FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[salty-horse]

A Dark and Secret Place by Jen Williams is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Originally published as Dog Rose Dirt in the UK.

A chilling psychological suspense “reminiscent of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects” that begs the question: How well do we know our own family and ourselves? (Sarah Pinborough)

A daughter returns home to discover her late mother’s decades-long correspondence with a infamous serial killer, whose crimes are soon echoed in another ritualistic murder . . .

When prodigal daughter Heather Evans returns to her family home after her mother’s baffling suicide, she makes an alarming discovery—stacks and stacks of carefully preserved letters from notorious serial killer Michael Reave. The “Red Wolf,” as he was dubbed by the press, has been in prison for over twenty years, serving a life sentence for the gruesome and ritualistic murders of several women across the country, although he has always protested his innocence. The police have had no reason to listen, yet Heather isn’t the only one to have cause to re-examine the murders. The body of a young woman has just been found, dismembered and placed inside a tree, the corpse planted with flowers. Just as the Red Wolf once did.

What did Heather’s mother know? Why did she kill herself? And with the monstrous Red Wolf safely locked inside a maximum security prison, who is stalking young women now? Teaming up with DI Ben Parker, Heather hopes to get some answers for herself and for the newest victims of this depraved murderer. Yet to do that, she must speak to Michael Reave herself, and expose herself to truths she may not be ready to face. Something dark is walking in the woods, and it knows her all too well.

[sufue]

The Burning by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman is the fourth in their Clay Edison series. It's on sale in the US right now for $2.99. I had an ARC of this a while back, and liked it, although mostly I remember that the fire (referenced in the title) was almost like a main character...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TVG1J49
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-burning-51

Spoiler:

Things get personal for Deputy Coroner Clay Edison when a murder hits close to home in this riveting, emotional thriller from the bestselling father-son team who write “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King).

A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home.

For Clay Edison, it’s all in a day’s work. As a deputy coroner, caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble.

Then, while working the murder scene, Clay is horrified to discover a link to his brother, Luke. Horrified. But not surprised. Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow.

And now he’s gone AWOL.

The race is on for Clay to find him before anyone else can. Confronted with Luke’s legacy of violence, Clay is forced to reckon with his own suspicions, resentments, and loyalties. Is his brother a killer? Or could he be the victim in all of this, too?

This is Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman at their most affecting and page-turning—a harrowing collision of family, revenge, and murder.

Oh, and if you want to read my full review, it's on my blog - the URL is in my signature...

[sufue]

Stone Kiss is the fourteenth in Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series. It's on sale in the US for $2.99 right now...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFL9Y
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/stone-kiss

Spoiler:

When a Manhattan rabbi is brutally murdered, an LAPD officer and his wife begin a dangerous mission to save a young girl from kidnapping -- and investigate a deadly new case that puts them both at great peril.

Rina Lazarus has some shocking news for her husband, LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker. A horrible murder has occurred in the family of his half-brother, Rabbi Jonathan Levin. The rabbi's brother-in-law was found slain in a seedy hotel room in upper Manhattan, and the victim's 15-year-old niece, with whom he was spending the day, is missing. Decker, with Rina at his side, immediately heads out to New York to assist in the investigation. But what starts out as simple inquiries soon evolves into a twisted and perilous journey -- from the darkened slums of New Jersey and the deserted industrial streets of New York to the recesses of sexual perversity and the hidden meeting places of Hasidic outcasts.

Thrust into a deadly maze of deceit, lies, and danger, the couple can no longer trust anyone -- friend or family. And when salvation is finally within Decker's grasp, it can only be delivered by a depraved lone wolf, hell-bent on his own personal vengeance.

[sufue]

Today's Big Deal at Kindle UK today is all eight Slough House books by Mick Herron for £0.99 each. The books in this series have all been nominated/won various awards.

The books include Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, London Rules, Joe Country, Slough House, and Bad Actors.

link to the sale webpage at Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?node=4725112031

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by sufue

The Burning by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman is the fourth in their Clay Edison series.

