MYSTERY WOMAN 5: REDEMPTION

She’s devoured every mystery, solved every fictional crime, deduced every Holmsian clue, and pegged every killer before the final shot in the dark. That was all fun and games—by the book. Now she’s being clued in to a real murder and living everything she’s only ever read about…

As a young girl, Samantha Kinsey’s (Emmy nominee Kellie Martin, E.R.) bedtime stories consisted of baffling whodunits, locked-room mysteries, classic courtroom dramas, and ingenious detective fiction—all read to her by her beloved Uncle Bob, a crime-novel aficionado and owner of a bookstore called Mystery Man. Today, Samantha still has a thirst for thrillers that has been sweetly quenched, since her late uncle bequeathed to her his beloved shop, complete with its live-in crime connoisseur, Ian Philby (J.E. Freeman, Patriot Games), a mysterious friend of the family. Then, by a stroke of luck her first customer is her old friend Tracy (Amy Locane, Melrose Place), who invites her to a party. The occasion? Tracy’s father, Jack Stenning (Golden Globe nominee Robert Wagner, Austin Powers), a renowned author, is about to complete his newest masterpiece—a dazzling work of true-crime that promises to bring a killer to justice. As quick as she can say Agatha Christie, Samantha discovers firsthand that life can imitate art.

No sooner has the party begun than Jack is discovered swinging from the ceiling of his study—the door bolted from the inside, a suicide note to his wife apologising for an adulterous affair neatly typed and signed. Yet did he really take his own life? Consider the guests: Jack’s bitter and estranged son Tom (Troy Bishop, Scream) who’s shown up out of the blue; Jack’s betrayed wife Mary (Joan Severance, Payback); and Tracy, who’s discovered a shattering secret about Mommy and Daddy. Consider the clues: the argument Jack was engaged in before he died; the blackmail letters; the bold mistress; the unsolved true crime Jack was investigating; and his missing manuscript. Samantha’s considering all the possibilities, and she’s too well-read to settle for the suicide theory. But when her own life is threatened, the amateur sleuth finds herself the lead character in a baffling, real-life whodunit—and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Take Nancy Drew’s intuition, Sam Spade’s wits, and Jessica Fletcher’s indomitable curiosity and you have one of the most appealing sleuths of all time in Mystery Woman, an ingenious whodunit from Alpine Medien that’ll have you guessing to the deadly end.