FREE/BARGAIN - Mystery, Suspense, Thriller - 2015

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by crich70

All three are just .99 at Amazon.

8 British Detective Novels: Box Set
Amazon Us

Triple Murder Boxset
Amazon US


12 Rounds: Twelve Thrilling reads
Amazon US

Only ONE murder in each book? ["Triple Murder Boxset".]

That's rather disappointing!


-------------------------------
On one of the other boxed sets, it's priced at $0.99

Yet, the promotional copy says this:

Over 1500 pages of adrenaline filled, heart thumping action for a buck!

Now I'm confused!

[ATDrake]

Free from the author('s republishing consortium) @ Kobo and thence price-matched to selected regional Amazon stores (not free for Canadians).

Trick Question by Tony Dunbar (SYKM), 3rd in his Edgar & Anthony-nominated Tubby Dubonnet series of humorous hard-boiled mysteries starring a New Orleans foodie lawyer, for which we've previously received other installments, this one originally out from Berkley in 1996.

DUNBAR'S INVENTED A NEW GENRE: CALL IT CREOLE-FOODIE-NOIR.

For the discerning reader who enjoys a knowing chuckle, a sazerac, a bit of pompano en papillote, and a running travelogue of New Orleans along with his murders…

Medical lab janitor Cletus Busters is caught red-handed in a restricted area with the frozen head of Dr. Whitney Valentine, one of the lab's most prestigious researchers. Busters won't say much, except that he's innocent. But given his conspicuous record and past as a voodoo guru, all signs point to life in prison.

Calling Tubby Dubonnet!

With the trial less than a week away, Busters' lawyer has made exactly two motions - heading to the bar for several rounds of Wild Turkey and begging Tubby for help. Meanwhile, Tubby's taken on a new client - a female boxer with an abusive boyfriend - and also has to referee the romantic entanglements of his ex-wife and three teenage daughters.

But as Buster's trial proceeds, and the jury savors the startling evidence (alongside Dunbar's succulent descriptions of Crescent City cuisine), the danger mounts. Revealing the murderer could prove to be Tubby's biggest triumph – or his last case ever.

Warning: Do not attempt to read this book without a handy snack – preferably a Hubig's pie or a pack of Zapp's potato chips. Both would be better.

There's also a freebie tie-in short story available: Envision This @ Kobo & price-matched to selected Amazon regional stores (not free for Canadians).

Free from the author('s republishing consortium) via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Full House by Shelley Singer (SYKM), 3rd in her Samson & Vicente series of California-set mysteries (filed as cozy in the categories and sometimes described as such in the blurbs, YMMV) starring a Jewish ex-cop and a lesbian carpenter for which we've previously received others in the series free, this installment originally out from St. Martin's Press in 1986.

A CULT LEADER, A CACHE OF CASH, AN UNHOLY MESS!

An ark in the middle of suburban Oakland was interesting but not strange by California standards. Even one built by peaceful cultists preparing for the coming flood. Until sometime private eye Jake Samson is hired to find Noah, their leader, who has disappeared with a lovely devotee and a quarter million in cash. The cult suspects foul play. The police aren’t convinced.

As Jake and his carpenter sidekick, Rosie, trail the wealthy visionary from a health-food factory in Sonoma to a casino in Tahoe, thugs, drugs and the murdered body of Noah’s attractive assistant add up to a lot less than a biblical tale. And Jake's got a gut feeling the floodgates are just the beginning to open.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

That sounded interesting, so I got it.

Thank you.

Did you notice, on the sample, the different size text? Someone needs a lesson in formating....

Sample ?

On Amazon.co.uk you can't get a sample for a freebie and have to use Look Inside which I expect to be different size anyway.

[pendragginp]

Yes, you don't get a sample for a freebie here in the US either.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Sample ?

On Amazon.co.uk you can't get a sample for a freebie and have to use Look Inside which I expect to be different size anyway.

I used the wrong terminlogy. I meant that I looked at the Look Inside feature to see the screwed-up formatting.

The point size changes haphazardly, with no rhyme or reason. I call this 'screwed-up,' but a more forgiving critic might view this as standard fare from an ignorant, yet well-meaning author.

[sufue]

Two books by Endeavour Press author J.M. Gregson are on special.

