FREE/BARGAIN - Mystery, Suspense, Thriller - 2016

[sufue]

Death by Committee is the second title in the Susan Lombardi series by Carole Shmurak. It is free right now at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Committ.../dp/B0052ACBBE

Spoiler:

Faculty squabbling at a large state university turns deadly when professor of education Susan Lombardi joins a committee to make a tenure decision about Abby Gillette, a controversial faculty member. After one colleague is hospitalized following a suspicious fire and another is found dead in Abby's office, Susan must try to figure out who is doing what to whom...without becoming the next victim. At the same time, she must deal with her husband's highly dysfunctional family and help a friend handle a questionable romance.

"The writing is beautifully readable. smooth and evocative, without a wasted word." - Kim Malo, MyShelf.com.

"An entertaining and illuminating look into academic in-fighting at its most brutal." - Betty Webb, Mystery Scene Magazine.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by sufue

Cup of Blood
Death by Committee

Thanks -- I'll try out these two.

Originally Posted by sufue

The Margery Allingham Box Set 1 contains the third, fourth, and fifth titles in Allingham's Albert Campion series.

The titles are:

Look to the Lady, apa The Gyrth Chalice Mystery
Police at the Funeral
Sweet Danger, apa Kingdom of Death, apa The Fear Sign

It's a US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 1/2 more day.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Margery-Allin.../dp/B01CT65Q1K

.... and recommend this, especially at the price. The Gyrth Chalice Mystery is a wee bit hokey in its premise, but not in the solving. The rest are the author improving on herself, and are quite good.

bgDeb

[Lynx-lynx]

Amazon AU Deal of the Day:
Snowblind (Dark Iceland series)
Ragnar Jónasson (Author), Quentin Bates (Translator)
$1.59

UK: 99p
US: $1.20 (possibly!)
US 3 book set: $5.80 possibly
CA not on special

blurb:

Spoiler:

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors - accessible only via a small mountain tunnel.

Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik - with a past that he’s unable to leave behind.

When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.

An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal.

Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness - blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose. Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights.

NOTE: Goodreads advises that the English translation reading order is:
1. Snowblind
2. Nightblind
3. Blackout
4. Broken
5. Breathless

[Lynx-lynx]

Amazon UK has got 2 x Quentin Bates Gunnhildur books at 99p:
Winterlude, book 2.5 (60 page book)
blurb:

Spoiler:

It's a bitter winter morning when Sergeant Gunnhildur is called to the scene of a violent killing in an abandoned industrial unit. Gunna and her sidekick Helgi quickly find that the battered victim had no shortage of enemies.

The case takes Gunna around Reykjavík's darker side and Helgi to the bleak rural district he grew up in as they work out who was prepared to take a grudge as far as murder.

Summerchill, book 4.5 (142 pages)
blurb:

Spoiler:

It's the tail end of a hot summer when half of Reykjavík is on holiday and the other half wishes it was. Things are quiet when a man is reported missing from his home in the suburbs.

As Gunna and Helgi investigate, it becomes clear that the missing man had secrets of his own that lead to a sinister set of friends, and to someone with little to lose who is a fugitive from both justice and the underworld.

It becomes a challenge for Gunna to tail both the victim and his would-be executioner, racing to catch up with at least one of them before they finally meet.

CA: both 99cents
AU: doesn't seem to stock them
US: doesn't seem to stock them

[murg]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Amazon AU Deal of the Day:
Snowblind (Dark Iceland series)
Ragnar Jónasson (Author), Quentin Bates (Translator)
$1.59

UK: 99p
US: $1.20 (possibly!)
US 3 book set: $5.80 possibly
CA not on special

blurb:

Spoiler:

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors - accessible only via a small mountain tunnel.

Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik - with a past that he’s unable to leave behind.

When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.

An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal.

Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness - blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose. Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights.

NOTE: Goodreads advises that the English translation reading order is:
1. Snowblind
2. Nightblind
3. Blackout
4. Broken
5. Breathless

Would the Icelandic reading order be different?

[sufue]

The RAFFERTY & LLEWELLYN SERIES BOXED SET: BOOKS 1 TO 4 by Geraldine Evans is pretty much what it says it is (begging the problem of how to get a box onto an e-reader ). It is FREE right now at Kindle US.

