New This Week: Bewitching Boots, A Jessie Morton, Renaissance Faire Mystery by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Omnimystery News is pleased to present 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 August 2014 and priced $4.99 or less …

Bewitching Boots by Joyce and Jim Lavene

A Jessie Morton, Renaissance Faire Mystery (8th in series)

Publisher: J. Lavene

Price: $4.99 (as of 08/04/2014 at 3:00 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.

Jessie Morton is thrilled when she finds Bill Warren, an old fashioned shoemaker, and he agrees to come back to Renaissance Faire Village with her. She's not so thrilled when claims to have elf magic, and he falls for Princess Isabelle. The dancing slippers Bill makes for Isabelle make him a suspect when the princess takes a leap from the castle terrace.

Now, Jessie must find the lady or lord who helped the princess with her last dance before she loses her star attraction.

— Bewitching Boots by Joyce and Jim Lavene

A Colder War by Charles Cumming, New in Bookstores during August 2014

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

A Colder War by Charles Cumming

The Thomas Kell Series (2nd)

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

        

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

More about our featured title, below …

A top-ranking Iranian military official is blown up while trying to defect to the West. An investigative journalist is arrested and imprisoned for writing an article critical of the Turkish government. An Iranian nuclear scientist is assassinated on the streets of Tehran. These three incidents, seemingly unrelated, have one crucial link. Each of the three had been recently recruited by Western intelligence, before being removed or killed.

Then Paul Wallinger, MI6's most senior agent in Turkey, dies in a puzzling plane crash. Fearing the worst, MI6 bypasses the usual protocol and brings disgraced agent Tom Kell in from the cold to investigate. Kell soon discovers what Wallinger had already begun to suspect — that there's a mole somewhere in the Western intelligence, a traitor who has been systematically sabotaging scores of joint intelligence operations in the Middle East.

— A Colder War by Charles Cumming

Book Blast: An Excerpt from The Jones Men by Vern E. Smith

with Vern E. Smith

We are delighted to welcome crime novelist Vern E. Smith to Omnimystery News today.

In 1974 Vern wrote The Jones Men, a crime novel that was a New York Times Notable Book and a nominee for an Edgar Award in 1975. Rosarium Publishing has now released a 40th anniversary edition, and we are pleased to introduce you to it with an excerpt.

