Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. 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 purchasing it.
Omnimystery News is pleased to feature a selection of Free MystereBooks found on Friday, February 13, 2015 at 6:30 AM ET …
High Lie by A. J. Stewart
A Miami Jones, Florida Mystery
Publisher: Jacaranda Drive
Price: FREE!
Winters Heat by Cristin Harber
A Titan Novel
Publisher: Mill Creek Press
Price: FREE!
Easy Like Sunday Mourning by Jennie Marta
A Page Turners Mystery
Publisher: Jennie Marta
Price: FREE!
Look For Me by Traci Hohenstein
A Rachel Scott Mystery Prequel Novella
Publisher: Traci Hohenstein
Price: FREE!
A Not So Cozy Christmas by Haley Harper
A Shannon Porter Mystery Novella
Publisher: Haley Harper
Price: FREE!
For a summary of all of today's titles, plus any that may have been added since this post was created, visit our Free MystereBooks page. This page is updated daily, typically by 8 AM ET.
Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. 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 purchasing it.
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 …
Bugles at Dawn by Charles Whiting
A Historical Adventure
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Price: $3.99 (as of 02/12/2015 at 6:30 PM ET).
On the eve of the battle of Waterloo, and a meeting with Wellington himself, John Bold flees to India. He joins the 6th Bengal Infantry, and is confronted by a country where peace is an unnatural state as Mahratta chieftains plunder each other's territory.
Riding high as commander of an irregular unit, John Bold is awarded a lieutenant's commission by Lord Hastings, the Governor General. He christens his half-squadron native cavalry formation "Bold's Horse" and spearheads the British break-up of Mahratta power.
Can he stick to the protocol of British India and still remain his own man? Will John and his men complete their mission and escape with their lives? Or will bugles at dawn signal a far worse fate than anything he was fleeing back in Europe.
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.
Millie Munro is the feisty and perceptive young Wedding Venue Manager for an international hotel group. She and her team are managing the busiest weekend of the year with not one, but three weddings taking place at the imposing Corinth Hotel.
However, when the groom drops dead in the middle of the reception for one of the weddings, Millie's career and the hotel's reputation are put at risk. With the hotel manager watching her every move, she must try to protect the hotels' name, and her job, by helping to solve the mystery of who killed the young man.
With a budding romantic interest in her own team, she has to stay focused, keep her boss happy, and put her quick wits and initiative to use trying to identify the murderer.
As the police (and Millie) begin their investigation and the hotel goes into lockdown, clues begin to emerge as to what actually happened, and ultimately who was responsible.
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.
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 …
Sherlock Holmes and the Hammerford Will by John Hall
A Sherlock Holmes Pastiche
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Price: $3.99 (as of 02/12/2015 at 5:30 PM ET).
Sherlock Holmes has retired from solving mysteries. He is set against returning to his old life again. But that all changes when Sir James Damery comes to Sherlock with an unusual plea for help.
He starts to tell Holmes the story of the late Lord Hammerford. Blessed with a fortunate life and good health, tragedy still beckoned. Death fell upon the family one by one, leaving only the child of Lord Hammerford's son as his sole heir. Upon his own passing, an eccentric will is found. Inside lies a fortune of half a million pounds, and the beginning of a treasure hunt to retrieve it.
Lord Hammerford, unsure if his grandson is his own flesh and blood, believes that if he is a true descendant of the Hammerford bloodline, the treasure will be found with ease. And there is an opponent racing to the finish line: Sir George Lewis, the widowed husband of Lord Hammerford's niece. But the heir couldn't possibly solve the riddles on his own, for he is only four years old …
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must race against Sir George Lewis to decipher the clues and restore young Hammerford's rightful inheritance.
— Sherlock Holmes and the Hammerford Will by John Hall
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.
With her loyal furry companion, Edgar by her side, Shannon travels to a small town in Maine to compile more research for her book on famous ghosts. Excited to be staying in a haunted boat house, and eager to experience all the culinary feasts that New England has to offer, Shannon is looking forward to doing a lot of work, a little relaxing and an enormous amount of eating.
But when her dog Edgar makes a frightful discovery on the beach, her plans for work and relaxation are suddenly thrown into turmoil. Who is friend and who is foe?
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.
