Always a Cold Deck by Robert Bruce Stewart is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Always a Cold Deck by Robert Bruce Stewart 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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Always a Cold Deck by Robert Bruce Stewart
A Harry Reese Mystery
Publisher: Street Car Mysteries

About Always a Cold Deck (from the publisher): Harry Reese is an insurance investigator with a wry sense of humor who never takes life too seriously. In July 1900, he is sent to Buffalo, New York, to look into a fire that has destroyed a grain elevator. But when Harry uncovers a smuggling operation, the case morphs into something more serious. Trains and steamships feature prominently as he crosses into Canada and back, accompanied by a curious young woman who seems to be conducting an investigation of her own. But Harry can never be sure of anyone’s loyalties, least of all those who’ve hired him.

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.

Two Teaser Videos for Dexter Season 7

Yesterday a brief promo for the animated webisode series Dexter Early Cuts was released by Showtime. Shortly thereafter, the cable network uploaded two teaser spots for the new season of Dexter, which returns for its seventh season on September 30th, 2012. There are no scenes from the season, just some very interesting visuals with voiceover by Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall). "Brace yourself."

Watch both spots below.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton is Today's Barnes&Noble Nook Daily Find

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton as today's Barnes&Noble Nook Daily Find. The deal price of $2.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, July 10, 2012.

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Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Mystery
Publisher: Jova

This is the first book in this popular series.

About Guilty Pleasures (from the publisher): "My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me "The Executioner". What I call them isn’t repeatable.

Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I’ve seen their victims. I carry the scars …

But now a serial killer is murdering vampires—and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer…"

In a world where vampires, zombies and werewolves have been declared legal citizens of the United States, Anita Blake is an "animator" – a profession that involves raising the dead for mourning relatives. But Anita is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she’s often employed to investigate cases that are far too much for conventional police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters of her hometown of St Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself – the source of her unusual strength and power.

Important Note: Barnes&Noble updates its Nook Daily Find every day at approximately midnight PT. The title referenced above is available at a discounted price for Tuesday, July 10, 2012 only.

Download Link(s):

B&N Nook Daily Find.

Amazon Kindle Price Match (today only).

Review: The Conviction by Robert Dugoni

We've just published our Review of The Conviction by Robert Dugoni. A David Sloane Mystery. Touchstone Hardcover, June 2012.

Our rating:

Available to purchase from …

This Week's Bestselling Mystery and Suspense Audiobooks (120709)

Here is this week's list of the top ten bestselling mystery and suspense audiobooks (books on CD).

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is frequently updated, 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.

Telemystery: White Collar and Covert Affairs Return July 10th on USA Network

Two dramas return for their summer season premieres tomorrow, Tuesday July 10th, on USA Network.

At 9 PM (ET/PT) is White Collar. A few days ago we featured a promotional poster and video for the season. The season four premiere episode is titled "Wanted" but we can find little more about it. Here's a brief synopsis, which doesn't really tell us anything we don't already know from last season's finale and the video snippets we've seen to date: "Peter tries to find Neal on a remote island before a bounty hunter locates him first." We've embedded a 3-plus minute recap and preview video below.

At 10 PM (ET/PT) is Covert Affairs. In an episode titled "Hang on to Yourself", tragedy leaves the agents shaken and in unfamiliar territory in the Season 3 premiere.

Dexter Early Cuts Animated Webisodes Return This Summer

Dexter returns for its seventh season on September 30th, 2012 but in the meantime Showtime is promoting its summer animated webisode series, Dexter Early Cuts, Dexter Morgan's early years. This year's tagline: "Family that slays together stays together."

A short, 1-minute promo for the webisode series is embedded below, though we can't find a start date. Previous episodes are available on the Showtime: Dexter website.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120709)

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.

Some Like It Hawk by Donna Andrews: Enter to Win a Copy of this Meg Langslow Mystery!

Donna Andrews has won several major literary mystery awards for her "Meg Langslow" mysteries, and her most recent in the series — the 14th — is Some Like It Hawk, which is being published later this month by Minotaur Books in hardcover, ebook and audiobook formats. Omnimystery News is thrilled to offer one of our readers a chance to win a copy of the book, courtesy of the publisher. Details below.

Meg Langslow is a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations that can be found in and around her (fictional) home town of Caerphilly, Virginia. She was first introduced in the 1999 mystery Murder with Peacocks, the winner of the St. Martin's Press Best Traditional Mystery Novel Contest. The book later went on to win several other awards, including the Agatha and Anthony for Best First Novel.

In Some Like It Hawk — all the titles in the series but one feature a bird in their title, the exception being No Nest for the Wicket — Meg is plying her blacksmith's trade at "Caerphilly Days", a festival inspired by her town's sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail." The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated — except one. Phineas Throckmorton, the town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year.

Mr. Throckmorton's long siege has only been possible because of a pre-Civil War tunnel leading from the courthouse basement to a crawl space beneath the bandstand in the town square. The real reason for Caerphilly Days is to conceal the existence of the tunnel: the tourist crowds camouflage supply deliveries, and the ghastly screeching of the tunnel's rusty trap door is drowned out by as many noisy activities as the locals can arrange. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict Mr. Throckmorton — and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement. Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Unless the real killer can be found quickly, the town will have to reveal the secret of the tunnel — and the fact that they've been aiding and abetting the basement's inhabitant. Meg soon deduces that the killer isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that would help the town reclaim its buildings — if the townspeople can find it before the lender destroys it.

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For a chance to win a hardcover copy of Some Like It Hawk, visit Mystery Book Contests and click on the Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow Mysteries contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code: 9133. (One entry per person. US residents only. Contest ends July 17th, 2012.)

