The first poster for the crime thriller Savages, adapted from the novel by Don Winslow, has been released by the studio (right; click for larger version).
Directed by Oliver Stone from a screenplay co-written by Stone, Winslow, and Shane Salerno, the film features an all-star ensemble cast of Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Johnson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir.
Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry — raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Lively). Life is idyllic in their Southern California town … until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.
When the merciless head of the cartel, Elena (Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends, Ben and Chon — with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (Travolta) — wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel.
And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and maneuvers in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.
Savages opens in theaters July 6th, 2012.
Monday, April 02, 2012
First Poster for Savages, Adapted from Don Winslow's Crime Thriller
Review: Cops, Crooks & Other Stories in 100 Words by Mark S. Bacon
We've just published our Review of Cops, Crooks & Other Stories in 100 Words by Mark S. Bacon. A Collection of Flash Fiction. Archer & Clark Ebook, March 2012.
Available to purchase from …
Telemystery: The Commander, 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 one series being released this week.
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Amanda Burton stars as a female cop who crosses the line The Commander, a British crime drama created by crime novelist Lynda La Plante.
Clare Blake is New Scotland Yard's highest-ranking woman officer. Icy-cool, ambitious but reckless, she lets her personal life bleed into her career, defying convention and risking her reputation.
The Commander: Set Two is available on DVD and consists of four multi-part episodes that originally aired on ITV as the third and fourth "seasons" of the series during the Summer of 2007 and in the Fall of 2008.
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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.
Promotional Poster for Copper, a New Historical Crime Drama on BBC America
It's not an official poster from the studio, but the promotional image for the upcoming BBC America historical crime drama Copper conveys a sense of what it's about. The tagline: "Justice is brutal."
Copper is described as a gripping crime series set in 1860s New York City, and centers on Kevin Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones), an intense, rugged Irish-immigrant cop working the city’s notorious Five Points neighborhood and struggling to maintain his moral compass in a turbulent world. He returns from the Civil War to discover his daughter is dead and his wife has disappeared, a storyline that will be explored during the series. His friendship with two war compatriots — the wayward son of a wealthy industrialist and a physician who secretly assists Corcoran with his work — takes him to the contrasting worlds of elegant Fifth Avenue and rural Harlem. The three men share a secret from their experience on the battlefield that inextricably links their lives forever.
"I love the part because of the moral conundrums he comes up with day to day," says Weston-Jones. "Through his eyes you get a real sense of how uncertain everything was back then. I love that nothing is predetermined, no one following a plot, everyone just coping and living in the moment, just trying to survive."
Ten one-hour episodes have been ordered for the series, which is expected to premiere on August 19th, 2012.
(Related article: The Hollywood Reporter.)
True Blood Season 5 Clip Trailer Released
HBO has released a clip trailer for the fifth season of True Blood (embedded below).
Based on characters created by crime novelist Charlaine Harris for her Southern Vampire series of mysteries, True Blood stars Anna Paquin as telepathic bar maid Sookie Stackhouse.
The fifth season of True Blood will premiere on Sunday, June 24th, 2012.
Sequel to The Woman in Black in Development
Susan Hill, the author of The Woman in Black, which was recently adapted into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe, has written an original story for a screenplay set 40 years after the events in her book. Title The Woman in Black: Angels of Death, the storyline centers on a young couple and the experiences they have in Eel Marsh House. (We haven't yet seen the movie, but from those who have we've heard the house is the real star of the show.)
Co-produced by Exclusive Media, the studio CEO Simon Oakes said, "We are proud and honoured to be working with Susan again on The Woman in Black: Angels of Death, a wonderful new tale every bit as atmospheric and terrifying as its predecessor The Woman in Black."
(Related article: The Hollywood Reporter.)
Wearing the Spider by Susan Schaab is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Wearing the Spider by Susan Schaab as today's fifth 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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Wearing the Spider by Susan Schaab
Publisher: Galavant Press
We called this cleverly titled debut novel "a very good suspense thriller that keeps the reader's attention and the pages turning."
About Wearing the Spider (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.
Read our review of Wearing the Spider by Susan Schaab.
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 Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff as today's fourth 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 Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff
Publisher: Minotaur Books
This debut supernatural thriller was nominated for both a Bram Stoker Award and an Anthony Award.
About The Harrowing (from the publisher): Baird College's Mendenhall echoes with the footsteps of the last home-bound students heading off for Thanksgiving break, and Robin Stone swears she can feel the creepy, hundred-year-old residence hall breathe a sigh of relief for its long-awaited solitude. Or perhaps it's only gathering itself for the coming weekend.
As a massive storm dumps rain on the isolated campus, four other lonely students reveal themselves: Patrick, a handsome jock; Lisa, a manipulative tease; Cain, a brooding musician; and finally Martin, a scholarly eccentric. Each has forsaken a long weekend at home for their own secret reasons.
The five unlikely companions establish a tentative rapport, but they soon become aware of a sixth presence disturbing the ominous silence that pervades the building. Are they the victims of a simple college prank taken way too far, or is the unusual energy evidence of something genuine — and intent on using the five students for its own terrifying ends? It's only Thursday afternoon, and they have three long days and dark nights before the rest of the world returns to find out what's become of them. But for now it's just the darkness keeping company with five students nobody wants and no one will miss.
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.
Breaking Cover by J. D. Rhoades is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Breaking Cover by J. D. Rhoades 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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Breaking Cover by J. D. Rhoades
Publisher: Minotaur Books
This stand-alone is by the author of the Jack Keller southern crime series.