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 February 2015 and priced $4.99 or less …
When former CIA code-breaker Paul Marcus receives the call he thinks it's a hoax. He's asked to analyze a cache of papers found locked in an old trunk. They were the last manuscripts written by Isaac Newton.
Using Newton's math and notes, Marcus begins to see a pattern leading to a prophecy so frightening that to reveal it will change world events. At the time of his death. Newton was searching for ancient biblical codes that may open a locked window into future events.
Newton helped explain gravity — but could he do the same for human destiny?
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.
Summer, 1643. England is at war with itself. King Charles I has fled London, his negotiations with Parliament in tatters. The country is consumed by bloodshed. For Thomas Hill, a man of letters quietly running a bookshop in the rural town of Romsey, knowledge of the war is limited to the rumours that reach the local inn.
When a stranger knocks on his door one night and informs him that the king's cryptographer has died, everything changes. Aware of Thomas's background as a mathematician and his expertise in codes and ciphers, the king has summoned him to his court in Oxford. On arrival, Thomas soon discovers that nothing at court is straightforward. There is evidence of a traitor in their midst. Brutal murder follows brutal murder. And when a vital message encrypted with a notoriously unbreakable code is intercepted, he must decipher it to reveal the king's betrayer and prevent the violent death that failure will surely bring.
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.
New on the Mystery Bookshelf during February 2015 …
The Forgetting Place by John Burley, A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: William Morrow
Menaker State Hospital is a curse, a refuge, a prison, a necessity, a nightmare, a salvation …
When Dr. Lise Shields arrived at the correctional psychiatric facility five years ago, she was warned that many of its patients — committed by Maryland's judicial system for perpetrating heinous crimes — would never leave.
But what happens when a place like Menaker is corrupted, when it becomes a tool to silence the innocent, conceal an injustice, contain a secret? Why is it that the newest patient does not seem to belong there, that the hospital administrator has fallen silent, and that Lise is being watched by two men with seemingly lethal intent? The answers are closer than she realizes and could cost her everything she holds dear.
City lawyer Beck Hardin hasn't been back to the small town in Texas where he grew up for more than twenty years. He has history there. Bad memories.
But when his wife dies, Beck decides to return to Fredericksburg with his two young children. Leaving the rat race behind, he re-enters a beautiful but troubled small town simmering with ancient feuds, class rivalries and racial tensions.
As he tries to reconcile with his tough, stubborn father, and adjust back to the pace of small-town life, Beck learns of an unsolved case that has haunted Fredericksburg for the past five years. The statute of limitations on the case is fast approaching, and although Beck vowed to leave the law behind him, he can't resist the opportunity to seek justice.
Yet in taking the case on, Beck has made one of the most dangerous decisions of his life …
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.
Today's featured new hardcover mystery, suspense, or thriller title scheduled to be published during February 2015 is …
A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody, a Kate Shackleton Mystery (4th in series)
Publisher: Minotaur Books
The Woman Unknown: Deirdre Fitzpatrick is married to a man who wants to know where she really goes when supposedly taking care of her sick mother and calls on the expertise of Kate Shackleton, amateur sleuth extraordinaire to investigate.
The Gentleman: Everett Runcie is a banker facing ruin and disgrace. His American heiress wife will no longer pay for his mistakes, or tolerate his infidelity, and is seeking a divorce.
The Murder: When a chambermaid enters Runcie's hotel room, she is shocked to find that he is alone — and dead! Suddenly Kate is thrown into the depths of an altogether more sinister investigation. Can she uncover the truth of her most complex, and personal, case to date?
New on the Mystery Bookshelf during February 2015 …
February Fever by Jess Lourey, A Murder-by-Month Mystery (10th in series)
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Mira James's hot and heavy relationship with boyfriend Johnny Leeson is definitely warming up her winter. But when Johnny has to go to Portland, Oregon, for a month-longth internship, airplane-averse Mira lets her septuagenarian friend Mrs. Berns talk her into a visit. On the plus side, Mira can make the trip a tax write-off by attending the International Private Investigator Conference. On the down side, Mrs. Berns books them — much to Mira's dismay — on the Valentine Train, a place for singles to meet and mingle.
After a few glasses of champagne and Mrs. Berns' encouragement, Mira begins to relax and enjoy herself … until a fellow passenger is murdered and a snowstorm traps the train in the Rockies. If Mira can't track down the killer, she may end up derailed — permanently.
