Mystery Godoku: Weekly Puzzle for September 25, 2006

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is available on our website.

Godoku is similar to Sudoku, but uses letters instead of numbers. To give you a headstart, we provide you a mystery clue to fill in a complete row or column (if you choose to use it!).

This week's letters and mystery clue: A G N O R S T U W. This was the title of Loren D. Estleman’s 5th mystery to feature Amos Walker (9 letters).

Previous puzzles are stored in the Mystery Godoku Archives.

Enjoy the weekly Mystery Godoku Puzzle from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, and Thanks for visiting our website!

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News: New Website for Agatha Christie Mystery Games

The Adventure Company, a division of DreamCatcher, has created a new website to present its games based on Agatha Christie mysteries.

And Then There Were None, introduced last year, is based on the Christie novel of the same name. 10 people, strangers to each other, are all invited to a lavish estate on an isolated island. Through a recording, their mysterious host accuses each of his ‘guests’ of murder and proceeds to exact "justice." Tension mounts as, one-by-one, the number of people are reduced through the ingenious plotting of the unseen killer. New twists-and-turns to the original story, plus a brand new character has been introduced – the player of the game. The game contains breathtaking 3D graphics and multiple endings.

Climb aboard the luxurious train and become part of the famous murder mystery as you play the video game adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, to be released later this year. Staying true to the novel, players will step on to the lavish, richly appointed train that departs Istanbul hurtling toward Paris. The train is filled with passengers, one of whom is the high profile Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. A passenger recognizes him, asks for protection, but is turned down. The next day that individual is found dead. Players take on the role of Antoinette Marceau, a new character, who works alongside Poirot to investigate the savage murder. With a train filled of suspects, Antoinette will need every tip that she can garner from Poirot in order to pinpoint the killer.

Games for Mystery provides information about all types of mystery-themed games including games for the PC, board games, mystery parties for adults, teens, and children, mystery vacations, and mysteries online.

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Mystery Book Contest: Win a Signed Book and Pendant by Gerard F. Bianco

New! The Deal Master Contest is now available on The Mystery Book Contest Website. Enter daily through December 01, 2006, for a chance to win an amazing prize package from author and jewelry designer Gerard F. Bianco.

The prize package includes:

The Deal Master, Bianco's first mystery and a psychological thriller, signed by the author. Read a review of The Deal Master on Mysterious Reviews.

A unique garnet pendant, designed and crafted by Bianco, including chain. Bianco's jewelry is featured at Porte 4, Portland Maine’s most unique jewelry store, located in the heart of the Old Port.


The Deal Master Contest is sponsored by Gerard F. Bianco, Author Marketing Experts, and Mysterious Reviews.

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Mystery Bestsellers for September 22, 2006

A list of the top ten mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending September 22, 2006 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

New this week on the lists is the 3rd mystery featuring editor and philosopher Isabel Dalhousie, The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith. When friends from Dallas arrive in Edinburgh and introduce Isabel to Tom Bruce - a bigwig at home in Texas - several confounding situations unfurl at once. Tom's young fiancée's roving eye leads Isabel to believe that money may be the root of her love for Tom. But what, Isabel wonders, is the root of the interest Tom begins to show for Isabel herself? She's certain of the ethical basis for a little sleuthing now and again - especially when the problems involve matters of the heart.

Another notable newcomer is the 10th appearance of Repairman Jack in F. Paul Wilson's Harbingers. It starts off so simply: Jack, still feeling down after the tragic events of Infernal, is hanging in Julio's when a regular named Timmy asks him for help. His teenage niece has been missing since this morning; the police say it's too early to worry, but Timmy knows something bad has happened. Jack says he'll put the word out on the street. This innocent request triggers a chain of seemingly coincidental events that lead Jack into the darkest days of his life.

Visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books often where we provide readers and collectors of mysteries with the best and most current information about their favorite mystery authors, books, and series.

