Mystery Godoku Puzzle for November 17, 2014

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the editors of the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is now available on our website.

Godoku is similar to Sudoku, but uses letters instead of numbers. To give you a headstart, we provide you a mystery clue to fill in a complete row or column (if you choose to use it!).

— ◊ —

This week's letters and mystery clue:

E H I M N R T U W

A 2014 romantic military suspense novel by L. A. Shorter has this title (9 letters).

We now have two weeks of our puzzles on one page in PDF format for easier printing. Print this week's puzzle here.

Previous puzzles are stored in the Mystery Godoku Archives.

Enjoy the weekly Mystery Godoku Puzzle from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, and Thanks for visiting our website!

An Excerpt from the Suspense Thriller Noise by Brett Garcia Rose

Noise by Brett Garcia Rose

We are delighted to welcome author Brett Garcia Rose to Omnimystery News today.

Brett's new suspense thriller Noise (Velocity Imprints; June 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we are pleased to introduce you to it with an excerpt.

— ♦ —

Twenty-Eight

THE SOUNDS I CANNOT HEAR: THE whistle of the hammer as it arcs through the air. The wailing of pain and the begging of The Bear. The dripping of blood from thawing meat onto the wet concrete floor. The beautifully crude threats.
  My own hideous voice.
  I drag The Bear into a walk-in freezer by the hook sunk through his shoulder and toss him into a corner on the floor. When I reenter the freezer, dragging the oak table behind me, The Bear is hard at work on the hook, trying to muscle it out, but it's sunk deep, through the tendons. Hope is adrenaline, fear masks pain, begging helps no one.
  I yank him up by the hook and then hold his hands outstretched, one at a time, as I nail his wrists to the table with railroad spikes. I put all of my 240 pounds behind the hammer, but even so, it takes several swings. His body shakes, the nails sink further into the wood, his face is pain. He screams, but I cannot hear.
  The building above burns a deep blue hue with my smuggled-in accelerants.
  The sound of the hammer into The Bear. The pain in his eyes. I have never seen so much hatred. It is beautiful to me, to reach this center, this uncomplicated base, to disassemble the past and honor a new history. It is another film, also homemade and rough, an overlay, an epilogue. The Bear is broken but I have spared his face, and to see those eyes, that is what I needed; to see his hatred flow into me, my own eyes sucking down the scum like bathtub drains. His life whirls into me and I taste the fear, the hope, the sharp sting of adrenaline pumping and the reeking muck of despair. His pain soothes me, a slow, thick poison. We will all die.
  I know it now; I am a broken man. I always was. I imagine Lily watching me, Lily keeping score, making lists, balancing all. As a child from far away, she was the queen, even more so than her mother. But she didn't survive. The world was not as we had imagined, not even close. The world is a cruel, bastard place, Lily cold and lost somewhere, me hot and bleeding and swinging my hammer. Life as it is, not as we wish it to be.
  The sounds I cannot hear: The laughter of the watchers. The groan of my sister as The Bear cums inside of her, pulling her hair until the roots bleed. The Bear screams and shits himself inside the dark freezer. Lily's wailing and cursing and crying. I scream at The Bear with all my mighty, damaged voice, swinging the hammer at his ruined hands, hands that will never again touch anyone. Lily at the end, beaten and pissed on and begging to die.
  Lily is dead. I am dead. It will never be enough.
  I remove the stack of photos from my wallet that I'd printed at the Internet café a lifetime ago and place them face down on the table in front of The Bear. I draw an X on the back of the first photo and turn it over, laying it close to the pulp of his ruined hands.
  The Bear offers me anything I want. An animal can feel pain but cannot describe or transmit it adequately. The Bear both is and is not an animal. I lack hearing, so the Bear cannot transmit his experience to me unless I choose to see it. His pain is not my pain, but mine is very much his. I swing the hammer into his unhooked shoulder, and then I draw another X and flip another photo.
  His lips move, and I understand what he wants to know. Five photos.
  In my notepad, I write: you are a rapist fucking pig. I put the paper into the gristle of his hands and swing the hammer against the metal hook again. It's a sound I can feel.
  Anything, The Bear mouths. He is sweating in the cold air of the freezer. Crying. Bleeding.
  In my pad, I write: I want my sister back. I swing the hammer claw-side first into his mouth and leave it there. His body shakes and twitches.
  I turn over his photo and write one last note, tearing it off slowly and holding it in front of his face, the handle of the hammer protruding from his jaw like a tusk. You are number four. There are a few seconds of space as the information stirs into him and I watch as he deflates, the skin on his face sagging like a used condom. He knows what I know.
  I turn over the last photo for him. I turn it slowly and carefully, sliding it toward him. Victor, his one good son, his outside accomplishment, his college boy, the one who tried to fuck him and they fucked my sister instead.
  I remove another mason jar from my bag, unscrewing the metal top and letting the thick fluid flow onto his lap. I wipe my hands carefully and light a kitchen match, holding it in front of his face for a few seconds as it catches fully. He doesn't try to blow it out. He doesn't beg me to stop. He just stares at the match as the flame catches, and I drop it onto his lap.
  The Bear shakes so hard from the pain that one of his arms rips from the table, leaving a skewer of meat and tendon on the metal spike. I lean into his ear, taking in his sweet reek and the rot of his bowels and, in my own hideous voice, I say:
  "Wait for me."

