F+W Media officially announced this past week the acquisition of more than 250 out-of-print crime novels, originally published between 1940 and 1970, to be reissued as ebooks under its Prologue Books imprint. Formats supported include Kindle, Nook, Apple iBook, Sony, and Kobo.
"I envision Prologue Books not simply an e-book publisher for out-of-print titles, but as a living record of the crime, science fiction, and fantasy genres," said Ben LeRoy, publisher of Tyrus Books, who is spearheading the project. "There's a great opportunity to shine the spotlight on authors who may have been significantly influential on the current state of publishing, but who have never really received their due for one reason or another. With the help of luminaries in the genres—authors, readers, reviewers — we are excited to find and share those stories."
Authors whose books are currently available include Robert Colby, Richard Deming, Fletcher Flora, William Campbell Gault, Orrie Hitt, Frank Kane, Henry Kane, M. E. Kerr, Ed Lacy, Whit Masterson, Marijane Meaker, Wade Miller, Vin Packer, Kin Platt, Talmade Powell, Peter Rabe, and Charles Runyon.
(Source: Press release.)
Saturday, March 03, 2012
F+W Media Announces Crime eBook Imprint Prologue Books
Snake Skin by C. J. Lyons is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Snake Skin by C. J. Lyons as today's second free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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Snake Skin by C. J. Lyons
Publisher: CreateSpace
This stand-alone is a repeat freebie from last year.
About Snake Skin (from the publisher): Just your average Pittsburgh soccer mom, baking brownies and carrying a loaded forty-caliber Glock ...
Lucille Teresa Guardino. A woman of many identities. Lucille to her doting mother, Lulu to her devoted husband, Mom to her pre-teen daughter, Lucy to her friends, LT to her co-workers, and Supervisory Special Agent Guardino to the criminals she captures for the FBI's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement squad.
A loving mom and wife, dutiful daughter, consummate professional, and kick-ass federal agent, Lucy is living the perfect life.
Until the day she comes up against a predator more vicious and cunning than any she's ever tackled before, one who forces Lucy to choose between the life of the young victim she is fighting to save and her own daughter's ... and Lucy's dream life is shattered.
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.
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For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline as today's free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline
A Peri Minneopa Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace
In our review of this second book in the series, we said, "Peri is an appealing sleuth, a 50-something woman whose life experience as a house cleaner provides her with an eye for detail and gives her an edge when it comes to knowing where to find the skeletons in family closets."
About Hit or Missus (from the publisher): Surveillance assignments are low-stress, easy money for private investigator Peri Minneopa. Take some pictures, write a nice report and collect the fee. Her new case is a routine one: a rich husband suspects his wife of infidelity. Just because bad things start happening to her when she takes the job doesn’t mean anything.
Peri’s boyfriend, Detective Skip Carlton, is investigating the death of Peri’s elderly neighbor. It looks like a heart attack, which is how her husband died two weeks ago. He realizes elderly couples sometimes die within a short time of each other. It’s not unusual.
Skip’s elderly couple had left legal papers lying out on the table, involving a year-old real estate purchase. There’s a note on the papers from Peri’s client. He is a real estate developer, so it’s not that odd.
Peri doesn’t believe in coincidences, any more than Skip does. When their cases collide, she begins poking her nose into police business and immediately butts heads with her boyfriend. She wants to know who is harassing her, and what happened to her neighbor. Skip wants to keep her out of danger and keep his case from being compromised.
For Peri, getting to the truth will require more help than Skip and the police are willing to give. She is forced to rely on an unlikely partner, an annoying little man who is obsessed with Dean Martin.
If she can keep her sanity and her life ...
She might just solve this case.
Read our review of Hit or Missus by Gayle Carline.
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.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Friday, March 02, 2012
First Poster for AMC's The Killing, Season Two
AMC has released the first official poster for the second season of The Killing (right; click for slightly larger version). Its tagline: "Be careful what you uncover."
