Jason Statham to Star in Film Adaptation of Ken Bruen's Blitz

Variety is reporting that actor Jason Statham (The Bank Job) is in final negotiations to star in the film adaptation of Ken Bruen's thriller Blitz. It isn't clear from the article which character Statham will play, only that the role is that of a tough, uncompromising cop assigned the task of tracking down a serial killer targeting police officers. Paddy Considine (The Bourne Ultimatum) will play his partner. The film will shoot on location in London beginning next month.

In the book, the fourth in the Detective Sergeant Tom Brant series, DS Brant is in hot water for assaulting a police shrink, Chief Inspector Roberts' wife has died in a horrific car accident, and WPC Falls is still figuring out how to navigate her job as a black female investigator in the notorious unit. When a serial killer takes his show on the road, things get worse for all three. Nicknamed "The Blitz" by the rabid London media, the killer is aiming for tabloid immortality by killing cops in different beats around the city.

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Games of Mystery: Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Mummy, New for Nintendo DS

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed electronic and board games, parties for kids and adults, and getaway vacations including murder mystery weekends, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery game for the Nintendo DS. More mystery games for this platform are available on our recently updated Games of Mystery: Nintendo DS webpage.

In Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy, the first Sherlock Holmes game for the Nintendo DS, players embark on an adventure in which they assume the role of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Victorian super sleuth Sherlock Holmes and investigate the mysterious case of a missing archaeologist and a valuable Egyptian mummy in turn-of-the-century England. What begins as a simple case quickly becomes a web of intrigue, robbery, priceless artifacts, and murder that players will find hard to put down.

Your skills as an investigative sleuth will be tested as you attempt to uncover the truth behind the mystery by exploring the many rooms of a large Victorian mansion, and solving the many puzzles and riddles that you will encounter using your DS stylus. Prepare yourself for uncertain leads, an illusive saboteur, the disappearance of an ancient mummy, a strange murder and perhaps more … the plot thickens.

Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy Nintendo DS is currently scheduled for release on July 14th, 2009. This game is also available for download from Big Fish Games: Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy (download version).

Watch a video preview for Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Mummy below:

Don't forget to visit Games of Mystery for all types of mysterious fun!

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New Crime Drama Dark Blue Premieres This Wednesday on TNT

A new crime drama debuts this week on TNT: Dark Blue.

According to the network, Dylan McDermott is Carter Shaw, the leader of a crack undercover team of police officers whose relentless pursuit of LA's worst criminals has cost him any semblance of a personal life; Omari Hardwick is Ty Curtis, a recently married cop who struggles to maintain his dual existence; Logan Marshall-Green is Dean Bendis, a shoot-from-the-hip officer whose activities make fellow team members question his loyalties; and Nicki Aycox is Jaimie Allen, a green patrol cop with a hidden past.

Dark Blue premieres this Wednesday, July 15th at 10 PM (ET/PT), and follows the second season premiere of our favorite new series, Leverage. Watch a sneak peek of Dark Blue below:

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Mysteries on TV: Leverage and Wire in the Blood, New This Week on DVD

Mysteries on TV, your source for the most complete selection of detective, amateur sleuth, private investigator, and suspense television mystery series now available or coming soon to DVD, is profiling three series that have season DVDs being released this week.

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Leverage is a slick and crafty crime caper drama following a team of expert thieves that takes down corrupt corporations and organizations in elaborate high-tech schemes. Insurance investigator Nate Ford (played Timothy Hutton) exposed scams and recovered stolen items worth millions. But his life hit the skids when his own employer allowed his ailing 8-year-old son to die. Years later, Nate gets even as the leader of a specialized team of thieves, computer experts and con artists that right corporate and governmental injustices against honest citizens. To expose corruption, Nate will do wrong for all the right reasons.

The Leverage: Season One DVD set of 4 discs contain all 13 episodes of the 1st season that aired on TNT from December 2008 through February 2009. The second season of Leverage debuts on TNT this Wednesday, July 15th, at 9 PM (ET/PT). See our preview of the new season, MBN: Leverage Returns for a Second Season.

