The Crypt by Jonas Saul is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Crypt by Jonas Saul 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 Crypt by Jonas Saul
A Sarah Roberts Mystery
Publisher: Imagine Press

This is the third paranormal mystery in this series.

About The Crypt (from the publisher): Sarah Roberts is in search of a weapon on the streets of Budapest.

A strange man in a fedora follows her, but before she can find out who he is, she is arrested. After her release from the Hungarian jail, she is ordered out of the country.

The man in the fedora shows up at her Budapest hotel before she has a chance to leave for the airport. He is from a psychic research organization and she is to come with him back to the States. When she refuses, she is informed that she does not have a choice. She is now property of the United States government.

Sarah then receives a message that it all ends in "The Crypt" in nine days. An apology accompanies the note.

While Sarah remains in Hungary and struggles to locate her target, she has to keep the Hungarian government off her back as well as the fedora-wearing American who has a ten-man team hunting her.

The only way to escape their reach is to fake her own death. Convinced it's her only option, Sarah concocts a plan that will deal with her target and have herself killed in the process.

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 Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Relatively Dead by Alan Cook is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Relatively Dead by Alan Cook 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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Relatively Dead by Alan Cook
A Carol Golden Mystery
Publisher: Alan Cook

This is the second mystery in this series.

About Relatively Dead (from the publisher): Carol Golden has recovered her identity if not her memory and she would like to find more relatives. She discovers cousins with the last name of Boyd and finds they are apparently being targeted for murder. In addition, her grandmother is developing Alzheimer's Disease and has been a victim of the "Grandparent Scam," losing a lot of money to someone in Los Angeles who is impersonating Carol's dead brother.

Carol travels to Los Angeles from her home in North Carolina to attend a memorial service for one murdered cousin and to try and determine whether the scammer and the murderer are the same person. However, she finds out soon after her arrival in L.A. that someone doesn't want her sticking her nose into any of this.

A group calling itself The Syndicate is promoting what looks suspiciously like a Ponzi scheme, and at least one of her cousins could be involved, bilking people out of their money. Is there a connection to the murderer here? Will Carol become disillusioned about her relatives? Maybe she would have been better off not finding them.

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 Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

The Scent of Murder by Jeffrey Marks is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Scent of Murder by Jeffrey Marks 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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The Scent of Murder by Jeffrey Marks
Publisher: Delphi Books

About The Scent of Murder (from the publisher): Kantor's Department Store calls Marissa back from a seminar when a co-worker discovers the body of her ex-husband's fiance at Marissa's desk. When the police find evidence that points to a killer within the department store, Marissa is drawn into the investigation. Her closeness with her ex-husband, spurred by their son's illness, complicates both the investigation and her relationship with her current police boyfriend.

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 Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

The Ehrengraf Defense by Lawrence Block is Today's Featured Free Mystere-Short Story

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Ehrengraf Defense by Lawrence Block 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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The Ehrengraf Defense by Lawrence Block
A Ehrengraf for the Defense Short Story
Publisher: Lawrence Block

A note about The Ehrengraf Defense from the author: It was in 1976 that I wrote this short story, introducing a dapper gentleman with a highly idiosyncratic approach to the practice of criminal law. My agent sent the story to Frederic Dannay, one of two cousins who constituted the writing team of Ellery Queen. Fred edited Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine as well, and loved the story; he saw Martin H. Ehrengraf as a lineal descendant of Randolph Mason, the creation of Melville Davisson Post. (Since I’d never heard of Post’s stories, let alone read them, I doubt he was my inspiration. Indeed, the character was entirely my idea—although I did lift a plot element from Fletcher Flora.)

Fred wanted more Ehrengraf stories, and over time I wrote a total of ten of them. Most of them made their first appearance in EQMM, and proved popular with readers—and especially with members of the legal profession. Make of that what you will.

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 Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Twisted Justice by Patricia Gussin is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Twisted Justice by Patricia Gussin as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $0.99 is valid only for today, Thursday, June 14, 2012.

