Mystery Book Review: Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel by Boris Akunin

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel by Boris Akunin. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel by Boris Akunin
A Sister Pelagia Mystery

Random House (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-8129-7515-4 (0812975154)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8129-7515-4 (9780812975154)
Publication Date: August 2009
List Price: $15.00

Review: The final book in Boris Akunin's trilogy of mysteries featuring Russian Orthodox nun Sister Pelagia, Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel is less of an investigation into the murder of a controversial "Messiah", and more of a journey, and a spiritual one at that, for the good sister herself.

The murder takes place on board a river steamship, many of its passengers headed for the Holy Land. The dead man is Manuila, the leader of a religious sect known as the "Foundlings". The ship drops anchor at the nearest town where a government official, Sergei Dolinin, assumes command of the investigation. He ascertains that Sister Pelagia, who discovered the body, has an eye for detail and a deductive mind for reasoning, and asks her to participate in the investigation. It's quickly determined that the dead man, a Messiah to his followers, was a follower himself, and that another man is the real target. Sister Pelagia continues on to the Holy Land, where she becomes a target herself of an unknown assassin. Still, she's determined not to give up, even when it becomes clear that the answers she seeks may change her life forever.

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel is a rather unusual novel. It's not a standard whodunit-style mystery, though it starts that way, and it's hard to appreciate Sister Pelagia's complete motivation for continuing on her quest for ... something. Although intially she seems to be looking for a killer, by the middle of the book, it's not quite clear what she's seeking. Though it's fairly easy to follow the action, and the narrative is briskly paced, the politics of the time (late 19th century Russia) and the sheer number of characters make reading the book a somewhat daunting task. Possibly to fully appreciate all the subtle nuances here, one must have read the first two books in the series.

And about the titular red cockerel? Suffice it to say, in a most remarkable letter written by Sister Pelagia at the end of the book, that will have to remain a mystery.

Special thanks to Random House for providing a copy of Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel for this review.

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

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): The ship carrying the devout to Jerusalem has run into rough waters. Onboard is Manuila, controversial leader of the “Foundlings,” a sect that worships him as the Messiah. But soon the polarizing leader is no longer a passenger or a prophet but a corpse, beaten to death by someone almost supernaturally strong. But not everything is as it seems, and someone else sailing has become enmeshed in the mystery: the seemingly slow but actually astute sleuth Sister Pelagia. Her investigation of the crime will take her deep into the most dangerous areas of the Middle East and Russia, running from one-eyed criminals and after such unlikely animals as a red cockerel that may be more than a red herring. To her shock, she will emerge with not just the culprit in a murder case but a clue to the earth’s greatest secret.

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Mystery Book Review: Skeleton Hill by Peter Lovesey

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Skeleton Hill by Peter Lovesey. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Skeleton Hill by Peter Lovesey
A Peter Diamond Mystery

Soho Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-598-9 (1569475989)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-598-0 (9781569475980)
Publication Date: September 2009
List Price: $24.00

Review: Detective Inspector Peter Diamond of Bath (England) assume the investigation of a cold case when a bone is found under an uprooted tree in Skeleton Hill, the tenth mystery in this series by Peter Lovesey.

The bone was found by two “dead” soldiers during their participation in the recreation of a 350-year-old English civil war. When the police are notified of the discovery, members of the crime lab conduct a thorough search of the area and find the rest of the skeletal remains, minus the head, of a young woman. Further testing in the lab prove the young woman had been in her late teens or early twenties, and dead more than 20 years. Since the body was missing its head, a murder investigation is opened. There is no DNA or other indentifying clues that could ascertain who the young woman was, and her clothes had rotted away, save for a “zipper pull” from her jeans. A short time later one of the “dead” soldiers who found the original bone, a history professor, is found murdered, killed by a severe blow to his head. Could it be possible that these two deaths, so many years apart, have something in common?

Lansdown, the site of the reenactment of the civil war and now the scene of two murders, sits on a hill seven hundred feet above sea level. It is windswept and isolated, a place where most would pass without stopping. Did Lansdown hold the solution to this mystery? Diamond and his team suspect foreign trafficking of teenagers to take place in the area. The skeleton of the young woman was the right age. Could she have been a runaway? But how is the murder of the professor related? Could the professor have actually been killed on the battlefield in the course of the reenactment with no one knowing? Diamond has to face the fact that he may have overplayed the possible connection between the two murders, 20 years apart. After all, coincidences happen. Life is full of them.

Diamond's dogged investigation of the murders, and the tenuous link between them, keeps the reader guessing as to how it will all be resolved. The detective inspector and his team are intelligent, dedicated officers, who have an easy and credible camaraderie. This attention to characters who bring depth and interest to the story, together with a most intriguing procedural plot, make "Skeleton Hill a "can't put it down" kind of novel.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Skeleton Hill and to Soho Press 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 Skeleton Hill from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. Skeleton Hill (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.