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Press Release: Simon & Simon Coming to DVD

Simon & Simon: Season One 3 Disc Set Makes Its DVD Debut October 10, 2006 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Sibling sleuths A. J. and Rick Simon are back on the case when Simon & Simon: Season One comes to DVD for the first time on October 10, 2006 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Television favorites Gerald McRaney (Deadwood) and Jameson Parker (JAG) star as a pair of polar opposite brothers who run a San Diego detective agency. All thirteen Season One episodes of the Emmy®-nominated series feature action, mystery and loads of fun as the brothers Simon scramble in and out of unlikely scrapes in the course of their investigations.

The press release in its entirety can be read here.

For more information on mystery DVDs, visit our partner site, Mysteries on DVD. Mysteries on DVD is your source for information on mystery books that have been adapted for film and are available on DVD.

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books is commited to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Book Review: Calculated Loss by Linda L. Richards

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written our review of Calculated Loss by Linda L. Richards. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Calculated Loss by Linda L. Richards
A Madeline Carter Mystery
Mira (Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7783-2345-5 (0778323455)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-2345-7 (9780778323457)
Publication Date: September 2006
List Price: $6.99

Synopsis (from the publisher): It's been years since former stockbroker Madeline Carter bothered thinking about her gastronomically gifted ex-husband, Chef Braydon Gauthier. Between quitting her soul-sucking career and discovering what life is like during daylight hours she's been kind of busy. But when Madeline learns Braydon took his own life, she drops everything and hightails it to the funeral.

It doesn't take long to realize Braydon's death is more murder than suicide. Madeline knows her ex would never have prepared himself a poison-laced dinner of duck a l'orange -- let alone pair it with a big, beefy Shiraz! The culinary star would have eaten fast food first.

So who's responsible? Madeline definitely has her suspicions, but one thing's clear: in the pressure-cooker world of high cuisine and higher stakes, a reputation is worth killing for.

Review: Calculated Loss is the third mystery by Linda L. Richards to feature former stock broker and current day trader Madeline Carter, this time leaving Los Angeles for Vancouver to attend the funeral of her ex-husband, renowned chef Braydon Gauthier.

Though Braydon's death is ruled a suicide, his family is suspicious, especially when leadership of his company is turned over the brother of Braydon's current wife. When Madeline arrives in Vancouver she is asked by Braydon's family to take a look at the corporate finances, and what she finds concerns her. Though the company appears healthy, it has recently been delisted from the major stock exchanges. Madeline's subsequent investigation leads her to believe that Braydon did not die by his own hand.

At one point in the book, Madeline muses, "And what, I asked myself, did any of this have to do with me? Nothing, I told myself. Everything. Old debts, new curiosities, and the curse of a personality that seldom lets me leave well enough alone."

Richards effortlessly blends Madeline's reminiscing about her life with Braydon and her current investigation into his death. It's frequently very touching and, as the author mentions in a forward, very personal. The background information required to explain some of the corporate antics are appropriately detailed without weighing down the story. The plot itself is well thought out and plausible, though Braydon's death from the fruit of the "suicide" tree is a bit of a cliché. (And it's never quite explained how he came to ingest it.)

Calculated Loss has a more reasoned, better structured and focused story than Richards' previous book in the series, itself the very appealing The Next Ex. As a result, Calculated Loss is an intriguing mystery that effectively combines high finance with haute cuisine and is highly recommended.

Special thanks to Mira Books for providing a copy of Calculated Loss for this review.

Review Copyright © 2006 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

Visit Mysterious Reviews for other reviews of current and upcoming mystery books. The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books is commited to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Press Release: Her Interactive Says Nancy Drew: The Creature of Kapu Cave Goes Gold

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 2006--Following up on the successful August release of its predecessor, Nancy Drew: Danger by Design, Her Interactive today announced that Nancy Drew: The Creature of Kapu Cave has gone gold and will ship in October. Befitting a mystery of such scope and caliber, players can - for the first time ever in a Nancy Drew PC game - assume the role of three different players: Nancy Drew, or Joe or Frank Hardy.

"We continue to break fresh ground with each new Nancy Drew introduction, and The Creature of Kapu Cave is no exception," said Megan Gaiser, president and CEO of Her Interactive. "The need to play as one of three characters in order to solve various puzzles not only adds to the in-game strategy and depth of gameplay, but underscores our desire to continually surprise and challenge our fans."

