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.

Telemystery: Nine Crime Drama Series New This Week on DVD

Telemystery, your source for one of the most comprehensive listings of crime drama, amateur sleuth, private investigator, mystery and suspense television series, mini-series and made-for-television movies, now available on or coming soon to DVD or Blu-ray disc, is profiling nine series being released this week.

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Dana Delany stars as medical examiner Dr. Megan Hunt in Body of Proof.

After an automobile accident damages her reflexes, effectively ending her career as a neurosurgeon, Megan continues to use her considerable skills in determining how victims of murder were killed, thus pointing the finger at who killed them.

The series debuted mid-season earlier this year. Its second season premieres tomorrow, Tuesday September 20th, at 10 PM (ET/PT).

Body of Proof: Season One is available on DVD, Amazon Instant Video, and iTunes (click on the icons above, left for more details), and consists of 9 episodes that originally aired on ABC from January through March, 2011.

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Mystery novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and NYPD homicide detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) return to solve another season of crimes in Castle.

Between his mixed-up partnership with Beckett and his relationships with his diva mother and his clever daughter, Alexis, Castle is always on his toes. He's always ready with a quip, though, imagining the crimes they're investigating as if it were a plot from his latest bestseller.

The fourth season of Castle premieres tonight, Monday September 19th, at 10 PM (ET/PT). The third murder mystery by Richard Castle to feature NYPD homicide detective Nikki Heat — a thinly disguised Kate Beckett — Heat Rises, hits bookstores tomorrow, Tuesday September 20th.

Castle: Season Three is available on DVD, Amazon Instant, and iTunes (click on the icons above, left for more details), and consists of 24 episodes that originally aired on ABC from September 2010 through May 2011.

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Warren Clarke stars as Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel and Colin Buchanan as his partner Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe in Dalziel and Pascoe, based on characters created by crime novelist Reginald Hill.

This season finds the team investigating the killing of a child that revives memories of a similar crime 15 years ago, the death of a young man at a rave club and the wrongful conviction of a woman for murder back in 1963. In the final episode, Dalziel is part of a group held hostage in a pub, with Pascoe unaware that his boss is in danger.

The season also sees the first appearance of the newest member of the team, Detective Constable Shirley Novello (Jo-Anne Stockham).

Dalziel and Pascoe: Season Four is available on DVD (click on the icon above, left for more details), and consists of the 4 references episodes that originally aired on BBC during the summer of 1999.

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Jack Lord stars as Steve McGarrett, the head of an elite state police unit, in Hawaii Five-O.

Organized crime, murder, assassination attempts, foreign agents, felonies of every type are the domain of the Five-O team.

This penultimate season also marks the last appearance of James MacArthur, who plays McGarrett's second in command Danny "Danno" Williams. He departed after the end of the season, having appeared in all but a handful of episodes through the series run to date.

Hawaii Five-O: Season Eleven is available on DVD (click on the icon above, left for more details), and consists of 21 episodes that originally aired on CBS from September 1978 through April 1979.

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A contemporary update to the above series premiered last year as Hawaii Five-0 and stars Alex O'Loughlin as Steve McGarrett, the son of the original series character, and the head of an elite federalized task force, whose mission is to wipe out the crime that washes up on the Islands' sun-drenched beaches. The ensemble cast also features Scott Caan as Detective Danny "Danno" Williams.

The second season of the series premieres tonight, Monday September 19th, at 10 PM.

Hawaii Five-0 2010: Season One is available on DVD, Amazon Instant, and iTunes (click on the icons above, left for more details), and consists of 24 episodes that originally aired on CBS from September 2010 through May 2011.

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Martin Shaw stars as Judge John Deed in this crime drama from the UK.

