The Game [Hardcover]

Derek Armstrong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

In this darkly humorous thriller, reality television becomes too real when a killer with a message preys on the contestants of America's number one TV show. A high-stakes game is played on the set of a live-broadcast, reality-television show where guests are trapped for six months in a haunted mansion. Thousands of miles away, a psychopath is executed by lethal injection in California and dies with a secret that could save many lives. Only a comical detective who fears nothing—except his teenage daughters—can hope to understand what links these two seemingly unrelated crimes, without ever losing his zest for the game or his sense of humor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Armstrong's debut falls short of its promising premise: having a murderer stalk the cast and crew of a top-rated reality TV series, Haunted Survivor, which is set in a spooky mansion in the Vermont mountains. Alban Bane, the Scottish-born, Burlington, Vt.–based detective assigned to the case, is alarmed by the copycat style of murder, which mimics that of his longtime nemesis, serial killer Tyler Hayden. The perpetrator can't be Hayden himself, though; Bane recently witnessed—and was unnerved by—his execution at San Quentin in California. (Moments before the lethal injection, Hayden whispered that he knew the identity of the man responsible for making Bane a widower.) The detective's psyche is further rocked when he finds several people linked to the Haunted Survivor case who also figured in the Hayden investigation. Suspicion is briefly cast on the program's ambitious, sexy producer, Abbey Chase, for whom Bane unconvincingly falls. Few genre fans will be surprised by the mystery's gory resolution. Author tour. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Like Ben Elton's Dead Famous (2001), this offbeat mystery features a Big Brother-like reality TV show, a murder, and a cantankerous detective, Alban Bane, who must overcome his revulsion for everything and everyone connected with the show if he is to find out whodunit. There's also a touch of the hit TV series House here, too: like the small-screen physician, the cranky, pain-pill-popping Bane adds a delightfully sarcastic tone to the action. But, for all of that, the novel somehow manages to avoid feeling derivative. Armstrong's abundant enthusiasm for his material, combined with the semisatirical plotline, compels us to keep reading, and his prose style keeps us chuckling. The sleuth who disdains the world in which he finds himself is an idea as old as Raymond Chandler, but Armstrong injects the trope with new vigor. This is a series to watch from a new publisher to watch. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Kunati Inc. (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1601640013
• ISBN-13: 978-1601640017
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,395,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Best known for historical thrillers and mystery thrillers, Derek Armstrong is also a screenwriter, publisher and well-known marketing guru. His defining signature style was described by Booklist as "brilliance in which Armstrong blends comedy, parody, and adventure in genuinely innovative ways." Armstrong is the creator of Alban Bane, featured in the Alban Bane thrillers The Game and MADicine, a character affectionately compared by critics to House M.D., the TV character. He is the author of the popular Song of Monts'gur historical trilogy, including The Last Troubadour and The Last Quest. He is also author of two non-fiction titles: Blogertize'A Leading Expert Shows How Your Blog Can Be A Money-Making Machine and The Persona Principle: How to Succeed in Business with Image-Marketing. Forthcoming in 2009 is a breakthrough Harry Potter competitor: Magick Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take a deep breath........., June 30, 2007

By 

A. Tilley - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Game (Hardcover)

Armstrong not only opens the Game with blistering pace but manages to maintain it throughout and to its gruesome conclusion. Well crafted characters bring a cinematic quality to the Game and Armstrong's Bane manages to give a completely new and refreshing slant on what at first glance could be considered an over played genre. If you think you've had your fill of action sleuths, then think again!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling and Compelling, May 25, 2007

By 

Dan Ronco "Author of 2031: The Singularity Po... (Bucks County, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Game (Hardcover)

The Game is a perfect fit for this era of reality television. In Derek Armstrong's new novel, a serial killer is knocking off members of the cast and crew of Haunted Survivor, a top rated reality show. Alban Bane, the lead detective, discovers that these murders are virtual copycats of those committed by Tyler Hayden, a serial killer Bane arrested years earlier. The catch is that Bane had just witnessed Hayden's execution. From there the plot really gets complicated. And interesting.

Although the story is complex, with twists and turns coming from all directions, Bane is the driving force that makes The Game compelling. I really like this character; he's intelligent, determined and very funny. Right up there with John Corey, Nelson DeMille's wisecracking NYPD detective.

If you enjoy a dark thriller with an offbeat sense of humor, get in The Game.

Dan Ronco is the author of Unholy Domain and PeaceMaker

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE GAME IS HUGELY CINEMATIC ... PLAIN FUN, TOO, April 9, 2007

By 

Todd Sentell (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Game (Hardcover)

Fathering two teenage daughters, you'd think detective Alban Bane would have enough to agonize about, but in "The Game," a hugely cinematic thriller with hilarious dark comic moments, we find him quickly dealing with headless corpses. Not that headless corpses give you much trouble because they're usually real still and don't talk back and you don't have to worry about making meaningful eye contact with them, it's just that this scrappy, witty cop is pretty motivated to find out how they lost so much weight real quick ... especially after he gets a creepy letter inviting him to come find out. This is an irresistible story that centers around a new American reality television show called "Haunted Survivor," where a boiling-pot mix of soon-to-be-dead-but-they-don't know-it-yet contestants see how long they can survive in an old Vermont mansion spooked by its former occupant, a mass murderer, who left the planet in the first chapter by execution by lethal injection. Survive and get one million dollars, but these contestants are having a hard time surviving. They're having an easy time getting slaughtered, though.

You've got to love a novel that crystallizes, in a single line, our squirmy fascination with this sort of thing, delivered by Haunted Survivor's uptight producer who finally becomes good and unhinged at the end of the story herself, "We're assuming," she said, "America's fascination with reality television and crime will continue." Oh, it will, lady. It will. And you've got to love a thriller, like all great literate thrillers, that makes you feel pretty sure you know who the killer is ... but guess what. Depending on how you lean, Bane pulls for the Boston Red Sox, so this gives him a dangerous or desperate quality, or both. The poor cop's pretty beat up by the end of the story, but he knows how to take a bullet and a good stabbing and bleed all over the place as he attempts to save one of those pesky teenage daughters of his who got caught up in the slaughter. Bane doesn't know it, but one of the best fight scenes you'll ever read ... and there are a bunch of them in The Game ... is being videotaped by the show's sinister creator, and later shown as a news clip as a testament to Bane's professional viciousness. Good job, Dad, saving your daughter's head like that. Videotape is okay for now, but from the first few lines of The Game, you can see this book on the big screen, too. Of course, by the time the movie comes out you'll know who the killer is ... but who cares. We're fascinated with reality television and crime and we just can't help it ... because it's so much bloody fun.

Todd Sentell, Author of TOONAMINT OF CHAMPIONS: How LaJuanita Mumps Got to Join Augusta National Golf Club Real Easy