FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

Murder in the Queen's Armes is the third in the also excellent (IMO) Gideon Oliver series by Aaron Elkins. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US (coupon/VIPable).

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Queens...dp/B00J84KOPK/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mur...ueen-s-armes-1

Spoiler:

The Skeleton Detective puzzles over the theft of an ancient bit of bone—and a student’s murder—in this novel by the Edgar Award–winning author of Switcheroo.

Anthropology professor Gideon Oliver would prefer to keep his mind on his beautiful new bride Julie during their English honeymoon, but one intrusive question will not stop nagging at him: Who would want to steal a thirty‑thousand‑year‑old parieto‑occipital calvarial fragment?

Yet someone has lifted this chunk of prehistoric human skull from a musty museum in Dorchester. Then, thirty miles away, an archaeology student is murdered, increasing tension and suspicion at a dig that had already seethed with suspicion, rivalry, and mistrust. Could there be a connection between a hot bone and a cold‑blooded murder? Gideon is called on by the police to apply the unique skills for which the media have named him “the Skeleton Detective,” and he reluctantly agrees. Before he is done, his sleuthing will lead him to another murder and will—in the most literal and terrifying manner imaginable—sic the dogs on him, putting Gideon himself, and Julie as well, in mortal danger . . .

Murder in the Queen’s Armes is a suspenseful, fun-filled whodunit by the author of the Alix London and Chris Norgren series—a celebrated master who “thoroughly understands the art of the murder mystery” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

[GA Russell]

Sleep and His Brother - Peter Dickinson - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T72F3WW

[Little.Egret]

Historical by Barbara Hambly

Oops, reposted in its proper place

[Little.Egret]

Free

Patricia Wentworths not available in US

The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith: A Golden Age Mystery by Patricia Wentworth

The Coldstone: A Golden Age Mystery by Patricia Wentworth

The Dark Garden: A Bobby Owen Mystery by E.R. Punshon

The Conqueror Inn: A Bobby Owen Mystery by E.R. Punshon


https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...r=dean+street*

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...r=dean+street*

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...r=dean+street*

[Avice]

"Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson, Book 1 in the excellent Jackson Brodie mystery series, is $2.99 at Amazon US and Kobo.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000SEI07S
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/case-histories

[ATDrake]

Some bargains to start off the month, good through May 30th:

Kobo Canada's featured Series of the Month is Jacqueline Winspear's (SYKM, Wikipedia) Agatha Award-winning Maisie Dobbs series, starring a psychologist in the post-WWI interwar years, with almost all its titles at $4.99 CAD: linkage for the promo page Meet Maisie Dobbs, and the See All listing. Some of these have been cheaper (IIRC, Journey to Munich was $3.99 CAD as part of another Kobo sale last month), but most of these I don't think I've seen discounted before.

Kobo US' Author of the Month is Nancy Bush (SYKM), who is apparently the sister of Lisa Jackson (SYKM, Wikipedia). Her suspense novels (some romantic, some not) from Kensington are a 3 for 2 offer, with the regular pricing at $5.99 USD each: Buy 2 Nancy Bush reads, get 1 free! (includes some co-written and multi-author anthologies)

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $0.99-$1.99 from various imprints in Canada & the US (linkage goes to Kobo unless otherwise noted, prices should be the same in all the stores unless otherwise noted):

@ $0.99:

• Switcheroo by Aaron Elkins (SYKM, Wikipedia), 18th in his Edgar-winning Gideon Oliver series starring a forensic anthropologist, which are science/academia-oriented and very enjoyable if you like that sort of thing. From Amazon's exclusive Thomas & Mercer imprint (#1-10 are available from Open Road Media and sporadically price-drop to $1.99 or less , #11-17 are from the Random Penguin House's Berkley imprint and basically never go on sale )​.
• Shamus in the Green Room by Susan Kandel (SYKM, Wikipedia), 3rd in her CeCe Caruso cozy series starring a mystery writer biographer cum fashionista in L. A., from HarperCollins. The Agatha-nominated 1st was also a 99-cent special a month or two ago.

