Purchase/Rental Option(s)
It's always disappointing when a good idea for a thriller is mishandled. It's not a total loss here but probably only worthy of a rental for most of us, with only die-hard Liam Neeson fans opting to purchase a copy, just so they can say their collection is complete.
Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews Unknown.
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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.
A new — and possibly final, given the date — poster for the English-language adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson has surfaced (right; click for larger version). This is clearly our favorite, with terrific imagery that meshes well with the book's storyline and the film's relatively new tagline, "What is hidden in snow comes forth in the thaw," a vast improvement over the previous "Evil shall with evil be expelled."
Directed by David Fincher, the film stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara with Christopher Plummer. It opens in US theaters December 21st, 2011.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Wee Christmas Homicide by Kaitlyn Dunnett as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically only until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.
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A Wee Christmas Homicide by Kaitlyn Dunnett
A Liss MacCrimmon Mystery
Kensington
This is the third mystery in this series featuring the former professional Scottish dancer, who now runs a shop in Maine. The fifth, Scotched, will be published next month.
About A Wee Christmas Homicide (from the publisher): Tis the season to be jolly, but in Moosetookalook, Maine, Christmas cheer is in short supply due to a snowless winter that's keeping skiers and shoppers at a distance. Fortunately, Liss MacCrimmon of the Scottish Emporium has a plan …
Liss's brainstorm focuses on Tiny Teddies, the new "hot" toy of the season. Every store across the country is out of stock — except a few wee establishments in good ol' Moosetookalook. It's easy enough to drum up approval for the idea of luring consumers to town and keeping them there with a stockingful of New England holiday charm. Liss's real challenge lies in contending with bickering businesspeople and--once America learns of Moosetookalook's Tiny Teddy cache--doggedly determined shopaholics.
The first sign of something amiss occurs when the last Tiny Teddy is summarily executed: shot through the heart in the display window of greedy toy store owner Gavin Thorne. But the Teddy's demise is just a precursor to the eerily similar murder of Gavin himself …
The two men in Liss's life want her far from the case, but she can't help feeling guilty for starting the fur frenzy that seems to have led to Gavin's death. Besides, how can she ignore the lengthy list of suspects, not the least of whom include Gavin's vindictive ex-wife, an unscrupulous selectman, a ski shop owner with an axe to grind, and a rabid toy collector packing heat in her purse?
Now, with the Twelve (or, in Scots terms, the Daft) Days of Christmas rapidly approaching, Liss has a plate full of things worse than haggis to contend with, starting with a stockroom packed with poultry (don't ask), and ending with a killer who'd like to see Liss's goose well and fully cooked …
Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
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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
Faces in the Crowd (2011)
Film Synopsis (from the studio): Milla Jovovich stars as Anna, a young woman, who barely survives a brutal attack by a deranged serial killer known as Tearjerk Jack and wakes in hospital only to discover her head injury has left her "face-blind": she can no longer recognize anyone's faces. Not even her own in the mirror. Now she has to navigate a world where everyone's face changes the second she loses sight of it … and the killer is closing in. With only a loyal detective's (Julian McMahon) face familiar to her, she cannot trust anyone as she struggles to resume her normal life, and, plagued by fear and a vindictive Jack, struggles to survive.
Rated R. 102 minutes. This is a direct to DVD film release.
Watch a trailer for the film below:
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 two series being released this week.
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Airing for eight seasons on ABC, Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a NYC police station in Greenwich Village.
Captain Barney Miller (Hal Linden) is the kind of cop we'd all like to meet. He somehow manages to maintain order over a group of inner-city detectives who gamble for a hobby, get hit on by anything in skirts, go to renaissance philosophy conventions for fun, and would really prefer to be writing. These colorful characters worked together to make one of the funniest sitcoms ever and is cemented in classic TV status.
Barney Miller: The Complete Series is available on DVD and consists of 170 episodes that originally aired from January 1975 through May 1982. (The first three seasons were released as separate DVD sets.)
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Idris Elba stars as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, a self-destructive near-genius, who might just be as dangerous as the depraved criminals he hunts in the BBC series Luther.
Devastated by the brutal murder of his wife, Luther has to continue policing in a very different world, fighting for his job and his freedom. With his old unit gone, he's working in the newly created Serious and Serial unit.
Luther: Series Two is available on DVD, Amazon Instant, and iTunes and consists of two storylines (4 episodes in total) that originally aired on BBC America from late-September through mid-October 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.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Monday, October 24, 2011.
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BoneMan's Daughters by Ted Dekker
Non-Series
Center Street
About BoneMan's Daughters (from the publisher): They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who's abducted six young women. He's the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die.
Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives.
Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan's estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own.
But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted, and in the end, only one father will stand.
Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
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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 B D E F I L N R
Lynn Abercrombie’s second cold case thriller has this title (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!
It's still about two months before the second Sherlock Holmes film, A Game of Shadows — with Robert Downey Jr. in the title role — comes out, but Warner Bros. is apparently so confident in its success that the studio has already hired a screenwriter — Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) — for Sherlock Holmes 3. If history is any guide, we should expect to see the film in December 2013.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opens in US theaters December 16th, 2011.
(Source: The Hollywood Reporter.)
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Intruders by Stephen Coonts as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Sunday, October 23, 2011.
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The Intruders by Stephen Coonts
A Jake Grafton Thriller
Open Road
Though this is the sixth book in this series of ten thrillers, originally published between 1986 and 2003, it is chronologically the second and considered a sequel to the first, Flight of the Intruder, which was adapted into a 1991 film of the same title.
