FREE/BARGAIN - Mystery, Suspense, Thriller - 2014

[peachiekene]

Bargain

Die Laughing: 5 Comic Crime Novels - Steve Brewer, Bill Fitzhugh, Parnell Hall, Paul Levine, Ben Rehder

AVAILABLE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 30 ONLY!

Grab these 5 comic crime novels from 5 award-winning authors.

Lost Vegas* by Steve Brewer

Spoiler:

Nick Papadopoulos used to be a button man for the Mob. Now he's the front man for an aging casino in Fowler, Nevada, an isolated backwater known as "Lost Vegas." Nick's stuck in a rut and deep in debt. Then he gets an idea: If someone would only rob his casino, he could collect on the insurance and get out from under. Tony Zinn runs a heist crew in San Francisco. He's never even heard of Fowler, Nevada. But Nick makes him an offer that's almost too good to be true. Neither man expects interference from rival casino owner Big Jim Kelton or his hired goon, a huge Samoan named Shamu. But once they're involved, it can only end in bloodshed. Filled with twists and double-crosses, LOST VEGAS is Steve Brewer at his best.

Fender Benders by Bill Fitzhugh

Spoiler:

Eddie Long plans to be a country music star but he's stuck touring the college frat circuit. But after his nagging wife apparently dies at the hands of a serial killer, Eddie writes the best song of his life and it goes straight to number one. Eddie's friend, freelance writer Jimmy Rogers, senses a great opportunity and sets out to write the life story of Nashville's newest sensation. But Jimmy's research unearths some troubling facts about the death of Eddie's wife, facts that could ruin Eddie's burgeoning career—while making Jimmy a star of the publishing world. Throw in a beautiful and opportunistic country radio DJ, a pair of wily record producers, and a naive young singer-songwriter, and the stage is set. Everybody plans to make a killing—one way or another. It's murder on Music Row, where things don't always turn out as planned. Fender Benders won the Lefty Award (best humorous novel) at the Left Coast Crime Convention 2001.

Favor (Stanley Hastings Mystery Book 3) by Parnell Hall

Spoiler:

It was just a simple favor. Drive down to Atlantic City, check out Sergeant MacAullif's son-in-law, and see why his daughter wasn't happy in her marriage. Stanley Hastings started following the guy around, and quickly found himself involved with notorious loan sharks, sleazy private eyes, fat-cat casino owners, and crooked blackjack dealers, not to mention two dead bodies. Stanley had no idea who killed them, or why, but all the clues seemed to point to the son-in-law. Only the witness blew the ID and the cops arrested Stanley instead. Taking the fall for homicide is a hell of a favor. Stanley was in over his head, so he did the one thing he never thought he'd do in his life. He hired a private eye!

Habeas Porpoise (Solomon vs Lord series - Book 4) byPaul Levine

Spoiler:

The love-hate relationship of Solomon & Lord continues. Sure, opposites attract, but they argue, too! This time, it starts with the kidnaping of two trained dolphins from Miami’s Cetacean Park. When one of the ecoterrorists behind the raid turns up dead, his partner in eco-crime is charged with homicide, even though he didn’t pull the trigger. It’s called “felony murder,” and Solomon thinks it’s a bum rap. What he doesn’t count on is his lover and law partner Victoria Lord being named a special prosecutor. Conflicts-of-interest abound, and Steve is up to his old tricks. At least, the mismatched legal duo agree on something...each one vows to win the case!

Buck Fever (Blanco County Mysteries Book 1) by Ben Rehder

Spoiler:

It's the week before deer hunting season, as close to a statewide holiday as you get in Texas, and the locals are getting restless. Game Warden John Marlin has his hands full with poaching complaints coming in faster than he can write out-of-season tickets. Then a call of a different sort comes in. A man dressed up in some sort of deer costume has been shot at the Circle S ranch, and witnesses are reporting a massive wild-eyed buck prancing about the pasture in a lovesick frenzy. Marlin's seen a lot in his years, but this is wilder than he could have imagined: the man in the deer suit is a good friend, and the whacked-out whitetail isn't exactly a stranger either. It's the beginning of a mad, frantic weekend in Blanco County, one that will see a few more men shot, an invasion by Colombians with more than hunting on their minds, and damn near the end of Marlin's life. Ben Rehder serves it all up with a huge helping of humor in this debut comic mystery that will firmly establish him as the funniest crime writer in Texas.

