FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

A Taste for Killing is the tenth and most recent (for now) in Sarah Hawkswood's Bradecote/Catchpoll series. It’s £0.99 at Kindle UK right now. I had an ARC of an earlier book in the series, and liked it well enough, with the minor issue that it was pretty bleak. And although I know that life can be bleak, when I'm reading fiction I'm usually reading for enjoyment. And I'm not sure if bleak counts for that . I don't know if this is typical of all the books in the series, though.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NLH1RZP
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NLH1RZP

Spoiler:

Whose was the hand that poisoned Godfrey Bowyer? Bradecote and Catchpoll are on the trail of the killer.

Worcester, January 1145. Poison strikes down bow maker Godfrey Bowyer and his wife Blanche after their evening meal. While she survives, he dies an agonising death. Few could have administered the poison, which should mean a very short investigation for the Sheriff's men, Hugh Bradecote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin. But perhaps someone was pulling the strings, and that widens the net considerably.

With an unpopular victim, the suspects are many and varied.

[sufue]

It's super-super-unusual for any of Steven F Havill's Posadas County mysteries to go on sale, but now here's the second one, Bitter Recoil, on sale in both the US ($1.99) and the UK (£1.61). This is one of my top ten favorite series, and maybe top five depending on my mood that day. Havill does police procedurals really well, the characters are great, and I also love the setting (although I could be a bit biased since my father's family is from New Mexico). Anyway, here are links:

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VMH478Q
Kobo US (discountable): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bitter-recoil-3
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VMH478Q

Spoiler:

When Undersheriff Bill Gastner heads to New Mexico's mountains for some respite, the last thing he expects to find is a dead body. But he's a cop through-and-through, and he can't let a criminal walk...

Aging Posadas County Undersheriff Bill Gastner has weathered his quadruple bypass and is taking a rare vacation up in New Mexico's northern mountains. He's escaping meddlesome medical providers and small town gossip, but he's looking forward to reconnecting with his former detective Estelle Reyes who is working in San Estevan County. Arriving a day early at the Steamboat Rock Campground, his camping plans are interrupted by sirens. Suddenly, Gastner, Reyes, and her new doctor husband reunite over the body of a pregnant young woman.

At first the detectives assume she was a hit-and-run victim. Then the medical exam reveals she was instead thrown from a moving vehicle after a rape attempt. Gastner's curiosity is piqued but he's on vacation—he should leave the case up to local law enforcement. Then four more deaths follow and the still-to-be-reckoned-with lawman steps in to stop the rash of murders....

He's not in Posadas County, but Undersheriff Bill Gastner can't ignore an unsolved case when a body turns up in the New Mexico mountains. Steven F. Havill's next police procedural finds the aging undersheriff taking on a disturbing case far from home.

[sufue]

The Girl of His Dreams is the seventeenth in Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti series. It's £0.99 at Kindle UK right now, which is kind of nice, since Leon's books tend to go on sale much more often in the US than in the UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0031RS402
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0031RS402

Spoiler:

2008 Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year
Independent Mystery Booksellers Association Bestseller

One rainy morning Commissario Brunetti and Ispettore Vianello respond to an emergency call reporting a body floating near some steps on the Grand Canal. Reaching down to pull it out, Brunetti's wrist is caught by the silkiness of golden hair, and he sees a small foot - together he and Vianello lift a dead girl from the water.

But, inconceivably, no one has reported a missing child, nor the theft of the gold jewellery that she carries. Brunetti is drawn into a search not only for the cause of her death but also for her identity, her family, and for the secrets that people will keep in order to protect their children - be they innocent or guilty.

From the canals and palazzi of Venice to a gypsy encampment on the mainland, Brunetti struggles with institutional prejudice and entrenched criminality to try to unravel the fate of the dead child.

[sufue]

Killers of a Certain Age sounds like a pretty different kind of thing for Deanna Raybourn, who two main series are historicals. But I've liked her Lady Julia Grey series a lot, and the premise sounds fun, and the price is right (£0.99 at Kindle UK), so I think I'll give this one a try...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B631QQ64
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B631QQ64

Spoiler:

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death.

To get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman - and a killer - of a certain age.

[sufue]

The Black Ascot is the twenty-first in Charles Todd's Inspector Ian Rutledge series. It's $1.99 right now in the US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079DQDSS4
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B079DQDSS4
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-black-ascot

Spoiler:

An astonishing tip from a grateful ex-convict seems implausible—but Inspector Ian Rutledge is intrigued and brings it to his superior at Scotland Yard. Alan Barrington, who has evaded capture for ten years, is the suspect in an appalling murder during Black Ascot, the famous 1910 royal horse race meet honoring the late King Edward VII. His disappearance began a manhunt that consumed Britain for a decade. Now it appears that Barrington has returned to England, giving the Yard a last chance to retrieve its reputation and see justice done. Rutledge is put in charge of a quiet search under cover of a routine review of a cold case.

Meticulously retracing the original inquiry, Rutledge begins to know Alan Barrington well, delving into relationships and secrets that hadn’t surfaced in 1910. But is he too close to finding his man? His sanity is suddenly brought into question by a shocking turn of events. His sister Frances, Melinda Crawford, and Dr. Fleming stand by him, but there is no greater shame than shell shock. Questioning himself, he realizes that he cannot look back. The only way to save his career—much less his sanity—is to find Alan Barrington and bring him to justice. But is this elusive murderer still in England?

