The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets by Diana Wagman is Today's Nook Daily Find

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets by Diana Wagman as today's Nook Daily Find.

The deal price of $2.99 is valid only for today, Saturday, April 05, 2014.

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

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The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets
Diana Wagman
A Novel of Psychological Suspense
Ig Publishing

Winnie Parker, mother to an angst-ridden teenage daughter and ex-wife to a successful game show host who left her for a twenty-something contestant, begins a normal day in her hum-drum existence by dropping her car off at the repair shop. After accepting what she believes is a ride to pick up her rental car, Winnie realizes too late that she's been kidnapped.

What follows is a riveting psychological game of cat and mouse set in the kidnapper's tropically heated house — kept that way for Cookie, a menacing seven-foot long Iguana headquartered in the kitchen. While desperately seeking to escape — which leads to several violent clashes with her increasingly unstable kidnapper — Winnie also tries to understand why she was taken captive. Is her kidnapper merely seeking a ransom or does he have something more sinister in mind? Does he know that Winnie's mother is an Oscar-winning actress? Or did he connect her with Jonathan, her famous ex-husband?

When the truth reveals itself, Winnie is not only forced to fight for her life, but must also protect the lives of those she loves from the kidnapper's deranged master plan.

    

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

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 (140405)

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

• The New Release is Riddles of Fate: Into Oblivion.

• The Daily Deal is Strange Cases: The Faces of Vengeance, just $2.99 today only!

• The current Catch of the Week is Botanica: Into the Unknown, just $2.99 through Sunday, April 07, 2014 only.

• Today's Special Deal — April Showers Sale! All Games Are 60% Off this weekend only! Use coupon code JUMPER at check-out to purchase any Standard Edition game for $3.99 or use coupon code PUDDLE for Collector's Edition games at just $7.99. Offer valid through April 6th, 2014 only until 11:59 PM PT.

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

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The New Release today is Riddles of Fate: Into Oblivion

The kingdom of Riddlestone was renowned for its virtues and arts, but ever since the seven deadly sins came to town, the people's hearts have turned to darkness. Their rioting has plunged the city into chaos. Even the royal family is not above the suffering. The king is ill, his sons are behaving strangely, and his daughter has disappeared. The Queen has heard of your reputation and summoned you to help. Will you return Riddlestone to its former glory, or it will be swallowed forever by the darkness? Find out in this exciting hidden-object puzzle adventure!

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

Also available for this game:

• Get the Strategy Guide
• Check out the Blog Walkthrough
• For a more in-depth experience, see the Collector's Edition

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Today's Daily Deal is Strange Cases: The Faces of Vengeance

FBI Agent Claire Ellery is grasping for any clue she can find about her missing ward, Anna. Strange tarot cards were found at the sight of her abduction, but the kidnapper has remained strangely silent, until an unmarked envelope arrives addressed to her. The clues will lead her straight to the heart of the criminal’s hideout, in the abandoned Mercury Shopping Mall. Unfortunately for Claire, this masked kidnapper is always one step ahead, watching her every move. Who is he, and why did he kidnap Anna? Navigate the corridors of his deadly traps in this thrilling Hidden-Object Puzzle Adventure game!

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game today only — Saturday, April 05, 2014 — for $2.99.

Also available for this game:

• Get the Strategy Guide.
• Check out the Blog Walkthrough.

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The current Catch of the Week is Botanica: Into the Unknown

You are Dr. Ellie Wright, a botanist stranded on a strange planet called Botanica. Full of curious creatures and exotic landscapes, Botanica is like nothing you've ever seen! Test your wits as you navigate through lush forests, steampunk villages, and more. But danger lurks at every corner; make both friends and enemies as you try to outsmart the cunning Queen Kassandra. Can you survive Botanica and find your way back home?

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, April 07, 2014.

Also available for this game:

• Get the Strategy Guide.
• Check out the Blog Walkthrough.
• For a more in-depth experience, see the Collector's Edition.

Review: Murder on the Santa Special by N. M. Scott

A Mysterious Review of Murder on the Santa Special by N. M. Scott.

Review summary: This is a short mystery, where a local resident believes a crime has been committed after the police officially close the case as being not suspicious. Written in brief chapters, this quirky, fast-paced story with a colorful cast of characters is light, enjoyable reading. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Murder on the Santa Special
N. M. Scott
Book Guild (March 2014)

Publisher synopsis: The sleepy village of Bramley is deep in decline: the school, cottage hospital and local post-office are threatened with closure, and the Bramley Cross and Brocklehurst Preserved Steam Railway is in desperate need of repair and extension if it is to survive.

