Messages by Christine Dougherty is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Messages by Christine Dougherty as today's third free mystery ebook (A Psychological Thriller; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, May 28, 2013 at 7:30 AM 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.

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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Messages
Christine Dougherty
A Psychological Thriller
Publisher: CreateSpace

James Smith is receiving messages.

Fired from his job, his girlfriend on the verge of leaving him, barely keeping his life in order, James' unyielding insistence on following the signs and putting together the clues brings him to the answer … and it changes everything.

Hindered by flashbacks to a barely remembered babyhood at the hands of a criminally insane mother, James forges ahead, committing acts he'd never have thought himself capable, from shadowing a local teen, to kidnapping, to a murderous confrontation — all over the object of his desire.

When he partners with a mysterious cop named Riddel, James is certain he will not only bring everything out into the open, but also convince his girlfriend Lacey that she is central to his quest. And she is, but in a way they are all unable to foresee.

  

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.

A Raucous Time by Julia Hughes is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Raucous Time by Julia Hughes as today's second free mystery ebook (A Celtic Cousins Adventure for Young Adults; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, May 28, 2013 at 7:20 AM 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.

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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A Raucous Time
Julia Hughes
A Celtic Cousins Adventure for Young Adults
Publisher: Talon Publishing

Rhyllann Jones's geeky cousin Wren is convinced an ancient diary can lead them to the mythical treasure of Bad King John, last seen 900 years ago. Trouble is, "The Brotherhood" will stop at nothing to get to it first.

Even more dangerous in Rhyllann's eyes is Detective Inspector Crombie. This father of four daughters knows Rhyllann is lying, and is certain Wren is a master manipulator. Crombie is determined to keep the boys safe at any costs. This leads "The Brotherhood" to take desperate action to learn the secrets Wren keeps, plunging Crombie and Rhyllann into a race against time across the wild Cornish moors.

  

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.

Destruction of Evidence by Katherine John is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Destruction of Evidence by Katherine John as today's free mystery ebook (A Trevor Joseph Mystery; Kindle format only).

This title was listed for free as of the date and time of this post, May 28, 2013 at 7:10 AM 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.

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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Destruction of Evidence
Katherine John
A Trevor Joseph Mystery
Publisher: Accent Press

No evidence remained on the bodies of Alun Pitcher, a well-liked, wealthy, careful and cautious businessman, and his family after they'd been wrapped in brown paper and string, doused in petrol and ignited. The fires had destroyed any evidence, or so the pathologist and the local police believed.

Defeated, the local force asks for outside help. Following success in solving a previous cold case, Inspector Trevor Joseph and Sergeant Peter Collins are called in. Their superiors trust them to provide answers to the questions that have confounded the local force.

Did the murderer or murderers possess knowledge of police procedure and criminal investigative methods that have resulted in the perfect, unsolvable crime? Why would anyone want to kill a well-liked family who have no known enemies? How did the murderer or murderers overcome three grown men and a woman without anyone seeing anything, or hearing a sound? And, most important of all, was all the evidence really destroyed?

  

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.

The Righteous Series by Michael Wallace is Today's Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature the first four books in "The Righteous Series" by Michael Wallace as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal.

The deal price of $0.99 each is valid only for today, Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

The novels are: The Righteous (more details, below); Mighty and Strong; The Wicked; and The Blessed and the Damned.

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The Righteous
Michael Wallace
The Righteous Series
Thomas & Mercer

Deep in the Utah desert, the small polygamous community of Blister Creek has a history of protecting its own. Even when a young woman is brutally murdered just blocks from her home, the residents of the conservative enclave close ranks. But just because they don't want outside law enforcement in their business doesn't mean the murder will go unpunished.

More than a thousand miles away, Jacob Christianson, a medical student and son of a devout church elder, learns of his cousin Amanda's murder. Though Jacob is skeptical of many of the community's fundamentalist beliefs, his sharply analytical mind and family connection to the victim earns him the assignment of investigator into Amanda's death.

Jacob heads to Blister Creek, accompanied by his inquisitive younger sister, Eliza, to probe the bizarre circumstances of their cousin's violent death. It doesn't take long for the pair to realize that Amanda's murder was no random act; rather, it is part of a covert plot to overthrow the church's leaders.