After nearly twenty years in prison on a murder conviction, Jesse Damon has been released, a home detention monitor strapped to his ankle. Determined to make it and mindful of his parole restrictions, he struggles with life outside prison. He finds a basement apartment, a job on the overnight shift at a steel fabrication plant and a few people who treat him like anybody else. Especially Kelly, a woman who works in the shipping department. He seems to be making it.
Until Mitch, forklift driver on the shift, is found murdered in the warehouse. Investigating detective doesn't want to look any further than Jesse to close the case He's not fussy about the methods he uses to gather evidence. If Jesse isn't going down for this, he will have to be the one to figure out who killed Mitch and why.
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.
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 February 2015 and priced $4.99 or less …
Running Game by Trevor Scott
A Tony Caruso Mystery (3rd in series)
Publisher: Salvo Press
Price: $2.99 (as of 02/12/2015 at 12:30 PM ET).
When Tony Caruso is hired to go undercover for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he has no idea that his life will change forever in the remote mountains of Oregon. He is tasked to track down an Asian ring of smugglers who are killing black bears for gallbladders and shooting elk and deer in velvet for their antlers. He narrowly escapes with his life, but follows the smugglers to Portland. Eventually, he ends up in the southern Cascades in the mushroom fields, where he must fight not only the Asian game smugglers, but Asian gangs from San Francisco and Seattle.
As Tony tightens the noose around the smugglers, the case becomes personal. Now he must encounter these brutal killers in the remote forest, where his survival depends on his own military training and his favorite sidekick, Panzer, his giant schnauzer and former German military working dog.
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.
We are delighted to welcome back mystery author Lauren Carr to Omnimystery News.
Lauren regularly visits us with guest posts, but we haven't had a chance to catch up with her directly in quite some time. So it was a thrill to spend some time with her talking about her mysteries, the most recent of which is Three Days To Forever (Acorn Book Services; January 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats), the ninth in her Mac Faraday series.
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Omnimystery News: When you wrote your first mystery, did you know at the time how the characters would evolve over time?
Photo provided courtesy of Lauren Carr
Lauren Carr: I didn't set out to center my books around a recurring character, who has now grown into a group of recurring characters. It simply happened.
My first two books were the Joshua Thornton Mysteries. The primary character was Joshua Thornton, a single father of five children, who returns to his small town in West Virginia where he becomes prosecuting attorney. A Small Case of Murder was released in 2004.
Then, in 2010, I released my new series, the Mac Faraday Mysteries. Mac Faraday is a retired homicide detective who inherits two-hundred-seventy million dollars on the day the divorce from his cheating wife becomes final. He moves to Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland where he starts a new life, solving mysteries instead of playing golf or tennis.
But then, some readers of the Joshua Thornton mysteries asked me to return to Joshua. Keep in mind, this is five years after I had written the last Joshua Thornton Mystery. So, I asked myself, "Where would Joshua be now?" His children are grown and he is ready for romance.
That was when I introduced Joshua to Homicide Detective Cameron Gates and they became the Lovers in Crime.
I guess this answers your question about do my characters stay the same, or do they change. Honestly, I grew up reading Agatha Christie and Earl Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason never changed. Yet, I find that my characters are doing a natural transformation, like real people, as the circumstances in their lives change.
In Three Days To Forever, I introduce Joshua's son Murphy to Mac Faraday's daughter Jessica. These two characters are spinning off into the Thorny Rose Mysteries and, it is a given that their characters will change as their romance progresses and they adjust to their new lives together. It will be quite interesting to watch how these two young adults, off-spring of great detectives, the next generation handle crime in the big-bad city of Washington, D.C.
OMN: Into which mystery subgenre do you place your books?
LC: I started categorizing my books as "gritty cozies." But I find that they are moving more into a police procedural category.
In her review for Three Days To Forever, Glenda Bixler at Book Reader's Heaven wrote in her five-star review, "The reason why this intrigued me was the cross-genres of this latest book! Actually, it has all of my favorites in this beautiful mix: Action, Mystery, Police Procedure, Romantic Suspense, and most of all Thriller. With this book, in my opinion, Lauren Carr has taken a major move in the complexity and diversity of her books. They are certainly not cozies any more …".
OMN: What was your greatest challenge in writing Three Days To Forever?
