Review: Death in a Wine Dark Sea by Lisa King

We've just published our Review of Death in a Wine Dark Sea by Lisa King. A Jean Applequist Mystery. Permanent Press Hardcover, June 2012.

Our rating:

Available to purchase from …

Please Welcome Suspense Novelist Heather Gudenkauf

We are delighted to welcome novelist Heather Gudenkauf as our guest on her BookTrib blog tour. We encourage you to follow along!

Heather's new book is the suspense novel One Breath Away (Mira Books, June 2012 trade paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats).

We are pleased to provide an excerpt from the book as well as offer one of our readers a chance to win a copy courtesy of the tour coordinators; details below.

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One Breath Away
Heather Gudenkauf
Mira Books, June 2012

Excerpt …

 "Looks like someone broke a window at the end of the hallway. I’m going to go check. You guys stay in your seats. I'll be right back."
 Before he can even leave the classroom the shaky voice of Mrs. Lowell, the school secretary, comes on the intercom. "Teachers, this is a Code Red Lockdown. Go to your safe place."

Synopsis: In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits.

Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town's children in her hands. Will Thwaite, reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier, stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care. And thirteen-year-old Augie Baker, already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has brought her to Broken Branch, will risk her own safety to protect her little brother.

As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.

      

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Photo provided courtesy of
Heather Gudenkauf; Photo credit Weber Portrait Design

Heather Gudenkauf was born in Wagner, South Dakota, the youngest of six children. At one month of age, her family returned to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where her father was employed as a guidance counselor and her mother as a school nurse. At the age of three, her family moved to Iowa, where she grew up. Having been born with a profound unilateral hearing impairment (there were many evenings when Heather and her father made a trip to the bus barn to look around the school bus for her hearing aids that she often conveniently would forget on the seat beside her), Heather tended to use books as a retreat, would climb into the toy box that her father's students from Rosebud made for the family with a pillow, blanket, and flashlight, close the lid, and escape the world around her. Heather became a voracious reader and the seed of becoming a writer was planted.

She graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in elementary education and has spent her career working with students of all ages and continues to work in education as a Title I Reading Coordinator.

Heather lives in Iowa with her husband, three children, and a very spoiled German Shorthaired Pointer named Maxine. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, hiking, and running. She is currently working on her next novel.

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For a chance to win a copy of One Breath Away, courtesy of the BookTrib, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Heather Gudenkauf: One Breath Away" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code — 5012 — for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends August 1st, 2012.)

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And that's not all! Tomorrow, Thursday July 26th at 3 PM ET, Heather will be live chatting with readers! Use this link or click on the banner below to learn more.

Crazy in Paradise by Deborah Brown is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Crazy in Paradise by Deborah Brown 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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Crazy in Paradise
Deborah Brown
Publisher: Paradise Books

Dying in the middle of the summer in the Florida Keys is sweaty business.

Welcome to Tarpon Cove. Madison Westin inherits her aunt’s beachfront motel along with a variety of colorful tenant’s — drunks, ex-cons and fugitives. Only one problem: First she has to wrestle control from her lawyer and conniving motel manager.

She enlists the help of her new best friend whose motto is never leave home without your Glock. Only in South Florida … land of hot tan lines, drugs on demand — not to mention blackmail and murder.

  

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.

North Slope by Michael Parker is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature North Slope by Michael Parker 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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North Slope
Michael Parker
Publisher: Acclaimed Books

North Slope is a barren desert of ice in Alaska that stretches from the Brooks Mountains to the Beaufort Sea, frozen during the winter clear to the North Pole. It is in this wilderness that the Fyffe Oil Company struggles in its search for oil. Andrew Fyffe, owner of the company, finds time and money are running out.

On the rig a man has been killed; suspicion and fear are rampant among the drilling crews as they continue their superhuman efforts before Fyffe goes bust. The one man who (Fyffe believes) can save the company is McKinnon, once a famous wildcat oil man, but now a drunk, a drop-out. Fyffe kidnaps McKinnon from a drinking spree and flies him up to the oil rig, Fyffe One. When McKinnon sobers up he quickly sees he will need all his old resourcefulness, skill and courage to save the rig from catastrophe.

  

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.

Calamity by B. G. Bernstein is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Calamity by B. G. Bernstein 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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Calamity
B. G. Bernstein
A Grande Angil Mystery
Publisher: Riverfront Press

Captain-for-hire, treasure hunter and former legionnaire Grande Angil starts a new job to help make ends meet. He finagles himself a private detective's license in the hope of establishing a niche business in marine investigations.

But his first case turns out to be a doozy. A woman in pain. A son lost at sea. A forty year old mystery. And a deadly secret. It's a case that will take him from the depths of Penobscot Bay, Maine to the bowels of Langley, Virginia.

  

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.

City of Beads by Tony Dunbar is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature City of Beads by Tony Dunbar 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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City of Beads
Tony Dunbar
A Tubby Dubonnet Mystery
Publisher: booksBnimble

This is the second mystery in this series.

