Book Trends, a review site for young adult's and children's books, published several new book reviews this past week. We're presenting here a summary of those in the mystery/suspense/thriller category.
One Came Home by Amy Timberlake. Lexile measure: 690L (ages 11 to 13). Reviewed by a 6th grade student, who writes, "This story would be certainly liked by everybody. I mean who doesn't like a page-turning mystery, quest, and adventure book? It is also thrilling." (Read the full review of this mystery novel here.)
For more reviews of children and young adult books of all genres, visit Book Trends; their reviews will amaze you! You can also follow Book Trends on Twitter.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Reviews of Mystery and Suspense Books for Kids, New This Week on Book Trends (130330)
MystereBooks: Two Sherri Travis Mysteries by Phyllis Smallman, Now at a Special Price
MystereBooks is pleased to feature the first two mysteries in the "Sherri Travis" series by Phyllis Smallman, now available at a special price, courtesy of the author.
The ebook format of these titles were priced at $1.99 each from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (03/30/2013 at 8:00 AM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Margarita Nights by Phyllis Smallman
A Sherri Travis Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: McArthur & Company
In a small Florida beach town, Sherri Travis is a bartender with attitude and a woman with an inconveniently murdered husband who turns out to be as much trouble to her dead as he was alive.
Sifting through the debris of Jimmy's life, Sherri finds more than a few people who wanted her lying, scheming, scam artist husband gone — but which one actually did the deed?
Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.
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Sex in a Sidecar by Phyllis Smallman
A Sherri Travis Mystery (2nd in series)
Publisher: McArthur & Company
Florida has two seasons. The rainy season brings hurricanes, the dry season delivers tourists — both can be nasty.
Sherri Travis is tending bar at the Bath and Tennis Club where two women have been murdered. A rich socialite, who comes in daily for her quota of side-cars, decides to commit suicide by being the next victim, but first she has to decide who the murderer is.
Important Note: These books were listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
The Philosopher's Game by Steve Jovanoski is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Philosopher's Game by Steve Jovanoski as today's fifth free mystery ebook (A Novel of Suspense; Kindle format only).
This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, March 30, 2013 at 7:50 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of 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.
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The Philosopher's Game
Steve Jovanoski
A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: PocketRocket Press
Turning his passion for philosophy into a career was meant to be a defining moment for Julian. At a young age, he'd become a lecturer at a prestigious university. But Julian's life hasn't worked out as planned, and soon he finds that the only reprieve from his humdrum existence is the intellectual debating that takes place in his lectures.
When Julian receives a mysterious email that promises change — something he has long desired — he finds the offer impossible to refuse. All he has to do is play The Game and play it by its rules. Julian quickly learns that when the rules of The Game are broken, penalties apply. People around him are murdered and his own life is thrown into jeopardy.
He discovers that a secret organisation, The Philosophers' Society, is behind it all. They're experimenting with people's lives and they're after something powerful. Thrown together with one of his students, the alluring Isabella, Julian finds an unlikely ally in the deadly game. Together they find themselves on the run from The Philosophers' Society and its sadistic killer Isaiah.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Battle Axe by Bill Cokas is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Battle Axe by Bill Cokas as today's fourth free mystery ebook (A Novel of Suspense; Kindle format only).
This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, March 30, 2013 at 7:40 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of 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.
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Battle Axe
Bill Cokas
A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: CreateSpace
When his father plays the sax, he blows crowds away. But when Dorsey Duquesne picks up a guitar, he simply blows. Though he's a wealthy software entrepreneur, music just isn't in his blood — and neither is his father's DNA. When his mother Cherry reveals (at his father's funeral, of all places) he was adopted at birth, Dorsey's tin ear suddenly makes sense. But it also leaves the 40-year-old questioning his identity. Emotionally adrift, he hires a one-eyed strip-mall detective, hoping the missing pieces will provide the peace he's been missing. Meanwhile Cherry, along with Dorsey's wife and best friend, are colluding to keep him from finding the long-buried truth about his "adoption".
A yellowed, anonymous letter leads the vulnerable Dorsey to a dusty vineyard in the Black Forest — and straight to a jitterbugging, strudel-baking redhead named Mitzi, who claims to be his birth mother. Employing a well-rehearsed charm, she slowly wins him over — and away from his family. While in Germany, and with the help of the axe-wielding village night watchman, Dorsey does some long-overdue growing up. But will his eyes open in time to see his new "mom" has a darker agenda? And will he realize the true definition of family before it's too late?
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Matinicus by Darcy Scott is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Matinicus by Darcy Scott as today's third free mystery ebook (An Island Mystery; Kindle format only).
