FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK today- The Conjurer's Daughter: A Mystery of Shakespeare by Leonard Tourney

Spoiler:

London, 1599.

William Shakespeare is establishing himself as the best playwright in London, and the construction of the Globe is the final piece of the puzzle.

The Queen advises Shakespeare to visit the conjurer Dr Dee to help determine the dimensions of the Globe that will ensure it is a success.

The Merlin-like Dee shows Shakespeare his Book of Enoch – a supposedly sacred and powerful text written in the language of Adam.

Dee’s old partner Edward Talbot is rumoured to have passed away abroad – but he is back in Dee’s house and refusing to leave without the book.

When Dee dies nine years later, Shakespeare is surprised to find that he has been left the book in Dee’s will.

But when Shakespeare tries to collect the book from the chaplain Raphael Hawkesworth, he finds him hanged, with the marks on his neck suggesting murder.

Events turn even stranger when Dee’s beautiful daughter Miranda, who was reported to have died, appears as submissive wife to the callous gardener Hugo Carteret.

Shakespeare quickly falls in love with Miranda, and agrees to join Talbot’s mysterious fellowship in return for the Book of Enoch.

The group set sail for the Fellowship’s home in the Channel Islands, but run into a violent storm and are washed up and scattered ashore.

When Shakespeare finds another strangled body of one of the crew and overhears a plot to take his life, he fears he may not get out the island alive...

Conjurer's Daughter is a thrilling historical mystery that brings Shakespeare vividly to life.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conjurers-D...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/Conjurers-Dau...ess+free+books

Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Conjurers-...ess+free+books

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Conjurers-Daug...ess+free+books

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK today- Smoke and Mirrors by Leo McNeir

Spoiler:

It began as a simple process, the relocation of an ancient burial into the village churchyard. An injustice was being righted after 350 years...

But everything changes with the discovery of human remains on top of the earlier coffin. Whose body is it? How long has it been in the ground? Who put it there? For Marnie Walker this is all a mystery, but essentially someone else’s problem. Against her will and her better judgement she becomes drawn into the investigation at a time when the authorities begin taking steps to conceal the truth.

Meanwhile a major archaeological dig raises uncomfortable issues relating to witchcraft in and around the supposedly idyllic village where Marnie lives. And when bodies are found in shallow graves close to her canal-side home, the police demand answers to some tough questions.

With the arrival in the area of a bizarre boat and its strange owner, matters start to get out of hand. Conflicts ancient and modern clash and Marnie runs into problems of her own making that have the potential to ruin an important part of her life forever.

The final twists reveal that there are more secrets surrounding Marnie and those close to her than she or they had ever imagined. Once again in her life, nothing is quite what it seems…

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smoke-Mirro...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Mirrors...ess+free+books

Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Smoke-Mirr...ess+free+books

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Smoke-Mirrors-...ess+free+books

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK today- Cat's Eyes by Alan Scholefield

Spoiler:

A screech of brakes on wet tarmac - a cat fleetingly seen - then a crash... These were the beginnings of the nightmare for Rachel Chater.

Still convalescing after the horrific accident and with her writer husband Bill abroad on business in California, she is left with her baby daughter Sophie, in an austere Sussex farmhouse, with only an unfriendly children’s nurse and a half-witted daily help for company. Rachel is a stranger to this isolated part of the Sussex Downs. With no real friends nearby, she longs for her old life in America and grows increasingly anxious in the dark and gloomy house.

The future is far from exciting when you are plagued by nightmares and drowning in guilt - and when a series of unexplained and menacing events occur, her nervousness turns to terror. At the heart of her fear is the growing belief that an injured cat is somehow trying to avenge itself on her. Or is it?

At night she hears it clawing and scratching against the house; but it is a human hand that taps at the window, a human face that presses against the glass: the face of a dead man — a face she recognises instantly...

As Rachel’s chilling psychological nightmare edges ever closer to reality, dark secrets begin to unravel threatening not only her sanity but her marriage, her identity and the safety of her family...

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cats-Eyes-A...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/Cats-Eyes-Ala...ess+free+books

Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Cats-Eyes-...ess+free+books

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Cats-Eyes-Alan...ess+free+books

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK today- Miss Taken Identity by Annie Holder

Spoiler:

One final grift to set him up for life - and it's a peach. The marks are fools, the double-cross pure poetry, and it'll net him millions.

What career con-man Ricky McAllister hasn't bargained for is ending up a corpse in a rich man's mansion, unwittingly setting in motion a rollercoaster of backstabbing and betrayal. Because Ricky is not the only one with a plan - or a secret.

Why is his girlfriend Tammi so intent upon their target, the wealthy but clueless City trader Marc Pickford who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth? And how will Detective Sergeant Phillip Fishmandatu, whose long-time mistress is Pickford's pretty wife Annelisse, react to the news of her unexpected pregnancy? How far will he go to protect the woman he loves, his unborn child, and his unimpeachable reputation? How did the cunning and charismatic McAllister wind up dead, and who will pay the ultimate price for his avarice?