A Turbulent Priest, the fourth in the Detective Inspector Percy Peach and Detective Sergeant Lucy Blake series, is free at Amazon US for an unknown amount of time.
link: http://www.amazon.com/Turbulent-Prie.../dp/B00OROA61I

Spoiler:

After five weeks of dry weather, the fields and roads of Lancashire are suddenly flooded by heavy Bank Holiday rain.

Roads are blocked, streams become impassable, and debris that has lain stagnant in the summer weeks is uprooted.

Among that debris - a body.

Detective Inspector Peach, with the help of Detective Sergeant Lucy Blake, must solve a case that, had it not been for the freak weather, would have lain undiscovered for years.

The body is identified as Father John Bickerstaffe.

But who would want to kill a man of religion who was widely respected in the local community?

As DI Peach and DS Blake delve into the life of the Priest, they soon discover that he is not the only victim in this case...

When the Bishop Hogan summons them to reveal shocking details of the secret life of Father Bickerstaffe, they realise that he had a terrible secret.

A secret which caused not only his downfall, but also his death.

Recently disgraced, Father Bickerstaffe left a wealth of potential killers in his wake.

As the case unravels, and the potential suspects stretch from religion to politics, DI Peach and DS Blake must ask, how far would a parent go to protect, or to avenge, their child?

'A Turbulent Priest' is a gripping crime thriller by a master of the genre.

Praise for J M Gregson:

‘Begins with quiet observation before pouncing to murderous effect’ - Sunday Express

‘A chilling story that never flags from start to finish’ - Bolton Evening News

J M Gregson is a Lancastrian by birth and upbringing. He taught for twenty-seven years in schools, colleges and universities before taking early retirement to concentrate on full-time writing. He has written books on subjects as diverse as golf and Shakespeare.

And Making a Killing (also pub as For Sale, with Corpse) is a repeat US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 3 1/2 more days, before going up to $3.99
link: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Killing.../dp/B00L5T9P6K

Spoiler:

Lydon Hall is, as the estate agent's brochure puts it, a house full of character.

But its many interesting features should surely not include a corpse in the elegant drawing-room?

Is this death the suicide it appears to be?

Superintendent John Lambert and Sergeant Bert Hook are brought in to investigate the tight-knit village community which houses Lydon hall.

And everyone one they meet seems suspicious.

From the glamorous French widow of the deceased to the man living rough on the moor they all seem to know more about this death than is at first apparent.

Moreover, it gradually emerges that the staff of the estate agency he owned all had their different reasons for disliking the dead man…

‘Making a Killing’ is a chilling, expertly-plotted mystery story. It is perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson.

Praise for J M Gregson:

‘Begins with quiet observation before pouncing to murderous effect’ - Sunday Express

‘A chilling story that never flags from start to finish’ - Bolton Evening News

James Michael Gregson taught for twenty-seven years in schools, colleges and universities before concentrating on full-time writing. He has written books on subjects as diverse as golf and Shakespeare. His other crime novels include ‘Stranglehold’ and ‘Body Politic’.

[Fbone]

Smoked by Patrick Quinlan is FREE today at Amazon. Orig pubbed in 2006 by St Martin's Press.

http://smile.amazon.com/Smoked-Book-...smoked+quinlan

[Lynx-lynx]

Kobo UK has Peter May's:

Entry Island
99p

blurb:

When Detective Sime Mackenzie is sent from Montreal to investigate a murder on the remote Entry Island, 850 miles from the Canadian mainland, he leaves behind him a life of sleeplessness and regret.

But what had initially seemed an open-and-shut case takes on a disturbing dimension when he meets the prime suspect, the victim's wife, and is convinced that he knows her - even though they have never met.

And when his insomnia becomes punctuated by dreams of a distant Scottish past in another century, this murder in the Gulf of St. Lawrence leads him down a path he could never have foreseen, forcing him to face a conflict between his professional duty and his personal destiny.

This is the first book of a new series.

All other Kobo sites are priced at normal (dear) price. Amazon not cheap either.

Note: Peter May wrote the Lewis Man trilogy (as a mind jogger)

[ATDrake]

Free from the author('s republishing consortium) via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Huckleberry Fiend by Edgar Award-winner Julie Smith (SYKM, Wikipedia), 2nd in her Paul MacDonald mystery series starring an ex-reporter turned mystery writer, originally out from Mysterious Press in 1987.

The most priceless American manuscript in existence has unceremoniously dropped into Paul Mcdonald's hands--now what?

