FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

If you didn't bite at £1.99, now it's £0.99. The links below are still good.

Originally Posted by sufue

Trial Run, by Dick Francis, has dropped to £1.99 in the UK today. Per SYKM, Trial Run was a finalist for the 1978 Gold Dagger award.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RI9X3S
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RI9X3S

[sufue]

The Hollywood Spy is the tenth and most recent (2021) in Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope series. It has dropped to £1.99 at Kindle UK and $2.99 at Kindle and Kobo US. (And probably on sale at Kobo UK too, but I don't check there...)

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KSPWVWH
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08KSPWVWH
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-hollywood-spy
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KSPWVWH
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KSPWVWH

Spoiler:

Los Angeles, 1943. As the Allies beat back the Nazis in the Mediterranean and the United States military slowly closes in on Tokyo, Walt Disney cranks out wartime propaganda and the Cocoanut Grove is alive with jazz and swing every night. But behind this sunny façade lies a darker reality. Up in the lush foothills of Hollywood, a woman floats lifeless in the pool of one of California’s trendiest hotels.

When American-born secret agent and British spy Maggie Hope learns that this woman was engaged to her former fiancée, John Sterling, and that he suspects her death was no accident, intuition tells her he’s right. Leaving London under siege is a lot to ask—but John was once the love of Maggie’s life . . . and she can’t say no.

Maggie struggles with seeing her lost love again, but more shocking is the realization that her country is as divided and convulsed with hatred as Europe. The Zoot Suit Riots loom large in Los Angeles, and the Ku Klux Klan casts a long shadow everywhere. But there is little time to dwell on memories once she starts digging into the case. As she traces a web of deception from the infamous Garden of Allah to the iconic Carthay Circle Theater, she discovers things aren’t always the way things appear in the movies—and the political situation in America is more complicated, and dangerous, than the newsreels would have them all believe.

[sufue]

The Burry Man's Day is the second in Catriona McPherson's Dandy Gilver series. It has dropped to £1.99 at Kindle UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005E881X6
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005E881X6

Spoiler:

Summer 1923, and as the village of Queensferry prepares for the annual Ferry Fair and the walk of the Burry Man, feelings are running high. With his pagan greenery, his lucky pennies and the nips of whisky he is treated to wherever he goes, the Burry Man has much to offend stricter souls like the minister or temperance pamphleteer. And then at the Fair, in full view of everyone including Dandy Gilver, invited to hand out the prizes he falls down dead. If he has been poisoned then the list of suspects includes anyone with a bottle of whisky in the house, and, here at Queensferry, that means just about everyone.

[sufue]

Serpentine is now $2.99 in the US, as part of today's Kindle Daily Deal, matched at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08817ND6R
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08817ND6R
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/serpentine-30

Originally Posted by sufue

I am not super fond of psychological thrillers. And so, having read somewhere that Jonathan Kellerman’s main character in his main series is a psychologist, Alex Delaware, I just sort of wrote the series off, assuming that these were psychological thrillers. (And you know what they say about when you assume something – although if I actually say it, I'll probably get in trouble...)

In any case, I had a chance to read an ARC of Kellerman's 36th and latest book, Serpentine, a while back, and discovered that it was instead a pretty nice police procedural, and I liked it a lot. Now Serpentine has gone on sale in the UK for £2.99. Which is a little odd - the UK habit of putting frontlist books very briefly on sale soon after publication is usually at £0.99. But this is still a really good price for a book that came out only two months ago, so I'd grab it if you want it.

And now my TBR list is 35 titles longer in one fell swoop .

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088WMHB4T
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088WMHB4T

[sufue]

Now $2.99 in the US, as part of today's Kindle Daily Deal, matched at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HY2M976
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08HY2M976
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/castle-shade

Originally Posted by sufue

Castle Shade is the 17th and most recent in Laurie R. King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. It has dropped to £2.59 at Kindle UK - not quite the £0.99 that new releases often briefly drop to in the UK, but still not bad for a book that just came out in June. I had a review copy of this book, and loved it - especially the character of Queen Marie of Roumania, who was in real life (and in the book!) a granddaughter of Queen Victoria’s on her father’s side, and a granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia through her mother, and who managed by her astute politicking at the end of WWI to keep Roumania independent, and even increase its size. (And there's a good mystery too....)