About The Intruders (from the publisher): Fighter pilot Jake Grafton is adrift following combat in Vietnam. With no place in the States to call home, Grafton sticks to what he knows best: taking on the world’s most treacherous skies from the cockpit of a Grumman A-6 Intruder. Now, stationed in the South Pacific on the U.S.S. Columbia, Grafton must teach the Marines aboard the art of flying from an aircraft carrier—a mission that, thanks to the unruly Marine Captain Le Beau, is as joyless as it is dangerous. But when an unexpected enemy appears from above, Grafton and Le Beau must put aside their differences and work together to save the lives of all on board.
Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
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Book Trends, a review site for young adult and children books, published several new book reviews this past week. We're presenting here a summary of those in the mystery/suspense/thriller category.
The Unknown Spy by Eoin McNamee. The second book in the Ring of Five trilogy. Lexile measure: N/A. Reviewed by a 6th grade student, who writes, "[this book] surprised me with its greatness and the mixture of mystery and adventure. This book's red herrings may confuse you but this book will never lose you. The Ring of Five: The Unknown Spy is truly incredible." (Read the full review here.)
For more reviews of children and young adult books of all genres, visit Book Trends; their reviews will amaze you! You can also follow Book Trends on Twitter.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Blood Country by Mary Logue as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically only until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.
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Blood Country by Mary Logue
A Claire Watkins Mystery
Tyrus Books
This first in a series that currently spans eight books introduces western Wisconsin Deputy Sheriff Claire Watkins.
About Blood Country (from the publisher): When Landers Anderson — an elderly neighbor who befriended Claire and and her daughter Meg — dies of a heart attack after being sideswiped with a shovel, Claire determines to find the culprit. This involves delving into Landers's family history and investigating the machinations of a right-wing group, Homeowners of America, that is buying up property to build an environmentally unsound development.
At the same time, Meg fearfully admits to Claire that she saw the man who killed her father, Claire's husband Steve, a former Twin Cities cop. Claire contacts her former partner, Det. Bruce Jacobs, and prods him into accelerating the investigation into Steve's death.
Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
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Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Nightmare by Nancy Means Wright.
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Blood Ties by Lori G. Armstrong as today's free mystery ebook. We don't know how long it will be offered at this special price (typically only until a certain number of downloads have been completed), so we urge you to download it while it is still available for free.
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Blood Ties by Lori G. Armstrong
A Julie Collins Mystery
Medallion Press
This first book in a series that numbers four introduces South Dakota private investigator Julie Collins.
About Blood Ties (from the publisher): Julie Collins is stuck in a dead-end secretarial job with the Bear Butte County Sheriff’s office, and still grieving over the unsolved murder of her Lakota half-brother. Lack of public interest in finding his murderer, or the killer of several other transient Native American men, has left Julie with a bone-deep cynicism she counters with tequila, cigarettes, and dangerous men. The one bright spot in her mundane life is the time she spends working part-time as a PI with her childhood friend, Kevin Wells.
When the body of a sixteen-year old white girl is discovered in nearby Rapid Creek, Julie believes this victim will receive the attention others were denied. Then she learns Kevin has been hired, mysteriously, to find out where the murdered girl spent her last few days. Julie finds herself drawn into the case against her better judgment, and discovers not only the ugly reality of the young girl’s tragic life and brutal death, but ties to her and Kevin’s past that she is increasingly reluctant to revisit. On the surface the situation is eerily familiar. But the parallels end when Julie realizes some family secrets are best kept buried deep. Especially those serious enough to kill for.
Important Note: Prices can and do change without prior notice, so please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.
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Fox has acquired an hour-long drama based on the Marvel character Punisher, which will also serve as the series title. The expectation is that the series will be written as a police procedural, and feature Frank Castle (born Castiglione) as an NYPD homicide detective by day, vigilante seeking justice by night.
Here's a condensed version of the character from the Marvel website: Born in New York to parents of Italian ancestry, Francis Castiglione is a former U.S. Marine Captain. Before Frank joined the Marines, he was studying to become a Catholic priest but changed his mind because he was unable to forgive those who did evil. Also prior to his enlistment, he married his wife Maria who was already pregnant with their first child.
Shortly after a tour in Vietnam, Castle, his wife, Maria and their children were in New York's Central Park for an afternoon picnic when they witnessed a Mafia gangland execution; an informant had been hanged from a tree. Seeking to eliminate all witnesses, the Costa crime family murdered them on the spot. However, Castle survived. Even though Frank was able to identify all of the shooters the police were unable to help Castle in his quest for justice; they were tied in too deeply to the powerful Costa family. He decided that the only punishment criminals might receive is that of physical destruction. Shortly thereafter, he emblazoned his body armor with a symbol of a death's head, and exacted his revenge. Since then he has waged a one-man war upon crime, taking the name Punisher.
(Source: Variety.)
This apparently is old news, announced this past August: BBC has renewed (recommissioned) Luther for a third season. We learned of it when star Idris Elba mentioned on BBC Radio this week that he had been "definitely given the green light for a third season", which he expects will air in late 2012 or early 2013.
"Ultimately I'd like to see Luther on the silver screen," he added. "I think it's got the scope to do something like that."
The second season of Luther concluded earlier this week here in the US on BBC America. The season DVD comes out next Tuesday.
(Source: BBC Radio.)
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