In between much-needed therapy sessions, Paul's neurotic friend Booker the burglar stole it from his dad’s girl friend’s roommate, and now wants sometime-sleuth Paul to find its rightful owner. Because he’s pretty sure the roommate's not it.

Paul is so awed he can hardly bring himself to touch it. It’s none other than the missing holograph of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And Beverly the roommate's no librarian, she’s a flight attendant, so Booker suspects chicanery. He’s only too right: Beverly, it turns out, is dead. Murdered for the manuscript, if Paul’s guess is right.

He finds out it’s in high demand from a zany collection of collectors, Huckleberry Fiends of all stripes of crazy, every single one of them capable of murder. Suddenly he’s the protagonist of A Literary Nightmare, surrounded by Mysterious Strangers, playing out A Double-Barrelled Detective Story involving A Stolen White Elephant and pretty much Roughing It with the bullying Homicide Inspector Howard Blick.

Also free again from the author('s republishing consortium) as a long-term promo @ Kobo and thence price-matched to selected regional Amazon stores (available to Canadians):

Death Turns a Trick by Julie Smith, 1st in her Rebecca Schwartz humorous mystery series starring a Jewish feminist lawyer, originally out from Walker in 1982.

Rebecca Schwartz, nice Jewish lawyer with a few too many fantasies, is happily playing the piano in a whorehouse when she suddenly finds herself assigned to make sure a near-naked state senator escapes a police raid. That dirty job done, a lovely evening turns even more delightful when she’s picked up by the cops and spends the next two hours at the Hall of Justice. Could this day get any worse? Of Course! Guess who arrives home to find a dead hooker on her living room floor!

Handsome Parker Phillips, Rebecca’s new beau and the most attractive man she’s met in ages, is arrested for the murder. (Worse, she suspects he might actually have done it.)

On the plus side, another very attractive man is following the case--reporter Rob Burns of the San Francisco Chronicle, a possible ally. And there are other possibilities.

Apparently, it looks like Smith has finally taken a large chunk of her backlist off of KDP Select exclusive and made them available @ Kobo (couponable) and other stores for a fairly low starting price.

Incidentally, there's a 99 cent bargain for a boxed set of 5 backlist novels from established mystery authors, should be available in all the regular Canada & US stores, maybe other regions as well, and couponable @ Kobo, here:

Killer Femmes: 5 Irresistible Crime Novels From Around the World Boxed Set, including novels by Julie Smith, Sujata Massey, Christine Kling, Zoe Sharp, and fellow MR member author Libby Fischer Hellman, all of which have been previously trad-published (and some of them were free via KDP Select a couple of years ago, but if you missed that, this is a really good price for them, especially if you can apply couponage).

[sufue]

A few more US Kindle Countdown deals:

In Good Faith by Scott Pratt is the 2nd in Pratt's Joe Dillard series. It's at $0.99 for about 1 1/2 more days before going up to $1.99.
link: http://www.amazon.com/Good-Faith-Joe.../dp/B00A1AXDIA

Spoiler:

A family of four is slaughtered in rural Tennessee.

Two weeks later, a retired high school principal and his wife are brutally slain.

Two Satan-worshipping teens stand accused.

It’s up to prosecutor Joe Dillard to convict them. A former defense attorney who spent way too much time defending people he knew were guilty, Joe is determined to win this case to atone for his past. But an evil young woman named Natasha is responsible for the slayings and Joe knows it. Natasha is walking around free because the two boys who have been arrested are too terrified to implicate her. Now Joe must risk everything -- including his family's safety and his own life -- to bring an evil murderer to justice.

"This book was so intense it was scary." -- M. Cottrill, Dallas, Tex.

"The book ends up moving along like a thriller should; at breakneck speed." -- N. Bilmes, Vernon, Conn.

"This author is a must read if you love attorney and courtroom thrillers." -- Kenneth J. George, Detroit, Mich.

"Better than the old Grisham." -- Tompat, Melbourne, Fla.

The Next President is a non-series title by Joseph Flynn. It's at $1.99 for about 4 1/3 more days before going up to $3.99.
link: http://www.amazon.com/Next-President.../dp/B004IEAATA

Spoiler:

J.D. Cade came home to southern Illinois from Vietnam and thought he’d never have to kill again. He was wrong. Someone starts blackmailing him. Not only does this new anonymous enemy know J.D.’s darkest secrets, he also implicates J.D.’s son in a death that could reignite a blood feud.