@ $1.99:

• Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie, a very good standalone mystery (the TV adaptation turned it into a Marple and changed part of the plot).
• The Forgotten Girls by Danish author Sara Blædel (SYKM, Wikipedia), 7th in her Louise Rick series starring a detective inspector in Copenhagen. This is $9.99 CAD at Kobo Canada, but listed as part of the Kindle Daily Deal for May 1st so you can price match to the Amazon CA price for today, if you prefer.

[sufue]

London Gambit is (maybe) the 11th in the Malcolm & Suzanne Rannoch series by Tracy Grant. The reason I say maybe is that Grant doesn't write in anything approaching chronological order, and it can be really hard to figure out what the order for the various books/novellas is. It's also complicated because Grant first started writing this series with the main characters named Charles and Mélanie Fraser; her website says some sort of publisher input led to the change. And she also wrote some of these titles as Teresa Grant, not Tracy Grant. Whew!

In any case Gambit is free right now at Kindle US. Although I'm not quite sure if NYLA is a publisher or self-publisher, I've read most, if not all, of the titles in this series and quite liked them, including this one.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Malcolm-Suzan...dp/B01BH8Y41O/

Spoiler:

A Malcolm & Suzanne Rannoch Historical Mystery Book 11

On a moonlit London night, Suzanne Rannoch slips away from a glittering Mayfair party to assist a wounded man who has escaped Paris one step ahead of Royalist pursuit. In fever-wracked delirium, the man warns Suzanne of a plot to rescue Napoleon Bonaparte—a plot that could bring chaos to Suzanne's world, for though now married to the grandson of a British duke, she was once an agent for Bonaparte…Before she can ask more questions, the mysterious man disappears into the London night.

That same evening, Suzanne's husband Malcolm, himself a former spy for Britain, is summoned to the warehouse of a shipping company where a thief has been knifed to death. Beside the body is a secret compartment, but whatever the compartment contained is gone.

These two seemingly unconnected incidents prove to be the opening gambit in a deadly game that will test the Rannochs' skill, strain their divided loyalties to Britain and France, and entangle not only fellow agents and spymasters, but their friends and family. The stakes are their security, their marriage, their very lives.

"Shimmers like the finest salons in Vienna." —Deborah Crombie

"Meticulous, delightful, and full of surprises." —Tasha Alexander

"Glittering balls, deadly intrigue, sexual scandals. . .the next best thing to actually being there!"— Lauren Willig

"A superb storyteller."— Deanna Raybourn

[sufue]

Dance of the Bones is the 24th and most recent in the J. P. Beaumont series by J A Jance. It also includes a character, Brandon Walker, from one of Jance's other series. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US, a really nice price for a most recent title.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Dance-Bones-B...dp/B00OP0JHS2/

Spoiler:

J. P. Beaumont and Brandon Walker, two of New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance’s most acclaimed series characters, join forces for the first time in one of the most suspenseful works of her career.

Years ago, Amos Warren, a prospector, was gunned down out in the desert and Sheriff Brandon Walker made the arrest in the case. Now, the retired Walker is called in when the alleged killer, John Lassiter, refuses to accept a plea deal that would release him from prison with time served. Lassiter wants Brandon and The Last Chance to find Amos's "real" killer and clear his name.

Sixteen hundred miles to the north in Seattle, J.P. Beaumont is at loose ends after the Special Homicide Investigation Team, affectionately known as S.H.I.T., has been unexpectedly and completely disbanded. When Brandon discovers that there are links between Lassiter’s case and an unsolved case in Seattle, he comes to Beau for help.

Those two cases suddenly become hot when two young boys from the reservation, one of them with close ties to the Walker family, go missing. Can two seasoned cops, working together, decipher the missing pieces in time to keep them alive?

