STOP A MURDER - WHEN (Mystery Puzzle Book 5) Read online

  No puzzle solutions will be provided in this ebook.

  If you demand solutions, go to https://www.facebook.com/KonrathPuzzleSeries and beg for help.

  If you have solved all the puzzles, and read everything on the websites (yes, there are two websites), and you want a bit of closure, the next section contains an explanation for how this all began.

  If you read this without solving all the puzzles and watching all the videos and reading all of the previous content, it will ruin the ending to this series.

  In a series full of spoiler alerts, this is the ultimate SPOILER ALERT!

  You have been warned.

  SPOILER ALERT!

  This following was found in Joe Konrath’s junk mail folder, marked as unread.

  From: Karl Fischendorffer

  To: JA Konrath

  Subject: Fan letter and humble request

  11/28/2007 2:37am

  Dear Mr. Konrath,

  I’ve read your first three novels in the Jack Daniels series, and I am a HUGE fan. The way you weave character and plot together, and make it both scary AND funny, is remarkable.

  I know a little bit about how violence at a young age can make a person violent when they grow up. So the books hit a little too close to home for me. I don’t mind, because I know art is supposed to make you uncomfortable. But sometimes your work makes me too uncomfortable, if you know what I mean!

  I read your blog regularly, and I’ve learned a lot about the publishing industry. I hope it’s not too forward of me, but I’ve attached a first draft of a novel I’m writing. It isn’t based in reality, like your work. This is more like fantastical-slash-horror-slash-science fiction. Think Men In Black meets The Omen meets Three’s Company.

  You know that the government reads minds, right? There is a whole branch of the armed services devoted to it.

  In my book, called “FALLEN ANGEL”, a rouge CIA psychic has been kicked out of Project Star Gate for reading the President’s mind, and while he’s on vacation in Haiti he does a remote viewing (using ESP to sense an unseen target) and accidentally reads the mind of Satan.

  I hope it’s not forward of me to ask, but I’d love to get a quote from you (I think it’s called a “blurb”) and to be introduced to your agent.

  I know this book will be a huge bestseller, and will make a great Hollywood movie.

  I know very little about how this business works, Mr. Konrath. I’d really like for you to mentor me.

  I’ve never had anyone look out for me before.

  Sincerely,

  Karl

  P.S. What do you think about this new electronic reader device that Amazon just released? I think it’s called a Kindle. I’m betting it will flop. I just can’t imagine a world where people read books on electronic devices…

  NOTE FROM JOE

  Karl Fischendorffer, aka Unknown Sender, remains at large.

  After breaking into my house, the police finally intervened after blowing me off for weeks, and there are now warrants for this asshole. Murder warrants, due to the bodies in his attic.

  After I learned his name, I checked my computer for any reference to him to see if he’d ever contacted me, and I was surprised to find something.

  It was in my spam folder. Unopened. Never read.

  Now that I have read it, I’m as confused as ever.

  I guess Karl somehow thought my horror novel, Origin, was based on his idea, because they both involve secret government agencies and Satan.

  This is ridiculous, for the following reasons.

  I never even saw his email.

  My book ORIGIN is nothing at all like the book that US describes.

  I wrote ORIGIN in 1998, nine years before this email.

  I just read the attached “Fallen Angel” document. It’s only 38 pages long, and absolutely terrible.

  So I was targeted by a psychopath for stealing an awful story that I never read.

  Sounds like the plot of some crazy book, doesn’t it?

  Joe Konrath

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I had a lot of help putting this one together. It’s worth taking the time to thank everybody.

  First, my wife Maria and son Talon were indispensable. Not only with trying out puzzles, but for putting up with me for weeks as I hit them with brain teaser after brain teaser, trying to find the ones that worked best. Talon also did all of the video editing, and he and Dante Peinado were my crew for shooting all of the movie footage. Dante also appeared as Unknown Sender in several scenes. I’ll let the readers guess who played US the rest of the time.

  The puzzles took a lot of work, and Latham Conger III helped out a tremendous amount. A lot of his devious mind is in this book. Also, Latham and I both drew on the tremendous collection of public domain puzzles available on the world wide web. There’s a lot of fun stuff out there, if you look for it.

