Reviews of Mystery and Suspense Books for Kids, New This Week on Book Trends

Book Trends, a review site for young adult and children books, published several new book reviews this past week. We're presenting here a summary of those in the mystery / suspense category.

Dream Life by Lauren Mechling. The 2nd mystery in the Claire Voyante series. Recommended for readers aged 12 and older. Lexile measure: N/A. Reviewed by a 6th grade student who wrote, "... extraordinary [with] some mystery and suspense weaved into it," adding, "I do think everybody should have a chance to read this book because it is just that good."

For more reviews of children and young adult books, visit Book Trends; their reviews will amaze you!

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Games of Mystery: Culpa Innata, Exodus from the Earth, and 7 Nancy Drew Mysteries, New from Amazon Video Games

Games of Mystery, your source for mystery-themed board, electronic and video games, parties for kids and adults, murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations, and more mysterious fun, is pleased to announce this week's new mystery and suspense games available for immediate download from Amazon Video Games.

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Culpa Innata

The year is 2047. Countries with significant resources have united under one World Union to create a utopian society. But beneath the perfect world lies an unspeakable truth. Peace Officer Phoenix Wallis is assigned to investigate a brutal murder. Still young and inexperienced, she will soon make discoveries beyond her wildest imagination. Her investigation reveals clues that lead her deeper and deeper into a mystery that challenges not only her case, but her very beliefs in the worldview she has sworn to protect.

Windows Vista / XP (1615 MB download). ESRB Rating: Mature.

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Exodus from the Earth

The earth is living its last twenty years and the population is now faced with struggling to ensure its survival. The A. X. Corporation could produce a vaccine that would allow human beings to live in any environment. The Intelligence Agency has commissioned you, Francis Rixon, to find out what is happening inside the Corporation's confines and to retrieve information about a secret mineral upon which the very existence of the human race may depend.

Windows Vista / XP (2341 MB download). ESRB Rating: Mature.

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And for the first time, available for download from Amazon Video Games, are seven games in the original Nancy Drew series!

For a complete list of games featuring the teenage sleuth, visit Games of Mystery: Nancy Drew.

Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake (7th in series)

A friend's frantic note sends you, as Nancy Drew, on the trail of a mysterious pack of dogs. Local residents say that the dogs have come back from the grave to protect their master's secrets. Are the ghostly legends true, or is there a flesh-and-blood explanation for the haunting howls? You must solve the mystery before the hounds catch your scent!

Windows Vista / XP (484 MB download). ESRB Rating: Everyone.

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Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island (9th in series)

When unexplained accidents start occurring on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, it's up to you, as Nancy Drew, to discover the secret behind the events.

With vandalism, loose orcas, and an oddly approaching fog, is Nancy diving headlong into dangerous water?

Windows Vista / XP (536 MB download). ESRB Rating: Everyone.

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Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor (11th in series)

All is not well in Blackmoor Manor, a Fourteenth Century English mansion haunted by a tragic past. You, as Nancy Drew, embark on an adventure to visit Linda Penvellyn, your neighbor's daughter and newlywed wife of a British diplomat. A mysterious malady keeps Linda hidden behind thick bed curtains. Is she hiding from something or someone, or is a more menacing threat stalking her? Face your fears to find the truth!

Windows Vista / XP (478 MB download). ESRB Rating: Everyone.

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Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon (13th in series)

The Hardy Boys have invited you, as Nancy Drew, on a train ride out West to solve a century-old secret. This mysterious train was found in Blue Moon Canyon, and its owner, Jake Hurley, seems to have disappeared, along with the location of his legendary mine. Climb aboard as Nancy Drew and see if you can uncover the truth at the end of the line!

Windows Vista / XP (756 MB download). ESRB Rating: Everyone.

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Nancy Drew: Danger by Design (14th in series)

Fashion designer Minette might be at the height of her career, but rumors have been flying about her bizarre behavior. Is this designer diva coming apart at the seams, or is someone keeping her spring collection unfashionably behind schedule? It's up to you, as Nancy Drew, to travel to Paris for an internship and sew up this case in style!

