New International Trailer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A new international trailer for the English-language adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been posted online by the studio. We've embedded it below.

The film stars Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, a reporter who has been asked to discover the truth behind the disappearance of an industrialist's daughter decades ago. He gets some unexpected assistance in his assignment from the titular character, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), an expert computer hacker.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first of the so-called "Millennium Trilogy" of thrillers by Stieg Larsson. All three books were adapted into Swedish-language films, which were released in 2009.

This English-language version — the studio is careful to say it is not a remake, but an original adaptation — opens in US theaters December 21st, 2011. (The date indicated on the trailer is the opening date in France … and apparently Belgium, given the source.)

OMN Welcomes Mystery Author Janet Kole

Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome Janet Kole, whose debut murder mystery is Suggestion of Death (CreateSpace, August 2011 Trade Paperback and ebook editions).

Today Janet tells us why practicing law is … murder!

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I always loved being a lawyer. Until I didn’t anymore. And that’s when I decided to start writing fiction about the experience of working as a lawyer. So much that really happened to me seemed fictional. It was great background material for a novel.

Photo provided courtesy of
Janet Kole

When I started in the profession, thirty years ago in a large national firm, the practice of law was a genteel affair, with afternoon breaks for tea served in china cups and brought around by a uniformed lady wheeling a tea cart, and evening drinks in a senior partner’s office replete with a well-stocked bar. I loved the clients, and I loved the cases, all interesting and intellectually challenging. I even liked many of my colleagues.

But gradually, over the years, lawyering became less a service industry and much more of a business. Add to that the economic collapse of 2008, and what was merely more of a business evolved into a cutthroat environment that rendered practicing law, at least for me, no longer fun. I left the firm where I had been a partner for years, and retired.

Although being a lawyer had stopped being fun, writing about my experience has been. I started by writing reality books for young lawyers that, with humor, gave advice about learning how to practice law. As these kinds of books go, they were best-sellers. Then I thought—why not let everyone get a sense of what a lawyer’s life is like?

So I wrote Suggestion of Death, published this year. It’s a murder mystery with a lawyer narrator. I added a bit of wish fulfillment to my experiences, having one law partner murder another. The humor is there, because as one of my colleagues said to me years ago, “if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry.”

As I look at my notes over the years, I realize I have material for many novels. And because I enjoy reading mysteries, I intend to include murders in all of my future novels. For some of the more outrageous situations I describe in my writings, be assured: truth is stranger than fiction. These things have happened, although not all to me. While my tenure in law firms has included coping with suicide and murder, no law partners of mine ever murdered other lawyers. They might have wanted to, but really, lawyers kill with words, not weapons.

I hope you’ll check out the fun and read Suggestion of Death. (See purchase options below.) And then please go to my website — KoleSlaw.com — and let me know what you think. And since my narrator is never named and I never let on the narrator’s gender, I’d be very interested to know what you think about the narrator’s sex.

Enjoy!

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Janet Kole practiced law for 30 years with both BigLaw law firms and, for five years, her own environmental law boutique. She started writing stories for her family at age 5. As a teenager, she wrote press releases for the local 4H club. She started publishing her work in The Bergen Record in the 1960s, as a feature reporter for the newspaper. She wrote for Ms. magazine, New Times, Penthouse and Harper’s Bazaar before becoming a lawyer. For years she had a column on women and the law in Harper’s Bazaar. Her guides for young lawyers, Chasing Paper and Pleading Your Case, were published by ABA publishing.

She retired as a lawyer in 2010. Her new career as a writer is keeping her busy, which means that she doesn’t get out to play golf as much as she thought she would. She loves her family and boats. She tries to stay warm by spending the winters in Florida. She lives part time in Philadelphia and Maryland.

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About Suggestion of Death:

"Ripped from the headlines," this murder mystery involves pedophile priests, AIDS and "Big Law" lawyers with a unique narrator.

The horrors begin when the narrator sees a peculiar message on the law firm's monitors: "Prepare to die." It is a suggestion that someone will die. And someone does: a much beloved retired partner, David St. Clair, beaten to death in his home. Then the firm's managing partner, Michael Bolden, disappears.

The unnamed narrator, whose gender is also never revealed, is a former prosecutor who has in the past helped the police solve crimes, who starts by investigating former partners, and young lawyers, who have been dismissed from the firm under a cloud.

David St. Clair had been the managing partner when they were fired. One suspect is an abusive lawyer who stole money from the firm. Another is a young lawyer dismissed for raiding client funds to underwrite a gambling habit. The narrator talks to a young man, Matt Moran, who was framed by Michael for sexual harrassment, and then dismissed. The narrator brings into the investigation another partner at the firm, in order to bounce ideas around. Melanie is a chain-smoking, outspoken iconoclast, a good foil for the staid narrator. Both the narrator and Mel think Michael is somehow involved.

Then another firm partner is murdered, this time in the firm's main conference room. Jud Levy's heart has been ripped from his chest, although the cause of death is a single gunshot to the head. Are the murders related? Jud helped Michael ruin the reputation of Matt Moran. Did Matt kill Jud? Anatole, known as Ant, Michael's best friend and a public service lawyer, is brutally beaten outside the firm's offices.

