Read our … Review of The Fishy Business by Maxwell Eaton III. The Flying Beaver Brothers. Alfred A. Knopf Trade Paperback, January 2012.
Available to purchase from …
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Review: The Fishy Business by Maxwell Eaton III
Fox Cancels Terra Nova
Fox has canceled its prehistoric thriller Terra Nova. It premiered last September and aired 12 titled episodes (including the 2-part opening episode, "Genesis") through December 2011.
We tuned in to the first 15-20 minutes of the first episode, thought it moved along far too slowly to watch in real time, and decided to catch it later On Demand. We never did. Maybe that says something about how impatient we are as viewers, the need to be immediately engaged otherwise we look elsewhere.
The studio and producers are reportedly trying to interest other networks in continuing the series.
The Killing Room by John Manning is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Killing Room by John Manning as today's third 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 Killing Room by John Manning
Publisher: Pinnacle
About The Killing Room (from the publisher): Old houses have their secrets.
The Young residence — a beautiful Maine mansion overlooking the Atlantic — is no exception. But the secrets here are different. They can kill …
Carolyn Cartwright, private detective and ex-FBI agent, has been hired by Howard Young to investigate a string of gruesome family deaths. The crimes are horrific, brutal, and senseless. And the time has come for the killing to begin again …
One by one, members of the Young family are chosen to die. Old and young, weak and strong, no one is safe from a killer with a limitless thirst for revenge. And the only way for Carolyn to uncover the shocking truth is to enter the room no one has ever left alive — and make herself the next target …
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):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Becoming Quinn by Brett Battles is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Becoming Quinn by Brett Battles 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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Becoming Quinn by Brett Battles
A Jonathan Quinn Mystery
Publisher: Brett Battles
This novella is a prequel to the Jonathan Quinn series, the second of which — The Deceived — was the winner of the 2009 Barry Award for Best Thriller.
About Becoming Quinn (from the publisher): Most careers begin with an interview and a handshake. Others require a little … something more.
Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear. At the moment, however, he's a twenty-two year old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change.
In a burning barn a body is found — and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down. But Officer Oliver thinks it's something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden — others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.
Every identity has an origin. This is Quinn's.
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):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
The Black Minute by Christopher Valen is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Black Minute by Christopher Valen 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 Black Minute by Christopher Valen
A John Santana Mystery
Publisher: Conquill Press
This second mystery in this series was the winner of the 2009 Reader Views First Place Award for Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Horror Novel.
About The Black Minute (from the publisher): When the body of a young, Hmong woman is found on Harriet Island near the Mississippi River, it appears to be a simple case of murder and revenge. But what begins as a routine investigation soon becomes something far more sinister. Paired with a Hmong partner he’s not sure he can trust, and attracted to a beautiful woman with dark secrets, St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana is drawn into a maze of political intrigue and broken promises made during the Vietnam War. Trusting his instincts and determined to find justice, Santana uncovers a web of lies and a terrifying plot that could lead to a national disaster — and to his own death.
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):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
Quiver by Holly Luhning is Today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Quiver by Holly Luhning as today's Amazon Kindle Daily Deal. The deal price of $1.99 is valid only for today, Tuesday, March 06, 2012.
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Quiver by Holly Luhning
Publisher: Pegasus
A masterful debut thriller about the original female Dracula and an underground gothic cult reenacting her ritualized killings in present day London.
About Quiver (from the publisher): In sixteenth-century Hungary, Countess Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed over six hundred servant girls in order to bathe in their blood. She believed this practice would keep her skin youthful and her beauty immortal.
Quiver tells the story of Danica, a forensic psychologist who works at a former insane asylum-turned-forensic hospital. One of Danica’s mental patients is Malcolm Foster, who is imprisoned for murdering a fourteen-year-old girl. Foster is a menacing but fascinating patient and Danica begins to suspect that Foster may have been the head of a Gothic cabal idolizing Bathory. Her peers dismiss her discoveries, while disturbing incidents begin following her home from work.
Soon after her arrival in London, Danica receives a mysterious note from Maria, a seductive archivist with whom Danica has had an intriguing and complicated past. Maria claims she has Bathory’s diaries that chronicle her relentless torture of young women. As Maria increasingly insinuates herself into Danica’s life, soon Danica is in too deep to notice that Maria’s motivations are far from selfless; in fact, they may just cost Danica her life.
