Review: Port Vila Blues by Garry Disher

A Mysterious Review of …

Port Vila Blues by Garry Disher. A Wyatt Wareen Mystery.

Review summary: There are no distracting backstories, no narrative-filling side trips, nothing here but a straight-to-it caper-style crime novel. And it's a very good one, indeed. As good as the story is, however, it is really the character of Wyatt himself that makes it all work. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Port Vila Blues
Garry Disher
A Wyatt Wareen Mystery
Soho Crime (August 2012)

Publisher synopsis: Wyatt, the cool, ever-evasive thief, snatches the cash easily enough. He bypasses the alarm system, eludes the cops, makes it safely back to his hideout in Hobart. It's the diamond-studded Tiffany brooch — and perhaps the girl — that undoes him.

Now some very hard people want to put Wyatt and that brooch out of circulation. But this is Wyatt's game and Wyatt sets the rules — even if it means a reckoning somewhere far from home. In a murky world where the cops are robbers, old-style criminal Wyatt positively shines.

      

Scream Cruise by Jim DeLorey is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Scream Cruise by Jim DeLorey 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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Scream Cruise
Jim DeLorey
Publisher: Adams Road Enterprises

Every August a million people converge on Detroit's Woodward Avenue for the annual Dream Cruise — when over 40,000 vintage hot rods, muscle cars, sports cars and classic autos go rumbling up and down a multi-mile stretch of steamy asphalt. But as this year's Dream Cruise approaches, a cloud of gut-wrenching terror hangs over the Motor City.

A crazed bomber inflicts a series of horrific explosions that claim hundreds of innocent lives. He then demands a $50 million payoff to stop the bombings — or else.

With the body count rising almost by the hour, FBI agent McCoy Johnson finds himself in several wild, heart-stopping races against the clock to halt the carnage. But with time running out, can he prevent the evil, Detroit-hating psychopath from turning the Dream Cruise into a holocaust of wanton slaughter?

  

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.

Past Imperfect by John Matthews is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Past Imperfect by John Matthews 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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Past Imperfect
John Matthews
Publisher: E-media Books

Two boys. One Murder.

Sometimes justice takes more than a lifetime.

A car accident in California, a deadly assault in Provence, and two boys 30 years apart are left battling for their lives.

Dominic Fornier is the detective who finds himself at the heart of the investigation. A simple provincial case that becomes one of the largest and most important in French criminal history.

Fornier's only hope is to prove the link between the two boys thirty years apart. A compulsive journey through forensic, medical and psychiatric evidence between France, the USA and London; a breathless paper chase of clues from a young boy's psyche … and a desperate race against time with a killer who will stop at nothing.

  

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.

San Francisco Values by James Turner is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature San Francisco Values by James Turner 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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San Francisco Values
James Turner
Publisher: JK Turner Video

Today's plunging real estate market may seem brutal, but it's nothing compared to the heady bubble days. Just ask real estate queen Ella Barker. She's at the top of her career, a master of San Francisco's hysterical housing market, and now some maniac comes along and starts slaughtering real estate agents? Why, this is outrageous under any circumstance, but it's more than just a little distraction in a market where a child's future earnings are mortgaged, Open House lines stretch for blocks and prices go up by the hour.

Then Ella gets word the most expensive home ever in San Francisco is coming on the market, so she sets out to do whatever it takes to rake in the mega-commission. But first she has to get the listing, which means convincing the elderly, eccentric seller, a woman whose closest advisor is her gorgeous, aggressive, bisexual maid from Rio. Ella's also got clients with a troublesome case of buyer's remorse, a vindictive television reporter making scurrilous accusations and a sexy new man with the most unexpected tastes behind closed doors.

Ella runs a dangerous obstacle course through San Francisco's gossipy, backstabbing terrain, trying to crown her career with a monster sale. All she has to do is stay alive long enough to close the deal.

    

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.