— ♦ —

Photo provided courtesy of
Brett Garcia Rose

Brett Garcia Rose is a writer, software entrepreneur, and former animal rights soldier and stutterer. His work has been published in Sunday Newsday Magazine, The Barcelona Review, Opium, Rose and Thorn, The Battered Suitcase, Fiction Attic, Paraphilia and other literary magazines and anthologies. He travels extensively, but calls New York City home.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at BrettGarciaRose.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

— ♦ —

Noise
Brett Garcia Rose
A Suspense Thriller

The world is an ugly place, and I can tell you now, I fit in just fine.

Lily is the only person Leon ever loved. When she left a suicide note and disappeared into a murky lake ten years ago, she left him alone, drifting through a silent landscape. Or did she?

A postcard in her handwriting pulls Leon to the winter-cold concrete heart of New York City. What he discovers unleashes a deadly rage that has no sound. A grisly trail of clues leads to The Bear, the sadistic Russian crime lord who traffics in human flesh. The police-some corrupt, some merely compromised-are of little help. They don't like Leon's methods, or the mess he leaves in his wake.

Leon is deaf, but no sane person would ever call him disabled. He survived as a child on the merciless streets of Nigeria. He misses nothing. He feels no remorse. The only direction he's ever known is forward. He will not stop until he knows. Where is Lily?

        

Winners of the 2014 Anthony Awards Announced

The winners of the 2014 Anthony Awards were announced yesterday on the final night of Bouchercon 2014. The award and conference are named for named for the late Anthony Boucher, well-known writer and critic from the New York Times, who helped found the Mystery Writers of America.

Selected by the attendees of Bouchercon 2014, the winners are …

• Best Novel: Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books)

• Best First Novel: Yesterday's Echo by Matt Coyle (Oceanview Publishing)

• Best Paperback Original: As She Left It by Catriona McPherson (Midnight Ink)

• Best Short Story: "The Caxton Private Lending Library & Book Depository" by John Connolly (Bibliomysteries, The Mysterious Bookshop)

• Best Critical/Non-Fiction Work: The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War by Daniel Stashower (Minotaur Books)

• Best Children's/Young Adult's Novel: The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau (Houghton Mifflin)

• Best Television Episode Teleplay: The Blacklist, "Pilot" by Jon Bokenkamp (NBC)

• Best Audio Book: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith; Read by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio)

Congratulations to the winners!

A Conversation with Mystery Author Mark S. Bacon

with Mark S. Bacon

We are delighted to welcome author Mark S. Bacon to Omnimystery News today.