Important Note: These books were 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.

Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (130528)

Here is today's mystery and suspense update from Big Fish Games …

• The New Release is The Veil of Mystery: Seven Little Gnomes.

• The Daily Deal is Tesla's Tower: The Wardenclyffe Mystery, just $2.99 today only!

• The current Catch of the Week is Living Legends: Ice Rose, just $2.99 through Sunday, June 02, 2013 only.

Visit the Omnimystery Entertainment Network for more games of mystery and suspense!

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Today's New Release is The Veil of Mystery: Seven Little Gnomes

Seven gnomes wait in silence, holding a secret. Take up the hunt if you dare, and find the path to the Chamber of Fortune! According to legend, Edward J. Smith created a secret chamber deep underneath his estate before he mysteriously vanished. Will you be able to solve this mystery? Become a master explorer, and discover the truth in this exciting treasure hunting Hidden Object Adventure!

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour.

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Today's Daily Deal is Tesla's Tower: The Wardenclyffe Mystery

Save the world from an experiment gone wrong! Nikola Tesla — villain or victim? It's the question everyone asks after what should have been his greatest invention drained the world of color. Tesla disappeared in the Ether that fateful day when his experiment went horribly wrong. Help him get back and bring the color back to your world!

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game today only — Tuesday, May 28, 2013 — for $2.99.

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The current Catch of the Week is Living Legends: Ice Rose

Novelist Edward Grand has found evidence of a terrible tragedy in the city of Rosemount and sets off to investigate. Help Edward gather information for his new book and explore the Castle of Ice Queen in this incredible Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game. Scour the frozen landscapes and thaw out important locations as you solve an intriguing mystery!

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game at the special price of $2.99 through Sunday, June 02, 2013.

Shoulder Bags and Shootings, a Haley Randolph Mystery by Dorothy Howell, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Shoulder Bags and Shootings by Dorothy Howell, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Kensington.

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 (05/27/2013 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.

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Shoulder Bags and Shootings by Dorothy Howell
A Haley Randolph Mystery (3rd in series)
Publisher: Kensington

Life is almost perfect for fashionista and amateur sleuth Haley Randolph. She just vacationed in Europe with her boyfriend Ty Cameron, owner of Holt's Department Store. And now Ty's grandmother is letting Haley drive her Mercedes. If only Haley could get her hands on the new Sinful handbag. It's totally out of stock, and Haley would rather die than buy a knockoff. But when she finds the body of her designer purse party rival, Tiffany Markham, in the trunk of the Mercedes, she's not so sure she wants to trade places after all …

Topping the list of suspects, Haley doesn't deny seeing red when Tiffany stole her purse party idea — and made more money. But she wasn't jealous enough to commit murder. Now she'll have to solve this mystery quickly — and find that Sinful bag — before she becomes a killer's next fashion fatality …

    

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.

The Die Hard 25th Anniversary Collection on Blu-ray Disc is Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Week

Our featured Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day for is actually a Gold Box Deal for the Week: The Die Hard 25th Anniversary Collection on Blu-ray Disc.

Wrong place. Wrong time. Right man. Celebrate 25 years of Bruce Willis playing John McClane with this 5-disc collection featuring the first four "Die Hard" films and an all-new bonus disc, "Decoding Die Hard". It's the ultimate tribute to the tough-as-nails cop with a wry sense of humor and a knack for explosive action.

This Blu-ray set is specially priced through June 1st, 2013.

Telemystery: Case Histories Season 2 Currently Airing on BBC One

Last fall we reported that a second season of Case Histories would air sometime during 2013 on BBC One. We just realized today that "sometime" is "now". (It airs on Sundays, from May 19th through June 2nd.)

Based on characters created by crime novelist Kate Atkinson, three 90-minute episodes have been filmed for this second season, the first of which is adapted from the fourth book in the series, Started Early, Took My Dog. The other two episodes are original screenplays. Jason Isaacs reprises his role as Jackson Brodie, a complex and compulsive private investigator, who attempts to unravel disparate case histories in contemporary Edinburgh.

We very much enjoyed the first season of Case Histories, and look forward to revisiting with the characters when this second season hits our shores.

