FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

In the past few months, a few Michael McGarrity/Kevin Kerney books have been going on sale for something less than $4.99. Which just didn't happen hardly ever before. And now here's another one on sale at $1.99...

Hermit's Peak, #4
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B73HNQ8
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/hermit-s-peak

Spoiler:

Hermit’s Peak is a seminal novel in the crime fiction series that places New Mexico lawman Kevin Kerney in the pantheon with Tony Hillerman’s heroes—while carving out territory that is distinctly his own across the American Southwest.

When Kevin Kerney, deputy chief of the New Mexico State Police, inherits an unexpected windfall of 6,400 acres of high-county land, the last thing he wants to think about is work. But while visiting his new property, he comes across an ailing stray dog that leads him to the butchered bones of a murder victim near the rugged mountain of Hermit's Peak.

After assigning the case to his subordinates, Kerney returns to Santa Fe to spend time with a woman he cares about, Sara Brannon, a career army officer who is visiting him on holiday. But his time with Sara must wait, as he is called back to Hermit's Peak when another body is found at a remote cabin. Now, Kerney must unearth the shattering truth about his new land and follow a twisting trail of blood through the majestic landscape of the American Southwest.

[sufue]

Donna Andrews has done an annual Christmas/year-end holiday book since 2107, and even has a few more scattered through the years before that. And now here's her 2021 entry, The Twelve Jays of Christmas, on sale for $2.99 in the US. Even though it's a little early for Christmas (!!!), and supposed to be over 100 ºF this afternoon here in sunny southern California.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R2KZZYK
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...s-of-christmas

Spoiler:

Meg and Michael’s annual holiday celebration is well underway, with a throng of out-of-town relatives staying at their house. Hosting these festivities is a little harder than usual—they have to relocate all the events normally held in their library, currently occupied by Roderick Castlemayne, the irascible wildlife artist who’s creating twelve paintings of birds to illustrate Meg’s grandfather’s latest nature book.

Still, the celebrations continue—and the entire family rejoices to learn that Meg’s brother Rob and his longtime fiancée Delaney have finally decided to tie the knot. Unfortunately, they decide to do this in the middle of Meg and Michael’s annual New Year’s bash, dashing their mothers’ hopes of planning the wedding to end all weddings.

Delaney’s mother sneaks into town so she and Meg’s mother can secretly plot a way to talk the happy couple into having a big bash. Hiding her only adds to Meg’s holiday stress—it’s almost a full-time job fending all the visitors who want to confront Castlemayne—reporters, bill collectors, process servers, and several ex-wives in search of unpaid alimony.

Then someone murders Castlemayne in the middle of a blizzard and sets loose the birds he was painting. Can Meg help the police crack the case before the killer strikes again? Can she keep Christmas merry in spite of the body in the library? Can she negotiate a compromise between Rob and Delaney and their disappointed mothers? And can she recapture the twelve escaped jays before they begin nesting in the Christmas tree?

This intrigue-filled Christmas mystery takes readers home to Caerphilly to join in Meg's family's holiday celebration—including, of course, another baffling mystery.

[sufue]

Two more Lieutenant Bak books by Lauren Haney are $0.99 each right now in the US.

A Cruel Deceit, #6
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OI0ELS
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-cruel-deceit

A Path of Shadows, #8
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OI0ETU
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-path-of-shadows

Originally Posted by sufue

As I've mentioned a time or two or two dozen, I am a big fan of historical mysteries, and one of my favorite time periods is ancient Egypt. And one of my favorite series is Lauren Haney's 8-book Lieutenant Bak series, set in the time of the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and published in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Sadly, only six of the eight books have been made available in e-book in the US, and only one seems to be available in the UK, and they haven't gone on sale very often in the recent past. (Although a few of them seem to hang out around $4-ish, which is way too high for decades old backlist, IMO, but probably won't break the bank either...)

Happily, though, the fourth book, A Curse of Silence, is on sale right now for $0.99/£1.99 in the US/UK.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OI0EM2
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-curse-of-silence
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000OI0EM2
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-curse-of-silence

[sufue]

Another Christmas/holiday book in 100 ºF September. Bones of Holly is the twenty-fifth Sarah Booth Delaney mystery by Carolyn Haines, and it has dropped to $2.99 in the US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NTJP88G
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bones-of-holly

Spoiler:

Sarah Booth and Tinkie, along with baby Maylin, are in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for Christmas this year, as judges for the annual library tree decorating contest.

The other two judges are writers Sandra O’Day and Janet Malone. They’re bestselling Mississippi authors, but bitter competitors. In fact, the feud between them is the stuff of legends. For years, they’ve brawled, their sales skyrocketing with each cat fight. Sandra’s most recent true crime book documents the 1920s rum-running era of Al Capone, who built a mansion in BSL and a distribution network for his liquor. Janet’s book, scheduled to be published in January, is a fictional account of the same material—which only heightens their bitter rivalry.

Sarah Booth and Tinkie are shopping with little Maylin when they see Sandra and Janet outside a bookstore, fur flying, and when Sandra vanishes from her own gala later that night, suspicion turns to Janet. Janet accuses Sandra of attempting to manipulate the media by a fake disappearance, but is it a stunt, or is something more sinister at play?

Sarah Booth and Tinkie will have to dive deep into the history of Bay St. Louis, and even Al Capone himself, to get to the bottom of this case. But the trail in fact leads them back to several prominent families still residing in the area. Families who may not want their secrets known…

[sufue]

Two books in Susan Kandel's Cece Caruso series are on sale in the US right now at $0.99 each.