LC: Raising the bar. The storyline came to me, "What if the war on terror came to Deep Creek Lake?" Because terrorists are a whole different type of criminal, I knew that it would not be a standard cozy like some of my readers have come to expect from me. As one character says in Three Days To Forever, "These guys aren't going to give you a chance to read them their rights."
Also, I am very aware that the whole issue of terrorism is controversial to some. But, I'm fearless when it comes to a literary challenge. Good writers are like athletes. If you want to improve, you need to write every day, or your writing muscles will get weak. If you don't challenge yourself, then your writing will get stale, not just for you doing the writing, but for your readers.
OMN: How true are you to the settings of your stories?
LC: The Mac Faraday Mysteries take place in Spencer, (a fictional town) set on Deep Creek Lake (a real lake) in western Maryland. The Spencer Inn, the five-star resort that Mac Faraday owns, is not real. I based it on Snowshoe, which is located in central West Virginia. I have actually received emails asking for contact information to the Spencer Inn because readers want to go stay there, which is surprising when you consider how many guests I have murdered in that hotel.
While Spencer is a fictional town, I have stayed true to the local environment. Deep Creek Lake is a resort area in western Maryland. There are a lot of seasonal residents from metropolitan Washington DC.
The Thorny Rose Mysteries, which is a spin-off from the Mac Faraday Mysteries, will be taking place in the real location of Washington, DC. Jessica and Murphy will be living in a brownstone on the waterfront along the Potomac River. I'm looking forward to researching that.
OMN: We know you keep busy. What's next for you?
LC: I am working on two books that I expect to be released later this spring, early summer.
Open Season for Murder is the next Mac Faraday Mystery. Summer season is the busiest time of the year at Deep Creek Lake, when the seasonal residents return to their summer homes around the lake.
But all is not sunshine and happiness when a television producer and his protégé-slash-mistress swoop in to reunite all of the suspects in the missing persons case of Ashton Piedmont, a young debutante who had disappeared five years earlier.
What at first appears to be yet another annoyance by a so-called journalist exploiting a tragedy breaks into a major murder case when Gnarly uncovers Ashton's body … after which someone starts killing off the reunited suspects one-by-one.
But wait! There's more!
Kill and Run will be the first Thorny Rose Mystery, featuring the Lovers in Crime.
Chester, West Virginia, is in the throes of preparing for what promises to be the social event of the year — the wedding of Joshua Thornton's little girl to Hunter Gardner.
While the Thornton family is busting with excitement about the big day, Cameron is struggling with pain-filled memories of another wedding day so long ago — followed much too soon by an even larger funeral. All hope to push her grief far into the past is dashed when the FBI arrives with news about her late husband. A recently arrested hit man has confessed to killing her husband as a contract hit. The identity of who had arranged the hit, and why, is unknown — but whoever it was had to have deep pockets to hire this assassin.
Determined to learn the truth about her late husband's death, Cameron sets out for Washington, DC, to interrogate the hit man herself.
Worried for his wife's well-being, Joshua, who is stuck at home due to wedding and professional obligations, reaches out to his newly married son Murphy Thornton (who is up to his ears in his first official murder case) and his bride Jessica Faraday to keep Cameron safe, catch a killer, and get her home in time for Tracy and Hunter's wedding.
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Lauren Carr is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She also passes on what she has learned in her years of writing and publishing by conducting workshops and teaching in community education classes.
The owner of Acorn Book Services, Lauren is also a publishing manager, consultant, editor, cover and layout designer, and marketing agent for independent authors. This year, several books, over a variety of genre, written by independent authors will be released through the management of Acorn Book Services, which is currently accepting submissions. Visit the Acorn Book Services website for more information.
Lauren lives with her husband, son, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Three Days To Forever Lauren Carr A Mac Faraday Mystery
With three days left to the year, Deep Creek Lake is hopping with holiday vacationers and wedding guests pouring into the Spencer Inn for Mac Faraday and Archie Monday's huge wedding ceremony which is being touted as the social event of the year.
But droopy flowers and guests who failed to RSVP are the least of Mac's and Archie's problems when a professional hit squad hits Spencer Manor to send the groom, Joshua Thornton, Archie's mother, and Gnarly running for their lives.
With time running out to the big day, Mac Faraday and Spencer's small police force have to sort through the clues to figure out not only who has been targeted for assassination, but also who is determined to stop everything … FOREVER!
