Third Degree by Greg Iles is Today's Kobo Daily Deal

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature Third Degree by Greg Iles as today's Kobo Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Saturday, July 05, 2014, and has been price-matched by Amazon.com.

Third Degree by Greg Iles

A Suspense Thriller

Publisher: Scribner

Price: $1.99 (as of 07/05/2014 at 6:15 AM ET).

    

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

Laurel Shields, thirty-five and mother of two, awakens to find that her husband, Warren, a prominent local physician, is not in bed with her. Creeping out to the kitchen of their palatial home, she sees him through the doorway of his study, wildly pulling books from the shelves. Two weeks earlier, Warren and his partner were informed by the IRS that their medical practice was being audited; since then the stress on Dr. Shields has steadily ratcheted up.

But Laurel has problems of her own. Quickly returning to the bedroom, she locks herself in the master bath, opens a home pregnancy testing kit, and fearfully tests herself. PREGNANT, announces the digital readout. Laurel closes her eyes as though absorbing news of a death, then quickly hides the evidence. She is not sure who the father is. Summoning all her strength, she walks into the kitchen to carry out the acting performance of her life.

Later that morning, Laurel returns home and is surprised to find her husband's car still parked in the driveway. The house has a strange stillness to it. In the den, she finds Warren sitting on the sofa in the same clothes he wore the previous day. His face is pale and unshaven, his eyes hollow with fear. Then, in come the children, innocent of it all …

So begins the most terrifying day in the history of a marriage, one that in less than five hours will make the Shields house the vortex of a nerve-wracking siege. While a nervous ring of armed men awaits its chance to storm the suburban home, inside the house the clock ticks down on exposure of Laurel's terrible secret. But she is not alone in her lies. Before the siege is through, this terrifying drama will pull in desperate characters from the town and drive Dr. Shields, his wife, and her lover to the very brink of sanity and survival.

— Third Degree by Greg Iles

Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (140705)

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

• The New Release is Shadow Wolf Mysteries: Under the Crimson Moon.

• The Daily Deal is Living Legends: Frozen Beauty, just $2.99 today only!

• The current Catch of the Week is The Beast of Lycan Isle, just $2.99 through Sunday, July 06, 2014 only.

• Today's Special Deal — 4th of July Sale: All games are Two for the Price of One! Use coupon code STARS for Collector's Edition games and use coupon code STRIPES for Standard games. Offer valid through July 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 Shadow Wolf Mysteries: Under the Crimson Moon

A blood moon has risen over a rural village in Southern France. Wild wolves are attacking the citizens at night as accusations fly about townsfolk turning into werewolves. Is Martha Patio really a werewolf, or has she been falsely accused to cover up another person's secrets? Examine crime scenes to gather evidence and discover who is leaving strange coins on the victims and why. Your keen observation skills will help you uncover the liars, but be careful who you trust in this small town, or you'll become the next victim!

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 Living Legends: Frozen Beauty

The Queen has chosen your sister as her successor, but are her promises too good to be true? You were only six when your mother vanished, leaving you to care for your younger sister, Elizabeth. After she receives an invitation naming her as the Queen's successor, she pleads with you to join her in her new royal life. All she has to do is pass a simple test to prove her worth. Is this too good to be true, or is your luck finally changing? There are many secrets awaiting you in the Queen's castle, but the biggest dangers lie beneath the icy mountain passes in this chilling Hidden-Object Adventure game.

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

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.

— ♦ —

The current Catch of the Week is The Beast of Lycan Isle

Luna has been summoned by Tara, her best friend, to an ancient village on a remote island. Tara needs Luna's expertise on a newly unearthed artifact that might prove the existence of the legendary cult of the Madra Alta or Wolf Man. But when she arrives the locals are acting very strangely, her friend has disappeared, and terrible clues reveal a situation beyond her worst nightmare. She must rely on her fearless wit and trusted allies to find her friend. She must dig deep into the instincts and courage of her own inner animal to defeat the Wolf King himself.

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, July 06, 2014.

Also available for this game:

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

Kilt Dead, A Liss MacCrimmon Mystery by Kaitlyn Dunnett, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Kensington …

Kilt Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett

A Liss MacCrimmon Mystery (1st in series)

Publisher: Kensington

Price: $1.99 (as of 07/04/2014 at 5:30 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

As a professional Scottish dancer, Liss MacCrimmon has performed strathsprays and reels, jigs and Highland flings until a knee injury cuts her career short. Returning to her hometown of Moosetookalook, Maine, she decides to help her aunt run her Scottish emporium.

