Winners of the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards Announced

The winners of the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards, better known as the IPPYs, have been announced by Independent Publisher. The awards are given out in many categories; the winners of the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller category are listed below. Medalists will be honored at a gala awards ceremony in New York City on May 23rd, 2011.

◊ Gold: The Tavernier Stones by Stephen Parrish (Midnight Ink)

◊ Silver (tie): Children in the Morning by Anne Emery (ECW Press)
◊ Silver (tie): The Marriage of Silence and Sin by Jacqueline M. Lyon (Literary Legends)

◊ Bronze: The Trust by Sean Keefer (Old Line Publishing)

Harlequin Romantic Suspense Titles for June 2011

eHarlequin.com has released the list of June 2011 titles in their Love Inspired Suspense series. Love Inspired Suspense books combine suspense, romance, hope and faith to create a unique page-turning series that today’s readers love.

For more information about the book from eHarlequin.com, click on the title or cover; other purchase options are also provided.

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Behind the Badge by Susan Sleeman

A killer is threatening the life of rookie cop Sydney Tucker's sister—unless Sydney turns over evidence from a drug bust. But she doesn't have the evidence. Not that the thug believes her. Now she and the sibling in her care are under the watchful eye of Logan Lake police chief Russ Morgan…but will his protection be enough? The killer is closing in, picking off the people and places that mean the most to Sydney. A list that now includes Russ. To protect her loved ones, will she pay the ultimate price—her life?

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Lawman-in-Charge by Laura Scott

Former crime-scene investigator Megan O'Ryan helped convict the St. Patrick's Strangler, who killed Megan's sister. Now she's trying to heal in a small Wisconsin town. But a copycat killer is at work in Crystal Lake, and Sheriff Luke Torretti needs Megan's help … on the case and at home, where the widower's troubled teenage son has become a suspect. The boy claims he's innocent—and Megan believes him. Because the more she and Luke investigate, the more Megan becomes convinced that her own past has brought the killer to Crystal Lake. And without Luke's help, the next victim will be her.

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Out of Time by Shirlee McCoy

Someone plans to disrupt the 175th anniversary celebration of the Battle of the Alamo—and it's Alamo Ranger Susannah Jorgenson's job to stop the culprit. But that means partnering with Levi McDonall, who skipped town years ago with her heart. Levi's now a Texas Ranger, sworn to protect her at any cost, but Susannah knows she'll pay the price if she falls for him again. She has to stay focused on their goals—to eliminate the threat and solve the murder of Levi's captain. But an unknown killer is watching … ready to eliminate them.

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Protecting Her Own by Margaret Daley

hing short of her dad's stroke could bring professional bodyguard Cara Madison back to Virginia. But her homecoming turns explosive with a pipe-bomb package addressed to her father. Cara knows two things for sure. First, someone's after either her father or her … or both. And second, this job is too big to handle on her own. Unexpected help comes from agent Connor Fitzgerald. Years ago she'd walked away from him…and love. Now, despite their unresolved feelings, they must join forces—and settle their scarred past—to survive.

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OMN Welcomes Suspense Novelist Lisa Dewar

Omnimystery News is delighted to welcome Lisa Dewar, whose debut suspense novel is Kiss Her, Kill Her (iUniverse, September 2010 Hardcover, 978-1-4502-5999-6).

Today Lisa writes about evil characters.

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Photo provided courtesy of Lisa Dewar

Are people born evil or are they a product of their environments? Are children born innocent and their caregivers somehow, purposefully or inadvertently, steer them to a path of murderous rage?

I was struck by a song (which reminds me of a few people that I have met over the years) and it sparked my novel:

Before you hand me over
Before you read my sentence
I’d like to say a few words
Here in my own defence ...
Some people struggle daily
They struggle with their conscience
Till the end
I have no guilt to haunt me
I feel no wrong intent
(Gowan, “A Criminal Mind”)

The song goes on to say, "A criminal mind is all I've ever had, Ask one who's knows me if I'm really so bad, I am". I personally know individuals who have made some bad choices and have done some crazy things but I also know that they have good traits as well. Many of the world's serial killers are loving parents, good neighbours, and good friends to those around them (John Wayne Gacy was a well loved member of his community, dressing up as a clown and throwing parties in his neighbourhood).

There are thousands of examples of men and women who were raised in the most horrendous homes yet they still rise above. Were they missing the "evil" gene? Yet there are others that came from loving families with middle class backgrounds that find themselves committing the most heinous crimes (Jeffery Dahmer came from a seemingly normal family who stood by him until the day he died in prison). Were they genetically hardwired to kill?

