FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

Two Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin books by Rex Stout are on sale at the same time right now, which is a bit unusual...

Black Orchids is early in the series, and includes two novellas, Black Orchids and Cordially Invited to Meet Death (apa Invitation to Murder)

Kindle US, $1.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003T0G9HG
Kobo US, $1.99: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/black-orchids-2
Kindle UK, £0.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003T0G9HG
Kobo UK, £1.99, but discountable: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/black-orchids-2

Please Pass The Guilt is almost at the end of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin series

Kindle US, $1.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V4BPUQ
Kobo US, $1.99: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/please-pass-the-guilt
Kindle UK, £0.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003V4BPUQ
Kobo UK, £1.99, but discountable: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/please-pass-the-guilt

[sufue]

River of Sins is the seventh in the Bradecote & Catchpoll historical series by Sarah Hawkswood. It’s $0.99 right now at Kindle US. Sadly, it hasn’t dropped in price (yet, at least) at Kobo US, but you could probably price-match it.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089Y4WDJ7
Kobo US (for price check/match): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/river-of-sins-1

Spoiler:

The brutal murder of a woman with a past is a thorny investigation for Bradecote and Catchpoll

July, 1144. The body of a woman is found butchered on an island a few miles upriver from Worcester - how did she get there, who killed her, and why? Uncovering the details of Ricolde's life and her past reveal a woman with hidden depths and hidden miseries which are fundamental to the answers, but time has cast a thick veil over the killer's identity.

The lord sheriff 's men have a trail that went cold over two decades ago, and evidence that contradicts itself. Undersheriff Bradecote and Serjeant Catchpoll will need all their wits to solve this mystery.

[GA Russell]

Detective Novel Magazine
December, 1945

Death Takes a Bow
(Mr. and Mrs. North)

plus two short stories

https://www.radioarchives.com/Detect...r_p/re1385.htm

[sufue]

Harm's Way is on sale again in the UK for £0.99 — and this time also at Kobo UK...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VUC3HEI
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/harm-s-way-8

Interesting new (to me, at least) cover, with a subtle “ick” factor since the crow is holding the human finger that starts off the mystery…

Originally Posted by sufue

A rare price drop to something reasonable on an Open Road title in the UK, and in one of my favorite series too. Harm's Way is the eleventh in Catherine Aird's Inspector Sloan/Constable Crosby Calleshire series. It has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VUC3HEI
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VUC3HEI

[sufue]

Head Wounds by Michael McGarrity is now on sale in the US for $2.99. As mentioned below, I had a review copy a while back, and really liked it. It does feature more of Kevin Kerney's son, Clayton Istee, than of Kerney, but still a really good read. Oh, and discountable at Kobo US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08573BGWD
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/head-wounds-12

Spoiler:

Clayton Istee, son of retired police chief Kevin Kerney, goes up against an elusive Mexican hitman in a mesmerizing story of murder, revenge, and redemption.

Given a chance to salvage his law enforcement career, Doña Ana County Sheriff's Detective Clayton Istee catches a bizarre late-night double homicide at a Las Cruces hotel. Both victims, a man and a woman, have been scalped with their throats cut.

The murders show all the signs of a signature hit, but national and state crime databases reveal no similar profiles. Digging into the victims' backgrounds, Clayton discovers that six months prior the couple had walked out of a nearby casino with $200,000 of a high-stakes gambler's money.

He also learns the crime had been hushed up by an undercover federal DEA agent, who resurfaces and recruits Clayton for a dangerous mission to seize the Mexican drug lord responsible for the killings.

Thrust into the nightmare world of borderland drug wars and corrupt cops, Clayton duels with a cunning assassin poised to kill him and his family in a ferocious climax to the Kevin Kerney series that is sure to stun.

Originally Posted by sufue

Michael McGarrity's Kevin Kerney books don't go on sale very often, and are pretty expensive when not on sale. Which is a shame, because I really liked a lot of the earlier books when I read them back in DTB days. So I'm happy to see Residue, which is the first of two series titles that McGarrity wrote after a hiatus of about a decade, go on sale for $2.99 in the US. And it's discountable at Kobo US!

