The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron, New in Bookstores during July 2014

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

The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron

The Mike Bowditch Series (5th)

Publisher: Minotaur 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 …

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Mike Bowditch has left the Maine Warden Service and is working as a fishing guide in the North Woods. But when his mentor Sgt. Kathy Frost is forced to kill a troubled war veteran in an apparent case of "suicide by cop", he begins having second thoughts about his decision.

Now Kathy finds herself the target of a government inquiry and outrage from the dead soldier's platoon mates. Soon she finds herself in the sights of a sniper, as well. When the sergeant is shot outside her farmhouse, Mike joins the hunt to find the mysterious man responsible. To do so, the ex-warden must plunge into his friend's secret past — even as a beautiful woman from Mike's own past returns, throwing into jeopardy his tentative romance with wildlife biologist Stacey Stevens.

As Kathy Frost lies on the brink of death and a dangerous shooter stalks the blueberry barrens of central Maine, Bowditch is forced to confront the choices he has made and determine, once and for all, the kind of man he truly is.

— The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron

Critical Diagnosis by Alison Stone, New from Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense in July 2014

Omnimystery News is pleased to introduce a new mystery, suspense, or thriller title from Harlequin, published this month …

Critical Diagnosis by Alison Stone

Imprint: Love Inspired Suspense

  

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

Researcher Dr. Lily McAllister has dedicated her life to finding a cure for a family disease and now, steps away from a promising new treatment, Lily is attacked. Only the training of army physician James O'Reilly can save her. As the would-be CEO of his family's pharmaceutical company, James's secret dream is to reenlist. But he can't leave Lily with a bull's-eye on her back. Nor can he stay and stop her from pursuing her goal. No one can, including the stalker who shadows her every move. Still, James has lost too many people he's loved — and this time he refuses to lose Lily.

— Critical Diagnosis by Alison Stone

Hard As You Can, A Hard Ink Novel of Romantic Suspense by Laura Kaye, 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, Avon Books …

Hard As You Can by Laura Kaye

A Hard Ink Novel of Romantic Suspense (2nd in series)

Publisher: Avon Books

Price: $1.99 (as of 07/19/2014 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.

Ever since hard-bodied, drop-dead-charming Shane McCallan strolled into the dance club where Crystal Dean works, he's shown a knack for getting beneath her defenses. For her little sister's sake, Crystal can't get too close. Until her job and Shane's mission intersect, and he reveals talents that go deeper than she could have guessed.

Shane would never turn his back on a friend in need, especially a former Special Forces teammate running a dangerous, off-the-books operation. Nor can he walk away from Crystal. The gorgeous waitress is hiding secrets she doesn't want him to uncover. Too bad. He's exactly the man she needs to protect her sister, her life, and her heart. All he has to do is convince her that when something feels this good, you hold on as hard as you can — and never let go.

— Hard As You Can by Laura Kaye

Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending July 19, 2014

A list of the top 15 Mystery Hardcover Bestsellers for the week ending July 19th, 2014 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Last week's top ten titles remain on the list, with The Silkworm, the second Cormoran Strike mystery by J. K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, staying in the top spot.

But numbers 11 through 15 dropped off the list, replaced with five new titles; debut position in [brackets].

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[7]: The Book of Life
Deborah Harkness
— The All Souls Trilogy Series (3rd)

After traveling through time, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew's ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches — with one significant exception.

But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

Purchase Options

          

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[8]: The Heist
Daniel Silva
— The Gabriel Allon Series (14th)

Legendary spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon is at work in Venice repairing an altarpiece when he receives an urgent summons from the Italian police. The art dealer Julian Isherwood has stumbled upon a murder scene in Lake Como, and is being held as a suspect. To save his friend, Gabriel must perform one simple task: Find the most famous missing painting in the world.

Sometimes the best way to find a stolen masterpiece is to steal another one … The dead man is a fallen spy with a secret: he has been trafficking in stolen artworks and selling them to a mysterious collector. Among those paintings is the world's most iconic missing masterpiece: Caravaggio's Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence.

