FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

The Brothers of Glastonbury is the seventh in Kate Sedley's Roger the Chapman series. It's on sale for $2.99 in the US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K480TA4
Kobo US (discountable): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...-glastonbury-1

Spoiler:

A traveling peddler searches for two missing brothers in medieval England in this colorful historical mystery.

"Roger the Chapman, an itinerant peddler of uncommon insight and intelligence, returns to solve another spine-tingling medieval mystery cloaked in greed, treachery, and suspense. . . . An evocative and authentically detailed historical whodunit." —Booklist

Roger the traveling chapman should be on his way home to medieval Bristol after a nice summer's peddling. But a request from his duke to escort a bride en route to her betrothed takes him toward Wells, where the groom and his brother have vanished.

Roger links the disappearances to the discovery of ancient scrolls written in a strange language. But as he deciphers the archaic tongue, he concludes that a still-greater mystery lies at the heart of the brothers' disappearance, in The Brothers of Glastonbury by Kate Sedley.

"Those who have enjoyed the sleuthing of Sedley's 15th-century peddler Roger the Chapman know what a feast of storytelling, historical detail and clever crime solving awaits. Those who haven't should give the series a try. . . . Using local legends and myths as a foundation, Sedley portrays late medieval England with remarkable clarity and vividness." —Publishers Weekly

[GA Russell]

The Phantom Detective Magazine
Spring, 1950

This includes a short story by Carroll John Daly.
If I Go in a Hearse

$1.99

https://www.radioarchives.com/The_Ph...50_p/re967.htm

[GA Russell]

Speed Detective Magazine
May, 1943

This includes a novelette by Robert Leslie Bellem.
Star Dice

$1.99

https://www.radioarchives.com/Speed_...y_p/re1411.htm

[sufue]

Many years on, The Judas Judge is $1.99 again in the US. It seems to drop to $4.99 a lot, but very rarely to $1.99, so grab it if you want it!

Originally Posted by sufue

The Judas Judge is the fifth in Michael McGarrity's excellent (IMO) Kevin Kerney series. (Note: I'm a little biased since I like mysteries set in the American southwest, where my dad's family is from...) This series rarely goes on sale, and titles are mostly ridiculously priced for old backlist at $7.99 and up, with several over $10, so it's nice that Judge has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QFBXG4/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-judas-judge

{edited other book}

[ZodWallop]

Blind Fall by Christopher Rice is $2 at Amazon and Kobo

From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice, a novel about an Iraq war vet seeking redemption and revenge when a fellow Marine is brutally murdered.

John Houck became a Marine to become a hero. But his life changed when he failed to notice an explosive device that ended up maiming his captain, a respected military man who nearly sacrificed himself to save John’s life. Home from Iraq, John pays a visit to his former captain, only to discover the captain has been gruesomely murdered. John pursues a strange man he sees running from the scene, but he discovers that Alex Martin is not the murderer. Alex is, in fact, the former captain’s secret male lover and the killer’s intended next victim.

A gripping story of honor and integrity, of turning failure into victory, Blind Fall is the story of two men who must unite to avenge the death of the man they both loved—one as a brother-in-arms, one as a lover—and to survive.

[salty-horse]

The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson is $1 on Amazon.com (only)

"Impeccably researched and astonishingly atmospheric," this historic thriller set Georgian London "is a truly spellbinding tale" ( The Guardian).
London, 1727. A historical crime novel of "scenic intrigue" ( Vogue) starring Thomas Hawkins, a rakish scoundrel with a heart of gold. Tom Hawkins refuses to follow in his father's footsteps and become a country parson. His preference is for wine, women, and cards. But there's honor there too, and Tom won't pull family strings to get himself out of debt—not even when faced with London's notorious debtors' prison. The Marshalsea Gaol is a world of its own, with simple rules: Those with family or friends who can lend them a little money may survive in relative comfort. Those with none will starve in squalor and disease. And those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate at the hands of its ruthless governor and his cronies. The trouble is that Tom has never been good at following rules, even simple ones. And the recent grisly murder of a debtor, Captain Roberts, has brought further terror to the gaol. While the captain's beautiful widow cries for justice, the finger of suspicion points only one way: to the sly, enigmatic figure of Samuel Fleet. Some call Fleet a devil, a man to avoid at all costs. But Tom Hawkins is sharing his cell. Soon Tom's choice is clear: get to the truth of the murder—or be the next to die.

[sufue]

I read most of William G Tapply's Brady Coyne series in DTB a few decades ago, and liked pretty much all of them. And since I was a docent in a local aquarium at the time, Coyne's near-obsession with fishing for rockfish made me look at our rockfish exhibit in a different light. Most of the early books in the series have been picked up by Open Road/Mysterious Press, which means they go on sale quite often, but the last several are still with Minotaur. And Minotaur books mostly don't go on sale very often, and tend to be outrageously priced when not on sale.

