This Week's New Games of Mystery and Suspense — and more — from Big Fish Games (120911)

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.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120911)

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.

Telemystery: Save $10 This Month on Selected ABC Series Season Sets

From now through September 30th, 2012 you can save $10 on the purchase of two (or more) season sets from a selection of ABC series. Fortunately there are several "telemystery" shows from which to choose!

Use this link to see the list of qualifying season sets. No coupon is required, though you must order at least two sets; the $10 will be automatically deducted from your total when you check out.

Here are the shows from the list that we follow:

Body of Proof — Seasons 1 and 2 (DVD)
Castle — Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 (DVD)
Once Upon a Time — Season 1 (DVD or Blu-ray)
Revenge — Season 1 (DVD)

Remember: This offer is available through September 30th, 2012 only.

Telemystery: Watch the Pilot Episode for ABC's Last Resort

ABC has made available (via Yahoo! TV) the pilot episode of its new series thriller Last Resort in advance of its premiere; we've embedded it below.

500 feet beneath the ocean's surface, the U.S. ballistic missile submarine Colorado receives their orders. Over a radio channel, designed only to be used if their homeland has been wiped out, they're told to fire nuclear weapons at Pakistan.

Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) demands confirmation of the orders only to be unceremoniously relieved of duty by the White House. XO Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman) finds himself suddenly in charge of the submarine and facing the same difficult decision. When he also refuses to fire without confirmation of the orders, the Colorado is targeted, fired upon, and hit. The submarine and its crew find themselves crippled on the ocean floor, declared rogue enemies of their own country. Now, with nowhere left to turn, Chaplin and Kendal take the sub on the run and bring the men and women of the Colorado to an exotic island. Here they will find refuge, romance and a chance at a new life, even as they try to clear their names and get home.

Last Resort premieres on Thursday, September 27th at 8 PM (ET/PT).

Please Welcome Author Judy Hogan

by Judy Hogan

We are delighted to welcome novelist Judy Hogan as our guest.

Judy's debut mystery is Killer Frost (Mainly Murder Press, September 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats).

Today Judy tells us about writing within a mystery genre, in her case, a different kind of cozy.

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I've read online arguments about how a cozy mystery is to be defined today. The usual assumption seems to be that a cozy involves some kind of craft or special shop, a bookshop, a cheese shop, an herb shop, a shop for knitters or those who make pottery or baskets. St. Martin's Press annually sponsors a Malice Domestic First Best Traditional Mystery contest, for which my debut mystery, Killer Frost, was a finalist in 2011. The Malice Domestic guidelines don't require crafts, but that the detective be an amateur, or, if a police person, that she be an interesting character in her own right. The characters should know each other and should be interesting if not likeable. No explicit sex or violence is allowed, and there should be several suspects. This is what I think of as a cozy mystery.

Photo provided courtesy of
Judy Hogan

Further, for me there should be a sense of comfortableness somewhere in the novel, and I don't mean knitting. Something has gone wrong within the limited human framework of the novel. The people who are solving it, though upset, frustrated, often exhausted, and/or grieving have bonds of affection for each other. In the Golden Age mysteries, the police detectives often had tea together, or they went to a pub and had a pint as they worked on solving the murder. The reader felt comforted, reassured. There was a puzzle to solve, a rent in the social fabric to stitch up, emotional and/or physical wounds to heal, but that process involved intimacy among those who took up the case, and the reader became an active participant in this process.

We are all — always — thrust into human situations that require transformation. Life has a tendency to disrupt our plans even if it isn't murder that intrudes and sets up our need to get our lives back on track. Murder breaks down the assumptions we make about other people, especially about those we think we know.

How do we put things back into a human order we can live with? The old Greek myths had stories of people being cut up, put in a pot, boiled, and then emerging whole. Transformation moves us, piece by piece, step by step, from brokenness to being whole again. It's a metamorphosis from one form or condition to another.

In a good cozy mystery, for me, the work of solving the crime is done by a sleuth I can identify with, whose frustration and ingenuity of mind I can feel close to. I am satisfied at the end of the novel because I have shared her experience as an agent of transformation. It isn't always a happy ending, but the crime is solved, the world of the novel is back in balance, and I, too, as a reader, have been through a vicarious transformation. As a reader I have my own troubles. I go to the novel to forget them for awhile. Reading this kind of novel reinforces my belief that I can also be an agent of transformation. My problems may seem minor compared to murder, but the same principle applies.

