Amazon.com Announces Kindle Wi-Fi

Amazon.com announced this morning its latest Kindle, a Wi-Fi only version of the standard Kindle that retains all of the features of the original (except, of course, 3G wireless) and weighs slightly less.

The Kindle Wi-Fi, available only in graphite (as shown), is currently priced at $139 and will begin shipping August 27, 2010; it may be pre-ordered now.

Far Cry by John Harvey (Book Review)

Far Cry by John Harvey. A Will Grayson and Helen Walker Mystery. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Hardcover, June 2010.

Cambridge police officers Helen Walker and Will Grayson investigate the disappearance of a 10-year-old girl in a case eerily similar to one that took place 13 years earlier -- and involving the same family -- in Far Cry, the second mystery in this series by John Harvey.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Far Cry by John Harvey.

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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.

Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy, a Mysterious New Game 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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Christine, a young orphan, decides to go to travel to a desolute island, the location of the Ashburg Asylum, in order to find her missing grandfather, who is her only living relative. When Christine arrives and starts to explore the place, she begins to understand that something strange and foreboding is going on here. Your objective is to help Christie explore the island and seek numerous hidden items that will help you to solve some challenging puzzles. Step by step you will unravel the mystery and find out terrible secrets of asylum's past.

See also the previous game in this series, Nightfall Mysteries: Curse of the Opera.

Also available for this game: Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy Strategy Guide and Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy Game Walkthrough.

Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (176.59 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!

Bones of Contention by Jeanne Matthews (Book Review)

Bones of Contention by Jeanne Matthews. A Dinah Pelerin Mystery. Poisoned Pen Press Hardcover, June 2010.

Jeanne Matthews introduces 30-year-old underemployed Dinah Pelerin, who is unexpectedly summoned to the home of a distant (in more ways than one) and dying uncle -- "a chain-puller extraordinaire and a master of manipulation" -- in Bones of Contention.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Bones of Contention by Jeanne Matthews.

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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.

First Clues, Mysteries for Kids: New Titles for August 2010

First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is pleased to announce a selection of new mystery, suspense and thriller books (including series books) scheduled for publication during August 2010.

The titles are listed in (approximate) order of appropriate age groups, from early readers to books for young adults.

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Hilda Hippo's Big Surprise
Natalie Shaw
Series: The Busytown Mysteries

Two Busytown Mysteries are being published this month.

In the first, it's a special day in Busytown: It's Hilda Hippo’s birthday! She received a really amazing gift from her father, and she invites her friends to meet her at the Busytown Park that evening so she can share her mystery gift with them. What is it? Hilda won’t tell! But she does give her friends clues that day… and Huckle figures out what Hilda’s mystery gift is. It's an actual star that her father had named after her! Together, the friends find the 'Hilda' star in the night sky and celebrate Hilda's birthday!

In the second, A Busy Day in Busytown, it's an extra busy day and Huckle Cat notices there’s a big traffic jam. He and his sister, Sally, wonder why it’s so busy! Whenever Huckle wants to find out the answer to a mystery, he investigates. Huckle and Sally walk around Busytown, asking their friends where they are rushing off to. Mouse explains he’s late for a movie. Hilda is out and about buying plants for her garden. Huckle realizes maybe it’s not a mystery after all … Busytown is just a busy place, full of busy friends with lots to do. And when everyone is out doing their errands at the same time, a traffic jam happens!

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Mystery Map
Franklin W. Dixon
Series: The Hardy Boys: Secret Files

Brothers Frank and Joe Hardy are 9- and 8-years old in this series featuring the amateur sleuths in stories for younger readers.

No synopsis is available for this is the third book in the series.

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The Burglar Who Bit the Big Apple
Steve Brezenoff
Series: A Field Trip Mystery

They solve crimes, catch crooks, crack codes … and ride the bus back to school afterward. Meet Egg, Gum, Sam, and Cat. Four sixth-grade detectives and best friends. Wherever field trips take them, mysteries aren’t far behind …

While in New York City on a field trip, Sam Archer and her friends find themselves immersed in a run of crimes at sightseeing locations.

Three other books in the series are being published this month: The Crook Who Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, The Zombie Who Visited New Orleans, and The Ghost Who Haunted the Capitol.