Synopsis (from the publisher): On Lansdown Hill, near Bath, a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is annually reenacted. Two of the reenactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them, a professor who played a Cavalier, is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter Diamond butts heads with the group of vigilantes who call themselves the Lansdown Society, discovering in the process that his boss Georgina is a member. She resolves to sideline Diamond, but matters don't pan out in accordance with her plans.

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Mystery Novelist David Liss Makes His Comic Book Debut This Week

Mystery author David Liss makes his comic book debut this week, writing the first issue of Daring Mystery Comics 1 (70th Anniversary Special), which features the Phantom Reporter. The Phantom Reporter first appeared in Daring Mystery Comics 3 in the early 1940s.

By day, cub reporter ... by night, relentless scourge of the underworld! But what could drive All-American collegiate champ Dick Jones to become a masked vigilante? Why does this high-society dilettante fight for the underprivileged? And what is the blood-soaked mystery that will take gun-toting terror from the swankiest Park Ave penthouse to the shadowed mean streets on the hunt for justice? Find out as Edgar Award-winning novelist Liss teams with artist Jason Armstrong to tell the never-before-revealed origin of the Phantom Reporter!

Back in the real world, as it were, Liss' third mystery featuring pugilist turned private investigator Benjamin Weaver, The Devil's Company, was recently published by Random House.

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Fox Picks Up New Series from Burn Notice Creator

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Fox has picked up a 13-episode series from Matt Nix, the creator of USA Network's hit series Burn Notice.

Jack and Dan is described as a buddy cop drama, and features Jack, an ambitious, by-the-book cop who is partnered with Dan, a drunken, lecherous, wild-card cop who hangs on to his job only because of a heroic act years before.

But "it's not a comedic whodunit," Nix said, who originally developed the concept and wrote a film screenplay before reworking it as a series. "It's an action comedy cop show that follows both the cops and the criminals and the ways they come together. The fun is seeing how they clash, and that doesn't happen in the conventional procedural ways."

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ABC Releases Sneak Peak Video for New Season of Castle

ABC has posted a sneak peak at the first episode of the new season of Castle, which is scheduled to have its second season premiere Monday September 21st at 10 PM (ET/PT). Appearing in a cameo role during the episode is mystery author Michael Connelly (though he doesn't appear in the promo).

The first season of Castle will be released on DVD the following day; it is available for pre-order.

The book tie-in to the series, Heat Wave, "written" by Richard Castle and featuring a NYPD homicide detective based on the series lead Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), will be published September 29th; it, too, is available for pre-order. Chapters 1 through 4 can be read on the ABC Castle website; additional chapters will be posted weekly through the season premiere.

Watch the season two sneak peak below:

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NBC Plans New Series Based on Lynda La Plante's Prime Suspect

Variety is reporting that NBC is developing a new project based on the ITV series Prime Suspect, which starred Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison and was written by Lynda La Plante. The series produced 7 multi-part episodes (made-for-television movies) over a 15-year period, winning 3 Emmys for best mini-series and 2 Emmys for Mirren as Best Actress.

Hank Steinberg (Without a Trace) will develop and write the pilot, which is expected to be a 2-hour episode.

The deal between NBC and ITV is the second to be recently announced; earlier this year ITV signed on to produce a UK version of NBC's long-running series Law & Order.

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New Mystery Prize Package Giveaway! How to Lose a Job by Becky A. Bartness

Mystery Book Contests is thrilled to announce a new mystery book prize package giveaway! Becky A. Bartness is giving away a signed copy of her second Kate Williams mystery, How to Lose a Job, plus a book light and messenger-style book bag.

After working fourteen years as a successful criminal law attorney in Chicago, Kate Williams leaves her job looking for a more stress-free lifestyle. A recent vacation at an Arizona dude ranch entices her to the state, and she accepts a position as a deputy county attorney in Phoenix.

Within weeks of beginning her new position, Kate realizes that the Maricopa County Attorney's Office is not the employee haven she'd hoped it would be. Not only does her supervisor, County Attorney Stan Rantwist, claim he receives his orders from a higher power, but his sneaky assistant Alan White seems to have made it his life's work to spy on Kate's professional and personal activities. Worst of all, it looks like something illegal may be going on in the office. Kate enlists the help of her oddball assistants-the tattooed and pierced MJ Polowski and the germaphobic Marcus John Martinez-O'Reilly Ramirez, otherwise known as Sam, to help her investigate a series of grossly overcharged criminal cases.

When investigation of the improper charges leads Kate and her crew to the discovery of more serious, widespread corruption Kate faces the difficult decision of who to trust. Can she be sure that the handsome Deputy Sheriff Bryan Turner is on her side when he offers to assist? One misstep and it could be more than her career at stake.

Enter daily! Provide your name and e-mail address on the How to Lose a Job giveaway entry form and correctly answer the contest question for a chance to win a prize package that includes a signed copy of How to Lose a Job, book light, and messenger-style book bag, courtesy of author Becky A. Bartness. Estimated prize package value: $100.

Remember to visit Mystery Book Contests regularly to check for new mystery book prize package giveaways.

