FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[ZodWallop]

The first two Simon Ark collections by Edward D. Hoch are on sale. These are stories that originally appeared in the mystery pulps. I first heard of them via the Paperback Warrior podcast. I think the blog does a better job of explaining the stories than I would. TLDR - These are mysteries that may or may not have a supernatural angle to them. That is always left up to the reader.

Simon Ark may or may not be a 2,000 year old occult detective who is endlessly searching for Satan. He teams with an unnamed narrator who normally presents each Simon Ark story in first-person perspective. These stories have Ark and the narrator somewhere on Earth investigating a weird menace that typically has more in common with crime-fiction than the supernatural. But, Hoch writes the stories subjectively with the reader still thinking something creepy really happened long after the last page is read. That is sort of the Ark gimmick with these tales.

The first collection is City of Brass: And Other Simon Ark Stories. $2 at Amazon, full price at Kobo

The second collection is The Quests of Simon Ark: And Other Stories. $2 at Amazon and Kobo.

[GA Russell]

Speaking of Hugh Pentecost, here is a novelet called Cancelled in Red.

Triple Detective Magazine
Fall, 1949

Three novelets plus five short stories.

$1.99

https://www.radioarchives.com/Triple...l_p/re1349.htm

[salty-horse]

Never Flinch (Holly Gibney #4) by Stephen King is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

From Stephen King, “a writer of towering brilliance” (The Spectator), a “cinematic, brilliant” (The New York Times) psychological thriller exploring vigilante justice and a diabolical serial killer—featuring the beloved Holly Gibney and a dynamic new cast of characters.

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? Izzy turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.

Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her, disrupting her events, and growing bolder. Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard—a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.

Featuring a riveting cast of characters, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, King’s twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion—a feat of storytelling only this master of suspense and horror could pull off.

[sufue]

A Murder in Springtime is the most recent (2026) in Martin Walker's generally excellent IMO Bruno series. It's £0.99 in the UK for only a few more hours, if anyone is still up late there .

(I'm sorry to be late with it - I'm seriously, insanely, swamped at work, which is why I haven't been around much - hopefully the swampedness will end at the end of this month, or at worst, the end of October...)

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FK2SB5N2
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-murder-in-springtime

Spoiler:

Bruno Courrѐges, chief of police of the Dordogne town of St Denis, is no stranger to murder. But when he receives a phone call from his friend, Pamela, reporting a fatal attack on her newly arrived lodger, Josette Quirit, he is forced to recuse himself from the investigation due to his close ties to the case.

Luckily, he has a project to distract him. For hundreds of years, the market of St. Denis has been the beating heart of the small town. Now, suddenly, customers and stallholders alike have fallen away dramatically. Frustrated with his work - where a new, young detective has been brought in to replace him - Bruno throws himself into breathing new life into his beloved market.

But it's not long before Bruno finds himself caught up in the investigation again when it transpires that Josette is not quite the kindly nurse she first appeared to be...

[sufue]

Almost three years on, A World of Curiosities is £0.99 again in the UK. The links below are still good....

Originally Posted by sufue

A World of Curiosities is the most recent (2022) in Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, which just keeps winning/being nominated for awards. (Per SYKM, this one won the 2022 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel, and also was a finalist for a couple of others.) It's £0.99 in the UK right now.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Z616T5L
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-w...-curiosities-3

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sufue

A Murder in Springtime is the most recent (2026) in Martin Walker's generally excellent IMO Bruno series. It's £0.99 in the UK for only a few more hours, if anyone is still up late there .

(I'm sorry to be late with it - I'm seriously, insanely, swamped at work, which is why I haven't been around much - hopefully the swampedness will end at the end of this month, or at worst, the end of October...)

Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-murder-in-springtime

It's still £0.99 at Kobo UK.

[salty-horse]

The Devotion Of Suspect X (Detective Galileo Series) by Keigo Higashino is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Yasuko lives a quiet life, working in a Tokyo bento shop, a good mother to her only child. But when her ex-husband appears at her door without warning one day, her comfortable world is shattered.

When Detective Kusanagi of the Tokyo Police tries to piece together the events of that day, he finds himself confronted by the most puzzling, mysterious circumstances he has ever investigated. Nothing quite makes sense, and it will take a genius to understand the genius behind this particular crime...

One of the biggest-selling Japanese thrillers ever, and the inspiration for a cult film, The Devotion of Suspect X is now being discovered across the world. Its blend of a page-turning story, evocative Tokyo setting and utterly surprising ending make it a must-read for anyone interested in international fiction.

[sufue]

Clete is the next to most recent (2024) in the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke. It's £0.99 in the UK right now, although probably not for too much longer.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CTJWPSGW
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/clete-1

Spoiler:

In the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcel - veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans cop - takes centre stage for the first time.
****

Clete Purcel - private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spots - is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past.

When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal - his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow hires Clete as a detective to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara's ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could've imagined.

Gripping, violent, yet interlaced with Clete's humor and consistent drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to a truly iconic series.

[salty-horse]

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong.

From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis.

Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe.

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?

[DrNefario]

Strange Buildings by Uketsu is £0.99 on Amazon UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FRNFY3H2

I'm assuming it's a monthly deal?

These are mysteries that rely heavily on illustrations, so maybe not well suited to ebooks, but I read the previous books on my iPad with no real problems. And apparently there's an audiobook. I don't know that's going to work.