In Killer Frost, I set the scene in a Southern, historically black college which is being mismanaged. My amateur detective, Penny Weaver, teaches remedial English there to students, many of whom should never have been admitted to college. She and others are at work transforming the college, but then the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Provost, is murdered. Later there's another murder, this time a professor. Penny uncovers more and more problems as the shoddy fabric of the way the college is being run is revealed.

For me, it was not enough to solve the murders. At the end of the book, the college is still in bad shape. This prompted me to write a later book in which a new president is brought in and sets about reforming the college. I plan to ask my audiences at local readings this fall how they would set about creating a real college of learning where that goal has been lost sight of. We'll see what they say.

If you are able to leave a comment on this blog, I'd be interested in how you'd solve these problems: admitting students reading and writing at grade school level; dirty dorms, poor food, mismanaged finances; students sexually abused by faculty and other students; drugs being sold on campus; low student and faculty morale. I'd be very interested to know how these tragic conditions, leading to our young African American citizens becoming an endangered species, especially those growing up in our inner cities, might be transformed.

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Judy Hogan founded Carolina Wren Press (1976-91), and was co-editor of Hyperion Poetry Journal (1970-81). She published five volumes of poetry and two prose works with small presses before Killer Frost. She has taught all forms of creative writing since 1974. She joined Sisters in Crime in 2007 and has focused on writing and publishing her traditional mystery novels. The twists and turns of her life’s path over the years have given her plenty to write about. She is also a small farmer and lives in Moncure, North Carolina.

You can learn more about the author and her books on her website.

— ◊ —

Killer Frost
Judy Hogan
Mainly Murder Press

When Penny Weaver agrees to teach freshman composition at historically black St. Francis College, her teaching and relationship skills, not to mention her detective instincts, are more challenged than they've ever been. Despite being married to a man she loves deeply, she developed feelings for her boss, who is very passionate about their students' prospects because of how ill-prepared for college they are.

When murder strikes, Penny's new boss is the primary suspect. Convinced of his innocence, Penny struggles to clear his name — and to clarify her feelings for him and her husband.

      

City of Light by Kim Wright is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature City of Light by Kim Wright 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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City of Light
Kim Wright
A City of Mystery Mystery
Publisher: Kim Wright

Paris 1889, on the eve of the Exposition Universelle, the ultimate World’s Fair which debuted Edison’s phonograph, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and the Eiffel Tower. Detective Rayley Abrams has traveled from Scotland Yard to France to study the new science of forensics with the Parisian police. Lonely and awkward, Rayley easily falls under the spell of a beautiful British expatriate named Isabel Blout, a woman with a murky past and suspicious social connections.

Paris may be abuzz with excitement, but there are also rumors that the Exposition is running out of money and that Eiffel may not finish his celebrated tower in time for the opening day celebrations. The French police are so eager to present a perfect image to the eyes of the world that when a most unusual victim washes up on the banks of the Seine, they literally keep the murder under wraps.

Back in London, Queen Victoria has rewarded Rayley’s friend and rival, Trevor Welles, for his work on the Jack the Ripper case by naming him head of Scotland Yard’s first forensics unit. Trevor scrambles to assemble his team: Tom Bainbridge, an aristocratic young medical student, Emma Kelly, sister of the Ripper’s last victim, and Davy Mabrey, a bobby with profound common sense and a knack for earning the trust of witnesses. The unit is investigating a raid on a male brothel when an alarming telegram draws them to Paris and into the drama and intrigue surrounding the Exposition. But will Trevor and his team be able to unravel the web of deception in time to save Rayley?

  

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.

Follow the Money by Fingers Murphy is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Follow the Money by Fingers Murphy 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.

— ♦ —

Follow the Money
Fingers Murphy
Publisher: Fingers Murphy

Oliver Olson went to law school to help people.

But when one of the world’s most prominent law firms offers him a high paying summer job, he thinks he’d be crazy not to take it. He soon finds himself enthralled by a world of wealth, privilege, and power.

Blinded by his gilded new world, Ollie is slow to see that something is not right with the case he is assigned to work on - a case with no chance of winning, given to a "summer associate" merely to keep him busy.