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Whether he's trying to crack a mystery involving internet chat rooms, a deadly hypnotist, DNA evidence or suicide cults, Dr. Tony Hill (played by Robson Green) has an extraordinary understanding of a criminal's mind, which has proven to be an asset to the police in northern England in Wire in the Blood, a series based on characters created by mystery author Val McDermid. Working alongside Detective Inspector Fielding (Simone Lahbib), Hill is able to track down killers by actually visualizing the crimes. His ability to empathize with both victims and killers is something that drives his colleagues crazy, but his theories have time and again proven to be dead-on.

The Wire in the Blood: Season Six DVD set of 4 discs contain the 4 2-part episodes of the 6th and final season that originally aired on ITV1 during the fall of 2008. ITV cancelled the series earlier this year citing high production costs.

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Visit the Mysteries on TV website to discover more television mystery series currently available on DVD.

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Mystery Godoku Puzzle for July 13, 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 E F I L O R T V

Daryn Parke’s debut thriller has this title (with “The”, 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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Mystery Book Review: The Bride Will Keep Her Name by Jan Goldstein

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Bride Will Keep Her Name by Jan Goldstein. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

The Bride Will Keep Her Name by Jan Goldstein
Non-series

Shaye Areheart (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-307-34592-0 (0307345920)
ISBN-13: 978-0-307-34592-9 (9780307345929)
Publication Date: June 2009
List Price: $24.00

Review: Just a week before her dream wedding, Madison Mandelbaum begins receiving troubling messages asking the question, "Do you really know the man you are about to marry?", in The Bride Will Keep Her Name, a novel by Jan Goldstein.

"Be careful what you wish for," Madison's mother was fond of saying. Like all young girls, Madison wished for a man who was tall, dark and handsome, one who would sweep her off her feet, fall in love with her and she with him. Her wish is about to come true, she is going to marry Colin Darcy, the man of her dreams. But a week before the wedding Madison receives a mysterious unidentifiable e-mail, the first of many that suggest Colin was involved with the murder of a call girl less than a year ago. Even details that seem to support the accusations are provided. She could not face Colin with her suspicions. Not yet. Together with her best friends since childhood, she begins an investigation. The more clues they find, the more guilty Colin looked. As the days dwindle down to the ceremonial festivities, Madison finally confronts Colin. He admits lying to her about some of his past. He even admits that he knew the dead girl and was with her the day before she was murdered, a crime that remains unsolved. He denies, however, having any part in the murder. Colin has no proof of his innocence and is suddenly arrested for the murder. Madison wants to believe him. Madison’s grandmother tells her to let her head follow her heart. But can she?

The Bride Will Keep Her Name is a briskly paced cross-genre novel, a chick-lit style mystery with generous amounts of good humor. The love between Madison and Colin is genuinely expressed and the secrets exposed just days before their wedding are both shocking and from unexpected sources. It's all quite entertaining and makes for a perfect summer read.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Bride Will Keep Her Name and to Goldberg McDuffie Communications 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 The Bride Will Keep Her Name from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. The Bride Will Keep Her Name (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.

Synopsis (from the publisher): Madison Mandelbaum is on top of the world. She's got a loving—though totally neurotic—family, two fabulous best friends, and best of all, she's head-over-heels in love with Colin Darcy, an investigative reporter for NBC, distant relation to the Queen, and—most importantly—Maddie’s fiancé. Be careful what you wish for, her mother’s always warned, but, with Colin on her arm, Maddie is certain, at last, nothing could possibly go wrong.

But with one dream-filled week to go before the wedding, an anonymous email arrives suggesting her fiancé may not be the man she thinks he is. Someone’s idea of a pre-wedding joke, she’s certain. Yet as more sinister phone calls, text messages, and disturbing clues turn up, all linking Colin to the murder of a sexy callgirl, Maddie realizes that she must get to the bottom of this. Fast.

