The Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day is a pretty good one: digital versions of 18 movies from Warner Bros. — the vast majority of them thrillers or suspense films — available to purchase for $3.99 each.
Here is a list of the available titles (in alphabetical order):
Batman Begins
Blade
Blade 2
Blade Trinity
Clash of the Titans
Constantine
The Dark Knight
Inception
Insomnia
The Matrix
Matrix Reloaded
Matrix Revolutions
Sherlock Holmes
Superman the Movie
Superman II
Terminator Salvation
V for Vendetta
Watchmen
Purchased videos will be stored in Your Video Library where you can access them whenever you want — stream them instantly and watch on your PC, Kindle Fire, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, or more than 300 HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and set-top devices.
Use this link to see all the titles … and remember, this deal is available today, Friday July 20th, 2012 only.
Friday, July 20, 2012
18 Digital Movies from Warner Bros. is Today's Amazon Gold Box Deal
Money is Thicker than Blood by Stephen Woodfin is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Money is Thicker than Blood by Stephen Woodfin 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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Money is Thicker than Blood
Stephen Woodfin
A Shot Glass Reynolds Mystery
Publisher: Gallavant Press
Football, murder, greed, corruption, revenge, religion, sex — just a typical Saturday afternoon in the SEC.
When an assassin guns down leading Heisman contender, Eliab McDermott, during the Iron Bowl game in Auburn, Alabama, a team of investigators, led by legendary Nashville PD detective Shot Glass Reynolds, sets out to crack the case.
Murder follows murder while the officers attempt to unravel a thread of deceit that stretches across three generations. As they get closer to the truth, they learn that their investigation threatens to expose a cover up at the highest level of collegiate football.
And they learn that although blood may be thicker than water, money is thicker than blood.
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.
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Grave Situation by Alex MacLean is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Grave Situation by Alex MacLean 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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Grave Situation
Alex MacLean
Publisher: CreateSpace
Halifax cop Allan Stanton is a troubled homicide detective who has lost everything, including his family and his sense of justice. When he finally decides to leave the force and start over, he's assigned a string of murders that all bear the signs of a serial killer collecting trophies.
As Stanton unravels each grisly crime scene, the mounting evidence points uncomfortably close to him, forcing him to confront a past he'd rather forget — and a dangerous future when the killer targets Stanton himself.
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.
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
King City by Lee Goldberg is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal
MystereBooks is pleased to feature King City by Lee Goldberg as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Friday, July 20, 2012.
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King City by Lee Goldberg
A Tom Wade Mystery
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
This first in a new series is by the author of the Mr. Monk mysteries.
About King City (from the publisher): Major Crimes Unit detective Tom Wade secretly worked with the Feds to nail seven of his fellow cops for corruption … turning him into a pariah in the police department. So he’s exiled to patrol a beat in King City’s deadliest neighborhood… with no back-up, no resources, and no hope of survival.
Now Wade fights to tame the lawless, poverty-stricken wasteland…while investigating a string of brutal murders of young women. It’s a case that takes him from the squalor of the inner-city to the manicured enclaves of the privileged, revealing the sordid and deadly ways the two worlds are intertwined … making his enemies even more determined to crush him.
But for Tom Wade, backing down is never an option … even if it will cost him his life.
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 Friday, July 20, 2012 only.
Download Link(s):
Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending July 20, 2012
A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending July 20th, 2012 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.
No change at the top this week with the stand-alone thriller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn remaining a solid number 1 … though by a very small margin over last week's highest debuting title, Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness.
Two new titles enter the list this week.
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New at number 9 is The Fallen Angel by Daniel Silva.
After narrowly surviving his last operation, Gabriel Allon, the wayward son of Israeli intelligence, has taken refuge behind the walls of the Vatican, where he is restoring one of Caravaggio's greatest masterpieces. But early one morning he is summoned to St. Peter's Basilica by Monsignor Luigi Donati, the all-powerful private secretary to His Holiness Pope Paul VII. The body of a beautiful woman lies broken beneath Michelangelo's magnificent dome. The Vatican police suspect suicide, though Gabriel believes otherwise. So, it seems, does Donati. But the monsignor is fearful that a public inquiry might inflict another scandal on the Church, and so he calls upon Gabriel to quietly pursue the truth — with one caveat.
