FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[murraypaul]

Today's Amazon UK Big Deal is the first 11 (of 12) books in the DI Nick Dixon series by Damien Boyd for 99p each.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074CHRTW2

Blurb for first book:

Rock climbers can’t afford to make careless mistakes. But Detective Inspector Nick Dixon’s former climbing partner, Jake Fayter, died doing just that. Or so it seems. Dixon suspects foul play, but his only leads are unreliable accounts of something odd happening in Cheddar Gorge seconds before Jake fell.

The more Dixon learns about Jake’s life, the more he realises that Jake hadn’t been quite the man he remembered...and a lot of people could have wanted him dead. Once Dixon gets too close to the truth, those people will emerge from the shadows and kill to protect their secrets.

As the body count rises, Dixon bends the rules to breaking point to lure out a killer and unravel a conspiracy of silence that will rock the sleepy town of Burnham-on-Sea to its core.

[ZodWallop]

The Devotion of Suspect X (Detective Galileo Series Book 1) by Keigo Higashino is $2.99 at Amazon US.

Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko's next door neighbor, middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help, disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step.

When the body turns up and is identified, Detective Kusanagi draws the case and Yasuko comes under suspicion. Kusanagi is unable to find any obvious holes in Yasuko's manufactured alibi and yet is still sure that there's something wrong. Kusanagi brings in Dr. Manabu Yukawa, a physicist and college friend who frequently consults with the police. Yukawa, known to the police by the nickname Professor Galileo, went to college with Ishigami. After meeting up with him again, Yukawa is convinced that Ishigami had something to do with the murder. What ensues is a high level battle of wits, as Ishigami tries to protect Yasuko by outmaneuvering and outthinking Yukawa, who faces his most clever and determined opponent yet.

[GA Russell]

Cats Prowl at Night (The Bertha Cool and Donald Lam Mysteries) - $1.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VS6GCLG

[ZodWallop]

Crossposted to Horror as well.

Benighted by J. B. Priestley is $2.99 at Amazon US.

This has been on my wishlist for a while. But Valencourt books don't go on sale very often.

Philip and Margaret Waverton and their friend Roger Penderel are driving through the mountains of Wales when a torrential downpour washes away the road and forces them to seek shelter for the night. They take refuge in an ancient, crumbling mansion inhabited by the strange and sinister Femm family and their brutish servant Morgan. Determined to make the best of the circumstances, the benighted travellers drink, talk, and play games to pass the time while the storm rages outside. But as the night progresses and tensions rise, dangerous and unexpected secrets emerge. On the house's top floor are two locked doors; behind one of them lies the mysterious, unseen Sir Roderick Femm, and behind the other lurks an unspeakable terror. Which is more deadly: the apocalyptic storm outside the house or the unknown horrors that await within? And will any of them survive the night?

Benighted (1927), a classic 'old dark house' novel of psychological terror, was the second novel by J. B. Priestley (1894-1984), better known for his classics The Good Companions (1929), Angel Pavement (1930) and Bright Day (1946). The basis for James Whale's 1932 film The Old Dark House, Benighted returns to print for the first time in fifty years. This edition includes the unabridged text of the first British edition, a new introduction by Orrin Grey, and a reproduction of the rare jacket art of the 1927 Heinemann edition.

[sufue]

Why Mermaids Sing is the third Sebastian St. Cyr book by CS Harris. It's £0.99 right now at Kindle UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000X1E47Q
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000X1E47Q

Spoiler:

It's September 1811, and someone is killing the wealthy young sons of London's most prominent families. Partially butchered, with strange objects stuffed into their mouths, their bodies are found dumped in public places at dawn.

When the grisly remains of Alfred, Lord Stanton's eldest son are discovered in the Old Palace Yard beside the House of Lords, the local magistrate turns to Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for help.

Ranging from the gritty world of Thames-side docks to the luxurious drawing rooms of Mayfair, Sebastian finds himself confronting his most puzzling--and disturbing--case yet. With the help of his trusted allies--young servant Tom, Irish doctor Paul Gibson, and his lover Kat Boleyn--Sebastian struggles to decipher a cryptic set of clues that link the scion of a banking family to the son of a humble Kentish vicar.

For as one killing follows another, Sebastian discovers he is confronting a murderer with both a method and a purpose to his ritualized killings, and that the key to it all may lie in the enigmatic stanzas of a haunting poem...and in a secret so dangerous that men are willing to sacrifice their own children to keep the truth from becoming known.

[sufue]

Death in the East is the fourth in Abir Mukherjee's much nominated/awarded Wyndham and Banerjee series. And it itself won the 2020 Historical Dagger Award and was a finalist for the 2020 Gold Dagger Award. It's £0.99 right now at Kindle UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NSL32H3
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NSL32H3

Spoiler:

**WINNER OF THE CWA SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER 2020**

'Death in the East is the best so far of an unmissable series' The Times

Calcutta police detective Captain Sam Wyndham and his quick-witted Indian Sergeant, Surrender-not Banerjee, are back for another rip-roaring adventure set in 1920s India.

1905, London.

When Bessie Drummond, an old flame of Sam Wyndham's, is attacked in the street, he is determined to get to the bottom of it. But the next day, Bessie is found dead in her room and Wyndham soon finds himself caught up in her murder investigation. The case will cost the young constable more than he ever imagined.

1922, India.

