FREE/BARGAIN - Mystery, Suspense, Thriller - 2014

[sufue]

Another Anthea Fraser/DCI Webb book, Pretty Maids All in a Row, is one of the US Kindle countdown deals. It's at $0.99 for about the next 6 1/2 days, and after that goes to $3.99, which appears to be the normal price for Fraser's Webb backlist books. It's about 9 am on Monday, Oct 13, US Pacific time, right now.

According to the SYKM website, Pretty Maids All in a Row is #3 in the series.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NB41QWS/

Blurb:

Spoiler:

When newly wedded actress Jessica Randal accompanies her biographer husband to the country for a month's research, she fully expects to be bored, especially with her leg in plaster following an accident on their honeymoon.

The couple are the talk of the town - but not for the reasons you might expect.

They soon learn they are renting the house of a murder victim, and that a rapist is at large who has singled her out.

Jessica, caught in the melodrama of the not so sleepy town of Steeple Bayliss, is determined to keep her independence.

But at what cost?

Chief Inspector Webb and Sergeant Jackson pit their wits against a cunning adversary as everyone in the village — including Jessica's husband — is under suspicion...

‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’ is a gripping crime novel featuring Anthea Fraser's popular detective David Webb.

Praise for Anthea Fraser:

“A superbly crafted, riveting, page-turner of a read" - Booklist

“Ms Fraser is her dependable elegant, guileful self withholding the killer's identity till a dying fall" - Sunday Times

'A well-mannered, well-plotted and well-told story' - Birmingham Post

'Sympathetic, well-executed book, in which full attention is paid to human feelings and failings' - Yorkshire Post

ANTHEA FRASER has written all her life but did not begin to take it seriously until after marriage, when she found herself at home with two small daughters and embarked on a correspondence course with the London School of Journalism. She wrote short stories before turning to novels of the supernatural, and then to crime. Her other books include ‘Eleven Who Went Up to Heaven’, The Ten Commandments’, ‘The Seven Stars’ and ‘One is One and All Alone’.

Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

[Mort1997]

Free today on Amazon UK - The Case of the Drowned Man by G.W Colkitto

'A friend and sometimes rival of two of the best-loved characters in English literature - Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes - the Sebastian Symes stories are a brilliant addition to the canon of British detective fiction.
In 'The Case of the Drowned Man', Sebastian Symes and his loyal companion, Major Arbuthnot Ritson, set out to spend a seemingly uneventful few days aboard their trusted vessel, Aphrodite, in the calm South-West.
But the trip is ruined by Symes' failed attempt to save an anonymous drowning man at the mercy of a storm at Needle Point.
Symes and Ritson find themselves entangled in a mystery that has been kept secret for generations.
With murder and lies washing up at Wreckers Cove, will Symes be able to catch the culprit?'

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Case-Drowned...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Drowned-M...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Case-Drowne...ndeavour+press

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Case-Drowned-Ma...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free today on Amazon UK - Bad Monday by Annette Roome

'Chris Martin's personal life may be looking up now that her two-timing husband has moved out - and her lover has moved in.
But her life as a reporter on the local rag is in the doldrums, with a lost cat the high spot of her day.
Until she lands an interview with Rick Monday, a local boy who found fame as a rock star in the seventies.
Though the interview is a major disappointment, the follow-up is dynamite.
Monday is found with an ornamental dagger in his chest and Chris was one of the last people to see him alive.
Determined not to let the biggest story of her career get away, Chris defies her editor and the police by conducting her own investigation into the murder.
She pursues the trail as it leads her through the seedy world of rock music and into a web of family lies and secrets.
But the price for this big story could be her life.'

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Monday-A...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Monday-Ann...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Bad-Monday-...ndeavour+press

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Bad-Monday-Anne...ndeavour+press

[BetterRead]

2-in-1 volume containing the Nero Wolfe mysteries The Rubber Band/The Red Box by Rex Stout is currently on sale for $1.99 at Amazon US, B&N, Kobo, and other etailers.

A grand master of the form, Rex Stout is one of America’s greatest mystery writers, and his literary creation Nero Wolfe is one of fiction’s greatest detectives. Here, in Stout’s third and fourth complete Wolfe mysteries, the arrogant, gourmandizing, sedentary sleuth and his trusty man-about-town, Archie Goodwin, solve two of their most baffling cases.

The Rubber Band
What do a Wild West lynching and a respected English nobleman have in common? On the surface, absolutely nothing. But when a young woman hires his services, it becomes Nero Wolfe’s job to look deeper and find the connection. A forty-year-old pact, a five-thousand-mile search, and a million-dollar murder are all linked to an international scandal that could rebound on the great detective and his partner, Archie, with fatal abruptness.

