Mystery Godoku Puzzle for July 06, 2009

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!).

This week's letters and mystery clue:

A B C E J K N R Y

"The Scent of Murder" by this author appeared in the anthology 100 Menacing Little Murder Stories (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!

   

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Games of Mystery Review: Enlightenus

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed electronic and board games, parties for kids and adults, and mystery getaway vacations, is publishing a new review of Enlightenus. For readers of Mystery Books News, we are printing it here first in advance of its publication on our website.

Mystery Game Review: Enlightenus.

Enlightenus is a literary-themed mystery game in which you must help an author reassemble the pages of his novels, which have been scattered throughout a parallel world. The gameplay combines elements of adventure games, puzzles, and hidden objects (but in a different way).

The game opens with a voiceover saying, "On a day like any other, I was sitting in front of my desk when I noticed an urgent message from Edgar Lee, a famous but reclusive author." He invites you to his home where he tells you what has happened. Lee, who writes children's fantasy books, uses a machine to transport himself into the world of Enlightenus where he gets inspiration for his books. He tells you you're his only hope, that only by your sleuthing skills can the pages of his novels be collected and restored.

During the first few scenes you collect an orb (this acts as your hint guide), meet the author, and learn about cards that increase your hint count. (I admit I neglected to find and pick up all the cards as I played the game, but at least in the early going they aren't really necessary.)

You move from room to room by choosing one of two doors. Some doors may require you to complete some task before you can open them (for example, picking up a key and using it to unlock the door). There's no mystery as to what you need to pick up in particular room (or, as shown in the image to the right, on a cobblestone street) as they are highlighted with a sparkling visual effect. The objects are placed in your inventory but you must figure out on your own how they are to be used. These places are scenes from the author's books and are not "real" in the sense that you never actually leave the mansion.

After passing through a door you're presented with what appears to be a standard hidden object scene; these are called chapters in the game. However, instead of finding objects you must place objects that have appeared at the bottom of the screen into the scene. When you've selected an object to be placed, moving the mouse over other objects in the scene bring up descriptions of the item. Sometimes the placement is obvious; a microscope lens must be placed on what is described as a "lensless microscope". Some need to be placed in a particular order (for example, the pumpkin must be scooped out and carved before a candle can be set inside). It isn't too hard to match the items, but it can take some time. Of course, you can always use a hint if necessary.

Once all the objects have been placed, that is, you've completed a chapter, you're given a button. These buttons must then be inserted into other objects in the mansion in order to move forward in the game. You can always randomly alter their locations until you get it right, but it's much more fun to use the clues given to properly place them.

Occasionally you're presented with a puzzle. These puzzles add interest to the gameplay but aren't really very challenging. You can skip them but doing so costs all the hint cards you've accumulated thus far.

There are 42 rooms in total (presented as 3 chapters each of 14 books). Gameplay at first seems to be random, in which you complete different chapters of different books in a non-linear order. And you'll revisit some scenes with a need to place different objects; somewhat inexplicably what you've done before with the scene isn't retained. But I think this may be due to be choices made while moving through the mansion. To be honest, I still haven't completed the game so don't know exactly how it ends nor do I know if I have everything I need to finish the game. But that's part of the appeal of any adventure game!

I found Enlightenus to be enchanting, a delightful twist on the standard adventure / hidden object game. The images are beautifully rendered with incredible detail. The scenes relate to the overall story in an interesting and intriguing way with the book titles, the objects cleverly integrated into and relevant to the chapters.

As with most adventure games, a fair amount of time is spent pondering what to do next, and so it is here. But it never feels tedious; rather, it seems to spur the player on, to look for that clue that may have been missed or overlooked. Still, a walk-through is probably a useful thing to have handy if you really get stuck. Fortunately, both a strategy guide and walk-through are available for Enlightenus.

In summary, I very much enjoyed playing the opening chapters of Enlightenus and look forward to completing the game over the next few days.

Reviewed on July 05, 2009 by Ms. Terri, game reviewer for Mystery Books News.

Enlightenus may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A trial version may be downloaded and played for free for one hour. Also available: Enlightenus Strategy Guide and a Enlightenus Game Walkthrough.

Watch a preview video below:

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Reading is Fundamental and Macy's Announce Book a Brighter Future

In a press release issued earlier this week, Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and Macy's announced Book a Brighter Future, a national partnership to raise awareness and support children's literacy.