Titles are:

• Dead Before Morning, #1
• Down Among the Dead Men, #2
• Death Line, #3
• The Hanging Tree, #4

link: https://www.amazon.com/RAFFERTY-LLEW.../dp/B00LJ3G7LS

Spoiler:

RAFFERTY & LLEWELLYN SERIES BOXED SET eBOOKS 1 TO 4

***
A Little Laughter. A Little Mayhem. A Little MURDER . . .
Dead Before Morning #1
Down Among the Dead Men #2
Death Line #3
The Hanging Tree #4
***
DEAD BEFORE MORNING
British Detective Joe Rafferty and his partner, Sergeant Dafyd Llewellyn in a murder mystery involving the killing of a young woman bludgeoned beyond recognition, with no ID and found in a secure place to which she supposedly had no admission. Who is she? How has she gained access? And who was responsible for her murder? These are just a few of the questions the detective duo must answer in this first novel in the cozy mystery series. With difficulties besetting them on all sides, including their own superintendent and a media that has decided to adopt the case of the 'Faceless Lady' as their own personal crusade for justice, newly-promoted Inspector Rafferty has something to prove.
***

*
DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN
British Detectives Joe Rafferty and his partner, Dafyd Llewellyn, in their second murder mystery investigation, set out to discover who killed Barbara Longman, a woman with no known enemies. But when it soon becomes apparent that the murder has been committed by someone who must have known the victim well, the police investigation shifts to the victim's family, the wealthy and influential Shores. Rafferty suspects that Charles Shore, not a man known to forgive failure, will use his influence to damage Rafferty's career should he fail to find the murderer.
*
DEATH LINE
Third novel in the Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series, Death Line sees the detective duo trying to solve the murder mystery of the famed 'seer', Jasper Moon, with his own crystal ball. Gradually it becomes clear that Jasper Moon was a man of many parts, not all of them appeared very savoury. Moon was a wealthy man, but seems to have written no will; certainly, Detectives Rafferty and Llewellyn can't find it. In a case involving as many twists and turns as a snake avoiding capture, the detectives must take their murder investigation back through the years to the victim's youth to answer that question: 'Who did it?' And Rafferty fears that after such a long time, the evidence their murder inquiry needs will no longer be there to find.
*
THE HANGING TREE
Fourth novel in the Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series. This murder mystery involves the detective pair in the case of the vanishing hanged man. But when the hanged man turns up in Dedman Woods for a second time, the British detectives are able to confirm that he is a man many had reason to hate. Because Maurice Smith, charged years earlier with four child rapes, had escaped on a legal technicality. Detective Rafferty feels ambivalent about the case from the start. Not sure his desire to solve it is strong enough, he has to fight the feeling that natural justice, in winning out against the judicial sort, has right on its side. The punishment has, in his book, fitted the crime. As the usual police procedure continues towards an unwanted conclusion, Rafferty, caught between the law and his own sense of morality, feels this is an investigation that could cause him to demand his own resignation as a detective.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sufue

The RAFFERTY & LLEWELLYN SERIES BOXED SET: BOOKS 1 TO 4 by Geraldine Evans is pretty much what it says it is (begging the problem of how to get a box onto an e-reader ). It is FREE right now at Kindle US.

Titles are:

• Dead Before Morning, #1
• Down Among the Dead Men, #2
• Death Line, #3
• The Hanging Tree, #4

link: https://www.amazon.com/RAFFERTY-LLEW.../dp/B00LJ3G7LS

This appears to be self-published. Has it previously been commercially published, or is this a personal recommendation?

[sufue]

If you missed these, which I did, the Easton/Jack Taggart titles are back up to $8.09, but couponable with the 50SUN coupon that is still working as of a couple of minutes ago.

HOWEVER, if you need a lot of the titles, there are three bundles that bring the prices down even more, and they are couponable too.

Books 1 - 7 $38.29
Books 1 - 8 $38.29 (duh!)
Books 1 - 9 $48.49

If you need/want all but the first one (which was free a while back), it turns out the best way to do it is to get the 1 - 8 bundle and then buy the 9th title as a stand-alone since it is only $8.09 by itself ($4.05 w/ coupon), but $10.20 ($5.10 w/ coupon) as the marginal title in the 9-book bundle.

With that strategy it works out to CAD$24 and change (depending on provincial tax), or about $3-and-a-bit each if you need 2 - 9. (Obviously a bit less per title if you didn't pick up the free one a while back...)

