Sunday, August 29, 2010

Mystery Books News to become Omnimystery News

Omnimystery News

Mystery Books News was begun in October 2005 as a blog with information about -- no surprise here -- mystery books. And although our focus remains primarily on mystery books, authors and series characters, over the years we've expanded our coverage to include other forms of mystery entertainment, including games, television and film.

With this in mind, we've decided to rebrand our blog to be more reflective of this expanded coverage. A week from today, Mystery Books News will become Omnimystery News. We'll be using a new template for our posts and there will be a new domain: OmnimysteryNews.com.

We've chosen the Labor Day weekend to make the changeover because it is typically a slow couple of days and we want to minimize any disruption to our service. However, we fully expect some down time starting Saturday, September 4th, and possibly continuing on into the following day. Still, if everything goes as planned, the transition from Mystery Books News to Omnimystery News, when complete, should be transparent to you. We'll point all posts from the old domain to the new one, and we'll be using the same feed address, so subscribers won't have to resubscribe.

We thank you for being a visitor to the Omnimystery Family of Mystery Websites and look forward to continuing to provide you with the most comprehensive information for and reviews of mystery books, games, television and film.

Winners of the 2010 Davitt Awards Announced

Mystery Book Awards: The Edgars, The Agathas, The Anthonys, and many more.

The winners of the 2010 Davitt Awards have been announced by Sisters of Crime Australia, recognizing the best in Australian crime writing by women. The winners are:

◊ Best Adult Novel: Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt
◊ Best Young Adult Novel: Liar by Justine Larbalestier
◊ Readers Choice Award: Forbidden Fruit by Kerry Greenwood
◊ Best True Crime: Lady Killer by Candace Sutton and Ellen Connolly

Mr. E. Reviews Agatha Christie Marple Series 5

Mr. E. reviews mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama television and film for Omnimystery

Review of Agatha Christie: Marple Series 5.

Three episodes comprise Series 5 of Agatha Christie's Marple, which are included on this DVD set that also features a bonus disc titled "Agatha Christie's Garden: Murder and Mystery in Devon", an intimate tour of the writer's most private retreat.

The "three new thrilling mysteries" (as proclaimed on the box art) are "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side", "The Secret of Chimneys", and "The Blue Geranium", which aired on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! earlier this year. All were adapted from novels or short stories by Agatha Christie, though not necessarily originally featuring Miss Marple.

Read the full text of our review at Mr. E. Reviews.

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Mr. E. Reviews is your source for mystery, suspense, thriller, and crime drama reviews of television and film.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

BBC Officially Renews Sherlock and Luther

BBC

Earlier this month we reported that the original BBC series Sherlock was going to be renewed for a second series.

Today, the BBC confirmed this, stating in a press release that the series will return in Fall 2011 with three new 90-minute episodes. The network also confirmed that the crime drama Luther will also return, with two new 2-hour specials.

Sherlock stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as his loyal friend, Doctor John Watson, in a comtemporary take on the classic characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Luther stars Idris Elba as DCI John Luther, who works as an officer in London's Serious Crime Unit.

BBC One Controller Jay Hunt says: "Sherlock was the hit of the summer. Luther the most memorable new detective on the block. I am delighted they will both be returning to BBC One."

Sherlock will air on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! later this fall, and be released on DVD and Blu-ray disc on November 9th.

Running Dark by Jamie Freveletti (Book Review)

Mysterious Reviews: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller and Crime Novel Reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

Running Dark by Jamie Freveletti. An Emma Caldridge Mystery. William Morrow Hardcover, July 2010.

Chemist Emma Caldridge is drawn into an international struggle for control of what may be a cache of chemical or biological weapons about to be sold to terrorists on the high seas in Running Dark, the second mystery in this series by Jamie Freveletti.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Running Dark by Jamie Freveletti.

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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.

