New US Trailer for Taken 2

A new US theatrical trailer for the thriller Taken 2 has been released by studio (via Yahoo! Movies), which we've embedded below.

Liam Neeson reprises his role as Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent who stopped at nothing to save his estranged teenage daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) from Albanian kidnappers — the storyline from the 2008 film Taken. When the father of one of the kidnappers swears revenge and takes Bryan and his wife hostage during their family vacation in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim to help them escape, and uses the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers one by one.

Directed by Olivier Megaton from a screenplay by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, the film opens on October 5th, 2012.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120730)

Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

Telemystery: Fog and Crimes, New This Week on DVD

Telemystery, your source for one of the most comprehensive listings of crime drama, amateur sleuth, private investigator, mystery and suspense television series, mini-series and made-for-television movies, now available on or coming soon to DVD or Blu-ray disc, is profiling one series being released this week.

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Luca Barbareschi stars as Commissario Franco Soneri in the Italian crime drama Nebbie e Delitti (Fog and Crimes), based on a character created by mystery author Valerio Varesi and set in the Ferrara region of the country.

Almost as inscrutable as the River Po itself, Soneri stands brooding at crime scenes chomping on a cigar, trying to see what others are missing.

Nebbie e Delitti (Fog and Crimes): Season One is available on DVD and consists of four episodes that originally aired on Rai TV in 2005: "The River of Fog", adapted from the first book in the series, Il fiume delle nebbie, which also gives the drama its title; "Rooms for Rent"; "Trying to Forget"; and "The Mystery Film Club".

The episodes are in Italian with English subtitles.

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Visit the Telemystery website to discover more television mystery series currently available on and coming soon to DVD, Blu-ray disc, or video on demand.

Karin Slaughter's Criminal: Enter to Win a Copy of this Will Trent Mystery!

with Karin Slaughter

We are thrilled to welcome crime novelist Karin Slaughter as our guest today, courtesy of Authors on the Web.

Karin's new mystery is the latest in her "Will Trent" series, Criminal (Delacorte Press, July 2012 hardcover, audiobook, and ebook formats), an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man’s deepest secrets.

We have the opportunity to give away a copy of Criminal to two of our readers; details below.

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Photo provided courtesy of
Karin Slaughter; Photo credit © Alison Rosa

A long-time resident of Atlanta, Karin Slaughter began her rural Georgia "Grant County" mysteries in 2001 with Blindsighted, which introduced series characters Dr. Sara Linton, the town’s pediatrician and coroner; Jeffrey Tolliver, her wayward ex-husband and chief of police; and Lena Adams, the county’s only female detective. Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent was introduced in the 2006 novel Triptych, though he has made a couple of appearances in Grant County of the years.

In addition to her series books, Karin is also the author of the darkly comic stand-alone Martin Misunderstood, published in 2008.

For more information about Karin and her books, please visit her website at KarinSlaughter.com.

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Criminal
Karin Slaughter
A Will Trent Mystery
Delacorte Press, July 2012

Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before — when Will’s father was imprisoned for murder — this was his home …

Flash back nearly forty years. In the summer Will Trent was born, Amanda Wagner is going to college, making Sunday dinners for her father, taking her first steps in the boys’ club that is the Atlanta Police Department. One of her first cases is to investigate a brutal crime in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods. Amanda and her partner, Evelyn, are the only ones who seem to care if an arrest is ever made.

Now the case that launched Amanda’s career has suddenly come back to life, intertwined with the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. And these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.

          

For a chance to win a copy of Criminal, courtesy of Authors on the Web, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Karin Slaughter: Criminal" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code — 6641 — for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends August 6th, 2012.)

Sweet and Lowdown by Lise McClendon is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Sweet and Lowdown by Lise McClendon as today's fifth 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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Sweet and Lowdown
Lise McClendon
A Dorie Lennox, Swing Town Mystery
Publisher: Thalia Press

Originally published by Minotaur Books in 2002, this is the second mystery in this series.

Europe is at War. Nazi bombers are hammering London. Wendell Willkie is giving Roosevelt a run for his money. In Kansas City, Dorie Lennox and her partner Amos Haddam are trying to keep the blond and beautiful Thalia Hines from destroying herself. It's not easy.

The girl has every reason to escape the cold stone mansion where her mother lies dying. Eveline Hines is a decorated war hero during the First World War. Now she's struggling to protect her only daughter from men who lust over her inheritance even more than her curves.

In the rich milieu of a bygone time, an America preparing for war provides color for the intimate portrait of a powerful woman bearing witness to the destruction of all she loves. For the Hines family, nothing will ever be the same in this powerful story of maternal love and family secrets, and the disastrous attempts to mingle them.

      

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.

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

Rock Deadly by Kathryn Lively is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Rock Deadly by Kathryn Lively as today's fourth 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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Rock Deadly
Kathryn Lively
A Lerxst Johnston Mystery
Publisher: DLP Books

This book was previously published as titled Dead Barchetta.

Music tutor by day and tribute band guitarist by night, Matt "Lerxst" Johnston has woman problems. Well, maybe for a musician that's normal.