As I was doing countless hours of research on real life serial killers for Kiss Her, Kill Her, I had an epiphany of sorts ... I started to see that there is a seed of evil in everyone but not all of us act on it. Ask the average person on the street if they have ever been angry and of course the answer would be yes. Ask them if they have ever been so mad that they wanted to kill someone and in most cases the response would be yes, even if just in the figurative sense. But they didn't act on those thoughts. Most people are able to keep their emotions under control, finding another outlet for their anger. However, what interests (and scares) me are those that can't.

Take Tarryn Cooper Love, the main character in Kiss Her, Kill Her. His drug addicted mother was obsessed with serial killers, spending hours comparing their attributes, number of victims, and the complexity of their kills. Tarryn literally grew up idolizing the most evil men on the earth, after all that was what his mother valued most, a juicy murder. When her drug abuse starts to take control of her life, leaving him alone and hurt, he sees murder as a way to bring her back to him. Was the killing gene already in him or was it his mother's love for Ted Bundy that made him murder 36 women?

Tarryn talks about this in a passage from the novel:

When he looked back, Tarryn knew that by the time he was eighteen, the thoughts of attempting a kill had been festering for over five years. At first it was a little annoyance, like a mosquito buzzing in his mind. Then the tiny mosquito turned into a beetle, scuttling around his brain. Then by eighteen, the beetle had grown into a full-sized condor, soaring into every corner of his skull on a daily basis. He wondered if maybe saving his mother was just an excuse to fulfill the fantasy.

With the next kill he is set to pass Bundy's record and make his mother proud. But meeting Carmen Halder, a suicidal woman with an equally coloured past, reminds him of his mother and complicates the task. He has to decide if he should take her life or save her but the choice is far from easy.

Kiss Her, Kill Her explores three separate but intertwined stories: Tarryn's rise to be a serial killer, Carmen's rise to riches and subsequent decent to suicide, and the tale of Tarryn's 37th kill. But perhaps the bigger question is are we born evil or are our actions a result of our interactions with those people that surround us?

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Lisa Dewar was born in Southampton England and immigrated to Canada in 1973. An avid reader and writer of psychological thrillers, she now lives in Calgary, Alberta with her husband and three cats. She is currently working on her next novel based on the Las Vegas strip.

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About Kiss Her, Kill Her: New York City has a monster on the loose and his name is Tarryn Cooper Love.

No one had given a second glance to the handsome taxi driver, but in reality he had been molded to be a killer since early childhood. His mother, who valued a juicy murder above all else, had taught him well. Just one more trophy and he is set to reach his goal, surpassing his mother’s idol, the infamous Ted Bundy.

When a beautiful young woman gets into his cab flashing a wad of cash, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot. As she starts confessing her plans for ending her own life he decides to listen to her story, hoping to charm her back from the brink of death, to heighten his game.

What he discovers is a twisted tale that has taken her from the hardened streets of LA to the upper crust of New York … a story that might even rival his own.

Kiss Her, Kill Her is available in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, and popular eBook formats (see icons below book cover).

Read the first chapter of Kiss Her, Kill Her below; use the Aa settings button to adjust font size, line spacing, and word density.

Plot Details for Film Adaptation of the ABC Gothic Drama Dark Shadows

Production is getting underway this week in England on the film adaptation of the ABC gothic daytime drama Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp as the 200-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins.

When we first learned about the project last year, Tim Burton was set to direct a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) though no details about the plot were known.

That has changed.

The storyline opens in 1752. Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy … until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Brouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.

Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.

Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth's ne'er-do-well brother, Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger's precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), and David's new nanny, Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote).

Dark Shadows is currently scheduled to open in theaters May 11th, 2012.

(Source: ComingSoon.net.)

Prime Time Crime: Watch a Preview for Person of Interest, New on CBS This Fall

CBS has released previews for its new Fall 2011 series, and we're embedding the one that seems most interesting to us below.

Person of Interest stars Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson and Taraji P. Henson in a crime thriller about a presumed dead former CIA agent who teams up with a mysterious billionaire to prevent violent crimes by using their own brand of vigilante justice.

Reese's (Caviezel) special training in covert operations appeals to Finch (Emerson), a software genius who invented a program that uses pattern recognition to identify people about to be involved in violent crimes. Using state-of-the-art surveillance technology, the two work outside of the law using Reese's adept skills and Finch's unlimited wealth to unravel the mystery of the person of interest and stop the crime before it happens. Reese's actions catch the attention of the NYPD, including homicide detective Carter (Henson), and Fusco (Kevin Chapman), a cop who Reese uses to his advantage.

