Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending May 30, 2014

A list of the top 15 Mystery Hardcover Bestsellers for the week ending May 30th, 2014 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

James Patterson's Women's Murder Club mystery, Unlucky 13, maintained its position as number one this week on our list, though several other books were definitely in contention for the top stop.

One new title enters the list — position in [brackets].

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[11]: Suspicion
Joseph Finder

When single father Danny Goodman suddenly finds himself unable to afford the private school his teenage daughter adores, he has no one to turn to for financial support.

In what seems like a stroke of brilliant luck, Danny meets Thomas Galvin, the father of his daughter's new best friend, who also happens to be one of the wealthiest men in Boston. Galvin is aware of Danny's situation and out of the blue offers a $50,000 loan to help Danny cover his daughter's tuition. Uncomfortable but desperate, Danny takes the money, promising to pay Galvin back.

What transpires is something Danny never imagined. The moment the money is wired into his account, the DEA comes knocking on his door. Danny's impossible choice: an indictment for accepting drug money that he can't afford to fight in court, or an unthinkably treacherous undercover assignment helping the government get close to his new family friend.

As Danny begins to lie to everyone in his life, including those he loves most in the world, he must decide once and for all who the real enemy is or risk losing everything — and everyone — that matters to him.

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Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (140530)

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

• The New Release is Haunted Hotel: Ancient Bane (Collector's Edition).

• The Daily Deal is Weather Lord: Hidden Realm, just $2.99 today only!

• The current Catch of the Week is Weird Park: Scary Tales, just $2.99 through Sunday, June 01, 2014 only.

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

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The New Release today is Haunted Hotel: Ancient Bane (Collector's Edition)

Abraham Shadowy bought an abandoned hotel, planning to turn it into a haunted attraction for his guests. But when his guests start actually disappearing, people begin to gossip. Is it all just a publicity stunt for the hotel, or is there something more sinister going on? Join your detective friend James as you search for the truth among Shadowy's mechanical contraptions. It's dark in there, so watch your step in this chilling Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game!

This is a special Collector's Edition release full of exclusive extras you won't find in the standard version, including: Save James and help Anabel in the bonus game; Win awards for your achievements in the hotel; Collect 12 Egyptian objects; Music, screen savers, wallpapers, and concept art; and An available Strategy Guide.

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

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Today's Daily Deal is Weather Lord: Hidden Realm

Command the powerful forces of nature to free an island of an evil scourge! As you make your way across a once lost land, you'll restore its villages, free its people and battle ogres, golems and Yeti scum. With the elements in your hands, a sword at your side and a little magic in your pocket, no one will be able to stop you on your march to victory in this thrilling Time Management game!

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game today only — Friday, May 30, 2014 — for $2.99.

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The current Catch of the Week is Weird Park: Scary Tales

Louis the Clown and Mr. Dudley are back in an all-new adventure that will take you through the dark corners of history's most famous fairytales to rescue children trapped in a frightening netherworld! Louis is up to his old tricks as he casts each child in the role of a legendary fairytale character and then creates the visually stunning but twialay out. Use your skills and intellect to find hidden objects and solve puzzles as you make your way through the stories of Cinderella, Peter Pan, Aladdin and more!

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 01, 2014.

Also available for this game:

• Get the Strategy Guide.
• Check out the Blog Walkthrough.

Review: The Marathon Conspiracy by Gary Corby

A Mysterious Review of The Marathon Conspiracy by Gary Corby. A Nicolaos, Ancient Greece Mystery.

Review summary: This series of mysteries set in ancient Greece is an entertaining one, and this is a solid entry in it, even if the central whodunit plotline is rather thinly developed. Still, the central characters are engaging investigators and the contemporary feel of the narrative and dialog makes the lives and practices of the ancient Greeks quite approachable. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

The Marathon Conspiracy
Gary Corby
A Nicolaos, Ancient Greece Mystery
Soho Crime (May 2014)

Publisher synopsis: Nicolaos, Classical Athens's favorite sleuth, and his partner in investigation, the clever ex-priestess Diotima, have taken time out of their assignments to come home to get married. But if Nico was hoping they'd be able to get hitched without a hitch, he was overly optimistic. When they arrive in Athens, there's a problem waiting for them.

The Sanctuary of Artemis is the ancient world's most famous school for girls. When one of the children is killed, apparently by a bear, and another girl disappears in the night, Diotima's childhood teacher asks her former pupil to help them. Diotima is honor-bound to help her old school.