AmazonUS 99¢
AmazonCA $1.06

*This is the only title in the set that, as far as I can tell, is self-published. I have not read this one and can not vouch for quality, but I hope it is okay considering the other 4 titles ARE traditionally or independently published and were originally released in paper.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

Bargain

Die Laughing: 5 Comic Crime Novels - Steve Brewer, Bill Fitzhugh, Parnell Hall, Paul Levine, Ben Rehder


AmazonUS 99¢
AmazonCA $1.06

*This is the only title in the set that, as far as I can tell, is self-published. I have not read this one and can not vouch for quality, but I hope it is okay considering the other 4 titles ARE traditionally or independently published and were originally released in paper.

I went to school with Steve Brewer. In fact, he contribued some writing when I was Feature Editor of the newspaper at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR).

So, I'll vouch for him and recommend this book.

[haydnfan]

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn is only $2.50 in the US.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Places-No...dp/B0027MJU00/

[peachiekene]

Free

British Mystery Megapack:
The Good Soldier, Haunted Hotel and The Red House Mystery
By Ford Madox Ford, Wilkie Collins, A. A. Milne

Fans of traditional British mysteries are in for a treat with this British Mystery Classics three pack:

THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford

Spoiler:

In 'The Good Soldier,' Ford Madox Ford paved the way for over a century of thriller writers and film-makers who would go on to use the idea of the unreliable narrator to create mystery and suspense. Events in the story unfold just before World War I and chronicle the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham, the soldier to whom the title refers, and his own seemingly perfect marriage and that of two American friends. The novel opens with the famous line, “This is the saddest story I have ever heard.”
The narrator explains that for nine years he, his wife Florence and their friends Ashburnham and his wife Leonora had an ostensibly normal friendship while Edward and Florence sought treatment for their heart ailments at a spa in Nauheim, Germany. As it turns out, nothing in the relationships or in the characters is as it first seems. Florence’s heart ailment is a fiction she perpetrated on John to force them to stay in Europe so that she could continue her affair with an American thug named Jimmy. Edward and Leonora have a loveless, imbalanced marriage broken by his constant infidelities (both of body and heart) and Leonora’s attempts to control Edward’s affairs (both financial and romantic).
Dowell is a fool and is coming to realize how much of a fool he is, as Florence and Edward had an affair under his nose for nine years without John knowing until Florence was dead.
‘The Good Soldier’ is a masterpiece of early twentieth-century fiction.

HAUNTED HOUSE by Wilkie Collins

Spoiler:

The ghost of Lord Montberry haunts the Palace Hotel in Venice --- or does it? Montberry's beautiful-yet-terrifying wife, the Countess Narona, and her erstwhile brother are the center of the terror that fills the Palace Hotel. Are their malefactions at the root of the haunting -- or is there something darker, something much more unknowable at work?
Wilkie Collins's little known horror-ghost story of 1878 recalls his two prior triumphs ‘The Woman in White’ and ‘The Moonstone’ with its use of detective procedures and mystery-genre plot twists that made those two earlier novels so popular with Victorian readers.

THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY by A. A. Milne

Spoiler:

The Red House Mystery is a "locked room" whodunnit by A. A. Milne, published in 1922. It was Milne's only mystery novel.
Mark Ablett has disappeared, so Tony Gillingham, a stranger who has just arrived to call on his friend Bill, decides to investigate. Gillingham plays Sherlock Holmes to his younger counterpart's Doctor Watson; they progress almost playfully through the novel while the clues mount up and the theories abound.
In his introduction to the 1926 UK edition, A. A. Milne said he had "a passion" for detective stories, having "all sorts of curious preferences" about them: though in real life the best detectives and criminals are professionals, Milne demanded that the detective be an unscientific amateur, accompanied by a likeable Watson, rubbing shoulders with an amateur villain against whom dossiers and fingerprints are of no avail.
This was Milne's first and final venture into the detective and mystery genre, despite its immediate success and an offer of two thousand pounds for his next mystery novel.
Milne lets his readers inside the head of his amateur detective, disregarding the clichéd romance or violence of other detective novels, as the mystery becomes a puzzling sort of parlor game for the novel's characters and readers alike.
Alexander Woollcott called ‘The Red House Mystery’ "one of the three best mystery stories of all time."

