Telemystery: The Closer and Miss Marple in The Pale Horse, New This Week on DVD

Telemystery, your source for one of the most comprehensive listings of crime drama, amateur sleuth, private investigator, mystery and suspense television series, mini-series and made-for-television movies, now available on or coming soon to DVD or Blu-ray disc, is profiling one series and one special being released this week.

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Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) is a former Atlanta detective brought to Los Angeles to head a special unit of the LAPD in The Closer. A top-notch investigator who closes nearly every case, she is an expert at digging into a person's secrets and obtaining confessions, despite constantly struggling with her own imperfections.

This season, Brenda and the team face unexpected challenges, including a change in location as the LAPD moves into new headquarters. Brenda's lack of familiarity with the offices — and interrogation room — threatens her confidence, something the others also experience as they try to adjust to their new surroundings, all the while taking on new and horrific cases. Plus, a bureaucratic shakeup ignites competition in the ranks. Who will wind up top dog?

The Closer: Season Six is available on DVD, Amazon Instant, and iTunes (click on the icons above for more details), and consists of 15 episodes that originally aired on TNT during July through September and in December, 2010.

The seventh and final season of the series premieres July 11th, 2011.

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Julia McKenzie stars as Miss Jane Marple in "The Pale Horse", an episode that is generally considered one of the four episodes that are part of Series 5 of the current Agatha Christie: Marple adaptations of the author's work. But it did not air here in the US last summer as part of PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! when the other three did — indeed, it just aired 10 days ago on the network — and thus is being released separately on DVD now. (Just to make things a tad more confusing, Marple: Series 5 on Blu-ray disc, also being released tomorrow, includes all four episodes of the fifth series.)

The book from which the screenplay is adapted, also titled The Pale Horse, does not feature Miss Marple. This situation is not unusual, in that Christie only wrote 12 novels and a handful of short stories featuring the character, and other non-Marple novels have been successfully modified to include the amateur sleuth.

In the episode, Miss Marple receives a mysterious list of names from her friend Father Gorman, who sent it moments before he was brutally murdered on a London street. She soon discovers that people on the list are dying. A clue leads her to the Pale Horse Inn in Hampshire, a spooky establishment run by three modern-day witches. As she closes in on the truth, one of the guests is found dead in his bed, and Miss Marple learns that her own life may be in danger.

As a bonus, the Agatha Christie Marple: The Pale Horse DVD set of 2 discs includes a 1997 television adaptation of the novel that more closely follows the original storyline (i.e. Miss Marple is not featured). Colin Buchanan stars as Mark Easterbrook, a historian who, after learning of a list of names found in Father Gorman's shoe, travels to the Pale Horse Inn to discover it run by witches, led by Thyrza Grey (played by Jean Marsh).

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Visit the Telemystery website to discover more television mystery series currently available on and coming soon to DVD, Blu-ray disc, or video on demand.

The Killing Finale, What Did You Think?

If you haven't watched last night's conclusion to the first season of The Killing, read no further here.

If you have, are you asking yourself the same question we are: Who killed Rosie Larsen?

After all, before the series started, one of the promotional posters released by AMC included that very question and implied (as any good murder mystery might) that we'd get an answer.

Sadly, we don't know who killed Rosie Larsen. And we're not sure we care any more. And that's disappointing.

We were unapologetic fans of the series, forgiving its occasional lapse in logic, making allowances for its pacing, and overlooking the "sideways" episode -- some in the media are referring to it as the "lost" episode -- that supposedly allowed us a peek into the lives of Seattle homicide detective partners Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) but really didn't show us anything we already didn't know (or couldn't infer from what preceded it). But by not bringing this murder investigation to a close this season, the writers and producers are taking a leap of faith that we'll be back next season. That's a bit presumptuous, even arrogant, on their part, and we're not sure we'll be playing along when they deign to answer the only question that was really important this season: Who killed Rosie Larsen?

What did you think of The Killing season finale? Did you think it an appropriate way to end the season, with no resolution to the case, a cliffhanger, if you will? Or are you as disappointed as we are? And will you be back next season?

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for June 20, 2011

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the editors of the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is now 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!).

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This week's letters and mystery clue:

A D E G N O R S U

DC Davies, a character created by Leslie Thomas and also featured in a series of TV adaptations, goes by this nickname (9 letters).

