FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[ZodWallop]

A couple of Dashiell Hammett Continental Op short story collections are on sale. Not sure how great a deal these are since they are around a hundred pages with three or four stories each. But they are on sale for $1.99 a piece:

Arson Plus and Other Stories: Collected Case Files of the Continental Op: The Early Years, Volume 1

The Main Death and This King Business: Collected Case Files of the Continental Op: The Later Years, Volume 2

[GA Russell]

Christmas Wedding - free
https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Wed...dp/B0086O21G8/

[sufue]

Proof of Life is the most recent in the J. P. Beaumont series by J.A. Jance. It has dropped to $3.99 as a US Kindle Daily Deal, also at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Life-Be...dp/B01MSY9DBM/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/proof-of-life-11

Spoiler:

J. P. Beaumont’s latest investigation strikes too close to home in this riveting mystery from New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance.

Be careful what you wish for . . .

Before he retired, J. P. Beaumont had looked forward to having his days all to himself. But too much free time doesn’t suit a man used to brushing close to danger. When his longtime nemesis, retired Seattle crime reporter Maxwell Cole, dies in what’s officially deemed to be an accidental fire, Beau is astonished to be dragged into the investigation at the request of none other than the deceased victim himself. In the process Beau learns that just because a long-ago case was solved doesn’t mean it’s over.

Caught up in a situation where old actions and grudges can hold dangerous consequences in the present, Beau is forced to operate outside the familiar world of law enforcement. While seeking justice for his frenemy and healing for a long fractured family, he comes face to face with an implacable enemy who has spent decades hiding in plain sight.

[sufue]

A bunch of Stuart M Kaminsky titles are on sale at Kindle US for $1.99 to $3.99. I've been away so these have been on sale for a few hours - with Open Road timing, this means they probably won't be on sale too much longer...

Titles include:

• Lieberman's Day, $3.99
• Lieberman's Thief, $2.99
• Lieberman's Choice, $3.99
• Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express, $1.99
• To Catch a Spy, $1.99
• The Big Silence, $2.99

link for all: https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?se...price-asc-rank

[sufue]

Another holiday-themed title:

Naughty by Steve Hockensmith, of Holmes on the Range fame, is a collection of nine holiday-themed short stories. It is a US Kindle Countdown deal for about 5 1/4 more days.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Naughty-Nine-...dp/B004AHKD1U/

[GeoffR]

Michel Bussi's Don't Let Go has dropped to $3.99 at Australian / New Zealand retailers (has been $16.99 / $19.99 up to now.)

[sufue]

Several Charlotte MacLeod titles have dropped to between $1.99 and $3.99 at Kindle US, including a couple at the somewhat odd price of $3.13. (Not at Kobo US, at least for now...) All have been on sale before, some for a lot less. There is also at least one omnibus of MacLeod titles floating around, maybe two, so check carefully before you buy.

Titles are:

• the holiday themed Rest You Merry, $1.99
• Murder goes Mumming, $1.99
• A Dismal Thing to Do, $2.99
• The Luck Runs Out, $3.13
• The Corpse in Oozak's Pond, $3.13
• Wrack and Rune, $3.99
• Something the Cat Dragged In, $3.99
• A Pint of Murder, $3.99

link for all: https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/?se...price-asc-rank

[sufue]

The "Dead Man in..." series, featuring Sandor Pelczynski Seymour as a somewhat unusual East End policeman sent by Special Branch to trouble spots around the British Empire in the years leading up to WWI, is Michael Pearce's other series, besides his Mamur Zapt series. I love both series.

The first title in the series, A Dead Man in Trieste, has dropped to £0.99 at Amazon UK.

link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Man-Tr...dp/B01INI2JOK/

Spoiler:

'Sheer fun' The Times

Trieste in 1906 is of vital strategic importance and one of the world's greatest seaports. But assorted nationalist movements are threatening to pull the place apart and the militarist regime has trouble keeping a lid on things.

Amid all the chaos the British consul goes missing, and Special Branch Seymour is sent to find him. Born to an immigrant family in London's East End, Seymour has an acute linguistic ear - crucial in turn-of-the-century Trieste. As he attempts to solve the riddle of the consul's disappearance, Seymour discovers dark and disturbing corners of the city and finds that it holds the secrets of his own family's past.

Praise for Michael Pearce's A Dead Man in . . . series

'The steady pace, atmospheric design, and detailed description re-create a complicated city. A recommended historical series' Library Journal

'His sympathetic portrayal of an unfamiliar culture, impeccable historical detail and entertaining dialogue make enjoyable reading' Sunday Telegraph

[Little.Egret]

Golden Age, free until Friday

The Crime at the ‘Noah’s Ark’: A Golden Age Mystery by Molly Thynne

The Draycott Murder Mystery: A Golden Age Mystery by Molly Thynne


https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...r=Molly+Thynne

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?url=sear...r=Molly+Thynne

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?url=search-...r=Molly+Thynne

[badgoodDeb]

In case others want to know the order of these before they contemplate reading:
Molly Thynne

The Uncertain Glory, in 1914, when she was 33. romance

mystery
The Red Dwarf (in the US, The Draycott Murder Mystery)
The Murder on the Enriqueta,
The Case of Sir Adam Braid

The Crime at the Noah's Ark
Death in the Dentist's Chair
He Dies and Makes No Sign

6 mysteries is all there are. The last three have recurring sleuths, and so might benefit from reading in order.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

In case others want to know the order of these before they contemplate reading:
Molly Thynne

The Uncertain Glory, in 1914, when she was 33. romance

mystery
The Red Dwarf (in the US, The Draycott Murder Mystery)
The Murder on the Enriqueta,
The Case of Sir Adam Braid

The Crime at the Noah's Ark
Death in the Dentist's Chair
He Dies and Makes No Sign

6 mysteries is all there are. The last three have recurring sleuths, and so might benefit from reading in order.

