Gated by Matt Drabble is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Gated by Matt Drabble as today's second free mystery ebook (A Suspense Thriller; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, June 14, 2013 at 7:20 AM ET. 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.

For a summary of all of today's featured titles, plus any that may have appeared before and are repeat freebies, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.

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Gated
Matt Drabble
A Suspense Thriller
Publisher: Matt Drabble

Michael and Emily are a happy and contented English couple, a writer and a school teacher. Their lives are complete when Emily falls pregnant, however their dreams are shattered one cold winter night by a car accident that robs them of their happiness.

To overcome their loss they up stick and move to Eden Gardens, a US gated community that offers "Heaven on Earth and Twice as Nice". The people are warm and friendly and welcome them with open arms. The town is a beautiful throwback to a bygone age, where the sun always shines and the sky's always blue.

As they settle into their new perfect lives, the circle is complete when Emily falls pregnant. The town is perfect, the weather is perfect and their lives are perfect. But are the stares from their neighbours a little too intense, is the town a little too interested in their happy news, and is Eden all that it seems. They are about to find out that paradise comes at a cost, and when you sign a lease, you should always check the fine print.

  

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.

Blind Sight Solution by Emma Pivato is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Blind Sight Solution by Emma Pivato as today's free mystery ebook (A Claire Burke Mystery; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, June 14, 2013 at 7:10 AM ET. 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.

For a summary of all of today's featured titles, plus any that may have appeared before and are repeat freebies, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.

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Blind Sight Solution
Emma Pivato
A Claire Burke Mystery
Publisher: Cozy Cat Press

When interior decorator Claire Burke discovers one of her clients dead on the new rug that she's just installed, she never imagines that she will soon be hard at work investigating the woman's murder. However, her severely disabled, wheelchair-bound daughter Jessie forms a bond with the victim's husband Jimmy, and when the man is arrested for his wife's killing, Claire can't believe that anyone who could be so tender towards her daughter could actually harm another human being. Soon, she enlists her friend Tia to help prove the man's innocence.

Tia ensconces herself in the man's home under the guise of providing him cleaning services — all the while snooping for possible clues that might exonerate the man. Claire's Aunt Augusta also arrives for a visit and quickly befriends an elderly neighbor, and the two old ladies — anxious to help Claire — start their own investigation. With detectives seemingly everywhere, no one can possibly imagine who will ultimately bring down the killer — and it may be the most amazing detective of them all!

  

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.

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is Today's Nook Daily Find

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro as today's Barnes & Noble Nook Daily Find.

The deal price of $2.99 is valid only for today, Friday, June 14, 2013.

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

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Confessions of a Murder Suspect
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
A Tandy Angel Mystery for Teens
Little, Brown

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone--maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of?

 

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.

Invitation To Die by Helen Smith is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Invitation To Die by Helen Smith as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Friday, June 14, 2013.

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Invitation To Die
Helen Smith
An Emily Castles Mystery
Thomas & Mercer

Twenty-six-year-old Emily Castles is out of work … again. So when famous romance author Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London, Emily accepts. Just as eagerly, American blogger Winnie Kraster accepts an invitation from Morgana to attend as a guest, not realizing she has, in effect, accepted an invitation to die.

As a cast of oddball characters assembles at the conference hotel, grievances, differences, and secrets begin to emerge. When Winnie goes missing, and then is found murdered nearby, Emily begins to suspect that someone involved with the conference is responsible. Could it be one of the organizers, one of the authors, a member of the hotel staff, or even the supplier of the chocolates for the conference gift bags? Emily teams up with guest speaker and eccentric philosophy professor Dr. Muriel to find out.

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.

Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending June 14, 2013

A list of the top 15 Mystery Hardcover Bestsellers for the week ending June 14th, 2013 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Yet another week with little change among the top bestsellers, with Dan Brown's Robert Langdon thriller, Inferno, retaining the top spot.

