Sony to Adapt Michael Dobbs' Thriller The Lords' Day

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Sony is adapting the Michael Dobbs 2007 thriller The Lords' Day as the first in a "franchise character-based film" series. Robert Mark Karman (Taken) will write the screenplay.

Book synopsis: Once a year, the Queen, the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the judges, the bishops, leaders spiritual and temporal, assemble in the House of Lords for the State Opening of Parliament. On this day, the Lords' Day, the gathering is still more impressive, for sitting beside his mother is the heir to the throne and up in the galleries are the sons of both the US President and the British Prime Minister. But they are all about to be taken hostage. The siege will lead some to selfless sacrifice, others to lose the respect of those they love most dearly.

The Lords' Day is the first in a series of thrillers by the author featuring Harry Jones, an ex-SAS Member of Parliament. The second, The Edge of Madness, was published last year. Both books are available as UK imports in the US.

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First Clues, Mysteries for Kids: A New Nancy Drew Title for August 2009

First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is your source for information on over 100 mystery series for children and young adults where each series is conveniently listed under four different age categories (New Sleuths, ages 4 to 6; Future Sleuths, ages 7 to 9; Sleuths in Training, ages 10 to 12, and Apprentice Sleuths, ages 13 and older), is pleased to announce a Nancy Drew book that is scheduled for release during August, 2009. The next The Hardy Boys books will be out in September.

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Model Menace by Carolyn Keene
Nancy Drew, Girl Detective

The second title in the Model Mystery Trilogy.

I thought I had cracked the case when I found out who was trying to sabotage Sydney's wedding out of jealousy. It's easy to be envious of a gorgeous model betrothed to the hottest reality star on television. But even after I uncovered the villain, things did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. Could Sydney be sabotaging her own wedding due to cold feet? I know that seems ridiculous, but it also seems ridiculous that someone would want to hurt the kind Sydney in any way. And it seems unlikely that my suspect could have acted alone to ruin the shower. Is it possible that the crook is working with someone else to bring Sydney and her fiancé, Vic, down? I'll need to act fast to catch whoever is up to no good.

Nancy Drew, Girl Detective books are recommended for readers aged 10 and older.

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New Mystery Book Giveaway! Dying for Mercy by Mary Jane Clark

Mystery Book Contests is thrilled to announce a new mystery book prize package giveaway! Mary Jane Clark's third Sunrise Suspense mystery with the KEY News morning team, Dying for Mercy, is now available and the author is generously providing 2 copies to our readers.

When death shatters the serenity of the exclusive moneyed enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York, Eliza Blake, cohost of the country's premier morning television show KEY to America, is on the scene. While attending a lavish gala at her friends' newly renovated estate, Pentimento, Eliza's host is found dead—a grotesque suicide that is the first act in a macabre and intricately conceived plan to expose the sins of the past involving some of the town's most revered citizens.

Determined to find out the truth, Eliza and her KEY News colleagues—producer Annabelle Murphy, cameraman B.J. D'Elia, and psychiatrist Margo Gonzalez—discover that Pentimento holds the key. Nestled in the park's sprawling architectural masterpieces, picturesque gardeners' cottages, and lush, rolling landscape, the glorious mansion is actually a giant "puzzle house," filled with ingenious clues hidden in its fireplaces, fountains, and frescoes that lead them from one suspicious locale to another—and, one by one, to the victims of a fiendish killer.

As Pentimento gives up its secrets, it becomes clear that no amount of wealth or privilege will keep the residents of Tuxedo Park safe. But just when Eliza unearths one final surprise, she comes face-to-face with a murderer who believes that some puzzles should never be solved.

Enter daily! Provide your name and e-mail address on the Dying for Mercy giveaway entry form and correctly answer the contest question for a chance to win 1 of 2 copies of Dying for Mercy courtesy of author Mary Jane Clark. Estimated prize package value: $25.

Remember to visit Mystery Book Contests regularly to check for new mystery book prize package giveaways.

