Free/Bargain Suspense/Mystery/Thriller April 2013

[mitford13]

Free ecclesiastical mystery on Amazon:

A Very Private Grave by Donna Fletcher Crow

Felicity Howard, a young American studying at the College of the Transfiguration in Yorkshire, is devastated when she finds her beloved Fr. Dominic bludgeoned to death and Fr. Antony, her church history lecturer, soaked in his blood ... A Very Private Grave is a contemporary novel with a thoroughly modern heroine who must learn some ancient truths in order to solve the mystery and save her own life, as she and Fr. Antony flee a murderer and follow clues that take them to out-of-the way sites across northern England and southern Scotland. The narrative deftly mixes detection, intellectual puzzles, spiritual aspiration, romance, and the solving of clues ancient and modern.


Also, according to the author page the second in the series will be free May 2-3:
A Darkly Hidden Truth

[mitford13]

First in the Adam Dalgliesh series is marked down to $1.99:

Cover Her Face by P.D. James

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by mitford13

First in the Adam Dalgliesh series is marked down to $1.99:

Cover Her Face by P.D. James

Thanks for that. I don't own a P D James. Here's an opportunity to change it.

[NightBird]

Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke is $2.99 from Simon & Schuster. This is #13 in his Dave Robicheaux series.

For Dave Robicheaux, there is no easy passage home. New Orleans, and the memories of his life in the Big Easy, will always haunt him. So to return there -- as he does in Last Car to Elysian Fields -- means visiting old ghosts, exposing old wounds, opening himself up to new, yet familiar, dangers.
When Robicheaux, now a police officer based in the somewhat quieter Louisiana town of New Iberia, learns that an old friend, Father Jimmie Dolan, a Catholic priest always at the center of controversy, has been the victim of a particularly brutal assault, he knows he has to return to New Orleans to investigate, if only unofficially. What he doesn't realize is that in doing so he is inviting into his life -- and into the lives of those around him -- an ancestral evil that could destroy them all.

The investigation begins innocently enough. Assisted by good friend and P.I. Clete Purcel, Robicheaux confronts the man they believe to be responsible for Dolan's beating, a drug dealer and porno star named Gunner Ardoin. The confrontation, however, turns into a standoff as Clete ends up in jail and Robicheaux receives an ominous warning to keep out of New Orleans' affairs.

Meanwhile, back in New Iberia, more trouble is brewing: Three local teenage girls are killed in a drunk-driving accident, the driver being the seventeen-year-old daughter of a prominent physician. Robicheaux traces the source of the liquor to one of New Iberia's "daiquiri windows," places that sell mixed drinks from drive-by windows. When the owner of the drive-through operation is brutally murdered, Robicheaux immediately suspects the grief-crazed father of the dead teen driver. But his assumption is challenged when the murder weapon turns up belonging to someone else.

The trouble continues when Father Jimmie asks Robicheaux to help investigate the presence of a toxic landfill near St. James Parish in New Orleans, which in turn leads to a search for the truth behind the disappearance many years before of a legendary blues musician and composer. Tying together all these seemingly disparate threads of crime is a maniacal killer named Max Coll, a brutal, brilliant, and deeply haunted hit man sent to New Orleans to finish the job on Father Dolan. Once Coll shows up, it becomes clear that Dave Robicheaux will be forced to ignore the warning to stay out of New Orleans, and he soon finds himself drawn deeper into a viper's nest of sordid secrets and escalating violence that sets him up for a confrontation that echoes down the lonely corridors of his own unresolved past.

A masterful exploration of the troubled side of human nature and the darkest corners of the heart, and filled with the kinds of unforgettable characters that are the hallmarks of his novels, Last Car to Elysian Fields is James Lee Burke in top form in the kind of lush, atmospheric thriller that his fans have come to expect from the master of crime fiction.

Star Island by Carl Hiaasen is $2.99 from Random House.

Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen—and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster.

Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her “undercover stunt double,” Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too “indisposed”—meaning wasted—to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott.

Now the challenge for Cherry’s handlers (über–stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker–wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public—and from Cherry herself.

The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink—the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp—and now he’s heading for Miami to find her . . .

Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry’s motley posse does?

All will be revealed in this hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane.