Meanwhile a skull discovered in a cave not far from the sanctuary has proven to be the remains of the last tyrant to rule Athens. The Athenians fought the Battle Marathon to keep this man out of power. He was supposed to have died thirty years ago, in faraway Persia. What are his remains doing outside the city walls?

Nico's boss, the great Athenian statesman Pericles, wants answers, and he wants Nico to find them.

What makes it all so ominous is that the skull was discovered by the two students of the Sanctuary of Artemis who are dead and missing.

What does a decades-dead tyrant have to do with two young girls? Where is the missing child? Is a killer bear really lurking beyond the walls of Athens? And who is the mysterious stranger who's trying to kill Nico and Diotima? Can the sleuths solve the interlocked crimes and save a child before their wedding?

        

Minotaur Mysteries: Murder Makes a Pilgrimage, A Sister Mary Helen Mystery by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan and a leading publisher of mystery and suspense books, currently has over 200 books available for $4.99 or less.

Today, we are pleased to feature one of these titles, Murder Makes a Pilgrimage by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, now just $1.99. (Price verified on May 29, 2014 as of 5:00 PM ET.)

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Murder Makes a Pilgrimage by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie
A Sister Mary Helen Mystery (5th in series)
Publisher: Minotaur Books

Vivacious and outgoing, Lisa Springer was the most unlikely member of the free pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the birthplace of Christianity in Spain. And Sister Mary Helen soon had reason to suspect the auburn-haired knockout knew the other members of the tour group — and some of their ugliest secrets — all too well. So when Lisa was discovered strangled to death in a saint's crypt, Sister Mary faced no end of likely suspects — from Lisa's dangerously disaffected "best friend" to the group's charming, unreliable guide to the mild-mannered professor with a relentlessly snobbish wife.

And when Sister Mary Helen becomes the target of a number of frightening "accidents", she and Sister Eileen must race to uncover Lisa's past and expose a clever killer hellbent on prematurely sending one sleuthing nun to her heavenly reward.

  

A New MystereBook: Dying for Diamonds by Cassie Page

Here is a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during May 2014 priced $4.99 or less …

Dying for Diamonds by Cassie Page is the third mystery in the Darling Valley cozy series with amateur sleuth Olivia M. Granville.

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Dying for Diamonds by Cassie Page
A Darling Valley Mystery
Publisher: Cassie Page
Publication Date: May 28, 2014
Price: $0.99 (as of 05/29/14 4:15 PM ET)

How would you ruin a cozy breakfast date with your heartthrob? How about a dead body falling into your lap? That's what it seemed like to Olivia M. Granville when she and her Detective Matt McDreamy, known professionally as Gurmeet Richards, wandered into their favorite luxury jewelry store to check on her remodel for friend and client Xavier of Xavier's Gems.

Shocking as that diamond-draped skyfall was, finding herself at the center of the investigation into the murder of one of Darling Valley's leading socialites was worse. And to cap it off, was Matt two-timing her, just as they seemed to have finally found peace and happiness together? If not, how to explain those incriminating texts and photos?

And how did sleazy society blogger Awful Arlo get hold of them? And what were they doing on cable news so that the whole town was taking three steps backward from Olivia. She calls on her two best buds, couture-challenged Tuesday and sidekick/assistant Cody to help her solve the murder before she loses her business, her relationship and her sanity.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for the price indicated on the date and time as shown. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Minotaur Mysteries: All Mortal Flesh, A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan and a leading publisher of mystery and suspense books, currently has over 200 books available for $4.99 or less.

Today, we are pleased to feature one of these titles, All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming, now just $2.99. (Price verified on May 29, 2014 as of 4:00 PM ET.)

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All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming
A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery (5th in series)
Publisher: Minotaur Books

Winner of the 2007 Nero Award.

Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne's first encounter with Clare Fergusson was in the hospital emergency room on a freezing December night. A newborn infant had been abandoned on the town's Episcopal church steps. If Russ had known that the church had a new priest, he certainly would never have guessed that it would be a woman. Not a woman like Clare. That night in the hospital was the beginning of an attraction so fierce, so forbidden, that the only thing that could keep them safe from compromising their every belief was distance — but in a small town like Millers Kill, distance is hard to find.

Russ Van Alstyne figures his wife kicking him out of their house is nobody's business but his own. Until a neighbor pays a friendly visit to Linda Van Alstyne-­and finds the woman's body, gruesomely butchered, on the kitchen floor. To the state police, it's an open-and-shut case of a disaffected husband, silencing first his wife, then the murder investigation he controls. To the townspeople, it's proof that the whispered gossip about the police chief and the priest was true. To the powers-that-be in the church hierarchy, it's a chance to control their wayward cleric once and for all.

