A Deadly Distance by L. T. Ryan is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Deadly Distance by L. T. Ryan as today's free mystery ebook (A Jack Noble Thriller; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, April 25, 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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A Deadly Distance
L. T. Ryan
A Jack Noble Thriller
Publisher: L. T. Ryan

Washington, D.C. Midday. A man waits at a bus stop, his intentions unknown. Two government operatives have been stalking him for days, waiting for him to make his move. Unexpectedly, the man takes off running and heads for a deserted warehouse.

Jack Noble and his partner, Frank Skinner, believe the man to be part of a terrorist organization that is involved in smuggling drugs and guns and men into the country. But it turns out their plan involves far more export than import, and hits a lot closer to home.

As the case unfolds, the man behind it all reaches out to Jack with a simple message … 37 hours.

  

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.

Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (130425)

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

• The New Release is Northmark: Hour of the Wolf.

• The Daily Deal is Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials, just $2.99 today only!

• The current Catch of the Week is Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light, just $2.99 through Sunday, April 28, 2013 only.

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Today's New Release is Northmark: Hour of the Wolf

Experience the thrills of adventure in this card-based RPG. Choose to become a mighty warrior, cunning mage or powerful druid as you fight for glory and survival in arena combat. Explore every corner of the kingdom from fiery deserts to deep forests and cold mountain peaks and journey to the kingdoms of the elves and dwarves. Danger waits at every turn as you investigate the chilling mystery that threatens your homeland. Can you defeat assassins, thieves and hideous monsters?

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

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Today's Daily Deal is Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials

The famed writer Nathaniel Hawthorne has died during a freak snow storm, and his ghost has come to you, asking for help. Travel back and forth in time from the scene of the author's demise to the 17th century, where a town is going mad with rumors of witchcraft and a woman is facing the gallows. Unravel the secrets of Salem's accused witches and solve the death of Hawthorne in this fun Hidden Object game.

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game today only — Thursday, April 25, 2013 — for $2.99.

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The current Catch of the Week is Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light

After their yacht is sunk by an incredible storm, Jane and Mike are separated! Waking up on a mysterious island, Jane must now figure out what happened and find Mike before it's too late. Explore amazing Hidden Object scenes and solve tricky puzzles as you uncover a terrifying truth on the island. Escape from danger and be reunited with Mike!

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game at the special price of $2.99 through Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Cinemystery: Production Update on Film Adaptation of Marcus Sakey's Good People

Last fall Millennium Films optioned Marcus Sakey's Good People for film. Now we're learning that production is scheduled to begin next month in London, with James Franco and Kate Hudson in the lead roles as a couple, who make a choice about their future … and soon come to regret it. (More about the book from which the film is adapted, below.)

Henrik Genz is directing a screenplay by Kelly Masterson. No release date has been announced.

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Good People
Marcus Sakey

A family, and the security to enjoy it: That's all Tom and Anna Reed ever wanted. But years of infertility treatments, including four failed attempts at in vitro fertilization, have left them with neither. The emotional and financial costs are straining their marriage and endangering their dreams. Then one night everything changes. Offered a chance at a future they'd almost lost hope in, they seize it. One simple choice. A fairy-tale ending.

But Tom and Anna soon realize that fairy tales never come cheap. Their decision puts them square in the path of some ruthless men. Men who have been double-crossed. Men who won't stop until they get revenge.

      

Click on the Amazon.com button to check out the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.

Review: Murder Book by Marshall Thornton

A Mysterious Review of …

Murder Book by Marshall Thornton. A Nick Nowak, Boystown Mystery.

Review summary: The setting of this murder mystery, Chicago in Fall 1982, provides a strong backdrop to two national events that play a role here — the so-called Tylenol murders and the increasing awareness of the newly identified disease, AIDS — but the primary plot of the story is relatively weakly plotted. An example of a period crime novel in which the "period" is far more accomplished than the "crime". (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Murder Book
Marshall Thornton
A Nick Nowak, Boystown Mystery
MLR Press (April 2013)

Publisher synopsis: It's fall 1982 and Chicago is gripped by panic after five people die from poisoned Tylenol capsules. Amid the chaos, the Bughouse Slasher takes his eighth victim, this time striking close to private investigator Nick Nowak. With the Chicago Police Department stretched to its limit, Nick takes matters into his own hands. But what will he do with the Bughouse Slasher once he finds him?

    

MystereBooks: A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, 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 (04/24/2013 at 4:00 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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A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine
Publisher: Open Road

Winner of the 1987 Edgar Award for Best Novel

Faith Severn has never understood why the willful matriarch of her high-society family, aunt Vera Hillyard, snapped and murdered her own beloved sister. But long after Vera is condemned to hang, a journalist's startling discoveries allow Faith to perceive her family's story in a new light.

    

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 Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald by David Handler, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald by David Handler, 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 (04/24/2013 at 3:30 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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The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald by David Handler
A Stewart Hoag Mystery (3rd in series)
Publisher: Open Road

Winner of the 1991 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original

Stewart Hoag knows how quickly fame can fade. The same critics who adored his first novel used his second for target practice, ending his literary career once and for all. To keep his basset hound fed, Hoagy ghostwrites memoirs for the rich, famous, and self-destructive. His newest subject reminds him all too much of himself.

By the age of twenty, Cam Noyes is already being hailed as the next F. Scott Fitzgerald. Though he’s only published one book, Cam runs with the big boys: dating artists, trashing restaurants, and ending every night in a haze of tequila and cocaine. So glamorous is his lifestyle that he’s having trouble starting his second novel, forcing his agent to hire Hoagy to get the little genius working on a memoir instead. As Hoagy digs into the kid’s life story, he learns that New York publishing is even more cutthroat than he thought.

