What’s been going on at our sister site, Flick Attack, “hitting you with one random movie a day … whether you like it or not”? Here’s what you’ve missed:

• Japan’s computer-animated TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE 3D, which “should be titled TEKKEN: GIGGLE SCHOOL 3D”
• Wolfgang Petersen’s POSEIDON remake: “A boat flips, people die. What more do you want?”
• SWIMFAN, “a laughable, teenage take on FATAL ATTRACTION”
• Canada’s late-’80s horror entry ROCK ‘N’ ROLL NIGHTMARE, winner of “the title of Greatest Movie Twist Ending of All Time”
• SOUL PLANE, which “makes the Wayans brothers’ WHITE CHICKS look like ROOTS”
• Will Smith in I, ROBOT: “Me, unimpressed. You, better off doing something else.”
• Why watch the ’80s sex comedy PRIVATE SCHOOL? “The answer is simple: Betsy Russell riding topless on a horse.”
• Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and “a dude getting stabbed right in the taint” star in Hong Kong’s war actioner EASTERN CONDORS
• Lucio Fulci’s THE BEYOND, which proves that “building a hotel over one of the seven gateways to Hell will come back to bite you in the ass”
• 1941’s comedic MR. AND MRS. SMITH, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, “thinking that he’d bring a fresh perspective to the genre. He didn’t.”

How many more reasons do you need?

Author Joshua Jabcuga delves into horror, where every Friday is Friday the 13th!

This review is being written on the day Borders has begun liquidating the last of its bookstores. It’s a sad day, and many feel it was inevitable, but personally, the loss stings and frustrates all at once. Borders was once a thriving epicenter of culture and ideas.

Does that sound over-the-top? I assure you, at one time, Borders was fairly influential. Hell, the store offered its own horror section, a place where one could procure copies of Brian Keene, Richard Laymon and Jack Ketchum, right beside Stephen King and Richard Matheson.

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Reminiscent of the work of David Mitchell, Peter Carey, and Jonathan Safran Foer, Luke Williams’ debut novel, THE ECHO CHAMBER, is narrated by 54-year-old Evie Steppman, who as a child, exhibited extraordinarily acute powers of hearing. Now, alone in an attic in Scotland filled with objects from her past and with her powers of hearing starting to fade, she sets out to record her history before it all disintegrates into a meaningless din.

We have one copy to give away, going to:
• Sanford Hausler of Teaneck, N.J.

Buy it at Amazon.

Now that his novels are national best-sellers and adapted into movies by such top-drawer directors as Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood, Dennis Lehane can pretty well write whatever he wants these days. So it must have come as a surprise to learn that MOONLIGHT MILE, new to paperback, not only revisits the detecting team that started his career, but is also a sequel to 1998’s GONE, BABY, GONE. Then again, that earlier book had such a challenging, yet alluring premise that it makes perfect sense for Lehane to want to dust it off again.

After years as investigative partners and lovers, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are now married and the parents of 4-year-old Gabrielle. Like many families these days, making ends meet is a constant struggle. Patrick does independent contract work for the local Duhamel-Standiford Security and Investigations firm and could land a full-time position with them, were it not for his hair-trigger temper and smart mouth.

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Now in paperback, THE GOD OF THE HIVE by Laurie R. King is the direct sequel to her THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, a genre crossover with her strong and independent Mary Russell character now married to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s equally strong and independent Sherlock Holmes. Where the previous novel detailed the horrific religious cult headed up by the maniacal Thomas Brothers, and reveals to the surprised Sherlockians among us that Holmes has a son and a granddaughter, this book begins right as that one ends, with the probable death of Brothers, and Russell and Holmes wanted by the police.

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In 1911, the famous painting that we know as Mona Lisa was stolen right off the wall of the Musée du Louvre. It was daringly appropriated by one Vincenzo Peruggia, who intended to return it to the land of its creation, Italy. He held onto the painting for almost two years, but was arrested when he tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Now, Carson Morton presents a highly fictionalized, but accurate in certain particulars account of this amazing, picaresque adventure in STEALING MONA LISA. The premise is that one Eduardo de Valfierno presents a confession on his deathbed to a reporter, and he tells the tale in flashback.