The Book A Brighter Future campaign is an annual promotion held at Macy's stores during the back-to-school season to help raise money for local RIF programs and to provide reading resources to the children who need them most.

This campaign provides an opportunity for Macy's customers to join the effort and have an impact on literacy in their community. From July 1 through August 31, 2009, Macy’s customers can give $3 and receive a coupon for $10 off a $50 in-store purchase at any Macy’s nationwide. Macy’s will donate 100 percent of every $3 to RIF.

"Giving back to the communities where we work and live is a long-standing priority at Macy's," said Terry Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO of Macy's, Inc. "We are proud that, last year alone, more than a million Macy's customers participated in Book A Brighter Future helping to raise more than $3 million dollars for children who lack access to books. It is a great way for our customers to support the education of children in their own community while enjoying special savings for their back-to-school shopping at Macy's."

For every $3, $1 will support local RIF programs near the Macy's store; $1 will support RIF's Multicultural Literacy Campaign; and $1 will help RIF's ongoing efforts to provide reading resources to millions of underserved children across the country.

(Many thanks to In Reference to Murder for letting us know about this important program.)

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Mystery Book Review: Death of a Witch by M. C. Beaton

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Death of a Witch by M. C. Beaton. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Death of a Witch by M. C. Beaton
A Hamish Macbeth Mystery

Grand Central (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-446-19613-4 (0446196134)
ISBN-13: 978-0-446-19613-0 (9780446196130)
Publication Date: February 2009
List Price: $24.99

Review: Twenty-five books ago, Scottish author, Marion Chesney, writing as M. C. Beaton, penned her first Constable Hamish Macbeth mystery, Death of a Gossip, in 1985. Set in the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh, the novel introduced the constable, his arch antagonist, Chief Inspector Blair, and Priscilla Haliburton-Smythe, the love of Hamish’s life. Since then Hamish has been twice promoted, twice demoted, and along with his dog Lugs and his pet wild cat, Sonsie, has solved the suspicious deaths of among others a maid, a dreamer, a bore, a dustman, a snob, a prankster, a nag, a travelling man, and even a village. Now, in his same inimitable style and with his same longing for Priscilla, loathing for Blair and love of his village and its residents, Hamish scours the Scottish Highlands to find the murderer of a witch, Catriona Beldame. It’s another fun-filled search for Chesney/Beaton fans of the Macbeth series and an entertaining introduction to the prolific author with several pen names and a shelf full of series and stand-alone novels.

Before he encounters Catriona’s case, Hamish warms up for the main event by capturing three bank robbers and displaying his compassion while covering up for a colleague, the force’s newest recruit, “wee Alice Donaldson.” Flushed with success, and despite a warning from the long-time village seer, Angus Macdonald, that, “Black days are coming,” he moves on to meet Madame Beldame. She has been supplying the local men with “therapy and herbal treatments” and “a secret recipe” for sexual dysfunction. The recipe, however, has turned sour for the men and for their put-upon wives suddenly fending off husbands seeking their “martial rights,” as one mislabels his needs. So, Hamish sets out to intervene and to have Catriona move on. When his attempts fail and he temporarily succumbs to her spell, Hamish publicly blurts out in unguarded frustration, “God, I could kill that woman.” God aside, it’s a statement with its own recipe for disaster when, shortly afterward, Hamish is the first to discover a naked Catriona dead, and before the corpse is removed from her cottage, watches as a disastrous fire consumes the body and any clues to her death.

For CI Blair, the event proves Macbeth’s incompetence. Even hopefully his guilt. But for the constable, it’s the challenge to clear his name and that of the Lochdubh villagers, even though many of them “thought it a fitting end for the ‘witch.’” As he always does, Hamish rises to the challenge, sifting the heather from the thistles and following leads to a variety of suspects and to several additional murders of suspected drug runners and a brothel operator “on the game.” And while Hamish ducks and runs from the maniacal wrath of a besotted, inept Blair, potential perpetrators pop up across the Highlands. So, too, do romantic partners pining for Hamish. A forensic specialist is willing to help him find more than the fuse for the fire that consumed Catriona’s cottage, and a visiting reporter is ever willing to work with him on more than just the “witch’s” story. And, as is to be expected, Priscilla arrives on the scene, too, sometimes at the most inopportune times, depending upon others’ points of view. For Hamish, of course, there are always Lugs and Sonsie to look after and the humour of how their need for care dampens a romantic interlude with one of the women.

