The Dog Park Club by Cynthia Robinson (Book Review)

The Dog Park Club by Cynthia Robinson. A Max Bravo Mystery. Minotaur Books Hardcover, June 2010.

One flamboyant opera singer, one emotionally unstable prima donna, a collection of dysfunctional dog owners, a pinch of drugs and alcohol, one gypsy from the grave, and oh yes – a touch of murder. These ingredients, when put together form the foundation for Cynthia Robinson’s debut novel The Dog Park Club. This is the first title in the Max Bravo mystery series.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Dog Park Club by Cynthia Robinson.

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Mysterious Reviews is your source for the latest mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime novel reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Rizzoli & Isles Premieres Tomorrow, July 12th, on TNT

Tomorrow, Monday July 12th at 10 PM (ET/PT) is the premiere of Rizzoli & Isles on TNT.

Based on characters created by bestselling mystery novelist Tess Gerritsen, homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and medical examiner Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander) -- complete opposites but good friends with a supportive relationship -- work together to figure out whodunit as well as howdunit in some of Boston's most complex criminal investigations.

In the premiere episode, titled "See One. Do One. Teach One.", Rizzoli and Isles investigate the grisly murder of a wealthy couple. The M.O. matches the work of a serial killer known as the Surgeon, who once nearly murdered Jane. Now that the Surgeon is behind bars, it seems one of his proteges is picking up where he left off.

Watch a sneak peek of the series premiere below:

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads co-edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Book Review)

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads by David Morrell and Hank Wagner, co-editors. Non-series. Oceanview Publishing Hardcover, July 2010.

The definition of what exactly is a "thriller" is hard to pin down. In introductory remarks to this list of novels and other literary works that have had an impact on the genre, David Hewson tries to do so by simply stating that "if a thriller does not thrill, it is not doing its job." However, not unlike the term "mystery", what it means to be a thriller seems to be something different to each and every reader. And so it is with the 100 novelists who contributed their thoughts on 100 thrillers written during the past 3500 years in Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads, co-edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Thrillers: 100 Must Reads by David Morrell and Hank Wagner, co-editors.

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Mysterious Reviews is your source for the latest mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime novel reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Winners of the 2010 Thriller Awards Announced

Tonight the winners of the Thriller Awards were announced at Thrillerfest. The awards recognize the best books published in this genre from the previous year. Our sincere thanks to those attendees who tweeted the results in real time. And the winners are ...

◊ Best Novel: The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner
◊ Best First Novel: Running from the Devil by Jamie Freveletti
◊ Best Paperback Original: The Coldest Mile by Tom Piccirilli
◊ Best Short Story: "A Stab in the Heart" by Twist Phelan

Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express Premieres Tomorrow, July 11th, on PBS

Tomorrow, Sunday July 11th, PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! airs Murder on the Orient Express, the first of three new episodes in Series X of Poirot. (Check your listings for local air times.) It is based on the 1934 novel of the same title by Agatha Christie, one her most famous works.

On his way to Istanbul, Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) is called back to London for a case, and finds transport via the opulent Orient Express train. An ornery American businessman, Samuel Ratchett, interrupts Poirot's luxurious trip with a cryptic plea for help — he's seeking penance, but may be murdered in the meantime. When the train is sidelined by a snowdrift and Ratchett is found dead, Poirot becomes embroiled in one of the most fiendish cases of his career. The suspects are numerous and colorful — an erudite Russian princess, an English colonel, a pushy American matron and a devout Swedish missionary among others. The evidence suggests a shadowy assassin may have boarded the train during a stop in order to commit the murder, but is there an unforgivable evil even closer at hand?

Visit the PBS website to watch several behind-the-scenes videos for Murder on the Orient Express.

The Glades Premieres Tomorrow, July 11th, on A&E

Tomorrow, Sunday July 11th at 10 PM (ET/PT), The Glades premieres on A&E.

Matt Passmore stars as Jim Longworth, an attractive, brilliant, yet hard to get along with homicide detective from Chicago, who gets shot by his captain after being wrongfully accused of sleeping with his wife. After being exiled from the department, Longworth relocates to the sleepy, middle of nowhere town of Palm Glade, Florida, where the sunshine and golf are plentiful and crime is seemingly at a minimum. Only this town outside the Florida Everglades isn’t quite as idyllic as he thought ...

In the pilot, the easy life quickly falls by the wayside when a decapitated, unidentifiable woman is found in a creek, which begrudgingly drags Jim Longworth off the golf course in pursuit of her killer. Complicating matters more is Longworth's relationship with Callie, a hot and savvy nurse he has an interest in. With a Titleist sitting on the fourteenth fairway waiting for him to break eighty for the first time in his life, Longworth needles, cajoles, and harangues everyone in his path, including his golf partner and department medical examiner, Carlos, as he puzzles out the facts surrounding the mysterious killing to try and identify the victim and bring her killer to justice.