When a benefactor in the shape of an obscenely wealthy Russian oligarch begins to transform the fortunes of the village, tongues wag about the provenance of his village-saving cash — is he Mafia or self-made millionaire? Concerns abate with the transformation of the Post Office, a new maternity unit for the hospital and a completely revamped railway museum — featuring Stalin's famous armoured carriage.

But the sudden death of a passenger on the train line's popular Santa Special forces one canny villager to investigate. Elderly Miss Parrish has a sharp mind and a fearless determination, but is she really prepared for what she discovers?

        

Honeymoon To Die For, A Slye Temp Novel of Romantic Suspense by Dianna Love, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Honeymoon To Die For by Dianna Love, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Silver Hawk Press.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $0.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (04/04/2014 at 5:00 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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Honeymoon To Die For by Dianna Love
A Slye Temp Novel of Romantic Suspense (3rd in series)
Publisher: Silver Hawk Press

She's convinced he's guilty. He knows he's not. Can they survive long enough to prove who's right?

Former Slye Temp agent Ryder Van Dyke is stuck in an Atlanta penitentiary facing the death penalty after being framed for murder. When his last hope for freedom disintegrates, Ryder is offered a commuted sentence — if he helps the FBI nail a deadly criminal … his father. But Ryder has his own plan to use this opportunity to prove his innocence, or tap his Special Forces skills to disappear because he is not going back in that cage.

FBI analyst Bianca Brady spent two long years substantiating that the head of Van Dyke Enterprises is guilty of funneling weapons to terrorists. Now all she needs is the proof. When her research leads to a potential murder conviction for Ryder Van Dyke, Bianca sees a clear path to take down Ryder's father and to gain justice for her best friend who died at the hands of a terrorist.

Bianca's the last person Ryder will trust after she led the charge to put him in prison, but when Ryder accepts the FBI offer there's only one way to get an agent inside his father's high-security family compound — as Ryder's legal wife. The unlikely pair must navigate a minefield of deadly secrets, threats to national security, and a killer with a vendetta, to stay alive until they uncover the truth. But when Bianca becomes the killer's next target, Ryder is forced to make a choice — give up his freedom or risk the life of the woman who's stolen his heart.

  

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.

A New MystereBook: Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay

Here is a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during April 2014 priced $4.99 or less …

Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay is from the golden age of British crime fiction, and set an an Oxford women's college.

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Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay
A Murder Mystery
Publisher: British Library Publishing
Publication Date: April 02, 2014
Price: $3.99 (as of 04/04/14 04:30 PM ET)

For Miss Cordell, principal of Persephone College, there are two great evils to be feared: unladylike behaviour among her students, and bad publicity for the college. So her prim and cosy world is turned upside down when a secret society of undergraduates meets by the river on a gloomy January afternoon, only to find the drowned body of the college bursar floating in her canoe.

The police assume that a student prank got out of hand, but the resourceful Persephone girls suspect foul play, and take the investigation into their own hands. Soon they uncover the tangled secrets that led to the bursar’s death — and the clues that point to a fellow student.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for the price indicated on the date and time as shown. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

A Kindle Mystery for $1.99: Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes, A Darryl Billups Mystery by Blair S. Walker

Amazon is offering 80 Kindle Books for $1.99 has part of a promotion that extends until April 16th, 2014.

Most of these 80 books are mystery, thriller or suspense titles, and we are pleased to feature one of them, below.

(Price verified on April 04, 2014 as of 4:00 PM ET.)

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Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes by Blair S. Walker
A Darryl Billups Mystery (3rd in series)
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

In what just may be his biggest story yet, newspaper reporter Darryl Billups is called to cover a multiple homicide at a Baltimore storage facility. Authorities suspect the carnage is somehow linked to the contents of storage unit 25, where a young woman's mummified body — clad in bloodstained lingerie and opulent platinum-and-diamond jewelry — was recently discovered. The fact that someone was willing to risk the lives of five innocent people following the corpse's discovery tells Darryl that he's on to something big — and that's before the body mysteriously disappears from the medical examiner's office.

Determined to find the truth, he joins forces with a hard-nosed female detective. Together they uncover a decades-old rivalry that reaches the highest levels of Baltimore politics.

  

Death on Eat Street by J. J. Cook, a New 1st in Series Mystery Introducing Zoe Chase

We are pleased to present you with one of this month's new 1st in Series mysteries: Death on Eat Street by J. J. Cook and introducing Zoe Chase.

What we know about the character: Zoe Chase always wanted to own her own restaurant — but first, she'll have to serve up a heaping helping of meals on wheels, with a side of mystery.

For more information about her first murder, see a synopsis of the book, below.