— ♦ —

FOR BENNIE LEE SIMS' WAKE, LENNIE Jack chose the sky-blue Fleetwood with the chromed-up bumpers and the bar-line running from the trunk to the dash, dispensing six different liquors with chaser.
  Joe Red brought the car to a halt in front of Fraser's Funeral Parlor on Madison Boulevard. He backed it in between a red El Dorado with a diamond-shaped rear window and a pink Lincoln with a leopard-skin roof.
  Lennie Jack wore a medium-length Afro and had thick wide sideburns that grew neatly into the ends of a bushy moustache drooping over his top lip. He got out of the passenger seat in a manner that favored his left shoulder. He had on a cream-colored suede coat that stopped just below the knee, and a .38 in his waistband.
  Joe Red was shorter and thinner and younger than Lennie Jack. He got his nickname for an extremely light complexion and a thick curly bush of reddish brown hair; it spilled from under the wide-brimmed black hat cocked low over his right ear. He had on the black leather midi with the red-stitched cape; he had a .45 automatic in his waistband.
  They came briskly down the sidewalk and went up the six concrete steps to the entrance of Fraser's.
  An attendant in a somber gray suit and dark tie greeted them at the door.
  "We're here for Bennie Sims," Joe Red said.
  "Come this way," the attendant said.
  He guided them down a narrow hallway past a knot of elderly black women waiting to file into one of the viewing rooms flanking the hall on either side. The hallway reeked of death; the women wept.
  They passed three more doors before the attendant led them left at the end of the hall and down a short flight of stairs. A single 60-watt bulb illuminated the lower level. The attendant went past the row of ebony- and silver-colored caskets stacked near the staircase and stopped at a door in the back of the room.
  "They're in there," he said. He turned and headed back up the stairs. Lennie Jack rapped softly at the door. They stood a few feet back from the doorway to be recognizable in the dim light.
  The door cracked.
  "This Bennie Lee?" Lennie Jack said.
  "Yeah, this it," said a voice behind the crack.
  A man with wavy black hair in a white mink jacket and red knicker boots let them in. He relocked the door.
  The room smelled of cigarette smoke. A row of silver metal chairs had been stacked in a neat line on one side, but most of the people come to pay their respects were scattered in the back in tight little clusters, talking and laughing.
  At the front of the long room, near a small table of champagne bottles, Bennie Lee Sims' tuxedo-dad body lay in a silver-colored coffin with a bright satin lining.
  His face was dusty with a fine white powder.
  Lennie Jack walked over to the coffin. He dipped his fingers in the silver tray of cocaine on top and sprinkled it over Bennie Lee.
  Joe Red stepped up behind him and tried to find a spot that wasn't covered. He finally decided on the lips and scattered a handful of the fine white crystalline powder around Bennie Lee's mouth and chin.
  They moved through the crowd, shaking hands and greeting people. Almost everybody had come to see Bennie Lee off.
  The Ware brothers were there: Willie, the oldest at twenty-four; Simmy, who was twenty; and June, who often swaggered as if he were the elder of the clan but still had the baby-smooth face and look of wide- eyed adolescence. He was seventeen.
  Pretty Boy Sam was standing in one corner with his right foot resting on one of the metal chairs. He had smooth brown skin and almost girlish features, topped off by a pointed Van Dyke beard. His good looks masked a violent temper.
  Pretty Boy Sam had worn his full-length brown mink and brought his woman to pay his respects to Bennie Lee Sims, who had two neat bullet holes right between the eyes and underneath all the cocaine on his face.
  Slim Williams was there with his woman. He was a tall, thin dark-skinned man whose left eye had been destroyed by an errant shotgun blast. He now wore a variety of gaily colored eye patches the way he had heard Sammy Davis did when he lost his eye. He had on a patch of bright green and red plaid and stood conversing on one side of the room with Hooker, Woody Woods, and Mack Lee.
  Willis McDaniel was not there, but then, he never came. He had probably never considered it, but it was a source of irritation to the others.
  Joe Red said, "Hey Jack, he the man. He don't hafta come see nobody off if he don't wanta come. Ain't none of these people thinkin' bout makin' him come. Who gon make him come?"
  "Why he can't come like the rest of the people?" Lennie Jack said. "Has anybody ever thought of that, you reckon? He too big now to bring his ass out here to see a dude off? He probably had him ripped anyway. I don't understand how these chumps let an old man like that just get in there and rule."
  "Now we both know how he got it," Joe Red said. "He took it. He say, ‘Look, I'm gon be the man on this side of town cause I got my thing together and I got plenty big shit behind me. Now what you motherfuckers say?' Everybody say, ‘You the man, Mister McDaniel.' That's the way he did it."
  "That is the way to take it from him, too." Lennie Jack said. "We gon get lucky pretty soon. I think he can be had and I know just the way to do it. I got some people working on it. The first thing they teach you in the war is to fight fire with fire, you know?"
  He took the tiny gold spoon on the chain around his neck and scooped a pinch of cocaine off the tray Joe Red handed him. He brought the spoon up to his right nostril and sniffed deeply.
  The crowd was beginning to drift to the corner of the room where Slim Williams was holding court. Slim was thirty-seven, and much older than most of his audience. Lennie Jack was twenty-six, and Joe Red had just turned twenty-one three days ago.
  Slim Williams had diamond rings on three fingers of his left hand, and he was waving them around in a dazzling display and talking about Joe the Grind.
  "Joe used to walk into a bar with his dudes with him–he always carried these two dudes with him everywhere he went. He'd walk into a place fulla people and say, ‘I'm Joe the Grind, set up the bar! All pimps and players step up to the bar and bring your whores with you.'"
  Slim Williams chuckled. "Then Joe would talk about ‘em. He used to say, ‘You ain't no pimp, nigger. What you doin' up here? I ain't buying no drinks for you. Sit down!'"
  Slim Williams laughed; so did everybody else.
  "Joe used to rayfield a chump bag dude too," Slim Williams said. "He used to tell ‘em ‘Just cause you got eight or nine hundred dollars worth of business don't mean you somebody.' Then Joe would throw a roll down that'd choke a Goddamn mule and tell the chump: ‘Looka here boy, I just had my man sell forty-two thousand dollars worth of heh-rawn, and I got twenty more joints to hear from fore midnight. Gon sit down somewhere, you don't belong up here with no big dope men."
  They laughed again and somebody passed the coke tray.
  June Ware took his pinch and squared his toes in the eighty-dollar calfskin boots from Australia, via Perrin's Men's Shoppe on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
  "What happened to Joe, Slim?" June Ware said.
  "Oh, somebody shot ‘im in the head in an after-hours joint," Slim Williams said. "And lemme tell you, youall shoulda been there to see Joe's wake. It put this thing to shame. Compared to Joe's, this thing ain't nothing. This light-weight. They say there was coke in the block wrapped in foil and pure heh-rawn set out on silver trays with diamonds in the sides.
  "So they partied all night till twelve the next day, then they all went to Joe's funeral. After the funeral was over, everybody got on the plane with his woman and went to Jamaica for two days."
  "Say what?" June Ware said.
  "Yeah, that's the truth," Slim Williams said. "And you shoulda seen that funeral too. They say a broad came over from Chicago in a white-on-white El Dorado, and she was dressed in all white with a bad-ass mink round her shoulders. Then when she came out of the hotel the next day for Joe's funeral, they say she was in all black. She went to the graveyard and threw one hundred roses on Joe. Then she got in her ride and split. Don't nobody know who she was. When they had Joe's funeral march, there was one hundred fifty big pieces lined up for blocks down Madison Boulevard. They pulled a brand new Brough-ham behind the hearse, and when the march was over they took the car out to the trash yard and crushed it."
  "Goddamn Slim!" June Ware said.
  Mack Lee, who was twenty-two years old and decked out from the top of his big apple hat to the tip of his leather platforms in bright lavender, came their way with his woman on his arm.
  The woman looked about nineteen; she wore diamond-studded earrings and a matching bracelet. She carried a tray of glasses and an unopened bottle of champagne.
  "We oughta drink a toast to Bennie Lee," Mack Lee said, "and ask the Lord how come he made him so stupid."
  The laughter rippled through the room; Mack Lee popped the cork in the champagne bottle and poured the rounds.

