Free/Bargain Suspense/Mystery/Thriller March 2013

[melmac]

Originally Posted by KentE

Courting Trouble, by Lisa Scottoline, is reduced to $1.99 at the 3 majors, possibly others
Original publication 2002, Harper Collins
I've read this, along with most in the series, and found them quite enjoyable.
KentE

My mum really likes these so I'll probably pick it up for her, Courting Trouble is number 9 in the series for those that like to read in order. No 2 in the series Final Appeal is 99c at Sony and B&N, Amazon

[KentE]

Originally Posted by melmac;2451430 No 2 in the series [URL="https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/lisa-scottoline/final-appeal/_/R-400000000000000037764"

Final Appeal is 99c at Sony [/URL] and B&N, Amazon

Thanks, Melmac! I missed that one. Final Appeal is the novel Scottoline won an Edgar for, so it's a really good choice for those who aren't already involved in the series--I can't recall any that were less than excellent, however.
KentE

[NightBird]

Free Mind Kill by Richard La Plante. Fourth in the Fogarty-Tanaka Series. Originally published by Forge in 1998.

Incarcerated cult leader Justin Gabriel, convicted of ordering his followers to kill, has spent ten years honing his mind control abilities. His parole hearing is approaching—his one and only shot at freedom—and he is determined to silence anyone who might speak against him. Taking the form of a giant predatory bird, Gabriel terrorizes his enemies—those who got him convicted—through their dreams, causing heart attacks or insanity.

The last survivor is ex-cop Bill Fogarty, now retired and enjoying a new life and love. Gabriel invades Fogarty’s dreams with terrifying visions, eventually causing a mental breakdown and institutionalization.

Fogarty’s longtime friend and former colleague, Philadelphia medical examiner Josef Tanaka, desperately tries to put the pieces together in time to save his friend. But will these two men, accustomed to the clinical realities of autopsy tables and precinct desks, be able to fight for their lives in the realm of the Dreamtime?

[Mort1997]

UK link to the Mind kill book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Kill-Fo...3164303&sr=1-6

[NightBird]

Free suspense/horror: The Boat House by Stephen Gallagher. Originally published in 1991.

A dark love story, and a disturbing tale of a divided soul. In the days leading to the fall of the Soviet empire, a young woman with a deadly secret slips unnoticed into the West. And when Alina Petrovna first appears in Three Oaks Bay it's clear that her frail, luminous beauty is likely to cause some ripples in the surface calm of the peaceful resort town.

For Pete McCarthy, the boatyard worker who gives her shelter, she's an enigma. A complex, well-meaning young woman with a difficult past. Someone whose mystery deepens as the season gets under way, and the deaths by drowning begin...

Free from Endeavor Press: Fall Guy by John Dodd.

Run him over.

Drown him.

Or shoot him.

It seems like everyone is out to get Stan Arkle.

Even the police.

With his marriage on the rocks, and his employer threatening him with the sack, newspaper photographer Stan Arkle returns to the town on the South coast where he grew up.

His best friend from the old days is dead - murdered.

Now someone wants to kill Stan as well.

But why?

On the run from everyone, he must learn the dark secrets of the town he thought he had left behind years ago.

Can he unlock the devastating mystery before it is too late? Or will Stan become the Fall Guy for someone else's crime?

[mitford13]

Down to .99 on Amazon:

Blood Men by Paul Cleave

Mixed takes from PW & Booklist, so I'll list 'em both for your discernment:


From Publishers Weekly
New Zealander Cleave's disappointing U.S. debut focuses on the son of a notorious serial killer. When Edward Hunter was nine, his father, Jack (aka "Jack the Hunter"), was convicted of murdering 11 prostitutes in Christchurch, New Zealand. In the 20 years of Jack's incarceration, Edward hasn't spoken to or visited him once. Edward is doing okay in his struggle to get over his past until the day shortly before Christmas he and his wife, Jodie, get caught in the middle of a violent bank heist that leaves Jodie dead. Edward, who has always feared that he'll turn out like his father, is shocked when Jack contacts him from prison and encourages him to seek revenge on the robbers. He's even more shocked when he takes Jack's advice. While Cleave (The Cleaner) explores intriguing concepts-- particularly the gray area between guilt and innocence--and the steady stream of blood never feels gratuitous, too many subplots and character motivations compete for anything to truly resonate.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
What was it like to grow up with a serial killer as a father? Edward Hunter knows: his father has a monster inside him, and although he's now in prison, his legacy is something Edward has always feared. But Edward is nothing like his father. He has a good life—friends, a job, a loving wife, and a child he adores. All that changes though, the moment he calls out to save a bank teller from being killed during a hold-up, and the robbers kill his wife instead. What has he done? How can he fix it? When the police work too slowly, Edward decides to investigate himself, and as he does, he connects with feelings he has denied his whole life—and discovers his own terrible monster. Compelling, dark, and perfectly paced, New Zealand writer Cleave's psychological thriller explores the evil lurking in us all, working relentless magic until the very last page. There's nary a misstep in this riveting thriller about the bad deeds even good men sometimes do. --Stephanie Zvirin

[NightBird]

From Deadly Niche Press: Detective Elliot Boxed Set by Bob Avey for $1.99. Three books and one short story in the set. Footprints of a Dancer was free recently.