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Misty Gordon and the Mystery of the Ghost Pirates
Kim Kennedy

Things in the New England town of Ashcrumb are getting weird. Or just weirder. Misty Gordon, whose antique-dealing parents drive a van that says “D.E.A.D.” on the side (for “Deceased’s Estate and Antique Dealer”), is accustomed to weird.

One day, when accompanying her father to the estate of a recently departed clairvoyant, Misty discovers a notebook and a pair of eyeglasses that enable her to see ghosts! And solve mysteries. With the help of her new powers and her best friend, Yoshi, Misty learns that her hometown was settled not by respectable colonists but by pirates! And the ghosts of the pirates are returning to reclaim a dangerous, powerful treasure they lost centuries ago. Who will find it first, Misty or the pirates?

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The Case of the Rock 'n' Roll Dog
Martha Freeman
Series: A First Kids Mystery

Most days Cammie is tired of being the daughter of the first female president of the United States and just wants her real life back. She's feeling the stress of having to be on display so often. Plus, her oversized and over enthusiastic dog Hooligan keeps getting into trouble. That's why she's thrilled when her very favorite group, the famous teenage sensation called the Song Boys, is scheduled to perform at a literacy event at the White House. But when White House objects disappear, the events is in jeopardy. With some help from her younger sister Tessa and Hooligan, Cammie tackles the mystery -- and helps save the concert.

The is the first book in this series.

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The Vanishing Violin
Michael D. Beil
Series: A Red Blazer Girls Mystery

When there are mysteries to be solved, the Red Blazer Girls are on the case! In the first mystery of the series, the discovery of the Ring of Rocamadour has secured the girls' reputation as Upper East Side super-sleuths, bringing many sundry job requests (no mystery too small, right?) and some unwanted attention from crooks.

In this second mystery, the girls must follow a trail of cryptic clues, involving everything from logic to literature, to trace a rare violin gone missing. But nothing is as it appears, and just as a solution seems imminent, the girls find themselves scrambling to save the man who was once their prime suspect.

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High School Musical Mystery II: The Lost Verse
Stefan Petrucha and Sarah Kinney
Series: Nancy Drew Graphic Novels

In this 21st entry in the graphic novel series, Nancy’s car is stolen! A rare copy of Edgar Allen Poe’s first story has vanished! A girl has been kidnapped! All before this story even begins! To set things right and satisfy a crazed Poe fan, Nancy Drew must solve a sixty-year-old mystery that’s daunted millions and discover the true identity of the person who visits Poe’s grave every year, toasting the writer and leaving three roses. Fortunately, she has plenty of help as her two new pals, the Dana Girls, accompany her on her quest to discover Poe’s Lost Verse!

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Conspiracy 365: August
Gabrielle Lord
Series: The Conspiracy 365 Series

The 8th thrilling novel in this 12 volume series.

On New Year's Eve, Callum Ormond is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They'll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days. Cal is fighting for his sister's life. But nobody believes the "psycho kid" and he's running out of people he can trust. He doesn't even know which of his enemies he's facing. How many hard-won treasures will he have to relinquish in return for his sister's safety?

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The Madman of Venice
Sophie Masson

Venice in 1602 is a vibrant and charming city. Yet beneath this splendor lies a sinister underworld in which murderous pirates and conniving noblemen have woven a tangled network.

Along with his daughter, Celia; his clerk, Ned; and his sister, Mistress Bess Quickly, Master Ashby, a prosperous merchant, sets forth from London to Venice to investigate the pirate attacks that have been plaguing English ships. But the group's mission turns out to be far more than they bargained for when Ashby is beseeched to find Sarah Tedeschi, a Jewish girl who has vanished from the Venetian Ghetto after being accused of witchcraft by the powerful Countess of Montemoro.

Is Sarah's disapperance somehow connected to the pirate attacks? Nothing is what it seems as Ned and Celia uncover secrets that have been hidden for far too long.

Inspired by Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

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The Body at the Tower
Y. S. Lee
Series: A Mary Quinn Agency Mystery

Mary Quinn is back in this second mystery in the series, now a trusted member of the Agency, the all-female detective unit operating out of Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. Her new assignment sends her into the grimy underbelly of Victorian London dressed as a poor boy, evoking her own childhood memories of fear, hunger, and constant want. As she insinuates herself into the confidence of several persons of interest, she encounters others in desperate situations and struggles to make a difference without exposing —or losing —her identity.

