One Hand Killing by Nancy O'Hara is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

One Hand Killing by Nancy O'Hara

An Alex Sullivan, Zen Mystery

Publisher: NOH Books

… as today's fourth free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of June 27, 2014 at 7:15 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

Burned out from the gritty streets and depraved criminals she deals with daily, NYPD Detective Alex Sullivan escapes to the only place she can find any peace — a Zen Monastery in the Catskill Mountains.

But while there, the walls of this once peaceful sanctuary are breached by the horror of ritual murders and the slow acid drip of suspicion.

— One Hand Killing by Nancy O'Hara

The Curriculum Murders by Marlis Day is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

The Curriculum Murders by Marlis Day

A Margo Brown Mystery

Publisher: Marlis Day

… as today's third free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of June 27, 2014 at 7:00 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

Margo Brown is just your ordinary middle-school teacher until a mystery occurs in her school and activates her sleuthing genes. She admits her investigations have about as much structure as a nervous breakdown.

No one else finds it peculiar that a teacher died on the same night as the school’s homecoming festivities for the past two years. Follow Margo and her side-kick, Roxie, as they race against time to stop a killer with his own lethal lesson plan.

— The Curriculum Murders by Marlis Day

A Noble Pair of Brothers by Suzanne Downes is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

A Noble Pair of Brothers by Suzanne Downes

An Underwood Mystery

Publisher: Suzanne Downes

… as today's second free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of June 27, 2014 at 6:45 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

When C. H. Underwood arrives in the village of Bracken Tor in the spring of 1820, he intends only to visit his brother, the vicar, and take a long rest from his work as a Classics tutor at Cambridge University. However, almost as soon as he arrives he finds himself intrigued by an unsolved murder, committed the year before. The headless corpse of a young woman was found in woods belonging to the local landowner and Magistrate, Sir Henry Wynter.

Underwood finds the notion that the body lies in a grave marked "Unknown" to be abhorrent. He decides to use his free time to discover the identity of the victim — and if possible bring her killer to justice. His brother begs him to proceed with caution, as the murder had roused feelings of a controversial nature amongst the villagers. Before long he has uncovered not only the girl’s final movements before her death, but also the possibility of two other murders having taken place in Bracken Tor.

His task is not made any less complicated by his developing relationship with Charlotte, one of Sir Henry’s daughters, and by the myriad characters he comes across in his investigation. The theory that the girl had been killed as some sort of barbaric ritual is only one of his difficulties, and when a young man arrives in the midst of a cricket match, claiming to be the victim’s husband, the whole village becomes privy to the fact that Underwood is attempting to solve the mystery.

When the newcomer is shot through the heart whilst in Underwood’s company, he finds himself not only universally reviled for his interference, but also accused of murder himself. It takes all his ingenuity to extricate himself from the chaos he has caused, but he always has Verity Chapell, governess to the Wynter girls, to help him in his quest to find the murderer.

— A Noble Pair of Brothers by Suzanne Downes

Endgame by Dee Davis is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature …

Endgame by Dee Davis

A Last Chance Novel

Publisher: Pocito Press

… as today's free mystery ebook.

  

This title was listed for free as of June 27, 2014 at 6:30 AM ET. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of the 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.

More on today's free book, below.

They both know the games killers play …

FBI criminal profiler Madison Harper understands dangerous minds. Tough, tenacious, with nerves of steel, she’s the best of the best. So is her new partner, Gabriel Roarke, a crack CIA operative who likes to do things his way. When the two are forced to jointly head up a task force investigating murder in high places — it’s no surprise that sparks begin to fly.

As they race through a shadow world of power, politics and deadly secrets, the passion that simmers between Madison and Gabriel soon ignites. But a clever killer at the top of his game.

— Endgame by Dee Davis

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is Today's Kobo Daily Deal

Omnimystery News is pleased to feature NOS4A2 by Joe Hill as today's Kobo Daily Deal.

The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Friday, June 27, 2014, and has been price-matched by Amazon.com.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

A Novel of Supernatural Suspense

Publisher: William Morrow

Price: $1.99 (as of 06/27/2014 at 6:15 AM ET).

    

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it's across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing — and terrifying — playground of amusements he calls "Christmasland".

