FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[CallOfCth'reader]

The Cottage - Lisa Stone

Amazon has this in the horror section, while Kobo has it in the Mystery & Suspense section. The blurb on the Amazon page describes it as "The gripping new 2021 crime suspense thriller with a difference".

Amazon UK £0.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cottage-gri...al-text&sr=1-3
Kobo UK £0.99: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-cottage-27

[sufue]

Born in Death is the 23rd in JD Robb's In Death series, or at least that's what the Amazon blurb says. And I'm going with it, because I don't feel like counting at SYKM . It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PDYVSE/
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000PDYVSE/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/born-in-death-1

Spoiler:

Lieutenant Eve Dallas struggles with the end—and the beginning—of life in this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling In Death series.

Just as Eve Dallas begins to investigate the grisly double homicide of two young lovers—both employees of the same prestigious accounting firm—her friend Mavis need a favor. One of the moms-to-be in Mavis’s birthing class has gone missing. Normally, such a case would be turned over to Missing Persons. But Mavis wants no one else on the job—and Eve can’t say no.

Now Eve’s trying to track down the missing woman, while simultaneously unearthing the deals and double-crosses hidden in the files of some of the city’s richest and most secretive citizens, in a race against this particularly vicious killer. Luckily, her multimillionaire husband Roarke’s expertise comes in handy with the number crunching. But as he mines the crucial data that will break the case wide open, Eve faces an all too real danger in the world of flesh and blood.

[CallOfCth'reader]

The Stasi Game - David Young

The Stasi and MI6 clash in this gripping Cold War crime thriller, from the award-winning author of Stasi Child.

Kobo UK £0.99 (£0.89 VIP): https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-stasi-game

[sufue]

Now $1.99 in the US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Q9IUTI
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000Q9IUTI
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-second-mouse

Originally Posted by sufue

The Second Mouse is the 17th in the Joe Gunther series by Archer Mayor, a series I've mentioned before I think is a pretty nice police procedural series. It is free right now at Kindle UK, but not at Kindle US, where it looks like a different edition (Mysterious Press) and it's $9.99. And where the description reads a lot like the description for Crocodile on the Sandbank, by Elizabeth Peters, and not like The Second Mouse. Odd...maybe he only has the rights back in the UK...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019VP6WTW

[sufue]

Total Recall is now $2.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFMF2
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFMF2
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/total-recall-5

Originally Posted by sufue

A few £0.99 titles I noticed on the way to other things at Kindle UK:

Total Recall, V.I. Warshawski #10 (blurb) or #11 (SYKM), by Sara Paretsky
link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0096BJ7WG

{edited other books}

[sufue]

Now £1.99 in the UK...
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MU735I7
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MU735I7

Originally Posted by sufue

A rare price drop on a Georges Simenon/Maigret title in the US...

Maigret Goes to School is (per the blurb, I certainly didn't count ) the 44th in the series, and has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y56MVCF
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mai...es-to-school-1

[Tarana]

Lexie Starr Cozy Mysteries: Books 4–6 By Jeanne Glidewell $.99 Amazon, Kobo
Cozy mysteries

Spin By Patricia Cornwell $1.99 Amazon
Thriller

[BetterRead]

The collection Authentic French Noir: Bird in a Cage, Crush, The Executioner Weeps, and The Gravedigger's Bread by Frédéric Dard is currently $2.99 at B&N.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/aut...ard/1139585627

The individual titles are priced at $9.99 apiece at Amazon and Kobo, so this is a substantial savings.

Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, throughout his long and illustrious career. He won the Grand prix de littérature policière in 1957 for The Executioner Weeps.

[Tarana]

Mrs. Morris and the Sorceress By Traci Wilton $.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Cozy with a cat on the cover

Have His Carcase By Dorothy L. Sayers $.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Historical mystery

Since We Fell By Dennis Lehane $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Crime

[sufue]

Free again, about three years later. And also free at Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innocent-Bl...dp/B00T6SYVOI/

Originally Posted by sufue

Innocent Blood is a prequel (although the 7th title in publication order) in the John Jordan series by Michael Lister. It is free right now at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Innocent-Bloo...dp/B00T6SYVOI/

[sufue]

And also about three years later, free again. Also at Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FKMXK37

Originally Posted by sufue

Betrayed by Death is the thirteenth in the C.I.D. Room series by Roderic Jeffries. It is free right now at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Betrayed-Deat...dp/B07FKMXK37/