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Death on Eat Street by J. J. Cook
Series: A Zoe Chase, Biscuit Bowl Food Truck Mystery
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Format(s): Mass Market Paperback, eBook

J. J. Cook is a pen name used by Joyce and Jim Lavene.

When she's once again passed over for a promotion at work, Zoe decides to take the big leap and go for her dream. She quits, gives up her fancy digs, and buys a fixer-upper diner in a shady part of town. To keep above water during the renovation, she buys a used food truck to serve the downtown and waterfront of Mobile, Alabama.

Zoe starts to dish out classic Southern food — but her specialty is her deep-fried biscuit bowls that blow traditional bread bowls away.

After a promising start, things start to go downhill faster than a food truck without brakes. First, someone tries to rob the cash register. Next, Zoe is threatened by the owner of a competing food truck for taking their spot. And when the owner ends up dead inside Zoe's rolling restaurant, Zoe and her sole employee, Ollie, find themselves hopping out of the frying pan into the fryer. They need to find the real killer, before both of them get burned.

        

Open Road Mysteries for $1.99: Red Hook, A Jack Leightner Mystery by Gabriel Cohen

Open Road has discounted 25 titles to just $1.99 as part of their Mystery Deals promotion to celebrate the Edgar Awards.

Titles include winners, nominees, books by Grand Masters and those receiving special Edgars, and we are pleased to feature one of them, below.

(Price verified on April 04, 2014 as of 3:00 PM ET.)

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Red Hook by Gabriel Cohen
A Jack Leightner Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Open Road

A Brooklyn homicide detective investigates a perplexing murder in dangerous terrain: the rundown neighborhood of his youth …

Unlike the other members of the elite Brooklyn South Homicide Task Force, Detective Jack Leightner prefers his murders baffling. He likes to lose himself in tough cases, and he has just caught a murder that will consume him like no other: an unidentified body, bound execution style, on the banks of the Gowanus Canal. Leightner is finishing his first look at the corpse when he discovers a knife wound and loses his lunch. He has seen a thousand dead bodies, but nothing brings back bad memories like death by knife.

The victim was a hardworking Dominican man with a family, a job, and no ties to the underworld. Investigating this murder will suck Leightner back into Red Hook, the neighborhood of his youth — now a labyrinth of empty docks and crumbling housing projects. It's a tough case, but not half as hard as going home.

  

Deadly Echoes by Philip Donlay, New in Bookstores in April 2014

Today's new hardcover mystery title, scheduled to be published during April 2014 by Oceanview Publishing, is Deadly Echoes by Philip Donlay.

For a list of more new hardcover mysteries published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for April 2014. For new paperback mysteries, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of April 2014 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.

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Deadly Echoes
Philip Donlay
Series: Donovan Nash (4th)

Donovan Nash is a man under siege, and this time it's personal. Eco-Watch, the premier scientific research organization he founded, is being blamed for a series of violent eco-atrocities that ignite protests around the world. Behind the attacks is Garrick Pearce, a man from Donovan's past, who is bent on a ruthless vendetta. Garrick has promised that after he annihilates Eco-Watch, he'll murder everyone close to Nash. Recoiling from the damage, Donovan enlists the help of Erica, a woman who claims she has information Donovan needs, but her knowledge makes her a marked woman. Running from trained killers, the FBI and even his own organization, Donovan races from southern California to British Columbia, then finally to Alaska where he joins Eco-Watch personnel and desperately tries to stop what promises to be the worst eco-atrocity in history.

With his world in tatters and everything he built seemingly destroyed, Donovan is forced to make one last desperate gamble to stop Garrick and silence the man forever-a roll of the dice that may very well cost Nash his life.

        

A Kindle Mystery for $1.99: Young Junius, A Crime Thriller by Seth Harwood

Amazon is offering 80 Kindle Books for $1.99 has part of a promotion that extends until April 16th, 2014.

Most of these 80 books are mystery, thriller or suspense titles, and we are pleased to feature one of them, below.

(Price verified on April 04, 2014 as of 2:00 PM ET.)

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Young Junius by Seth Harwood
A Crime Thriller
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Fourteen-year-old Junius Posey pushes weed for a small-time neighborhood dealer — a low rung on the ladder of the gangster life surrounding him. But when his older brother is shot dead, Junius grips a gun for the first time and starts climbing.

Flanked by his best friend, Junius sets his sights on the Rindge Towers, a low-income high-rise looming over the cold streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts — and lorded over by rival drug kingpins. When one of the Towers' men draws down on him, Junius is forced to rack up his first kill — and face the hell that breaks loose.

Now, with a vicious, crack-addicted enforcer bent on paying Junius back in lead, even his mother thinks his best play is to skip town and lie low … maybe forever.

