FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

The Snack Thief is the third in the excellent IMO Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US. This title is also included in an omnibus, Death in Sicily, that was on sale a few years ago, so check carefully before you buy!

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JTPXYE
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B001JTPXYE
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-snack-thief-2

Spoiler:

“The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily.” —Donna Leon

When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast, only Montalbano, with his keen insight into human nature, suspects the link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished housecleaner and sometime prostitute, whose young son steals other schoolchildren's midmorning snacks. But Karima disappears, and the young snack thief's life—as well as Montalbano's—is endangered, the Inspector exposes a viper's next of government corruption and international intrigue.

[ZodWallop]

Clinch by Martin Holmén is $1.99 at Amazon US.

Dashiell Hammett meets Raymond Chandler in this ultra-gritty piece of contemporary Swedish noir, set in a decrepit, highly atmospheric 1930s Stockholm

The writing's on the wall for Harry Kvist. Once a notorious boxer, he now spends his days drinking, and his nights chasing debts amongst the pimps, prostitutes and petty thieves of 1930s Stockholm. When women can't satisfy him, men can. But one biting winter's night he pays a threatening visit to a debtor named Zetterberg, and when the man is found dead shortly afterwards, all eyes are on Kvist.

Determined to avoid yet another stint in prison, Kvist sets out to track down the only person who can clear his name. His hunt will lead him from the city's slums, gangster hideouts and gambling dens to its most opulent hotels and elite nightclubs. It will bring him face to face with bootleggers and whores, aristocrats and murderers. It will be the biggest fight of his life.

Blending noir with gritty violence, Clinch is a visceral, compulsive thriller that packs a punch and leaves you reeling.

[pdurrant]

THREE mystery/thrillers by Felix Francis are £1.99 each at Amazon UK today.

Gamble, Refusal and Damage are the first, third and fourth solo books by Felix Francis, son (and co-author with) Dick Francis. They are usually £3.99 each.


(Why is the second one still £3.99? No idea.)

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by 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

Another 1.99 Tibbett today, #1 Dead Men Don't Ski. I've been buying them as they come along, with Kobo points or else at full price. I don't want F&M to give up before they get to the end of the series. #18 is showing a release date of tomorrow, although Amazon only shows the paperback version so far. The F&M site just shows it as coming soon but it also shows #17 as coming soon and it's been out for a few weeks now.

I hope I still like them. I've put off rereading until I get them all, which will hopefully be in my lifetime. There's only #19 left and it isn't showing anywhere yet. They started off so well, the first dozen in 2018, then just four in 2019, and presumably just two this year (understandably). I remember when I was buying the Henry Gamadge books by Elizabeth Daly the same thing happened -- a whole bunch the first year and then three more years for the last few. I was reduced to begging for the last one and she actually let me buy it a bit early.

https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Men-Dont...al-text&sr=1-2
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dead-men-don-t-ski-1

[Tarana]

Blackout By John J. Nance $1.99
I have never read this author, but he's popular with my neighbor.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blackout-Kat-...6233612&sr=8-1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/blackout-98

[sufue]

Darn! Another one that I already have, since I've been picking them up in series order with my Kobo points. Still, I think I may now pause, and wait and see if some of the ones I still need go on sale in the not-too-distant future. Maybe Felony & Mayhem is going to start having more reasonable sale prices on some of their titles - that would be nice! And as far as still liking the series a second time through, I have, with just the same couple of titles that I wasn't super-fond of in the DTB days, I'm still not super-fond of now .

As far as hoping all of a series gets issued in e-book - I hear you! I am hugely fond of Marvin Albert's long-out-of-print Stone Angel series, whose rights were eventually picked up by Wildside Press. Wildside Press put out the first seven of nine fairly promptly between mid-2015 and early 2017, and then went silent on the last two. I e-mailed Wildside a few times (also begging), and John Betancourt there always responded politely, and said they were still coming. But it took until 2019 for the eighth one to come out, and I still have my fingers crossed for the ninth and last one. I've actually been thinking about volunteering to help with production, or proof-reading, or anything else that would be helpful !