Earlier this week we featured an excerpt from Mark's new mystery Death in Nostalgia City (Black Opal Books; October 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats). We recently had the opportunity to spend some time with Mark to talk more about it.

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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to your new series characters. What is it about them that appeals to you as a writer?

Photo provided courtesy of
Mark S. Bacon

Mark S. Bacon: Lyle Deming — After many years as a Phoenix police detective, Lyle's anxiety level is off the charts. Looking for peace, he takes a job driving a cab in a giant, retro theme park and resort in northern Arizona. Qualities of his I like are his intelligence paired with insecurity, determination with no sense of infallibility.

Kate Sorensen — She learned many of her life's lessons on the basketball court. As a forward at USC she endured physical and mental stress while becoming a star player. In the business world she knew that she had to be better than the men who applied for the same jobs. Her additional burden was her height. Being a woman over 6-2 was an asset on the basketball court, but not necessarily in social or business situations. She's tenacious and cool under pressure.

OMN: How do you expect these characters to change over the course of a series?

MSB: The characters will certainly develop, like we all do, slowly. Sometimes we have to learn a lesson more than once.

OMN: How did you go about making a decision as to both the number and gender of your leads?

MSB: Sisters in Crime did an extensive survey of mystery readers a few years ago. They found that the gender of a protagonist/detective was not a factor in most book buying decisions. In my own case, I look for good characters and good story, regardless of gender.

With a woman and a man as my protagonists I found it was easier to keep voices separate. I wanted to have the woman save the day at least as often as the man. I wanted to introduce good-natured gender competition and briefly touch on gender inequality issues. And I wanted a hint of romance.

OMN: Into which genre category would place Death in Nostalgia City?

MSB: It is a suspenseful mystery or a suspense story with many mysteries. I wrote the kind of book I like to read: swiftly moving suspense to appeal to the emotions but with puzzles and mysteries to engage the mind. It's not a cozy nor a James Bond, but there's lots of room in between.

OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.

MSB: One of my supporting characters, Big Earl Williams, is a DJ whose knowledge of oldies music and the music scene is valuable to the protagonists at critical times.

OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?

MSB: I started out after journalism school as a reporter. I covered the police beat every day and so became familiar with crime and police procedures. That figures in my novel. Later, I worked writing ads and commercials for Knott's Berry Farm the big theme park down the road from Disneyland. I learned some of the behind-the-scenes drama that takes place at a theme park. Some of that is evident in Nostalgia City.

As to characters, my female protagonist is an amalgam of two or three women I've known. Lyle is a little bit of me and several other people.

OMN: Describe your writing process.

MSB: I've always outlined large writing projects. For the nonfiction books I've written, I created detailed outlines, many pages long, for each chapter. For me, this separates two discrete tasks: organizing and composing. Once organized, I focus on the writing, knowing exactly where I'm going.

I approached my novel the same way. It started with a long outline, bio information on my main characters and notes about the plot twists I wanted to include. But things happened. I revised on the fly and made significant changes during rewrites.

OMN: How do you go about fact-checking or researching the plot points of your stories? Any particularly interesting topics you've come across?

MSB: Fact check? This is fiction. Just kidding. Actually, I can easily spend too many hours searching for details because I love research. Almost as much as writing.

One interesting research challenge here was sorting out the geography of downtown Boston. It's a wonderful city, full of history, winding streets and (mostly) caring people. A place I love to visit.

OMN: The series is set in northern Arizona. How true are you to the setting in the book?

MSB: I use a combination of real and fictional locales. My representation of northern Arizona, its climate, geography and towns is as accurate as I could make it. I invented, however, a fictional Arizona county, small town and Indian reservation. Having lived much of my life in the southwest, I'm comfortable writing about it. I needed to invent new areas of Arizona because the story revolves around the world's largest, most elaborate theme park, which I also invented.

OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?

MSB: China. It's a huge part of the future of the world. I have no idea, however, how or why Lyle, my ex-cop from Phoenix, would go there.

