Canadian backlist re-publisher Bev Editions are having their usual RAEBW sale/freebies, good through today.
I'm not up to doing full descriptive linkage, but these are all well-established Canadian authors, several award-winners and some with their own Wikipedia entries, and high-quality mostly-previously-published fiction, at up to 75% off (with a few free).
This is their
regular publisher page with bio-blurbs of their authors, and their
Smashwords catalogue page.
Included are mystery authors Don Gutteridge (historical mysteries set in 1830s Toronto which I will be buying shortly and literary fiction), Lyn Hamilton (archaeological mysteries, an Arthur Ellis Award winner), Howard Engel (an Order of Canada recipient, his book is a freebie), and many more. There's also quality literary fiction by Morley Torgov (a Stephen Leacock Humour Award winner), and several others.
Much of their non-fiction is high quality as well, by established Canadian historians, often on subjects of particular Canadian interest (but also extending worldwide), and I especially recommend the Set What Price You Want of historian Marian Fowler's
Beneath the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj, a set of mini-biographies of prominent aristocratic British-Indian women trying to cope with the difficulties of adapting to colonial life in the then-British empire over the centuries. I have this in hardcover somewhere, and snapped it up when it went on sale during a previous RAEBW sale.
It's a bit of a "lite" pop-academic overview of the subjects, but contains enough detail and references to whet your appetite for more, and you certainly can't beat the price.
Many of Bev Editions' titles are priced at $4.99 or less before the general 75% discount, and here are their freebie offerings that I spotted for you to try (Smashwords could really improve their sales by listing in the search/catalogue results what discounts apply to which like they do in the filtered dedicated sale pages, sigh).
- The Adjai of Jimmy Temple, a hard-boiled psychic noir mystery by Jason Summers & Harold Livingston, free to download
- The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton, 1st in her Lara McClintoch Archaeological Mysteries series, an Arthur Ellis Award Best First Novel winner, IIRC, free with coupon. You can get much of the series for under $1.50 a pop as well.
- The Whole Megillah: A Benny Cooperman Mystery by Howard Engel, an Order of Canada recipient as well as an Arthur Ellis Award winner, starring a Jewish PI in Toronto, free with coupon
- No Defense by Rangeley Wallace, a courtroom drama romantic mystery novel, free with coupon
- For the Thinking Executive: 916 Quotations from Nobel Laureates & This Continent Called Love, Quotations from Nobel Prize Winners compiled by David Pratt, and also JFK, Oswald, Cuba, and the Mafia, all Exactly What It Says In The Title, all free with coupon
- Sex, Rock & History & Sadomasochism and Ardent Love: An Historical Perspective by Edward Shorter, an award-winning historian, sociological histories, free with coupon
- Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj by Marian Fowler, you set the price as mentioned
There might be a few more that I missed, but hopefully there's something in there to interest you, and that the quality of Bev Editions' backlist Canadiana reprints is such that you may be moved to purchase a few more of them either this year or next when Smashwords has their RAEBW sale again (the only time BE books go on sale, incidentally, although IIRC they are couponable @ Kobo, though it's tough to get a 75% discount over there).