14 Novels by Philip K. Dick is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature 14 Novels by Philip K. Dick by as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

Award-winning author Philip K. Dick was one of the most innovative and influential science fiction authors of all time. His work inspired many seminal and critically-acclaimed films, such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and A Scanner Darkly. Today's Daily Deal features 14 of his ground-breaking books for only $1.99 each and is valid only for today, Sunday, October 07, 2012.

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A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Winner of the BSFA Award for Best Novel in 1978, it was adapted into the 2006 film of the same title starring Keanu Reeves.

Bob Arctor is a junkie and a drug dealer, both using and selling the mind-altering Substance D. Fred is a law enforcement agent, tasked with bringing Bob down. It sounds like a standard case. The only problem is that Bob and Fred are the same person. Substance D doesn't just alter the mind, it splits it in two, and neither side knows what the other is doing or that it even exists. Now, both sides are growing increasingly paranoid as Bob tries to evade Fred while Fred tries to evade his suspicious bosses.

Other titles included in today's deal: The Man in the High Castle; Ubik; The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch; The Simulacra; VALIS; Now Wait for Last Year; The Penultimate Truth; The Transmigration of Timothy Archer; The Divine Invasion; Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Counter-Clock World; Eye in the Sky; and The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.

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.

Winners of the 2012 Anthony Awards Announced

Bouchercon 2012 concludes today in Cleveland — Crime Fiction Rocks! — and we have the results of the final awards presented!

Last night the Anthony Awards winners were announced, named in honor of Anthony Boucher, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America. The winners were selected by the convention attendees.

• Best Novel: A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

• Best First Novel: Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry (Crown)

• Best Paperback Original: Buffalo West Wing by Julie Hyzy (Berkley Prime Crime)

• Best Short Story: "Disarming" (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) by Dana Cameron

• Best Non-Fiction: The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris, editor (Ace)

Special thanks to The Rap Sheet for notifying us of the results.

Teaser Trailer for A Good Day To Die Hard

The first teaser trailer for the action thriller A Good Day To Die Hard has been released (below), starring Bruce Willis as New York City police detective John McClane.

In this fifth film of the series, iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners McClane for the first time finds himself on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack (Jai Courtney) — unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.

Directed by John Moore from a screenplay by Skip Wood, A Good Day To Die Hard opens in theaters February 14th, 2013.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (121006)

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, which includes a list of both the Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free Kindle Mysteries and Thrillers.

MystereBooks: This Week's Update of Kindle Crime Fiction Priced $2.99 or Less

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 few notes before we get to today's list …

• With the first of the month occurring since our last update, there is a new selection of 100 Kindle books priced $3.99 or less for October 2012. We've tried not to duplicate any titles here.

• We've added a new publisher to check each week: Premier Digital. The link to the left is for their entire catalog of titles priced $2.99 or less; we've added a few of the mysteries and thrillers to our list this week.

• Poisoned Pen Press has been very generous in discounting many of their books to $2.99 or less for much of this year. But we've begun to see a few of the titles having the prices increased, sometimes just a dollar or two, but still. If you haven't already checked out their extensive selection of discounted titles, use this link to see all the books this publisher has lowered to $2.99 or less.

• There are a handful of titles to pre-order; we've made a note of these next to their title.

And now on to our update! 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.

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Tainted Innocence by Joss Alexander.

Trunk Music by Michael Connelly. A Harry Bosch Mystery (5th).

Winter of Secrets by Vicki Delany. A Molly Smith Mystery (3rd).

The Benedict Arnold Connection by Joseph DiMona. A George Williams Thriller.

Last Man at Arlington by Joseph DiMona. A George Williams Thriller.

To the Eagle's Nest by Joseph DiMona. A George Williams Thriller.

Effigies by Mary Anna Evans. A Faye Longchamp Mystery (3rd).

Arctic Fire by Stephen Frey. Pre-Order.

Intrusion by Arlene Kay.

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga.

No Money Down by Julie Moffett. A Lexi Carmichael Mystery (3rd).