OMN: What are some of your outside interests? Have any of these found their way into the book?

MSB: The two spare-time activities that influenced this book are running and traveling the US west. As to the running, my experience helped me handle a pivotal situation in the book.

OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author? And what might you say to aspiring writers?

MSB: Journalism professors and newspaper editors had a great deal of influence over my writing practices and techniques. I don't believe in writer's block. I try to get to the point quickly. I research, revise and revise again.

My advice to aspiring authors is to consider less stressful jobs such as crab fishing in Alaska, flight testing experimental aircraft or painting radio towers.

OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and thus I am …".

MSB: I am a mystery author and thus I am used to going hungry.

OMN: Is Mark S. Bacon a pen name?

MSB: My name is my name. My only concern is that because I use a middle initial that might be a hindrance for online searches. Sometimes, if you omit the middle initial, you don't find me.

I've always used the initial and certainly not to distinguish myself from other writers named Mark Bacon.

OMN: How did the book come to be titled?

MSB: The word death pretty much identifies this as a mystery or suspense story and the word nostalgia is attractive to many in my target readership age group. Nostalgia also means slightly different things to different people and I like the ambiguity.

Based on previous experience, the first question I asked my editor at Black Opal Books was, "Are you going to change my title?" I was happy it stayed the same.

OMN: What kinds of feedback have you received from readers?

MSB: Several people have said they like my short, swiftly moving chapters. A friend said she liked my style of using short sentences. I didn’t know I did that although much of my dialog is in short back-and-forth exchanges. One reviewer said my references to 60s and 70s songs and events brought back emotional memories.

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

MSB: I'm not set on one male actor. I could see any of these actors in the role: Dennis Quaid, Kevin Bacon (seriously, and no, I'm not related), Russell Crowe, or Rob Lowe.

The female lead character is harder to cast because she's over 6-2. Jennifer Garner would be good for the part and is athletic and relatively tall. Nicole Kidman is even taller, perhaps a better choice.

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?

MSB: I read Bradbury, Rod Serling, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont. Most of their stories ended with a big punch or twist. I got into reading mysteries later, during college. The first fiction I wrote in school was Twilight Zone-type fantasies.

OMN: And what do you read now for pleasure?

MSB: I like books with suspense and mystery blended, but I also read a variety of styles and subjects. Some of my recent favorites have included Thunderstruck, Sycamore Row, Fear Index, Shadow of the Wind, The Power of One, Water for Elephants, The Long Goodbye, Matterhorn: a Novel of the Vietnam War and Team of Rivals.

OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.

MSB: Top 5 favorite films … and I challenge you to find commonality among all of these:

• Good Will Hunting;
• Dead Poets Society;
• Rio Bravo;
• Casablanca; and
• Double Indemnity.

OMN: You'd win that challenge! What's next for you?

MSB: Nostalgia City, part 2, visits Nevada.

— ♦ —

Mark Bacon's articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Kansas City Star, Denver Post, USAir Magazine, Trailer Life, Cleveland Plain Dealer, San Antonio Express-News, The Orange County Register, Working Woman, and other publications. He is a former columnist for BusinessWeek Online and most recently was a regular correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he wrote on travel, outdoors and entertainment.

Bacon is a former president of the Orange County Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. He and his wife, Anne, and their golden retriever, Willow, live in Reno, Nevada.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at BaconsMysteries.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

— ♦ —

Death in Nostalgia City
Mark S. Bacon
A Lyle Deming and Kate Sorensen Mystery

He thinks he's on edge now … then people start getting killed&nsbp;…

Uptight has been ex-cop Lyle Deming default setting for years, but his new job, driving a cab in a theme park, promises to cure his chronic anxieties. Nostalgia City is the ultimate resort for anyone who wants to visit the past. A meticulous recreation of an entire small town from the early 1970s, it's complete with period cars, music, clothes, shops, restaurants, hotels — the works. The relaxed theme-park atmosphere is just what Lyle needs — until rides are sabotaged and tourists killed. Then park founder, billionaire "Max" Maxwell, drafts Lyle into investigating — unofficially.

