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This is a stylish thriller though at times a confusing one due mostly to the way the intricate conspiracy-centered plot unfolds in a non-linear manner, with some of the scenes set in the present time and some presented as backstory.
Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews Haywire.
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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.
A new promotional poster for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has been released by the studio (right; click for larger image). The tagline: "Every revolution begins with a spark."
In this second film of the series, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and fellow tribute Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) have barely returned home after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games when they are whisked away once again by the Capitol. Forced to leave her family and best friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Katniss is dispatched on a victory tour of Panem with Peeta, where rebellion is seething in all 12 districts.
The Capitol is enraged and ready to strike back … as President Snow (Donald Sutherland) prepares the most diabolical edition of the Hunger Games yet.
Directed by Francis Lawrence from an adapted screenplay by Michael Arndt and based on the novel by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is schedule to open in theaters November 22nd, 2013.
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Catching Fire
Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games Trilogy (2nd in series)
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty.
But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion.
The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.
Click on the Amazon.com button to check out the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.
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; as an alternative, 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.
BBC America has released a sneak peek — the first three minutes — of its upcoming historical crime drama, Ripper Street.
History's most notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper tore through late 1880's London. Now, the detectives who were on the case have to pick up the pieces.
In the aftermath of the Jack the Ripper murders, can anyone keep order in the blood-stained London Streets?
Haunted by the failure to catch London's most evil killer, Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) now heads up the notorious H Division, the toughest district in London's East End. Charged with keeping order in the chaotic streets of Whitechapel, Inspector Reid is soon drawn deep into the seedy criminal underworld of Victorian London — where fear always lurks that each new murder could mark the return of The Ripper.
Ripper Street premieres on BBC America this Saturday, January 19th at 9 PM (ET/PT).
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The entry period for the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest has arrived. The entry period is a short one: now through January 27th, 2013.
One Grand Prize winner will receive a publishing contract with an advance of $50,000, and four First Prize winners will each receive a publishing contract with an advance of $15,000.
What's new this year is that the categories have been expanded to five popular genres, including Mystery/Thriller. (The other categories are General Fiction, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, Romance, and Young Adult Fiction.)
The winners will be announced on June 15th, 2013.
You can find all the details on the award site home page, which includes information on how to craft the perfect pitch and tips for preparing your entry as well as the official contest rules.
Last November Mysterious Press began a new series of bibliomystery stories, "short tales about deadly books".
Today, a new entry in the series is published. Written by Laura Lippman, it features her popular series character, Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan.
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The Book Thing
Laura Lippman
A Bibliomystery with Tess Monaghan
A thief targets a local bookstore and it will take a bibliophile PI to save the shop …
Tess Monaghan wants to like the Children's Bookstore. It's bright, cozy, and packed with the kinds of books that she is dying for her daughter to fall in love with. But no matter how badly she wants to support this adorable local business, the owner's attitude stops her in her tracks. What kind of children's bookseller hates children?
What's eating Octavia, the grouchy owner, is more than the pressures of running a small business. Each Saturday, someone steals a stack of her priciest, most beautiful children's books, and the expense threatens to force her fledgling store out of business. Luckily, Tess is more than a book lover — she's a private investigator who doesn't mind working pro bono to help out an independent bookshop. Her simple act of kindness will make Octavia smile for the first time in months — and uncover a crime more suitable for the mystery aisle than the children's section.
with Jon Land
We are delighted to host novelist Jon Land, who is currently touring with Partners In Crime Tours to promote his new Blaine McCracken thriller, Pandora's Temple (Open Road, November 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats). We encourage you to visit all the host sites for this tour; you can find his schedule here.
Today we are pleased to provide an excerpt from the book, the 10th in the series and the first since he presumably retired the character in 1998. When we asked Jon last month why he brought Blaine McCracken back, he said, "The Cold War had ended and readers were gravitating toward different kinds of thrillers. Then 9/11 happened and, all of a sudden, there was a demand for high-action thrillers again, a new wave of heroes to battle the bad guys. McCracken might not be new, but he's tried and true, as fitting a hero for this age just as he was for the Cold War era thriller."
