[sufue]

A few other random price drops at Kindle US - all to $1.99 unless otherwise indicated.

The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club by Duncan Whitehead
link: https://www.amazon.com/Gordonston-La.../dp/B00FN2KR2G

Spoiler:

Little is what it seems to be in a leafy Savannah neighborhood as members of an afternoon cocktail and dog walking club mourn a neighbor’s death. Jealousies surface when friends vie for the widower running for mayor. An old woman with an infamous uncle plots to avenge a wrong. Memories haunt a once successful children’s writer. And a model has won the trip of a lifetime.

But a killer lurks and secrets unfold, as does a web of deceit. Is anyone really who he or she seems to be? A mysterious South American, a young Italian count, and a charitable nephew add suspicion and intrigue, as do an enigmatic organization linked to organized crime, a handsome firefighter, and three widows with hidden agendas. What’s a retired accountant’s secret, and why did a former showgirl really have plastic surgery?

The plot thickens, the Georgia temperature rises, and someone is destined for an early unmarked grave. The truth contorts to a climax that leaves readers breathless.

Until the Debt Is Paid is the first in the Jan Tommen series by Alexander Hartung. I haven't read this one, but I've read and enjoyed several other AmazonCrossing titles.
link: https://www.amazon.com/Until-Debt-Pa.../dp/B00KHGWQO0

Spoiler:

Berlin detective Jan Tommen expected to wake up with a hangover—not a murder charge. But a well-known judge has been brutally killed and hard evidence places Jan at the crime scene. When disturbing gaps in Jan’s memory make finding an alibi impossible, the case against him looks open and shut.

Faced with life on the inside, Jan flees police custody to take refuge with an old friend deeply enmeshed in the capital’s seedy underworld. Hampered by a citywide manhunt, Jan soon finds that investigating leads while eluding capture isn’t easy. Before long, he’s relying on a team of misfits for help, including an icy blonde medical examiner and a brilliant but reclusive computer whiz.

When a lucky break leads Jan to connect the murders to a heinous trafficking ring, the team risks it all to find answers. Meanwhile, the body count continues to rise and the police department starts to close in. Desperate to prove his innocence, Jan must identify the true killer—before his time finally runs out.

Watch Me Die by Lee Goldberg, previously published as The Man With the Iron-On Badge (much better title IMO )
link: https://www.amazon.com/Watch-Me-Die-.../dp/B003BLPGZO

Spoiler:

Harvey Mapes is a 26-year-old security guard who spends his nights in a guard shack outside a gated community in Southern California, reading detective novels, watching reruns, and waiting for his life to finally start… which happens when Cyril Parkus, one of the wealthy residents, asks Harvey to follow his beautiful wife Lauren.

The lowly security guard jumps at the opportunity to fulfill his private eye fantasies and use everything he’s learned from Spenser, Magnum, and Mannix. But things don’t exactly go according to the books…or the reruns. As Harvey fumbles and stumbles through his first investigation, he discovers that the differences between fiction and reality can be deadly.

With the help of his mortgage broker neighbor and occasional lover Carol, Harvey uncovers a blackmail plot that takes a sudden and unexpectedly tragic turn…plunging him into a world of violence, deception and murder… and forcing him to discover what it really takes to be a private eye.

(This book was previously released under the title "The Man With the Iron-On Badge" and nominated for Best Novel by the Private Eye Writers of America)

The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo is the sixth in the Pampered Pets series by Sparkle Abbey
link: https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Dachshun.../dp/B00P2WL8L6

Spoiler:

She has to stay low. Ears to the ground. Danger's nipping at her heels.

Mel's tracking a killer in the world of racing dachshunds.

Wiener takes all at the Laguna Beach Dachshund Dash. Melinda Langston, owner of Bow Wow Boutique, and her quirky assistant, Betty Foxx, are on hand to root for their favorite racers. But before the starting gun goes off, hated dachshund owner, Richard Eriksen, is found dead, and gun-toting Betty is suspect number one.

Determined to clear Betty's name, Mel quickly picks up the scent of the cutthroat world of Doxie racing. Cheating. Doping. Gambling. Controversy lies at every turn. It seems everyone has a secret--including Betty. The killer is hot on Mel's heels. Can Mel expose the truth before the killer catches her?

The Ludwig Conspiracy ($2.99) is a non-series title by Oliver Pötzsch, better known for his Hangman's Daughter series
link: https://www.amazon.com/Ludwig-Conspi.../dp/B00AXS6BEI

Spoiler:

A bold new thriller from the best-selling author of The Hangman’s Daughter series

In 1886, Ludwig II, the Fairy-tale King of Bavaria, was deposed after being declared insane by doctors who had never met him. He died mysteriously soon thereafter, his eccentric and beautiful castles his only legacy. In The Ludwig Conspiracy, master of historical suspense Oliver Pötzsch brings the Mad King back to life.

An encoded diary by one of Ludwig’s confidants falls into the hands of modern-day rare-book dealer Steven Lukas, who soon realizes that the diary may bring him more misery than money. Lukas teams up with a beautiful art detective, Sara Lengfeld, to investigate each of Ludwig’s three famous castles for clues to crack the diary’s code as mysterious thugs and Ludwig’s fanatical followers chase them at every step. Just what in the diary could be so explosive?