As the violence escalates and employees get rattled, Lyle gets help. Kate Sorensen, the park's PR director — and former college basketball player — becomes another incognito investigator. Except that she's six-foot-two-and-a-half-inches tall and drop-dead gorgeous. So much for incognito.

Together, Lyle and Kate unravel a conspiracy of corporate greed and murder.

        

The Red Ribbon by Rachel B. Ledge is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

The Red Ribbon by Rachel B. Ledge

A Historical Thriller

Publisher: Portico Press

… as today's second free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of November 16, 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.

London 1773. A reluctant clairvoyant struggles to adjust to life after witnessing the confusing demise of her closest friend. Strangled in cold blood by the man she loved.

She returns home after the heart-breaking ordeal to find her manor home falling apart and her headstrong sister is intent on marrying a man of her own choosing, despite all the warnings. When her friend beckons to her from the grave, she is forced to embrace her ability, however unnerving. But nothing will prepare her for the frightening discovery of what really happened that night, and why …

— The Red Ribbon by Rachel B. Ledge

Defending Turquoise by John Ellsworth is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Defending Turquoise by John Ellsworth

A Thaddeus Murfee Legal Thriller

Publisher: Subjudica House

… as today's free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of November 16, 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.

Join Thaddeus Murfee in his new career in Flagstaff, where he is called on to defend the wife of the District Attorney. She has shot her husband to death and admitted it — but what about the mysterious bite marks in all the wrong places?

Watch as sixteen-year-old Turquoise Begay comes on the scene, the beautiful, abandoned Navajo girl living reservation style — with all the wrong people. Learn about her butterflies and lip gloss — and the man who rules them all. Thaddeus is appointed to defend Turquoise by a judge whose goal in life is to see Thaddeus disbarred and ejected from the practice of law.

Unknown to all but one, the two murder cases are joined and become a single raging torrent; as a result, Thaddeus' entire life and career are threatened.

This is the capstone to the young lawyer's career in court. His own life on the record, for all to see and judge, as he undergoes yet another test of his endurance in love, freedom and faith.

— Defending Turquoise by John Ellsworth

Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (141116)

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

• The New Release is Haunted Legends: The Stone Guest (Collector's Edition).

• The Daily Deal is Fairy Tale Mysteries: The Beanstalk, just $2.99 today only!

• The current Catch of the Week is Maestro: Music from the Void, just $2.99 through Sunday, November 16, 2014 only.

• Today's Special Deal — This weekend only: All Standard and Collector's Edition Games are 50% Off! Use coupon code HALF to get any Collector's Edition game for just $9.99; use coupon code OFF to get any Standard game for just $4.99. Offer valid through November 16th, 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 is Haunted Legends: The Stone Guest (Collector's Edition)

Your friend, a brilliant doctor, thought his artificial heart would be the cure for his dying son. But soon after, orphans of the town began to mysteriously vanish, and the town accuses the doctor of black magic. Who is behind these devilish doings? Can your detective work unravel the mystery before the hearts of the captured children stop beating forever? Find out in this exciting Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!

This is a special Collector's Edition release full of exclusive extras you won't find in the standard version, including: Play the Bonus Game to help Leporello one last time; Earn Achievements, replay HOPs and mini-games; Enjoy Concept Art, Music, Wallpapers, and more; and an Available Strategy Guide.

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

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Today's Daily Deal is Fairy Tale Mysteries: The Beanstalk

These are no ordinary beans! As a recently graduated investigator from the Grimm Brothers Institute, you must use all your wits — and your magic — to survive. Ascend the beanstalk to battle the mighty rampaging giant and protect the world from destruction. Find your way through the flower world, moon world, and more with the help from the elemental guardians, protectors of their realms. Revel in both full-scene hidden object quests as well as gorgeous conventional hidden object scenes. Defeat the giant in his castle to claim your reward and save the planet!

