Mystery Book Review: Wearing the Spider by Susan Schaab

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Wearing the Spider by Susan Schaab. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Wearing the Spider by Susan Schaab
Non-series

Galavant Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-934291-05-6 (1934291056)
ISBN-13: 978-1-934291-05-4 (9781934291054)
Publication Date: June 2007
List Price: $26.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): A female lawyer's identity is hijacked and misused by a ruthless partner of her Manhattan law firm who engages in email impersonation, political gamesmanship and electronic forgery to set her up in a scheme that ultimately leads to murder. She embarks on a clandestine investigation while dodging the FBI, risking her life as well as her career.

Review: Susan Schaab crafts an intriguing tale of corporate malfeasance in Wearing the Spider, a suspense thriller set largely in a mid-sized New York law firm.

Evie Sullivan is a hard-working corporate lawyer who's looking forward to becoming a partner in her law firm. When evidence begins accumulating that her work is sloppy, late, and in some cases, simply wrong, she suspects that a fellow lawyer is trying to make her look bad to the partnership committee by intentionally altering her work, delaying its release to clients, and fabricating information. But as she delves deeper into clearing her name, she discovers a potentially damaging, and possibly illegal, conflict of interest that not only jeopardizes her career but puts her life in danger as well.

For the most part, Schaab succeeds in generating and maintaining a high level of suspense. It's unnerving to think that someone can simply use another's identity, in this case Evie's, to conduct illicit activities, but every attempt she makes to correct it is met with irrefutable evidence that she is, in fact, at fault. The author nicely balances specific technical details, about how documents are managed on corporate networks, how calls and e-mail messages are logged, and the like, are incorporated into the story yet don't get in the way of the plot. Evie finds herself in a number of situations that she can't be sure are legitimate, none more mysterious than the relationship she has with Joe Barton. Is it just a chance meeting on an airplane that brings them together? Does he know more about what's happening to her than he lets on? Is his offer to help actually a trap to ensnare her further?

It might have been more interesting, more satisfying and suspenseful, and certainly more original had Schaab reversed the genders of the principal attorneys involved. It's little more than a cliché that Evie is portrayed as the female lawyer who has to work twice as hard as her male counterparts to get a partnership and is therefore a victim even before her identity is used by a male lawyer to cover his tracks. The fact that the story is dominated by male characters further reinforces the notion that Evie seems to be alone in her struggle to prove her innocence.

On a stylistic note, Schaab's frequent use of italics in her text is distracting to the point of being annoying. Written in the third person, italics are used whenever Evie is thinking in the first person: "A question emerged in her mind: should she call Joe? No, he'll think I'm crazy. It's too late to make a plan for tonight." All well and good. But italics are also used extensively for emphasis, sometimes inexplicably: "I can't believe after all the work I've done, I have to worry about being set up by a partner. You know, I actually made him look good in a conference call with a client yesterday. You know how nonchalant he can be with the details of a transaction. You'd think I could expect some professional courtesy for at least a few minutes afterward." Rarely a page goes by without multiple invocations of italicization to no obvious purpose.

Minor plot and production idiosyncrasies aside, there many reasons to recommend Wearing the Spider, the most notable being it is a very good suspense thriller that keeps the reader's attention and the pages turning. (Note: the title comes from an expression that a person who leads "wears the spider" as he, or in this case she, clears a trail and walks through spider webs. With the web of deceit that is the core of this book, it's a rather clever title.)

Special thanks to Susan Schaab for providing an ARC of Wearing the Spider for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

For more mystery book reviews visit Mysterious Reviews, a partner with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books which is committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Book Review: Brush With Death by Hailey Lind

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Brush with Death by Hailey Lind. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Brush with Death by Hailey Lind
An Art Lover's Mystery with Annie Kincaid

Signet (Mass Market Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-451-22179-6 (0451221796)
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-22179-7 (9780451221797)
Publication Date: July 2007
List Price: $6.99

Synopsis (from the publisher): Former-forger turned faux-finisher Annie Kincaid hopes that if she can help return an alleged masterpiece to Italy, her sketchy reputation will finally be redeemed. But when a sexy art thief-and murder-enter the picture, Annie realizes that it won't be so easy to put things to rest.

Review: Annie Kinkaid, reformed art forger and now the proprietor of True/Faux Studio, a faux finishing workshop and school in San Francisco, returns in Brush With Death, the third mystery in the Art Lover's series by Hailey Lind.