KoboUS

Incidentally, all three of these titles are available here in our very lovely own library.

Spoiler:

(Be sure to check your own country's copyright laws before downloading.)

The Good Soldier - .mobi .epub
The Haunted Hotel (illustrated) - .mobi .epub
The Red House Mystery - .mobi

[sufue]

Fruits of the Poisonous Tree by Archer Mayor is the fifth book in the Joe Gunther mystery series, and is one of the US Kindle Countdown Mystery deals right now.

It's available for $0.99 now, and for approximately two more days. It is currently 10 am on Sept 8, US Pacific time. The time clicker on the webpage says it's going up to $1.99 after that. Since most of Mayor's backlist titles are $3.99, there may be some additional countdown time at increasing prices, and then back up to $3.99 after that, but can't really tell.

Amazon's countdown deals are often self-pubbed, but this is a backlist title, originally published in DTB in the 90's.

Link is here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C3DHDF2/

Blurb is here:

Spoiler:

Gail Zigman, town selectwoman and Joe Gunther's companion of many years, is raped, and the detective finds himself caught between the media, local politicians, and a network of well-meaning victims' rights advocates as he tries to put his own feelings aside and follow the trail of evidence.

Every lead seems to point to a single, obvious suspect, but is the evidence too perfect? Risking his friendship with Gail, the respect of his peers, and his own life, Lt. Gunther keeps digging, hoping to find out if the man they have in jail is rightly there, or if the evidence against him is tainted—"fruits of the poisonous tree."

"The police work is impeccable, the action scenes are clear and sharp" — Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

The third and fourth books in this series have been US Kindle Countdown deals in the last couple of months, and there is a report that the first one, at least, was also free/reduced at one point as well - although quite a while ago. So it may be worth keeping an eye out - it appears that Archer Mayor may be working his way through these backlist titles, putting them on countdown one-by-one.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by sufue

Medicus: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013TX7NY/


Terra Incognita: http://www.amazon.com/Terra-Incognit...dp/B003Z6QLEA/

Both of these books have the audible version of $3.99 when you buy the ebook.
Medicus is no longer on sale($7.99), but at the time of posting, Terra Incognita is ($1.99).

[Mort1997]

Free today on Amazon UK - Into Darkness by Anton Gill

'Germany, 1944.
The Führer has just survived another assassination attempt. But Germany is losing the war.
Stauffenberg's attempted assassination and coup originated from inside the government and military. Is the Nazi Party about to turn on itself?
Order must be restored and the High Command is calling for blood.
Max Hoffmann is enlisted, under Hitler’s instruction, to carry out an investigation. The disillusioned detective has a problem though; he knows that as soon as the investigation starts, his own treason against the Party might be uncovered.
As it becomes clear that Hoffman has not been a "good Nazi" he decides to go on the run, mere hours ahead of the SS Agents who are sent to arrest him.
As a fugitive, Hoffman only has one objective: to fight one last battle against the people that turned against him, his friends and his family - and against one man in particular. '


UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Darknes...ndeavour+press


US
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Darkness-...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Into-Darkne...ndeavour+press

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Into-Darkness-A...ndeavour+press

[BelleZora]

Free today: Devil's Food: A Loretta Kovacs Novel (#1) by Anthony Bruno. Published by Forge in hardcover, 1997. Goodreads

AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00J2IU7ZY

CA: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00J2IU7ZY

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J2IU7ZY

US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J2IU7ZY

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/...d=nMYdAwAAQBAJ

Not free at B&N and Kobo when I checked.

