FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - The Dead Girl's Shoes by Angela Arney

Spoiler:

The scent of a murderer…


After her marriage ends, Dr Lizzie Browne leaves her medical practice in Whitechapel, London, for a country practice in Stibbington, looking for a fresh start. But if she thinks she’s in for peace, she is sadly mistaken, as the countryside itself may be tranquil, but people are the same wherever you go.

Lizzie’s daughter Louise works in PR. When she asks Lizzie to attend a perfume launch at Country House Hotel, the grand estate in Stibbington, Lizzie’s main concern is how uncomfortable her high heels will be. She does not want to go, but it is important to Louise.

The perfume has been created by Simon Villiers, the son of the owner of Avon Hall, from some of their famous roses.

Lizzie notices that Simon is drunk and obnoxious at the launch, especially to his cousin, Jemima Villiers.

Jemima, who is working at the event, was raised by her aunt and uncle at Avon Hall after her own parents died. As Lizzie leaves the party she sees Jemima get into a small red car, and thinks nothing of it – until pretty Jemima is found dead the next day.

Suddenly Lizzie is caught in the middle of a murder investigation.

Once prosperous, Avon Hall has hit hard times. Money is scarce, and family tensions are rife. When Jemima turns up dead, DCI Adam Maguire has his work cut out for him.

But Lizzie, who has grown jaded with the medical profession, has taken an interest in police work, and soon finds herself in the middle of the investigation, an investigation that will tear apart the Villiers’ family, and reveal secrets that will change the lives of everyone involved.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Girls-...ndeavour+press

US
https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Girls-Sh...ndeavour+press


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Dead-Girls...ndeavour+press

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Dead-Girls-Sho...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - Artifice by Patrick Gooch

Spoiler:

It’s all in the art of deception….

When Alan Cleverden is left a number of paintings in his grandfather`s will, he is uncertain whether they are originals or well-produced copies. But an unscrupulous trader in works of art knows their true worth; and exploits the situation, involving Cleverden in his shady activities.

A major heist is planned by the trader, which first necessitates the theft of many of Turner`s paintings. These are held to ransom in exchange for priceless artifacts displayed in the British Museum.

Once again, Alan Cleverden is unwittingly swept up in this unlawful venture. One word to the authorities, he would most certainly serve time.

A pawn in a highly-charged affair, the odds are against him as he tries to free himself from the trader`s clutches; ensure the safety of the Turners; and return to their original owners the paintings acquired by his grandfather during the Second World War.

A fast-paced thriller, Artifice is a must read for those who appreciate fine art, and are drawn to mysteries that hold you spellbound to the very last page.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073JGBT...ndeavour+press

US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073JGBTML...ndeavour+press


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B073JGB...ndeavour+press

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073JGBTML/...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - The Crooked Straight by Ernest Dudley

Spoiler:

A case literally up in smokes…

Private Detective Nat Craig has been working with The Globe for quite some time.

In return for telling him about cases, he sneaks about the crime scene and tells them the kind of information that only a policeman would know.

It’s win-win for everyone.

Recently, a fire occurred at a derelict factory in Shoreditch.

Though Scotland Yard has been hush-hush, Craig’s sure there’s a whiff of arson about them.

But just as he’s about to investigate, the Globe has a new and urgent case for him.

A girl, Lucy Evans, has been found murdered at a flat on Maida Vale. Strangled in her own room.

According to neighbours, they’d heard someone come over – a boyfriend perhaps. There was an argument and he left.

Clearly, whoever this man was, he must have been the murderer.

As expected, Inspector Marraby is being silent on the matter – even if he does tolerate Craig’s presence at the crime scene.

However, they find a note written by Lucy, in which it suggests that she was blackmailing the man into marrying her.

But who was the man – the likely murderer?

The only other clue is a coat button. To Craig, it seems strangely familiar.

Then he remembers that one Jeffery Brooks had a missing button on his coat.

He and his secretary Simone had met Mr. Brooks at Café Rouge, the night before his marriage to Helen March and the murder of Lucy Evans.

They seemed a doting couple – although when Mr. Brooks had to leave early, Helen had seemed very worried…

Even if he hadn’t murdered Lucy Evans, what had he been doing at her flat? Or was the button just coincidence?

Meanwhile, the spate of factories been burnt down hasn’t stopped. And Craig figures it’s nothing but an insurance scam.

After all, they seem to all have the same insurance company. And who should work for that same company but Jeff Brooks…

It seems both cases run deeper than Craig has ever imagined.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crooked-Str...ndeavour+press

US
https://www.amazon.com/Crooked-Strai...ndeavour+press


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Crooked-St...ndeavour+press

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Crooked-Straig...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - A Place With Two Faces by Josephine Mann

Spoiler:

She needs a fresh start…

Jenny Maxwell is hopelessly in love with her latest beaux Colin Barton – and that’s the problem.

