A New MystereBook: Tropic of Darkness by Tony Richards

Here is a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers …

Tropic of Darkness by Tony Richards is an original full-length supernatural thriller set in Havana, Cuba. It's not from an independent publisher, but it looks interesting and is priced right!

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Tropic of Darkness by Tony Richards
A Supernatural Thriller
Publisher: Pocket Star
Publication Date: September 16, 2013

Jack Gilliard is a man with a dark past, and he hasn't been back to the United States for more than a decade. But when he washes up in Havana, Cuba, he finds himself being drawn into a business darker than he ever dared think. Ancient passions, ancient treacheries, an age-old curse, and the evils of his past are now consuming the present — and Jack is caught in the midst of it all. To survive, all he has to do is leave the country — a prospect much more difficult than anticipated. But the real question is: can Jack escape before the darkness claims him altogether?

  

Death on a Budget, An Emerson Ward Mystery by Michael W. Sherer, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Death on a Budget by Michael W. Sherer, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Five Star.

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 (09/18/2013 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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Death on a Budget by Michael W. Sherer
An Emerson Ward Mystery (6th in series)
Publisher: Five Star

There's nothing like having kids to change your outlook on life. A toddler has Chicago freelance writer Emerson Ward thinking twice about his habit of tilting at windmills and riding a white charger to people's rescue. It's no wonder he turns down his friend Brandt's pleas to find out why a banker they both knew was shotgunned to death in the park near Montrose Harbor.

But when the love of Emerson's life leaves for Seattle with their daughter to care for her ailing mother, Emerson has no reason to turn down a cry for help from a childhood friend. It means climbing back in the saddle of his old GMC motor home and returning to the small town where he grew up and swore he'd never return to confront old demons, family, friends and foes he hasn't seen for 25 years.

Soon he's up to his eyeballs in a high-stakes commercial real estate scam and a decades-old family secret that threaten everything he holds dear. The deeper he digs, the less he likes what he learns, about his old hometown, the people in it, and even himself. When he links the dead banker to the real estate scam and a group of fundamentalist Muslim businessmen raising funds for terrorists, the FBI steps in to let him know he stands to lose even more — his life.

  

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.

Buried in Benidorm, A Max Castillo Mystery by L. H. Thomson, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Buried in Benidorm by L. H. Thomson, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, J. I. Loome.

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 (09/18/2013 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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Buried in Benidorm by L. H. Thomson
A Max Castillo Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: J. I. Loome

Ex-priest and newly minted agnostic Max Castillo ekes out a living as a private investigator from his houseboat in Benidorm, Spain. He finally has a little free time … until a big-shot turns up dead at a local golf course. Now, his former employer is calling in an old debt, and Max is neck-deep in gangsters, grifters and girls with grudges.

A decades-old secret could hold the key to solving the case, but can Max figure it out before one of them leaves 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.

The Final Cut by Catherine Coulter and J. T. Ellison, New in Bookstores This Week

Today's new hardcover mystery title, scheduled to be published this week by Putnam, is The Final Cut by Catherine Coulter and J. T. Ellison.

For a list of more new hardcover mysteries published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for September 2013. For new paperback mysteries, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of September 2013 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.

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The Final Cut
Catherine Coulter and J. T. Ellison
Series: Nicholas Drummond (1st)

Scotland Yard's new chief inspector Nicholas Drummond is on the first flight to New York when he learns his colleague, Elaine York, the "minder" of the Crown Jewels for the "Jewel of the Lion" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was found murdered. Then the centerpiece of the exhibit, the infamous Koh-i-Noor Diamond, is stolen from the Queen Mother's crown. Drummond, American-born but raised in the UK, is a dark, dangerous, fast-rising star in the Yard who never backs down. And this case is no exception.

Special Agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich from Coulter's bestselling FBI series don't hesitate to help Drummond find the cunning international thief known as the Fox. Nonstop action and high stakes intensify as the chase gets deadly. The Fox will stop at nothing to deliver the Koh-i-Noor to the man who believes in its deadly prophecy. Nicholas Drummond, along with his partner, FBI Special Agent Mike Caine, lay it on the line to retrieve the diamond for Queen and country.

      

CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition Now Open for Submissions

The Crime Writers' Association has announced the Margery Allingham Short Story Competition for unpublished short stories.

Published and unpublished writers are encouraged to enter, with the winner to receive £1000.

Submitted stories must be previously unpublished, be no longer than 3500 words, and fit Margery Allingham's definition of a mystery: "The Mystery remains box-shaped, at once a prison and a refuge. Its four walls are, roughly, a Crime, a Mystery, an Enquiry and a Conclusion with an Element of Satisfaction in it." (Margery Allingham was an English crime writer best known for her detective stories featuring the gentleman sleuth Albert Campion.)