Windows Vista / XP (839 MB download). ESRB Rating: Everyone.

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Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skill (17th in series)

Bruno Bolet was the owner of the "Whisperer," a crystal skull rumored to protect its holder from any cause of death - except murder. When Bruno passed away, the skull went missing among the clutter of the creepy Bolet manor. You'll need to team up with Nancy's best friend Bess to find this mystical artifact before it falls into the wrong hands!

Windows Vista / XP (894 MB download). ESRB Rating: Everyone.

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Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships (20th in series)

Your friend Bess Marvin has been kidnapped and the only chance you have to save her is by solving a 300-year-old Bahamian mystery! Dangerous waters keep treasure hunters from exploring the reefs around Dread Isle, but this remote island might hide the riches of El Toro's lost fleet! Can you, as Nancy Drew, track down the treasure before time runs out?

Windows Vista / XP (971 MB download). ESRB Rating: Everyone.

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A complete list of downloadable mystery games is available on our Games of Mystery: Amazon.com Game Download page.

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Mystery Bestsellers for March 19, 2010

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending March 19, 2010 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

Although there's little change at the top of the list this week, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is still number one, we're starting to see more new titles enter the list.

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Debuting just off the list last week and moving up to 7th position this week is Deep Shadow, the 17th Doc Ford mystery by Randy Wayne White.

Many dangers lurk in the deep -- the worst of them are human.

Thirty minutes into what should have been an easy, beginner-level dive in a remote Florida lake, the rim of a cave collapses, trapping two of Doc Ford's friends. Ford himself manages to escape and quickly surfaces to find help-but that's when his troubles only begin.

Two men are waiting for him on the shore, and they are not the kind of men you want to meet at any time. Murderers and ex-cons, they're intent on diving to the bottom of the very deep lake and uncovering the remains of a legendary plane wreck there, supposedly loaded with Cuban treasury gold. Ford's ex­pertise is just what they need. And if he doesn't want to help? He can die. His friends? They can die, too. In fact, they can die right now ...

As the hours tick away, two mortal struggles unfold simulta­neously, one above and one below. Neither outcome is certain, no man is safe ... and in the deep shadow, only death awaits.

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New at number 10 is Think Twice, the 13th thriller set at the Philadelphia law firm of Rosato and Associates by Lisa Scottoline.

Bennie Rosato looks exactly like her identical twin, Alice Connolly, but the darkness in Alice’s soul makes them two very different women. Or at least that’s what Bennie believes, until she finds herself buried alive at the hands of her twin.

Meanwhile, Alice takes over Bennie’s life, impersonating her at work and even seducing her boyfriend in order to escape the deadly mess she has made of her own life. But Alice underestimates Bennie and the evil she has unleashed in her twin’s psyche, as well as Bennie’s determination to stay alive long enough to exact revenge.

Bennie must face the twisted truth that she is more like her sister Alice than she could have ever imagined, and by the novel’s shocking conclusion, Bennie finds herself engaged in a war she cannot win -- with herself.

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And just making the list at nubmer 15 is the second Flavia de Luce mystery, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley.

Flavia thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacy are over -- and then Rupert Porson has an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. The beloved puppeteer has had his own strings sizzled, but who’d do such a thing and why? For Flavia, the questions are intriguing enough to make her put aside her chemistry experiments and schemes of vengeance against her insufferable big sisters. Astride Gladys, her trusty bicycle, Flavia sets out from the de Luces’ crumbling family mansion in search of Bishop’s Lacey’s deadliest secrets.

Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What of the vicar’s odd ministrations to the catatonic woman in the dovecote? Then there’s a German pilot obsessed with the Brontë sisters, a reproachful spinster aunt, and even a box of poisoned chocolates. Most troubling of all is Porson’s assistant, the charming but erratic Nialla. All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve -- without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head?

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The top four mystery bestsellers this week are shown below:

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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Summit Options Andrew Klavan's Homelanders Young Adult Thriller Series

In a press release today, Summit Entertainment announced the studio has optioned the Homelanders series of thrillers for young adults, written by Andrew Klavan. There are currently two books in the series, The Last Thing I Remember and The Long Way Home, which feature high school student Charlie West, who wakes up one morning a hunted man.

Two of Klavan's books have previously been adapted for film: True Crime, starring Clint Eastwood, and Don't Say a Word, starring Michael Douglas.

"I'm really excited about this," said Klavan. "These are top-notch filmmakers who can make movies as action-packed as the books are."

About The Last Thing I Remember (from the publisher): Charlie West just woke up in someone else's nightmare.

He's strapped to a chair. He's covered in blood and bruises. He hurts all over. And a strange voice outside the door just ordered his death.

The last thing he can remember, he was a normal high-school kid doing normal things -- working on his homework, practicing karate, daydreaming of becoming an air force pilot, writing a pretty girl's number on his hand. How long ago was that? Where is he now? Who is he really?

And more to the point ... how is he going to get out of this room alive?

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Mystery Book Review: One Too Many Blows To the Head by J. B. Kohl and Eric Beetner

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of One Too Many Blows To the Head by J. B. Kohl and Eric Beetner. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

One Too Many Blows To the Head by J. B. Kohl and Eric Beetner
Non-series

Second Wind Publishing (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-935171-32-1 (1935171321)
ISBN-13: 978-1-935171-32-4 (9781935171324)
Publication Date: October 2009
List Price: $13.95

Review: Set in 1939, boxing manager Ray Ward pursues those who fixed a fight in which his brother was killed in One Too Many Blows To the Head, a noir-ish thriller by J. B. Kohl and Eric Beetner.

Rex Ward is an up-and-comer in the sport of boxing. Managed by his brother Ray, he's not quite ready for the big time -- Chicago -- but a few key wins in their home town of Kansas City will set him up well. It's during one of these fights that Rex is killed, his face pummeled so hard it's virtually unrecognizable. Ray isn't naive, he knows fights can be and often are fixed, but suspects this was more than just an illegal take-down, and learns his brother's opponent was using weighted gloves. Determined to seek revenge -- if not justice -- Ray doesn't let anyone get in his way as he hunts down whoever ordered his brother permanently knocked out.

One Too Many Blows To the Head is told from alternating first-person points of view: that of Ray Ward and that of Detective Dean Fokoli, who is initially investigating the death of Rex Ward, but later the trail of bodies that Ray leaves in his wake. The writing is crisp, the characters finely drawn. Ray's motivation to avenge his brother's death, murder really, may seem to be simple, but in actuality is deeply complex; a former boxer himself, both brothers taught by their abusive father, he sums it up himself in this passage:

[T]his was my fight. I'd been sending Rex into the ring for years to fight bouts I didn't have the skill for and I was tired of winning by proxy. I was tired of not feeling the deep satisfaction of a fist connecting with another man's flesh. I was tired of not being close enough to hear a rib bone break or get the warm splatter of an opponent's blood on my face. I had been ringside too long.

As much as the story may seem to be about Ray Ward, it's also about Dean Fokoli, who has his own demons chasing him. They meet in the end, but it's a meeting of equals, men more alike than not. One Too Many Blows To the Head is quite remarkable in how it takes a relatively simple story and develops an intricate, compelling tale of two men on a mission to identify who killed Rex Ward ... but also on a search for their own identities.

Special thanks to Eric Beetner for providing a copy of One Too Many Blows To the Head for this review.

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

If you are interested in purchasing One Too Many Blows To the Head from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.

Synopsis (from the publisher): Kansas City, 1939. One story from two points of view: the hunter and the hunted. Ray Ward -- seeking revenge for his brother's death in the boxing ring. Detective Dean Fokoli -- hot on a killer's trail.

