FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

Fatal Legacy is the most recent (2023) in Lindsey Davis' Flavia Albia series, which is a spin-off from her earlier Marcus Didius Falco series. It's £0.99 right now in the UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BCYPFT1W
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/fatal-legacy-5

Spoiler:

An unpaid bar bill leads Flavia Albia to her most bitter and complex case yet.

Decades earlier Appius Tranquillus Surus wrote his will: it freed his slaves and bequeathed his businesses to them. He left an orchard to the Prisci, a family he was friendly with, on the condition that his freedmen could still take its harvest.

The convoluted arrangement has led to a feud between the two families, each of which has its own internal strife. Endless claims and counterclaims lead to violence and even death. Lawyers have given up in exasperation as the case limps on. The original will has disappeared, along with a falsified codicil - and might there be another one?

But is there a solution? Two youngsters from each side of the divide, Gaius Venuleius and Cosca Sabatina, have fallen in love, which could unite the feuding families. There is only one problem: were Sabatina's grandmother and father really liberated in the Surus will? If not, the stigma of slavery will stop the marriage and the dispute will rage on forever.

Reconciliation seems impossible, but Albia will try. Her investigation must cut through decades of secrets, arguments, lies and violence to reach a startling truth.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by sufue

Fatal Legacy is the most recent (2023) in Lindsey Davis' Flavia Albia series, which is a spin-off from her earlier Marcus Didius Falco series. It's £0.99 right now in the UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BCYPFT1W
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/fatal-legacy-5

Thanks! Now bought. The twelfth in the series will be out in October, and is only available for pre-order in hardback (so far?).

Oddly, the 10th in the series has never been at a lower price than £4.99.

[sufue]

I had an ARC of the tenth one, Desperate Undertaking, and it was the first of Davis' books that I had trouble finishing. There were enough familiar moments with Flavia Albia's investigative skills and quick sardonic wit that I did manage to get to the end, but I hope Davis returns to form with this one. And now I guess I'll find out . With that said, from the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, although some folks agreed with me, a lot of people didn't. So as always, YMMV.

And I guess that I never noticed that Desperate Undertaking hasn't been on sale, because although I usually buy the books of the ARCs that I like, I didn't like this one enough to care...

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Thanks! Now bought. The twelfth in the series will be out in October, and is only available for pre-order in hardback (so far?).

Oddly, the 10th in the series has never been at a lower price than £4.99.

[sufue]

I have quite liked the several books I've read in Eliot Pattison's Inspector Shan Tao Yun series - and the first book in that series won an Edgar for Best First Novel in 2000. But somehow I have never gotten around to reading any of the books in his Duncan McCallum historical series. Although I wonder if there might be a bit of whiplash going from a series set in a Chinese labor camp to a series set in colonial America, I would expect the McCallum books to also be good. And, right now, the first book in the series, Bone Rattler, is on sale for $1.99/£0.79 in the US/UK.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003OUX5DM
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bone-rattler-5
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003OUX5DM

Spoiler:

The Edgar Award winner’s acclaimed historical mystery series is “The Last of the Mohicans meets Braveheart, with a curious dash of CSI” (Entertainment Weekly).

Aboard a convict ship, Scottish Highlander Duncan McCallum is bound for colonial New York—and the bloody maw of the French and Indian War.

Aboard a British convict ship bound for the New World, Duncan McCallum witnesses a series of murders and apparent suicides among his fellow Scottish prisoners. A strange trail of clues leads Duncan into the New World and eventually thrusts him into the French and Indian War. Duncan is indentured to the British Lord Ramsey, whose estate in the uncharted New York woodlands is a Heart of Darkness where multiple warring factions are engaged in physical, psychological, and spiritual battle.

Exploring a frontier world shrouded in danger and defying death in a wilderness populated by European settlers, Indian shamans, and mysterious scalping parties, Duncan, the exiled chief of his near–extinct Scottish clan, finds that sometimes justice cannot be reached unless the cultures and spirits of those involved are appeased.

