Free/Bargain Mystery/Suspense/Thriller June 2014

[sufue]

Death by Inferior Design, the first Domestic Bliss mystery by Leslie Caine, is $0.99 in the Amazon US store, and in the Kobo US store. It's also about the same price and couponable in the Kobo India store.

I'm not sure if this is a "sale" with a price that will go back up or not, or if this is a permanent price on the first in the series to get you hooked, but either way $0.99 is not bad.

Interior decorator, Erin Gilbert heads to picturesque Crestview, Colorado for a friendly (if sharks are friendly) competition: She’ll design a room in one home; and the impossibly handsome Steve Sullivan—her main rival—will do a room in another. The prize? A big feature in Denver Magazine, showcasing their interior design business.

Who could have dreamed the uproar to ensue in a neighborhood full of eccentric homeowners, jealously hidden secrets and a few marriages in need of total makeovers. Trapped together in the midst of chaos, could the charming Steve turn out to be a…friend?

But between her custom, cushy pillows and dramatic drapery, Erin uncovers a very undecorative dead body, too many suspects, and a killer who seems to have designs…on her!

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Death-Inferior...dp/B00ISC2LEU/

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebo...erior-design-1

[Mort1997]

Free Today on Amazon UK - What She Saw (Forensic Handwriting Mysteries) by Sheila Lowe

'Imagine waking to the shock of finding yourself on a train and realizing that you don’t know who you are, where you are coming from, where you are going. And with the certain knowledge that you cannot afford to reveal your plight to anyone, least of all the police.

A story of psychological suspense that follows a young woman through the terrifying labyrinth of amnesia, where no one is who or what they appear to be. Claudia Rose, Detective Joel Jovanic, and Dr. Zebediah Gold from Sheila Lowe’s Forensic Handwriting mystery series play a vital role in helping her uncover a devastating past and learn what she saw that robbed her of her memory.'

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E3P0C6...4741_TE_M1T1DP

US
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3P0C6K/...4741_TE_M1T1DP

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00E3P0C...4741_TE_M1T1DP

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00E3P0C6K/r...4741_TE_M1T1DP

[Mort1997]

Free Today on Amazon UK (a repeat probably but good)-Crooked Man(Tubby Dubonnet Series #1) by Tony Dunbar

'If a gym bag of cash fell into your hands, what would you do to keep it?

A simple man with a refined palate, maverick New Orleans lawyer Tubby Dubonnet has a penchant for fishing, Old Fashioneds, off-track betting, and fighting evil while passing a good time.
His clients are all renegades from the asylum (aka Orleans Parish), including a transvestite entertainer, a buxom deadbeat blonde, a doctor who refers his own patients to a malpractice lawyer, and a Mardi Gras reveler who drives a float shaped like a giant crawfish pot. He also has his hands full with an ex-wife and three teenage daughters, who are experts in the art of wrapping Tubby around their little fingers. And somehow, between work and family, Tubby finds time to sample the highs and lows of idiosyncratic Crescent City cuisine, from trout meuniere amandine and French roast coffee with chicory to shrimp po-boys and homemade pecan pralines.
Tubby's new client is Darryl Alvarez, the manager of a local nightclub who's been caught unloading marijuana from a shrimp boat. At their first meeting, Darryl entrusts Tubby with an ordinary-looking blue gym bag. But after Darryl's unfortunate demise, Tubby realizes he must tighten his grasp on the gym bag -- and its million-dollar contents.
Tubby can’t just give up the cash. But if he gets caught, he’ll be in jail. And if the wrong people catch him, he’ll wish he was.'

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crooked-Man-...27906&sr=1-683

US
http://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Man-Ha...27906&sr=1-683

AU
http://www.amazon.com.au/Crooked-Man...27906&sr=1-683

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Crooked-Man-Har...27906&sr=1-683

[Synamon]

The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro is the Kindle Daily deal today for $1.99 at Amazon US. You can get the matching Audible audiobook for $$1.99 as well. I read this last year and enjoyed it. I thought it "was a well plotted thriller with the bonus of a fascinating glimpse into the art scene".

Almost twenty-five years after the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—still the largest unsolved art theft in history—one of the stolen Degas paintings is delivered to the Boston studio of a young artist. Claire Roth has entered into a Faustian bargain with a powerful gallery owner by agreeing to forge the Degas in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But as she begins her work, she starts to suspect that this long-missing masterpiece—the very one that had been hanging at the Gardner for one hundred years—may itself be a forgery. The Art Forger is a thrilling novel about seeing—and not seeing—the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.

[BelleZora]

Drawing Conclusions (Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery #20) by Donna Leon is on sale at Amazon for $1.99.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RPY4AQ

I've been picking up books from this series at Kobo where they are couponable. But I never got one as inexpensive as $1.99 (obviously never used the 'magic' 90% coupons).

[BelleZora]

This freebie may interest some Golden Age fans: The Murder At Sissingham Hall (An Angela Marchmont Mystery #1) by Clara Benson.

I found this at clarabenson.com:

Clara Benson was born in 1890 and as a young woman wrote several novels featuring Angela Marchmont. She was unpublished in her lifetime, preferring to describe her writing as a hobby, and it was not until many years after her death in 1965 that her family rediscovered her work and decided to introduce it to a wider audience.

