Free from the author via KDP Select @
Amazon:
The Death of Ronnie Sweets (and Other Stories) by Shamus Award-finalist Russel D McLean (
SYKM) with an introduction by Shamus Award-winner Sean Chercover (
SYKM), a collection of his hardboiled noir-ish mystery shorts starring Scottish PI Sam Bryson, originally published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and other outlets.
Before he introduced the world to Scottish Private Investigator J McNee, award-nominated crime writer Russel D McLean wrote a series of gritty short stories featuring PI Sam Bryson, a young investigator with a strong sense of justice that is tested to the limit as he walks the mean streets of Scotland's fourth largest city.
The Death of Ronnie Sweets collects all the original Sam Bryson stories in one volume, with an introduction by award-winning US author Sean Chercover and an afterword by the author.
Many of these stories first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine while others were published by Thrilling Detective Mystery Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine and Needle Publishing. They run the gamut from two-fisted tales of justice to studies of characters who find themselves in the darkest of situations. A heady mix of homage to the American hardboiled and the modern Scottish noir, these stories demonstrate why Russel D McLean is "not to be missed by fans of straight-up hardboiled noir."
Free again from the author('s republishing consortium) via KDP Select @
Amazon:
PI On a Hot Tin Roof by Edgar Award-winner Julie Smith (
SYKM,
Wikipedia), 4th in her PI Talba Wallis series of humorous mysteries (the subtitle calls them cozy, although aren't those supposed to involve amateur sleuths?) set in New Orleans, this one originally out from Forge in 2005.
Your lawyer needs you to bail her out? Isn’t that kind of backwards?
So thinks PI Talba Wallis, on her way to Parish Prison—and indeed something’s badly amiss.
New Orleans’ most dynamic detective duo, poet/computer genius Talba and street-savvy Luddite Eddie Valentino, have a personal interest in this one—Eddie’s lawyer daughter Angie’s been set up for a drug bust.
Prominent Judge Buddy Champagne’s the obvious perp and Talba’s so mad she embeds herself in his house as a spy—but she doesn't count on ending up with a family straight out of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; nor did she realize how involved she was going to get—especially with Buddy’s 14-year-old daughter Lucy.
It works, though, She uncovers plenty of evidence the judge is dirty. And then things get ugly: Somebody kills Buddy and Talba’s true identity comes to light. The Champagnes hate her at this point, but guess what? They hire her to solve the case.
There are plenty of mysterious twists and turns on the way to an ending guaranteed to surprise—but the real joy here is in the relationships, especially Talba’s with Lucy, who, it turns out, is a budding poet. And with another little girl, her boy friend’s bratty daughter Raisa. She’s SO not prepared for quasi-motherhood!