Encore Presentation of Poirot: Cat Among the Pigeons, Sunday August 1st on Masterpiece Mystery!

For the next four weeks, PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! will be showing encore presentations of previously aired episodes.

Tomorrow, Sunday August 1st (check your local listings), Hercule Poirot returns in "Cat Among the Pigeons". At the esteemed Meabowbank school for girls, Poirot (David Suchet) is helping friend and headmistress Miss Bulstrode pick her successor. With his flawless sense of human nature, Poirot learns that the teachers have more on their mind than mentoring young girls. When a sadistic gym teacher is found dead with a javelin through her heart, the girls get a shocking education in murder, and Poirot is drawn deep into a compelling case involving international espionage, a revolution in a foreign land and a missing princess. As the girls become increasingly hysterical and the teachers more guarded, can Poirot uncover a ruthless killer, the cat among the pigeons?

This will be followed over the next three weeks by episodes from last season of Inspector Lewis in anticipation of the premiere of Series III on August 29th.

Rubicon Premieres Tomorrow, Sunday August 1st, on AMC

Tomorrow, Sunday August 1st, the conspiracy thriller series Rubicon premieres on AMC (8 PM ET/PT). The series tagline is, "Not every conspiracy is a theory."

James Badge Dale stars as Will Travers, an analyst who cracks codes for a living at a New York City-based federal intelligence agency, who is thrown into a story where nothing is as it appears to be. In the pilot episode titled "Gone in the Teeth", Will suffers a shocking tragedy. While he considers leaving his job at API, he begins to uncover clues that point to a sinister conspiracy. Meanwhile, Katherine Rhumor (played by Miranda Richardson) questions her billionaire husband's unexpected suicide.

AMC has made the first episode available to view, in its entirety:

Ms. Terri Reviews Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy

Review of Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy by Ms. Terri, game reviewer for the Omnimystery Family of Mystery Websites.

Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy is a hidden object game that has a lot of adventure-style point-and-click elements to it. With its intriguing storyline and hours of gamplay, it will appeal to those players who like their games eerie and atmospheric.

Read her complete review on Games of Mystery.

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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!

Reviews of Mystery and Suspense Books for Kids, New This Week on Book Trends (100731)

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.

Conspiracy 365: April by Gabrielle Lord. The fourth book in the Conspiracy 365 series, recommended for readers aged 10 to 12. Lexile measure: 820L. Reviewed by a 7th grade student, who writes, "Overall, I think that this book is fantastic!!! It contains all the elements needed to create a great book. Some of these elements are memorable characters, plot twists, and an ending leaving you eagerly awaiting the next book."

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

Emerald Curse and Hotel, New Games of Mystery from AVG

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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Millennium Secrets: Emerald Curse

Kate receives a call from her old friend Archibald Jones, a professor who's an expert in ancient civilizations. He asks her to retrieve a very important briefcase from a secret location in New York City and deliver it to the authorities, but before he can explain further, Kate hears voices and then the call ends abruptly. Help Kate save her friend and find the mysterious briefcase!

ESRB Rating: Not Specified.

Windows Vista/XP (134 MB download).

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Hotel

A medieval castle, now a luxury hotel, holds secrets beyond the wildest imagination. For detective Bridget Brightstone of NYPD, this is a once-in-a-lifetime investigation!

Meet an ancient Egyptian cult in a search of almighty artifact. Marcus Antonius, King Arthur and many others tried to keep this omni-powerful object hidden away from those who wanted to use its terrible powers for conquering the world. Stop the evil from rising from its grave!

Also available: Hotel Collector's Edition, which includes an integrated strategy guide, characters biography, bonus art and music, and more.

ESRB Rating: Not Specified.

Windows Vista/XP (155 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!

Journalistic Investigations: Stolen Inheritence, 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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Mary's friend Lora has a wedding disaster: her inheritance has been stolen, and now Mary must crack the case and catch the crook! In this interactive hidden object game, you must explore interesting locations as you search for clues and try to figure out who exactly stole Lora’s artifacts, and what they want to do with them. Solve perplexing puzzles to advance, and make sure to keep your eyes peeled in order to help Mary save her friend Lora’s wedding!

Also available: Journalistic Investigations: Stolen Inheritance Strategy Guide and Journalistic Investigations: Stolen Inheritance Game Walkthrough.

Journalistic Investigations: Stolen Inheritence may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (173.30 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!

Film Adaptation of Dead Reckoning by Susan and Pierre LaTour Planned

ComingSoon.net is reporting that a film adaptation of the 1995 thriller Dead Reckoning by Susan and Pierre LaTour, Jr., is being planned. Cody Horn (Twelve, Flipped) is in negotiations to star.

The plot involves Catherine Lakey, a chemistry professor, who disappears one morning while walking along a Cape Cod beach. The police assume she committed suicide, but the woman's niece, Nancy, is not convinced. She soon learns that little is arbitrary in her aunt's disappearance, and that the tiny clues left behind point to more than her aunt's whereabouts.