8-book bundle: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/eb...-8-book-bundle
9th title (Art and Murder): https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/eb...t-and-murder-1
NOTE: have to already be in the Canada store

Originally Posted by ATDrake

As part of Kobo Canada's lingering Canada Day Summer Reading sale (ending today, July 6th), the following are on special sale with 5x Super Bonus Points (mostly not matched at Amazon, as far as I can tell):

• @ $2.99 CAD each (regularly $8.99, eligible for extra VIP 10% off), #2-9 of former Mountie Don Easton's (SYKM) Jack Taggart series set in Vancouver, starring an undercover Mountie, from Dundurn. We've previously received #1 in this series free, if you happened to have read and liked it.
• @ $4.99 CAD each (regularly $10-$11, eligible for extra VIP 10% off), almost all of Anne Emery's (SYKM) Collins-Burke series set in Halifax starring a criminal defense lawyer and a Catholic priest who together, they fight crime! from ECW Press. We've previously received the Arthur Ellis Award-winning 1st-in-series free, and this is generally the lowest the prices for these things get without resorting to significant couponage.
• @ $4.99 CAD each (non-couponable, regularly $12 CAD), #6 & #7 in Alan Bradley's (SYKM, Wikipedia) multiple award-winning Flavia de Luce series, which were released in 2014 & 2015 respectively.

There are also more featured titles by Canadian crime and mystery authors, often at significant discounts, if you want to browse.

[sufue]

Perhaps before jumping to invoke the "self-pub kiss-of-death" you might try one or two clicks yourself??? Looking at SYKM (probably two clicks to get there) shows these were all pub in the 1990's, before significant penetration of ebooks, or even just clicking through to Amazon's author page (one click), where it indicates she had 18 traditionally published titles (which would include her first four) before going indie in 2010...

Originally Posted by HarryT

This appears to be self-published. Has it previously been commercially published, or is this a personal recommendation?

[HarryT]

Thanks, sufue.

[sufue]

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is $0.99 at Kindle US. Although most of these are not really to my style, I personally recognize at least five of the titles as having been conventionally published (Winston, Jacobs, Toussaint, Minichino, Kennedy) and some of the others may have been as well.

Titles are:

• Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun--Lois Winston
• Murder Among Neighbors, by Jonnie Jacobs
• Skeleton in a Dead Space by Judy Alter
• In For a Penny by Maggie Toussaint
• The Hydrogen Murder by Camille Minichino
• Retirement Can Be Murder by Susan Santangelo
• Dead Air by Mary Kennedy
• A Dead Red Cadillac by RP Dahlke
• Murder is a Family Business by Heather Haven
• Murder, Honey by Vinnie Hansen

link: https://www.amazon.com/Sleuthing-Wom.../dp/B01E7EEJLA

Spoiler:

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is a collection of 10 full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by 10 critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novel in this set is the first book in an established multi-book series—a total of over 3,000 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, and cozy mysteries, with a combined total of over 1700 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4 stars.

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery by Lois Winston—Working mom Anastasia is clueless about her husband’s gambling addiction until he permanently cashes in his chips and her comfortable middle-class life craps out. He leaves her with staggering debt, his communist mother, and a loan shark demanding $50,000. Then she’s accused of murder…

Murder Among Neighbors, a Kate Austen Suburban Mystery by Jonnie Jacobs — When Kate Austen’s socialite neighbor, Pepper Livingston, is murdered, Kate becomes involved in a sea of steamy secrets that bring her face to face with shocking truths—and handsome detective Michael Stone.

Skeleton in a Dead Space, a Kelly O’Connell Mystery by Judy Alter—Real estate isn’t a dangerous profession until Kelly O’Connell stumbles over a skeleton and runs into serial killers and cold-blooded murderers in a home being renovated in Fort Worth. Kelly barges through life trying to keep from angering her policeman boyfriend Mike and protect her two young daughters.

In for a Penny, a Cleopatra Jones Mystery by Maggie Toussaint—Accountant Cleo faces an unwanted hazard when her golf ball lands on a dead banker. The cops think her BFF shot him, so Cleo sets out to prove them wrong. She ventures into the dating world, wrangles her teens, adopts the victim’s dog, and tries to rein in her mom…until the killer puts a target on Cleo’s back.

The Hydrogen Murder, a Periodic Table Mystery by Camille Minichino—A retired physicist returns to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts and moves into an apartment above her friends' funeral home. When she signs on to help the Police Department with a science-related homicide, she doesn't realize she may have hundreds of cases ahead of her.

Retirement Can Be Murder, A Baby Boomer Mystery by Susan Santangelo—Carol Andrews dreads her husband Jim’s upcoming retirement more than a root canal without Novocain. She can’t imagine anything worse than having an at-home husband with time on his hands and nothing to fill it—until Jim is suspected of murdering his retirement coach.

Dead Air, A Talk Radio Mystery by Mary Kennedy—Psychologist Maggie Walsh moves from NY to Florida to become the host of WYME's On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. When her guest, New Age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii, turns up dead, her new roommate Lark becomes the prime suspect. Maggie must prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy.