Annie and her assistant, Mary, are asked to repair and restore murals in the celebrated Bayview Cemetery Columbarium, a mausoleum that holds urns of cremated remains. While taking a break, Annie meets Cindy Tanaka, a college graduate student who is taking detailed pictures in the next crypt as part of her graduate dissertation. Cindy questions the authenticity of a painting hanging in the Chapel, and much to Annie’s consternation, the painting is not what she had been assured it was. When Cindy is later murdered, Annie wonders if her death is connected to the fraudulent painting.

Lind deftly combines her considerable knowledge of art into an intriguing story set in the world of art masters and art forgers, and has created a credible mystery about a painting that had been in Italy for years but somehow is now in the Chapel of the Chimes. As Annie and Mary conduct their investigation, someone locks them in an old crypt. They want to know the location of the original painting and assume Annie knows the answer. An artist/forger from her past shows up unexpectedly and comes to her aid, but not without raising more questions. Is this the work of her beloved grandfather, a master forger himself?

As in the previous books in this entertaining series, Grandpère Georges introduces the chapters with witty and provocative quotes. And the climax of Brush With Death is so remarkable and unexpected, it may need to be read twice to be fully appreciated.

Hailey Lind concludes the book with Annie's Guide to Marbling, and provides a short history of the Chapel of the Chimes that includes information on the painting La Fornarina by Raphael Sanzio.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Brush With Death and to Hailey Lind for providing an ARC of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

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Mysteries on TV: Philip Marlowe, Private Eye

Mystery television series being released this week on DVD:

Philip Marlowe, Season 1 starred Powers Booth as the classic Los Angeles private investigator. Each episode of the series was adapted from a Raymond Chandler short story.

The series ran for 2 seasons on HBO, with the first 5 episodes airing during the spring of 1983 and the last 6 episodes airing during the spring of 1986.

This DVD set includes all 5 episodes from the 1st season on 2 disks.

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

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Compendium of Mystery News 070723

Today's compendium of recently published mystery news articles:

• Glenn Close talks in the Boston Herald about her new series on FX, Damages, that opens with a murder mystery that won't be resolved until the end of the season's 13 episodes.

• The Telegraph is reporting that mystery author and former jockey Dick Francis is making a remarkable recovery following the amputation of his lower right leg after suffering circulatory problems following heart-bypass surgery. (MBN Note: The South African horse racing site saftote.com quotes from the Racing Post that it was Francis' left leg that was amputated. We have been unable to confirm which is correct.)

Please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Book Review: The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

The Gardens of the Dead by William Brodrick
A Father Anselm Mystery

Viking Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-670-03498-3 (0670034983)
ISBN-13: 978-0-670-03498-7 (9780670034987)
Publication Date: September 2006
List Price: $24.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): When Elizabeth Glendinning, Q.C., dies of heart failure while making a desperate phone call to the police, her colleagues and family are devastated and mystified. What was she doing in east London at the time of her death, and what was she trying to tell the police in her last phone call? After her funeral, her son, Nicholas, Inspector Cartwright, the officer she was trying to call, and Father Anselm, Elizabeth’s former colleague, all receive packages about a case from years earlier: Regina v. Riley. The package also includes mysterious newspaper clippings about the accidental drowning of John Bradshaw, who just happens to be the son of the principal witness in the case. Why is Elizabeth still following the case? And what does she want the three people to do with the information she has sent them?

The germ of the story lies in events that occurred many years earlier when Anselm Duffy, Q.C., had won a rather difficult case by asking a question of the key witness: the question, right in every aspect for winning the case, turns out to have been fatally, critically, the wrong one. The acquitted man wreaks havoc in a number of lives and his net finally enmeshes those who had so cleverly defended him in court. Anselm Duffy's own life is changed radically as he becomes aware of the full repercussions of his performance in court. His inner voice won't let him rest, finally nudging him to abandon the silk for the robe. It is Father Anselm, whose story is patterned on circumstances in the author's own life, who asks the riveting questions in the novel: What is justice? What is innocence? And what, ultimately, is evil? As Father Anselm’s begins to make sense of Elizabeth’s directives from her grave, as it were, he discovers the complexity of truth and its lethal power.

Review: Barrister-turned-monk Father Anselm finds himself investigating a mystery that begins with the death of a former colleague in The Gardens of the Dead, the second book in this series by William Brodrick.

