Free and Bargain Mystery/Suspense/Thriller Books August 2012

[NightBird]

In an effort to reduce clutter on the board and incorporate some links with a little conversation about the books, anyone interested can post their finds here.

From Blasted Heath:

The Killing Of Emma Gross: a detective novel about a true crime in the Weimar Republic by Damien Seaman $.99.

Product Description

Based on a true crime – the unsolved brutal murder of Düsseldorf prostitute Emma Gross – and the story of notorious serial killer Peter Kürten – the so-called “Vampire of Düsseldorf” – The Killing of Emma Gross is a gripping police thriller set during the dying days of Weimar Republic Germany.

The story…

Detective Thomas Klein's career is going nowhere until he gets a tip-off leading to the Ripper's arrest.

But the killer's confession to the hooker's murder is full of holes, and Klein soon comes to believe this is one murder the killer didn't commit.

Motivated by spite, ambition, or maybe even a long-buried sense of justice, finding out who really killed Emma Gross becomes Klein's obsession.

Particularly when the evidence begins to point closer to home…

Part historical police procedural, part true crime thriller

[spindlegirl]

Excellent idea, much like the Romance novel thread. I tend to mostly look for mysteries and romances, so it's nice to have these categories on the radar.

Won't be long until September

[mitford13]

Thanks for starting the thread, NightBird. Was psyched to make two great finds for Kindle on Amazon US this morning:


This one is from a (new?) Swedish publishing house I've recently noticed popping up on my Amazon also-boughts & recommendations - Stockholm Text Publishing. They're offering this title free today:

Death of a Carpet Dealer by Karin Wahlberg

The brutal murder of a Swedish carpet dealer on a business trip to Turkey is the start of a story about an unknown daughter, an exclusive carpet and – as always when Karin Wahlberg writes – the everyday life and dreams of the people we meet in her stories.

Read by every doctor and nurse in Sweden and often compared to New York Times bestselling author of medical thrillers, Tess Gerritsen, Death of a Carpet Dealer is one of seven in Wahlberg’s series featuring Police Commissioner Claes Claesson and his wife Veronika Lundborg, doctor at Oskarshamn hospital. Her books have sold over 1.5 million total copies worldwide.

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And apparently this title was previously published by HarperCollins as 'Joseph's Mansions.' Free today:

For Your Sins by Joe McNally and Richard Pitman

Frankie Houlihan is a young priest distracted from his vocation by just one thing - horseracing. Standing beside the most dangerous steeplechase fence at Cheltenham, Frankie hurries to help a fallen jockey, Kathy Spencer. Their meeting was to change many lives forever.

Gerry Monroe, is a bitter ex-jockey who has feigned injury to cover his fear of riding. His fierce ambition to 'be someone' mutates into a psychotic obsession to bring misery to those who have succeeded where he failed.

Kelly Corell is a Dublin gangster with a reputation for violence and an idea that will net him millions and devastate the world of horseracing. And Peter Culling is a dying vet who wants to live forever . . . Culling doesn't care who is sacrificed to help finance his wild scheme.

Frankie Houlihan finds himself confronting the real world and the maelstrom of terror wrought by Monroe, Corell and Culling. Will he be sucked in and destroyed, or can he battle through and finally find peace?

Richard, former top jockey and BBC presenter rode Crisp in the famous 1973 Grand National. Joe McNally is a racing journalist and ex-marketing manager for the Grand National.

[Tattncat]

Thanks, for the post. Mysteries are also one of my favorite genres.

[Synamon]

The Kindle Daily Deal today is a mystery, Innocent Monster by Reed Farrel Coleman for $1.99. This is number 6 in the Moe Prager series and I've got number 7 in my calibre library since it was offered for free way back in February.

It's got a starred review from Booklist so I'll probably snap it up.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Excellent idea, much like the Romance novel thread. I tend to mostly look for mysteries and romances, so it's nice to have these categories on the radar.

Won't be long until September

What she said! I love Cozies! I'm always on the look out for them.

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Excellent idea, much like the Romance novel thread. I tend to mostly look for mysteries and romances, so it's nice to have these categories on the radar.

Won't be long until September

Well, I got the idea from you all over on the Romance thread. Even though I don't read romances I have been popping in there and reading the posts. It is just such a nice thread, keeping up with the bargains and recommendations about what is good and what is not. I would like to have a thread like that here. Also, there seem to be so many more freebies and bargains lately that I feel the board is just getting overwhelmed with so many individual posts. At times it is hard to know whether to start a thread for an author, publisher, or individual.

I considered just waiting until September to start it since it's just a few days, but then said oh what the heck.

[NightBird]

Thanks, mitford13.

I've been seeing that Stockholm Text Publishing popping up, too, and curious about them. This looks like a good one.

