FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

Yeah, I don't know why everyone has to add SF or fantasy or paranormal to their mysteries right now. That was a thing a while back, and then seemed to have taken a break, but seems to be spooling up again. When done well (I am just in love with Robert Jackson Bennett's Ana/Din Leviathan books, or Martha Wells' Murderbot, or, of course, Isaac Asimov's classic Elijah Baley books) it's great to have my favorite and next-favorite genres melded. But when it feels like an add-on, from either direction , it feels a bit like pandering.

Oh, and BTW, The Frozen People is now price-matched at £0.99 at Kobo UK.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It's OK. The SF part of it is, understandably, the weakest.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by sufue

hopefully Kobo will get the price drop soon.

They just approved my price-match request.

Originally Posted by sufue

Yeah, I don't know why everyone has to add SF or fantasy or paranormal to their mysteries right now.

It's other way around. The authors you quote are authors known for SFF who happen mix mysteries in the genres they're known for. I don't think this trend ever went away. It's just usually localized. Adam Christopher wrote a bunch of noir mysteries a few years back with a transistors-and-tape robot about 10 years ago, Nick Harkaway's current series is SF with a detective, Lavie Tidhar just finished writing a bunch of vampire detective fiction that's been going on for some years, etc.

In this case we have a non-SFF author adding a bit of SFF, which is usually done without the usual having deep familiarity with the field, aimed at the author's usual "mainstream" readers, so the treatment is considered shallow by fans.

[sufue]

That's because I put the value on the mystery first , and so am impressed by SF/fantasy/paranormal who can also do a good mystery. So instead of thinking about mystery writers who can't get the SF/fantasy/paranormal right, I'm looking at SF/fantasy/paranormal writers thinking some of them can't get the mystery right. Which I mostly DNF...

And if you want to go the other way: Charlaine Harris, who started with the Aurora Teagarden series, but is obviously more famous for the Sookie Stackhouse books; Elizabeth Peters of Amelia Peabody fame, who wrote a bunch of successful non-series paranormals as Barbara Michaels; Carolyn Hart with Death on Demand and Henrie O, before she wrote her Bailey Ruth series; even Manning Coles with Tommy Hambledon well before the (too few) Charles and James Latimer books.

Originally Posted by salty-horse

They just approved my price-match request.

It's other way around. The authors you quote are authors known for SFF who happen mix mysteries in the genres they're known for. I don't think this trend ever went away. It's just usually localized. Adam Christopher wrote a bunch of noir mysteries a few years back with a transistors-and-tape robot about 10 years ago, Nick Harkaway's current series is SF with a detective, Lavie Tidhar just finished writing a bunch of vampire detective fiction that's been going on for some years, etc.

In this case we have a non-SFF author adding a bit of SFF, which is usually done without the usual having deep familiarity with the field, aimed at the author's usual "mainstream" readers, so the treatment is considered shallow by fans.

[sufue]

A big batch of JA Jance books are $1.99 each at Kindle US and Kobo US. These are across several series - see below. And here are price-sorted links - the Kindle one shows only 24 titles and the Kobo one shows 28 titles, including two books not on sale at Kindle (at least as of now) and two novellas. So if you need/want some JA Jance books, go take a look...

Kindle US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?sea...price-asc-rank
Kobo US: https://store.kobobooks.com/search?Q...9&fcmedia=Book

JP Beaumont
Improbable Cause, #5 (Kobo only)
Dismissed with Prejudice, #7 (Kobo only)
Without Due Process, #10
Failure to Appear, #11
Lying in Wait, #12
Name Withheld, #13
Breach of Duty, #14
Birds of Prey, #15
Justice Denied, #17
Den of Iniquity, #23

Joanna Brady
Tombstone Courage, #2
Shoot Don't Shoot, #3
Skeleton Canyon, #5
Outlaw Mountain, #7
Devil's Claw, #8
Paradise Lost, #9
Dead Wrong, #12
Damage Control, #13
Fire and Ice, #14
Judgment Call, #15
Remains of Innocence, #16
Field of Bones, #18

Ali Reynolds
Edge of Evil, #1
Man Overboard, #12

Walker Family
Kiss of the Bees, #2
Day of the Dead, #3

[salty-horse]

I just started tracking this on ereaderiq a few hours ago, so I was sure this was some kind of mistake.
Books #2 and #3 are £1 each:
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/tears-of-the-giraffe
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/mor...eautiful-girls

Note that the mysteries are not the main part, so maybe this is the wrong forum.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith is FREE in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

The first book in the multi-million copy bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. The one where it all begins

Mma Ramotswe is the proud proprietor of the finest ladies' detective agency in all Botswana (also the only one). She spends her time, with a cup of redbush tea beneath the acacia tree, waiting for clients. When they come along, whether it is to enquire after a missing spouse or check the identity of a long-lost father, it is not The Principles of Private Detection that helps her to solve cases but old-fashioned common sense and a warm-hearted understanding of the fallibility of human nature - especially that of men.

[GA Russell]

The Cana Diversion

by William Campbell Gault

50 cents

https://www.amazon.com/Cana-Diversio...dp/B00920K8CE/

[GA Russell]

Two Matt Helm stories, each $1.99!

Murderers' Row
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BH0VO20

The Ambushers
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CCONU2C

[salty-horse]

Babylon Berlin (Gereon Rath #1) by Volker Kutscher, translated by Niall Sellar is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Babylon Berlin is the first book in the international-bestselling series from Volker Kutscher that centers on Detective Gereon Rath caught up in a web of drugs, sex, political intrigue, and murder in Berlin as Germany teeters on the edge of Nazism.

