FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

Backstage isn't a mystery, but is a collection of stories by Donna Leon, about Donna Leon, who is, of course, the author of the long-running and awesome IMO Commissario Brunetti series, set in Venice. I haven't read this, but the blurb makes it sound as if it's kind of an essay version of a autobiography. And since writing mysteries is what has made Leon famous, I'm posting it here first. It's £0.99 for a few more hours in the UK right now...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DD5F4JLM
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/backstage-45

Spoiler:

Whether walking along the canals of Venice or teaching English to Iranian pilots, interviewing blood diamond dealers or reading Great Expectations, Donna Leon has found inspiration in the strangest of places.

In this engaging collection of stories on writing, reading, teaching and Venice, Leon offers new insight into the moments that shaped her into a celebrated, internationally bestselling author. Infused with her ever-present and delightful sense of humour and irony, she is as good a storyteller about herself as she is a chronicler of Guido Brunetti’s crime adventures. Readers will be as caught up in her world as she is in his.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But the problem will soon be no DRM removal. So they'll be stuck in the Amazon walled garden that will soon have a roof and new locks on the door.

What ever happened to being able to download DRM-free ePubs from Amazon? When all the new rules take effect, shouldn't that be a loophole for non-Kindle owners to be able to buy Amazon exclusives? Nobody seems to mention it in any of these discussions. Is nobody doing it?

[Aleron Ives]

You'd need to convince every publisher to follow Tor's example and sell their books without DRM, first.

[sufue]

A few folks, way way upthread, like almost ten years ago, liked the John Jordan series by Michael Lister. Some of those titles used to go free pretty often, but I haven't noticed any in a while. Now, however, a standalone title by Lister is free at Kindle US and UK. I'm not familiar with Pulpwood Press, but the freebie is listed on SYKM, as are many many of Lister's books, which is one of my main criteria of "not yukky self-pubbed". (OTOH, the blurb is rather florid, which is sometimes not a good sign, although I also understand that authors don't typically write the blurbs.) In any case, I haven't read it personally, so if you want to skip the rest of this post, please do...

Double Exposure
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EOA56QK
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EOA56QK

Spoiler:

A camera. A crime. A countdown to survive the night.

What if the evidence found you first… and it wanted you dead?

From award-winning author Michael Lister comes a gripping, atmospheric thriller where beauty and brutality collide in the blackwater wilds of North Florida.

He came home to rebuild his life.
He stumbled into a nightmare.

After his father’s death, Remington James returns to the small town he left behind—taking over the family pawn shop, caring for his dying mother, and trying to reclaim a life that never quite fit.

He picks up a camera again.
Goes back to the swamp.
Back to what he loves.

But the wild has teeth.


The camera traps don’t lie.
Deep in the river swamp, Remington sets his gear—hoping to capture deer, foxes, maybe something rare.

What he captures instead…
is murder.

Frame by frame.
Step by step.
A killer, caught in the act.

And now the killer knows.


Hunted. Outnumbered. Nowhere to run.
In a place where cell signals die and darkness swallows everything, Remington becomes prey.

Tracked through flooded timber and tangled cypress.
Stalked by a ruthless predator and his violent crew.
Cut off from help.

To survive, Remington must do the impossible:
make it through the night… and reach the river.

The odds?
Slim to none.


A thriller with muscle—and a soul
Told in vivid, cinematic flashes—like photographs burned into memory—DOUBLE EXPOSURE delivers relentless suspense wrapped in lyrical, literary prose.

This is not just a chase.
It’s a confrontation with fear, grief, and the thin line between hunter and hunted.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

What ever happened to being able to download DRM-free ePubs from Amazon? When all the new rules take effect, shouldn't that be a loophole for non-Kindle owners to be able to buy Amazon exclusives? Nobody seems to mention it in any of these discussions. Is nobody doing it?

Publishers that sell with DRM won't go for it. Plus, you don't know what books are downloadable except for those you know have no DRM. But you won't know if the earlier books are available for download or not. The problem is there is no indication if a book will be available for download until you buy it. You know Tor will be available. Maybe the Star Trek books as well. But who else, i can't say.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sufue

A few folks, way way upthread, like almost ten years ago, liked the John Jordan series by Michael Lister. Some of those titles used to go free pretty often, but I haven't noticed any in a while. Now, however, a standalone title by Lister is free at Kindle US and UK. I'm not familiar with Pulpwood Press, but the freebie is listed on SYKM, as are many many of Lister's books, which is one of my main criteria of "not yukky self-pubbed". (OTOH, the blurb is rather florid, which is sometimes not a good sign, although I also understand that authors don't typically write the blurbs.) In any case, I haven't read it personally, so if you want to skip the rest of this post, please do...

Double Exposure
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EOA56QK
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EOA56QK

This free book would be an uneasy read. It doesn't have quotes for speech. It uses an emdash to indicate speech. Why can't it properly use quotes?