Cat on the Edge by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. A Joe Grey Mystery (1st).

Dance of Flames by Janni Nell. An Allegra Fairweather Mystery (3rd).

The Jerusalem Puzzle by Laurence O'Bryan.

Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. A Pendergast Thriller (11th).

Sorrow Without End by Priscilla Royal. A Prioress Eleanor Mystery (3rd).

Dead Calm by Shirley Wells. A Dylan Scott Mystery (4th).

The Killing Circle by Chris Wiltz. A Neal Rafferty Mystery (1st).

A Diamond Before You Die by Chris Wiltz. A Neal Rafferty Mystery (2nd).

The Emerald Lizard by Chris Wiltz. A Neal Rafferty Mystery (3rd).

Shoot the Money by Chris Wiltz.

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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.

Scofflaw Blues by Marc Krulewitch is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Scofflaw Blues by Marc Krulewitch 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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Scofflaw Blues
Marc Krulewitch
A Jules Landau Mystery
Publisher: Marc Krulewitch

Begin with a murdered parking officer, the alleged victim of a lunatic towed one too many times. Add a bizarre client with a pile of cash who knows more than he's willing to admit. Throw in a fanatical tabloid journalist on the scent of an epic scandal. Blend in handfuls of apathetic cops, greedy politicians, corporate corruption, Russian mafia, conveniently dead witnesses, and then top it off with the victim's lovely niece. Mix thoroughly to create a perplexing murder case for Chicago private eye Jules Landau.

  

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.

White Cell by B. Regan Asher is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature White Cell by B. Regan Asher 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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White Cell
B. Regan Asher
Publisher: B. Regan Asher

Jim Kincaid is one of the most infamous hackers in the world though his true identity remains unknown. An aloof 30 year old Catholic with some unusual religious observances, he hardly dates, preferring to socialize with a few close friends, and spends most of his free time in his apartment hacking from his elaborate server room. In contrast to other hackers, Jim’s heightened sense of morality does not allow him to use his technical proficiency for financial gain; instead, he is a benevolent hacker, seeking out and destroying new viruses, helping, rather than hurting, the internet community.

Consumed though he is by his hobby, Jim’s hacking exploits have recently become too expensive to support. The bills and statements that arrive at his apartment every day remain unpaid. And now the banks are calling. If Jim can not find more funds he will lose everything.

Backed into a corner and without any alternative, Jim considers an illegal option. He knows that he can use his hacking capabilities to steal funds and solve his financial woes. But, even as he plans the theft, he recognizes that to succumb to this easy solution would have him reverse a lifetime of honest and benevolent work.

Then, through a chance conversation with an acquaintance at work, Jim is given the opportunity to borrow the money he so desperately requires. Though his best friend Ben is against the loan, Jim decides to borrow the money without truly understanding where it has come from. When he does discover who has lent him the money, he finds that he is in more trouble than he was without it. He becomes entangled with the Mafia and then with a terrorist kidnapping and a federal law enforcement agency. With help from Ben and through his own ingenuity Jim must find a way out of a complex predicament that is beginning to threaten his friends and family. And he must also discover the secret in his past that will explain so much.

  

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.

Winners of the 2012 Shamus Awards Announced

Bouchercon 2012 is underway in Cleveland this week — Crime Fiction Rocks! — and that means still more award presentations!

Last night the Shamus Awards winners were announced honoring the best in the private eye genre as selected by the Private Eye Writers of America.

• Best PI Hardcover: A Bad Night's Sleep by Michael Wiley (Minotaur Books)

• Best First PI Novel: The Shortcut Man by P. G. Sturges (Scribner)

• Best PI Paperback Original: Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books)

• Best PI Short Story: "Who I Am" by Michael Z. Lewin (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

In addition The Hammer — a special award recognizing a series character — was handed out to Max Allan Collins for his PI Nathan Heller.

Special thanks to The Rap Sheet for notifying us of the results.