The narrator discovers that there is a connection among David, Michael and Ant. Each in some way has been involved with the Blessed Brothers of Mercy, a teaching order of monks. David has been a big contributor to the BBM, and Michael and Ant had each been part of the order for a period of time. The narrator meets with the head of the order, who reveals that the order has been the site of rampant sexual abuse for many years. Ant was investigating the abuse and the abusers for the diocese. Michael had been abused. He had recently discovered that he had acquired AIDS from his abuser.

Winner of the 2010 Hammett Prize Announced

The winner of the Hammett Prize has been posted on the International Association of Crime Writers website for the best crime novel published during 2010.

The winner, announced this week during the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Conference in Atlantic City, is …

• The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer (Minotaur Books)

Review: Port City Black and White by Gerry Boyle

Port City Black and White by Gerry Boyle. A Brandon Blake Mystery. Down East Books Hardcover, September 2011.

This is a riveting character study, one that follows a cop who can't seem to distinguish between the gray area in which he operates and the right and wrong, black and white view he takes of his job. A strongly written mystery, it is also one that is hard to predict how it will all turn out … and at what cost to everyone involved.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Port City Black and White by Gerry Boyle.

True Detective by Max Allan Collins is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature True Detective by Max Allan Collins as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $0.99 is valid only for today, Wednesday, September 21, 2011.

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True Detective by Max Allan Collins
A Nate Heller Mystery (1st in series)
AmazonEncore

Originally published in hardcover by St. Martin's Press in 1983, True Detective introduces the 1930s-era ex-Chicago cop turned private investigator. The book won the 1984 Shamus Award for Best PI Hardcover.

About True Detective (from the publisher): When Mayor Cermak’s “Hoodlum Squad” brings Heller along on a raid with no instructions but to keep his mouth shut and his gun handy, he becomes an unwitting, unwilling part of a hit on Al Capone’s successor, Frank Nitti. As a result, Heller quits the force to become a private eye; his first job — head off a nation-shaking political assassination in Miami Beach. With the Chicago World’s Fair as a backdrop, Heller encounters a Ragtime array of crooks and clients, including Al Capone, George Raft, “Dutch” Reagan, and FDR himself.

Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Kindle Daily Deal Download Link.

Review: Liquid Smoke by Jeff Shelby

Liquid Smoke by Jeff Shelby. A Noah Braddock Mystery. Tyrus Books Hardcover, September 2011.

This superior crime novel, relatively short and perfectly paced, has a storyline that is simple in its scope, yet there is nothing simple in how it unfolds. One cannot help but wonder, though, given how everything plays out, will there be a fourth mystery in the series?

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Liquid Smoke by Jeff Shelby.

Jeffrey Archer's The Eleventh Commandment to be Developed for Television

It was just last week that we were reporting that one of Jeffrey Archer's thrillers was being developed into the first of an expected film franchise.

Now we're learning that another of his novels, the 1999 political thriller The Eleventh Commandment, is heading for the small screen. Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) will steer the project.

The book centers on one Connor Fitzgerald. Devoted family man. Servant of his country. CIA assassin. Days before his retirement from the Company, Fitzgerald comes face to face with an enemy who, for the first time, even he cannot handle — his own boss, Helen Dexter, Director of the CIA.

But Dexter's stranglehold on the agency is threatened by a power greater than her own, and her only hope is to destroy Fitzgerald. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a new threat to national security is emerging: a ruthless hardline Russian president who is determined to force a military confrontation between the two superpowers. It's up to the intrepid Fitzgerald to pull off his most daring mission yet — save the world … and his own life.

(Source: Variety.)

Review: A Mortal Terror by James R. Benn

A Mortal Terror by James R. Benn. A Billy Boyle, World War II Mystery. Soho Crime Hardcover, September 2011.

The mysteries in this series have been uniformly outstanding, and the present one continues this fine trend. Benn has a unique and sensitive way of incorporating the horror of war into a credible fictional narrative. This book, and the ones that precede it, is highly and enthusiastically recommended.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: A Mortal Terror by James R. Benn.

Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (110920)

Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, shown below are those that fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller and adventure categories.

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Purchase/Rental Options

The River Murders (2011)

Film Synopsis (from the studio): The sins of the past are not forgotten in this chilling suspense thriller starring Ray Liotta, Christian Slater and Ving Rhames.

When the first body was discovered, it seemed a coincidence. But now homicide detective Jack Verdon (Liotta) has cause to worry: the victims of a series of brutal sex murders are all his former girlfriends. Suspected by the FBI agent who’s taken over the case (Slater) and suspended by his captain (Rhames), Jack must work outside the law if he’s to find the killer, save his future and protect what’s left of his past.

Though it appears this film may have had an international theatrical release this past summer, it is a direct-to-DVD release here in the US.

(Rated R; 92 minutes)

Watch a trailer for the film below:

Review: The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook

The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook. Non-series. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Hardcover, June 2011.

This novel of espionage spans decades and continents, yet is at its core a tale of personal intrigue. The effective interplay of characters and setting and of past and present makes this book a pleasure to read.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Quest for Anna Klein by Thomas H. Cook.