New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet is bored. He wants to bill enough hours to pay his alimony and keep his daughter in college, with enough left over for an occasional drink and a good meal, but he longs for something different and exciting.

When he's offered a job researching the licensing requirements of the city's new and lucrative gambling casino, he doesn't care if he's working for the Mob. Meanwhile, he becomes involved in executing the estate of an old friend who controls some dock leases on the wharf, and he agrees to help his daughter's environmental group stop illegal dumping into the river.

As one might expect, the three cases curiously begin to converge: the toxic dumping, the dock leases, and the too-good-to-be-true casino job lead Tubby to the conclusion that he's been set up to be the fall guy in an effort by the casino to expand its operations.

Suddenly Tubby is doing something different and exciting — he's running for his life …

  

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 Lying Game by Sara Shepard is Today's Nook Daily Find

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Lying Game by Sara Shepard as today's Barnes & Noble Nook Daily Find.

The deal price of $2.99 is valid only for today, Wednesday, July 25, 2012.

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

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The Lying Game
Sara Shepard
"The Lying Game" Series
Publisher: Mainly Murder

This series, by the author of the "Pretty Little Liars" novels, is the basis for the ABC Family series The Lying Game.

I had a life anyone would kill for. Then someone did. I may not remember much, but I know I led a charmed life. Even in death I’m getting something no one else does: an encore performance, thanks to Emma, the long-lost twin sister I never got to meet. Now, in order to figure out what happened to me, Emma needs to become me. But can she laugh at inside jokes with my best friends? Convince my boyfriend she’s the girl he fell in love with? Hug my parents good night like she’s their daughter? And can she keep up the charade even after she realizes my murderer is watching her every move? Let the lying game begin.

 

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.

This Week's New Games of Mystery and Suspense — and more — from Big Fish Games (120724)

Here is this week's list of new games — many of which include elements of mystery and suspense — available to purchase and download from Big Fish Games.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Big Fish Games, which is updated daily, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on BigFishGames.com.

New French Poster for Taken 2

A new French poster for crime thriller Taken 2 has been released by the studio (right; click for larger image). The tagline: "Cette fois-ci, ils viennent pour lui" ("This time, they come for him".)

Dans Taken, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), ex-agent de la CIA aux compétences si particulières, a réussi à arracher sa fille des mains d'un gang mafieux. Un an plus tard, le chef du clan réclame vengeance. Cette fois-ci, c'est après lui qu'ils en ont.

(For those who don't read French, of which we are included, having simply copied the description above from the studio's French website … In Taken, Bryan Mills, ex-CIA agent with an unusual set of skills, managed to snatch his daughter from the hands of a mafia gang. A year later, the mob chief calls for revenge. This time, they're coming after him.)

Directed by Olivier Megaton from a screenplay by Luc Besson (Taken, Lockout) and Robert Mark Kamen (Taken, Gladiator), Taken 2 opens in French theaters October 3rd, 2012, US theaters a couple of days later.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120724)

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.

The Inspector Morse 25th Anniversary Collection

Here is a special treat for fans of Inspector Morse: the Inspector Morse 25th Anniversary Collection.

Crime novelist Colin Dexter first introduced the Oxford police officer in 1975 in Last Bus to Woodstock. Twelve years later John Thaw made his first appearance as Inspector Morse in "The Dead of Jericho", which was adapted from the fifth book in the series.

John Thaw went on to star in 33 episodes in the series. He became in the eyes of many — and probably most importantly, Colin Dexter — Endeavour Morse. As John Thaw's health failed in real life, so did Inspector Morse's in the books. Indeed, the final episode in which he starred, "The Remorseful Day", is adapted from the last of the books by Dexter to feature Morse, the one in which the detective dies. Thaw died just over a year later.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the award winning Inspector Morse television series, this complete murder mystery collection contains all thirty-three episodes plus three bonus programs: The Making of Morse, The Story of Morse, and the 25th anniversary special Inspector Morse's Oxford. Also included is the fascinating guidebook The Oxford of Inspector Morse by Bill Leonard.

Production on The Equalizer Film to Begin April 2013

Last December we reported that Denzel Washington was cast as Robert McCall in film adaptation of The Equalizer. Now we're learning that Sony is moving forward with production, looking to start on-location filming in Boston next April.

The studio seems to be careful in describing the project as being inspired by the late-1980s crime drama, not a remake per se. Washington will play the former covert agent, who hates injustice and sets out to aid its victims. If successful at the box office, this film will almost certainly be the first of a franchise to feature the character.

Marty Graham: Reporter and New Mystery Author

We are delighted to welcome reporter and novelist Marty Graham to Omnimystery News.

Marty is the author of a new mystery, Uncontestable (Marty Graham, May 2012 ebook), introducing San Diego private investigator Emm Zinko.

Today she tells us how remarkable turns in otherwise unremarkable news stories can become the foundation for fictional storylines.

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"You can't make this stuff up." Reporters really do say that to each other, usually in a hushed tone as we slink away from a story that took a remarkable turn. If we're smart, we write it down for future use.

