FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

Joffe's Free Friday mystery this week is Murder among the Roses, which is the first in the Maybridge Murder series by Liz Fielding.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZJJLRLC
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BZJJLRLC

Spoiler:

MEET ABBY FINCH. SHE’S THE BUSY MUM OF THREE, AN EXPERT GARDENER AND THE STAR OF YOUR NEW FAVOURITE COZY MURDER MYSTERY.

In the peaceful Cotswolds village of Maybridge, you wouldn’t expect to find a dead body in the rose garden. And certainly not two.

Abby is horrified to discover the bones of a baby buried under a rose bush. It’s in the garden of her soon-to-be ex-husband Howard’s family home.

She immediately calls the police. But she can’t get hold of Howard. He’s off on a jolly with the woman he’s got pregnant.

And then, just two days later, Abby finds Howard himself.
Lying dead in the very same rose garden.
Throat slashed with her own garden spade.

Now Abby is the prime suspect . . .

The other freebies this week are a romance, and a WWII thriller, posted in their appropriate threads.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by sufue

I'm now about half-way through, and it's definitely a mystery and not a rom-com, in spite of what the cover looks like. So I'm glad I didn't cross-post it. I haven't decided yet if I like it - I like some parts a lot, and others less so. It may depend on how it ends...

The price is now $17.99, which is ridiculous. What's the point? I can't imagine there are any sales at all at that price point. I suppose the actual point is to set people up so they leap on the next price drop, but it still seems ridiculous.

I've read the blurb and a few reviews and it sounds to me as if overall it hews too closely to the source history. I personally tend to find that kind of pastiche to be tedious; I'd rather the author use it as a jumping-off point.

[sufue]

Now $1.99 in the US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OIZV98
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/betrayal-in-death-1

Originally Posted by sufue

Betrayal In Death is the twelfth in JD Robb's Eve Dallas/In Death series. It's £2.99 at Kindle UK right now, which is a bit pricey for very old backlist (2001), but eReaderIQ doesn't show it having been less since they started tracking it - in either the UK or US. So here you go...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003O86FEK
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003O86FEK

[sufue]

Dixie City Jam is now $0.99 in the US, and discountable at Kobo. My non scientifically rigorous impression is that Burke's books go on sale a lot, but rarely this low. The Kindle link still works and here's for Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dixie-city-jam-5

Originally Posted by sufue

Dixie City Jam is the seventh Dave Robicheaux book by James Lee Burke. It's $2.99 at Kindle US right now.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HOFG31O

[sufue]

Scarpetta is somewhat frustratingly (since the title makes it hard to search for independently from the series) the sixteenth book in Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series. It's $1.99 right now in the US.

KIndle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001650UQ2
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/scarpetta-3

Spoiler:

Leaving behind her private forensic pathology practice in Charleston, South Carolina, Kay Scarpetta accepts an assignment in New York City, where the NYPD has asked her to examine an injured man on Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric prison ward. The handcuffed and chained patient, Oscar Bane, has specifically asked for her, and when she literally has her gloved hands on him, he begins to talk—and the story he has to tell turns out to be one of the most bizarre she has ever heard.

The injuries, he says, were sustained in the course of a murder . . . that he did not commit. Is Bane a criminally insane stalker who has fixed on Scarpetta? Or is his paranoid tale true, and it is he who is being spied on, followed and stalked by the actual killer? The one thing Scarpetta knows for certain is that a woman has been tortured and murdered—and more violent deaths will follow. Gradually, an inexplicable and horrifying truth emerges: Whoever is committing the crimes knows where his prey is at all times. Is it a person, a government? And what is the connection between the victims?

In the days that follow, Scarpetta; her forensic psychologist husband, Benton Wesley; and her niece, Lucy, who has recently formed her own forensic computer investigation firm in New York, will undertake a harrowing chase through cyberspace and the all-too-real streets of the city—an odyssey that will take them at once to places they never knew, and much, much too close to home.

Throughout, Cornwell delivers shocking twists and turns, and the kind of cutting-edge technology that only she can provide. Once again, she proves her exceptional ability to entertain and enthrall.