  

Herald Square, A Novel of the Cold War by Jefferson Flanders, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Herald Square by Jefferson Flanders, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, Munroe Hill Press.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $0.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (05/29/2014 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.

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Herald Square by Jefferson Flanders
A Novel of the Cold War
Publisher: Munroe Hill Press

New York, September 1949. When Dennis Collins arrives at Madison Square Garden for the Friday night fights, he is on top of the world. His career as the man-about-town columnist of the New York Sentinel is on the upswing; his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers are contending for the pennant; and a lover who had jilted him years ago has unexpectedly agreed to drinks and dinner at the Stork Club. Collins is sure that his luck has turned for the better.

But at the Garden his closest childhood friend, Morris Rose, approaches him for help. Rose asks Collins to safeguard microfilmed documents that he says will prove his innocence in a State Department loyalty investigation. Out of friendship, Collins reluctantly agrees to hold the microfilm for a week.

When Rose disappears from the scene, and FBI agents begin asking hard questions, Collins must solve a puzzle that somehow involves his friend, a shadowy former OSS officer, and a beautiful refugee, Karina, with a troubled past.

When Collins discovers that both American and Soviet operatives desperately want the documents he is holding, he is drawn into a twilight struggle between intelligence agencies that will challenge his loyalties and test his courage.

  

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.

Minotaur Mysteries: The Mortal Groove, A Jane Lawless Mystery by Ellen Hart

Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan and a leading publisher of mystery and suspense books, currently has over 200 books available for $4.99 or less.

Today, we are pleased to feature one of these titles, The Mortal Groove by Ellen Hart, now just $2.99. (Price verified on May 29, 2014 as of 3:00 PM ET.)

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The Mortal Groove by Ellen Hart
A Jane Lawless Mystery (15th in series)
Publisher: Minotaur Books

Read our review of The Mortal Groove by Ellen Hart

Minneapolis restaurateur and amateur sleuth Jane Lawless is in the middle of ringing in the New Year the best way she knows how — with her family, friends, and some excellent champagne — when the biggest financial backers in Minnesota politics break up the party with a little backroom proposition for her father: How'd he like to be the state's next governor?

Flattered, Ray Lawless, a retired defense attorney, agrees to run, and the latecomer's sprint to the state capital is going great until reporters and opponents start digging up the kind of dirt that is more valuable than gold out on the campaign trail. He and his family are fair game, but worse than that, so are the men running his campaign. Their secrets, involving the mysterious death of a young woman, have been buried since the summer they all came home from Vietnam. Unfortunately for Jane and her father, those secrets won't stay that way for long.

  

Click on the Amazon button to see also the special Whispersync offer associated with this title.

Suspicion by Joseph Finder, New in Bookstores in May 2014

Today's new hardcover mystery title, scheduled to be published during May 2014 by Dutton, is Suspicion by Joseph Finder.

For a list of more new hardcover mysteries published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for May 2014. For new paperback mysteries, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of May 2014 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.

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Suspicion
Joseph Finder

When single father Danny Goodman suddenly finds himself unable to afford the private school his teenage daughter adores, he has no one to turn to for financial support.

In what seems like a stroke of brilliant luck, Danny meets Thomas Galvin, the father of his daughter's new best friend, who also happens to be one of the wealthiest men in Boston. Galvin is aware of Danny's situation and out of the blue offers a $50,000 loan to help Danny cover his daughter's tuition. Uncomfortable but desperate, Danny takes the money, promising to pay Galvin back.

What transpires is something Danny never imagined. The moment the money is wired into his account, the DEA comes knocking on his door. Danny's impossible choice: an indictment for accepting drug money that he can't afford to fight in court, or an unthinkably treacherous undercover assignment helping the government get close to his new family friend.

As Danny begins to lie to everyone in his life, including those he loves most in the world, he must decide once and for all who the real enemy is or risk losing everything — and everyone — that matters to him.

        

Minotaur Mysteries: The Girl at the End of the Line, The "Girl" Series by Charles Mathes

Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan and a leading publisher of mystery and suspense books, currently has over 200 books available for $4.99 or less.

Today, we are pleased to feature one of these titles, The Girl at the End of the Line by Charles Mathes, now just $1.99. (Price verified on May 29, 2014 as of 2:00 PM ET.)