— ♦ —

Photo provided courtesy of
Vern E. Smith

A native of Natchez, Miss., Smith is a graduate of San Francisco State University, and the Summer Program for Minority Journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He began his journalism career as a reporter for the Long Beach, Calif. Independent Press-Telegram.

From 1979 until 2002, Smith served as the Atlanta Bureau Chief and as a national correspondent for Newsweek.

Vern Smith's work as a journalist, author and screenwriter spans four decades.

For more information about the author, please find him on Facebook and Twitter.

— ♦ —

The Jones Men
Vern E. Smith
A Crime Novel

Before there was street lit, there were the streets … and the Jones Men ruled them …

Detroit, 1974. To become the King, you have to take the crown. It won't be given up lightly. Heroin kingpin, Willis McDaniel, has been wearing that particular piece of jewelry for far too long, and youngblood, Lennie Jack, thinks it would look really good on his head.

When a junkie tells Jack about a big delivery, the young Vietnam vet makes his move. Feeling his empire crumble, McDaniel puts the word out to find whoever's responsible.

The hunt is on, the battle is engaged, and the streets of Detroit run red with blood.

  

Murder with a Twist by Allyson K. Abbott, New on the Mystery Bookshelf during August 2014

New on the Mystery Bookshelf during August 2014 …

Murder with a Twist by Allyson K. Abbott

The Mack's Bar Series (2nd)

Publisher: Kensington

  

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

More about our featured title, below …

The regulars at Mack's Bar love putting their heads together to solve a good mystery. But Mack is learning there's a big difference between barroom brain teasers and real-life murder …

Milwaukee bar owner Mackenzie "Mack" Dalton has a unique neurological condition that gives her extra perceptive senses, and police detective Duncan Albright is convinced Mack's abilities can be used to help catch crooks. Mack may be at pro at mixing drinks, but she's still an amateur when it comes to solving crimes — and she's not sure she should mix business with pleasure by working with a man who stirs up such strong feelings in her.

At her first crime scene — a suspicious suicide — she experiences a heady cocktail of mixed sensations and emotions that make her question whether police work is right for her. But when Duncan asks her to help find a kidnapped child, she knows she has to give it a shot.