"Rule number one at the Vatican," Donati said. "Don't ask too many questions."
Gabriel learns that the dead woman had uncovered a dangerous secret — a secret that threatens a global criminal enterprise that is looting timeless treasures of antiquity and selling them to the highest bidder. But there is more to this network than just greed. A mysterious operative is plotting an act of sabotage that will plunge the world into a conflict of apocalyptic proportions …
Purchase Options:
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One place lower at number 10 is the new Dave Robicheaux mystery, Creole Belle by James Lee Burke.
Languishing in a recovery unit on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Dave Robicheaux is fighting an enemy more insidious than the one who put a bullet in his back a month earlier in a shootout on Bayou Teche. The morphine meant to dull his pain is steadily gnawing away at his resolve, playing tricks on his mind, and luring him back into the addict mentality that once threatened to destroy his life and family.
With the soporific Indian summer air wafting through the louvered shutters of his hospital room, and the demons fighting for space in his head, Dave can’t be sure whether his latest visitor is flesh and blood or a spectral reminder of his Louisiana youth. Tee Jolie Melton, a young woman with a troubled past, glides to his bedside and leaves him with an iPod that plays the old country blues song "My Creole Belle".
What Dave doesn’t know is that Tee Jolie disappeared weeks ago, and no one believes she reappeared to comfort an old man with a bullet wound. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the vivid memory of Tee Jolie, and when he learns that her sister has turned up dead inside a block of ice floating in the Gulf, he believes that putting the evils of the past to rest is more urgent than ever before.
Meanwhile, an oil spill in the Gulf brings back intense feelings for Dave of losing his father to a rig explosion years ago. As the oil companies continue to risk human lives in pursuit of wealth and power, Dave begins to see links to the Melton sisters, even when no one else shares his suspicions. Dave’s expartner Clete Purcel helps him search for Tee Jolie, though Clete fears for his friend’s mental health and safety. But Clete has his own troubles, too; he’s discovered an illegitimate daughter who may be working as a contract killer — and may have set her sights on someone he loves.
Purchase Options:
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For more mystery books news, please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Lifetime Orders TV Series Pilot Adaptation of Witches of East End
Lifetime Television has ordered a pilot for a television drama adapted from the 2011 novel Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz. Maggie Friedman (Dawson's Creek) will write the pilot screenplay and executive produce. If ordered to series, it will premiere sometime in 2013.
The novel follows the three Beauchamp women — Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid — who live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. Their beautiful, mist-shrouded town seems almost stuck in time, and all three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret — they are powerful witches banned from using their magic. Joanna can resurrect people from the dead and heal the most serious of injuries. Ingrid, her bookish daughter, has the ability to predict the future and weave knots that can solve anything from infertility to infidelity. And finally, there's Freya, the wild child, who has a charm or a potion that can cure most any heartache.
For centuries, all three women have been forced to suppress their abilities. But then Freya, who is about to get married to the wealthy and mysterious Bran Gardiner, finds that her increasingly complicated romantic life makes it more difficult than ever to hide her secret. Soon Ingrid and Joanna confront similar dilemmas, and the Beauchamp women realize they can no longer conceal their true selves. They unearth their wands from the attic, dust off their broomsticks, and begin casting spells on the townspeople. It all seems like a bit of good-natured, innocent magic, but then mysterious, violent attacks begin to plague the town. When a young girl disappears over the Fourth of July weekend, they realize it's time to uncover who and what dark forces are working against them.
Kenneth Branagh to Direct, Star in New Jack Ryan Thriller
It has been ages — OK, just 16 months but it seems like forever — since we've had an update on the "Jack Ryan" film project starring Chris Pine.
Back in April 2011 we reported on the latest in a long line of screenwriters to pen a script for the film.
But clearly we've missed an article or two since then as it seems to be widely known that Kenneth Branagh is on board to direct. Today's news is that Branagh will also star … as the villain.