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Twisted Justice by Patricia Gussin
A Laura Nelson Mystery
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing

About Twisted Justice (from the publisher): For better … Laura Nelson has it all — a successful career as a surgeon, five well-adjusted kids and a gorgeous, prominent husband Steve, a nightly news anchor at the Tampa TV News.

For worse … Laura's seemingly perfect world shatters when she discovers that Steve is sharing much more than a news desk and a billboard with Kim, his sexy co-anchor. But Steve's torrid fling with his coworker is about to come to an abrupt end.

Till death do us part … When Kim is murdered, Laura is left holding the smoking gun. How far would Laura go to preserve her perfect life? That's about to become yesterday's news.

Now, Laura must fight to protect her freedom as lies, deception and dark secrets threaten to close in on her and change her perfect life into a perfect nightmare.But, looks can be deceiving. And deceit can be deadly.

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 Thursday, June 14, 2012 only.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

NBC Orders Pilot based on Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives by Josie Brown

The Fall 2012 television season is still months away but in the never-ending world of network pilots — just in case, read when, one of the new series fails — NBC has ordered one from Jerry Bruckheimer, Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives based on the 2010 novel by Josie Brown.

Normally we'd give a pass on this since there is no indication from the synopsis of the book that it is a murder mystery or suspense thriller of any sort, but the pilot is described as "equal parts thriller and dramatic soap that is centered on a murder and the secrets exposed in its aftermath."

Clearly there is more to learn here …

The 4th International Mystery Writers's Festival Opens Tomorrow, June 14th

The 4th International Mystery Writers's Festival "Discovering New Mysteries" opens tomorrow, June 14th in Owensboro, Kentucky, and will continue through Sunday, June 17th.

In years past, the festival has hosted an unprecedented array of best-selling authors, internationally known actors and successful TV writer/producers including: Gene Hackman, Mary Higgins Clark, Josh Hutcherson, Sue Grafton, Anthony E. Zuiker, Rene’ Balcer, William Link, and dozens of others who actively participated in workshops, panel discussions, and retrospectives of their work. And, the new plays “discovered” at the Festival by up-and-coming writers in 2008 and 2009 have gone on to win multiple Edgar Awards.

This year’s festival is sure to be as exciting, ground-breaking and celebrity-packed as previous years. The Festival received hundreds of play submissions from authors around the world and from those submissions, three works will be presented:

• Absolutely Dead by Michael Walker. It’s the rocky coast of Maine and there’s a Nor’easter blowing like a stink outside. The causeway’s flooded and (of course) the local sheriff is stranded on the mainland. Naturally, on a turbulent night like this, the phones are down and who would ever expect cell phones to work in a place like this? Does it sound like a good night for a roaring fire and a dinner party with a lot of laughs from a boisterous, tipsy actress? Does it sound like a good night for a murder — or two? People are dying and the party really isn’t funny anymore.

• Encore for Murder by Max Allan Collins. Another opening — another Broadway hit, only the celebrity star is kidnapped and Mike Hammer is brought in to solve the kidnapping — is it the producer, is it her deceased husband’s mob connected family, is it her stalker fan, is it the understudy — there’s plenty here for Mike Hammer and his trusted secretary, as well as the audience, to wade through, with twists and turns and still a surprise at the end!

• Lost at Sea by Donald Drake. When an aging playwright takes his three grown children along with his secretary/companion on a cruise, someone disappears and the mystery begins! What happened? An accident — a murder — a plot? Come aboard the cruise ship and see for yourself!

Visit the festival website for ticket information and a schedule of events.

Charlize Theron to Co-Produce, May Star in Murder Mystery

The phrase "comedic murder mystery" always makes us cringe a little bit. Not so much in the context of a book, but when applied to a film. So many have tried, yet there are so few memorable titles … Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? … the early "Pink Panther" films … Kiss Kiss Bang Bang … come to mind, but this really isn't a stellar list by any means.

That doesn't stop producers from trying. The latest is the simply titled Murder Mystery, with John Madden ("Inspector Morse", The Debt) directing a script by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, The Amazing Spiderman). Charlize Theron is co-producing and is negotiating to star. (That fact alone is probably enough to capture our interest.) No specific details on the plot are known, but here's the general storyline: An affectionate deconstruction of an Agatha Christie-style thriller involving comedy, action, and mystery centered on an American couple traveling abroad.