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Author and Commercial Fisherman Linda Greenlaw Postpones Third Jane Bunker Mystery

Fans of the Jane Bunker mysteries may have to wait just a bit longer for the marine investigator's next outing: in an article on Working Waterfront, reporter Kris Osgood writes that author of the series, Linda Greenlaw, and her publisher, Hyperion, have come to an agreement releasing her from her contractual obligation to write a third Jane Bunker mystery. In the meantime, Greenlaw, a commercial fisherman, has written her first non-fiction book in five years, tentatively titled Seaworthy, which chronicles a 52-day swordfishing voyage she made last fall. Greenlaw is currently appearing in the Discovery Channel's documentary series "Swords: Life on the Line".

According to the article, halfway through her work on the second book in the series, Fisherman's Bend, the editor Greenlaw had always worked with at Hyperion quit his job. "I really liked him," she said, "he had become a good friend." He continued to work with her to finish Fisherman's Bend, but that was it.

Greenlaw says she enjoys writing non-fiction, but hasn't ruled out a third Jane Bunker mystery.

We reviewed Fisherman's Bend last year and rather enjoyed it, calling it a cozy of sorts, but adding "the author's fresh take on the heroine, setting, and even storyline elevates it to something more and arguably better." Read our full review of Fisherman's Bend on Mysterious Reviews.

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Behind-the-Scenes Video for Surrogates, Based on the Graphic Novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele

Touchstone Pictures has released a new "behind-the-scenes" video for its upcoming futuristic thriller Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis and based on graphic novel The Surrogates by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. A special, limited edition hardcover edition of the graphic novels from which the film was adapted was published in late July: The Surrogates Operator's Manual: Volume One and Volume Two.

Synopsis: The year is 2054, and life is reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered in the era of the personal surrogate, android substitutes that let users interact with the world without ever leaving their homes. It's a perfect world, and it's up to Detectives Harvey Greer (Willis in the movie) and Pete Ford of the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they'll need to stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning society to a time when people lived their lives instead of merely experiencing them.

The film opens in theaters September 25th. Watch the behind-the-scenes video below:

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Mystery Book Review: L'Assassin by Peter Steiner

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of L'Assassin by Peter Steiner. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

L'Assassin by Peter Steiner
A Louis Morgon Mystery

St. Martin's Minotaur (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-312-37343-0 (0312373430)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37343-6 (9780312373436)
Publication Date: July 2009
List Price: $13.99

Review: Peter Steiner's second thriller to feature ex-CIA agent Louis Morgon, L' Assassin, is a gripping tale from the first page to the last.

It's been thirty years since ex-spy Louis Morgon was unceremoniously, and undeservedly, dismissed from the CIA. After his discharge Louis tried to put his chaotic life in order, repairing his broken marriage, re-establishing relationships with his children, and dealing with the loss of his career. But one of the most troubling aspects of his new life was the hostility of Hugh Bowes, his one time mentor and superior at the Agency. It was a long time later before Louis came to realize that it was Bowes who had engineered his professional destruction. Eventually the whole episode mutated in Louis' mind into a set of idealistic questions about truth, about justice, about the human soul, and about evil. Louis’ memories began to dim after he left his home and went to Saint Leon sur Deme in France, where he has finally found a sort of peace. But once again Morgon believes Bowes is setting out to destroy his new life. And once again Morgon is engaged in battle this new life and the ones he loves.

A thief has broken into his home taking a few things, but nothing of any value, and no money was stolen. The thief was caught, pled guilty, and sent to prison. Later, though, as Louis was going through a drawer he noticed a tape was missing. This must have been what the thief wanted. But why? Soon thereafter, his good friend Jean Renard, a French police officer, noticed a tiny camera and microphone hidden in the kitchen of Louis' home. Now, Louis knows for sure he is being set up. And most likely on the orders of Hugh Bowes. Determined to expose him, Louis seeks information that he can use, traveling to Algeria, Canada, New York and finally to Washington D. C. Will he be able to protect his wife and children? Can he stop Hugh Bowes before Louis himself is arrested as a terrorist and a counter-spy?

The study in contrasts between the two men that face off in the story, Louis Morgon and Hugh Bowes, is one of the most compelling aspects of L' Assassin. Louis is a man of honor, a family man, a man who loves his country. Hugh shows little respect or regard for his job, the country he is sworn to protect, and the man he mentored for so many years. The tension that develops between the two as they try to outwit each other is palpable, and will keep the reader on the edge of their seat. The scope and of the story, and the detail of character, make for one incredible suspense thriller.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of L'Assassin and to St. Martin's Minotaur for providing a trade paperback edition of the book for this review.

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

If you are interested in purchasing L'Assassin from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.

Synopsis (from the publisher): Ex-spy Louis Morgon is in France living a quiet life of good food, good wine, and good friends. When his house is burglarized, he thinks nothing of it. But neither the burglar nor the motive for the burglary is as simple as it seems. And the consequences of the seemingly trivial break-in will lead Louis and his loved ones to the ends of the earth—and quite possibly to the ends of their lives.

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