MystereBooks: This Week's Update of Kindle Books Priced $2.99 or Less (120721)

Every month Amazon publishes a list of 100 Kindle books priced $3.99 or less. We thought we'd take that idea and improve on it, publishing a list of 100 Kindle mystery books priced $2.99 or less and updating it every week!

Here is our general criteria for selecting titles to include: books from major or specialty publishers of crime fiction and those written by authors familiar to us. There are far more than 100 to choose from, so we use our best judgment to narrow it down.

And just a reminder … as we add new titles, older ones are removed from the list. These books aren't likely to be repeated, so we encourage you to check in frequently!

Just a couple of notes to accompany today's update.

• Poisoned Pen Press announced this past week that the first two series books by Donis Casey and Justin Scott have been newly discounted. The first in each series is 99 cents — free on iTunes — and the second is $2.99.

• And it's just a little over a week before July's Amazon 100 Kindle Books for $3.99 or less sale ends. We've tried to avoid duplicating titles from this sale on our own list, but there's always a chance one or two might have slipped in.

Below are listed the new $2.99 or less titles we added today; click on the cover or title for more information or to purchase the Kindle edition.

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice! We strongly urge you to confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase is the price of the book.

Christmas Stories by Richard Barre.
A Short Story Collection.

The Taking of the King by Nelson Blish.

Grifter's Game by Lawrence Block.

The Old Buzzard Had It Coming by Donis Casey.
An Alafair Tucker Mystery (1st).

Hornswoggled by Donis Casey.
An Alafair Tucker Mystery (2nd).

The Brooklyn Rules by Reed Farrel Coleman.
A Short Story Collection.

The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder.

Night Forms by Francis M. Nevins.
A Short Story Collection.

Abducted by T. R. Ragan.
A Lizzy Gardner Mystery (1st).

Hard Look by Robert J. Randisi.
A Miles Jacoby Mystery (5th).

HardScape by Justin Scott.
A Ben Abbott Mystery (1st).

StoneDust by Justin Scott.
A Ben Abbott Mystery (2nd).

 

Fox Orders Sleepy Hollow Pilot

Late yesterday we mentioned that two "Sleepy Hollow" projects were in the early stages of development for television series.

This morning brings the news (via THR) that one of those projects has already received a pilot commitment from Fox.

Creators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci describe Sleepy Hollow as "a modern-day supernatural thriller based on the 1820 short story in which Ichabod Crane partners with the town's local female sheriff to bring peace to a beleaguered community."

The pair will co-write the pilot's screenplay with Phillip Iscove, who is credited with the concept.

BFG Summer 2012 Blowout Sale on Games!

For two days only, Saturday and Sunday, July 21st and 22nd, 2012 Big Fish Games is having a Blowout Sale! Over 200 games are priced at just $2.99 each.

Simply use the coupon code BLOWOUT at checkout; the code may be used multiple times.

There are lots of games of mystery and suspense to choose from. Indeed, our quick look through the list suggests most of games of mystery and suspense!

You can choose from either PC games or Mac games.

This blowout sale ends Sunday, July 22nd, 2012 at midnight, Pacific Time.

One Coffee With by Margaret Maron is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature One Coffee With by Margaret Maron 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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One Coffee With
Margaret Maron
A Sigrid Harald Mystery
Publisher: Maron & Company

This is the author's debut novel, originally published by Raven House Mysteries in 1981 and recently reissued in trade paperback.

There was more than coffee in Professor Quinn's morning coffee. Someone in the art department office had slipped in a spoonful of poison. Among the suspects are a young secretary, an enraged Hungarian maintenance man, and a colleague who had an affair with Quinn's wife. NYPD detective Sigrid Harold is called in to find the killer with an artistic temperament and an aptitude for death.

  

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.

Taxed to Death by Debra Purdy Kong is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Taxed to Death by Debra Purdy Kong 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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Taxed to Death
Debra Purdy Kong
An Alex Bellamy Mystery
Publisher: Bristlecone Pine Press

This is the first mystery in this series.

Revenue Canada auditor Alex Bellamy has always dreamed of adventure. During a field audit, he discovers evidence of fraud. Alex learns that others, including someone inside Revenue Canada, are involved. He persuades his colleague, Andy Gowan to help him investigate, but Andy is murdered and Alex is forced to turn to Jillian Scott; a lady he's never met and who has her own frightening reasons for refusing to cooperate. Soon, Jillian's fears and Alex's search for a killer embroil them in a bizarre and disturbing nightmare not everyone will survive.

  

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.

One Last Breath by Stephen Booth is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature One Last Breath by Stephen Booth 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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One Last Breath
Stephen Booth
A Ben Cooper and Diane Fry Mystery
Publisher: Westlea Books

This 5th mystery in this series was originally published by Bantam in 2006.

