Twice Bitten by Joe Perrone Jr. is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Twice Bitten by Joe Perrone Jr. as today's free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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.

— ♦ —

Twice Bitten
Joe Perrone Jr.
A Matt Davis Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace

This is the third mystery in this series.

While in prison, Ron Trentweiler, a petty thief, is befriended by an itinerant preacher and gets "religion." Upon his release, he founds a small, storefront Pentecostal-style church in his native, rural Alabama.

Enter Winona Stepp, a visitor at one of his services who seems to know all about "Brother Ron," as he has taken to calling himself, yet insists upon keeping her past to herself. Things go smoothly for the pair, that is until Winona suggests using venomous snakes in their "act" and all hell breaks loose. Eventually, they make their way north into Matt's "backyard," where things take a murderous twist. What secrets are hiding in Winona's closet? Is Brother Ron exactly who he appears to be? Is he a religious convert or just a con man?

  

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.

The Spy Lover by Kiana Davenport is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Spy Lover by Kiana Davenport as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Friday, October 12, 2012.

— ♦ —

The Spy Lover
Kiana Davenport
Thomas & Mercer

Fleeing drought and famine in China, Johnny Tom arrives in America with dreams of becoming a citizen. Having survived vigilantes hunting "yellow dogs" and slave auction-blocks, Johnny is kidnapped from his Mississippi village by Confederate soldiers, taken from his wife and daughter, and forced to fight for the South. Eventually defecting to the Union side, he is promised American citizenship in exchange for his loyal services. But first Johnny must survive the butchery of battles and the cruelties inflicted on non-white soldiers.

Desperate to find Johnny, his daughter, Era, is enlisted as a spy. She agrees to work as a nurse at Confederate camps while scouting for the North. Amidst the unspeakable carnage of wounded soldiers, she finds solace in Warren Petticomb, a cavalryman who lost an arm at Shiloh. As devastation mounts in both armies, Era must choose where her loyalties lie — with her beloved father in the North, or with the man who passionately sustains her in the South.

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.

Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending October 12, 2012

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending October 12th, 2012 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

The stand-alone thriller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn remains at the top of the list for the umpteenth week. Only one new title enters the list (position in parentheses) this week.

— ♦ —

(7): NYPD Red
James Patterson and Marshall Karp

They are sworn to protect and serve … New York's rich and famous …

It's the start of Hollywood on Hudson, and New York City is swept up in the glamour. Every night, the red carpet rolls out for movie stars arriving at premieres in limos; the most exclusive restaurants close for private parties for wealthy producers and preeminent directors; and thousands of fans gather with the paparazzi, hoping to catch a glimpse of the most famous and beautiful faces in the world. With this many celebrities in town, special task force NYPD Red is on high alert-and they can't afford to make a single mistake.

Then a world-renowned producer fatally collapses at his power breakfast, and top NYPD Red Detective Zach Jordan is the first one on the scene. Zach works with his beautiful new partner, Detective Kylie MacDonald-who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend-to discover who the murderer might be. But this is only the beginning: the most brutal, public, and horrifyingly spectacular crimes they've ever encountered are about to send all of New York into chaos, putting NYPD Red on the ropes.

Zach and Kylie know there's no way of telling what a killer this deranged will do next. With the whole world watching, they have to find a way to stop a psychopath who has scripted his finale down to the last explosive detail.

            

First Trailer for Hitchcock

Earlier this week we featured the striking poster for Hitchcock. Today we have the first trailer released by the studio (embedded below).

Anthony Hopkins stars as filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma Reville. Taking place during the making of Psycho, Hitchcock is described by the studio as primarily a love story.

Directed by Sacha Gervasi from an screenplay written by John J. McLaughlin and based on the book Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello, Hitchcock will premiere on November 1st at the AFI Festival and will be in limited release on November 23rd, 2012.

— ♦ —

Four Fall 2012 Pilots Free To Own from Amazon Instant Video

If you missed the pilot episode of CBS's Elementary a few weeks ago — as we did, even forgetting to record it — you can download (and own) a free copy from Amazon Instant Video.

We haven't quite figured out the best way of searching for free videos on Amazon.com. You can visit this page, which lists some of them, but certainly not all. (The pilot episodes of Last Resort, Nashville, and Elementary were shown when we looked, but not Chicago Fire, which is free, too.)

And for those of you who have iPads and such, three of these pilots are also available for free from iTunes: Elementary, Nashville, and Chicago Fire.

You can always, of course, watch these episodes for free on the networks' websites. But sometimes it's more convenient to watch them on your own personal device(s).

— ♦ —

Important Note: Any prices mentioned above were correct as of the date and time of this post. 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 video before completing your transaction.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (121011)

Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com, which includes a list of both the Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free Kindle Mysteries and Thrillers.

