We've just published our Review of The 13th Target by Mark de Castrique. Poisoned Pen Press Hardcover, July 2012.
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120717)
Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, 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 click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.
Mr. E. Reviews Murdoch Mysteries Season 4
Purchase/Rental Option(s)
Forensic Sleuthing in the Age of Invention is the subtitle for the Canadian historical crime drama based on a character created by mystery author Maureen Jennings, a series I quite enjoy and was most glad to hear would continue on for at least another two seasons.
Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews Murdoch Mysteries Season 4.
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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.
The Mystery Bookshelf: A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming, a Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne 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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A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming
A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery (2nd in series)
Minotaur Books (Trade Paperback)
Publication Date: July 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1-250-00782-7
About A Fountain Filled with Blood (from the publisher): In In the Bleak Midwinter — winner of 2001 St. Martin's Press Best Traditional Mystery Novel Contest — the Reverend Clare Fergusson was quickly introduced to a more eventful life than she had expected after moving to the small town of Millers Kill in upstate New York. But the Episcopal priest and former Army Air Force chopper pilot proved to her flock — and to police chief Russ Van Alstyne — that she could cope with the unexpected, even when it was as dire as murder.
This second adventure for the two ill-matched friends (who are gamely resisting something beyond friendship), originally published in 2003, shows that a small town can hold just as much evil as the Wicked City.
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About the author: Julia Spencer-Fleming was born at Plattsburgh Air Force Base, spending most of her childhood on the move as an army brat. She studied acting and history at Ithaca College, and received her J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law. She lives outside of Portland, Maine. Two of the books in this series — In the Bleak Midwinter and All Mortal Flesh — have won multiple literary mystery awards. For more information about the author and her books, visit her website at JuliaSpencerFleming.com.
Purchase Options for A Fountain Filled with Blood:
Five Philip St. Ives Mysteries by Ross Thomas, Now Available as eBooks
Mysterious Press announced yesterday that the five series books written by Oliver Bleeck, a pen name used by Ross Thomas, have been newly released as ebooks.
The five mysteries in this series feature professional mediator and negotiator Philip St. Ives. The second in the series, The Procane Chronicle, was adapted into the 1976 film St. Ives, which starred Charles Bronson as (a renamed) Raymond St. Ives.
These five titles join eight other crime novels by Ross Thomas that have been recently published by Mysterious Press in ebook format.
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The Brass Go-Between
Ross Thomas
A Philip St. Ives Mystery
Original Publication: 1969
Mysterious Press eBook, July 2012
Philip St. Ives is the kind of man who can convince a vice cop and a paroled mobster to sit down to a hand of poker. Once he was a reporter with a daily column, a fat Rolodex, and a reputation for indifference to criminal behavior. Now he is a go-between, a professional mediator between thieves and the people they rip off. For arranging the recovery of a stolen necklace, painting, or child, St. Ives takes ten percent of the ransom. His work takes him across the globe, but more importantly, it pays his alimony.
An African warrior's shield has come to Washington, where a gang of art-minded burglars pluck it from the museum. They demand $250,000 for the return of the priceless artifact, and request that St. Ives make the hand-off. But when he goes to deliver the cash, he finds himself playing a more deadly game than five-card draw.
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The Procane Chronicle
Ross Thomas
A Philip St. Ives Mystery
Original Publication: 1971
Mysterious Press, July 2012
It's three in the morning, and Philip St. Ives has come to the all-night Laundromat to meet a thief. His laundry bag isn't carrying dirty clothing—it's stuffed with $90,000 cash. But he finds his contact, Bobby Boykins, in no state to talk. Bobby has been beaten, strangled, and stuffed behind a washing machine; Philip is inspecting the corpse when the police find him. Standing in a Laundromat with a dead body and a sack full of cash, Philip learns, is a good way to get arrested.
St. Ives is a go-between—a mediator between thieves and their victims—and he came to meet Bobby for the sake of a rich man who has lost his diary. If Philip can escape the Tenth Precinct, Bobby's killer will come for him next.
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Protocol for a Kidnapping
Ross Thomas
A Philip St. Ives Mystery
Original Publication: 1972
Mysterious Press, July 2012
Philip St. Ives loses his first job in journalism as soon as he realizes he hates the man who gave it to him. Chicago Posteditor Amfred Killingsworth is a pompous blowhard, and fires his newest reporter for failing to fawn over him. St. Ives goes to New York, where he lands a daily column and the close friendship of an assortment of crooks. Killingsworth goes in a less respectable direction, becoming the US ambassador to Yugoslavia. By the time the ambassador gets himself kidnapped, the only man who can save him is his former cub reporter.