In a novel rich in historical detail, acclaimed author Eliot Pattison reconsiders the founding of America and explores how disenfranchised people of any age and place struggle to find justice, how conflicting cultures can be reconciled through compassion and tolerance, and ultimately how the natural world has its own morality.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Thanks! Now bought. The twelfth in the series will be out in October, and is only available for pre-order in hardback (so far?).

Death on the Tiber, release date 24th July 2024:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Tiber...al-text&sr=1-2

[sufue]

If you missed the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Volume 5 omnibus when it was on sale a few months ago, now one of the individual books from that omnibus is on sale for $0.99/£0.99 in the US/UK right now, and discountable at Kobo...

Murder in St. Giles, Captain Lacey #13
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078XK71RV
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/murder-in-st-giles
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078XK71RV

Spoiler:

London, 1819: When Brewster, my bodyguard, comes to me about a murder of a pugilist—and what’s more, says his wife has summoned me—I must hasten to St. Giles to find a killer before Brewster is arrested for the crime.

This is made difficult because Donata's late husband’s odious cousin has materialized to try to wrest her son into his care. After all, seven-year-old Peter is a viscount, and his cousin wants to get closer to the title.

But how close? If Peter’s life is in danger, I must remain, but Brewster risks hanging for the death of his wife’s brother-in-law. He’s done too much for me to turn my back on him, but the devil if I’ll let the Breckenridge cousin get his clutches on Peter.

It will take all my perseverance, and a few wiles, to plough through these difficulties. In the meantime, I meet a Runner who teaches me about crime and punishment in this enlightened age, and Brewster’s old trainer, who made him the excellent pugilist—and thief—he is today.

Also the first one in the series, The Hanover Square Affair, has been free for several years, so if you want to give the series a try, here are links for that again.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O4C1AK
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...-square-affair
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004O4C1AK

This series started out conventionally published, and has been continued as a self-pubbed, but I've read most of the books in the series either way, and have liked all that I have read.

[GA Russell]

Detective Book Magazine
Spring, 1950, issue
$1.99

Includes the John D. MacDonald short story
Portrait of a Murderess

https://www.radioarchives.com/Detect...50_p/re415.htm

[ZodWallop]

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite is $2 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE •“A taut and darkly funny contemporary noir that moves at lightning speed, it’s the wittiest and most fun murder party you’ve ever been invited to.” —MARIE CLAIRE

Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife.

Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood (bleach, bleach, and more bleach), the best way to move a body (wrap it in sheets like a mummy), and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.

[sufue]

Close to Her is Joffe's Free Friday thriller/mystery title this week, usually free through the weekend, but not always. It's the first in the Detective Sarah Burke series by Elizabeth Gunn.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NRVCLND
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NRVCLND

And there is also a "historical military thriller" for Free Friday this week: The Monastery, by Fred Majdalany. It is described as fictional, but most reviews sound to me like it's non-fiction. Maybe someone has read it and can clarify? But posting it here, because the blurb starts off, "A fictional account of one of the most famous, bitterly fought and controversial battles of World War II."

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFT5M71V
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CFT5M71V

And there's also a free romance, We Ride the Gale, posted in the Romance thread...

[sufue]

The Bat is £0.99 at Kindle UK right now: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008AX1HD8

Originally Posted by ATDrake

{edited other books}

The Bat by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø, 1st in his popular Harry Hole series starring a dysfunctional detective mostly in Oslo. This one is an early adventure taking him overseas to Australia, which netted both the prestigious Glass Key Award and Riverton Prize but IMHO is the weakest of the series. YMMV, and it's been an MR Book Club selection before.

{edited other books}

[sufue]

Shot with Crimson is the eleventh and most recent in Nicola Upson's series featuring Josephine Tey as the protagonist. I kind of lost track of this series a while back when I didn't much like one of the middle books, and never seemed to pick it back up. But this one gets pretty good reviews. It's £1.49 right now at Kindle UK, but sadly, not on sale at Kobo UK, nor in the US, where it's an absurd $19.99. Yeah, yeah, it's a current release, but $19.99 is still kind of crazy for a single fiction book. JMTCW. Anyway, I'll wait for it to go on sale someday at Kobo, since it's a 2023 release, but YMMV, so here's the info.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CG7KD3V1

Spoiler:

September, 1939, and the worries of war follow Josephine Tey to Hollywood, where a different sort of battle is raging on the set of Hitchcock's Rebecca.