The entry deadline is Sunday, March 16th, 2014 at 4 PM UK time.

For more details about the competition, see the Entry Form page on the CWA website.

MystereBooks: The Lawyer's Lawyer by James Sheehan, Available this Month at a Special Price

Every month Amazon releases a new selection of Kindle books priced $3.99 or less.

Today's featured title from the Mystery & Thrillers category is The Lawyer's Lawyer by James Sheehan. This Kindle book was listed at $1.99 as of the date and time of this post, Wednesday, September 18, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET, and should be available at this price through the end of the month.

More information about the book is below; if other vendors have priced-matched this title, links to their sites are also shown.

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The Lawyer's Lawyer by James Sheehan
A Jack Tobin Legal Thriller
Publisher: Center Street

Jack Tobin, known as the lawyer's lawyer — the guy the best lawyer's say they'd want to represent them in a courtroom battle — undertakes the representation of a serial killer who he believes to be innocent.

The Chief of Police is outraged, the citizens of Oakville where the murders occurred, erupt, and the State Attorney is out for blood as Jack challenges the criminal justice system once again.

      

Important Note: 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 7th Victim, A Karen Vail Mystery by Alan Jacobson, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The 7th Victim by Alan Jacobson, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Premier Digital.

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 (09/18/2013 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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The 7th Victim by Alan Jacobson
A Karen Vail Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Premier Digital

The Dead Eyes Killer lurks in the backyard of the famed FBI Profiling Unit. His brutal murders, unlike any others previously seen, confound the local task force, despite the gifted profiling skills of Special Agent Karen Vail. But along with Vail‘s insight and expertise comes considerable personal and professional baggage.

On leave pending a review of her assault on her abusive ex-husband, Vail must battle forces determined to bring her down, as she fights to find Dead Eyes before he murders more young women. But the seventh victim is the key to all that stirs this killer … the key that will unlock secrets perhaps too painful for Vail to bear. These are secrets that threaten to destroy her, secrets that will bring down her storied and promising career. For Karen Vail, the truth rests at the heart of a lie. And uncovering it could get her killed …

    

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.

A New MystereBook: Booked for a Hanging by Bill Crider

Here is a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers …

Booked for a Hanging by Bill Crider is the sixth mystery in this Anthony Award-winning series featuring Blacklin County (Texas) Sheriff Dan Rhodes, first published in hardcover by St. Martin's Press in October 1992.

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Booked for a Hanging by Bill Crider
A Dan Rhodes Mystery
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Publication Date: September 12, 2013

Dan Rhodes is confronted with what seems at first to be a suicide: the body of a man newly arrived in the county is found hanged in the dilapidated building he has taken over for his business. Simon Graham was a rare-book dealer. If it seems unlikely to find such an arcane entrepreneur in this extremely rural and sparsely populated part of Texas, it becomes less strange when it turns out that Graham was more con man than bibliophile.

The presumed suicide begins to look more and more like murder when several newcomers swoop down on the scene and try to beat out one another to find a reputedly valuable rare book that Graham was rumored to have among his collection of hardly worthwhile items. Although Rhodes's two attenuated and eccentric jailhouse employees have gone overboard for the magic of the department's new computer, the steady, if put-upon, Rhodes and his clear-eyed observations of human nature have invariably been more useful to the solution of a crime — and that is still true in the case of the hanged book dealer.

  

Telemystery: NBC Developing Project Based on Linwood Barclay's Never Look Away

NBC is developing an untitled drama project adapted from Linwood Barclay's 2010 thriller Never Look Away (more about the book, below).

Matt Venne will write the script, which will be produced by Sony Pictures TV.

Another of Barclay's books, Trust Your Eyes, is also being developed as a film project for Warner Bros.

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Never Look Away
Linwood Barclay
A Novel of Suspense

A warm summer Saturday. An amusement park. David Harwood is glad to be spending some quality time with his wife and their four-year-old son. But what begins as a pleasant family outing turns into a nightmare after an inexplicable disappearance. A frantic search only leads to an even more shocking and harrowing turn of events. Until this terrifying moment, David Harwood is just a small-town reporter in need of a break. Now the only thing he cares about is restoring his family.

Desperate for any clue, David dives into his own investigation — and into a web of lies and deceit. For with every new piece of evidence he uncovers, David finds more questions — and moves ever closer to a shattering truth.

      

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

A Conversation with Novelist Blake Crouch

with Blake Crouch

We are delighted to welcome novelist Blake Crouch to Omnimystery News today.

Blake's second thriller in his "Wayward Pines" series, Wayward (Thomas & Mercer; September 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats), was published yesterday, and we had the opportunity to talk with him about it.

