Free (Kindle/iTunes) Death & Taxes by David Dodge [Vintage Mystery by Classic Author]

[ATDrake]

Well, it looks like RosettaBooks is skipping today for what I thought was their continuation of last year's Valentine countdown giveaway (or maybe it's just going to show up much later than I want to stay up). Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

But we have a really nifty seriously old-school backlist reprint treat to make up for it today.

Death and Taxes by the late David Dodge (SYKM, Wikipedia) is the vintage classic 1st in his Whit Whitney series of humorously-toned mysteries starring a San Francisco tax accountant as the reluctant amateur sleuth, originally out all the way back in 1941 from Macmillan's Popular Library imprint and now free courtesy of publisher Diversion Books.

If you're a fan of classic mystery/suspense/noir (or just classic film), there's a really good chance you're already familiar with some of Dodge's work, since it turns out he's the author of To Catch a Thief (Wikipedia), which the Alfred Hitchcock movie (Wikipedia) starring Cary Grant & Grace Kelly was based upon.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK) & iTunes (available to Canadians and apparently many other places worldwide when I spot-check countries like Denmark and Japan). NB: currently the iTunes link gives an error on their website interface so I had to spot-check by logging into another account and switching countries directly in iBooks, which was a rather tedious process, but it's the correct link and I'm sure they'll fix things eventually and in the meantime, store search works to find it everyplace I checked.

And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.

Because vintage mystery by the author of the novel a classic film was based upon (and a classic film I've actually watched, I think, or at least I will get around to watching it if I haven't already once I start in on my Hitchcock Blu-Rays). And available (mostly) worldwide, for free!

(And with sequelage couponable @ Kobo from its already low suggested price of $2.99 per, by the way, in case you wanted to follow up with the series).

Enjoy!

Description
The first novel from one of the greatest of mystery writers, the man who would later go on to write TO CATCH A THEIF. [sic, this is their typo in the blurb, not mine]

Often compared to Dashiell Hammett, David Dodge's urbane writing style stands the test of time. His novels still show the hallmarks of being fresh, fast-paced and witty.

Whit Whitney is the last person you’d want to meet. The taxman is no one’s best friend. But in 1940’s San Francisco, there’s a price to pay for murder, romance, and heavy drinking, and the taxman turned detective is coming to collect.

Hilarious and twisty, Dodge’s first novel is among his best, and makes for a terrific introduction to one of last century’s greatest talents in mystery.