Miranda Lambert Developing Crime Drama for ABC Family

Just days after winning four trophies at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday night, we're learning that Miranda Lambert will develop a mystery drama series for ABC Family.

The untitled project will be based on the country singer's childhood in Texas, and involve a family whose parents are private investigators, with the children helping to solve crimes. Lambert will co-produce a script written by Memphis Beat's Scott Kaufer.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter.)

AMC's The Killing 2-Hour Premiere Available Online

If you missed the premiere of the excellent murder mystery The Killing last Sunday on AMC, the cable network has made the two hour opener available online. (It actually comprises the first two episodes and runs just over 94 minutes.)

The Killing ties together three distinct stories around a single murder including the detectives assigned to the case, the victim's grieving family, and the suspects. Set in Seattle, the story also explores local politics as it follows politicians connected to the case. As the series unfolds, it becomes clear that there are no accidents; everyone has a secret, and while the characters think they've moved on, their past isn't done with them.

The next episode airs in its regular time slot, Sundays at 10 PM (ET/PT). Watch a preview below.

Take the Case of the Crime of the Century in Art of Murder: Deadly Secrets, New 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.

— ◊ —

New York City has been hit with a series of murders and the body count is piling up. For FBI Agent Nicole Bonnet, finding a lead is becoming impossible, as it seems the victims are all antiquarians and collectors and have no connection with one another. However, when a retired subway worker is killed, the investigation takes an interesting turn.

It seems these murders are somehow linked to what is now known as the Crime of the Century -- a bank robbery where the loot was never recovered. Time is short and Agent Bonnet must make the connection before another person falls victim.

Warning: This game contains graphic content.

See also the other games in this series: Art of Murder: FBI Confidential, Art of Murder: Hunt for the Puppeteer, and Art of Murder: Cards of Destiny.

Art of Murder: Deadly Secrets may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (155.55 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

— ◊ —

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!

Male Leads Cast in Film Adaptation of The Hunger Games

Lionsgate Films announced in a press release today that the pivotal roles of Peeta Mellark and Gale Hawthorne have been cast in its film adaptation of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. We have previously reported that Jennifer Lawrence landed the role of Katniss Everdeen.

Peeta, who accompanies Katniss into the 74th annual Hunger Games, will be played by Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are Alright), while Gale, Katniss's best friend and hunting partner, will be played by Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song).

The Hunger Games chronicles a dystopic Capitol which requires its twelve subjugated districts to pay tribute in the form of a teenage boy and girl, forced to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight-to-the-death live televised event. Katniss Everdeen's little sister is chosen in the lottery to participate and Katniss volunteers to take her place. Although persevering through hardship is commonplace for Katniss, she must start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love in order to win the games and return home.

The Hunger Games is scheduled to be in theaters March 23rd, 2012.

Mystery and Suspense Films, New This Week on DVD (110405)

Checking through our list of films currently scheduled for release this week on DVD and/or Blu-ray disc, shown below are those that fall into the mystery, suspense, thriller and adventure categories.

— ◊ —

Purchase/Rental Options

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

With their dour, bookish cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) in tow, the youngest Pevensie offspring -- Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) -- take an unexpected trip back to Narnia and join noble King Caspian (Ben Barnes) for an epic high-seas adventure in this third film adapted from the fantasy adventure series by C. S. Lewis. Setting sail aboard the Dawn Treader, the young heroes head for the end of the world, determined to rescue seven once-powerful lords banished by Caspian's evil uncle. (PG; 113 minutes)

Watch an Extended Preview of HBO's Game of Thrones

Last night, HBO aired the first 13 minutes of its upcoming series Game of Thrones. The 10-episode fantasy adventure is adapted from the books in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin, the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones. The video is embedded below, and is also available online.

Set in Westeros where "summers span decades and winters can last a lifetime," Game of Thrones chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among noble families for control of the Iron Throne.

The series premieres April 17th.

OMN Welcomes Tony Hays, Author of the Arthurian Mystery Series Featuring Malgwyn ap Cuneglas

Omnimystery News is pleased to welcome Tony Hays, author of the Arthurian mystery series featuring Malgwyn ap Cuneglas. The third book in his series is The Beloved Dead (Forge Books, March 2011 Hardcover, 978-0-765-32628-7).

Today Tony writes about where his characters come from. And he's also providing three of our readers with an opportunity to win a copy of his book. Visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Tony Hays: The Beloved Dead" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (8298) for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends 04/18/2011.)