Mary’s adventure, which takes place on the building site of the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, offers a fictional window into a fascinating historical time and place.

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The Interrogation of Gabriel James
Charlie Price

Eyewitness to two killings, fourteen-year-old Gabriel James relates the shocking story behind the murders in a police interrogation interspersed with flashbacks. Step by step, this Montana teenager traces his discovery of a link between a troubled classmate's disturbing home life and an outbreak of local crime. In the process, however, Gabriel becomes increasingly confused about his own culpability for the explosive events that have unfolded.

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Dead Is Just a Rumor
Marlene Perez
Series: A Giordano Sisters Thriller

In this fourth entry in the series, the creepy little town of Nightshade prepares to celebrate its 200th anniversary—on Halloween, of course—just as many of its paranormal residents are receiving mysterious blackmail letters. Psychic teen Daisy Giordano and her sisters set out to find out who is behind the threats. But launching an investigation isn’t easy for Daisy with her overprotective father watching her every move. Though she’s is happy to have him back after the years he spent being held captive by an anti-paranormal group called the Scourge, Dad is having difficult time adjusting to home life—and the fact that his little girl is now a senior in high school. He even disapproves of Daisy’s boyfriend, Ryan. Can their relationship take the strain?

And Daisy’s got even more on her plate: A talented amateur chef, she has won cooking lessons with celebrity chef Circe Silvertongue. After nosing around (with a little help from Circe’s pet pig), Daisy begins to suspect the temperamental chef’s secrets aren’t only in her ingredients.

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First Clues: Mysteries for Kids is your source for information on over 200 mystery series for children and young adults, where each series is conveniently listed under four different age categories (New Sleuths, ages 4 to 6; Future Sleuths, ages 7 to 9; Sleuths in Training, ages 10 to 12; and Apprentice Sleuths, ages 13 and older).

MBN Welcomes Eleanor Sullo, Author of the Menopause Murders Mysteries

Mystery Books News is thrilled to welcome Eleanor Sullo as our guest blogger. Eleanor is the author the Menopause Murders mysteries, the second of which, Harem (Wings ePress: Trade Paperback, 978-1-59705-521-5; Electronic edition, 978-1-59705-495-9) is published next month.

Today, Eleanor writes about her midlife career switch, which led to her new series of mysteries. And she's also providing our readers with an opportunity to win a copy of her new book. Visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Eleanor Sullo: Harem" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (1633) for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends August 11, 2010.)

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Photo provided courtesy of Eleanor Sullo

Around the time I sat myself down in my spanking new ergonomic desk chair fifteen years ago, I knew it was time to take the plunge. For three years, after a midlife career switch, I’d held my own sending out and selling non-fiction articles, short stories and even poetry with reasonable success. Now I felt it in my bones—the desire to follow story characters through thick and thin, heat and cold, hunger and satisfaction. In short, I needed to write a novel.

What to write about?

Accomplished author friends and writing teachers all gave the same advice: write about that which you know. I’d been a happy wife and mother, now grandmother for quite a few years. That was what I knew pretty deeply. Did anybody want to hear about my parenting skills, my cooking or gardening or decorating ideas? I doubted it. But there was something else I knew plenty about, something in which for decades I’d experienced the downs and ups, the struggles and pretty blissful heights—the subject of love.

So I decided to write love stories, romance, romantic suspense. What could be more relatable or happier to read about than a man and woman who fall in love, fight for what they want, and get it—life happily ever after. Most of us aim in that direction all our lives. So I created romances with strong heroines and near-perfect heroes and let them take me on their journeys.

I could relate to my youngish heroines with their slightly feminist notions, their determination to prove themselves yet win the love of their lives. Four of those love stories got published. But after a few years I couldn’t quite relate to my star struck heroines, imagine myself racing across the English cliffs to avoid a ghost or save a loved ones life (Moonrakers), or jetting around New York city trailed by the mob while I made a career and battled with the man who loved me (Emerald Eye), or zooming around the desert on a Harley chasing old dreams as the sexiest air-conditioning servicewoman in Arizona (Too Damned Hot).