— Murder with a Twist by Allyson K. Abbott

The Mangle Street Murders, A Gower St. Detective Mystery by M. R. C. Kasasian, 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 …

The Mangle Street Murders by M. R. C. Kasasian

A Gower St. Detective Mystery (1st in series)

Publisher: Open Road

Price: $1.99 (as of 08/04/2014 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.

March Middleton has moved to Gower Street to live with her curmudgeonly guardian, Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective. She is intelligent, witty, and talkative. He thinks young women should be seen and not heard. But he grudgingly allows her to join his latest murder case: A young woman is dead and her loving husband is the only suspect.

Their investigations lead the pair to the darkest alleys of the East End: Every twist leads Sidney Grice to think the husband guilty, but March is convinced that he is innocent. And as the case threatens to foment civil unrest, Sidney Grice finds his reputation is not the only thing in mortal danger …

— The Mangle Street Murders by M. R. C. Kasasian

The Adventure of the Dead Wild Bore, A Holmes and Garden Short Story by Andrea Frazer, New This Week from Accent Press

Accent Press is a dynamic publishing company, and produces a wide range of fiction and non-fiction titles.

We've selected one of their recently published mystery, suspense, thriller or crime titles to feature here today …

The Adventure of the Dead Wild Bore by Andrea Frazer

A Holmes and Garden Short Story

Publisher: Accent Press

Price: $0.99 (as of 08/04/2014 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 recently-formed private detective agency of (Sherman) Holmes and (John) Garden is going from strength to strength. Holmes invites Garden to a meeting of the Quaker Street Irregulars, a society for die-hard fans of his near-namesake, Conan Doyle's own Sherlock Holmes.

Garden is somewhat taken aback by the fervour with which members of the Irregulars defend their opinions on the great fictional consulting detective — but nobody expects a run-of-the-mill disagreement to turn into brutal murder …

— The Adventure of the Dead Wild Bore by Andrea Frazer

Please Welcome Mystery Author Marc Krulewitch

with Marc Krulewitch

We are delighted to welcome mystery author Marc Krulewitch to Omnimystery News, courtesy of TLC Book Tours, which is coordinating his current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find his schedule here.

Marc's debut mystery, Maxwell Street Blues (Albi; August 2014 ebook formats), introduces Jules Landau, a college man turned private eye on the Windy City's mean streets — a virtual school of hard knocks where graduation means just staying alive.

Today Marc tells us more about the book and the series he's planning.

— ♦ —

Photo provided courtesy of
Marc Krulewitch

Maxwell Street Blues is the first book of my detective series that takes place in modern day Chicago, where I was born and where my great-grandfather had been a powerful political boss of the "bloody" 20th ward during Prohibition. Maxwell Street was located in the 20th ward and became famous for its open air market where poor immigrants could buy and sell their wares. In the 1930s and 40s, many African-American blues musicians from the segregated south moved to Chicago and began playing at the Maxwell Street market. The musical genre of electrified urban blues — known as Chicago blues — was created at the Maxwell Street market.

My detective is Jules Landau, the youngest in a family of petty criminals whose great-grandfather was fashioned after the man described above. But unlike his forebears, Jules has decided to become a private investigator. His first murder case comes via his estranged father, Bernie, who had just gotten out of prison and hires Jules to find the killer of Snooky, who also happened to be a close friend of the family.

The second book is in the latter stages of editing, and the third book is a nearly completed first draft. It is my intention that Jules remains relatively unchanged throughout the series in that he's a complicated person full of conflicting emotions, contradictions, and more than a little bit of unacknowledged anger.

Maxwell Street Blues has been consistently referred to as hardboiled or noir fiction which at first surprised me because that was not my intention. I did not decide beforehand what category he would fit in, wanting instead for Jules to develop organically as someone who ultimately will tell me where he fits in. Admittedly, Jules is my alter-ego, and how we view ourselves and how others view us is rarely the same.

Thus far, my writing process has been very unstructured in that I begin a book with only a vague outline in my head. At most, I'll know who's dead or missing and who hires Jules to find out what happened. As I write the opening scene, ideas come to me and I jot down notes lower on the page. Sometimes one idea leads to many others and I end up writing several pages of possible scenarios for the next scene or for events that won't take place until much farther down the road. When I'm ready to start the fourth book, I plan on first writing an extensive outline just to see if it makes a difference in how productive I am in the actual writing of the book.