  

Bad Karma in the Big Easy, An Andy Broussard/Kit Franklyn Mystery by D. J. Donaldson, at a Special Price during April 2014

Every month Amazon releases a new selection of Kindle books priced $3.99 or less.

Today's featured title from the Mystery & Thrillers category is Bad Karma in the Big Easy by D. J. Donaldson. This Kindle book was listed at $0.99 as of the date and time of this post, Friday, April 04, 2014 at 1:30 PM ET, and should be available at this price through the end of the month.

More information about the book is below; if other vendors have priced-matched this title, links to their sites are also shown.

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Bad Karma in the Big Easy by D. J. Donaldson
An Andy Broussard/Kit Franklyn Mystery (7th in series)
Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions

Andy Broussard, the plump and proud New Orleans medical examiner, obviously loves food. Less apparent to the casual observer is his hatred of murderers. Together with his gorgeous sidekick, psychologist Kit Franklyn, the two make a powerful, although improbable, mystery-solving duo.

Among the dead collected in The Big Easy floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina are three nude female bodies, all caught in the same brush tangle, none with water in their lungs. Broussard knows in his ample gut that this was not an act of God, and not the work of Katrina. But Broussard has perhaps the biggest challenge of his colorful career.

The city and all its records are destroyed, practically the entire population is scattered, the police force has no offices, and many of the rank and file (who haven't defected) are homeless. Soon, Broussard and his sidekick are on a dangerous journey through the obscenely damaged city, leading them to a kind of evil that neither of them could imagine.

  

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.

The House of Silk, A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Mulholland Books.

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 (04/04/2014 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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The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
A Sherlock Holmes Novel
Publisher: Mulholland Books

Once again, the game's afoot …

London, 1890. 221B Baker St. A fine art dealer named Edmund Carstairs visits Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson to beg for their help. He is being menaced by a strange man in a flat cap — a wanted criminal who seems to have followed him all the way from America. In the days that follow, his home is robbed, his family is threatened. And then the first murder takes place.

Almost unwillingly, Holmes and Watson find themselves being drawn ever deeper into an international conspiracy connected to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston, the gaslit streets of London, opium dens and much, much more. And as they dig, they begin to hear the whispered phrase — the House of Silk — a mysterious entity that connects the highest levels of government to the deepest depths of criminality. Holmes begins to fear that he has uncovered a conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of society.

  

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.

A New MystereBook: Murder Crossed by Eleanor Boylan

Here is a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during April 2014 priced $4.99 or less …

Murder Crossed by Eleanor Boylan is the fifth and final mystery in this series featuring Clara Gamadge, the widow of Henry Gamadge, a character created by Elizabeth Daly. Eleanor Boylan, who died in 2007, was Daly's niece. This is its first appearance as an ebook.

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Murder Crossed by Eleanor Boylan
A Clara Gamadge Mystery
Publisher: Open Road
Publication Date: April 01, 2014
Price: $3.99 (as of 04/04/14 12:30 PM ET)

It's been a long time since Clara Gamadge's school days, but forever young at heart she still has close ties to the old gang and her alma mater, Wolcott Academy. Springtime on campus is usually a time of winding down and wrapping up until suddenly murder and suspense are the only subjects on anyone's mind. Usually when Clara receives a note from Louise Littleton, Wolcott's youthful and sprightly headmistress, it's just to keep in touch, but this time it concerns mysterious circumstances.

Margo Llewelyn, formerly an Academy charity student, now a movie star of former and fading glory, has arrived at Wolcott's doorsteps in desperate straits. In a panic, she begs Louise to accept her three little girls as boarding students so she can immediately get out of the country. Louise has encountered parents anxious to part with their children before but this seemed especially odd.

When a dead body breaks up commencement ceremonies it's time for Clara Gamadge to put the pieces together. What misfortune had caused Margo's shining star to sink so low? Would more blood tarnish Wolcott's ivy-covered walls?

Only a super sleuth like Clara could sift through the avarice, the malice and the motives to solve a murder like this and save the good name of her beloved Wolcott Academy too.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for the price indicated on the date and time as shown. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

New Trailer for the Crime Drama The Drop

A new trailer has been released by FoxSearchlight for the crime drama The Drop (embedded, below).

The storyline follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) through a covert scheme of funneling cash to local gangsters — "money drops" — in the underworld of Brooklyn bars. Under the heavy hand of his employer and cousin Marv (James Gandolfini), Bob finds himself at the center of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighborhood's past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living — no matter the cost.

Directed by Michaël R. Roskam from an original screenplay by crime novelist Dennis Lehane, The Drop opens in theaters September 19, 2014.

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