Illusions, An Alexandra Best Mystery by Jean Saunders, New This Week from Endeavour Press

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher, promoting and selling ebook editions of works by new authors as well as bringing out ebook editions of out of print books.

We've selected one of their recently published mystery, suspense, thriller or crime titles to feature here today …

Illusions by Jean Saunders

An Alexandra Best Mystery (2nd in series)

Publisher: Endeavour Press

Price: $3.99 (as of 11/05/2014 at 12:30 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.

The luxury cruise was the reward for a job well done, or so Private Investigator Alexandra Best had planned. What she hadn't envisaged was meeting Leanora, an elderly psychic who warned her of an impending death.

Leanora herself is the victim of her own prophecy, and when her daughter, Moira, begs Alex to investigate she is forced to reveal that someone has been stalking both mother and daughter. Unwillingly taking on the case, Alex soon discovers that Leanora was not the harmless, ethereal old woman she appeared to be, but had planned, with Moira, elaborate blackmailing scams involving people in high places. Then Moira, too, is murdered, and the search for the killer responsible for the murder of both women brings Alex herself to the brink of disaster …

With the number of victims rising, Best must enter the strange world of the psychic to answer her questions before the murderer strikes again. For PI Best, this is a strange case where nothing is what it seems …

— Illusions by Jean Saunders

An Excerpt from Global Predator, a Thriller by Jack MacLean

Global Predator
by Jack MacLean

We are delighted to welcome author Jack MacLean to Omnimystery News today.

From the streets of London to Pakistan's beautiful Swat Valley, Jack's new international thriller Global Predator (Legend Publishing; September 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) explores the impact of terrorism through a victim with a mission, a woman hoping to inspire change, and a London banker running from the law.

We are pleased to introduce you to this book with an excerpt from it.