This Weekend Only: MCF Ravenhearst for 99 cents from BFG

This weekend only, from today through Sunday, October 14th, Big Fish Games is discounting one of the popular games in the Mystery Case Files series, MCF: Ravenhearst, to just 99 cents!

Rumors surrounding the history of stately Ravenhearst Manor have circulated for decades. The recently acquired diary of Emma Ravenhearst may hold the key to unraveling the tale behind this unsettling place, yet the pages are missing. Players assume the role of Master Detective to unlock secrets held within Ravenhearst, scouring myriad enchanting rooms in the manor for cleverly hidden clues. Locating and assembling diary pages helps tell the story of the house and, ultimately, unlock the mystery.

Visit the BFG website to learn more about the game and to purchase. At checkout, use the coupon code RAVEN99 to get the discounted price. This special price is only available through October 14th, 2012.

Watch a trailer for the game below.

A Conversation with D. J. McIntosh

with D. J. McIntosh

We are delighted to welcome novelist D. J. McIntosh to Omnimystery News today, courtesy of Tor Books.

D. J.'s debut novel The Witch of Babylon (Tor Books, October 2012 hardcover and ebook formats) was short-listed for the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Award, and won a Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished novel.

We recently had a chance to talk to the author about her new book. And she's giving our readers a chance to win a copy of The Witch of Babylon; details below.

— ♦ —

Omnimystery News: You're introducing a new series character in The Witch of Babylon. Tell us a little more about him and the series.

Photo provided courtesy of
D. J. McIntosh

D. J. McIntosh: John Madison is a naturalized American born in Turkey, now a New York art dealer raised by his much older brother, a star scholar in archaeology. Madison has always felt second best next to his brother and in The Witch of Babylon, the first of a trilogy, Madison is reeling from grief over the car accident that took his brother's life. I see the trilogy as less of an individual series and more like three volumes of one book. Over the period encompassing the three volumes, Madison emerges out from under the shadow of his famous older brother to become his own man.

I consider the book to be a historical thriller, or maybe an antiquities thriller, set in contemporary times.

OMN: How did you approach developing the storyline?

DJM: I'm writing a male lead character, who is based in Iraq, a country I wasn't able to visit, and it includes a great deal of Mesopotamian history. That said, all three elements were instinctively where I wanted to go. The last two required a great deal of research — which I loved — and I was fortunate to be able to rely on the many photos and stories of journalists based in Iraq.

I write detailed outlines and synopses but not character studies. A good plot is vital to a satisfying thriller and for that, you need to know where you're going. Twists are also, I believe, vital to a good read and they don't usually come accidentally.

I did a great deal of fact checking and research. I relied on books, the internet and media articles. The research took years. But the subject matter fascinates me — alchemy and ancient Mesopotamia — so it was a labor of love, so to speak. The most challenging element was getting names and expressions in the Assyrian language correct. The most exciting was discovering how many bible stories had their origins in Mesopotamian mythology.

OMN: Iraq seems to be not only an important element to the story, but an integral one as well.

DJM: It is. I think the more convincing and well described the setting is, the richer and deeper the novel is. The setting is fundamentally important to the plot as a lot of action arises out of the particular elements of the location. This is especially true for antiquity thrillers where archaeological sites are featured.

I try to write cinematically as well, and always have images in my mind as I'm writing.

OMN: What about images of characters? If The Witch of Babylon were casting today for a film adaptation, who do you see as the lead actors?

DJM: For John Madison — Christian Bale (in his softer moments). For the female lead Laurel Vanderlin — Kirsten Stewart. And for the chief bad guy — Michael Madsen.

OMN: What kinds of books and movies do you enjoy reading and watching yourself?

DJM: Authors I admire are so numerous it would take pages to name them all but here are a few: Michael Koryta (The Ridge), Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose), Michael Cox (The Meaning of Night), and Arturo Perez Reverte (The Club Dumas).

I love pretty much all suspense films (as opposed to action movies) where you spend most of the movie sitting on the edge of your seat. Some of my favorites are: Chinatown, Sleuth, Traffic, The Usual Suspects, Body of Lies.

OMN: How to you engage with readers?

DJM: I really enjoy live speaking engagements, especially those that are informal. There's nothing like getting a great dialogue and conversation going.

OMN: What about life outside of writing? Any hobbies or special interests?

DJM: I love music, listen to it a lot especially rock instrumental guitar. Music has a heavy influence on my writing and just coincidentally, my lead character loves it too! Enjoy going to museums and adore browsing through bookstores. All these pastimes find their way into my books.

I'm very fond of dogs and have always had them as pets. My top five favorites would be: Golden Retriever (predictable I know), Border Collie, West Highland White Terrier, Long Haired German Shepherd and Bernese Mountain Dog.