Murderous gangsters, bent coppers, cheating wives, greed and lies - in Miss Taken Identity no one is quite what they seem.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Miss-Taken-...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Taken-Id...ess+free+books

Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Miss-Taken...ess+free+books

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Miss-Taken-Ide...ess+free+books

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK today- Black Hammer by Gordon Landsborough

Spoiler:

Sep Jason, one of the best fight reporters around, is heartbroken. Fiona Hartagen, daughter of the head of a gambling mob, has left him. Or so he thinks …

World War II veteran, Philip Squeak, is worried about Jason. Known as his right-hand man, Squeak, the veteran, as he is called, does all he can to track Jason down. Someone has to talk some sense into Jason, and the veteran is the only person who can do that.

Liberty Jones, a rising young black heavyweight dubbed the ‘Black Hammer’, is a sensation rocking the world of boxing. As he was discovered by Jason, Jason had invested his time and interest in the boy. He knew that Liberty was going to be a sensation in the world of boxing for a long time yet.

And that is where Jason was when the veteran found him.

When the veteran delivers news that Fiona was kidnapped, Jason steps up to his old role. A fighter in his old days, Jason knew every trick there was to know. But journalism was where he wanted to be.

But things are more complicated than Jason anticipates. The urgency to find Fiona steps up when he realises that the thugs he captured and had locked up have escaped and are out to get him. They have Fiona and now they are out to get him.

Hoodlums that Jason and the veteran are going to have to fight hard against if they are to win.

Liberty finds himself fighting inside and outside the rung alongside his great friend Sep Jason, top-line fight reporter on the New York Clarion. Together they face the greatest fight of their lives to solve the mystery of who is the mastermind behind the snatch, and why…

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Hamme...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Hammer-...ess+free+books

Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Black-Hamm...ess+free+books

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Black-Hammer-B...ess+free+books

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK today- Career Nurse by Donna Rix

Spoiler:

Love, loss, and a mystery is bigger than anyone could imagine…

Helen Kester is a career nurse, but she throws it all aside when her father sends a call for help. Abandoning London for the moors of Yorkshire, she takes work at a large clinic, where meets again the only man who has made an impact upon her: Dr Keith Douglas. For the first time in her life, Helen falls in love, but a grim mystery has to be solved before any of the clinic’s staff can hope to lead normal lives. But when Helen set out to solve the mystery, she finds more than love or career at stake.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Career-Nurs...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/Career-Nurse-...ess+free+books

Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Career-Nur...ess+free+books

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Career-Nurse-h...ess+free+books

Dr Drib will like the cover blurb 'Career Nurse - The Diagnosis is death'

[sufue]

Every now and then I realize I should thank you more for all the freebies

Originally Posted by Mort1997

Free on Amazon UK today- Career Nurse by Donna Rix

Spoiler:

Love, loss, and a mystery is bigger than anyone could imagine…

Helen Kester is a career nurse, but she throws it all aside when her father sends a call for help. Abandoning London for the moors of Yorkshire, she takes work at a large clinic, where meets again the only man who has made an impact upon her: Dr Keith Douglas. For the first time in her life, Helen falls in love, but a grim mystery has to be solved before any of the clinic’s staff can hope to lead normal lives. But when Helen set out to solve the mystery, she finds more than love or career at stake.

UK
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Career-Nurs...ess+free+books

US
https://www.amazon.com/Career-Nurse-...ess+free+books

Au
https://www.amazon.com.au/Career-Nur...ess+free+books

Can
https://www.amazon.ca/Career-Nurse-h...ess+free+books

Dr Drib will like the cover blurb 'Career Nurse - The Diagnosis is death'

[Mort1997]

Originally Posted by sufue

Every now and then I realize I should thank you more for all the freebies

Just trying to keep up with you! Many thanks for your posts - always something to tempt me.

[sufue]

Although Joseph Flynn has gone self-pub in a serious way with his own Stray Dog Press, I've read and enjoyed all or nearly all of his Jim McGill titles, and also some other non-series and Jim McGill spin-off titles. I don't really notice where the books stopped being "traditionally published", so I suspect he has done a good job of getting professional editing even as he self-pubs.

A collection of three Jim McGill short stories, titled, well, McGill's Short Cases 1-3, Three Jim McGill Short Stories, is a US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 6 1/2 more days.

link: https://www.amazon.com/McGills-Short...dp/B00DJ5ZFY4/

Spoiler:

As a cop and later a private investigator, Jim McGill has worked some really big cases. Life and death cases. One case, solving the murder of Patricia Darden Grant’s first husband, might even have changed the course of American history. But not every investigation is epic in scope. There are short cases, too.

