Free/Bargain Suspense/Mystery/Thriller February 2013

[cromag]

Also free on Amazon US:

http://www.amazon.com/Michaela-Bancr...roft+Mysteries

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Mort1997

Free on Amazon UK
The Michaela Bancroft Mysteries 1-3 (Michaela Bancroft Suspense Series) by Michele scott

I assume these are American books, despite the UK sale? The description sounds rather American - not too many "rodeo riders" or "quarter horses" in our neck of the woods .

Anyone have any thoughts on this author? I haven't come across her before.

[Mort1997]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I assume these are American books, despite the UK sale? The description sounds rather American - not too many "rodeo riders" or "quarter horses" in our neck of the woods .

Anyone have any thoughts on this author? I haven't come across her before.

I would describe the books as undemanding cozy crime type.

[HarryT]

Thanks - worth a look, considering the price. Now downloaded.

[mitford13]

Almost passed this one by 'cause the description turned me off, but the news blurbs got me to look inside...looks intriguing. Not sure if I should have heard of the author, James Barlow, before?...apparently died young.
"The Spectator called him one of the most able thriller writers in the business."
Anyway, looks worth checking out:
[ETA: free on Amazon]

The Protagonists

THE GIRL
She was red-haired, beautiful and passionate, but she had the essential innocence and trust of the good, the born victim.

‘What’s your real name, Roy? Tell it to me so the baby at least may know who his mother should have married.'

HER LOVER
He lied to her, took her splendid body, used her shamelessly, until she became pregnant and refused an abortion.

‘I told her. She went very pale. She knew now that she had surrendered her everything to someone she didn’t know at all.’

THE DETECTIVE
To him this was more than a murder – it was a hideous, personal outrage.

‘First the girl and her baby,’ he thought. ‘Then her parents, her friends, all victims of the one act of destruction … He needed to kill girls to make him feel good.'

Barlow tells this story from the point of view of the three principal characters. The analysis of the interplay of goodness and evil makes this a clever novel, inspiring pity, terror and a good deal of admiration for the Author's neat yet compelling style, never losing suspense along the way.


Praise for The Protagonists

‘Impressive! Deeply perceptive study of a crime of passion. Distinguished, poignant and memorable’
Boston Globe

‘White-Hot, Compelling!’
Washington Post

‘A classic piece of detection and understanding of humanity’
Manchester Evening Standard

‘This is a masterly study of humanity under the strain of violent emotion’ Birmingham Mail

‘We have to welcome a careful and painstaking talent’
Sunday Times

‘A high voltage of interest’
New York Herald Tribune

‘The anatomy of a crime brilliantly articulated’
Sheffield Telegraph

‘Passion, violence and retribution, suspense and superb storytelling!’
Los Angeles Times

[Mort1997]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Almost passed this one by 'cause the description turned me off, but the news blurbs got me to look inside...looks intriguing. Not sure if I should have heard of the author, James Barlow, before?...apparently died young.
"The Spectator called him one of the most able thriller writers in the business."
Anyway, looks worth checking out:
[ETA: free on Amazon]

The Protagonists

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Protagon...0860406&sr=1-1

Amazon Uk as well

[BelleZora]

Good catch, Mitford13. The Protagonists was published by Macmillan in 1955 and Harper in 1956. Here's the Kirkus Review:

The rather commonplace circumstances of a cheap education and the murder to which it leads have a tripartite presentation here as Olwen Hughes, the victim, Roy Harrison, her lover, and police officer, MacIndoe, reveal what has happened. A fourth commentator is perhaps the author who over and above the rather ordinary aspects of the crime is more concerned with the fundamental struggle between good and evil-and who- as in One Half of the World- amplifies it and elevates it with a stern moral and spiritual judgment. Olwen Hughes, a Welsh girl, lovely to look at and gentle of heart, is easily gulled by Harrison, a nasty type, sexually attractive and predatory, who finds his highest satisfaction in misleading girls- such as Olwen- of ""inhibitions and credulities"". When he learns that she is pregnant- he strangles her- and MacIndoe, aroused beyond the professional performance of his duty, finally identifies and brings the killer to book..... An anatomy of a crime, and if the implications are of a higher nature, the handling is fleshily realistic.

[mitford13]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Good catch, Mitford13. The Protagonists was published by Macmillan in 1955 and Harper in 1956. Here's the Kirkus Review:

Heh...so does 'fleshily realistic' = 60's era 'graphic' sex?

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I assume these are American books, despite the UK sale? The description sounds rather American - not too many "rodeo riders" or "quarter horses" in our neck of the woods .

Anyone have any thoughts on this author? I haven't come across her before.

The USA version (replace ...co.uk with ...com) has more reviews, and a lot of people seem to like the books.

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Almost passed this one by 'cause the description turned me off, but the news blurbs got me to look inside...looks intriguing. Not sure if I should have heard of the author, James Barlow, before?...apparently died young.
"The Spectator called him one of the most able thriller writers in the business."
Anyway, looks worth checking out:
[ETA: free on Amazon]

The Protagonists

Sounds good -- thanks!