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble — and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx's unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He's on the road again and he's picked up a new passenger: Vic's own son.

— NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending June 27, 2014

A list of the top 15 Mystery Hardcover Bestsellers for the week ending June 27th, 2014 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Lots of movement this week, but Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King retains the number one position on our list.

Three new titles enter the list, one (probably not surprisingly) in the Top 5 — position in [brackets].

— ♦ —

[3]: The Silkworm
Robert Galbraith
— Cormoran Strike (2nd)

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days-as he has done before-and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives-meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before.

Purchase Options

          

— ♦ —

[10]: Invisible
James Patterson and David Ellis

Everyone thinks Emmy Dockery is crazy. Obsessed with finding the link between hundreds of unsolved cases, Emmy has taken leave from her job as an FBI researcher. Now all she has are the newspaper clippings that wallpaper her bedroom, and her recurring nightmares of an all-consuming fire.

Not even Emmy's ex-boyfriend, field agent Harrison "Books" Bookman, will believe her that hundreds of kidnappings, rapes, and murders are all connected. That is, until Emmy finds a piece of evidence he can't afford to ignore. More murders are reported by the day — and they're all inexplicable. No motives, no murder weapons, no suspects. Could one person really be responsible for these unthinkable crimes?

Purchase Options

          

— ♦ —

[12]: Cop Town
Karin Slaughter

Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city's police department, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last. She's determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way — wearing a badge and carrying a gun. But for a beautiful young woman, life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD, where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies. It's also the worst day possible to start given that a beloved cop has been gunned down, his brothers in blue are out for blood, and the city is on the edge of war.

Kate isn't the only woman on the force who's feeling the heat. Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes. When she and Kate, her new partner, are pushed out of the citywide search for a cop killer, their fury, pain, and pride finally reach the boiling point. With a killer poised to strike again, they will pursue their own line of investigation, risking everything as they venture into the city's darkest heart.

Purchase Options

          

Today's Mystery and Suspense Update from Big Fish Games (140627)

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

• The New Release is Dark Parables: Ballad of Rapunzel (Collector's Edition).

• The Daily Deal is Phantasmat, just $2.99 today only!

• The current Catch of the Week is Haunted Legends: The Undertaker, just $2.99 through Sunday, June 29, 2014 only.

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

— ♦ —

The New Release today is Dark Parables: Ballad of Rapunzel (Collector's Edition)

You've been called to the kingdom of Floralia to track down the source of a mysterious pollen spreading throughout the world. Rumor has it that Princess Rapunzel is somehow involved — the haunting melody she sings appears to summon the pollen … but how did the once-loved princess come to control such a deadly force? And who is the mysterious, shadowy figure always by her side? The secrets you uncover may be darker than you imagined in this exciting Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure!

This is a special Collector's Edition release full of exclusive extras you won't find in the standard version, including: An exciting bonus game; Find collectible items and unlock parables; Concept art, wallpapers, movies, and more; and An available Strategy Guide.

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

— ♦ —

Today's Daily Deal is Phantasmat

After crashing your car in the middle of nowhere, you stumble upon a mysterious town with a shady background. Uncover the secrets of the quiet town that was submerged in a dam accident! Dive into this incredible Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game and get to the bottom of this long forgotten tragedy.

A sample version is available to download and play for free for one hour. You can purchase this game today only — Friday, June 27, 2014 — for $2.99.

Also available for this game:

• Check out the Blog Walkthrough.
• For a more in-depth experience, see the Collector's Edition.

— ♦ —

The current Catch of the Week is Haunted Legends: The Undertaker

Unravel the mysterious undead curse! A once-ordinary fishing village has been transformed into a nightmarish landscape, as the recently buried rise from their graves! As a seasoned detective, it's up to you to find the cause of these unnatural disturbances and put an end to them for good. Take on a chilling new case in this thrilling Hidden Object adventure!

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 29, 2014.

Also available for this game:

• Get the Strategy Guide.
• Check out the Blog Walkthrough.
• For a more in-depth experience, see the Collector's Edition.