This is the first collection of three such cases. In Found Money, political enemies of the president — McGill’s wife — try to concoct a scandal by making McGill look corrupt. If McGill is going to stop them, he’ll have to turn things around overnight. In Lost Dog, a little girl wants McGill to find her missing pooch. Only the kid is the daughter of a Russian diplomat, and the Chinese might be involved, too. If McGill isn’t careful, he might step in something nasty. In Pins & Needles, McGill is asked to help a first-round NFL draft choice who put himself on the wrong side of voodoo queen. To come out on top in this one, he’ll have to steal the woman’s juju.

Sometimes, you’ll want a lot of McGill.

Other times you’ll find good things come in short cases.

[sufue]

There’s Trouble Brewing is the 3rd in the Nigel Strangeways series by Nicholas Blake. It is a US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 1 more day.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Troubl...dp/B00CMR7NUE/

Spoiler:

The strangest of murders happen in the quietest of places…

Private detective and poet Nigel Strangeways has been invited to address the Maiden Astbury literary society in the sleepy and serene Dorset town.

But all is not as peaceful as it seems. Local brewer, Eustace Bunnet, is on the war path after his beloved dog is found dead in one of the Bunnett’s Brewery vats. This grisly crime casts an air of suspicion over the whole town, but no culprit is found.

When a body is discovered in the very same vat, gruesomely boiled down to its bones, Nigel Strangeways is called in to capture the killer and solve this very peculiar mystery in a town more perturbing than picturesque.

[sufue]

Cat in an Aqua Storm, originally published as Pussyfoot, before Carole Nelson Douglas started doing the alphabet-thing with this series, is the second in the Midnight Louie series. It has dropped to $3.99 at Kindle US. Not a great price for old backlist, but I don't see titles in this series on sale very often, so YMMV....

link: https://www.amazon.com/Aqua-Storm-Mi...dp/B00GZ6G9G2/

Spoiler:

(Previously published as PUSSYFOOT) A Book of the Month club featured selection.

“a breezy style...a nice mystery...fun to read”—Indianapolis Star

"a dandy puzzler that is pure catnip for mystery connoisseurs.”—Melinda Helfer, RT Book Reviews 4½ stars

The second Midnight Louie mystery, now in eBook, takes petite but feisty PR freelancer Temple Barr to a Las Vegas coed stripper competition where exotic murders stalk the contestants. You can bet Midnight Louie is there to save his Miss Temple and, his lost, platinum-blond Persian love, the Divine Yvette, a witness to one of the murders. Temple and Louie will leave no rhinestoned G-string unturned to catch a serial killer.

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $1.99 each from assorted Penguin Random House imprints in Canada and/or US (non-couponable, price should be the same at all the usual retailers):

• Sick of Shadows by multiple award-winning author Sharyn McCrumb (SYKM, Wikipedia), 1st in her Elizabeth MacPherson series starring a forensic anthropologist in the US South. 8th novel in the series won an Agatha, and 4th was a finalist for the Agatha and Anthony Awards. IIRC, I've basically never seen this series go on sale before (the few I have I got cheaply back when PRH was still couponable a long time ago), but have meant to try it after liking her Bimbos of the Death Sun sci-fi convention murder mystery and the race-car driving literary freebies we've gotten.
• Echoes from the Dead by Swedish author Johan Theorin (SYKM, Wikipedia), 1st in his award-winning Öland Quartet of seasonal mystery/crime thrillers set on an island in Sweden. This won the Swedish Crime Academy's Best First Mystery award in 2007, and also a 2009 New Blood Dagger Award and was a finalist for two more English-language awards, according to SYKM. US-only pricing.
• The Polish Officer by Alan Furst (SYKM, Wikipedia), a self-contained spy thriller from the acclaimed historical espionage author, set in Poland on the eve of WWII and part of his Night Soldiers sequence of interrelated standalones. US-only pricing.

[sufue]

A bunch of price drops on titles in Mary Daheim's Bed and Breakfast series, to between $1.99 and $3.99, both at Kindle and Kobo US...

• Just Desserts, #1, $1.99
• Scots on the Rocks, #23, $2.99
• Nutty as a Fruitcake, #10, $2.99
• Auntie Mayhem, #9. $2.99
• Gone with the Win, #28, $2.99
• All the Pretty Hearses, #26, $2.99
• The Wurst is Yet to Come, #27, $2.99
• Clam Wake, #29, $3.99

Links also include a short story collection.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?se...price-asc-rank
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?Qu...cmaxprice=3.99

[GA Russell]

Suspended Sentences - Brian Garfield - $1.99
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006ZE1N6U

(short stories)

[rbruce1314]

This one's rarely free:

Clara Benson (Angela Marchmont series) #1 - murder at Sissingham Hall:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BVC1SSE
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Sissin...5470993&sr=8-1

My ref says only for a day or so . . .