Telemystery: Alice as a Cop in Wunderland?

We're fans of all kinds of fictional crime on television, and are generally open to try almost anything the networks put on the air (as it were) at least once.

But Alice as a cop in Wunderland? That may be taking things a little too far.

The CW is developing a project in which Lewis Carroll's literary Alice is a modern detective, who discovers a fantastic world beneath the streets of contemporary Los Angeles in need of her services. The working title of the series is Wunderland, which simply elicits another groan from us. Though we'll be the first to admit it is fun imagining casting the roles of The Hatter, The Queen of Hearts, The Cheshire Cat, and others, and coming up with clever ways in which might play a part in the series.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120919)

Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

New International (Taiwan) Trailer for Skyfall

Sony Taiwan has released a new short but action-filled trailer for the James Bond film Skyfall. The trailer is in English with Chinese subtitles.

Starring Daniel Craig as 007, Skyfall opens in US theaters November 9th, 2012 … a week after it opens in Taiwan.

Telemystery: HBO Orders Pilot for Criminal Justice, based on the Award-Winning BBC Series

HBO has ordered a pilot for a crime drama based on the BBC series Criminal Justice. Steven Zallian (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jack Ryan) will direct a script co-written with Richard Price (The Wire). James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) is on board to executive produce and star.

Criminal Justice aired for two 5-episode seasons on BBC in 2008 and 2009. Each season focused on a single murder investigation from the perspective of the accused.

The first season won BAFTA Awards for Best Drama Serial and Peter Moffat, who both created and wrote the series.

The DVD set of the complete BBC series of Criminal Justice was released yesterday.

Please Welcome Crime Novelist John Worsley Simpson

with John Worsley Simpson

We are delighted to welcome crime novelist John Worsley Simpson to Omnimystery News today, courtesy of Partners in Crime Tours. We encourage you to visit all the sites on the tour through September and October; you can find his complete schedule here.

John's fifth novel is Missing Rebecca (CreateSpace, May 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats), a mystery of high crimes and dark shadows.

We recently had the opportunity to chat with the author on a number of topics.

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Omnimystery News: Your previous novels are all part of a series, but this new book is different. Tell us a bit about it.

Photo provided courtesy of
John Worsley Simpson

John Worsley Simpson: I do have four previous books in a series, which I plan to reissue through Kindle, that feature a curmudgeonly Toronto police detective, Harry Stark. My latest book, Missing Rebecca, may be a standalone, or it may end up being the first of a series. It depends on a number of factors, which I won't go into here. That a book is going to be another "Harry Stark" is driven by the character demanding to have another go at it. The latest book being a departure was prompted by plot. I came up with the nub of a plot and the setting and the protagonists/antagonists arose from that germ of an idea.

OMN: Do you consider Missing Rebecca do be similar in style to, or of the same genre as, the "Harry Stark" mysteries?

JWS: My books have all been police procedurals, although Stark has many of the characteristics of the typical hard-boiled detective. He likes to drink too much, he likes women, he doesn't suffer fools gladly. Missing Rebecca's "policeman" is a U.S. deputy marshal, who gets some help from someone in the Homeland Security agency. But, while it lacks policemen as such as protagonists, it would still be classified as a police procedural.

OMN: We're always told, write what you know … and sometimes write about who you know. How much of "you" is in your books?

JWS: Every aspect of my personality is in the characters in my novels. I might not be encapsulated in one character, but various parts of my persona are seeded throughout most of the personalities in my books. The glib, smart, controlled and vicious characters have nothing of mine in them. Perhaps that's why they invariably get harshly dealt with.

OMN: You mentioned earlier that Missing Rebecca was prompted by a plot idea. Is that where you typically start when writing a book?

JWS: I can't see how a crime-fiction author can write without a plot. The heart of crime fiction is a "plot" not just in the literary sense, but in the broader sense of someone planning to do some bad thing to someone else and trying to get away with it, while the solver of the crime is challenged with doing just that: solving the crime. Of course, you can cheat by having a deus ex machina approach with the protagonist tripping over the solution on his way to the drugstore. Having said all that, the plots that I compose before I start to write have NEVER ended up being the plots that I finish with. They take you along the first road, but as the wag said, "When you come to fork in the road, take it." I never know where the road is going to take me. In most of my books, some character that I introduce for one minor purpose ends up taking on an important role later on in the book. And I say to myself, "how would I have resolved this, if I hadn't introduced X in chapter three?!!"