Are people following him? Is he imagining things? Are they listening to his conversations? Why are people coming out of the woodwork with a sudden interest in a twelve year old murder case? And is it really possible that the wrong man went to prison?

Ollie wants to succeed, but when he sacrifices his own moral standards for a shot at the big time, he winds up staring down the barrel of a gun.

When you’ve sold out and can no longer follow your heart, you can only follow the money.

  

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.

Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (120911)

Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, shown below are those that fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller and adventure categories.

See also a list of current mystery and suspense DVD, Blu-ray, or VOD deals on Amazon.com.

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Purchase/Rental Options

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Film Synopsis (from the studio): Kristen Stewart stars as the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen (Charlize Theron), who is out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) who was dispatched to kill her.

Directed by Rupert Sanders from an original screenplay by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, and Hossein Amini, this film runs 127 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and brief sensuality.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

First Full Trailer for HBO's The Girl

We've had a couple of teaser trailers for HBO's original drama The Girl, but today the cable network has released the first, full-length trailer (below).

Toby Jones stars as Alfred Hitchcock and Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren in this recreation of the events that took place during the production of The Birds (1963) through Hedren's next film with Hitchcock, Marnie (1964). Much of the screenplay is adapted from the book Spellbound by Beauty by Donald Spoto.

The Girl premieres on HBO on Saturday, October 20th at 9 PM (ET/PT).

Cinemystery: Casting Update for Adaptation of Laura Lippman's Every Secret Thing

Elizabeth Banks has joined Diane Lane in the cast of the film adaptation of Every Secret Thing, a stand-alone novel of suspense by Laura Lippman, producer Likely Story announced yesterday in a press release, which also included information about additional financing partners.

"Great, female-driven crime movies are few and far between — and one this original and surprising is like a gift," said Producer Anthony Bregman stated. "It's gratifying that so many talented and enthusiastic collaborators agree — from the creative to the financial sides and everywhere in between."

Amy Berg will direct an adapted screenplay by Nicole Holofcener. Production is expected to begin in February 2013.

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Every Secret Thing
Laura Lippman

Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party take a wrong turn down an unfamiliar Baltimore street — and encounter an abandoned stroller with an infant inside. What happens next is shocking and terrible, and three families are irreparably destroyed.

Seven years later, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen, are released from "kid prison" to begin their lives over again. But the secrets swirling around the original crime continue to haunt the parents, the lawyers, the police — all the adults in Alice and Ronnie's lives. And now another child has disappeared, under freakishly similar circumstances …

      

Penguin Announces InkLit, a New Graphic Novel Imprint

Penguin is launching InkLit, a new imprint for graphic novels … and several crime novelists are already planning books for it to publish.

The first book to be published — in October 2012 — will be an adaptation of the urban fantasy novel Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs.

In early 2013, however, Charlaine Harris — no stranger to graphic novels, with an adaptation of her "Harper Connelly" novel Grave Sight published in 2011 — will publish Cemetery Girl, the first of a new series co-written with fantasy author Christopher Golden. (This project was announced last year and at the time associated with Ace Books, another Penguin imprint.)

Laurell K. Hamilton, who seems to us like a natural for the graphic novel format with her series character vampire hunter Anita Blake, will adapt the fourth in the series, Lunatic Café (first published in 1996), and write an original story set in universe of Anita Blake but featuring the character of Edward, a human assassin/bounty hunter (also known as Ted Forrester) and friend of Anita.

Finally, Karin Slaughter will adapt her stand-alone novella Martin Misunderstood.

New Poster for Cinemax Thriller Hunted

A new poster for the spy thriller Hunted has been released by Cinemax (right; click for larger image).

An original drama for the pay-cable network, co-developed with BBC, the 8-episode series stars Melissa George as an operative for an elite private intelligence firm, who survives an attempt on her life that may have been orchestrated by members of her own team. When she returns to work a year later, she doesn't know who to trust.

Hunted premieres on Friday, October 19th at 10 PM ET/PT. Watch a trailer for the series below.