It's not all luaus and leis for Nancy Drew in The Creature of Kapu Cave as she travels to Hawaii as a research assistant for Dr. Quigley Kim. In transit, she runs into the Mapu family, who loan her an SUV and give her directions to Dr. Kim's camp. The Hardy Boys, on a separate covert operation, are also visiting Hawaii and staying at the cultural immersion center run by the Mapu family.

Nancy Drew: The Creature of Kapu Cave is the fifteenth installment in the award-winning, Nancy Drew PC adventure game series from Her Interactive.

The press release in its entirety can be read on the Her Interactive website here.

The entire Nancy Drew series of PC games can be purchased on our partner site, Games of Mystery. Games of Mystery provides information about all types of mystery-themed games including games for the PC, board games, mystery parties for adults, teens, and children, mystery vacations, and mysteries online.

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books is commited to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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News: Tess Gerritsen Discusses The Mephisto Club

Physician and bestselling author Tess Gerritsen was recently interviewed by Ray Routhier of the Portland Press Herald.

Gerritsen's latest mystery featuring Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, The Mephisto Club, was recently published by Ballantine.

Asked where she got the idea for the book, Gerritsen replied, "The concept of secret societies interests me. I thought: If there is an ancient bloodline of evil people committing unspeakable acts, wouldn't there likewise be an organization to oppose them? That's how I got the idea for The Mephisto Club — an alliance of scholars who are devoted to protecting mankind."

She adds, "There was so much material to draw from, starting with the Old Testament, as well as ancient Jewish texts and demonic symbolism. The more I learned, the more complex the story became. As I was uncovering this information, so too was my fictional heroine, Det. Jane Rizzoli."

Travelling the world helps inspire Gerritsen and provide new ideas for books. She notes, "As writers, we can exhaust our imaginations by sitting too long at a desk. The real benefit of travel is that it recharges the creative well, and gets us temporarily out of our comfort zones."

Read the entire interview on MaineToday.com here.

Visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books often where we provide readers and collectors of mysteries with the best and most current information about their favorite mystery authors, books, and series.

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Mystery Godoku: Weekly Puzzle for September 18, 2006

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is available on our website.

Godoku is similar to Sudoku, but uses letters instead of numbers. To give you a headstart, we provide you a mystery clue to fill in a complete row or column (if you choose to use it!).

This week's letters and mystery clue: A B E I L M O R T. The Tess Monaghan mysteries by Laura Lippman are set in this city (9 letters).

Previous puzzles are stored in the Mystery Godoku Archives.

Enjoy the weekly Mystery Godoku Puzzle from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, and Thanks for visiting our website!

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News: An Interview with Jasper Fforde

British author Jasper Fforde received 76 rejection letters before publishing his first mystery, The Eyre Affair, in which literary detective Thursday Next investigates the kidnapping of Jane Eyre, writes Gary Kemble of the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Fforde's latest book, The Fourth Bear, is the second book in another series, the Nursery Rhyme mysteries with Jack Spratt, which follows the investigation into the murder of Goldilocks.

"I'd been writing short stories from about '87 just for fun and one of these short stories was a murder mystery with Humpty Dumpty as the victim," says Fforde. This short story eventually became the first entry in the Nursery Rhyme series, The Big Over Easy.

As to all those rejections, Fforde notes, "You write and you want to be published but I think if you write only wanting to be published you're doing it for entirely the wrong reason and it will probably show. I think the thing about writing is to perhaps assume that you won't be published, that there's a strong possibility you will never be published, and if you can carry on writing with that in mind then you're clearly doing it for the right sort of reasons." He adds, "It took me 10 or 12 years to get published [and then I realized] this adventure's only just beginning, I've got to work doubly hard now to make sure I keep on delivering reasonable books that people want to keep on reading, and just keep up the energy and everything. But it's good fun. It's a good challenge."

Read the entire interview on ABC.net.au here.

Visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books often where we provide readers and collectors of mysteries with the best and most current information about their favorite mystery authors, books, and series.

