FREE/BARGAIN - Mystery, Suspense, Thriller - 2016

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sufue

I love historical/archaeological mysteries, but really dislike ones with paranormal woo-woo, and this one looks as if it might have that. It also looks a bit more thriller-ish than mystery-ish. Has anyone read and can advise?

It's awful. Avoid. Egyptian pseudo-mythology, ancient curses, etc. I really can't recommend it.

[sufue]

I hope you like the Nell Bray books/series! I found the series in DTB while on a business trip to the UK many years ago; like many historical series, it isn't popular in the US - or, apparently, Australia .

Sadly, only the first two and the last four seem to be available in ebook right now, and it has been that way for a while, across all of the countries I've checked from time-to-time. And you're right, prices vary pretty widely, sometimes even with two editions of the same title available at different prices. I've always sort of guessed that maybe the rights for the first two reverted, and the ebooks were included in the contract from the start for the last few, but who knows...

Anyway, hope you like it.

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Thanks for the Nell Bray recommendation Sufue! I hadn't come across her before.

I see that Book 2, Hanging on the Wire, is cheapish in any of the usual Kobo countries that people might use. I bought my version in Sth Africa, because for me it was the cheapest. I paid AUD3.82 (tax included). (From memory it's GBP1.99.)

I also note that Kobo has a lot of this series priced more cheaply than Amazon!

[sufue]

Thank you! That's what I suspected, but good to know for sure.

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's awful. Avoid. Egyptian pseudo-mythology, ancient curses, etc. I really can't recommend it.

[Mort1997]

Free today on Amazon UK -Death of an Innocent by Roger Ormerod


UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Innoce...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Innocent...ndeavour+press


Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Death-Innoc...ndeavour+press


Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Death-Innocent-...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free today on Amazon UK - Mr Holmes andthe Love Bank by Conrad Voss Bark


UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holmes-Love-...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Holmes-Love-Ba...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Holmes-Love...ndeavour+press

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Holmes-Love-Ban...ndeavour+press

[sufue]

The Devil's Company is the third in the Benjamin Weaver historical series by David Liss. I haven't read this, but did read and very much like the first in the series, A Conspiracy of Paper, a while back. So I'm excited to see The Devil's Company drop to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002DBIOFC

Spoiler:

BONUS: This edition contains a The Devil's Company discussion guide.

From the acclaimed and bestselling author of The Whiskey Rebels and A Conspiracy of Paper comes a stunning new thriller set in the splendor and squalor of eighteenth-century London.

The year is 1722. Ruffian for hire and master of disguise Benjamin Weaver finds himself pitted against a mysterious mastermind who holds the lives of Weaver’s friends in the balance. To protect the people he loves, Weaver must stage a daring robbery from the headquarters of the ruthless British East India Company, but this theft is only the opening move in a dangerous game of secret plots, corporate rivals, and foreign spies. With the security of the nation—and the lives of those he loves—in the balance, Weaver must navigate a labyrinth of political greed and corporate treachery.

Explosive action and utterly vivid period detail are the hallmarks of an author who continues to set the bar ever higher for historical suspense.

[sufue]

Falstaff's Murder is one of the titles in the new-ish (or at least newer than his other series) historical mystery series by Leonard Tourney, featuring William Shakespeare as the protagonist. Tourney is also the author of the Joan and Matthew Stock series, AFAIK not available as e-books.

Falstaff's Murder is a US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 6 1/2 more days.

link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014TAM7WU

Spoiler:

William Shakespeare, only 19 years old but already with a wife and child, leaves Stratford-upon-Avon to pursue a career in theatre in London.

But on the journey he is robbed and kidnapped by a group of highwaymen, led by the aged, round-bellied womaniser John Falstaff.

When Shakespeare wakes up in Oldcastle Hold, Oxfordshire, without his possessions – including his half-finished Comedy of Errors – the lord of the house Falstaff denies any wrongdoing.

Shakespeare becomes a prisoner to Falstaff and is asked to write to write to his father for ransom before he can be released.

However, Shakespeare becomes a favourite of the benign Falstaff, and is more concerned with turning down the unwanted advances of the buxom Mercy Roundy than fleeing the household.

But things take a darker turn when Shakespeare is asked to work as gardener to the house, and he discovers the rotting corpse of his predecessor who tried to make an escape.

A group of actors come to Oldcastle Hold and Shakespeare makes his acting debut as a youth who murders his lover’s father, played by Falstaff.

But life comes to imitate art in the middle of the play when Falstaff is discovered with his throat cut – by the very gardening tool Shakespeare was using.

Framed by the murder and sentenced to hang, Shakespeare knows his only chance of survival is to escape the mad house...

Praise for Leonard Tourney:

“A gorgeous period piece.” Washington Post

“A soundly researched, roundly entertaining series.” New York Times Book Review

“The Stocks are as warmly likable a couple as can be found in all crime fiction. Tourney’s plotting is expert.” Los Angeles Times

Leonard Tourney is a specialist in composition pedagogy and creative writing, he has authored scholarly articles in 17th century British literature, a critical biography of Joseph Hall, short fiction, and nine historical novels, the most recent a fictional memoir of William Shakespeare. He has taught at Western Illinois University, the University of Tulsa, and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by Mort1997

Free today on Amazon UK -Death of an Innocent by Roger Ormerod


UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Innoce...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Innocent...ndeavour+press


Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Death-Innoc...ndeavour+press


Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Death-Innocent-...ndeavour+press

I read this book a while ago , and did like it.

