Sunday, January 01, 2012

Firsts on the 1st: New Series Characters Being Introduced in January 2012 Mysteries

New Hardcover Mysteries from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of January 2012 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new January paperbacks on The Mystery Bookshelf.

In this series of monthly posts, which we call Firsts on the 1st, we're introducing readers to new series characters who will make their mysterious American debut in print during January. (Purchase options include Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, and the iTunes iBookstore, which are indicated by icons under the cover image.)

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Stay At Home Dead by Jeffrey Allen
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook EditionApple iBook

Title: Stay At Home Dead
Author: Jeffrey Allen
Series Character: Deuce Winters
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the character: Deuce Winters is a stay-at-home dad in sleepy Rose Petal, Texas.

His first mystery: When Deuce discovers a dead body in his mini-van, it quickly throws his quiet life into disarray. It doesn't help that the victim ruined Deuce's high school football career and married his ex-girlfriend. As the number one suspect in the court of public opinion, Deuce is determined to clear his name, with a little help from his wife, Julianne, a high-powered attorney. His search for the killer leads him to a business plan gone awry and a gaggle of jilted lovers.

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The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition

Title: The Golden Scales
Author: Parker Bilal
Series Character: Makana
Format: Hardcover

What we know about the character: Makana is an exiled Sudanese police inspector, now a private investigator living in Cairo (Egypt).

His first mystery: Struggling to make ends meet Makana takes a case from the notoriously corrupt mogul Saad Hanafi, owner of a Cairo soccer team, whose star player, Adil Romario, has gone missing. Soon, Makana is caught up in a mystery that takes him into the treacherous underbelly of his adopted city, encountering Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters, vengeful women, and a desperate mother hunting for her missing daughter-a trail that leads him back into his own story, stirring up painful personal memories and bringing him face-to-face with an old enemy from his past …

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It Takes a Witch by Heather Blake
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook EditionApple iBook

Title: It Takes a Witch
Author: Heather Blake
Series Character: Darcy Merriweather
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the character: Darcy Merriweather hails from a long line of Wishcrafters — witches with the power to cast spells by making a wish.

Her first mystery: Darcy's come to Enchanted Village to learn her trade but finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation …

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An Appetite For Murder by Lucy Burdette
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook EditionApple iBook

Title: An Appetite For Murder
Author: Lucy Burdette
Series Character: Hayley Snow
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the character: Hayley Snow is a food critic for a Key West style magazine.

Her first mystery: Hayley's life always revolved around food. But when she applies to be a food critic for a Key West style magazine, she discovers that her new boss would be Kristen Faulkner-the woman Hayley caught in bed with her boyfriend! Hayley thinks things are as bad as they can get — until the police pull her in as a suspect in Kristen's murder. Kristen was killed by a poisoned key lime pie. Now Hayley must find out who used meringue to murder before she takes all the blame.

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Terlingua Heat by John DeMers
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition

Title: Terlingua Heat
Author: John DeMers
Series Character: Danny Morales
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Danny Morales is a Big Bend river guide.

His first mystery: Danny is a former newspaper photographer from San Antonio, making a life under an assumed name in the funky, chili-crazed, end-of-the-road watering hole of Terlingua. He lives one day at a time with an oddball collection of aging losers, dropouts, and runaways, who gather to swap tall tales and lubricate away their troubles. As part of an investigation of a new expansion of San Antonio's convention center, Danny uncovered a web of shadows weaving together the 1963 JFK assassination in Dallas and the back-room politics behind the 1968 HemisFair. Until Danny can return to San Antonio and face his deepest fears, all he can do is run. In the end, his life, and the truth behind one of America's greatest mysteries, will hang by a single cable seven hundred feet above the floodlit trees of HemisFair Park.

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The Anatomist's Apprentice by Tessa Harris
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook EditionApple iBook

Title: The Anatomist's Apprentice
Author: Tessa Harris
Series Character: Thomas Silkstone
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Thomas Silkstone is an expert in the study of the human anatomy.

His first mystery: In eighteenth-century England, the murder of Sir Edward Crick sends a torrent of gossip breezing through Oxfordshire; although, aside from his sister, Lady Lydia Farrell, few mourn the young man. When Lady Farrell's husband becomes the prime suspect in the murder, she enlists the help of Dr. Thomas Silkstone — an anatomist and pioneering forensic detective — to solve the murder and prove his innocence.

Though Dr. Silkstone studied medicine in England under the foremost surgeon in the region, his unconventional methods and unfamiliar field of study have made him an outsider. Still, he agrees to examine Sir Edward's corpse, but the keenest blade he will use is his intellect. He must determine both the cause and motive of this suspicious death in what will be the first of many cases.