Originally Posted by sufue

Stone Kiss is the fourteenth in Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series.

Is there anyone with the last name Kellerman that doesn't publish mystery novels?

[ngrant]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Is there anyone with the last name Kellerman that doesn't publish mystery novels?

Sally Kellerman, the OG "Hot Lips Houlihan" in the 1970 M*A*S*H movie? Wow, was that really 53 years ago? I'm really really o.l.d.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ngrant

Sally Kellerman, the OG "Hot Lips Houlihan" in the 1970 M*A*S*H movie? Wow, was that really 53 years ago? I'm really really o.l.d.

Read My Lips: Stories of a Hollywood Life by Sally Kellerman

Okay. It is not a mystery novel...

[ZodWallop]

The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield is $1.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US

From New York Times bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield comes this exceptional thriller and "exciting journey" into the dark heart of the Cold War and the space race (Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary).

1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny spaceship, a quarter million miles from home. A quarter million miles from help.

NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras "Kaz" Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it.

But even as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is quite who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide on the lunar surface, far beyond the reach of law or rescue.

Full of the fascinating technical detail that fans of The Martian loved, and reminiscent of the thrilling claustrophobia, twists, and tension of The Hunt for Red October, The Apollo Murders is a high-stakes thriller unlike any other. Chris Hadfield captures the fierce G-forces of launch, the frozen loneliness of space, and the fear of holding on to the outside of a spacecraft orbiting the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour as only someone who has experienced all of these things in real life can.

Strap in and count down for the ride of a lifetime.

[sufue]

However the other three Kellermans (Faye, Jonathan, Jesse) are related (mother, father, son)...guess some things sometimes run in families...

But perhaps, per Wikipedia, the youngest daughter may (sort of) break the mold - she's apparently written a book with her mom, but it's an alt-universe sort of thing and not a mystery/thriller...

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Read My Lips: Stories of a Hollywood Life by Sally Kellerman

Okay. It is not a mystery novel...

[sufue]

Bride Price is the 24th, and, for a few more weeks, the most recent, in Barbara Nadel's Inspector Ikmen series. It's $0.99/£0.99 right now in the US/UK...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NKR4HLY
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bri...n-mystery-24-1
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NFLW5XC

Spoiler:

Every relationship comes at a cost in this tense and gripping Turkish mystery from award-winning crime writer Barbara Nadel and featuring Ikmen - 'one of modern crime fiction's true heroes' The Times

When jeweller Fahrettin Muftugolu is found dead in his apartment in the Istanbul district of Vefa, it looks like suicide. Searching the jeweller's home, Inspector Mehmet Suleyman and his team come across a hoard of extraordinary artefacts including solid gold religious relics and a mummified human head. But are they real and, if so, who owns these priceless possessions?

As his colleagues begin their investigation, Suleyman is distracted by troubles of his own. His wedding to Gonca Serekoglu is days away, but when Gonca receives her bridal bedcover from a Roma haberdasher and discovers that it is covered in blood, she sees this as a curse on their marriage. Suleyman asks his old friend Cetin Ikmen to help him uncover the truth, but the task is not that simple...

Meanwhile, as the stories swirling around Muftugolu become increasingly sinister, the dead man's wife appears, laying claim to his valuables, and Suleyman is drawn into a dark and dangerous world of smuggling and savagery . . .

[sufue]

Four years later, S is for Silence is $1.99 again at Kindle and Kobo US. The links below are still good...

Originally Posted by sufue

S is for Silence is the S-th in the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000O76NCS
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/s-is-for-silence-2

[sufue]

Single & Single is a non-series book by John le Carré, and it's £0.99 today at Kindle UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CV38K7J

Spoiler:

'An adventure that takes us to the ends of the earth via the rich but often barren landscape of the human heart' The Times

Why was an English lawyer shot dead in Turkey by his firm's top client? How can a down-at-heel magician in Devon explain the vast fortune that has mysteriously appeared in his daughter's trust fund? With customs officer Nat Brock on the trail, the answers point to the House of Single - once a respectable finance company, now entangled with a Russian crime syndicate.