The kidnappers demand the release of a Slavic poet in exchange for the ambassador, and St. Ives goes behind the Iron Curtain to arrange the hand-off. To protect a trove of ugly Washington secrets, he'll have to save the life of a universally disliked man.
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The Highbinders
Ross Thomas
A Philip St. Ives Mystery
Original Publication: 1973
Mysterious Press, July 2012
Philip St. Ives has only been in the pub a few minutes before he realizes his whiskey is drugged. Instantly sick, he's vomiting on the sidewalk when the muggers appear. He fights as best he can in his drugged state, and only when he feels the handcuffs does he realize his assailants aren't muggers—they're cops.
He wakes in a dingy cell to the knowledge that English Eddie Apex has pulled a fast one on him. English Eddie is not English, but talks with a British accent that once made him New York's most refined con artist. In retirement and living in London, he had hired St. Ives—a professional mediator between crooks and their marks—to come to England to help him recover a stolen painting. The drugged whiskey won't be the last surprise St. Ives gets in Blighty, and the police won't be the only ones who try to cause him pain.
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No Questions Asked
Ross Thomas
A Philip St. Ives Mystery
Original Publication: 1976
Mysterious Press, July 2012
Philip St. Ives has no love for New York's drafty, broken-down Adelphi Hotel, but he is in no mood to be evicted from it. His cash dwindling, he is happy to learn about a job that calls for his specific talents as a mediator between thieves and their victims. It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke: A thief, an insurance salesman, and the Library of Congress call Philip's lawyer to ask about a stolen copy of Pliny's Historia Naturalis. To find it, Philip will risk becoming history himself.
The book was stolen on its way from the Library of Congress to California, and the detective guarding it vanished as well. Mired in snow-choked Washington, DC, St. Ives must arrange for a pair of ransoms to avoid becoming a victim of book collectors who value a nice first edition over an investigator's life.
Important Note: Any prices mentioned above were correct 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.
KM Rockwood: The Jesse Damon Mysteries
We are delighted to welcome crime novelist KM Rockwood as our guest today.
KM is the author of the a new mystery series featuring ex-con Jesse Damon, the first title of which is Steeled for Murder (Musa Publishing, April 2012 ebook formats). And she is giving one of our readers a chance to win a copy; more details below.
KM provided us with an exclusive interview with Jesse Damon, his first since being released from prison.
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Reporter: Thank you for coming to talk with us today, Jesse. Is there anything you'd care to tell us about yourself?
Jesse Damon: Nope.
Reporter: No? Then why did you come?
Jesse: Mr. Ramirez, my parole officer, told me he thought it would be a good idea. Community service kind of thing. When your parole officer tells you he thinks doing something is a good idea, you do it if you're smart.
Reporter: I see. How long have you been on parole?
Jesse: Just a couple of months. It sure beats being locked up.
Reporter: And before that?
Jesse: Well, I was locked up for close to twenty years. Since I was sixteen.
Reporter: Do you mind me asking what the conviction was?
Jesse: Nah. It's pretty common knowledge. I copped a plea. Murder. Possession of a handgun during commission of a felony. Conspiracy.
Reporter: Are you guilty?
Jesse: Well, yeah. I mean, I was convicted.
Reporter: Who did you kill?
Jesse: I didn't really kill anybody. It's complicated. But I'm technically guilty. The dead guy was a drug dealer. I think my older brother killed him. I was outside, lookout.
Reporter: And now?
Jesse: Now I'm on parole. But you know, it's kind of tough to make it out here on the street. I mean, I got a basement apartment—more like a room—and I really lucked out on the job. Midnight shift at a steel fabrication plant. Laborer. Pretty good money, especially for a convict.
Reporter: How are you getting along?
Jesse: I was doing pretty good. But then Mitch, the forklift driver, got himself killed back in the warehouse. You know, once you got one murder conviction, every time somebody gets killed, they come looking for you.
Reporter: Have you got anything you'd like to tell us about that?
Jesse: Nope. Read the book if you want to know.
Reporter: Why do you think KM Rockwood decided to tell your story?
Jesse: Probably because people like me don't get to be in books too much, so our stories never really get out there.
Reporter: Will we be seeing more of you?
Jesse: Yeah. I think there's another book, Fostering Death, coming out in August or something. It's about my old foster mother getting killed. They think I did it. Then around Christmas, there'll be The Buried Biker. My girlfriend's dad is a biker, and this guy in his club gets killed. He's been hitting on my girlfriend, then he raped her, so they think I did that, too. Couple more, maybe, after that.