The Red Box
Murder by chocolate? That’s the premise Nero Wolfe must operate from when a beautiful woman is poisoned after indulging in a box of candy. It’s a case that the great detective—no stranger himself to overindulgence—is loath to take for a variety of reasons, including that it may require that he leave his comfortable brownstone. But he and Archie are compelled by a mystery that mixes high fashion and low motives…and a killer who may have made the deadliest mistake.

[ATDrake]

A few assorted couponable sale mysteries @ Kobo (prices valid in Canada & presumably US, possibly elsewhere and likely price-matched minus couponage in your preferred store).

Jade Lady Burning by Martin Limón (SYKM), out from Soho Crime for $1.99, 1st in his Sueño & Bascom 60s-set series with investigative US military police officers in Seoul, South Korea. The 3rd book in this was a finalist for the Hammett Prize.

Canadian publisher Dundurn has marked down a select number of titles on red-cover-bannered "Special Offer" at $3.49 (Dundurn usually prices their mysteries around $6.99 and up), no idea how long this will last.

They've a bunch of things on sale across all genres (linkage if you want to go through them), including some YA & literary fiction and some Canadian law non-fiction, but these were the specifically mystery titles:

9 volumes of Barbara Fradkin's (SYKM, Wikipedia) Inspector Green series, a police procedural set in Ottawa, are discounted, which is a modest savings off the price of the 9-book omnibus bundle also available, even before you add in the added discount effect of coupons. This series has won 2 Arthur Ellis Best Novel awards and also been finalist for a 3rd. With that kind of reputation, I'm definitely getting at least the first one, Do or Die to try: linkage to pull up all of Fradkin's stuff

(ETA: It turns out that Inspector Green #1, Do or Die, was an iTunes Canada freebie sometime in the past, so you might want to check your account for it if you've a compatible iDevice/sufficiently upgraded Mac to read it on.)

2 mysteries by Jeffrey Round (SYKM) in his Dan Sharp series starring a missing persons investigator who's also a gay single father in Toronto. I actually bought the 1st one of these back when Books on Board was still operating and started reading it a few days ago before I got sidetracked by finishing up the Billy Boyle books (1st volume also on $1.99 special upthread from Soho) I'd bought ages ago. It seemed like a decent read so far, but admittedly I didn't get more than a few chapters into it. Again, buying the individuals with coupons is cheaper than the current omnibus price: linkage for the lot of Round's books if you're interested

Cold Mourning by Brenda Chapman, 1st (and thus far only) in her Stonechild and Rouleau series starring a female First Nations officer set in, you guessed it, Ontario. This looks interesting, and I think I'll get it if the sample is promising enough.

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $1.99 for today only (Oct 15th) in multiple stores, according to the Open Road Media newsletter:

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, 1st in the very popular Brother Cadfael series of medieval murder mysteries. Couponable @ Kobo, and the price is presumably valid for just North America, as IIRC, another publisher still has the copyright on these in the UK.

On an expedition to acquire a saint’s remains, Brother Cadfael instead finds intrigue and murder

It is 1137, and the ambitious head of Shrewsbury Abbey wishes to acquire the remains of Saint Winifred for the glory of his Benedictine order. Brother Cadfael is part of the expedition sent to the saint’s final resting place in Wales, where he finds the villagers divided over the Benedictines’ quest.

When the leading opponent to moving the grave is shot dead with a mysterious arrow, some believe Winifred herself delivered the blow. Brother Cadfael knows that an earthly hand did the killing. But he doesn’t know that his plan to root out a murderer may dig up a case of love and justice, where the waves of sin may be scandal—or his own ruin.

[Mort1997]

Free today on amazon UK- The Curious Case of the BLack Swan song by Andrea Frazer

Uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curious-Case...95949&sr=1-201

US
http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Case-B...95949&sr=1-201

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Curious-Cas...95949&sr=1-201

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Curious-Case-Bl...95949&sr=1-201

[mitford13]

The Dundurn books ATDrake posted are also available for Scribd subscribers.

[ATDrake]

Free from the small press startup re-publisher via KDP Select @ Amazon:

London Bloody London by the late Michael Avallone (SYKM, Wikipedia), 24th in his Ed Noon vintage pulp mystery thriller series, this installment originally out from Curtis in 1972.

Ed Noon is trapped abroad by a broad who likes to swing and slay. Once again the President sends his Special Agent Noon off on a hazardous mission. This time he’s hunting an aging master scientist and a wizard child prodigy through the back streets of London.