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MBN Welcomes Rita Herron, Author of The Demonborn Trilogy

Mystery Books News is delighted to welcome award-winning author Rita Herron as a guest blogger today. Rita currently writes paranormal romantic suspense novels for Grand Central Publishing and category romantic suspense novels for Harlequin Intrigue. Her new series, The Demonborn, blends her love of dark, steamy romantic suspense with her other love ... the paranormal. Set in the contemporary world, she explores the age-old battle of good versus evil, and the battle as it rages within each person. And of course, the ultimate question: Can love conquer all?

Photo courtesy Rita Herron

Today Rita writes about how she combines elements of mystery, suspense, romance, and the paranormal into her novels. (And if you leave a comment or sign up for Rita's newsletter, you'll be entered to win a free copy of her books; see details below!)

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As a child, I devoured the Trixie Belden mystery series; as a teenager, Nancy Drew. As an adult, Mary Higgins Clark and Tami Hoag. With mystery/suspense as my reading pleasure, it felt natural for me to write mystery/suspense novels. Of course, I also love a hot steamy romance, so blending the two genres was even more exciting.

But I also cut my teeth on shows like The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, and Alfred Hitchcock, and as my writing evolved, those elements slowly crept in.

Crossing genres is challenging, but what could be more fun for a writer or reader to find all those interesting elements in one story?

Following the basic rules of good storytelling is important for any genre. Writing romance means including great emotion, sexual tension, and personal conflict, as well as building the love story. Writing mystery/suspense means keeping the reader guessing, on the edge of his seat and throwing in red herrings. Writing both means there are two plot lines – the romance plot and the suspense plot and entwining them together.

Writing paranormal adds yet another layer of interest with supernatural elements, world building, and even more creative plot lines and characters.

Tips To Increase Sexual Tension

 • Set up the internal conflict in the beginning: why is the heroine the worst person for the hero? Why is he the worst person for her? How do their goals collide?

 • Establish the atmosphere

 • Begin with a change in the relationship

 • Force Intimacy

 • Put them in danger (danger of losing their lives, danger of losing themselves, their independence, danger of losing love or the chance for love

 • Increase romantic stakes – as the characters grow and work together, they fall in love which makes it more difficult for them to end the relationship

 • Interrupt sexual consummation with a threat or danger (foreplay builds anticipation)

Writing the Page Turner

 • Introduce sympathetic characters with strengths and weaknesses – each character, including the villain, should have his/her own goals, conflicts/motivation

 • Open with a threat: drop your characters into conflict from page one

 • Establish your atmosphere – use your setting and weather to set the mood, paint a spooky, more sinister element, to create danger, and add more obstacles

 • Use your external plot to throw your characters together and trigger their internal conflict (fears, weaknesses, needs)

 • End each scene and chapter with a hook (a romantic hook, question, new clue, new suspect, a twist, danger)

 • Raise the stakes: increase tension by escalating the danger

 • Foreshadow ultimate danger and trouble between the characters

 • Withhold information – use secrets, lies and backstory to create tension

 • Add complications – lead the reader astray with red herrings

 • Provide a deadline

 • Narrow his or her options

 • Give us the big showdown!

— ◊ —

Rita's second book in the Demonborn paranormal romantic suspense thriller trilogy, Dark Hunger, will be published next month. The first, Insatiable Desire, is available now; the third, Forbidden Passion, will be out next April.

Leave a comment or question for Rita today and be entered in a contest for a copy of Insatiable Desire. But don't stop there! There's a second contest for today's readers. Visit Rita at her website RitaHerron.com and sign up for her newsletter to be entered in a contest to a copy of both books in The Demonborn Series: Insatiable Desire and Dark Hunger. And, by signing up for Rita's newsletter, you will also be automatically entered in Rita's regular monthly contests. You can also find extras on the Demonborn series at TheDemonborn.com. And visit Rita on Facebook, Myspace.com/ritaherron, and Twitter.com/ritaherron.

Watch the trailer for the Demonborn trilogy and Dark Hunger below:

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FX Networks Orders 13 Episode Series of Lawman, Based on a Character Created by Elmore Leonard

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that FX Networks has ordered 13 episodes of Lawman, a series based on a character, US Marshal Raylan Givens, created by Elmore Leonard. Givens most recently appeared in the short story "Fire in the Hole", which was included in the 2002 anthology When the Women Come Out to Dance. The character also appeared in earlier stories "Pronto" (1993) and "Riding the Rap" (1995).