Following the sudden death by natural causes of Elizabeth Glendinning, a barrister he had once worked with years ago, Anselm receives a package from her. The package contains a cryptic letter, a key and some old newspaper clippings. She sent similar packages to her son, Nick, and to Inspector Cartwright, a friend from her court days. Elizabeth knew she was dying so she had prepared these packages to be sent after she was dead. Although the contents mean little or nothing to the recipients, they all agree that Elizabeth was trying to tell them something very important. Actually, Elizabeth was trying to right a terrible wrong that was committed in the murder trial of Graham Riley when she and Anselm were on the same sides of the legal table. They were Riley’s defense attorneys even though they both knew he was guilty. Through the cross-examination of a witness, George Bradshaw, Anselm suddenly won the case, and Riley was able to walk out of the courtroom a free man. Anselm couldn’t believe it. He didn’t understand what had happened. Only Elizabeth and Riley knew the answer.

Brodrick weaves the past and present lives of many other characters that are linked to Elizabeth and Anselm into the story. The Prior of the Monastery where Anselm lives offers strongly worded opinions. Elizabeth’s son, who knew nothing of her life, but is obligated to follow her instructions after her death. Her husband who did know her but kept quiet to protect their son. Graham Riley and his wife, Nancy, are an integral part of the mystery, as is witness George Bradshaw whose only son drowned years before. There's the mysterious Mrs. Dixon who seems to know everything, but won’t say anything. And then there's barrister Wyecliff, Riley's current counsel, who acts as though he knows nothing, but is he as ignorant as he seems? Each one has a crucial part in the mystery of why Elizabeth was so determined to right a wrong that was perpetrated years before.

The Gardens of the Dead is a such a compelling story, one that slowly but methodically reveals information about its characters as to who did what to whom and why, that it becomes a real page-turner until its surprising conclusion.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Gardens of the Dead and to Viking for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Special thanks to Spotlight Publicity for providing an ARC of The Black Tea Experiments for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

For more mystery book reviews visit Mysterious Reviews, a partner with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books which is committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Godoku: Weekly Puzzle for July 23, 2007

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is 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: A E H N O P S T Y. This was the murder weapon in the 6th Jaine Austen mystery by Laura Levine (9 letters).

New! We now have our puzzles 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: The Black Tea Experiments by Ray Atkinson

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of The Black Tea Experiments by Ray Atkinson. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

The Black Tea Experiments by Ray Atkinson
Non-Series

American Book Publishing (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-58982-370-2 (1589823702)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58982-370-9 (9781589823709)
Publication Date: March, 2007
List Price: $18.00

Synopsis (from the publisher): Logan Bauer, a brilliant college student, has a promising future. However, when his girlfriend is accused of murdering fellow student Brent Johnson, Logan must go on a quest to discover the truth that will set her free. Logan's journey soon takes him to the former Soviet Union and into the hands of the infamous Dr. Vladimir Rostov, a former scientist who worked on several top-secret medical projects during the Cold War, including the Black Tea Experiments, a drug that would enhance the learning ability of children and ultimately increase the intelligence level of future Soviet generations.

But everything isn't as it seems. The two worlds of the former Soviet Union and the quaint college town of Crandon, Illinois, soon collide, forcing Logan to uncover the pieces of Rostov's twenty-five-year-old secret.

Review: Ray Atkinson coins the term "airplane novel" for his first mystery, The Black Tea Experiments, a book long enough to provide suspense, action, crime and romance in a story that can be completed during the length of a typical flight. Terrific concept, but, at least in this first attempt, rather poorly executed.

There's a fairly intriguing plot at the core of this book: a student at a university in Illinois is found murdered but with an unusual physical feature: one of his kidneys had been recently removed, the incision neatly and expertly sewn together. A fellow student, Logan Bauer, finds himself drawn into the case when an astronomical experiment he is conducting using a telescope on the roof of his dorm accidentally captures the scene of the murder when a spring breaks and the lens points downward instead of skyward. Pursued by the killers for the images taken by the telescope, Logan discovers he is merely a pawn in an international incident that had its origins back in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The problems in The Black Tea Experiments begin with the very first chapter. Every character, even a minor one, is introduced with a backstory. For a book of less than 150 pages and a dozen or more characters, it's overwhelming. Furthermore, these backstories seem intended to take the place of character development, as if by knowing how the characters came to be where they are today the reader can somehow infer something meaningful about them. Finally, it's impossible to generate any real, sustained suspense when the flow of the plot is constantly interrupted with yet another backstory for yet another usually unnecessary character. This is all the more unfortunate because the main story has a lot of potential to be a terrific thriller.

