FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Here's a couple of free ones.



Sean Costello - Squall
https://www.amazon.com/Squall-Sean-C...&keywords=free

Thank you! This one sounds interesting!

[ZodWallop]

Dashiell Hammett's The Hunter: And Other Stories is $1.99 at Amazon. A collection of previously unpublished stuff.

Unpublished works by deceased writers are usually unpublished for a reason—but, having read the extant oeuvre to tatters, we can be so eager for new material that eagerness trumps skepticism. Long known to researchers, these stories are finally available to everyone, and while none of them rank with Hammett’s best (see above), they provide a clear portrait of a man pulled between popular success in the pulps and a longing to become better established in the “slicks,” or more literary-minded magazines. Ranging widely in subject, style, tone, and treatment, they make clear Hammett’s growing interest in character over plot, in thought over action. Those who think him only hard-boiled may also be surprised to find a golden-age caper (“The Diamond Wager”), a tale that betrays an interest in the dark arts (“Magic”), and some artsy experiments (“Seven Pages”). Three film treatments and the start of the only known unpublished Sam Spade story complete the trove. This is no place for a first encounter, but those who have read Hammett’s published work and still hunger for more will find it fascinating.

[sufue]

Free again at Kindle US. Link below is still good. Never stays free for very long, so grab it fast if you want it.

Originally Posted by sufue

Hard-Boiled Chicks: Three Kickass Female Detectives is a collection of three titles by Julie Smith. It is free right now at Kindle US. Titles include: Crescent City Connection, Louisiana Lament, and Other People's Skeletons.

link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079MDL9WL

[sufue]

The Quiche of Death is the first in the Agatha Raisin series by the incredibly prolific M. C. Beaton. It has dropped to $2.99 as the US Nook daily deal, matched at Kindle and Kobo US. I think $2.99 is high for a very old first-in-series, which IMO should practically be given away to get folks to start the series, but still, this title doesn't drop in price very often, so...

It has been on sale a couple of times in various omnibuses (at least one in the US and one in the UK), so check carefully before you buy.

Nook US: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/qui...781429901536#/
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Quiche-Death-...dp/B001P7RV54/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-quiche-of-death

Spoiler:

The first book in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin mystery series—now a hit show on Acorn TV and public television.

Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR firm, sells her London flat, and samples a taste of early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely. Bored, lonely and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest: Surely a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when Judge Cummings-Browne not only snubs her entry—but falls over dead! After her quiche's secret ingredient turns out to be poison, she must reveal the unsavory truth…

Agatha has never baked a thing in her life! In fact, she bought her entry ready-made from an upper crust London quicherie. Grating on the nerves of several Carsely residents, she is soon receiving sinister notes. Has her cheating and meddling landed her in hot water, or are the threats related to the suspicious death? It may mean the difference between egg on her face and a coroner's tag on her toe…

[sufue]

The first six titles in the Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn are £0.99 each as part of the Kindle UK Today's Big Deal.

Transfer of Power: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9GGW/

The Third Option: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9E7S/

Separation of Power: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9GNA/

Executive Power: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9NU6/

Memorial Day: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9G8K/

Consent To Kill: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002RI9UO0/

[sufue]

No Second Chance is a non-series thriller-ish title by Harlan Coben. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/No-Second-Cha...dp/B000OIZV6G/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/no-second-chance-2

Spoiler:

When his child is taken, a father will stop at nothing to get her back in this explosive, white-knuckle thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben.

When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter...

Shot twice by an unseen assailant, Dr. Marc Seidman lies in a hospital bed. His wife has been killed. His six-month-old daughter has vanished. But just when his world seems forever shattered, the ransom note arrives: We are watching. If you contact the authorities, you will never see your daughter again. There will be no second chance. With no one to trust, and mired in a deepening quicksand of deception and deadly secrets, Marc clings to one unwavering vow: bring home his daughter, at any cost.

[sufue]

Double for Death is the first in Rex Stout's lesser known Tecumseh Fox series. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003QTDHTI

Spoiler:

Tecumseh Fox has a sharp eye for solving murders—but this time he’s seeing double. Fox has been hired by the headstrong niece of a man charged in the shooting of wealthy financier Ridley Thorpe. The problem is that there are two gorgeous suspects, two powerful motives, two hotheaded suitors, and two murder weapons. And to top it off, Ridley Thorpe, or someone claiming to be him, is not only alive and well but has an airtight alibit for the night of the shooting. Only one thing is certain: Fox doesn’t have long to put two and two together before the real killer strikes again.

