FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[salty-horse]

Horror-tinged Mystery with a lot of illustrations:

Strange Pictures by Uketsu is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

A Japanese mystery bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective - from the YouTube sensation Uketsu A series of drawings made by a young woman before her death. A child's disturbing picture of his home. A desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments. Each contains a chilling warning. Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight. Uketsu's eerie mysteries have captivated millions of readers. Can you find the clues in these strange pictures and uncover the sinister truth that connects them all?

Strange Houses by Uketsu is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

A twisty puzzle in which the reader is the detective, examining a series of creepy floorplans for clues

A sinister hidden room. A dead space between two walls. A sealed cellar. A child's face glimpsed at a window. Every house hides secrets. But some secrets are far darker than others. More than a million readers have discovered the terrible truth behind these strange houses. Now it's your turn.

[DrNefario]

I've heard good things about Strange Pictures, but only from people who've read the paper version. I don't know how well it works as an ebook, but it might be worth a shot at that price.

[salty-horse]

FWIY, the images in both ebooks are in relatively high resolution, enough to see all the details.

[sufue]

Sudden Mischief is the twenty-fifth in Robert B Parker's Spenser series. It's $1.99 right now in the US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005F48CDS
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sudden-mischief

Spoiler:

Susan Silverman's ex isn't your average ex... he's someone much more suspicious

Susan's ex doesn't call himself "Silverman" anymore—he's changed his name to "Sterling." And that's not the only thing that's phony about him. A do-gooding charity fundraiser, he's been accused of sexual harassment by no less than four different women. And not long after Spenser starts investigating, Sterling is wanted for a bigger charge: murder...

[salty-horse]

The Gray Man (Gray Man #1) by Mark Greaney is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always.

But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.

But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive....

[sufue]

The first in Michael McGarrity's Kevin Kerney series, Tularosa. is on sale in the US for $2.99, and discountable at Kobo. The Kerney books don't go on sale very often in the US, although they have been going on sale a bit more in the recent past. So if you want it, I'd grab it. (Although this one was briefly at $1.99 a couple of months ago, but I missed it. So if you really want to be patient, you could cross your fingers and wait...) I'm quite fond of this series, although I do have a bias towards books set in the American southwest, since a good chunk of my family is from there.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005B0B9MC
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/tularosa-3

Spoiler:

It's been two years since an on-the-job shooting forced ex-Santa Fe chief of detectives Kevin Kerney to retire. He is drawn back into action when Terry Yazzi, his former partner and the man responsible for his wounds, pleads for Kerney's help. Yazzi's son, a soldier, has disappeared in the barren desert surrounding the White Sands Missile Range.

Kerney's investigation resurrects the long-forgotten thrill of the hunt—and other emotions surface after meeting the tough-but-beautiful Capt. Sara Brannon, the Army's investigating officer. Together, they uncover a crime far greater than an AWOL soldier: a conspiracy of death that snakes from the secretive world of military operations, to the cutthroat alleys of a Mexican border town, leading them to a final, shocking revelation that may cost them both their lives.

[sufue]

After being on sale a bunch for £0.99 in the UK, Livid is finally on sale for $1.99 in the US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QKVH8MJ
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/livid-3

Originally Posted by sufue

Livid is the 26th and newest in Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. It's £0.99 at Kindle UK right now.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09RTZHM5Z
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09RTZHM5Z

[sufue]

Mrs. McGinty's Dead is the twenty-eighth in Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series, at least if you believe the webpage. (I'm too slammed for time right now to count...)

It's $1.99 in the US right now.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC2RSG
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mrs-mcginty-s-dead

Spoiler:

Mrs. McGinty died from a brutal blow to the back of her head. Suspicion falls immediately on her shifty lodger, James Bentley, whose clothes reveal traces of the victim’s blood and hair. Yet something is amiss: Bentley just doesn’t seem like a murderer.

Could the answer lie in an article clipped from a newspaper two days before the death? With a desperate killer still free, Hercule Poirot will have to stay alive long enough to find out. . . .

[sufue]

Mike Lupica, who has already written continuation books in Robert B Parker's Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series, has recently written some continuation books for Parker's Spenser series as well, following after Ace Atkins. Broken Trust is the second of these, as well as the fifty-first Spenser book overall. It's $1.99 right now in the US.

I haven't read this one, but I have read and liked most of the continuation books in these series - I think the estate and/or publishers have mostly picked some good authors to carry the various series forward. And I'm not going to comment on whether they should be carried forward - that's a different question.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BX5HMRKD
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/rob...s-broken-trust

Spoiler:

Spenser investigates the past secrets of an elusive tech billionaire in this latest installment of Robert B. Parker’s beloved series, and the first written by celebrated writer Mike Lupica.

Andrew Crain has it all: a brilliant scientist and astute businessman, his groundbreaking work with lithium has made him one of the world’s richest men. He is universally adored and admired; that is, until Crain’s beautiful wife, Laura, comes to Spenser hoping that he can find out what skeletons lurk in her husband’s closet. Though Crain is a generous philanthropist and loving family man, she is concerned—he has recently become secretive, bordering on paranoid, and prone to violent outbursts. This is the opposite of the man she knew, and not only does his behavior put their marriage at risk, but also a lucrative company merger that would be life-changing for the Crains, their business partner, and everyone associated. Laura wants Spenser to find out what has gotten into her husband, before it’s too late.

As Spenser digs into the billionaire’s past, he realizes that the man may have done terrible things on his rise to the top—but he also may have had good reason to. There are no clear answers here, and quickly enough, what Spenser discovers will cause him to question his own views on morality—and place him in grave danger.

[GA Russell]

Private Detective Stories Magazine
March, 1942

includes

novel
Murder's Never Easy
by Roger Torrey

and short story
Corpse Cross
by Robert Leslie Bellem

$1.95

https://www.radioarchives.com/Privat...h_p/re1283.htm

[sufue]

The first book of the three, Murder is an Art, is now free at Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CQYAV34

I still haven't read the other two...

Originally Posted by sufue

I remember reading and liking a lot of Bill Crider's Sheriff Dan Rhodes series back in "real paper" book days. But I haven't read any of the three books in his Dr Sally Good series. And now two of the three are on sale for extra nice prices, so I will probably give them a try.

A Knife in the Back, #2, $0.75
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0080K3Q94

A Bond with Death, #3, $0.75
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051PZSLA

[sufue]

City of Good Death is also free right now at Kindle US, but not anywhere else that I can find...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLGCW73V

Originally Posted by sufue

Two of the three books in Chris Lloyd's Catalan series are $1.99 each right now in the US, and all three are £1.99 each at Kindle UK. Not sure why the difference, but maybe the second one will still drop in the US, so I'm giving series links for easy price-check.

The books are: City of Good Death, City of Buried Ghosts, and City of Drowned Souls. I haven't read any these but they look pretty interesting.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VCYRB5Z
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VCYRB5Z

Oh, and I consider Canelo a legit press...