[NightBird]

The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver is $2.99 from Random House. #5 in his Lincoln Rhyme series.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Stone Monkey is back with a brilliant thriller that pits forensic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme and his partner, Amelia Sachs, against an unstoppable killer with one final, horrific trick up his sleeve.
The Los Angeles Times calls his novels "thrill rides between covers." The New York Times hails them as "dazzling," and The Times of London crowns him "the best psychological thriller writer around." Now Jeffery Deaver, America's "master of ticking-bomb suspense" (People) delivers his most electrifying novel yet.

It begins at a prestigious music school in New York City. A killer flees the scene of a homicide and locks himself in a classroom. Within minutes, the police have him surrounded. When a scream rings out, followed by a gunshot, they break down the door. The room is empty.

Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to help with the high-profile investigation. For the ambitious Sachs, solving the case could earn her a promotion. For the quadriplegic Rhyme, it means relying on his protégée to ferret out a master illusionist they've dubbed "the conjurer," who baits them with gruesome murders that become more diabolical with each fresh crime. As the fatalities rise and the minutes tick down, Rhyme and Sachs must move beyond the smoke and mirrors to prevent a terrifying act of vengeance that could become the greatest vanishing act of all.

Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens is $3.99 from Macmillan.

From the acclaimed author of Still Missing comes a psychological thriller about one woman’s search into her past and the deadly truth she uncovers.

All her life, Sara Gallagher has wondered about her birth parents. As an adopted child with two sisters who were born naturally to her parents, Sara did not have an ideal home life. The question of why she was given up for adoption has always haunted her. Finally, she is ready to take steps and to find closure.

But some questions are better left unanswered.

After months of research, Sara locates her birth mother---only to be met with horror and rejection. Then she discovers the devastating truth: Her mother was the only victim ever to escape a killer who has been hunting women every summer for decades. But Sara soon realizes the only thing worse than finding out about her father is him finding out about her.

What if murder is in your blood?

Never Knowing is a complex and compelling portrayal of one woman’s quest to understand herself, her origins, and her family. That is, if she can survive. . . .

[Mort1997]

Free today - The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke

'Harry Pigg, the only surviving brother from the Big Bad Wolf attacks, has set up business as a private detective in Grimmtown, only things aren't going too well. Down on his luck, with bills to pay and no clients in sight the outlook is poor. But then in walks local businessman Aladdin who needs someone to help him track down an old lamp.

What follows is a case of nursery rhyme-noir. Funny, thrilling and always entertaining, Harry Pigg is an old breed of hero for a new generation. It's as if Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney had walked into the middle of a bedtime story.

A comedy caper for all ages. The first in a major new series.'

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Third-De...27153&sr=1-141

Doesn't seem to be available in the US for Kindle

[caleb72]

Bloodland by Alan Glynn is available for $3.99 at Amazon (US).

A Picador Paperback Original

A helicopter crash off the coast of Ireland sends unexpected ripples through the international community in this intricate new thriller from the author of Winterland and Limitless (now a major motion picture).

Susie Monaghan was on the cusp of stardom when her life was cut short by a tragic helicopter crash. After a full investigation, her death was ruled an accident: case closed. But a hungry young journalist named Jimmy Gilroy isn't buying the official story. Before dying, Susie's path had crossed with an unlikely gallery of powerful men: an ex-Prime minister with a carefully guarded secret; the businessman brother of a U.S. Senator angling for the Oval Office; and a billionaire investor with his eye on an extremely rare commodity. Might there also be a link between Susie's death and a deranged security contractor operating in Congo? Piece by piece, Jimmy uncovers a bizarre nexus of coincidence among these disparate people and events, revealing a conspiracy of frightening reach and consequence--one that could cost him his life.

Set against a vividly drawn world of corporate and political intrigue, Alan Glynn's Bloodland is a riveting paranoid thriller of uncommon depth and page-turning suspense.

LINK

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Mort1997

Free today - The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke

'Harry Pigg, the only surviving brother from the Big Bad Wolf attacks, has set up business as a private detective in Grimmtown, only things aren't going too well. Down on his luck, with bills to pay and no clients in sight the outlook is poor. But then in walks local businessman Aladdin who needs someone to help him track down an old lamp.

What follows is a case of nursery rhyme-noir. Funny, thrilling and always entertaining, Harry Pigg is an old breed of hero for a new generation. It's as if Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney had walked into the middle of a bedtime story.

A comedy caper for all ages. The first in a major new series.'