We now have two weeks of our puzzles on one page in PDF format for easier printing. Print this week's puzzle here.

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!

Review: Hunter's World by Fred Lichtenberg

Hunter's World by Fred Lichtenberg. A Hank Reed Mystery. Five Star Hardcover, May 2011.

Though this mystery includes several familiar elements -- the cop in a troubled marriage being the one that contributes little new to the plot and makes its outcome so predictable -- what works best here is the small town environment in which the murder investigation takes place, where everyone seems to have a secret worth killing for.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Hunter's World by Fred Lichtenberg.

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Telemystery: The First of Three Poirot Episodes and the Finale of The Killing, Sunday June 19th, 2011

You'll have to program your DVR as two mystery series overlap tomorrow, Sunday June 18th, 2011.

First, on PBS at 9 PM (ET/PT) -- but check your local listings -- is the first of three installments this summer of Hercule Poirot on Masterpiece Mystery!

In "Three Act Tragedy", an elderly Cornish vicar suddenly drops dead at a party, and everyone looks to fellow guest Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) to solve the murder. But the Belgian super-sleuth sees no foul play, correctly predicting that analysis of the clergyman's glass will yield nothing more than the remains of an excellent dry martini.

Before long, however, Poirot is summoned back to England from his boredom among the palms and irksome children of Monte Carlo. Another death among the same revelers has occurred, this time, indisputably, murder.

With the help of two enthusiastic amateurs — his old friend, the retired stage actor Sir Charles Cartwright (Martin Shaw), and Charles's jaunty love interest, Miss "Egg" Lytton Gore (Kimberley Nixon), Poirot questions the dramatis personae, as Sir Charles calls the party guests. And as Sir Charles embraces his role, donning a pair of patent-leather spats, Poirot works to unravel a perplexing mystery, building a house of cards, tracking a missing butler, and even hosting his own sherry party.

"Three Act Tragedy" is based on a novel of the same title by Agatha Christie (though originally published as Murder in Three Acts in the US). The book was previously adapted in 1986 with Peter Ustinov in the role of Hercule Poirot.

"Three Act Tragedy" runs for 90 minutes, which means it will overlap with the first season finale of The Killing on AMC (10 PM ET/PT).

This fine murder mystery series comes to a close in an episode titled "Orpheus Descending". If you have been watching The Killing, you won't want to miss the finale. If you haven't, you've got some catching up to do! Previous episodes are available on the AMCTV website. Watch a preview for the series' conclusion below.

Starz to Produce Live Action Adaptation of Anime Series Noir

Last fall, we reported that Starz was developing a live-action adaptation of the 2001 anime television series Noir. We're now learning that the project is moving forward to series, with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert producing a screenplay by Steven Lightfoot (The Crimson Petal and the White, Criminal Justice).

Noir features two young women, Mireille and Kirika. Mireille makes a living out of killing as an international assassin. Kirika is an amnesiac with uncanny speed and stealth. Under the codename Noir, these two young mistresses of semi-automatics and improvised weapons track and execute criminal syndicates across the globe as they hunt for clues to their connected pasts — but it is they who are actually being hunted. Caught in the crosshairs of a centuries-old conspiracy, the deadly beauties of Noir aim to expose the secrets of the ancient society orchestrating their lives. Will Mireille and Kirika have a future after they learn the truth about their pasts?

Watch a trailer for the original series below.

(Source: Deadline|Hollywood.)

Recently Published Indie Mysteries (110617)

We're always on the lookout for new mystery, suspense and thriller books, and in this series of recurring posts, we're looking at Indie Mysteries, books published by small, independent publishers, or self-published, that recently caught our eye ... and may be of interest to you too. Most of these titles, selected primarily from the Smashwords website, are ebook only, though some may be available in a print format.

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Death by Sugar
by H. M. Goltz
Non-Series
Self Published (Ebook)
June 2011

Private investigator Jesse Clarke thought sugar was a friendly substance ... until it appears in two of her cases for all the wrong reasons. Traces of sugar are connected to a bomb that blew up her client’s Mercedes, and could sugar have duped the immune system of a client’s mother over thirty years ago, resulting in her death? Jesse finds herself talking to the living and the dead to get results.