    

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: A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong, 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 (04/24/2013 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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A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong
Publisher: Open Road

Winner of the 1957 Edgar Award for Best Novel

For fifty-five years, Kenneth Gibson has lived in backwaters. A former army clerk, he makes a quiet living teaching poetry to indifferent undergrads. His life is happily dull until the day he meets Rosemary, a damaged girl whose frailty compels Kenneth to try to make her well. They wed, and as Rosemary recovers from her depression, Gibson falls in love, transforming his world. But his wife will never love him.

She is smitten with their landlord, a dashing young chemical engineer named Paul. Gibson wants to let her go, but he cannot bear to be parted with the first love he has ever known. In Paul's house is a case of poison, and this love triangle can only end in death.

    

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 Hog Murders by William L. DeAndrea, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Hog Murders by William L. DeAndrea, 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 (04/24/2013 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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The Hog Murders by William L. DeAndrea
A Niccolo Benedetti Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Open Road

Winner of the 1980 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original

In the upstate New York town of Sparta, six people die in three weeks. At first the incidents seem accidental: A highway sign drops onto a car full of teenage girls, an old man falls down a set of stairs, and a boy is struck by a sheet of ice that had been building on his garage. But after each case a note turns up. Someone called “Hog” claims responsibility for each death, and taunts the police to catch him before he strikes again.

The deaths have everybody talking, and the local police department is eventually forced to share the case with famous Italian detective Niccolo Benedetti and his protégé, would-be cop turned private investigator Ron Gresham. A painter, ladies' man, and rule-bending genius, Benedetti views every case as a chance to probe the nature of evil. And with his "analyze and imagine" method, he'll pursue the killer both to stop him and to study him.

    

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: Hopscotch by Brian Garfield, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Hopscotch by Brian Garfield, 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 (04/24/2013 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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Hopscotch by Brian Garfield
Publisher: Open Road

First published in 1975 and later adapted for the 1980 film Hopscotch starring Walter Matthau as Miles Kendig.

Bored with retirement, an ex-spy challenges his old agency to a game …

Miles Kendig is one of the CIA's top deep-cover agents, until an injury ruins him for active duty. Rather than take a desk job, he retires. But the tawdry thrills of civilian life — gambling, drinking, sex — offer none of the pleasures of the intelligence game. Even a Russian agent's offer to go to work against his old employers seems dull. Without the thrill of unpredictable conflict, Kendig skulks through Paris like the walking dead.

To revive himself, he begins writing a tell-all memoir, divulging every secret he accumulated in his long career. Neither CIA nor KGB can afford to have it in print, and so he challenges them both: Until they catch him, a chapter will go to the publisher every week. Kendig's life is fun again, with survival on the line.

    

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: Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, William Morrow.

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 (04/24/2013 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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Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron
Publisher: William Morrow

Computer security expert and reformed hacker Diana Highsmith has not ventured beyond her home for more than a year — not since that fateful climbing vacation in Switzerland took Daniel's life. Haunted by the sound of Daniel's cries echoing across the gorge as he fell, Diana cannot stop thinking about the life they'll never have — grief that has transformed her into a recluse.

Diana doesn't have to shut herself off com­pletely from the world, though; she and Daniel's best friend run a thriving Internet security company. From her home, in her pajamas, Diana assesses security breaches, both potential and real, and offers clients a way to protect themselves from hackers — the kind of disruptions Diana herself used to create. Once Diana has a game plan she is able to meet with clients in OtherWorld, an Internet-based platform, using Nadia, an avatar she created for herself. Diana knows she'll have to rejoin the "real world" eventually, but right now a few steps from her door each morning is all she can handle.

When Diana's sister goes missing, however, she is forced to do the impossible: brave both the outside world and her own personal demons to find her sister. As one step outside leads to another, Diana soon discovers that she is following a trail fraught with danger — and uncovering a web of deceit and betrayal, both online and real-life, that threatens not only her sister's life, but her own.

    

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: California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, HarperCollins.

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 (04/24/2013 at 1:00 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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California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker
A California Crime Thriller
Publisher: HarperCollins

Winner of the 2005 Edgar Award for Best Novel

The Orange County, California, that the Becker brothers knew as boys is no more — unrecognizably altered since the afternoon in 1954 when Nick, Clay, David, and Andy rumbled with the lowlife Vonns, while five-year-old Janelle Vonn watched from the sidelines.

The new decade has ushered in the era of Johnson, hippies, John Birchers, and LSD. Clay becomes a casualty of a far-off jungle war. Nick becomes a cop, Andy a reporter, David a minister. And a terrible crime touches them all in ways they could never have anticipated when the mutilated corpse of teenage beauty queen Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned warehouse.

    

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: Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, William Morrow.

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 (04/24/2013 at 12:30 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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Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron
Publisher: William Morrow

Author's debut novel of suspense written under her own name; her previous "Dr. Peter Zak" mysteries were co-authored with Donald Davidoff and published as written by G. H. Ephron.

It all started with the yard sale …

Eight months pregnant and nervous about the future, Ivy Rose doesn't recognize the woman approaching her and husband David as they attempt to rid themselves of the decades-worth of junk cluttering up their suburban home. The woman says she's Melinda White — their former high school classmate, now pregnant also — and asks if she might revisit the old Victorian house she recalls playing in as a child. David takes her inside. But Melinda never comes out.

With her husband a suspect in the bizarre disappearance and probable murder of the near-stranger he claims not to remember, Ivy must now dive into a deadly whirlpool of deceit, betrayal, and terrifying alternate histories in pursuit of a shocking truth — a truth that could destroy everything …

    

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.