Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (120417)

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.

See also a list of current mystery and suspense DVD, Blu-ray, or VOD deals on Amazon.com.

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Purchase/Rental Options

Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)

Film Synopsis (from the studio): No plan. No backup. No choice. Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his elite team go underground after a bombing of the Kremlin implicates the IMF as international terrorists. While trying to clear the agency's name, the team uncovers a plot to start a nuclear war. Now, to save the world, they must use every high-tech trick in the book. The mission has never been more real, more dangerous, or more impossible.

Rated PG-13. Running time: 133 minutes.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

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Purchase/Rental Options

7 Below (2012)

Film Synopsis (from the studio): In the midst of a hurricane in 1910, a 10 year-old boy named Sean brutally murdered his mother, father, aunt and two little sisters. Now, Adam (Matt Barr) his brother Isaac (Luke Goss) along with four strangers, McCormick (Val Kilmer) and his wife Brooklyn (Bonnie Somerville), a young Doctor (Christian Baha) and a local girl (Rebecca Da Costa) find themselves trapped in the same home where the murders occurred one hundred years later, after a tour bus accident has left them stranded. Their host, a mysterious loner named Jack (Ving Rhames), has his own personal reasons for wanting the group to remain in his home. As the storm rages outside, strange and horrifying things begin to happen inside!

This direct-to-DVD release is Rated R. Running time: 90 minutes.

Watch a trailer for the film below:

J. K. Rowling to Publish a Harry Potter Encyclopedia

The news is buried a bit on J. K. Rowling's website — on the FAQs and Rumours page — but the author has announced she has started on a Harry Potter encyclopedia. Here is what she has to say:

"For a long time I have been promising an encyclopaedia of Harry's world, and I have started work on this now — some of it forms the new content in Pottermore. It is likely to be a time-consuming job, but when finished I shall donate all royalties to charity."

Just last week Rowling's publisher announced the title and synopsis of her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy.

Review: Divorce Horse by Craig Johnson

We've just published our Review of Divorce Horse by Craig Johnson. A Walt Longmire Short Story. Viking Ebook, April 2012.

Available to purchase from …

Nickelodeon Orders Third Season of House of Anubis

Nickelodeon has ordered a third season of its teen live-action mystery series House of Anubis.

Produced in the UK and based on the Belgian/Dutch drama Het Huis Anubis, the series follows eight students, who stumble upon and try to solve a hidden mystery at an English boarding school, while dealing with the highs and lows of their teenage years.

Though filmed with actors, the series adopts an animated broadcast format, airing five days a week with each half-hour episode consisting of two 11-minute segments.

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for April 16, 2012

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!).

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This week's letters and mystery clue:

B I N O R S T U W

Colonel Rice makes his first appearance in an Agatha Christie mystery featuring a man wearing this (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!

Winners of the 2012 Minnesota Book Awards Announced

The Minnesota Book Awards were handed out yesterday and crime novelist Richard A. Thompson was honored with the top prize in Genre Fiction for his stand-alone mystery Big Wheat (Poisoned Pen Press).

Another mystery author took home the Readers' Choice Award: Kurtis Scaletta for his tween book The Tanglewood Terror (Knopf/Random House Children's Books).

See all the winners on The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library website.

Silver Lake by Peter Gadol is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Silver Lake by Peter Gadol as today's second free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

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Silver Lake by Peter Gadol
Publisher: Tyrus Books/Adams Media

About Silver Lake (from the publisher): Robbie and Carlo have been involved professionally and personally for twenty years. Lately, though, their architectural practice and their marriage are beginning to falter.

One fall day, Tom Field, a peculiar young man, drifts into their storefront office asking to use the phone. The men get to talking; Tom is curious but enchanting, and Robbie ends up playing tennis with him that afternoon, ultimately inviting him home for dinner.

The ensuing evening involves a lot of wine and banter and then increasingly dark conversation, and when the stranger has had too much to drink, the two men insist he sleep in their guest room.

During the night, Tom commits an act of violence that shatters the couple's ordered lives—the men are forced to cope with the blossoming doubt and corrosive secrets. Each in his own way, Robbie and Carlo seek to understand the disquiet stemming from their time with Tom.

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

B&N Free Nook Book Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

The Feasts of Lesser Men by Stephen Parrish is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Feasts of Lesser Men by Stephen Parrish as today's free mystery ebook.

This title was listed as free as of the date and time of this post. Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

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The Feasts of Lesser Men by Stephen Parrish
Publisher: Lascaux Books

About The Feasts of Lesser Men (from the publisher): Germany, 1990: The Berlin Wall has fallen. East and West Germany are discussing reunification. After four and a half decades of cloak-and-dagger intrigue, the Cold War is coming to an end.

Not for Jimmy Fisher, a plans clerk in the American 111th Infantry Division. Fisher black markets cigarettes, steals valuables from the dead, and takes advantage of every weakness he identifies in each living person he meets. Which makes him the perfect target for foreign agents seeking to buy documents.

Forced to make life-or-death choices in an ever heightening conflict between his personal safety and the security of his country, Fisher flees to the Vosges Mountains of France with a woman he trusts. In time he learns that love is worthy of a greater conviction than is loyalty to one's country, and that abstract symbols and arbitrary boundaries are not worth dying for.

Important Note: This book was listed for free on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Download Link(s):

Amazon Free Kindle Edition Download Link.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Review: Executive Severance by Robert K. Blechman

We've just published our Review of Executive Severance by Robert K. Blechman. NeoPoiesis Press Trade Paperback, December 2011.

Available to purchase from …

Telemystery: New CBS Cop Drama, NYC 22, Premieres Sunday, April 15th

A new cop drama, NYC 22, premieres tomorrow, Sunday April 15th, at 10 PM (ET/PT) on CBS.

NYC 22 follows six NYPD rookies as they patrol the gritty streets of upper Manhattan. The new trainees include Jennifer "White House" Perry, a former college volleyball star and Marine MP in Iraq with a take-charge attitude; Ray "Lazarus" Harper, the oldest rookie and a former police news reporter with better sources than most seasoned cops; Tonya Sanchez, who comes from a family with a criminal history; Ahmad Kahn, an Afghani native who fought his way to freedom; Kenny McClaren, a fourth-generation police officer with great instincts but qualms about joining the force; and Jayson "Jackpot" Toney, a young basketball legend who squandered his opportunity in the NBA.

Their demanding Field Training Officer, Daniel "Yoda" Dean, is a case-hardened, unsentimental veteran of the force who emphasizes basics and holds each cop accountable for their actions. Rounding out the team is Sergeant Terry Howard, a no-nonsense plainclothes officer from the Gang Intel Unit, who trains the rookies on how to keep the gangbangers at bay.

With unique backgrounds, personalities and reasons for being on the force, the new cops will make their share of rookie mistakes while they figure out how to relate to their boss, each other and the people they are sworn to protect.