— ◊ —

Photo provided courtesy of
Tony Hays

Where do my characters come from? I don’t know. Sometimes they spring from some unfathomable wrinkle of that odd gelatinous thing called a brain. And sometimes, you get them handed to you on the proverbial platter. For me, it has been a combination of the two.

With my Arthurian series, it was mostly that second option. But even at that it wasn’t cut and dried. Sure, I had Arthur, Merlin, Bedevere, Kay, Guinevere, even some pleasing supporting characters such as Accolon, Gawain, Mordred. But what about that pesky Lancelot and Galahad and Morgan le Fay? But here’s the thing, I had decided that I was going for an historically accurate, Dark Ages setting. By doing so, I had cut down my list of acceptable characters significantly.

First, Lancelot and Galahad are creations of Chretien de Troyes, a French romancier, who post-dated Geoffrey of Monmouth. And it was Geoffrey who gave us the Arthurian story as most of us understand it. Neither Geoffrey nor any of the earlier Welsh sources so much as mention Lancelot or Galahad. Morgan le Fay, the alleged half-sister of Arthur, does not appear in the earlier Welsh material either. Scratch them all. In fact, there are some who say that the original of Morgan le Fay was one Morgan ap Tud, Arthur’s court physician according to the Mabinogion. In terms of strictly fictional characters, those came rather easily. Malgwyn, the protagonist, is the most complex of them all. I decided early on that I needed a very human Arthur. If I were to portray Dark Ages Britain as accurately as possible, I needed a man, not Sean Connery in First Knight. So, the idea occurred to have my protagonist be a man who hated Arthur, at first. But I had to give him a reason to hate Arthur. Every fictional investigator needs a tag, a label of their own. Lawrence Block had the guy who never slept, the sleep center in his brain had been destroyed. We’ve had alcoholics, drug addicts, obese detectives, and on and on. I looked at the landscape in Dark Ages Britain. I looked at what act that Arthur could do for Malgwyn that was both charitable and subject to hatred. For whatever reason, the idea of Malgwyn as a one-armed man in a time when such men were considered cursed by the gods popped up. Yes, and Arthur would have saved him on the battlefield, condemning him, in Malgwyn’s mind to life as half a man. That Malgwyn is Guinevere’s cousin just seemed natural. The population of Dark Ages Britain was not all that large, and that Malgwyn and Guinevere might be related to some degree was well within the realm of possibility.

I need to make a special note about Merlin. Most likely, there was a character named Merlin, or perhaps Myrddin, who lived around the same time as Arthur, but probably in the generation after Arthur. He first appears in the Vita Merlini, written by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Because of his ambiguous status, I decided to keep him.

The various lords all have various degree of reality about them. David, Mordred, Celyn, Lauhiir, Melwas all have some basis in the old Welsh tales or other sources. Young Lord Celyn, who appears in both The Killing Way and The Beloved Dead, was said to be a son of Caw. He was brother to the monk Gildas and the pirate Huail, who Arthur is said to have beheaded for failing to pay obeisance to him. Vortimer, of The Killing Way, was, historically, the son of the disgraced Vortigern.

The other fictional characters like the abbot Coroticus, the young monk Ider (who may have a basis in truth), Malgwyn’s brother Cuneglas, Ygerne, Gareth the bandit, all grew out of a need for such characters. You might call them stock characters, but I sure do love trying to breathe life into them.

William Faulkner used to speak of “character possession,” that moment in the novel when the characters rise up and take possession of the story. I guess that most authors have experienced that. If you draw your characters well, keep their actions within their personalities, then it is almost inevitable.

And that’s one of the mysteries and pleasures of writing.

— ◊ —

An active member of Mystery Writers of America and the Appalachian Writer's Association, Tony is the author of five novels, four historical mysteries, and a contemporary satire, The Trouble With Patriots, set in the Middle East, which has been optioned for film. His first novel, Murder on the Twelfth Night, was nominated for the Tennessee Volunteer Book Award. Visit his website at TonyHays.com.

— ◊ —

About The Beloved Dead: Malgwyn ap Cuneglas was one of King Arthur’s earliest companions and now is his most trusted counselor. Despite the malice of his enemies, who fear Arthur’s power, and the machinations of the still powerful druids who mightily resist him, Malgwyn knows that Arthur will stop at nothing in his efforts to lead his people to Christ and help to bring civil law and justice to a people who have known little such.

To consolidate his power, Arthur decides that it is time to take a noble wife. But in this Malgwyn knows not only his lord’s ambition but his personal grief, because in order to take a queen Arthur must set aside his love Guinevere, because he believes that the scandal surrounding their affair has tainted her for the crown.

