Cory Doctorow's Young Adult Thriller Little Brother Optioned for Film

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that AngryFilms producer Don Murphy (Transformers, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) has optioned the young adult political thriller Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (the title a play on Big Brother by George Orwell). The production company is currently seeking a director and screenwriter.

About Little Brother (from the publisher): Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works – and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

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Games of Mystery: The Lost Cases of 221B Baker St., New at Big Fish Games

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed board, electronic and video games, parties for kids and adults, and murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery casual game from Big Fish Games released today. You can find out more about these games by visiting our Mystery Games: Big Fish Download Games page or by clicking on the links provided below.

Return to 221 Baker St. and play as the famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes to solve 16 mysterious crimes in Victorian England. Dust off your magnifying glass and use your astute observational skills to gather evidence in 60 brilliantly rendered locations around Victorian England including Stonehenge, Marlsbury Castle, London's Music Hall and more!

Unlock vital clues by playing over 50 mind-bending puzzles and mini-games in each case, including anagrams, cryptograms, and more. Featuring over 40 levels of hidden object and find the difference gameplay. Interact with more than 100 lively characters including Watson, Mycroft, and Inspector Lestrade. Each clue leads you closer to catching the culprit in some of Holmes' toughest cases!

Also available: The Lost Cases of 221B Baker St. Game Walkthrough.

See also the previous game the series, The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes.

The Lost Cases of 221B Baker St. may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (237.66 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour.

Watch a preview video below:

Get any standard game for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. Other benefits include the $2.99 Daily Deal, Tomorrow's Game Today, and special member rewards. And if you purchase any 6 games within a single month, you earn a free game with the Big Fish Game Club Monthly Punch Card! (Collector's Editions earn 3 punches each, half-way towards your free game!)

Read our new game reviews by Ms. Terri: Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy (Review), Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses! (Review), The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime (Review), Enlightenus (Review), and Nick Chase: A Detective Story (Review).

Big Fish Games: Bestsellers

Big Fish Games: New releases

And don't forget to visit Games of Mystery for all kinds of mysterious fun!

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Mystery Book Review: I, Alex Cross by James Patterson

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of I, Alex Cross by James Patterson. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson
An Alex Cross Mystery

Little, Brown (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-316-01878-3 (0316018783)
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01878-4 (9780316018784)
Publication Date: November 2009
List Price: $27.99

Review: Murder hits too close to home for famed detective Alex Cross as he returns in the 16th book in James Patterson’s Alex Cross series, I, Alex Cross.

Just as Alex is about to delve into a new and exciting time in his life, it seems as if everything instead is crashing down around him. First, Nana, one of the most beloved characters in the Alex Cross books, is fighting for her life as her frail heart battles against her overwhelming spirit. And, in between hospital visits, Alex must use his training as a psychologist, a detective and FBI agent to try and make sense of yet another killing spree in D.C. But this isn’t just another brutal murder, this time it involves one of his own – his estranged niece. Through investigating her death, he must come face to face with disturbing news about his niece and the illicit life she chose that led to her untimely murder. What’s more alarming is the powerful political ring that appears to be interwoven amidst murder, sex and betrayal. As the facts become clearer, Alex must tread carefully as he investigates the most powerful people in America.

Quantity or quality? This is the question that comes to mind while reading yet another James Patterson novel. James Patterson has definite talent for writing and his storylines are creative and timely – this cannot be denied. Having read nearly every James Patterson novel, and certainly every Alex Cross novel, it can be concluded though that as time goes on, James Patterson seems to be emphasizing quantity over quality. Having published a total of nine novels in 2009 alone, James Patterson is certainly in the forefront of suspense writers today. However, as a result, is the quality being sacrificed? Most definitely. James Patterson will always be a favorite author, and the Alex Cross series will always be a good solid read, however, the last few novels pale in comparison to the earlier titles such as Along Came a Spider. Certainly the two colliding stories in I, Alex Cross are interesting. Readers are fully committed to Nana, and her death would be felt by millions. Plus Alex’s countless love interests throughout the series have the reader celebrating now that he appears to have found happiness. But the logistics of solving a multiple murder and being at the hospital every available moment treads on the unrealistic. The reader wants to believe, “Well it’s Alex Cross – of course he can manage to be everywhere he needs to be, even if it rips him apart.” But, sometimes it just doesn’t seem believable. Nonetheless, I, Alex Cross is one of those books that keeps readers up at night to finish it in a hurry. The reader is anxiously awaiting the news about Nana’s health, and although the identity of Zeus (the sadistic killer) is evident relatively early on in the book, the reader is left excited to find out how he can possibly bring down a person of such power and influence. So, aside from the fact that I, Alex Cross does not meet the standards of James Patterson’s earlier novels in the series, it is still quite an enjoyable one-day read.

Special thanks to Margo Nauert for contributing her review of I, Alex Cross and to for providing of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Margo Nauert — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington's wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim.

The hunt for her murderer leads Alex and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to a place where every fantasy is possible, if you have the credentials to get in. Alex and Bree are soon facing down some very important, very protected, very dangerous people in levels of society where only one thing is certain -- they will do anything to keep their secrets safe.