 

Erwin's Law
by Si Dunn
Non-Series
The Fiction Works (Ebook)
June 2011

When Erwin Tennyson, an unemployed newspaper writer, who made his living reviewing detective novels, stumbles over a woman's dead body in the park, he reports his find to the budget-challenged Austin, Texas police. Erwin is convinced the woman was murdered, and he is appalled when he learns the police have listed her as a "Jane Doe suicide." Erwin decides to become a private investigator to try to earn a living—and to track down the woman's killer.

But Erwin is no tough guy. He has zero fighting skills, and hasn't fired a gun in 40 years. Working as a P.I. without a state license is a felony in Texas; only ex-cops or university graduates with criminal justice degrees qualify for the permit. Undaunted, Erwin takes the law into his own hands and risks arrest as he investigates, unaware that he is setting himself up to be the killer's next victim.

 

Dead Reckoning
by Gordon Kessler
Non-Series
Self Published (Ebook)
June 2011

NCIS investigator Janelle "Spurs" Sperling goes undercover aboard a small US Navy ship to find out why its crew members are disappearing one by one. Not knowing whom she can trust, she encounters high seas, drugs, sexism, homophobia, love and murder aboard a ship of horrors before discovering the real danger. She is thrown into non-stop, life-threatening situations as she uncovers startling clues while teaming up with both friend and foe to stop an unthinkable terrorist plot to kill thousands of Americans. She soon discovers that the ones wearing the white hats aren't always the good guys as memories of a traumatic childhood event comes back to slap her in the face and reveal that she is an unwitting pawn in a deadly game between the US government, ruthless terrorists and her own family.

Note: This book was originally published in hardcover in 2002, and is now available at a special price as an ebook.

 

Expendable Assets
by Drew Howell
Non-Series
Self Published (Ebook)
June 2011

In Afghanistan, a diplomatic protection mission goes horribly wrong, catapulting an aspiring politician to the heights of power and leaving a skilled intelligence operative under federal indictment. Years later, veteran police officer Bobby Ryan stumbles across a strange list linking ten jobs to ten cities and within hours he is dead.

Are the two somehow connected?

As FBI counter-terrorism specialist Sam Calvert pieces together the clues, the special agent realizes that the investigation's prime suspect may be the only one who can stop a deadly new attack in time. The question is: Will a man betrayed by his own government still serve those who seek to destroy him?

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For more recently published Indie Mysteries, visit the Smashwords Mystery and Detective category page or the Thriller and Suspense category page.

New Teaser Trailer for the 6th Season of Dexter

Showtime has released a new teaser trailer for the sixth season of Dexter with the tagline, "Renewed, recharged, refocused with nothing to stop Dexter from being Dexter".

Based on a character created by crime novelist Jeff Lindsay, Dexter stars Michael C. Hall as a forensic blood spatter expert for the Miami Metro Police Department. When he's not helping the homicide division solve murders, however, he satisfies his dark desires by hunting and killing bad guys who slip through the justice system.

We don't have a return date yet for the series, but previous seasons have premiered in late September.

Mystery Bestsellers for the Week Ending June 17th, 2011

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending June 17th, 2011 has been posted by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Some minor swapping of positions within the top 10 — but no change in the books that represent it — with Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris firmly at the top spot. One new title enters the list this week.

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Entering the list in the 11th spot is the latest James Bond thriller Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver.

James Bond, in his early thirties and already a veteran of the Afghan war, has been recruited to a new organization. Conceived in the post-9/11 world, it operates independent of MI5, MI6 and the Ministry of Defense, its very existence deniable. Its aim: To protect the Realm, by any means necessary.

A Night Action alert calls James Bond away from dinner with a beautiful woman. Headquarters has decrypted an electronic whisper about an attack scheduled for later in the week:

Casualties estimated in the thousands, British interests adversely affected.

And Agent 007 has been given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to fulfill his mission ...

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For more mystery books news, please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

Iris Johansen's The Killing Game to be Adapted as Lifetime Movie

Laura Preppon has been cast to play Eve Duncan in a Lifetime made-for-television adaptation of Iris Johansen's 1999 thriller The Killing Game. Naomi Judd will co-star as Eve's mother, Sandra Duncan.

In the book, a merciless killer on the hunt ... an innocent child in his sights ... a woman driven to the edge to stop him ...

The killer knows Eve Duncan all too well. He knows the pain she feels for her murdered daughter, Bonnie, whose body has never been found. He knows that as one of the nation's top forensic sculptors she'll insist on identifying the nine skeletons unearthed on a bluff near Georgia's Talladega Falls. He knows she won't be able to resist the temptation of believing that one of those skeletons might be her daughter's. But that is only the beginning of the killer's sadistic game. He wants Eve one on one, and he'll use his ace in the hole to make sure she complies. And he won't stop playing until he claims the prize he wants most: Eve's life.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter.)

Final Trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

We were dumbstruck at how boring -- mind-numbingly boring -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was. In our review, we asked, "Where's the magic?"

Well, maybe the producers were saving it all for Part 2. The final trailer before the film's release next month has been posted online, which we've embedded below. If the scenes in the trailer are any indication, Part 2 may be as dynamic and exciting as Part 1 was tedious and dull ... and now we're actually looking forward to seeing it!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 hits theaters July 15th, 2011.

Review: The Inspector and Silence by Håkan Nesser

The Inspector and Silence by Håkan Nesser. A Van Veeteren Mystery. Pantheon Hardcover, June 2011.

This is an old-fashioned whodunit-style crime novel, a nicely crafted mystery with a minimum of high technology and forensics. At the end of the day, it is solid police work -- with some assistance from an anonymous tipster -- that solves the crime.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Inspector and Silence by Håkan Nesser.

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Read the first chapter(s) of The Inspector and Silence below. Use the Aa settings button to adjust text size, line spacing, and word density.

Finalists for the 2011 Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards Announced

The finalists for the 2011 Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards have been announced, including the new category for the John Spray Mystery Award. The winners of the English-language awards will be announced at an invitation-only gala event at The Carlu in Toronto on October 4th, 2011.

The finalists in the mystery category are ...

◊ Borderline by Allan Stratton (HarperTrophy), Non-Series.

◊ Dead Bird Through the Cat Door by Jan Markley (Gumboot Books), a Megabyte Mystery.

◊ The Mystery of the Cyber Bully by Marty Chan (Thistledown Press), a Marty Chan Mystery.

◊ A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee (Candlewick Press), a Mary Quinn Agency Mystery.

◊ Victim Rights by Norah McClintock (Red Deer Press), a Ryan Dooley Mystery.

(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)

OMN Welcomes Barry S. Brown, Author of the Mrs. Hudson Mysteries

Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome Barry S. Brown, whose second mystery to feature Sherlock Holmes's landlady, Mrs. Hudson and the Irish Invincibles (Sunstone Press, May 2011 Trade Paperback, 978-0-86534-819-6), has just been published.

Today Barry asks us, how much do we really know about Mrs. Hudson?

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It is 1881. Victoria rules the British Empire while the domains of nearly all other women extend only to the limits of their kitchens. To make her way in a world that extends beyond cooking and cleaning, a woman needs extraordinary skills and a fool-proof plan. Mrs. Hudson possesses both.

For 29 years she and her "uncommon common constable" husband, Tobias Hudson, spent evenings together planning the steps needed to solve the most complex crime they could find in that day’s news. Days she went to the Reading Room of the British Museum to request such works as Rokitansky’s Treatise of Pathological Anatomy from clerks who scoured the paper the next day for news of a horrendous crime perpetrated by the stub of a woman they had served the day before. All the while she honed skills at inferring mood and background from observation of the behavior and characteristics of people she met or simply passed on the street. When Tobias died she was prepared to open the first of its kind consulting detective agency as tribute to him and to fill the hours made empty by his death. And that was where her fool-proof plan came into play.

Employing the lodgings she and Tobias had leased years before, she advertised "rooms to let, good location, applicant should possess an inquiring mind and a curiosity about human behavior." Of the applicants she interviewed, a tall slender chemist appeared the best of the lot. Sherlock Holmes had a high forehead suggesting intellect and a haughty self-assurance she believed would encourage the confidence of others. He claimed skills in boxing and fencing and, while she doubted there would be a significant role for swordplay, she thought the ability to mix with the toughs they would inevitably encounter could prove useful. Importantly, he brought with him the level-headed Dr. John Watson to whom Mrs. Hudson took immediately.