Menace and intimidation fill Deed's court when three young men are charged with shooting a gang member and a main witness in the case is killed in a hit and run. When Deed has an affair with a plaintiff, his fellow judges turn against him and exile him to Warwick. Jo Mills (Jenny Seagrove) is threatened in a high stakes trial over government bribes and Deed returns determined to protect her and continue the trial. Further risking his position, Deed pursues a case that contends a Home Secretary accepted a bribe on a defense contract. Putting his own position in jeopardy, the Judge continues to fight for justice.

Judge John Deed: Season Four is available on 3 (click on the icon above, left for more details), and consists of 6 episodes that originally aired on BBC during January and February, 2005.

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This extension to the "Law & Order" brand, Law & Order: Los Angeles, uses the southern California city as a backdrop to its classic ripped-from-the-headlines stories.

On the Law side is Deputy District Attorney Morales (Alfred Molina), a killer in the courtroom who lives to see justice served. On the Order side are Detectives Rex Winters (played by Skeet Ulrich) and Tomas "TJ" Jarusalski (Corey Stoll) as members of the LAPD's elite Robbery Homicide Division.

Despite the general — though fading — popularity of the brand, this series failed to resonate with viewers and was canceled after just one season.

Law & Order: Los Angeles: The Complete Series is available on DVD, Amazon Instant, and iTunes (click on the icons above, left for more details), and consists of 22 episodes that originally aired on NBC in a split schedule, September 2010 through December 2010 and April 2011 through May 2011.

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Rock Hudson stars as San Francisco Police Commissioner Stewart McMillan in the final season of this series, renamed McMillan after his on-screen wife Sally (Susan Saint James) departed. (Her character dies in a plane crash between the 5th and 6th seasons.)

Also not returning is Nancy Walker as Mildred, though John Schuck does return as Sergeant Charles Enright.

McMillan: Season Six is available on DVD (click on the icon above, left for more details), and consists of 6 episodes that originally aired on NBC as part of its Mystery Movie series, from December 1976 through April 1977. Rating for this season were less than stellar, and it was canceled by the network.

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Simon Baker stars as crime solving "psychic" Patrick Jane in The Mentalist.

Ever since the elusive serial killer Red John murdered Patrick Jane's family, the California Bureau of Investigation consultant has become obsessed with finding the man who destroyed his life. But after a homicide suspect is set ablaze in his jail cell and a CBI agent is later framed as an informant for Red John, Patrick realizes his longtime adversary is much closer than he imagined.

In settings from gold country to the racetrack to a martial-arts cage brawl, the unconventional Patrick Jane uses his unique skills of observation and psychological manipulation to bypass the system and solve the toughest cases.

The fourth season of the series premieres this Thursday, September 22nd at 10 PM (ET/PT).

The Mentalist: Season Three is available on DVD (click on the icon above, left for more details), and consists of 24 episodes that originally aired on CBS from September 2010 through May 2011.

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Visit the Telemystery website to discover more television mystery series currently available on and coming soon to DVD, Blu-ray disc, or video on demand.

New Crime Fiction Festival Announced: Bloody Scotland

A new crime fiction festival was announced this past weekend: Bloody Scotland.

We don't know too much about it yet, but they do have a website up — BloodyScotland.com — and the date and venue are known: September 14th through 16th, 2012 in Stirling, Scotland.

Bloody Scotland will showcase Scottish crime writing and is expected to include notable crime novelists from the region — Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Val McDermid, Stuart McBride, and Louise Welsh are thought to be good bets to attend — with a program to be announced in the spring.

Pig Island by Mo Hayder is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Pig Island by Mo Hayder as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $0.99 is valid only for today, Monday, September 19, 2011.

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Pig Island by Mo Hayder
Non-Series
Atlantic Monthly Press

This stand-alone thriller was originally published in hardcover in the UK in 2006 and a year later in the US. Mo Hayder is also the author of the DI Jack Caffery mystery series.

About Pig Island (from the publisher): Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. A born sceptic, he believes everything has a rational explanation. But when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island, everything he thought he knew is overturned. Questions mount: why has the community been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader, Pastor Malachi Dove? And perhaps most important, why will no one discuss the strange apparition seen wandering the lonely beaches of Pig Island? Their confrontation, and its violent and bloody aftermath, is so catastrophic that it forces Oaksey to question the nature of evil, and whether he might not be responsible for the terrible crime about to unfold.