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Mystery Book Review: Shooting Gallery by Hailey Lind

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written our review of Shooting Gallery by Hailey Lind. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Shooting Gallery by Hailey Lind
An Art Lover's Mystery with Annie Kincaid
Signet (Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-451-21973-2 (0451219732)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-21973-2 (9780451219732)
Publication Date: October 2006
List Price: $6.99

Synopsis (from the publisher): Modernism isn't Annie's thing, but even she is surprised to discover that the "sculpture" in a prestigious gallery's grisly new exhibition is an all-too-real corpse—the artist's. Meanwhile, a Chagall painting is stolen from the Brock Museum, and Annie's old friend Bryan is accused of being in on the fix. To track down the missing Chagall, she'll need the dubious assistance of a certain sexy art thief. And if Michael—or whatever his real name may be—isn't distraction enough, Annie's mother shows up in town, acting strangely. Annie's got to solve these mysteries, and fast—because art is long, but life can be very, very short.

Review: Annie Kincaid continues to balance personal and professional relationships, faux finishing and art forgeries, and murder and mayhem in Shooting Gallery, the second mystery in this engaging series by Hailey Lind.

Annie's mother, Beverly, plays a pivotal role in Shooting Gallery. Though there is no obvious connection to a dead sculptor or to a painting stolen from the Brock Museum, Beverly's unannounced trip to San Francisco and subsequent actions are a mystery to Annie. Though relatively minor, this subplot is often more affecting than the more conspicuous mysteries in the book.

Lind keeps the pace of Shooting Gallery brisk, though at times glosses over plot points that could use a bit more explanation. The minor detail of how the corpse of Seamus McGraw comes to be hanging in the gallery's garden, for example, remains unclear. There are light comedic episodes scattered throughout, but the final act incongruously degenerates into slapstick, saved only by the touching revelations by Annie's mother.

Lind maintains the practice, first used in Feint of Art, of prefacing each chapter with delightful quotes from Grandpapa Georges. An example of these insightful, provocative, and often very amusing comments: "Salvador Dali is said to have signed tens of thousands of blank pieces of paper for lithographs he had never seen, much less created. For this brilliant attempt to evade poverty he has been dubbed a forger of his own work."

While fans of art-themed mysteries will definitely enjoy Shooting Gallery, with its insider references to great art, artists, and "restorers", the book should also appeal to anyone who enjoys an entertaining story.

Special thanks to Hailey Lind for providing an ARC of Shooting Gallery for this review.

Review Copyright © 2006 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

Visit Mysterious Reviews for other reviews of current and upcoming mystery books. The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books is commited to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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News: Secrets of a Bestselling Mystery Author

USA Today reporter Carol Memmott chatted with bestselling author Janet Evanovich who has written more than two dozen books, including her popular series about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. But success didn't come easily or early, Memmott writes. She began writing in her early 30s. At one point, frustrated and sobbing, she dragged a crate of rejection letters out to the curb and burned them. "Now I wish I had saved them," says Evanovich, 64. "Some of them were pretty funny." Evanovich never gave up, and 10 years after she started writing, she was finally published.

Evanovich is now offering guidance and support to budding novelists with her new book, How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author. The book details the elements of writing and publishing a novel, and addresses all categories of fiction—from mystery/thriller/action titles to romance; from stand-alone narratives to series. It offers practical and inspiring advice on such subjects as structuring a plot and handling rejection. And it combines one of today's most successful fiction writers with a published non-fiction writer who teaches creative fiction. "I didn't have an easy time getting published," Evanovich says, "so I have warm feelings for other people trying to do it, and it's becoming more difficult all the time." Mammott concludes with some advice from the author: "Do everything you can to make it happen. The saddest thing is to give up your dreams. I could have given up, but then I never would have been published and have had all this fun."

Read the entire article on USAToday.com here.

Visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books often where we provide readers and collectors of mysteries with the best and most current information about their favorite mystery authors, books, and series.