No title yet and no word on a screenplay, but it is expected that this will be in original "origins" storyline not based on any of Tom Clancy's novels. Branagh is expected to play the role of Viktor Stazov, a financial wiz who, with the help of the Russian government, masterminds a plot to devalue American currency and thus destroy the U.S. economy. Chris Pine will play a young Jack Ryan, a financial analyst in Moscow, who uncovers the plot.
Three other actors have played Jack Ryan in four films: Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October, 1990), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games, 1992; and Clear and Present Danger, 1994), and Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears, 2002).
(Related article: THR.)
Winner of the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Announced
The winner of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was announced earlier today during the opening ceremonies of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, selected by readers who voted from a shortlist of titles.
And the winner is … The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina.
This Week's Bestselling Mystery and Suspense Television and Film Blu-ray Discs (120719)
Here is this week's list of the top bestselling mystery and suspense television and film Blu-ray discs available from Amazon.com.
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.
New Israeli Poster for Total Recall
The marketing folks at Sony are getting a little lazy, what with premiere of Total Recall just a couple of weeks away.
Here's the new Israeli poster for the film — right; click for larger image — and it's all but identical to the Swedish version. About the only difference is the film's title — זיכרון גורלי (Critical Memory) — and tagline — ?מה אמיתי? מהו זיכרון (What is real? What is memory?)
Directed by Len Wiseman from a screenplay by Mark Bomback, James Vanderbilt, and Kurt Wimmer adapted from the Philip K. Dick short story "We Can Remember It For you Wholesale", Total Recall opens in US theaters August 3rd, 2012 and about a week later in Israeli theaters.
Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120719)
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.
Hollow Earth to be Adapted for Children's TV Drama
Zodiac Kids has optioned the television rights to the young adult fantasy/suspense adventure novel Hollow Earth by siblings John Barrowman and Carole Barrowman.
Published earlier this year in the UK — it comes out here in the US in October 2012 but the Kindle version can be purchased now — the storyline follows twelve-year-old twins Matt and Emily Calder, who can do way more than finish each other's sentences. Together, they are able to bring art to life and enter paintings at will. Their extraordinary abilities are highly sought after, particularly by a secret group who want to access the terrors called Hollow Earth. All the demons, devils, and evil creatures ever imagined are trapped for eternity in the world of Hollow Earth — trapped unless special powers release them.
The twins flee from London to a remote island off the west coast of Scotland in hopes of escaping their pursuers and gaining the protection of their grandfather, who has powers of his own. But the villains will stop at nothing to find Hollow Earth and harness the powers within. With so much at stake, nowhere is safe — and survival might be a fantasy.
It isn't clear from the press release whether the intended adapted television drama will be live action or not. A second book in the series will be published in 2013.
Three Carina Press eBooks for 99 Cents Each
Carina Press launched a couple of years ago as a digital-first imprint from Harlequin. Since then it has established itself with ebooks representing an interesting and diverse selection of genres including contemporary romance, steampunk, gay/lesbian fiction, science-fiction, fantasy, and — of course, else we wouldn't be mentioning it — mystery and suspense.
Several times a month we visit to take a look at what's new and exciting and today we noticed that on the publisher's home page is an announcement of three books for 99 cents each. We don't know how long this has been going on, nor we do we know how long it will go on, but we wanted to bring it to your attention. We're showing all three books below, even though only one — Only Fear — is categorized as "romantic suspense".
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Only Fear
Anne Marie Becker
Carina Press, September 2011
After a violent incident with a patient leaves scars on both her mind and body, psychiatrist Dr. Maggie Levine craves isolation. A radio talk show host seems to be the perfect profession, a job where she can help people from a distance while staying safe. When a strange caller begins stalking her on the air and murdering people to get her attention, Maggie realizes she can no longer close herself off from the outside world.
A personal security expert, former Secret Service Agent Ethan Townsend is no stranger to tracking down the most violent monsters of society and bringing them to justice. Still, it will take all of Ethan's skills to protect his new assignment, the irresistible Maggie, from a man intent on teaching her the ultimate lesson in fear …
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Where the Heart Lies
Michelle Garren Flye
Carina Press, July 2012
All widowed Alicia Galloway has left of her war-hero husband are the flag that draped his coffin and his final wishes: to move to his hometown, take over the family bookstore and enjoy a simple, quiet life with their two small children. When she arrives, her husband's best friend makes that new life anything but simple. How can she be so drawn to Liam Addison?