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.

Mystery Godoku Puzzle for September 19, 2011

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:

A C E F I L M O R

In Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone "alphabet" mysteries, M is 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!

Review: The Traitor's Emblem by Juan Gomez-Jurado

The Traitor's Emblem by Juan Gomez-Jurado. Non-series. Atria Hardcover, July 2011.

This complex, dark and disturbing yet remarkably affecting novel blends fiction and post-World War I history through the eyes of two cousins, rivals for the attention of a young woman. It is strongly recommended.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Traitor's Emblem by Juan Gomez-Jurado.

Winners of the 2011 Anthony Awards Announced

The winners of the Anthony Awards, voted on by the attendees of Bouchercon 2011, were announced earlier today. Thanks to everyone who tweeted the results!

The winners are …

• Best Novel: Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

• Best First Novel: Damage Done by Hilary Davidson (Forge Books)

• Best Paperback Original: Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)

• Best Short Story: "Swing Shift" in Crimes by Moonlight: Mysteries from the Dark Side by Dana Cameron (Berkley)

• Best Graphic Novel: The Chill by Jason Starr (Vertigo Crime)

• Best Critical Non-Fiction: Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks by John Curran (HarperCollins)

• Best Website/Blog: Stop, You're Killing Me

New Hard Case Crime Titles Coming This Tuesday, September 20th

This coming Tuesday, September 20th, Hard Case Crime, together with its new partner Titan Books, resumes publication of its hard-boiled crime fiction with two new titles: Getting Off by Lawrence Block and Quarry's Ex by Max Allan Collins.

"Hard Case is one of a very small number of publishers that has a brand," says Charles Ardai, co-founder of Hard Case Crime. "Every book carries the yellow Hard Case ribbon in the same two places, every book has the same graphical treatment for its front- and back-matter, and every book features an original painted cover done in the classic pulp style," he explained. "And Hard Case's narrow focus on a particular sort of crime fiction — rather than trying to be everything to everybody — means that readers have a good sense of what they'll get if they pick up a Hard Case book."

Getting Off is an original novel by the prolific Lawrence Block, who is resurrecting one of his old pulp pen names in the process: Jill Emerson, a pseudonym he used throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The book will also be Hard Case Crime's first hardcover. Special mention should be made of the striking cover, with artwork by Gregory Manchess.

Quarry's Ex is the ninth book in this series featuring the enigmatic killer for hire by the equally prolific Max Allan Colllins, who will have another of his books published by Hard Case Crime next month: The Consummata, a novel started by Mickey Spillane in the 1960s and finished by Collins. Manchess is also the cover artist for Quarry's Ex, which is being published as a trade paperback.

Ebook editions of both titles are also being published on Tuesday.

  

(Source for quote: Publishers Weekly.)

House Rules by Mike Lawson is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal

MystereBooks is pleased to feature House Rules by Mike Lawson as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $0.99 is valid only for today, Sunday, September 18, 2011.

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House Rules by Mike Lawson
A Joe DeMarco Political Thriller (3rd in series)
Atlantic Monthly Press

About House Rules (from the publisher): A terrorist attack, a bomb meant for the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, is narrowly averted. Then a private plane headed straight for the White House ignores warnings and is shot down. The pilot, a Muslim American, is suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda. An atmosphere of fear and panic overruns the country, and when the junior senator from Virginia introduces legislation to deport all non-citizen Muslims and start extensive background checks of all Muslim Americans, his bill gains surprising traction.

Speaker of the House John Fitzgerald Mahoney is not pleased. He knows it is the kind of knee-jerk intolerant response people will come to regret, like the Japanese internment camps in World War II, and he needs to find a way to kill the bill before it reaches the House. But Mahoney has a secret — the man who tried to park his plane on the president’s desk was the son of one of his oldest friends. The speaker is in a bind, and also has some vague suspicions about the attack, so he calls his man DeMarco.