Ray's hunt takes him underground into Kansas City's criminal nightlife. Dean Fokoli lives there full time but he's on the run from his own troubles. Two men racing forward to collide like a knockout punch.

A razor-edged story of revenge, redemption and what happens when you confront the ghosts of the past.

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Hyde Park To Film Adaptation of Spy Thriller Firewall by Andy McNab

Variety is reporting that Hyde Park Entertainment has acquired the film rights to the Andy McNab espionage novels featuring British SAS agent Nick Stone. The first book to be adapted, Firewall, is actually the third in the series, and will be filmed as Echelon. McNab, a former member of the SAS himself, co-wrote the screenplay and will executive produce.

"I've been a fan of the Nick Stone stories for years, as they are a rich and unique source for a contemporary action-thriller," said Hyde Park Chairman and CEO Ashok Amritraj, who likened the series to Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne novels.

About Firewall (from the publisher): If he hadn't needed the cash so badly, Nick Stone would never have messed with the Russian mafia. But the lucrative offer was one he couldn't refuse. The job seemed simple enough for a man of his particular talents: kidnap a ruthless, money-laundering mob boss from his fortified Helsinki hotel room and deliver him to St. Petersburg. But as the plan begins to unfold, Stone soon realizes that by no means has he been told the full story.

Catapulted into the bleak underworld of the former Soviet republic of Estonia, where unknown aggressors stalk the arctic landscape, Stone finds that the mob may now turn out to be the least of his problems. Russia has embarked on a new Cold War offensive -- hacking into the West's computer systems and stealing their most coveted military secrets. As one bloody double cross leads to another, Stone finds himself caught between the suicidal schemes of the British and American intelligence agencies and the ruthless Russians who want to silence him.

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Sherlock Holmes for Dummies Publishes This Week

We're actually a bit surprised it took this long for this book to come out, but Sherlock Holmes for Dummies publishes this week. Written by Steven Doyle, co-founder of Wessex Press/Gasogene Books, a small press specializing in Sherlock Holmes books, including the Sherlock Holmes Reference Library, the book is described as a comprehensive guide to this important literary figure and his author.

About Sherlock Holmes for Dummies (from the publisher): A classic literary character, Sherlock Holmes has fascinated readers for decades-from his repartee with Dr. Watson and his unparalleled powers of deduction to the settings, themes, and villains of the stories. Now, this friendly guide offers a clear introduction to this beloved figure and his author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, presenting new insight into the detective stories and crime scene analysis that have has made Sherlock Holmes famous.

Inside you'll find easy-to-understand yet thorough information on the characters, recurring themes, and locations, and social context of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the relationship of these stories to literature, and the forensics and detective work they feature.

• A plain-English guide that helps you better understand and enjoy this influential literary character;
• Gain insight on these classic Doyle tales-from the classic Hound of the Baskervilles to the lesser-known short stories to Holmes stories written by other mystery writers;
• Explores the appearance of Sherlock Holmes on film, TV, and stage;
• Discusses Holmes today -- from the ever-expanding network of fans worldwide to story locations that fans can visit.

An overview of the Sherlock Holmes canon can be found on the publisher website as a Sherlock Holmes for Dummies Cheat Sheet.

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Mystery Book Review: Occupied City by David Peace

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

Occupied City by David Peace
The Tokyo Trilogy

Knopf (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-307-26375-4 (0307263754)
ISBN-13: 978-0-307-26375-9 (9780307263759)
Publication Date: February 2010
List Price: $25.95

Review: Based on a true crime committed in 1948 Tokyo, Occupied City by David Peace is for the most part a fascinating retelling of the circumstances surrounding that fateful day when 12 innocent people lost their lives in a bank.

A man posing as a health inspector enters the Teikoku Bank in Tokyo just before closing and announces that its employees have been exposed to dysentery. He possesses an antidote, but they must hurry. The "treatment" is really a fast-acting poison, which kills 12 of the employees and seriously injures 4 others. The man makes off with a substantial sum of money. Hirasawa Sadamichi is arrested and two years later convicted of the murders, attempted murders, and robbery, based in large part on a confession, which he subsequently recants. Sentenced to be hung for his crimes, a campaign to clear his name kept his appeal process going until his death in jail in 1987.