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The First Rule of Ten by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook EditionApple iBook

Title: The First Rule of Ten
Author: Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay
Series Character: Tenzing "Ten" Norbu
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Tenzing "Ten" Norbu is a Tibetan-Buddhist private investigator in Los Angeles.

His first mystery: Growing up in a Tibetan Monastery, Ten dreamed of becoming a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. So when he was sent to Los Angeles to teach meditation, he joined the LAPD instead. But as the Buddha says, change is inevitable; and ten years later, everything is about to change — big-time — for Ten. One resignation from the police force, two bullet-wounds, three suspicious deaths, and a beautiful woman later, he quickly learns that whenever he breaks his first rule, mayhem follows.

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Love, Honour, and O'Brien by Jennifer Rowe
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition

Title: Love, Honour, and O'Brien
Author: Jennifer Rowe
Series Character: Holly Love
Format: Hardcover

What we know about the character: Holly Love is a private investigator in Australia's Blue Mountain region.

Her first mystery: How could Holly, the apple of her parents' eye, competent manipulator of invoices in Gorgon Office Supplies, have ended up alone and starving in a dead man's flat?

How indeed? Most reluctant heroines would throw in the towel at this point. But Holly Love is made of sterner stuff. She's sworn to track down the cheating swine who ripped her life apart, and make him pay. But as she tries to keep her head in the face of a bizarre mystery, a gloomy old house, a hearse-driving Elvis impersonator and a gang of vengeful thugs — not to mention a garrulous and possibly possessed parrot — Holly is forced to come to terms with a great truth. However bad things seem, they can always get worse.

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If Fried Chicken Could Fly by Paige Shelton
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook EditionApple iBook

Title: If Fried Chicken Could Fly
Author: Paige Shelton
Series Character: Gram's Country Cooking School
Format: Mass Market Paperback

What we know about the characters: The Gram's Country Cooking School mysteries are set in rural Missouri.

Their first mystery: At Gram's Country Cooking School, Betts and Gram are helping students prepare the perfect dishes for the Southern Missouri Show-Down, the cook-off that draws the first of the summer visitors. Everything is going smoothly until they discover the body of local theater owner Everett Morningside in the school's supply closet, and Everett's widow points an accusatory finger at Gram. Now, Betts has to dig deep into Broken Rope's history to find the modern-day killer — before the last piece of chicken is served …

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The China Gambit by Allan Topol
Print and/or Kindle EditionPrint and/or NookBook Edition

Title: The China Gambit
Author: Allan Topol
Series Character: Craig Page
Format: Trade Paperback

What we know about the character: Craig Page is a former CIA agent.

His first mystery: In Canada, Francesca, a young American reporter, is brutally murdered to stop her from publishing an explosive story. She has learned that Chinese General Zhou has orchestrated a conspiracy with Iran to stop the flow of imported oil to the United States. General Zhou’s goal: To leapfrog China over the United States for world economic and military supremacy. And the ruthless General will do anything to accomplish that goal.

Craig is determined to find out who killed his daughter, Francesca. Joined by the gutsy Elizabeth Crowder, Francesca’s editor, Craig peels back the conspiracy layer by layer, ultimately learning that General Zhou has a partner in the scheming CIA director, Kirby, who forced Craig out of the Agency.

The action moves from Canada to Tehran, Beijing and Washington, and finally to Aspen, with Craig and Elizabeth narrowly escaping repeated attacks in their attempt to prevent a catastrophe for the United States. At the same time, Craig must bury his personal loss, as he confronts his adversaries trying to kill him.

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For a list of more hardcover mysteries scheduled for publication during January, please visit our New Mysteries home page. If you're interested in new paperbacks, visit The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a library of new mysteries, also updated with January 2012 releases. See also our regularly updated eBook site for new mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers, MysterEbooks.com.

Please also 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.

Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason as today's fourth 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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Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason

Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason
A Women of Justice Novel of Suspense
Publisher: Revell

This is a terrific series of romantic suspense thrillers that offer a solidly plotted storyline without graphic sex, violence or language. Note: This is a repeat offer of a free title by this author, most recently listed in October 2011.

About Too Close to Home (from the publisher): Samantha Cash is the FBI's secret weapon. Her methods are invisible, and she never stops until the case is closed. When missing teens begin turning up dead in a small Southern town, Samantha is assigned to help local chief Connor Wolfe find the killer. And he has two problems with that. There's her faith — in God and herself. And then there's the fact that she looks exactly like his late wife. As they get close to an answer, the case becomes personal. The killer seems to be taking an interest in Connor's 16-year-old daughter, who thinks her dad is getting way too protective. Can't a girl just have some fun?

Read our review of Too Close to Home by Lynette Eason.

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 Book Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

Barnes&Noble Free Nook Book B&N Free Nook Book Download Link.