We're still torn about whether or not we will give this series another chance. We were bitterly disappointed in how the first season ended, without a resolution to the murder mystery, "Who killed Rosie Larsen?" And then we later learned that we wouldn't know the answer to that until the end of the second season. It's probably not too much of a stretch to opine that this is no way to treat your audience.
Still, we enjoyed the show right up to the final seconds of the last episode of the first season, so may — may — give it another chance this season. It will feature a new murder mystery to solve, hopefully within the context of a single season.
The Killing returns on Sunday, April 1st, 2012 with a 2-hour season premiere at 8 PM (ET/PT) on AMC.
Casting News for Cinemax's Original Crime Drama Banshee
Cinemax has announced some of the principal cast for its upcoming original crime drama Banshee. Set in a small town of the same name in Pennsylvania Amish Country, the series premise involves an ex-con, who assumes the identity of a murdered sheriff, imposing his own brand of justice on the community.
Matt Servitto (Harry's Law) will play Brock Lotus, a deputy with the Banshee sheriff's department; Trieste Dunn (Canterbury's Law) will play Siobhan Kelly, another deputy; and Daniel Ross will play Banshee's mayor.
Written by novelists Jonathan Tropper and David Schickler, ten episodes have been ordered by the cable network with an anticipated premiere date in 2013. Filming is expected to begin in North Carolina this spring.
Middle School Comic Crime Novel Wins 2012 Sid Fleischman Award
The winner of the 2012 Sid Fleischman Award for exemplary writing for children in the genre of humor has gone to Chris Rylander for his comic middle school crime novel The Fourth Stall. The announcement was made together with the winners of the annual Golden Kite Awards by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).
In The Fourth Stall, middle school just got a lot more criminal.
Do you need something? Mac can get it for you. It's what he does. He and his best friend and business manager, Vince. Their methods might sometimes run afoul of the law, or at least the school code of conduct, but if you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can pay him, Mac is on your side. His office is located in the East Wing boy's bathroom, fourth stall from the high window. And business is booming.
Or at least it was, until one particular Monday. It starts with a third grader in need of protection. And before this ordeal is over, it's going to involve a legendary high school crime boss named Staples, an intramural gambling ring, a graffiti ninja, the nine most dangerous bullies in school, and the first Chicago Cubs World Series game in almost seventy years. And that's just the beginning. Mac and Vince soon realize that the trouble with solving everyone else's problems is that there's no one left to solve yours.
A sequel to the book, The Fouth Stall Part II, was published last month.
(Source: Press release.)
Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman Recipes Available as Free Download
Readers of Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman's mysteries know that the amateur sleuth creates gastronomical delights in her bakery Heavenly Pleasures. And now you can too!
Greenwood's publisher, Allen & Unwin, is making available Recipes from Corinna Chapman — "mouth-watering morsels to make your man melt" — as a free PDF download. The 28-page document includes dinner ideas, bread recipes, and of course desserts.
There are currently six books in the Corinna Chapman mystery series, the most recent, Cooking the Books, being published this month in the US by Poisoned Pen Press. (Kerry Greenwood is also the author of the Phyne Fisher mysteries set in 1920s Melbourne.)
(Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare for alerting us to this book.)
Don Winslow's The King of Cool Publication Date Now June 26th
When we reported in January on the publication of Don Winslow's prequel to Savages, The Kings of Cool, the book was scheduled to be published in August to coincide with the release of the film Savages in September.
The studio has since moved the release date of the film to July 6th, and now Simon & Schuster, the book's publisher, has moved the publication date of the prequel to June 26th, 2012.
In The Kings of Cool, Winslow reaches back in time to tell the story of how Ben, Chon, and O became the people they are. Spanning from 1960s Southern California to the recent past, it is a tale of family in all its forms — fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers. As the younger generation does battle with a cabal of drug dealers and crooked cops, they come to learn that their future is inextricably linked with their parents' history. A series of breakneck twists and turns puts the two generations on a collision course, culminating in a stunning showdown that will ultimately force Ben, Chon, and O to choose between their real families and their love for each other.