Photo provided courtesy of
Marty Graham

Sometimes those remarkable left turns become the news story though, usually, they are more trivia than central to the story. But my collection of these vignettes grew, I realized the only way they'd get written is in a novel where the protagonist is a reporter.

For example, one night in Houston a few years back, I was part of a group of reporters at an impromptu press conference in front of an oil refinery that sure seemed to be burning out of control. People in the homes nearby had called the news media when parts of the structure started blasting off.

An impossibly calm spokesman for the oil refinery stood in front of the blazing chemical plant, and with cameras rolling, explained how this was a routine maintenance event. As he said it, a van-sized chunk blasted off the top of the refinery and landed 50 yards behind him. The TV crews and photographers ran to one side to try to get the spokesman positioned facing the cameras in front of the burning chunk and the spokesman skittered out of their line of sight, shouting "A routine maintenance event." Then he ran for the refinery entrance as more explosions followed.

I don't expect I'll ever get to write that story into a novel, but it remains in my vignette file, one of nearly a hundred sketches of singularly incredible things I've gotten to see as a reporter.

My first novel, Uncontestable, and my half-finished second novel draw long and hard on the file I've stuffed full of those peculiar sidelights. The four-wheeling Jeep driver who zipped around a firefighter trying to keep him out of a flood, drove right into the water and then needed to be rescued by that same fireman, for example, came out of the vignette file.

Those kinds of moments make reporters love the job as much — if not more than — the serious, often heart-breaking stories we cover every day. And they enrich and forever change the mindset of the people who witness them, whether they're real reporters or Emm Zinko, the fictional character at the center of Uncontestable.

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Marty Graham is a reporter with more than a decade of experience in online, print and video media. She earned a masters degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and has worked as a reporter in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., the San Francisco Bay area and Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and many other great places.

She won the Associated Press Public Service award at the Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto, California and has been recognized for her work by the Society of Professional Journalists, the San Diego Press Club and other groups.

Before she went to journalism school, she was a private investigator licensed in Wisconsin and Illinois. She worked on cases ranging from insurance fraud to murder, had a motorcycle gang as a long-term client and worked on several investigations that brought down corrupt cops and public officials.

Born in Milwaukee, where she was a photographer and partner in a fanzine that covered the local music scene in the mid-1980s, she's since lived in a dozen different cities chasing her journalism career.

She currently lives in a pink house in San Diego, a base for mischief that includes silversmithing, sailing, hiking, playing in the ocean and working up the courage for that last big felony.

You can learn more about Marty and her books by visiting her website at MartyGraham-Writer.com.

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About Uncontestable:

On the mend from a couple of very difficult years marked by the recession, the death of her beloved father and the complete collapse of her profession, award-winning journalist Emm Zinko is trying out a new profession, as a private investigator.

Unfortunately, her first clients — victims of what may be a swindle — turn up dead and someone is trying to kill her. The man hunting her leaves a trail of carnage after he shoots at her and misses. Her home is invaded, and her dog is stolen as the prime suspect, a federally protected money launderer goes missing.

Complications swirl — a damaged homicide detective forms a strange attachment to her dog, her marijuana crop matures and she discovers her stepmother didn't set up the trust for Emm and her brothers the way she'd promised.

Set against the backdrop of San Diego, from gorgeous beaches to a mid-city neighborhood wrapped around a canyon, to inches from Mexico — the farms and Border Patrol hunting grounds of the Tijuana River Valley.

Her superpower lies in who she knows — the neighbors who look out for her, the hackers, cops, and experts she's befriended at work, and the networks she can tap. But will that be enough to save her when no one can figure out why Emm is a target?

Murder in Steeple Martin by Lesley Cookman is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Murder in Steeple Martin by Lesley Cookman 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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Murder in Steeple Martin
Lesley Cookman
A Libby Sarjeant Mystery
Publisher: Accent Press

This is the first mystery in this series featuring the actress and amateur sleuth.

Artist and ex-actress Libby Sarjeant is busy directing a play for the opening of a new theatre in her village when one of her cast is found murdered. The play, written by her friend Peter, is based on real events in his family, disturbing and mysterious, which took place in the village during the last war. As the investigation into the murder begins to uncover a tangled web of relationships in the village, it seems that the events dramatised in the play still cast a long shadow, dark enough to inspire murder.

Libby's natural nosiness soon leads her into the thick of the investigation, but is she too close to Peter s family, and in particular his cousin Ben, to be able to recognise the murderer?

  

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.

Map of Bones by James Rollins is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Map of Bones by James Rollins 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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Map of Bones
James Rollins
A SIGMA Force Thriller
Publisher: HarperCollins

First published in 2005, this is the second book in this popular series.

During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks' robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi who once paid homage to a newborn savior … a treasure that could reshape the world.

With the Vatican in turmoil, SIGMA Force under the command of Grayson Pierce leaps into action, pursuing a deadly mystery that weaves through sites of the Seven Wonders of the World and ends at the doorstep of an ancient, mystical, and terrifying secret order. For there are those with dark plans for the stolen sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind … when science and religion unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.

  

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.