FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

A good chunk of the Robert Amiss/Jack Troutback series by Ruth Dudley Edwards has gone on sale at Kindle US for either $1.99 or $2.99, and matched at Kobo US. And the first book is on sale in the UK for £0.99. In the past, sales on these have been kind of scattered, so it's rare to see a bunch on sale at once. As I've mentioned a time or two, I don't agree with Edwards' politics, but except for the last few titles, she mostly doesn't push it too hard on the reader, and the mysteries are IMO, great.

Corridors of Death, #1
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VRLDWB9
Kobo UK, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/corridors-of-death-15

The Saint Valentine's Day Murders, #2, $2.99
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VQL7PRH
Kobo US, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...-day-murders-3

Clubbed To Death, #4, $2.99
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VNH21MP
Kobo US, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/clubbed-to-death-5

Ten Lords A-Leaping, #6, $1.99
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VPKS75B
Kobo US, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ten-lords-a-leaping-8

Publish and be Murdered, #8, $1.99
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VMH5HN8
Kobo US, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/pub...-be-murdered-3

Carnage on the Committee, #10
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0863F6ZCG
Kobo US, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/car...he-committee-4

Killing the Emperors, #12
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VNH2K7G
Kobo US, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/killing-the-emperors-9

As I was typing these in, I noticed that all the even-numbered books are the ones on sale in the US. Not sure there's any meaning in that , but I noticed. Maybe all the odd ones will go on sale next? Or maybe I missed them on sale?

[sufue]

Not quite as good a price as it was in the US a year-and-a-half ago, but Pay Dirt is now on sale in the UK for £2.99. Still the most recent in series...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CKT1DW9J
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/pay-dirt-14

Originally Posted by sufue

Pay Dirt is the twenty-secnd and most recent (2024) in Sara Paretsky's VI Warshawski series. It's $1.99 right now in the US.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CC5X2MDR
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/pay-dirt-13

[sufue]

Joffe's free mystery/thriller this Friday/weekend, which for once I'm posting, and even posting before noon on Sunday , is Dead Wrong, which is the first in the Calladine & Bayliss series by Helen H Durrant.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DXVKNCTV
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DXVKNCTV

Spoiler:

Discover one of Britain’s bestselling crime writers, with over three million books read!

First a shooting, then a grisly discovery on the common . . .

A bag of severed fingers is found in the playground by a rough housing estate.

Police partners, Detective Inspector Tom Calladine and Detective Sergeant Ruth Bayliss race against time to track down a killer before the whole area erupts in violence.

Their boss thinks it’s all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine’s instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate.

Can this duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and the press publicize the gruesome crimes?

Calladine and Bayliss are led on a trail which gets dangerously close to home. In a thrilling finale they race to rescue someone very close to Calladine’s heart.

[sufue]

The first six books in Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series are $1.99 in the US and £2.99 in the UK right now. And there are a few scattered later titles at £2.99 in the UK as well.

Kindle series pages:
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XXCXPZ3...kindle_edition
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XXCXP...kindle_edition

Kobo price-sorted links:
US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/author/pa...c&pageNumber=1
UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/series/ka...c&pageNumber=1

[GA Russell]

Some of Otto Penzler's Big Books are $4.99 today.

Christmas Mysteries
https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Mys...dp/B00CK8CJLS/

Female Detectives
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C6TGSMK

Ghost Stories
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009UAO1T2

[sufue]

Now £0.99 at Kindle UK and £1.99, but discountable, at Kobo UK. Links are still good.

Oh, and $1.99 in the US...
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5SS2CLD
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-fatal-illusion

Originally Posted by sufue

A Fatal Illusion is the eleventh and next-to-most-recent (2023) in Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby series. It's on sale right now in the UK, where it's £1.99 at Kindle UK and £2.99 (but discountable) at Kobo UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B5SS2CLD
Kobo UK (discountable): https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-fatal-illusion

[GA Russell]

Pronghorns of the Third Reich

by CJ Box

99 cents

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VR4STW

[Apache]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Pronghorns of the Third Reich

by CJ Box

99 cents

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VR4STW

Nazi Antelopes was the first thing to pop up when I read this.
Apache

[sufue]

SJ Bennett has a short cozy series featuring Queen Elizabeth II as the detective. The fifth and most recent (2025) book in the series, The Queen Who Came in from the Cold, is on sale at Kindle UK right now for £0.99. Sadly not at Kobo UK, but probably price-matchable...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CQPS3H32
Kobo UK (for price check/match): https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the...-from-the-cold

Spoiler:

It's 1961 and the Queen is planning her state visit to Italy aboard Britannia. But before she goes, an unreliable witness claims to have seen a brutal murder from the royal train. Did it really happen, and could the victim be a missing friend of Princess Margaret's new husband, Tony Armstrong Jones?