West is pitted against East, and the British establishment against a labyrinthine criminal superpower, in le Carré's searing novel of lives built upon lies.

'A masterly work, faultless fiction of the highest order' Glasgow Herald

[sufue]

A Few Right Thinking Men is the first in Sulari Gentill's Rowland Sinclair historical (WWII) series. It's on sale in the US for $1.99 (and discountable at Kobo US), and it's also £1.99 at Kindle UK.

I've never gotten into this series because almost all of the rest of the titles, with the occasional exception of the second one, are normally priced in the $9.99 - $12.99 (!!!) range. And I almost never pay that much for a book, unless it's required for a class or meeting some other very unusual need. But they all have pretty good ratings, and I have a friend who likes the series, and Poisoned Pen Press books are usually pretty good IMO, so YMMV.

I also just noted, though, while checking things out for this post, that in the UK, the rest of the series mostly ranges from £2.99 to £3.99. Which is a lot more reasonable. And not surprisingly, there's a different publisher...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VNH1N8J
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-f...thinking-men-8
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07TVF4ZF3

Spoiler:

A fascinating historical mystery by Sulari Gentill, author of #1 LibraryReads pick The Woman in the Library

Shortlisted for Best First Book for the Commonwealth Writers' Price for 2011

"Her witty hero will delight traditional mystery buffs." —Library Journal STARRED review

Can a house divided against itself hope to stand?

Sydney, 1931. Rowland Sinclair doesn't fit with his family. His conservative older brother, Wilfred, thinks he's reckless, a black sheep; his aging mother thinks he's her son who was killed in the war. Only his namesake Uncle Rowly, a kindred spirit, understands him—and now he's been brutally murdered in his own home.

The police are literally clueless, and so Rowly takes it upon himself to crack the mystery of the murder. In order to root out the guilty party, he uses his wealth and family influence to infiltrate the upper echelons of both the old and the new guard, playing both against the middle in a desperate and risky attempt to find justice for his uncle. With his bohemian housemates—a poet, a painter, and a free-spirited sculptress—watching his back, Rowly unwittingly exposes a conspiracy that just might be his undoing.

The first novel in the Rowland Sinclair WII Mysteries introduces readers to an amateur sleuth with wit, heart, and a knack for solving inscrutable crimes. A historical mystery by an award-winning author, this murder mystery will appeal to fans of Rhys Bowen, Kerry Greenwood, and Jacqueline Winspear.

[sufue]

Oh, and in the UK, there's also a free prequel novella/short book ^^^. I couldn't find it in the US - maybe that publisher thing...

The Prodigal Son, Rowland Sinclair #0: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073X92KJH

Spoiler:

After publishing seven books in the award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, Sulari Gentill wanted to let her readers know how much she appreciates their support. And so, believing that a story is the most valuable thing a writer has to give, Sulari wrote The Prodigal Son: a gift to those readers who have allowed, or might someday allow, Rowland Sinclair and his disreputable entourage into their imaginations.

[sufue]

And another almost two years later, The Turquoise Lament is again $1.99 in the US. The links way down below are still good.

And it's also £1.99 at Kindle UK, where most of the latter part of MacDonald's Travis McGee series is semi-long-term much more reasonably priced in the £0.99 - £1.99 range...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DE15NUO

Originally Posted by sufue

Two-and-a-half years later, $1.99 again. Links are still good.

Originally Posted by sufue

The Turquoise Lament is the 15th in the awesome (IMO) Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US. Titles in this series are insanely expensive normally in the US (mostly $8.99 to $12.99) so it's a treat when one drops in price. So grab this one while you can if you want/need it.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008WONXEQ
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-turquoise-lament