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The Mediterranean Sea, 2008
"It would help, sir, if I knew what we were looking for," Captain John J. Hightower of the Aurora said to the stranger he'd picked up on the island of Crete.
The stranger remained poised by the research ship's deck rail, gazing out into the turbulent seas beyond. His long gray hair, dangling well past his shoulders in tangles and ringlets, was damp with sea spray, left to the whims of the wind.
"Sir?" Hightower prodded again.
The stranger finally turned, chuckling. "You called me sir. That's funny."
"I was told you were a captain," said Hightower
"In name only, my friend."
"If I'm your friend," Hightower said, "you should be able to tell me what's so important that our current mission was scrapped to pick you up."
Beyond them, the residue of a storm from the previous night kept the seas choppy with occasional frothy swells that rocked the Aurora even as she battled the stiff winds to keep her speed steady. Gray-black clouds swept across the sky, colored silver at the tips where the sun pushed itself forward enough to break through the thinner patches. Before long, Hightower could tell, those rays would win the battle to leave the day clear and bright with the seas growing calm. But that was hardly the case now.
"I like your name," came the stranger's airy response. Beneath the orange life jacket, he wore a Grateful Dead tie dye t-shirt and old leather vest that was fraying at the edges and missing all three of its buttons. So faded that the sun made it look gray in some patches and white in others. His eyes, a bit sleepy and almost drunken, had a playful glint about them. "I like anything with the word ‘high.' You should rethink your policy about no smoking aboard the ship, if it's for medicinal purposes only."
"I will, if you explain what we're looking for out here."
"Out here" was the Mediterranean Sea where it looped around Greece's ancient, rocky southern coastline. For four straight days now, the Aurora had been mapping the sea floor in detailed grids in search of something of unknown size, composition and origin; or, at least, known only by the man Hightower had mistakenly thought was a captain by rank. Hightower's ship was a hydrographic survey vessel. At nearly thirty meters in length with a top speed of just under twenty-five knots, the Aurora had been commissioned just the previous year to fashion nautical charts to ensure safe navigation by military and civilian shipping, tasked with conducting seismic surveys of the seabed and underlying geology. A few times since her commission, the Aurora and her eight-person crew had been re-tasked for other forms of oceanographic research, but her high tech air cannons, capable of generating high-pressure shock waves to map the strata of the seabed, made her much more fit for more traditional assignments.
"How about I give you a hint?" the stranger said to Hightower. "It's big."
"How about I venture a guess?"
"Take your best shot, dude."
"I know a military mission when I see one. I think you're looking for a weapon."
"Warm."
"Something stuck in a ship or submarine. Maybe even a sunken wreck from years, even centuries ago."
"Cold," the man Hightower knew only as "Captain" told him. "Well, except for the centuries ago part. That's blazing hot."
Hightower pursed his lips, frustration getting the better of him. "So are we looking for a weapon or not?"
"Another hint, Captain High: only the most powerful ever known to man," the stranger said with a wink. "A game changer of epic proportions for whoever finds it. Gotta make sure the bad guys don't manage that before we do. Hey, did you know marijuana's been approved to treat motion sickness?"
Hightower could only shake his head. "Look, I might not know exactly you're looking for, but whatever it is, it's not here. You've got us retracing our own steps, running hydrographs in areas we've already covered. Nothing ‘big,' as you describe it, is down there."
"I beg to differ, el Capitan."
"Our depth sounders have picked up nothing, the underwater cameras we launched have picked up nothing, the ROVS have picked up nothing."
"It's there," the stranger said with strange assurance, holding his thumb and index finger together against his lips as if smoking an imaginary joint.
"Where?"
"We're missing something, el Capitan. When I figure out what it is, I'll let you know."