As the clock counts down toward the ceremony of her dreams, Maddie’s life is turned inside out. Between dress fittings, entertaining future in-laws, planning rehearsal dinners, and putting on a brave face, Maddie and her bridesmaids are propelled into a stunning undercover investigation, plunging them into a seedy underworld of anonymous sex and backroom politics. As her breathtaking search brings her ever closer to the knowledge she desperately seeks, Maddie finds her heart being tested in ways she’d never dreamed. And in her non-stop, gasp-inducing race to take back her life and dreams, Maddie discovers just how far someone in love will go to cover up the truth, stumbling upon a shocking secret she never saw coming.

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Games of Mystery: Sudoku Ball Detective, New for Nintendo DS and Wii

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed electronic and board games, parties for kids and adults, and getaway vacations including murder mystery weekends, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery game for the Nintendo DS and Wii. More mystery games for these platforms are available on our recently updated Games of Mystery: Nintendo DS and Games of Mystery: Nintendo Wii webpages.

Sudoku Ball: Detective is sudoku with a twist: play your favorite puzzle game in a completely new, entertaining detective scenario, and experience multitudes of challenging puzzles to solve a mysterious crime! An exclusive sudoku ball design adds even more to your sudoku experience.

Inspired by murder mystery games and famous English detective stories, you take on the role of a detective in a small town where a murder has been committed. It is up to you to find the murderer, by completing different styles of sudoku puzzles representing separate stages of the investigation: Search clues, pick locks, investigate evidence in the lab, and chase your suspect!

Sudoku Ball: Detective (Nintendo DS) and Sudoku Ball: Detective (Nintendo Wii) are currently scheduled for release on July 14th, 2009.

Watch a teaser trailer for Sudoku Ball: Detective below:

Don't forget to visit Games of Mystery for all types of mysterious fun!

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Opens Wednesday July 15th

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens next Wednesday, July 15th. Based on the 6th and penultimate book in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, who enters his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson).

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the war against Lord Voldemort is not going well; even the Muggles have been affected. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses. And yet ... as with all wars, life goes on. Sixth-year students learn to apparate. Teenagers flirt and fight and fall in love. Harry receives some extraordinary help in potions from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince. And with Dumbledore's guidance, he seeks out the full, complex story of the boy who became Lord Voldemort -- and thus finds what may be his only vulnerability.

Though scheduled to open on July 15th in theaters, the IMAX version (with only 3 exceptions) will not open until July 29th due to a contractual conflict. For more information about the film, visit the official website on WarnerBros.com.

Watch a featurette produced for the film below:

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Leverage Returns for a Second Season This Wednesday on TNT

Possibly our favorite new series last year was Leverage, a crime caper starring Timothy Hutton as Nate Ford, the leader of a gang of professional thieves and con artists, who use elaborate scams designed to exact revenge against those who use power and wealth to victimize people. The 12-episode season debuted on TNT in December 2008 and ended with the team apparently breaking up, after destroying their corporate headquarters in Los Angeles. The first season of Leverage on DVD will be released on 07/14/2009.

Leverage returns for a second season this Wednesday, July 15th, at 9PM (ET/PT). In the opening episode, the team meets up in Boston for "The Beantown Bailout Job". Nate Ford reluctantly reassembles the team to pit the local Irish mob against a banker who is gaming a government bailout. If they survive, Nate has to deal with four thieves who've decided he needs them in his life, whether he likes it or not.

Watch a recap of the first season below:

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Games of Mystery: Nancy Drew in Ransom of the Seven Ships, New for Windows PC

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed electronic and board games, parties for kids and adults, and getaway vacations including murder mystery weekends, is pleased to announce the availability of a new Nancy Drew game for Windows PC.

The case in Nancy Drew 20: Ransom of the Seven Ships: What could be better than an all-expense paid vacation in the Bahamas with Bess and George? But when Bess is kidnapped and held for ransom, it's up to you, as Nancy Drew, to discover the treasures of the sunken "Seven Virtues" fleet and find the missing artifact that the kidnappers are demanding in exchange for Bess. Team up with George to sail through the perilous waters of this mystery and defeat the dastardly villain!

Nancy Drew 20: Ransom of the Seven Ships is currently scheduled for release for Windows PC platforms on July 14th, 2009.

View the trailer below:

Don't forget to visit Games of Mystery for all types of mysterious fun!

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