Film Adaptation of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol Gets New Screenwriter
The film adaptation of Dan Brown's 2009 thriller The Lost Symbol is taking a step forward with the announcement of a new screenwriter, Danny Strong. The Lost Symbol is the third book to feature Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. The first two in the series, Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, were also adapted for film, both directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as Langdon. Howard has already announced he will not return as director for this third film, and though Hanks has not yet been signed, he is expected to reprise his role.
In The Lost Symbol, Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object — artfully encoded with five symbols — is discovered in the building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation … one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.
When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon — a prominent Mason and philanthropist — is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations — all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.
(Related article: Deadline.)
The Woman by David Bishop is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Woman by David Bishop as today's third free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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The Woman by David Bishop
Publisher: Telemachus Press
About The Woman (from the publisher): Linda Darby is a seven-year divorcee, living quietly in a small let-the-world-go-by beach town on the coast of Oregon, who day trades for a living. Her only close friend is a widowed elderly woman who manages a small consulting company which, as is later discovered, never has visitors, sends and receives its business correspondence only by courier, and is not listed in any phone directories. No one in town knows what kind of consulting the company does, but the rumor is that whatever they do, they do it for the government.
Linda doesn’t date local men. When her celibacy grows intolerable, she visits nearby towns to frequent the watering holes of successful men. Her motto: No relationships. No second dates. No use of her real name during one-night stands.
Then one evening, Linda goes for a walk and nothing for her is ever the same. She is dragged into an alley by two men, but saved by a third, a stranger who disappears as suddenly as he had appeared. He warns her that the local police cannot be trusted. The following day she learns that hours before she had been dragged into the alley, her best friend had been tortured and killed. The next night, she awakens several hours after going to sleep to find a man sitting in her bedroom, watching her …
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.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Death of a Loveable Geek by Maria Hudgins is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Death of a Loveable Geek by Maria Hudgins as today's second free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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 Loveable Geek by Maria Hudgins
A Dotsy Lamb Travel Mystery
Publisher: Five Star
This is the second mystery to feature the ancient medieval history professor from Virginia.
About Death of a Loveable Geek (from the publisher): The body of young Froggy Quale lies, covered by a blue tarp, in the pasture behind Castle Dunlaggan in the Scottish Highlands. Froggy was the on-site pollen and spore expert at the nearby archaeological dig and a graduate student who doesn't seem to have had an enemy in the world.
Dotsy Lamb and her friend Lettie are boarding at the castle while Dotsy works at the dig. They and the other guests are cared for in the ancient castle by its owners, William and Maisie Sinclair.
Suspicion for Froggy's murder falls on his roommate, Van Nguyen, a graduate student from America. Dotsy has become fond of both Froggy and Van and is sure Van can't be the killer. When the dig's director dies from poison mushrooms, Dotsy sees connections to the magic mushroom party at the dig and to ownership of castle lands.
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.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Guise and Dolls by Deb Baker is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Guise and Dolls by Deb Baker as today's free mystery ebook.
This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. 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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Guise and Dolls by Deb Baker
A Gretchen Birch, Dolls to Die For Mystery
Publisher: Berkley
This fourth (and presumably final) book in this series of mysteries was originally published in 2008 as Ding Dong Dead.
About Guise and Dolls (from the publisher): All’s well in Phoenix—Gretchen’s business is thriving, she’s dating a gorgeous detective, and an anonymous donor has given the PhoenixDollers a historic house to turn into a doll museum. But as the doll club members rehearse a play for the fundraiser, Gretchen’s kooky “psychic” Aunt Nina becomes convinced the house is haunted. Gretchen scoffs, but strange, creepy things do seem to be happening: A woman’s body—a long-lost friend of Gretchen’s mother—is found lying atop a grave in the cemetery; a note with the words “Die, Dolly, Die” is left on Gretchen’s car; and the Birch women make an eerie discovery in the house. Still, even with Nina’s warnings of danger, Gretchen intends to get to the bottom of this. And she’d better, or it’ll be she and her friends who will be history …
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.