And, I had a review copy of the second of the two "new" books (Head Wounds) a couple of years ago, which I quite enjoyed, so I'm happy to get a chance to read the first of the "new ones" now.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BLKPQYV
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/res...-kerney-novels

[sufue]

A couple of years on, Green Ice is $0.50 again, and so is another book by Whitfield, The Virgin Kills. Neither is on sale at Kobo US, but you could probably price match. I've successfully price-matched a few other $0.50 books from Mysterious Press/Open Road in the past. (Probably preaching to the choir, but always keep a screen-shot...)

And Whitfield's Death in a Bowl is still $1.99 at both Kindle and Kobo US, which appears to be a long-term price.

@GA Russell's links below are still good, and here are the rest...

The Virgin Kills
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MG7BD7Y

Death in a Bowl
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/death-in-a-bowl-3

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Two by Raoul Whitfield!

Green Ice

50 cents

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MG7BDBK

*****

Death in a Bowl

$1.99

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Bowl-Ra.../dp/B07ZWN5HPM

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by sufue

A couple of years on, Green Ice is $0.50 again, and so is another book by Whitfield, The Virgin Kills. Neither is on sale at Kobo US, but you could probably price match. I've successfully price-matched a few other $0.50 books from Mysterious Press/Open Road in the past. (Probably preaching to the choir, but always keep a screen-shot...)

And Whitfield's Death in a Bowl is still $1.99 at both Kindle and Kobo US, which appears to be a long-term price.

@GA Russell's links below are still good, and here are the rest...

The Virgin Kills
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MG7BD7Y

Death in a Bowl
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/death-in-a-bowl-3

By coincidence, I started reading West of Guam yesterday. I picked it up in 2018 for $1.99, but the eBook is apparently no longer available.

[pdurrant]

A whole heap of Dick Francis/Felix Francis horse-racing mystery/thrillers are on sale at Amazon UK for £0.99 each:

No. 8: Enquiry
No. 10: Bonecrack
No. 25: Bolt
No. 35: Come to Grief
No. 38: Field of Thirteen (short stories)
No. 39: Second Wind
No. 49: Bloodline

They were not reduced at Kobo yet, but I expect they will be shortly. I bought the six I was missing from Kobo and I've submitted price match claim forms.

[Edit: I got my price matches at Kobo. £0.89 each net. ]

[sufue]

I've only read those three (the ones above), but liked all three of them, even though I'm not typically a huge hard-boiled fan.

But while checking SYKM for Whitfield, I also came across this odd note at the bottom of his author page: "See also Walter Satterthwait’s fictional biography Dead Horse (2006)"

When I went and looked at that, it seems to be one of those fictional, but plausible, "way it could have been" stories - in this case based on Whitfield's brief marriage to a wealthy socialite, which ended with her death in questionable circumstances, shortly before their impending divorce became final, thus still leaving her estate to Whitfield. While, however, Whitfield was in Los Angeles. Which is also the set-up for many a classic fictional murder mystery. It sounds odd-ball enough to be interesting, and I've put an eReaderIQ tag on it, although it doesn't really look as if it goes on sale...

I too have West of Guam in my library, purchased on sale in 2017, but it has never made it to the top of my TBR list. Could you perhaps come back once you've read it and let me know if I should move it up a bit?

Originally Posted by GA Russell

By coincidence, I started reading West of Guam yesterday. I picked it up in 2018 for $1.99, but the eBook is apparently no longer available.

[sufue]

Back in the early 2000s, I read a few of the mysteries in the semi-historical Fools' Guild series by Alan Gordon, in DTB, and I have warm but vague memories of them. My memories are certainly too vague to spend $12.99 and up for e-book versions of backlist titles that are more than a decade old, but I did just come across the first book in the series on sale in the US and UK. So then I went and looked at the rest of the series, and it appears that most of the rest of the short six-book series does go on sale from time to time. So I've added Gordon to my eReaderIQ watch list, and we shall see what we shall see.

In the meantime:

Thirteenth Night, Fools' Guild #1
Kindle US, $2.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CBFZV9C
Kobo US, $2.99, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/thirteenth-night-1
Kindle UK, £2.39: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CBFZV9C
Kobo UK, £2.59, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/thirteenth-night-1

Spoiler:

Twelfth Night is for revelry, Thirteenth Night is for revelations...

"Orsino is dead." The message sends the jester Feste, disguised as a German merchant, back to the duchy where, years earlier, he had foiled the plans of Saladin's agent, Malvolio, and secured the duchy for Orsino and his bride, Viola. As agent of the Fool's Guild, Feste must uncover the cause of Orsino's death, be it accidental, suicide, or murder. Has Malvolio returned to win the revenge he swore? Or has another, more sinister cabal plunged the duchy into political upheaval?

