New Today: Brisk Money, A Short Story by Adam Christopher

This Tor.com original short story is a prequel to "The LA Trilogy", a set of three novels starring Raymond Electromatic, a robot PI, the first of which is scheduled to be published in late 2015 …

Brisk Money by Adam Christopher

A Short Story

Publisher: Tor Books

Price: $0.99 (as of 07/23/2014 at 4:30 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.

It's hard out there for a robotic detective …

Raymond Chandler famously hated science fiction, saying "They pay brisk money for this crap?" However, it has recently come to light that Chandler secretly wrote a series of stories and novels starring a robot detective. He then burnt all the manuscripts and went on writing his noir masterpieces. Unknown to Chandler, his housekeeper had managed to save some of these discarded manuscripts from the grate in his study, preserving the tales for future generations.

The first of these stories was recently unearthed by author Adam Christopher. On the topic of how the manuscript made its way from Chandler's study in California to Christopher's home in England, Christopher is suspiciously quiet.

— Brisk Money by Adam Christopher

The Draining Lake, The Reykjavik Murder Series by Arnaldur Indriðason, 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 Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indriðason

The Reykjavik Murder Series (6th in series)

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Price: $1.99 (as of 07/23/2014 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.

Following an earthquake, the water level of an Icelandic lake suddenly falls, revealing a skeleton that is weighed down by a heavy radio device bearing inscriptions in Russian. Inspectors Erlendur, Elinborg, and Sigurdur Oli’s investigation takes them back to the Cold War era, when bright, left-wing students in Iceland were sent to study in the "heavenly state" of Communist East Germany.

But one of the students went missing, and her friends suspected that her "heavenly state" was all too real. Erlendur follows a long cold trail that leads back to Iceland, international espionage, and murder.

— The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indriðason

The Secret of the Key by Marianne Malone, a New Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventure

Omnimystery News is pleased to present in this post a new First Clues: Mysteries for Kids series title published this month …

The Secret of the Key by Marianne Malone

Series: Sixty-Eight Rooms

Publisher: Random House

Format(s): Hardcover, eBook

Age Range: Cadet Sleuths, Ages 10 to 12

Unlock the magic … in the exciting conclusion to the Sixty-Eight Rooms Adventures!

  

For more information about the book, see a synopsis, below.

Chicago sixth graders Ruthie and Jack think they've learned everything about the magic of the Art Institute's Thorne Rooms. But the magic starts to act strangely when Ruthie and Jack discover two rings that are out of place — and out of time — and a portal that shouldn't be open but somehow is. Ruthie and Jack follow the clues to seventeenth-century England and the Brownlow house, where they meet the Brownlow's governess, Rebecca. But Rebecca has a few secrets of her own — and she might even be in the wrong century!

Can Ruthie and Jack discover the truth about Rebecca's mysterious past, or will they end up stuck in the wrong century themselves? Their quest for answers takes them from 1930s New York City and San Francisco to turn-of-the-century China. The only one who can truly answer their questions may be the woman who started it all: the room's creator, Narcissa Thorne. But to talk to Mrs. Thorne, they'll have to go back in time and find her!

— The Secret of the Key by Marianne Malone

Gallows Lane, A Benedict Devlin Mystery by Brian McGilloway, 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 …

Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway

A Benedict Devlin Mystery (2nd in series)

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Price: $2.99 (as of 07/23/2014 at 3:00 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.

The Donegal summer dawns unusually hot, and Inspector Devlin returns to the borderlands separating the North and South of Ireland, waiting for a notorious ex-con, James Kerr, to return home on early release. Kerr claims to have found God while in prison, but the superintendant of police wants him to stay on the other side of the border.

When a young woman is found beaten to death on a building site in what appears to be a sexually-motivated killing, Devlin is distracted from his assignment of keeping tabs on Kerr. Enquiries into the murder soon point to a local bodybuilder and steroid addict. But days later, the born-again ex-con Kerr is found nailed to a tree—crucified.

Increasingly torn between his young family and his job, Devlin is determined to apprehend those responsible for the murders before they strike again, even as the carnage begins to jeopardize those he cares about most.

— Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway

The Catch by Taylor Stevens, New in Bookstores during July 2014

Today's featured new hardcover mystery, suspense, or thriller title scheduled to be published during July 2014 is …

The Catch by Taylor Stevens

The Vanessa Michael Munroe Series (4th)

Publisher: Crown

        

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

More about our featured title, below …

The adrenaline-fueled work has left her with blood on her hands and a soul stained with guilt. Having borne the burden of one death too many, Munroe has fled to Djibouti, Africa. There, where her only responsibility is greasing the wheels of commerce for a small maritime security company, she finds stillness — until her boss pressures her to join his team as an armed transit guard on a ship bound for Kenya.

Days into the voyage, Munroe discovers the security contract is merely cover for a gunrunning operation of which she wants no part. The ship is invaded off the Somali coast and in a moment of impulse while fighting her way out, she drags the unconscious captain with her. But nothing about the hijacking is what it seems.

The pirates were never after the ship; they'd come for the captain. In chasing him, they make their one mistake: targeting Munroe raises the killer's instinct she's tried so hard to bury. Wounded and on the run, Vanessa Michael Munroe will use the life of her catch as bait and bartering chip to manipulate every player with a stake in the ship's outcome, and find a way to wash her conscience clean.

— The Catch by Taylor Stevens