The book is riddled with errors and inconsistencies that could have been eliminated with a more critical eye towards editing. The director of the Black Tea project ridicules the ignorance of the parents whose children are the subject of the experiments, yet he includes his own children in them. Logan travels west (instead of east) to go from Illinois to Indiana. He goes through customs leaving (instead of entering) the US. In any transplant, the time between extraction of the organ from the donor and its placement in the recipient is critical, yet here, days or maybe even weeks, it's not clear, go by between the respective surgeries. This also contradicts a statement made in the book that the surgery takes place in the US rather than Russia because there wasn't time to get the kidney out of the country. And probably worse of all, especially for a mystery, no explanation is ever given why the kidney donor, the murder victim, was killed in the first place. It's disturbing that Atkinson took the time to develop an interesting plot, yet didn't seem to care enough about the details that are so crucial to the success of a crime novel.

There is almost certainly a market for mysteries and thrillers that are longer than a short story but shorter than a standard-length novel ("airplane novels" as it were). Unfortunately, The Black Tea Experiments isn't a very good example of one.

Special thanks to Spotlight Publicity for providing an ARC of The Black Tea Experiments for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

For more mystery book reviews visit Mysterious Reviews, a partner with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books which is committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Compendium of Mystery News 070722

Today's compendium of recently published mystery news articles:

• Ed Siegel writes in The Boston Globe that in crafting subtle, innovative crime fiction, the female is definitely the deadlier sex.

• Margaret Cannon reviews five new mysteries and an anthology of short stories by Ontario writers in her column for The Globe and Mail.

• Jan Marin Tramontano interviews author Diana Abu-Jaber whose most recent mystery, Origin, was published last month.

• The New York Times book reporter Marilyn Stasio reviews four new crime novels including Marcia Muller's 25th Sharon McCone mystery, The Ever-Running Man.

Please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Compendium of Mystery News 070721

Today's compendium of recently published mystery news articles:

• Lynn Neary of NPR talks to Lee Child about mystery series characters (audio).

• Kit Ehrman's Triple Cross, the 4th mystery in the Steve Cline series, was announced the winner in the fiction category of the Best Books of Indiana 2007 competition. (MBN Note: Mysterious Reviews has a review of Triple Cross on its website.)

Please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Bestsellers for July 20, 2007

A list of the top ten mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending July 20, 2007 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

The Quickie by James Patterson, Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich, and The Overlook by Michael Connelly maintain their positions as the top three bestselling mysteries this week.

New on the list this week: The Tin Roof Blowdown, the 16th book in the Dave Robicheaux mystery series by James Lee Burke. In the waning days of summer 2005, a storm with greater impact than the bomb that struck Hiroshima peels the face off southern Louisiana. This is the gruesome reality Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux discovers as he is deployed to New Orleans. In the midst of an apocalyptical nightmare, Robicheaux must find two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city. Publishers Weekly calls The Tin Roof Blowdown "meticulously textured" and adds, "Burke showcases all that was both right and wrong in our response to this national disaster, proving along the way that nobody captures the spirit of Gulf Coast Louisiana better." Library Journal states that this book is "[t]he best Robicheaux novel of the past several years."

Please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Book Review: Keep It Real by Bill Bryan

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Keep It Real by Bill Bryan. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Keep It Real by Bill Bryan
Non-Series

Bleak House Books (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-932557-31-8 (1932557318)
ISBN-13: 978-1-932557-31-2 (9781832557312)
Publication Date: May 2007
List Price: $13.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): Ted used to be an investigative reporter—a good one. But that was before the divorce, the meltdown, the subsequent supervised visitation of his adorable little girl. Now he’s one of several peon producers for the inexplicably successful reality show, ‘The Mogul.’ Ted’s not a happy man. Unlike his viewers, he takes no joy in the vapid “reality” he helps edit together for ratings.

Then Ted inadvertently witnesses a violent exchange between gangsta rapper Boney and Boney’s hot-enough-to-dance-in-videos girlfriend, Patrice. When Patrice goes missing, it’s all Ted can do to keep his reporter instincts in check. With no real excuse for hanging out in the world of Cristal and grillz, Ted uses the resources at his disposal to snoop around. And what better way to invade a celebrity’s privacy than by featuring him on Reality TV?

Review: Bill Bryan's debut crime novel, Keep It Real, is a satirical and frequently funny blending of the behind-the-scenes production of a reality television show and a murder investigation.