A Dead Red Cadillac, A Dead Red Mystery by RP Dahlke—When her vintage Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask aero-ag pilot Lalla Bains why an elderly widowed piano teacher is found strapped in the driver’s seat. Lalla confronts suspects, informants, cross-dressers, drug-running crop dusters, and a crazy Chihuahua on her quest to find the killer.

Murder is a Family Business, an Alvarez Family Murder Mystery by Heather Haven—Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez, has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve.

Murder, Honey, a Carol Sabala Mystery by Vinnie Hansen—When the head chef collapses into baker Carol Sabala’s cookie dough, she is thrust into her first murder investigation. Suspects abound at Archibald’s, the swanky Santa Cruz restaurant where Carol works. The head chef cut a swath of people who wanted him dead from ex-lovers to bitter rivals to greedy relatives.

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $1.99 in Canada & US (couponable @ Kobo Canada using 50SUN 50% off unlimited use code through Monday) from Steerforth Press' Pushkin imprint which specializes in translating modern foreign-language literature:

Vertigo by the late Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac (Wikipedia), the original novel upon which the eponymous classic Alfred Hitchcock film was based, which came out in France in 1954 under the title D'entre les morts and has a Wikipedia entry all its own.

The story could have happened to any of us, but it happened to a man named Flavieres. His days as a detective were over, and everyone knew he had his reasons. But when an old friend appeared out of nowhere with concerns about his withdrawn and mysterious wife, Flavieres didn't have the heart to refuse. And soon he would be scouring the streets of Paris in search of an answer - in search of a girl who belonged to no one, not even to herself. Soon intrigue would be replaced by obsession, and dreams replaced by nightmares. This is the story of a desperate man. A man who ended up compromising his own morality beyond all measure, while World War Two raged outside his front door. A man tormented - and destroyed - by a dark, terrible secret.

This sinister, mindbending roman noir was turned into a 1958 Hollywood classic, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock.

If anyone's also interested in true crime, Steerforth and Sourcebooks are also offering some couponable $1.99 sale titles for those which I'll be adding to the non-fiction megathread shortly.

[GA Russell]

Hanged for a Sheep (Mr. and Mrs. North) - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/Hanged-Sheep-.../dp/B01AVTU73Y

*****

Escape from Alcatraz - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Alcatr.../dp/B007DCXX0C

*****

The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (with Free Audiobook) - 99 cents
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Tale.../dp/B01DE645W0

*****

The Bling Ring - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/Bling-Ring-Fa.../dp/B009NG2BLS

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by murg

Would the Icelandic reading order be different?

Hi ya murg

I reckon that someone or other on Goodreads thinks that we can't read Icelandic titles and therefore know which book is which .... the cheek!

Spoiler:

complied with moderator removal request by deleting inoffensive comments

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $2.99 each (depending on where you shop; linkage goes to Kobo unless otherwise specified) in Canada & the US from St. Martin Press (non-couponable), two trilogies of novels within Iris Johansen's (SYKM, Wikipedia) bestselling Eve Duncan series (Wikipedia) starring a forensic sculptor, which has apparently had one of the novels adapted into a TV movie:

Wikipedia says that these trilogies comprise mini sub-series within the series and can be read relatively standalone (apparently they flesh out elements of the main character's backstory). I'm using their numbering rather than Kobo's.

Eve #13, Quinn #14, and Bonnie #15, comprising what's otherwise sold as the Eve Quinn Bonnie Trilogy as an omnibus edition for $20.99. All $2.99 @ Kobo Canada & US and other stores I spot-checked.

Taking Eve #17, Hunting Eve #18, Silencing Eve #19: #18 is $2.99 at both Kobo Canada & US, #17 is $2.99 at Kobo US but not Canada (but you can price-match against Amazon CA), and #19 is $2.99 at Google Play CA but neither Kobo US nor Canada at the moment; US persons can price-match against Amazon US (or you can just get them all at Amazon if you already shop there and don't need the super points or particularly want ePub)

At the $26.99 CAD mark, there's also the An Eve Duncan Collection From Iris Johansen: Quicksand, Blood Game, Eight Days to Live, and Chasing the Night comprising #9-12 in the series (regularly priced at $8.99 CAD each for the individuals).

Also from St. Martin's Press, there's a $2.99 special on #2 in Lisa Scottoline's (SYKM, Wikipedia) Rosato & DiNunzio legal thriller series which is a spinoff from her Edgar Award-nominated Rosato & Associates series (Wikipedia): Betrayed