What I needed was new heroines: heroines who’d been through life and back. Heroines who, like me, were growing older, hopefully wiser, a bit more physically imperfect. But who could prove themselves nonetheless. Who, bonded with others like them, would be glad to let their unique, sometimes bizarre, characteristics shine through, as they did the near impossible—solve horrendous crimes right in their own neighborhoods and even in the far corners of the world.

From all the bright, challenging and outspoken women’s groups I’d been part of, I saw faces, feelings, strengths and surprises. These middle-aged women I knew were alive and well and full of stories. I tossed them together in my head and came up with a rough work-in-progress: Women on Fire, a group of six mature women who refused to let menopausal hot flashes, confusion and insomnia melt their resolve, their initiative, and their endless yen for romance.

As their stories came to me, I saw how these incredible women, just by being themselves, would help one another through near disasters, fall in love and renew old loves, and solve murders from their hometown to Italy, Britain and Bosnia. Each one would be featured as the heroine in one of the six-part series, which I now call Menopause Murders. The series is set in an upscale suburb of Connecticut, and features widows, divorcees and happily married middle-agers on the brink of a new, dangerous and exciting life. It’s not your mother’s Cabot Cove, but I’m guessing you’ll relate.

There’s Hannah, heroine of Hostage, Book One, who’s lost her job as a journalist because she won’t, can’t, fly since she lost a young husband in a plane crash. She’s sharp, a little brusque, afraid of her feelings, and about to fall hopelessly in love as her world, and she, change. And now in Harem, Book Two, there’s Lucia, the mothering, big-hearted, class act cook of the group who suffered a painful event at age seventeen, and needs to heal, stretch the stage of her life and renew her lifelong love—or lose it. Her story, available from the publishers in August, features the rollicking romps revealed in an old-age home where a good-looking, streaking stud has the women in a turmoil, and unexplainable death can happen in the night.

As I’ve gotten to know my Women on Fire, I’m more and more intrigued. Each has a peculiar way of saying what they want to say and doing what they want to do. If I get it wrong, they let me know. They remind me of friends, of enemies, of myself. And every so often I have to “interview” one on paper, to be sure I understand who she is and where she’s going.

Reviewers claim they’ve “fallen in love” with my Menopause Murder heroines, and readers feel obliged let me know which one is their favorite. As the series continues, I expect they’ll draw even more interest and arouse more passions. Which is fine with me, because I find myself talking with them, feeling what they feel, traveling where they’re going to go, eating and cooking with them, caring for them as though they’re the best friends I ever had. And if I’m not careful, and don’t get more time away from the computer, their lives are certainly going to be a lot more interesting than mine!

Thank goodness for the family who calls me away at times for rituals and activities I wouldn’t miss for the world, for the garden that needs me from seeds to weeds to harvest, for the colleagues who gather to compare covers and titles and editors, for the near-and-faraway trips on the horizon with my own significant other, and for the very next plot I’m thinking up for the Women on Fire or, beyond them, possibly for the next generation of bold and sassy, bright and beautiful women on my canvas. And maybe a few unbeatable men.

I’ll keep you posted.

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Romance author Eleanor Sullo is currently completing a six-book mystery series about a group of mature but feisty women who refuse to grow old gracefully. The series is called Menopause Murders, and Book Two in the series, Harem, will hit the shelves in August.

Ms. Sullo has also written a spiritual memoir, Seasons of Love: A Journey of Faith, Family and Community, the story of her extended family’s move to the country over thirty years ago and published under the pen name, Eleanor Sampeck. She has taught English at the high school and college levels, and also has served as a Pastoral Minister in parish and Diocesan positions. She began writing fulltime eighteen years ago to fulfill her childhood dreams. Family life, frequent travel, organic gardening and ethnic cooking keep her happily occupied between manuscripts. Visit her website at EleanorSullo.com.

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About Harem: When her mother-in-law reports the suspicious death of her roommate at the Golden Age Home, menopausal and overheated Lucia Catamonte is skeptical. After all, Nonna is lucid only a few days a week. Lucia assumes staff negligence must be to blame, and that the nursing home residents need cheering up. With suspicions growing about a possibly wandering husband, who is suddenly encouraging her to start up the restaurant she’s always longed to run, providing recreation at Golden Age is a helpful distraction.