TNT Renews Leverage, The Closer, and Rizzoli & Isles

Earlier today we reported that Timothy Hutton, star of TNT's drama caper series Leverage, tweeted that the network had ordered a fourth season.

Now The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that TNT has also ordered a seventh season of The Closer and a second season of its freshman crime drama Rizzoli and Isles, based on characters created by mystery author Tess Gerritsen.

"All three shows feature terrific casts, sharp writing and top-notch production teams," said Michael Wright, Executive VP and Head of Programming for TNT.

Prison Break Creator Nick Santora To Write Thriller for Mulholland Books

Several years ago we had the pleasure of reviewing Nick Santora's debut novel Slip and Fall. Yesterday, Mullholland Books announced that they have signed the author, who is also the writer/creator of several television series including the suspense drama Prison Break, to write a thriller titled Fifteen Digits, "about five 'invisible' thieves who work under the radar at a white shoe New York law firm and perpetrate a multi-million dollar heist."

Mulholland Books is a new crime novel imprint of Little, Brown.

Leverage Renewed for a 4th Season

Timothy Hutton (@timhutton) tweeted a few hours ago that Leverage, one of our "can't miss" shows on television, has been renewed for a fourth season on TNT!

The Mystery Bookshelf: A New Omnibus of Crime, Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert, editors

The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a library of new mysteries, is pleased to feature an anthology of short stories we recently received from the publisher.

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A New Omnibus of Crime by Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert, editors
Oxford University Press (Trade Paperback)
Publication Date: May 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-537071-3

In 1929, Dorothy L. Sayers published her landmark anthology, The Omnibus of Crime. In 2005, Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert decided it was time to produce a definitive new anthology representing the best of the genre since then, the result being A New Omnibus of Crime. This summer, the trade paperback edition of this updated anthology was published by Oxford University Press.

In an introduction, co-editor Rosemary Herbert outlines the process by which this anthology came into being: (1) Selecting stories from the 1930s to the 1970s that were groundbreaking in their day and influential on later writers; (2) Selecting stories published since 1980 that show the range of crime writing in our time; (3) Culling the stories to pick out the best, with the assistance of Sue Grafton and Jeffery Deaver; and (4) Using the omnibus format to present them.

Fittingly, first up is a 1932 short story written by Dorothy L. Sayers. Like all the other stories included here, it is preceded by an introduction to the author and their body of work. Most of the stories can be broadly categorized as either suspense novels (in short story format) or detective fiction (including amateur sleuth), though there are clearly some exceptions. The benefit most readers will get from this fine anthology is to experience in a relatively short time frame the wide range of writing styles of many authors whose books were (and for many, still are) bestsellers in their day.

The Amateur Historian by Julian Cole (Book Review)

The Amateur Historian by Julian Cole. A Rounder Brothers Mystery. Minotaur Books Hardcover, June 2010.

Julian Cole introduces the Rounder brothers, Rick an ex-Yorkshire police officer now a private investigator and Sam, a Detective Chief Inspector with the York Police Department, investigating a case that may be linked to the death of a young girl that occurred over a century ago in The Amateur Historian.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: The Amateur Historian by Julian Cole.

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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.

Redemption Cemetery: Curse of the Raven Collector's Edition, 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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After getting into a car accident, you wander into a mysterious graveyard while searching for help. The doors slam shut behind you and you realize that you are trapped! Escape from the eerie Redemption Cemetery by helping trapped spirits save their loved ones, and free their souls! Use your hidden object skills to help these ghosts and escape!

This special Collector's Edition release is full of exclusive extras you won’t find in the standard version, including bonus gameplay, an integrated strategy guide, original soundtrack, concept art, and more.

Redemption Cemetery: Curse of the Raven Collector's Edition may be downloaded and purchased for $19.95 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (157.74 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour; the full version is 441.47 MB.

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 30, 2010

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending July 30th, 2010 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

No change in the order for the top three bestselling mysteries this week, with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson still at number 1, but last week's featured title, The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva, moves into the 4th spot. One new title enters the list this week.

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The latest south Florida comic thriller by Carl Hiaasen, Star Island, debuts in 11th position.

Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen—and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster.

Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her “undercover stunt double,” Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too “indisposed”—meaning wasted—to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott.

Now the challenge for Cherry’s handlers (über–stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker–wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public—and from Cherry herself.

The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink—the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp—and now he’s heading for Miami to find her ...

Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry’s motley posse does?

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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.

Columbia Moves Forward with New, Contemporized Adaptation of Total Recall

In a press release today (read it on /Film), Columbia Pictures announced that Len Wiseman is in negotiations to direct the Kurt Wimmer-written film adaptation of the short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick, effectively moving the project forward after being somewhat in limbo for 16 months or so now. A classic sci-fi thriller, it was originally made into the 1990 film Total Recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Studios today are loathe to use the word "remake", so Columbia is calling this "a new, contemporized adaptation" based on the film, but, somewhat oddly, not on the source material.

For more information about the original adaptation, visit Cinemystery: Total Recall.