Liam only intended to help Alicia get settled. But one unexpected kiss awakens his long-held forbidden feelings. Soon, the town busybodies swoop in to warn Alicia away from him. Because no matter the man he's become, he'll never live down his reputation as town troublemaker and wolfish womanizer.
No one wants the war hero's sweet widow and the supposedly former bad boy together. But the more everyone tries to keep them apart, the closer he and Alicia get. And the more determined Liam is to prove he's a changed man. Will it be enough to convince Alicia to let a new love in her life?
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By Royal Command
Laura Navarre
Carina Press, July 2012
Katrin of Courtenay's husband is dead--and she doesn't mourn him. He was cruel and controlling, and she doesn't need a husband to hold her northern keep. But her vengeful uncle, the King of England, has other ideas: intent on marrying her off, he's ordered his Viking-bred warrior to return her to court.
On the journey, the Viking captures her interest, and for the first time Katrin understands passion. But her guard is honor-bound to deliver her to the king, and so it is settled--she must wed the mysterious Rafael le Senay, the Baron of Belmaine.
A forced marriage to a stranger slowly becomes something more, and Katrin realizes she is in love with Rafael. But with the shadow of her former lover hanging over her, and Rafael's powerful brother making dangerous plans, can Katrin negotiate the delicate balance between survival and happiness?
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.
Nominations for the 2012 Prime Time (Crime) Emmy Awards Announced
The nominations for the 2012 Prime Time Emmy Awards were announced this morning and we've filtered the list for those representing our favorite genre, Prime Time Crime.
Breaking Bad has the most nominations, followed not far behind by Game of Thrones, Homeland and Sherlock. We're thrilled to see both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman getting recognition, though the former will have to compete with Idris Elba for the top spot.
No nominations for The Killing in any category. Future showrunners take note: Do not mislead and disappoint your fans! It will come back to haunt you in myriad ways.
In something of an twist, Ashley Judd was nominated in the Miniseries category rather than Drama for her performance in Missing. Canceled first season series are now considered to be miniseries?
The winners will be announced in a televised ceremony on September 23rd, 2012.
Listed alphabetically below are those series which garnered a nomination, whether it be for a major category or a technical one …
Bones • Special Visual Effects ("The Twist in the Twister")
Breaking Bad • Drama Series • Lead Actor (Bryan cranston at Walter White) • Supporting Actress (Anna Gunn as Skyler White) • Supporting Actor (Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman) • Supporting Actor (Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo Fring) • Guest Actor (Mark Margolis as Tio Salamanca) • Directing (Vince Gilligan for "Face Off") • Cinematography • Costumes • Editing (Kelley Dixon for "End Times") • Editing (Skip MacDonald for "Face Off") • Sound Editing ("Face Off") • Sound Mixing ("Face Off") • Special Visual Effects ("Face Off")
Criminal Minds • Stunt Coordination ("The Bittesweet Science")
CSI: Miami • Sound Editing ("Blown Away")
Damages • Lead Actress (Glenn Close at Patty Hewes)
Dexter • Lead Actor (Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan)
Game of Thrones • Drama Series • Supporting Actor (Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister) • Art Direction • Casting • Hairstyling • Makeup (both Prosthetic and Non-Prosthetic) • Interactive Media • Sound Editing ("Blackwater") • Sound Mixing ("Blackwater") • Special Visual Effects ("Valar Morghulis")
Grimm • Stunt Coordination ("The Woman in Black")
Harry's Law • Lead Actress (Kathy Bates as Harriet Korn) • Guest Actress (Jean Smart as D.A. Roseanna Remmick)
Hawaii Five-0 • Stunt Coordination ("Kame'e")
Homeland • Drama Series • Lead Actress (Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison) • Lead Actor (Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody) • Directing (Michael Cuesta for "Pilot") • Writing (Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon, Gideon Raff for "Pilot") • Casting • Editing (Jordan Goldman, David Latham for "Pilot") • Main Title Theme Music • Sound Mixing ("Marine One")
Justified • Guest Actor (Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett) • Art Direction
Luther • Miniseries or Movie • Lead Actor (Idris Elba as John Luther) • Director (Sam Miller) • Writing (Neil Cross)
Missing • Lead Actress (Ashley Judd as Rebecca Winstone)