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

The Halo Effect by M. J. Rose is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Halo Effect by M. J. Rose as today's third 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 Halo Effect by M. J. Rose

The Halo Effect by M. J. Rose
A Butterfield Institute Thriller
Publisher: Mira Books

About The Halo Effect (from the publisher): The first book in the Butterfield Institute series featuring sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow. In each book she struggles with the conflict of preserving her patient's privacy and the dangerous and sometimes criminal things she hears. She sees everything from the abused to the depraved, from the couples grappling with sexual boredom to twisted sociopaths with dark, erotic fetishes and the Butterfield institute is the sanctuary where she helps soothe and heal these battered souls.

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 Book Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Two Thrillers from Oceanview are Today's Second Selection of Free MystereBooks

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature two thrillers from Oceanview Publishing as today's second selection of free mystery ebooks. We don't know how long they 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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Someone's Watching by Sharon Potts

Someone's Watching by Sharon Potts
Non-Series
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing

About Someone's Watching (from the publisher): Twenty-something Robbie Ivy wants to keep her life as simple and commitment-free as possible. Who needs a high-pressure career, a relationship, or a family anyway?

Robbie's life gets inextricably complicated when her estranged father shows up with a shocking revelation about two teenage girls who disappeared in South Beach. One of the missing girls is Robbie's sister Kate — a sister Robbie never knew existed. Unwilling to reestablish family ties, Robbie is hesitant to get involved — until the body of her sister's friend washes up in Indian Creek. Desperate to find her missing sister, Robbie immerses herself in the unfamiliar world to which Kate may have fallen prey: the sexy, sizzling South Beach club scene.

Swept up in a corrupt, destructive society, Robbie searches for a cold-blooded killer in the hottest South Beach hotspots. But in this see-and-be-seen world, everyone is dressed to kill, people are dying for a chance to get beyond the velvet rope and someone is watching.

Robbie may have to choose between saving her step sister — and saving herself.

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 BookAmazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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Rupture by A. Scott Pearson

Rupture by A. Scott Pearson
An Eli Branch Thriller
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing

About Rupture (from the publisher): Well on his way to realizing his dream of becoming a successful surgeon-scientist, Eli Branch seems destined for academic stardom. After years of research, Eli is on the cusp of a groundbreaking discovery that could light the way for the future. But, as Eli will soon learn, today's medicine has a dark side.

While investigating the suspicious death of one of his patients, Eli uncovers an elaborate web of lies spun by his late father, a longtime professor of anatomy at Mid-South Medical College in Memphis. Instead of finding answers, Eli only finds more questions … and more victims, each meeting a sudden, violent end.

Eli joins forensic pathologist Meg Daily to find a common thread among the victims. As they piece together the chilling puzzle, Eli and Meg plunge headfirst into the world of deadly medicine-a world way too close to home.

Trapped in the paradox of ending one life to save another, Eli and Meg find that in this life-or-death race against time, one false step could be fatal.

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 BookAmazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston 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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Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston

Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun by Lois Winston
An Anastasia Pollack Mystery
Publisher: Midnight Ink

This first in a cozy series introduces magazine crafts editor Anatasia Pollack.

About Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun (from the publisher): When Anastasia's gambling-addicted husband permanently cashes in his chips in Vegas, her life craps out. She's left with two teenage sons, a mountain of debt, and her nasty, cane-wielding Communist mother-in-law. Not to mention a loan shark demanding fifty thousand dollars.

Anastasia's job as crafts editor at American Woman magazine makes life even stickier when she discovers the dead body of über-ambitious fashion editor Marlys Vandenburg hot-glued to Anastasia's office chair. Marlys collected enemies and ex-lovers like Jimmy Choos. When evidence surfaces of an illicit affair between Marlys and Anastasia's husband, Anastasia becomes the prime suspect. Can she sew up the case and keep herself out of jail before the real killer puts a permanent end to her investigation?

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 Book Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

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

Already Gone by John Rector is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks: Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller eBooks

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Already Gone by John Rector as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $0.99 is valid only for today, Sunday, January 01, 2012.

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Already Gone by John Rector

Already Gone by John Rector
Non-Series
Thomas & Mercer

About Already Gone (from the publisher): Jake Reese is a writing teacher at an American university. He lives in a small brick Tudor close to campus with his art buyer wife, Diane. His life is quiet — ordinary even. And he likes it that way. But it wasn’t always quiet. Jake’s distant past was a life on the streets, inflicting damage and suffering on more people than he can count. And now someone from his past, it seems, has come looking for him.

When two men attack Jake in a parking lot and cut off his finger, he tries to dismiss it as an unlucky case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when events take a more sinister turn and Diane goes missing, Jake knows he can no longer hide from the truth. As he embarks on a mission to find his wife, he realizes his dark past is refusing to stay buried and that his future is about to unfold in ways he could never have imagined.

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 Kindle Daily Deal Amazon Kindle Daily Deal 01/01/2012 Download Link.

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