The blackmailer wants J.D. to use his deadly skills to assassinate Senator Franklin Delano Rawley — the first African-American with a chance to become president of the United States.

In order to save his son, spare Rawley and emerge alive, J.D. must somehow find out who is behind a conspiracy that could change the fate of a nation.

(First published in June, 2000 — eight years before the election of Barack Obama. Also published before the first season of "24.")

Traitor's Exit is the 6th in the Boysie Oakes series by John Gardner. It's on repeat Countdown at $0.99 for about 3 1/3 more days before going up to $3.99.
link: http://www.amazon.com/Traitors-Exit-.../dp/B00KXFDA3Q

Spoiler:

Rex Upsdale is a spent, washed-out spy writer.

His trade has worn him down to the bone, and he sits alone, rejected and punch-drunk and full of self-pity. Reality and fiction have become mixed in his mind.

In increasing financial trouble, he is offered some semblance of security if he will take on just one journalistic assignment behind the Iron Curtain.

All that’s required is an interview with Kit Styles, the most notorious of all defectors from West to East.

But it’s not as straightforward as he thinks.

He hasn’t reckoned with the eternally incompetent and feckless Boysie Oakes; his puppet master, Mostyn; a neatly curved companion, Miss Hester Havisham; exploits, escapes and escapades in a tank and a helicopter and an outrageous group calling themselves the International Travelling Circus.

And if he is not careful, the Traitor's Exit might also be his own.

John Gardner, whose Boysie Oakes has become required reading for spy lovers since he first appeared in ‘The Liquidator’, has written a tale that’s part satire, part farce, always zany and certainly not for those who take their spy fiction too seriously.

'Cool polished story-telling with all the sexy sidelines in the best James Bond tradition' Evening Standard

Before coming an author of fiction in the early 1960’s John Gardner was variously a stage magician, a Royal Marine officer and a journalist. In all Gardner has fifty-four novels to his credit, including Maestro, which was the New York Times book of the year. He was also invited by Ian Fleming’s literary copyright holders to write a series of continuation James Bond novels, which proved to be so successful that instead of the contracted three books he went on to publish some fourteen titles, including Licence Renewed and Icebreaker. Having lived in the Republic of Ireland, the United States and the UK, John Gardner sadly died in August of 2007 having just completed his third novel in the Moriarty trilogy, Conan Doyle’s eponymous villain of the Sherlock Holmes series.

The Tortured Detective by Peter Irwin is a repeat Kindle US Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 3 1/3 more days before going to $3.99.
link: http://www.amazon.com/Tortured-Detec.../dp/B00L5C644S

Spoiler:

1942. Paris is a city under occupation.

Detective Inspector Lafarge, a former prisoner of war, is sent to investigate the murder of the beautiful young film actress Marguerite Suchet.

The man who has called upon him is the Vichy chief of police René Bousquet - who Lafarge despises.

The chief suspect is a lawyer and avowed anti-Nazi, Pierre-Yves de Chastelain.

But is he only being targeted because of his run-ins with the law before the war broke out?

Lafarge quickly discovers that both Bousquet and an Abwehr officer who was the lover of the film star are equally suspect.

Have they found an easy suspect to become the fall guy?

And are they manipulating Lafarge, and the law, to cover their own tracks?

As Lafarge becomes increasingly repelled by his colleagues’ behaviour towards all those who oppose the Nazis, he must question the allegiances and loyalty of everyone around him...and ultimately his own as well.

‘The Tortured Detective’ is an exciting historical thriller set amidst the complex divided loyalties of France during World War II.

'A brilliant detective story that captures the tensions of the era.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'Trade Off.'

Pirate Irwin is a journalist and author based in Paris. As a sports journalist he has covered nearly every single major world sporting event reporting from four Football World Cups to four Olympic Games. His first novel was 'The Twisted Patriot' which was nominated for the Amazon debut novel award, the Breakthrough award.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by sufue

A few more US Kindle Countdown deals:

Traitor's Exit is the 6th in the Boysie Oakes series by John Gardner. It's on repeat Countdown at $0.99 for about 3 1/3 more days before going up to $3.99.
link: http://www.amazon.com/Traitors-Exit-.../dp/B00KXFDA3Q

I enjoy all the Boysie Oakes stories, and recommend them.