We'll try to keep an open mind.

(Related article: The Hollywood Reporter.)

The Mystery Bookshelf: The Inspector and Silence by Håkan Nesser, a Van Veeteren 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.

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The Inspector and Silence by Håkan Nesser
A Van Veeteren Mystery (5th in series)
Vintage (Trade Paperback)
Publication Date: June 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0-307-38724-0

About The Inspector and Silence (from the publisher): When one of the Pure Life’s members is found raped and strangled in the forest near the group’s camp, the Chief Inspector is called to investigate. The Pure Life has chosen to remain silent about the incident rather than defend itself, so Van Veeteren’s only lead is the anonymous caller who reported the body. As the unidentified woman continues to assist the authorities, her knowledge suggests she’s more than just a passing Good Samaritan, but her tips become doubly perplexing as a new string of increasingly horrifying crimes defy everything Van Veeteren and his team thought they knew about the case.

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About the author: The Inspector and Silence was originally published in 1997 under the title Kommissarien och tystnaden. Håkan Nesser's first crime novel, Det grovmaskiga natet, published in 1993, won the Swedish Crime Academy's award for the best debut work in the genre. He has since gone on to win several other awards for the books in this series. He currently lives in Sweden and London.

 Crime novels by Håkan Nesser reviewed by Mysterious Reviews: The Inspector and Silence (2011).

Purchase Options for The Inspector and Silence:

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120613)

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.

Special Offer: The Corinna Chapman Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood

More emystery news from Poisoned Pen Press.

We have written about this specialty publisher's recent promotions (here and here) but today we're going to focus on the mysteries by Kerry Greenwood, more specifically those featuring Melbourne baker Corrina Chapman. (We previously wrote about Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries, with the additional news that the first in its series, Cocaine Blues, is now free from both Amazon.com and iTunes.)

Corinna Chapman was introduced in the 2007 mystery Earthly Delights. (You can read a biography of the character on the Allen & Unwin website.) Since then she has appeared in six books, the most recent being this year's Cooking the Books.

Ebook editions of the first three titles in the series are currently being offered by Poisoned Pen Press at discounted prices. The Kindle edition of Earthly Delights is 99 cents; the book is free from iTunes. (It may be free on Amazon at some point in the near future, if the recent history of some of the publisher's other first-in-series titles holds true.) The other titles are currently $2.99.

Poisoned Pen Press has been a little coy about indicating when this special pricing will end, but we don't expect it to go on for much longer.

Important note: Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the sale is the price of the book.

Earthly Delights 
Kerry Greenwood
Series: A Corinna Chapman Mystery (1st)

Heavenly Pleasures 
Kerry Greenwood
Series: A Corinna Chapman Mystery (2nd)

Devil's Food 
Kerry Greenwood
Series: A Corinna Chapman Mystery (3rd)

Important Note: Prices can and do change without notice. The price shown on the vendor website at the time of the sale is the price of the book. Please confirm the price before completing your purchase.

Please Welcome Novelist E. B. Kavanagh

We are delighted to welcome new mystery author E. B. Kavanagh as our guest blogger today.

E. B.'s debut novel is One for Sorrow (CreateSpace, April 2012 trade paperback and ebook editions), a murder mystery set in a small town in the middle of Ireland in 1982 during the Tidy Towns competition.

Today E. B. shares with us how his adventure in writing came about.

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Photo provided courtesy of
E. B. Kavanagh

I wanted to write a novel simply to see if I could. "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." (Mary Heaton Vorse) Is that true? Well in my case it actually was.