The series is written by Graham Yost (Speed, Hard Rain) and stars Timothy Olyphant as Marshal Givens, a 19th century-style lawman enforcing his own brand of justice in today's world. Production will start this fall in Southern California with a spring 2010 premiere.

"Graham began with a memorable character from one of America’s foremost crime novelists, Elmore Leonard, and we scored the hat-trick signing Tim Olyphant, who is absolutely pitch-perfect in the role of Raylan Givens," said John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX Networks.

Olyphant most recently appeared as Wes Krulik in the second season of the FX Networks production Damages.

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New Hardcover Mysteries for August 2009

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books has updated its list of new hardcover mysteries with books scheduled for publication in August 2009.

Below we're listing those authors with returning series characters, new series characters, and non-series or stand-alone mysteries in separate sections. All titles are available on our August mystery books page. We're also using the "carousel" widget by Amazon.com to display a random selection of titles; refreshing this page will change the selection displayed.

• Authors with mysteries having returning series characters (in parentheses) this month:

Jane A. Adams (Rina Martin), Mary Jane Clark (KEY News), Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar), Colin Cotterill (Dr. Siri Paiboun), Sarah Cox (Matt Arnold), Ellen Crosby (Lucie Montgomery, Wine Country), Mark de Castrique (Sam Blackman), Eric Jerome Dickey (Gideon), Keith Donnelly (Donald Youngblood), Carole Nelson Douglas (Midnight Louie), Susan Dunlap (Darcy Lott), Olive Etchells (DCI Channon), Robert Ferrigno (Rakkim Epps, Assassin Trilogy), Karin Fossum and Charlotte Barslund (Inspector Konrad Sejer), Brent Ghelfi (Alexei "Volk" Volkovoy), David L. Golemon (Event Group), J. G. Goodhind (Honey Driver), Dolores Gordon-Smith (Jack Haldean), Timothy Hallinan (Poke Rafferty), Suzette A. Hill (Francis Oughterard), W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Badge of Honor), Steven James (Patrick Bowers), J. A. Jance (J. P. Beaumont and Joanna Brady), H. R. F. Keating (Inspector Ghote), Faye Kellerman (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus), Michael Koryta (Lincoln Perry), Margaret Maron (Deborah Knott), Nick Oldham (Henry Christie), James Patterson and Richard DiLallo (Alex Cross), Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'Edera (Graphic Novel), Christopher Reich (Jonathan Ransom), Kathy Reichs (Temperance Brennan), David Rosenfelt (Andy Carpenter), Priscilla Royal (Prioress Eleanor), George D. Shuman (Sherry Moore), Edward Sklepowich (Urbino McIntyre), Patricia Stoltey (Sylvia Thorn and Willie Grisseljon), Andy Straka (Frank Pavlicek), Marcia Talley (Hannah Ives), Dan Waddell (Nigel Barnes), Stephen White (Alan Gregory)

• Authors with mysteries introducing new series characters (in parentheses) this month:

Michael Atkinson (Ernest Hemingway), Chris Cavender (Eleanor Swift), Gerald Elias (Daniel Jacobus), Joseph Finder (Nick Heller), Nancy Holzner (Bo Forrester), Sophie Littlefield (Stella Hardesty)

• Authors with non-series or stand-alone mysteries this month:

Kenneth Abel, Douglas Carlton Abrams, Annamaria Alfieri, Roberto Bolaño and Chris Andrews, Raymond L. Atkins, Linwood Barclay, Sandra Brown, Alys Clare, Robin Cook, Glen Ebisch, Duncan Falconer, Dan Fesperman, Dick Francis and Felix Francis, Stephen Frey, Peter Gadol, Victor Gischler, Terry Goodkind, Nancy Grace, Brian Haig, Daniel Levin, Andrew Nugent, Thomas Pynchon, Christopher Ransom, Luís Miguel Rocha, Karen Rose, Marcus Sakey, Fay Sampson, Jason Starr, Teri Woods

For more information on any of these titles, please visit the New Mysteries page on our website. If you're interested in new paperbacks, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where you can discover a library of new mysteries, also updated with August 2009 releases.