[sufue]

It turns out that Leigh Perry is a pen name for Toni LP Kelner, whose Laura Fleming series I have vague but warm memories of from DTB days. And as Leigh Perry, she has more recently written the Family Skeleton series, featuring a skeleton named Sid. I haven't tried this series, which looks super cozy, but the fifth book, The Skeleton Makes a Friend, is now $0.99 at Kindle US, and so I may give it a try.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087WZ1GPR

Spoiler:

“Whodunits don’t come much funnier… Fans of offbeat comic mysteries will be richly rewarded.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Georgia Thackery is feeling pretty good about her summer job teaching at prestigious Overfeld College, and she’s renting a rustic cabin right by a lake for herself, her daughter, Madison, and her best friend, Sid the Skeleton. Together again, the trio are enjoying the quiet when a teenager named Jen shows up looking for her friend. Georgia doesn’t recognize the name, but she learns that the person Jen was looking for is actually Sid.

Sid reveals that he and Jen are part of a regular online gaming group that formed locally, and one of their members has gone missing. Sid admits that he might have bragged about his investigative prowess, enough so that Jen wants him to find their missing player. Given that Sid doesn’t have many friends offline—none, really, unless you count the Thackery family—Georgia agrees to help. They manage to discreetly enlist Jen, who lives in town, and follow the clues to... a dead buddy.

Now they've got a killer on their hands. Probing the life of Sid's friend, they realize a lot is wrong both on campus and in the seemingly quaint town, and someone doesn't want them looking deeper…

“You'll love the adventures of this unexpected mystery-solving duo.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author

[sufue]

The Singing Sands is the fifth Alan Grant book by Josephine Tey, or the sixth if you count Grant’s appearance as a minor character in The Franchise Affair. It’s on sale for $2.99 in the US right now. Of course, if you are lucky enough to be in one of the countries where copyright laws already put The Singing Sands in the public domain, you can download for free from Faded Page or Project Gutenberg Canada, and probably some other PD websites too.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0868T6YCD
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-singing-sands-19

Spoiler:

On sick leave from Scotland Yard, Inspector Alan Grant is planning a quiet holiday with an old school chum to recover from overwork and mental fatigue. Traveling on the night train to Scotland, however, Grant stumbles upon a dead man and a cryptic poem about “the stones that walk” and “the singing sand,” which send him off on a fascinating search into the verse’s meaning and the identity of the deceased. Grant needs just this sort of casual inquiry to quiet his jangling nerves, despite his doctor’s orders. But what begins as a leisurely pastime eventually turns into a full-blown investigation that leads Grant to discover not only the key to the poem but the truth about a most diabolical murder.

[sufue]

Two Burglar/Bernie Rhodenbarr books by Lawrence Block are $1.99 each in the US.

The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, #5
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCKB34
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...-like-mondrian

The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams, #6
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCKH3S
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...d-ted-williams

[sufue]

The Dark Heart of Florence is the fifteenth Lady Emily by Tasha Alexander. It's on sale in the US for $1.99. I had a review copy of this, and liked it pretty well, although I'm not a huge fan of the dual-timeline thing. But Florence as a setting helps a lot!

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BYCYKGS
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...-of-florence-3

Spoiler:

In the next Lady Emily Mystery, The Dark Heart of Florence, critically acclaimed author Tasha Alexander transports readers to the legendary city of Florence, where Lady Emily and Colin must solve a murder with clues leading back to the time of the Medici.

In 1903, tensions between Britain and Germany are starting to loom over Europe, something that has not gone unnoticed by Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves. An agent of the Crown, Colin carries the weight of the Empire, but his focus is drawn to Italy by a series of burglaries at his daughter’s palazzo in Florence—burglaries that might have international ramifications. He and Emily travel to Tuscany where, soon after their arrival, a stranger is thrown to his death from the roof onto the marble palazzo floor.

Colin’s trusted colleague and fellow agent, Darius Benton-Smith, arrives to assist Colin, who insists their mission must remain top secret. Finding herself excluded from the investigation, Emily secretly launches her own clandestine inquiry into the murder, aided by her spirited and witty friend, Cécile. They soon discover that the palazzo may contain a hidden treasure dating back to the days of the Medici and the violent reign of the fanatic monk, Savonarola—days that resonate in the troubled early twentieth century, an uneasy time full of intrigue, duplicity, and warring ideologies.

