with many of the locations referenced in the books. We've listed the "new" ebook titles below by Healy — the first nine books in the John Francis Cuddy series, in order — but encourage you to check out all the other newly published ebooks by Mysterious Press.
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Blunt Darts
John Cuddy's heart is buried in a cemetery overlooking Boston harbor. His wife, Beth, fought her cancer for nearly a year, and when she died Cuddy gave up his morning runs in favor of nightly benders. Two months after her death, he is forced out of his job as an insurance investigator for refusing to sign his name to a phony claim. Now he is filing for unemployment, cutting back on his drinking, and attempting to become a private eye.
His first real case comes in the form of Valerie Jacobs, a junior high teacher who was friends with Beth. Her star pupil, the son of a Massachusetts judge, has vanished, and the local police have no leads. To make his name as a detective, Cuddy searches for a boy who's too smart to be found, and whose father would prefer his son never return.
The Staked Goat
Winner of the 1987 Shamus Award for Best PI Hardcover.
As military policemen, John Francis Cuddy and Al Sachs bonded while patrolling the wild streets of American-occupied Saigon. Over a decade later, Cuddy is a private detective making a living in Boston's back alleys. Awoken by a ringing phone at seven a.m., Cuddy is shocked to hear Sachs asking to meet for a drink that night. His old friend's voice reminds him of the time a Cagney movie inspired Sachs to say that, if ever captured by enemy agents, he would break his pinkie finger to signal to Cuddy that his death was not an accident. Sachs never shows for the drink, and the next morning he is found naked in a park, his body mangled and his pinkie broken.
To avenge his friend, Cuddy confronts a dark military cover-up, and travels back to the war zone he thought he left behind years ago.
So Like Sleep
William Daniels nearly didn't make it to college. A black student raised in one of Boston's roughest suburbs, he once barely skirted time in juvenile hall for gang activities. Pressure from his mother convinced William to straighten out, and he went on to study at a prestigious university. Years after his first brush with the law, William is in trouble again, and it will take more than a mother's love to keep him free.
While hypnotized by his psychiatrist, William admits to shooting his girlfriend, producing the murder weapon and telling the doctor where to find the body. When he comes out of his state, William is in handcuffs and thinks he killed the girl. But private eye John Francis Cuddy doesn't trust the psychiatrist, and risks everything to save this bright young man whose mind has been turned against him.
Swan Dive
Divorce will not be easy for Hanna Marsh. Her drug-dealing husband, Roy, is a cruel man, whose greed makes him unwilling to part with anything he owns—including his money, wife, and daughter. Hanna's lawyer is terrified of Roy, but has the sense to hire John Francis Cuddy, private detective, to protect Hanna during the negotiations. Cuddy doesn't wait to get mean with Roy, and the result of his tough talk is clear as soon as they return to Hanna's temporary residence: her daughter's kitten slaughtered on the floor.
Cuddy makes Roy pay for his vile behavior, humiliating the drug pusher in an attempt to set his wife free. But when Roy takes a headfirst dive out a hotel window, leaving behind a murdered prostitute and a missing shipment of cocaine, suspicion falls on Cuddy. To save his client's life, Cuddy must put his own on the line.
Yesterday's News
According to its daily paper, Nasharbor is an idyllic seaside hamlet. But reporter Jane Rust knows better. Investigating a raid on a child pornography ring, she uncovers a web of police corruption built to protect the sickos behind the camera. She writes a story that should blow the lid off the Nasharbor police, but her editors scrub it clean of any reference to corruption, calling her accusations unfounded. Soon after, the cop who tipped her off to the story is dead.
Rust hires Boston PI John Francis Cuddy to look into the murder and the cover-up. But prodding small-town cops is like kicking a hornet's nest. By the end of his investigation, more good people will die, and Cuddy will wish he had never heard of sunny, tranquil Nasharbor.
Right to Die
To impress his girlfriend and remind himself of his long-neglected athleticism, John Francis Cuddy is training to run the Boston marathon. But the private detective's fitness regimen goes on the back burner when an old friend approaches him with a dangerous assignment. Euthanasia advocate Maisy Andrus has been receiving death threats, and the police are helpless to protect her. As he tries to keep the crusading lawyer alive, Cuddy realizes that the question isn't who wants Andrus dead, but who doesn't.
Protecting the right-to-die advocate dredges up painful memories of Cuddy's wife, who died a slow death from brain cancer. The closer he gets to unmasking the would-be assassin, the more his old wounds open. When the killer starts taking potshots at him, as well as his client, Cuddy's marathon training will come in handy.
Shallow Graves
She was born Tina Danucci, but modeled as Mau Tim Dani., Her friends find the slender beauty strangled to death in her apartment, a priceless necklace of hers nowhere in sight. The police dismiss the murder as an impossible-to-solve botched robbery, so the insurance company hires John Francis Cuddy to do what the homicide detectives can't. But there's something the cops know that Cuddy doesn't: Tina's murder isn't just hard to solve, it could be deadly.
Tina was the granddaughter of Tommy "the Temper" Danucci, the invisible face of the Boston mafia. She turned her back on him to become a model, but hers is the kind of family that never forgets a child. Once Danucci learns that the police have lost interest in the case, he puts the screws to Cuddy. This is one murder Cuddy has no choice but to crack.
Foursome
Steve always forgets to buy groceries on the way to the lake house. Every time he and his wife make a pilgrimage to Maine, his first task is to drive into town and pick up essentials. Today he leaves his wife at home with their two friends and returns from the store to find a crossbow on the lawn and arrows embedded in the chests of the three people he loves most. During a twenty-minute shopping trip, he has become the chief suspect in a triple murder.
