Free/Bargain Mystery/Suspense/Thriller June 2014

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Agatha Christie is generally regarded as the originator of the "cozy mystery", in which the solution of the crime is treated as an academic exercise.

Perhaps, but I think Van Dine is previous to Agatha Christie and it's already a cozy (Philo Vance is not a detective but a dilettante, in the same way than Lord Peter Wimsey).

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I didn't like DeLeon until Louisiana Longshot. I thought the Mudbug was just so-so and didn't even finish it. But I really liked Louisiana Longshot and the rest of the series so far (haven't read the last one yet). And since the first is free, you can try without loss of funds if you haven't tried that series yet.

Thank you, I'll try it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Perhaps, but I think Van Dine is previous to Agatha Christie and it's already a cozy (Philo Vance is not a detective but a dilettante, in the same way than Lord Peter Wimsey).

Christie was actually a little earlier. The first "Philo Vance" mystery (The Benson Murder Case) was published in 1924; the first Agatha Christie (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) in 1920.

[BearMountainBooks]

The Jane Calamity series also has the first one for free most of the time. I think the title is Jane Calamity, but if you can't find the freebie, let me know and I'll go get the link from my blog. It's a decent read. I didn't LOVE the book, but it was reasonably good.

[BearMountainBooks]

Well, so long as I'm giving away all the juicy bargains, here is another one. This isn't precisely cozy. The themes are all safe for work, but there are a couple of darker themes that I think push it from cozy. It's still an excellent read--Saving Gracie by Nancy DeMarco. There is a romantic element and it's quite realistic rather than gushing--worked into the plot quite cleverly.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Christie was actually a little earlier. The first "Philo Vance" mystery (The Benson Murder Case) was published in 1924; the first Agatha Christie (The Mysterious Affair at Styles) in 1920.

I wasn't sure about the first "non detective" Christie's book (Tommy and Tuppence, miss Marple, Parker Pine, Mr Quinn).

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - Regenerate by Wendy Cartmell

'When Padre Symmonds and his wife Kim find a dead baby on the steps of the Royal Garrison Church, they call Sergeant Major Crane in to investigate.
Despite pleas from the local community and the media for the parents to come forward and seek help, Crane can’t trace the baby’s mother.
He suspects Kerry, a recently widowed army wife, who is finding it hard to deal with her husband’s recent death…
But after searching her flat and checking her baby was safe and breathing, he is left with an uncanny feeling that he’s missed something.
Simultaneously, Crane is expected to deal with a high profile drugs case.
Someone inside the Army is importing heroin using army equipment as a cover-up.
But just as he gets a lead on the case, the unthinkable happens and another baby goes missing in Aldershot…
This may be his only chance to catch the drug lord Anic, but he can’t stop thinking about Kerry and her baby…
What has he missed?
And can he solve the mystery before it’s too late? '

UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Regenerate-S...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Regenerate-Sgt...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.co.ukm.au/Regenera...ndeavour+press

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Regenerate-Sgt-...ndeavour+press

[Mort1997]

Free on Amazon UK - Grave Song by Graham Lancaster


'Seoul 1995.
Sool Kyung-Wha visits her nephew, Sool Kay-Sheen, the Chairman of Smiling Garden Trading (SGT).
She knows a horrific secret, a secret which explains her sister’s death, involving Japanese soldiers and war atrocities.
When Sool learns of the secret, his life is changed forever and his ambitions now lie outside of the business world as he searches for revenge.
Two years later, John Blake the International Director of Globecom, the third largest public relations group in the world, lands the contract to handle personal PR for Sool.
But Sool has changed from the successful, Korean multi-millionaire he was two years ago.
The once sensible businessman has suddenly turned into a rogue player on the world stage.
He begins to go beyond commercial risk-taking and is recklessly gambling with his corporation's future.
Blake knows that Sool will be a hard client to handle, but he doesn't anticipate becoming embroiled in a vicious international conspiracy involving high finance, pornography … and mass murder. '


UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grave-Song-G...ndeavour+press

US
http://www.amazon.com/Grave-Song-Gra...ndeavour+press

Au
http://www.amazon.com.au/Grave-Song-...ndeavour+press

Can
http://www.amazon.ca/Grave-Song-Grah...ndeavour+press

[ChandaK562]

The first two books in Jessica Beck's Donut Shop series are 1.99 right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Glazed-Murder-...s=jessica+beck

http://www.amazon.com/Fatally-Froste...SRK2542D0AXA1E

[Kieran Seymour]

The Golden Keel / The Vivero Letter - collection of two Desmond Bagley books, free at Amazon UK.