Michael Fassbender to Star in Film Adaptation of Assassin's Creed

Last October Sony announced it had acquired the rights to the film adaptation of the popular Assassin's Creed series of video games.

We haven't heard much about the project since then, but today (via Variety) we're hearing the project is moving forward with Michael Fassbender set to star. Sony is apparently out of the picture, as it were, for now, with the games' developer, Ubisoft, financing the film independently.

The current games in the series are set in the near future and feature bartender Desmond Miles, a descendent in a line of Assassins, who is kidnapped and forced to relive memories of his ancestors with the goal of learning the location of powerful artifacts. The games' overall storyline is reportedly inspired by the 1938 novel Alamut by Vladimir Bartol.

The first two series were set during the periods of, respectively, the Third Crusade and Renaissance. The third series, due out this October, introduces a new character — Connor Kenway — and is set during the American Revolutionary War; you can watch a trailer for the game below.

Telemystery: Father Dowling and The Glades, 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 two series being released this week.

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Tom Bosley stars as an amiable, inquisitive Chicago priest, who moonlights as a detective in Father Dowling Mysteries, based on a character created by Ralph McInerny.

He is assisted in his sleuthing by a rather worldly, lock-picking nun played by Tracy Nelson.

Notable guest stars during this second season of 13 episodes include Anthony LaPaglia, Xander Berkely, Stephen Dorff, Paul Gleason, Steven Culp, Brenda Strong, Stanley Kamel, and Roscoe Lee Browne.

Father Dowling Mysteries: Season Two is available on DVD and consists of episodes that originally aired on ABC during the Spring of 1990.

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Mass Passmore stars as ex-Chicago homicide detective, now Florida Department of Law Enforcement detective Jim Longworth in The Glades.

When he's not hitting the links, Longworth is haunted by old ghosts, facing an intriguing caseload of baffling homicides. Amid mobsters, NASCAR drivers, bootleggers, and sideshow freaks, everyone is a suspect. Meanwhile, Jim and Callie's fledgling relationship is threatened when her husband is released from prison and an old flame reappears. And Jim will need a lot more than good looks and devilish charm when a final standoff leaves Callie's life in jeopardy.

You can watch or download a free 7-minute sneak peek of the second season (via Amazon Instant).

The Glades: Season Two is available on DVD, Amazon Instant, and iTunes, and consists of episodes that originally aired on A&E during the Summer of 2011. The third season is current airing on Sundays.

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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.

Murder, a Crime Drama from Birger Larsen, to air in August on BBC2

A new single episode crime drama, titled simply Murder, has been filmed by Birger Larsen, the creator of the Danish series Forbrydelsen, from which the US series The Killing was adapted.

The storyline will follow the aftermath of the brutal killing of Erin, a young woman found dead one night inside the apartment she shares with her sister Colleen (Karla Crome). The chief suspect is quickly identified as a young war veteran, Stefan, who had come back to the apartment to drink and play a game of "spin the bottle" with the girls. But as a succession of characters and witnesses, including Stephen Dillane as the attorney prosecuting the case, give testimony straight to camera, the shocking events surrounding the death are revealed.

"It is important to show this crime for what it often is, a vicious outburst of malicious energy and not the result of some cold-blooded killer who has planned something for years, the way we still see it in a lot of television drama," Larsen tells The Guardian. "Murder is usually just the strike of the moment. And more often than not you can feel sorry for the killer too and understand why he or she had to do it. … I don't think I have made anything where you don't understand the killer too."

Filmed on location in Nottingham, Murder doesn't have a firm air date on BBC2 other than a vague mention of "next month".

False Shadows by BV Lawson is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature False Shadows by BV Lawson 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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False Shadows by BV Lawson
A Short Story Collection
Publisher: Crimetime Press

About False Shadows (from the publisher): This collection of eight stories features Scott Drayco, a man who had everything going for him: handsome, brilliant, a talented classical pianist in the prime of his youth. After violence scarred him physically and emotionally, he turned to an FBI career and now freelances as a crime consultant, taking on cases other people often don't want to touch.

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.

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for July 09, 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:

C E F I L O S R W

This 8th Walt Longmire mystery by Craig Johnson suggests a distance as this, with "the" (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!

Telemystery: The Closer's Final Episodes, Premiere of Perception on TNT

A new crime drama premieres tomorrow, Monday July 9th, on TNT: Perception.

But first … The Closer returns at 9 PM (ET/PT) with the first of its final six episodes. (It will morph into Major Crimes in August.) The episode is titled "Hostile Witness" but we can't find much more about it; here's a brief synopsis: "The seventh and final season resumes with Brenda tangling with her nemesis, lawyer and suspected rapist-murderer Philip Stroh. Brenda pulls a shock-and-awe courtroom maneuver that may jeopardize an entire case, putting her at odds with the new D.A."

Immediately following at 10 PM (ET/PT) is Perception. Eric McCormack stars as Dr. Daniel Pierce, an eccentric neuroscience professor with paranoid schizophrenia who is recruited by the FBI to help solve complex cases. Pierce has an intimate knowledge of human behavior and a masterful understanding of the way the mind works. He also has an uncanny ability to see patterns and look past people's conscious emotions to see what lies beneath.

Pierce's mind may be brilliant, but it's also damaged. He struggles with hallucinations and paranoid delusions brought on by his schizophrenia. Oddly, Daniel considers some of his hallucinations to be a gift. They occasionally allow him to make connections that his conscious mind can't yet process. At other times, the hallucinations become Daniel's greatest curse, leading him to behave in irrational, potentially dangerous ways.

In the pilot episode, which airs Monday, Pierce zeroes in on the death of a pharmaceutical executive.

Watch a teaser for both shows below.