By coincidence, Rod Taylor, the actor who played Boysie (in The Liquidator with Trevor Howard and Jill St. John), passed away the other day.

[GA Russell]

Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth - free
http://www.amazon.com/Crooks-Spoil-B...ooks+cookbooks

This includes Amish recipes.

[sufue]

Open Road are having a "Brooklyn Grit" sale with ten mysteries at $1.99, for an unknown amount of time. Usually I get emails about their sales, but just stumbled on this one, so don't know how long it is good for. Often their sales seem to be for the month, but unless someone else can confirm, don't count on it!

The ten titles are:

Gabriel Cohen: Red Hook
Peter Blauner: Slow Motion Riot
Stanley Ellin: The Dark Fantastic
Lawrence Block: The Specialists
Joseph Koenig: Little Odessa
Lawrence Sanders: The First Deadly Sin
Stuart Palmer: The Green Ace
Don Winslow: A Long Walk up the Waterslide
Stephen Solomita: Force of Nature
Donald E. Westlake: A Jade in Aries

The link to the sale page at Open Road Media is: http://www.openroadmedia.com/brooklyngrit?

And from that page you can go to any of the various retailers by clicking on the "Buy the Ebook" button and then choosing from the drop-down menu.

I checked all of these at Kobo US, and they are all $1.99 (and presumably couponable) there. Also all $1.99 at Amazon US.

Many of these have been on sale before, but a couple were new to me.

[Alohamora]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth - free
http://www.amazon.com/Crooks-Spoil-B...ooks+cookbooks

This includes Amish recipes.

Nice thank you. I've enjoyed reading a few of her Den of Antiquity series some time back. I see the second and third books in the Amish series are reduced as well.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

The Death of Ronnie Sweets (and Other Stories) by Shamus Award-finalist Russel D McLean (SYKM) with an introduction by Shamus Award-winner Sean Chercover (SYKM), a collection of his hardboiled noir-ish mystery shorts starring Scottish PI Sam Bryson, originally published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and other outlets.

Before he introduced the world to Scottish Private Investigator J McNee, award-nominated crime writer Russel D McLean wrote a series of gritty short stories featuring PI Sam Bryson, a young investigator with a strong sense of justice that is tested to the limit as he walks the mean streets of Scotland's fourth largest city.

The Death of Ronnie Sweets collects all the original Sam Bryson stories in one volume, with an introduction by award-winning US author Sean Chercover and an afterword by the author.

Many of these stories first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine while others were published by Thrilling Detective Mystery Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine and Needle Publishing. They run the gamut from two-fisted tales of justice to studies of characters who find themselves in the darkest of situations. A heady mix of homage to the American hardboiled and the modern Scottish noir, these stories demonstrate why Russel D McLean is "not to be missed by fans of straight-up hardboiled noir."

Free again from the author('s republishing consortium) via KDP Select @ Amazon:

PI On a Hot Tin Roof by Edgar Award-winner Julie Smith (SYKM, Wikipedia), 4th in her PI Talba Wallis series of humorous mysteries (the subtitle calls them cozy, although aren't those supposed to involve amateur sleuths?) set in New Orleans, this one originally out from Forge in 2005.

Your lawyer needs you to bail her out? Isn’t that kind of backwards?

So thinks PI Talba Wallis, on her way to Parish Prison—and indeed something’s badly amiss.

New Orleans’ most dynamic detective duo, poet/computer genius Talba and street-savvy Luddite Eddie Valentino, have a personal interest in this one—Eddie’s lawyer daughter Angie’s been set up for a drug bust.

Prominent Judge Buddy Champagne’s the obvious perp and Talba’s so mad she embeds herself in his house as a spy—but she doesn't count on ending up with a family straight out of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; nor did she realize how involved she was going to get—especially with Buddy’s 14-year-old daughter Lucy.

It works, though, She uncovers plenty of evidence the judge is dirty. And then things get ugly: Somebody kills Buddy and Talba’s true identity comes to light. The Champagnes hate her at this point, but guess what? They hire her to solve the case.

There are plenty of mysterious twists and turns on the way to an ending guaranteed to surprise—but the real joy here is in the relationships, especially Talba’s with Lucy, who, it turns out, is a budding poet. And with another little girl, her boy friend’s bratty daughter Raisa. She’s SO not prepared for quasi-motherhood!