This boxed set contains three full-length novels!

More than 242,000 words!

Twisted Perception: over 75,000 words – #1 Amazon Hard-Boiled Mystery

Porter, Oklahoma, holds a dark secret-and troublesome dreams plague Tulsa Police Detective, Kenny Elliot, who grew up in the small town. When a bizarre murder catapults Elliot into his past, he’s brought face-to-face with the fabric of his nightmares. A shiny necklace dangles from the rearview mirror of the vehicle where Lagayle Zimmerman, the victim, is discovered. Nine years earlier, in Porter, a similar necklace swung from the mirror of a Mustang that harbored the mutilated bodies of Elliot’s friends, Jonathan Alexander (Johnnie Boy), and Marcia Barnes. Most of the town believed Elliot killed his classmates, but no arrest was ever made. Risking his job and his sanity, Elliot digs into his past to solve the murders and expose the truth.

Beneath a Buried House: over 83,000 words – #1 Amazon Hard-Boiled Mystery

Things aren’t always what they seem. Tulsa Police Detective, Kenny Elliot’s quest to uncover the truth behind the death of a transient makes him a target – from whom or what he isn’t sure. When he brushes the dirt from the surface of an apparent John Doe overdose case, he finds a labyrinth of misdirection and deception beneath, and a trail, which leads him to an encounter with an aberration in human nature, the likes of which he’s not prepared to deal with.

Drawing on his strength of character, and sense of right and wrong, he wrestles with deep personal feelings to solve the case.

Footprints of a Dancer: over 78,000 words - the newest Detective Elliot Mystery

Most of us come into this world with an inborn need for religion, a higher power to believe in. However, when fear and misunderstanding are the driving forces behind that desire, the door is left open for anything that cares to enter.

Eight years ago, Laura Bradford mysteriously disappeared off campus, causing quite a disturbance in the lives of Kenny Elliot and Gerald Reynolds, a journalism student with a fascination with Mesoamerican artifacts. When Gerald calls unexpectedly to tell Elliot he’s recently seen Laura then sets up a meeting only to be a no-show, Elliot tracks him down to get some answers. Instead he finds his old friend murdered in ritualistic fashion.

Elliot takes a leave of absence from his job as a Tulsa police detective and launches an unofficial investigation, which leads him into a fuzzy realm of existence where malignant forces blur the lines between what is real and what is imagined, and where making the wrong choices is eternally expensive.

BONUS! a 5,000-word short story featuring Detective Elliot -- “A Passion for Laura.”

[Dr. Drib]

On the Detective Elliot Boxed set:

Am I the only one who's amused to find that the author made the image of each book like....you know, like......humongously thick?

It looks like they take up more space on the shelf than the full "President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy"!

Oh, authors.....such delicate, fragile egos!



Don

[DrNefario]

83,000 words isn't even very long. My own pet hate is calling it a boxed set (although thankfully not a box set, as I often see) when there is clearly no box.

[NightBird]

83,000 words is just for one book. The whole set is 242,000 words.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

83,000 words isn't even very long. My own pet hate is calling it a boxed set (although thankfully not a box set, as I often see) when there is clearly no box.

In the UK, that would almost certainly fall foul of the Trades Descriptions Act - it's false advertising.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by NightBird

83,000 words is just for one book. The whole set is 242,000 words.

Yes, but it's the thickest book, and it's not going to be as thick as it looks in the image unless it's printed on card. Or the book is actually only a couple of inches high.

I don't ultimately mind if it's good, but I'm giving this one a miss to help control my TBR.

[BelleZora]

Free today at Amazon: Cold Fear by Rick Mofina, first published by Pinnacle, 2001.
UK

In the remote, rugged corner of Montana’s Glacier National Park known as the Devil’s Grasp, little Paige Baker of San Francisco disappears with her dog, Kobee, while on a camping trip with her family; or so her mother and father have told authorities.

A multi-agency task force launches a massive search as Paige fights to survive in the wilderness. Time hammers against her and soon the nation is gripped by the life-and-death drama.

Secretly, behind the scenes, the FBI grows suspicious of Paige’s parents. Their recent history and disturbing evidence links them to a horrible secret from the past.

Rick Mofina is a former crime reporter and the award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers.

[BelleZora]

Free today from Amazon: Where's Billie? by Judith Yates Borger, first published by Nodin Press, 2009.
UK

From Publishers Weekly

Borger, a former reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, successfully taps into a parent's constant concern—how to protect children in an increasingly dangerous world—in her compelling debut, the first in a series to feature Marguerite Skeeter Hughes, a Minneapolis Citizen reporter. While researching a story on a missing 18-year-old girl, Billie Berry, Skeeter soon senses something complex developing, especially after Billie's sleazy ex-boyfriend tells her he's heard Billie might be turning tricks and doin' meth. Further research takes Skeeter to the Mall of America, where she spies a handsome middle-aged man buying Abercrombie & Fitch clothes for a cute teen he's just met. Skeeter is horrified after she discovers the wolf is a middle-school principal. More snooping leads to threats to Skeeter's life as well as her marriage to a fellow reporter. Readers will want to hear more of Skeeter's punchy, first-person voice.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Free today from Amazon: Where's Billie? by Judith Yates Borger, first published by Nodin Press, 2009.
UK

Amazon US link for Where's Billie?