[sufue]

A collection of French Noir titles by Frédéric Dard, translated/e-published by Pushkin Vertigo, is on sale for $2.99 in the US. The titles in the collection are: Bird in a Cage, Crush, The Executioner Weeps, and The Gravedigger's Bread. I haven't read any of these - they look a little more noir-ish than I generally like, even though I'm usually a sucker for books set in France. But I've liked several other titles that have been translated/e-published by Pushkin Vertigo, so I would expect these to be pretty good.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0951MZXR4/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/aut...-french-noir-1

Spoiler:

Now available in one collection, four classic crime thrillers from the award-winning “French master of noir” (Observer)

Unravelling like a paranoid nightmare, Bird in a Cage melds existentialist drama with thrilling noir to tell the story of a man trapped in a prison of his own making. Crush is a chilling 1950s suspense story of youthful naivety, dark obsession—and the slippery slope to murder. The Executioner Weeps is the winner of the 1957 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. And The Gravedigger's Bread is a claustrophobic thriller about love gone wrong. All from the French master of noir.

In Bird in a Cage, trouble is the last thing Albert needs. Traveling back to his childhood home on Christmas Eve to mourn his mother’s death, he finds the loneliness and nostalgia of his Parisian quartier unbearable. Until, that evening, he encounters a beautiful, seemingly innocent woman at a brasserie, and his spirits are lifted. Still, something about the woman disturbs him. Where is the father of her child? And what are those two red stains on her sleeve? When she invites him back to her apartment, Albert thinks he’s in luck. But a monstrous scene awaits them, and he finds himself lured into the darkness against his better judgment.

Crush: Bored with her mundane factory job, her nagging mother, and her alcoholic father-in-law, 17-year-old Louise Lacroix is captivated by a glamorous American couple who moves to her industrial hometown in Northern France. The Roolands' home is an island of color, good humor, and easy living in drab 1950s Léopoldville—a place straight out of Louise’s dreams. Louise is thrilled when she successfully convinces the couple to hire her as their maid. But once she is under their roof, their model life starts to fall apart. Painful secrets from their past emerge, cracks in their relationship appear, and a dark obsession begins to grow.

In The Executioner Weeps, it was fate that led her to step out in front of the car. A quiet mountain road. A crushed violin. And a beautiful woman lying motionless in the ditch. Carrying her back to his lodging on a beach near Barcelona, Daniel discovers that the woman is still alive but that she remembers nothing—not even her own name. And soon he has fallen for her mysterious allure. She is a blank canvas, a perfect muse, and his alone. But when Daniel travels to France in search of her past, he slips into a tangled vortex of lies, depravity, and murder.

The Gravedigger's Bread: Blaise should never have hung around in that charmless little provincial town. The job offer that attracted him in the first place had failed to materialize. He should have got on the first train back to Paris, but Fate decided otherwise. After a chance encounter with a beautiful blonde in the town post-office, Blaise is hooked. He realizes he'll do anything to stay by her side, and soon finds himself working for her husband, a funeral director. But the tension in this strange love triangle begins to mount, and eventually results in a highly unorthodox burial.

[sufue]

Many years ago I read and really liked The Flanders Panel, by Arturo Perez-Reverte – so long ago that I read it as a DTB. It’s one of those books with multiple storylines going on, where you’re not quite sure what’s really happening, and those sometimes annoy me a bit. But Perez-Reverte, who has won an International Dagger award, does it so well in The Flanders Panel that I just started reading, and couldn’t stop until the end. (Thereby annoying my family a bit, if memory serves…) One caveat – I played chess quite a bit as a child/teen, and I think that did help me out with some parts of the story.

And Flanders has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US right now, which also definitely helps!

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Flanders-Pane...dp/B003SNKBUK/
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/Flanders-Pa...dp/B003SNKBUK/

Spoiler:

“A sleek, sophisticated, madly clever chamber mystery” from the international bestselling author—the basis for the film Uncovered starring Kate Beckinsale (The New York Times Book Review).