  Chris Klimas and Joel Haddock did Unknown Sender’s website, using a program called Twine that Chris created. If this ebook sparked your imagination to try something similar, hire them at http://unmappedpath.com.

  Thanks as always to Rob Siders for the book design (www.52novels.com), Chereese Graves (http://grammar-rulesatoz.blogspot.com) for the proofing, and Carl Graves (www.extendedimagery.com) for the cover art. These guys make everything I do look and read a lot better.

  I also had over fifty beta readers volunteer to test drive an early version of this. I’m grateful to them all for giving it a try, and the ones who got back to me quickly with notes and comments deserve to be thanked by name:

  Beth Aaron, Christine Bock, John Donald Carlucci, Cara Colyott, Brandee Crisp, Jamie DeBree, Terri Dukes, Amanda Forrest, Teri Fuhrman, Ken Hattaway, S. Alexander Hicks, Megan Jarrett, Matt Linss, Louise Miller, Joe Mulak, Laura MT, Cathy Neumueller, Ann Voss Peterson, G. J. Phoenix, Jill Selkowitz, Ashley Smith, Rita Smith, Mary Stella, and Dawn Williams.

  If I missed you, I either didn’t get your notes, or I left you out because I’m old and losing my mind. Shoot me an email and I’ll fix it.

  Most of all, thanks to you, the reader, for trying something different from me, or trying something new even though you’ve never heard of me.

  If you liked this, please spread the word. If the STOP A MURDER series does well, I’ll write more of them. I’d be foolish not to.

  Thanks for reading!

  Joe Konrath

  JOE KONRATH’S

  COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY

  JACK DANIELS THRILLERS

  WHISKEY SOUR

  BLOODY MARY

  RUSTY NAIL

  DIRTY MARTINI

  FUZZY NAVEL

  CHERRY BOMB

  SHAKEN

  STIRRED with Blake Crouch

  RUM RUNNER

  LAST CALL

  SHOT OF TEQUILA

  BANANA HAMMOCK

  WHITE RUSSIAN

  OLD FASHIONED

  SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT with Blake Crouch

  LADY 52 with Jude Hardin

  65 PROOF short story collection

  FLOATERS short with Henry Perez

  BURNERS short with Henry Perez

  SUCKERS short with Jeff Strand

  JACKED UP! short with Tracy Sharp

  STRAIGHT UP short with Iain Rob Wright

  CHEESE WRESTLING short with Bernard Schaffer

  ABDUCTIONS short with Garth Perry

  BEAT DOWN short with Garth Perry

  BABYSITTING MONEY short with Ken Lindsey

  OCTOBER DARK short with Joshua Simcox

  RACKED short with Jude Hardin

  BABE ON BOARD short with Ann Voss Peterson

  WATCHED TOO LONG short with Ann Voss Peterson

  PHINEAS TROUTT THRILLERS

  DEAD ON MY FEET

  DYING BREATH

  EVERYBODY DIES

  STOP A MURDER PUZZLE BOOKS

  STOP A MURDER – HOW: PUZZLES 1 – 12

  STOP A MURDER – WHERE: PUZZLES 13 – 24

  STOP A MURDER – WHY: PUZZLES 25 – 36


  STOP A MURDER – WHO: PUZZLES 37 – 48

  STOP A MURDER – WHEN: PUZZLES 49 – 60

  CODENAME: CHANDLER SERIES

  EXPOSED with Ann Voss Peterson

  HIT with Ann Voss Peterson

  NAUGHTY with Ann Voss Peterson

  FLEE with Ann Voss Peterson

  SPREE with Ann Voss Peterson

  THREE with Ann Voss Peterson

  FIX with F. Paul Wilson and Ann Voss Peterson

  RESCUE

  THE HORROR COLLECTIVE

  ORIGIN

  THE LIST

  DISTURB

  AFRAID

  TRAPPED

  ENDURANCE

  HAUNTED HOUSE

  WEBCAM

  DRACULAS with Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson

  HOLES IN THE GROUND with Iain Rob Wright

  THE GREYS

  SECOND COMING

  THE NINE

  GRANDMA? with Talon Konrath

  WILD NIGHT IS CALLING short with Ann Voss Peterson

  CLOSE YOUR EYES

  FOUND FOOTAGE

  TIMECASTER SERIES

  TIMECASTER

  TIMECASTER SUPERSYMMETRY

  TIMECASTER STEAMPUNK

  BYTER

  EROTICA

  (WRITING AS MELINDA DUCHAMP)

