Check Out The Rap Sheet's Killed in the Ratings Series

Our friends over at The Rap Sheet have been running a most entertaining series of posts they call "Killed in the Ratings", crime dramas that, at the time, showed great promise but were canceled after (or sometimes during) their first season.

Thirteen shows have been selected to be featured, of which (as of this morning) nine have been posted: Serpico, Leg Work, Joe Forrester, Gavilan, The Devlin Connection, Nakia, The Delphi Bureau, Get Christie Love!, and Griff. All of the posts include detailed background information as well as videos of the opening credits.

We've been watching crime dramas since way back when, but we have to admit, some of these are new to us! How many do you remember?

The Secret Series Book 4: This Isn't What It Looks Like by Pseudonymous Bosch

Yesterday, the fourth book in the Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch, This Isn't What It Looks Like, was published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

If it were up to the author, the mysterious and possibly paranoid Pseudonymous Bosch, you wouldn’t even be allowed to see these books, never mind read them. It’s very dangerous for outsiders to know too much about 11-year-old survivalist Cass, or her talkative buddy Max-Ernest, or their hair-raising battles with the evil Midnight Sun. For centuries the skeletal Ms. Mauvais and her vile minions have wreaked havoc with their relentless quest for eternal youth. Now the Secret is almost within their grasp ... if only they can wrestle it from Cass!

In this daring fourth adventure, Cass finds herself alone and disoriented, a stranger in a dream-like, medieval world. Where is she? Who is she? With the help of a long-lost relative, she begins to uncover clues and secrets -- piecing together her family's history as she fights her way back to the present world.

Meanwhile, back home, Cass is at the hospital in a deep coma. Max-Ernest knows she ate Time Travel Chocolate -- and he's determined to find a cure. Can our expert hypochondriac diagnose Cass's condition before it's too late? And will he have what it takes to save the survivalist?

Learn more about the series, including an entertaining video from Nosey Reader News, on the Little, Brown website.

Find more mystery series for children and young adults at First Clues: Mysteries for Kids.

USA Network Renews Law & Order: Criminal Intent for Tenth and Final Season

In a press release yesterday, USA Network (a unit of NBC Universal) announced that the network had ordered eight episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which will comprise its tenth and final season, to air sometime in 2011. Original series star Vincent D'Onofrio will return as Detective Robert Goren. Jeff Goldblum, who starred in the ninth season as Detective Zach Nichols, has already announced he was leaving the series.

Separately, the studio producing the series announced it has made a pilot commitment for a new project with Dick Wolf, who created the Law & Order franchise.

Red Star Rising by Brian Freemantle (Book Review)

Red Star Rising by Brian Freemantle. A Charlie Muffin Mystery. Minotaur Books Hardcover, August 2010.

Charlie Muffin is seconded to the British Embassy in Moscow to investigate when an unidentified body of a man is inexplicably found dead in the garden of the supposedly secure grounds in Red Star Rising, the fourteenth mystery in this series by Brian Freemantle.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Red Star Rising by Brian Freemantle.

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Mysterious Reviews is your source for the latest mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime novel reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Telemystery: New Prime Time Crime for Wednesday, September 22nd

This week we're highlighting some of the new and returning prime time crime series that may be of interest to fans of mystery and suspense television programming. Here are the featured series for Wednesday, September 22nd.

ABC: The pilot episode of The Whole Truth airs at 10 PM (ET/PT). Jimmy Brogan (Rob Morrow), born and raised in Hell's Kitchen, is and one of New York's rising criminal defense attorney stars. Kathryn Peale (Maura Tierney), the product of a New England background and a sheriff father, is a Deputy Bureau Chief in the Manhattan District Attorney's office. These two have been friends (but enemies in the courtroom) since their days at Yale Law School, and face off in a case of a high school history teacher and family man who's arrested for the rape and murder of a female student.

CBS: The sixth season of Criminal Minds opens with an episode titled "The Longest Night" at 9 PM (ET/PT). The Behaviorial Analysis Unit (BAU) team closes in on a serial killer as he continues his murder spree throughout Los Angeles -- with Detective Spicer's kidnapped daughter as his hostage. The series stars Joe Mantegna as David Rossi, a founding member of the BAU.

CBS: The pilot episode of The Defenders airs at 10 PM (ET/PT). Las Vegas defense attorneys Nick Morelli (Jim Belushi) and Pete Kaczmarek (Jerry O'Connell) defend a young man facing a murder charge in a case unique to the city that requires a slight bending of the rules and "by any means necessary" tactics.

NBC: Undercovers premieres at 8 PM (ET/PT) with its pilot episode. Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), are a typical married couple who own and operate a small catering company in Los Angeles. Secretly, the duo were two of the best spies the CIA had ever known, until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired. When fellow spy and good friend Leo Nash (Carter MacIntyre) goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss and agency liaison, Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney), to locate and rescue Nash.