The vast labyrinth of caverns, passages and subterranean rivers beneath the Peak District are a major tourist attraction. But this summer not all the darkness is underground, and not all the devils are folk legends. Mingling with the visitors is a convicted killer, bent on revenge.

Fourteen years ago Mansell Quinn was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his lover. Now he's out under licence, whereabouts unknown, and his ex-wife has been murdered.

As they try to anticipate the fugitive's next move, Derbyshire detectives Diane Fry and Ben Cooper become increasingly puzzled by the case. Why did Quinn's two friends refuse to back up his alibi? And why did nobody visit him in prison for the last ten years of his sentence? Nobody, that is, except one of those two friends: ex-soldier Will Thorpe, now living rough somewhere in the Hope Valley.

Overstretched and unable to apprehend a killer who moves around the area with impunity, the police can do little but warn other potential victims to be on their guard. But the case is about to become much more personal for DC Ben Cooper …

  

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.

A Fatal Verdict by Tim Vicary is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Fatal Verdict by Tim Vicary 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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A Fatal Verdict
Tim Vicary
The Trials of Sarah Newby
Publisher: White Owl Press

This is the second book in this series.

What would you do if someone murdered your child, but the justice system let you down?

Kathryn Walters is faced with this dreadful decision when her daughter, Shelley, is found dead in a bath in her boyfriend's flat. Despite the best efforts of the Crown Prosecution barrister, Sarah Newby, it seems likely that the boyfriend, David Kidd, will be acquitted. How can her family tolerate this? And how should the investigating detective, Terry Bateson, act when it seems that the murdered girl's mother is seeking revenge on the man he is certain killed Shelley in the first place?

As the story unravels Sarah Newby is confronted with one of her toughest defense cases yet, with a client who is not only reluctant to give evidence on her own behalf, but also refuses to explain why she chose Sarah to defend her in the first place …

  

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.

The China Oil Plot by Chuck Van Soye is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The China Oil Plot by Chuck Van Soye 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.

— ◊ —

The China Oil Plot
Chuck Van Soye
Publisher: Outskirts Press

Chuck Van Soye recently visited with us to tell us how he came to write this book; see his guest author post here.

After 20 years working for the U.S. Army Research Center, Bret Lee, a 44-year-old chemical engineer, retires to look for work in private industry, only to learn that in the tough 2010 economy, he's unable to find a job in his chosen field. But thanks to a quasi-government contact from his past, he's offered a high-paying job with a Venezuelan fertilizer company just outside Caracas. There's only one catch: he has to become a spy.

Bret and his Chinese wife, Chu-Lin, accept the challenge, and both become enmeshed in the military, political, and diplomatic aspects of life within the most dangerous city of the world. With help from the local CIA and guidance from Washington, Lee uncovers an international plot that could throw all of Latin America into turmoil, and that could strangle strategic oil shipments to the U.S.

Life gets even more intense when he finds himself locked up by SEBIN, the intelligence arm of the Venezuelan government. In a high-stakes game of poker, sometimes a player who has an ace card that only he can see, his "ace in the hole," will confidently bet big money that he will be the winner of that hand of the game.

In the 21st century game of international petroleum supply, China puts big money and a lot more on the table to ensure that it will be the ultimate winner in obtaining Venezuela's oil production. But the new American spy also has an "ace in the hole," and his card trumps China's.

  

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.

The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan is Today's Nook Daily Find for Families

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan as today's Barnes & Noble Nook Daily Find.

The deal price of $2.99 is valid only for today, Saturday, July 21, 2012.

Note: The price has been matched by Amazon.com for today only.

— ◊ —

The Maze of Bones
Rick Riordan
The 39 Clues
Publisher: Mainly Murder

Meet Amy and Dan, members of the powerful Cahill family, in this first entry of the popular series.

Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her decendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice — one million dollars or a clue."

Grace is the last matriarch of the Cahills, the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy and Dan must decide what's important: hunting clues or uncovering what REALLY happened to their parents.

 

Important Note: This book was listed at the price mentioned above 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.

Poster, Trailer for Horror Thriller The Tall Man

The horror thriller The Tall Man has been surfing just below our radar, but today we were alerted that a trailer for the film had been uploaded by the studio so we thought we'd take a look. The film's most recent poster (right; click for larger image) has the tagline "Fear takes a new shape."

Darkness has descended over the northwestern town of Cold Rock. One by one, its children are disappearing. They leave behind neither clues nor credible witnesses, but instead a legend, a story cloaked in shadows passed from neighbor to neighbor … And with it, a building sense of terror which threatens to devour what's left of the community itself.

Superstitious locals talk of "The Tall Man", a mysterious figure who takes the children away, never to be seen again. But Julia Denning (Jessica Biel) has no time for legends or superstitions. A nurse doing her best for the emotionally distraught and economically devastated former mining town, she tries instead to preserve a semblance of normality both at work and at home. Until terror enters her own front door.

