FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

The early titles in Mel Starr's Hugh de Singleton series tend to go (or stay) on sale fairly often; the later titles not so much. And they're pretty expensive normally. So it's nice to see the eighth and ninth titles both go on sale at Kindle UK for £2.27 each. I've read and enjoyed most of the earlier ones - see "on sale" above .

Ashes to Ashes, #8
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0156VSF0O/
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0156VSF0O/

Spoiler:

Master Hugh, Kate, and their children attend the Midsummer's Eve fire. Next morning early Hugh hears the passing bell ring from the Church of St. Beornwald, and moments later is summoned. Tenants collecting the ashes to spread upon their fields have found burned bones. Master Hugh learns of several men of Bampton and nearby villages who have gone missing recently. Most are soon found, some alive, some dead. Master Hugh eventually learns that the bones are those of a bailiff from a nearby manor. Someone has slain him and placed his body in the fire to destroy evidence of murder. Bailiffs are not popular men; they dictate labour service, collect rents, and enforce other obligations. Has this bailiff died at the hand of some angry tenant? Hugh soon discovers this is not the case. There is quite another reason for murder ...

Lucifer's Harvest, #9
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01J1TLDWE
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01J1TLDWE

Spoiler:

King Charles of France has announced that he is confiscating Aquitaine, and Prince Edward has sent for knights and men at arms from England to assist him in opposing the French king. Lord Gilbert Talbot is required to provide five knights, twelve squires, and twenty archers and men at arms, and wishes his surgeon - Hugh de Singleton - to travel with the party, while Hugh's wife Kate will oversee the castle. Among the party will be Sir Simon Trillowe, Hugh's old nemesis and Kate's former suitor, who had once set fire to Hugh's house. After a brawl on the streets of Oxford Sir Simon had nearly lost an ear; Hugh had sewn it back on but it had healed crooked, and Simon blamed Hugh for the disfigurement. Finding himself in the same party, Hugh resolves not to turn his back on the knight - but it is Sir Simon who should not have turned his back.

[sufue]

Another rare, but sort of oddly regular, price drop in the US on an Archie Goodwin/Nero Wolfe title by Rex Stout. The Golden Spiders, which is the 22nd in the series, has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US as part of today's Daily Deal, matched at Kobo US. Titles in this series (with a few exceptions) don't go on sale very often, but they do seem to pop up from time to time, and without many (any?) repeats. My list of titles that I need in e-book in this series is slowly getting shorter, and perhaps someday, I'll have them all . And, as my e-book list gets shorter, my stash of tattered paperbacks is getting smaller too - woo-hoo!

The Golden Spiders
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Spider...dp/B003N9AZIM/
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/Golden-Spid...dp/B003N9AZIM/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-golden-spiders

Spoiler:

Nero Wolfe was almost as famous for his wealthy clients and extravagant fees as for his genius at detection. So why has he accepted a case for $4.30? And why have the last two people to hire him been ruthlessly murdered? Wolfe suspects the answers may lie in the story of a twelve-year-old boy who turns up at the door of his West Thirty-fifth Street brownstone. In short order, Wolfe finds himself confronted by one of his most perplexing and pressing cases, involving a curious set of clues: a gray Cadillac, a mysterious woman, and a pair of earrings shaped like spiders dipped in gold. The case is all boiling down to a strange taste of greed—and a grumpy gourmand’s unappeasable appetite for truth.

ADD: Also on sale at Kindle UK, for £1.49
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003N9AZIM
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003N9AZIM

[sufue]

Now also on sale in the US, and coupon/VIPable at Kobo...

Ashes to Ashes, $2.99 at both Kindle and Kobo US
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0156VSF0O
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0156VSF0O
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ashes-to-ashes-61

Lucifer's Harvest, $2.51 at Kindle US, $2.99 at Kobo US
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J1TLDWE
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01J1TLDWE
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/lucifer-s-harvest-1

Originally Posted by sufue

The early titles in Mel Starr's Hugh de Singleton series tend to go (or stay) on sale fairly often; the later titles not so much. And they're pretty expensive normally. So it's nice to see the eighth and ninth titles both go on sale at Kindle UK for £2.27 each. I've read and enjoyed most of the earlier ones - see "on sale" above .