[sufue]

Elmore Leonard's Unknown Man No. 89, which is the second of Leonard's two books featuring Jack Ryan (no, not THAT Jack Ryan), is on sale in the UK for £0.99 for a few more hours.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FC5RLVSP
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/unknown-man-no-89-1

Spoiler:

Tough guy Jack Ryan goes looking for a missing lowlife and finds himself in a whole lot of trouble…

Motor city process server and ex-thug Jack Ryan is very good at finding people – especially people who don’t want to be found. now he’s being offered large bucks to locate a lost lowlife named Robert Leary, aka Bobby Lear. But this hunt is leading Ryan back into very bad company – and into beds where he doesn’t belong. Then suddenly he’s on someone’s hitlist for some undisclosed reason, with all the big money numbers adding up to double-cross. And if Jack doesn’t watch his back, he’s going to find himself missing… permanently.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

This free book would be an uneasy read. It doesn't have quotes for speech. It uses an emdash to indicate speech. Why can't it properly use quotes?

A script might do that, with the character in the left margin. Stupid for a novel in English.

[sufue]

I read most or all of Roberta Isleib's Cassie Burdette series, a couple of which were finalists for various awards, back when they came out in the early aughts. And I remember liking them more than most, mostly because I had a friend at the time who had passed on trying to become a PGA tour player, in favor of a steady job. So it was interesting to see how decidedly non-glamourous life could be for those players hanging on at the bottom, whether PGA or LPGA. And helped me understand my friend a bit more.

I haven't read any of Isleib's three Rebecca Butterman/Advice Column books, nor any of her numerous Key West/foodie mysteries, written under the pen name of Lucy Burdette. Now, though, the second book in the Butterman series is free at both Kindle US and UK. I'm not sure why it's not the first that's free, which would make more sense to me for marketing purposes, but I'll still happily take the chance to add the free one to my TBR list. And as a side note, Isleib's bio on Amazon says she is herself a practicing psychologist, so she should know whereof she writes with this series.

Preaching to the Corpse, Advice Column Mysteries #2

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XTLMBH7
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XTLMBH7

Spoiler:

In book two of this suspenseful mystery series, it’s Christmas time in picture-postcard perfect Guilford, Connecticut, but someone’s taking the joy out of the season--with murder.

Psychologist and advice columnist Dr. Rebecca Butterman is drawn into a deadly mystery after receiving a midnight plea from the minister at her church. He's in custody after going to a fellow parishioner's home and finding her dead. The minister begs Rebecca to fill in for the murdered woman, the leader of a search committee charged with finding a new assistant pastor after the previous assistant left in a rush. Rebecca learns that the committee was divided--has someone tried to eliminate the competition? She puts her analytical skills to work to do her own search--for a killer--all while resisting the urge to break the seventh commandment with a very married detective, and praying she's not the next victim.

[sufue]

Several years on, The Dark Enquiry is now $1.99 in the US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088BZWVS9
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-dark-enquiry-4

Originally Posted by sufue

The Dark Enquiry is the fifth in Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia Grey series. I've read most of these and liked them. It has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK right now.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IO0009Y
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IO0009Y

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

A script might do that, with the character in the left margin. Stupid for a novel in English.

The author lives in Florida and so is the publisher. So why would we not have quotes for speech?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

This free book would be an uneasy read. It doesn't have quotes for speech. It uses an emdash to indicate speech. Why can't it properly use quotes?

You may wish to look at the writings of Cormac McCarthy, William H. Gass, James Joyce, and William Gaddis, to name a few.

The above often use unmediated dialogue or an emdash to signify speech. The novel has a rich history of innovation.

Or check out John Barth's short-story masterpiece - NIGHT-SEA JOURNEY - about a spermatazoa as it tells us (in quotes!) about traveling the 'long path' [toward redemption, I wonder?] and the single-minded 'purpose' that moves it forward.

The authors mentioned use unmediated dialogue or the emdash (and sometimes nothing at all) to signify speech. The novel has a rich history and is in a continual process of flux - especially during times of social awakening or political unrest. The novel seems to be in a continual process of (re)invention as authors attempt (I would argue) to seek new ways of telling their stories. And some even invent a new language: See James Joyce - Finnegans Wake.

ADDED: OK, now back to business: Give me a sharp hatchet and I'm a happy THRILLER/SUSPENSE camper!

[salty-horse]

Hot Wax by M.L. Rio is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

The new novel from the bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift—a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood and made her who she is.

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

[sufue]

Pardonable Lies is now £0.99 in the UK, for a few more hours...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AZZTP4M
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/pardonable-lies-6

Originally Posted by sufue

Pardonable Lies is the third in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear, and per SYKM, it won the 2006 Macavity Award for Best Historical Novel, and was nominated for a couple of other awards as well. It has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0026UNZS6
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0026UNZS6
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/pardonable-lies

[sufue]

Now $1.99 in the US. The link below is still good for Kindle, although I cleaned it up a bit, and here's for Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-long-way-home-44

Originally Posted by sufue

The Long Way Home is the 10th in the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. This is probably the most nominated/awarded series I've seen in SYKM - every title but one (and the most recent, which is too new for awards yet) has multiple nominations/awards. I like this series too <grin>. Home has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle US only, at least for now.

link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HY09X5W/