[sufue]

Pay Dirt is the fourth in the Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1BFQ

Spoiler:

“Mrs Murphy’s fourth caper will be lapped up like half-and-half by the faithful.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The best yet.”—Publishers Weekly

The residents of tiny Crozet, Virginia, thrive on gossip, especially in the post office, where Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen presides with her tiger cat, Mrs. Murphy. So when a belligerent Hell’s Angel crashes Crozet demanding to see his girlfriend, the leather-clad interloper quickly becomes the chief topic of conversation. Then the biker is found murdered, and everyone is baffled. Well, almost everyone . . . Mrs. Murphy and her friends, Welsh corgi Tee Tucker and overweight feline Pewter, haven’t been slinking through alleys for nothing. But can they dig up the truth in time to save their humans from a ruthless killer?

“If you must work with a collaborator, you want it to be someone with intelligence, wit, and an infinite capacity for subtlety—someone, in fact, very much like a cat. . . . It’s always a pleasure to visit this cozy world.”—The New York Times Book Review

[sufue]

The latest (2018) title in the continuation of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series by Ace Atkins is Old Black Magic. It has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK. I'm not always a fan of continuations of series, but I've read several of Atkins' continuation titles and enjoyed them.

link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Robert-Park...dp/B07FY4CV3C/

Spoiler:

Iconic, tough-but-tender Boston PI Spenser delves into the black market art scene to investigate a decades-long unsolved crime of dangerous proportions.

The heist was legendary, still talked about twenty years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston's premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever, buried deep, sold off overseas, or, worse, destroyed as incriminating evidence. But when paint chips from the most valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black by a Spanish master, arrives at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope and enlists Spenser's help.

Soon the cold art case thrusts Spenser into the shady world of black market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses, and old vendettas. A five-million-dollar-reward by the museum's top benefactor, an aged, unlikable Boston socialite, sets Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions, murder, and double crosses.

[sufue]

The Turquoise Lament is the 15th in the awesome (IMO) Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US. Titles in this series are insanely expensive normally in the US (mostly $8.99 to $12.99) so it's a treat when one drops in price. So grab this one while you can if you want/need it.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008WONXEQ
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-turquoise-lament

Spoiler:

From a beloved master of crime fiction, The Turquoise Lament is one of many classic novels featuring Travis McGee, the hard-boiled detective who lives on a houseboat.

Funny thing about favors. Sometimes they come back to haunt you. And Travis McGee owes his friend a big one for saving his life once upon a time. Now the friend’s daughter, Linda “Pidge” Lewellen, needs help five time zones away in Hawaii before she sails off into the deep blue with a cold-blooded killer: her husband.

“The Travis McGee novels are among the finest works of fiction ever penned by an American author.”—Jonathan Kellerman

When treasure hunter Ted Lewellen saved his life in a bar fight, McGee could never have thought he’d end up paying his rescuer back in such a way. But years later he finds himself headed to Hawaii at Ted’s request to find out whether Pidge’s husband really is trying to kill her, or if she’s just losing her mind.

Of course, once McGee arrives he can’t help but give in to his baser instincts, and as his affair with Pidge gets underway, he can’t find a single thing wrong. McGee chalks up Pidge’s paranoia to simple anxiety, gives her a pep talk, and leaves for home blissfully happy. It’s not until he’s back in Lauderdale that he realizes he may have overlooked a clue or two. And Pidge might be in very serious danger.

[ZodWallop]

The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton is on sale for $1.99. It's a kids book, but it also won an Edgar award when it was published in 1968, so I figure it belongs.

Ohio, 1968. Thomas Small, a 13-year-old African American boy, moves with his family into a house that was once part of the Underground Railroad. Once they move into the house, strange and scary things begin to happen. Thomas must explore secret rooms—and the secrets of lives lived centuries before, lives that tell the story of America’s troubled early years.

[sufue]

Now $0.99 at both Kindle and Kobo US. If you didn't bite at $3.99, $0.99 may be a little more attractive . Links below are still good. BTW, this is now the next-to-most-recent title in the series, since Death of an Honest Man came out in 2018.

Originally Posted by sufue

Three 2017/most-recent-in-series titles are on sale today as part of the US Kindle daily deal. Only one is on sale right now at Kobo US, but I'm including Kobo links for price check convenience.