This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, March 30, 2013 at 7:30 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of 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.
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Matinicus
Darcy Scott
An Island Mystery
Publisher: Maine Authors
Steeped in Maine island lore, this century-spanning double mystery pits a renegade fishing community against an unhappy child-bride of the 1820s, a defiant twenty-first-century teen, and a hard-drinking botanist — Dr. Gil Hodges — who escapes to the island of Matinicus to avoid a crazed ex-lover and verify a rumored 22 species of wild orchid, only to find himself hounded by the ghost of a child some two-hundred years dead.
If Gil's hoping for peace and quiet, he's clearly come to the wrong place. Generations of infighting among loose-knit lobstering clans have left them openly hostile to outsiders. When a beautiful, bed-hopping stranger sails into the harbor, old resentments re-ignite and people begin to die — murders linked, through centuries of violence, to a diary whose secrets threaten to tear the island apart.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Hounds of Autumn by Heather Blackwood is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Hounds of Autumn by Heather Blackwood as today's second free mystery ebook (A Steampunk Thriller; Kindle format only).
This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, March 30, 2013 at 7:20 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of 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.
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Hounds of Autumn
Heather Blackwood
A Steampunk Thriller
Publisher: Triple Hare Press
They say that the moor has eyes.
It is 1890, and the windswept moors hold dark secrets. Chloe Sullivan is an amateur inventor whose holiday takes a dark turn when her friend and colleague, one of the few female mechanical experts in the British Empire, is murdered.
A black mechanical hound roams the moors, but could it have killed a woman? And what secrets are concealed within the dark family manor?
Accompanied by her naturalist husband and clockwork cat, Chloe is determined to see her friend's killer found.
But some secrets have a terrible cost.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Forsaken by Andrew Van Wey is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Forsaken by Andrew Van Wey as today's free mystery ebook (A Novel of Art, Evil, and Insanity; Kindle format only).
This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, March 30, 2013 at 7:10 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of 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.
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Forsaken
Andrew Van Wey
A Novel of Art, Evil, and Insanity
Publisher: Greywood Bay
A beautiful house, a loving wife. Two kids, a dog, and a professorship teaching art restoration at the local university. Your name is Dan Rineheart. You've got it all.
On the cusp of autumn a mysterious painting arrives. No name. No date. No signature or frame. Only a note that reads: Here in art, denial. It's a disturbing work of grotesque perfection; two children with cruel eyes, a window onto an endless field, and a dying tree on top of a hill. A work of art … that changes with each viewing.
Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Six Stephenie Meyer Novels are Today's Kindle Daily Deal
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Six Stephenie Meyer Novels as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. All four books in "The Twilight Saga", an "Eclipse" novella, and her latest novel, The Host, are included in today's deal.
The deal price of $2.99 each is valid only for today, Saturday, March 30, 2013.
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Six Stephenie Meyer Novels
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown
Bella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear.
Important Note: This book was listed at the price mentioned above on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Telemystery: Season Premiere Dates for The Killing, True Blood, and Copper
We have three telemystery series season premiere dates for you today.
• The Killing Season 3 with a two-hour episode on Sunday, June 2nd at 8 PM (ET/PT) on AMC.
• True Blood Season 6 on Sunday, June 16th at 10 PM (ET/PT) on HBO.
• Copper Season 2 on Sunday, June 23rd at 10 PM (ET/PT) on BBC America.
Keep up to date on the status of your favorite mystery and suspense television with our Telemystery Scoresheet. We've updated it with today's news.
Review: Deadly Virtues by Jo Bannister
A Mysterious Review of …
Deadly Virtues by Jo Bannister.
Review summary: This is an exceptionally well-crafted mystery, headlined by two extraordinary leads, who are about as endearing as characters come. The murder mystery storyline is clever and deceptively simple, and plays to the strengths of both characters. It would be a crime, as it were, if these two did not make a return appearance. (Click here for text of full review.)
Our rating:
Deadly Virtues
Jo Bannister
Minotaur Books (March 2013)
Publisher synopsis: The town of Norbold, England is famous for its low crime rate, thanks to the zero-tolerance policy of Chief Superintendent John Fountain. And Norbold's newest police recruit, Hazel Best, is happy to help keep it that way. But numbers never tell the whole story, do they?
Jerome Cardy knew he was going to die. He also knew that it would be made to appear like an accident. He might not be able to prevent it, but Jerome was determined to make sure that someone knew what was going to happen — even if that someone was a man with a concussion lying with his dog in a jail cell next to him.