Leaving Calcutta, Wyndham heads for the hills of Assam, ready to put his opium addiction behind him. But when he arrives, he sees a ghost from his life in London - a man thought to be long dead, a man Wyndham hoped he would never see again.

Wyndham knows he must call his friend and colleague Sergeant Banerjee for help. He is certain that this figure from can only be after one thing: revenge...

*A SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF 2021 PICK*

[sufue]

Three books in JD Robb's In Death series are on sale right now at Kindle UK...

Judgement In Death, #11, £0.99
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003O86FHW
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003O86FHW

Divided In Death, #18, £2.99
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003O86FJK
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003O86FJK

Delusion in Death, #35, £2.99
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008H33VGW
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008H33VGW

[salty-horse]

The Blessing Way (Leaphorn and Chee #1) by Tony Hillerman is $2 on Amazon.com
Classic series about Navajo Tribal Police detectives. While the author isn't Navajo, he was awarded the Special Friends of the Dineh Award for "accurate and sensitive portrayal of the strength and dignity of traditional Navajo culture"

Homicide is always an abomination, but there is something exceptionally disturbing about the victim discovered in a high, lonely place—a corpse with a mouth full of sand—abandoned at a crime scene seemingly devoid of tracks or useful clues. Though it goes against his better judgment, Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn cannot help but suspect the hand of a supernatural killer.

There is palpable evil in the air, and Leaphorn's pursuit of a Wolf-Witch leads him where even the bravest men fear, on a chilling trail that winds perilously between mysticism and murder.

[JSWolf]

The Woman on the Island (A Vera Stanhope short story) by Ann Cleeves (#9.5 in the series) is currently free.

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1Y53M37
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B643QB8M

eBooks.com US: https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/210570546
eBooks.com UK: https://www.ebooks.com/en-gb/book/210616873

Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...-on-the-island
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the...n-the-island-1

[Martinoptic]

Thanks Jon. Got it.

[sufue]

Wish You Were Here is on sale in both the US ($2.99) and UK (£1.99) right now. The Kindle US link below is still good, but I'm out of the country and having trouble connecting to Kobo via my VPN, so I'm not sure about the Kobo link, and whether it's on sale at Kobo US too. So you'll just have to check that for yourself .

And here's the Kindle UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000FC1BFG

Originally Posted by sufue

Wish You Were Here is the first in the Mary Minor Haristeen/Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Wish-You-Were...dp/B000FC1BFG/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/wish-you-were-here-17

[sufue]

Now £2.99 at Kindle UK...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CUE0AU4
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CUE0AU4

Originally Posted by sufue

Walking Shadow is about halfway through Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Shado...dp/B005F4AU7O/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/walking-shadow-1

[sufue]

A couple of years later, Signed, Picpus, is $1.99 again in the US...the links below are still good...

Originally Posted by sufue

Signed, Picpus, apa To Any Lengths, apa Maigret and the Fortuneteller is the 23rd (more or less, depending on how you count) in the Maigret series by Georges Simenon. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US. These don't go on sale very often in the US, and there are so very many of them, so you probably should grab it if you think you might want it.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010N18K4S
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/signed-picpus-1

[sufue]

OOPS - it literally just went back up to $7.99 - when I tested the links, the $1.99 was gone...

Living Dead in Dallas is the second in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. It's $1.99 right now at Kindle US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000O76OOA
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000O76OOA

Spoiler:

The second novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s “addictively entertaining” (Locus) Sookie Stackhouse series—the inspiration for the HBO® original series True Blood.

Even though Sookie has her own vampire to look out for her—her red-hot, cold-blooded boyfriend, Bill Compton—she has to admit that the bloodsuckers did save her life. So when one of the local Undead asks the cocktail waitress for a favor, she feels like she owes them.

Soon, Sookie’s in Dallas using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She’s supposed to interview certain humans involved. There’s just one condition: The vampires must promise to behave—and let the humans go unharmed. Easier said than done. All it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly...

[sufue]

The Crooked Hinge by John Dickson Carr is the ninth in the Dr. Gideon Fell series. It's $2.99 at Kindle US right now.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VZ1Z7KT
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07VZ1Z7KT

Spoiler:

An inheritance hangs in the balance in a case of stolen identities, imposters, and murder

Banished from the idyllic English countryside he once called home and en route to live with his cousin in America, Sir John Farnleigh, black sheep of the wealthy Farnleigh clan, nearly perished in the sinking of the Titanic. Though he survived the catastrophe, his ties with his family did not, and he never returned to England—not even for the funerals of his mother, his father, or, most recently, his older brother Dudley. Now, nearly 25 years since he was first sent away, Sir John has finally returned home to claim his inheritance. But another “Sir John” soon follows, an unexpected man who insists he has absolute proof of his identity and of his claim to the estate. Before the case can be settled, however, one of the two men is murdered, and Dr. Gideon Fell, who happens to be passing through the village, finds himself facing one of the most challenging cases of his career. To solve it, he’ll have to confront a series of bizarre and chilling phenomena, diving deep into the realm of the occult and brushing up against witchcraft, magic, and a sinister automaton to solve a seemingly impossible crime.

Selected by a panel of twelve mystery luminaries as one of the ten best locked-room mysteries of all time, The Crooked Hinge is a creepy and atmospheric puzzle inspired by a real life case. It is the ninth installment in the Dr. Gideon Fell series, which may be read in any order.