Free/Bargain Suspense/Mystery/Thriller April 2013

[NightBird]

Never Coming Back by Hans Koppel is $2.99 from Pegasus, down from $24.99.

A harrowing thriller that has taken Sweden and Britain by storm—a twisted plot of revenge and tragedy by a writer whose style evokes Henning Mankell and Hakan Nesser.

Mike Zetterberg lives with his wife Ylva and their daughter in a house just outside Helsingborg in Sweden. One evening, Ylva doesn’t come home as expected. Mike passes it off as a drink with a work friend, but when she’s still missing the next day, he starts to worry. As Mike battles suspicion from the police and his own despair, he is unaware that Ylva is still alive, just a stone’s throw from his own home: Ylva has been drawn into a twisted plot of revenge and tragedy that leads back into her and her abductors’ shared past.

Given the sudden and mysterious circumstances of her disappearance, Mike becomes the chief suspect. But what no one knows is that she’s being held hostage in the cellar of the house across the street. A secret camera has been set up in her own home so that Ylva can only watch her family on the screen. They cannot see her—and they most certainly cannot hear her scream.

Hans Koppel’s tale of horrific tragedy and brutal revenge that has obsessed readers across Scandinavia and England for the past year now makes its American debut.

[NightBird]

Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard is $2.99 from HarperCollins.

Mob-connected loan shark Chili Palmer is sick of the Miami grind—plus his “friends” have a bad habit of dying there. So when he chases a deadbeat client out to Hollywood, Chili figures he might like to stay. This town, with its dream-makers, glitter, hucksters, and liars—plus gorgeous, partially clad would-be starlets everywhere you look—seems ideal for an enterprising criminal with a taste for the cinematic. Besides, Chili’s got an idea for a killer movie, though it could very possibly kill him to get it made.

[NightBird]

The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose is $2.99 from Simon & Schuster.

A Secret Worth Dying For …
Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by visions of the past, her earliest memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up with as the heir to a storied French perfume company. These worsened after her mother’s suicide until she finally found a doctor who helped her, teaching her to explore the mythological symbolism in her visions and thus lessen their painful impact. This ability led Jac to a wildly successful career as a mythologist, television personality and author.

When her brother, Robbie—who’s taken over the House of L’Etoile from their father—contacts Jac about a remarkable discovery in the family archives, she’s skeptical. But when Robbie goes missing before he can share the secret—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Traveling back to Paris to investigate Robbie’s disappearance, Jac discovers that the secret is a mysterious scent developed in Cleopatra’s time. Could the rumors swirling be true? Can this ancient perfume hold the power to unlock the ability to remember past lives and conclusively prove reincarnation? If this possession has the power to change the world, then it’s not only worth living for . . . it’s worth killing for, too.

The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion and suspense in an intoxicating web that moves from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. This marvelous, spellbinding novel mixes the sensory allure of Perfume with the heartbreaking beauty of The Time Traveler’s Wife, coming to life as richly as our most wildly imagined dreams.

ETA: This is #4 in her Reincarnationist series, but I believe they are all standalones and can be read in any order, as they all have different characters. It is a series only in the sense that reincarnation is the main theme running through all of them.

[mitford13]

Okay, not actually a mystery/thriller, but some really interesting authors contributing to this freebie on Amazon:

MAKING STORY: TWENTY-ONE WRITERS ON HOW THEY PLOT (TWENTY-ONE WRITERS #1) (THE TWENTY-ONE WRITERS PROJECT)

It's often said that everyone has a book inside him or her -- but how do you plot it? In MAKING STORY, edited by the Edgar- and Macavity-nominated author Timothy Hallinan, twenty-one novelists--who have written more than 100 books among them and sold hundreds of thousands of copies--talk about how they go about turning an idea into a plot, and a plot into a book. MAKING STORY offers practical, experience-based advice from people who have repeatedly sat down to write a good book and succeeded in doing just that. The writers who will help you to create your story are Michael Stanley, Kelli Stanley, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Jeffrey Siger, Zoe Sharp, Stephen Jay Schwartz, Mike Orenduff, Debbi Mack, Wendy Hornsby, Gar Anthony Haywood, Timothy Hallinan, Leighton Gage, Jeremy Duns, Bill Crider, Meredith Cole, Jeffrey Cohen, Rebecca Cantrell, Rachel Brady, Lisa Brackmann, Cara Black, and Brett Battles. This is an indispensable book for aspiring authors and the first in a series, each focusing on a different writing challenge.