Gabriel embarks on a daring gambit to recover the Caravaggio that will take him on an exhilarating hunt — from Marseilles and Corsica, to Paris and Geneva, and, finally, to a small private bank in Austria, where a dangerous man stands guard over the ill-gotten wealth of one of the world's most brutal dictators …

Purchase Options

          

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[12]: Cut and Thrust
Stuart Woods
— The Stone Barrington Series (30th)

When Stone Barrington travels to Los Angeles for the biggest political convention of the year, he finds the scene quite shaken up: a dazzling newcomer — and close friend of Stone's — has given the delegates an unexpected choice, crucial alliances are made and broken behind closed doors, and it seems that more than one seat may be up for grabs. And amid the ambitious schemers and hangers-on are a few people who may use the chaotic events as cover for more sinister plans.

In this milieu of glad-handing and backroom deals, only the canniest player can come out on top … and it will take all of Stone's discretion and powers of persuasion to arrange a desirable outcome.

Purchase Options

          

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[13]: Wayfaring Stranger
James Lee Burke
— Non-Series

In 1934, sixteen-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends with Weldon firing a gun and being unsure whether it hit its mark.

Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland barely survives the Battle of the Bulge, in the process saving the lives of his sergeant, Hershel Pine, and a young Spanish prisoner of war, Rosita Lowenstein — a woman who holds the same romantic power over him as the strawberry blonde Bonnie Parker, and is equally mysterious. The three return to Texas where Weldon and Hershel get in on the ground floor of the nascent oil business.

In just a few years' time Weldon will spar with the jackals of the industry, rub shoulders with dangerous men, and win and lose fortunes twice over. But it is the prospect of losing his one true love that will spur his most reckless, courageous act yet — one that takes its inspiration from that encounter long ago with the outlaws of his youth.

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[15]: Shots Fired
C. J. Box
— The Stories from Joe Pickett Country

Ten riveting stories — three of them never before published …

In "One-Car Bridge," one of four Joe Pickett stories, Pickett goes up against a "just plain mean" landowner, with disastrous results, and in "Shots Fired," his investigation into the radio call referred to in the title nearly ends up being the last thing he ever does. In "Pirates of Yellowstone," two Eastern European tough guys find out what it means to be strangers in a strange land, and in "Le Sauvage Noble," the stranger is a Lakota in Paris who enjoys playing the "noble savage" for the French women — until he meets Sophie. Then he discovers what "savage" really means.

Purchase Options

          

Please Welcome Mystery Author Linda Townsdin

with Linda Townsdin

We are delighted to welcome mystery author Linda Townsdin to Omnimystery News today.

Linda introduces Britt Johansson, a kickass photojournalist with a big heart and bad social skills, who follows a coed's murder to the wilds of the US/Canadian border and lands in the crosshairs of an international crime ring, in Focused on Murder (CreateSpace; February 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats).

We asked Linda to tell us a little more about her new series character.

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Photo provided courtesy of
Linda Townsdin

I enjoy reading mysteries set in small communities, and I'm drawn to stories that take place in northern climates, with unpredictable weather and people. I wanted to create my own story world and now that I've done it, I love it, and have two more in the Spirit Lake series nearly ready to publish. I don't like to categorize, but Focused on Murder is a suspenseful traditional mystery.

My story ideas are based on a social issue that haunts me, and then I have a rough idea of what's going to happen. But I never know which new characters will pop up, or what twists and turns are coming, and that discovery is the most fun.

I expected that to happen, but what I didn't expect was how creating this protagonist would change me. When I first imagined Britt, I thought I was creating someone almost the opposite of me. She's 34, tall and athletic, a tough photojournalist willing to make people uncomfortable to get her photos, blurts out whatever she's feeling or thinking, and doesn't like to delve too deeply into her own psyche.

I would have made a terrible journalist because I would hate to ask hard questions and put people on the spot. I'm deliberate where's she's spontaneous, and I'm a ruminator. And yet, I wonder if there isn't a shadow side of me that harbors some of those characteristics. Why do writers choose a certain type of protagonist and subject matter?

In addition to following the murder of a local coed, and getting involved in a dangerous high-stakes crime that requires every ounce of her strength and skill to make it out alive, at the core of my story is Britt's decision whether to stay in Spirit Lake or go.

I've moved quite a bit in my life — my grandmother used to say I had wandering feet. I don't wander that much anymore, but the desire is still there, and I continue to feel the loss that happens when you give up one thing to get something else.