THE GOLDEN KEEL
When the Allies invaded southern Italy in 1943, Mussolini's personal treasure was moved north to safety under heavily armed guard. It was never seen again. Now, an expedition plans to unearth the treasure and smuggle it out of Italy. But their reckless mission is being followed - by enemies who are as powerful and ruthless as they are deadly…

THE VIVERO LETTER
Jeremy Wheale's well-ordered life is blasted apart when his brother is murdered. The killer was after a family heirloom - an antique gold tray - which sets Wheale on a trail from Devon to the tropical rainforest of Yucatan. There he joins the hunt for a lost Mayan city. But in the dense cover of the jungle a band of vicious convict mercenaries are waiting to strike…

[koland]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Examples, please? Yours are not right, I've already read them

Well, I know I read at least one with a murder in Alaska, solved by the werewolf shifter, which had a romance and humor angle.

Can't recall the name off the top of my head...

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by Kieran Seymour

The Golden Keel / The Vivero Letter - collection of two Desmond Bagley books, free at Amazon UK.

THE GOLDEN KEEL
When the Allies invaded southern Italy in 1943, Mussolini's personal treasure was moved north to safety under heavily armed guard. It was never seen again. Now, an expedition plans to unearth the treasure and smuggle it out of Italy. But their reckless mission is being followed - by enemies who are as powerful and ruthless as they are deadly…

THE VIVERO LETTER
Jeremy Wheale's well-ordered life is blasted apart when his brother is murdered. The killer was after a family heirloom - an antique gold tray - which sets Wheale on a trail from Devon to the tropical rainforest of Yucatan. There he joins the hunt for a lost Mayan city. But in the dense cover of the jungle a band of vicious convict mercenaries are waiting to strike…

It's $1.99 in the US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002TU1QDY

You can also pick it up at Kobo (HarperCollins - not couponable): http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebo...-vivero-letter

I've never read Bagley, but I've intended to remedy this gap as a mystery/thriller aficianado. Bagley is important in the genre:

Along with fellow British writers such as Hammond Innes and Alistair MacLean, Bagley established the basic conventions of the genre: a tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary hero pitted against villains determined to sow destruction and chaos in order to advance their agenda. - Wikipedia

This is a good chance to read two highly rated books from a master of the genre for little financial investment. The Golden Keel was Bagley's first novel published in 1963. The Vivero Letter was published in 1968 and made into a film of the same name.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by koland

Well, I know I read at least one with a murder in Alaska, solved by the werewolf shifter, which had a romance and humor angle.

Can't recall the name off the top of my head...

Molly Harper's werewolf series?

[BelleZora]

Free today at Amazon: No Colder Place (Lydia Chin & Bill Smith #4) by S.J. Rozan, first published by St. Martin's Press in 1997.

From Kirkus Reviews: It's a lucky thing for p.i. Bill Smith that he's got construction experience; it's a perfect cover for him to get close to masonry foreman Joe Romeo--who's suspected of bookmaking, mob connections, and a lot worse--at the same time that he's keeping an eye on the suspicious series of accidents at the new 40-story apartment building that's rising at Broadway and 99th. In no time at all Bill's succeeded in persuading his partner, Mike DiMaio, that he isn't much of a mason, and he's placed his first off-track bet with Romeo. But don't count on his collecting very soon, since Romeo promptly joins missing crane operator Lenny Pelligrini and mortar mixer Reg Phillips as the latest casualty of the Armstrong building. At the same time that Bill's turning up evidence linking the cycle of violence to Louie Falco (mobbed-up childhood friend of Chuck DeMattis, the colleague who hired Bill to go undercover), Bill's partner Lydia Chin, also undercover at the Armstrong site, overhears hints that implicate general contractors Dan Crowell Sr. and Dan Crowell Jr., and take-no-prisoners Denise Armstrong herself points the finger at employment-coalition agitator Chester Hamilton. Is there any builder or subcontractor or unaffiliated lowlife in New York who doesn't have a finger in the Armstrong pie? Despite the epidemic of corruption, Rozan's focus on the tragic Armstrong building makes this the sharpest, clearest, most purposefully focused of her four Smith/Chin mysteries (Mandarin Plaid, 1996, etc.).

US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007WNC0R4

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007WNC0R4

Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B007WNC0R4

Australia: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B007WNC0R4

[BelleZora]

Amazon US has several Paul Levine books on sale today for .99. There are also a couple of repeat freebies.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_pr...price-asc-rank