New This Week: Shadow Burns, A Preternatural Affairs Thriller by SM Reine

Omnimystery News is pleased to present a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during September 2014 and priced $4.99 or less …

Shadow Burns by SM Reine

A Preternatural Affairs Thriller (4th in series)

Publisher: Red Iris Books

Price: $3.99 (as of 09/24/2014 at 4:30 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

When more than a dozen people die at a retirement home, the official story is carbon monoxide poisoning. Cèsar Hawke is convinced the reason is less mundane and more infernal. But that's his job. As an agent working for the Office of Preternatural Affairs, he's always looking for supernatural answers to deadly questions.

Isobel Stonecrow agrees to help him find the truth. With her powers of necrocognition, she can speak to the dead and get the real story.

But when they return to the crime scene, they find a lot more than cadavers. They find a nightmare that they can't escape — a nightmare from Isobel's past, which even she can't completely remember thanks to the contract that signed away her soul.

Cèsar will have to disinter Isobel's secrets to save her. He'll learn who Isobel used to be, what she's done, and the price she paid … no matter how deadly the knowledge might be.

— Shadow Burns by SM Reine

A Comedy of Murders, A Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo de Pavia Adventure by George Herman, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the author …

A Comedy of Murders by George Herman

A Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo de Pavia Adventure (1st in series)

Publisher: George Herman

Price: $1.99 (as of 09/24/2014 at 4:00 PM ET).

First published in hardcover by Carroll & Graf in 1994.

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

The court of the Duke of Milan is in turmoil. In this autumn of 1498 there are threats from within and without. The French are preparing to march across the Alps and claim the dukedom with armed force. The Venetians to the east and the army of the Borgia pope to the south would also be happy to grab their slice when the conditions are right. They only await a signal.

The Duke is informed by his chief of security that a mysterious individual known as the Griffin is operating a ring of assassins within the court itself. The first attempt on his life is made during a hunting party visit to a monastery in Pavia where the plot is thwarted by a young and highly intelligent dwarf named Niccolo. In gratitude, the Duke brings Niccolo to his court where a mutual admiration blossoms between the brilliant young man and the resident artist Leonardo da Vinci. When a score of cardinals attached to the court begin to perish under decidedly odd circumstances, including an overdose of aphrodisiac, the angry attention of the Borgias is drawn to Milan.

As the dead body count multiplies and invasion threatens, it is Leonardo and Niccolo who attempt to untangle the motives and methods of the assassinations, vendettas, and simple murders. Due to Leonardo's anatomy studies and inventions, including a flying machine, the two amateurs draw conclusions that could spell their own doom unless the artist and his young friend can use their wits to reveal the killers even as their enemies close in.

— A Comedy of Murders by George Herman

December Dog by Ronald Roy, a New Calendar Mysteries Mystery for Junior Sleuths, Ages 7 to 9

Omnimystery News is pleased to present in this post a new First Clues: Mysteries for Kids series title published this month …

December Dog by Ronald Roy

Series: Calendar Mysteries

Publisher: Random House

Format(s): Paperback, eBook

Recommended for Junior Sleuths, Ages 7 to 9

  

For more information about the book, see a synopsis, below.

Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy find a lost puppy on Christmas Eve. The poor dog was meant to be a present for someone. It has a ribbon with a tag around its neck, but the tag is ripped.

Can the kids find out who bought the puppy or who was supposed to receive it?

— December Dog by Ronald Roy

The Dead Witness, A Connoisseur's Collectioin of Victorial Detective Stories by Michael Sims, editor, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to present the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Walker Books …

The Dead Witness by Michael Sims, editor

A Connoisseur's Collectioin of Victorial Detective Stories

Publisher: Walker Books

Price: $1.99 (as of 09/24/2014 at 3:00 PM ET).

This title is one of over 100 mysteries and thrillers included in Amazon's The Big Deal, Now through 10/05/2014.

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

The finest adventures among private and police detectives from the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth — including a wide range of overlooked gems — creating the finest ever anthology of Victorian detective stories.

"The Dead Witness," the 1866 title story by Australian writer Mary Fortune, is the first known detective story by a woman, a suspenseful clue-strewn manhunt in the Outback. This forgotten treasure sets the tone for the whole anthology-surprises from every direction, including more female detectives and authors than you can find in any other anthology of its kind.

Pioneer women writers such as Anna Katharine Green, Mary E. Wilkins, and C. L. Pirkis will take you from rural America to bustling London. Female detectives range from Loveday Brooke to Dorcas Dene and Madelyn Mack.

In other stories, you will meet November Joe, the Canadian half-Native backwoods detective who stars in "The Crime at Big Tree Portage" and demonstrates that Sherlockian attention to detail works as well in the woods as in the city. Holmes himself is here, too, of course — not in another reprint of an already well-known story, but in the first two chapters of A Study in Scarlet, the first Holmes case, in which the great man meets and dazzles Watson.

Authors range the gamut from luminaries such as Charles Dickens to the forgotten author who helped inspire Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," the first real detective story. Bret Harte is here and so is E. W. Hornung, creator of master thief Raffles. Naturally Wilkie Collins couldn't be left behind.

Michael Sims's new collection unfolds the fascinating and entertaining youth of what would mature into the most popular genre of the twentieth century.

— The Dead Witness by Michael Sims, editor

To Dwell in Darkness by Deborah Crombie, New in Bookstores during September 2014

Today's featured new hardcover mystery, suspense, or thriller title scheduled to be published during September 2014 is …

To Dwell in Darkness by Deborah Crombie

a Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery (16th in series)

Publisher: William Morrow

        

For a list of more new hardcover titles to be published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for September 2014. For new paperback mysteries, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of September 2014 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.

More about our featured title, below …

Recently transferred to the London borough of Camden from Scotland Yard headquarters, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his new murder investigation team are called to a deadly bombing at historic St. Pancras Station. By fortunate coincidence, Melody Talbot, Gemma's trusted colleague, witnesses the explosion. The victim was taking part in an organized protest, yet the other group members swear the young man only meant to set off a smoke bomb. As Kincaid begins to gather the facts, he finds every piece of the puzzle yields an unexpected pattern, including the disappearance of a mysterious bystander.

The bombing isn't the only mystery troubling Kincaid. He's still questioning the reasons behind his transfer, and when his former boss — who's been avoiding him — is attacked, those suspicions deepen. With the help of his former sergeant, Doug Cullen, Melody Talbot, and Gemma, Kincaid begins to untangle the truth. But what he discovers will leave him questioning his belief in the job that has shaped his life and his values — and remind him just how vulnerable his precious family is.

— To Dwell in Darkness by Deborah Crombie