My deadline was set by the impending birth of my daughter (my wife was three months pregnant when I began) and so she gestated at the same rate as my book. Six months later I bounced a beautiful baby manuscript on my left knee, and the very gorgeous Katie on my right. My writing process was simply to get started as if I was shooting the breeze with a friend that I could relax around. This took the pressure off the blank canvas effect. Don't forget that once you are up and running you can cut off the fat. Move it all around, put the middle at the beginning, whatever works. You are not Jack Karouac. We have the joy of the word processor now. Then when I was up and running I sort of danced around doing dialogue until I eventually found myself just using my natural voice. You have to trust it. Turns out for me it's kind of hard to shut up. There was a lot of walking quickly around parks (sometimes pushing a pram) figuring out how the mystery elements fit together. If you are still nervous about letting your voice out at the beginning, I recommend getting drunk some night and get a start that way. Next day when you look at it you will be forgiven for thinking that someone else wrote it. I don't recommend however that you continue to write in this fashion.

Now that, as they say is that. Or is it? No, it isn't. Not at all. Turns out if you want anybody to read your masterpiece you have to be all things to all men. Firstly it seems that you have to be a computer whizz and to be very au fait with social networking and web design. Publishers are not interested in authors who are not already successful and you have to first get yourself a literary agent. Persuading one of these to represent you is like performing in front of Simon Cowell.

The further adventure continues …

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The prologue to One for Sorrow:

In the shadows…

At the bottom of everyone's ocean, river, pool or puddle, lives a big ancient fish.

Who knows how long it's been there, or what it started as.

It survives, because it keeps it simple.

It stays in the shadows, in the deep parts.

It survives because it never changes, except to become even more of itself, and to gorge on its own darkness when it can.

People don't like change. I have never liked change.

It's been my experience that anything good that might happen to you comes at a price, and you don't collect Green Shield stamps on the bad news either.

My fish loves the darkness.

It's been growing ever larger on the coolness of isolation, become the colourless camouflage of its murky bed. Some fish are better left alone.

You can read the first two chapters of the book at OneForSorrow.net78.net.

Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff as today's fifth 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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Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff
Publisher: Murderati Ink

This is the fourth — and most recently published — crime novel by this author.

About Book of Shadows (from the publisher): Homicide detective Adam Garrett is already a rising star in the Boston police department when he and his cynical partner, Carl Landauer, catch a horrifying case that could make their careers: the ritualistic murder of a wealthy college girl that appears to have Satanic elements.

The partners make a quick arrest when all evidence points to another student, a troubled musician in a Goth band who was either dating or stalking the murdered girl. But Garrett’s case is turned upside down when beautiful, mysterious Tanith Cabarrus, a practicing witch from nearby Salem, walks into the homicide bureau and insists that the real perpetrator is still at large. Tanith claims to have had psychic visions that the killer has ritually sacrificed other teenagers in his attempts to summon a powerful, ancient demon.

All Garrett's beliefs about the nature of reality will be tested as he is forced to team up with a woman he is fiercely attracted to but cannot trust, in a race to uncover a psychotic killer before he strikes again.

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 Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond as today's fourth 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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Whole Lotta Trouble by Stephanie Bond
Publisher: HarperCollins

About Whole Lotta Trouble (from the publisher): 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 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 Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Whiskey Rebellion by Liliana Hart is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Whiskey Rebellion by Liliana Hart 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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Whiskey Rebellion by Liliana Hart
An Addison Holmes Mystery
Publisher: Bodysways Publishing

About Whiskey Rebellion (from the publisher): My name is Addison Holmes, and I teach history at James Madison High School in Whiskey Bayou, Georgia. You might be under the assumption that my life went to the dogs when my fiancé left me at the altar for the home economics teacher, or when I got notice that my apartment building was going to be condemned, or even when I was desperate enough to strip to my unmentionables to earn some extra cash. The truth is that I'm pretty much used to disasters following me around on a daily basis, but I could have gone without finding my principal dead in the parking lot of a seedy gentlemen's club.

After the initial shock of finding my first dead body, which included throwing back shots of Jack Daniels like it was water, I decided to take stock of my life. I was in a desperate situation and if the school board ever found out I'd been a stripper, even a bad stripper, I'd be jobless as well as fiancé-less and homeless. Fortunately, I had a friend who felt sorry enough for me to give me a job doing some surveillance work at her detective agency. Not to mention the fact that I was now able to stick my nose into other people's business for a good cause, find a murderer, and pick up helpful tips from an incredibly attractive detective.

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 Kindle Edition Download Link.

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