Welcome, Tattncat.

I think that Innocent Monster was free at B&N awhile back and I got it then, plus the other freebies in that series. Haven't read any of them yet but they look good.

Welcome, Blossom. I'm sure you will have plenty of good recs for cozies.

[bookratt]

FREE KINDLE...Buying Murder (Regan McHenry Mystery Series) [Kindle Edition]
Nancy Lynn Jarvis (Author)


http://www.amazon.com/Buying-Murder-...bs_154606011_6

Murder gets personal when human remains are found in the beach cottage that realtors Regan McHenry and her husband, Tom Kiley, buy. The murder victim has been hidden away for sixteen years, and although the authorities quickly discover his identity, the trail to his killer is cold after so many years.
Regan has sworn off playing amateur detective, but when it becomes clear the police have to focus on more pressing crimes, she has to break her promise. As her friend police ombudsman Dave Everett says, “Your house, Regan, your murder.”

Welcome back to Santa Cruz, the community whose unofficial motto is “Keep Santa Cruz Weird,” for the twists and turns of the third book in the Regan McHenry Mystery Series.

[bookratt]

FREE KINDLE...The Ghost Files Boxed Set [Kindle Edition]
J.R. Rain (Author), Eve Paludan (Author), Scott Nicholson (Author), Evelyn Klebert (Author)


http://www.amazon.com/The-Ghost-File...s_154606011_15

All three books in the bestselling Ghost Files Series, including:

GHOST COLLEGE
by Scott Nicholson and J.R. Rain

First in a new series featuring paranormal investigators Ellen and Monty Drew. Ellen claims to possess a sixth sense but Monty, a former P.I., only believes what he can see. She views their work as a sacred mission while Monty just wants a happy wife and a paycheck.

In GHOST COLLEGE, the Drews are summoned to a Southern California bible college after workers report hearing mysterious voices at night. When they encounter the unhappy ghost of a young girl, Monty's skepticism is shaken, but he resolves to help his wife free the trapped spirit. Their search uncovers the Latin phrase "Non omnis moriar"—not all of me shall die—and they learn more about the site’s history as a Catholic school destroyed by an earthquake. But a mysterious presence has plans of its own for the young ghost, and Monty and Ellen must go head to head with a Dark Master that’s had more than a century of practice in demonic deeds. Now Monty must leave his body to do battle with the Dark Master, and he’s not sure Ellen will be able to bring him back in one piece. He’s not even sure what's happening is real. All he knows is that all hell is breaking loose and he's taking a crash course where an "F" means eternal damnation.

GHOST SOLDIER
by Evelyn Klebert

Paranormal investigators Ellen and Monty Drew's dream vacation to New Orleans is prematurely cut short when they are unexpectedly and reluctantly put to work on a case that may be beyond their talents. Called to arms by Monty's cousin Colonel, Monty and Ellen set out to clear a home on a military base of spirits that have been plaguing it with extreme paranormal phenomena. Both Ellen and Monty are drawn into a wild ghostly chase battling on both an earthly and metaphysical plane to reach the heart of the mystery before it's too late and it reaches a horrifying hand into their world.

GHOST FIRE
by Eve Paludan

Paranormal investigators Ellen and Monty Drew go to West Los Angeles for some rest and relaxation, as well as to shop for items to redecorate their home. But, apparently, there is to be no respite. Ellen is a ghost magnet, so they now have about 48 hours to solve a spontaneous combustion mystery in a haunted co-op art gallery before its grand opening in Venice, California. Spirits abound, including a flapper from the 1920s who haunts the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, the tormented ghost of a jockey, the spirit of a horse that shows up at a barbeque, the ghost of a former professor’s wife, the possession of a cab driver, an ex-nun who paints dead people she’s never met, and the accidental release of one ticked-off chupacabra spirit.

(Includes a clickable Table of Contents.)


Acclaim for the authors:

"Gripping, adventurous, and romantic—J.R. Rain’s The Lost Ark is a breakneck thriller that traces the thread of history from Biblical stories to current-day headlines. Be prepared to lose sleep!"
—JAMES ROLLINS, international bestselling author of The Doomsday Key

"Like Stephen King, Scott Nicholson knows how to summon serious scares."
—BENTLEY LITTLE, international bestselling author of His Father’s Son

"Temptation, redemption, and angelic intervention—Paludan has woven a unique last-chance love story about a life interrupted."
—DEBORAH CLOYED, author of The Summer We Came to Life

"Set in the marvelous city of New Orleans, Evelyn Klebert takes us on a journey that’s layered through lifetimes current and past. It is a marvelous adventure, and one that encompasses healing, trust, and the rapture of undying love. Treading on Borrowed Time is an outstanding achievement. It is a story that lingers upon the heart and mind."
—AIDEN JAMES, author of The Forgotten Eden

[bookratt]

FREE KINDLE...Zero Sum (Dr. Steven Cross Series #1) [Kindle Edition]
Russell Blake (Author)


http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Steven-Cr...s_154606011_30



Present Day Wall Street. Where intelligence agencies and the financial industry are strange bedfellows, and the two worlds are often intertwined in disturbing ways.