Telemystery: BBC Two Renews The Fall for a Second Season

BBC Two's new crime drama The Fall premiered earlier this month and the network has so much confidence in the series that it has already been renewed for a second season.

"The Fall has proved both a critical and ratings hit for BBC Two," said Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama. "With more of Allan Cubitt's intricate and thrilling plot revelations yet to unfold through the captivating performances of Gillian and Jamie, a second series is a must."

The Fall is described by the network as a gripping psychological thriller that forensically examines the lives of two hunters. One is a serial killer (Jamie Dornan), who stalks his victims at random in and around Belfast and the other is a talented female Detective Superintendent (Gillian Anderson) on secondment from the MET, who is brought in to catch him.

Most BBC crime dramas eventually make their way to the US, so we'll be keeping an eye out for it. In the meantime, watch a promo trailer for the series, below.

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Telemystery: Covert Affairs, George Gently, Longmire, and Red Widow, 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, Blu-ray disc, or Video-on-Demand, is profiling four series from our site being released this week.

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Covert Affairs
Season Three

Everything changes for savvy CIA operative Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) in this third season of Covert Affairs.

Reassigned to a new and even more covert division of the Agency, Annie takes on missions that become personal and finds herself on dangerous forays into inhospitable territory, while a series of explosive revelations force her to question her role and what (and who) matters most.

International shooting locations this season include Moscow, Paris, Barcelona, Morocco and Puerto Rico.

Covert Affairs Season 3 originally aired on USA Network during Summer and Fall 2012. The fourth season premiere is July 16th, 2013.

      

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George Gently
Series Five

Martin Shaw returns as Inspector George Gently, a former Scotland Yard detective from London now tackling crime in the north of England. With the air of a man who has seen it all but still hopes for the best, Gently confronts the motives — racism, family conflict, greed, revenge — that can lead to murder.

As ever, he receives assistance from his abrasive, politically incorrect sergeant John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby), who has his own take on the societal changes unfolding in 1960s Britain.

Based on the novels by Alan Hunter, the four gripping episodes of this season feature clever scripts, beautiful landscapes, and a distinguished cast.

This fifth series originally aired on BBC during late Summer 2013. A sixth series will premiere later this year.

    

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Longmire
Season One

To close murder cases under open skies he's your man.

Based on a character created by mystery author Craig Johnson, Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) is the charismatic and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County. Struggling since his wife's death a year ago and at the urging of his attorney daughter, Walt knows he must turn his life around.

Aided by a new female deputy and his oldest friend he becomes reenergized about his job and running for reelection though an ambitious younger deputy is a rival candidate for the job. And despite the dark secrets and tangled relationships that pervade this first season, he doggedly solves the big crimes of Wyoming's big sky country.

Longmire Season 1 aired during Summer 2012 on A&E. The second season premieres tonight, May 27th, at 10 PM ET/PT.

      

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Red Widow
Season One

This ABC crime drama is centered on the lengths one mother will go to protect her family amidst a dangerous journey to discover the truth behind her husband's murder.

Housewife Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell) adores her husband, children, and their idyllic Northern California life together. But beneath the suburban dream lies a dark and dangerous world, and when life presents unforeseen tragedy, the perfect facade comes crashing down.

Now Marta must drop all illusions, embrace her new reality, and dig deep to discover reserves of courage, resilience, and ingenuity she never knew she had.

Red Widow premiered in early Spring 2013 and while the DVD is labeled as "The Complete First Season", the series was not renewed by the network for a second season.

      

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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.

New Mystery/Suspense from Carina Press: Die On Your Feet by S. G. Wong

Carina Press is a digital-first imprint from Harlequin, publishing books in an interesting and diverse selection of genres including contemporary romance, steampunk, gay/lesbian fiction, science-fiction, fantasy, and — but of course — mystery and suspense.

One new title is being released this week:

Die On Your Feet, a Lola Starke Novel by S. G. Wong (listed under Paranormal Mystery).

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Die On Your Feet
S. G. Wong
A Lola Starke Novel

Crescent City, 1934

In Crescent City, the dead are always close.

At the point of death, people can choose to become Ghosts, tethered to the living. They can remain with their loved ones as invisible companions — or in the case of Crescent City's ghostly mayor, remain in office forever.

