Fade To Black by Steven Bannister is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Fade To Black by Steven Bannister as today's fourth free mystery ebook (A Allie St Clair Mystery; Kindle format only).

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.

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.

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Fade To Black
Steven Bannister
A Allie St Clair Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace

The good news: Allie St Clair is the youngest woman ever to be promoted to detective chief inspector at New Scotland Yard. She's smart, Cambridge-educated and her family has serious money. The bad news: Evil has come to town.

A brutal crucifixion-style murder rocks London on her first day as a DCI. Within twenty-four hours her superiors are calling for her head and the media is crawling all over her.

The murders continue and she has no choice but to accept incredible revelations about herself and her famous family that stretch back a thousand years.

Can the tall stranger standing in the dark rain really be the Archangel Michael? What the hell is the force that is creating havoc on London streets?

She must break all the rules and learn to use the talents that only she possesses or people close to her will meet horrible deaths. And she can't tell her police colleagues a damn thing about it.

The ancient Game is on … and Allie St Clair is hurled into a frantic race to mystical Glastonbury Tor where all the answers wait … along with her worst nightmare.

  

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.

Death Master by Anna-Marie Morgan is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Death Master by Anna-Marie Morgan as today's third free mystery ebook (A Yvonne Giles Mystery; Kindle format only).

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.

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.

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Death Master
Anna-Marie Morgan
A Yvonne Giles Mystery
Publisher: Old School Publishing

Her head was yanked back by the hair as a large, tanned hand moved menacingly down her throat. Her sobs flecked his shirt with tears, which now flowed freely, their salty water aggravating the wounds accumulated on her naked flesh over the endless days she had been held captive. The end must be near now and she was so sure that it must end. She tried in vain one last time to wrench free her hands, but the bindings held firm. Knees, so long on the floor, would not have held her up anyway — had she tried to run. He was calm; she was wretched. Instinctively, she pulled her thighs to her abdomen to protect her unborn child. His hands tightened, her eyes widened — pleading. His pressure did not relent and slowly everything faded …

After months of mental and physical therapy, Yvonne Giles, an Oxford DI, is back at work and that's just how she likes it. So when she is asked to hunt the serial killer responsible for taking apart young women, the DI jumps at the chance but hides the fact that she is suffering debilitating flashbacks. The victims appear to meet their murderer willingly, telling their families they're going on vacation. No one sees them again until their macabre death scenes. A quirk of the killer's signature is the food and wine stains he leaves on the backs of the girls.

Yvonne is told to work with Tasha Phillips, an in-her-face, criminal psychologist. The DI's previous experience of working with a profiler involved having a case thrown out by the Crown Prosecution Service for reasons of entrapment. She's not enamoured with the idea of working with one again. Tasha has a lot to prove. The DI has a lot to get over.

A tentative link with a 20 year-old cold case brings her closer to the truth, but leaves her staring her own mortality directly in the face …

  

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.

WBI: Witches Bureau of Investigation by Richard Capwell is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature WBI: Witches Bureau of Investigation by Richard Capwell as today's second free mystery ebook (A WBI Mystery; Kindle format only).

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.

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.

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WBI: Witches Bureau of Investigation
Richard Capwell
A WBI Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace

By chance, eleven-year-old twins Nate and Herman Howe meet Mrs. Weatherby, a retired member of the Los Angeles branch of Witches Bureau of Investigation. The boys ask her to help find their mother, who has been missing for six months.

Reluctantly, Mrs. Weatherby agrees, though all of her licenses to work magic have expired. She reaches out to her old colleagues, for information and assistance, but they soon uncover a dangerous plot that threatens the safety of the entire world. The Bureau may be compromised, so it's up to Mrs. Weatherby's band of old agents to follow the clues and keep the horrors of history from resurfacing.

  

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.

Dinner at Deadman's by C. J. West is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Dinner at Deadman's by C. J. West as today's free mystery ebook (A Lorado Martin Mystery; Kindle format only).

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.

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.

— ♦ —

Dinner at Deadman's
C. J. West
A Lorado Martin Mystery
Publisher: 22 West Books

Lorado Martin has loved junk since his grandparents took him bottle digging in the backwoods of New England when he was a boy. The search for antiques and collectibles led him to a unique hobby: digging through the estates of the newly deceased, arranging the sale of goods for the heirs, and keeping the leftovers for himself.

To make a living he builds and maintains housing for recovering heroin addicts and along the way he's employed a number of his clients. The men wrestle with the siren call of drugs and teach Lorado about the difficult struggle to stay clean one day at a time.

When these two worlds come together, Lorado learns that not every elderly person dies of natural causes and that some estates are sold to benefit a killer. His latest project hits close to home. A woman he's known since childhood haunts him from a fresh grave. Her grandson, an affable addict who has fallen off the wagon, stands to inherit a considerable sum whether he deserves it or not.

  

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.