Murder Most Persuasive, An Elizabeth Parker Mystery by Tracy Kiely, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Minotaur Books …

Murder Most Persuasive by Tracy Kiely

An Elizabeth Parker Mystery (3rd in series)

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Price: $1.99 (as of 06/26/2014 at 6:00 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

After the death of Elizabeth Parker's great-uncle Martin Reynolds, the family's house in the picturesque Maryland town of St. Michaels is sold. When the new owners dig up the pool, they find the body of the man thought to have run off eight years earlier after embezzling over a million dollars from the family business.

This grisly discovery not only unearths old questions about what really happened to the stolen money, but it brings Detective Joe Muldoon back into the family's lives. Eight years ago Elizabeth's cousin Ann reluctantly broke off her relationship with Joe due to family pressure. Ann always regretted that decision and now fears that it is too late for her and Joe–especially after she becomes the main suspect.

— Murder Most Persuasive by Tracy Kiely

Review: Muzzled by Eileen Brady

A Mysterious Review of Muzzled by Eileen Brady. A Kate Turner, DVM Mystery.

Review summary: There is a lot of credible misdirection along the way in this first in series murder mystery, but also clues to the solution of whodunit even if they aren't necessarily seen as such at the time. With an appealing amateur sleuth leading the way, this is an entertaining and strong start to this series. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Muzzled
Eileen Brady
A Kate Turner, DVM Mystery
Poisoned Pen Press (April 2014)

Publisher synopsis: On a house call one wet spring morning, veterinarian Dr. Kate Turner rescues a family's hamster from a vacuum cleaner, then visits an estate whose owners breed champion Cavalier King Charles spaniels. Instead of sharing traditional tea with the couple, she confronts a bloody scene of bodies and twenty-seven blue-ribbon dogs running wild.

Police initially suspect a murder-suicide, but when Dr. Kate proves the famous best-in-show champion is missing, a darker reality intrudes. She remembers her grandfather saying that there are two motives for murder — love and money. While treating local pets, Dr. Kate discovers suspects and motives everywhere in this charming town filled with people who wanted the couple dead.

Was the couple murdered for money their champion could bring to another breeder? How is their daughter, anxious to rid herself of the pampered dogs, handling the wealth she inherits? Would the celebrity filmmaker living nearby kill to end a multi-million dollar lawsuit? Did long-buried personal secrets cause the deaths? And what's going on at the office behind her back? Is Dr. Kate now in danger?

        

The Russian Hill Murders, A Sarah Woolson Mystery by Shirley Tallman, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Minotaur Books …

The Russian Hill Murders by Shirley Tallman

A Sarah Woolson Mystery (2nd in series)

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Price: $1.99 (as of 06/26/2014 at 5:00 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

Though her own San Francisco law firm barely tolerates her, gutsy young attorney Sarah Woolson flouts proper feminine behavior. While her mother begs her to settle down, her chauvinistic boss tries to come up with ever more spiteful ways to pressure his only female associate into quitting. Naturally, Sarah digs in her heels and vows to retain her position at any cost. Besides, she has no intention of straying too far from the action.

When the wife of wealthy society entrepreneur Leonard Godfrey drops dead of an apparent heart attack at a charity dinner for the new Women and Children's Hospital, Sarah's curiosity gets the better of her. But no one will believe in her theory that Caroline Godfrey's death was not natural — -until several more people affiliated with the hospital die of inexplicable causes.

Meanwhile, when a pregnant widow whose husband has died in a sweatshop fire asks for Sarah's help in finding the owner so that she can sue for recompense, our feisty heroine insists on taking the case against her boss's orders. With the help of her colleague Robert Campbell and an eager young hansom cabdriver named Eddie, Sarah goes on a manhunt for Killy Doyle, the menacing head of the factory underworld. But she can't ignore the mysterious deaths at the Women and Children's Hospital — -especially when the hospital's Chinese chef is arrested for the murders and the Chinese community's most powerful Tong Lord asks her to defend him.

Faced with her first criminal trial, Sarah stops at nothing to determine the killer's identity. But in trying to exonerate her client, she places her own life in danger. Will Sarah figure out who the murderer is, or will she be the final victim?

— The Russian Hill Murders by Shirley Tallman

Mourning the Dead, A Naomi Blake Mystery by Jane A. Adams, New from Endeavour Press

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher, promoting and selling ebook editions of works by new authors as well as bringing out ebook editions of out of print books.