Please visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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Cast Announced for The Town, Based on the Novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Jon Hamm and Rebecca Hall will be joining director and star Ben Affleck in The Town, an adapation of the 2004 crime novel (of sorts) Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. The book was optioned in 2006 and has gone through several iterations of screenwriters and directors.

Book synopsis: Four masked men -- thieves, rivals, and friends from the tough streets of Charlestown -- take on a Boston bank at gunpoint. Holding bank manager Claire Keesey (to be played by Rebecca Hall) hostage and cleaning out the vault were simple. But career criminal Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) didn't plan on one thing: falling hard for Claire. When he tracks her down without his mask and gun, their mutual attraction is undeniable. With a tenacious FBI agent (Jon Hamm) following his every move, he imagines a life away from his gritty, dangerous work -- a life centered around Claire. But before that can happen, Doug and his crew learn that there may be a way to rob Boston's venerable baseball stadium, Fenway Park. Risky yet utterly irresistible, it would be the perfect heist to end his criminal career and begin a new life. But, as it turns out, pursuing Claire may be the most dangerous act of all.

The Town begins filming on location in Boston in September and is expected to be released in 2010.

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Mystery Book Review: Awakening by S. J. Bolton

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Awakening by S. J. Bolton. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Awakening by S. J. Bolton
Non-series

St. Martin's Minotaur (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-312-38114-X (031238114X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-38114-1 (9780312381141)
Publication Date: June 2009
List Price: $25.95

Review: A setting in a small English village, deaths by snakebite, bizarre rituals and a fifty-year-old tragedy are all the ingredients in S. J. Bolton’s newest thriller Awakening. Bolton has done it again, her second novel is a must read for mystery fans.

Clare Benning is a local veterinarian in a small English hamlet. She is a recluse by nature due to her scarred face, and she prefers the company of animals to people. Her expertise is called upon when a local man dies of snakebite. The autopsy shows a concentration of venom much higher than would be found from just one snakebite. Was the man murdered? The villagers are complaining of numerous snakes found in their houses. And poisonous snakes not native to England are found in several areas. What or who is causing these snakes to appear? How many more deaths will occur before the killer can be caught? Who is trying to discourage Clare from finding out the truth? Will Clare ever find and accept herself for who she is? Will she learn to trust other humans?

I enjoyed reading Awakening. Clare is a likeable person, one whom the reader can easily empathize with. She believes her flaw is her scar, which prevents her from establishing relationships with other people. However, her real flaw is her self-confidence in her appearance. She is a gutsy, determined veterinarian, investigating tunnels and basements that the faint of heart would shirk from. While not a snake fan, the snakes added a unique element to the mystery. However, if snakes really terrify you, I would not recommend this novel. I did feel that some parts tended to drag on a little. Also, the ending left some unanswered questions about Clare’s relationship with her good-looking male neighbor. Because of this, I would give Awakening a 4 out of 5 stars.

Special thanks to Ruth Miller for contributing her review of Awakening and to St. Martin's Minotaur for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2009 — Ruth Miller — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission

If you are interested in purchasing Awakening from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.

Synopsis (from the publisher): Clara Benning, a veterinary surgeon in charge of a wildlife hospital in a small English village, is young and intelligent, but nearly a recluse. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she generally prefers the company of animals to people. But when a local man dies following a supposed snakebite, Clara’s expertise is needed. She’s chilled to learn that the victim’s postmortem shows a higher concentration of venom than could ever be found in a single snake—and that therefore the killer must be human.

Assisted by a soft-spoken neighbor and an eccentric reptile expert, Clara unravels sinister links to an abandoned house, an ancient ritual, and a fifty-year-old tragedy that has left the survivors secretive. But for someone the truth must remain buried in the past—even if they have to kill to keep it there.

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Mysteries on TV: Knight Rider 2008, Life on Mars (UK), and A Touch of Frost, New This Week on DVD

Mysteries on TV, your source for the most complete selection of detective, amateur sleuth, private investigator, and suspense television mystery series now available or coming soon to DVD, is profiling three series that have season DVDs being released this week.

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An iconic TV classic is back and better than ever in the reinvented, updated, and super-charged Knight Rider 2008. This action-packed series features the coolest car ever created, K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand). It’s equipped with artificial intelligence capable of hacking into any computer, the weapons system of a jet fighter, and incredible custom body technology that allows it to transform into other vehicles.

The series starred Justin Bruening as Michael Knight, KITT's driver.

The Knight Rider 2008: Season One DVD set of 4 discs contains the 16 episodes plus the made-for-television movie that served as its pilot that aired on NBC from September 2008 through March 2009. See also the original Knight Rider series starring David Hasselhoff.

— ◊ —

Dreaming, delusional, or displaced in time? Police detective Sam Tyler (John Simm) must decide which describes him in Life on Mars (UK), an intriguing twist on the police procedural. Hot on a killer's trail in modern-day Manchester, Tyler gets struck by a passing car and wakes up in 1973. The high-tech tools and respect for proper procedure have vanished. Instead, he finds himself working on a homicide squad where hard drinking replaces hard thinking; forensics takes weeks to analyze; and his boss, DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), has no qualms about roughing up suspects -- or Sam himself. Still, Tyler has real-world crimes to solve, even as strange voices call him back to his 21st century life. But when he bonds with sympathetic policewoman Annie Cartwright (Liz White), Sam wonders: does he really want to return?

The Life on Mars (UK): Series One DVD set of 4 discs contain the eight episodes that originally aired on BBC1 in January and February, 2006. The series spawned a short-lived US version, also titled Life on Mars, that aired on ABC during the 2008 / 2009 television season.

— ◊ —

Award winning actor David Jason returns as maverick detective Jack Frost in three intriguing new episodes of A Touch of Frost.

In the first, a murderer is released from prison, and with grim new evidence -- the body of the murdered woman killed 20 years before -- Frost is forced to question everything that happened all those years ago. In the second, Frost is involved in a race against the clock to rescue kidnap victims, and solve a twisted revenge plot. In the third episode, a shallow grave is uncovered and three bodies are discovered. Could this be a ritual killing?

The A Touch of Frost: Season Fourteen DVD set of 2 discs contain all three episodes that originally aired on ITV during 2008.

— ◊ —

Visit the Mysteries on TV website to discover more television mystery series currently available on DVD.

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Botswana: In The Footsteps of The No.1 Ladies Detective, New This Week on DVD

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency novels by Alexander McCall Smith, featuring the insightful Botswanan investigator Mma Precious Ramotswe, have sold more than 15 million copies in 43 languages worldwide. HBO recently completed a television adaption of the series; The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Season 1 will be released on DVD September 8th.

Smith's love of Africa and its traits of deep ties to family and community, concern for one's neighbors, and respect for tradition, shine through in these wonderful books, which are wildly popular with fans of British detective stories and sleuths in the tradition of Miss Jane Marple.

In a unique travel documentary, Smith travels to the heart of Botswana, inspiration and location for The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. "Botswana is often called the gem of Africa. I come here every year for inspiration. There is a certain pace of life here," he says.

In Botswana: In The Footsteps of The No.1 Ladies Detective, Smith introduces viewers to Botswana's unique character and beauty, as he comes face to face with a pride of lions, returns a python to the wild, and visits the SOS Children's Village known so well to the fans of his bestselling book series.

The program also shows Smith visiting the set and meeting the cast of his series' adaptation, as well as revealing the answer to the question all readers ask: Who is the real lady detective Mma Precious Ramotswe?

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The Surrogates Operator's Manual: Special Hardcover Edition

On September 25th, Surrogates (Touchstone Pictures) starring Bruce Willis hits theaters. This week, a special hardcover edition of the graphic novels from which the film was adapted is being published: The Surrogates Operator's Manual: Volume One and Volume Two.

About The Surrogates: The year is 2054, and life is reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered in the era of the personal surrogate, android substitutes that let users interact with the world without ever leaving their homes. It's a perfect world, and it's up to Detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford of the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they’ll need to stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning society to a time when people lived their lives instead of merely experiencing them.

According to the publisher, Volume 1 collects all five issues of the acclaimed comic book series written by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Packed with bonus content, inside you will find never-before-seen sketches and artwork, as well as commentary from the creative team that brought this breakout story to the page.

In Volume 2, set fifteen years prior to the events of the first volume, The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone sheds light on the past that binds the cast together. From the streets of Central Georgia Metropolis to the boardroom of Virtual Self, Inc., it takes us on a journey through a city struggling to come to grips with its present. As much a cautionary tale as a story of suspense, this book reminds us that tomorrow will be determined by the choices we make today.

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Games of Mystery: DinerTown Detective Agency, New at Big Fish Games

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed electronic and board games, parties for kids and adults, and mystery getaway vacations, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery game from Big Fish Games released today. You can find out more about these games by visiting our Mystery Games: Big Fish Download Games page or by clicking on the links provided below.

Download →

Something's not right in DinerTown! Help Bernie the Bookworm run the DinerTown Detective Agency as you hunt for vital clues in major mysteries and discover who stuck their finger in all the jelly donuts and who's been partying like a rock star with the zoo animals. Use the items you find in the crime scenes to narrow your list of suspects and ID the culprits as you search out the fun in this lighthearted spoof on traditional hidden object games.

Also available: DinerTown: Detective Agency Game Walkthrough.

DinerTown: Detective Agency may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (45.02 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour.

Watch a preview video below:

Other popular games on our download Big Fish Mystery Games page include several Agatha Christie and Nancy Drew games, games in the Mystery Case Files series and in particular the latest, Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst, Adventure Chronicles: The Search for Lost Treasure, Enlightenus, Cate West: The Vanishing Files, Return to Mysterious Island 2: Mina's Fate, and Nick Chase: A Detective Story.

Read our new game reviews by Ms. Terri: Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses! (Review), The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime (Review), Enlightenus (Review), and Nick Chase: A Detective Story (Review).

Big Fish Games: Bestsellers

Big Fish Games: New releases

And don't forget to visit Games of Mystery for all kinds of mysterious fun!

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Mystery Godoku Puzzle for July 27, 2009

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!).

This week's letters and mystery clue:

A E I N R S T U V

The anthology Chesapeake Crimes included this author’s short story “Through the Roof” (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!

   

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Mystery Book Review: Deadly Charm by Claudia Mair Burney

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Deadly Charm by Claudia Mair Burney. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Deadly Charm by Claudia Mair Burney
An Amanda Bell Brown Mystery

Howard Books (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5195-6 (1416551956)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5195-9 (9781416551959)
Publication Date: March 2009
List Price: $13.99

Review: With some passages that read like rap, and others like scripture, Claudia Mair Burney’s Deadly Charm has an enchantment all its own. The third in Burney’s Amanda Bell Brown series, the mystery in this one is as much about whether forensic psychologist Bell and her Detroit PD detective husband, Jazz, will remain an inter-racial twosome, and what “the egg size growth in [her] lower abdomen” is, as it is about what happened during the drowning of three-year-old Zeekie Thunder, the youngest child of charismatic but lecherous preaching personality, sixtyish Ezekiel Thunder and his early twenties wife, Nikki, with eyes for Jazz. The thirty-five-year-old Bell narrates the story in a breezy, colloquial style and with clip along dialogue that propels the reader towards the novel’s conclusion and past a couple of questionable turns in the plot.

For Bell “there’s lostsa splainin’ to do” as she discusses her convoluted three-way relationship between herself and ex-boyfriend, a 28-year-old white preacher and community activist named, Rocky, and her estranged husband. Then, there’s her revelation of an even earlier failed marriage and a miscarriage, and as the story progresses there are background checks that reveal a trail of the deaths under mysterious circumstances of other peoples’ ex-partners and former children. There’s also the rationale for preacher Thunder’s philandering, Jazz’s bouts with the bottle, a broken promise to raise young Zeekie from the dead, and the cause for the cases of gastroenteritis that almost spell lights out for both Bell and Jazz before they nail the psychopathic perpetrator.

Although the setting is often at Rocky’s Rock House church where serious undertakings occur, there is humour there, too, when Bell is accosted by a demented Sister Lou demanding Bell be exorcised, a performance that embarrasses Bell when it hits national television. Lou is the same “Sistah” who wants to exorcise Jazz’s sexual demons, and was present with Ezekiel Thunder’s older children, 12-year-old Zeke and 15-year-old Zekia, when toddler Zeekie died. Bell’s Ann Arbor pad is aptly described as her “little slice of paradise: shabby chic meets paradise,” and she perceives Jazz’s self image as “an angry man with a black heart and a haunted mind” while he, in turn, sees “Blondilocks” Rocky as a “blond boy toy” and Bell as a wannabe “Columbo.” Readers of Christian literature will appreciate the various religious references that are woven into the story in an unobtrusive but convincing way, and everyone will appreciate having a pleasantly entertaining read.

Special thanks to M. Wayne Cunningham (mw_cunningham@telus.net) for contributing his review of Deadly Charm and to Simon & Schuster for providing a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2009 — M. Wayne Cunningham — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission

If you are interested in purchasing Deadly Charm from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right. Deadly Charm (Kindle edition) is also available. Learn more about the Kindle, Amazon's Wireless Reading Device.

Synopsis (from the publisher): When the ominous Thunders roll into Dr. Amanda Bell Brown’s town, the sassy sleuth sees a storm brewing. Disgraced playboy preacher Ezekiel Thunder and his seductive first lady, Nikki, are on the comeback trail, but Bell is less than charmed by the pair. When their toddler, Baby Zeekie, is found dead from an accidental drowning, forensic psychologist Bell suspects foul play in the fatal family, especially after the mama in mourning flirts with Bell’s estranged husband, Jazz. Bell is sickened by the woman’s behavior and the thought of someone murdering an innocent child – or is it morning sickness that’s plaguing her? Between babies and bodies, she pushes past the limits to discover the deadly truth.

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Mystery Book Review: A Deadly Habit by Andrea Sisco

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of A Deadly Habit by Andrea Sisco. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

A Deadly Habit by Andrea Sisco
A Penelope Santucci Mystery

Five Star (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59414-795-7 (1594147957)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59414-795-1 (9781594147951)
Publication Date: July 2009
List Price: $25.95

Review: Andrea Sisco introduces Twin Cities probation officer Pen Santucci, who's trying to avoid being arrested for the murder of her ex-husband, in A Deadly Habit.

Pen, short for Penelope, had broken in to her ex-husband's house to retrieve among other things her first edition of Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi, a book definitely worth committing a felony for, when she stumbles over the body of the former man of her dreams. As a probation officer she knows a thing or two about how the law works, and realizes she will be suspect number one (and maybe suspect number only one). She asks a local priest she's known since childhood for help, which arrives in the form of a high-powered attorney, Marco Silva. While Marco does his best keeping Pen out of jail, Pen does her best to discover who killed her ex ... and why.

A Deadly Habit is one of those books that can be defined by its opening line; if it causes the reader to grin, it's definitely worth reading on: "'It's been seventeen years since my last confession, Father.' I didn't bother to add 'and seven months and thirteen days.' It didn't make a difference since I'm not Catholic." Pen is almost the very definition of irreverent, but in a respectful way. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, it is ... and so is Pen. This is really a character-driven mystery, the character being Pen.

Though Pen's ex was a successful, if less than totally ethical, attorney, there should be no shortage of people who might want him dead. Yet it isn't until halfway through the book that credible suspects are introduced. For some, that may be a little too long to wait for the whodunit element to get started. Still, Pen is a personable companion to pass the time with and her antics in A Deadly Habit will keep many smiling throughout.

Special thanks to Andrea Sisco for providing an ARC of A Deadly Habit for this review.

Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

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Synopsis (from the publisher): When Probation Officer, Penelope (Pen) Santucci was a child, she dreamt of being a nun. She dressed in bed sheets and roller-skated regularly into the confessional of Father Daniel Kopecky. There she bared her soul, fabricating sins only a precocious eight-year-old could invent. As a twenty-seven-year-old woman, she's doing the same thing, sans the roller skates and bed sheets. Only this time, she isn't inventing stories. She's confessing her involvement in a murder; a murder she didn't commit, but one in which she is the most promising suspect.

Wisecracking, safecracking Pen lures an elderly priest and a young nun into committing felonies on their wild search for the truth. Hardly appropriate behavior for the dedicated probation officer, but while Pen believes in her job, she has little faith in the justice system. Unfortunately, Pen digs herself deeper into trouble and straight into a muddy grave, dragging her sexy attorney in with her. If they ever get out of it alive, he plans to wring her neck himself. That is, if the thugs who are after the money she found don't get her first.

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