Set to debut in November and December 2011, TNT’s return to original TV movies is tentatively titled The TNT Tuesday Night Mystery. They will feature a slate of contemporary crime dramas, from true-crime stories to fictional mysteries. Here is more information about the six dramas:

Innocent – Twenty years after being cleared in the death of his mistress, Judge Rusty Sabich is charged with the murder of his late wife. During the trial, a secret affair from Rusty’s recent past threatens to hamper his defense and fracture his relationship with his son. Innocent is based on Scott Turow’s book, a sequel to his blockbuster hit Presumed Innocent. The movie is written, directed and executive-produced by Mike Robe (TNT’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King).

Ricochet – Two homicide detectives find their careers – and lives – on the line when they get caught up in a case of murder and betrayal in high-society Savannah. Based on the book by #1 New York Times best-selling author Sandra Brown, the project is executive-produced by Howard Braunstein (The Informant!) and Jim Head (On Strike for Christmas) and written by Donald Martin (The Craigslist Killer).

Silent Witness – In this legal drama based on a novel by Richard North Patterson, prominent defense attorney Tony Lord returns to his hometown to defend an old friend, a teacher accused of murdering one of his students. The case re-opens the heartache from Tony’s own high school days, when he was a student falsely accused of murdering his first love. Lizzie Friedman and Greg Little, the team behind One Lucky Elephant, Whiz Kids and Sex and Death 101, serve as executive producers. The script is being written by Thomas Michael Donnelly (Our Fathers).

Deck the Halls – Adapted from the first book in Mary Higgins Clark and daughter Carol Higgins Clark’s series of holiday mystery novels, this warm-hearted story brings together two of the authors’ most popular characters: Detective Regan Reilly and cleaning-woman-turned-private-eye Alvirah Meegan. The women investigate the kidnapping of Regan’s father and a young female driver just before the holidays. The race is on to rescue the pair and get them home in time for Christmas. Howard Burkons (John Q, TNT’s The Ron Clark Story) is set to write the script. He will executive-produce with Brenda Friend (Joan of Arc, The Ron Clark Story).

Good Morning, Killer– Based on a novel by April Smith, this thriller follows FBI Special Agent Ana Gray as she hunts for a kidnapper. As Ana develops a rapport with the kidnapper’s latest victim, the suspect suddenly changes his pattern. Now Ana must race to find him before he strikes again. Smith is set to write the script and executive-produce the project.

Hide – Based on the book by Lisa Gardner, Hide pits two detectives against a killer who seems to have returned from the dead. The project is written by Janet Brownell (Eloise at the Plaza) and executive-produced by Stephanie Germain (The Day After Tomorrow).

TNT also announced that they are developing a series based on Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan books. A series based on bestselling author Mitch Albom is also in the works.

I’m very excited about the news that Lisa Gardner’s Hide is going to be adapted into a movie. The book is just fantastic—it’s a creepy thriller that kept me up late into the night and I still remember it years later. I can’t wait to see which actors are cast as D.D. Warren and Bobby Dodge. Do you have any casting suggestions?

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

If you liked Lisa Gardner’s award winning 2010 book, The Neighbor, you’re going to want to pick up her latest novel, Love You More. Detective D.D. Warren is once again partnered with Massachusetts state trooper Bobby Dodge to solve a murder. This time they’re investigating one of their own, fellow state trooper Tessa Leoni. Trooper Leoni’s husband is dead and she has confessed to shooting him in self-defense. Her battered face and other injuries back her story up. Sounds like an open and shut case, right? The thing is, Tessa’s six-year-old daughter, Sophie, is missing and Tessa’s story isn’t quite adding up. So what happened to the child? Could Tessa have harmed her own daughter?

If you pick up Love You More (and I highly recommend that you do), be prepared for some late nights. It kept me up well into the night because I just couldn’t put it down. It’s the type of thriller that keeps you on edge and breathless as you try to figure out what will happen next. And, much like The Neighbor, what makes the book a must-read is Gardner’s ability to create a captivating character like Tessa. Is she good? Or is she bad? She’s definitely manipulative, but you have to wait until the end of the book to find out all of her secrets.