OMN: What's next for you?

DJM: I'm just finishing Book 2 in the trilogy called The Book of Lost Tales. In it, John Madison hunts for a rare 17th century Italian Anthology of Fairy Tales. As his quest deepens, he finds the dark origins of several famous fairy tales seem to come to life and lead to the ancient site of a Mesopotamian version of hell.

— ♦ —

D. J. (Dorothy) McIntosh is the former co-editor of the Crime Writers of Canada's newsletter, Fingerprints, and is a Toronto-based writer of novels and short mystery fiction.

When not staring at the proverbial computer screen, or walking her golden retriever, she indulges in the great venues that a big metropolis has to offer: films, galleries and museums and a special affection for any live music that features rock/blues guitar. In the summer, she swings to the polar opposite of this and spends four or so months enjoying the famous sunsets and wild beauty of Lake Huron shores at her cottage.

Learn more about the author and her trilogy of thrillers on her website, BabylonTrilogy.com. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

— ♦ —

The Witch of Babylon
D. J. McIntosh
A John Madison Thriller (1st in series)
Publisher: Tor Books

Out of the searing heat and sandstorms of the infamous summer of 2003 in Baghdad comes The Witch of Babylon, a gripping story rooted in ancient Assyrian lore and its little-known but profound significance for the world.

John Madison is a Turkish-American art dealer raised by his much older brother, Samuel, a mover and shaker in New York's art world. Caught between his brother's obsession with saving a priceless relic looted from Iraq's National Museum and a deadly game of revenge staged by his childhood friend, John must solve a puzzle to find the link between a modern-day witch and an ancient one.

Aided by Tomas, an archaeologist, and Ari, an Iraqi photojournalist — two men with their own secrets to hide — John races against time to decipher a biblical prophecy that leads to the dark history behind the science of alchemy. Kidnapped by villainous fortune hunters, John is returned to Iraq, where a fabulous treasure trove awaits discovery — if he can stay alive long enough to find it.

      

— ♦ —

For a chance to win a copy of The Witch of Babylon, courtesy of the publisher, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "D. J. McIntosh: The Witch of Babylon" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code — 3874 — for a chance to win! (One entry per person; US residents only. Contest ends October 18th, 2012.)

The Lion, the Lamb, and the Hunted by Andrew E. Kaufman is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Lion, the Lamb, and the Hunted by Andrew E. Kaufman as today's third free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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.

— ♦ —

The Lion, the Lamb, and the Hunted
Andrew E. Kaufman
Publisher: Straightline Press

She only stepped outside for a minute …

But a minute was all it took to turn Jean Kingsley's world upside down — a minute she'd regret for the rest of her life.

Because when she returned, she found an open bedroom window and her three-year-old son, Nathan, gone. The boy would never be seen again.

A tip leads detectives to the killer, a repeat sex offender, and inside his apartment, a gruesome discovery. A slam-dunk trial sends him off to death row, then several years later, to the electric chair.

Now, more than thirty years later, Patrick Bannister unwittingly stumbles across evidence among his dead mother's belongings — it paints her as the killer and her brother, a wealthy and powerful senator, as the one pulling the strings.

There's a hole in the case a mile wide, and Patrick is determined to close it. But what he doesn't know is that the closer he moves toward the truth, the more he's putting his life on the line, that he’s become the hunted. Someone's hiding a dark secret and will stop at nothing to keep it that way.

The clock is ticking, the walls are closing, and the stakes are getting higher as he races to find a killer — one who's hot on his trail. One who's out for his blood.

  

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.

Trial and Terror by Adam L. Penenberg is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Trial and Terror by Adam L. Penenberg as today's second free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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.

— ♦ —

Trial and Terror
Adam L. Penenberg
Publisher: Wayzgoose Press

The good news is that public defender Summer Neuwirth just won her first case, which involved a brutal rape and kidnapping.

The bad news? Her client was guilty.

What's more, he knows all about Summer's past.

As Summer pursues her next case, this time to keep an innocent woman off death row, elements of that past — a mysterious case of childhood amnesia, her police officer father's involvement with a serial killer, a terrifying attack she survived just months earlier — entwine with her present legal work, her missing mother, and her rocky relationship with a private investigator, all of which culminate in a thrilling trial … and terror.

  

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.

Final Dictation by L. M. Vincent is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Final Dictation by L. M. Vincent as today's free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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.