As Alex closes in on the killer, he discovers evidence that points to the unimaginable -- a revelation that could rock the entire world.

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Mysteries on TV: The Prisoner Mini-series, 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 a mini-series being released on DVD this week.

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Last November, AMC presented The Prisoner, a 6-part miniseries, a reinterpretation of the British 1960s cult hit that starred Patrick McGoohan as a man confined within a mysterious village.

In this new version, Jim Caviezel stars as Six (McGoohan's character), who finds himself inexplicably trapped in The Village with no memory of how he arrived. As he explores his environment, he discovers that his fellow inhabitants are identified by number instead of name, have no memory of any prior existence, and are under constant surveillance. Not knowing whom to trust, Six is driven by the need to discover the truth behind The Village, the reason for his being there, and most importantly -- how he can escape.

Ian McKellen stars as Two, the enigmatic man who seems to run The Village.

The The Prisoner: The Complete Miniseries DVD set of 3 discs contain the 6 episodes (each running about 50 minutes) that aired on AMC over three consecutive nights, from November 15th through 17th, 2009.

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

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Warner Bros. To Film Live Action Adaptation of Bleach Manga

The Hollywood Reporter blog Heat Vision is reporting that Warner Bros. is planning a live-action film adaptation of the Bleach (ブリーチ) manga by Tite Kubo. Since first appearing in August 2001, Bleach has been continuously serialized, and the source for an animated television series, several feature films, even video games.

The manga have been collected as graphic novels in English, the most recent of which, Bleach Volume 30, was published earlier this month.

About Bleach (from the publisher): Hot-tempered 15-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki has the unsettling ability to see spirits who are unable to rest in peace. His sixth sense leads him to Rukia, a Soul Reaper who destroys Hollows (soul-devouring monsters) and ensures the deceased find repose with the Soul Society. When she's injured in battle, Rukia transfers her sword and much of her power to Ichigo, whose spiritual energy makes him a formidable substitute Soul Reaper. But the orange-haired teenager isn't sure he wants the job: too many risks and moral dilemmas.

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Mystery Godoku Puzzle for March 22, 2010

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:

D E F H I N O T W

La sombra del viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a Spanish language thriller, is translated as The Shadow … (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: Freeze Frame by Peter May

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

Freeze Frame by Peter May
An Enzo Macleod Mystery

Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-694-8 (1590586948)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-694-5 (9781590586945)
Publication Date: March 2010
List Price: $24.95

Review: Forensic scientist Enzo Macleod tackles the fourth of seven unsolved, cold case crimes when he travels to the Ile de Groix off the coast of Brittany, France, in Freeze Frame, the 4th mystery in this series by Peter May.

Adam Killian was murdered twenty years ago at his home on the island. Stricken with lung cancer, he only had a few weeks to live anyway. But before his death he called his daughter-in-law on the mainland, pleading with her that if he should die before his son, her husband, returned from a trip to Africa, that she preserve his study exactly as it was at the time of his death, that he would know what to do. In an a cruel twist of fate, Killian's son was killed in an accident returning to France. His wife, Jane, honored her father-in-law's wishes and sealed the room. At the time, the police investigating his murder botched the case against their prime suspect, the jury ultimately delivering a not guilty verdict ... though everyone on the island seems to think he was guilty. Jane wants to sell the house but allows Enzo the opportunity one last chance to do what no one else has been able: to solve the murder of Adam Killian.

Freeze Frame is, to put it simply, an outstanding mystery, coupling the best aspects of a whodunit with those of a investigative procedural, a "little island mystery" as one of the residents puts it. The first few chapters serve as a historical amuse bouche, whetting the reader's appetite for the remarkable tale that follows. Here's a passage when Enzo first enters the room where Killian was killed:

He felt a strange thrill of anticipation, all his instincts on suddenly heightened alert. Here was the room where Killian had died. The room in which he had somehow created a message for his son, a message that the young man had never seen, and which had never been deciphered by anyone since. He laid his overnight bag down in the hall, and took three steps back in time to an early fall night in September, 1990.

The puzzle is intricate, the investigation and observational deductive reasoning by Enzo flawless.

The only minor drawback to the book is a subplot involving Enzo and his on-again / off-again relationship with Charlotte, who unexpectedly shows up on the island with "news". Though it weighs the story down, it fortunately doesn't consume too many pages, allowing Enzo (and the reader) to get back to solving this cold case, possibly the best of the series to date.

Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of Freeze Frame for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

If you are interested in purchasing Freeze Frame from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.

Synopsis (from the publisher): A promise made to a dying man leads forensics ace Enzo Macleod, a Scot who's been teaching in France for many years, to the study which the man's heir has preserved for nearly twenty years. The dead man left several clues there designed to reveal the killer's identity to the man's son, but ironically the son died soon after the father. So begins the fourth of seven cold cases written up in a bestselling book by Parisian journalist Roger Raffin that Enzo rashly boasted he could solve (he's been successful with the first three). It takes Enzo to a tiny island off the coast of Brittany in France, where he must confront the hostility of locals who have no desire to see the infamous murder back in the headlines. An attractive widow, a man charged but acquitted of the murder -- but still the viable suspect, a crime scene frozen in time, a dangerous hell hole by the cliffs, and a collection of impenetrable messages, make this one of Enzo's most difficult cases.