This Week's Bestselling Mystery and Suspense Audiobooks (120910)

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

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

Amazon Announces Kindle Serials

Last week Amazon announced Kindle Serials, a "buy first installment, get the rest free"-type book. The serialized book concept was once common in publishing, today all but forgotten. We thought we'd take a closer look at the first selection of titles … and much to our delight, they are all mysteries or thrillers … or close enough for us to consider them as such!

Here's the marketing copy from Amazon: "Kindle Serials are stories published in episodes. When you buy a Kindle Serial, you will receive all existing episodes on your Kindle immediately, followed by future episodes as they are published. Enjoy reading as the author creates the story, and discuss episodes with other readers in the Kindle forums."

The first eight titles are all priced at $1.99, and though they are called "stories", they are expected to be, when complete, a minimum of novella-length, many full-length novels. Episodes will be delivered at a rate of one every two to four weeks until the book is complete. New episodes will be added to the same book on your Kindle, keeping your place and retaining your notes and highlights.

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Downward-Facing Death
Neal Pollack

Blessed with uncanny deductive skills and a blasé disregard for authority, Matt Bolster was a rising LAPD homicide detective by the age of thirty-five. He was also overworked, divorced, near-alcoholic, and miserable. Then, to impress a girl, he agreed to try yoga. And with a single savasana, everything changed.

Now Bolster has traded his badge and gun for a scraggly beard and the life of an itinerant yoga teacher, dabbling in P.I. work to make rent. He mostly handles missing-persons cases, credit-card fraud – nothing too messy. But that's before Ajoy Chaterjee, the billionaire founder of one of the world's leading yoga-business empires, is found murdered inside his West L.A. flagship studio. Bolster knows the LAPD doesn't have a prayer of cracking the secrets of the yoga world. But he does, and he really needs the dough.

Of course, sticking to the principles of the yamas and niyamas during a murder investigation isn't easy, especially with so many hot women among the suspects. But personal ethics will be the least of Bolster's problems if the killer finds him first.

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 41 pages. Matt Bolster visits the gruesome crime scene as he joins the LAPD in their investigation into Ajoy Chatterjee's untimely demise. Bolster quickly discovers he's going to have to work hard to maintain his inner peace as he traverses the dark underbelly of the LA yoga scene.

Six episodes are planned.

  

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Option to Kill
Andrew Peterson
A Nathan McBride Mystery (3rd in series)

When Nathan McBride receives a text message from someone who claims she's been kidnapped, it triggers a deadly chain of events that has the potential to haunt him for the rest of his life.

Nathan will soon learn that nothing from his past could ever prepare him for the crisis he'll soon be facing. The girl's name is Lauren and she's just twelve years old. With virtually no experience with children, Nathan's patience and compassion are about to be tested to their limits.

In a violent confrontation, Nathan rescues Lauren from her kidnapper, but as he unravels Lauren's story, he realizes his troubles are only beginning. She says she's in the Witness Security Program, and doesn't trust the US Marshals because she thinks they're complicit in her abduction. Not only that, her stepdad was murdered last night.

In a desperate and unlikely alliance, Nathan and Lauren must stay one step ahead of her kidnapper and the brutal mercenaries who will kill anyone who gets in their way. Played out over the course of 36 lightning-fast hours, Nathan and Lauren must learn to trust each other or they won't survive.

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 44 pages. Nathan McBride receives a cryptic text message containing his secret operative name from someone named "Lauren" who says she's been kidnapped. How does she know who he is? Is this for real? And if so, can he save her?

Eight episodes are planned.

  

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9th Circle
Carolyn McCray and Ben Hopkin

A madman terrorizes Seattle, attempting to recreate the nine circles of hell by using the blood and bodies of the innocent.

Detective Robi Darcmel, a gifted yet troubled savant, is the only man standing in the path of this pathological killer.

As the fate of the Emerald City hangs in the balance, can Darcmel overcome his failings or will Seattle burn to ash?

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 51 pages. Detectives Robi Darcmel and Trey Keane are on the trail of the Seattle's most prolific serial killer. After rescuing a little girl from a vat of her own parent's blood, Darc realizes she is the key to the psychopath's puzzle.

Eight episodes are planned.

  

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Shop Til You Drop … Dead
Carol Culver

Cory Sutherland is looking forward to her last day as assistant to wealthy San Francisco socialite Missy Graybar. Cory is about to launch her own business as personal shopper to the rich and famous … as soon as she can line up some clients, that is. Her plans go terribly wrong when she discovers Missy's dead body inside the woman's Russian Hill mansion.