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Third-De...27153&sr=1-141

Doesn't seem to be available in the US for Kindle

The kindle edition is available, it's just not a freebie at this time.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Third-Dete...7234491&sr=8-1




Don

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Mort1997

Free today - The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke

'Harry Pigg, the only surviving brother from the Big Bad Wolf attacks, has set up business as a private detective in Grimmtown, only things aren't going too well. Down on his luck, with bills to pay and no clients in sight the outlook is poor. But then in walks local businessman Aladdin who needs someone to help him track down an old lamp.

What follows is a case of nursery rhyme-noir. Funny, thrilling and always entertaining, Harry Pigg is an old breed of hero for a new generation. It's as if Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney had walked into the middle of a bedtime story.

A comedy caper for all ages. The first in a major new series.'

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Third-De...27153&sr=1-141

Doesn't seem to be available in the US for Kindle

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The kindle edition is available, it's just not a freebie at this time.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Third-Dete...7234491&sr=8-1




Don

Another reason why I love having my Amazon UK account.
Apache

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Apache

Another reason why I love having my Amazon UK account.
Apache

It's available for $CDN 0.99 at amazon.ca
http://www.amazon.ca/Third-Pig-Detec.../dp/B002RI9PEK

- still a good deal

[NightBird]

Thriller by James Lilliefors from Soho: Viral
for $1.99.

Two brothers race to stop a political mastermind's massive bioterrorist plot in this terrifying espionage thriller.
In remote pockets of the Third World, a deadly virus is quietly sweeping through impoverished farming villages and shanty towns with frightening speed and potency. Meanwhile, in Washington, a three-word message left in a safe-deposit box may be the key to stopping the crisis—if, that is, Charles Mallory, a private intelligence contractor and former CIA operative, can decipher the puzzle before time runs out.

What Mallory begins to discover are the traces of a secret war, with a bold objective—to create a new, technologically advanced society. With the help of his brother Jon, an investigative reporter, can he break the story to the world before it is too late—before a planned “humane depopulation” takes place?

As the stakes and strategies of this secret war become more evident, the Mallory brothers find themselves in a complex game of wits with an enemy they can’t see: a new sort of superpower led by a brilliant, elusive tactician who believes that ends justify means.

Deputy Down by Rosemarie Naramore $2.00 from Thomas & Mercer.

When rookie detective Maggie Halsey hears the tragic dispatch, she assumes Deputy Kyle Moore had a heart attack or was hit by a car. Then she arrives on the scene and discovers that Moore has been murdered—found shot in the head, lying next to his work truck.

Assigned to Moore’s case, Maggie swears to find justice for the fallen deputy. But as her investigation begins, the questions—and suspects—multiply. Moore, who’d worked in commercial vehicle enforcement removing unsafe trucks from the roadways, had been known as a hardworking but hardnosed man with few friends on the force and plenty of enemies in the field. Everyone questioned seems to have a strong opinion about him…and a possible motive.

When a second killing strikes, Maggie knows the two murders are linked. But as she uncovers the truth, she realizes that solving the case may cost her life.

Long Gone by Alafair Burke (daughter of James Lee Burke) is $1.99 from HarperCollins.

Echoing the intensity of Harlan Coben’s Tell No One and the psychological depth of Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know, Alafair Burke’s first stand-alone novel catapults her into the top ranks of modern suspense. In New York City’s cut-throat world of art, appearances can be deceiving—especially when art world newcomer Alice Humphrey becomes a suspect in a gruesome murder at a Chelsea gallery, and is thrown into a treacherous labyrinth of intrigue, crime, and conspiracy. Now, Alice must discover the truth behind the murder before the unsolved mystery claims her as its next victim.

Also from HarperCollins for $1.99 each, Secret of the Seventh Son and its sequel, Book of Souls, by Glenn Cooper.

There are secrets that must remain buried . . .

Nine people have been slain in New York City—nine strangers with nothing in common—the apparent victims of a frighteningly elusive serial killer. Only one thing links the dead: postcards they received, mailed from Las Vegas, announcing the day they would die.

Assigned to the case is a legendary FBI profiler with a troubled past, a drinking problem, and nothing left to lose . . .

Abandoned to a monastery is an unwanted son born under a curse on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year 777 . . .

Unprepared for a momentous discovery is a post-World War II expedition into the crypts of a clandestine medieval society . . .

. . . but all lead to a secret embroiled in destiny, history, evil, faith, and corruption . . . and one terrifying truth that no one must ever know . . .