— ♦ —

Final Dictation
L. M. Vincent
Publisher: L. M. Vincent

Radiologist and former college basketball star Townsend Reeves doesn't think twice about making an on-call switch with colleague Barry Zimmerman so he can attend a Missouri Wildcats basketball game; that is, not until Zimmerman is found bludgeoned to death in the X-ray reading room of St. Michael's Hospital. Despite his unraveling marriage and career, Dr. Reeves is determined to help Homicide Lieutenant Anthony Mauro solve the case, entangling himself in a deadly game involving bad medicine, good basketball, and murder.

  

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.

Hell on Wheels by Julie Ann Walker is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Hell on Wheels by Julie Ann Walker as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Thursday, October 11, 2012.

— ♦ —

Hell on Wheels
Julie Ann Walker
A Black Knights Thriller

Behind the façade of their tricked–out motorcycle shop is an elite special ops team assigned the jobs too hot for anyone else to handle.

Ex–Marine Nate "Ghost" Weller is an expert at keeping his cool — and his distance — which makes him one hell of a sniper. It's also how he keeps his feelings for Ali Morgan in check. Sweet, sexy Ali has always revved his engine, but she's his best friend's baby sister … and totally off limits.

Ali's never seen anything sexier than Nate Weller straddling his custom Harley — or the flash of danger in his eyes when she tells him she's in trouble. First something happened to her brother, and now she's become the target of a nasty international organization. With Nate, her life is in the most capable hands possible — but her heart is another story altogether.

Check out the special Amazon Whispersync offer associated with this title.

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.

New Poster for Gangster Squad

A new, really quite striking, poster for the crime thriller Gangster Squad has been released by the studio (right; click for larger image). The tagline: "No name. No badges. No mercy."

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It's enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop … except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen's world apart.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer from an adapted screenplay by Will Beall, based on the book by Paul Lieberman, Gangster Squad opens in theaters January 11th, 2013.

— ♦ —

Gangster Squad
Paul Lieberman

Gangster Squad chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII.

In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O'Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick. About all they had in common was their obsession. So O'Mara set a trap to prove Mickey was a killer. And Wooters formed an alliance with Mickey's budding rival, Jack "The Enforcer" Whalen. Two cops — two hoodlums.

Their fates collided in the closing days of the 1950s, when late one night "The Enforcer" confronted Mickey and his crew. The aftermath would shake both LA's mob and police department, and signal the end of a defining era in the city's history.

      

Sinister Opens This Friday, October 12th

Sinister. Opens in theaters October 12, 2012.

Ethan Hawke plays a true crime novelist, who discovers a box of mysterious, disturbing home movies that plunge his family into a nightmarish experience of supernatural horror.

Directed by Scott Derrickson from a screenplay co-written with C. Robert Cargill.

Running time: 110 minutes. Rated R for disturbing violent images and some terror.

Watch a red band trailer for the film below:

Argo Opens This Friday, October 12th

Argo. Opens in theaters October 12, 2012.

Based on true events, Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis — the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA "exfiltration" specialist named Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.

Directed by Ben Affleck from a screenplay by Chris Terrio.

Running time: 120 minutes. Rated R for language and some violent images.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

Seven Psychopaths Opens This Friday, October 12th

Seven Psychopaths. Opens in theaters October 12, 2012.

Colin Farrell stars as a struggling screenwriter, who inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends (Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell) kidnap a gangster's (Woody Harrelson) beloved Shih Tzu.

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh.

Running time: 109 minutes. Rated R for strong violence, bloody images, pervasive language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

Telemystery: ABC Orders Series Script based on James Patterson Character, Michael Bennett

ABC has ordered a series script centered on NYPD officer Michael Bennett, a character created by crime novelist James Patterson. Bennett was introduced in the 2007 mystery Step on a Crack, co-written with Michael Ledwidge. According to Deadline, if the script is approved, it will bypass the pilot stage and move right into production.

ABC's last venture with Patterson was Women's Murder Club from 2007, also based on characters he created, which lasted just one season.

— ♦ —

Step on a Crack
James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
A Michael Bennett Mystery (1st in series)

During a state funeral for a beloved former First Lady in New York City's largest cathedral, the unthinkable occurs. Armed men disguised as monks seize the church and seal themselves inside, along with more than one hundred of the most powerful people in America. The captives include world leaders, actors, TV stars, athletes, and politicians, and the kidnappers are armed with enough C4 explosives to blow a crater in the middle of Manhattan.

NYPD officer Michael Bennett is pulled into the standoff as lead negotiator. Despite the escalating danger, Michael faces an even more terrifying crisis at home. His wife has been diagnosed with a devastating disease, and Michael faces the prospect of losing the love of his life and having to raise their ten children alone. With his own life teetering and the lives of thousands suddenly his responsibility, Michael struggles to diffuse the tense situation fast. Yet the kidnappers' moves are impossible to predict, and they block every attempt to break into the cathedralmost as if they are privy to their deliberations.