Ashes to Ashes, #8
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0156VSF0O/
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0156VSF0O/

Lucifer's Harvest, #9
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01J1TLDWE
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01J1TLDWE

[sufue]

What Angels Fear is the first in the Sebastian St. Cyr series by C. S. Harris. It's on sale in both the US ($1.99) and UK (£1.49). In a sort of backward way, I've read and enjoyed ARCs of a couple of later titles in this series, so I'm happy to see the first one on sale, so I can start to go back and pick up the early ones...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OCXIDU
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000OCXIDU
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wha...st-cyr-mystery
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000OCXIDU
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000OCXIDU

Spoiler:

THE FIRST SEBASTIAN ST. CYR MYSTERY!

“The combined elements of historical fiction, romance, and mystery in this fog-enshrouded London puzzler will appeal to fans of Anne Perry.”—Booklist

It’s 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III’s England. Then the body of a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol discovered at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man: Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars.

Now a fugitive running for his life, Sebastian calls upon his skill as an officer during the war to catch the killer and prove his own innocence. In the process, he accumulates a band of unlikely allies, including the enigmatic beauty Kat Boleyn, who broke Sebastian’s heart years ago. In Sebastian’s world of intrigue and espionage, nothing is as it seems, yet the truth may hold the key to the future of the British monarchy, as well as to Sebastian’s own salvation....

[sufue]

Appleby's End is about 1/4 of the way through the Inspector Appleby series by Michael Innes. It has dropped to $0.99/£0.99 in the US/UK respectively.

Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0799JQX9T
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0799JQX9T
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0799JQX9T
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0799JQX9T

Spoiler:

‘By the way,’ said Appleby, ‘what is the name of this sta –’ He stopped, his question already answered. Straight before him, sufficiently lit by the yellow rays of a hanging lantern, was a boldly lettered board. He read the inscription: APPLEBY’S END.

Strange things have been happening in Snarl: missing animals have been replaced with marble effigies; ominous tombstones have arrived predicting future deaths. Detective Inspector John Appleby is travelling by train to consult on the case. His journey is interrupted, however, when the inscrutable Mr. Raven informs Appleby that he won’t make his connection, and seems more than keen to offer Appleby a place to sleep for the night.

Appleby is charmed by this kindness, but is soon plagued by second thoughts. As the train compartment fills, Appleby notices a striking resemblance between the passengers: the same long nose, the same cold eyes… soon he is faced with the entire Raven family. What could these strangers possibly want with Appleby?

As Appleby learns more about the Ravens and their novelist relative, Ranulph, he begins to suspect a connection to his case. Do the Ravens have sinister intentions, or are they the key to solving the mystery?

In this bizarre little town filled with curious characters and troubling tales, should Appleby feel safe, or should he have seen the signs?

[sufue]

Felony & Mayhem press apparently have the e-book rights to one of my top ten favorite series, the Henry & Emmy Tibbett series by Patricia Moyes. Felony & Mayhem press titles almost never go on sale, and when they do, it's usually not much of a sale. So I almost fell off my chair today when I saw that the fourth title in this series, Murder À La Mode, had dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US, and it's coupon/VIPable at Kobo US. It's not on sale in the UK, at least as of now. This is one of my favorite of the titles in this series, along with The Curious Affair of the Third Dog, Murder Fantastical, and Twice in a Blue Moon. (But I really like almost all of them...)

I'm a little bit bummed, because I've been slowly working my way through picking up these titles with my Kobo points, and I've already got this one, but also a little bit hopeful - I would love to see more titles in this series go on sale in the future. (And also titles by some other F&M press authors...so fingers crossed...)

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079TKBJYK
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B079TKBJYK
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/murder-a-la-mode-6

Spoiler:

The renowned British author of Death on the Agenda delivers a “stunning finish with a return-from-the-dead trap. Very lively and zestful” (Observer).

No question, one of the real delights of this series is all the early-1960s clotheshorses who go traipsing through the pages, and this time around, they’re front and center. Moyes in fact worked as an editor at British Vogue, and her familiarity with the London fashion scene is put to good use in this tale of Style magazine, feverishly consumed with the upcoming Paris shows, and in fact so focused on hemlines and handbags and haircuts—oh my!—that they don’t really notice that a member of the staff is looking a little under the weather. A little six feet under, in fact. Enter Inspector Tibbett, who knows very little about fashion, but quite a lot about solving crime.