Waking up in the middle of the night, she races to her child's bedroom, only to discover an empty bed — and a hulking specter in the downstairs doorway who steals off into the darkness with her boy (Jakob Davies).
As Julia follows in pursuit, she will stop at nothing and will risk everything to save him. Joined by determined investigator, Lt. Dodd (Stephen McHattie) and the town's local sheriff (William B. Davis), the chase is on and with it the quest for answers: Who is "The Tall Man"? What has become of the children?

Soon, the town of Cold Rock will have the answers it so desperately seeks, answers that will shake the community to its core.

The Tall Man premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March, 2012. It has a limited theatrical run starting August 31st. The studio mentions that its DVD release is September 25th.

Two "Sleepy Hollow" Projects in Development for Television

It seems Once Upon a Time, Grimm, and even Sherlock may share credit for the inspiration behind this latest entry in the contemporary interpretation of classic stories. There are two, yes two, different projects being pitched to the networks based on the Washington Irving tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Both projects are simply titled "Sleepy Hollow".

One is from the executive producer of short-lived supernatural television series The Gates from a couple of summers ago, and more recently of the canceled ABC series — or is that miniseries? — Missing.

The other has an arguably stronger pedigree, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who have written and/or executive produced a long string of successful films and series.

First published in 1820, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is set near the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town in the secluded and mysterious glen of Sleepy Hollow and features Icabod Crane, who competes with Brom Bones for the attention of the beautiful Katrina. As Icabod heads home one night, he is hunted by the Headless Horseman. This creature may be the ghost of a Hessian soldier or something else altogether.

A contemporary interpretation of the story would likely involve some sort of law enforcement agency searching for a killer, a decapitated body almost certainly being an element of the investigation.

Review: Ice Cap by Chris Knopf

We've just published our Review of Ice Cap by Chris Knopf. A Jackie Swaitkowski Mystery. Minotaur Books Hardcover, June 2012.

Our rating:

Available to purchase from …

This Week's Bestselling Mystery and Suspense Television and Film Video on Demand (120720)

Here is this week's list of the top bestselling mystery and suspense television and film videos available to download from Amazon Instant.

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 Posters for Copper

A new poster for the original BBC America historical crime drama Copper has been released (right; click for larger image) as well as a billboard-sized one (below; click for larger image). The poster's tagline: "In 1864, he was New York's finest."

Tom Weston-Jones stars as Kevin Corcoran, an Irish-American former boxer turned cop, who returns from the Civil War to find his wife missing and his daughter dead. As he patrols the streets of New York’s notorious Five Points neighborhood, he seeks the truth about what happened to his family with the help of two wartime friends: the wayward son of a wealthy industrialist, and a talented African-American doctor. The three men share a secret from their experience in battle that links their lives forever.

Copper premieres Sunday, August 19th at 10 PM (ET/PT).

Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter: A First in Series MystereBook

Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter. A Grant County Mystery. First Appearance: September 2001.

We're actually very late to this series, have read just one book … and strictly speaking, that one — Broken — isn't even a "Grant County" mystery, according to the author's website.

In Blindsighted, Karin Slaughter introduced three characters: Dr. Sara Linton, a small town's pediatrician and coroner; Jeffrey Tolliver, her wayward ex-husband and chief of police; and Lena Adams, the county's only female detective. The setting is rural Georgia, and these characters would continue to be featured in mysteries through the fifth in the series, Faithless. Her sixth book, Triptych, introduced a new character, Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent. The two series alternated for a couple of books, and then with Undone in 2009, they came together … and stayed together in Broken, the book we read (and reviewed). Since then the author's focus has been on Will Trent; the last "Grant Count" mystery was published in 2007.

If Broken is typical of the series — and we think it just might be — these are remarkable characters, ones worth getting to know … and Blindsighted is the start for three of them. Harper is currently offering this first in series ebook title for just $3.99. (The new "Will Trent" mystery, Criminal, was published earlier this month; we have a copy and hope to have our review online within a couple of weeks.)

— ◊ —

Blindsighted
Karin Slaughter
A Grant County Mystery
Harper, May 2011 ebook

Also available: Mass Market Paperback, Audible Audio formats

The mutilation murder of a young college professor paralyzes a tiny Georgian community. This hideous crime is the worst thing small-town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton has ever seen — but only when the autopsy is complete is the intricate, terrible genius of a profoundly twisted psychopath truly revealed.

As Sara's ex-husband — Heartsdale police chief Jeffrey Tolliver—pursues an elusive fiend, Lena Adams — the victim's sister and the county's only female detective—swears she'll have her personal vengeance.

But their worst fears are realized by the macabre crucifixion of a second local woman: there is a serial slayer in their midst, one whose identity is hidden somewhere in Sara Linton's secret past. And this killer has no intention of stopping … and will not be stopped.

      

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.