Hurt Machine by Reed Farrel Coleman is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Hurt Machine by Reed Farrel Coleman as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically for a limited time only or until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.

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Hurt Machine by Reed Farrel Coleman
A Moe Prager Mystery
Tyrus Books

This is the 7th and most recent — published just this month — title in this series featuring the ex-NYPD cop, now private investigator.

About Hurt Machine (from the publisher): At a pre-wedding party for his daughter Sarah, Moe Prager is approached by his ex-wife and former PI partner Carmella Melendez. It seems Carmella's estranged sister Alta has been murdered, but no one in New York City seems to care. Why? Alta, a FDNY EMT, and her partner had months earlier refused to give assistance to a dying man at a fancy downtown eatery. Moe decides to help Carmella as a means to distract himself from his own life-and-death struggle. Making headway on the case is no mean feat as no one, including Alta's partner Maya Watson, wants to cooperate. Moe chips away until he discovers a cancer roiling just below the surface, a cancer whose symptoms include bureaucratic greed, sexual harassment, and blackmail. But is any of it connected to Alta's brutal murder?

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

B&N Free Nook Book Download Link.

Apple Free iBook Download Link (via iTunes).

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for December 19, 2011

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the editors of the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is now available on our website.

Godoku is similar to Sudoku, but uses letters instead of numbers. To give you a headstart, we provide you a mystery clue to fill in a complete row or column (if you choose to use it!).

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This week's letters and mystery clue:

A D E F G I L R Y

The 7th mystery to feature Berlin PI Bernie Gunther by Philip Kerr has this title (9 letters).

We now have two weeks of our puzzles on one page in PDF format for easier printing. Print this week's puzzle here.

Previous puzzles are stored in the Mystery Godoku Archives.

Enjoy the weekly Mystery Godoku Puzzle from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, and Thanks for visiting our website!

Review: Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories by John Mortimer

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories by John Mortimer.

Thomas & Mercer to Publish 35 Titles from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct Series

Thomas & Mercer recently announced that it would publish 35 titles from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series of police procedurals. The first two titles, The Mugger and The Con Man, were released a few days ago as ebooks; the remaining 33 titles will be released later this month, also as ebooks. All 35 titles will be available in new trade paperback editions this coming February.

Ed McBain, a pseudonym used by Evan Hunter, published his first 87th Precinct title in 1956, a series of books that eventually totalled 55 in number. "The city in these pages is imaginary," he tells readers. "The people, the places are all fictitious. Only the police routine is based on established investigatory technique."

In The Mugger, the second book in the series, this mugger is special. He preys on women, waiting in the darkness … then comes from behind, attacks them, and snatches their purses. He tells them not to scream and as they're on the ground, reeling with pain and fear, he bows and nonchalantly says, "Clifford thanks you, madam." But when he puts one victim in the hospital and the next in the morgue, the detectives of the 87th Precinct are not amused and will stop at nothing to bring him to justice.

Dashing young patrolman Bert Kling is always there to help a friend. And when a friend's sister-in-law is the mugger's murder victim, Bert's personal reasons to find the maniacal killer soon become a burning obsession … and it could easily get him killed.

The Mugger was adapted into a short feature film in 1958.

In The Con Man, the fourth in the series, the titular character is plying his trade on the streets of Isola: conning a domestic for pocket change, businessmen for thousands, and even ladies in exchange for a little bit of love. You can see the world, meet a lot of nice people, imbibe some unique drinks, and make a ton money … all by conning them for their cash.

The question is: How far is he willing to go?

When a young woman's body washes up in the Harb River, the answer to that question becomes tragically clear. Now Detective Steve Carella races against time to find him before another con turns deadly. The only clue he has to go on is the mysterious tattoo on the young woman’s hand — but it’s enough. Carella takes to the streets, searching its darkest corners for a man who cons his victims out of their money … and their lives.

Later in 2012, Thomas & Mercer will publish new editions of Ed McBain's other series character, Florida criminal attorney Matthew Hope.

Scott Nicholson's Creative Spirit

To say that Scott Nicholson has a "creative spirit" (pun intended!) would be all too limiting: in addition to the thrillers he has written, he is also the author of scores of short stories, several comic series, young adult and children's books, and six screenplays.

His most recent book — Creative Spirit (Haunted Computer Books, December 2011 ebook) — is a paranormal thriller, an updated version of his 2004 novel The Manor.

After parapsychologist Anna Galloway is diagnosed with terminal cancer, she has a recurring dream in which she sees her own ghost at Korban Manor. She's compelled to visit the historic estate to face her destiny and the fate of her soul.

Sculptor Mason Jackson has come to the manor to make a final, all-or-nothing attempt at success before giving up his dreams. When he becomes obsessed with carving Ephram Korban's form out of wood, he is swept into a destructive frenzy that even Anna can't pull him from.

The manor itself has secrets, with fires that blaze constantly in the hearths, portraits of Korban in every room, and deceptive mirrors on the walls. With an October blue moon looming, both the living and the dead learn the true power of their dreams.

Creative Spirit is available from popular ebook retailers (including Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, iTunes, Smashwords, and others) where you can also download preview chapters.

To learn more about Scott and his books, visit his website at HauntedComputer.com or connect with him on Facebook.

Final Price by J. Gregory Smith is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Final Price by J. Gregory Smith as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically for a limited time only or until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.

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Final Price by J. Gregory Smith
Non-Series
AmazonEncore

This, the author's debut novel originally self-published in 2009, was the winner of the 2010 Delaware Press Association Prize for Fiction and a quarter finalist in the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. This edition was published by AmazonEncore in 2010.