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08S6T8CZ6
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08S6T8CZ6


And if you want to read my full review, the link to my blog is in my signature...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

I see this Vintage Crime/Black Lizard edition is on sale. I'm usually wary of these small/unknown publishers...

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard is not a small/unknown publisher. Their version of The Maltese Falcon is the legit (legal) version of the book in the US. Any others you see listed on Amazon US are bootlegs.

Black Lizard are or have been the US publisher of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jim Thompson, Carl Hiassen, Stieg Larsson, Jeff Lindsay and Andrew Vachss. (I have Chandler books from Black Lizard published in the '80's.)

Their Black Lizard Big Book of series edited by Otto Penzler (Pulps, Black Mask Mysteries, Locked-Room Mysteries) are recommended.

[sufue]

To the Nines is, as you may have guessed, the ninth in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. In Macmillan's count-up through the series, it's now on sale for $2.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019FPCWG
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0019FPCWG
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/to-the-nines-1

And, while price checking in the UK, where it has dropped to £2.99, I also noticed that Seven Up and Hard Eight are also £2.99. Which is a little odd because these are published in the UK by Headline, and I didn't think that Headline and Macmillan are affiliated.

Seven Up
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005OKTFES
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005OKTFES

Hard Eight
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005NAD6Q2
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005NAD6Q2

To the Nines
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005NACYF6
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005NACYF6

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard is not a small/unknown publisher. Their version of The Maltese Falcon is the legit (legal) version of the book in the US. Any others you see listed on Amazon US are bootlegs.

Thanks.

[Mort1997]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whip-Hand-F...06VXNJX0&psc=1

In addition to Trial run (mentioned earlier by Sufue) Whip Hand is currently available for 99p in the UK

Spoiler:

Ex-jockey Sid Halley works as a private detective, using his racing knowledge to solve crimes that baffle the police.

He's asked to investigate the possible doping of the horses of George Casper - a thoroughbred trainer whose once-successful mounts have been failing spectacularly on the racetrack.

At the same time, he learns that a conman has left his ex-wife Jenny facing a jail sentence over a fake charity, while the Jockey Club want him to investigate certain powerful syndicates who may be acting in a ruthless and illegal manner.

Quickly, Sid discovers that each of his investigations is entirely unwelcome. But he isn't put off easily - not even when a threat is made that could change his life.

Three dangerous cases, three ways to die - Sid is back on home turf . . .

and Dead Cert
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...api_tkin_p1_i0


'Admiral met the fence perfectly. He rose to it as if flight were not only for birds. And he fell . . .'

Alan York's friend, jockey Bill Davidson, was killed in Admiral's fall. After the race, York visits the fence and discovers a coil of wire lying beside the fence post and signs of where the wire had been attached.

The fall was no accident - but murder. Unable to convince the police of this, York is forced to turn amateur sleuth and is soon on the trail of a ruthless gang of race-fixers operating out of Brighton.

Now Alan's caught in a new race: find the gang's leaders before the gang catches up with him . . .

[sufue]

Here's your daily Stephanie Plum....maybe when I have some spare time (hah!), I'll figure out when they'll finish if they keep going at one per day....

Ten Big Ones, #2.99
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00179FNRI
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00179FNRI
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ten-big-ones-1

Spoiler:

She's accidentally destroyed a dozen cars. She's a target for every psycho and miscreant this side of the Jersey Turnpike. Her mother's convinced she'll end up dead . . . or worse, without a man. She's Stephanie Plum, and she kicks butt for a living (well, she thinks it sounds good to put it that way. . . .).

It begins as an innocent trip to the deli-mart, on a quest for nachos. But Stephanie Plum and her partner, Lula, are clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time. A robbery leads to an explosion, which leads to the destruction of yet another car. It would be just another day in the life of Stephanie Plum, except that she becomes the target of a gang---and of an even scarier, more dangerous force that comes to Trenton. With super bounty hunter Ranger acting more mysteriously than ever (and the tension with vice cop Joe Morelli getting hotter), she finds herself with a decision to make: how to protect herself and where to hide while on the hunt for a killer known as the Junkman. There's only one safe place, and it has Ranger's name all over it---if she can find it. And if the Junkman doesn't find her first. With Lula riding shotgun and Grandma Mazur on the loose, Stephanie Plum is racing against the clock in her most suspenseful novel yet. Ten Big Ones is page-turning entertainment, and Janet Evanovich is the best there is.