Liss hasn't been in Moosetookalook in over ten years, but the quaint little town, nestled in the hilly terrain of western Maine, looks exactly as she remembers it. But then her bliss soon turns to dread when she finds the dead body of her aunt's nosy neighbor, Amanda Norris, under a bolt of Flower of Scotland fabric in the stock room. And if things weren't bad enough, the state police hone in on Liss as the prime suspect.

Now Liss will have to do some fancy footwork to prove she's innocent while avoiding becoming the killer's next victim.

— Kilt Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett

Review: Jack of Spies by David Downing

A Mysterious Review of Jack of Spies by David Downing. A Jack McColl Novel.

Review summary: This first in series novel has a terrific premise and takes place at a fascinating period of time, yet it dwells far too much on setting the stage for the action to come than the action itself by excessively detailing every building, street, and alleyway, which comes across as more distracting than descriptive. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Jack of Spies
David Downing
A Jack McColl Novel
Soho Press (May 2014)

Publisher synopsis: It is 1913, and those who follow the news closely can see the world is teetering on the brink of war. Jack McColl, a Scottish car salesman with an uncanny ear for languages, has always hoped to make a job for himself as a spy. As his sales calls take him from city to great city — Hong Kong to Shanghai to San Francisco to New York — he moonlights collecting intelligence for His Majesty's Navy, but British espionage is in its infancy and Jack has nothing but a shoestring budget and the very tenuous protection of a boss in far-away London. He knows, though, that a geopolitical catastrophe is brewing, and now is both the moment to prove himself and the moment his country needs him most.

Unfortunately, this is also the moment he begins to realize what his aspiration might cost him. He understands his life is at stake when activities in China suddenly escalate from innocent data-gathering and casual strolls along German military concessions to arrest warrants and knife attacks. Meanwhile, a sharp, vivacious American suffragette journalist has wiled her way deep into his affections, and it is not long before he realizes that her Irish-American family might be embroiled in the Irish Republican movement Jack's bosses are fighting against. How can he choose between his country and the woman he loves? And would he even be able to make such a choice without losing both?

        

A Killing in the Hills, A Bell Elkins Mystery by Julia Keller, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Minotaur Books …

A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller

A Bell Elkins Mystery (1st in series)

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Price: $2.99 (as of 07/04/2014 at 4:30 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

A mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it's too late …

What's happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was it connected to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas of the country just like Acker's Gap? Or were Dean Streeter, Shorty McClurg, and Lee Rader targeted somehow?

One of the witnesses to the brutal incident was Carla Elkins, teenaged daughter of Bell Elkins, the prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, WV. Carla was shocked and horrified by what she saw, but after a few days, she begins to recover enough to believe that she might be uniquely placed to help her mother do her job.

After all, what better way to repair their fragile, damaged relationship? But could Carla also end up doing more harm than good — in fact, putting her own life in danger?

— A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller

Termination Orders, A Dan Morgan Thriller by Leo J. Maloney, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Pinnacle Books …

Termination Orders by Leo J. Maloney

A Dan Morgan Thriller (1st in series)

Publisher: Pinnacle Books

Price: $1.99 (as of 07/04/2014 at 4:00 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

Once a trained killer for the CIA, Dan Morgan has built a new life for himself. But when he receives a desperate plea from his former Black Ops partner — reportedly killed in a foreign battle zone — he flies to help. It should be a routine mission, extracting a human asset from the region. But it's not routine; it's an ambush. Now Morgan is running for his life, holding crucial evidence. With his contacts dead and family in danger, Morgan must take on a full-scale conspiracy in the highest echelons of a vast global network that plays by its own rules — when it suits them.

For Dan Morgan, it's about to come to an end in Washington, D.C., on a national stage, in the crosshairs of a killer …

— Termination Orders by Leo J. Maloney

Killing You Softly by Lucy Carver, a New St. Jude's Academy Thriller

Omnimystery News is pleased to present in this post a new First Clues: Mysteries for Kids series title published this month …

Killing You Softly by Lucy Carver

Series: St. Jude's Academy

Publisher: Macmillan

Format(s): Paperback, eBook

Age Range: Apprentice Sleuths, Ages 13 and older

  

For more information about the book, see a synopsis, below.

After the tragic events of last term, Alyssa arrives back at St Jude's to a school full of freaked-out students. They are wary of her ability to remember every tiny thing they do, and Alyssa's beginning to feel lonely and ostracized. Then she gets an email, seemingly from a secret admirer. He teases her about her photographic memory and challenges her to prove how good it really is.