But a streaking senior stud with ogling admirers complicates matters. Trying to deal with him and calm down her often confused mother-in-law, Lu fears she’ll never get to open the restaurant of her dreams, and her happy marriage may be on the deadliest of rocks. Can Women on Fire help solve this one, and will the storied marriage last?

A hurried trip to Italy, a disastrous tea dance, and secrets revealed in the corridors of Golden Age will have to come first.

For a chance to win a copy of Harem, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Eleanor Sullo: Harem" contest link, and enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (1633) in the entry form. (One entry per person; contest ends August 11, 2010.)

The Mysterious Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, a New Game of Mystery 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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On a foggy night, in a poorly lit London alleyway, the body of Sir Danvers Carew is found. A respected member of parliament found in the seedy Soho district? Something is afoot. You, playing as an inspector from Scotland Yard, are summoned to the scene. Whispers speak of a mysterious man, known only as Mr. Hyde, prowling the streets of London. Could this be his handiwork?

An intricate story of murder, forbidden love, and exploration into the human psyche, you must search hidden object scenes for the enigmatic and elusive killer. Interrogate suspects, solve riddles, and examine the evidence to reveal the truth behind the mystery.

The Mysterious Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (61.88 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!

New Hardcover Mysteries for August 2010

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books has updated its list of new hardcover mysteries with books scheduled for publication in August 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 August new mystery books page (which will become the default home page for the site on August 1st).

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

Gail Bowen (Joanne Kilbourn, 12th), Ken Bruen (Jack Taylor, 8th), C. J. Carver (Jay McCaulay, 3rd), James Church (Inspector O, 4th), Judy Clemens (Casey Maldonado, 2nd), Cleo Coyle (Coffeehouse, 9th), Bill Crider (Dan Rhodes, 17th), Lindsey Davis (Marcus Didius Falco, 20th), Richard Doetsch (Michael St. Pierre, 3rd), Carole Nelson Douglas (Midnight Louie, 26th), Alex Dryden (Finn, 2nd), Gerald Elias (Daniel Jacobus, 2nd), Chris Ewan (Good Thief's Guide, 3rd), Dolores Gordon-Smith (Jack Haldean, 4th), Veronica Heley (Ellie Quicke, 11th), Matt Hilton (Joe Hunter, 2nd), Mat Johnson and Simone Gane (Graphic Novel), Norma Tadlock Johnson (Cedar Harbor, 3rd), Faye Kellerman (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, 19th), Tracy Kiely (Elizabeth Parker, 2nd), Ann Littlewood (Iris Oakley, 2nd), Richard A. Lupoff (Lindsey and Plum, 10th), Dorothy P. O'Neill (Liz Rooney, 6th), Sara Paretsky (V. I. Warshawski, 15th), Ridley Pearson (Walt Fleming, 4th), Randall Peffer (Michael DeCastro, Cape Islands, 4th), Cynthia Riggs (Victoria Trumbull, Martha's Vineyard, 9th), David Rosenfelt (Andy Carpenter, 8th), Michael W. Sherer (Emerson Ward, 6th), Martin Cruz Smith (Arkady Renko, 7th), Aimee Thurlo and David Thurlo (Ella Clah, 16th), Betty Webb (Theodora "Teddy" Bentley, 2nd), Stephen White (Alan Gregory, 18th).

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

James Patrick Hunt (Daniel Bridger), Adimchinma Ibe (Tamunoemi Peterside), Tim Kring and Dale Peck (Gate of Orpheus Trilogy), Dennis Palumbo (Daniel Rinaldi), Barbara Ross (Ruth Murphy), Michael Van Rooy (Monty Havikko).

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

Rosecrans Baldwin, Nicola Beaumont, Charles Brokaw, Sandra Brown, Thomas H. Cook, F. G. Cottam, Nigel Farndale, Zoë Ferraris, Dick Francis and Felix Francis, Brian Freemantle, Juan Gómez-Jurado, Kevin Guilfoile, Brian Haig, Yunte Huang, Lynn Kostoff, Justin Peacock, Sharon Pomerantz, Peter Quinn, Gary Ruffin, Steven Saylor, David J. Schow, Noam Shpancer, Lisa Unger, Lee Vance, Curt Weeden and Richard Marek.

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

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (Book Review)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. The Millennium Trilogy. Knopf Hardcover, May 2010.