Two new titles debut (below; position in brackets).

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[9]: Bad Monkey
Carl Hiaasen

Andrew Yancy — late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff's office — has a human arm in his freezer. There's a logical  explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, the sheriff might rescue him from his grisly Health Inspector gig (it's not called the roach patrol for nothing).

But first Yancy must negotiate an obstacle course of wildly unpredictable events with a crew of even more wildly unpredictable characters, including his just-ex lover, a hot-blooded fugitive from Kansas; the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; two avariciously optimistic real-estate speculators; the Bahamian voodoo witch known as the Dragon Queen, whose suitors are blinded unto death by her peculiar charms; Yancy's new true love, a kinky coroner; and the eponymous bad monkey.

Purchase Options

          

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[13]: The King's Deception
Steve Berry
— Cotton Malone (8th)

Cotton Malone and his fifteen-year-old son, Gary, are headed to Europe. As a favor to his former boss at the Justice Department, Malone agrees to escort a teenage fugitive back to England. But after he is greeted at gunpoint in London, both the fugitive and Gary disappear, and Malone learns that he's stumbled into a high-stakes diplomatic showdown — an international incident fueled by geopolitical gamesmanship and shocking Tudor secrets.

At its heart is the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103, who is set to be released by Scottish authorities for "humanitarian reasons". An outraged American government objects, but nothing can persuade the British to intervene.

Except, perhaps, Operation King's Deception.

Run by the CIA, the operation aims to solve a centuries-old mystery, one that could rock Great Britain to its royal foundations.

Blake Antrim, the CIA operative in charge of King's Deception, is hunting for the spark that could rekindle a most dangerous fire, the one thing that every Irish national has sought for generations: a legal reason why the English must leave Northern Ireland. The answer is a long-buried secret that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire forty-five-year reign of Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, who completed the conquest of Ireland and seized much of its land. But Antrim also has a more personal agenda, a twisted game of revenge in which Gary is a pawn. With assassins, traitors, spies, and dangerous disciples of a secret society closing in, Malone is caught in a lethal bind. To save Gary he must play one treacherous player against another — and only by uncovering the incredible truth can he hope to prevent the shattering consequences of the King's Deception.

Purchase Options

          

Amnon Kabatchnik Wins Benjamin Franklin Competition Silver Medal for Blood on the Stage

Earlier this year we had the pleasure of welcoming Amnon Kabatchnik as our guest. His most recent book is Blood on the Stage: 1975-2000: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and Detection, an overview of the most important and memorable theatrical works of crime and detection of this period, and a book for which he was recently honored with a Silver Medal in the Benjamin Franklin Competition in the reference category.

This is the fourth book in this series by the author, which now completes his study of the entire 20th century. "A major surprise that I encountered upon the research trail were obscure, pirated dramatizations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventure The Sign of Four, written and produced in America at the turn of the 20th century," he told us. "I was also astonished by the large number of main-stream novelists, playwrights and poets who have mixed their ink with blood penning crime, mystery and detection plays. Among them are Great Britain's John Masefield, John Galsworthy, Somerset Maugham, John Osborne, Graham Greene, and the Americans Eugene O'Neill, John Steinbeck, Ayn Rand, William Saroyan, William Faulkner, Herman Wouk, Horton Foote, James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams."

Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Amnon Kabatchnik received his BS degree in theatre and journalism from Boston University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and won the Rodgers & Hammerstein Award. Kabatchnik also holds an MFA degree in directing from the Yale School of Drama. He served as Professor of Theatre at several universities, including Stanford University and Ohio State University, and directed numerous dramas, comedies, thrillers and musicals for off-Broadway, national road companies, resident theatres, summer stock, and abroad. To learn more about the author, visit his website at AmnonKabatchnik.com.

New Trailer for Crime Thriller The Frozen Ground

Lionsgate has released a new trailer for the crime thriller The Frozen Ground (embedded, below).