{edited other books}

Death of a Ghost is the most recent in the Hamish Macbeth series by MC Beaton. (Also a title in Margery Allingham's Campion series, not on sale now...) It is $3.99 at both Kindle and Kobo US.
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Ghost-H...dp/B01GZY2854/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/death-of-a-ghost-4

[sufue]

This is not a huge price drop, from $5.99 to $3.99, and $3.99 is still a bit high for a 2009 title IMO, but Michael Pearce is one of my top five favorite mystery authors, so I'm posting anyway.

Pearce's "Dead Man in..." series features Sandor Pelczynski Seymour as a somewhat unusual policeman (with language skills - !!! - from growing up in the East End) who is commandeered by Special Branch and sent to trouble spots around the British Empire in the years leading up to WWI.

Now, as mentioned above, the next to last title in the series, Dead Man in Naples, has dropped to $3.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JHKQN5E
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-dead-man-in-naples-1

Spoiler:

Naples, 1913. Sun-baked, blue-skied, and with its amazing bay, one of the most beautiful spots in Italy - but also, one of the most backward. Into that world is sent a minor British consular official, Scampion, banished from Florence because he has allowed himself to be caught up in the mad social whirl surrounding D'Annunzio, the famous Italian poet, Nationalist and revolutionary.

Scampion brings with him from Florence the new craze that is sweeping Italy: bicycling. And one day as he walks home after a road race that he has been organising, he is stabbed to death.

Nothing extraordinary about that in Naples - it happens all the time - but his wallet was not taken, a fact that is remarkable. Could Scampion's murder have something to do with the racing? Bicycling may seem like a harmless pursuit but in Italy passions run high and Neopolitans, too, are great gamblers; they gamble on anything, including bicycle races. And where there is gambling, in Naples there is usually the Camorra, the powerful Neopolitan secret society.

But then the Foreign Office receives a tip off that the murder may be more complicated. It might be linked to high politics in Rome. And that's when Seymour, the foreigner from the F.O., is sent south to investigate . . .

It's also worth noting that the first title in the series, A Dead Man in Trieste, has been holding more-or-less at $0.99 for quite a while, so if you want to try the series first, you can pick that one up for cheap.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J24WAQ6/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-d...n-in-trieste-1

Spoiler:

'Sheer fun' The Times

Trieste in 1906 is of vital strategic importance and one of the world's greatest seaports. But assorted nationalist movements are threatening to pull the place apart and the militarist regime has trouble keeping a lid on things.

Amid all the chaos the British consul goes missing, and Special Branch Seymour is sent to find him. Born to an immigrant family in London's East End, Seymour has an acute linguistic ear - crucial in turn-of-the-century Trieste. As he attempts to solve the riddle of the consul's disappearance, Seymour discovers dark and disturbing corners of the city and finds that it holds the secrets of his own family's past.

Praise for Michael Pearce's A Dead Man in . . . series

'The steady pace, atmospheric design, and detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series' Library Journal

'His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail and entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading' Sunday Telegraph

[Little.Egret]

Endeavour, free

Home to Roost (Keith Calder Book 16) by Gerald Hammond

First published in 1990 by Macmillan London Limited.

Keith's daughter Deborah—heroine of Hammond’s Let Us Prey—takes on rogue-hunting and romance in one fell swoop.

When Detective Sergeant Fellowes learns that poachers are operating in his area, he’s of two minds about whether to take the matter seriously—after all, his superiors can’t even agree whether it’s worth the trouble to investigate the problem. But when he goes on his first pigeon shoot with Deborah, and a missing-sportsman case comes his way, Fellowes feels bound to follow up; and with the gun-sporting expertise of Deborah Calder at the ready, the Calder/Fellowes team finds itself on the trail of not only a murderer but a burgeoning mutual attraction as well.


https://www.amazon.com/Home-Roost-Ke...dp/B07KT49J99/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Roost-...dp/B07KT49J99/

https://www.amazon.ca/Home-Roost-Kei...dp/B07KT49J99/


I seem to be using this series of reprints (18 so far) as an example of "Kindle Unlimited has lots of excellent books"

[ZodWallop]

Chiefs: 25th Anniversary Edition by Stuart Woods is $2.99 at Amazon.

In the bitter winter of 1920, the first body is found in Delano, Georgia; the naked corpse of an unidentified teenager. There is no direct evidence of murder, but the body bears marks of what seems to be a ritual beating. The investigation falls to Will Henry Lee, a failed cotton farmer newly appointed as Delano's first chief of police. Lee's obsession with the crime begins a story that weaves through the decades, following the life of a small southern town and the role of three police chiefs in unraveling the crime.