— ♦ —

Marc Krulewitch’s Jules Landau mysteries take place in Chicago, where he was born and where his family has lived for generations. He now resides in Colorado.

— ♦ —

Maxwell Street Blues
Marc Krulewitch
A Jules Landau Mystery

Chicago runs in Jules Landau's veins. So does the blood of crooks. Now Jules is going legit as a private eye, stalking bail jumpers and cheating spouses — until he gets his first big case. Unfortunately, the client is his ex-con father, and the job is finding the killer of a man whom Jules loved like family. Why did someone put two bullets in the head of gentle bookkeeper Charles Snook? Jules is determined to find out, even if the search takes him to perilous places he never wanted to go.

Snooky, as he was affectionately known, had a knack for turning dirty dollars clean, with clients ranging from humble shop owners to sharp-dressed mobsters. As Jules retraces Snooky's last days, he crosses paths with a way-too-eager detective, a gorgeous and perplexing tattoo artist, a silver-haired university administrator with a kinky side, and a crusading journalist. Exposing one dirty secret after another, the PI is on a dangerous learning curve. And, at the top of that curve, a killer readies to strike again.

        

A Conversation with Mystery Author Jean Hackensmith

with Jean Hackensmith

We are delighted to welcome mystery author Jean Hackensmith to Omnimystery News today.

Jean's second mystery in her Brian Koski "B.K. Investigations" series is Identity Crisis (Inkwater Press; April 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to chat with her about it.

— ♦ —

Omnimystery News: Introduce us to your series characters.

Photo provided courtesy of
Jean Hackensmith

Jean Hackensmith: The main character is Brian Koski. Brian is a former police captain with the Cheyenne, WY Police Department. After rumors regarding the suspicious death of Dan Hamilton (the villain in Checkmate, book one in the series) reach the new Chief of Police, Brian is forced to resign. Left with few options, he starts his own P.I. business. Brian is somewhat of a playboy. In fact, in one review I was criticized for his perception of women as playthings, but that's just who Brian is. As I explained in the blog on my website, this vice gives Brian room to grow as a man and as the main character in the series. He is also a bit of a "rogue" when it comes to police work. Brian definitely does not follow the rules. He does what he needs to do to help his clients, and if it means breaking a few laws along the way, oh well. That's what makes Brian so much fun!

The second main character is actually Brian's dog, Sinbad. A former NYC police dog, Brian acquired Sinbad from a trainer when the dog displayed a fear of loud noises. The dog freaks during thunder storms, or when a train goes by. Helicopters also make him turn tail and run. The only loud noise Sinbad is not afraid of is gunfire. The dog's fear actually makes for some very funny scenes and, I believe, will endear him to readers as much as it has endeared him to me.

The last main character is Katrina Cordova. When little Angela Patten is kidnapped in Identity Crisis, Katrina informs Brian that she knows where the girl is being held. She saw it in a vision. Katrina is psychic, but she has her visions only during thunder storms (unfortunate for Sinbad!) Her visions are right on the mark, detailed and accurate, unlike a lot of other psychics who speak in generalities. One recurring vision, however, has nothing to do with Angela. It is of a massive explosion, where hundreds, perhaps thousands of people will die. This particular vision will become more detailed in each successive book, giving Brian more and more information as to the time and location of the explosion, and will reach is culmination in the final book in the series.

OMN: You mention that Katrina's visions will become more detailed over time. How else do you expect your characters to evolve?

JH: Brian, for instance, is a career playboy in the first two books in the series. I also consider him an anti-hero in that he is somewhat of a hothead and doesn't always do things the right way or by the book. Both of these characteristics will change as the series progresses, allowing Brian to grow both in his personal and professional lives. As for Sinbad, I really don't think I want to change him too much. His unpredictability is what makes him such an endearing canine character. It also makes for some really funny scenes both in Identity Crisis and in future books in the series. Katrina Cordova will change in the fact that she will eventually become an integral and invaluable part of Brian's team — and someone that Brian will come to respect for more than her physical appearance.

OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories? Have you come across any particularly challenging or exciting topics?