[Tarana]

Cat Who Went Bananas - Lillian Jackson Braun $1.99 Amazon, Kobo
#27 in Cat Who Series

[sufue]

Open Season is the thirty-fourth and most recent (2022) in Quintin Jardine's Bob Skinner series. It has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK right now.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Z27BWLC
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Z27BWLC

Spoiler:

Amidst a family celebration, a cataclysmic storm uncovers long-buried horrors - and a team of detectives struggle to solve a thirty-year-old double murder.

The police are also searching two countries for traces of a mysterious crime novelist who appears to have vanished. Has the faking of his own death been his masterpiece?

Alongside each inquiry as it evolves is former Chief Constable Sir Robert Skinner, relishing his new role as a media magnate, but drawn into reluctant action and towards a chilling discovery of his own.

With evil on one hand and intrigue on the other, will Skinner escape with either his integrity or career intact . . . or is it open season on him?

[sufue]

It's been a couple of years, so here's that classic, Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, on sale in the US for $2.99.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC12Z0
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000FC12Z0
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mur...orient-express

I almost feel like I don't need to add the blurb , but here it is...not that it's much...

Spoiler:

“The murderer is with us—on the train now . . .”

Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of doubt, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer.

Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man's enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again.

[salty-horse]

Killer, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury is $2 on Amazon.com and Kobo US.

Time travelers...dark carnivals...living automata...and detectives? Honoring the 100th birthday of Ray Bradbury, renowned author of Fahrenheit 451, this new, definitive collection of the master's less well-known crime fiction, published in a high-grade premium collectible edition, features classic stories and rare gems, a number of which became episodes of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and THE RAY BRADBURY THEATER, including the tale Bradbury called "one of the best stories in any field that I have ever written."

Is it murder to destroy a robot if it looks and speaks and thinks and feels like a human being? Can a ventriloquist be incriminated by the testimony of his own dummy? Can a time traveler prevent his younger self from killing the woman they both loved? And can the survivor of a pair of Siamese twins investigate his own brother's murder? No other writer has ever rivaled the imagination and narrative gifts of Ray Bradbury, and the 20 unforgettable stories in this collection demonstrate this singular writer's extraordinary range, influence and emotional power.

Includes these stories:

• A Touch of Petulance
• The Screaming Woman
• The Trunk Lady
• “I’m Not So Dumb!”
• Killer, Come Back to Me!
• Dead Men Rise Up Never
• Where Everything Ends
• Corpse Carnival
• And So Died Riabouchinska
• Yesterday I Lived!
• The Town Where No One Got Off
• The Whole Town’s Sleeping
• At Midnight, In the Month of June
• The Smiling People
• The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
• The Small Assassin
• Marionettes, Inc.
• Punishment Without Crime
• Some Live Like Lazarus
• The Utterly Perfect Murder

[sufue]

Today's Big Deal at Kindle UK is a bunch of crime/mystery books for £0.99 each. No authors or series that I particularly follow, but YMMV...

If you want to check it out, here's a link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?rh=n%3A4725112031&fs=true

[sufue]

The omnibus is now on sale at Kindle UK for £3.19.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07781WXM4
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07781WXM4

Originally Posted by sufue

The Pieter Van In Mysteries is an ominbus of the only four titles in the series (by Pieter Aspe) that have been translated into English - at least according to SYKM. The omnibus has dropped to $3.99 at Kindle and Kobo US (coupon/VIPable). All of the titles have been on sale individually before at various times, so check carefully before you buy. I've read and enjoyed all four of these, and wish that some more of the remaining loooooong series would get translated from what I assume is Flemish.

The titles in the ominbus are:

• The Square of Revenge
• The Midas Murders
• From Bruges with Love
• The Fourth Figure

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Pieter-Van-My...dp/B07781WXM4/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...n-in-mysteries

[sufue]

Heaven's Prisoners is the second Dave Robicheaux title by James Lee Burke. It has dropped to £2.99 at Kindle UK, which is not a great price IMO for a book that is more than three decades old, but is still much better than its normal £5.49. So, here are links/info...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003TO59TQ
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003TO59TQ

Note that there was an omnibus of many of the early Robicheaux titles that was on sale several years ago. So check carefully before you buy...

Spoiler:

Dave Robicheaux is trying to put a life of violence and crime behind him, leaving homicide to run a boat-rental business in Louisiana's bayou country. But one day while fishing in the Gulf with his wife Annie, he witnesses an event that will change his life forever.

A small two-engine plane suddenly crashes into the sea and Robicheaux dives down to the wreckage to find four bodies and one survivor; a little girl miraculously trapped in a pocket of air. When the authorities insist only three bodies were recovered from the plane, Robicheaux decides to investigate the mystery of the missing man.

[Tarana]

Two Little Girls in Blue By Mary Higgins Clark $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Mystery/crime

The Enemy Inside By Steve Martini $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Legal Thriller

The Black Ascot By Charles Todd $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Killer, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury is $2 on Amazon.com and Kobo US.

Very nice. And it's a Hard Case Crime book, so beautiful cover.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Killer, Come Back To Me: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury is $2 on Amazon.com and Kobo US.

Includes these stories:

• A Touch of Petulance
• The Screaming Woman
• The Trunk Lady
• “I’m Not So Dumb!”
• Killer, Come Back to Me!
• Dead Men Rise Up Never
• Where Everything Ends
• Corpse Carnival
• And So Died Riabouchinska
• Yesterday I Lived!
• The Town Where No One Got Off
• The Whole Town’s Sleeping
• At Midnight, In the Month of June
• The Smiling People
• The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
• The Small Assassin
• Marionettes, Inc.
• Punishment Without Crime
• Some Live Like Lazarus
• The Utterly Perfect Murder

I just bought this from eBooks.com.