Reporter: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell us?
Jesse: No. I just want to be left alone.
Breaking News!
This just in: The cover for the next Jesse Damon mystery has just been released, and we have an exclusive preview. Look for it in August from your favorite ebook retailer, or through Musa Publishing.
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KM Rockwood draws on a varied background for stories, among them working as a laborer in a steel fabrication plant, operating glass melters and related equipment in a fiberglass manufacturing facility, and supervising an inmate work crew in a large medium security state prison. These jobs, as well as work as a special education teacher in an alternative high school and a GED teacher in county detention facilities, provide most of the background for novels and short stories.
In addition to her Jesse Damon mysteries, she is the author of a new supernatural romantic thriller, Halfbreed Werewolf.
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About Steeled for Murder:
After nearly twenty years in prison on a murder conviction, Jesse Damon has been released, a home detention monitor strapped to his ankle. Determined to make it and mindful of his parole restrictions, he struggles with life outside prison. He finds a basement apartment, a job on the overnight shift at a steel fabrication plant and a few people who treat him like anybody else. Especially Kelly, a woman who works in the shipping department. He seems to be making it.
Until Mitch, forklift driver on the shift, is found murdered in the warehouse.
The investigating detective doesn't want to look any further than Jesse to close the case He's not fussy about the methods he uses to gather evidence. If Jesse isn't going down for this, he will have to be the one to figure out who killed Mitch and why.
For a chance to win an ebook of Steeled for Murder, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "KM Rockwood: Jesse Damon Mysteries" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code — 3536 — for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends July 24th, 2012.)
Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myers is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myers 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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Interrupted Aria by Beverle Graves Myers
A Tito Amato Mystery
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
This first mystery to feature the sleuthing opera singer has been available for free from iTunes for about a week now; it is now available in Kindle format as part of Amazon's price match program.
About Interrupted Aria (from the publisher): Venice, 1731. Opera is the popular entertainment of the day and the castrati are its reigning divas. Tito Amato, mutilated as a boy to preserve his enchanting soprano voice, returns to the city of his birth with his friend Felice, a castrato whose voice has failed.
Disaster strikes Tito's opera premier when the singer loses one beloved friend to poison and another to unjust accusation and arrest. Alarmed that the merchant-aristocrat who owns the theater is pressing the authorities to close the case, Tito races the executioner to find the real killer. The possible suspects could people the cast of one of his operas: a libertine nobleman and his spurned wife, a jealous soprano, an ambitious composer, and a patrician family bent on the theater's ruin.
With carnival gaiety swirling around him and rousing Venetian passions to an ominous crescendo, Tito finds that the most astonishing secrets lurk behind the masks of his own family and friends.
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.
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For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes is Today's Barnes&Noble Nook Daily Find
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes as today's Barnes&Noble Nook Daily Find. The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, July 17, 2012.
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Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
Publisher: Harper
About Into the Darkest Corner (from the publisher): Catherine Bailey has been enjoying the single life long enough to know a catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic and spontaneous, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his spell.
But what begins as flattering attentiveness and passionate sex turns into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon learns there is a darker side to Lee. His increasingly erratic, controlling behavior becomes frightening, but no one believes her when she shares her fears. Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape.
Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—compulsively checks the locks and doors in her apartment, trusting no one. But when an attractive upstairs neighbor, Stuart, comes into her life, Cathy dares to hope that happiness and love may still be possible … until she receives a phone call informing her of Lee’s impending release. Soon after, Cathy thinks she catches a glimpse of the former best friend who testified against her in the trial; she begins to return home to find objects subtly rearranged in her apartment, one of Lee’s old tricks. Convinced she is back in her former lover’s sights, Cathy prepares to wrestle with the demons of her past for the last time.
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 17, 2012 only.
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Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, July 17, 2012.
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Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran
A Claire DeWitt Mystery
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
About Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead (from the publisher): Claire DeWitt believes she is the world’s greatest PI, even if few agree with her. A one-time teen detective in Brooklyn, she is a follower of the esoteric French detective Jacques Silette, whose mysterious handbook Détection inspired Claire’s unusual practices.
Claire also has deep roots in New Orleans, where she was mentored by Silette’s student the brilliant Constance Darling—until Darling was murdered. When a respected DA goes missing she returns to the hurricane-ravaged city to find out why.
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 Tuesday, July 17, 2012 only.
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