After Jerome is found beaten to death by a fellow inmate in another cell, Ash is unable to forget Jerome's last awkward words to him: "I had a dog once. Othello. That was its name. Othello." Certain there is a hidden message in these words, Ash is determined to discover the truth. But it won't be easy — no one believes his account of that night. And Hazel Best must decide whether pursuing the truth is worth her career.
MystereBooks: Law and Order by Dorothy Uhnak, Now at a Special Price
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Law and Order by Dorothy Uhnak, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Open Road.
The ebook format of this title was priced at $1.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (03/29/2013 at 3:00 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Law and Order by Dorothy Uhnak
Publisher: Open Road
First published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster in 1973, this crime novel was adapted for the 1976 made-for-television movie Law and Order.
Harlem, just before midnight. A New York Police Department cop and his partner pull up in front of a tenement. A short while later, Sergeant Brian O'Malley is dead from a stab wound to the jugular, and a prostitute has fallen down an airshaft to oblivion.
A few years after his father is given a hero's funeral, Brian Thomas O'Malley Jr. graduates from the police academy. As he rises quickly through the ranks of the NYPD, O'Malley discovers that some secrets are better left buried. Through the ensuing decades, as he raises a family of his own, O'Malley must cope with the fallout of a cover-up, until a fresh crime brings the plot full circle. Will the son have to pay for the sins of the father?
Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
MystereBooks: Criminal Intent by Sheldon Siegel, Now at a Special Price
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Criminal Intent by Sheldon Siegel, now available at a special price, courtesy of the author.
The ebook format of this title was priced at $0.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (03/29/2013 at 2:30 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Criminal Intent by Sheldon Siegel
A Mike Daley Legal Thriller (3rd in series)
Publisher: Sheldon Siegel
First publisher in hardcover by Putnam in 2002.
You can pick your friends, they say, but you can't pick your family. And lately, Mike Daley's family has been keeping him very busy.
An ex-priest, ex-public defender, and ex-corporate lawyer, Daley and his former wife, Rosie Fernandez, now run their own San Francisco criminal defense firm. Most of their cases are fairly small-time, which is why it would be surprising that the person accused of murdering movie director Richard (Big Dick) MacArthur is calling them — except that the accused is Rosie's own niece, Angelina.
That case is bad enough, but the family problems don't end there: Rosie's brother, Tony, may be on the wrong end of a strong-arm graft proposal; the son of one of the firm's lawyers has just been busted on a drug charge; Mike is having a clandestine affair with a woman judge … and Rosie herself has a dark secret that may make all of it seem irrelevant.
Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.
Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
MystereBooks: The Burning by Jane Casey, Now at a Special Price
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Burning by Jane Casey, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Minotaur Books.
The ebook format of this title was priced at $2.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (03/29/2013 at 2:00 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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The Burning by Jane Casey
A Maeve Kerrigan Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Minotaur Books
The Burning Man. It's the name the media has given a brutal murderer who has beaten four young women to death before setting their bodies ablaze in secluded areas of London's parks. And now there's a fifth.
Maeve Kerrigan is an ambitious detective constable, keen to make her mark on the murder task force. Her male colleagues believe Maeve's empathy makes her weak, but the more she learns about the latest victim, Rebecca Haworth, from her grieving friends and family, the more determined Maeve becomes to bring her murderer to justice. But how do you catch a killer no one has seen when so much of the evidence has gone up in smoke?
Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
MystereBooks: Dead Shot, a Sniper Thriller by Jack Coughlin, Now at a Special Price
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Dead Shot by Jack Coughlin with Donald A. Davis, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, St. Martin's Press.
The ebook format of this title was priced at $2.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (03/29/2013 at 1:30 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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Dead Shot by Jack Coughlin with Donald A. Davis
A Sniper Thriller (2nd in series)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
In Baghdad's Green Zone, an Iraqi scientist is murdered just before he is to reveal the monstrous secret that Saddam Hussein took to his grave: the Palace of Death, home to a chemical weapon that Islamic militants quietly have been developing and whose formula is nearly complete. The assassination is the work of a mysterious sniper called Juba, who was originally trained by the British but now works with a twisted mastermind determined to wrest leadership of the terrorist world from Al Qaeda.
Kyle Swanson, once the top sniper in the Marine Corps, has become the key member in a secret special operations team known as Task Force Trident. When Juba tests the new weapon by killing hundreds of people at a British royal wedding in London, Swanson is assigned to hunt down his old special ops rival.
The birth of a new reign of global terror can be stopped only by a confrontation between the two best snipers in the world, a duel in which the first shot wins. Usually.
Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.