[gabby98]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Free today: Devil's Food: A Loretta Kovacs Novel (#1) by Anthony Bruno. Published by Forge in hardcover, 1997. Goodreads
......
Not free at B&N and Kobo when I checked.

thanks....grabbed it

[Fbone]

Sleight of Hand by Phillip Margolin is $1.99 [HarperCollins] at all retailers.

https://play.google.com/store/books/...d=V8-zPvqNPIAC

Tenacious investigator Dana Cutler must take down a charismatic and diabolical lawyer before he can pull off the perfect crime in this powerhouse thriller from New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

Both of these books have the audible version of $3.99 when you buy the ebook.
Medicus is no longer on sale($7.99), but at the time of posting, Terra Incognita is ($1.99).

Yes, Medicus was a Kindle Daily Deal, now over, while Terra Incognita is part of a monthly sale which looks to be good through the end of September. No idea why you'd put the first book in the series on sale for only one day, and have the second one be on sale for a month.

Maybe one can argue that folks have to have time to read the first one before buying the second one - in which case the publishers clearly aren't paying attention to MR members who are willing to buy books just to add to their TBR piles - and who also read very fast! But I really think I'd want to have the first one on sale for a long time to entice folks into trying the series, rather than the other way around.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by sufue

I really think I'd want to have the first one on sale for a long time to entice folks into trying the series, rather than the other way around.

I agree.
Anytime I see a book that looks interesting and it's in the middle of the series, I will pass it over - unless it's something I was already looking at getting.

I included Medicus up there because, even at full price, it's still cheaper to buy the ebook+audiobook than just the audiobook by itself.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

Bargain

Die Laughing: 5 Comic Crime Novels - Steve Brewer, Bill Fitzhugh, Parnell Hall, Paul Levine, Ben Rehder


AmazonUS 99¢
AmazonCA $1.06

*This is the only title in the set that, as far as I can tell, is self-published. I have not read this one and can not vouch for quality, but I hope it is okay considering the other 4 titles ARE traditionally or independently published and were originally released in paper.

In the same style as the Die Laughing boxed set is this one:

Killer Femmes: 5 Irresistible Crime Novels From Around The World

Who can resist 5 suspenseful crime novels set in exotic settings ... all written by award-winning, best-selling authors ... and best of all, the complete set, valued at $17.95, is only 99¢ (for a limited time)? We couldn't either, so we created the Killer Femmes Boxed Set. Between us, we've written over 60 novels and have been nominated for (and even won) numerous awards, including the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Macavity, the Barry, the Lovey, and the CWA Dagger.

Killer Femmes presents:
Easy Innocence by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Cross Current by Christine Kling
The Flower Master by Sujata Massey
Killer Instinct by Zoë Sharp
Louisiana Hotshot by Julie Smith

More extended blurbs about the books are here:

Spoiler:

Review

Easy Innocence by Libby Fischer Hellmann
Library Journal (Starred Review): "Hellmann brings to life the reality of bullying among teenage girls with enough twists and turns to keep you reading. Highly recommended."

Cross Current by Christine Kling
Booklist: "Kling adds swift plotting, convincing nautical detail, voodoo lore, and tropical scenery . . . Florida's answer to Grafton and Barr."

The Flower Master by Sujata Massey
Publisher's Weekly:"...a harmonious mix ... enhanced greatly by the richly detailed Tokyo setting, from ancient tea houses to arcane rituals involving the cherry blossom festival."

Killer Instinct by Zoë Sharp
Marilyn Stasio, NY Times: "Sharp means business. The bloody bar fights are bloody brilliant, and Charlie's skills are both formidable and for real."

Louisiana Hotshot by Julie Smith
The Times-Picayune: "A stroke of genius ... Louisiana Hotshot is fresh, fast, and touching. Just like New Orleans, it has a lot of 'tude and a big heart."

From the Author

From Libby Hellmann
Some books come from a vision. Others from personal experience. EASY INNOCENCE came to me out of fear. My daughter was starting high school, I was recently separated, and I doubted my ability to be the single mother of a teenager. A hazing incident at a nearby high school had just occurred -- it made the national media -- and several teenagers ended up in the ER. I started to wonder what would have happened if a girl had been killed during the hazing. Why would she be murdered? Who would do it?
That's where the story turns to teen prostitution--but with a twist. It turns out that girls from seemingly stable middle-class families--not drug addicts or runaways--were (and are) hooking for money to buy designer clothes, toys, and gadgets that their parents can't afford. Most of it is motivated by the need to be accepted by their peers by owning shiny new toys.
But what does that say about the values we're teaching our daughters? EASY INNOCENCE explores that... and more.