1) There's the willowy redhead who tries to kill him in his sleep. 2) There's the hot for music teacher cougar who wants help adjusting her "G-string." 3) There's the knife-wielding rock chick with a soft spot for strays.

And … there's grandma, and her "herb garden," legal only if you have a card, and definitely not in Virginia! Normal? Heh.

Before Lerxst can find normal, he must learn the truth about his would-be killer, his family, and himself. And what a long, strange trip it is …

  

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.

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

Academic Body by Shirley S. Allen is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Academic Body by Shirley S. Allen 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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Academic Body
Shirley S. Allen
Publisher: Mainly Murder Press

Retired theatrical director Paul Godwin longs for the life of a college professor … but can he woo his famous wife away from the New York stage to become part of his academic life in small-town Maine?

Not easily, especially after the dean accuses him of having a fling with a student and then is found dead in circumstances that make Paul a prime suspect in the investigation. Paul's efforts to discover the real culprit provoke dangerous reprisals, but he must succeed to save his new career, his marriage — and perhaps his life.

  

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.

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

Senator by Richard Bowker is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Senator by Richard Bowker 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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Senator
Richard Bowker
Publisher: ePublishing Works!

Jim O'Connor, the Republican senator from Massachusetts, is charming, intelligent, well-spoken — and a future contender for the presidency. A handsome, charismatic family man, his ongoing affair with a beautiful journalist could prematurely shatter his White House hopes — a problem that is seriously compounded when he discovers his mistress brutally murdered in her Boston apartment.

Suddenly O'Connor is a homicide suspect — with November on the horizon and a tough re-election campaign spinning out of control. And now the Senator must hunt down a killer in the capital of lies — in order to salvage a badly battered political career … and, perhaps, save his own life as well.

  

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.

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

Sweet Dreams by Aaron Patterson is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Sweet Dreams by Aaron Patterson 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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Sweet Dreams
Aaron Patterson
A Mark Appleton Thriller
Publisher: StoneHouse Ink

This is the "uncut" edition of the book, with deleted scenes, editing notes, and author interviews.

Mark Appleton is living the American Dream. Beautiful wife, loving daughter, and a high paying job in New York City. But when his family are killed in a accident he must reinvent himself. A year later in the midst of putting his life back together, Mark finds out that his family was killed and it was no accident. Mark will stop at nothing to hunt down the men responsible for the death of his family and what he finds will change his life forever.

Kirk Weston is a Detroit detective. He hates his job, his ex-wife, and his life. He is hand selected to help the FBI on a high profile case and just when he thinks things could not get any worse …

They do.

  

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.

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

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for July 30, 2012

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 F I L M N O R S

Mons Kallentoft series character is this Swedish police detective (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!

Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason at a Special eBook Price

We're not sure if we simply missed this title yesterday when we updated our weekly list of Kindle Mysteries for $2.99 or less — or maybe it was newly discounted just today — but Minotaur Books is offering the ebook format of Silence of the Grave by Arnaldur Indriðason for just $2.99.

Originally published in 2001 in Iceland under the title Grafarpogn, Silence of the Grave is the fourth mystery in the Reykjavik Murder series, though only the second to be translated into English, and features Detective Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson and his team of police officers. It was honored with the CWA Gold Dagger Award in 2005 for best crime novel of the year.

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Silence of the Grave
Arnaldur Indriðason
A Reykjavik Murder Mystery

When a corpse is found on a hill outside the city, Detective Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson and his team think the body may have been buried for some years.

While Erlendur struggles to hold together the crumbling fragments of his own family, slowly but surely he finds out the truth about another unhappy family. Few people are still alive who can tell the tale, but even secrets taken to the grave cannot remain hidden forever.

      

Important Note: Any prices mentioned above were correct 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.

This Week's Bestselling Large Print Mystery and Suspense Books (120729)

Here is this week's list of the top ten bestselling mystery and suspense books in large print format from Amazon.com.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is frequently updated, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120729)

Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

New Poster for Elementary, This Fall on CBS

A promotional poster for Elementary has been released by CBS (right; click for larger image). The tagline: "New Holmes. New Watson. New York."

Jonny Lee Miller stars as Sherlock Holmes in this contemporary update of the character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Lucy Liu plays his sidekick, Dr. Joan Watson. The crime-solving pair will crack some of NYPD's most impossible cases on Thursdays, this Fall on CBS. (The series premiere is September 27th at 10 PM ET/PT.)

Watch a "behind the scenes" video for the series from last May below.

FX Orders Pilot for The Bridge

FX Networks has ordered a pilot for The Bridge, based on the Swedish/Danish television co-production of Bron | Broen.

The 10-episode first season of the Nordic crime drama aired in late 2011 on SVT (Sweden) and DR (Denmark). A second season has been ordered, which is set to begin production later this year.

The storyline is set in Malmö and Copenhagen and follows the investigation of a spectacular murder that has taken place in the middle of the Öresund bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark — the body of a woman is found cut in half, each half in one country — forcing the Swedish and Danish police to work closely together to solve the crime.

The US version is expected to take place in El Paso (Texas) and Juárez (Chihuahua), where the American and Mexican police must cooperate to hunt down a serial killer.

Watch a trailer for the DVD/Blu-ray release for the first season of the original series (now available in the UK but not yet in the US) below.