In this chillingly plausible scenario of a military/industrial/financial complex run amok, Zero Sum pits Dr. Steven Archer Cross against powerful financier Nicholas Griffen in a conflict that raises troubling questions about our markets and our government.

Racing against the clock in a chase that spans continents, one man's battle to expose the Machiavellian machinations of a ruthless Wall Street marauder forces him into a financial jungle populated by every variety of unscrupulous sociopath - rogue intelligence agencies, Russian mafia oligarchs, drug cartels, and terrorist networks.

As a white-collar game of chess transitions into a lethal real world cage-fight, Steven finds himself in a deadly showdown, where hunters can quickly become the hunted, and blood is the ultimate currency.

+ + +

#1 Amazon Bestseller, Action/Adventure!

+ + +

Q & A for Zero Sum

Question: Where did the idea for Zero Sum come from?

RB: I thought the inside scoop of how a Wall Street pump and dump works would be a great framework for a thriller. The innate conspiracy begs to be told, and I also wanted to give some background on how the market system actually functions.

Q: Zero Sum offers readers a look behind the curtain on Wall Street's dark side. Do you think there's much of an audience for that?

RB: With the current financial crisis & the emerging awareness that things are badly broken in the regulatory & law enforcement scheme, I think the novel's timely. Its depiction of Wall Street predators w/ their pet politicians, regulators & media cronies is spot on. I've found readers are fascinated once they understand it all.

Q: Zero Sum paints a picture of Wall Street that's at odds with the sanitized image in the media. Have you gotten any push back because of it?

RB: There's definitely a segment of the financial industry that would prefer nobody reads the book. The parasites that run the schemes described in it are alive & well & doing it every day, relying on the public's ignorance to prey on it. There are some annoyed players who want this read about as much as they want a 60 Minutes crew at their office. It's a controversial story, & I'm not making any friends telling it.

Q: Your characters seem real, especially the Wall Street villain, intelligence operatives & mob goons. Are these based in fact?

RB: A good fiction author blends truth & fiction to the point where you aren't sure where the story starts & the facts leave off. Let's just say that the characters & scenarios that seem real, are likely that vivid and believable for a reason.

Q: What authors do you read, & which have most influenced you?

RB: I grew up on Ludlum. Forsyth. Harris, Grisham. Fans of those authors will find my writing's very similar - Bourne, Day of the Jackal, The Firm.

+ + +

Zero Sum features Dr. Steven Archer Cross, from The Voynich Cypher

[bookratt]

Never Buried (Leigh Koslow Mystery Series) [Kindle Edition] Edie Claire (Author)


http://www.amazon.com/Buried-Koslow-...s_154606011_41

"A funny, fast-paced, clever, and unusual mystery that will have readers clamoring for more. Sheer delight." --Carolyn Hart

"A thoroughly delightful debut. Bright, breezy, and witty. I couldn't put it down."--Tamar Myers

The truth about what happened in 1949 went to Paul Fischer's grave... Too bad his body didn't!

Advertising copywriter Leigh Koslow doesn't pack heat--just a few extra pounds. And she doesn't go looking for trouble. When she moved into her cousin Cara's refurbished Victorian house, she wasn't planning on discovering a corpse--certainly not one that had been embalmed ten years before. But as anyone in the small Pittsburgh borough of Avalon could tell her, her cousin's house has a history attached. A history dating back to two mysterious deaths in the summer of 1949.

Someone wants Leigh and Cara out of the house--someone who has something to hide. But that someone doesn't know Leigh's impetuous cousin, and when Cara digs her heels in, Leigh looks to her old college chum, local policewoman Maura Polanski, for help. But the answers the trio find only point to more questions. Were the scandalous deaths of fifty years ago really an accident and a suicide? Or were they murder?

The nearer the women get to the truth, the more desperate someone becomes. Because some secrets are better off kept. Especially when they hit close to home!

Originally published in mass market paperback by NAL/Penguin, Putnam, Inc. in 1999. Large-Print Edition published by Thorndike, 2002.
About the Author
Edie Claire is the author of the Leigh Koslow Mystery Series (originally published by the NAL division of Penguin Putnam), classic romantic suspense (originally published by Warner Books), and humorous plays (published by Baker's Plays). Since 2010 she has independently published mystery, romantic suspense, and YA romance, with novels of women's fiction and mainstream humor soon to come. Edie has worked as a veterinarian, a childbirth educator, and a medical/technical writer; when she is not writing novels, she may be found doing volunteer work, raising her three children, or cleaning up after an undisclosed number of pets.

