P.I. on a Hot Tin Roof by Julie Smith is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature P.I. on a Hot Tin Roof by Julie Smith as today's free mystery ebook (A Talba Wells Mystery; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, June 18, 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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P.I. on a Hot Tin Roof
Julie Smith
A Talba Wells Mystery
Publisher: booksBnimble

Your lawyer needs you to bail her out? Isn't that kind of backwards?

So thinks PI Talba Wallis, on her way to Parish Prison — and indeed something's badly amiss.

New Orleans' most dynamic detective duo, poet/computer genius Talba and street-savvy Luddite Eddie Valentino, have a personal interest in this one — Eddie's lawyer daughter Angie's been set up for a drug bust.

Prominent Judge Buddy Champagne's the obvious perp and Talba's so mad she embeds herself in his house as a spy — but she doesn't count on ending up with a family straight out of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; nor did she realize how involved she was going to get — especially with Buddy's 14-year-old daughter Lucy.

It works, though, She uncovers plenty of evidence the judge is dirty. And then things get ugly: Somebody kills Buddy and Talba's true identity comes to light. The Champagnes hate her at this point, but guess what? They hire her to solve the case.

There are plenty of mysterious twists and turns on the way to an ending guaranteed to surprise — but the real joy here is in the relationships, especially Talba's with Lucy, who, it turns out, is a budding poet. And with another little girl, her boy friend's bratty daughter Raisa. She's SO not prepared for quasi-motherhood!

  

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.

Telemystery: Amazon Studios Orders Pilot for Bosch, based on Michael Connelly's Series Character

Amazon Studios has ordered a pilot based on a character created by crime novelist Michael Connelly. Titled Bosch, it will be centered on LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, first introduced in the 1992 novel The Black Echo, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel the following year.

Deadline reports that Connelly co-wrote the pilot screenplay, though it isn't clear if it is an original story or based on one of the novels in the series.

This would be Amazon Studios' first drama pilot for its streaming service. It has already ordered to series several comedies and childrens' shows.

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The Black Echo
Michael Connelly
A Harry Bosch Mystery (1st in series)

For LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch — hero, maverick, nighthawk — the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal.

The dead man, Billy Meadows, was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who fought side by side with him in a nightmare underground war that brought them to the depths of hell. Now, Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city to the tortuous link that must be uncovered, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit.

Joining with an enigmatic and seductive female FBI agent, pitted against enemies inside his own department, Bosch must make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, as he tracks down a killer whose true face will shock him.

Winner of the 1993 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

      

Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, June 18, 2013.

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Stalin's Ghost
Martin Cruz Smith
An Arkady Renko Mystery
Simon & Schuster

Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutor's office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station. The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular; the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating. Decidedly better than that of Renko, whose lover, Eva, has left him for Detective Nikolai Isakov, a charismatic veteran of the civil war in Chechnya, a hero of the far right and, Renko suspects, a killer for hire. The cases entwine, and Renko's quests become a personal inquiry fueled by jealousy.

The investigation leads to the fields of Tver outside of Moscow, where once a million soldiers fought. There, amidst the detritus, Renko must confront the ghost of his own father, a favorite general of Stalin's. In these barren fields, patriots and shady entrepreneurs — the Red Diggers and Black Diggers — collect the bones, weapons and personal effects of slain World War II soldiers, and find that even among the dead there are surprises.

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.

Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (130618)

Here is today's mystery and suspense update from Big Fish Games …

• The New Release is Order of the Rose.

• The current Catch of the Week is Puppetshow: Return to Joyville, just $2.99 through Sunday, June 23, 2013 only.

Visit the Omnimystery Entertainment Network for more games of mystery and suspense!

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Today's New Release is Order of the Rose

Take on the role of a homicide detective as you track down an enigmatic killer who leaves cryptic puzzles on the bodies of the victims. How are the victims related? Where will the killer strike next? At the heart of this mystery lies the Order of the Rose and an artifact that can change the world. This killer is unpredictable and if you’re not careful, you’ll end up as the next victim. Follow the clues and remember to keep your wits about you in Order of the Rose, a thrilling Hidden-Object Puzzle Adventure game.

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour.

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The current Catch of the Week is Puppetshow: Return to Joyville

Travel back in time to help stop a terrible fire that started Felicia down her destructive path! This time traveling adventure takes you back to Joyville when Felicia was a small child. With the help of Felicia, try to stop the fire that incinerated her fathers theater. This fire horribly burned Felicia, and caused her to turn evil. By changing the past, Felicia hopes for a chance at redemption. Discover who the true villain is in this captivating adventure!

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game at the special price of $2.99 through Sunday, June 23, 2013.

New Trailer for Crime Thriller Blood

A new trailer has been released by Image Entertainment for the crime thriller Blood (embedded, below). "They can't bury the truth."

When a shocking murder is committed in their small town, the Fairburn brothers (Paul Bettany and Stephen Graham) are detectives who will do whatever it takes to catch the killer and try to live up to the reputation of their tough-as-nails ex-police chief father (Brian Cox). But when a suspect's interrogation spins violently out of control, the brothers must deal with the consequences … and the mounting suspicions of a colleague (Mark Strong) seeking the truth.