"This gripping thriller brings together the present and the past with high-action adventure in a bold, entertaining storyline." — Shepherd Express (Milwaukee)

"Pötzsch makes clever use of Bavaria’s equivalent of the Kennedy assassination in this excellent stand-alone . . . Pötzsch’s sophisticated plotting and good use of a real-life historical puzzle place this far ahead of most Da Vinci Code wannabes." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

The Bomb Ship in the Richard Mariner series by Peter Tonkin is a US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 5 1/2 more days
link: https://www.amazon.com/Bomb-Ship-Pet.../dp/B00OCHISKQ

Spoiler:

Richard Mariner of the Heritage Mariner shipping company has commissioned two identical ships designed to transport nuclear waste safely across the Atlantic.

Within months of surviving a terrorist attack at their launch, the sister ships are in service, but suspiciously bad luck and foul weather trap the Atropos behind a huge ice barrier.

Crippled and helpless, she is in imminent danger of being crushed.

Clotho, the only ship close enough to help, plunges into the stormy Labrador Sea, her crew totally unaware that the bomb has done more damage than anyone suspects.

And that was but the opening move in a campaign of violence by a death-defying group of environmental terrorists who are already aboard, disguised as members of the crew and secretly stowed away.

One lethal device has already been planted and more have been smuggled deep into the bowels of the great ship ...

It is up to Richard and Robin Mariner to save themselves, their crew and their company.

But in deep waters, no one is safe ...

‘a master of seagoing adventure’ - Clive Cussler

Peter Tonkin was born in Northern Ireland, and was raised in the UK, Holland, Germany, and the Persian Gulf. He has written thirty novels including ‘The Coffin Ship’, ‘The Fire Ship’, and ‘The Leper Ship’.

The Caller ($2.99) is the tenth in the Inspector Sejer series by Karin Fossum
link: https://www.amazon.com/Caller-Inspec.../dp/B005MZN29O

Spoiler:

“Pranks can have lethal consequences, even when they seem harmless to start with . . . A poison bonbon that ranks with the best of Ruth Rendell.”—Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly

One mild summer evening, a young couple are enjoying dinner while their daughter sleeps peacefully in her stroller under a tree. When her mother steps outside she is stunned: the child is covered in blood.

Inspector Sejer is called to the hospital to meet the family. Mercifully, the child is unharmed, but the parents are deeply shaken, and Sejer spends the evening trying to understand why anyone would carry out such a sinister prank. Then, just before midnight, somebody rings his doorbell.

No one is at the door, but the caller has left a small gray envelope on Sejer’s mat. From his living room window, the inspector watches a figure disappear into the darkness. Inside the envelope Sejer finds a postcard bearing a short message: Hell begins now.

“No one can thoroughly chill the blood the way Karin Fossum can . . . will put you away, no questions asked.”—Los Angeles Times

NOTE: Although not a recent discount, The Drowned Boy, the 11th title in the Sejer series, is also at $2.99
link: https://www.amazon.com/Drowned-Boy-I.../dp/B00PF1TMJ4

Spoiler:

A new addition to the captivating Inspector Sejer series, the first since The Caller, from Norway’s finest crime writer

Carmen and Nicolai failed to resuscitate their son, Tommy, after finding him floating in their backyard pond. When Inspector Skarre arrives on the scene, Carmen reports that Tommy, a healthy toddler with Down syndrome, wandered into the garden while Nicolai was working in the basement and she was cleaning the house. Skarre senses something is off with Carmen’s story and consults his trusted colleague, the famed Inspector Sejer. An autopsy reveals Tommy’s lungs to be full of soap.

When Sejer and Skarre revisit the couple, Carmen, an epileptic, changes her story, confessing that she’d been knocked unconscious by a seizure while bathing Tommy. When she came to, she found him drowned in the tub and, horrified and frightened, threw him into the pond.

But Skarre and Sejer’s doubt is not appeased and the case is reopened. What more could Carmen be hiding? And what lengths will she take to cover her guilt? As Carmen’s own family starts to doubt her, Skarre and Sejer work to find the truth.

The Little Death ($2.99) is the first in the Henry Rios series by Michael Nava
link: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Death-.../dp/B00B7UNY4Q

Spoiler:

In the first book of the acclaimed Henry Rios series, a lawyer doggedly pursues a murder investigation into the lions’ den of San Francisco’s moneyed elite

A burnt-out public defender battling alcoholism, Henry Rios has reached a crossroads in his life. While interviewing his former lover Hugh Paris in jail, Rios goes through the motions, but notices that Paris is far more polished and well off than the usual suspects arrested for drug possession. Paris is mysteriously bailed out—but a few weeks later, he turns up on Rios’s doorstep. Skittish and paranoid, he admits to using heroin and says he’s afraid that his wealthy grandfather wants to murder him.

Rios tries to help Paris get clean, but when Paris is found dead of an apparent heroin overdose, Rios is the only one who considers foul play. Determined to find Paris’s killer, Rios knocks on San Francisco’s most gilded doors, where he discovers a family tainted by jealousy, greed, and hate. They’ve been warped by a fortune someone’s willing to kill—and kill again—to possess.

At once an atmospheric noir mystery and a scathing indictment of a legal system caught in the maws of escalating corruption, The Little Death chronicles one man’s struggle to achieve true justice for all.

The Little Death is the first book in the Henry Rios mystery series, which also includes Goldenboy and Howtown.