[salty-horse]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré is $1.99 on Amazon.com

The man he knew as "Control" is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement—especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley recognizes the hand of Karla—his Moscow Centre nemesis—and sets a trap to catch the traitor.

[badgoodDeb]

Ooo - good find! I need to read this classic. Got it!

[sufue]

Nailed is the first in the Ron Ketchum series by Joseph Flynn. Flynn started off as traditionally published, but has been self-pubbed by his own Stray Dog Press for a while. I've read a lot of his self-pubbed books, including this one, and have been fine with them - I can't really tell the difference.

In any case, Nailed is free right now at Kindle US and UK, so even if you hate it, no big deal...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004U362DC
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004U362DC

Spoiler:

Ron Ketchum saw his share of the dark side of life as a cop in Los Angeles. Then he left L.A. to become the chief of police in the Sierra Nevada resort town of Goldstrike. One sunny morning in the mountains, though, he comes upon a crime unlike anything he’s ever seen before.

He finds the body of an African American man nailed to a tree.

The victim is a highly respected minister, and his father is the nationally known televangelist Jimmy Thunder. Ron, on the other hand, has described himself in court as a recovering bigot.

Goldstrike’s mayor for life and movie icon, Clay Steadman, wants Ron to catch the killer fast. Adding to the pressure, the victim’s grandmother comes to town. She tells the media mob that has descended on Goldstrike that God will curse the town until the killer is caught.

That’s when a rogue mountain lion begins attacking people. At first, the attacks happen on the wilderness outskirts of Goldstrike. Then the predator moves into town, leaping a fence into a family’s backyard. Finally, it turns the tables on one of the hunters sent out to bring it down.

Looking for a killer, hunting a lion and defending his own integrity — makes being a cop in L.A. seem like the good old days.

[sufue]

Final Sail is the eleventh in the Dead-End Job series by Elaine Viets - a series that she appears to have gotten the rights back to, and has put out as e-books. Most of the titles in this series have been either free or on sale pretty cheap at various times in the past, but I haven't seen this one free before, so here it is... There are also a couple of omnibuses of series titles that have been free in the past, so you may already have this title, but since it's free, you can also pick it up if you just want to have it individually as well !

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079TH87J1
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079TH87J1

Spoiler:

From Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Elaine Viets—the thrilling mystery series about one woman trying to make a living... while other people are making a killing.

As one half of Coronado Investigations in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Helen Hawthorne is working full time alongside her handsome hubby Phil. And after the surprising number of murders Helen helped solve while earning low pay on off the books jobs, anything else should be smooth sailing, right?

Unfortunately, Helen’s unique work history also makes her a natural for undercover work—and in this case that means she’s going right back to scrubbing and cleaning while acting as a “yacht stewardess” to catch some smugglers. And even more annoying is the fact that Phil must stay on shore to figure out if a wealthy man has fallen victim to his gold-digging trophy wife.

But after a member of the yacht crew disappears, Helen’s case quickly goes from simple smuggling to maritime murder. And if she doesn’t find out who pitched the man overboard, she might end up lost at sea herself…

[sufue]

Cast in Order of Disappearance is the first in Simon Brett's first mystery series, the Charles Paris series. I've read and enjoyed a lot of books in this series, including this one, although I'm a bit fonder of Brett's later Blotto/Twinks and Mrs. Pargeter series. In any case, Cast has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle US, which is not great for more than 40-year old backlist, but per eReaderIQ, it hasn't been even this cheap in years, so grab it if you want it...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006CVNU7G
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B006CVNU7G

Spoiler:

Who killed Marcus Steen, the theatrical tycoon with a fortune to leave to his young mistress Jacqui? And who killed Bill Sweet, the shady blackmailer with a supply of compromising photographs? Charles Paris, a middle-aged actor addicted to booze and women, decides to investigate by assuming a variety of roles, among them that of the mythical Detective Sergeant McWhirter. But, as Paris is about to discover only too painfully, impersonating a police officer is never a good idea.

[sufue]

Hmmmmm.... Another Felony & Mayhem title on sale at $1.99 in the US. This is odd for them - I'm going to have to look later today and see if they have a sale going on or something...