[dreams]

The below may be repeats for some of us.

THE STONE ARROW (Pagans Trilogy, Book 1) by Richard Herley
Previously published by Ballantine Books

Spoiler:

Release date: July 12, 1987 | Series: Pagans Trilogy, Book 1
When the men of Burh, settlers from continental Europe, fall upon the sleeping nomad tribe in the depths of the forest amid the Downs of southern England, Tagart is the only survivor, escaping by sheer chance after his wife and young son have been massacred. Twenty-five and heir to the chiefdom of the roving hunters, he sees his only inheritance now to be an overwhelming urge for merciless revenge - of his family, his tribe and indeed of a way of life which in the England of 5,000 years ago is steadily being eroded by these tillers of the soil.

Tagart’s first objective for his single-handed work of retribution is the fortified village of Burh (in what is now known as the Cuckmere Valley), and the means he uses are more subtle and deadly than any traditional form of attack. This story of his revenge, his subsequent savage enslavement by the new lords of the land and his escape with Segle, the beautiful sister of another captive, introduces a new author of considerable significance. Richard Herley writes with acute sense of place, of wind and weather, of wild life and of the background of Stone Age England when the countryside is in its last virgin state before civilization begins.
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

And his The Penal Colony is still free.
First published by Grafton, London, hardback, 1987 - William Morrow, New York, hardback, 1988

Spoiler:

The future.

The British government now runs island prison colonies to take dangerous offenders from its overcrowded mainland jails.

Among all these colonies, Sert, 25 miles off the north Cornish coast, has the worst reputation. There are no warders. Satellite technology is used to keep the convicts under watch. New arrivals are dumped by helicopter and must learn to survive as best they can. To Sert, one afternoon in July, is brought Anthony John Routledge, sentenced for a sex-murder he did not commit. Routledge knows he is here for ever. And he knows he must quickly forget the rules of civilized life. But not all the islanders are savages. Under the charismatic leadership of one man a community has evolved. A community with harsh and unyielding rules, peopled by resourceful men for whom the hopeless dream of escape may not be so hopeless after all ...

‘Normally I shun such reviewer clichés as “a real page-turner”, “leaves you breathless”, “can’t put it down”, considering them to be empty substitutes for critical thought. Well, there’s always an exception: I’ve weighed those phrases carefully, and I believe that each of them accurately applies to a new novel, The Penal Colony by Richard Herley.’

— Roger Miller, Milwaukee Journal

‘intriguing, ultimately uplifting ... this fast-moving, intelligent thriller goes into top gear.’

— Publishers’ Weekly

The Samurai Strategy by Thomas Hoover and smashwords
Previously published by Bantam

Spoiler:

Release date: May 1, 1988
(Bantam 1988)

”A financial thriller right out of the headlines.” Adam Smith

A high-finance, high-tech thriller of Wall Street, murder, currency manipulation. A mysterious Japanese industrialist begins a massive 'hedging' in the US markets. Two weeks later, in Japan’s Inland Sea, divers working for him recover the Imperial Sword, given to Japan's first Emperor by the Sun Goddess. Can a lone American lawyer stop him from bringing down the US?
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Syndrome by Thomas Hoover and smashwords
Previously published by Pinnacle

Spoiler:

Release date: November 1, 2003
A terrifying medical thriller in the bestselling tradition of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook

They were promised a miracle cure for the deadly diseases destroying their lives. It seemed too good to be true, but to the desperate and dying it was the only chance for survival. Now they’re part of a bizarre secret experiment that reverses the aging process – an experiment gone out of control.