Important Note: Amazon.com updates its Kindle book deal every day at approximately midnight PT. The title referenced above is available at a discounted price for Tuesday, March 06, 2012 only.
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Monday, March 05, 2012
Director Hired for Film Adaptation of Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner
It was back in May 2010 that we last reported on the film adaptation of Carpe Demon, the first mystery in the Kate Connor, Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series by Julie Kenner.
Today we're learning that a screenplay has been written — by Dan Hagerman and Kevin Hagerman — and that Andre Øvredal (TrollHunter) will direct.
Carpe Demon introduces Kate Connor, a woman who put her career aside to raise kids in the suburbs. She hasn't, for instance, hunted a demon in ages.
That must be why she missed the one wandering through the pet food aisle of the San Diablo WalMart. Unfortunately, he managed to catch her attention an hour later — when he crashed into the Connor house, intent on killing her.
Now Kate has to clean up the mess in her kitchen, dispose of a dead demon, and pull together a dinner party that will get her husband elected to County Attorney — all without arousing her family's suspicion. Worse yet, it seems the dead demon didn't come alone …
It's time for Kate Connor to go back to work.
The fifth, and most recent, book in the series is Demon Ex Machina, which was published in 2009.
(Related article: Empire.)
Screenwriter Hired for Film Adaptation of The Expats by Chris Pavone
CBS Films is quickly moving forward with its film adaptation of The Expats by Chris Pavone, hiring Alex Holmes (House of Saddam) to write the screenplay. The studio optioned the book, which is published tomorrow, last month.
The book's storyline follows Kate Moore, a working mother struggling to make ends meet, to raise children, to keep a spark in her marriage … and to maintain an increasingly unbearable life-defining secret. So when her husband is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her double-life, to start anew.
She begins to reinvent herself as an expat, finding her way in a language she doesn't speak, doing the housewifely things she's never before done — play dates and coffee mornings, daily cooking and never-ending laundry. Meanwhile, her husband works incessantly, at a job Kate has never understood, for a banking client she's not allowed to know. He's becoming distant and evasive; she's getting lonely and bored.
Then another American couple arrives. Kate soon becomes suspicious that these people are not who they say they are, and she's terrified that her own past is catching up to her. So Kate begins to dig, to peel back the layers of deception that surround her. She discovers fake offices and shell corporations and a hidden gun, a mysterious farmhouse and numbered accounts with bewildering sums of money, and finally unravels the mind-boggling long-play con that threatens her family, her marriage, and her life.
(Related article: The Hollywood Reporter.)
Cogan's Trade Film Adaptation Now Titled Killing Them Softly
We actually haven't heard much recently about the film adaptation of Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins. The film stars Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, a mob enforcer called in when a high-stakes card game under the protection of the Mob is taken.
But the film apparently has a new title; Variety reporter Jeff Sneider tweeted last night, "Mini-scoop: The Brad Pitt pic Cogan's Trade has been retitled Killing Them Softly."
Hmm ... kind of an odd choice, in our opinion. It's not as if Cogan's Trade is a common film title. Maybe that's why they pay the film producers the big bucks, to make important decisions like this!
Cogan's Trade … err, Killing Them Softly … opens in theaters September 21st, 2012.
Mr. E. Reviews The Son of No One
Purchase/Rental Option(s)
This film is a near-to-complete miss on several levels … which is really discouraging as it boasts a stellar cast and a strong premise. The director/screenwriter seems to have been far too focused on individual elements of the film that were not important to the story to the detriment of the film as a whole.
Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews The Son of No One.
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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.
Warner Bros. Shelves Quean Pilot Project for CBS
Scarcely a month after CBS ordered a pilot for a crime drama titled Quean, Warner Bros. has shut down production.
The series premise was described as a tattooed female computer hacker, who helps the Oakland (CA) police solve crimes. If the character sounds familiar, it should: it is a clone of Lisbeth Salander in "The Millennium Trilogy" by Stieg Larsson.
Apparently Sony Pictures, which holds the US rights to the adaptations of Larsson's books, took exception to the description and threatened to take legal action. Even after an extensive rewrite of the pilot's script and a modification of the character herself, the studio decided it was still too much of a risk to move forward with the project.
From our summary last month of the prime time crime pilots in development, CBS still has several others from which to choose for a series commitment.