The thrilling sequel to the international bestseller Secret of the Seventh Son, Glen Cooper’s Book of Souls sets FBI agent Will Piper on the trail of an ancient volume that has had a profound and shocking effect on human history.

[NightBird]

City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris is $3.99 from Hachette. Second in her Katya Hijazi and Nayir Sharqi series set in Saudi Arabia.

Women in Saudi Arabia are expected to lead quiet lives circumscribed by Islamic law and tradition. But Katya, one of the few women in the medical examiner's office, is determined to make her work mean something.

When the body of a brutally beaten woman is found on the beach in Jeddah, the city's detectives are ready to dismiss the case as another unsolvable murder-chillingly common in a city where the veils of conservative Islam keep women as anonymous in life as the victim is in death. If this is another housemaid killed by her employer, finding the culprit will be all but impossible.

Only Katya is convinced that the victim can be identified and her killer found. She calls upon her friend Nayir for help, and soon discovers that the dead girl was a young filmmaker named Leila, whose controversial documentaries earned her many enemies.

With only the woman's clandestine footage as a guide, Katya and Nayir must confront the dark side of Jeddah that Leila struggled to expose: an underworld of prostitution, violence, exploitation, and jealously guarded secrets. Along the way, they form an unlikely alliance with an American woman whose husband has disappeared. Their growing search takes them from the city's car-clogged streets to the deadly vastness of the desert beyond.

In CITY OF VEILS, award-winning author Zoë Ferraris combines a thrilling, fast-paced mystery with a rare and intimate look into women's lives in the Middle East.

[caleb72]

Map of Bones by James Rollins is currently $1.99 at Amazon (US).

The bones lead to ancient mysteries and present-day terror . . . To follow them means death.

During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks' robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi who once paid homage to a newborn savior . . . a treasure that could reshape the world.

With the Vatican in turmoil, Sigma Force under the command of Grayson Pierce leaps into action, pursuing a deadly mystery that weaves through sites of the Seven Wonders of the World and ends at the doorstep of an ancient, mystical, and terrifying secret order. For there are those with dark plans for the stolen sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind . . . when science and religion unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.

Amazon (US): LINK

[caleb72]

Milk and Honey by Faye Kellerman is $1.99 at Amazon (US):

In the silent pre-dawn city hours -- alone with his thoughts about Rina Lazarus, the woman he loves, three thousand miles away in New York -- LAPD detective Peter Decker finds a small child, abandoned and covered in blood that is not hers. It is a sobering discovery, and a perplexing one, for nobody in the development where she was found steps forward to claim the little girl. Obsessed more deeply by this case than he imagined possible, Decker is determined to follow the scant clues to an answer. But his trail is leading him to a killing ground where four bodies lie still and lifeless. And by the time Rina returns, Peter Decker is already held fast in a sticky mass of hatred, passion, and murder -- in a world where intense sweetness is accompanied by a deadly sting.

Amazon (US): LINK

[sufue]

This isn't a traditional bargain, but...for US readers with access to UK accounts...

Not too long ago, most of Sharan Newman's excellent (IMO) Catherine LeVendeur historical mystery series became available as ebooks. (A few of the more recent ones had been available for a long time.) I was initially thrilled to see them as ebooks, then dismayed to see that US prices were mostly $8.xx and $9.xx - ridiculous prices for backlist, and especially, for me, backlist that I already owned in paper. At those prices, I didn't buy.

However, I just noticed that they are all available in the UK (Amazon UK, Waterstones, Foyles, WH Smith/Kobo) for £2.99, which works out at today's exchange rates to about US$4.60, still expensive IMO for older backlist, but close enough to my price point that I bought the ones I didn't already have, since this is a series that I really love.

Anyway, not sure if these prices are "sale" or not in the UK, but definitely a bargain relative to the US prices.

I have no idea what affiliate links look like for Amazon UK, or any of the others; hopefully these are clean since in each case, I typed in the top level URL to start and then searched from there:

Amaz UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...an%2Caps%2C178

Waterstones: http://www.waterstones.com/waterston...eadFormSubmit=

Foyles: http://ebooks.foyles.co.uk/catalog/s...haran%20newman

WH Smith/Kobo http://www.whsmith.co.uk/eb_eBooks&gq=sharan%20newman

Note if you want to search yourself, it really is "Sharan" and not "Sharon".