It’s 1929 and Berlin is the vibrating metropolis of post-war Germany—full of bars and brothels and dissatisfied workers at the point of revolt. Gereon Rath is new in town and new to the police department.

When a dead man without an identity, bearing traces of atrocious torture, is discovered, Rath sees a chance to find his way back into the homicide division. He discovers a connection with a circle of oppositional exiled Russians who try to purchase arms with smuggled gold in order to prepare a coup d’état. But there are other people trying to get hold of the gold and the guns, too. Raths finds himself up against paramilitaries and organized criminals. He falls in love with Charlotte, a typist in the homicide squad, and misuses her insider’s knowledge for his personal investigations. And as he gets further entangled with the case, he never imagined becoming a suspect himself.

[Tarana]

Louise Penny's latest book, The Grey Wolf, is on sale at Amazon and Kobo for $2.99

The 19th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Though the tiny Québec village is impossible to find on any map, someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning.

[sufue]

Murder on the Serpentine is the final Charlotte and Thomas Pitt book, by Anne Perry, given that Perry passed away in 2023. It's on sale at Kindle US for $1.99 right now, which is quite a sale, given that most of the books in the series are normally $10 and up in the US, and don't go on sale often, if at all. It's not on sale at Kobo US, but per the MR thread on Kobo price match, you probably should be able to price match it.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HA4LFW0
Kobo US (for price check/match): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/mur...e-serpentine-1

Spoiler:

In the history of Anne Perry’s bestselling Victorian mystery series, the stakes have never been greater than now—as a mission for queen and country places the future of the British Empire squarely in Thomas Pitt’s hands.

It is not the custom for the commander of Special Branch to receive a royal summons—so Thomas Pitt knows it must be for a matter of the gravest importance. The body of Sir John Halberd, the Queen’s confidant, has been found in the shallow water of the Serpentine in Hyde Park, bearing the evidence of a fatal blow to the head. At Her Majesty’s request, Sir John had been surreptitiously investigating Alan Kendrick, a horse-racing enthusiast who seems to have had an undue amount of influence on her son, the Prince of Wales.

Now Commander Pitt must navigate the corridors of power with the utmost discretion and stealth, for it seems certain that Sir John’s killer is a member of the upper classes. Aided by his wife, Charlotte, and her social contacts, Pitt seeks out the hidden motives behind the polite façade of those to the manner born—and uncovers a threat to the throne that could topple the monarchy.

With Murder on the Serpentine, Thomas Pitt nears a crossroads in his brilliant career—one that promises new challenges, both professional and personal, still to be met. But first, he and Charlotte must conquer the twists and turns of suspense master Anne Perry’s most cunningly crafted plot yet—to achieve their finest hour, or suffer their darkest.

[sufue]

Today's Big Deal at Kindle UK, good for a few more hours, is seven Kathy Reichs/Temperance Brennan books for £0.99 each. These are price-matched at Kobo UK.

The titles are:

• Deja Dead, #1
• Deadly Decisions, #3
• Fatal Voyage, #4
• Bare Bones, #6
• Monday Mourning, #7
• 206 Bones, #12
• Spider Bones, #13

Link to the Big Deal website at Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/?node=4725112031
Link to a price-sorted search at Kobo UK, with a few strays: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/search?qu...&sort=PriceAsc

Edit: It looks as if Reichs may have gotten the rights back to some of these earlier books, since these editions are pubbed by Cornerstone Digital. So check carefully before you buy...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Two Matt Helm stories, each $1.99!

Murderers' Row
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BH0VO20

The Ambushers
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CCONU2C

If you want a giggle, think of Dean Martin's Matt Helm as you read these.

[sufue]

Many years (!!!) later, Takedown Twenty is $1.99 in the US right now…

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D0OPD6O
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/takedown-twenty-1

Originally Posted by Tarana

{edited two other books}

Takedown Twenty By Janet Evanovich $2.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N

Sorry, can't copy and paste links. Trying to get a new bluetooth mouse.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you want a giggle, think of Dean Martin's Matt Helm as you read these.

The books are nothing like the movies.
Apache

[sufue]

Joffe is offering a mystery today as part of their Free Friday program. (There is also a romance this week - you can find that one in that thread.) These "Friday freebies" are usually good through the weekend, but I still advise that you grab them now if you want them...

The Killer Detail is the first in the Dr Will Traynor series by AJ Cross. It was previously published as Dark Truths.
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DMFMXDG3
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DMFMXDG3

Spoiler:

Meet troubled criminologist Dr Will Traynor. He doesn’t play by the book, but his dark past helps him capture killers by getting inside their minds.

Three years ago

Dr Will Traynor arrives home to find his nine-year-old daughter locked away in a cupboard and his wife missing.

Now

A clumsily decapitated body is found abandoned on Blackfoot Running Trail in Birmingham. A sickly, metallic smell hangs in the heavy air . . . but the head is nowhere to be seen.

With the investigating team getting nowhere, Detective Bernard Watts is reluctantly forced to call in expert criminologist Dr Will Traynor.

Traynor is a loose cannon and no team player, but his unorthodox methods unearth a gruesome clue. Two human skulls buried in a shallow grave just a stone’s throw from the murder scene.

The team is now looking for a serial killer.

And it’s only Traynor who can get inside the killer’s mind to unlock the terrifying truth.

This unputdownable crime mystery full of twists is perfect for fans of Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter, Angela Marsons and Helen H. Durrant.

Please note this book was previously published as Dark Truths.