OMN: How do you go about checking on the accuracy of the details you include in your books?

JWS: I fact check my books by myriad methods, largely now through the Internet. It takes a degree of practice and intelligence to use the Web skillfully to find answers to questions. When the Internet doesn't offer an answer I'm looking for, or doesn't satisfy me as to its reliability, I find experts, including forensic scientists, jewellers, cops, firearms experts and so on. My rule is that I don't have to be "right," but I should never be "wrong." There is some latitude for artistic license, of course, but not so much that a person in a field about which I write would say, "That's nonsense. We'd never do it that way. What an idiot!" If I were writing a courtroom drama, for instance, I would never have the lawyers asking leading questions or presenting evidence from the well of the court as if they were witnesses.

OMN: We regularly report on film or television adaptations of crime novels. Who do you see playing the principal characters in Missing Rebecca?

JWS: I would see Ryan Gosling as Liam Peters, the former SEAL whose wife goes missing, and Ben Stiller as Tony Reynolds, the deputy marshal.

OMN: What kinds of books do you enjoy reading?

JWS: I mostly read adventure stories: James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Louis Stevenson and so on. I always loved detective movies and as I got older, I read all the classics, Mickey Spillane, Mike Hammer, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Nero Wolfe. I read so many English mystery novelists, I couldn't begin to list them, except to say my favourite was/is Dorothy Sayers. I loved Eric Ambler and John le Carré and I've read every word that Horace Rumpole ever uttered.

OMN: What are your hobbies or outside interests? Have any of these made an appearance in your books?

JWS: I love jazz and I play the piano badly, and both of those things have figured in my books, although not in Missing Rebecca.

OMN: If we could have only asked one question, what would you have wanted to hear?

JWS: "Where do you get your ideas from?" I enjoy fielding that question.

OMN: You walk into a bookstore and see a new book that you have to buy right then and there. Who is it written by?

JWS: Elmore Leonard. I read everything by him. But my interests aren't limited to crime fiction, and I spend time browsing other sections of the store. I read classic literature, history, and economics/policy.

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John Worsley Simpson was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, emigrated to Canada at the age of four and grew up in Toronto. He has been a reporter and editor in major newspapers and news services in North America, England and Ireland. He is married and lives in Newmarket, Ontario. For more information about the author, visit his website at JohnWorsleySimpson.ca, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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Missing Rebecca
John Worsley Simpson

A Mystery of High Crimes and Dark Shadows

Death and deception. After a whirlwind romance, Liam and Rebecca marry, knowing almost nothing of each other's backgrounds. Only months later, on an afternoon shopping trip to a mall in the Buffalo, New York, suburb of Cheektowaga, Rebecca vanishes, seemingly abducted. Or did she make herself disappear? Was the marriage a sham? Was Liam a dupe?

This is a novel of high crimes and dark shadows, involving the immensely profitable drug industry in which exclusive access to the market for a medication can mean billions of dollars, and holding on to that exclusivity might lead to lies, deceit, corruption, payoffs, and even murder.

      

Bird Brained by Jessica Speart is Today's Fifth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Bird Brained by Jessica Speart 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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Bird Brained
Jessica Speart
A Rachel Porter Mystery
Publisher: Jessica Speart

Tangling with animal smugglers in southern Florida — from the Customs counter at Miami Airport to the lush estates of the rich and corrupt — is all part of the job for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agent Rachel Porter.

Working on a hot tip, she investigates the compound of an alleged smuggler of exotic cockatoos and parrots. But once inside, Rachel finds her prey laying in a pool of his own blood — and all of his winged bounty has flown the coop. Though her ornery Cuban boss tells her that birds are her business, not killers, the indomitable Rachel sets out to find both. With a list of suspects that includes a sleazy snake dealer, Cuban cigar smugglers, airboat cowboys, and exiled anti-Castro terrorists, Rachel finds the field spread as wide as a peacock's tail-and just as colorful. And if this dedicated wildlife chick isn't careful … she might end up a sitting duck.

  

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.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

The City of Refuge by Diana Wilder is Today's Fourth Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature The City of Refuge by Diana Wilder 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 City of Refuge
Diana Wilder
Publisher: CreateSpace

It was once the glory of Akhenaten's reign, called "The Horizon of the Aten". Now the imperial city of Amarna lies wrecked, abandoned and accursed, dreaming in the darkness on the edge of the Nile.