Before Hightower could respond, the seas shook violently. On deck it felt as if something had tried to suck the ship underwater, only to spit it up again. Then a rumbling continued, thrashing the Aurora from side to side like a toy boat in a bathtub. Hightower finally recovered his breath just as the rumbling ceased, leaving an eerie calm over the sea suddenly devoid of waves and wind for the first time that morning.
"This can't be good," said the stranger, tightening the straps on his life vest.
* * *
The ship's pilot, a young, thick-haired Greek named Papadopoulos, looked up from the nest of LED readouts and computer-operated controls on the panel before him, as Hightower entered the bridge.
"Captain," he said wide-eyed, his voice high and almost screeching, "seismic centers in Ankara, Cairo and Athens are all reporting a sub-sea earthquake measuring just over six on the scale."
"What's the epi?"
"Forty miles northeast of Crete and thirty from our current position," Papadopoulos said anxiously, a patch of hair dropping over his forehead.
"Jesus Christ," muttered Hightower.
"Tsunami warning is high," Papadopoulos continued, even as Hightower formed the thought himself.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, we are in for the ride of our lives!" blared the stranger, pulling on the tabs that inflated his life vest with a soft popping sound. "If I sound excited it's ‘cause I'm terrified, dudes!"
"Bring us about," the captain ordered. "Hard back to the Port of Piraeus at all the speed you can muster."
"Yes, sir!"
Suddenly the bank of screens depicting the seafloor in a quarter mile radius directly beneath them sprang to life. Readings flew across accompanying monitors, orientations and graphic depictions of whatever the Aurora's hydrographic equipment and underwater cameras had located appearing in real time before Hightower's already wide eyes.
"What the hell is —"
"Found it!" said the stranger before the ship's captain could finish.
"Found what?" followed Hightower immediately. "This is impossible. We've already been over this area. There was nothing down there."
"Earthquake must've changed that in a big way, el Capitan. I hope you're recording all this."
"There's nothing to record. It's a blip, an echo, a mistake."
"Or exactly what I came out here to find. Big as life to prove all the doubters wrong."
"Doubters?"
"Of the impossible."
"That's what you brought us out here for, a fool's errand?"
"Not anymore."
The stranger watched as a central screen mounted beneath the others continued to form a shape massive in scale, an animated depiction extrapolated from all the data being processed in real time.
"Wait a minute, is that a … It looks like — My God, it's some kind of structure!"
"You bet!"
"Intact at that depth? Impossible! No, this is all wrong."
"Hardly, el Capitan."
"Check the readouts, sir. According to the depth gauge, your structure's located five hundred feet beneath the seafloor. Where I come from, they call that impos —"
Hightower's thought ended when the Aurora seemed to buckle, as if it had hit a roller coaster-like dip in the sea. The sensation was eerily akin to floating, the entire ship in the midst of an out-of-body experience, leaving Hightower feeling weightless and light-headed.
"Better fasten your seatbelts, dudes," said the stranger, eyes fastened through the bridge windows at something that looked like a waterfall pluming on the ship's aft side.
Hightower had been at sea often and long enough to know this to be a gentle illusion belying something much more vast and terrible: in this case, a giant wave of froth that gained height as it crystallized in shape. It was accompanied by a thrashing sound that shook the Aurora as it built in volume and pitch, felt by the bridge's occupants at their very cores like needles digging into their spines.
"Hard about!" Hightower ordered Papadopoulos. "Steer us into it!"
It was, he knew, the ship's only chance for survival, or would have been, had the next moments not shown the great wave turning the world dark as it reared up before them. The Aurora suddenly seemed to lift into the air, climbing halfway up the height of the monster wave from a calm sea that had begun to churn mercilessly in an instant. A vast black shadow enveloped the ship in the same moment intense pressure pinned the occupants of the bridge to their chairs or left them feeling as if their feet were glued to the floor. Then there was nothing but an airless abyss dragging darkness behind it.
"Far out, man!" Hightower heard the stranger blare in the last moment before the void claimed him.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Jon Land
Jon Land is the author over 25 novels. He graduated from Brown University in 1979 Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude and continues his association with Brown as an alumni advisor.