  FIFTY SHADES OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND

  FIFTY SHADES OF ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

  FIFTY SHADES OF ALICE AT THE HELLFIRE CLUB

  WANT IT BAD

  FIFTY SHADES OF JEZEBEL AND THE BEANSTALK

  FIFTY SHADES OF PUSS IN BOOTS

  FIFTY SHADES OF GOLDILOCKS

  THE SEXPERTS – FIFTY GRADES OF SHAY

  THE SEXPERTS – THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL NECKLACE

  THE SEXPERTS – LOVING THE ALIEN

  THE SEVEN YEAR WITCH

  CHERRY BOMB

  At the end of FUZZY NAVEL, J. A. Konrath surprised readers with an agonizing cliffhanger: One of Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels’s loved ones is dead. But who? Readers were left clamoring to know more.

  CHERRY BOMB, the sixth Jack Daniels mystery, opens at the funeral. While Jack stands graveside, tears in her eyes, her cell phone rings. It’s the killer, escaped maniac Alex Kork, taunting Jack, drawing her ever further into a twisted game of cat and mouse. Because while Alex is more than willing to kill random victims, Jack is her true prey. But which woman wants revenge more?

  CHERRY BOMB is J. A. Konrath’s most gripping novel of suspense yet—filled with twists and turns that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

  ORIGIN

  Thriller writer J.A. Konrath, author of the Lt. Jack Daniels series, digs into the vaults and unearths a technohorror tale from the depths of hell…

  1906–Something is discovered by workers digging the Panama Canal. Something dormant. Sinister. Very much alive.

  2009–Project Samhain. A secret underground government installation begun 103 years ago in New Mexico. The best minds in the world have been recruited to study the most amazing discovery in the history of mankind. But the century of peaceful research is about to end.

  Because it just woke up.

  When linguist Andrew Dennison is yanked from his bed by the Secret Service and taken to a top secret facility in the desert , he has no idea he’s been brought there to translate the words of an ancient demon.

  He joins pretty but cold veterinarian Sun Jones, eccentric molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and a hodge-podge of religious, military, and science personnel to try and figure out if the creature is, indeed, Satan.

  But things quickly go bad, and very soon Andy isn’t just fighting for his life, but the lives of everyone on earth…

  ORIGIN by J.A. Konrath

  All hell is about to break loose. For real.

  STOP A MURDER – HOW

  This is unlike any mystery or thriller book you’ve ever read before. You play the sleuth, and try to follow the clues and solve the puzzles to prevent a murder from happening.

  In this five-book series, you’ll be tasked with decoding the mind and motivations of a nefarious killer who is plotting to commit an unspeakable crime.

  Each book contains an epistolary collection of emails, texts, and letters, sent to bestselling author J.A. Konrath, by a serial killer. This psychopath is leaving detailed, cryptic hints about who will be murdered, why, when, where, and how.

  Some of the hints are easy to figure out. Others are much more devious.

  Do you like solving mysteries? Do you enjoy puzzles or escape-the-room games? Are you good at spotting clues?

  Only you can stop a murder.

  Are you smart enough?

  Are you brave enough?

  Let the games begin…

  #1 STOP A MURDER – HOW: Puzzles 1–12

  Sign up for the J.A. Konrath newsletter. A few times a year I pick random people to give free stuff to. It could be you.

  http://www.jakonrath.com/mailing-list.php

  I won’t spam you or give your information out without your permission!

  STOP A MURDER – WHEN

  Copyright © 2017 by Joe Konrath

  Cover art copyright © 2017 by Carl Graves

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Joe Konrath.