Police Commander Khonsu has never believed in curses, but he can't deny his own foreboding when he learns that the city's stone quarries are to be reopened at Pharaoh's command by a delegation from the great temple of Ptah at Memphis, headed by Lord Nebamun, its second - ranking priest, a man without a past who is not afraid of ghosts, curses or the dead.

As Commander of the Provincial Police force assigned to guard the expedition, Khonsu accompanies the enigmatic Nebamun to the ruined city, where he finds himself entangled in a drifting web of betrayal, murder and revenge that has its deepest roots in the shadows of the city's heresy-tainted past.

  

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.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Ascension Day by John Matthews is Today's Third Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Ascension Day by John Matthews 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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Ascension Day
John Matthews
Publisher: E-Media Books

Only 47 days left until Larry Durrant's execution, but lawyer Jac McElroy is determined to save his client's life.

There are only three small problems: the evidence against Durrant is overwhelming, he's made a full confession, and he wants to die …

But Jac's hungry to make his mark and he knows something just isn't right about Larry Durrant's murder conviction. Trouble is, everyone thinks Larry's guilty, from the Louisiana Governor right down to the accused, who has confessed to the crime and now wants to make peace with his maker.

Jac soon discovers that someone doesn't want anyone — especially a lawyer — digging around this case. And they'll stop at nothing to make sure Larry's execution goes ahead on schedule. Now Jac must decide whether he's prepared to risk his career, his reputation and his life to save a man who, by his own admission, is a murderer …

  

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.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

Dear Crossing by Marjorie Swift Doering is Today's Second Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Dear Crossing by Marjorie Swift Doering 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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Dear Crossing
Marjorie Swift Doering
A Ray Schiller Mystery
Publisher: CreateSpace

The gruesome murder of a Minneapolis woman at her lakeside summer home shatters the peace of small town Widmer, Minnesota. While dealing with his own private demons, Ray Schiller follows the trail of evidence to Minneapolis where he teams up to investigate the murder with Homicide Detective Dick Waverly.

The scrutiny of the grieving widower's carefully guarded personal life threatens to ruin the executive's bid for his father-in-law's company. Driven by ambition, greed, love, and hate, one by one, the suspects turn on one another with startling consequences.

When the case begins to stall, an unthinkable incident makes Ray the focus of a harrowing Internal Affairs investigation. His shaky marriage and law-enforcement career rest in the balance.

Meanwhile, with dogged determination, Ray discovers the significance of several seemingly unrelated events, which turn the murder case on its head.

  

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.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

A Deceit to Die For by Luke Montgomery is Today's Featured Free MystereBook

MystereBooks is pleased to feature A Deceit to Die For by Luke Montgomery 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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A Deceit to Die For
Luke Montgomery
Publisher: Ethandune Publishing

When history professor Ian O'Brien purchases an old collection of letters and books, he unknowingly steps into the world of a shadowy organization. His family is soon caught up in a web of intrigue and deceit spun out of a 16th century Muslim conspiracy that somebody still wants to keep secret. This powerful and ruthless group will stop at nothing to recover the document. Events spin out of control, tragedy strikes and the quest for answers begins. Facing impossible odds, they race against time to discover the truth and save their loved ones. In the process, they learn just how powerful and enduring a lie can be.

  

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.

For more free mystery ebooks, visit our Free MystereBooks page.

MystereBooks: Two More Poisoned Pen Press 1st in Series eMystery Discounts!

Poisoned Pen Press has just e-mailed us, announcing that two more first-in-series mystery titles are free on iTunes, 99 cents on Amazon … and we didn't want to wait until tomorrow to tell you about them. (Typically these discounted titles are also available on Kobo, but as of the date and time of this post, the discounts weren't available from them.) The second book in both series is also discounted, to $2.99 from both Amazon and iTunes.

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Shadows in the Night
Jane Finnis
An Aurelia Marcella Mystery (1st in series)

Roman Britain in 91 AD is a troublesome part of the mighty Empire ruled by Domitian Caesar. Tension is especially high in the north, where Aurelia Marcella, a young innkeeper from Italy, runs the Oak Tree Mansio on the road to York. A string of savage murders disrupts her peaceful life, and she and her Roman friends find themselves under attack from a secret native war-band, the Shadow-men, whose aim is to expel all Romans out. A traveller, Quintus, is nearly killed close to the inn. Soon he and Aurelia team up to track down the rebel warriors and identify their mysterious masked leader, the Shadow of Death.