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The Girl at the End of the Line by Charles Mathes
The "Girl" Series (3rd in series)
Publisher: Minotaur Books

Molly O'Hara's young sister Nell is beautiful, spirited, and sweet, and the fact that she hasn't spoken for the last seventeen years — since she was eight — certainly doesn't reflect on her intelligence. After all, it's Nell who does the books for Enchanted Cottage Antiques, which she and her sister operate jointly. Truth is, Nell was home alone with their mother when the woman was murdered, and from that day forward Nell hasn't spoken. She understands, she can make herself understood; it's just that she doesn't utter a word.

Rummaging in boxes at a tag sale, Nell comes across an old New York theater Playbill that will change the girls' lives. It will break the monotony of their rather lonely existence in the small North Carolina town from which they have never ventured — and will also shatter the peace they've managed to achieve there. It will send them rocketing to New York, to England, and to New England, in search of a family they didn't know they had. And it will introduce them to as zany a group of relatives as ever bickered over a dog show or a fortune.

  

Hard Kill by J. B. Turner, New on The Mystery Bookshelf in May 2014

Today's featured paperback original mystery title, scheduled to be published during May 2014 by Exhibit A, is Hard Kill by J. B. Turner.

For a list of more new paperback mysteries, thrillers, and novels of suspense published this month, visit our Mystery Bookshelf page for May 2014. For hardcover titles, visit New Mysteries for a selection of books published during May 2014.

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Hard Kill
J. B. Turner
Series: A Jon Reznick Mystery

An American diplomat goes missing and ex-Special Forces operative Jon Reznick joins a top secret team, led by FBI Assistant Director Martha Meyerstein, to help track him down.

The team believes that there may be a terrorist group - perhaps Islamists - who have kidnapped him, as the diplomat's area of expertise is the Persian Gulf. But Reznick is training his sights on an unlikely candidate — a leading Washington DC surgeon.

But as the team itself comes under attack, and the 9/11 commemoration approaches, it becomes clear that the kidnapping is part of a much bigger plot, one that threatens not only New York, but the whole country too.

  

Minotaur Mysteries: Southern Fried, An Avery Andrews Southern Fried Mystery by Cathy Pickens

Minotaur Books, an imprint of Macmillan and a leading publisher of mystery and suspense books, currently has over 200 books available for $4.99 or less.

Today, we are pleased to feature one of these titles, Southern Fried by Cathy Pickens, now just $1.99. (Price verified on May 29, 2014 as of 1:00 PM ET.)

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Southern Fried by Cathy Pickens
An Avery Andrews Southern Fried Mystery (1st in series)
Publisher: Minotaur Books

Winner of the 2003 St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Best Traditional Mystery Contest.

Avery Andres has just been downsized from her job in a law office in a North Carolina city and has returned to her small home town to lick her wounds and consider, with hesitation, trying to set up a law practice there. She quickly gets a client or two, and immediately the company building owned by one is destroyed by arson, and the body found inside was quite probably murdered.

Meanwhile, an old high-school classmate has told the entire county that he is hopelessly in love with Avery and makes several attempts at spectacular suicides, each one of them carefully set up not to work.

All in all, Avery finds that small-town life is not nearly so dull as she feared. And sometimes wishes it were.

  

A New MystereBook: Real Murder by Lauren Carr

Here is a mystery, suspense, or thriller ebook that we recently found by sleuthing (as it were) through new or recently reissued titles from independent publishers during May 2014 priced $4.99 or less …

Real Murder by Lauren Carr is the second mystery in this "Lovers in Crime" series of mysteries featuring Hancock County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Thornton — from the author's first series — and Pennsylvania State Police homicide detective Cameron Gates.

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Real Murder by Lauren Carr
A Lovers in Crime Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Publication Date: May 28, 2014
Price: $0.99 (as of 05/29/14 12:30 PM ET)

When Homicide Detective Cameron Gates befriends Dolly, the little old lady who lives across the street, she is warned not to get lured into helping the elderly woman by investigating the unsolved murder of one of her girls. "She's senile," Cameron is warned. "It's not a real murder."

Such is not the case. After Dolly is brutally murdered, Cameron discovers that the sweet blue-haired lady's "girl" was a call girl, who had been killed in a mysterious double homicide.

Meanwhile, Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Thornton is looking for answers to the murder of a childhood friend, a sheriff deputy whose cruiser is found at the bottom of a lake. The deputy had disappeared almost twenty years ago while privately investigating the murder of a local prostitute.

It doesn't take long for the Lovers in Crime to put their cases together to reveal a long-kept secret that some believe is worth killing to keep undercover.

  

Important Note: This book was listed for the price indicated on the date and time as shown. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.