Malgwyn is sent north to fetch the young woman who is to be Arthur’s bride. The way is fraught with tension and disaster for there are forces who would not see the king wed. When Malgwyn discovers a string of killings involving young virginal women who are slaughtered in a horrific manner—not unlike a ritual sacrifice—he is left with a question that he must answer quickly.

Are these murders portents of the gods taking vengeance on the intrusion of a new faith?

Or mortal men plotting to unseat the king?

The Beloved Dead is available in Hardcover and popular eBook formats (see icons below book cover above).

For a chance to win a copy of The Beloved Dead, courtesy of the author, visit Mystery Book Contests, click on the "Tony Hays: The Beloved Dead" contest link, enter your name, e-mail address, and this code (8298) for a chance to win! (One entry per person; contest ends 04/18/2011.)

Visit a Sleepy Town on a Mysterious Adventure in Letters from Nowhere 2, New 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.

— ◊ —

After collecting all the letters with the help of the dead postman spirit, Audrey believes that they will lead her to the missing husband. The last letter, however, sends her to a sleepy town on a new mysterious adventure, where she discovers that Patrick is a descendant of a cursed family and is doomed to death! Search hidden object scenes to look for pieces of the secret diary pages that scattered all over the town. Confront the evil and save Patrick!

See also the previous game in this series, Letters from Nowhere.

Letters from Nowhere 2 may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (140.53 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

— ◊ —

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 Godoku Puzzle for April 04, 2011

A new Mystery Godoku Puzzle has been created by the editors of the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books and is now available on our website.

Godoku is similar to Sudoku, but uses letters instead of numbers. To give you a headstart, we provide you a mystery clue to fill in a complete row or column (if you choose to use it!).

— ◊ —

This week's letters and mystery clue:

A E G I K L N O P

Brad Taylor introduces this Special Forces operative in One Rough Man (9 letters).

We now have two weeks of our puzzles on one page in PDF format for easier printing. Print this week's puzzle here.

Previous puzzles are stored in the Mystery Godoku Archives.

Enjoy the weekly Mystery Godoku Puzzle from the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, and Thanks for visiting our website!

Universal Acquires Film Rights to Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon Spy Thrillers

Universal Studios has acquired the film rights to Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series of spy thrillers. Jeff Zucker, the former CEO of NBC Universal, will produce the initial film adaptation — of which title is not known. The studio has acquired all current and future books in the series, the first of which, The Kill Artist, was published in 2001.

Gabriel Allon is semi-retired officer with Israeli intelligence, whose previous cover was (and current profession is) that of a master art restorer with a specialty in Italian old masters.

The most recent book in the series is The Rembrandt Affair, published last summer.

(Source: The Hollywood Reporter.)

The Killing Premieres Sunday, April 3rd, on AMC

The murder mystery The Killing premieres tomorrow, Sunday April 3rd, at 9 PM (ET/PT) on AMC with a two-hour episode.

Based on the format of the popular Danish crime series Forbrydelsen, The Killing revolves around the Seattle murder of teenager Rosie Larsen, and the gripping police investigation it sparks. The facts of the case unfold against a backdrop of local politics, high school scandal, and a grieving family flattened by tragedy.

As leads turn cold and suspects multiply, the detectives race against time to find the killer. They soon discover that everyone is a suspect, every suspect has a secret, and every hour counts.

For more information about The Killing, visit the series website on AMCTV.com. Watch an extended trailer for the series below.

Reviews of Mystery and Suspense Books for Kids, New This Week on Book Trends (110402)

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/thriller category.

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. The 1st book in the "Books of the Beginning" series, recommended for readers aged 10 to 12. Lexile measure: N/A. Reviewed by a 6th grade student, who writes, "This book is full of never-ending suspense, fast-paced action, and loads of adventure. I love all of the figurative language the author used. Emerald Atlas is an amazing fantasy novel that teaches how nothing matters without family." (Read the entire review.)

For more reviews of children and young adult books of all genres, visit Book Trends; their reviews will amaze you! You can also follow Book Trends on Twitter.

Meet Mystics, Aliens and Ghosts in The Treasures of Mystery Island: The Ghost Ship, New 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.

— ◊ —

Mystics, aliens and ghosts come together in a piping hot adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat in this third game in the "Mystery Island" series!