About Final Price (from the publisher): Buying a new vehicle is a big decision, but frustrated sales associate Shamus Ryan makes it a matter of life and death. He unleashes a rash of killings that wraps the Wilmington, Delaware region in fear.

The homicide cases fall to State Police Detective Paul Chang, formerly with the NYPD. Never Chinese enough for his domineering mother, yet too different to be accepted as traditionally American, he's spent his life straddling two cultures. From a young age, bullying in New York's Chinatown gave rise to a vigilante-inclined alter-ego he calls "The Dragon." His ex-partner, Nelson Rogers, is his closest friend and biggest burden. Always a misfit, Nelson left the NYPD following a nervous breakdown.

When the bodies pile up and the pressure mounts, Chang calls in Nelson to apply his uncanny insight that made the two an effective team in New York. Seen through the eyes of both the killer and detective, Final Price follows a car salesman's murderous rampage.

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Mr. E. Reviews Blitz

Purchase/Rental Option(s)

I didn't have high expectations for this direct-to-DVD release but I was surprised: this is actually a pretty good movie. Though rough around the edges, the well-developed thriller storyline moves along briskly with credible performances by all the principals.

Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews Blitz.

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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.

Review: The End of the Line by Stephen Legault

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The End of the Line by Stephen Legault.

Warner Bros. Acquires Film Adaptation of The Devil in the White City

A year or so ago we reported that Leonardo DiCaprio's production company had acquired the film rights to The Devil in the White City, the true story of a mass murderer, who killed scores of mostly young women around the time of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Now we're learning that Warner Bros. has acquired the project and hired Graham Moore to write the adapted screenplay. DiCaprio is still expected to star as Henry H. Holmes, the serial killer.

Subtitled "Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America," the book tells the story of two men: Architect Daniel Hudson Burnham, the brilliant director of the World's Fair of 1893 in Chicago, the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C.; and Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World’s Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds — a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths.

(Related article: Deadline.)

The Clinch Knot by John Galligan is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Clinch Knot by John Galligan as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically for a limited time only or until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.

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The Clinch Knot by John Galligan
A Ned "Dog" Oglivie Fly Fishing Mystery
Tyrus Books

This is the third (of four to date) mystery in this series.

About The Clinch Knot (from the publisher): The Dog is in Livingston, Montana, daydreaming about fishing the Stone and, as usual, subsisting on Swisher Sweets, vodka-Tang, and the hope that pretending to forget will be enough.

He's forged a few tenuous friendships, and now finds himself watching from the bank as troubled local girl Jesse Ringer leads D'Ontario Sneed into the swift current of young love. It's sweet, really … but some of the locals object to the relationship on the basis of Sneed's skin color.

Then the unthinkable: vibrant, wild Jesse is found shot in the head, and Sneed is passed out in her car, gun beside him, window seams taped, and engine running. Sneed is hospitalized for severe carbon monoxide poisoning and can't string together a sentence to defend himself, so it falls to the Dog.

If only the Dog could run from his life without ending up in the tangle and snarl of the lives of others. A man who wants to lose himself in the current must be careful of his backcast; it'll always keep him tethered to a life he's trying to forget.

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

B&N Free Nook Book Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Review: The Blood Red Indian Summer by David Handler

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Blood Red Indian Summer by David Handler.

Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending December 16, 2011

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending December 16th, 2011 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Although there was quite a bit of shuffling within the list this week, last week's number one title, The Litigators by John Grisham, remains atop the list again this week. No new titles debut in the top 15, though one just missed the cutoff and is profiled below.

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New at number 18 and certain to move into the top 15 next week is the 8th Harry Hole mystery, The Leopard by Jo Nesbø. It was originally published in Norway as Panserhjerte in 2009.

Two young women are found murdered in Oslo, both drowned in their own blood. Media coverage quickly reaches fever pitch: Could this be the work of a serial killer?

The crime scenes offer no coherent clues, the police investigation is stalled, and the one man who might be able to help doesn’t want to be found. Traumatized by his last case, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens. Yet when he is compelled, at last, to return to Norway — his father is dying — Harry’s buried instincts begin to take over. After a female MP is discovered brutally murdered, nothing can keep him from the investigation.

There is little to go on: a piece of rope, a scrap of wool, a bit of gravel, an unexpected connection between the victims. And Harry will soon come to understand that he is dealing with a psychopath for whom "insanity is a vital retreat," someone who will put him to the test — in both his professional and personal lives — as never before.

Purchase Options:

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For more mystery books news, please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

The Hunger Games Poster Puzzle Solved

It's scarcely been an hour since we read about The Hunger Games poster puzzle contest (via Facebook) that it has been solved and a winner announced.

It is, of course, old news now, but earlier today a poster puzzle hunt was on to celebrate 100 days until The Hunger Games opens in theaters on March 23rd, 2012. Pieces of the puzzle were distributed via Twitter and readers were asked to collect them and then solve the puzzle.

The result is shown right (click for larger image).

Review: Physical Education by Maggie Barbieri

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Physical Education by Maggie Barbieri.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Opens in US Theaters December 16th

This Friday, December 16th, the sequel to 2009's Sherlock Holmes opens in US theaters. Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as the consulting detective in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Jude Law returns as his friend and sleuthing partner Dr. John Watson.

New to this film is the character of Professor James Moriarty (played by Jared Harris). Though Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room, Moriarty is Holmes' intellectual equal. But his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective.

When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, the evidence, as construed by Inspector Lestrade, points to suicide. But Sherlock Holmes deduces that the prince has been the victim of murder — a murder that is only one piece of a larger and much more portentous puzzle, designed by Professor Moriarty. The cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead of Holmes as he spins a web of death and destruction — all part of a greater plan that, if he succeeds, will change the course of history.

Watch a featurette for the film below.