Occupied City consists of twelve "candles" or chapters, each told from a different perspective by a fictional character associated in some way -- sometimes quite tangentially -- with the crime. It can be an exceptionally challenging book to read; fully half the "candles" are written in an atypical, non-narrative manner, including the first one, which is written from the perspective of the victims -- but does provide a foundation for what is to follow. Examples of other chapters include passages from the investigating detective's notebook (written as one long paragraph per entry), letters from an American medical officer to both his wife and commander detailing his investigation into the potential development of biological weapons by the Japanese during the war, newspaper articles and commentary written by a journalist covering the story and its aftermath, and towards the end, chapters each from the man convicted of the crime and someone identified only as "the Killer".

Far more of a literary novel than a mystery, some might be tempted to call Occupied City a tour de force based on its unusual approach to storytelling ... but no doubt many others will be puzzled, if not put off by it. It may help to read the chapters out of sequence; with the exception of the first and the last few chapters, there doesn't seem to be any specific order to the rest, though the author may find it objectionable to read it in this way, tampering with the art, as it were. Still, it is possible to skip ahead if one chapter appears to be particularly daunting, then return to it later; the overall experience is worth the effort.

Special thanks to Random House for providing an ARC of Occupied City for this review.

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

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): A fierce, exquisitely dark novel that plunges us into post–World War II Occupied Japan in a Rashomon-like retelling of a mass poisoning (based on an actual event), its aftermath, and the hidden wartime atrocities that led to the crime.

On January 26, 1948, a man identifying himself as a public health official arrives at a bank in Tokyo. There has been an outbreak of dysentery in the neighborhood, he explains, and he has been assigned by Occupation authorities to treat everyone who might have been exposed to the disease. Soon after drinking the medicine he administers, twelve employees are dead, four are unconscious, and the “official” has fled ...

Twelve voices tell the story of the murder from different perspectives. One of the victims speaks, for all the victims, from the grave. We read the increasingly mad notes of one of the case detectives, the desperate letters of an American occupier, the testimony of a traumatized survivor. We meet a journalist, a gangster-turned-businessman, an “occult detective,” a Soviet soldier, a well-known painter. Each voice enlarges and deepens the portrait of a city and a people making their way out of a war-induced hell.

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Warner Bros. To Adapt TV Series 77 Sunset Strip as a Theatrical Film

Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. is bringing the television series 77 Sunset Strip to the big screen as a period piece. Stephen Chin is in talks to write the script with Greg Berlanti (Green Lantern) directing.

The show ran for 6 seasons on ABC from October 1958 through February 1964, and starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Stuart "Stu" Bailey and Roger Smith as Jeff Spencer, both former government agents who ran a private detective agency based in a stylish office at 77 Sunset Strip. From its flashy production values and steady stream of popular guest stars to its iconic theme music, it was considered at the time to be one of the coolest shows on television.

The series was based on novels and short stories written by producer Roy Huggins, who introduced the character of Stu Bailey in his 1946 novel The Double Take. (Huggins would later go on to develop and produce several crime dramas, including The Rockford Files.)

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Nominations for 2010 Lambda Literary Awards Announced

The Lambda Literary Foundation today announced the finalists for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for books written by gay and lesbian authors and published in 2009. Awards are given in many categories, including mystery. The finalists in this category are:

Gay Men's Mystery:
◊ All Lost Things by Josh Aterovis (P. D. Publishing)
◊ The Killer of Orchids by Ralph Ashworth (State Street Press)
◊ Murder in the Garden District by Greg Herren (Alyson Books)
◊ Straight Lies by Rob Byrnes (Kensington)
◊ What We Remember by Michael Thomas Ford (Kensington)

Lesbian Mystery:
◊ Command of Silence by Paulette Callen (Spinsters Ink)
◊ Death of a Dying Man by J. M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books)
◊ From Hell to Breakfast by Joan Opyr (Blue Feather Books)
◊ The Mirror and the Mask by Ellen Hart  (St. Martin's Minotaur)
◊ Toasted by Josie Gordon (Bella Books)

A complete list of all finalists is available here. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday, May 27th, 2010, in New York City.

indicates a review by Mysterious Reviews.