Told in the first person present tense (which rarely works for mysteries, but seems appropriate here), Ted Collins is an investigative reporter who reluctantly admits that yes, he's won a "Pulie" (Pulitzer Prize), but that his currently employer doesn't hold it against him. Ted is a producer for the hit reality television series The Mogul starring billionaire Roger Dominus who is looking for an apprentice to work in his organization, and created by the king of reality TV himself, Trevor Bane. During a visit to his ex-wife to pick up their daughter, he overhears a conversation between the rapper Raymond Bonaparte ("Boney") and a model who is later found murdered. Suspecting Boney of the crime, Ted arranges for him to appear on The Mogul so that he can conduct his investigation without raising too much suspicion.

Subtle is not a word in author Bill Bryan's vocabulary. Roger Dominus is a thinly disguised version of Donald Trump; the Dominus casinos are in Las Vegas rather than Atlantic City and Dominus Tower is in Los Angeles rather than New York City, but the Dominus helicopter is the same. Trevor Bane is an even more transparent fictionalization of Mark Burnett. Bryan captures the public perception of the idiosyncrasies and excesses of these two men perfectly in his characters: there isn't anything Roger won't do to promote his identity and there isn't any product or service that Trevor isn't ready and able to make a buck off of. Anyone who watches reality television will be laughing at the outrageous manner in which it is portrayed here.

The murder mystery plays a supporting role here but does provide a unifying theme to the story. The resolution to the model's murder is beyond cynical, but in a perverse way is completely believable.

For a book that not only tests the boundaries of good taste but crosses over them regularly and repeatedly, Bryan is, ironically, a little too politically correct at times and tends to be a bit preachy especially when it comes to race relations. These minor objections aside, Keep It Real is a very funny look at the world of reality television with a bonus for mystery readers of having a murder to solve.

Special thanks to Authors on the Web for providing a copy of Keep It Real for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

For more mystery book reviews visit Mysterious Reviews, a partner with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books which is committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Compendium of Mystery News 070718

Today's compendium of recently published mystery news articles:

• The cameras are rolling in Toronto on a new television mystery series, The Murdoch Mysteries, based on the novels by Maureen Jennings. The series is scheduled to air on Bravo in 2008.

• MSNBC has an excerpt of Janet Evanovich's latest Stephanie Plum mystery, Lean Mean Thirteen, on its website.

• Bruce DeSilva (AP) reviews The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke.

Please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mystery Book Review: Deadly Appraisal by Jane K. Cleland

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Deadly Appraisal by Jane K. Cleland. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Deadly Appraisal by Jane K. Cleland
A Josie Prescott Mystery

St. Martin's Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-312-34366-3 (0312343663)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-34366-8 (9780312343668)
Publication Date: April 2007
List Price: $23.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): Josie Prescott is settling into her new life in New Hampshire. Her antiques business is thriving, she's beginning to make some close friends, and her relationship with the local police chief is becoming more interesting. Not bad for someone who has completely uprooted her life as a New York City auction house expert in order to get a fresh start in a small New England town.

With so much suddenly to lose, Josie can't help but worry when murder invades her seemingly quiet community. Josie is sponsoring the Portsmouth Women's Guild Annual Black and Gold Gala and is looking forward to receiving a kindly worded thank-you for her efforts. Instead, the Guild representative, Maisy Gaylor, dies a horrible death in the midst of the banquet. Who could have wanted to kill earnest, drab little Maisy? "Funny, isn't it," muses the hostile detective Rowcliff, "how a lot of people end up dead when no one has any enemies."

Everyone who had access to the wine Maisy drank, including Josie herself, soon comes under suspicion. Can Josie manage to ferret out the truth, keep her business running smoothly, and continue to put down roots in her new town, or will everything prove too much for her to handle on her own?

Review: Deadly Appraisal is the second winning entry in this entertaining series by Jane K. Cleland that features New Hampshire antiques dealer and amateur sleuth Josie Prescott.

Josie's antique consignment shop is starting to do well, and she is quickly becoming known throughout the community. An opportunity to showcase her expertise comes up when Maisy Gaylor of the Portsmouth Women's Guild asks Josie to sponsor a charity dinner and antique auction. Following the dinner, the rather shy Maisy is to announce the winning bidders. Before she can do so, she coughs, screams, and collapses to the floor – dead. Someone has poisoned her wine. Who would want to kill Maisy? She had no enemies. Through intense questioning of everyone at the gala by the police, the question becomes not who killed Maisy, but was Maisy the intended victim? Could the poison have been meant for Josie? This idea becomes even more credible when a few nights later Josie is injured by a hit-and-run. Even Josie begins to believe that there is someone out there trying to kill her. But why?