Set in a brilliantly recreated time of pageantry and squalor, THIRTEENTH NIGHT brings alive a world long vanished. From the fetid canals of Venice to the high seas to the castles and hidden Roman tunnels of Orsino, here is a tale that will keep readers in its thrall until its dramatic and unexpected final scene...

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by sufue

I've only read those three (the ones above), but liked all three of them, even though I'm not typically a huge hard-boiled fan.

But while checking SYKM for Whitfield, I also came across this odd note at the bottom of his author page: "See also Walter Satterthwait’s fictional biography Dead Horse (2006)"

When I went and looked at that, it seems to be one of those fictional, but plausible, "way it could have been" stories - in this case based on Whitfield's brief marriage to a wealthy socialite, which ended with her death in questionable circumstances, shortly before their impending divorce became final, thus still leaving her estate to Whitfield. While, however, Whitfield was in Los Angeles. Which is also the set-up for many a classic fictional murder mystery. It sounds odd-ball enough to be interesting, and I've put an eReaderIQ tag on it, although it doesn't really look as if it goes on sale...

I too have West of Guam in my library, purchased on sale in 2017, but it has never made it to the top of my TBR list. Could you perhaps come back once you've read it and let me know if I should move it up a bit?

You bet, sufue.

The introduction to my edition of West of Guam includes a discussion of the aspects of Whitfield's life you refer to.

[sufue]

Joffe's free mystery for the (brief) rest of the weekend is Shades of Death.* It's a non-series title by Aline Templeton, who is probably better known for her Marjory Fleming series. I've read and enjoyed a few books in that series.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FDGHZH86
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FDGHZH86

Spoiler:

In the shadowy caves of the Derbyshire Peaks, a discovery is about to shake a group of friends to their core.

They thought what they did that summer would stay buried.

But then the skeleton of a young girl is found — hidden deep in a network of caves. Detective Sergeant Tom Ward, disillusioned and stuck in a career rut, is forced into action.

As the investigation unfolds, old secrets begin to surface — secrets buried by those children who once played an eerie game in those caves.

And one of them never came out.

Twenty years later, the ghosts of that summer return. As Tom peels back the layers of lies and loyalties, he realises the killer is still out there — and willing to kill again.

[sufue]

Several years later, A Deadly Shade of Gold is $1.99 again in the US. The links are still good...

Originally Posted by sufue

A Deadly Shade of Gold is the fifth in the Travis McGee series by John D MacDonald. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US. Titles in this series don't go on sale very often in the US and are quite expensive when not on sale, so grab it if you want it.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Shade-...dp/B008WONRBK/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-deadly-shade-of-gold

[sufue]

Now the first and fourth book in this far-too-short series are on sale in the US. I really wish there were more books in the series, but per SYKM, Yaffe passed away in 2017, so there won't be...

A Nice Murder for Mom, #1, $0.50 at Kindle US, not on sale at Kobo US, but probably price-matchable
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0NXYA4
Kobo US, for price-check/match: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-n...rder-for-mom-1

Mom Among the Liars, #4, $2.99, discountable at Kobo US
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0O1CN0
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mom-among-the-liars-1

And the second book is on sale again for $2.99, but this time, only at Kindle US. But again, probably price-matchable at Kobo US. The links below are still good.

Sadly, the third book, Mom Doth Murder Sleep, is a whopping $23.99, and no decades old backlist is worth that much, even if it is a really fun series...

Originally Posted by sufue

James Yaffe's series featuring official protagonist, Dave, and more importantly, Dave's mom, Mom, is a really really fun series that has been out in e-book for a while, but insanely expensive. Now the second book in the series, Mom Meets Her Maker, has dropped to $3.99 in the US. Still not a great price for a book that came out in 1990, but it's a fun fun series.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY2K07M
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mom-meets-her-maker

[salty-horse]

Harlem Shuffle (The Harlem Trilogy #1) by Colson Whitehead is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
I'm late to post this, so it might end in a few hours.

Crook Manifesto (The Harlem Trilogy #2) by Colson Whitehead is £1 in the UK (Amazon only, but price-matchable on Kobo)

The final book in the trilogy is out in July.