(Related article: The Hollywood Reporter.)
Enter to Win a Free Copy of Clawback by Mike Cooper
Last week we published our review of Clawback by Mike Cooper, calling it a "highly entertaining" financial-action thriller that "races along at a relentless pace."
Today, we're pleased to announce that our readers can enter to win a free copy of the book, courtesy of the Penguin Group.
Simply visit Mystery Book Contests and click on the Mike Cooper: Clawback link. Provide your name, e-mail address, and this code — 7913 — to enter. (One entry per person or e-mail address; US residents only. This contest ends March 12th, 2012.)
Telemystery: Six Crime Drama Series Seasons, 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 six series being released this week.
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Adapted from the crime novels by Lynda La Plante, Above Suspicion is both the title of this series of adaptations and of the first novel in the series of Anna Travis mysteries.
Kelly Reilly stars as Anna Travis, who, as a rookie detective, wears the wrong shoes, throws up at a crime scene, and faints at a postmortem. Does she have what it takes to succeed in what is still mostly a man's world?
The series also stars Ciarán Hinds as Anna's brusque boss, Detective Chief Inspector James Langton, whose interest in his new charge quickly turns personal.
Above Suspicion: Set 1: Above Suspicion is available on DVD and consists of the two-part episode that originally aired in the UK on ITV in January 2009.
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Based on characters created by crime novelist Reginald Hill, Dalziel and Pascoe stars Warren Clarke as Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel and Colin Buchanan as Detective Inspector Peter Pascoe in this long-running BBC series featuring the Yorkshire police officers.
Dalziel and Pascoe: Season Five is available on DVD and consists of four episodes — "A Sweeter Lazarus", "Cunning Old Fox", "Foreign Bodies", and "Above the Law"; all are original screenplays, and not adapted from any of Hill's novels — that originally aired during July 2000.
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Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.
It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plots, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; and all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords, and honest men, all will play the Game of Thrones.
Adapted from the novels in fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, this first season generally follows the storyline in the first book, A Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones: Season One is available on DVD and Blu-ray disc and consists of episodes that originally aired on HBO from April through June 2011. The second season premieres on April 1st, 2012.
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Martin Shaw stars Judge John Deed in this British legal drama that aired for six seasons on BBC.
Judge John Deed: Season Five, Episodes 1-4 is available on DVD and consists of the first four episodes of this six episode season that originally aired in the UK during January 2006.
No official reason has been given for excluding the final two episodes — "One Angry Man" and "Heart of Darkness" — thought it has been suggested that these episodes feature public safety information that may be unreliable and/or inaccurate.
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The activities of the counter-terrorism division of the British Security Service are depicted in MI-5, which airs as Spooks in the UK.
The series has typically featured a large ensemble cast and multi-episode storylines. In this season, former Russian spy Ilya Gavrik (Jonathan Hyde) proposes a strategic partnership between Russia and the UK. But someone within the organization is determined to prevent this from happening.
MI-5 (Spooks): Volume Ten — its final season — is available on DVD and consists of episodes that originally aired during September and October, 2011.
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David Suchet stars as Agatha Christie's inimitable private detective Hercule Poirot in Poirot.
Over the years, the episodes in this series have been released on DVD, though not always in a logical manner. Acorn Media has decided to wipe the slate clean and reissue all the episodes, in their original broadcast order, and remastered.
Poirot: Series Three is available on DVD and Blu-ray disc and consists of 1 episode that originally aired on ITV in September 1990 — this is actually the last episode of the second season, which was not included on the previous set — and 10 episodes that aired from January through March 1991.
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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.
Review: Bloodland by Alan Glynn
Read our … Review of Bloodland by Alan Glynn. Picador Trade Paperback, January 2012.
Available to purchase from …
The List by J. A. Konrath is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The List by J. A. Konrath 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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The List by J. A. Konrath
Publisher: CreateSpace
This stand-alone technothriller is by the author of the Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels mysteries.
About The List (from the publisher): A group of ten people each have tattoos of numbers on the bottoms their feet … and don't know why. One of them, a Chicago Homicide cop named Tom Mankowski, has had one of these strange tattoos since birth. When he investigates a violent murder and discovers the victim also has a tattooed number, it sets the ball rolling for an adventure of historic proportions.
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):
For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.
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