NCIS: Los Angeles • Stunt Coordination ("Blye K")
Once Upon a Time • Special Visual Effects ("The Stranger")
Person of Interest • Sound Mixing ("Pilot")
Psych • Interactive Media
Sherlock • Miniseries or Movie • Lead Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes) • Supporting Actor (Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson) • Director (Paul McGuigan for "A Scandal in Belgravia") • Writing (Steven Moffat for "A Scandal in Belgravia") • Art Direction • Casting • Cinematography • Costumes • Editing (Charlie Phillips for "A Scandal in Belgravia") • Music Composition (Score) • Sound Editing ("A Scandal in Belgravia") • Sound Mixing ("A Scandal in Belgravia")
Southland • Stunt Coordination ("Wednesday")
The Walking Dead • Makeup (Prosthetic) • Sound Editing ("Beside the Dying Fire") • Special Visual Effects ("Beside the Dying Fire")
A Conversation with David Dickinson
We are delighted to welcome crime novelist David Dickinson to Omnimystery News today.
David is the author of a series of historical mysteries featuring Lord Francis Powerscourt, and more recently a series of short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes's older brother Mycroft.
We recently had the opportunity to talk to David about this new series.
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Omnimystery News: Where did the idea of writing a series of adventures from the perspective of Mycroft Holmes come from?
David Dickinson: Last autumn I was asked by Richard Foreman of Endeavour Press to write a series of short series about Sherlock Holmes's elder brother Mycroft Holmes. Mycroft only appears in a small number of the original Conan Doyle short stories, but I knew from the beginning that I would have to try to re-capture the flavor of the original. Serious Holmes fans would not thank you for re-inventing one of their favorite characters and turning him into James Bond. So I have tried in stories like Mycroft Holmes and the Adventure of the Silver Birches or Mycroft Holmes and the Bankers Conclave to keep within the framework of the original, while introducing, slowly but surely I hope, new elements that would not seem out of place with the Mycroft of the "Adventure of the Greek Interpreter".
Photo provided courtesy of
David Dickinson
OMN: Did you adopt a similar format for your Mycroft Holmes stories as that used by Conan Doyle?
DD: In a word, yes. These are detective stories, pure and simple. Mycroft solves the mystery by power of reasoning, a power he is said in the original stories to possess to an even greater degree than his brother. There are no gun fights, no aerial chases, not even any mean streets down which a man must go. It's pure detection. Using the words "Conan Doyle" should leave the readers in no doubt about what they are going to get.
OMN: It seems we're all told to write about what you know. How much of "you" is in these stories?
DD: A great deal, I suspect! I have always been interested in finance and economics. Mycroft Holmes is Auditor of all Government Departments for the British Government, a very powerful position indeed. In two of the stories he has to deal with threats to the nation's currency and economic stability. I was unable to press Professor Moriarty into service, as he is at the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls, but I have invented a new villain, a fanatical German aristocrat usually referred to only as The Count. He always manages to escape before Mycroft or Inspector Lestrade, also brought back alive from the Holmes canon, can clap him in prison! I suspect that when I write a story where the Count is finally put behind bars, that will be the end of my love affair with Mycroft.
OMN: How did you go about expanding on the already existing character profile of Mycroft Holmes?
DD: I am fortunate in that the broad outline of Mycroft Holmes has been created already by Conan Doyle, his idleness, his great powers, his sedentary life rotating between his rooms in Pall Mall, his Government Offices and the Diogenes Club near his apartment, where members are not allowed to speak except in the Strangers Room. I always read a Sherlock Holmes short story before I start writing one of my Mycrofts and attempt to drop in various new facets of his character in each story. Inspector Lestrade I have already mentioned. Mrs. Hudson has come to look after him as she looked after his brother in Baker Street. In one story, The Adventure of the Naval Engineer, Mycroft is framed for murder by the wicked Count and incarcerated in Wormwood Scrubs. There he secures the help of a ragamuffin youth called Jaikie and a gang of juvenile criminals called the Du Cane Road Irregulars, based on the Baker Street Irregulars who helped Sherlock.