To stop the madness, one woman must enter a shocking nightmare world, where scientists control your body – and your mind – and living makes you beg for death.
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

It appears that all of his on smashwords are free.

A short story in the Lawson Vampire Novels by Jon F. Merz - Dead Drop: A Lawson Vampire Bonus Story (Includes a sneak peek of The Kensei!)
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (February 15, 2011)

Spoiler:

Dead Drop: A Lawson Vampire Bonus Story (Includes a sneak peek of The Kensei!)

Meet Lawson. A cynical, wise-cracking vampire charged with protecting the Balance between vampires and humans, he is part cop, part spy, and part commando—a James Bond with fangs. Lawson mixes shrewd cunning with unmatched lethality to get his job done. He tries his best to dismantle conspiracies, dispatch bad guys, and live long enough to get home.

This time, Lawson has been given an easy assignment, a "dead drop." That is until an old enemy returns…

AVAILABLE NOW… THE KENSEI!

In Jon F. Merz's novel The Kensei, a battle-weary Lawson heads to Japan for a little rest and some advanced ninja training. But he no sooner steps off the plane than lands in the midst of a Yakuza turf war orchestrated by a shadowy figure known as the Kensei. With the help of Talya, a former KGB-assassin, Lawson must put a stop to the Kensei's organ trafficking networks, prevent the creation of an army of vampire-human hybrids, and save his own skin in the process.

And from small publisher Nighttime Press LLC are 2 in the 10 book series.
(these were originally in their own thread last year)
Popping the Shine (Book 6 of the Jay Leicester Mysteries Series) by JC Simmons

Spoiler:

Publication Date: January 1, 2012
New Orleans settings, gangland murder, police corruption, and international drug operations are the backdrop for J.C. Simmons' sixth serial mystery. Simmons' famed Aviation Consultant/Investigator, Jay Leicester, is drawn into a worldwide drug manufacturing operation when an old family friend's grandson is brutally murdered and nailed to a French Quarter street in New Orleans, Louisiana. What begins as a simple visit to pay respects at a funeral brings Leicester face to face with gruesome killings and evil people driven by power and money.

This is not about famed New Orleans Queen Marie Leveau, or Voodoo, or gris-gris, or 'Wangas,' but the evil that lies within the hearts of man, an evil so vile that killing an infant means nothing. This is an intense and fast-paced thriller that is plot driven, character oriented, and a must read for any Mystery/Thriller aficionado.

Some People Die Quick (Book 2 of the Jay Leicester Mysteries Series) by JC Simmons

Spoiler:

Publication Date: January 27, 2012
Jay Leicester, a retired airline pilot now running his own investigation firm, is sent a client by his old friend Guy Robbins, an attorney on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. The client is a horribly disfigured young female marine biologist who is Director of a research lab on Cat Island, twelve miles off the coast of Gulfport. Her disfigurement is the result of an attack by a tiger shark during a dive to the wreck of a World War Two German submarine sank during the war by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Chandeleur Island.

During a two year recovery period the scientist becomes convinced the attack was orchestrated by someone who wanted to steal the formula for a shark repellent being developed at the research lab. The repellent, if perfected, would be worth billions of dollars. How a pelagic shark could be used to attack a specific diver in the open ocean becomes the enigma behind the investigation of this mystery thriller.