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 Maestro: Music from the Void

The Maestro's back in this exciting encore to Notes of Life! Eerie music fills the air in Vienna, where shadows terrorize people in the streets. Two musical prodigies have gone missing. Can you save them without striking a single false note?

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 Vital Minute, A Crime Thriller by Roger Ormerod, New This Week from Endeavour Press

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher, promoting and selling ebook editions of works by new authors as well as bringing out ebook editions of out of print books.

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

The Vital Minute by Roger Ormerod

A Crime Thriller

Publisher: Endeavour Press

Price: $3.99 (as of 11/15/2014 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.

To Ken Beacham, Social Security Inspector, the question seemed quite simple: did Leonard Trent crash his car before or after contacting his Managing Director? On this simple fact rests the entitlement of his widow Virginia Trent to an Industrial Death Pension. But then the violent death of the Managing Director blurs the issue, and Ken Beacham finds himself investigating what could have been a murder.

Steadily and insidiously, the background to Trent's death absorbs him — as does his passion for Kaye Trotter, the last person to have seen Trent alive. Though his marriage is breaking down, and Kaye has introduced a new and unsettling version of the events leading to Leonard Trent's death, Ken feels compelled to persist in his search for the truth.

But could it cost him his wife, his job, and perhaps, Kaye too … ?

— The Vital Minute by Roger Ormerod

The Crucible, A Richard Hannay Thriller by Matt Lynn, New This Week from Endeavour Press

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher, promoting and selling ebook editions of works by new authors as well as bringing out ebook editions of out of print books.

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

The Crucible by Matt Lynn

A Richard Hannay Thriller

Publisher: Endeavour Press

Price: $3.99 (as of 11/15/2014 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.

The year is 1923. Sir Richard Hannay witnesses a murder on the ski slopes of Switzerland, but the local police seem intent on ignoring the crime. The fiancée of the murdered man tracks Hannay down bearing a ring engraved with mysterious runes, left to her by her dead fiancé. She begs him to help find the killer. Hannay is sent undercover on a mission to Europe to uncover the meaning of the ring. It soon emerges that a plot with terrible consequences is being hatched.

The murder was just one piece of the puzzle, and Hannay suspects that his old nemesis, Otto von Schwabing, is pulling the strings behind the scenes. As he gets closer to unravelling the mystery, he finds himself in mortal peril. All around him, political unrest boils just beneath the surface as post-WWI Germany struggles to deal with its new, crushing poverty. An enigmatic, dangerous leader is gaining traction in the south of Germany.

Will Hannay crack the code before the conspirators seize power? Or will a bloody coup plunge Europe into another war?

— The Crucible by Matt Lynn

What Alice Knew, A Novel of Suspense by Paula Marantz Cohen, 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 present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Sourcebooks Landmark …

What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen

A Novel of Suspense

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Price: $2.99 (as of 11/15/2014 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.

An invalid for most her life, Alice James is quite used to people underestimating her. And she generally doesn't mind. But this time she is not about to let things alone. Yes, her brother Henry may be a famous author, and her other brother William a rising star in the new field of psychology. But when they all find themselves quite unusually involved in the chase for a most vile new murderer — one who goes by the chilling name of Jack the Ripper — Alice is certain of two things … No one could be more suited to gather evidence about the nature of the killer than her brothers.

But if anyone is going to correctly examine the evidence and solve the case, it will have to be up to her.

— What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen

The Crown of Venice by Steve Stevenson, a New Agatha, Girl of Mystery Adventure for Cadet Sleuths

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

The Crown of Venice by Steve Stevenson

Series: Agatha, Girl of Mystery

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Format(s): Paperback, eBook

Recommended for Junior Sleuths, Ages 7 to 9

  

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

Agatha and her cousin Dash are hot on the trail of the missing crown of Venice. The ancient relic, worn by the Doges — or Dukes — of Venice, was stolen during the city's famous carnival, and it seems like everyone is a suspect.

