Telemystery: Teaser Poster for Bates Motel Season 2

A teaser poster has been released by A&E for the second season of Bates Motel (right; click for larger image). The tagline: "Reopening 2014".

In this contemporary prequel to the genre-defining film Psycho, viewers learn the twisted backstory of the relationship between Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga), and how his psyche unravels during his teenage years.

Telemystery: NCIS To Air Backdoor Pilot for Potential Spin-Off Set in New Orleans

CBS Studios is going to try again to develop a spin-off from its NCIS franchise. Last year it aired a back-door pilot as part of its NCIS: Los Angeles crime drama, which the network passed on. Later this season it will air an as yet untitled two-part episode as part of NCIS set in New Orleans that it hopes will be picked up by the network for the Fall 2014 schedule.

Here's the storyline: The NCIS New Orleans office handles cases from Pensacola through Mississippi and Louisiana to the Texas panhandle. New Orleans with its rich setting of music, fun and debauchery is a magnet for military personnel on-leave. And with fun comes trouble. It is a natural backdrop for a unique character driven spin-off.

A New MystereBook: Antiques Slay Ride by Barbara Allan

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 …

Antiques Slay Ride by Barbara Allan is a short holiday-themed e-book novella featuring antiques dealer and series character Brandy Borne. The authors, husband-and-wife writing team of Barbara and Max Allan Collins, published their seventh full-length book in the series earlier this year, Antiques Chop.

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Antiques Slay Ride by Barbara Allan
A Trash 'n' Treasures Mystery Novella
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: September 24, 2013

The Christmas rush is on as Brandy Borne and her quaintly quirky mother, Vivian, sniff out plum collectibles for resale, only to find the owner of a Santa's workshop worth of treasures has received some deadly tidings. It's beginning to look a lot like murder … but who wanted the deceased closed for the holidays — permanently? Maybe a rival antiques dealer, a Grinch who collects Christmas? Or the victim's suspiciously frosty stepchildren?

Brandy and Vivian check their list of who's been naughty or nice, but it may take a Christmas miracle — and some help from Sushi, their elfin shih tzu — to tie a bow around the season's most wanted killer!

      

Telemystery: Teaser Poster for White Collar Season 5

A new teaser poster has been released by USA Network for the fifth season of White Collar (right; click for larger image). The tagline: "Don't take your eyes off him." As if!

Season 4 ended with Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) being arrested leaving Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) free to devise a means to keep him out of prison.

White Collar returns on Thursday, October 17, 2013 with an episode (appropriately) titled "The Boys Are Back", promising yet another exciting season in this series.

Review: Good As Gone by Douglas Corleone

A Mysterious Review of Good As Gone by Douglas Corleone. A Simon Fisk Thriller.

Review summary: This is an incredibly suspenseful and exciting first in series novel, grounded by the exceptional character of Simon Fisk. Fast paced with the bonus of an unexpected conclusion, this is one of the year's best thrillers. Don't miss it. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Good As Gone
Douglas Corleone
A Simon Fisk Thriller
Minotaur Books (August 2013)

Publisher synopsis: Former U.S. Marshal Simon Fisk works as a private contractor, tracking down and recovering children who were kidnapped by their own estranged parents. He only has one rule: he won't touch stranger abduction cases. He's still haunted by the disappearance of his own daughter when she was just a child, still unsolved, and stranger kidnappings hit too close to home.

Until, that is, six-year-old Lindsay Sorkin disappears from her parents' hotel room in Paris, and the French police deliver Simon an ultimatum: he can spend years in a French jail, or he can take the case and recover the missing girl. Simon sets out in pursuit of Lindsay and the truth behind her disappearance. But Lindsay's captors did not leave an easy trail, and following it will take Simon across the continent, through the ritziest nightclubs and the seediest back alleys, into a terrifying world of international intrigue and dark corners of his past he'd rather leave well alone.

      

Death of a Unicorn, A Novel of Suspense by Peter Dickinson, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Death of a Unicorn by Peter Dickinson, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Small Beer Press.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $2.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (09/24/2013 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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Death of a Unicorn by Peter Dickinson
A Novel of Suspense
Publisher: Small Beer Press

Mabs Millett is the reluctant heiress to Cheadle Abbey, one of Vanbrugh's monstrous piles. At a deb dance in the early 1950s she meets a financier who offers her a job as an assistant to the editor of the social diary on a magazine he has just bought, a cross between Punch and The Tatler.

She writes an account of a deb dance from the viewpoint of a feather-headed deb, which becomes a weekly feature in the magazine, and eventually a best-selling book, anticipating the U and non-U furor of a few years later.