While it takes time to get used to the vernacular of Beaton’s characters, it’s well worth the effort. The series with its long standing characters and their idiosyncrasies is tried and true, and Death of a Witch is a welcome addition to its well-deserved reputation.

Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Death of a Witch.

Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission

If you are interested in purchasing Death of a Witch from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. Death of a Witch (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.

Synopsis (from the publisher): Returning from a foreign holiday, the redheaded Constable Hamish Macbeth senses a dark cloud of evil hanging over his Scottish village of Lochdubh. A newcomer, Catriona Beldame, has cast a spell over the town, and word of her magical powers spreads as fast as the Highland fog. The local men are visiting Catriona’s cottage at all hours of the night and the women are outraged, ready to cast the witch into the sea loch. Hamish himself is charmed by her, too, until he begins to suspect that she is a danger to the town.

The townsfolk simply don’t believe that Catriona is a serious threat, saying that the loveless constable has turned against all women, and before he can prove them wrong, she is murdered. Catriona, in her own wicked way, curses Hamish from beyond the grave, making him the prime suspect in her murder case. Hamish will call upon the assistance of a pretty female forensic expert as he attempts to clear his name –perhaps he will find romance at last! Lochdubh’s loyal constable won’t give up until he can bring peace and quiet back to his beloved village.

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Mystery Book Review: The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

The Genesis Secret by Tom Knox
Non-series

Viking (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-670-02088-5 (0670020885)
ISBN-13: 978-0-670-02088-1 (9780670020881)
Publication Date: May 2009
List Price: $26.95

Review: Tom Knox's debut thriller, The Genesis Secret, which combines a historical quest with a modern murder mystery, has a promising start but ultimately disappoints.

Rob Luttrell, a reporter in the Middle East for a British newspaper, is known for accepting the most dangerous assignments. But when his editor asks him to cover an archaeological dig in a remote area of southeastern Turkey he's disappointed. Still, he feels a break from the action may be just what he needs. Not long after his arrival the lead archaeologist on site, Franz Brietner, is murdered, impaled on a pole at the dig. Intrigued by why Brietner was killed, Rob presses forward to get the true story. Back in England, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Forrester has a series of gruesome murders on his hands. His investigation leads him to believe the murders were not committed for the usual reasons, but as random ritualistic killings. He also learns the culprit may not only be sadistic and cruel, but also brilliant and cunning and from one of the country's finest families.

For more than half the book, The Genesis Secret alternates between these two storylines. The archaeological dig in Turkey is based on a real site that has received a fair amount of attention in the news, its location being near the Turkey / Iraq border in the disputed region of Kurdistan. Given the book's title, it probably isn't giving away too much to say the real archaeologists and the fictional ones think they've found the Garden of Eden, a site that is mentioned (in one way or another) in multiple religions, though its significance differs depending on various religious interpretations. This part of the story is interesting in and of itself but isn't really developed much beyond the facts already published. Though information about the site is not known to have been written in any form through the ages, a (fictional) "Black Book" is suspected to hold the key to its existence.

The ritualistic murders in England (and, as it turns out, elsewhere) is initially a far more intriguing foundation for the book, as far as it goes. Unfortunately, the inevitable link between the murders and the archaeological site is a tenuous one at best and is really never credible. The story subsequently morphs into an oddly unimaginative action adventure tale that generates little suspense or interest in the final outcome.

Part of the problem in the final third of the book is that the author frequently takes convenient shortcuts to advance the plot presumably assuming the reader won't notice. One of the most glaring of these is a scholar who has been lashed to a chair, his captors putting "a sweaty gag around his mouth and tied it ferociously tight, making his lips bleed as the gag pressed against his incisors." After having a procedure called the "blood eagle" performed (it's really far too ghastly to say any more here), he's somehow able to grasp a nearby pen in his mouth (still gagged) and write an important clue for Rob and Forrester to follow before he dies. It would be silly if it weren't so horrific and obviously impossible.

In the end, there's little to recommend The Genesis Secret, which is really rather unfortunate since its premise seemingly had so much to offer.

Special thanks to Penguin Group for providing a copy of The Genesis Secret for this review.

Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

If you are interested in purchasing The Genesis Secret from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. The Genesis Secret (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.