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A CONVOY OF THREE DENTED AND mud-spattered SUVs roared up the forest track and jerked to a halt at a clearing overlooking the valley they had just left. A thickset, clumsy man in his late fifties climbed out of the middle vehicle breathing heavily. He peered through the thick pebble glasses perched on a large bulbous nose, scouring the track along which they had just travelled. He grunted in approval. No one was following. Meanwhile, the three vehicles edged forward until they were hidden from sight under a clump of pine trees. One of the drivers emerged with a pair of large army binoculars and handed them deferentially to the older man. He held them in front of his glasses before awkwardly removing them and then adjusted both lenses of the binoculars. First, he raised them to search the clear blue skies above and then lowered the binoculars to examine a village set in the valley below among a patchwork of irrigated fields. Families were out in the fields scything the autumn wheat harvest and bundling the stalks ready for threshing. Then he turned the binoculars to examine a large compound dominated by a domed white mosque. It lay a few miles to the west of the village and was surrounded by a high wall which formed a rough rectangle. At the corners were small guard platforms.
  It was still mid-morning and a stiff breeze was pushing a bank of clouds from the west. The group of watchers waited in expectant silence. After twenty minutes, the wind brought the wailing sound of a call to prayers. Then almost a minute later, they heard a faint sound of a small motor engine and the watchers tilted their heads upwards, searching the sky for the source of the sound. There was nothing visible. Then, as the call to prayers ended, they saw streaks from two small silver missiles targeting the compound. Seconds later, the sound of two blasts echoed across the valley. The explosions created a cloud of dust and debris as the mud brick buildings shattered. The cloud swiftly rose into the air and then the debris fell as quickly. The mosqu4e seemed to have survived intact. Then they could hear a new sound, a steady whop-whop from helicopters. A group of six Cobra attack helicopters appeared and within minutes they could hear the intermittent sound of the machine-gun fire.
  'Pakistani soldiers,' whispered one of the men watching. The older man nodded.
  'Allah has shown his mercy to you. Blessed is the name of the Prophet,' the younger man said sounding excited. 'They were coming for you but they failed again.'
  Al-Zawahiri shook his head slowly. He did not share his followers' enthusiasm. Instead he felt a familiar intense anger begin to burn inside. The Americans had somehow been tracking him and only a messenger carrying an urgent warning to flee had saved them. He had no known whether to trust the Pakistani or not. The Pakistanis had helped him escape their own attack but next time he might not escape in time. Another hour and the messenger would have arrived too late.
  From the compound there was a hesitant and sporadic return of fire. Three of the helicopters lying low over the fields began strafing the walls of the compound. In the fields the farmers and their families stood and stared. A few figures began running back to their houses, while out of the compound, youths dressed in white robes and skull caps ran out and fled towards the village. In the seminary, another scattered group of men armed with a collection of guns and old rifles began firing wildly.
  Within minutes, soldiers in dark olive and khaki combat gear were climbing down ladders and dropped from the three helicopters as they hovered above the fields outside the seminary. Soon the troops began running towards the mosque. A pick-up truck and a minibus which tore out of the gates on to the road leading to the village were strafed by gunfire from other helicopters hovering just above the compound. Men piled out of the jeep moments before it exploded. The watchers could see more soldiers rappelling down from the helicopters into the compound. Three minutes later, the rhythmic bursts of gunfire suddenly stopped. The helicopter's wings stopped rotating. It seemed that resistance within the compound had ceased.
  Al-Zawahiri slowly lifted the binoculars away from his eyes. Tears blinded his eyes and he let them trickle into his thick white beard. He murmured some instructions to the driver beside him. He went to the SUV hidden under the trees and returned carrying carpets which he laid down. The other members of the convoy joined the older man and the driver in kneeling down on the carpets prostrating themselves towards Mecca. The elderly Egyptian then sat up and began addressing the group. They listened in reverential silence awaiting his guidance. He spoke clearly and slowly. First he offered thanks for their deliverance and then he spoke of revenge.
  'If we get martyrdom, so we achieve that we were looking for, for the flag of Jihad will never fall down until the Day of Judgment as we were informed by the prophet of Allah (peach and blessings be upon him). Oh brothers, if we die, we meet with our beloved ones, because the gardens of my Lord are prepared for us, and its birds flap their wings around us. So they await us in the eternal residence. Verily, Allah has chosen us for his call. Brothers, go ahead and don't look back, your path has been covered in blood. By the divine mercy of Allah, I call on the prophet thrice blessed be his name, to recognize the sacrifice of these martyrs. They are enjoying their reward in paradise but we here who have been saved must now prepare their revenge. By this hand, I swear that Satan's attack against a school, a place of holy learning will be avenged. These invaders will regret what they have done and will curse themselves for the use of these drones. We will turn them against our enemies and see them weep over the destruction wrought on the children they claim to be protecting. Before the next Eid we will see them weep tears of blood at their folly. We will find a school and turn the sword of our enemies against their own bodies.' Then he stopped and raised his hand and brought it down in a savage chop.

Excerpted from the book Global Predator by Jack MacLean. Copyright © 2014 by Jack MacLean. Reprinted with permission of Legend Publishing. All rights reserved.

— ♦ —

Photo provided courtesy of
Jack MacLean

Jack MacLean is the pen name of a prize-winning former foreign correspondent for a British newspaper with firsthand experience of Asia.

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Global Predator
Jack MacLean
An International Thriller

High above the mountains of the North West Frontier, a Global Predator circles waiting to unleash its Hellfire missiles. The trail of Osama Bin Laden's deputy, the elusive Egyptian terror master, Ayman al-Zawahiri has gone cold until a chance recording identified by a translator at the National Security Agency offers new clues. A special intelligence team assembles and plots to catch at him at a meeting with other high ranking al Qaeda leaders.

In Pakistan's beautiful Swat Valley, the local Taliban have been stepping up their attacks on anyone educating girls. English aid worker Sally is taken hostage while visiting one of her schools. When Wilkins, escaping his reckless trading mistakes at his London bank, is forced to rescue her, he finds himself trapped in a world of blind fear and terror.

Only one person can now make sense of what is happening and stop a massacre of innocent schoolgirls.

        

A Conversation with Author Raymond Benson

with Raymond Benson

We are delighted to welcome author Raymond Benson to Omnimystery News today.