A fifteenth-century painting by a Flemish master is about to be auctioned when Julia, a young art restorer, discovers a peculiar inscription hidden in a corner: Who killed the knight? In the painting, the Duke of Flanders and his knight are locked in a game of chess, and a dark lady lurks mysteriously in the background. Julia is determined to solve the five-hundred-year-old murder, but as she begins to look for clues, several of her friends in the art world are brutally murdered in quick succession. Messages left with the bodies suggest a crucial connection between the chess game in the painting, the knight’s murder, the sordid underside of the contemporary art world, and the latest deaths. Just when all of the players in the mystery seem to be pawns themselves, events race toward a shocking conclusion. A thriller like no other, The Flanders Panel presents a tantalizing puzzle for any connoisseur of mystery, chess, art, and history.

“A beguiling puzzle—a game within a game within a game—solved in perplexing but entertaining fashion.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“For mystery fans who yearn for literate, intelligent, sophisticated whodunits, Spanish author Pérez-Reverte’s highly acclaimed story fills the bill perfectly . . . An inventive plot, gripping suspense, fascinatingly complex characters, and innovative incorporation of art, literature, and music will enthrall readers looking for something a little different.”—Booklist

“This intelligent mystery . . . comes up with a satisfying twist at the end.”—Library Journal

[sufue]

Another freebie from Michael Kenyon's Inspector Peckover series. This time it's Cradling Death, which is a re-titling (grrr) of Peckover Holds the Baby, which was first published in the 1980s. It's nice that it's free, so it makes it a little less important that Lume Books have completely changed the title, because it's not a big deal if you "buy" it again. But still, it's quite frustrating in general when titles get changed beyond recognition...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D8JXEAM
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01D8JXEAM

Spoiler:

Detective Chief Inspector Henry Peckover, full-time policeman and part-time poet, also known as Our ’Enry and The Bard of the Yard, has been more irascible than usual.

Just as well, then, that he is sent off to the jungles of Belize to track down a man with a nickname of his own, The Honourable Vivian White, full-time cocaine king and all-round criminal.

Because as it turns out, drugs aren’t the only mess that the very dishonourable Honourable Viv has got himself entangled with. Wherever Viv goes, it seems, there go murder, kidnapping, deception and an unsavoury mix of bad behaviours. With his partner in crime already lying dead in a London flat, it seems that the time has finally come to put an end to Viv’s activities.

What’s more, Viv is not the only member of his family raising eyebrows at Scotland Yard. His father also seems to have some sort of agenda … but what, exactly, is going on between father and son? With bodies and threats piling up in London, it’s high time the police found out.

Thus Detective Chief Inspector Peckover heads out of his London comfort zone, to the steamy jungles of Belize, accompanied by the fashion-conscious Constable Jason Twitty. Once there, the pair is joined by undercover agent Peachy O’Day, of the Los Angeles Police Narcotics Division. With Peckover’s laconic wit and intelligence, Twitty’s sharp insight and O’Day’s ability with a gun, surely they cannot fail?

And when the Honourable Viv kidnaps his own baby, it seems there is no longer any room at all for failure.

Yet as bullets fly and the body count rises, Peckover begins to see that almost nothing in Belize is quite what it seems.

And as love, loyalties and long-held grudges begin to unravel the White family, their lethal machinations ramp up until they envelop even the youngest member.

But as he is left (quite literally) holding the baby, can Peckover save the child from its own murderous family?

[sufue]

The Book of the Dead is the third in the Augustus Maltravers series by Robert Richardson. I remember reading and enjoying a couple of books in this series back in DTB days, so it's nice to see an e-book version of this title available for free right now at Kindle US and UK.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OHY7HU6/
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OHY7HU6/

Spoiler:

Augustus Maltravers, full-time writer and part-time sleuth, is on his way to visit friends in Cumbria when his car breaks down a few miles from his destination.

Seeking help from nearby Carwelton Hall, he meets the Carringtons: Charles and his beautiful young wife Jennifer.

He is astounded to find that Charles owns a Sherlock Holmes story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but never published.

But Maltravers’ delight at this discovery is to be short-lived.

A shocking murder takes place and Carwelton Hall’s most valuable possession disappears….

The police believe they have their killer but Maltravers isn’t so sure.

After reading ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Attwater Firewitch’ he finds some surprising parallels to what is going on around him.

Taking his lead from Conan Doyle, he does some investigating of his own…

Is Maltraver’s imagination getting the better of him?

Or will Holmes’ fictional investigations help him track down the killer?

‘The Book of the Dead’ is the third in the series of Augustus Maltravers detective stories, following on from ‘An Act of Evil’ and ‘Skeleton Key’. "An Act of Evil", won the John Creasey Award for the best first crime novel.