[GA Russell]

The Penguin Pool Murder (Hildegarde Withers) - $1.99
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CHW6742

[Wearever]

Originally Posted by sufue

Falstaff's Murder is one of the titles in the new-ish (or at least newer than his other series) historical mystery series by Leonard Tourney, featuring William Shakespeare as the protagonist. Tourney is also the author of the Joan and Matthew Stock series, AFAIK not available as e-books.

Falstaff's Murder is a US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 6 1/2 more days.

link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014TAM7WU

Thanks sufue ! I'll try it !

[Mort1997]

Free from Amazon UK - Fool's Mate by Ritchie Perry


UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fools-Mate-R...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Mate-Rit...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Fools-Mate-...ndeavour+press


Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Fools-Mate-Ritc...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK (repeat) - The Dentist by Scott Griffin


UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dentist-Scot...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Dentist-Scott-...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Dentist-Sco...ndeavour+press

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Dentist-Scott-G...ndeavour+press

[sufue]

Paper Phoenix is a non-series title by Mickey Friedman/Michaela Thomson. It's a (repeat) freebie right now on Kindle US.

link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DD0B6HK/

Spoiler:

“My new interest is burglary.When some women get divorced they go back to school, I thought. Some do volunteer work at the hospital, or ... have affairs with inappropriate men."

(That's early in the book. Later on, she works the man in too.)

"Wickedly delicious... What makes (Thompson's) book so particularly wonderful is the way it accomplishes the detective novel's covert mission of urban analysis and social criticism." -San Francisco Examiner

"(Thompson) knows how to create that sense of place which is so important to any novel, but particularly to crime fiction; her characters are believable men and women in a real world..." --P.D. James

First comes divorce, then comes murder…

…or at least sweet thoughts of murder. Maggie Longstreet has plenty of them after slimy, ambitious Richard trades her in for a more recent model. She’s so depressed she can barely get out of bed when Larry Hawkins, a seemingly not-at-all depressed acquaintance, commits suicide out of the blue. Suddenly Maggie goes on high alert, remembering something her evil ex said about Larry—something highly suspicious.

And from there, it's just a short segué to a bracing new development:

“When some women get divorced they go back to school, I thought. Some do volunteer work at the hospital, or join communes and learn to birth calves. Some have affairs with inappropriate men. My new interest is burglary. Maggie Longstreet, former wife and mother, past president of the Museum Guild, now starting a career as a second-story woman.”

Fortunately, Maggie isn’t alone in her adventure—a very attractive, much younger man proves a lot more fun than Richard ever was. In fact, the real delight of this witty, sly mystery is seeing Maggie come alive again after a suffocating marriage. Set in the’70s, it has a bit of that Mad Men feel of women on the brink of something big. And completely unexpected.

You know Maggie’s going to be okay when she says: “I’d rather have had one of those cute little guns with a mother-of-pearl handle, but this (diamond pin) would have to do. I concealed it in my hand. At least now I was armed—or pinned.”

And Fault Tree is another non-series titles by the same author. It's a (repeat) US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for almost three more days.

link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GVE8C2C

Spoiler:

HELLO, IT’S YOUR PAST CALLING…

“Placing blame” thinks Marina Robinson, “is my life’s work. And why?” There’s a lot in her past to account for—nightmares and terrors, crimes and betrayals that happened half a world away, ten years go. Now she’s an engineer with a great job. She’s a failure analyst, an investigator who figures out what causes accidents, and she’s working on her most fascinating case--the fatal crash of a roller coaster--when suddenly the phone rings. And her world tilts…

The elusive, unidentified caller can be only one person—Catherine, her beloved younger sister who supposedly died in a fire ten years ago. Once again—for the moment abandoning her case--Marina is inexorably drawn back to India, the country that seduced her so long ago in so many ways, where something unspeakable happened to a child, and where she herself participated in misdeeds so shocking she can’t forgive herself. She starts by tracking Catherine’s lost lover, Nagarajan, the irresistibly charismatic guru under whose spell Catherine fell those many years ago, a man so dangerous, so full of hubris he took his name from Indian snake gods, and who at times seemed more serpent than human. But who is also reportedly dead—a suicide in a jail cell.

Thus begins an odyssey of fear and danger--far from dead, Nagarajan seems to be everywhere, and so do his disciples (at least those who haven't gone mad from guilt). Nowhere, it seems, is Marina safe, nor is anyone who knows anything about the young victim of Nagarajan’s atrocities. Wherever she turns, the path seems strewn with fresh bodies. Just when the jig seems up, Marina calls on her skills as a failure analyst and Thompson pulls off a surprise ending that will leave you gasping.

Fault Tree is that rare novel that pulls us into the exotic experience of a stranger in a strange land, much like Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust or Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram.

[sufue]

Cross-ref to my post in the Kobo thread, with info about a very random assortment of reasonably priced (IMO) mysteries in the Kobo India store:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho....php?p=3285918

[GA Russell]

Take a Murder, Darling (Shell Scott) - $1.99
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J3EU62Q