We've selected one of their recently published mystery, suspense, thriller or crime titles to feature here today …

Mourning the Dead by Jane A. Adams

A Naomi Blake Mystery (1st in series)

Publisher: Endeavour Press

Price: $3.99 (as of 06/26/2014 at 4:30 PM ET).

First published in hardcover by Severn House in 2002. This is its first appearance as an ebook.

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

Twenty-three years ago, Helen Jones disappeared on her way to school. She was twelve years old and no trace of her or how she died was ever found. But now a confession in a sealed envelope has been discovered in the possession of a dead man. And strangely this discovery has come to light now that another young girl has gone missing.

Naomi Blake had been Helen’s best friend, and as they were inseparable companions, Naomi was the last person to have seen her alive. Having quarreled on the morning of Helen’s disappearance, Naomi has never forgiven herself and now, blinded from an accident and a reluctant ex-policewoman, she sets out to uncover the long-hidden truth behind Helen’s vanishing.

With the police keeping unnervingly quiet as to the identity of the confessor and focusing on the new missing person case, Naomi struggles to understand what happened to her friend all those years ago …

— Mourning the Dead by Jane A. Adams

O' Artful Death, A Sweeney St. George Mystery by Sarah Stewart Taylor, Now Available at a Special Price

Omnimystery News is always searching for newly discounted mystery, suspense, thriller and crime novels for our readers to enjoy. Today, we're pleased to feature the following title, now available at a special price courtesy of the publisher, Minotaur Books …

O' Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor

A Sweeney St. George Mystery (1st in series)

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Price: $2.99 (as of 06/26/2014 at 4:00 PM ET).

  

Important Note: Price(s) verified as of the date and time shown. Price(s) are subject to change at any time. Please confirm the price of the book before purchasing it.

Sweeney St. George, an art historian in Boston with a special interest in the art of death, becomes interested in Byzantium, Vermont, an art colony that flourished in the late nineteenth century, when she comes upon a photograph of the striking gravestone of a girl who drowned, and may have been murdered, in 1890. The stone is in a tiny cemetery surrounded by other beautiful, if unremarkable, headstones, some dating back hundreds of years. But the unsigned sculpture that marks this young woman’s grave is of extremely high quality and the artist is unrecognizable.

Sweeney is soon hooked, not only on the mystery of who created the beautiful sculpture but also on the details of the events surrounding the girl's death. When the friend who showed her the gravestone invites Sweeney to visit his relatives in Byzantium for Christmas, she jumps at the chance, knowing full well that the girl's murder has achieved the status of mythology in the town and hoping she'll be able to uncover new information. But by the time they arrive, her interest in the girl and the sculpture has gotten around town and, in fact, seems to have disturbed a killer. For not long after Sweeney arrives, one of the girl's descendants is murdered, shot and left lying in the cemetery.

— O' Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor

Coldsleep Lullaby by Andrew Brown, a New 1st in Series Title Introducing Eberard Februarie

Omnimystery News is pleased to present you with one of this month's new 1st in Series titles, a mystery, thriller or suspense novel that introduces a recurring character (or characters) …

Coldsleep Lullaby by Andrew Brown

An Eberard Februarie Mystery (1st in series)

Publisher: Minotaur Books

  

What we know about the character: Detective Inspector Eberard Februarie is a police officer in the Cape Winelands of South Africa. For more information about his first case, see a synopsis of the book, below.

In the sleepy Cape Winelands of South Africa the body of a young woman is found drifting in a river, and Detective Eberard Februarie is called in to investigate the case. It doesn't help matters that the young woman — Melanie Du Preez — was the daughter of a prominent local citizen. Professor du Preez is a lecturer in the University's Faculty of Law, and a conservative activist in the defense of the Afrikaans culture. Has a murder happened here, and if so, is the motive politics or something much more personal?

Eberard discovers a scrapbook of lullabies that Melanie had collected over the years, it's a clue that could unlock the case for him, if only he could figure out what he's looking for? A man struggling with his own demons, Eberard discovers even more secrets that lead him to the rotten core of this old university town.

— Coldsleep Lullaby by Andrew Brown