Discover more about the series on the A&E: The Glades website.

Watch a preview for the series pilot below:

Steve the Sheriff, Lost in the City, and Bonnie & Clyde, Now Available to Download from Amazon Video Games

Games of Mystery is pleased to announce this week's new mystery and suspense casual and adventure games available for immediate download from Amazon Video Games.

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

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Steve the Sheriff: The Case of the Missing Thing

Steve the Sheriff has returned in an all new case in Neptuneville. The Mona Medusa is missing and it's up to you to help Steve the Sheriff track down the thief. Use your detective skills to scour a multitude of screens. Find key objects within the scene to solve fun adventure-style puzzles.

See also the previous game in this series, Steve the Sheriff.

ESRB Rating: Not Specified.

Windows Vista/XP (150 MB download).

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Lost in the City

After the first date with a charming girl named April, our hero wakes up alone in an unknown abandoned city after being drugged. He is trapped and believes this somehow involves April. Explore the city while trying to investigate how April is involved. Help the hero survive in an atmosphere of drama and suspense. Are you Lost in the City?

ESRB Rating: Not Specified.

Windows Vista/XP (87 MB download).

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Public Enemies: Bonnie and Clyde

Follow Bonnie & Clyde’s track through the United States! It is 1933. Janette Jones Parker is a writer and has taken a room in the Red Crown Tavern in Platte City, Missouri, to write her next novel. She discovers it is where Bonnie & Clyde used to hide, and there she finds a notebook, which ends to be Bonnie’s log. Help Janette to decipher the strange message left by Bonnie along her journey! Go through the United States, on the tracks of the two outlaws!

ESRB Rating: Not Specified.

Windows Vista/XP (63 MB download).

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Games of Mystery is your source for mystery-themed video, electronic and board games, parties for kids and adults, murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations, and more mysterious fun!

The Silent Places by James Patrick Hunt (Book Review)

The Silent Places by James Patrick Hunt. A George Hastings Mystery. Minotaur Books Hardcover, May 2010.

In a politically motivated move to "punish" him for taking a stand against the deputy chief, St. Louis homicide detective George Hastings is assigned to a protection detail for a local senator -- one that may involve protecting him from a man from his past out to kill him -- in The Silent Places, the fourth mystery in this series by James Patrick Hunt.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Silent Places by James Patrick Hunt.

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Mysterious Reviews is your source for the latest mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime novel reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

Artifacts of the Past: Ancient Mysteries, a New Mystery Game of Adventure from BFG

Games of Mystery is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery casual game from Big Fish Games released today and available to BFG Club members. 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.

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Strangers from around the world track down Doctor Artifact just to have their relics examined. Equipped with unique devices to research the mysterious items, he must carefully decipher the artifacts in a special lab and watch as amazing and breathtaking stories unfold. Travel to Ancient Egypt, Stonehenge, and Mexico as three stories unfold in this exciting hidden object adventure game.

Also available: Artifacts of the Past: Ancient Mysteries Strategy Guide and a Artifacts of the Past: Ancient Mysteries Game Walkthrough.

Artifacts of the Past: Ancient Mysteries may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (190.93 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 Ms. Terri's reviews of the adventure and casual mystery games featured on this site, including Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy, Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses!, Enlightenus, and many more!

Big Fish Games: Bestsellers

Big Fish Games: New releases

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Games of Mystery is your source for mystery-themed video, electronic, and board games, parties for kids and adults, and murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations!

HBO Orders Series Pilot based on The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston

Deadline.com is reporting that HBO has ordered a series pilot based on the 2009 crime novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston. The screenplay was adapted by the author and will be directed by Alan Ball, who developed the True Blood series based on Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire mysteries for the network.

"All Signs has a hard noir feel but it’s also ironic; it’s graphic and gritty but human and very moving at the same time," says Ball.

The project is now casting for an August production start in Los Angeles.

About The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death (from the publisher): With his teaching career derailed by tragedy and his slacker days numbered, Webster Fillmore Goodhue makes an unlikely move and joins Clean Team, charged with tidying up L.A.'s grisly crime scenes. For Web, it's a steady gig, and he soon finds himself sponging a Malibu suicide's brains from a bathroom mirror and flirting with the man's bereaved and beautiful daughter.

Then things get weird: The dead man's daughter asks a favor. Every cell in Web's brain tells him to turn her down, but something makes him hit the Harbor Freeway at midnight to help her however he can. Soon enough it's Web who needs the help when gun-toting California cowboys start showing up on his doorstep. What's the deal? Is it something to do with what he cleaned up in that motel room in Carson? Or is it all about the brewing war between rival trauma cleaners? Web doesn't have a clue, but he'll need to get one if he's going to keep from getting his face kicked in. Again. And again. And again.