The Queen and her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, get to work on their second joint investigation, little imagining that this time it will take them all the way to Venice in a tale of spies, lies and Cold War skulduggery.

[sufue]

Now free from a new publisher, Joffe.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWRD6FLM
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CWRD6FLM

And the next two books in the series are available at reduced prices as well.

Note there has also been an omnibus of the first eight books in this series on sale not too long ago. I would say "check carefully before you buy", except this one is free. So...

Originally Posted by sufue

Maxwell's House is the first in MJ Trow's Peter Maxwell (also known as Mad Max) series. It is free right now at Kindle US and UK. For moderators who may not be familiar with this series, it was originally conventionally published by St. Martins. This is one of the series that I remember discovering on business trips to the UK, from which I used to come back with half-a-suitcase full of DTB books that were hard/impossible to find in the US, as well as having a couple in the cabin with me for the flight home .

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Maxwells-Hous...dp/B08NJZQ6Z3/
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maxwells-Ho...dp/B08NJZQ6Z3/

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sufue

Now free from a new publisher, Joffe.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWRD6FLM
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CWRD6FLM

And the next two books in the series are available at reduced prices as well.

Note there has also been an omnibus of the first eight books in this series on sale not too long ago. I would say "check carefully before you buy", except this one is free. So...

The next book in the series is $1.99 in the US and £0.99 in the UK.

Maxwell's Flame
US - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CX9DHCJ7
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CX9DHCJ7

[sufue]

This week, The Economist has a nice (and fairly short) article about Agatha Christie and her long-lived popularity. I’m obviously fond of Christie’s books, most of which I feel have weathered the test of time pretty well. (There are a few exceptions, and many of them do read like historical mysteries now…) And her books go on sale pretty often too, although there are so many that waiting for any one particular title to go on sale can require a bit of patience. And, of course, some of her earliest books are starting to drift into the public domain in the US, and presumably other countries as well.

Here’s a link: https://www.economist.com/culture/20...isties-success

And I have no idea if you need a subscription to read it ???

[sufue]

Joffe's "official" free mystery this Friday isn't the Trow title up above. It's Murder in Norfolk, which is the first book in the Anna McArthur series by Sadie Norman. And which, curse Joffe's propensity for changing titles, was originally published as Catfish.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F8VN95YK
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0F8VN95YK

Spoiler:

Meet Detective Anna McArthur. Back at work after being stabbed in the line of duty. And solving serious crimes in West Norfolk.

She went for a walk to clear her head. She found a dead woman carved with a message.

Detective Constable Anna McArthur is off duty, off the case — and barely holding it together. Ten months after a near-fatal knife attack, she’s still haunted by the job that almost ended her career. But when she stumbles across a body beneath the medieval chapel in King’s Lynn’s historic park, instincts override fear.

The victim is young, female, anonymous. The word catfish is cut into her skin. There’s no ID. No witnesses. No one has reported her missing.

Drawn back into Norfolk’s Serious Crimes team before she’s officially fit for duty, Anna must navigate the hostile suspicion of her colleagues and the looming shadow of her past. But as another body surfaces with the same mutilation, Anna realises this isn’t random — and the killer is only getting started.

Please note this book was first published as Catfish.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by sufue

And, of course, some of her earliest books are starting to drift into the public domain in the US, and presumably other countries as well.

Agatha Christie died just over 50 years ago on 12th January 1976. So in life+50 countries, all her books will be out of copyright on January 1st 2027. Those of us in life+70 will need to wait until 2047.🙁

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sufue

This week, The Economist has a nice (and fairly short) article about Agatha Christie and her long-lived popularity. I’m obviously fond of Christie’s books, most of which I feel have weathered the test of time pretty well. (There are a few exceptions, and many of them do read like historical mysteries now…) And her books go on sale pretty often too, although there are so many that waiting for any one particular title to go on sale can require a bit of patience. And, of course, some of her earliest books are starting to drift into the public domain in the US, and presumably other countries as well.

Here’s a link: https://www.economist.com/culture/20...isties-success

And I have no idea if you need a subscription to read it ???

You need a free trial or a free account to unlock the article.