JH: I absolutely LOVE the Internet. In my opinion, it is an author's best friend. I remember all too well the days when I would haunt the library and come home with stacks of books to pour through for factual information to incorporate into my stories. Thank God those days are gone. Now I am able to concentrate on my writing and, when I come across something that needs to be researched, I just pop onto the Internet, find what I need, and get back to writing. I've told the story many times of when I was researching the fourth book in my "Passage Time Travel Romance" saga, The Ultimate Passage, how in one day I researched floor plans for the White House, The United Nations Building, and homemade bombs. I was waiting for the FBI to come knocking on my door!

While I didn't have to research anything that intriguing for Identity Crisis, I did spend a lot of time on the Internet. My book is set in Cheyenne, WY, so I stared at a lot of maps of Wyoming looking for areas that would be good for a fugitive to hide out, as well as researching the laws in that state.

The most fun research, however, was regarding Sinbad and the training of police and protection dogs. Chris Byrne from Stonehill Kennel in Connecticut was my biggest asset on that score. He is an actual character in the book and, in real life, has become a good friend.

OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a crime novelist and thus I am also …".

JH: I am a crime novelist and thus I am also fascinated by serial killers. I think I've seen every documentary on John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein ever made. Ed Gein is especially fascinating to me, because he lived in the same area I do. In fact, his house of horrors was only about 5 miles from where I live today. A serial killer hasn't made his or her way into one of my books yet, but I have no doubt that before the B.K. Investigations series is completed, Brian will be hunting for the ultimate in serial killers. Of course, I started out as a romance writer, so that serial killer might have a soft spot for the opposite sex. Or … maybe Brian might fall in love with a female serial killer? Hmmm … interesting idea.

OMN: How did Identity Crisis come to be titled? And were you involved with the cover design?

JH: I have to credit my publisher for both the cover and the title for Identity Crisis. They have a wonderful graphic artist who designed the cover, and my editor actually came up with the title. My working title until that point was Child's Play, which I really didn't like because it was also the title of a horrible movie.

OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from your readers?

JH: I guess this question is the main reason that I love to write a series of books. Checkmate, the first book in the B.K. Investigations series, was originally a stand-alone book — until I started getting emails from readers who said the book literally cried for a sequel. Thus, the B.K. Investigations series was born. The same thing happened with my "Passage" saga. Again, the first book was to be the only book, but my readers felt differently. They absolutely loved the characters and wanted to see more of them. What better compliment can an author receive?

OMN: Suppose the B.K. Investigations series were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the key roles?

JH: There is no doubt in my mind that Tom Cruise needs to play Brian. They both have dark hair, both are in their mid-forties, and I would have no problem picturing Tom Cruise as a playboy/anti-hero. As for Katrina, definitely Angelina Jolie. They are both dark and sultry. As for Sinbad, the dog in the movie K-9 would be great. Anybody know his name?

OMN: What's next for you?

JH: Strangely, the book I'm currently working on is not book three in the B.K. Investigations series (though rest assured it is pretty well plotted out and next on the agenda.) In fact, my current manuscript is as far removed from the crime/mystery novel as you can get. My son has been bugging me for years to co-author a science fiction novel with him, and that is what I am currently working on — and it is a blast. There is no other genre in which you can just let your imagination soar. So, ever wonder what would happen if a neutron star were on a collision course with earth? Well, give me another six months and I'll tell you. (The book will be titled Exodus, in case you're curious, and should be available sometime in 2015.)

— ♦ —

Jean Hackensmith lives in Wisconsin and enjoys the solitude of country living, the picturesque beauty of the sun rising over the water, the strangely calming effect of watching a deer graze outside her kitchen window. What better place for an author to be inspired than in God's own back yard.

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

— ♦ —

Identity Crisis
Jean Hackensmith
A Brian Koski Mystery

Little Angela Patten is kidnapped by a madman — a man who's convinced she's his dead daughter …

When rumors of how Dan Hamilton actually died reach the Cheyenne Chief of Police, Brian Koski is forced to resign his position as captain of the Sixth Precinct and go into business for himself as a private detective. His partner? A mahogany-colored Belgian Malinois named Sinbad. A former NYPD police dog, Sinbad is vicious when need be and reliable to a fault-unless a train goes by or there's a thunderstorm, then chances are he will turn tail and run.