OMN: 221B Baker Street must be one of the most famous addresses in all of crime fiction. What is Mycroft Holmes's London like?
DD: These new stories are set in a real place, which is also a fictional place. You can still walk past Sherlock Holmes's rooms in London's Baker Street. Pall Mall where Mycroft lived is still there and remarkably unchanged. The Government Offices where he worked now house the offices of The Treasury and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, surely an appropriate development from the Audit Office of all Government Departments. I have tried to be faithful to the Mycroft locations as Conan Doyle was to Sherlock's. I have walked Mycroft's route from Pall Mall to his offices a number of times. I have a large number of photographs of the streets and the buildings I can refer to. I know the building where the Diogenes Club was situated, but I am not going to reveal it!
OMN: What are your hobbies, interests outside of writing crime fiction? Do any of these activities find their way into your books?
DD: Before Mycroft Holmes, I wrote a series of novels set in roughly the same period about a detective called Lord Francis Powerscourt. I have always been interested in grand houses like the ones maintained by The National Trust. Various of their finer properties appear in the stories. I have long been interested in fine art and fine wine. Powerscourt spends one entire novel, Death of an Old Master, on the trail of an art forger and related murder mysteries, and another, Death of a Wine Merchant, about a murder at a wedding involving one of London's grandest wine dynasties. I was born in Ireland and still love the place very much. Death on the Holy Mountain is set in the west of Ireland near the place where I used to live. When I was young I played a lot of croquet. In Mycroft Holmes and The Case of the Missing Popes Mycroft himself wields a croquet mallet and tells how brother Sherlock used to cheat when they played together in their youth!
OMN: Are there any authors whose books you rush out to buy as soon as they are published? What other types of books/genres do you read?
DD: I have just metaphorically rushed out and bought Hilary Mantel's sequel to Wolf Hall. I say metaphorically because I actually bought Bring up the Bodies on Kindle. I like a number of classic detective story authors, Dorothy L. Sayers, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell. In his early novels about the Cold War and George Smiley I have always thought John le Carre spoke for an entire generation, born to rule the waves, now living in a small island where they can scarcely pay the bills. I still read George Eliot and Anthony Trollope. My favorite novel of the last century is not as well known as it should be. Vasily Grossman's account of life in Russia during and after the Second World War, Life and Fate, is one of the finest and most moving novels of all time. If you read nothing else this year, make this the one!
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David Dickinson is the author of the Lord Powerscourt series of historical mysteries. David also worked for the BBC as the editor of both Newsnight and Panorama, two of its most prestigious news and current affairs programmes.
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There are currently five adventures in the Mycroft Holmes series of short stories by David Dickinson.
Mycroft Holmes and The Adventure of the Silver Birches
Inspector Lestrade was a worried man. He was facing the biggest case of his career. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the Governor of the Bank of England had learnt through a variety of sources – a private bank in Vienna, an Anglophile moneylender in Munich, a reliable tip off from the Casino in Monte Carlo – that Britain's enemies were trying to debase the currency.
Sherlock Holmes has retired to keep his bees in Sussex, Dr Watson is curing the sick. So Lestrade turns to Holmes's elder brother Mycroft, still keeping to his unchanging routine between his rooms in Pall Mall, the Government Offices where he audits all Government Departments, and the silent quarters of the Diogenes Club. Mycroft tracks the gang through the banks and Treasuries of Europe, his brain travelling faster than the swiftest express train. Will Mycroft and Lestrade solve the mystery? And who is the mysterious stranger who led them to the gang's hiding place and then vanished, last seen striding rapidly into the fog?
The other titles are …
Mycroft Holmes and The Adventure of the Naval Engineer (Kindle / Nook / iTunes)
Mycroft Holmes and The Case of the Missing Popes (Kindle / Nook / iTunes)
Mycroft Holmes And The Banker's Conclave (Kindle)
Mycroft Holmes and Murder at the Diogenes Club (Kindle)