Henry Franks by Peter Adam Salomon is Today's Kindle Fantasy ThrillerDaily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Henry Franks by Peter Adam Salomon as today's Amazon Kindle Fantasy Thriller Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Thursday, February 07, 2013.

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Henry Franks
Peter Adam Salomon
A Psychological Thriller
Flux

One year ago, a terrible accident robbed Henry Franks of his mother and his memories. The past sixteen years have vanished. All Henry has now are scars and a distant father — the only one who can tell Henry who he is.

If only he could trust his father.

Do his nightmares — a sweet little girl calling him Daddy, murderous urges, dead bodies — hold clues?

While a serial killer stalks their small Georgia town, Henry unearths the bitter truth behind his mother's death — and the terrifying secrets of his own dark past.

Sometimes, the only thing worse than forgetting is remembering.

Important Note: This book was listed at the price mentioned above 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.

Justice Denied by J. A. Jance is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Justice Denied by J. A. Jance as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Thursday, February 07, 2013.

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Justice Denied
J. A. Jance
A J. P. Beaumont Mystery
HarperCollins

The investigation of LaShawn Tompkins's murder seems straightforward enough. Upon his release from death row, the ex-drug dealer returned to his old neighborhood, where he was gunned down on his mother's doorstep. Just another case of turf warfare.

At least that's what it looks like on the surface to Seattle investigator J. P. Beaumont, who's been handed the assignment under the strictest confidence. But as Beau starts digging, the situation becomes more complicated than he'd thought. It appears that LaShawn really had turned over a new leaf at the King Street Mission and his murder was premeditated. Someone had targeted the man for death.

Meanwhile, Beau's lover and fellow cop, Mel Soames, is given her own hush-hush investigation. A routine check on registered sex offenders has revealed a disturbing pattern: they're dying off at an alarming rate, and not all due to natural causes. Details of the latest death suggest an inside job, and Mel isn't letting this go.

Suddenly, Mel's investigation becomes entangled with Beau's, and the two begin to uncover a nightmarish conspiracy that could involve people in high places — including their own top brass.

Important Note: This book was listed at the price mentioned above 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.

Telemystery: ABC Family Orders Teen Murder Mystery Twisted to Series

ABC Family has ordered to series Twisted, a teen-centric murder mystery.

This one-hour drama is "full of twists and turns that is centered on a charismatic 16-year-old with a troubled past, who recently reconnected with his two female best friends from childhood. He becomes the prime suspect when a fellow student is surprisingly found dead in her home."

Previously known in development as Socio, production on Twisted is expected to begin this Spring with a Summer 2013 premiere date to be announced.

Telemystery: More Casting News for NCIS: Los Angeles Spin-off

Yesterday we had an update on the potential NCIS: Los Angeles spin-off series … and today we have more casting news.

John Corbett (Northern Exposure, United States of Tara, Parenthood) has signed on to play Roy Quaid, a former NCIS agent now in retirement. He joins the Red Team — the mobile team of agents that criss-cross the country solving crimes — as an analyst and the most experience member of the group.

Miguel Ferrer, who is already a regular on NCIS: Los Angeles playing Assistant Director Owen Granger, will transition to the team if the project is picked up to series.

MystereBooks: Two Ruth Galloway Mysteries by Elly Griffiths, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $1.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/06/2013 at 2:30 PM ET). 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.

— ♦ —

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
A Ruth Galloway Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, tart-tongued archaeologist Ruth Galloway lives happily alone in a remote area called Saltmarsh near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants — not quite earth, not quite sea. When a child's bones are found on a desolate beach nearby, Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson calls Galloway for help.

Nelson thinks he has found the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing ten years ago. Since her disappearance he has been receiving bizarre letters about her, letters with references to ritual and sacrifice. The bones actually turn out to be two thousand years old, but Ruth is soon drawn into the Lucy Downey case and into the mind of the letter writer, who seems to have both archaeological knowledge and eerie psychic powers, luring Ruth into completely new territory — and serious danger.

    

Also available, at the discounted price of $3.99 (as of the date and time of this post, 02/06/2013 at 2:30 PM ET) is the second in the series, The Janus Stone …

    

Important Note: These books were listed at the above mentioned prices 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.

Telemystery: ABC Orders Whodunnit? Reality Series for Summer 2013

ABC has ordered Whodunnit?, a nine-episode unscripted (reality) series that tests the deductive skills of thirteen contestants. Developed by Anthony Zuiker (CSI), the amateur sleuths will solve a series of murders while living in a single residence using (one presumes) crime scene investigative techniques. One by one they will be eliminated until a single player unmasks the killer and wins $250,000.

"Whodunnit? takes the best elements from the timelessly entertaining narrative form, the murder mystery, and infuses it with all the contemporary energy of a competition based reality show," says co-creator Cris Abrego

The producers have described the series as "CSI meets Clue" but there seems to be a lot of The Mole here as well.

Whodunnit? will premiere Summer 2013.

MystereBooks: Resurrection Men, an Inspector John Rebus Mystery by Ian Rankin, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Little, Brown.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $2.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/06/2013 at 3:30 PM ET). 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.