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Mystery Bestsellers for September 15, 2006

A list of the top ten mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending September 15, 2006 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

Debuting high on both the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com lists is the 6th Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles thriller by Tess Gerritsen, The Mephisto Club. The Latin is scrawled in blood at the scene of a young woman's brutal murder: I HAVE SINNED. It's a chilling Christmas greeting for Boston medical examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli, who swiftly link the victim to controversial celebrity psychiatrist Joyce O'Donnell, Jane's professional nemesis and member of a sinister cabal called the Mephisto Club. Delving deep into the most baffling and unusual case of their careers, Maura and Jane embark on a terrifying journey to the very heart of evil, where they encounter a malevolent foe more dangerous than any they have ever faced . . . one whose work is only just beginning. Publishers Weekly calls The Mephisto Club a "brisk, deftly plotted thriller" and adds, "Gerritsen has a knack for stretching believability just short of the breaking point and for amassing details that produce an atmosphere in which the most terrible possibilities can and, indeed, should occur."

Visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books often where we provide readers and collectors of mysteries with the best and most current information about their favorite mystery authors, books, and series.

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Press Release: Michael Connelly to Write Sunday Serial

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 2006--Bestselling author Michael Connelly makes his debut in the next "Sunday Serial," the lead feature in The New York Times Magazine's "Funny Pages." Readers can look forward to Mr. Connelly's criminal thriller, "The Overlook," an original work commissioned by the Magazine, which begins Sunday, Sept. 17, and will appear in 16 weekly installments.

Written with the same spark and texture that has made Mr. Connelly an international favorite among followers of crime fiction, the novella features his trademark protagonist, LAPD Detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch, an execution-style murder and a terrorism hook. Mr. Connelly's award-winning books include The Black Echo, City of Bones and The Closers.

"The Sunday Serial" which showcases popular genre fiction, has featured Elmore Leonard, Patricia Cornwell and Scott Turow.

The press release in its entirety can be read on the New York Times Company website here.

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books is commited to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Book Review: Eye of God by Jon L. Breen

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written our review of Eye of God by Jon L. Breen. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Eye of God by Jon L. Breen
Non-series
Perseverance Press (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-880284-89-8 (1880284898)
ISBN-13: 978-1-880284-89-6 (9781880284896)
Publication Date: September 2006
List Price: $13.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): Al Hasp and Norm Carpenter are partners in a successful Orange County, California, private investigation firm. When Norm, the brains of the outfit, announces he has become a born-again Christian and will be quitting the business, Al gets him to stay aboard for one final case: going undercover for a televangelist Vincent Majors (who Al believes is a phony) to find out who’s been leaking secrets to a hostile journalist and an atheist organization. The case gets more complicated when Majors’s son-in-law, a pro-basketball coach, is murdered. Norm, Al, and their female operative Chris Borden are all on the scene when the case reaches a climax at a Christian college on the Southern California coast.

Review: Jon L. Breen adopts a no-holds-barred approach to characterization in Eye of God, a remarkably absorbing mystery of private investigators, tele-evangelists, atheists, and lawyers, set in southern California's Orange County.

Evangelist Vincent Majors, head of a powerful television network, believes someone from his inner circle is leaking secrets to his enemies, information that may be damaging to the integrity and financial well being of his ministry. The private investigation firm of Hasp and Carpenter (Breen has cleverly named the partners and is clearly having a bit of fun here), who Majors has hired to uncover the traitor, has also been hired by Majors' daughter to look into an unrelated personal matter that presents no apparent conflict of interest for the firm. When one of the people under investigation is murdered, it's clear these cases have more serious consequences than they may have initially appeared.

Despite the potential for controversy, Eye of God is not pro- or anti-religion. Rather, murder and mayhem can take place in any profession and in this case, the venue is a television ministry. Breen is careful to imbue his characters with features that are entertaining, but not overly stereotypical. The narrative moves along at a brisk pace with a credible whodunit emerging about half-way through. The ending is a bit weak, but overall, combining solid character development with effective dialog and a competent plot, Breen has written a most enjoyable mystery.

Special thanks to Perseverance Press for providing a copy of Eye of God for this review.

Review Copyright © 2006 Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

Visit Mysterious Reviews for other reviews of current and upcoming mystery books. The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books is commited to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

Technorati tags: mystery books blogs, mystery, mystery books, mystery book review, book review. Omnimystery keyword(s): orange county.