Guide a young woman who's arrived at a tropical island to visit a friend. Her acquaintance is nowhere to be seen, but there are plenty of ghosts on hand. As you explore lost temples, devastated coastlines and abandoned villages, you'll uncover a 60-year-old mystery surrounding a shaman and his efforts to save his island. With your wits as your only weapon, you must collect cleverly hidden objects, solve cunning puzzles and help the shaman stop fate in its tracks before a deadly tidal wave rises up from the sea and wipes out his people!

The Treasures of Mystery Island: The Ghost Ship may be downloaded and purchased for $6.99 with a Big Fish Game Club membership. A demonstration version (281.30 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

— ◊ —

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!

Shadow of a Distant Morning by William Topek (Mystery Book Review)

Shadow of a Distant Morning by William Topek. A Devlin Caine Mystery. ireadiwrite Publishing Ebook, October 2010.

A nicely plotted, if overlong, novel, this debut includes all the usual players and suspects, motives and methods of a noir mystery. There is a reasonable amount of misdirection to keep readers engaged, though, and while routine in many ways, it is a promising and entertaining start to this period PI series.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Shadow of a Distant Morning by William Topek.

Purchase Options:  | 

Harlequin Worldwide Mystery Titles for April 2011

eHarlequin.com has released the list of April 2011 titles for their Worldwide Mystery imprint, your partner in crime. Amateur sleuths, traditional cozies, police procedurals and private-eye fiction, written by award-winning authors.

For more information about the book from eHarlequin.com, click on the title or cover.

— ◊ —

The Master Plan by Carol Costa
A Dana Sloan Mystery (2nd in series)

When an employee of her private investigation agency becomes embroiled in a double murder, Dana Sloan uncovers a trail littered with deception. A newlywed woman admits she schemed to marry for money. And so did her best friend. Now two husbands are dead, and Dana suspects the murders are linked to a past neither woman knew.

As Dana looks into the lives of the victims, she uncovers a curious connection. Both men were involved in a sinister game of duplicity and had their own hidden agenda for getting married. As she uncovers lies buried within secrets, Dana puts her life on the line to get to the truth, confronting a determined killer who won't let anyone spoil his master plan for murder.

— ◊ —

Fatal Purchase by Dorothy P. O'Neill
A Liz Rooney Mystery (2nd in series)

Coroner's assistant Liz Rooney is intrigued by the shooting murder of a prominent politician. The senator was found dead in a New York hotel room with a woman who wasn't his wife, and the tabloids are having a field day. Was the dead woman, a local reporter, the mystery lover for whom the senator had purchased expensive lingerie only hours earlier? Or was she just looking for an interview in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Convinced that finding the senator's secret paramour will offer clues to the killer, Liz follows the trail of the sexy nightgown he bought. But in befriending the salesclerk who sold it to the senator, she uncovers a tangled web of immigration advocates with radical tendencies. Was the senator's anti-immigration platform the real cause for his death? Liz gets closer to the truth—but the price may be deadly.

— ◊ —

The Tomoka Mystery by Diane Sawyer
Non-Series

Photographer Lilli Masters is more than willing to embark on a little undercover work with her new boyfriend if it means spending time together. His assignment is to head to Daytona Beach, Florida, on the trail of a killer who's hiding out among a group of hard-core motorcyclists.

The weather is picture-perfect as Lilli and Detective Zack Faraday pose as a tourist couple. But growing danger quickly puts a damper on any sightseeing, and the discovery of a dead body tells Lilli that the trouble is just beginning. Soon she is stalked by dangerous men and immersed in a world of bikers, rare-flower poachers, murky waters and murder. Now it looks as if Lilli's romantic getaway might just be the end of the line.

— ◊ —

Last Dance by Joyce & Jim Lavene
A Sharyn Howard Mystery (1st in series)

When the local prom queen is found murdered in the high school parking lot, Sheriff Sharyn Howard gets a double shock. The crime scene, complete with the victim laid out in pristine fashion, is eerily similar to another prom-night murder that occurred ten years before. Sharyn's father was sheriff at the time and caught the perp, who's now on death row awaiting his execution—just days away.

Is there a copycat killer on the loose or is an innocent man about to die for the crime? Facing pressure from her mother not to destroy her late father's reputation, Sharyn looks into both murders. Soon she has proof that the real killer was never caught. Now she must race against the clock to stop an execution and catch a killer, before more innocent blood is spilled.

— ◊ —

Keep up to date by subscribing to eHarlequin.com's free newsletter that contains the latest information about their series of books as well as informing you about subscriber-only special offers and new products. Click on the banner to subscribe for free.