Originally Posted by disconnected

Another 1.99 Tibbett today, #1 Dead Men Don't Ski. I've been buying them as they come along, with Kobo points or else at full price. I don't want F&M to give up before they get to the end of the series. #18 is showing a release date of tomorrow, although Amazon only shows the paperback version so far. The F&M site just shows it as coming soon but it also shows #17 as coming soon and it's been out for a few weeks now.

I hope I still like them. I've put off rereading until I get them all, which will hopefully be in my lifetime. There's only #19 left and it isn't showing anywhere yet. They started off so well, the first dozen in 2018, then just four in 2019, and presumably just two this year (understandably). I remember when I was buying the Henry Gamadge books by Elizabeth Daly the same thing happened -- a whole bunch the first year and then three more years for the last few. I was reduced to begging for the last one and she actually let me buy it a bit early.

https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Men-Dont...al-text&sr=1-2
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dead-men-don-t-ski-1

[sufue]

The Missing Corpse is the fourth in Jean-Luc Bannalec's Brittany series. It has dropped to £0.94 at Kindle UK, the first time I've seen it on sale. And titles in this series tend to be pretty expensive when not on sale. I've read and enjoyed several titles in this series. (Full disclosure - I tend to be a push-over for mysteries set in France...)

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D2BYD53
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D2BYD53

Spoiler:

Along the picturesque Belon River, home of the world famous oyster beds, between steep cliffs, ominous forests and the Atlantic Ocean, a stubborn elderly film actress discovers a corpse. By the time Commissaire Dupin arrives at the scene, the body has disappeared. A little while later, he receives a phone call from the mystical hills of Monts d'Arree, where legends of fairies and the devil abound: another unidentified body has turned up. Dupin quickly realizes this may be his most difficult and confounding case yet, with links to celtic myths, a sand theft operation, and mysterious ancient druid cults.

[sufue]

Still the most recent in the series, at least until April of next year.

Now on sale for £0.99 at Kindle UK...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HFCM8BB
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HFCM8BB

Originally Posted by sufue

Many Rivers to Cross is the most recent (2019) for now in the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson, although there is a new one coming in March, 2021. It has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle US as part of the "Load up your summer reading list this week on Kindle" sale, supposed to be good through 7/19, although I wouldn't push it really if you want it. This is a pretty good price for a most-recent-in-series. It's matched at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S6NM8DT
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/many-rivers-to-cross-9

[Tarana]

Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. Many are $1.99 & $2.99 and one is $3.99.

I am still having copy/pasting problems. Here's link to the listing.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CF15Y1...eries_rwt_tkin

Kobo isn't really matching much here. Book one Morbid Taste of Bones $1.99 and The Potters Field for $2.99
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?qu...6-f0e9ba7c6442

[salty-horse]

Call for the Dead by John le Carré is $1.99 on Amazon.com
This is the first George Smiley novel.

"Go back to Whitehall and look for more spies on your drawing boards."

George Smiley is no one's idea of a spy—which is perhaps why he's such a natural. But Smiley apparently made a mistake. After a routine security interview, he concluded that the affable Samuel Fennan had nothing to hide. Why, then, did the man from the Foreign Office shoot himself in the head only hours later? Or did he?

The heart-stopping tale of intrigue that launched both novelist and spy, Call for the Dead is an essential introduction to le Carré's chillingly amoral universe.

[Tarana]

deleted, already listed. Oops

[sufue]

Miss Julia Takes the Wheel is the twentieth and next-to-most-recent (for the moment) in the Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross. I've read and enjoyed a few of the earlier titles in this series. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FC18T6Y/
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07FC18T6Y/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mis...akes-the-wheel

Spoiler:

The delightful new installment of the beloved and New York Times bestselling Miss Julia series

When Miss Julia's regular doctor goes on vacation with his wife, leaving a replacement in his stead, Miss Julia is immediately concerned. Never one to miss an opportunity to entertain--or size up--a newcomer, she invites the charming Dr. Don Crawford, and his painfully shy wife, Lauren, to dinner. While Miss Julia and Sam both note Lauren's obvious lack of social skills, it's her friends Hazel Marie and Binkie that pick up on some of Dr. Crawford's less palatable qualities.