Based on the true story that follows Alaskan State Trooper Jack Halcombe (Nicolas Cage) as he sets out to end the murderous rampage of Robert Hansen (John Cusack), a serial killer who has gone unnoticed for 13 years. As the bodies of street girls start to pile up in Anchorage, fear strikes a chord with the public. Risking his life, Halcombe goes on a personal manhunt to find the killer before the next body surfaces. When a seventeen year old escapee (Vanessa Hudgens) reveals key information about the case, Halcombe is finally on the trail of the killer. But will he catch him in time to save the next victim?

Written and directed by Scott Walker, The Frozen Ground opens in limited release and video-on-demand on August 23rd, 2013.

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Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove to Premiere on Hallmark Channel July 20th

Hallmark Channel has announced that its first original series, Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove, will premiere with a two-hour episode on Saturday, July 20th, 2013 at 8 PM ET/PT.

Based on the bestselling series of novels by Macomber, Andie MacDowell stars as Judge Olivia Lockhart, whose Cedar Cove Municipal Court is where the town's surprises and hidden secrets are unveiled. Dylan Neal plays Jack Griffith, the new editor of the Cedar Cove Chronicle, who uncovers and reveals the truth on what goes on behind the closed courtroom doors and also finds himself as a budding love interest for Judge Lockhart. Bruce Boxleitner and Barbara Niven play husband and wife, Bob and Peggy Beldon, who are owners of Thyme and Tide, the local bed and breakfast where visitors of the picturesque lake town congregate.

Given the source material, there's not likely to be much suspense in this series, but we'll probably be taking a look next month anyway.

Also Known As, a YA Romantic Spy Thriller by Robin Benway, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Also Known As by Robin Benway, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Walker.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $2.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (06/13/2013 at 1:30 PM ET). 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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Also Known As by Robin Benway
A YA Romantic Spy Thriller
Publisher: Walker

Being a 16-year-old safecracker and active-duty daughter of international spies has its moments, good and bad. Pros: Seeing the world one crime-solving adventure at a time. Having parents with super cool jobs. Cons: Never staying in one place long enough to have friends or a boyfriend. But for Maggie Silver, the biggest perk of all has been avoiding high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations.

Then Maggie and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, and all of that changes. She'll need to attend a private school, avoid the temptation to hack the school's security system, and befriend one aggravatingly cute Jesse Oliver to gain the essential information she needs to crack the case … all while trying not to blow her cover.

  

Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.

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

Nickel Plated by Aric Davis, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Nickel Plated by Aric Davis, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, AmazonEncore.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $1.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (06/13/2013 at 1:00 PM ET). 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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Nickel Plated by Aric Davis
Publisher: AmazonEncore

Nickel is a survivor. He has to be. For as long as he can remember, his life has hinged on the flip of a coin. Or, rather, the scribble of a social worker's pen. He's been through the system, even had a good dad for a few years, until he was gone, too. But Nickel remembers everything he taught him, and since the day he escaped from foster-care hell, he's put that knowledge to good use. Just twelve years old, he makes a steady living by selling marijuana to high schoolers, blackmailing pedophiles he ferrets out online, and working as a private investigator.

When a beautiful girl named Arrow hires him to find her little sister Shelby, Nickel figures at best the kid's a runaway; at worst, some perv's gotten a hold of her. He scours the internet and the streets of Arrow's suburban neighborhood, and what he finds there is as ugly a truth as he's ever seen. For beyond the manicured lawns, Nickel discovers children for sale, and adults with souls black as the devil. And people like that aren't about to let some kid ruin their game.

      

Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.

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

Three Mike Daley Legal Thrillers by Sheldon Siegel, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature three Mike Daley Legal Thrillers by Sheldon Siegel, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Putnam.