Download Link(s):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending March 02, 2012
A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending March 2nd, 2012 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.
Vince Flynn's 12th Mitch Rapp thriller Kill Shot retains its spot atop the list as this week's bestselling crime novel.
Two new titles debut this week.
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Coming in at number 10 is the latest Alex Delaware thriller, Victims by Jonathan Kellerman.
Unraveling the madness behind L.A.’s most baffling and brutal homicides is what sleuthing psychologist Alex Delaware does best. Not since Jack the Ripper terrorized the London slums has there been such a gruesome crime scene. By all accounts, acid-tongued Vita Berlin hadn’t a friend in the world, but whom did she cross so badly as to end up arranged in such a grotesque tableau? One look at her apartment–turned–charnel house prompts hard-bitten LAPD detective Milo Sturgis to summon his go-to expert in hunting homicidal maniacs, Alex Delaware. But despite his finely honed skills, even Alex is stymied when more slayings occur in the same ghastly fashion … yet with no apparent connection among the victims. And the only clue left behind—a blank page bearing a question mark—seems to be both a menacing taunt and a cry for help from a killer baffled by his own lethal urges.
Under pressure to end the bloody spree and prevent a citywide panic, Milo redoubles his efforts to discover a link between the disparate victims. Meanwhile, Alex navigates the secretive world of mental health treatment, from the sleek office of a Beverly Hills therapist to a shuttered mental institution where he once honed his craft—and where an unholy alliance between the mad and the monstrous may have been sealed in blood. As each jagged piece of the puzzle fits into place, an ever more horrific portrait emerges of a sinister mind at its most unimaginable—and an evil soul at its most unspeakable.
Purchase Options:
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One spot lower at number 11 is the new historical novel of suspense The Technologists by Matthew Pearl.
Boston, 1868. The Civil War may be over but a new war has begun, one between the past and the present, tradition and technology. On a former marshy wasteland, the daring Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rising, its mission to harness science for the benefit of all and to open the doors of opportunity to everyone of merit. But in Boston Harbor a fiery cataclysm throws commerce into chaos, as ships’ instruments spin inexplicably out of control. Soon after, another mysterious catastrophe devastates the heart of the city. Is it sabotage by scientific means or Nature revolting against man’s attempt to control it?
The shocking disasters cast a pall over M.I.T. and provoke assaults from all sides—rival Harvard, labor unions, and a sensationalistic press. With their first graduation and the very survival of their groundbreaking college now in doubt, a band of the Institute’s best and brightest students secretly come together to save innocent lives and track down the truth, armed with ingenuity and their unique scientific training.
Led by “charity scholar” Marcus Mansfield, a quiet Civil War veteran and one-time machinist struggling to find his footing in rarefied Boston society, the group is rounded out by irrepressible Robert Richards, the bluest of Beacon Hill bluebloods; Edwin Hoyt, class genius; and brilliant freshman Ellen Swallow, the Institute’s lone, ostracized female student. Working against their small secret society, from within and without, are the arrayed forces of a stratified culture determined to resist change at all costs and a dark mastermind bent on the utter destruction of the city.
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.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
Review: Clawback by Mike Cooper
Read our … Review of Clawback by Mike Cooper. A Silas Cade Mystery. Viking Hardcover, March 2012.
Available to purchase from …
New TV Spot for The Hunger Games
A new 60-second television spot (embedded below) has been released by the studio for The Hunger Games … which also received a PG-13 rating "intense violent thematic material and disturbing images — all involving teens."
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains.
Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson). If she's ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
Adapted from the bestselling novel by Suzanne Collins, who co-wrote the adapted screenplay with Billy Ray and director Gary Ross, The Hunger Games opens in theaters March 23rd, 2012. "The world will be watching."