Then a shocking act of violence reawakens the shadows of the past, with consequences on both sides of the Atlantic, and Josephine and DCI Archie Penrose find themselves on a trail leading back to the house that inspired a young Daphne du Maurier - a trail that echoes Rebecca's timeless themes of obsession, jealousy and murder.

[sufue]

Maurizio de Giovanni's Commissario Ricciardi books mostly go on sale for $2.99, but now here is one for sale for $0.99 in the US, and discountable at Kobo US. I've been wanting to try this series, so hopefully it isn't too bad to start with the third book ...

Everyone in Their Place: The Summer of Commissario Ricciardi
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079MH5V5Y
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/eve...-their-place-7

Spoiler:

Third in “a superb historical series set in Fascist Italy . . . and featuring one of the most melancholy detectives in European noir crime fiction (The New York Times Book Review).

Commissario Ricciardi has visions. He sees and hears the final seconds in the lives of victims of violent deaths. It is both a gift and a curse. It has helped him become one of the most acute and successful homicide detectives in the Naples police force. But the horror and suffering he has seen has hollowed him out emotionally. He drinks too much and sleeps too little. His love life is a shamble. Other than his loyal partner, Brigadier Maione, he has no friends.

Naples, 1931. Together with Brigadier Maione, Ricciardi is investigating the death of the beautiful and mysterious Duchess of Camparino, whose connections to privileged Neapolitan social circles and the local fascist elite make the case a powder keg waiting to explode. As Benito Mussolini’s state visit to Naples looms and authorities frantically seek to clean up the city’s image, Ricciardi will stop at nothing to find the duchess’s killer.

[sufue]

Racing the Light is now $1.99 in the US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RP51VDG
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/racing-the-light

Originally Posted by sufue

Racing the Light is the nineteenth and most recent (2022) in the Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series by Robert Crais. It has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK as part of today's Daily Deal.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KB2Y1LH
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KB2Y1LH

[sufue]

Six (!!!!) years later, Man Overboard is $1.99 again in the US. The Kindle US link is still good, and here's an updated Kobo US link: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/man-overboard-46

And it's discountable at Kobo US...

Also note that because the Kobo link has been updated, this won't show as a prior purchase on the book's webpage, so check carefully before you buy.

Originally Posted by sufue

Man Overboard is the 12th in the Ali Reynolds series by J.A. Jance. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HMXUSR2/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/man-overboard-25

[sufue]

As I've mentioned before, Paul Kemprecos is probably better known for his collaboration with Clive Cussler on the thriller-ish NUMA files series, but I've always liked his Aristotle Plato Socarides ("Soc") series, which is a more traditional mystery series. Now the first in the series, Cool Blue Tomb, is on sale for $0.99/£0.99 at Kindle US/UK. It's a Countdown deal good for almost two more days.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007MJLPDI
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007MJLPDI

Spoiler:

"Absorbing....Soc is an appealing, witty protagonist..and the Cape Cod locale is rendered with panache in this face-paced enjoyable yarn."
Publisher's Weekly

Life’s a Beach—Until Murder Rolls in With the Tide

A 50-million-dollar salvage operation. An expert diver dead at the bottom of the sea. An elegant mermaid in a black Porsche—and an open invitation to dip into the troubled waters of her marriage. Cape Cod’s Aristotle “Soc” Socarides, part-time fisherman, part-time private eye, is swimming with the sharks. Only problem is, he’s the bait…and blood is beginning to boil to the surface.

Soc didn’t think he could get in much deeper, but he’d better think again. A family debt of honor comes due—a debt only he can settle—plunging him into the middle of a lethal search for buried treasure. Now Soc’s about to discover how deadly the Cape’s currents can be. Snarled in a net of smuggling, treachery, and revenge, he’s finding out that no matter how far down you go, nothing’s harder to salvage than the truth.