The ebook format of these titles were priced at $0.99 each from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (06/13/2013 at 12:30 PM ET). 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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Criminal Intent by Sheldon Siegel
A Mike Daley Legal Thriller (3rd in series)
Publisher: Putnam

You can pick your friends, they say, but you can't pick your family. And lately, Mike Daley's family has been keeping him very busy. An ex-priest, ex-public defender, and ex-corporate lawyer, Daley and his former wife, Rosie Fernandez, now run their own San Francisco criminal defense firm. Most of their cases are fairly small-time, which is why it would be surprising that the person accused of murdering movie director Richard (Big Dick) MacArthur is calling them — except that the accused is Rosie's own niece, Angelina.

That case is bad enough, but the family problems don't end there: Rosie's brother, Tony, may be on the wrong end of a strong-arm graft proposal; the son of one of the firm's lawyers has just been busted on a drug charge; Mike is having a clandestine affair with a woman judge … and Rosie herself has a dark secret that may make all of it seem irrelevant.

  

Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.

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Final Verdict by Sheldon Siegel
A Mike Daley Legal Thriller (4th in series)
Publisher: Putnam

Fate throws a curveball at the San Francisco ex-husband-and-wife legal team of Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez, when Mike picks up the phone and hears the voice of Leon Walker. This is not good news — because Walker was the one who ruined their marriage. Years ago, he and his brother participated in a stickup that left a man dead. Through a series of (some said) questionable maneuvers, Mike got the charges dropped, but he and Rosie fought about it all the time and it finally drove a wedge between them.

Now, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist has been found dead in a dumpster on San Francisco's skid row. The new murder has been pinned on Walker, but he not only tells Mike he is innocent, he says he is a dying man and doesn't want to go to his grave proclaimed a murderer. Dogged investigation, courtroom nimbleness, and a healthy dose of luck usually have helped Mike before, but it looks like it'll take more than that to prevail this time, and his time is running out-both on his client and, just maybe, on his partnership.

  

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The Confession by Sheldon Siegel
A Mike Daley Legal Thriller (5th in series)
Publisher: Putnam

Mike Daley doesn't go to confession much since he left the priesthood twenty years ago and became a lawyer, but that doesn't stop his old friend, Father Ramon Aguirre, from trying to get him there. "It wouldn't kill you to go to church once in a while," he tells Mike. But it does kill someone.

For several months, a ruinous sexual harassment suit has been building against the San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese, and when the plaintiff's lawyer is found dead, an apparent suicide, an almost audible sigh of relief is heard in certain quarters. But that is before the police find evidence of murder. Even worse … the evidence points to Father Aguirre.

Mike and his ex-wife law partner, Rosie, jump in to take the priest's case, but what started out as difficult soon appears impossible as forensics, witnesses, and secrets from Father Aguirre's past all incriminate their client. Soon, their wits are the only things keeping the priest from a life sentence or worse, and wits simply may not be enough — unless they can conjure up a miracle of their own.

  

Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.

Important Note: These books were listed at the above mentioned price 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.

Antiques Bizarre, a Brandy Borne, Trash and Treasures Mystery by Barbara Allen, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Antiques Bizarre by Barbara Allen, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Kensington.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $1.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (06/13/2013 at 12:00 PM ET). 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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Antiques Bizarre by Barbara Allen
A Brandy Borne, Trash and Treasures Mystery (4th in series)
Publisher: Kensington

Barbara Allan is a pseudonym used by Max Allan Collins and his wife Barbara.

Spring has sprung a major leak in far-from-serene Serenity, as the Mississippi River drops in for an extended stay. With homes and businesses flooded, how better to help the town recover than by staging a church bazaar?

Brandy Borne knows her mother Vivian's plan, however, is more likely to lean toward bizarre, especially when she hears Mother wheedle a reclusive Russian heiress into donating the last Faberge egg ever created! When the winning bidder turns up mortally scrambled, Brandy and Mother cook up a plan to crack the case of this killer … who is one seriously bad egg!

    

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