It was only supposed to be a mutual fling for them both.

Knowing her love is unrequited, she is determined to overcome her heartbreak.

What she needs is a fresh start – a new job some place outside of London and away from Colin.

And a job ad in the newspaper ticks all her boxes; a secretarial role for a writer living all the way out in Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

Jenny’s flatmate and good friend, Mandy insists she look somewhere more ‘lively’ but for Jenny, it sounds perfect.

So she packs up all her belonging and drives down to Bodmin Moor – to Kilruthan House.

The writer, Margaret Shaw, is a historical novelist, who deeply romanticises the 17th century.

Still, despite her eccentricities, Mrs. Shaw is an excitable, chatty and welcoming host to Jenny.

All Jenny has to do is type up her next manuscript from her written longhand.

The house is open to her and she’s free to go to the local village, Ermeporth whenever she pleases.

Forgetting Colin will be easier than she thought…

But as Jenny soon realises, Bodmin Moor is a place with two faces.

At first, the housekeeper Mrs. Gethin’s warnings about the place seemed to Jenny like the prudish and snobbish complaints typical from old ladies.

However, strange and deadly things keep happening.

First, a country walk almost ends with her being flattened by a boulder.

Then a dead rat appears on her bed.

If that’s not a warning, Jenny doesn’t know what it.

But Mrs. Shaw and the rest of the neighbours insist its just fairies – that she’s been ‘pisky-led’.

As more dangerous incidents occur, Jenny starts to fear for her life.

But her one option of leaving – her car – mysteriously breaks down.

And then one night, she accidently finds Mrs. Shaw and the locals dancing naked in the moonlight…

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073K1QZ...ndeavour+press

US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073K1QZ38...ndeavour+press


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B073K1Q...ndeavour+press

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073K1QZ38/...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - Stitched by Peter Taylor

Spoiler:

Alexander Macdonald emerges from the Gulf War with ambition.

After studying, he becomes a prison doctor.

Regretfully, his ambition has distanced him from his wife and deaf daughter but he has a new girlfriend and fresh hope.

However, manipulative criminal Charles Bridge wants something from Alex, and threatens his reputation and the lives of loved ones to get it.

Alex is faced with dilemmas.

Should he satisfy Bridge, oppose the criminal, hit back, or involve the police?

His is the torment of a good man who is fallible, makes a mistake, allows evil a foothold in his life, and finds it hard to recover as its forces gather against him.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073JLBP...ndeavour+press

US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073JLBP5Z...ndeavour+press


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B073JLB...ndeavour+press

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073JLBP5Z/...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - Blood Ties (Julie Collins Mystery Book 1) by Lori Armstrong

Spoiler:

Given the trainwreck my life has become, I’ve earned my cynical attitude. I’m trapped in a dead-end job at the Bear Butte County Sheriff’s Office—a position I took out of desperation after the brutal murder of my Lakota half-brother. Three years have passed, his case is cold, and my coping mechanisms—tequila, cigarettes and dubious men—no longer serve as excuses for my grief; they define who I am.

Welcome to my world—Julie Collins, harbinger of doom and a sucker for lost causes.

So when the body of a sixteen-year-old white girl surfaces and the death details are alarmingly similar to my brother’s murder, Kevin Wells—my best pal and local PI—admits he’d been hired to find the missing kid before she turned up dead.
I’m roped into helping Kevin tie up loose ends regarding the girl’s disappearance…and that’s when things begin to unravel. Lies are revealed. Bullets start flying. Yet nothing—not even death threats—will stop me from digging for the truth and finding the justice for this girl that my brother was denied.

But the killer is willing to kill again to make sure these secrets stay buried. And this time, I’m in the crosshairs.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Ties-...F97HHJC4984H4Q

US
https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Ties-Ju...F97HHJC4984H4Q


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Blood-Ties...F97HHJC4984H4Q

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Blood-Ties-Jul...F97HHJC4984H4Q

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK -Lead Me To The Slaughter (Tommy Fox Book 2) by Graham Ison

Spoiler:

Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Fox is the raffish, cockney head of the Flying Squad.

Encountering a band of robbers, he’s in his element jousting with them.

But it doesn’t take long for things to turn serious when Fox’s men discover a body at a ‘slaughter’ – underworld slang for the place stolen property is hidden.

Quickly realising that what began as a simple robbery is instead much more complex, Fox and his team know it’ll take all they’ve got to solve the case.

Between Fox’s old-fashioned methods and his DI’s more sophisticated approach, can they figure out the killer’s identity?