I enjoyed Strange Pictures and Strange Houses, although I felt the latter took some leaps of logic that weren't really warranted, and I guess Buildings is in the same style, so I'll have to see how I get on with it.

[sufue]

I’m not much of a movie aficionado – I barely watch at home, much less actually go to a movie theater. But a bunch of the films on the Los Angeles Times’ just-published list, The 33 Best LA Crime Movies, Ranked, are adaptations of books I’ve read and liked. And several more are based on books I now intend to read...

I also enjoyed just reading the reviews that comprise most of the article, at least partly because I’m a native Angeleno and have trouble imagining wanting to live anywhere else. But, as the article points out, countless classic pulp mysteries are set in LA, and LA was home base for many of the earliest noir writers, so there’s plenty to enjoy in the list, even if you’re not an Angeleno at heart.

I’m not sure if the article is behind a pay wall since I have a subscription. But if it is, hopefully you can find access through your local library.

Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...-crime-movies?

[sufue]

Why Kings Confess is the ninth in CS Harris' excellent IMO Sebastian St Cyr series. It's on sale in both the US and UK right now.

Kindle US, $1.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DMCV160
Kobo US, $1.99: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/why-kings-confess
Kindle UK, £0.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DMCV160
Kobo UK. £1.70, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/why-kings-confess

Spoiler:

The gruesome murder of a young French physician draws aristocratic investigator Sebastian St. Cyr and his pregnant wife, Hero, into a dangerous, decades-old mystery as a wrenching piece of Sebastian’s past puts him to the ultimate test.

Regency England, January 1813: When a badly injured Frenchwoman is found beside the mutilated body of Dr. Damion Pelletan in one of London’s worst slums, Sebastian finds himself caught in a high-stakes tangle of murder and revenge. Although the woman, Alexi Sauvage, has no memory of the attack, Sebastian knows her all too well from an incident in his past—an act of wartime brutality and betrayal that nearly destroyed him.

As the search for the killer leads Sebastian into a treacherous web of duplicity, he discovers that Pelletan was part of a secret delegation sent by Napoleon to investigate the possibility of peace with Britain. Despite his powerful father-in-law’s warnings, Sebastian plunges deep into the mystery of the “Lost Dauphin,” the boy prince who disappeared in the darkest days of the French Revolution, and soon finds himself at lethal odds with the Dauphin’s sister—the imperious, ruthless daughter of Marie Antoinette—who is determined to retake the French crown at any cost.

With the murderer striking ever closer, Sebastian must battle new fears about Hero’s health and that of their soon-to-be born child. When he realizes the key to their survival may lie in the hands of an old enemy, he must finally face the truth about his own guilt in a past he has found too terrible to consider....

[sufue]

The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery is the seventh in Ovidia Yu's Su Lin series. Having fallen in love with Yu's too-short Aunty Lee series, I've also read and really enjoyed several of the books in this series, which is still cozy, but less cozy than Auntie Lee. And the only reason I haven't read more is that I have had a really stressful time in my "real" job for the last couple of years, and am barely keeping up with life, much less reading as much as I'd like . Rambutan Tree is $0.99 right now in the US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJZLJQYX
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...tree-mystery-1

The blurb for the book is basically useless, so here's the "praise" section instead:

Spoiler:

Praise for Ovidia Yu:

'Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while' Catriona McPherson

'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels' Rhys Bowen

'A wonderful detective novel . . . a book that introduces one of the most likeable heroines in modern literature and should be on everyone's Must Read list' Scotsman

'Unassuming, brilliantly observant' SCMP

'Ovidia Yu's writing helped me peel back the layers to understand Singapore. The story and Chen Su Lin's initiative and tenacity, set against a backdrop of wartime Singapore, intrigued both the historian and the mystery lover in me' Kara Owens CMG CVO, British High Commissioner to Singapore

[sufue]

Mike Lupica was a friend of Robert B Parker's and has written estate-sanctioned continuation books in Parker's Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone series. And he now has picked up writing some Spenser books as well, after a dozen-ish in that series were written by Ace Atkins. Hot Property is the second Lupica/Spenser book, and it's on sale in the US for $1.99 right now. I've read a few of his Randall and Stone books and thought they were pretty good, so will give this one a try at this price.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CW8M2KP1
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/rob...s-hot-property

Spoiler:

Spenser investigates a case that hits dangerously close to home in this latest installment of Robert B. Parker’s beloved series.

Spenser is waiting out the latest Boston snowstorm when he gets word that Rita Fiore has been shot. Rita’s always been a tricky one: flirting with Spenser for years, she’s an ever-present figure that transcends friendship in Spenser’s circle. But at the end of the day, Rita is family. And family will always be protected.

Both a pit bull in the courtroom and provocateur outside it, Rita is no stranger to controversy. But as one of the city’s toughest lawyers, Spenser knows that there’s no short list of suspects who might want to enact revenge. With Rita’s life hanging in the balance, it’s up to him to get to the bottom of things, even if it means unearthing some unsavory secrets that might just lead him into an age-old game of lies and deceit.

[sufue]

A couple of years later, "E" is for Evidence is $1.99 in the US again. The links below are still good...

Originally Posted by sufue

Now "E" is for Evidence by Sue Grafton is also $1.99 in the US. It's the E-th Kinsey Millhone book. And, as of right now, "F" is still on sale too ^^^.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0031B7KC6
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/e-is-for-evidence