At first Alyssa is intrigued and likes showing off her talent, but as her admirer's challenges get darker and more extreme and there is a murder in the nearby town, she realizes she's in too deep. Now her memory might be the only thing that can help her understand the killer and save her from the same fate …

— Killing You Softly by Lucy Carver

Smoked Out, A Digger Novel by Warren Murphy, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Open Road …

Smoked Out by Warren Murphy

A Digger Novel (1st in series)

Publisher: Open Road

Price: $1.99 (as of 07/04/2014 at 3:00 PM ET).

There are four books in the Digger series; the first published in 1982. The series was temporarily renamed "Trace" when publishers were changed in 1983. The title character Julian "Digger" Burroughs became Devlin "Trace" Tracy. In these newly reissued versions from Open Road, the original name has been restored.

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

Digger is an insurance investigator who drinks, chases women, asks smartass questions and gets help from his part-time hooker girlfriend.

Digger crashes a funeral to find out if the death of a doctor’s wife was an accident … or murder.

— Smoked Out by Warren Murphy

Strangers by Bill Pronzini, New in Bookstores during July 2014

Today's featured new hardcover mystery, suspense, or thriller title scheduled to be published during July 2014 is …

Strangers by Bill Pronzini

The Nameless Detective Series (39th)

Publisher: Forge Books

        

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

More about our featured title, below …

Cody Hatcher is the kind of teenager you don't want your kids hanging with. That's the book on him and it's why the citizens of Mineral Springs have no problem at all believing that he's guilty of three rapes. His mother, Cheryl, an old lover of Nameless's, is also being harassed by vindictive townspeople. It's against such odds that he must work to prove Cody innocent. There are few to help him and plenty to get in his way.

It's a classic situation for an iconic private investigator.

— Strangers by Bill Pronzini

Some Enchanted Éclair by Bailey Cates, New on the Mystery Bookshelf during July 2014

New on the Mystery Bookshelf during July 2014 …

Some Enchanted Éclair by Bailey Cates

The Katie Lightfoot, Magical Bakery Series (4th)

Publisher: Signet

  

To see more new paperback titles scheduled to be published this month, visit The Mystery Bookshelf for July 2014. For new hardcover mysteries, visit New Mysteries where for a list of July 2014 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers is provided.

More about our featured title, below …

Flour power …

When Hollywood invades Savannah's historic district to film a Revolutionary War movie, magical baker Katie Lightfoot, and her witches' coven, the Spellbook Club, take a break from casting spells for casting calls. One of the witches snags a part as an extra, while Katie's firefighter boyfriend, Declan, acts as on-set security. Katie and her aunt Lucy decide to stay out of the action, but after the movie's "fixer" fires the caterer, the Honeybee Bakery comes to the rescue, working their magic to keep the hungry crew happy.

But when someone fixes the fixer — permanently — and a spooky psychic predicts Katie will find the killer, the charming baker and her fellow conjurers step in to sift through the suspects … before someone else winds up on the cutting room floor …

— Some Enchanted Éclair by Bailey Cates

Gideon's Corpse, A Gideon Crew Novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Grand Central …

Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

A Gideon Crew Novel (2nd in series)

Publisher: Grand Central

Price: $2.99 (as of 07/04/2014 at 1:00 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

A top nuclear scientist goes mad and takes an innocent family hostage at gunpoint, killing one and causing a massive standoff.

A plume of radiation above New York City leads to a warehouse where, it seems, a powerful nuclear bomb was assembled just hours before.

Sifting through the evidence, authorities determine that the unthinkable is about to happen: in ten days, a major American city will be vaporized by a terrorist attack.

Ten days. And Gideon Crew, tracking the mysterious terrorist cell from the suburbs of New York to the mountains of New Mexico, learns the end may be something worse — far worse — than mere Armageddon.

— Gideon's Corpse by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Sign Off, The Caught Dead in Wyoming Series by Patricia McLinn, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Bell Bridge Books …

Sign Off by Patricia McLinn

The Caught Dead in Wyoming Series (1st in series)

Publisher: Bell Bridge Books

Price: $0.99 (as of 07/04/2014 at 12:30 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

The last time anyone in Cottonwood County, Wyoming saw Sheriff's Deputy Foster Redus, he was bloody, cussing, and driving his pimped-out pickup into the November darkness. A week before Christmas, rancher Thomas David Burrell was arrested for the assault and charged with the deputy's murder, since neither Redus nor his truck had been seen since the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The prosecutor later set Burrell free due to insufficient evidence, but with the whole county still suspecting him of the crime, his ex-wife refused to let their daughter visit him anymore.