Synopsis (from the publisher): A remarkable discovery has been made in the far reaches of Kurdistan. A Western archaeological team has unearthed the oldest human civilization—older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge. Sent to cover the story is war reporter Rob Luttrell. He’s just survived a Baghdad suicide bombing and wants only to return home to his child. What began as a fascinating assignment quickly turns dangerous as the site is sabotaged and someone is murdered.

Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard detective is fast on the trail of a series of grisly killings in the British Isles. As he attempts to unravel these elaborate acts of violence, he discovers there may be a link to the site in Kurdistan. The secret to both is an origin and a bloodline that will challenge everything the modern world knows about the origins of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

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Mystery Book Review: A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

A Plague of Secrets by John Lescroart
A Dismas Hardy Mystery

Dutton (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-525-95092-3 (0525950923)
ISBN-13: 978-0-525-95092-9 (9780525950929)
Publication Date: June 2009
List Price: $26.95

Review: San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy, homicide detective Abe Glitsky, and private investigator Wyatt Hunt work together to solve the mystery of why two college friends of socialite Maya Townsend were murdered in A Plague of Secrets, the 13th thriller in this series by John Lescroart.

Maya Townshend is a mother of two, a business owner, and, oh by the way, the niece of the mayor. She is a silent partner in the popular and up-scale Bay Beans West Coffee Shop where a former beau of hers, Dylan Vogler, is the manager. She agrees to meet him one morning only to find him dead, shot with a gun that turns out to be hers. The murder investigation reveals that Vogler was killed in possession of a knapsack filled with marijuana that he had grown himself, a client list that included some of San Francisco's most prominent names, and a salary from the coffee shop more than double paid by comparable businesses. Soon thereafter, another former college friend of Maya's, Levon Preslee, is found dead, a cleaver in his head and Maya's fingerprints in his apartment. It soon becomes apparent that the two men were blackmailing Maya for something that happened long ago. She had motive and opportunity, but did she put an end to her troubles by killing Vogler and Preslee?

The appeal of A Plague of Secrets rests squarely on the incredibly and exquisitely defined character of Maya Townshend. Is she innocent? If not, is her secret so terrible that even if she is guilty, are the crimes justified? The story is gripping, fast-paced, at times electrifying, always riveting. Even the side stories, which more often than not detract attention in this kind of thriller, add depth and interest here. The legal wrangling is deftly handled and the denouement surprising and satisfying.

A Plague of Secrets combines the best of a legal thriller, a police procedural, and a murder mystery into one terrific novel. It is highly recommended.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of A Plague of Secrets and to Penguin Group for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

If you are interested in purchasing A Plague of Secrets from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. A Plague of Secrets (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.

Synopsis (from the publisher): The first victim is Dylan Vogler, a charming ex-convict who manages the Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district. When his body is found, inspectors discover that his knapsack is filled with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco’s A-list flocked to Bay Beans West not only for their caffeine fix.

But how much did Maya Townshend—the beautiful socialite niece of the city’s mayor, and the absentee owner of the shop—know about what was going on inside her business? And how intimate had she really been with Dylan, her old college friend?

As another of Maya’s acquaintances falls victim to murder, and as the names of the dead men’s celebrity, political, and even law- enforcement customers come to light, tabloid-fueled controversy takes the investigation into the realms of conspiracy and cover-up. Prosecutors close in on Maya, who has a deep secret of her own—a secret she needs to protect at all costs during her very public trial, where not only her future but the entire political landscape of San Francisco hangs in the balance, hostage to an explosive secret that Dismas Hardy is privilege-bound to protect.

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Games of Mystery: Her Interactive Announces Resorting to Danger, a Nancy Drew Dossier Game

In a press release yesterday, Her Interactive, developer of the immensely popular Nancy Drew mystery series games, announced the second title in its Nancy Drew Dossier casual series, Resorting to Danger. The game will be available for download and purchase next month (August 2009).

In Resorting to Danger, players assume the role of Nancy Drew as she sets out to foil a prankster bent on sabotaging the Redondo Spa. The Redondo Spa is a sanctuary to the rich and famous and with clients' retreats in jeopardy, Nancy goes undercover as a general assistant to unearth clues, interview suspects and solve daunting puzzles in order to determine who is planting bombs at the spa. With six alternate endings, players can tackle Resorting to Danger again and again from different approaches and scenarios.

Nancy Drew Dossier is a next-generation casual game series that combines a seek-and-find mechanic with a new level of compelling story-driven gameplay involving detective work, sophisticated interaction with clues and characters, brain-teasing puzzles, and arcade mini-games. Playing from the point of Nancy Drew, players find hidden clues and use their strengths of observation, deduction, and problem-solving to uncover culprits and schemes in a heavily story-driven plot.