One of the most intriguing and unique trilogies comes to an end with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. He has created a masterpiece.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson.

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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.

MBN Welcomes Marni Graff, Author of the Nora Tierney Mysteries

Mystery Books News is delighted to welcome Marni Graff as our guest blogger. Marni is the author of The Blue Virgin (Bridle Path Press, Trade Paperback 2010), the first in a series featuring writer Nora Tierney.

Today, Marni writes about murder in Oxford, the setting for her book. And she's also providing our readers with an opportunity to win a copy of her book. Visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Marni Graff: The Blue Virgin" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (2898) for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends 08/10/2010.)

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“Very nice place, Oxford, I should think, for people who like that sort of place.”
-- George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

Oxford. The name invokes classic images: ancient golden stone buildings such as the Bodleian Library, which alter dramatically in color according to the light, sitting nestled near bookstores, pubs and cathedral spires; the site of the discovery of penicillin and the founding of auto manufacturer Morris Garages; the home in various centuries of Donne, Shelley, Browning, Wilde, Auden, Tolkien and Lewis Carroll.

The town center features a tall clock tower and a bustling covered market, the latter a delightful maze of crooked cobble-stoned alleys sprinkled liberally with tiny upscale shops, redolent with the jumbled smells of fresh fruits, meats, flowers and baked goods. Its sidewalks overflow with students, tourists and locals, all avoiding the constant stream of busses and cars in the narrow roadways. This is Oxford: a honeyed city less than half a square mile, whose forty-odd colleges swarm with scholars and tourists, and which has captured the imagination of more than one mystery writer with its glimmering spirit, becoming less of a backdrop and more of a character in its own right.

As a seat of academia, the town is a natural draw for writers, including non-crime authors who have called Oxford home, amongst them Kingsley and Martin Amis, William Golding, Graham Greene, John Fowles and Iris Murdoch. But Oxford also provides fertile ground for mystery writers, as evidenced by the continuing stream of writers who set their murders in the hallowed halls and lanes of the town. Why the attraction? After my own visit studying literature at Exeter College, it became apparent to me while walking the twisted lanes and back streets, that the big city atmosphere inside what is really a small town, mixed with the ever-present struggle between “town and gown,” present any mystery writer with the perfect setting for murder and mayhem.

The first graduate credited with using Oxford as a backdrop for murder was J. C. Masterman, author of 1933’s An Oxford Tragedy, who eventually became Provost of Worcester College and received a knighthood in 1959. Other authors inspired to follow his example were graduate Dorothy L. Sayers (Somerville, 1920), who had Harriet Vane unravel a murder in Gaudy Night, Edmund Crispin, Michael Innes, Gwendolyn Butler, and Jeffrey Archer.

A visit to Blackwell’s Bookstore, just across from the Sheldonian Theatre, reveals an entire set of bookshelves devoted to local authors they wish to bring to your attention. Proudly displayed are the enduring mysteries of Colin Dexter, creator of Wagner-loving, hard-drinking Inspector Morse. Actually a Cambridge grad, Dexter lives near Oxford Canal, and a favorite past-time of tourists is spotting him in a local pub. Dexter never revealed Morse’s first name until he killed his detective off in 1999’s The Remorseful Day, setting off rounds of disappointment from mystery fans around the world.

Blackwell’s shelves reveal a wealth of other writers who have deemed Oxford just the place for murder and crime. Historical novels are there from Welsh writer Jane Jakeman (Fool’s Gold) and medieval master Ian Morson (the Falconer series). Perhaps the most ambitious entry is the hefty, intricately-plotted baroque mystery An Instance of the Fingerpost from author Iain Pears, also the creator the Jonathan Argyll mystery series.

Michael Dibdin titled his black comedy Dirty Tricks, and journalist Maureen O’Connor, writing under the pen name Patricia Hall, based Skeleton at the Feast there, featuring Oxford grad DCI Michael Thackery and journalist Laura Ackroyd. Joan Smith writes an Oxford literary thriller series featuring Loretta Lawson, lecturer, writer and sleuth, and Susan Moody brings consummate bridge player Cassie Swain to Oxford in Dummy Hand.