With infinite crimes to investigate, Reese and Finch find that the right person, with the right information, at the right time, can change everything.

Watch a preview of Person of Interest below. More can be found on the CBS website.

Review: Kiss of Death by Lauren Henderson

Kiss of Death by Lauren Henderson. A Scarlett Wakefield Mystery. Delacorte Press Hardcover, May 2011.

Though the fourth -- and final -- book in this series for young adults, this is for the most part a self-contained novel of suspense involving threats against Scarlett. The situations in which she finds herself -- both the amusing ones and the frightening ones -- are exciting, the Scottish setting adding an atmosphere of adventure and intrigue.

Read the full text of our review at Mysterious Reviews: Kiss of Death by Lauren Henderson.

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Read the first chapter(s) of Kiss of Death below. Use the Aa settings button to adjust text size, line spacing, and word density.

First Look at Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games

The new issue of Entertainment Weekly has the first photos from the set of The Hunger Games, including Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen on the cover. The golden pin she is wearing is taken from the cover of book from which the film is adapted, the young adult thriller The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains.

Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson). If she's ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

The Hunger Games, which is scheduled to be in theaters March 23rd, 2012, is directed by Gary Ross. The new issue of Entertainment Weekly hits newstands May 20th, 2011.

(Source: Entertainment Weekly.)

Amazon.com Announces New Mystery Publishing Imprint, Thomas & Mercer

Amazon.com announced today the launch of its fifth imprint, Thomas & Mercer, which will focus on publishing mysteries and thrillers.

Four titles are the first scheduled for publication: Resuscitation by D. M. Annechino (on October 11th, 2011); Stirred, a "Jack" Daniels mystery by J. A. Konrath and Blake Crouch (November 22nd, 2011); The Immortalists by Kyle Mills (October 4th, 2011); and Already Gone by John Rector (October 25th, 2011). All four books will be available to English readers in Kindle, print and audio formats at Amazon.com as well as at national and independent booksellers.

Thomas & Mercer, named for streets that flank the Amazon headquarters in Seattle, joins its sister imprints AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Powered by Amazon, and Montlake Romance in the Amazon Publishing family.

(Source: Amazon.com press release.)

Prime Time Crime: TNT Announces New and Returning Series, plus Projects in Development

TNT announced this morning new projects for the cable network, many of which will interest fans of mystery and suspense television.

In what comes as no surprise, TNT is creating a spin-off from its popular series The Closer, ordering a 10-episode season of Major Crimes, set in the Los Angeles Police Department. The seventh and final season of The Closer will include 15 episodes in 2011 and six in summer 2012, leading into the launch of Major Crimes.

Of its other existing series, TNT is renewing all its current crime dramas, including Rizzoli & Isles (based on characters created by Tess Gerritsen), Leverage, Memphis Beat, and Southland. It will add to this list Perception, starring Eric McCormak as a neuroscientist who works to solve complex criminal cases.

TNT is also introducing the TNT Tuesday Night Mystery (working title), which will feature contemporary crime dramas adapted from bestselling authors of the genre. These will include the two-hour movie Innocent, based on the book by Scott Turow. The network is also developing movies based on Richard North Patterson’s Silent Witness; Sandra Brown’s Ricochet; Lisa Gardner’s Hide; April Smith’s Good Morning, Killer; and Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark’s Deck the Halls.

Prime time crime projects in development (taken from TNT's press release) include:

Untitled Kip Koenig/John Wells Productions Project: Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, this drama follows a family of cops who uncover the mystical and often crime-ridden world of a small town where things aren’t as they appear.

Scent of the Missing: A search-and-rescue officer braves the harshest conditions with her best friend and partner, a Labrador retriever. Based on the book by Susannah Charleston.

Gateway: In a nation still healing from the Civil War, lawlessness rules the small towns of the Old West. Three brothers bound by duty, honor and self-preservation take a stand. Together, they fight to survive and thrive – all in a small town called Gateway.

Untitled Eric Garcia Project: A daydreaming police clerk’s overactive imagination isn’t just a way to escape her mundane work life. It’s also her mind’s way of helping detectives solve crime.

Untitled Jay Cocks Project: Based on the character from the Laura Lippman series of mysteries, this drama centers on Tess Monaghan, a former newspaper reporter who has become a private eye in the tough city of Baltimore.