Love You More alternates between the viewpoints of the two policewomen, Tessa and D.D., who are so much alike, yet forced to go head to head on this case. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Kirsten Potter and Katie MacNichol. Both ladies are great narrators and listening to them was a pleasure.

Love You More has really cemented Lisa Gardner as one of my favorite authors. Her stories are haunting and packed with so many unpredictable twists and turns that they are unforgettable. I can’t recommend Love You More enough!

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars | Publisher: Bantam | Pages: 368 | Source: Purchased | Buy on Amazon

Follow me on Twitter @kristendaemons

With new releases from Nora Roberts, Daniel Silva, and Jennifer Weiner, July is another big month for books. Take a look at some upcoming book releases I think you’ll be interested in.

The Island by Elin Hilderbrand
Available July 6, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
From New York Times bestseller Elin Hilderbrand, a new novel set on Tuckernuck, a tiny island off the coast of Nantucket.

Four women-a mother, her sister, two grown daughters-head to Tuckernuck for a retreat, hoping to escape their troubles. Intead, they find only drama, secrets, and life-changing revelations.

The Search by Nora Roberts
Available July 6, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
The #1 New York Times-bestselling author presents a riveting novel where a canine search and rescue volunteer fights danger and finds love in the Pacific Northwest wilderness.

To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life-a quaint house on an island off Seattle’s coast, a thriving dog-training school, and a challenging volunteer job performing canine search and rescues. Not to mention her three intensely loyal Labs. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare…

Several years ago, Fiona was the only survivor of the Red Scarf serial killer, who shot and killed Fiona’s cop fiancé and his K-9 partner.

On Orcas Island, Fiona found the peace and solitude she needed to rebuild her life. But all that changes on the day Simon Doyle barrels up her drive, desperate for her help. He’s the reluctant owner of an out-of-control puppy, foisted upon him by his mother. Jaws has eaten through Simon’s house, and he’s at his wit’s end.

To Fiona, Jaws is nothing she can’t handle. Simon, however, is another matter. A newcomer to Orcas, he’s a rugged and in-tensely private artist, known for the exquisite furniture he creates from wood. Simon never wanted a puppy-and he most definitely doesn’t want a woman. Besides, the lanky redhead is not his type. But tell that to his hormones.

As Fiona embarks on training Jaws, and Simon begins to appreciate both dog and trainer, the past tears back into Fiona’s life. A copycat killer has emerged out of the shadows, a man whose bloodlust has been channeled by a master with one motive: to reclaim the woman who slipped out of his hands…

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
Available July 6, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
Heralded as “a modern day Jane Austen” by USA Today, National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman has compelled and delighted hundreds of thousands of readers. Now, in her most ambitious work yet, Goodman weaves together the worlds of Silicon Valley and rare book collecting in a delicious novel about appetite, temptation, and fulfillment.

Emily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore. Emily is rational and driven, while Jess is dreamy and whimsical. Emily’s boyfriend, Jonathan, is fantastically successful. Jess’s boyfriends, not so much—as her employer George points out in what he hopes is a completely disinterested way.

Bicoastal, surprising, rich in ideas and characters, The Cookbook Collector is a novel about getting and spending, and about the substitutions we make when we can’t find what we’re looking for: reading cookbooks instead of cooking, speculating instead of creating, collecting instead of living. But above all it is about holding on to what is real in a virtual world: love that stays.

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
Available July 13, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

According to Jennifer Weiner’s website:
FLY AWAY HOME, my newest novel, will be published on July 13, 2010. It’s a story that will probably feel familiar to anyone who’s been following the news over the last year or two: a powerful politician is caught in an affair, and gives a press conference apologizing for his indiscretions with his long-suffering spouse at this side. The book picks up when the press conference ends — what becomes of the broken-hearted wife of a cheating senator? And how does the scandal affect his adult daughters?

Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner
Available July 13, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
He knows everything about you—including the first place you’ll hide.