Meanwhile she has become the financier's mistress, deeply in love with him and with her work. After ten months of happiness her world falls apart with his gunning down in a street in Buenos Aires. Thirty years later she is a hugely successful romantic novelist, exploiting her fan-base to attract tourists to Cheadle. An old colleague from the magazine asks to see her. Details emerge that cast fresh light on her lover's mysterious death, and eventually reshape her world.

This novel was first published in 1984 by Random House.

      

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.

Deadline by Sandra Brown, New in Bookstores This Week

Today's new hardcover mystery title, scheduled to be published this week by Grand Central, is Deadline by Sandra Brown.

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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Deadline
Sandra Brown

Dawson Scott is a well-respected journalist recently returned from Afghanistan. Haunted by everything he experienced, he's privately suffering from battle fatigue which is a threat to every aspect of his life. But then he gets a call from a source within the FBI. A new development has come to light in a story that began 40 years ago. It could be the BIG story of Dawson's career one in which he has a vested interest.

Soon, Dawson is covering the disappearance and presumed murder of former Marine Jeremy Wesson, the biological son of the pair of terrorists who remain on the FBI's Most Wanted list. As Dawson delves into the story, he finds himself developing feelings for Wesson's ex-wife, Amelia, and her two young sons. But when Amelia's nanny turns up dead, the case takes a stunning new turn, with Dawson himself becoming a suspect. Haunted by his own demons, Dawson takes up the chase for the notorious outlaws … and the secret, startling truth about himself.

      

Telemystery: BBC One Orders River, a Crime Drama from Abi Morgan

BBC One has ordered a 6-episode crime drama titled River, written by Abi Morgan, who won an Emmy Award this year for her work on BBC Two's The Hour.

John River is a brilliant police officer whose genius and fault-line is the fragility of his mind — a man haunted by the murder victims whose cases he must lay to rest. A man who must walk a professional tightrope between a pathology so extreme he risks permanent dismissal, and a healthy state of mind that would cure him of his gift.

"River is a fractured mind navigating a brutal world," said Morgan. "And he does it wearing a police badge. I can't think of a better home for it than the BBC."

Charlotte Moore, Controller of BBC One, added, "River is full of intriguing twists and turns and I was truly gripped when the script came in. Abi's one of Britain's most distinctive and original storytellers and her ability to push the boundaries of the genre in surprising ways makes River her perfect debut on BBC One."

Filming is expected to begin in London next year with a premiere date in 2015.

MystereBooks: Running Cold by Harry Shannon, 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 Running Cold by Harry Shannon. This Kindle book was listed at $0.99 as of the date and time of this post, Tuesday, September 24, 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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Running Cold by Harry Shannon
A Mick Callahan Novel
Publisher: Harry Shannon

Media psychologist Callahan is a failed Navy Seal, a recovering alcoholic and a loyal friend. He's also a man with a hot temper and a talent for getting himself into trouble and now Callahan finds himself up against an angry young soldier just home from Afghanistan.

Wes McCann's father is a compulsive gambler and one of Mick's clients. His brutal murder sets these two dangerous men on a collision course.

  

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.

Mr. Churchill's Secretary, A Maggie Hope Mystery by Susan Elia MacNeal, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Bantam.

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 (09/24/2013 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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Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
A Maggie Hope Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Bantam

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined — and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.

Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family's hidden secrets, she'll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin's murderous plan and Churchill himself.

      

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: Catered To Death by Marlo Hollinger

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 …

Catered To Death by Marlo Hollinger is romance novelist Nell Musolf's debut mystery, published as written by Marlo Hollinger.

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Catered To Death by Marlo Hollinger
A Midlife Crisis Mystery
Publisher: Cozy Cat Press
Publication Date: September 22, 2013

Steve and Dee Dee Pearson enjoy that rare thing — a happy marriage. The only fly in their marital bliss is the fact that they are approaching retirement with only one pension (Steve's). Dee Dee hopes to remedy their financial situation by starting a catering business. Her first job is at Eden Academy, a private school staffed by teachers who loathe one another and a principal who is strongly lacking in principles, especially when it comes to his female employees.

When the principal winds up dead after Dee Dee's luncheon, Dee Dee's paycheck is put on what looks like permanent hold. Dee Dee decides to help find out who murdered the principal so that she can be assured that her very first catering job will be paid in full. Dee Dee investigates all of the teachers at Eden Academy and discovers that any one of them could have finished off their boss.

  

Mystery and Suspense Films: Redemption, New This Week on DVD

Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, we are pleased to feature one that falls into the mystery, suspense, thriller and/or adventure category …

Redemption starring Jason Statham, Agata Buzek, Vicky McClure, Benedict Wong, and Ger Ryan.

See also a list of current mystery and suspense DVD, Blu-ray, or VOD deals on Amazon.com.