[bookratt]

FREE KINDLE...Mew is for Murder: A Theda Krakow Mystery (Theda Krakow Series) [Kindle Edition] Clea Simon (Author)


http://www.amazon.com/Mew-Murder-Kra...s_154606011_80

Journalist Simon (The Feline Mystique) makes an auspicious fiction debut with a well-plotted cat mystery that's not your usual four-footed cozy caper. Theda Krakow, an appealing freelance feature writer, really gets down to "kickin' " blues and the Boston rock scene. When Theda goes to interview "cat lady" Lillian Helmhold at home in Cambridge, she finds Lillian dead and her cats circling the woman's big Victorian house in distress. Lillian's death appears to be an accident, but someone keeps breaking into her house, which is rumored to contain treasure in the late owner's stacks of boxes and papers. Suspects include a coffee-bar waitress who helped Lillian with the cats, Lillian's schizophrenic son and an avaricious realtor who lives next door and hates cats. Simon writes well about the visceral tug of today's rock music. We feel the feral heart of true hard rock, and the way the sound, the dancing and the booze all blend into something close to good sex. If the ending borders on the saccharine, and a cat named "Aslan" who saves the day is a little much, this is still a strong start to what one hopes will be a long series.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Boston journalist Simon wisely sets her debut novel in the city she knows best. In fact, sharing a native's insight into Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, and other Boston-area haunts does much to make up for a somewhat predictable plot. Simon's protagonist, Theda Krakow, is a copy editor who has recently made the move to freelance writer. Desperately seeking stories, Theda sells her editor on an idea to interview Lillian Helmhold, a "crazy cat lady" harboring numerous felines. When she shows up for the interview, Theda finds the old lady dead. Is it murder? A punk rocker named Violet, who helped with the cats, definitely thinks so. Theda feels that she owes it to Lillian--and her now homeless cats--to find the truth. With Violet's help, Theda tracks down Lillian's mentally challenged son, looks for a motive, and indulges in her after-hours passion--the rock scene in Boston's small clubs. Although the mystery is easy to solve, Simon brilliantly evokes the Boston music scene and imparts interesting tidbits about freelance writing. Perhaps most thankfully, she avoids the hypercutesiness of some cat cozies. Jenny McLarin

[bookratt]

FREE KINDLE...Border Crossings: A Catherine James Thriller [Kindle Edition]
Michael Weems (Author)


http://www.amazon.com/Border-Crossin...s_154606011_93


Editorial Reviews
Review
"Couldn't put it down!!* Timely and terrifically exciting."* -Patricia C. Doerner, rancher, professor, historian, and co-author of The Judge . . . the critically acclaimed biography of William P. Clark which earned accolades from former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.

"Nail biting -*exhilarating*- intense - adventurous - sincere - wow! what a ride!!" -Liane at Yada Yada Books blogspot

"A tightly scripted thriller with an unusually well-developed main character."* -Kirkus Reviews
Product Description
Kirkus Reviews

When a college student vacationing in Cancun is abducted, her parents turn to a friend to help find her.
After spurning the sleazy advances of an older man in a nightclub in Cancun, spring-breaking college student Taylor Woodall is abducted at gunpoint outside her hotel, and her friend is shot. Her father immediately contacts his old friend Catherine James, a smart, resourceful attorney who has long dealt with sketchy characters south of the border. After running into a dead end with the local cops, James stumbles across a street kid who may have some pertinent information, but after the two are attacked in a crowded market, she realizes she's in over her head. She has no choice but to contact Matt, an old boyfriend who is currently working as a gun for hire, training anti-cartel soldiers deep in the jungle. Once Matt is on the scene, the pace of the investigation picks up, but, given his extreme methods, James is forced to confront some prickly moral issues if she's going to find out exactly what happened to Taylor. Although the novel follows thriller plot conventions fairly closely, when it comes to character development, Weems makes interesting choices. James' discomfort with Matt's methods is well-portrayed, as she tries her best to accept using extreme violence to achieve moral ends. The action scenes are well-wrought, and the prose flows clearly for the most part, occasionally hampered by the insertion of unnecessary detail. Overall, the book's strengths outweigh this minor weakness, and a parallel plot concerning a young Mexican girl lured into prostitution in the U.S. works well to underscore the themes of the primary plot, even if it doesn't seem to relate to it directly.

A tightly scripted thriller with an unusually well-developed main character.

[NightBird]

Thanks, bookratt, but please do a search before posting to avoid duplication. Some of these have been posted previously. Also, please do not post self-pubs. Otherwise this thread will be overwhelmed. Thanks.