[NightBird]

Repeat freebie from last April: Guilt Trip by Ben Rehder. #4 in his Blanco County Mysteries.

Edgar Award-nominated author Ben Rehder's Blanco County comic mysteries have made best-of-the-year lists in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Field & Stream. The novels have been optioned by Warner Brothers Horizon Scripted Television for development as a cable TV series.

Guilt Trip:
Life in rural Blanco County, Texas, isn't what most folks would call exciting—and that suits game warden John Marlin just fine. He's happy to spend his days and nights protecting the local wildlife from poachers. But when the tequila-slamming, skirt-chasing treasurer of the local Rotary Club goes missing and his vehicle is found in the river the day after a flood, Marlin finds himself in charge of the search efforts. At nearly the same time, a nearby house explodes in a shower of drug paraphernalia, and an exotic car turns up stolen from the missing man's barn. Marlin and Sheriff Bobby Garza are soon overwhelmed, trying to figure out how everything connects together. It isn’t long before events begin to spiral out of control. Edgar Award-nominated author Ben Rehder keeps the plot moving and the laughs coming in another spectacularly funny crime novel straight out of the zaniest imagination in Texas.

[HarryT]

Also free at Amazon UK.

[NightBird]

Free from Medallion Press Unhinged by E.J. Findorff. UK Sony B&N

Detective Decland Dupree arrives at the crime scene, where the recipient of his first childhood kiss lies in a pool of blood. Not fifteen minutes later, the body of a man is found next door. The most sadistic serial killer in New Orleans history is on the prowl. He selects both a man and a woman, raping and killing them on the same night. When another woman from Deck’s past is found and identified, the young detective is flooded with questions. How does this maniac know Deck? Why is the FBI deputy director sabotaging his efforts to capture the killer?

And, most unsettling, who’s next? As the Absinthe Killer continues to evade arrest, Deck is relieved of duty. But he’s far from giving up—and, unfortunately for Deck, the FBI knows it.

[NightBird]

A couple of Barry Eisler's backlist titles are free:

A Lonely Resurrection (previously published as Hard Rain/Blood From Blood) UK

All John Rain wants is to get out of the killing business. But with his discretion, his reliability, and his unique talent for death by "natural causes," no one is willing to let him just retire. So when an old nemesis from the Japanese national police force comes to him with a new job--eliminate Murakami, a killer even more fearsome than Rain himself--Rain knows he can't refuse.

Aided by an achingly desirable half Brazilian, half Japanese exotic dancer he knows he shouldn't trust, Rain pursues his quarry through underground no-holds-barred fight clubs, mobbed-up hostess bars, and finally into the heart of a shadow war between the CIA and the yakuza. It's a war Rain can't win, but also one he can't afford to lose--a war where the distinctions between friend and foe and truth and deceit are as murky as the rain-slicked streets of Tokyo.

Inside Out UK

Torture.
Ghost Detainees.
And a massive cover-up that continues even today.

INSIDE OUT is the propulsive thriller only former CIA operative turned bestselling novelist Barry Eisler could write.

Marooned in a Manila jail after a bar fight fatality, black ops soldier Ben Treven gets a visit from his former commander, Colonel Scott Horton, who explains the price of Ben's release: find and eliminate Daniel Larison, a rogue operator from Ben's unit who has stolen ninety-two torture tapes from the CIA and is using them to blackmail the U.S. government.

But other players are after the tapes, too, and to find Larison, Ben will have to survive CIA hit teams, Blackwater mercenaries, and the long reach of the White House. He'll also have to find a way to handle Paula Lanier, a smart, sexy FBI agent who has her own reasons for wanting the tapes and is determined to get them before Ben does. With the stakes this high, everyone has an angle--everyone but Ben, who will have to find the right alliance if he wants to stay alive.

[scottken]

Nook Free Friday Read BN also free at Amazon Main Not currently showing as free in UK

Sacred Treason by James Forrester

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
During the early years of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, religious and political unrest roil the British nation, fostering an atmosphere of deception and mistrust. In 1563, with rumors of Catholic plots and uprisings swirling about, every professed and undercover Catholic is suspect. It is within such a repressive era that young government bureaucrat William Harley, also known as Clarenceux, king of arms, gingerly attempts to keep a low profile. When a frightened friend and fellow Catholic entrusts Clarenceux with a sensitive manuscript, he has no idea what potentially explosive secrets lie within its pages. On the run from the queen’s special forces, he desperately attempts to unravel the clues to solve the mystery and save his own life. Writing fiction as James Forrester, medieval historian Ian Mortimer provides an authentically detailed backdrop for this fast-paced Elizabethan thriller. --Margaret Flanagan

Review
"I liked this novel intensely. A gripping read"--Phillappa Gregory

"A brilliant mystery adventure ... seamlessly incorporating known facts and people of the time with fictional aspects to progress the story ... A must read for historical fiction lovers." - Passages to the Past

"Reading Sacred Treason was like being completely immersed in the world of 16th Century England (without the smells). It was bracing and marvelous and compelling from beginning to end." - Book Lovers Inc.