[sufue]

Hell Gate is the 9th in the Richard Mariner series by Peter Tonkin. It is free right now at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Gate-Ric...dp/B06XG81GWC/

Spoiler:

Straight into a trap…

Eamonn O’Hanlon, a local to the Ballymore area of Ireland, is trying to charm a young American-Irish lady named Mary-Ann.

However, just as things seem to be going Eamonn’s way, a bullet pierces him and continues on to pass through the chest of Mary-Ann, killing them both.

Why would someone kill these apparently innocent bystanders?

And who would do it in the first place?

The perpetrators realise the mistake of killing these two people, one of whom is a local who will surely be noticed missing, and are forced to clean up the scene.

Even though they cover their tracks and dispose of the bodies and the car, local investigators catch on to the disturbingly professional nature of the murders…

At the same time, Robert Mariner, the owner of a fleet of super-cat boats, is preparing for the wedding of his father-in-law, however their plans to sail across the channel on one of his boats for the ceremony are cut short by the news of the murders in Ireland.

As it turns out, a piece of climbing equipment, left by the murderers, is that which is used specifically by the SPETZNAZ, the Russian special forces.

An investigator remembers that his friend, Richard Mariner, has come into contact with this equipment.
But who are these people?

While the investigation is on-going, a brand new and very modern ship, the New England, pulls into Boston harbour in preparation for its maiden voyage.

While soaring across the ocean, they are contacted by a vessel, the Calcutta that has caught fire and is sinking rapidly with people still aboard.

As the closest ship nearby, the New England heads in their direction, only to realise upon rescuing those on the boat that it was all a trick.

With the ships now loaded with stolen weapons and explosives, what can be done to stop these terrorists and save the lives of those caught in the middle of an international political nightmare?

Hell Gate is a chilling thriller, filled with intrigue and suspense that will keep you captivated until the very end.

[sufue]

Two titles in the Constable Nick series by Nicholas Rhea are on US Kindle Countdown at $0.99 for about 5 more days. Titles in this series do occasionally drop to free (briefly), so up to you if you want to wait or grab these now.

Constable in the Shrubbery, #17
link: https://www.amazon.com/Constable-Shr...dp/B06XKBV6C2/

Spoiler:

Constable Nicholas Rhea very much enjoys the quiet nature of policing such a sleepy, countryside village…

Not once has he had a murder or other serious crime on his hands while living and working in Aidensfield, however that doesn’t mean the village doesn’t have its fair share of colourful types.

Local aristocrat, Lord Thackerton and his son, Viscount Victor Elsinby are holding a large function up at Elsinby Hall to celebrate the Lord’s 60th birthday.

Rhea is to keep cars in check, keep gate-crashers out and make sure that everything is in order as there will some important and well-respected guests among those travelling for the event.

Since Lord Thackerston’s wife died, he has handed over much of the responsibilities of running the estate to his son, Victor. However, most of the party’s organisation has been the work of their butler, Johnson.

Despite his size and use of a cane, Johnson is fiercely efficient in his job as well as always looking immaculate in his black tails with white shirt and gloves.

Constable Nick notices Phyllis Catchpole, a well-known pickpocket being in attendance and although she assures him that she’s here to work, Nick would be wise to keep an eye on her.

He also bumps into Claude Jeremiah Greengrass, a strange figure in the community who has an old friendship with the aging Lord and who also has a taste for spying on people.

Considering he’s not cordially invited to the event, what is he doing around the estate?

Constable Nick’s shift finishes without incident and he heads home, however just as he is about to tuck into bed, a phone call.

Apparently, his sleepy village isn’t quite as sleepy as he had thought…

Edwin Drood, a wealthy and very aloof man has been found shot

Although this man had his fair share of enemies, surely none were so serious as to want to kill him?
And who would commit such an act?

With so many questionable types at the party, Constable Nick must work fast before the situation escalates any further…

Constable in the Shrubbery is a lively and suspenseful tale of the daily life and work of the local county policeman.