Jon often bases his novels and scripts on extensive travel and research as well as a twenty-five year career in martial arts. He is an associate member of the US Special Forces and frequently volunteers in schools to help young people learn to enjoy the process of writing.
Jon is the Vice-President of marketing of the International Thriller Writers (ITW) and is often asked to speak on topics regarding writing and research.
In addition to writing suspense/thrillers Jon is also a screenwriter (Dirty Deeds, 2005).
John currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island and loves hearing from his readers and aspiring writers.
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Pandora's Temple
Jon Land
A Blaine McCracken Novel
What if Pandora's Box were real? Blaine McCracken finds himself facing this very question — and the greatest threat to mankind — in his long-awaited return to the page …
Rogue special-operations agent McCracken has never been shy about answering the call, and this time it comes in the aftermath of a deepwater oil rig disaster that claims the life of a onetime member of his commando unit. The remnants of the rig and its missing crew lead him to the inescapable conclusion that one of the most mysterious and deadly forces in the universe is to blame: dark matter, both a limitless source of potential energy and an unimaginably destructive weapon.
Joining forces again with his trusty sidekick Johnny Wareagle, McCracken races to stop two deadly enemies who want the dark matter at all costs. A powerful energy magnate and the leader of a Japanese doomsday cult both seek the ultimate prize for their own nefarious reasons, and McCracken and Wareagle's mission to defeat them takes the duo on a nonstop journey across the world and thousands of years into the past where the truth lies in the ancient Pandora's Temple, built to safeguard the world's most powerful weapon.
McCracken's only hope to save the world is to find the mythical temple. Along the way, he and Wareagle find themselves up against Mexican drug gangs, killer robots, an army of professional assassins, and a legendary sea monster. The hero of nine previous bestselling thrillers, McCracken is used to the odds being stacked against him, but this time the stakes have never been higher.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Retribution by Nicholas Gill as today's fourth free mystery ebook (An Action Thriller; Kobo and iTunes formats).
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.
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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Retribution
Nicholas Gill
An Action Thriller
Publisher: Nicholas John Vickers
When a terrorist splinter group carries out a series of attacks on the West, an American intelligence analyst becomes involved in events far more closely than he could ever have imagined. Forced to witness a brutal murder at close quarters, and even closer to home, he vows to exact "retribution" — whatever the cost.
The analyst becomes the catalyst in unfolding actions and the novel becomes both a detective story to track the mastermind and an action thriller to take out the terrorist organization. Events build to a catastrophic climax; can an international crisis be averted? Can an elusive urban guerrilla be tracked and stopped? What will be the 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.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Viking by Daniel Hardman as today's third free mystery ebook (A Sci-Fi Thriller; Kindle format only).
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.
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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Viking
Daniel Hardman
A Sci-Fi Thriller
Publisher: Sivanea
Rafa thinks he's safe in witness protection until a former FBI partner is murdered, and he's arrested for the crime. Has he been set up?
He can't divulge enough truth to get off--it would endanger his new family. Sentenced to life in prison and heartbroken by his wife's rejection, he trades cell time for a one-way ticket off-planet and becomes a disposable employee for a company prospecting the galactic frontier.
Explorers get implants that transmit their neural impulses back to scientists on Earth, providing a vicarious reality of sight and sound. They are nicknamed "vikings", and on most assignments they die quickly.
But Rafa's mission turns out to be far from ordinary. His employer is up to something, and so are his old connections in crime and law enforcement. Can Rafa survive alien wilds and his harsh crewmates? What secret is driving the manipulations of his human puppeteers?
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.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Someone Has To Pay by Joe McCoubrey as today's second free mystery ebook (A Mike Devon Thriller; Kindle format only).
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.
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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Someone Has To Pay
Joe McCoubrey
A Mike Devon Thriller
Publisher: Master Koda Select
As the search for peace in Ireland gathers momentum, British counter-terrorism agent, Mike Devon, is handed a chilling mission — put the IRA out of business at any cost.