— ♦ —

Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin
An Inspector John Rebus Mystery (13th in series)
Publisher: Little, Brown

Inspector John Rebus has messed up badly this time, so badly that he's been sent to a kind of reform school for damaged cops. While there among the last-chancers known as "resurrection men", he joins a covert mission to gain evidence of a drug heist orchestrated by three of his classmates. But the group has been assigned an unsolved murder that may have resulted from Rebus's own mistake. Now Rebus can't determine if he's been set up for a fall or if his disgraced classmates are as ruthless as he suspects.

When Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke discovers that her investigation of an art dealer's murder is tied to Rebus's inquiry, the two — protégé and mentor — join forces. Soon they find themselves in the midst of an even bigger scandal than they had imagined-a plot with conspirators in every corner of Scotland and deadly implications about their colleagues.

      

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price 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.

Winners of the 2013 Lovey Awards Announced

The winners of the 2013 Lovey Awards, announced this past weekend during the annual Love Is Murder conference, have been posted to the organization's website.

The winners are …

• Best First Novel: Perfidy by M. E. May

• Best Traditional/Amateur Sleuth: The Lightkeeper's Legacy by Kathleen Ernst

• Best PI/Police Procedural: Portrait of Murder by Rob Riley

• Best Thriller: Company Orders by David J. Walker

• Best Paranormal/Sci-Fi: Last Wool and Testament by Molly MacRae

• Best Suspense: A Bitter Veil by Libby Fischer Hellmann

• Best Historical: Archie Meets Nero Wolfe by Robert Goldsborough

• Best Series: Tricksters Point (Cork O'Connor) by William Kent Krueger

• Best Short Story: "Harry's Fall From Grace" (A Prequel to the Grace Marsden Series) by Luisa Buehler

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (130206)

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; as an alternative, you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com, which includes a list of both the Top 100 Paid and Top 100 Free Kindle Mysteries and Thrillers.

Review: The Secret Cellar by Michael D. Beil

A Mysterious Review of …

The Secret Cellar by Michael D. Beil. A Red Blazer Girls Mystery.

Review summary: Readers are more likely to follow along than play along with the Red Blazer Girls as they gather together the necessary items required to gain entry into the titular site. While it is a dynamic, exciting entry in this series, it is also one which includes puzzles and clues that seem awfully esoteric, possibly well beyond the knowledge (or interest) of the intended audience. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

The Secret Cellar
Michael D. Beil
A Red Blazer Girls Mystery
Knopf (October 2012)

Publisher synopsis: Mysteries seem to find the Red Blazer Girls: when Sophie finds a secret message in the antique fountain pen she bought for her father, the girls are on a case. Soon, they're at the home of the pen's original owner, a secretive man who kept to himself. His house is full of puzzles, all of which protect a hidden treasure, and the Blazers will do anything to get to the bottom of things. Throw in an ill-tempered bookstore owner with a motive, a missing will, a walking stick that doubles as a key, a school Christmas play, and a rat named Humphrey, and it all adds up to another thrilling adventure for the Red Blazer Girls.

      

MystereBooks: Two Series Titles and One Short Story Collection by Melodie Johnson Howe

Mysterious Press released two series mysteries and one short story collection by author and former actress Melodie Johnson Howe this week in ebook format.

In 1989, Melodie introduced the sleuthing team of Claire Conrad and Maggie Hill — her answer to Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin — in The Mother Shadow, which was subsequently nominated in the "best first" category for several prominent mystery awards. Several years later she wrote a sequel, and most recently she published a collection of short stories featuring Diana Poole, "an actress in her early forties trying to make a comeback, especially when she discovers betrayal and murder in the world of glitz, glamour, and greed."

We're providing a list of all three books below, with a synopsis from the first in her series.

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The Mother Shadow
Melodie Johnson Howe
A Claire Conrad/Maggie Hill Mystery (1st in series)

After a suicide, two oddball female sleuths investigate a coin collection that is anything but small change …

Maggie Hill's life has become temporary. Her marriage was temporary, her jobs are temporary, and if work doesn't pick up, her time in California might be temporary, too. Her latest employer is Ellis Kenilworth, an aging coin expert with a first-rate collection and a tenth-rate family. One morning, he has Maggie type up a codicil to his will, changing the document so that his million-dollar rare-coin collection goes not to his kin, but to a woman named Claire Conrad. By the end of the day, the codicil has vanished, and Kenilworth has killed himself with a shotgun.

When the hyena-like family starts to circle Maggie, she reaches out to Conrad. The heiress is an eccentric private detective who wears only black and white — and whose sense of honesty is as clear-cut as her wardrobe. Together, they fight to protect an old man's final wish, battling against a family so greedy that they would steal the coins right out of the dead man's hand.

      

(2nd in series) Beauty Dies — Amazon | iTunes | Kobo

Shooting Hollywood: A Collection of Short Stories featuring Diana Poole — Amazon | iTunes | Kobo