One of the most enigmatic characters is the marine biologist herself. Annatoo Yillah, a direct descendant of Polynesian parents, is as strange as she is intelligent. A woman who, though educated in the west, believes she is an ancient God of Tiburon - a shark god. Other characters in the work are: Anna Yillah's two research assistants, George Lenoir and Vickey Fourche, brilliant graduate students from Mississippi State University, who worship and learn at the feet of their mentor; Susan Weems, a lifelong friend and former colleague of Anna Yillah, enters the scene with a bizarre tale of love and friendship; a career criminal and shrimp fisherman, Bob Sabado, who is tied to the lab by unrequited love. Then we meet Hebrone Opshinsky, one of those unforgettable characters that linger on in our mind forever. An "in-country" Viet Nam soldier trained as a silent killer and put back on the street after the war without any indoctrination in how to adjust to a peaceful society. A man who is more deadly than all the sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and lives among the underbelly of the shrimp fishermen along the docks of the Mississippi Coast. Finally, we meet a Police Detective and a Chief of Police who could not be more different in their investigative techniques. Both think Jay Leicester may be responsible for three murders and an attempt at a fourth.

After meeting with Anna Yillah and conferring with Guy Robbins, Jay takes the case and accompanies her to Cat Island. Understanding why a brilliant research scientist could believe an attack in the open ocean by a shark could be purposefully accomplished is the first priority. He learned quickly that not only was it possible, but that it was exactly what had happened.With hundreds of visiting scientists rotating on and off the island doing research, the list of possible suspects seems insurmountable, but soon is narrowed to a select few. To expose the antagonist Anna and Jay recreate the original dive on the German submarine. It goes horribly wrong resulting in a ghastly death and failing to reveal a murderer. Starting over, Leicester finds an unlikely ally in an original suspect. This assistance leads to the discovery of the killer, but not before another innocent life is lost, and Jay is confronted with his own mortality.

Pristine offshore islands, coastlines ruined by casino hotels, and Gulf of Mexico waters is the setting for intrigue, horror, and quick death. A must read for any aficionado of the Mystery/Thriller genre.

[cromag]

Richard Herley's The Stone Arrow is also free at Barnes & Noble.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ston...=2940000824412



As is Popping the Shine, by JC Simmons.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/popp...=2940033250523

[pendragginp]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Okay, not actually a mystery/thriller, but some really interesting authors contributing to this freebie on Amazon:

MAKING STORY: TWENTY-ONE WRITERS ON HOW THEY PLOT (TWENTY-ONE WRITERS #1) (THE TWENTY-ONE WRITERS PROJECT)

It's often said that everyone has a book inside him or her -- but how do you plot it? In MAKING STORY, edited by the Edgar- and Macavity-nominated author Timothy Hallinan, twenty-one novelists--who have written more than 100 books among them and sold hundreds of thousands of copies--talk about how they go about turning an idea into a plot, and a plot into a book. MAKING STORY offers practical, experience-based advice from people who have repeatedly sat down to write a good book and succeeded in doing just that. The writers who will help you to create your story are Michael Stanley, Kelli Stanley, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Jeffrey Siger, Zoe Sharp, Stephen Jay Schwartz, Mike Orenduff, Debbi Mack, Wendy Hornsby, Gar Anthony Haywood, Timothy Hallinan, Leighton Gage, Jeremy Duns, Bill Crider, Meredith Cole, Jeffrey Cohen, Rebecca Cantrell, Rachel Brady, Lisa Brackmann, Cara Black, and Brett Battles. This is an indispensable book for aspiring authors and the first in a series, each focusing on a different writing challenge.

Got it,

[NightBird]

Some HarperCollins for $1.99:

A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley. First book in the Detective Kubu series in Africa.

Smashed skull, snapped ribs, and a cloying smell of carrion. Leave the body for the hyenas to devour—no body, no case.

But Kalahari game rangers stumble on the human corpse mid-meal. The murder wasn't perfect after all. Enter Detective David "Kubu" Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department, an investigator whose personality and physique match his moniker, the Setswana word for hippopotamus—which is a seemingly docile beast, but one of the deadliest, and most persistent, on the continent.

Beneath a mountain of lies and superstitions, Kubu uncovers a chain of crimes leading to the most powerful figures in the country—cold-bloodedly efficient and frighteningly influential enemies who can make anyone who gets in their way disappear.

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd.