Constable Beneath the Trees, #15
link: https://www.amazon.com/Constable-Ben...dp/B06XNJ62MQ/

Spoiler:

In the spectacular countryside of the North Yorkshire Moors, Constable Nick Rhea is facing many changes to the policing of his well-known district…

One of those changes is the arrival of the new and very youthful Inspector Pollock.

Sergeant Blaketon is not at all happy when the new inspector insists on prosecuting those who park their cars without lights and those who drink after hours in the local pubs and PC Nick Rhea soon finds himself questioning his true role in the village.

Meanwhile, life in Aidensfield is always full of surprises! Claude Jeremiah Greengrass and his dog, Alfred, cause havoc at dog shows, a professional villain buys a house in the village and Nick also calls in the expertise of the Ryedale Hen Watching Society when some curious birds are found in a wood and deals with a professional villain who moves to Aidensfield.

And then an unexploded bomb is found in the forest …

Constable Beneath the Trees is as witty and engaging as it is suspenseful, chronicling the daily challenges for Constable Nick as he patrols his rural Yorkshire beat.

[sufue]

The Golden Scales is the first in the Makana series by by Parker Bilal. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US. I've read and quite enjoyed a couple of the titles in this series.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Scales...dp/B006ZVW3VW/

Spoiler:

A lost child. A missing hero. A bitter rivalry.
In Cairo the ghosts of the past are stirring...

The ancient city of Cairo is a whirling mix of the old and the new, where fates collide and the super rich rub shoulders with the desperate and the dispossessed. It is a place where ambition and corruption go hand in hand, and where people can disappear in the blink of an eye.

Makana is a former police inspector who fled for his life from his native Sudan seven years ago. Down on his luck and haunted by the past, he lives on a rickety Nile houseboat. When the notorious and powerful Saad Hanafi hires him to track down a missing person Makana is in no position to refuse him.

Hanafi, whose past is as shady as his fortune is glittering, is the owner of Cairo's star-studded football team. His most valuable player has just vanished and Adil Romario's disappearance threatens to bring down not only Hanafi's private empire, but the entire country. But why should the city's most powerful man hire its lowliest private detective?

Thrust into a dangerous and glittering world Makana's investigation leads him into the treacherous underbelly of his adopted country - where he encounters Muslim extremists, Russian gangsters and a desperate mother hunting for her missing daughter - it becomes a trail that stirs up painful memories, leading him back into the sights of an old and dangerous enemy...

[sufue]

Doctored Evidence is the 13th in the excellent (IMO) Commissario Guido Brunetti series by Donna Leon. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Doctored-Evid...dp/B0097D78Y2/

Spoiler:

As the novel opens, a doctor arrives at the apartment of Maria Grazia Battestini, an elderly shut-in who is hated by everyone around her (including her only surviving relative, her neice) for her miserly, spiteful ways. The doctor dreads his task of visiting her once a week, since she is always complaining about her Romanian illegal-immigrant housekeeper etc. But on this visit the doctor finds Battestini brutally murdered, having been struck by a blunt object in the skull. He immediately reports the murder to the police and the second Lieutenant Scarpa hears that the old lady had a Romanian housekeeper, they assume she was the murderer. He has his men check all of the trains leaving the city and sure enough, the housekeeper, whose name is Flori, is found on the train with a purse containing 600 euros. While she is being questioned by Scarpa's arrogant men, however, she fleas, only to be struck by a train on the opposite track. Scarpa, satisfied that Flori murdered Battestini, decides not to pursue any other suspects.Weeks later, the old lady's neighbor, Signora Gismondi, returns from a trip to London to discover that the old lady is dead and the housekeeper was named the murderer. She calls the police to plead otherwise: on the day of the murder, the housekeeper had been fired and locked out of her house by the old lady, upon which Signora Gismondi had given her some money and offered to take her to the train station so that she could return to her native Romania. Gismondi had personally driven the housekeeper to the station, and had dropped her off there in a calm state, meaning it was unlikely that she committed themurder before leaving to Romania.Scarpa, however, is convinced that Signora Gismondi is lying. Like most of his colleagues, he is a lazy, distrustful, unimaginative police officer who wants to find the easiest solution rather than truly investigating. On the other hand, Commissario Guido Brunetti believes that the woman is telling the truth. He realizes that although he is not assigned to the case, it is his duty to follow through with the woman's tip and find the real killer.After questioning Gismondi, Brunetti searches Battestini's apartmenting, finding among her papers an odd one that seems to be written in code. He takes it back to the office and someone realizes it is a list of bank account numbers. Signorina Elettra, a desk worker who used to work at a bank and is an expert in computer hacking, examines the accounts and discovers that someone had been depositing a fixed monthly amount into each of the right up until the day after the woman's death, when an unknown person consolidated all the accounts and moved them to an offshore account.Commissario Brunetti questions Battestini's lawyer, the woman who was encharged with all of her affairs. She confesses that she was the one who moved the accounts offshore, but that Signora Battestini never told her the source of the payments.In questioning people, Brunetti learns more about Battestini's son, who died five years earlier. Rumors circulate that he was gay and died of AIDS. Battestini's mail carrier reveals that once she was delivering his mail and a pornographic magazine depicting adolescent boys slipped out of its bag. Brunetti also learns that the son worked for the school board. Meanwhile Battestini's doctor reveals that he once heard Battestini brag that her son took very good care of her. Brunetti begins to wonder if perhaps the son was responsible for the deposits in Battestini's accounts.Brunetti begins to suspect that the son was blackmailing someone involved with the board of education, where he used to work. So he interviews the director of the board of ed, Signor Rossi. Signor Rossi says he didn't really know the son, but Brunetti suspects he is lying. Brunetti returns to Battestini's old apartment (where she was murdered) and when he looks in the attic, he finds that it has been ransacked. Someone has come here looking for something....

[sufue]

Bluegate Fields is the 6th in the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series by Anne Perry. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Bluegate-Fiel...dp/B0052ZEIDI/

Spoiler:

Thomas and Charlotte Pitt must discover the truth of a young gentleman’s sordid murder—or an innocent man will hang

The naked body of an aristocratic youth turns up in the sewers beneath Bluegate Fields, one of London’s most notorious slums. But Arthur Waybourne had been drowned in his bath, not in the Thames. More shocking still was that the boy had been sexually violated and infected with syphilis before he was murdered. Despite Inspector Thomas Pitt’s efforts to fully investigate the crime, the family closes ranks, stonewalling Pitt, leaving him to wonder what they are hiding. All evidence points to Arthur’s tutor, Jerome, as the murderer. The courts agree and Jerome is sentenced to hang. Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, don’t believe the answer is so simple. But if not Jerome, then who molested and infected the boy?

To learn the truth, Charlotte uses her familiarity with the upper classes to draw aside the curtain of lies, while Pitt defies his superior and the boy’s family to follow a trail that leads him into the foulest streets of London through a web of deceit involving male prostitution and pedophilia. In a race against time, Thomas and Charlotte must find the real killer to save Jerome from the hangman’s noose.

[sufue]

Not My Blood is the 10th in the Joe Sandilands series by Barbara Cleverly. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Blood-San...dp/B007DY5SX0/

Spoiler:

Scotland Yard Detective Joe Sandilands is caught off guard one night in 1933 by a phone call from a distressed boy named Jackie Drummond, who just might be the illegitimate son Joe never knew he had. Jackie is in trouble at his Sussex boarding school, where a teacher has been murdered. When Joe gets himself assigned to the investigation, he learns the boarding school case is more complicated than it appears: A frightening number of boys, all from wealthy families, have gone missing over the school’s history, and by some coincidence none of the families have followed up on their sons' whereabouts.