Raymond's fifth and final book in The Black Stiletto series, Endings & Beginnings (Oceanview Publishing; November 2014 hardcover and ebook formats), is published is week, and we had the opportunity to talk with him about it.

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Omnimystery News: Take us back to the beginning, and introduce us to the Black Stiletto.

Photo provided courtesy of
Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson: The Black Stiletto was a feminist before that word was in our vernacular. She was a young woman in the late 1950s who put on a mask and costume, called herself "The Black Stiletto," and went out on the streets of New York City (and later Los Angeles) to fight crime and social injustice. She was active for five years and then mysteriously disappeared. No one knew who she was, but she became a legend still celebrated in myth today. Cut to the present — a grown man is taking care of his mother in a nursing home in the Chicago suburbs (she has Alzheimer's) and he discovers that SHE was the Black Stiletto. So the 5-book saga is two parallel stories — one in the present, dealing with the son and his daughter and threats from the past, and one in the past, dealing with the Stiletto and her escapades.

OMN: How did you go about creating the right voice for your female protagonist?

RB: I have several novels in which there are female protagonists. Don't ask me why I'm comfortable writing in a female voice. It is challenging to get all the details right, but luckily my wife is a big reader and she vets all my work before anyone else sees it. I sure hope it doesn't matter to readers. When another female writer read the manuscript of the first book, she said, "If I hadn't known a man had written it, I would have thought a woman had." That was good enough for me!

OMN: Into which fiction genre would you place this series?

RB: Thriller or Suspense — these are pretty interchangeable descriptions. Not sure about the general public, but these labels do help define the type of book it is for *me* — as mysteries and police procedurals and the like have a different rhythm and pace.

OMN: Give us a summary of the book in a tweet.

RB: All questions will be answered, all secrets revealed in the 5th & final chapter — THE BLACK STILETTO: ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS!

OMN: Describe your writing process for us.

RB: I have several phases. The Conceptual Phase is when I daydream a lot and come up with a story. I may jot down paragraph-long blurbs that are like the back cover of a paperback book that state the premise. The Initial Research Phase is preliminary research into a location or something that might be in the story that I don't know much about. Depending on this research and what I find, this determines if I proceed. The Outline Phase is the longest and hardest part; I put in treatment form the entire story in block paragraphs, with each paragraph representing a chapter. This is where I work out all the twists and turns, the red herrings, the climaxes, etc. I might spend 2 months on the outline. Heavy Research Phase is next, and that's when I might travel to the location(s) involved or do more in-depth research on things in the story. The Writing Phase is next; armed with my outline and research, I start the writing process. I try to get a complete scene done every day (this might be part of a chapter or even a whole chapter, it might be 2 pages or it might be 20). I always write the first draft without going back and correcting anything in order to establish the pace. The Revision Phase is next; I go back and revise, add, delete, re-write, destroy, re-create — whatever, and this is the most fun part of the process. I may do 2 or 3 revisions. Then I let trusted readers take a look. Based on their comments, I may do another revision (or not).

OMN: How true are you to the settings in the books?

RB: I try to be very accurate in describing real places. If I don't know them personally, I travel to them. In the case of The Black Stiletto books, much of the action takes place in the years 1958-1962, so the research into those periods is intense. All the locations in the five books, except for L.A., are places I have lived (and I know L.A. pretty well). Getting the historical facts right is just a matter of appropriate digging.

OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?

RB: I'm a Film History instructor at a local college, so film is a big interest. I sprinkled the Black Stiletto books with historical trivia such as what movies the protagonist might have seen that day. Music is also a big interest — I am a concert-level pianist and hold a weekly piano gig in the Chicago area — so I do the same thing in my books with music. I had a couple of mysteries published in 2008/2009 that were "rock 'n' roll thrillers" seeped in music lore!

OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a thriller writer and thus I am also …".

RB: I am a thriller writer and thus I am also an inventor of devious plots that could cause great harm! Mwa ha ha!

OMN: Has there been any interest in adapting The Black Stiletto series for television or film?