"You've got to prove my Daddy didn't kill anybody," second grader Tamantha Burrell tells KWMT-TV's consumer affairs reporter, New York transplant Elizabeth Daniher.

"Now wait a minute …" the startled journalist begins.

"You're the 'Helping Out' lady," Tamantha insists. "You have to help me."

Until a few months ago, Elizabeth "E.M." Daniher investigated high crimes and national cases. Now, a messy divorce from her network-TV-exec husband, combined with her no-longer-quite-perky-enough sex appeal, has banished her to Wyoming, where she has to fulfill the remainder of her contract. She handles the "Helping Out" segment at Sherman, Wyoming's only news station. Her latest assignment: assisting an elderly woman who wants her faulty toaster replaced.

But Tamantha needs her, and so Elizabeth goes back on the crime beat, trying to unravel the mystery of the missing deputy and track down a killer who intends to make sure she doesn't live to go Live At Five with the scoop.

— Sign Off by Patricia McLinn

Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending July 04, 2014

A list of the top 15 Mystery Hardcover Bestsellers for the week ending July 4th, 2014 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

A new number one this week: The Silkworm, the second Cormoran Strike mystery by J. K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith.

One new title enters the list; position in [brackets].

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[8]: The City
Dean Koontz
— Non-Series

Here is the riveting, soul-stirring story of Jonah Kirk, son of an exceptional singer, grandson of a formidable "piano man", a musical prodigy beginning to explore his own gifts when he crosses a group of extremely dangerous people, with shattering consequences. Set in a more innocent time not so long ago, The City encompasses a lifetime but unfolds over three extraordinary, heart-racing years of tribulation and triumph, in which Jonah first grasps the electrifying power of music and art, of enduring friendship, of everyday heroes.

The unforgettable saga of a young man coming of age within a remarkable family, and a shimmering portrait of the world that shaped him, The City is a novel that speaks to everyone, a dazzling realization of the evergreen dreams we all share. Brilliantly illumined by magic dark and light, it's a place where enchantment and malice entwine, courage and honor are found in the most unexpected quarters, and the way forward lies buried deep inside the heart.

Purchase Options

          

Venetian Mask by Michaela Thompson is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Venetian Mask by Michaela Thompson

An International Thriller

Publisher: booksbnimble

… as today's fourth free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of July 04, 2014 at 7:15 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

The surreal splendor of Venice glitters and mesmerizes as six so-called friends who, it turns out, barely know each other meet at Carnival to play a malignant game that quickly turns murderous. Sally, the "Tallahassee lassie" spurned by the rest as a virtual hayseed, is swept up by a mysterious count, attending masked balls, operas, and Carnival revels even as she mourns her marriage and dodges a deadly pursuer. "Things should happen at Carnival," says her unlikely protector, who resembles Harlequin in more than his costume. "If they go on just the same, there's no reason for Carnival at all." There's absolutely no chance of that in this psychological tour de force of surging identities wrestling to emerge in people forced by violence to confront their inner Harlequins and Medusas.

The characters change costumes, alter egos, sex partners (and preferences), and most of all, their stories while Carnival swirls around them, each more desperate by the hour to solve the murder, commit another, save a career, escape a past … whatever it is that Carnival, as much a character as the humans, seems to command them to do. The guignol grows ever grander, the danger more heightened as the clock ticks toward midnight on Fat Tuesday and Sally finds she has more enemies than she thought.

— Venetian Mask by Michaela Thompson

Fresh Doubt by Eva Hudson is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Fresh Doubt by Eva Hudson

An Ingrid Skyberg, FBI Thriller

Publisher: Eva Hudson

… as today's third free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of July 04, 2014 at 7:00 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

Brilliant American psychology student Madison Faber is in police custody — a potential murder suspect. Two hours ago she found her roommate lying in a pool of blood.

Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg is assigned to investigate the case on behalf of the US embassy. Tasked with supporting a terrified Madison Faber and uncovering the truth behind her friend's death, Ingrid quickly discovers a sinister extremist group operating out of Faber's London college.

Up against the obstructive attitude of the Metropolitan Police and defying the wishes of the embassy, Ingrid must navigate through a minefield of fear and mistrust to discover the killer's true identity. But in order to ensure justice is served, she is forced to operate so far beyond the law that she may never get back again.

— Fresh Doubt by Eva Hudson