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Omnimystery News: What is the backstory to the town of Wayward Pines?

Photo provided courtesy of
Blake Crouch; Photo credit Marc Wilkins and Paul Pennington

Blake Crouch: The town of Wayward Pines was inspired by an actual Colorado town near where I live called Ouray. In 2008, I was there for a few nights with my family, and as I was walking the eerily-empty streets, it occurred to me … what if someone owned this entire town? What if I couldn't leave no matter how hard I tried? Those two questions blossomed into this series.

OMN: The book's cover does a good job of setting an ominous mood for the book.

BC: Jeroen ten Berge, my wonderful cover artist, came up with the concept of the picket fence with the animal scratches down the posts.

OMN: Tell us about your writing environment.

BC: My office is in my home. It sits at 7000 feet overlooking fields and the La Plata Mountains of southwest Colorado.

OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author? And what advice might you offer aspiring writers?

BC: Best advice: No one single piece of advice, but more an observation gained slowly over years. Make sure the underlying idea of the book is sound, big, and amazing. And choose the idea you commit to very carefully. Because the best prose in the world can't elevate or make interesting a dull premise (see most literary fiction).

Harshest criticism: I don't read reviews anymore. I have a trusted group of writing-friends who serve as my editorial board. I trust their guidance and I trust myself. I understand not everyone is going to love my books, and I'm okay with that as long as I'm writing the kind of stuff that gets me excited.

Advice to aspiring authors: You don't need anyone's help. If you have what it takes and you put your ass in the chair for long enough, you'll get there. Also, write exactly the kind of books you want to read.

OMN: We've read that the series has been adapted for television. Are you involved in the production?

BC: Wayward Pines is filming in British Columbia right now for a 10-episode event series for FOX that will air next summer. I'm writing a couple of the episodes and helped plan out the series with the creator and showrunner Chad Hodge. The differences between the novels and the series are not as big as you might think. I can't go into detail about exactly how the show plays out but I will say that a lot of the changes we made for the series are things I wish I'd done in the books. In other words, smart changes. Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, and Juliette Lewis are starring. M. Night Shyamalan is directing the pilot and executive producing. It's an amazing team.

The difference between writing novels vs. for the screen? You have more leeway to screw around in novels, and of course the ability to describe people's thoughts. For the screen, all of the action, intention, and mood has to be right there on the page. Every scene has to pop on a million different levels. I find it enormously challenging but also a helluva lot of fun.

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?

BC: I read a lot of fantasy ("Lord of the Rings", "Chronicles of Narnia") and in high school and college, I got more into thrillers (Thomas Harris). "Wayward Pines" is the first thing I've written that could be described as fantasy, and it's actually a pretty good mix of my influences. It's a fantasy, with thriller pacing.

OMN: What's next for you?

BC: I'm writing the third book in the "Wayward Pines" series and working on the last episode for Wayward Pines the TV series.

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Blake Crouch was born in the North Carolina piedmont in 1978. He earned his undergraduate degrees in English and creative writing from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, publishing his first two novels within five years of graduation. His stories have appeared in Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Thriller 2, and other anthologies, and many of his novels have been optioned for film. He lives today in Durango, Colorado.

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Wayward
Blake Crouch
A Wayward Pines Thriller (2nd in series)

Welcome to Wayward Pines, population 461. Nestled amidst picture-perfect mountains, the idyllic town is a modern-day Eden … except for the electrified fence and razor wire, snipers scoping everything 24/7, and the relentless surveillance tracking each word and gesture.

None of the residents know how they got here. They are told where to work, how to live, and who to marry. Some believe they are dead. Others think they're trapped in an unfathomable experiment. Everyone secretly dreams of leaving, but those who dare face a terrifying surprise.

Ethan Burke has seen the world beyond. He's sheriff, and one of the few who knows the truth — Wayward Pines isn't just a town. And what lies on the other side of the fence is a nightmare beyond anyone's imagining.

    

The Museum of Sudden Disappearances by Thomas Davidson is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Museum of Sudden Disappearances by Thomas Davidson as today's third free mystery ebook (A Jurassic Jim Fleetwood Thriller; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, September 18, 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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The Museum of Sudden Disappearances
Thomas Davidson
A Jurassic Jim Fleetwood Thriller
Publisher: Thomas Davidson

Technology reshapes our world at warp speed.

Each day, what's considered retro creeps closer and closer to the chronological present. Throughout it all, embattled retro-deejay "Jurassic Jim" Fleetwood seeks his spot in a throwaway world where everything gets crushed like a paper cup.