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Redemption (2013)

Written and directed by Steven Knight. Watch a trailer for the film below.

Film Synopsis (from the studio): Jason Statham stars as an ex-special forces officer who comes home from the Afghan war a shattered man. Broke, homeless, and lost in a haze of drugs and booze, Joseph Smith attempts to piece his life back together. While employed as a collector for a local mob boss, he quickly learns the identity of a friend's murderer and, bent on revenge, finds himself sinking deeper into a dark world of violence in this high-octane action thriller.

Running time: 100 minutes Rating: Rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic nudity and language.

Purchase/Rental Options

        

A Conversation with Novelist Laurence Shames

with Laurence Shames

We are delighted to welcome novelist Laurence Shames to Omnimystery News today.

Laurence is the author of numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, but is probably best known for his "Key West" series of novels which, after an absense of a decade or so, he has resumed publishing with Shot on Location (SKLA; August 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats).

We recently had the opportunity to talk with Laurence about the book and his writing in general.

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Omnimystery News: Your bibliography is all over the map and yet you're best known for your series work. Why do you think that is?

Photo provided courtesy of
Laurence Shames

Laurence Shames: So, right from the start, a question I don't quite know how to answer! I never wanted to write a series, for two reasons. I was afraid that writing a series would get to feel like a job — and a job is something I've never wanted. And I was afraid that an ever-present protagonist would make the books feel too much the same. Readers seem to take comfort in the sameness of series books — that's why they sell so well — but I was afraid I'd get bored. On the other hand, I have an ensemble of characters I like staying in touch with — especially an old Mafioso named Bert the Shirt — so I often bring them back in cameo or supporting roles. Aside from that, I love using Key West as a setting and have done so nine times now. So my books are not a series … except in some ways they are.

OMN: We introduced Shot on Location as a "Key West novel" instead of a "Key West mystery" or "Key West thriller" because, quite honestly, we don't know how to categorize it. What do you think of it as?

LS: Another tough question! I never know how to label my books. I guess they're mysteries, though rarely whodunits. I think of them as comedies with caper plots. There's usually a love story and every once in a great while somebody gets punched in the nose or something hard-boiled like that. If I ran a bookstore, I would probably shelve myself under Classics. But I don't run a bookstore.

OMN: Give us a summary of Shot on Location in a tweet.

LS: Ah, the tweet — a variation on the one-line movie pitch. Okay. A ghostwriter is sent to Key West on a project he doesn't want to do and discovers instead the story he was born to write.

OMN: We might have said "elevator pitch" but we take your point. Tell us a little more about your writing process.

LS: I'm not smart enough to know much about a book at the beginning. So I don't outline. I don't sketch. I rarely think about backstory. I have a few characters and a situation, and I sit down one day and start writing. I don't recommend this approach for everyone. It can be quite terrifying — like when you're halfway through the book and find a gaping hole in the story or realize that a character you thought was a bad guy turns out to be a sweetheart. But, hey, that's what revisions are for. On the other hand, when you write a book you're also the first person to read that book — the first to see how it turns out. If you already know that, why bother writing it?

OMN: Have you included any of your own personal or professional experience into the book?

LS: Well, I've been a ghostwriter off and on for almost 25 years — I've written four New York Times bestsellers under four different names; see if you can top that! — so I've had plenty of time to build up the frustrations and resentments that motivate the fictional Jake Benson, my protagonist in Shot on Location. In the book, of course, I exaggerate for comic and dramatic effect, but the essential dynamic is drawn from life. Jake's an underdog whose real challenge is to reclaim his creativity and self-respect. It just so happens that, in order to do that, he's got to get neck-deep involved in a crazy caper and crime story full of Hollywood egomaniacs and the occasional mobster.

OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?

LS: The best advice I ever got came from one of my early editors at Esquire, and it took exactly two words: Write confidently. The thing is, writing is inherently presumptuous; you have to believe you have something to say that other people will bother to read. So don't presume halfway! Write as if you know you're really good. In keeping with this, I've chosen to regard as compliments some of the harshest criticism I've received. One reviewer said my prose was so hard-boiled that it could be taken on picnics. This was probably meant as a withering indictment. I thought it was a great line.

OMN: What is it about Key West that you chose it as the setting for your series?

LS: Setting is hugely important to me, and a case could be made that Key West itself is my most important recurring character. That said, I really don't care much about picky little details like which bar is on which corner, and I freely mix real and fictional locations. What matters to me is the feel of the town — the smell of the air, the quality of the light, the sense of how Key West itself determines the kinds of stories that will happen there. Also — in my books as in the actual Key West — most of the characters are transplants from somewhere else. How does Key West change them? I love watching characters surprise themselves by developing a Key West self that's quite different from (and generally happier than) the self they had before.