Titles currently available in the Angela Marchmont series:

1. The Murder at Sissingham Hall

2. The Mystery at Underwood House

3. The Treasure at Poldarrow Point

4. The Riddle at Gipsy’s Mile

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BVC1SSE

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

This freebie may interest some Golden Age fans: The Murder At Sissingham Hall (An Angela Marchmont Mystery #1) by Clara Benson.

I found this at clarabenson.com:



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BVC1SSE

The other three books in the series are on special offer at 99c/77p each.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The other three books in the series are on special offer at 99c/77p each.

Only the 1 book free and none of others on special at Amazon Aus.

[BelleZora]

Here are a couple of repeat freebies by Anthony Neil Smith:

Psychosomatic, published in print by Wildside Press, 2005.

Because Lydia didn't have arms or legs, she shelled out three thousand bucks to a washed up middleweight named Cap to give her ex-husband the beating of his life.

But the beating turns to murder, and the murder into lust and desperation between Lydia and an underworld clean-up man. Meanwhile, overgrown frat boy car thieves take up cop killing as a side hobby. When these paths cross, a horror show of violence unfolds as they all slide into a hell of their own design, surrounded by the neon and noise of the casino strip on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Violent, vivid, life at hyper-speed. This debut novel from the editor of Plots with Guns is a noir nightmare that asks how much is too much in a relationship, and what is the cost of leaving? Ken Bruen calls it "the darkest song I've ever read".

Yellow Medicine, published in print by Bleak House Books, 2008.

From Booklist: Have you ever wondered what would happen if a wiseacre southern deputy with vigilante overtones got himself transferred, thanks to Hurricane Katrina, to the frozen wastes of the Minnesota prairie? Probably not, but Smith, himself a Gulf Coast migrant to the northern flatlands, is determined to find out in this series debut that stars Deputy Billy Lafitte, a troubled transplant with a plethora of personal problems. His ex-wife and two kids, whom he professes to love devoutly, are sequestered by his in-laws Down South, leaving him no choice but to dally with a singer named Drew, who is unhappily but madly infatuated with a boyfriend of her own. That boyfriend ends up not only murdered but decapitated, and the last person with whom he can be placed is the deputy himself. Intent to clear himself, Deputy Billy is soon tangling with a drug mob and—not again!—terrorists (in Minnesota!). All in all, though, Smith has a powerful voice and delivers quite a romp, offering along the way a sort of Tony Hillerman glimpse into a part of the country that is not often the subject of crime fiction. --Steve Glassman

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

A thread for June.

We point out free and bargain Mystery/Suspense/Thriller titles to each other. Please don't post any self-published books*, and please do a search before posting to avoid duplicates.
Be aware that many freebies are only free for a day, so grab them fast!

*Unless you have read them yourself, think they are excellent, and you're not connected to the author in any way.

This is a self-published freebie today that meets the above criteria. I read it when I first got my Kindle, and it was by far the best self-published book I read during that time. I think I liked it, outside of the fact that it was as well-written as many trad published mysteries, because it reminded me of Richard S. Prather's bumbling, fallible, and entertaining sleuth Shell Scott.

Russian Roulette by Mike Faricy

No one is surprised when dysfunctional PI Devlin Haskell ends up in bed with his latest client. But, he hasn't the foggiest notion she's just signed him up with the Russian mob. Their 'special' relationship quickly finds Dev at odds with local police and an FBI task force investigating human trafficking. In the process he places a foot firmly on both sides of the law. He's shot, beaten, car bombed, and used as a human shield, all in the name of justice, at least as he sees it.

An entertaining tale of rank ineptitude and one night stands. Russian Roulette is another fast paced, engrossing read from the Master of the Bizarre, Mike Faricy.

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V4AHYU

I'm guessing it is free in other countries today, as well, but I'm short on time this morning.

[Dr. Drib]

I purchased ALL of the Richard S. Prather series books and love them.

This one is now added to that list, and to see how it compares.

Thank you!

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I purchased ALL of the Richard S. Prather series books and love them.

This one is now added to that list, and to see how it compares.

Thank you!

I, too, have loved Prather and owned all of his books (probably multiple times over the decades) and bought them again from Fictionwise a couple years ago. I pretty much like anyone who reminds me of Shell Scott. If he had a grandson, it would have been Devlin. I do not recommend either series to anyone expecting a dignified, politically correct, or consistently competent detective.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

I, too, have loved Prather and owned all of his books (probably multiple times over the decades) and bought them again from Fictionwise a couple years ago. I pretty much like anyone who reminds me of Shell Scott. If he had a grandson, it would have been Devlin. I do not recommend either series to anyone expecting a dignified, politically correct, or consistently competent detective.

Those are my thoughts exactly!

These are wonderfully funny, politically incorrect mystery novels.

A different age....

Mine were purchased from Fictionwise, as well - the complete set!

Those ebooks are my treasures.

[KyBunnies]

Question:

On Amazon I keep seeing romance as a genre in the cozy mystery. I thought cozy mystery was just mystery. No romance involved.

What do you say Dr. Drib?

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

Question:

On Amazon I keep seeing romance as a genre in the cozy mystery. I thought cozy mystery was just mystery. No romance involved.

What do you say Dr. Drib?

Oh my .... I think I can begin to imagine Don's answer

(I know how addicted Don is to the romance genre )