The Bridge Premieres Tomorrow, July 10th, on CBS

During the upfronts for the Fall 2009 television season, CBS announced that the Canadian crime drama The Bridge, which it co-produced, would air as a mid-season replacement. That never happened, but the series is coming to CBS this summer. (It aired on CTV from March through April of this year.)

Created by former cop and Toronto police union head Craig Bromell and written by Alan Di Fiore (Da Vinci's Inquest), the series stars Aaron Douglas as newly elected union leader Frank Leo, who takes on the politically-motivated police brass to combat corruption.

The 2-hour pilot, titled "Red Door / Paint It Black", airs tomorrow, Saturday July 10th at 8 PM (ET/PT). Beginning July 17th, the hour-long series airs in its regular time slot at 8 PM (ET/PT).

Watch the trailer for the pilot below:

Classic Revenge by Mitzi Kelly (Book Review)

Classic Revenge by Mitzi Kelly. A Silver Sleuths Mystery. Avalon Hardcover, June 2010.

Three friends band together to right what they know -- or at least strongly suspect, based on their nearly two centuries of combined life experience -- to be a wrong in Classic Revenge, the first mystery in the Silver Sleuths series by Mitzi Kelly.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Classic Revenge by Mitzi Kelly.

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Mysterious Reviews is your source for the latest mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime novel reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books.

ITV Commissions 4 New Episodes of Inspector Lewis

In a press release this morning, ITV announced the network has commissioned 4 new episodes of the crime drama Inspector Lewis (titled just Lewis in the UK).

A spin-off of the long-running Inspector Morse mystery series, Inspector Lewis stars Kevin Whately as Detective Inspector Robert "Robbie" Lewis and Laurence Fox as his partner DS Hathaway, of the Thames Valley Police investigating murder in and around Oxford. ITV just concluded airing 4 episodes of the fourth series in May. The first two series (seasons) are available on DVD from Telemystery: Inspector Lewis.

Production on the new episodes is expected to begin this month. Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse mysteries, which introduced the Lewis character, is a consultant for the series.

Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air, a New Game of Adventure from BFG

Games of Mystery is pleased to announce the availability of a new mystery casual game from Big Fish Games released today and available to BFG Club members. 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.

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The epic Dream Chronicles saga continues in this fourth edition of the award-winning adventure series. Play as Lyra, Faye's daughter, who finds herself trapped in a strange dimension on the day before her 18th birthday. Following clues sent by her grandfather, she flies across the realm in search of the Clockmaker who will help her restore time and return home. Solve intriguing puzzles and search for items that will reunite Lyra with family and friends.

For a more in-depth game experience, check out the Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air Collector's Edition that includes bonus locations, a built-in strategy guide, and a sneak peek at the next game in the series.

Also available: Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air Strategy Guide and Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air Game Walkthrough.

Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (101.98 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 Ms. Terri's reviews of the adventure and casual mystery games featured on this site, including Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy, Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses!, Enlightenus, and many more!

Big Fish Games: Bestsellers

Big Fish Games: New releases

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Games of Mystery is your source for mystery-themed video, electronic, and board games, parties for kids and adults, and murder mystery weekends and mystery getaway vacations!

Mystery Bestsellers for July 09, 2010

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending July 9th, 2010 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

Last week's featured title, Private, the first thriller in the international PI Jack Morgan series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, moves into the top 4 but The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson remains at number one. No new titles enter this list this week, but one moves from just off the list into the top 15 this week.

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Moving from 17 to 14 is the suspense novel In the Name of Honor by Richard North Patterson.

The McCarrans and the Gallaghers, two military families, have been close for decades, ever since Anthony McCarran—now one of the army's most distinguished generals—became best friends with Jack Gallagher, a fellow West Pointer who was later killed in Vietnam. Now a new generation of soldiers faces combat, and Lt. Brian McCarran, the general's son, has returned from a harrowing tour in Iraq. Traumatized by wartime experiences he will not reveal, Brian depends on his lifelong friendship with Kate Gallagher, Jack's daughter, who is married to Brian's commanding officer in Iraq, Capt. Joe D'Abruzzo. But since coming home, D'Abruzzo also seems changed by the experiences he and Brian shared—he's become secretive and remote.

Tragedy strikes when Brian shoots and kills D'Abruzzo on their army post in Virginia. Brian pleads self-defense, claiming that D'Abruzzo, a black-belt martial artist, came to his quarters, accused him of interfering with his marriage, and attacked him. Kate supports Brian and says that her husband had become violent and abusive. But Brian and Kate have secrets of their own, and now Capt. Paul Terry, one of the army's most accomplished young lawyers, will defend Brian in a high-profile court-martial. Terry's co-counsel is Meg McCarran, Brian's sister, a brilliant and beautiful attorney who insists on leaving her practice in San Francisco to help save her brother. Before the case is over, Terry will become deeply entwined with Meg and the McCarrans—and learn that families, like war, can break the sturdiest of souls.

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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.