The Command: This crime drama centers on an elite and real squad of detectives within the New York City police department -- Borough Command. Cherry-picked by one commanding officer, these detectives get only the toughest, highest-profile and most-unsolvable cases. The best detectives, the hardest cases.

Enigma: A modern-day mystery-of-the-week in the style of Sherlock Holmes.

Harlequin Intrigue Titles for June 2011

eHarlequin.com has released the June 2011 titles in their Intrigue, breathtaking romantic suspense series. Get these edge-of-your-seat reads today with characters who conquer everything from kidnappings to murder mysteries, only to find themselves irresistibly drawn to one another!

For more information about the book from eHarlequin.com, click on the title or cover; other purchase options are also provided.

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Lassoed by B. J. Daniels

From the moment Billie Rae Rasmussen crashes into him, Tanner Chisholm realizes he is on a collision course with destiny. As Whitehorse's cowboy with a heart of gold, there is no way he could overlook the fear that shadows her eyes. Something has her running scared, but now that she is in his protective arms he intends to keep her safe.

Billie Rae can't run fast enough—or far enough. And if she sticks around this small town, the danger that follows her could put her newfound hero at risk. But Tanner refuses to leave her side, and his love gives Billie Rae the hope and courage she needs. Now she'll fight to take back her life … or die trying.

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Broken by Debra Webb

After seven years of agony, Linc Reece was certain he'd found his dead wife—alive and living in a tiny Tennessee town. He was sure Mia Grant was Lori, the wife he'd lost in an undercover case gone bad. Now the operative for the elite team of Equalizers had to prove it … even if he had to kidnap her.

Mia Grant saw the hope in Linc's eyes … but just because she liked vanilla, blues and old houses didn't make her his long-lost wife. Nothing about him was familiar, except the sizzle she felt when they touched. But when they discovered Lori's records destroyed and her photos stolen, even Mia knew someone had gone to great lengths to make her forget. And he'd do anything to ensure she never remembered …

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Cooper Vengeance by Paula Graves

J. D. Cooper had left no stone unturned when investigating a cold case that hit much too close to home. Or so he'd thought. Thanks to small-town deputy Natalie Becker, new evidence had surfaced that might lead J.D. closer to the truth. But Natalie had a stake in this situation, too, and claimed that joining forces was their best strategy—and their best hope. Problem was, after years of working alone to solve a seemingly unsolvable crime, J. D. found himself distracted by his beautiful partner and her passion for doing the right thing. He'd never met anyone like her and that scared him as much as this unidentifiable madman … until Natalie was made his next target.

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Capturing the Commando by Colleen Thompson

Shannon Brandt's mission had failed—spectacularly. Instead of arresting AWOL Ranger Rafe Lyons, the merciless commando had kidnapped her—a tough, experienced FBI agent. Worse, she'd agreed to a deal with the devil and promised to help Rafe recover his abducted niece.

Before long, her promise becomes a wrenching ethical dilemma. If she breaks the law to reunite a family, she'll ruin her career and dishonor her family. But if she plays it by the book, an innocent life may be lost. To further complicate her decision, Shannon finds herself falling for the arrogant, abrasive—but undeniably attractive—commando … even though this dangerous mission might lead to both their deaths.

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The Missing Twin by Rita Herron

Detective Caleb Walker had taken on some tough cases for Guardian Angel Investigations, but when Madelyn Andrews came to him, claiming that her five-year-old daughter was able to "communicate" with her twin sister who'd never made it home from the hospital, Caleb was skeptical. One glimpse at the beautiful single mother, though, and he couldn't walk away. Now, as he looked into what had really happened when Madelyn went into labor, suspicious details were uncovered. Details that prompted Madelyn to cling to him as pain consumed her. And the deeper he dug, the more invested Caleb became in their tiny family, in their safety when danger penetrated their lives—and in their salvation when he promised to bring a little girl home …

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Cowboy Brigade by Elle James

Agent Wade Coltrane, ex-Army Special Forces, has returned home to Freedom, Texas, for his next assignment: infiltrate the Long K Ranch and bust the owner for attempted murder. The obstacle: Lindsay Kemp, his high school sweetheart—and his target's granddaughter. Wade never expected Lindsay to still be living on the struggling ranch, let alone be a single mother to precious twin girls. Each day he spends undercover only intensifies his lingering desire for Lindsay and rouses his protective instincts. And he'll need them, for there's a killer on the ranch, and he's set his vengeful sights on Lindsay …

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