Nothing lasts, Jim knows. Unforgettable pop songs go … poof! Bands break up. Vinyl records vanish. And half the world can't recall last week. But transience turns deadly when a car soars into a moonlit river and parks on the bottom, its radio tuned to Jim's show. The police report an accident. Jim's cousin, an ex-felon and friend of the drowned woman, suspects otherwise and tries to prove it, but disappears. Loyalty should last, Jim knows, and vows to get him back. His quest leads to a latter-day Bonnie and Clyde (larcenists in love), a stolen gold record, and fraternal triplets (The Midnite Men) — incendiary pop singers who redefine personality disorders with a 4/4 beat. Revenge, redemption, riots, and rock 'n' roll are set to scorch the stage.

How do you find your place in a world where nothing stays in place? Stay tuned.

  

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 Ring by James Sperl is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Ring by James Sperl as today's second free mystery ebook (A Sci-Fi Thriller; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, September 18, 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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The Ring
James Sperl
A Sci-Fi Thriller
Publisher: James Sperl

It was viewed by over 12,700 people and captured on more than 8,200 cameras, cell phones and video recorders.

The event over Viking Stadion in Stavanger, Norway would go down as one of the largest mass sightings in recorded history, but a sighting of what no one could be sure. There was no UFO. Not really. In fact, there was no actual object, nor was it flying. For most, the event would simply register as a remarkable atmospheric anomaly, the incident fading from memory as quickly as the mysterious and inexplicable skyborne artifact that had created it.

Then it happened again.

For 15-year old Eva Morris of Phoenix, Arizona, the "ring" provided a welcome diversion from the recent and tragic abduction of 10-year old Rory Bastione, a close friend from Eva's Copper Creek Estates community. But as reports of casualties from the site of the Norway ring hit the news cycle days later, Eva can't help but feel that time is of the essence to locate the missing girl in a way she can't yet comprehend. Driven by a secret motivation to find Rory at all costs, Eva's quest leads her into a nightmare from which there is no waking. A place where fear and survival converge, the horror made all the more sinister by the presence of the ring.

  

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 Endorphin Conspiracy by Fredric Stern is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Endorphin Conspiracy by Fredric Stern as today's free mystery ebook (A Suspense Thriller; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, September 18, 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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The Endorphin Conspiracy
Fredric Stern
A Suspense Thriller
Publisher: Fredric Stern

In the late 1950s, the CIA, at the height of communist paranoia, established PROJECT MK ULTRA to develop drugs that could be utilized to effectively brainwash foreign enemies. In 1963, the project came to an abrupt halt when several of the CIA's own agents were unwittingly given high doses of LSD at a weekend retreat, and later suffered severe flashbacks, depression, and in one case, suicide as a result.

Thirty-five years have transpired since the fateful MK ULTRA project was shut down. A group of zealots, including several of the original participants, now in highly placed government and academic positions, has kept the program, known as the SIGMA PROJECT, alive. Shifting their focus to the development of highly potent synthetic endorphins and utilizing PET (positron emission tomography) scan technology, they are on the threshold of a major breakthrough in the ability to understand and control the brain's thought processes. And they will let no one get in their way.

Dr. Geoffrey Davis, a former medic in the Navy Seals, is the chief resident on the neurosurgery service at the New York Trauma Center. From his first day back on the job after spending a year in the PETronics Research Laboratory of Dr. Josef Balassi, strange events begin unfolding. A crazed janitor, a former head injury patient at the NYTC, explosives in hand, takes a little girl hostage at the Central Park Zoo. A respected Hasidic rabbi opens fire with a machine gun on a crowded subway train. Several of Geoff's patients die under mysterious circumstances while on his neurosurgery service, and key aspects of their medical records, including their PET scans, vanish, leading Geoff inexorably toward the frightening conclusion that all of these events are in some way connected to activities at the NYTC's PETronics Institute.

As the deadly conspiracy swirls around him, Geoff becomes increasingly isolated, on the run from the CIA, the police and his own medical staff. At stake is the ability to control the human brain, and Dr. Geoffrey Davis is the only one with the knowledge, courage, and ability to stop the SIGMA PROJECT.

  

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.

Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Wednesday, September 18, 2013.

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Footsteps in the Dark
Georgette Heyer
A Novel of Suspense
Sourcebooks Landmark

What begins as an adventure soon becomes a nightmare …

Locals claim it is haunted and refuse to put a single toe past the front door, but to siblings Peter, Celia, and Margaret, the Priory is nothing more than a rundown estate inherited from their late uncle — and the perfect setting for a much-needed holiday.

But when a murder victim is discovered in the drafty Priory halls, the once unconcerned trio begins to fear that the ghostly rumors are true and they are not alone after all! With a killer on the loose, will they find themselves the next victims of a supernatural predator, or will they uncover a far more corporeal culprit?

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.