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lead-Slaugh...4DKKJGVYM64M74

US
https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Slaughte...4DKKJGVYM64M74


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Lead-Slaug...4DKKJGVYM64M74


Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Lead-Slaughter...4DKKJGVYM64M74

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK -Blast by David Hodges

Spoiler:

You can only run for so long…

Stunning fashion model Lynn Giles is tipped for the top. But her dreams are cruelly shattered by a bomb blast at a swanky London fashion show, which leaves her badly scarred, with her career and her relationship with her long-term boyfriend in ruins.

Plagued by the ghoulish paparazzi, she flees to Cornwall under an assumed name, where she meets and falls in love with her handsome neighbour, blind crime novelist, Alan Murray.

But just when the prospect of a new life seems to beckon, her former boss, Freddie Baxter, turns up on her doorstep threatening to tell Murray about past indiscretions unless she agrees to become one of his porn stars.

She refuses and is miraculously saved from exposure when Baxter ends up taking a fatal dive off a cliff…

But complications follow after police establish a connection between his death and the murder of the fashion show bomber in a London derelict. In a series of unsettling incidents, Lynn is led to suspect that her blind novelist lover may not be all he claims to be …

So what are the links between the sinister events in London and Cornwall? Who is the hooded man seen on the clifftop at the time Baxter met his death? What is Baxter’s dubious business associate, Vernon Wiles, hiding? Why would arch-rival Felicity Dubois suddenly turn up at Lynn’s Cornish retreat?

And what unwelcome discovery awaits Lynn when she plucks up the courage to try to find out more about the new love in her life?

All is eventually revealed, but not until the story reaches its tense nail-biting climax at the height of the mother of all storms.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073JTZ6...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073JTZ6WL...ess+free+books


Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B073JTZ...ess+free+books


Can
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B073JTZ6WL/...ess+free+books

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Mort1997

Free on Amazon UK -Lead Me To The Slaughter (Tommy Fox Book 2) by Graham Ison

This one seems to no longer exist, in the US. Thanks for all the leads!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

This one seems to no longer exist, in the US. Thanks for all the leads!

Nor at Amazon UK. It worked this morning, when Mort posted it, though, because I got it then.

[rbruce1314]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Nor at Amazon UK. It worked this morning, when Mort posted it, though, because I got it then.

NO, it was one of Endeavour's weekly freebies, sent out by email to subscribers, usually Tuesday lunchtime (UK!!). They normally last a few days but this one seemed to be a 24hr wonder!!!

You'll have to watch Mort1997 more carefully - he's a real terror at getting them posted within minutes of publication

[sufue]

A couple of titles in the excellent (IMO) Mr. and Mrs. North series by Frances and Richard Lockridge have dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

Death on the Aisle, #5 SYKM, #4 blurb
link: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Aisle-M...dp/B01AVTU752/

Spoiler:

Mr. and Mrs. North win front-row seats to a murder on Broadway

Dorian Hunt intends to marry Lt. William Weigand, and she doesn’t care how many murderers get in the way. Every time they’ve tried to tie the knot, her fiancé has let Jerry and Pamela North sweep him up in another mystery, and Dorian has had enough. Today, she’s demanding a wedding—murder or no murder—but before the couple can find a minister, Lieutenant Weigand gets sidetracked again.

A dead man is found sitting in the West 45th Street Theatre, a stab wound in the back of his neck. As Dorian expects, the Norths are tied to the case—Mr. North represents the play’s author—and they plan on helping Weigand solve the caper, whether he likes it or not. The bride-to-be will soon find that solving mysteries is a cakewalk, but getting married can be murder.

Death on the Aisle is the 4th book in the Mr. and Mrs. North Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Murder Comes First, #16 SYKM, #15 blurb
link: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Comes-...dp/B01BM1TJKW/

Spoiler:

When an old widow is murdered, Mr. and Mrs. North work to prove a trio of aunts innocent of the crime

Jerry and Pamela North have tangled with countless murderers, blackmailers, and thieves, but nothing could prepare them for a weekend with Pamela’s aunts. Thelma, Lucinda, and Pennina sweep into town like hurricanes, and take no notice of the destruction they cause. No amount of martinis can soothe Pamela and Jerry’s rattled nerves, and when the martinis stop working, the Norths are in trouble.

The aunts are in town to see their old friend Grace Logan, a widow whose temperament is as cold as iced gin. But while sipping tea, Grace does something terribly out of character. She seizes up, gasps for air, and dies. When the trio of aunts is implicated in her poisoning, it falls to the Norths to clear their names—and get them out of Manhattan forever.

Murder Comes First is the 15th book in the Mr. and Mrs. North Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

[Demingy]

Another price drop in the Brother Cadfael chronicles by Ellis Peters, this time The Hermit of Eyton Forest, $1.99 here (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...oreType=ebooks)

[badgoodDeb]

Oooo! Keep 'em coming. We may get the whole set yet!

[GA Russell]

St. Louis Showdown (The Executioner # 23) - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OYMPARS