Brian's first clients are Jeff and Melody Patten. He's an explosives expert for a local demolitions company; she's a stay-at-home mom. Both are devoted parents to their young daughter, Angela. The problem comes in the form of one Collin Lanaski, an unstable ex-Air Force lieutenant and Angela's second grade teacher, who suddenly starts insisting that Angela is his daughter — the same daughter who died in a tragic car accident four years earlier. What does Collin base this incredible revelation on? Dog tags and car seats.

Brian is convinced the man has suffered a psychotic break. He's delusional and dangerous, and it becomes the P.I.'s job to protect Angela from a madman.

        

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Taken by L. M. Pruitt is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Taken by L. M. Pruitt

A Frankie Post Mystery

Publisher: L. M. Pruitt

… as today's second free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of August 04, 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.

Cheating spouse? Stolen jewelry? Missing person?

Call Frances — Frankie — Post. A private detective with a trick of two up her sleeve and a few skeletons of her own.

What starts out as a simple missing person's case dumps Frankie and her lover Jack right in the crosshairs of a dangerous human trafficking organization. With lives on the line, bad blood and old wounds finally see the light of day. And Frankie and Jack are forced to realize: The past always catches up with you.

Always.

— Taken by L. M. Pruitt

Going Gray by Brian Spangler is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Going Gray by Brian Spangler

A Novel of Suspense

Publisher: Brian Spangler

… as today's free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of August 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.

Consists of the three novellas Going Gray, Into the Dark, and Inside Out.

When Emily heard the first scream, she became concerned.

When she heard the second scream, she grew scared.

When she heard the third scream, she was struck with terror.

But it was what Emily could not hear that frightened her the most.

— Going Gray by Brian Spangler

Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (140804)

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

• The New Release is Secrets of the Dark: The Flower of Shadow.

• The current Catch of the Week is Reality Show: Fatal Shot, just $2.99 through Sunday, August 10, 2014 only.

• Today's Special Deal — It is Bonus Punch Monday! Receive a BONUS PUNCH with every game purchase, only on Mondays.

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

— ♦ —

The New Release is Secrets of the Dark: The Flower of Shadow

A father's frantic plea sends you in search of his daughter, Maria, who seems to have vanished into thin air. A mysterious and supernatural force has kidnapped her on her 16th birthday, sealing her room with a magical glow. Your investigation leads you from an odd, flower-shaped lamp through a portal — an ordinary room becomes a nightmarish forest! Can you find Maria in time? Or will she be trapped forever in a shadowy realm by a creature bent on revenge? Find out in this exciting Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!

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

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 Reality Show: Fatal Shot

Uncover the truth behind a shocking on-air murder! Everyone knows that breaking into showbiz can be tough. But for participants on Fright Reality Show, it can be murder. After a man is killed on the set of the hit series, the victim's wife arrives at your office, begging for justice. Follow the clues, from the city streets to the top floors of the station's headquarters to uncover the truth behind this shocking crime. But be careful! Things are rarely what they seem on TV …

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

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.

New This Week: Prescription for Murder, An Alexis J. Smith Mystery by Evelyn Smith

Omnimystery News is pleased to present 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 August 2014 and priced $4.99 or less …

Prescription for Murder by Evelyn Smith

An Alexis J. Smith Mystery (3rd in series)

Publisher: Phoenix International

Price: $3.99 (as of 08/03/2014 at 5:00 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.

It was announced that Alexis J. Smith, an American private investigator, had married Detective Inspector Harry Hawkins of Scotland Yard that morning on the island of Majorca. But, in fact, a mysterious telegram addressed to Lexie and allegedly signed by her sister Mary, had arrived saying that their mother was ill and needed her desperately. Trouble is, their mother had been dead for three years. So who sent the wire, and why? Someone needed her, that much was clear, and Lexie feels she must fly home and find out who it is. Of course, the wedding is off.

Back home in Sacramento, she learns that a U.S. congressman from that district has been poisoned, and one of her friends is about to be charged with the crime. A second murder, of the druggist who dispensed the lethal prescription to the congressman, now points to the Irish Mafia. In the meantime, Mary is kidnapped by the Mob and held prisoner while Lexie is sent to Ireland to find, and bring back, a young woman who had fled the country to escape the attentions of one of the Mob bosses. Her sister's life depends on a successful mission, but Lexie has double-crossed powerful organizations before, and may have to do it again.

In the meantime, Harry Hawkins will bend every rule of Scotland Yard to help her, but will it be enough? Is this the end, or merely the closing of the circle?