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Mystery Book Review: Watchlist by Jeffery Deaver

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

Watchlist by Jeffery Deaver
Non-series

Vanguard Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59315-559-X (159315559X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59315-559-9 (9781593155599)
Publication Date: January 2010
List Price: $25.95

Review: Based on an idea by Jeffery Deaver, Watchlist consists of two "serial" novellas, each chapter of which is written by a different author. Deaver wrote the opening and closing chapters of The Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet, both of which feature a group of characters called the "Volunteers", a covert government group led by Harold Middleton.

The Chopin Manuscript introduces Middleton, a musicologist retired from active service, in Poland to authenticate a previously unknown Chopin manuscript. As he's leaving the country to return to the US, he's detained by Polish authorities investigating the murder of the man who gave him the manuscript. Separately, the dead man's niece, Felicia Kaminski, living in Italy, narrowly escapes a murder attempt on her life, and hides out at the shop of an old family friend, who is in possession of a previously unknown Mozart manuscript that he was about to send off to Middleton. Their paths cross in the US as both are chased by a name known as Faust who is after the manuscripts ... not for their inherent value as musical treasures, but for the secrets encoded within their notes.

The Chopin Manuscript was co-written by Deaver and (in order of chapters written) David Hewson, James Grady, S. J. Rozan, Erica Spindler, John Ramsey Miller, David Corbett, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Jim Fusilli, Peter Spiegelman, Ralph Pezzullo, Lisa Scottoline, P. J. Parrish, and Lee Child.

Middleton finds himself drawn into an international terrorist plot in the sequel, The Copper Bracelet. A code name for an efficient method of making heavy water developed by the Nazis but presumably destroyed at the end of World War II, knowledge of the "Copper Bracelet" would give rogue nations the ability to develop nuclear weapons quickly and inexpensively. But the man who may hold the key to the formula, Devras Sikari, is also a target himself ... with different factions having differing agendas as to how to use the knowledge and to what end.

The Copper Bracelet was co-written by Deaver and (in order of chapters written) Gayle Lynds, David Hewson, Jim Fusilli, John Gilstrap, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, David Corbett, Linda Barnes, Jenny Siler, David Liss, P. J. Parrish, Brett Battles, Lee Child, Jon Land, and James Phelan.

Though both stories are exciting, The Chopin Manuscript is decidedly the better of the two, its scope more focused and the plot better suited to the serial format. The Copper Bracelet also seems to assume knowledge gained from, or at the very least information provided by, its predecessor. Both, however, tend to generate suspense and thrills using plot twists that have little foundation.

What is interesting is how the various writing styles of the authors, some of which are markedly different from each other, come together to form a cohesive thriller. Given that each author wants to put their own spin on the story, and each seems to have been assigned a specific task (introduce this character or setting, advance the plot in this way or that, add this twist, etc.), it works surprisingly well. And, considering that most thrillers are at least 100 pages too long anyway, keeping these novellas to around 200 pages works to their advantage.

Special thanks to Meryl L. Moss Media Relations for providing a copy of Watchlist for this review.

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

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

Synopsis (from the publisher): A unique collaboration by twenty-one of the world’s greatest thriller writers including Jeffery Deaver, who conceived the characters and set the plot in motion; in turn, other authors each wrote a chapter and Deaver then completed what he started, bringing each novel to its startling conclusion.

The Chopin Manuscript

Former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frédéric Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans.

The Copper Bracelet

Harold Middleton returns in this explosive sequel to The Chopin Manuscript as he’s drawn into an international terror plot that threatens to send India and Pakistan into full-scale nuclear war.

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