Directed by Nick Murphy from an original screenplay by Bill Gallagher, Blood, which premiered last October at the London Film Festival and opened in UK theaters last month, does not yet have a US theatrical release date (which leads us to believe it might be direct to video here).

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Three Logan McRae Mysteries by Stuart MacBride, Now at a Special Price

We are thrilled to let you know that HarperCollins has discounted over 100 of its mystery ebooks to just $0.99 cents each (as of the date and time of this post).

In separate posts, we're going to highlight some of these titles, primarily those written by authors with whom we are familiar and can recommend.

Below are the first three "Logan McRae" mysteries by Stuart MacBride featuring the Scottish police detective.

Please remember: Prices are subject to change without notice, and were confirmed for this post as of 06/17/2013 at 5:00 PM ET. 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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Cold Granite by Stuart MacBride
A Logan McRae Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

Winter in Aberdeen: murder, mayhem and terrible weather …

It's DS Logan McRae's first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn't get much worse. Three-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a ditch, strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. And he's only the first. There's a serial killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood.

Soon the dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. And if Logan isn't careful, he could end up joining them …

      

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Dying Light by Stuart MacBride
A Logan McRae Mystery (2nd in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

Read our review of Dying Light by Stuart MacBride

It's summertime in Scotland: the sun is shining, the sky is blue and people are dying …

She's just the first. How many more will die?

It starts with Rosie Williams, a prostitute, stripped naked and beaten to death down by the docks — the heart of Aberdeen's red light district. For DS Logan McRae it's a bad start to another bad day.

Rosie won't be the only one making an unscheduled trip to the morgue. Across the city six people are burning to death in a petrol-soaked squat, the doors and windows screwed shut from the outside. And despite Logan's best efforts, it's not long before another prostitute turns up on the slab …

      

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Broken Skin by Stuart MacBride
A Logan McRae Mystery (3rd in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

A crime of passion, or cold-hearted murder?

A serial rapist is leaving a string of tortured women behind him, but while DS Logan McRae's girlfriend, PC Jackie ‘Ball Breaker' Watson, is out acting as bait, he's trying to identify a blood-drenched body dumped outside Accident and Emergency.

Logan's investigations suggest someone in the local bondage community has developed a taste for violent death, and he soon finds himself dragged into the twilight world of pornographers, sex-shops and S&M.

Meanwhile, the prime suspect in the rape case turns out to be Aberdeen Football Club's star striker, and he has an alibi for every attack. Logan thinks they've got it horribly wrong, but can he get anyone to listen before the real rapist strikes again? Especially as Jackie is convinced the footballer's guilty and she's hell-bent on a conviction at any cost …

      

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.

Telemystery: CBS Announces Fall 2013 Premiere Dates

CBS has announced its series Fall 2013 premiere dates and for telemystery fans it's going to be one busy week!

It all begins on Monday, September 23rd, the day after the network hosts the 65th Prime Time Emmy Awards. (Expect to see lots of promos during the show.) All times, below, are ET/PT.

Monday (09/23/2013) …

10 PM: Hostages (series premiere)

Tuesday (09/24/2013) …

8 PM: NCIS (11th season)
9 PM: NCIS Los Angeles (5th season)
10 PM: Person of Interest (3rd season)

Wednesday (09/25/2013) …

9 PM: Criminal Minds (9th season)
10 PM: CSI (14th season)

Thursday (09/26/2013) …

10 PM: Elementary (2nd season)

Friday (09/27/2013) …

9 PM: Hawaii Five-O (4th season)
10 PM: Blue Bloods (4th season)

Sunday (09/29/2013) …

10 PM: The Mentalist (6th season)

Keep up to date on the status of your favorite mystery and suspense television with our Telemystery Scoresheet. We've updated it with today's news.

New Poster, Trailer for Killing Season

A new poster (right; click for larger image) and trailer (embedded, below) have been released by Millennium Entertainment for the action suspense thriller Killing Season. The tagline: "The purest form of war is one on one."

Deep in the Appalachian mountains, a reclusive American military veteran (Robert De Niro) and a European tourist (John Travolta) strike up an unlikely friendship. But when the tourist's true intentions come to light, what follows is a tense battle across some of America's most forbidding landscape proving the old adage: the purest form of war is one on one.

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson from an original screenplay by Evan Daugherty, Killing Season opens in theaters July 12, 2013.

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New Trailer for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

A new trailer has been released by Sony for the fantasy thriller The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (embedded, below). "There is a world hidden within our own."

Set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray (played by Lily Collins), discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother (Lena Headey), Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures.

Directed by Harald Zwart from an adapted screenplay by Jessica Postigo Paquette and based on the first book in a young adult trilogy by Cassandra Clare (more information about the book below the trailer, below), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones opens in theaters August 21, 2013.

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City of Bones
Cassandra Clare
Book One of the The Mortal Instruments Series

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing — not even a smear of blood — to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know …

      

Two Madeline Bean Catering Mysteries by Jerrilyn Farmer, Now at a Special Price

We are thrilled to let you know that HarperCollins has discounted nearly 100 of its mystery ebooks to just $0.99 cents each (as of the date and time of this post).