On a warm summer night in one of Boston’s working-class neighborhoods, an unthinkable crime has been committed: Four members of a family have been brutally murdered. The father—and possible suspect—now lies clinging to life in the ICU. Murder-suicide? Or something worse? Veteran police detective D. D. Warren is certain of only one thing: There’s more to this case than meets the eye.

Danielle Burton is a survivor, a dedicated nurse whose passion is to help children at a locked-down pediatric psych ward. But she remains haunted by a family tragedy that shattered her life nearly twenty-five years ago. The dark anniversary is approaching, and when D. D. Warren and her partner show up at the facility, Danielle immediately realizes: It has started again.

A devoted mother, Victoria Oliver has a hard time remembering what normalcy is like. But she will do anything to ensure that her troubled son has some semblance of a childhood. She will love him no matter what. Nurture him. Keep him safe. Protect him. Even when the threat comes from within her own house.

In New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner’s most compelling work of suspense to date, the lives of these three women unfold and connect in unexpected ways, as sins from the past emerge—and stunning secrets reveal just how tightly blood ties can bind. Sometimes the most devastating crimes are the ones closest to home.

Faithful Place by Tana French
Available July 13, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
The hotly anticipated third novel of the Dublin murder squad from the New York Times bestselling author

Back in 1985, Frank Mackey was nineteen, growing up poor in Dublin’s inner city, and living crammed into a small flat with his family on Faithful Place. But he had his sights set on a lot more. He and Rosie Daly were all ready to run away to London together, get married, get good jobs, break away from factory work and poverty and their old lives.

But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn’t show. Frank took it for granted that she’d dumped him-probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again.

Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie’s suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not.

Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he’s a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daly-and he’s willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.

The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
Available July 20, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
Gabriel Allon returns in the spellbinding new novel from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.

Two families, one terrible secret, and a painting to die for…

It has been six months since Gabriel’s showdown with Ivan Kharkov. Now, having severed his ties with the Office, Gabriel has retreated to the Cornish coast with only one thing in mind: healing his wife, Chiara, after her encounter with evil. But an unspeakable act of violence once again draws Gabriel into a world of danger when an art restorer is brutally murdered and the newly discovered Rembrandt on which he is working taken. Gabriel is persuaded to use his unique skills to trace the painting and those responsible for the crimes; but, as he investigates, he discovers there are terrible secrets connected to the painting, and terrible men behind them. Before he is done, he will have undertaken a journey through some of the twentieth century’s darkest history-and come face-to-face with some of the same darkness within himself.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
Available July 20, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love – the light and the dark, the warm and the cold – in a way you will never forget.

Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Available July 20, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
It’s finally here! Six years and almost 1000 pages have all led to this epic finale! With six of Ramona’s seven evil exes dispatched, it should be time for Scott Pilgrim to face Gideon Graves, the biggest and baddest of her former beaus. But didn’t Ramona take off at the end of Book 5? Shouldn’t that let Scott off the hook? Maybe it should, maybe it shouldn’t, but one thing is for certain all of this has been building to Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour! The sixth and final volume to indie comics most influential series in the last decade! Soon to be a major motion picture coming in August 2010 directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera.

Star Island by Carl Hiaasen
Available July 27, 2010 (Order on Amazon)

From the publisher:
Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen—and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster.

Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her “undercover stunt double,” Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too “indisposed”—meaning wasted—to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott.

Now the challenge for Cherry’s handlers (über–stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker–wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public—and from Cherry herself.

The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink—the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp—and now he’s heading for Miami to find her . . .

Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry’s motley posse does?

All will be revealed in this hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane.

It’s hard to believe that 2009 is coming to a close and we’re about to enter a new decade. As the end of the year approaches, I’ve been looking back at all the books I’ve read in 2009 and I made a list of a few that stood out from the rest. These might not be the best books of the year, but they are books that I had fun reading.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help is easily the best book I read all year (maybe even the past few years) and you can read my full review here. I rated it 5 out of 5 stars because it has a page turning plot and characters that are so real that they feel like old friends by the end of the novel. The Help became a sleeper hit over the summer thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations (I know I’ve told anyone who will listen that they MUST read this book) and it’s still holding steady on the NYT bestseller list. It’s set in the 1960′s but the story is timeless and I think it has a universal appeal that makes it an excellent choice for gift giving.