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Mystery Book Review: Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis

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

Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis
A Max Liebermann Mystery

Random House (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-8129-8099-9 (0812980999)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8129-8099-8 (9780812980998)
Publication Date: February 2010
List Price: $15.00

Review: Psychologist Max Liebermann is called upon to assist in the investigation of the brutal murder of a monk in Vienna Secrets, the fourth mystery in this series by Frank Tallis.

Brother Stanislav of the Piarist Order is found decapitated, his head seemingly twisted from his body. Detective Oskar Rheinhardt can hardly believe a single man could have had the strength to do such a thing. Even two men. But soon thereafter another body is found, a Catholic priest, killed in the same manner. Both men had been outspoken critics of Jews, likening them to a plague in the city. With their bodies found adjacent to a Plague Column, erected throughout the city to celebrate the end of the epidemic plague in the 17th century, the symbolism couldn't be more obvious. Are their murders the work of a Jewish sect out for revenge?

This supposition is quickly proved invalid, or at least unlikely, when the body of a rabbi is found, his head also placed near a plague column. Maybe someone is trying to start a religious war in Vienna, striving to get each side to blame the other -- but to what end? Some, however, think it is the work of the devil himself. Liebermann and Rheinhardt follow leads from one end of Vienna to the other in an attempt to solve these gruesome crimes.

Vienna Secrets takes place in 1903 at a time when dissention between Christians and Jews was very real in Vienna. The historical aspect to the story together with detailed descriptions of the cultural life in the city at that time lend a credible backdrop to the murder mystery, so much so that it's hard to separate fact from fiction. Max Liebermann is an interesting, conflicted character: a non-practicing Jew but also a physician, trained to heal the physically ailing, but now practicing the study of the mind. This solidly plotted historical mystery is a strong entry in this series.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Vienna Secrets and to Random House for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): In Freud’s dangerous, dazzling Vienna of 1903, an ingenious doctor and an intrepid detective again challenge psychotic criminals across a landscape teetering between the sophisticated and the savage, the thrilling future and the primitive past.

On opposite sides of the city, two men are found beheaded on church grounds. Detective Inspector Oskar Reinhardt is baffled. Could the killer be mentally ill, someone the victims came into contact with? Some are even blaming the murders on the devil. But when psychoanalyst Dr. Max Liebermann learns that both victims were vocal members of a shadowy anti-Semitic group, he turns his gaze to the city’s close-knit Hasidic community. The doctor is drawn into an urban underworld that hosts and hides virulent racists on one side and followers of kabbalah on the other. And as the evidence—and bodies—pile up, Liebermann must reconsider his own path, the one that led him away from the miraculous and toward a life of the mind.

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Games of Mystery: Millennium Secrets Emerald Curse, New from Big Fish Games

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed board, electronic and video games, parties for kids and adults, and murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery casual game from Big Fish Games released today. You can find out more about these games by visiting our Mystery Games: Big Fish Download Games page or by clicking on the links provided below.

Kate McCormick receives a call from her old friend Archibald Jones, a professor who’s an expert in ancient civilizations. He asks her to retrieve a very important briefcase from a secret location in New York City and deliver it to the authorities, but before he can explain further, Kate hears voices and then the call ends abruptly.

Confused by this strange call, Kate begins her investigation that will take her to New York, Barcelona, the Bahamas and Mexico, with transfers to the ancient Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. Kate’s adventure will be difficult and dangerous. She will face a mysterious organization, and during her quest she will uncover one of the ancient secrets of the Aztec Empire.

Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse is the first in what is expected to be a series of detective games in this franchise.

Also available: Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse Strategy Guide and a Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse Game Walkthrough.

Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (133.50 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour.

Watch a preview video below:

Get any standard game for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. Other benefits include the $2.99 Daily Deal, Tomorrow's Game Today, and special member rewards. And if you purchase any 6 games within a single month, you earn a free game with the Big Fish Game Club Monthly Punch Card! (Collector's Editions earn 3 punches each, half-way towards your free game!)

Read our new game reviews by Ms. Terri: Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy (Review), Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses! (Review), The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime (Review), Enlightenus (Review), and Nick Chase: A Detective Story (Review).

Big Fish Games: Bestsellers

Big Fish Games: New releases

And don't forget to visit Games of Mystery for all kinds of mysterious fun!

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Reviews of Mystery and Suspense Books for Kids, New This Week on Book Trends

Book Trends, a review site for young adult and children books, published several new book reviews this past week. We're presenting here a summary of those in the mystery / suspense category.

Dream Life by Lauren Mechling. The 2nd mystery in the Claire Voyante series. Recommended for readers aged 12 and older. Lexile measure: N/A. Reviewed by a 6th grade student who wrote, "... extraordinary [with] some mystery and suspense weaved into it," adding, "I do think everybody should have a chance to read this book because it is just that good."

For more reviews of children and young adult books, visit Book Trends; their reviews will amaze you!

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