Knowing these events, and convinced therefore that the great lady had been done irreparable harm by Watson’s accounts, I set forth to re-write and to right the record of Mrs. Hudson’s achievements. The result of those labors was The Unpleasantness at Parkerton Manor, published about a year ago by Sunstone Press.

However, there was a surprise to come after being published and the month-long bacchanal following that event. I discovered to my dismay there was a virtual army of those still writing and still claiming Sherlock Holmes to be the sage of 221B. I had, of course, known of Laurie King, but assumed that Ms. King would move gracefully aside as Mrs. Hudson came on the scene. (To date Ms. King hasn’t seen fit to budge.) Quite simply, I had no idea of all the other writers comfortably enmeshed in 19th and early 20th century London and eager to lead Holmes and Watson yet again through its streets and alleys before returning them in triumph to their sitting room in Baker Street for a quiet pipe or two. Stunned by the crowd of true believers surrounding me, I took comfort from the words of the reviewer for The District Messenger, Newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, who reported that I "was the first to suggest that [Mrs. Hudson] was the true detective genius at 221B Baker Street," and further describing her as "a likeable character, ... and disconcertingly credible." The reviewer goes on to describe the adventures I recount as "a gloriously complex and improbable scenario" no doubt inserting the word "improbable" to placate the inevitable diehards who refuse to relinquish their view of Sherlock Holmes.

Nonetheless, I was sufficiently heartened to write a second Mrs. Hudson, the recently published Mrs. Hudson and the Irish Invincibles, leading my publisher to declare the two books the Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street mystery series while others have described them as two books. As in the first of the two, historical characters and events are woven into the story to assure the reader of the accuracy of my reporting.

And so I remain adamant that Mrs. Hudson be given her due, allowing others to champion the investigative skills of the young Holmes and the old Holmes, and of the single Holmes and the married Holmes. We are joined only in paying equal tribute to the country doctor who sold all rights to his first book, A Study in Scarlet, for £25 and received that only after suffering the rejections of the numerous publishers certain that his work would never find a readership.

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When not busy unmasking Sherlock Holmes, Barry S. Brown is engaged in research into social problems in a career that has led to work in mental hospitals, prisons, and drug abuse treatment agencies. He has published two books of non-fiction and more than 100 papers and chapters based on that work. He now lives with his wife, Ann, in North Carolina, a safe distance from the mayhem of Victorian London.

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About Mrs. Hudson and the Irish Invincibles: When Moira Keegan tries to recruit Sherlock Holmes to save her father's life, Holmes, Watson and Mrs. Hudson do their best to convince the 12-year old that she has misunderstood her father's situation. When, a short time later, they read that Moira's father was found dead in a sleazy waterfront inn, the members of London's premier consulting detective agency have a new client and a singular purpose. In this, the second in the Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street series, the part-time housekeeper and full-time sage of 221B will lead her colleagues in a quest for justice that will put them at odds with Scotland Yard, Irish revolutionaries, religious zealots, and even the London Times. Before Mrs. Hudson can bring everything to right she will need to enlist the assistance of Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and his mistress Katharine O'Shea.

Mrs. Hudson and the Irish Invincibles is available as a Trade Paperback.

Three Canadian Crime Novelists Have Their Books Optioned for TV

The works of three Canadian crime novelists have been optioned for television by Bell Media, which owns CTV.

The authors are: William Deverell, whose legal thrillers with a comic twist feature retired lawyer Arthur Beauchamp; Giles Blunt, whose series character is detective John Cardinal; and former criminal defense attorney Robert Rotenberg, who has just published his second stand-alone.

Deverell was the winner of the 1997 Hammett Award for Trial of Passion, while Blunt has been honored with the 2001 CWA Silver Dagger Award for Forty Words of Sorrow and the Arthur Ellis Award in 2004 for The Delicate Storm. Blunt intends to adapt his own novels for television.

"These projects exemplify our commitment to developing great Canadian programming. And we are equally delighted to be working with terrific Canadian screenwriters to adapt these novels and bring them to the screen," said Corrie Coe, senior vice-president of independent production for Bell Media, in a press release.

With the borders between local programming blurring all the more with international video on demand and the like, it's possible that fans of crime dramas here in the US will be able to enjoy these adaptations at some point in the future.

(Source: National Post.)