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

2 PI mystery shorts by Canadian author Sharon Rowse (SYKM), who incidentally is an Arthur Ellis Award finalist from whom we've previously gotten the shortlisted Best Novel as a KDP freebie some years ago

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

2 mini-collections of mystery shorts by Canadian author Jill Edmondson, whose first Sasha Jackson mystery novel was originally published by Dundurn Press, which we've also gotten as a KDP freebie in the past

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Free from the small press startup re-publisher via KDP Select @ Amazon:

London Bloody London by the late Michael Avallone (SYKM, Wikipedia), 24th in his Ed Noon vintage pulp mystery thriller series, this installment originally out from Curtis in 1972.

Ed Noon is trapped abroad by a broad who likes to swing and slay. Once again the President sends his Special Agent Noon off on a hazardous mission. This time he’s hunting an aging master scientist and a wizard child prodigy through the back streets of London.

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

2 PI mystery shorts by Canadian author Sharon Rowse (SYKM), who incidentally is an Arthur Ellis Award finalist from whom we've previously gotten the shortlisted Best Novel as a KDP freebie some years ago

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

2 mini-collections of mystery shorts by Canadian author Jill Edmondson, whose first Sasha Jackson mystery novel was originally published by Dundurn Press, which we've also gotten as a KDP freebie in the past

Another Michael Avallone!

The bumbling sex-private eye-master, one who rivals Shell Scott!


Thanks!

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon (linkage for the lot):

4 assorted titles by self-publishing champion J.A. Konrath aka Jack Kilborn (SYKM), including a short story collection in his award-nominated Jack Daniels mystery series (a repeat) and 2 newly free horror & sci-fi thrillers

[HarryT]

ATDrake: Please note that we only permit the inclusion of self-published titles here if you've personally read them and are recommending them on that basis. Can you say a few words about why you liked these?

Thanks!

[ATDrake]

^

J.A. Konrath is a self-publishing champion in terms of putting his works out on his own imprint and encouraging others to do so, but is also actually a traditionally-published backlist author, as you can see via his Stop You're Killing Me website bibliography listing, which shows that his Jack Daniels mystery series (of which we're getting a related short story collection as one of the current freebies; they may be self-published instead of having first been printed in various mystery magazines (I didn't really check for that since it's a repeat), but they're tie-ins to a popular print series) is a multiple nominee for the Macavity, Anthony, and Barry awards, with the 1st novel originally published by Disney's Hyperion imprint.

I'm surprised you don't recognize his name, as he's shown up in News and General Discussions many times over the years for his views on authors self-publishing their backlists instead of re-signing with the traditional publishers again for the e-book re-releases, including some of the current discussions on that Author's Guild letter thing.

Anyway, here's his Wikipedia entry, and some sample dedicated discussion threads here on MR from a few years ago: Joe Konrath on copyright and fair use, Konrath and friends take on Turow, LA Times: Joe Konrath can't wait for his books to go out of print.

ETA: Wikipedia says that he's had Jack Daniels shorts published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and other traditional print outlets.

[HarryT]

Thanks for explaining that. Yes, I do recognise the name, but only as a self-published author.

Cheers,

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $1.99 (72% off regular, available worldwide and DRM-free, though you'll have to pick one format; apparently if you later need another one, you can contact them directly and they'll switch it in your library, but the checkout makes you select just one) for today only (Oct 16th) from Weightless Books (who normally do sf/fantasy titles for their Thursday sale):

A Trifle Dead by Australian author Livia Day, a maybe-cozy culinary-themed murder mystery set in Hobart, 1st in her Café La Femme series, out from small press Twelfth Planet.

The blurb says that this is quote-unquote "Shortlisted for Best Debut Book, Davitt Awards for Australian Women’s Crime Writing; Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalist". Weightless' 1-Day Sale titles are generally available from their website right until just before midnight Pacific Time, IIRC.

Tabitha Darling has always had a dab hand for pastry and a knack for getting into trouble. Which was fine when she was a tearaway teen, but not so useful now she’s trying to run a hipster urban cafe, invent the perfect trendy dessert, and stop feeding the many (oh so unfashionable) policemen in her life.

When a dead muso is found in the flat upstairs, Tabitha does her best (honestly) not to interfere with the investigation, despite the cute Scottish blogger who keeps angling for her help. Her superpower is gossip, not solving murder mysteries, and those are totally not the same thing, right?

But as that strange death turns into a string of random crimes across the city of Hobart, Tabitha can’t shake the unsettling feeling that maybe, for once, it really is ALL ABOUT HER.

And maybe she’s figured out the deadly truth a trifle late…