The case against him is airtight—fingerprints on the weapon, blood on his shoes—so Steve's lawyer hires Boston PI John Francis Cuddy to crack it. Steve's lakeside neighbors had no love for his yuppie pals, but did they hate the city slickers enough to frame him for murder? Cuddy learns quickly that in Maine, even the killers are awfully polite.
Act of God
John Francis Cuddy almost never gets walk-in clients, but today he has two. Although William Proft and Pearl Rivkind enter his office together, they could not have less in common. Proft is a pharmacist with greedy eyes, who relates too calmly the facts of his sister's disappearance. Mrs. Rivkind is a recent widow whose husband was killed during an attempted robbery. Her fear that her husband may have been cheating endears her to Cuddy. The odd couple think there may be a connection between the missing sister and late husband, and ask Cuddy to find it. Cuddy does not like joint cases, but the hard sorrow in Mrs. Rivkind's eyes makes him say yes.
He quickly finds that, although Mrs. Rivkind's grief for her husband was genuine, Proft has no interest in seeing his sister return. As Cuddy searches for answers to these strange intertwined cases, he can only pray that no more corpses appear before he finds the truth.
Review: Mix-Up in Miniature by Margaret Grace
We've just published our Review of Mix-Up in Miniature by Margaret Grace. A Geraldine Porter Mystery. Perseverance Press Trade Paperback, April 2012.
Our rating:
Available to purchase from …
Poisoned Pairings by Lesley A. Diehl is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Poisoned Pairings by Lesley A. Diehl 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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Poisoned Pairings by Lesley A. Diehl
A Hera Knightsbridge Mystery
Publisher: Mainly Murder
This is the second mystery to feature the master beer microbrewer.
About Poisoned Pairings (from the publisher): The threat of hydraulic fracturing, an environmentally controversial technique to extract gas from shale, invades Butternut Valley. Hera Knightsbridge and her fellow microbrewers fear it will pollute the water, their most precious ingredient, as well as destroy the beauty of the valley. Then murder visits Hera’s brewery. When investigator and love interest Jake is called away, Hera is on her own and must confront a murderer as well as ghosts from her past.
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):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Patron of Terror by Adimchinma Ibe is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Patron of Terror by Adimchinma Ibe 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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Patron of Terror by Adimchinma Ibe
A Tamunoemi "Tammy" Peterside Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace
This is the second mystery to feature the Nigerian homicide detective.
About Patron of Terror (from the publisher): Tammy Peterside, on suspension from events in the previous book, is brought back to work to solve the murders of the candidate and his wife and their driver. Tammy soon discovers that the secret to the killings may lie in the Niger Delta, source of both Nigeria's wealth and its many problems. Terrorists appear to be operating out of the Delta, orchestrating political assassinations and sabotage of oil company property. It soon comes down to Tammy Peterside solving the mystery of both the killings and of what the terrorists in the Delta are really after.
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):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Dead Air Can Kill You by Phil Edwards is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Dead Air Can Kill You by Phil Edwards 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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Dead Air Can Kill You by Phil Edwards
A Jake Russo Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace
This is the second (of four to date) mystery to feature the roving reporter.
About Dead Air Can Kill You (from the publisher): Jake Russo thought he was going on vacation. When he took a break from reporting to visit Wisconsin, he and his girlfriend expected hot chocolate and hot tubs. Their only plan was to watch the taping of an old time radio show.
But plans change when a blizzard leaves them marooned in the estate of the show's host — along with a dead body. Jake has to discover the show's secrets, interrogate the bickering suspects, and defend his girlfriend from a potential suitor. Jake's octogenarian photographer and his wife help in their own unique ways as the bodies pile up.
As Jake and his friends try to crack the case, they'll face near starvation, bumbling police, and a bad vaudeville act trying to make it big. It will take all of Jake's wits to escape the estate with his relationships — and life — intact.
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):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120421)
Here is today's list of the top bestselling free Kindle mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers.
We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.
Review: The Girl Next Door by Brad Parks
We've just published our Review of The Girl Next Door by Brad Parks. A Carter Ross Mystery. Minotaur Books Hardcover, March 2012.
Our rating:
Available to purchase from …
MystereBooks: This Week's Update of Kindle Books Priced $2.99 or Less (120421)
Every month Amazon publishes a list of 100 Kindle books priced $3.99 or less. We thought we'd take that idea and improve on it, publishing a list of 100 Kindle mystery books priced $2.99 or less and updating it every week!
Here is our general criteria for selecting titles to include: books from major or specialty publishers of crime fiction and those written by authors familiar to us. There's far more than 100 to choose from, so we use our best judgment to narrow it down.
Shown below are some of the new titles we added today. We also added a number of mysteries (not listed below) from Mainly Murder Press; you can see a list of these books by following this link.
Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice! We strongly urge you to confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase is the price of the book.
The Goliath Bone by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins.
A Mike Hammer Mystery.
The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan.
A Good Thief's Guide Mystery (1st).
Blood Count by Reggie Nadelson.
An Artie Cohen Mystery (9th).
Strip by Thomas Perry.
A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd.
A Bess Crawford Mystery (3rd).
This is actually a pre-release and includes an excerpt from the fourth Bess Crawford novel, An Unmarked Grave, which is published on June 5th, 2012.
The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe.
A Hazel Micallef Mystery (1st).
The Taken by Inger Ash Wolfe.
A Hazel Micallef Mystery (2nd).
Winners Announced for the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes
The 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were handed out this evening at a ceremony preceding the annual Festival of Books at the University of Southern California this weekend.
Several categories were honored, but the one award we're most interested in — Mystery / Thriller — was presented by Gar Anthony Haywood to Stephen King for 11/22/63.
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