RB: The film/TV rights for the saga have been acquired by Tony Eldridge of Lonetree Entertainment — he is currently one of the producers of the recent Denzel Washington movie The Equalizer.

OMN: Any thoughts on who you'd like to see playing the key roles?

RB: The role of Judy in the Stiletto days of the past would be played by a tall, young, athletic actress. Jennifer Lawrence? (Wishful thinking.) The role of Martin, her grown son in the sequences in the present, would be played by a middle-aged man with a sense of humor … Steve Carell perhaps?

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

RB: It seems I've always read genre fiction — I started on Ian Fleming when I was too young to read James Bond! These days I mostly read other thrillers because that's what I write. I do, though, enjoy science fiction, mysteries, and some mainstream fiction. My favorite living author is Ruth Rendell.

OMN: Create a Top Five list on any topic.

RB: Top Five Films

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968; Stanley Kubrick)
2. Duck Soup (1933; Leo McCarey)
3. The Seventh Seal (1957; Ingmar Bergman)
4. City Lights (1931; Charles Chaplin)
5. From Russia With Love (1963; Terence Young)

OMN: What's next for you?

RB: I have begun a new novel, and yes, it has a female protagonist again. Still too early to know what the thing is yet!

— ♦ —

Raymond Benson has been an author, composer, computer game designer, stage director, film historian, and film genres instructor for over thirty years, including being the official James Bond 007 continuation author between 1996 and 2002. He lives in the Chicago area.

For more information about the author, please visit his website at RaymondBenson.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

— ♦ —

Endings & Beginnings
Raymond Benson
The Black Stiletto Series

The startling, climactic finale to the five-book saga of The Black Stiletto.

It's 1962. Judy Cooper, the Black Stiletto, is devastated at the betrayal by her nemesis and former lover, mobster Leo Kelly. Additionally, Leo and his psychotically dangerous sister, Christina, have set out to ruin the Stiletto's reputation in L.A. with a series of crimes that are made to appear as if the crime-fighter is responsible. The very pregnant Judy must fight back only with her wits and cunning-until disaster strikes and she is forced to flee to her old home town in Texas for the final showdown with destiny.

Meanwhile, in the present, the Alzheimer's that afflicts elderly Judy is in its last stage, but her son and granddaughter, Martin and Gina, must continue to protect her from the past's last remaining assault, culminating in a cathartic and explosive conclusion.

        

Too Many Cooks by Marina Pascoe is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Too Many Cooks by Marina Pascoe

A Bartlett and Boase Mystery

Publisher: Accent Press

… as today's fifth free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of November 05, 2014 at 7:40 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

Who would imagine a little gold ring could lead to kidnap, torture and even murder? How could the curse of the Pharaohs come to Falmouth?

The year is 1923. When a young Cockney woman appears in Falmouth, Inspector George Bartlett and Constable Archibald Boase think she's harmless enough — until she and they are caught up in a seemingly endless cycle of mayhem and deceit. Unsure exactly how this woman fits into their enquiries, at various turns they are investigating her, searching for her, and worrying about her safety — and still can't decide if she is all she seems.

With death on their doorstep, a strange visitor to the town who claims to be a relative of the tragically-murdered Russian royal family, and a killer still on the loose, Bartlett and Boase have little time left to prevent further murders as their superintendent looms large in the background waiting to take them off the case …

— Too Many Cooks by Marina Pascoe

Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl with April Henry is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

A Triple Threat Novel

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

… as today's fourth free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of November 05, 2014 at 7:30 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

While home on break, a seventeen-year-old Senate page takes her dog out for a walk and never returns. The resulting media firestorm quickly ensnares television reporter Cassidy Shaw, Federal Prosecutor Allison Pierce, and FBI Special Agent Nicole Hedges. Together, these life-long friends call themselves The Triple Threat — a nickname derived from their favorite dessert as well as their uncanny ability to crack cases from their three unique positions of power.

Together, they must find the one face of betrayal amidst a crowd of growing suspects — including a US Senator — before they become the next victims.

— Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl with April Henry