Inspector Lewis Series III Begins Sunday, August 29th on PBS

Masterpiece Mystery! Inspector Lewis

Tomorrow, Sunday August 29th, Series III of Inspector Lewis begins on PBS (check your local listings for air times). Five new episodes will be presented this season.

In the first of these episodes, titled "Counter Culture Blues", loud gunshots on a local estate interrupt an Oxford church service, and Detective Inspector Lewis (Kevin Whately) and Detective Sergeant Hathaway (Laurence Fox) are stirred from their quiet Sunday plans to investigate. The estate owner is an aging rock star, Richie Maguire, part of an iconic band from Lewis's youth. The offending gunfire is the least of the chaos on the estate. Esme Ford (Joanna Lumley), the band's singer long presumed dead, has just resurfaced. And, Lewis suspects that an orphan boy has recently died just outside the estate gates. As Lewis remembers his rock-and-roll youth, the violence escalates. Yet, these fading rockers don't seem capable of much of anything, much less murder. It will take the inspiration of Inspector Morse to sort out the true suspects from the rock stars.

Inspector Lewis is a spin-off of the long-running Inspector Morse mysteries, based on characters created by crime novelist Colin Dexter.

The first two series of Inspector Lewis are available on DVD from Telemystery: Inspector Lewis.

Reviews of Mystery and Suspense Books for Kids, New This Week on Book Trends (100828)

Book Trends: Reviews of Young Adult and Children Books

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.

Roll Up the Streets by John Badek. A stand-alone novel recommended for readers aged 10 to 12. Lexile measure: N/A. Reviewed by a 7th grade student, who writes, "This is one of the books I thought that I would hate just judging from the cover and the synopsis. I stood corrected. This was one of the most entertaining books I have read in awhile! John Bladek did a wonderful job blending mystery and adventure together."

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

Hercule Poirot, Women's Murder Club, and Dr. Lynch Featured in Mystery Games 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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Agatha Christie: Perid at End House
Agatha Christie: Perid at End House

Agatha Christie: Perid at End House

Fans of classic mystery stories and great seek and find games alike, rejoice! Hercule Poirot is at it again - Mon dieu! - in another mystery of murderous proportions. This game is set on the gorgeous Cornish coast at the eerie End House. While trying to enjoy retirement, Poirot springs into action when Nick Buckley has several attempts made on his life. Help Poirot unravel the mystery before it's too late!

ESRB Rating: Teen.

Windows Vista/XP (67 MB download).

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Women's Murder Club: A Darker Shade of Grey
Women's Murder Club: A Darker Shade of Grey

Women's Murder Club: A Darker Shade of Grey

Best-selling author James Patterson brings mystery fans an original, interactive and thrilling adventure filled with scandalous discoveries. Players will wrap themselves in an intense crime scene while assisting the famed heroines of Women's Murder Club as they unleash years of corruption, cover-up and conspiracy within a prestigious Military Academy in South Carolina.

This grueling investigation will lead the team away from the City by the Bay for the very first time! Follow Lindsay and Cindy from California to South Carolina to explore the dark truth behind a 'good old boys' network in the Deep South. Interrogate suspects, investigate military personnel with equal amounts of arrogance and surreptitious information, and analyze forensic evidence to help solve the crime.

ESRB Rating: Teen.

Windows Vista/XP (112 MB download).

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Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet
Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet

Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet

A unique blend of seek and find, light adventure and puzzle games combined with an all new tale from James Patterson. In this thrilling "page turner" of a game, players take on the roles of homicide detective Lindsay Boxer, medical examiner Claire Washburn, and ace crime reporter Cindy Thomas to solve a series of ghastly murders in San Francisco.

ESRB Rating: Teen.

Windows Vista/XP (83 MB download).

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Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets
Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets

Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets

Notorious debunker of fabricated phantom stories, Dr. Ignatius Lynch has had quite enough of the public's obsession in titillation and intrigue! With the failing sales of his recent book, an investigation of the Carstair Hill dig is just what Dr. Lynch needs to prove once and for all that frivolous talk of the supernatural is absurd.