But right now, the twentieth book in the series, Shadow of Death, is on sale for $2.99, and it's one of the Minotaur ones, so grab it now if you want it! And it's discountable at Kobo...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FOAAPZ6
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/shadow-of-death-31

Spoiler:

Suspicious that his candidate's husband might be having an affair, the campaign manager convinces Boston attorney Brady Coyne to hire a discreet private investigator to find out what is really going on before the campaign itself is derailed. Brady is normally reluctant to get involved in this kind of domestic situation but the candidate is an old friend who has asked for his help personally. Hopeful that any odd turn of behavior will be easily explained away, Brady hires a former undercover cop turn P.I. to tail the possibly-errant husband.

What appeared to be a simple situation quickly turns deadly when Brady first gets a cryptic call from the P.I. and then the P.I. is found murdered in a car crash clearly staged to make it appear to be an accident. Since Brady is barred by attorney/client privilege from speaking to the police - and his client has refused to relinquish privilege to allow him to do so - he takes it upon himself to find out what has happened to the still missing husband and the people responsible for the murder of his colleague. From Boston's North End to the pastoral village of Southwick, New Hampshire, Brady's quest to uncover the truth leads him to face the deadly consequences of a decades-old tragedy.

[sufue]

The Moneylender of Toulouse is the fifth book in the series, and it's now $2.99 at Kindle US. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be on sale anywhere else, at least as of now.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CBFYQ5C

Spoiler:

In 1204 A.D., Theophilos, jester and agent for the Fools' Guild, is sent to Toulouse with his jester wife, infant daughter and young apprentice with one simple mission – get the current Bishop to quietly retire so that the position can be filled with one more sympathetic to the Guild's goals. Arriving just before Christmas, they quickly learn that the Bishop is in some hot water with a man widely known as the local money lender. A man who, a day after pressing the Bishop particularly hard, is found floating face down in a tanner's vat.

Now, with time running out for him to accomplish their mission and thus protect the Guild, Theophilos has but one option left: find out what actually happened the night that the Moneylender of Toulouse ended up so spectacularly dead.

Originally Posted by sufue

Back in the early 2000s, I read a few of the mysteries in the semi-historical Fools' Guild series by Alan Gordon, in DTB, and I have warm but vague memories of them. My memories are certainly too vague to spend $12.99 and up for e-book versions of backlist titles that are more than a decade old, but I did just come across the first book in the series on sale in the US and UK. So then I went and looked at the rest of the series, and it appears that most of the rest of the short six-book series does go on sale from time to time. So I've added Gordon to my eReaderIQ watch list, and we shall see what we shall see.

In the meantime:

Thirteenth Night, Fools' Guild #1
Kindle US, $2.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CBFZV9C
Kobo US, $2.99, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/thirteenth-night-1
Kindle UK, £2.39: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CBFZV9C
Kobo UK, £2.59, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/thirteenth-night-1

[sufue]

Two of the five books in Ron Corbett's short Frank Yakabusk series were award finalists, including Ragged Lake, which is the first in the series, and, per SYKM, was a finalist for the 2018 Edgar Award for Best Paperback. Ragged Lake is free right now at Kindle US and UK. I haven't read any books by Corbett, so can't offer an opinion, but WTH, it's free and you can always delete...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Y9CF69S
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Y9CF69S

Spoiler:

A murdered family. A silent town. A storm that traps them all…

Deep in the woods of the Northern Divide a young tree marker stumbles upon a gruesome scene in a small cabin — a murdered family in a pool of blood. Detective Frank Yakabuski, a battle-hardened army veteran fresh from taking down a notorious biker gang, is sent to investigate the grisly murder near Ragged Lake, a near-abandoned mill town where secrets run deeper than the snow.

But no one is talking.
Everyone is watching.
And a psychopathic killer is on the loose…

With a brutal winter storm closing in, Yakabuski gathers the few townspeople left in a remote fishing lodge. Cut off from the outside world, tensions rise and the line between witness and suspect begins to blur. Yakabuski must uncover the truth buried in this forgotten place… before the killer strikes again. Because in the Northern Divide, the past isn’t just buried. It’s waiting to claim its next victim.

RAGGED LAKE is the gripping first book in the Frank Yakabuski Mystery Series by Edgar®-nominated and Arthur Ellis Award nominated author Ron Corbett, a dark northern noir thriller filled with heart-pounding suspense and page-turning tension.

[maddz]

Snapshot by Linda Barnes (Carlotta Carlyle #5) is currently 99p at Amazon.co.uk:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00XV8A22Y

Reduced at Kobo but not to 99p but should be price-matchable. That's the last one in ebook now.

[sufue]

The Andromeda Strain is $1.99 again in the US. The links below are still good, although I did clean them up a bit...

Originally Posted by sufue

I read Michael Crichton's first book (writing as himself, at least), The Andromeda Strain, when I was a kid, shortly after it came out, and I remember it was pretty scary then. I re-read it not too long ago and it was still scary now, since a good part of what made it scary was not just the details of the "bug", or the way old computer systems used to fail (although new ones fail too), but the human nature involved - and, for better or for worse, that doesn't change much. I've read some of Crichton's other books since, and although some of them are good, I didn't like any of them as much as this one. Anyway, long intro to say that The Andromeda Strain is $1.99 at Kindle US today, as part of the Daily Deal, matched at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UH4EPS/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-andromeda-strain