There is a brand new master on the thriller scene. Noah Boyd makes a truly spectacular entrance with The Bricklayer—the first in an explosive new series featuring former FBI agent Steve Vail that recalls the #1 bestsellers of John Sandford and Lee Child. An ex-FBI agent himself, Boyd adds gritty insider knowledge and color to this stunning novel, and the word on the street is The Bricklayer is fabulous.

Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon.

Two young lovers find themselves ensnared in a seemingly supernatural web that ties them to a young girl’s disappearance fifteen years earlier in this dark and twisty tale from the New York Times bestselling author of Island of Lost Girls and Promise Not to Tell. Jennifer NcMahon returns with a vengeance with Don’t Breathe a Word—an absolutely chilling and ingenious combination of psychological thriller, literary suspense, and paranormal page-turner that will enthrall a wildly diverse audience including, among others, avid fans of Keith Donohue (The Stolen Child), Laura Lippman (I’d Know You Anywhere), and Tana French.(In the Woods).

Political thriller Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin.

When private detective Dana Cutler is hired to follow college student Charlotte Walsh, she never imagines the trail will lead to the White House. But the morning after Walsh's clandestine meeting with Christopher Farrington, President of the United States, the pretty young coed is dead—the latest victim, apparently, of a fiend dubbed "the D.C. Ripper."

A junior associate in an Oregon law firm, Brad Miller is stunned by the death row revelations of convicted serial killer Clarence Little. Though Little accepts responsibility for a string of gruesome murders, he swears he was framed for one of them: the death of a teenaged babysitter who worked for then-governor Farrington.

Suddenly nowhere in America is safe for a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer who possess terrifying evidence that suggests the unthinkable: that someone at the very highest level of government, perhaps the president himself, is a cold and brutal killer.

Spy thriller Scorpion Betrayal by Andrew Kaplan.

The head of Egypt's State Internal Security is brutally murdered in a Cairo café—his assailant a faceless killer known only as "the Palestinian." It is the opening move in a chilling game of terror that has caught the international intelligence community completely off-guard, and the CIA turns to the one man they believe can get to the twisted roots of a looming nightmare shrouded in mystery: a former Company operative code-named Scorpion.

The breakneck hunt for a mastermind is leading Scorpion from the Middle East to the dangerous underworld of the capitals of Europe. With the fate of the free world in the hands of two well- matched adversaries there is no margin for error. But a shocking truth has been kept from the determined manhunter . . . and beauty will blind him to the ultimate betrayal.

Buried on Avenue B by Peter de Jonge.

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as an “utterly irresistible heroine,” Darlene O’Hara—the brilliant, hard-living, obsessive, and somewhat self-destructive detective introduced in Peter de Jonge’s acclaimed crime fiction masterwork Shadows Still Remain—returns in Buried on Avenue B.

An edgy and suspenseful noir thriller, Buried on Avenue B traverses the gritty landscape of New York’s Lower East Side and the more sordid corners of Sarasota, Florida, as a gruesome and unexpected discovery in a makeshift Alphabet City grave heats up a 17-year-old cold case.

James Patterson calls Darlene O’Hara “one of the freshest, hippest detective creations in many a year,” and the New York Times has described Peter de Jonge’s writing as “in the noirish, character-driven vein of Dennis Lehane or Michael Connelly.” For fans of serious crime fiction, Peter de Jonge is a must-read, and Detective Darlene O’Hara is cop to be reckoned with.

The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris.

Describing London police detective Nick Belsey, hero of The Hollow Man, an enthrallingly original thriller from British crime novelist Oliver Harris—the Daily Mail declared, “He’s got to be London’s coolest cop.” Crime fiction fans are sure to agree, especially those hooked on the novels of Ian Rankin, Peter Robinson, Mark Billingham, and Jo Nesbø. The first book in a series of tense and twisting police procedurals, The Hollow Man starts with Belsey at rock bottom, and then embroils him in a brazen identity theft scam and possible murder that could leave him either wealthy or dead. It’s time to discover Oliver Harris, a new master of noir who’s destined to be a big man at the scene of the crime.