Set in a beautiful English countryside, this game delivers an exciting and hair-raising journey. Explore breathtaking backgrounds and beautiful scenery as you face challenging investigations, mind-boggling puzzles and strong opposition from locals unwilling to relinquish their belief in spiritual presence (and the tourism it provides).

ESRB Rating: Teen.

Windows Vista/XP (95 MB download).

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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!

Friday, August 27, 2010

John Cusack Cast as Edgar Allan Poe in The Raven

The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe)

Over a year ago we reported that casting had begun for the film The Raven, a fictional account of the last five days of Edgar Allan Poe's life. There have been random rumors in the meantime about who may be cast, but little has been written about this film since then. But today, ComingSoon.net is reporting that actor John Cusack tweeted that he would be taking on the role of the author.

Director James McTeigue has said about the film, "It's like the poem, The Raven, itself, crossed with Se7en. It should be pretty cool. The script is really good and everyone responds to it really well."

More eBooks than Hardcovers Sold for Laura Lippman's Latest Thriller

I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
More information about the book

A Wall Street Journal blog is reporting that the digital version of the latest thriller by Laura Lippman, I'd Know You Anywhere, is out-selling the hardcover. In its first five days of sales, 4739 ebooks were sold compared to 4000 physical books.

“This is the first book of ours of any consequence that has sold more e-books than hardcovers in the first week,” said Frank Albanese, a senior vice president at HarperCollins.

I'd Know You Anywhere is the author's fifth stand-alone thriller. She is also the author of 11 mysteries in the Tess Monaghan series.

Lost in the City: Post Scriptum, a Mysterious New Game from BFG

Games of Mystery

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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Lost in the City: Post Scriptum
Lost in the City: Post Scriptum

Help Hero and Ann wake up all of mankind in this mysterious sequel, in which you must put an end to the curse and save the entire world! After being the guardians of the future, Hero and Ann are told to leave their city. When they return to the real world, they discover that all of humanity is asleep! Follow the hidden objects and make your way through this intriguing story and save the day!

See also the first game in the series, Lost in the City.

Also available: Lost in the City: Post Scriptum Strategy Guide and Lost in the City: Post Scriptum Game Walkthrough.

Lost in the City: Post Scriptum may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (118.47 MB) may be downloaded and played for free for one hour; the full version is 365.81 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 August 27, 2010

Mystery Bestsellers

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending August 27th, 2010 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

Quite a few changes on the list this week, though The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson once again sets at the top. Two titles that debuted just off the list and one new title enter the top 15.

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Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith
More information about the book

Moving from 17 to 5 is the seventh mystery featuring Russian police investigator Arkady Renko, Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith.

Though he has been technically suspended from the prosecutor’s office for once again turning up unpleasant truths, Renko strives to solve a last case: the death of an elegant young woman whose body is found in a construction trailer on the perimeter of Moscow’s main rail hub. It looks like a simple drug overdose to everyone—except to Renko, whose examination of the crime scene turns up some inexplicable clues, most notably an invitation to Russia’s premier charity ball, the billionaires’ Nijinksy Fair. Thus a sordid death becomes interwoven with the lifestyles of Moscow’s rich and famous, many of whom are clinging to their cash in the face of Putin’s crackdown on the very oligarchs who placed him in power. Renko uncovers a web of death, money, madness and a kidnapping that threatens the woman he is coming to love and the lives of children he is desperate to protect.

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Crossfire by Dick Francis
More information about the book

Also moving up, this time from 19 to 13, is the fourth and final collaboration between Dick Francis and his son Felix, Crossfire. Francis died earlier this year.

Shell-shocked and missing a foot-lost to an IED during his tour of duty in Afghanistan, Captain Tom Forsyth has been sent "home" by the army and, at loose ends, returns to his estranged mother's house for the first time since he joined up at seventeen. But Josephine Kauri, the "first lady of British racing," has always put the horses she trains first and her family last. Tom soon finds himself strained to the breaking point with his mother and stepfather.