Though this series has a fairly typical background story (woman leaves the big city to establish herself anew in a small town, starts a new business, makes new friends, and without really trying finds herself in a new relationship), Cleland makes it seem fresh. Deadly Appraisal nicely balances Josie's personal life, her professional life, and of course a murder mystery that will have the reader guessing as to the killer's identity until the very end. There is also the requisite inclusion of facts about the antiques business, but Cleland so effortlessly incorporates them into the story that they are an interesting, integral part of the plot. Why, for example, is one antique worth so much money when another, virtually identical item, is worthless? The answer to this question may lead to murder!

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Deadly Appraisal and to St. Martin's Minotaur for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

For more mystery book reviews visit Mysterious Reviews, a partner with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books which is committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Mysteries on TV: The Rookies and Vincent

Mystery television series being released this week on DVD:

The Rookies, Season 1 starred Sam Melville (as Mike Danko), Michael Ontkean (as Willie Gillis), and Gerald S. O'Loughlin (as Eddie Ryker), rookie officers of the southern California Police Department. Kate Jackson (later of Charlie's Angels) played nurse Jill Danko.

The series ran for 4 seasons on ABC from September 1972 through March 1976.

This DVD set includes the 23 episodes from the 1st season on 5 disks.

Vincent, Season 1 stars Ray Winstone as the workaholic private investigator Vincent Gallagher, a passionate, headstrong man, who sometimes forgets that he's running a business and not a crusade. The series is set in Manchester (UK).

The series first aired in the ITV during the month of October 2005. It is listed as a returning series.

This DVD set includes the 4 episodes from this season on 2 disks.

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

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Mystery Book Review: Nothing to See Here by David L. Post

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Nothing to See Here by David L. Post. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Nothing to See Here by David L. Post
Non-Series

Beckham Publications (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-931761-29-8 (0931761298)
ISBN-13: 978-0-931761-29-4 (9780931761294)
Publication Date: August 2007
List Price: $14.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): Nothing To See Here spans one summer in the life of psychiatrist Alan Sarnower, an ordinary citizen who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances when his wife suddenly leaves him and their young son in the middle of a psychotic episode. When she returns unexpectedly with a new lover and announces her intention to get a divorce, his own life and sanity begin to unravel.

As the divorce process grinds on, he forgets appointments and lets responsibilities slide. An affair with his seductive secretary provides only temporary relief from a frightening descent into mental illness. Now, finally sicker than his own patients, as people and events are misinterpreted and doors begin to close, his comfortable suburban life recedes and murder becomes the only option left.

Review: David L. Post's debut novel, Nothing to See Here, is a well-written though formulaic psychological thriller that promises far more than it delivers.

Nothing to See Here opens with Cassie, the wife of Boston psychiatrist Alan Sarnower, systematically destroying their bedroom as she prepares to leave. To where and for how long he doesn't know. Nor does he seem to care. He has a thriving practice, a large home in the suburbs, a young son he adores, and a close friend he can confide in and count on. Maybe life without her would be better. But when she suddenly returns and files for divorce, he starts to see his world being taken away from him. His anxiety about potentially losing his son and his home and the staggering fees he's paying his lawyer to represent him begin to affect his reasoning, so much so that he'll do anything to ensure that his wife doesn't take everything he values away from him.

Nothing to See Here fails to generate any real suspense primarily because it is told from the point of view of Alan Sarnower. Every action he takes is telegraphed well in advance, and therefore nothing he does surprises the reader. He loses control of his marriage, his relationship with his son, and his professional practice, but there is never any sense that he is out of control, and certainly nothing to suggest that he is mentally unbalanced. Of course that's the crux of the problem: since the story is told from his perspective, he's not going to think anything is wrong with him. He's the only sane person in a world gone mad. It isn't until the last few pages that he's threatened in any way, uncertainty clouding his future. This provides a welcome element of surprise for the reader, but with only a few paragraphs until the end, it's too little, far too late.

Post is a talented writer but the lack of originality in his plot and the manner in which he chose to relate it make Nothing to See Here rather prosaic and dull.

Special thanks to Maryglenn McCombs Book Publicity for providing a copy of Nothing to See Here for this review.

Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

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