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THE DEAD WOMAN, the fourth book in THE DEAD MAN series, keeps the franchise going strong, with David McAfee taking the ax and runs with it. This time out, we find Matt Cahill on his last few dollars on a bus trip to the middle of nowhere down South.

He arrives in the town of Crawford, where he figures he can find some odd jobs to continue in his travels with no fixed destination. Once there, he watches as what looks like the whole police force tears through town with the word being they found “another one.” By that, they mean a dead body, courtesy of the local serial killer who has been killing off the local women.

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Karin Slaughter’s crime novels have never been for the faint-hearted. They always pack a visceral punch. But even her most devoted readers won’t be prepared for the physical and emotional wallop of FALLEN.
 
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Faith Mitchell tries not to worry as she returns late from a training seminar to pick up her infant daughter. Her mother didn’t answer any of the phone calls she placed on the way. Faith’s worst fears are confirmed when she finds the door of her mother’s house partially open, and a bloody hand print above the knob. She finds her baby hidden in a shed behind the house. Entering the house, Faith finds a dead man in the laundry room and a hostage situation in the bedroom. Faith’s mother, however, is gone.

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I’m not telling you anything you don’t know when I say the last thing the world needs is another humor book on vampires. Yet here comes V IS FOR VAMPIRE: AN ILLUSTRATED ALPHABET OF THE UNDEAD by Adam-Troy Castro. At least this one has an actual sense of humor.

The perfect size and weight of any Dr. Seuss title on your kids’ shelf, it’s exactly what it sounds like: an ABC book where each letter pertains to some element of the creatures of the night, like G for garlic, or V for Van Helsing. Welcome are the more creative entries, like “J is for Just Some Goddamned Cat” and “Y is for You’ll Never Defeat Me, Mwa-ha-ha.” Each letter bares an accompany illustration by Johnny Atomic (not his real name, one presumes). —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

She’s back each Tuesday, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar, so let the tempting, publisher-provided plot descriptions begin!

FULL BLACK by Brad Thor — A wave of dramatic terrorist attacks is set in motion. Their goal: the complete and total collapse of the United States. With the CIA’s intelligence abilities hobbled, former Navy SEAL Team 6 member turned covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath launches an audacious plan to infiltrate the terrorists’ network and prevent one of the biggest threats the United States has ever faced. Simultaneously, a foreign wet work team has been sent to California. Their target: one of Hollywood’s most famous filmmakers.

ORIGIN UNKNOWN by Pierre Davis — Dr. Lydia South, a cutting-edge neuroscientist, has perfected a lucrative, top-secret technology that can map secrets of the brain. But Lydia’s past is inextricably bound with that of a brilliant but deranged sociopath, a man with the ability to blend in anywhere around the world, sow seeds of destruction, and escape unscathed — and he’ll stop at nothing to remain anonymous.

IN SEARCH OF THE ROSE NOTES by Emily Arsenault — Eleven-year-olds Nora and Charlotte were best friends. When their teenage babysitter, Rose, disappeared under mysterious circumstances, the girls decided to “investigate.” But their search — aided by paranormal theories and techniques gleaned from old Time-Life books — went nowhere. Years later, Nora is drawn back to her old neighborhood and estranged friend when Rose’s remains are finally discovered. Upset over their earlier failure to solve the possible murder, Charlotte is adamant that they join forces and try again.

STORMLORD’S EXILE by Glenda Larke — Shale is finally free from his greatest enemy. But now, he is responsible for bringing life-giving rain to all the people of the Quartern. He must stretch his powers to the limit or his people will die, if they don’t meet a nomad’s blade first. Terelle is Shale’s secret weapon, covertly boosting his powers with her own mystical abilities. But her people may save Shale and his people once again … or lead them to their doom.

Buy them at Amazon.