In separate posts, we're going to highlight some of these titles, primarily those written by authors with whom we are familiar and can recommend.

Below are two "Madeline Bean" mysteries by Jerrilyn Farmer featuring a Los Angeles-based caterer. The first book in this series won the 1999 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel.

Please remember: Prices are subject to change without notice, and were confirmed for this post as of 06/17/2013 at 3:00 PM ET. 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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Killer Wedding by Jerrilyn Farmer
A Madeline Bean, Catering Mystery (3rd in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

Although not about to say "I do" anytime soon, hip party-planner Madeline Bean is no stranger to the phenomenon known as the LA wedding; the good, the bad and the kind where the party lasts longer than the marriage. Still, Maddie never expected to be the guest of Vivian Duncan, the West Coast's grande dame of wedding consultants, at a lavish affair held amidst the dramatically lit fossils in the Nature Museum's Hall of Dinosaurs. While checking out the glittering event, Maddie, with her keen event planner's instinct, realizes something is not quite right, but what? The groom is on time. The bride is beautiful. And a corpse wearing a Cartier bracelet is dangling from the triceratops skeleton. Ah, yes. That.

With people disappearing and the bride in tears, Maddie just may be the next species to become extinct … unless she can reveal the murderer fast. Quicker than she can whip up a white chocolate wedding cake, Maddie follows the trail deep into dark jungles — urban and otherwise — amid tantalizing tales of smuggled gems, while fending off a nervous bridegroom, a crazed carjacker, and a half-naked ice-sculptor and his trusty chainsaw. Along the way, she discovers something old, something new, something deadly and something a wedding pro should never, ever do.

    

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The Flaming Luau of Death by Jerrilyn Farmer
A Madeline Bean, Catering Mystery (7th in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

When Holly Nichols sets her wedding date, trendy L.A. party-planner Madeline Bean decides to throw her top assistant the hippest and most lavish bridal shower on the planet. The guests embark on a "destination" party to a fabulous and exclusive spa/resort in Hawaii. The salt-rubs! The paraffin pedicures! The dead body in the mud bath! Ew.

It doesn't help matters when Holly confesses to Maddie that she can't really go through with the upcoming wedding after all. In her effort to smooth the matrimonial path for her dear friend, Madeline must track down the mystery man Holly may have married ten years earlier and never actually got around to divorcing. How hard can that be?

Well, with the elusive gentleman in question running from a gang of rare vegetable smugglers, the bridal shower guests imbibing in one "Bridesmaid Mojito" too many, the current fiancé developing an allergy to scandal, and a murderer on the loose, it looks like anything but clear sailing down the aisle for one of Mad Bean's best employees.

    

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.

Two Rachel Alexander and Dash Mysteries by Carol Lea Benjamin, Now at a Special Price

We are thrilled to let you know that HarperCollins has discounted nearly 100 of its mystery ebooks to just $0.99 cents each (as of the date and time of this post).

In separate posts, we're going to highlight some of these titles, primarily those written by authors with whom we are familiar and can recommend.

Below are two "Rachel Alexander and Dash" mysteries by Carol Lea Benjamin featuring a former dog trainer turned private investigator and her pit bull terrier partner.

Please remember: Prices are subject to change without notice, and were confirmed for this post as of 06/17/2013 at 2:30 PM ET. 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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Lady Vanishes by Carol Lea Benjamin
A Rachel Alexander and Dash Mystery (4th in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

Dash, Rachel Alexander's pit bull terrier, has come to be known as half a sleuthing team. But when not called upon to solve crimes he has another very important job: that of a therapy dog, working with people who are developmentally challenged.

Lady, a mop-coated puli, was the therapy dog at Harbor View, a Greenwich Village home for "throw away" people. But now lady has vanished … and the owner of the home has been killed in a bizarre and mysterious hit-and-run accident. Rachel and Dash are the perfect duo to tackle this mystery: she can find the answers and Dash can bring a sense of calm and order to the residents.

As the pieces start coming together, Rachel and Dash not only expose an ugly plot, but also help some innocent victims find justice in a world that too often ignores them.

      

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Fall Guy by Carol Lea Benjamin
A Rachel Alexander and Dash Mystery (6th in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

A New York City police officer nearing retirement dies "accidentally" while cleaning his service revolver in the bathroom of his Greenwich Village apartment. Private investigator Rachel Alexander is stunned to learn she's been named the executor to his will — after all, they'd only met when she was doing pet therapy with her pit bull, Dashiell. A member of Rachel's 9/11 survivors group, the officer never spoke at meetings — a really hard case. But then there was the one time he took Dash for a walk around the block. When Dash returned, the fur on his head was soaked with tears.

Was this death really a suicide? And why would the deceased have chosen a near stranger to perform such an intimate task — especially when he's survived by a brother and sister? As Rachel sets about her work, she soon discovers a mystery from the deceased's childhood that may have led to this terrible tragedy.

    

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.