OMN: Shot on Location is a terrific title that could be interpretted in different ways, depending on context. How did you come up with it?

LS: Ah, titles. So important and such a pain! I generally go through about six per book. For most of the time I was working on this one the title was The Big Swim. I still kind of like that, but no one else did. As it turns out, I think Shot on Location is the right title — the book centers on a hit TV show being filmed in the Keys, and, yes, someone does get shot — but getting to it was agony. I'm still not sure how it happened. My wife claims it was her idea and she may very well be right. All I know for sure is that a lot of wine had been drunk by then and many pieces of scrap paper had been filled with rejected contenders.

OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young? And have any of these authors influenced how and what you write today?

LS: I hardly read anything when I was a kid. I had a tough time sitting still and I always preferred being out on the streets of Newark, playing stickball, stoopball, football or whatever. When I read at all, it was generally dopey sports biographies — Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays. I dodged a lot of the classics I was supposed to read in high school — which was great, because a tremendously wonderful book like All Quiet on the Western Front is really wasted on the young. I read it when I was around 50 and it made me weep. Also, because I rarely read books when they were assigned, I was able to avoid being brainwashed by the conventional wisdom about them. Case in point: The Great Gatsby. I don't care what anybody says; I think it's a crappy book with no one to like. Gatsby's a pathetic fraud, Nick's a suck-up, Daisy's a drip, and Tom's a drunken lecher. Hello?!

Moving along to my influences, it's funny, because I seldom think in terms of other writers. I think of the people I most admire in other art forms — so it's less about influence than aspiration. Charlie Chaplin, because he could make you laugh and cry at the same time. Mozart, because he did incredibly difficult things and made them look easy. Picasso, because he never stopped changing.

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Laurence Shames has been a New York City taxi driver, lounge singer, furniture mover, lifeguard, dishwasher, gym teacher, and shoe salesman. Having failed to distinguish himself in any of those professions, he turned to writing full-time in 1976 and has not done an honest day's work since.

His basic laziness notwithstanding, Shames has published twenty books and hundreds of magazine articles and essays. He wrote eight Key West novels during the 1990s, before taking a decade-long detour into screenwriting and collaborative work. He has also authored non-fiction and enjoyed considerable though largely secret success as a ghostwriter. Shames has penned four New York Times bestsellers. These have appeared on four different lists, under four different names, none of them his own. This might be a record.

For more information about the author and his work, visit his website at LaurenceShames.com or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Shot on Location
Laurence Shames
A Key West Novel

Take three speedboats, a disgruntled ghostwriter, and a hit TV show starring a gorgeous but impossible diva and created by a driven genius who may be losing his marbles. Add a fearless and gleefully profane stuntwoman, an ancient Mafioso with a chihuahua, and a revenge-crazed blonde in gladiator sandals. Stir in a thug with a heart of gold and an inveterate slacker who yearns for glory. Whisk a loopy but tender romance into the mix, turn the whole crew loose in the liberating and seductive sunshine of the Florida Keys — and what do you have? The new and long-awaited Key West novel by Laurence Shames.

  

MystereBooks: Over 200 Kindle Books Now Just 99 Cents Each!

Amazon is having a special sale on over 200 Kindle books priced at just 99 cents each. No word on how long this sale will go on, so if any of these titles are of interest, we urge you take advantage of the offer soon!

Here is a direct link to the 34 mystery, suspense, and thriller books that are part of this promotion.

Below Mercury by Mark Anson is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Below Mercury by Mark Anson as today's third 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 24, 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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Below Mercury
Mark Anson
A Sci-Fi Thriller
Publisher: Glenn Field Publishing

Mercury — closest planet to the Sun. In the permanent darkness of Chao Meng-fu crater lie vast fields of ice that that have never seen the Sun, and the ruins of Erebus Mine, abandoned and forgotten after a devastating explosion that claimed the lives of 257 people. After an eight-year legal battle, the relatives of the victims have finally succeeded in forcing the Space Accidents Board to reopen its investigation. Matt Crawford, a mine engineer who escaped the disaster, joins a team sent back to the mine to discover the true cause of the accident. The team is led by Clare Foster, a pilot in the U.S. Astronautics Corps, who has taken on the mission in the hope of rebuilding her career after a near-miss incident.

But powerful forces are determined that what lies hidden in the mine will never be uncovered, and have taken steps to ensure that the mission team will never return. Stranded on Mercury, the team are divided by internal conflict, and a growing realisation of what really happened in the mine. Soon Matt and Clare are thrown together in a desperate race for survival against an implacable enemy that will not rest until it has killed them all …

  

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.