[sufue]

Ice and Stone is the latest (2021) in Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone series. It has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle US as part of the Pre-Black Friday sale, supposedly good through 11/21/2021. (However if you want it, I'd still grab it now...) It's matched at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QHXW7QN
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08QHXW7QN
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ice-and-stone-1

Spoiler:

Private Investigator Sharon McCone goes undercover to investigate the murders of two Indigenous women in remote Northern California in this gripping, atmospheric mystery in the New York Times bestselling series.

When the bodies of two Indigenous women are found in the wilderness of northern California, it is only the latest horrific development in a string of similar crimes in the area. Despite all evidence to the contrary, officials rule the deaths isolated incidents, which soon join the ranks of countless other unsolved cases quickly dismissed by law enforcement.

In a town where too many injustices are tolerated or brushed under the rug, only a few people remain who refuse to let a killer walk free. But Private Investigator Sharon McCone is one of those few. She is hired by an organization called Crimes against Indigenous Sisters to go undercover in Meruk County—a community rife with secrets, lies, and corruption—to expose the truth.

In an isolated cabin in the freezing, treacherous woods, McCone must work quickly to unravel a mystery that is rooted in profound evil—before she becomes the killer’s next target.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard is not a small/unknown publisher. Their version of The Maltese Falcon is the legit (legal) version of the book in the US. Any others you see listed on Amazon US are bootlegs.

Black Lizard are or have been the US publisher of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jim Thompson, Carl Hiassen, Stieg Larsson, Jeff Lindsay and Andrew Vachss. (I have Chandler books from Black Lizard published in the '80's.)

Their Black Lizard Big Book of series edited by Otto Penzler (Pulps, Black Mask Mysteries, Locked-Room Mysteries) are recommended.

, but the whole imprint situation (I think Vintage Crime is owned by Knopf) reminds me of an image I saw of several dozen food brands being owned by maybe ten or so big conglomerates.

[sufue]

About a year later, again at $1.99. Links in @Tarana's post are still good.

Originally Posted by Tarana

{edited other book}

The Cat Who Smelled a Rat By Lilian Jackson Braun $1.99 Still on sale
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Who-Smell...3808393&sr=8-1
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...melled-a-rat-1

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

, but the whole imprint situation (I think Vintage Crime is owned by Knopf) reminds me of an image I saw of several dozen food brands being owned by maybe ten or so big conglomerates.

Sure. No arguments there.

I was just pointing out that Vintage Crime/Black Lizard are a long established imprint putting out books by some of the best Mystery, Suspense & Thriller authors of all time.

They are the opposite of a small/unknown publisher.

Crime/mystery isn't my top genre, but of the books I do have, I'd say over half are Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (and most of the rest are Hard Case Crime).

[sufue]

A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball is the second in T E Kinsey's short 2-book (so far) Dizzy Heights series. This historical series is sort of like his Lady Hardcastle series, except set in Jazz Age London rather than in the countryside. Although in this second book, he takes the Heights to the countryside, so it is actually kind of a mixture of both . In any case, Baffling has dropped to £1.00 at Kindle UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08SW8K5BT
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08SW8K5BT

Spoiler:

A locked room. A mysterious death. Just another gig for the Dizzy Heights.

When London’s finest jazz musicians, the Dizzy Heights, are booked to play the glitzy Midsummer Ball at a country house in Oxfordshire, they expect a weekend filled with flappers and toffs having a roaring good time.

But the festivities at Bilverton House take a turn for the worse when the group are stranded by a summer storm. And when a member of the Bilverton family turns up dead in a locked room in an apparent suicide, Skins, Dunn and Ellie realise this is going to be a much tougher gig than they thought.

But here’s the lick. What if it was in fact cold-blooded murder? And what if the killer is still at large? It’s up to the Dizzy Heights to once again put down their instruments and get improvising if they want to solve this confounding mystery.

And if you want to read my full review of this book, the link to my review blog is in my signature.