NBC: The twelfth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit opens with two back-to-back episodes, starting at 9 PM (ET/PT). In "Locum", a foster couple call Detectives Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) to the scene of the crime when their ten-year-old adopted daughter disappears. It soon comes to light that she ran away to meet with a man named Erik Weber, whom she met on the internet and whom Benson and Stabler suspect of ulterior motives regarding the girl. Weber denies any wrongdoing, and also expresses romantic interest in Benson. However, as the investigation continues, the detectives realize that the girl's foster parents may be hiding something that could change the entire course of the case. In "Bullseye", Detectives Benson and Stabler are called to the hospital after a 10-year-old girl is raped. They arrive to find her so traumatized that she cannot even tell them her name. With the help of Detectives Odafin Tutuola and John Munch, they are able to identify the young victim. But they soon realize that her home life is far from normal as Dr. George Huang discovers that her mother suffers from a rare condition that renders her unable to recognize that the young girl is, in fact, her daughter. When the detectives find themselves without a lead, Erik Weber, a man they met on their previous case, decides to get involved. But he may be overstepping his bounds.

NBC Picks Up Pilot based on the Spy Novel Legends by Robert Littell

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that NBC has picked up a pilot based on the 2005 novel Legends by Robert Littell.

Adapted by Mark Bomback (Deception, Unstoppable), the storyline is about a government agent who slips into past personas created for him by the CIA -- so-called "legends" -- all the while wondering if his current identity isn't a legend as well.

We haven't read the book, but the plot seems to have potential for a series. What do you think?

The Paramour's Daughter by Wendy Hornsby (Book Review)

The Paramour's Daughter by Wendy Hornsby. A Maggie MacGowen Mystery. Perseverance Press Trade Paperback, September 2010.

Forty-three year old Los Angeles filmmaker Maggie MacGowen's life is turned upside down when she learns she is the daughter of her father's affair with an intern while he was teaching in France -- and her birth mother was just killed by a hit-and-run driver in Malibu -- in The Paramour's Daughter, the seventh mystery in this series by Wendy Hornsby.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Paramour's Daughter by Wendy Hornsby.

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Mysterious Reviews is your source for the latest mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime novel reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Film Rights Acquired for Firelight Series by Sophie Jordan

Variety is reporting that Mandalay Pictures has acquired the film rights to the paranormal suspense thriller Firelight by Sophie Jordan. The first in an expected three book series for young adults, Firelight was published earlier this month by HarperCollins.

The storyline centers on Jacinda, a draki -- a descendant of dragons, and whose greatest defense is her secret ability to shift into human form. When she breaks the most sacred tenet among her kind, she is forced to flee into the mortal world ... where she meets and falls in love with a young man -- a draki hunter.

Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy, New for Nintendo DS

Tomorrow, September 21st, the murder mystery game Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy is released for the Nintendo DS.

In the game, the master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, leads you on a shadowy journey to finally solve the mystery of his death. As a famed mystery writer, you're looking for your next cold case to crack when an unexpected visitor hands you the perfect case to get your career moving again. When Edgar leads you through some of his most famous works, The Raven, The Gold Bug, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter, you'll collect clues, interview witnesses and piece together the conspiracy behind the death of one of America's greatest writers. Who killed Edgar? And, why were such measures taken so that no one would ever know the truth? You have 24 hours and ghosts of the past to guide you!

For more mystery games available on the Nintendo DS, visit Games of Mystery.

Telemystery: New Prime Time Crime for Tuesday, September 21st

Continuing with our look at the new season of prime time crime, we're highlighting some of the new and returning series that may be of interest to fans of mystery and suspense television programming that premiere on Tuesday, September 21st.

ABC: The pilot episode of Detroit 1-8-7 airs at 10 PM (ET/PT). Detectives Damon Washington (Jon Michael Hill) and Louis Fitch (Michael Imperioli) investigate a double homicide at a pharmacy. Was it a drug theft gone bad or something else entirely? Meanwhile, Sergeant Jesse Longford (James McDaniel) and Detective Vikram Mahajan (Shaun Majumder) try to track down the killer of an attorney with many enemies. When both cases intersect, the cops are in a race against time to stop the killing spree, culminating in a high-speed pursuit and a perilous standoff, putting the cops in harm's way.

NBC: The eighth season of NCIS premieres at 8 PM (ET/PT) in an episode titled "Spider and the Fly." Special Agent Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and his team are potential targets when their investigation of the murder of a helicopter pilot leads Gibbs back to the vengeful Paloma Reynosa, whose father Gibbs murdered. With Paloma Reynosa still on the loose, Gibbs must take desperate measures to protect the ones he loves.

NBC: The second season of NCIS: Los Angeles follows with two new episodes beginning at 9 PM (ET/PT). In "Human Traffic", when one of their own disappears while undercover, the team must work alongside LAPD on a case involving human-trafficking, money laundering and drugs. In "Black Widow", after a mysterious hit squad takes out a Special Agent on assignment, the NCIS team jumps into action before the next target is set. NCIS: Los Angeles stars Chris O'Donnell as Special Agent "G" Callen and LL Cool J as Special Agent Sam Hanna.