The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly

Newspaper crime reporter Jack McEvoy, last seen in The Poet, returns in The Scarecrow and gets tangled up with another serial killer. Through the old-school journalist, Connelly gives the reader a glimpse into the world of newspaper reporting and it’s state of decline. It’s a gripping and suspenseful novel that’s a step above most crime thrillers.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Dan Brown’s books get a lot of criticism and certain people like to claim that his blockbusters are killing the publishing industry. I say whatever gets people reading is a good thing and I thought The Lost Symbol was a highly entertaining read (full review). It presented interesting information about the founding fathers and the Freemasons in an accessible way. It also inspired me to read more about noetic science, a topic I had never heard of until this book. Any book that compels me to read more is definitely a success.

This Charming Man by Marian Keyes

This Charming Man is my favorite chick-lit book of 2009 (read full review here). Marian Keyes is one of my favorite authors because she writes about emotional issues, like depression, in such a real way since it’s something she’s dealt with in her own life. In This Charming Man, her characters face domestic abuse and alcoholism, and she explores the emotions that accompany these problems. It’s darker than her previous novels, but there are still plenty of funny moments where Keyes displays her great sense of humor.

The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner

The Neighbor is one of the best audiobooks I listened to this year (read full review here). It stands out because it’s spine-tingling suspense kept me up late for several nights listening to the book on my iPod. The story is read by three very talented narrators who delivered great performances. The Neighbor was the perfect thriller for me because it created a lot of tension but wasn’t so scary that it gave me nightmares.

Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin’s memoir is my favorite non-fiction book of the year (read full review here). I love how Kathy isn’t afraid to tell it like it is or call out hypocrisy when she sees it, no matter how many people she pisses off. Despite its hilarious title, Official Book Club Selection didn’t make in into Oprah’s book club, but who cares? Kathy’s the queen of the D-list and her devoted fans wouldn’t have it any other way.

If I had to describe The Neighbor in one word, that word would be tense. This psychological thriller had me anxiously holding my breath and staying up late into the night to find out what would happen next. The ripped from the headlines premise is that pretty, young schoolteacher Sandra Jones has gone missing without a trace from her Boston home. There’s no body, but there is some small evidence of a struggle, and the only potential witness is her four-year-old daughter. Of course, as we’ve seen in recent high-profile cases of missing women, the media descends upon the house and police begin investigating the husband as the prime suspect

The husband, handsome Jason Jones, is a journalist and Patrick Dempsey look-alike. Jason is detached and bordering on uncooperative, which immediately arouses suspicion in police detective D. D. Warren. She is sure that he is hiding something, but observes that he seems like a very caring and attentive father.

Attention shifts away from Jason Jones when the police learn that a convicted felon lives on the same street. The neighbor, Aidan Brewster, is a registered sex offender because when he was 19 he had a relationship with a 14 year-old girl. This offense means he gets lumped together with child molesters and other serious criminals, but he insists that he is not a monster, that he just made a bad decision as a teenager. Gardner raises some interesting questions about how society treats sex offenders, even after they’ve served their time.

The plot unfolds slowly and the reader is in the dark about what actually happened until the very end. Little by little, we learn more about the Joneses and it becomes clear that they are hiding some secrets. The tension in the story just keeps building and building until we find out what actually happened to Sandra Jones. All I’ll say about the ending is that it is satisfying, but I found some elements of it to be unrealistic. Lisa Gardner fans will appreciate the return of D. D. Warren, a brief appearance by Bobby Dodge, and might recognize a character from her novel Say Goodbye. Overall, The Neighbor is just a terrific suspense novel and is sure to keep you engaged until the end.

I actually listened to the audio book version of The Neighbor, and I think they must have maxed out their budget because it was incredibly well done. The three narrators – Emily Janice Card, Kirby Heyborne, and Kirsten Potter – delivered great performances. I was impressed by the way they brought each character to life. Look for the audio book at your local library – I can’t recommend it enough.

Buy The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner on Amazon by clicking here.