So I created a character who longs to go and longs to stay and through following her adventures, I get to explore some of my own feelings about what that conflict has meant to my own life.

And, since writing about Britt, I've become much more physically active, and I take more risks. Not Britt's kind of risks, but the kind that build confidence in small ways every day. Is there a connection? Has my inspiration inspired me? I hope so. I look forward to how else Britt might inspire me in her next adventure.

[Thanks to Donald Maass, WriterUnboxed.com, for his thoughtful blog post on April 2nd, 2014 that prompted me to think about why I chose certain characteristics for Britt Johansson.]

— ♦ —

Linda Townsdin worked for years in communications for nonprofit and corporate organizations, most recently as writer/editor for a national criminal justice consortium. Her work included editorial and marketing assistance in projects involving cybercrime, tribal justice and other public safety issues. Her short fiction has been published in several anthologies, including the 2013 Capitol Crimes Anthology. She lives in California with her husband, and wouldn't trade her childhood in Northern Minnesota for anything.

For more information about the author, please visit her website at LindaTownsdin.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

— ♦ —

Focused on Murder
Linda Townsdin
A Spirit Lake Mystery

Britt Johansson is a former Pulitzer prize-winning LA Times photographer whose reckless behavior nearly ended her career. She gets a chance to redeem herself when she's working in Northern Minnesota and stumbles across an international crime ring that ultimately pits her and her brother against a psychopathic killer.

Her hometown of Spirit Lake is a perfect location for all kinds of dirty deeds: easy entry points along the vast wilderness of the US/Canadian border, an Indian reservation that's off limits to most law enforcement, and a dangerously mistaken perception that nothing happens in small towns.

        

The Hunt by William Diehl is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

The Hunt by William Diehl

A Suspense Thriller

Publisher: AEI/Story Merchant Books

… as today's fourth free mystery ebook. This is a repeat freebie that was last featured on our site on July 29, 2012.

  

This title was listed for free as of July 19, 2014 at 7:30 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.

This thriller was originally titled 27 when first published by Villard in 1990.

As the world trembles with the approach of World War II, a woman dies at the hands of Hitler's henchmen. Her murder forever changes her lover, Francis Scott Keegan, a relentless anti-Nazi mercenary, who becomes locked in a desperate cat-and-mouse game with the Third Reich's perfect spy, a man of a thousand faces.

In an arena that encompasses presidents and gangsters, spies and sirens, the deadly present and the dark past, Keegan pursues his elusive quarry into the cutting edge of world events—and into the secret inner workings of a terrifying mission known only as "27".

— The Hunt by William Diehl

Damage Control by Renee Benzaim is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Damage Control by Renee Benzaim

An Annie Avants Mystery

Publisher: Renee Benzaim

… as today's third free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of July 19, 2014 at 7:20 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 crime victim is a local, well-respected attorney who has gone missing. There's not much criminal evidence to go on. His car was found an hours drive out of Bakersfield with blood on the passenger seat. No body has been found. His staff is in a quandary. He had a new trial scheduled to begin the next morning. Everything was set to go. And then, he just disappeared.

A mysterious package left in the restroom of the Kern County Courthouse leads our detectives to believe that the attorney is dead. And now … another person has gone missing!

Will Detectives Annie Avants and Tom Weston find the answers before a media frenzy erupts in the Kern County/Bakersfield area? Will an FBI profiler be called in to help? Will they come to understand the kinds of criminal minds that lead someone to be a serial killer and narrow the list of suspects?

— Damage Control by Renee Benzaim

Ring of Murder by Joe Hill is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Ring of Murder by Joe Hill

A Harry Strong Crime Novel

Publisher: Origin Books

… as today's second free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of July 19, 2014 at 7:10 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.

Connie Garcia, a rival private detective, pays Harry a seemingly innocent visit. Connie has to leave town in a hurry and offers Harry an urgent case which will ultimately hurl the PI headlong into a deadly ring of cold-blooded crime and blackmail. Harry is immersed in a series of events that leads him along a lethal trail of fiery death and a brutal double-murder.

As the plot unfolds, Harry’s life is at risk every step of the way as he follows the clues that ultimately draw him and his assistant Samantha ever deeper and closer to personal danger. They are faced not only with trying to survive a deadly and ruthless enemy, but must also finally confront their feelings for each other.

— Ring of Murder by Joe Hill