About Breaking Cover (from the publisher): He was the most talented undercover agent in FBI history, until he dropped completely off the grid, and hasn't been heard from in years. Did he go native, or was he discovered and killed? When Tony Wolf is finally driven out into the open, torn from deep cover during the rescue of two kidnapped children, he becomes the number one target of both the vicious biker gang he double-crossed and a massive Federal manhunt.
But Tony’s tired of being the hunted, and as both the gang and a traitorous FBI agent converge on a small southern town, they’re all about to learn a hard lesson: When the Wolf breaks cover, he doesn’t always run away.
Sometimes he comes straight at your throat.
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.
Shakedown by Joel Goldman is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Shakedown by Joel Goldman 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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Shakedown by Joel Goldman
A Jack Davis Thriller
Publisher: CreateSpace
This first in a series introduces Kansas City FBI Special Agent Jack Davis.
About Shakedown (from the publisher): The lives of three people collide over mass murder at a Kansas City residence that Special Agent Jack Davis has carefully staked out for weeks. Kate Scranton, whose job is spotting lies for high-priced courtroom lawyers, is convinced that mild-mannered Latrell Kelly knows something about the crime. But Latrell is hiding far more than Kate can guess. And with Jack half-blinded by an imploding personal life, and someone on his own side leaking crucial information, they're headed straight for the ultimate danger zone—where truth lies at the heart of betrayal.
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.
Little Girl Gone by Brett Battles is Today's Featured Free MystereBook
MystereBooks is pleased to feature Little Girl Gone by Brett Battles 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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Little Girl Gone by Brett Battles
A Logan Harper Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace
This is the first mystery (of two to date) in this series, which introduces the ex-Army officer with a past.
About Little Girl Gone (from the publisher): Logan Harper isn't looking for redemption. He just wants to live in peace and forget his troubled past. But one morning his quiet life is upended when he interrupts the attempted murder of his father's best friend Tooney.
The next thing he knows, Logan is on his way to Los Angeles, searching for Tooney's missing granddaughter and uncovering a sinister plot connected not only to Tooney's past, but also to the boardrooms of corporate America.
As the odds stack up against him, Logan must fall back on old skills from the life he'd rather forget. He's made a promise, and the only way to fulfill it is to bring the girl home alive.
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.
Mystery Godoku Puzzle for April 02, 2012
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:
1 7 A C E H I R V
This is the title of the 3rd Inspector Pekkala thriller by Sam Eastland (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!
Sunday, April 01, 2012
Bones Returns with New Episodes Monday, April 2nd
After a very long hiatus — it last aired a new episode in early January, 2012 — Bones returns with new episodes on its new night tomorrow, Monday April 2nd, at 8 PM (ET/PT) on Fox.
In tomorrow's episode, titled "The Prisoner in the Pipe", an escaped convict's remains are found in a residential sewer pipe, but the team find evidence that a murder occurred inside a prison. Meanwhile, Booth (David Boreanaz) asks Brennan (Emily Deschanel) to take it easy as they await the birth of their baby.
As we mentioned earlier this week, Bones has been renewed for an eighth season.
Watch a short "behind the scenes" preview video for the episode below.
First Full Trailer for Total Recall Released by Studio
Remember that Total Recall trailer for a trailer we posted earlier this week? Well the full-length first trailer for the film has now been posted exclusively on the Apple Trailers site. If you haven't seen the original Arnold Schwarzenegger film from 1990, you'll probably have no clue what this movie is about based solely on this trailer; it's all action and no substance. We'll embed a copy here when we can.
Here's the official synopsis from the studio:
Total Recall is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired anew by the famous short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick.
Welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), even though he's got a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life — real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police — controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston), the leader of the free world — Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter (Jessica Biel) to find the head of the underground resistance (Bill Nighy) and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate.
Pre-Order a Specially Priced eBook Edition of The Witch Doctor's Wife by Tamar Myers
After missing HarperCollins's Andrew Gross promotion — see our post here — we went poking around to see what else we may have missed … and found another 99 cent title by the publisher. And though this one isn't quite available yet, it can be pre-ordered at the discounted price.
On April 10th, HarperCollins is releasing an ebook edition of Tamar Myers' first Amanda Brown mystery, The Witch Doctor's Wife, that includes excerpts from the second in the series, The Headhunter's Daughter, a book we admired though said that "the whodunit-style mystery storyline appears to be secondary to all else", and the third, The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots, which is scheduled to be published this May.
The pre-order download price of 99 cents is available as of the date and time of this post through the vendors listed below.
Important Note: 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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Tamar Myers
Series: An Amanda Brown Mystery (1st in series)
The Congo beckons to young Amanda Brown in 1958, as she follows her missionary calling to the mysterious "dark continent" far from her South Carolina home. But her enthusiasm cannot cushion her from the shock of a very foreign culture — where competing missionaries are as plentiful as flies, and oppressive European overlords are busy stripping the land of its most valuable resource: diamonds.
Little by little, Amanda is drawn into the lives of the villagers in tiny Belle Vue — and she is touched by the plight of the local witch doctor, a man known as Their Death, who has been forced to take a second job as a yardman to support his two wives. But when First Wife stumbles upon an impossibly enormous uncut gem, events are set in motion that threaten to devastate the lives of these people Amanda has come to admire and love — events that could lead to nothing less than murder.