In our review of Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses!, the first game in the series, we said, "Lights, Camera, Curses! is a delightfully agreeable game that can be enjoyed by all ages and will provide hours of entertainment." It is available in a boxed version from Amazon.com, Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses! (boxed version) or from Big Fish Games as an immediate download, Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses! (download version).

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Mystery Bestsellers for July 03, 2009

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending July 03, 2009 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

No surprise at all to find last week's featured mystery, Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich, at the top of the list this week, shifting the other top bestsellers down a notch.

New in the top 15 is a book that has just missed the list since its publication two weeks ago, the 9th Joe Pickett mystery Below Zero by C. J. Box. Below Zero begins with an unassuming phone message: “Tell Sherry April called.” But Sherry—Joe Pickett’s oldest daughter, Sheridan—and the Pickett family are shaken to the core. April, Pickett’s foster daughter, was killed in a horrific murder and arson spree six years prior. To Joe, it doesn’t seem even remotely possible that April could have survived the massacre described in Winterkill. He was there. But Sherry starts to believe there’s a chance that April is still alive; the girl on the other end of the phone is able to recall family incidents that only April could know. Joe, however, remains suspicious, especially when he discovers that the calls have been placed from locations where serious crimes have occurred. At the same time, an older man and a much younger girl cross the country. The man is on a mission to repent for the crimes he’s committed against the environment during his lifetime. He ultimately wants to offset each incident until he not only becomes carbon neutral, but actually drops below zero—as if he’s never existed. As the path of these travelers starts to intersect with the Pickett family’s, the question is raised: Is this young girl April—or are Joe and his family the victims of the cruelest of hoaxes? Publishers Weekly calls Below Zero a "relentlessly paced powder keg of a thriller [that] could be Box's best to date."

On our bestseller page, we've added an icon next to every title that is available for immediate download onto the Amazon Kindle. To learn about this wireless reading device, visit the Amazon Kindle page for more information.

The top four mystery bestsellers this week are shown below:

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.

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Agatha Christie Marple Series 4 Debuts This Sunday on PBS

A new face takes on the role of a most familiar spinster sleuth this summer in the fourth series of Agatha Christie: Marple on PBS. Julia McKenzie, best known to Masterpiece audiences for her portrayal of Mrs. Forrester in the acclaimed series Cranford, brings her distinctive style to the role. "I think Julia is a very different character than the other actresses who played Miss Marple recently, and more different than people who played her a long time ago," says Christie's grandson Mathew Prichard. "... I think audiences will love her."

In an adaptation of Christie's A Pocket Full of Rye, which airs this Sunday (July 5th, check your local listings) and is the first of four new episodes to be broadcast, businessman Rex Fortescue drops dead after breakfast, apparently poisoned. The only clue is incomprehensible — grain found in his suit pocket. It's obvious that Fortescue isn't exactly missed. Between his estranged and angry children and a wife who seems to not be at a loss for comfort, the Fortescue house is full of secrets. Inspector Neele is dispatched to investigate, but makes little progress until the arrival of Miss Marple. For Marple, the case is child's play — the killer seems inspired by the rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence." As the murders pile up, Marple discovers a motive as dark as blackbirds.

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple Series 4 will be released on DVD on August 4th.

Watch a video preview of the series below:

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Mystery Savings: Last Weekend for B&N's Buy 2 Get 1 Free DVD and Blu-ray Sale!

Mystery Savings periodically provides our readers with current promotions that offer discounts or other incentives for purchasing mystery-themed products and services products through our partner websites. Below is a special offer recently received by us that we're pleased to pass on at this time.

This is the final weekend of Barnes&Noble's DVD and Blu-ray Buy 2 Get the 3rd Free promotion! More than 35,000 specially marked titles are included. Simply click on the banner below and when you purchase three (3) or more DVDs or Blu-ray discs with the FREE DVD & BLU-RAY OFFER icon, you get the least expensive DVD or Blu-ray disc for free. Your credit for the least expensive disc will appear at checkout. This offer is valid for one order per individual. This offer may not be combined with any other coupon or any discount promotion. Barnes & Noble Member program discounts will apply. Shipping charges may also apply.

But hurry! This offer ends July 07, 2009 at 2:59 AM ET.

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