Emily and Cécile race to untangle the cryptic clues leading them through the Renaissance city, but an unimagined danger follows closely behind. And when another violent death puts Emily directly in the path of a killer, there’s much more than treasure at stake…

[sufue]

The fourth and fifth books in Dana Cameron's Emma Fielding series are $0.99 each in the US. These don't go on sale that often, so grab them if you want them...

A Fugitive Truth, #4
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VYX8TU
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-fugitive-truth

More Bitter Than Death, #5
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VYX91W
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/more-bitter-than-death

[sufue]

It looks as if Sue Henry got back the rights to some of her Jessie Arnold/Alaska books, which have been re-pubbed by Speaking Volumes, which sounds like an audiobook publisher, but doesn't seem to be. And then a bunch of others still have e-books by HarperCollins. Although the two different publishers are scattered throughout the series, which is kind of odd - usually the early books are one publisher and the later books another. But in any case, HarperCollins have been slowly putting some of the books they are publishing on sale from time to time, and now it's the ninth book, Cold Company, on sale in the US for $1.99.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OI0F8A
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/cold-company

Spoiler:

Famed Alaskan "musher" Jessie Arnold thinks she's finally put her dark past behind her. But the excavations on her new cabin unearth a decades-old skeleton entombed in a crumbling basement wall -- along with a butterfly pendant necklace worn by the alleged victim of a brutal serial slayer who preyed on area women twenty years earlier.

Pulled once more into a murder investigation against her will, Jessie fears a grim, half-forgotten nightmare has been reborn. For, in this stark and lonely place, in the first days of the all-too-brief Alaskan summer, another woman has disappeared without a trace. The signs suggest the unthinkable: an insatiable human monster has returned. And the clues she's uncovering hint that Jessie Arnold may well be his next victim.

[sufue]

Girl in a Box is $1.99 in the US right now...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W93CNQ
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/girl-in-a-box

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Bargain @ $0.99-$2.99 from assorted HarperCollins imprints in Canada & presumably the US (should be the same price in all the usual stores):

{edited other books}
[*]Girl in a Box by Sujata Massey in her Rei Shimura series starring a Japanese-American sleuth

{edited other books}

[sufue]

Hell is Empty is $1.99 right now at Kindle and Kobo US...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004IYIJ5W
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/hell-is-empty

Originally Posted by Tarana

Hell Is Empty By Craig Johnson $2.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Longmire series

{edited other books}

[sufue]

Blood Sport is an early non-series title by Dick Francis. It's $1.99 in the US right now, and discountable at Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLGD6FCJ
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/blood-sport-25

Spoiler:

With only his tormented past for company, Gene Hawkins is restlessly facing three lonely weeks of vacation. So when his boss asks for his help assisting millionaire Dave Teller locate a missing priceless breeding stallion he accepts, against his better judgement.

But he gets more action than he bargains for when he draws the attention of his boss’s daughter, advances from Teller’s socialite wife and the deadly attention of the horse thieves who would be more than happy to put Hawkins out to pasture, permanently . . .

[sufue]

Pentecost Alley is about half-way through Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series. It's $1.99 in the US right now.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042JSOA8
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/pentecost-alley-1

Spoiler:

The murder of a prostitute named Ada McKinley in a bedroom on decrepit Pentecost Alley should occasion no stir in Victoria’s great metropolis, but under the victim’s body, the police find a Hellfire Club badge inscribed with the name “Finlay Fitzjames”—a name that instantly draws Superintendent Thomas Pitt into the case. Finlay’s father—immensely wealthy, powerful, and dangerous—refuses to consider the possibility that his son has been in Ada McKinley’s bed. The implication is clear: Pitt is to arrest someone other than Finlay Fitzjames for Ada’s demise. But Thomas Pitt is not a man to be intimidated, and with the help of his quick-witted wife, Charlotte, he stubbornly pursues his investigation—one that twists and turns like London’s own ancient streets.