From Christine Kling
In late November, 2000, the Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Florida, and there was a great controversy over whether or not he should be returned to Cuba or allowed to stay in the US. At the time, I was teaching high school, and I had many Haitian students in my classes. I listened to their stories of arriving in this country as boat people. I often wondered how Elian's story would have played out differently had the child been Haitian. Then, one day I saw an image in my mind of my character Seychelle alone in her boat on a flat calm sea. I watched as she raised the binoculars to her eyes, and I felt her surprise when she realized she was looking at a little girl. My novel, Cross Current, is the result of what happened when this writer started wondering, "What if . . ."

From Sujata Massey
I was fortunate enough to live in Japan for two wonderful years during the 1990s. Every day felt like an adventure, and I traveled throughout the country from my home base in the beach town of Hayama, an hour south of Tokyo. One of my weekly activities was ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) a very old art I studied both in teachers' homes and the headquarters of the Sogetsu School in Tokyo. Most of the teachers were aged 40 and up, hailing from a generation who were not supposed to work outside the home. Ikebana was an area where women could achieve high "professional" rank--although men were typically school headmasters. As a result--there were some rather competitive individuals in the business.

I also wanted to write about the toxic costs of beautiful flowers shipped to us from Latin America, the world of tea ceremony, Japanese restaurants, poetry and kimono fashion. If you want to know what happens to Rei after this exciting cherry blossom spring, The Floating Girl is next in the series.

From Zoe Sharp
This is the first book in the Charlie Fox series, so it seemed logical to introduce her to readers not familiar with the character right back at the beginning of her story. When you have a series character you have to decide early on if you're going to keep that character static, unchanging from book to book--hardly even ageing--or whether to let them grow and evolve as time goes on.

Keeping the character unchanging has its advantages. New readers can pick up any book without wondering what came beforehand, or what they've missed. But for me as a writer I like to constantly challenge Charlie, to put her in new and difficult situations to see how she copes. And, equally, to see what experience and even damage she carries forward with her from one story to the next.

In KILLER INSTINCT, although Charlie is not yet working in close-protection, she certainly shows the early signs of what she will become. And she learns what is perhaps her most important lesson--about what she is really capable off, when her back is against the wall and a life other than her own is at stake.

From Julie Smith
I'm Julie and I'm a serial serialist--the author of four mystery series. Evidently I have a little writing problem. The downside is no vacations--but the upside for you, I hope, is there's a lot to choose from. The Talba Wallis PI series, represented here, is a spinoff of the Skip Langdon series, which features a New Orleans cop. Then there's Rebecca Schwartz, the funny San Francisco lawyer, and Paul Mcdonald, the clueless almost Bay Area sometime PI. Actually, don't choose--read them all!

If you'd like a free review copy of any of my books, write me at julieorleans@cox.net . By the way, I'm a publisher as well as an author, so that goes for all the books I publish. Would you like to know about new ones? Visit our website, booksBnimble.com and sign up for our mailing list. I'm on Twitter as @booksBnimble, and you can find me here on FaceBook: facebook.com/julie.smith.1671897

And the link is here: http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Femmes-...dp/B00KR13CAW/

I've read the Massey and Smith books and liked them both, and all five appear on the Stop You're Killing Me website, which is sort of my first check for non-self-pubbed books. I'll probably buy this just to get and try the other three.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

I agree.
Anytime I see a book that looks interesting and it's in the middle of the series, I will pass it over - unless it's something I was already looking at getting.

I included Medicus up there because, even at full price, it's still cheaper to buy the ebook+audiobook than just the audiobook by itself.

If it helps any, I believe that Medicus is coupon-eligible at Kobo. I got Tabula Rasa, the latest in the series, there. You'd be on your own for the audiobook, though.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by cromag

If it helps any, I believe that Medicus is coupon-eligible at Kobo. I got Tabula Rasa, the latest in the series, there. You'd be on your own for the audiobook, though.

It helps!
I am in the middle of Medicus right now and am enjoying it enough that I went ahead and got the second - but them being couponable is definitely something to consider for the future.