— Prescription for Murder by Evelyn Smith

Jackpot Blood, A Nick Herald, Genealogical Mystery by Jimmy Fox, Now Available at a Special Price

Amazon Kindle Countdown Deals are limited-time discounts on Kindle-exclusive books.

Omnimystery News is pleased to present you with one of today's titles … but take advantage of this deal now as the price will go up to its digital list price soon! (See the countdown clock on the book product page to see how much time remains on this deal.)

Jackpot Blood by Jimmy Fox

A Nick Herald, Genealogical Mystery (3rd in series)

Publisher: Jimmy Fox

Price: $0.99 (as of 08/03/2014 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.

Professional genealogist Nick Herald must rescue a Louisiana Indian tribe's future from a deadly past!

Big trouble plagues rural central Louisiana when the small tribe of nearly assimilated Katogoula Indians unexpectedly receives federal recognition. In a cruel irony, will good fortune mean the death of the tribe?

Spirits long ignored begin to haunt the pine forest. Outsiders pour into the isolated community. Tribal unity unravels. Someone — or something — is murdering tribe members!

Into this crisis comes Nick Herald, sleuth and professional genealogist from New Orleans. The tribe has hired him to help establish guidelines for membership, often a delicate task in which treasured heritage and large sums of money are at stake. Putting the newly recognized Katogoula Tribe on a firm foundation is just the sort of lucrative job that will allow Nick to pay his loyal, brilliant, wheelchair-using sidekick, Hawty Latimer, what she's worth. But the lure of huge casino profits brings out the worst in everyone. Nick soon finds that he's landed in the middle of a free-for-all involving other Louisiana tribes, crooked politicians, a powerful local family, mercenary gambling syndicates, and ruthless drug runners.

And what's more, the family secrets of central Louisiana's piney woods are as deadly as the genealogical masquerades of New Orleans. Hidden forces want Nick off the case, dead or alive.

Stubborn sleuth that he is, Nick probes forbidden subjects to learn why tribal recognition is turning out to be not the expected jackpot, but a murderous disaster for the Katogoula. He scours family and tribal histories and calls on his knowledge of American Indian genealogy. Assisting him on the scene is an amateur ethnographer, a gorgeous woman Nick falls for, even though he questions her role in the deadly drama. Contemporary human plotters and undying genealogical demons assail the intrepid investigator as he digs up buried ancient malice in his quest to save the resurrected tribe.

Nick realizes that unless he stops the evil, his Katogoula friends and their storied ancestry face extinction, just as their dream of rebirth seems so close. He confronts an age-old fury that stalks the Katogoula Indians and threatens their very survival — and his!

— Jackpot Blood by Jimmy Fox

The Devil Takes Half by Leta Serafim, a New 1st in Series Mystery Introducing Yiannis Patronas

Omnimystery News is pleased to present you with one of this month's new 1st in Series titles, a mystery, thriller or suspense novel that introduces a recurring character (or characters) …

The Devil Takes Half by Leta Serafim

Yiannis Patronas, Greek Islands (1st in series)

Publisher: Coffeetown Press

  

What we know about the character: Yiannis Patronas is a police officer on the Greek Island of Chios. For more information about his first murder, see a synopsis of the book, below.

At an archeological dig on the idyllic Greek Island of Chios, a severed hand is found lying in a blood-filled trench. Could it belong to Eleni Argentis, a beautiful archeologist who is also the wealthy daughter of a local ship owner? She and her young assistant, Petros, are both missing.

The chief officer of the local police force, Yiannis Patronas, suspects that Eleni and Petros happened upon something of real value. However, his search turns up nothing but handfuls of broken clay, and then, another body — that of Petros, whose throat has been brutally cut. Body parts belonging to Eleni are left behind on a remote beach, confirming her demise. Then an old priest with a fondness for TV detective shows is attacked and left for dead.

The dig site is located near the monastery where he was the only resident. Patronas interviews Petros' longsuffering grandmother, his flighty mother and her money-grubbing boyfriend, as well as Eleni's greedy stepmother and her charming son. He also confronts two archeologists, one British and one American. If Eleni's find is, as they insist, worthless, what are these men doing on Chios?

Although Patronas has little experience with homicide, he is determined to conquer the evil that threatens this formerly peaceful island.

— The Devil Takes Half by Leta Serafim