An average guy, DeMarco struggles with debt, divorce, and a difficult, unreasonable boss. He is an unlikely hero, in over his head, relying on old friends — Emma, a spy who may or may not be retired, and Neil, an information broker — as he attempts to get to the bottom of the attacks.

Read our review of House Rules by Mike Lawson.

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.

Mr. E. Reviews Midsomer Murders Set 18

Purchase/Rental Option(s)

In what must be the understatement of the century, Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby turns to his Detective Sergeant in an episode included in this DVD set and says, "You see, Jones, you look at this, you'd think you were in some kind of rural paradise. But how wrong you'd be." That comment pretty much sums up not only this set, but of the series as a whole. Midsomer Murders is one of the most consistently entertaining crime dramas currently being produced, and the episodes presented here are representative of this fine series.

Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews Midsomer Murders Set 18.

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

Recently Published Indie Mysteries (110917)

We're always on the lookout for new mystery, suspense and thriller books, and with this series of recurring posts, we're looking at Indie Mysteries, books published by small, independent publishers, or self-published, that recently caught our eye ... and may be of interest to you too. Most of these titles, selected primarily from the Smashwords website, are ebook only, though some may also be available in a print format.

Important Note: The prices indicated for these books are current as of the date of this post, but can and do change without notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

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Deception
by T. L. Peters
A Jake Stone Mystery (1st in series)
Self Published (Ebook)
September 2011
Price as of the date of this post: $0.99

While representing a wealthy tycoon and his ambitious and devious grandson, hard-boiled lawyer Jake Stone is saved from a vicious beating in a shady alley by a lovely young woman with a knack for the martial arts. Snowflake, she calls herself and quickly latches onto Jake for a wild ride through the underbelly of corporate America and beyond. But is she who she says she is, just a humble paralegal looking for a job, or is she a corporate spy, a gun runner, an assassin, or simply a girl looking for a decent man, or perhaps all of the above?

The big question is whether Jake will live long enough to find out.

Also available in a Kindle edition.

Rather See You Dead
by Rick Shefchik
Non-Series
Self Published (Ebook)
September 2011
Price as of the date of this post: $2.99

Jessie Bridges, a beautiful, smoky-voiced singer with a troubled past, is preparing to compete on a network TV talent show when someone begins mailing her a series of cryptic mash-ups of song lyrics by Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Former newspaper reporter Phil Cropper is hired by the show’s producer to investigate Jessie’s past, but the only people who can help him learn the truth begin dying suspiciously. Cropper risks his own life to dig into the dark corners of the entertainment industry and discovers a secret so shocking that it could alter rock 'n' roll history forever.

Also available in a Kindle edition.

Touring for Death
by D. V. Berkom
A Kate Jones Mystery (4th in series)
Self Published (Ebook)
September 2011
Price as of the date of this post: $0.99

Kate Jones is hiding out from her shady past driving jeep tours through the rugged high desert of northern Arizona, determined to stop looking over her shoulder and find peace from her mistake of a gun-toting, former life. Testifying against a Mexican drug lord and a dirty DEA agent didn't turn out to be a life enhancing choice and she's been on the move ever since.

Now, five years have passed with no sign of trouble and Kate's finally starting to believe she's safe. Her current goal is to make enough money so she can get lost in the tropics when the tourist trade dies off. Unfortunately, it's the tourists that are dying off and she may be next.

Also available in a Kindle edition.

See also the first three books in this series: Bad Spirits (Smashwords / Kindle edition); Dead of Winter (Smashwords / Kindle edition); and Death Rites (Smashwords / Kindle edition); all are currently priced at $0.99 (as of the date of this post).

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For more recently published Indie Mysteries, visit the Smashwords Mystery and Detective category page or the Thriller and Suspense category page.