[NightBird]

Free The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris from Corvus.

Glasgow, 1946: The last time Douglas Brodie came home it was 1942 and he was a dashing young warrior in a kilt. Now, the war is over but victory's wine has soured and Brodie's back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Donovan was dead, shot down in the war. Perhaps it would have been kinder if he had been killed. The man who returned was unrecognizable: mutilated, horribly burned. Donovan keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect...
Donovan claims he's innocent but a mountain of evidence says otherwise. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one-time friend. Working with Donovan's advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls both the mean streets of the Gorbals and the green hills of western Scotland in their search for the truth. What they find is an unholy alliance of church, police and Glasgow's deadliest razor gang, happy to slaughter to protect their dark secrets. As time runs out for the condemned man, and the tally of murdered innocents rises, Brodie reverts to his wartime role as a trained killer. It's them or him.

[koland]

Originally Posted by NightBird

Free The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris from Corvus.

UK only, from what I see - I bought it a couple of years ago, when it was on sale.. but haven't managed to get to it, yet.

[caleb72]

Need you Now by James Grippando is currently $1.99 at Amazon (US).

New York Times bestseller James Grippando returns with a gripping new stand-alone novel: a story ripped from the headlines, in which a young financial adviser and his girlfriend uncover a conspiracy that reaches from Wall Street to Washington, from the trading floors of the Stock Exchange to the deepest halls of government. Like Grippando’s recent bestsellers, Afraid of the Dark and Money to Burn—as well as Grippando classics like A King’s Ransom and Beyond Suspicion—the provocative Need You Now is a fast-paced thriller in which danger and conspiracy lie behind every plot and promise, and the future of the nation lies in the hands of an unlikely champion.

Amazon (US): LINK

[caleb72]

Prime Suspect by Lynda La Plante is currently $1.99 at Amazon (US)

An international bestseller, Lynda La Plante’s thrilling detective novel Prime Suspect introduced readers around the world to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, a gritty investigator locked in a tooth-and-nail struggle to claim the authority, acceptance, and respect she deserves from Scotland Yard's chauvinist detective squad—even as she desperately tracks the maniac now running loose in the streets of London. Fans of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone books and the work of Kathy Reichs or Karin Slaughter will be immediately drawn to La Plante’s Jane Tennison, the remarkable, no-nonsense police woman who laid the groundwork for all the rest who followed.

Amazon (US): LINK

[BelleZora]

Free today at Amazon: Murder at the War: A Modern-Day Mystery With a Medieval Setting (Peter and Kori Brichter #1) by Mary Monica Pulver. Originally published by St. Martin's Press in 1987. Anthony Award nominee for best first novel. Midwest Book Award winner.

US
UK
Canada

[caleb72]

This one from Macmillan looks interesting: Pitch Dark by Steven Sidor. $2.22 at Amazon (US).

“Pitch Dark is a propulsive, layered, and brutal read. . . . A reader can't hope for more than to discover a writer possessed of both true talent and true passion. Discover Steven Sidor."
---Michael Koryta, author of The Cypress House

It’s Christmas Eve, and Vera Coffey is on the run. She doesn't know the men who are after her. She has never seen them before, but she has seen the horrors they visit on people who don’t give them what they want. Vera has something they want badly. She’d give it up if it weren’t the only thing keeping her alive.

The Larkins have known the toll violence takes on a family ever since they were trapped in a madman’s shooting rampage. They've been coping with the trauma for nearly twenty years. Now, on a cold and lonely winter morning, Vera collapses at their roadside motel. And she’s brought something with her. Together they'll have to make one last stand against an evil that has followed them further than anyone could've imagined.

With a thriller so fast-paced that it’s impossible to let go and an ominous sense that everything is destined to go wrong, Pitch Dark is an intense read from a master of suspense.

Amazon (US): LINK

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by NightBird

Some HarperCollins for $1.99:

The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris.

I've read this one, and it's pretty interesting. Definitely worth picking up for two bucks.