SyFy Options TV Rights to Charlaine Harris's Harper Connelly Mysteries

Cable network SyFy has picked up the television rights to the "Harper Connelly" mysteries by Charlaine Harris. The first book in the series, Grave Sight, which introduces the character, was published in 2005. Kam Miller (Killer Instinct, Law & Order: SVU) will write the series pilot screenplay. (Back in 2010, CBS expressed in interest in adapting the novels, but didn't move forward with the project.)

Harper Connelly has what you might call a strange job: she finds dead people. She can sense the final location of a person who's passed, and share their very last moment. The way Harper sees it, she's providing a service to the dead while bringing some closure to the living — but she's used to most people treating her like a blood-sucking leech. Traveling with her step-brother Tolliver as manager and sometime-bodyguard, she's become an expert at getting in, getting paid, and getting out fast. Because for the living it's always urgent — even if the dead can wait forever.

Harris is also the author of the "Southern Vampire" mysteries, which serve as the basis for HBO's True Blood.

(Related article: Entertainment Weekly.)

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt Wins This Year's Oregon Book Award for Fiction

The 2012 Oregon Book Awards were handed out yesterday and the western-themed crime novel — or maybe it's more of a crime-themed western novel — The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt was honored with the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. (See all the winners here.)

The storyline follows hired guns Eli and Charlie Sisters, who know Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die — they're going to make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's goldmining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living — and whom he does it for.

The Sisters Brothers was also shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize.

Touchstone is Giving Away 5 Signed ARCs of Bryan Gruley's The Skeleton Box

From now — yesterday, actually — through the end of the month, April 30th, 2012, Touchstone is giving away five signed ARCs of The Skeleton Box, the third mystery in the "Starvation Lake" series by Bryan Gruley. (Some collectors consider an ARC, or Advanced Reading Copy, to be true the true "first edition" of a book.) We enjoyed the second mystery in this series, The Hanging Tree, much more than the first, Starvation Lake, which went on to win several literary mystery awards, including the 2010 Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original.

To enter the giveaway, visit this page on GoodReads.com. And don't forget to check out the photo of Bryan signing the books!

Here's a synopsis of the book, from the publisher:

Mysterious break-ins are plaguing the small town of Starvation Lake. While elderly residents enjoy their weekly bingo night at St. Valentine's Catholic Church, someone is slipping into their homes to rifle through financial and personal files. Oddly, the intruder takes nothing — yet the "Bingo Night Burglaries" leave the entire town uneasy.

Worry turns into panic when a break-in escalates to murder. Suddenly, Gus Carpenter, editor of the Pine County Pilot, is forced to investigate the most difficult story of his life. Not only is the victim his ex-girlfriend Darlene's mother, but her body was found in the home of Bea Carpenter — Gus's own mother. Suffering from worsening dementia and under the influence of sleeping pills, Bea remembers little of the break-in.

With the help of Luke Whistler, a former Detroit Free Press reporter who came north looking for slower days and some old-fashioned newspaper work, Gus sets out to uncover the truth behind the murder. But when the story leads him to a lockbox his mother has kept secret for years, Gus doesn't realize that its contents could forever change his perception of Starvation Lake, his own family, and the value of the truth.

The Skeleton Box hits bookstores on June 5th, 2012.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120424)

Here is today's list of the top bestselling free Kindle mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

MWA's Edgar Week Activities

Tomorrow, Wednesday April 25th, the 2012 Edgar Symposium — "We're All In This Together — From Typing to Tweeting, Selling a Book is Everybody's Job." — will be held at The Lighthouse in New York City. This will be a one-day symposium of panels and interviews. Find more details and the registration form on the Mystery Writers of America website.

The following day, on Thursday April 26th, the 2012 Edgar Awards Banquet will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan with the presentation of the annual Edgar Awards, recognizing the best work in many categories of literature and media. This year's Grand Master is Martha Grimes. We can't attend ourselves, but we will be following the tweets of those present and update our awards page with the winners at the conclusion the event.

Mr. E. Reviews The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Purchase/Rental Option(s)

It's probably impossible not to watch this English-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel without comparing it to the original Swedish-language version. I thought the latter focused a bit more on the murder mystery storyline as the characters were developed, while the former seems to reverse this. Still and all, I do recommend it.

Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.

Nominees for the 2012 BAFTA Awards Announced

The nominees for the 2012 BAFTA television awards were announced this morning and we scoured the list for those related to our favorite category, mystery and crime drama!

No surprise here — Sherlock dominates with three nominations including Benedict Cumberbatch as Leading Actor; and Andrew Scott and Martin Freeman as Supporting Actors … but no nod for Drama Series.

Speaking of which, Spooks — which airs here in the US as MI-5 — is nominated for Drama Series as is Scott & Bailey, an ITV series we know very little about.

Finally, The Killing — the original Danish version, not the US one — is nominated in the International category.

Lionsgate Hires Screenwriter for Chaos Walking Adaptation

Last October Lionsgate acquired the film rights to the "Chaos Walking" trilogy of young adult futuristic thrillers by Patrick Ness. Now we're learning that the studio has brought Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) on board to write the screenplay adaptation of the first book in the series, The Knife of Never Letting Go, published in 2008. (The other two books in the trilogy are The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men, published in 2009 and 2010, respectively.)

The storyline introduces Todd Hewitt, the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World?

New Poster for Thriller House at the End of the Street

A new poster, possibly the first, for the horror thriller House at the End of the Street has been released by the studio (right; click for larger version). The poster's tagline: "Fear reaches out … for the girl next door." (Not terribly imaginative, in our opinion.)

The storyline follows newly divorced Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) and her daughter Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence), who find the house of their dreams in a small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling secret.

Years earlier, in the house next door, a daughter killed her parents in their beds, and disappeared — leaving only a brother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as the sole survivor. Against Sarah's wishes, Elissa begins a relationship with the reclusive Ryan — and the closer they get, the deeper they're all pulled into a mystery more dangerous than they ever imagined.

Directed by Mark Tonderai from a screenplay by David Loucka, House at the End of the Street opens in theaters September 21st, 2012.

Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (120424)

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

Contraband (2012)

Film Synopsis (from the studio): Set in New Orleans, this action thriller stars Mark Wahlberg as Chris Farraday, who long ago abandoned his life of crime. But after his brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris is forced back into doing what he does best — running contraband — to settle Andy's debt.

Chris is a legendary smuggler and quickly assembles a crew with the help of his best friend, Sebastian (Ben Foster), to head to Panama and return with millions in counterfeit bills. Things quickly fall apart and with only hours to reach the cash, Chris must use his rusty skills to successfully navigate a treacherous criminal network of brutal drug lords, cops and hit men before his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and sons become their target.

Based on the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavík-Rotterdam, which was written by crime novelist Arnaldur Indriðason and Óskar Jónasson, Contraband is directed by Baltasar Kormákur, who also starred in the original. Rated R, the film runs for 109 minutes.

Watch a trailer for the film below: