Mystery Book Review: Diary of a Confessions Queen by Kathy Carmichael

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Diary of a Confessions Queen by Kathy Carmichael. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Diary of a Confessions Queen by Kathy Carmichael
Non-series

MedallionPress (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-60542-095-6 (1605420956)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60542-095-0 (9781605420950)
Publication Date: February 2010
List Price: $12.95

Review: Amy Crosby's husband, who was last seen seven years ago, may be alive and well -- or at least that's what a blackmailer asserts -- in Diary of a Confessions Queen, a potential series debut by Kathy Carmichael.

Amy has a job writing short stories for "True Lies" magazine, a confessions magazine, but money is still tight and she's about to lose her home. Her husband, Dan, is presumed dead, and she's about to go to court to have it officially declared so she can collect on his life insurance and pay some bills. But someone has other plans. Amy receives a blackmail notice, saying she's committing insurance fraud, but if she pays $2000 the whereabouts of Dan will remain unknown. Believing the note to be a hoax, Amy ignores it ... but then her home is broken into, and another note left. Torn between wanting Dan alive and back in her life, but hoping he's dead because how could he leave her for so many years without letting her know he's alive, Amy tries to get to the bottom of the blackmail scheme and learn the truth about Dan.

Diary of a Confessions Queen is a pleasant enough cozy, and there's really nothing significantly wrong with it, but it could have been so much more. Maybe the title sets the wrong expectation with potential readers. Chapters often have titillating subtitles promising scandalous details ("I was blackmailed by my husband's mistress", "I shot my neighbor for being late", "When love walked in, I walked out"), and the premise of an amateur sleuth who writes for a confessions magazine offers numerous possibilities of fun and excitement, but there's little follow-through here in this regard. There is some humor mixed with the mystery, but much of it falls flat, eliciting at best grins on the part of the reader.

It isn't clear if this is the first of a series or not, but if so, there is potential here. Amy Crosby is an appealing character, and her best friend Sue Ann is a delight. But the plots need to unfold with a more deft touch, better leveraging Amy's job and the situations in which she finds herself for more instances of broad humor to balance the lightweight mystery.

Special thanks to Medallion Press for providing an ARC of Diary of a Confessions Queen for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

If you are interested in purchasing Diary of a Confessions Queen from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.

Synopsis (from the publisher): Confessions writer Amy Crosby has put her life on hold for the last seven years after the disappearance of her husband, Dan. In writing for “True Lies Magazine,” guilt-ridden Amy takes on the abilities her fictional characters confess to, such as the time she thought she was psychic after researching clairvoyants. With fatalistic acceptance of the craziness in her life, she uses humor to cope; but when the home Dan bought for them is about to be foreclosed, her only answer is his having him declared legally dead and using his life insurance policy. Her home is safe – that is, until she receives a blackmail note.

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New Hardcover Mysteries for March 2010

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books has updated its list of new hardcover mysteries with books scheduled for publication in March 2010. Please note that some titles may publish early (and may already be available) and some may be delayed, published at a later date.

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 March mystery books page.

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

Enrique Sanchez Abuli and Jordi Bernet (Torpedo, 2nd), Barbara Allan (Brandy Borne, Trash-n-Treasures, 4th), Sandra Balzo (Maggie Thorsen, 5th), Ray Banks (Cal Innes, 3rd), Jo Bannister (Brodie Farrell, 9th), Simon Beaufort (Sir Geoffrey Mappestone, 6th), Carrie Bebris (Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, 5th), Cara Black (Aimee Leduc (10th), Rhys Bowen (Mollie Murphy, 9th), Alan Bradley (Flavia de Luce, 2nd), Stephen J. Cannell (Shane Scully, 9th), Laura Childs (Theodosia Browning, Tea Shop (11th), Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant (Chloe Carter, Gourmet Girl, 5th), Sgt. Jack Coughlin and Donald A. Davis (Kyle Swanson, Sniper, 3rd), Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul (Oregon Files, 7th), Mary Daheim (Bed-and-Breakfast (25th), K. O. Dahl and Don Bartlett (Frank Frolich, 3rd), Don Dahler (Huck Doyle, 2nd), David Dickinson (Lord Francis Powerscourt, 9th), John F. Dobbyn (Michael Knight and Lex Devlin, 2nd), Linda Fairstein (Alex Cooper (12th), Joanne Fluke (Hannah Swensen (13th), Norman Green (Alessandra Al Martillo, 2nd), Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire, 3rd), Tony Hays (Malgwyn ad Guneglas, 2nd), Veronica Heley (Abbot Agency, 4th), Naomi Hirahara (Mas Arai, 4th), Roderic Jeffries (Inspector Alvarez (34th), Jonathan Kellerman (Alex Delaware (25th), Philip Kerr (Bernard Gunther, 6th), Ed Lin (Robert Chow, 2nd), Tom Lowe (Sean O'Brien, 2nd), Lisa Lutz (Isabel Spellman, 4th), Evan Marshall (Anna Winthrop, 3rd), Peter May (Enzo Macleod, 4th), Walter Mosley (Leonid McGill, 2nd), Jo Nesbo and Don Bartlett (Harry Hole, 5th), Barry Ozeroff (Ben Geller, 2nd), Lisa Scottoline (Rosato and Associates (13th), Clea Simon (Dulcie Schwartz, 2nd), Domenic Stansberry (Dante Mancuso, 4th), Shirley Tallman (Sarah Woolson, 4th), Rebecca Tope (Thea Osborne, 7th), Steven Torres (Luis Gonzalo, 5th), Jenny B. White (Kamil Pasha, 3rd), Randy Wayne White (Doc Ford (17th), Michael Wiley (Joe Kozmarski, 2nd), Richard Yancey (Highly Effective Detective, 3rd)

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

Conor Fitzgerald (Alec Blume), Thomas Kaufman (Willis Gidney), Nancy Martin (Roxy Abruzzo), Carol McCleary (Nellie Bly), Dan Wells (John Wayne Cleaver)

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

Linwood Barclay, William Peter Blatty, Peter D. Cimini, Carlos Cisneros, Harlan Coben, Robert Coover, Neil Cross, Dianne Dixon, Philippe Djian, Carol Goodman, James Grippando, Gardiner Harris, Erin Hart, Thomas Heric, George Honig, Gayle Lynds, Peter Milligan and James Romberger, Denise Mina, Michael Norman, Jodi Picoult, Robin Pilcher, Karen Robards, James Rollins, David Rosenfelt, Stephen Solomita, Erica Spindler, Keith Thomson, Danielle Trussoni, John Vorhaus, Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta, Kate White, Dolores J. Wilson, Jason F. Wright

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 March 2010 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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First Clues Review: Malice by Chris Wooding

First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is delighted to introduce a new feature for our website, book reviews written by students. These students offer their unique perspective on the book in their review and provide a valuable resource to parents looking for new mystery adventures for their kids to read.

Malice by Chris Wooding
The Malice Series

Scholastic (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-545-16043-X (054516043X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-16043-8 (9780545160438)
Publication Date: October 2009
List Price: $14.99

Review written by Karan, a 6th grade student. Date of review: February 2010.

Review: Malice is real, and it’s deadly, and it’s written by Chris Wooding! “Once you get into the story, there’s no way out.” Everyone’s heard the rumors about Malice. If you gather 6 different items, and say the “words” 6 times, you will be whisked away by Tall Jake (the bad dude) into a whole new world, where the only things that exist are death and darkness. Oh, and did I tell you that all this horrifying stuff takes place in a COMIC! It’s a world that few know about … and even fewer survive.

Seth and Kady, two friends think it’s all a joke, but when their best friend Luke disappears after saying the chant, Seth and Kady don’t laugh at it anymore. But their friend said it as a joke, that’s not fair; to Tall Jake it is though. He doesn’t care, when you call him, he comes, when you say “… take me away” he will take you away! It’s his job, to horrify people, but it’s your job to stay alive. Inside of Malice is classified information, the only thing I could tell you is, to stay away from it, take it out of your brain or else you either get the time sucked out of you or you get eaten alive by a clockwork keeper and many other “creatures”! But I’ve already told you TOO MUCH, go for yourself if you want to find out! IT’S MALICE. YOU CAN’T ESCAPE.

Malice is horrifying, but who said horrifying isn’t the new cool??? I know I didn’t! This book written and drawn by Chris Wooding is one of the best part novel/part comic books I’ve ever read! My favorite part is when Seth, Kady and Justin are fighting the huge music monster and Seth kills it with the bow and arrow. This book is very amusing; I just couldn’t put it DOWN! It is amusing because of two main things, one, its characters have come alive, unless I’m seeing things, that’s how much Mr. Wooding has worked on Malice, putting imagery, and suspense and a good setting! Oh, also the setting is also very well developed in the story, the author made Malice real even though it’s a fake world of monsters and death, oh!, and also darkness! Malice deserves a 5 star rating for its entertaining action, suspense, and imagery. This book is first in a series and I can’t wait to read the second one titled Havoc!

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

First Clue Mysteries is pleased to provide information on over 100 mystery series for children and young adults. Each series is conveniently listed under four different age categories: New Sleuths (ages 4 to 6), Future Sleuths (ages 7 to 10), Sleuths in Training (ages 10 to 12), and Apprentice Sleuths (ages 13 and older). If you have a favorite mystery series you'd like to see added to our site, please contact us.

All student book reviews are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any manner, print or electronic, without the express written consent of the copyright owner. Reviews are published here with permission of the copyright owner.

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Mystery Book Review: Broken Places by Sandra Parshall

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

Broken Places by Sandra Parshall
A Rachel Goddard Mystery

Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-653-0 (1590586530)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-653-2 (9781590586532)
Publication Date: February 2010
List Price: $24.95

Review: Rachel Goddard's harmonious life in the mountains of Virginia hits a rough patch when her childhood friend is accused of murder in Broken Places, the third mystery in this series by Sandra Parshall.

Rachel's life seems sweet: she has a small, but thriving, veterinary practice and has fallen in love with Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger. But she's drawn into a murder investigation when she's a witness, sort of, to the murder of Cam Taylor, editor of the local newspaper. Cam had visited Ben Hern to plead for money to save the paper, Ben being not only an old friend of Rachel but the local celebrity, a Cuban-American artist whose work is highly regarded, and the author of several comic strips and children's books. Shortly after Ben threw Cam out, Cam is dead from a gunshot. Rachel heard the shot but didn't see who fired the gun. Soon thereafter, Cam's home is destroyed by fire, killing his wife. Their daughter, Leslie, arrives in town and demands Tom Bridger arrest Ben Hern. With little evidence to support her claim, Tom refuses. But Leslie is familiar with the past between Rachel and Ben, and threatens to use her leverage to expose secrets best left buried.

The intricate mystery plot of Broken Places is carefully constructed, augmented by a cast of characters -- both good and evil, with some unexpected interpersonal relationships -- that have something to hide. But secrets aren't always kept for selfish or malicious reasons, a key element in a story that ultimately puts Rachel in danger and truly captures the reader's attention and keeps the suspense and tension level high. The narrative moves along quickly and the identity of the killer, and the reasoning behind the crimes, comes as a surprise. Broken Places is a memorable entry in a series that keeps getting better.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Broken Places and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): Summer is deadly in the mountain community of Mason County, Virginia. Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger and veterinarian Rachel Goddard are caught in a maelstrom of lies that stretch far into the past and suspicions that threaten the future. Cam and Meredith Taylor are murdered within hours of one another, and Rachel is dragged into the case because she heard -- but didn't see -- Cam’s murder. The Taylors arrived in Mason County as volunteers in the 1960s War on Poverty, and they stayed on, making loyal friends and bitter enemies. The victims’ daughter is Tom’s former girlfriend, Leslie. She returns home to see justice done -- and to win Tom back from Rachel. The prime suspect is newcomer Ben Hern, Rachel’s childhood friend, and she is desperate to prove him innocent. Leslie pushes for Hern's arrest and launches a campaign of intimidation against Rachel. With the killer targeting Rachel and the community clamoring for an arrest, Tom and Rachel must decide who they can trust.

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Games of Mystery: Secret Mission to The Forgotton Island, New from Big Fish Games

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed board, electronic and video games, parties for kids and adults, and murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery casual 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.

The military has hired world-renowned scientist Chanel Flores to explore a mysterious island that has suddenly appeared in the Bermuda Triangle! During her flight to the island, an electrical fog engulfs her plane, and forces her to parachute to safety. Help Chanel explore the island, and make her way back to her ship.

Also available: Secret Mission: The Forgotten Island Strategy Guide and a Secret Mission: The Forgotten Island Game Walkthrough.

Secret Mission: The Forgotten Island may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (130.05 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour.

Watch a preview video below:

Get any standard game for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. Other benefits include the $2.99 Daily Deal, Tomorrow's Game Today, and special member rewards. And if you purchase any 6 games within a single month, you earn a free game with the Big Fish Game Club Monthly Punch Card! (Collector's Editions earn 3 punches each, half-way towards your free game!)

Read our new game reviews by Ms. Terri: Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy (Review), 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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Doc Savage to Return to Big Screen

Variety is reporting that Columbia Pictures is bringing Doc Savage -- explorer, scientist, physician, inventor, and, oh yes, crime fighter -- back to the big screen. Shane Black (The Long Kiss Goodbye, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Lethal Weapon) is to direct an original screenplay he is writing with Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry.

Doc Savage was one of the most popular pulp fiction characters from the 1930s and 1940s, heard on radio and seen in film and on early television. A History of the Doc Savage Adventures provides a good retrospective of the character. DC Comics has also recently begun reissuing many of the early adventures in new collected editions.

About A History of the Doc Savage Adventures (from the publisher): Doc Savage is not only the prototype of the modern fictional superhero; he was also a seminal force in creating multimedia crossovers. The character exploded onto the scene in 1933, with the Great Depression and the gathering clouds of war as a cultural backdrop. The series is examined in relation to historic events and changing audience tastes, with special attention on the horror and science-fiction elements. The artwork features illustrations, covers, and original art. Appendices cover Doc Savage paperbacks, pulp magazines, comic books, and fanzines, and a biographical appendix covers all major contributors to the series.

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Mystery Book Review: Treasure Hunt by John Lescroart

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

Treasure Hunt by John Lescroart
A Wyatt Hunt Mystery

Dutton (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-525-95144-X (052595144X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-525-95144-5 (9780525951445)
Publication Date: January 2010
List Price: $26.95

Review: Wyatt Hunt's private investigations firm known as "The Hunt Club" is in dire financial straits, within a month or so of shutting its doors, when all-around go-fer Mickey Dade comes up with a potential solution to their problem in Treasure Hunt, the second mystery in this series by John Lescroart.

Mickey happens to be in the right place at the right time when the body of community activist Dominic Como is found in a lagoon near the Palace of Fine Arts. His interview on television is seen by Ian Thorpe, a fellow student who, like Mickey, spends his Saturdays attending culinary school. Ian tells Mickey he's in need of a private investigator; his sister was dating Dominic Como and may be a person of interest by the police. Ian suggests that maybe The Hunt Club can assist his sister in proving her innocence. Of course, Ian has no money, but Mickey seizes on the idea of asking the high profile charitable organizations, in which Como was a prominent member, to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of Como's killer, and hire The Hunt Club to manage the process. All it would take is for Wyatt to use his not inconsiderable charm to set it all up.

And set it up he does. The Hunt Club is back in business, but it isn't long before there's another murder and Wyatt and his team find themselves at odds with the police over suspects and motives ... and the identity of who killed Dominic Como.

Treasure Hunt is a highly entertaining novel. There is a measure of reading comfort -- satisfaction, maybe -- that comes from a narrative that flows confidently and effortlessly. The murder mystery plot is straight-forward, not necessarily clever but not overly simplistic either, and the gathering of the suspects in the end -- seated on Wyatt's private basketball half-court, no less -- is more charming than contrived.

Finally, Wyatt Hunt may be the star of the show here, but his associate Mickey Dade often gets the best lines in Treasure Hunt. He opens the book (The day he found the body, Mickey Dade woke up under a tree on Mount Tamalpais.) and he closes it (She took another breath. "But unless you tell me not to, I'm going to kiss you." He beat her to it.), and all the while in-between it's a real pleasure getting to know him as a character. He's one of the elements that surely makes the book an impressive stand-out.

Special thanks to Penguin Group for providing a copy of Treasure Hunt for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): Mickey Dade hates deskwork, but that's all he's been doing at Wyatt Hunt's private investigative service, The Hunt Club. His itch to be active is answered when a body is discovered: It's Dominic Como, one of San Francisco's most high-profile activists-a charismatic man known as much for his expensive suits as his work on a half dozen nonprofit boards. One "person of interest" in the case is Como's business associate, Alicia Thorpe-young, gorgeous, and the sister of one of Mickey's friends.

As Mickey and Hunt are pulled into the case, they soon learn that the city's golden fundraiser was involved in some highly suspect deals. And the lovely Alicia knows more about this -- and more about Como -- than she's letting on.

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Mystery Book Review: The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

The Serpent Pool by Martin Edwards
A Lake District Mystery

Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-593-3 (1590585933)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-593-1 (9781590585931)
Publication Date: February 2010
List Price: $24.95

Review: DCI Hannah Scarlett and her former boss Daniel Kind must work together when a cold case intersects with a current one in The Serpent Pool, the fourth Lake District mystery by Martin Edwards.

Aspiring writer Bethany Friend drowned in Serpent Pool six years ago. The cause of death was never explained, accidental or intentional, with the coroner recording it as an "open verdict". As head of the Cold Case Review Team, Hannah wants to reopen the case. But before she can do so, George Saffell, a rare book collector dies in a blazing fire on his boat where he shelved his extensive collection of first editions. Was it suicide ... or murder?

Hannah is currently living with Marc Amos, a seller of rare books, who had sold many editions to the dead man and his business partner, Stuart Wagg. Complicating matters just a bit is that Stuart is living with Daniel Kind's sister, who claims the partners had recently been arguing. Daniel calls on Hannah to help find Stuart, who has inexplicably gone missing. Also in this tangled weave of characters is Hannah's new sergeant, Greg Wharf, who is spending a lot of time with her on casework causing Marc to turn to his assistant, Cassie, for comfort and understanding.

The Serpent Pool is a superb mystery, from both a plot, replete with classical literary references, and stylistic perspective. The characters are delightful and well drawn, the Lake District setting beautiful and charming. Even the various romantic elements, including those simmering just beneath the surface, play an important role here. As dark and disturbing secrets come to light, answers to questions of murder or suicide, past and present, are finally established in the thrilling conclusion to this exciting suspense novel.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Serpent Pool and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): DCI Hannah Scarlett is determined to uncover the truth behind Bethany Friend’s mysterious drowning in the Serpent Pool. But Hannah’s distracted by a new sergeant with a troublesome reputation, a new house, and new cause to doubt her partner--second hand bookseller Marc Amos. One of Marc’s best customers has been burned to death in the converted boathouse filled with priceless books. Then Hannah meets Louise Kind, sister of the historian Daniel Kind, who has just returned from America to work on a book about Thomas De Quincey and the history of murder. How are all of these elements related?

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Nominations for 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Announced

The Los Angeles Times has announced the nominees for the 2009 Book Prizes, which recognize outstanding literary achievement in a number of categories, including Mystery/Thriller. The winners will be announced in a ceremony on April 23rd, 2010.

2009 Mystery / Thriller Nominees:

◊ Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
◊ The Hidden Man by David Ellis (Putnam)
◊ Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (Harper)
◊ A Darker Domain by Val McDermid (Harper)
◊ The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)

indicates a review by Mysterious Reviews.

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Mystery Book Review: Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage

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

Dying Gasp by Leighton Gage
A Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation

Soho Crime (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-56947-613-6 (1569476136)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56947-613-0 (9781569476130)
Publication Date: January 2010
List Price: $24.00

Review: Chief Inspector Mario Silva and his team take on the troubling case of finding the missing granddaughter of a prominent politician in Dying Gasp, the third mystery in this series by Leighton Gage.

15-year-old Marta Malan ran away from home two months earlier after being beaten by her father for dating an 18-year-old woman. Anxious to keep what he considers his family's indiscretions quiet, Deputado Roberto Malan, the girl's grandfather, insists Silva handle the case personally. Silva's investigation leads him to Manaus, the capital city of the state of Amazonas, governed by inept politicians and a corrupt police force. It is believed that Marta is being held by a man called The Goat, who runs the most extensive network of underage prostitutes in the region. But Silva also learns that Manaus may also be the home of a former nemesis of his, Claudia Andrade, a surgeon who disappeared after her illegal organ transplant ring was broken by Silva. That she may now be involved with a new, even more disturbing, criminal activity -- one that may have ensnared young Marta Malan -- troubles him greatly.

As the author notes in an afterward, Dying Gasp is a work of fiction based on some sad realities. It's sometimes difficult to get through some of the chapters, not because they aren't well written -- they most certainly are -- but because of how graphic they are. No punches are pulled in the description of some of the horrific crimes committed within the context of the story, yet their inclusion is not gratuitous in the least. The plot is well considered and paced, with a cast of interesting characters in an appropriately dank environment dripping with atmosphere. And while the overall style is one of a police procedural in which the reader is essentially omniscient, there are still a few surprising revelations. In all, Dying Gasp is a strong entry in this most sophisticated series of crime novels.

Special thanks to Soho Press for providing an ARC of Dying Gasp for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): The granddaughter of a prominent politician is missing. Silva and his team find her in Manaus, a jungle hellhole on the Amazon where an evil female doctor is making gory snuff films. Silva must overcome his own department's indifference and the corrupt local cops before he can obtain a semblance of justice for the victims.

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Mysteries on TV: Adam-12, FlashForward, Midsomer Murders, and Taggart, 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 four series that have season DVDs being released this week.

— ◊ —

Police officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord) hit the mean streets of Los Angeles running into all sorts of crime ... from anti-Semitic criminals to assassins to hallucinating drunks ... in Adam-12, a crime drama that aired on NBC from 1968 through 1975, and a spin-off from the popular series Dragnet.

Guest stars this season include Willie Aames, Lindsay Wagner, Ed Begley Jr., Ozzie Nelson, Paul Gleason, William Campbell, George Murdock, Ronne Troup, Angela Cartwright, Kathy Garver, Bobby Troup, Larry Linville, Carmen Zapata, Jackie Coogan, Joe E. Tata, Frank Sinatra Jr., and Dick Clark.

Also notable about this 4th season is the addition of bestselling author and prolific television producer Stephen J. Cannell, who joined the series this season as head writer and story editor.

The Adam-12: Season Four DVD set of 4 discs contain the 24 episodes that aired from September 1971 through March 1972.

— ◊ —

Experience the nonstop action, excitement, and drama of the first ten episodes of the critically-acclaimed FlashForward, a series that debuted on ABC last fall.

Chaos reigns ater a mysterious event causes everyone in the world to lose consciousness at exactly the same time. Was it an act of nature or something far more sinister? During the global blackout, every man, woman and child was given a glimpse of his or her life six months in the future. One elite law enforcement team jumps into the investigation, attempting to solve the mystery, as the world's population wrestles with the choice of whether to embrace the fate they've seen or fight to change the future.

Relive every twist of the series, and prepare yourself for what's to come in the second half of Season One. Who is D. Gibbons? Who is the shadowy figure unaffected by the blackout? And what's next for your favorite characters as their day of reckoning approaches? Plus, dig even deeper with never before seen bonus features and an exclusive sneak peek at the next chapter, only available on DVD.

The FlashForward: Season One, Part One DVD set of 2 discs contain the first 10 episodes of the series that aired from September through November 2009.

— ◊ —

The cozy villages of Midsomer County reveal their most sinister secrets in the contemporary British television mystery series Midsomer Murders.

Based on characters created by Caroline Graham, modern master of the English village mystery, the series stars John Nettles as the unflappable Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, with Jason Hughes as his earnest, efficient protégé, Detective Sergeant Ben Jones.

The Midsomer Murders: Set Fourteen DVD set of 4 discs contain following episodes of the series, which originally aired during late 2006 and early 2007: "Death and Dust" (The impending marriage of a widowed doctor and a well-to-do divorcée motivates a murder of mistaken identity); "Picture of Innocence" (In the midst of a “shooting war” between rival camera clubs, someone tries to frame Barnaby -- and definitely not for a portrait); "They Seek Him Here" (Heads roll, quite literally, when a movie crew begins filming an adventure classic set during the French Revolution); "Death in a Chocolate Box" (A long-buried scandal reemerges to haunt two of Barnaby’s former colleagues, now the managers of a halfway house). 

— ◊ —

Taggart is the world's longest continually running police drama.

A hard-driving series with a hard-edged Scottish burr, Taggart deals in a world of prostitutes, drug dealers, crime lords, and killers. In eight tightly crafted episodes, a team of Glasgow detectives use their collective wits and street smarts to tackle murder in this very tough town. Sometimes that means taking on hardened crime bosses, sometimes innocent victims with years to plot their revenge. Each time it means getting inside the mind of murderers -- how they think, how they act, how they kill.

The Taggart: Set Two DVD set of 4 discs contain eight episodes that originally aired in late 2003, during 2004, and early 2005.

(In a press release last week, ITV announced that 6 additional episodes of the series have been co-commissioned with STV. As part of this unique deal, STV will premiere each of the new episodes in 2010, followed by a UK network broadcast on ITV1 in 2011, with UKTV’s crime channel, Alibi airing them in 2013. Filming begins in Glasgow this April.)

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

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Mystery Godoku Puzzle for February 22, 2010

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 C E F I K R T U

This 2000 thriller by R. J. Kaiser features attorney Gabe Rose and his "crazy" client (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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Strand Magazine Announces Nominees for the 2009 Strand Critics Awards

Last Friday, the Strand Magazine announced the nominees for the 2009 Strand Critics Awards recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction. The winners will be announced at a cocktail party hosted by The Strand on July 7th, 2010, in New York City.

The Strand is also bestowing its Life Achievement Award to Elmore Leonard for his huge body of mystery and crime novels.

The nominees are ...

For Best Novel:
◊ Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)
◊ The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston (Ballantine)
◊ Life Sentences by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)
◊ The Renegades by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton)
◊ The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Riverhead)

For Best First Novel:

◊ Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell (Little, Brown)
◊ The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (Penguin)
◊ A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin)
◊ Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley (Touchstone)
◊ Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (Harper)

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Games of Mystery: Rhiannon, Curse of the Four Branches, New at Big Fish Games

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed board, electronic and video games, parties for kids and adults, and murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations, is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery casual 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.

Set in a mystical place on the Celtic fringes of Britain, a place where myth and magic spill into reality, is a place that threatens the sanity of a teenage girl and brings an ancient battle for revenge to a remote Welsh farmstead. Are reports of unexplained noises and strange visions by fifteen year old Rhiannon Sullivan merely the figments of an overactive imagination? Or does the history of her family's new home, Ty Pryderi, hold a terrible connection to a timeless struggle between man and magic? Her parents take Rhiannon away, leaving Ty Pryderi to your watch and exploration, but their absence can only postpone an ancient inevitability of revenge and death.

Unless you can stop it!

The game is based on the classic Welsh "Four Branches" legends.

Also available: Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches Strategy Guide and a Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches Game Walkthrough.

Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (179.70 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour.

Watch a preview video below:

Get any standard game for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. Other benefits include the $2.99 Daily Deal, Tomorrow's Game Today, and special member rewards. And if you purchase any 6 games within a single month, you earn a free game with the Big Fish Game Club Monthly Punch Card! (Collector's Editions earn 3 punches each, half-way towards your free game!)

Read our new game reviews by Ms. Terri: Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy (Review), 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 Book Review: Death Without Tenure by Joanne Dobson

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Death Without Tenure by Joanne Dobson. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Death Without Tenure by Joanne Dobson
A Karen Pelletier Mystery

Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-585-2 (1590585852)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-585-6 (9781590585856)
Publication Date: January 2010
List Price: $24.95

Review: Karen Pelletier is up for tenure at Enfield College but believes another professor, the politically correct choice, will get the only slot ... that is, until he's murdered and she's the number one suspect in Death Without Tenure, the sixth mystery in this series by Joanne Dobson.

Karen, a professor in the English department for the past six years, has been working hard for tenure. She's given talks at conferences, had papers published, and she knows she's eminently qualified. But someone else at the college has an edge on her: Joe Lone Wolf is a Native American, and though he hasn't done anything to further his career, he's known to be the preferred choice by the college board. But before an announcement can be made, Joe is murdered.

The investigating officer is no fan of Karen's, having worked with the man in her life, Massachusetts police lieutenant Charles Piotrowski, who is currently serving with the National Guard in Iraq. Believing the police won't put much effort into proving her innocence, Karen teams up with another officer, who's on maternity leave. They discover that, while Joe was popular with his students and other members of the faculty, he harbored a secret life ... with plenty of suspects that may have wanted to see him dead.

The author perceptively handles the sensitive subject of discrimination -- racial, ethnic, socioeconomic -- plus the often awkward consequences of political correctness within the context of the murder mystery plot in Death Without Tenure. In addition to the murdered Native American are a Muslim female student, who is the subject of ridicule by her peers, and the poor son of a coal miner, who may lose his scholarship on the whim of a faculty member. The more entertaining aspects to the story, however, involve conflicts of a less controversial kind: a behind-the-scenes glimpse of college faculty and administrators jockeying for an edge -- any edge -- over one other for what may seem to the rest of the world to be rather trivial pursuits. At the center of it all, though, is Karen in amateur sleuth mode, who provides the perfect focal point for this academic-themed mystery.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Death Without Tenure and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2010 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved

If you are interested in purchasing Death Without Tenure from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.

Synopsis (from the publisher): Professor Karen Pelletier is about to realize her dream; after six years in the English Department at New England’s exclusive Enfield College, she is up for tenure. Then Professor Joseph Lone Wolf, her rival for the one tenured spot in the department, whose ethnicity gives him minority-preference status, is found dead from an overdose of Peyote buttons. First on the list of suspects, Karen is harassed by a homicide cop with a grudge against his colleague, the love of Karen’s life, Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski.

On campus, political passions rage. Two of Karen’s favorite students, Khalida Ahmed, a hijab-wearing Muslim, and Hank Brody, a coal-miner’s son on full scholarship, are caught up in the furor. Without the presence of her beloved Charlie, now serving a tour of duty with the National Guard in Iraq, will Karen be able to survive the investigation, protect her students, and find a permanent niche in the world of academe? And what if the killer feels the need to strike again?

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