— The Crown of Venice by Steve Stevenson

You Can't Stop Me, A Novel of Suspense by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens, 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 present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Pinnacle Books …

You Can't Stop Me by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens

A Novel of Suspense

Publisher: Pinnacle Books

Price: $1.99 (as of 11/15/2014 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.

Smalltown sheriff J.C. Harrow made headlines when he apprehended a would-be presidential assassin — only to come home that night and find his wife and son brutally murdered. This tragic twist of fate launched his career as the host of reality TV's smash-hit, Crime Seen! But while media star Harrow tracks down dangerous criminals coast to coast — with the help of viewers' tips — a killer with a twisted agenda is making his own bloody path to fame …

As the trail of violence draws closer, Harrow goes off script in a manhunt for the psycho who slaughtered his family. The cameras are rolling. And all of America is watching — including a serial killer with a very specific target audience …

— You Can't Stop Me by Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens

Safari by Parnell Hall, New in Bookstores during November 2014

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

Safari by Parnell Hall, a Stanley Hastings Mystery (19th in series)

Publisher: 0

        

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

More about our featured title, below …

Stanley Hastings on safari? I don't think so. Neither did Stanley, until Alice's small inheritance — coupled with scrimping on a few luxuries like food and rent — allowed them to book a group trip to Zambia. Now the New York PI is hiking with lions, canoeing with hippos, and having close encounters with elephants and giraffes.

It's a dangerous safari. The leader is a reckless, gung-ho, great white hunter who delights in leaping from the jeep with a hearty "Come on, gang, let's see where this lion is going!" And a series of bizarre accidents quickly dwindles the group's numbers. Why was the guide's young spotter foolish enough to walk under a sausage fruit tree … just as one of the huge sausage fruits fell? How did the leaves of a poisonous plant wind up in a tourist's salad? Are these really accidents?

A stabbing tips the scale. It's murder, and the only policeman in a hundred miles is a park ranger (whose only murder case was that of an ivory poacher shot dead in plain sight).

It's up to Stanley to crack the case … if he can just avoid being eaten by a lion.

— Safari by Parnell Hall

Perilous Refuge by Kathleen Tailer, New from Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense in November 2014

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

Perilous Refuge by Kathleen Tailer

Imprint: Love Inspired Suspense

  

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

When she witnesses her boss's murder, Chelsea Rogers is forced on the run. Hiding out as a personal assistant to a wealthy matron on a Hawaiian vacation, she hopes to stay off-the-radar. But then Alex Sullivan, her employer's dashing but highly suspicious attorney, starts digging into her identity — and hired guns begin stalking her every move. Another murder leaves her with no choice — she has to trust Alex to have any chance of surviving. But when the threats against her put them both at risk, will the danger she can't outrun cost her the man she's learned to love?

— Perilous Refuge by Kathleen Tailer

Halfhead, A Crime Thriller by Stuart B. MacBride, 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 present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Harper Voyager …

Halfhead by Stuart B. MacBride

A Crime Thriller

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Price: $0.99 (as of 11/15/2014 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.

There are worse things than the death penalty …

They call them halfheads: convicted criminals, surgically mutilated and lobotomized by the State, then sent out to do menial jobs in the community so everyone will know what happens when you break the law. There are no appeals, no reprieves, and no one ever comes back. Until now.

Dr Fiona Westfield, one of the most prolific serial killers Glasgow has ever seen, is waking up. Surrounded by blood and death and darkness.

William Hunter has risen through the ranks since putting Westfield away; now he's Assistant Network Director, in charge of police actions. But a routine murder investigation is about to embroil him in an appalling conspiracy.

The vast connurb blocks on Glasgow's deprived south side are ready to explode. Eleven years ago the VR riots killed millions — now someone wants to start them all over again. And Will is being dragged back into a past he desperately wants to forget …

— Halfhead by Stuart B. MacBride