Being a P.I. in Crescent City isn't easy or glamorous. Luckily Lola Starke has an edge: her Ghost, Aubrey, who can gather valuable clues from other Ghosts in the Ether. When they accept a simple missing-persons case, they're drawn into a complicated web of lies and double-crosses that involves the most powerful people in the City — including Lola's own mother, Grace McCall, a famous film star and the mayor's former lover.

As Lola races to untangle the deceit ensnaring her, she discovers an old enemy at its center carefully orchestrating the perfect moment to betray Lola and destroy Aubrey forever … unless Lola and Aubrey can stop them first.

      

Please Welcome Novelist Adam Mitzner

with Adam Mitzner

We are delighted to welcome novelist Adam Mitzner to Omnimystery News.

Adam's new thriller is A Case of Redemption (Gallery Books; May 2013 hardcover, ebook, and audio formats).

Today Adam writes about a topic that we often ask authors ourselves, How do you choose between a recurring character or a stand-alone?

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The most common question I received upon telling people that my second novel, A Case of Redemption, was going to be published was, "Is it a sequel to A Conflict of Interest?"

Photo provided courtesy of
Adam Mitzner

It isn't. And that's not because I don't like sequels or books that are part of a series, because I do. I've read all seven Harry Potter books and I'm a great fan of recurring characters from Hercule Poiret to Jack Reacher. But there's a philosophical difference between novelists who continue their protagonist's story through many books, and those that start new each time.

In most series, the main character's life arc is usually fixed from the outset. No matter how many murders Sherlock Holmes solves or how many schemes of world domination James Bond foils, when the next book begins, they're still the same, unchanged from their experiences in the last book.

I love those kinds of books, but it wasn't what I was going after with A Conflict of Interest or A Case of Redemption. Rather, my objective was to present a main character going through a life altering personal crisis amidst a page-turning plot. It was my hope that when the last page was turned, the main character was a different person than he was on page 1.

A Conflict of Interest opens with a quote from Dante about losing yourself in the woods in the middle of your life, and my aim in that book was to tell how my protagonist, Alex Miller, became lost and then found himself again. It's still a legal thriller, so there are twists and turns aplenty, but at its core A Conflict of Interest is about a man finding himself. And once he's done that, and given all it took for him to get there, it seemed unfair, and, truth be told, a bit cruel, to make him experience another life-shattering event so soon.

And so with A Case of Redemption, I began anew. That book's protagonist, Dan Sorensen, has many similarities to Alex Miller — they're both New York City attorneys who have lived the large law firm life — but whereas Alex's success left him empty, Dan's life was full until his wife and daughter were killed. Even though Dan Sorensen starts from a very different place than Alex Miller, his journey is just as life altering. Whereas Alex was looking for a way back to the life that he had, Dan's prior life is forever lost, and he's searching for something that will give his new life a sense of purpose.

Of course, just because I haven't continued with Alex Miller or Dan Sorensen, doesn't mean that there isn't a book (or maybe two) for each of them still to be written. After all, no one's life story is set by one event, and so there's certainly more to say about them.

Just not right now.

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Adam Mitzner grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and graduated from Brandeis University with a B.A. and M.A. in politics, and from there went directly on to law school at the University of Virginia. After law school, he joined the litigation department of a large New York City law firm, and after a few more stops, is currently the head of the litigation department of Pavia & Harcourt LLP.

For more information about Adam and his work, please visit his website at AdamMitzner.com or find him on Facebook.

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A Case of Redemption
Adam Mitzner

Dan Sorensen was once a high-powered New York City defense attorney … but that was before a horrifying accident killed the two people in his life who meant the most, plunging him into a downward spiral. As he approaches rock bottom, Dan is unexpectedly offered the opportunity of a lifetime: defend an up-and-coming rapper in a murder trial on the front page of every newspaper. Although his client swears he's innocent of the brutal slaying of his pop star girlfriend, proving it will not be easy, especially because he's suspected of bragging about the crime in one of the hottest songs in the country.

Unsure that he's ready to handle such a high-stakes case, Dan realizes that this chance to save a man he believes has been falsely accused of murder just may be his last and only hope to put his own life back on track and achieve redemption for his past sins. But as Dan delves deeper and deeper into the case, he learns that atonement comes at a very steep price.