Canadian Marianne Macdonald stayed in England after doing graduate work at Oxford. She created single mum Dido Hoare, who owns an antiquarian bookshop. Smoke Screen takes Dido to the Oxford Autumn Book Fair. Tony Strong’s novel The Poison Tree introduces Terry Williams, who returns to Oxford to complete her doctorate in detective fiction, and finds the detecting too close to home; while Dublin-born Gemma O’Connor, now living in Oxford, explores the disappearance of two men from Oxford in Time to Remember.

Lady Antonia Fraser is one of the few titled women who write mystery fiction. Hers feature television reporter Jemima Shore, who drolly solves yet another murder in Oxford Blood. The stylish and creepy novel Acts of Revision won Martyn Bedford the Yorkshire Post’s Best First Novel Award, and he went on to set his erotic thriller Houdini Girl in Oxford.

Author Peter Millar avoided the university and used Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital and the threat of the plague in his sinister novel Bleak Midwinter. Prolific author Margaret Yorke set her 2000 novel The Price of Guilt amongst the gentle hills and river valleys of Oxfordshire countryside.

The author occupying the most shelf space at Blackwell’s is Veronica Stallwood, who lives near Oxford and has worked in several of the college’s libraries. Her series featuring historical novelist Kate Ivory have become bestsellers. The books all have “Oxford” in the title, from the opener Death and the Oxford Box to Oxford Menace.

Of course this is not a complete list of crime novels set in Oxford, but it should be enough to convince you that the charms of the city were made for crime. Lying at the meeting of the Thames and Cherwell rivers, centrally located just a train ride northwest of London, Oxford is a hub for main roads and railway lines leading to all parts of the UK. Notorious for its snarling traffic jams, which accounts for the multitude of bicyclers, the town remains fondly associated with gargoyles and river punting, with the Oxford University Press and the Randolph Hotel, while still managing to provide more than fertile ground for murder and detection.

M. K. Graff’s first Nora Tierney mystery, The Blue Virgin, is set in Oxford.

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About The Blue Virgin: The mysterious death of Bryn Wallace draws American author Nora Tierney to Oxford to clear her close friend Val Rogan, who has been wrongfully accused of Bryn's murder. Or has she?

Nora quickly becomes embroiled in the murder investigation, much, to the dismay of Detective Inspector Declan Barnes and the illustrator of Nora's children's book, Simon Ramsey. Simon's efforts to save Nora from herself become increasingly frantic as Nora is forced to use her wits and wiles to prove Val's innocence.

For a chance to win a copy of The Blue Virgin, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Marni Graff: The Blue Virgin" contest link, and enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (2898) in the entry form. (One entry per person; contest ends 08/10/2010.)

Jessica: Mysterious Journey, a New Mystery Game 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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While on vacation, Jessica chats with a young man named Tony. When both arrive at the airport, Tony sees something and runs, leaving behind a piece of a treasure map. Intrigued by an old legend and hidden treasure, Jessica fearlessly sets out for adventure. She needs to uncover additional pieces of the map, find rare items, and decrypt a secret code -- all in an effort to discover an ancient treasure, lost until now and tucked away in a mysterious location.

Jessica: Mysterious Journey may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (59.99 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!

Daniel Craig to Star in Film Adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Hollywood Reporter Risky Business blog is reporting that Daniel Craig has signed on to star as Mikael Blomkvist in the English language film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Should the other two books in the trilogy be filmed, he will star in those as well. (All three books have previously been adapted and filmed in Swedish.)

No mention was made of who will assume the role of Lisbeth Salander. Just last week Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal said, "Every actress in the world wants it."

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is expected to hit theaters late next year.

Daniel

Janet Evanovich Signs Four Book Deal with Random House

Two weeks ago we reported that bestselling mystery author Janet Evanovich was likely to leave her long time publisher St. Martin's Press (an imprint of Macmillan). Today, the AP is reporting that she has done just that, signing a four-book deal with Ballantine Bantam Dell (an imprint of Random House). Two of the titles will feature her series character Stephanie Plum, a New Jersey bounty hunter. There are currently 16 mysteries in the "numbered" series, which began with One for the Money in 1994, and 4 "between-the-numbers" books.

Evanovich is also the author of the Metro Girl mystery series, the most recent book coming out as a graphic novel. We received our review copy today and are most definitely looking forward to reading it; watch for a review here within the next few days.