He assembles an elite undercover squad determined to neutralise the entire IRA leadership. Kidnap, torture and shoot-to-kill tactics are all on Devon's agenda as he sets about the task with a ruthlessness the IRA has never before had to face.
But the IRA has its own specialist operative. Cold-hearted assassin Fergal McSweeney is brought out of semi-retirement to launch one final murderous campaign against the British establishment.
Before settling for peace both sides are determined to first win the ultimate victory.
Devon and McSweeney had clashed years before in Chicago in an operation that ended the life of the British agent's girlfriend. Now it has become personal.
The action races from Chicago to London, and from Belfast to Glasgow, before climaxing in a final bloody showdown in the suburbs of Dublin.
When the dust settles who will walk away?
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.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Between a Smile and a Tear by Robert Bucchianeri as today's free mystery ebook (A Novel of Mystery, Suspense and Betrayal; Kindle format only).
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.
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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Between a Smile and a Tear
Robert Bucchianeri
A Novel of Mystery, Suspense and Betrayal
Publisher: Lucky Bat Books
Jack Waters is a successful writer and an alcoholic struggling to stay on the wagon, desperately trying to keep his family together. He meets a fan, an attractive woman, in a coffee shop and she plies him with compliments and a Mickey. The next morning he wakes up at a seedy motel naked, reeking of alcohol, alone, and confused.
A blackmail ensues and he becomes entangled in a shadowy underworld involving strippers, prostitutes, gangsters, corrupt politicians, and cops. His wife and son leave him and he plunges into the mean streets of San Francisco seeking answers to the riddles at the heart of those seeking to destroy him.
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.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Mortal by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee as today's Barnes & Noble Nook Daily Find.
The deal price of $2.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, January 15, 2013.
Note: The price has been matched by Amazon.com for today only.
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Mortal
Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee
The Books of Mortals
Faithwords
Centuries have passed since civilization's brush with apocalypse. The world's greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace … and fear. A terrible secret was closely guarded for centuries: every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.
Nine years have gone by since an unlikely hero named Rom Sebastian first discovered a secret and consumed an ancient potion of blood to bring himself back to life in Forbidden. Surviving against impossible odds, Rom has gathered a secret faction of followers who have also taken the blood-the first Mortals in a world that is dead.
But The Order has raised an elite army to hunt and crush the living. Division and betrayal threaten to destroy the Mortals from within. The final surviving hope for humanity teeters on the brink of annihilation and no one knows the path to survival.
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.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Drop of the Hard Stuff by Lawrence Block as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.
The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, January 15, 2013.
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A Drop of the Hard Stuff
Lawrence Block
A Matthew Scudder Novel
Mulholland Books
Facing his demons in his first year of sobriety, Matthew Scudder finds himself on the trail of a killer. When Scudder's childhood friend Jack Ellery is murdered, presumably while attempting to atone for past sins, Scudder reluctantly begins his own investigation, with just one lead: Ellery's Alcoholics Anonymous list of people he wronged.
One of them may be a killer, but that's not necessarily Scudder's greatest danger. Immersing himself in Ellery's world may lead him right back to the bar stool.
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.
A Mysterious Review of …
The Ice Maiden Cometh Not by Alistair Boyle. A Gil Yates Mystery.
Review summary: This is a most entertaining mystery, with a well-crafted storyline involving a suspicious death. It is the character of amateur PI Gil Yates and his unique perspective on life, however, that really makes it hard to put this book down. (Click here for text of full review.)
Our rating:
The Ice Maiden Cometh Not
Alistair Boyle
A Gil Yates Mystery
Allen A. Knoll (November 2012)
Publisher synopsis: After a long hiatus, amateur investigator Gil Yates is lured to Pennsylvania by the deep pockets of a pompous heart surgeon. On the surface everything points to suicide in this case, but the drop-dead gorgeous widow, the doctor's daughter, insists otherwise. Who's hiding what? Who has a hidden agenda and who holds the truth? What Yates' uncovers holds surprises for everyone.
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