Killer Instinct is the first in the Charlie Fox series by Zoë Sharp. I haven't read any titles in this series, but have had my eye on it for a while, so am happy to get a chance to try it out.

It's also a little bit odd, because there are Smashwords versions of Sharp's Charlie Fox titles too, including an omnibus of the first three titles for $7.99 (coupon/VIPable at Kobo), which might be a better deal if you want to read a chunk of the series. In any case, though, here's info on the $1.99 F&M version.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016E9QDEW
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B016E9QDEW
Kobo US (coupon/VIPable): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/killer-instinct-28

Spoiler:

First in the slam-bang series featuring a bodyguard with special forces skills. “If Jack Reacher were a woman, he’d be Charlie Fox.” —Lee Child

Charlie Fox was no good at being the nice girl her parents wanted, so she joined Her Majesty’s military and acquired a new set of skills. Now she puts them to use teaching self-defense to battered women in a refuge. Her talents come in even handier when she takes a job working security at the New Adelphi, a hot new club with an enigmatic owner. And they come in handiest of all when a rapist appears to be targeting the women at the refuge, and someone with a very nasty line in knife-work starts stalking Charlie’s friends.

[Tarana]

Two more books in the Felse Investigations series by Ellis Peters. I've included a couple already reported. Amazon and Kobo. Stupid copy/paste won't work.

The House of Green Turf $2.99

Mourning Raja $1.99

Grass Widow's Tale $2.99

Flight of the Witch $2.99

[ZodWallop]

This Storm by James Ellroy is $1.99 at Amazon US.

January '42. L.A. reels behind the shock of Pearl Harbor. Local Japanese residents are rounded up and slammed behind bars. Massive thunderstorms hit the city.

A body is unearthed in Griffith Park. The cops tag it a routine dead-man job. They're wrong. It's an early-warning signal of Chaos.

There's a murderous fire and a gold heist. There's Fifth Column treason on American soil. There are homegrown Nazis, Commies, and race racketeers. It's populism ascendant. There's two dead cops in a dive off the jazz-club strip. And three men and one woman have a hot date with history.

Elmer Jackson is a corrupt Vice cop. He's a flesh peddler and a bagman for the L.A. Chief of Police. Hideo Ashida is a crime-lab whiz, lashed by anti-Japanese rage. Dudley Smith is PD hardnose working Army Intelligence. He's gone rogue and gone all-the-way fascist. Joan Conville was born rogue. She's a defrocked Navy lieutenant and a war profiteer to her core.

L.A. '42. Homefront madness. Wartime inferno--This Storm is James Ellroy's most audacious novel yet. It is by turns savage, tender, elegiac. It lays bare and celebrates crazed Americans of all stripes. It is a masterpiece.

[sufue]

A Divided Loyalty is the 22nd and most recent (2020) in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd - at least until the new one, A Fatal Lie, comes out early next year. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RKWPYYZ
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07RKWPYYZ
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-divided-loyalty

Spoiler:

"Todd's astute character studies . . . offer a fascinating cross section of postwar life. . . . A satisfying puzzle-mystery." — The New York Times Book Review

Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is assigned one of the most baffling investigations of his career: an unsolved murder case with an unidentified victim and a cold trail with few clues to follow

A woman has been murdered at the foot of a megalith shaped like a great shrouded figure. Chief Inspector Brian Leslie, one of the Yard’s best men, is sent to investigate the site in Avebury, a village set inside a prehistoric stone circle not far from Stonehenge. In spite of his efforts, Leslie is not able to identify her, much less discover how she got to Avebury—or why she died there. Her killer has simply left no trace.

Several weeks later, when Ian Rutledge has returned from successfully concluding a similar case with an unidentified victim, he is asked to take a second look at Leslie’s inquiry. But Rutledge suspects Chief Superintendent Markham simply wants him to fail.

Leslie was right—Avebury refuses to yield its secrets. But Rutledge slowly widens his search, until he discovers an unexplained clue that seems to point toward an impossible solution. If he pursues it and he is wrong, he will draw the wrath of the Yard down on his head. But even if he is right, he can’t be certain what he can prove, and that will play right into Markham’s game. The easy answer is to let the first verdict stand: Person or persons unknown. But what about the victim? What does Rutledge owe this tragic young woman? Where must his loyalty lie?