Meanwhile, Lloyd has gotten his first car, and LuAnne, fresh off her divorce, has started a job at the local funeral home and is in urgent need of an occupation-appropriate makeover--Miss Julia has enough on her plate. Yet there is just something she can't place about the Crawfords, and she won't rest until she gets to the bottom of it.

As always, hijinks ensue as Ann B. Ross delivers this delightful and entertaining installment, Miss Julia Takes the Wheel, in her bestselling Miss Julia series.

[sufue]

The third title in AD Scott's Highland Gazette series, Beneath the Abbey Wall, has dropped to $0.99 at Kindle and Kobo US. I bought and read and enjoyed this, and a couple of other titles in this series, when they were on sale a few years ago.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007EE5622
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B007EE5622
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/beneath-the-abbey-wall

Spoiler:

Booklist called A Double Death on the Black Isle, “a stunner…with lots of action, lots of atmosphere.” Now the acclaimed mystery series about a newspaper staff in a 1950s Highlands town continues—everything is quiet and quaint until one of their own is murdered.

The third lyrical, evocative, and character-driven entry in A.D. Scott's mystery series set in the 1950s in the Scottish Highlands.

As a decade of change comes to a close, murder hists close to home in a small Scottish town...

On a dark, damp Sunday evening, a man taking a shortcut home sees a hand reaching out in supplication from a bundle of sacks. In an instant he knows something terrifying has happened.

In the Highlands in the late 1950s, much of the local newspaper’s success was due to Mrs. Smart, the no-nonsense office manager who kept everything and everyone in line. Her murder leaves her colleagues in shock and the Highland Gazette office in chaos. Joanne Ross, a budding reporter and shamefully separated mother, assumes Mrs. Smart’s duties, but an intriguing stranger provides a distraction not only from the job and the investigation but from everything Joanne believes in.

Beneath the Abbey Wall brilliantly evokes a place still torn between the safety of the past and the uncertainty of the future, when rock ’n’ roll and television invaded homes, and a change in attitudes still came slowly for many. As the staff of the Highland Gazette probes the crime, they uncover secrets deeply rooted in the past, and their friend’s murder becomes the perfect fodder for strife and division in the town and between her colleagues.

[sufue]

Today's Big Deal at Kindle UK is twelve mysteries (ok, for the UK, top crime books ) for £0.99 to £1.49 each. Mostly titles by Stella Rimington and Denzil Meyrick, with one by Murray McDonald.

links for them all:

regular: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=s9_ac...d_i=5400977031
Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=s9_...d_i=5400977031

[sufue]

The Assassin's Riddle is the seventh in the Brother Athelstan series by Paul Doherty. It is free right now at Kindle and Kobo US. I don't think I've ever seen one of Doherty's titles go free, although in the past, there have sometimes been big sales of his books at $0.99/$1.99/£0.99/£1.99 price points. Anyway, here's info:

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0844P8J1K
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0844P8J1K
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...sin-s-riddle-2

Spoiler:

The only way to win this murderer’s deadly game… is to play along.

Summer, 1380. Brutal and sudden death is not uncommon in the foul alleys and streets of London. The corpse of a clerk has been pulled from the Thames. They drowned, but not before receiving a vicious blow to the back of the head.

Then Bartholomew Drayton, a usurer and money-lender, is found dead in his strongroom, a crossbow bolt firmly embedded in his chest: a real mystery because the windowless strongroom was locked and barred from the inside. So who killed him? And how? And are the deaths connected?

Sir John Cranston comes to survey the scene. When other clerks are murdered, each with a riddle pinned to his corpse, Cranston enlists the help of Brother Athelstan – and together they must pit their wits against a deadly adversary bent on murder and mayhem.