Thank you for the list.

I'll have to check to see which ones I already have.

[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/Judas-Judge-K...dp/B000QFBXG4/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-judas-judge

Spoiler:

In a remote New Mexico campground, six people are killed in an apparently senseless murder spree. Deputy State Police Chief Kevin Kerney suspects the slaying wasn’t random at all—but rather a calculated plot to eliminate one high-profile victim, retired judge, Vernon Langsford. In piecing together the judge’s shocking past, Kerney discovers the victim’s predilection for sexual indiscretions, a history of family betrayal and greed, and a dark marriage that ended mysteriously and violently. But as Kerney gets closer to the heart of a terrible crime, it’s a woman from his own past who emerges with a stunning secret of her own.

Note 2: While verifying prices for my little rant above, I noticed that the 12th and most recent, atlhough not super-recent (2008), title in the series, Dead or Alive, has been sitting at $3.99, which is not too bad, for quite a while.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Alive-Ke...dp/B001BAGW0K/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dea...n-kerney-novel

Spoiler:

“A taut and tidy thriller”(San Diego Union-Tribune) focusing on a manhunt for a deranged killer—from the nationally bestselling author who “gets better and better.”(Tony Hillerman )

Living in London while his wife serves as a military attaché at the American Embassy, recently retired Santa Fe police chief Kevin Kerney gets an early morning phone call that changes everything and sends him hurrying home to his New Mexico ranch. Riley Burke, his partner in a horse-training enterprise, has been mowed down on Kerney’s doorstep by an escaped prisoner cutting a murderous swath through New Mexico.

As the killings mount, Kerney teams up with his half-Apache son, Lieutenant Clayton Istee of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department, to hunt for a psychotic murderer with a growing appetite for blood—who has no intention of being taken alive.

[sufue]

Corpus Christmas is another holiday-themed title by Margaret Maron, this one the 6th in her lesser known Sigrid Harald series. It has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle US. And, if you weren't quite in the holiday spirit yet when Christmas Mourning (below) dropped back in November, it's still on sale too.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Corpus-Christ...dp/B007HVOV1O/

Spoiler:

A relic of Manhattan's Gilded Age, the Erich Bruel House is home to an idiosyncratic collection of art. For over sixty years it has managed on donations from the visiting public and its dwindling trust fund. But tastes in art do change and in trying to restore the house's faded luster, its trustees propose a major retrospective for renowned artist Oscar Nauman. A festive Christmas party in Nauman's honor ends in acrimony--and next morning one of the trustees is found in a most unfestive heap at the bottom of the basement steps. Lt. Sigrid Harald had been an unwilling guest and the party and now she must return to investigate why that trustee was so universally hated. As often happens when Nauman is involved, Sigrid's professional duties are complicated by her off-duty relationships.

Corpus Christmas was first published in 1989, but unlike others in this series, there is little, in a technological sense, to jar the reader unless one compulsively adds and subtracts from the few dates scattered through the text. The New York depicted here is very much as it is today, except—tragically—for the view of lower Manhattan that Sigrid enjoyed from the deck of a Staten Island ferry. Although loosely based on an amalgam of the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, and the Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill, the Breul House itself is a complete fiction.

Originally Posted by sufue

Christmas Mourning is the 16th in the much nominated/awarded Deborah Knott series by Margaret Maron. I quite like this series. It has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Mou...dp/B003YFIVAE/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/christmas-mourning

[sufue]

The Chelsea Strangler is the 11th and most recent (2016) in the Thomas Chaloner series by Susanna Gregory. It has dropped to $0.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Chelsea-Stran...dp/B0151YRAP2/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...ea-strangler-1

Spoiler:

In the sapping summer heat of 1665 there is little celebration in London of the naval victory at the Battle of Lowestoft. The King, his retinue and anyone with sufficient means has fled the plague-ridden city, its half-deserted streets echoing to the sound of bells tolling the mounting number of deaths. Those who remain clutch doubtful potions to ward off the relentless disease and dart nervously past shuttered buildings, watchful for the thieves who risk their lives to plunder what has been left behind.

At Chelsea, a rural backwater by the river, with fine mansions leased to minor members of the Court avoiding the capital, there are more immediate concerns: the government has commandeered the theological college to house Dutch prisoners of war and there are daily rumours that those sailors are on the brink of escaping. Moreover, a vicious strangler is stalking the neighbourhood.

Thomas Chaloner is sent to investigate the murder of the first victim, an inmate of a private sanatorium known as Gorges. There have been thefts there as well, but the few facts he gleans from inmates and staff are contradictory and elusive. He realises, though, that Gorges has stronger links to the prison than just proximity, and that the influx of strangers offers plenty of camouflage for a killer - a killer who has no compunction about turning on those determined to stop his murderous rampage.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Thank you for the list.

I'll have to check to see which ones I already have.

Just checked my collection (up on amazon) and saw 6 books there, and the romance wasn't among them. I didn't check the titles, but I imagine it's the *right* 6 books, since that's all she wrote. All free, all from pointers in this thread. Thanks, you pointer suppliers!