But there's another reason for the stifling tension at Kauri House Stables: Josephine is being blackmailed for a hefty sum every week-and forced to make her horses lose. Retirement is not an option, as she has been warned that it will result in the thing she most fears: exposure and ridicule ... and prison, when the government finds out what she's been hiding.

Tom sets out to discover and defeat this hidden enemy using his finely honed military skills. But can he save his mother's reputation and career, or will he find himself caught in the cross fire?

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Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs
More information about the book

New this week and debuting in the 14th spot is the thirteenth mystery in the Temperance Brennan series (from which the television series Bones is adapted), Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs.

John Lowery was declared dead in 1968—the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried long ago in North Carolina. Four decades later, Temperance Brennan is called to the scene of a drowning in Hemmingford, Quebec. The victim appears to have died while in the midst of a bizarre sexual practice. The corpse is later identified as John Lowery. But how could Lowery have died twice, and how did an American soldier end up in Canada?

Tempe sets off for the answer, exhuming Lowery’s grave in North Carolina and taking the remains to Hawaii for reanalysis—to the headquarters of JPAC, the U.S. military’s Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command, which strives to recover Americans who have died in past conflicts. In Hawaii, Tempe is joined by her colleague and ex-lover Detective Andrew Ryan (how “ex” is he?) and by her daughter, who is recovering from her own tragic loss. Soon another set of remains is located, with Lowery’s dog tags tangled among them. Three bodies—all identified as Lowery.

And then Tempe is contacted by Hadley Perry, Honolulu’s flamboyant medical examiner, who needs help identifying the remains of an adolescent boy found offshore. Was he the victim of a shark attack? Or something much more sinister?

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The top four mystery bestsellers this week are shown below:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg LarssonThe Rembrandt Affair by Daniel SilvaStar Island by Carl HiaasenThe Postcard Killers by James Patterson

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.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

It's Murder, My Son by Lauren Carr (Book Review)

Mysterious Reviews: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller and Crime Novel Reviews, edited by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books

It's Murder, My Son by Lauren Carr. A Mac Faraday Mystery. CreateSpace Trade Paperback, June 2010.

Former Washington DC homicide detective Mac Faraday may be unfamiliar with his new surroundings as lord of a manor in the Maryland countryside, as it were, but he knows his way around a criminal investigation and he's suspicious about the conclusions the local cops have come to involving the death of a neighbor in It's Murder, My Son, the first mystery in this series by Lauren Carr.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: It's Murder, My Son by Lauren Carr.

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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.

Covers for Red Film Tie-In Comics Released

Red: Eyes Only by Cully Hamner

In early October, just before the theatrical release of Red, adapted from the graphic crime novel by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, DC Comics imprint Wildstorm will publish a prequel to the novel titled Red: Eyes Only, written and illustrated by Hamner. Not a film tie-in per se, but with a storyline more closely related to the original source. (See more about the film, including trailers, here and here.)

About a month ago, Hamner mentioned on his blog that Wildstorm was also releasing four one-off comics featuring each of the principal actors from the film, and he did the art for each. Today, /Film posted an exclusive look at these covers; smaller versions are shown below. These comics are scheduled to be on sale September 15th.

Finally, DC Comics is re-releasing the original graphic novel later this year, to coincide with the release of the film. We'll have more about that closer to its publication date.

Red: Comics Covers

CWA's National Crime Writing Week Scheduled for June 2011

Crime Writers' Association

The Bookseller is reporting that the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) will again host a festival celebrating crime fiction and non-fiction. The National Crime Writing Week will take place between June 13th and 19th next year in England.

Also being repeated is the Young Crime Writers' Competition, which will run in mid-February 2011, with the winner announced during the festival in June. More than 600 entries were received, with 15-year-old Nicole Hendry winning for her short story "The Demolition of Lives".

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