    

Also available, the second in this series, discounted to $2.99: A Bitter Chill (Kindle / iTunes)

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The Commission
Michael Norman
A Sam Kincaid Mystery (1st in series)

Levi Vogue, Chairman of the powerful Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, is gunned down in the driveway of his home as he returns from a late evening tryst with Sue Ann Winkler, an exotic dancer employed in a Salt Lake City strip club.

Sam Kincaid, Chief of the Special Investigations Branch (SIB) of the Utah Department of Corrections, is assigned to help Salt Lake City Police Department homicide detective Lt. Kate McConnell solve Vogue's murder.

The investigation soon leads Kincaid and McConnell into the seedy world of prostitution and strip clubs. Ultimately, the investigation focuses on Charles (Slick) Watts, a violent ex-convict with a long criminal history and a score to settle with Levi Vogue. But before Watts can be apprehended, his body is discovered at an abandoned military base in Wendover, Nevada.

When the medical examiner concludes that Watt's death was a homicide elaborately staged to look like a suicide, Kincaid and McConnell are forced to turn their attention to a complex conspiracy behind the murders.

Ultimately, the investigation leads Kincaid and McConnell inside the Utah state prison to a small group of corrupt prison employees known as the Commission. As the police close in, Commission members turn, first on each other, and then on Kincaid.

    

Also available, the second in this series, discounted to $2.99: Silent Witness (Kindle / iTunes)

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Important Note: Any prices mentioned above were correct 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.

This Week's New Games of Mystery and Suspense — and more — from Big Fish Games (120918)

Here is this week's list of new games — many of which include elements of mystery and suspense — available to purchase and download from Big Fish Games.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Big Fish Games, which is updated daily, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can use this link to see the relevant page on BigFishGames.com.

Telemystery: ABC Acquires Kidnapping Thriller Project

ABC has acquired a project from Castle executive producer Laurie Zaks titled Rise & Fall. The storyline, as provided by Deadline, involves the son of a kidnapped Chicago businesswoman, who must unravel the truth about what happened to his mother in order to clear his own name.

The kidnapping plot reminded us of series that we greatly enjoyed from a few years back titled Kidnapped, which aired briefly on NBC in Fall 2006 before the network moved the series to its website. We tend to enjoy multi-episode, even whole-season, stories if the characters are interesting and the overall situation in which find themselves is compelling. Another example of such is the first season of Murder One, which we thought at the time (1997) — and continue to consider today — to be brilliant television.

Here's hoping ABC moves forward with the Rise & Fall project; we'd like to see what they do with it.

Today's Bestselling Free Kindle MystereBooks (120918)

Here is today's list of the Bestselling Free Kindle Crime Fiction: the top nine mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers.

We're using a script to embed an RSS feed from Amazon.com, which is updated hourly, but if you cannot see the box below — or have scripts blocked — you can click on the image to the right or use this link to see the relevant page on Amazon.com.

Review: Criminal by Karin Slaughter

A Mysterious Review of …

Criminal by Karin Slaughter. A Will Trent Mystery.

Review summary: This crime novel is essentially two books linked by only the most convenient of plot devices. One of these "books" is worth reading; indeed, it is exceptional. But it is nearly overwhelmed by the second "book", a parallel storyline that is essentially a research paper on how hard it was to be a female police detective in the 1970s, no doubt of interest to some, but a narrative that should have been a paragraph or two at most, not half the book. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Criminal
Karin Slaughter
A Will Trent Mystery
Delacorte Press (July 2012)

Publisher synopsis: Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner. Will cannot fathom Amanda’s motivation until the two of them literally collide in an abandoned orphanage they have both been drawn to for different reasons. Decades before — when Will’s father was imprisoned for murder — this was his home …

Flash back nearly forty years. In the summer Will Trent was born, Amanda Wagner is going to college, making Sunday dinners for her father, taking her first steps in the boys’ club that is the Atlanta Police Department. One of her first cases is to investigate a brutal crime in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods. Amanda and her partner, Evelyn, are the only ones who seem to care if an arrest is ever made.

Now the case that launched Amanda’s career has suddenly come back to life, intertwined with the long-held mystery of Will’s birth and parentage. And these two dauntless investigators will each need to face down demons from the past if they are to prevent an even greater terror from being unleashed.