When it quickly becomes obvious that the handsome detective on the case thinks Cory is the murderer, Cory realizes that if she doesn't find the killer, she could end up behind bars – for life.

As Cory crisscrosses the city by the Bay in search of clues, she finds herself caught between the detective and her ex-husband, who has decided their divorce was a mistake and he wants Cory back. Can Cory find the murderer and manage the men in her life? Only time will tell, and she's quickly running out of it.

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 40 pages. Cory Sutherland stumbles upon her boss's dead body inside the wealthy socialite's luxurious Russian Hill mansion. Suddenly, Cory is less concerned with launching her new personal shopping business and more worried about proving her innocence.

Five episodes are planned.

  

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The Circuit Rider
Dani Amore

In a wild land full of lawlessness and sin rides Mike Tower, a traveling preacher known as a Circuit Rider. Circuit Riders travel from town to town, offering their services to those in need. Tower is a man of mystery, utterly fearless though he carries no gun. As he sets out on this latest circuit, is he riding toward a new beginning, or running away from a former haunted life?

Bird Hitchcock, a woman known for her skill with a gun and love of the bottle, has taken the job of protecting Mike Tower on his journey to the West. Yet as she and Tower ride, they quickly find themselves on the hunt for an elusive killer who is brutally murdering women. Protecting Tower seems less and less important as Hitchcock discovers a link between her past and the murderer – will she finally get a chance to exact revenge and find redemption?

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 48 pages. Mike Tower, a traveling preacher, and his personal guard, the infamous gunslinger Bird Hitchcock, discover a young woman beaten, tortured and left for dead.

Six episodes are planned.

  

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Love is Strong as Death
Carolyn Nash

Rachel Elliot is a smart and cynical investigative journalist with a passion for exposing the truth behind every story. But when her editor asks her to look into a controversial real-estate deal involving an elusive tech billionaire and a supposedly haunted house, she unexpectedly uncovers dark secrets about her own past. With a beautiful pharmaceutical heiress, a relentless colleague, and one of the world's most famous Internet innovators all staking a claim on her past and her future, it's up to Rachel to figure out what binds this group together before fate overtakes them.

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 102 pages. When a new assignment takes Rachel Elliot into the upper reaches of power and the lower reaches of terror, it isn't clear how much of her perfectly self-contained identity will survive the shock.

Five episodes are planned.

  

— ♦ —

Hacker Mom
Austen Rachlis

Becky Taylor seems like a typical suburban stay-at-home mom with a loving husband and an adorable son, but she has a secret. In between juggling judgmental playgroup moms, an intense career-minded prosecutor of a husband, and a sister who can't stop reminding her of her old ambitions, Becky moonlights for one of the world's most controversial websites, helping to expose state and corporate secrets. To make matters worse, now the feds are on her tail.

The more complicated Becky's life becomes, the more equipped she feels to handle it. Who says you can't be one of the world's most dangerous international whistleblowers and still make a killer meatloaf?

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 32 pages. When Becky goes to a hacker's convention to support her younger sister, what seems like a chance encounter threatens to turn into the biggest decision of her life.

Five episodes are planned.

  

— ♦ —

The Many Lives of Lilith Lane
E. V. Anderson

Seventeen-year-old Lilith Lane has a hunk of a boyfriend, a wicked tongue, and a talent for solving the mysteries that pop up in her small home town of Mirabalis. But when her little sister goes missing in the middle of the night, both Lilith's detective skills and her recall of sophomore year physics are put to the ultimate test.

To save her sister, Lilith must race against the clock with the help of Dr. Hammer, a mad scientist who pushes Lilith off the edge – literally – of his reality-bending skyscraper. Lilith's world is turned upside down by her sister's disappearance, and a skyscraper that is also a portal to a parallel universe suddenly doesn't seem that surreal. With Dr. Hammer's help, Lilith must put her girl detective skills to the test and try to save her sister.

Episode 1: Released on September 6th, 2012. 35 pages. When popular high school senior Lilith Lane's sister goes missing, Lilith thinks it's the end. It turns out, it's not even the beginning.

Five episodes are planned.

  

— ♦ —

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.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120910)

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.