Fantasic Firsts Mystery & Suspense

We have a proven track record of picking award winning (and collectible) mysteries. If you are looking for a mystery that is destined for greatness, you will want to subscribe to this club. We are your eyes and ears in the mystery community. Here are the details:

• Sign up for one year and get 10 to 12 books we highly recommend and believe are likely to be collectible ... books you’ll value having on your shelves. There is no fee to join.
• Subscribers receive 20% off cover price of selected titles with one-year subscription. To qualify for this discount, you are agreeing to purchase all of our club selections.
• We will keep your credit card information on file in a secure location and charge you each month as titles are available.
• You may pick up your new book at either Mysterious Galaxy location.
• Standard shipping rates apply for shipped titles. Titles held for pick up in store will be billed and shipped if not picked up within two weeks of notification.
• This is a great gift-giving opportunity. We are happy to send our selections each month as a gift to the book lover of your choice.
• Many, but not all selections will be signed.

To sign up, or for more information, contact the staff in San Diego (858-268-4747). Club membership lists will be maintained by the San Diego location, but all fantastic titles can be picked up in either store, or shipped to you!

A new title will be revealed each month!

May Fantastic First Pick:

Murder as a Fine Art (Hardcover)

By David Morrell

$25.99

ISBN-13: 9780316216791
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Mulholland Books, 5/2013

Other Editions of this Title

David Morrell’s books are always scrupulously researched, adding fast-paced action, pulling you into the story with a fierce grip. Murder as a Fine Art takes us to Victorian London in 1854 but, begins with the retelling of a brutal massacre known as the Ratcliffe Highway murders that occurred 43 years earlier. He then introduces Thomas De Quincey, the infamous author known for his memoir Confessions of as English Opium-Eater and an essay detailing these murders. DeQuincey becomes a prime suspect when a series of copycat killings occur mirroring the ones 43 years ago. His efforts to prove his innocence are hampered by his laudanum addiction. Fortunately, he is accompanied by his daughter Emily, a delightfully outspoken, no-hoop-wearing modern woman, who provides moral and physical support for her father when he is weakened. She also manages to contribute to the investigation led by a Scotland Yard detective and a very likeable policeman. Appealing to those fans of historical crime fiction, but also to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced, well-written thriller full of quirky characters and fascinating historical figures.

– Linda

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Follow Her Home (Hardcover)

By Steph Cha

$24.99

ISBN-13: 9781250009623
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Minotaur Books, 4/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Our April Pick

Steph Cha’s fine debut novel, much like S.J.Rozan’s Lydia Chen series, is a mystery thriller that incorporates the Asian community and its customs, including corruption and murder. Starting out as a seemingly frivolous endeavor on the part of good friends to dispel a nagging suspicion, the story develops into a trail of deceit that reveals a complex story line. Song, an Asian-American recent college graduate, has not yet landed a job, but has a fixation on noir fiction and Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. When her best friend Luke asks her to investigate a suspected affair between his wealthy dad and his young Asian paralegal, Song has nothing to lose and an itch to scratch. Her first attempt in the investigation lands her unconscious in the trunk of a car and the story continues to advance to murder and a hint of pornography that inflames Song’s memories of her younger sister.

– Bunny

Additional praise for Follow Her Home

“[Song] is a compelling and original protagonist… One only hopes that Cha and her driven, neo-noir detective have more opportunities to explore those troubling intersections over many books to come.” –LA Times

“Stephanie Cha's brilliant debut is as Noir as Old Nick's sense of humour. Compelling from first to last page, she takes on contemporary L.A., sweeping the reader through Chandler's twilight, heartbroken city from mansions to faux K-town hostess bars.  L.A. Noir at its finest.” -- Denise Mina, author of The Dead Hour

 

"Follow Her Home takes a fresh trip down the sunny, dark streets of Los Angeles, and Juniper Song is a great guide - young, sharp, and worldly-wise. Keenly observed and deeply felt, the story slowly got under my skin. I couldn't put it down." - Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winng author of Ransom River

 

“In a glittery L.A. of pretty, privileged twentysomethings, Stephanie Cha's Follow Her Home opens like a playful homage to Raymond Chandler but deepens into something darker:  an utterly 21st-century  ode to sisterhood in the face of crime.  A fast-paced thriller told in smart, sparkling prose, Follow Her Home is a moving exploration of mothers and daughters, men and women, immigrant history, loss, and hope.” –Joy Castro, author of Hell or High Water

 

About the Author

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STEPH CHA is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School. She lives in her native city of Los Angeles, California. This is her first novel.

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Rage Against the Dying (Hardcover)

By Becky Masterman

$24.99

ISBN-13: 9780312622947
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Minotaur Books, 3/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Our March Pick

From the very first pages of this debut novel, the reader is propelled through the adventures of 59-year-old protagonist Brigid Quinn, a retired FBI agent now living in Arizona and trying to enjoy a tranquil life with a new husband and a couple of pugs. When echoes from her past intrude upon her present, Brigid must rely on skills she thought she’d left behind—on violence and dishonesty and a disturbing familiarity with the worst of humanity—to try to put her personal history to rest, once and for all. Becky has created a thoroughly original heroine, given her a believable life and realistic challenges, and written a first novel that reads like an old master’s best. Do not pass this one up.

–Jeffrey Mariotte

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Ghostman (Hardcover)

By Roger Hobbs

$24.95

ISBN-13: 9780307959966
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf, 2/2013

Other Editions of this Title

Our February Pick

This especially engaging debut will thrill fans of the ultimate caper movies like Oceans 11, 12, and 13 and The Italian Job. A Ghostman is someone who can disappear … completely … from everyone’s radar. In fact in this first entry by Hobbs we never learn the Ghostman’s real name,  only that for this particular job, he has taken on the persona of Jack Morton. “Jack” is bored because he has been hiding out for over six months. When he gets a call from Marcus Hayes who wants him to fix a bank heist gone very wrong, “Jack” agrees to help him for a variety of reasons. As “Jack” heads out to Atlantic City to figure out where two of the people involved in a robbery/shoot-out have gone (along with the money), we are treated to an insider’s look at bank robberies, how ghostmen work, and a little bit about how this particular ghostman came to be. The action never stops and we can only hope that “Jack” will be back.

– Terry

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