This cozy series features one of the best-titled books I can think of, I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason. That's definitely on my "great title" list, which I keep just for titles, regardless of the book itself. But Dreamed isn't just a great title - it was also a finalist for the 2004 Agatha Award for Best First Novel back when first published. And the last book in the series, Dial H for Hitchcock, was a finalist for the 2010 Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Shamus in the Green Room, #3
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001RS8KS8
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sha...the-green-room

Christietown, #4
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ROKXTM
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/christietown

[tch65721]

Well this popped up in an email so...
THE COMPLETE COTSWOLDS MURDER MYSTERIES by STELLA CAMERON - $.99

GET **SIX** UTTERLY GRIPPING COZY MYSTERIES IN ONE GREAT-VALUE BOX SET.
Discover your new favourite series — from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Stella Cameron
Fans of Faith Martin, Agatha Christie, Jane Adams, and Clare Chase will adore these village mysteries — along with the series’ fabulously feisty female sleuth.

No idea what a "cozy" mystery is but hey... $.99 for six!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C7H9XJRV

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by tch65721

Well this popped up in an email so...
THE COMPLETE COTSWOLDS MURDER MYSTERIES by STELLA CAMERON - $.99



No idea what a "cozy" mystery is but hey... $.99 for six!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C7H9XJRV

Google can be your friend - if you let her.

For the benefit of other Mobileread readers, try this link:

https://cozy-mystery.com/definition-...y-mystery.html

Thanks for the heads up on the special price.

AND, for 'Mobilereaders' who want MORE specials, check out Joffe and all their specials. An incredible company. Here you go:

https://joffebooks.com/

[ZodWallop]

Out by Natsuo Kirino is $3 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo.

Highly, highly recommended by yours truly. Out was an outstanding book.

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • Winner of Japan's Grand Prix for Crime Fiction • Edgar Award Finalist • Nothing in Japanese literature prepares us for the stark, tension-filled, plot-driven realism of Natsuo Kirino’s award-winning literary mystery Out.

This mesmerizing novel tells the story of a brutal murder in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works the night shift making boxed lunches strangles her abusive husband and then seeks the help of her coworkers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime. The coolly intelligent Masako emerges as the plot’s ringleader, but quickly discovers that this killing is merely the beginning, as it leads to a terrifying foray into the violent underbelly of Japanese society.

At once a masterpiece of literary suspense and pitch-black comedy of gender warfare, Out is also a moving evocation of the pressures and prejudices that drive women to extreme deeds, and the friendships that bolster them in the aftermath.

[sufue]

I’ve been traveling for my “real” job, so am a bit behind on the Joffe free books. But here is today's free book, which is a mystery...

The Body in the Transept is the first in the Dorothy Martin mystery series by Jeanne M Dams. I’ve read and enjoyed several of the books in this series back in “real paper” book days.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JVKFM1W
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08JVKFM1W

Spoiler:

It's Christmas Eve in the small town of Sherebury. Dorothy Martin, a recently widowed American, is having her first Christmas in England. But as she leaves the cathedral's midnight mass, she literally stumbles over a dead body — and it's one of the priests, Canon Billings. He wasn't very popular and the list of suspects includes most of the town . But Dorothy doesn't give up easily when it comes to finding out the truth. Of course, she does get to meet Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, and a good mystery on a chilly English night does have some appeal.

[sufue]

Circle in the Water is the 34th and most recent (April, 2024) Sharon McCone title by Marcia Muller. It has dropped to $2.99 in the US right now.

Kindle US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/circle-in-the-water
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/circle-in-the-water

Spoiler:

San Francisco is home to more than 200 privately owned streets. Most are alleyways, but a select few are lined with mansions and elaborate gardens. When several luxury estate homes are targeted in a series of so-called pranks, Sharon is hired by a coalition of concerned owners to investigate. But as things escalate—an attempt on Sharon’s life, an explosion at a meth lab, and a shocking murder—Sharon realizes far more is at play than a few misdemeanors gone wrong. The case takes a sudden turn when one of McCone & Ripinsky’s most trusted employees is implicated, and Sharon will have to dig deep to save her agency—and her life.

[GA Russell]

Popular Detective Magazine
September, 1949

includes the novelet

The Cat from Siam
by Fredric Brown

$1.99

https://www.radioarchives.com/Popula...49_p/re533.htm

[sufue]

One of Joffe's two free "books" today is a box set of the first three books in Rachel Ward's Supermarket Mysteries series. Although it calls itself "The Complete Supermarket Series", there is now a fourth book in the series, so it's not truly complete. But, it IS free!

The included books are: The Missing Checkout Girl Mystery, The Missing Pets Mystery, and The Missing Babysitter Mystery.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLYJZ62R
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLYJZ62R

Spoiler:

IN THIS THREE-BOOK BOX SET:

Book 1: THE MISSING CHECKOUT GIRL MYSTERY
The little town of Kingsleigh is a place where nothing ever happens. Until . . . a young woman is attacked in on her way home. Then one of the women on the till at Costsave doesn’t turn up for work. Checkout girl Bea Jordan is determined to get to the bottom of things. And the only person who will help is Ant Thompson, the new guy. But he doesn’t seem like he’ll be any help at all . . .

Book 2: THE MISSING PETS MYSTERY
The New Year dawns but all is not well in the little town of Kingsleigh. Three cats have gone missing in a week. Then the body of a man is found on the Bristol bypass. The post-mortem confirms the death was not an accident. Bea wants to help find the missing moggies, but with a potential murderer on the prowl, has she bitten off more than she can chew?

Book 3: THE MISSING BABYSITTER MYSTERY
Bea hasn’t seen her favourite customer Julie at Costsave for weeks. She’s starting to worry. Then a body is found on a building site. It seems to confirm Bea’s worst fears. But it turns out the body has been buried for fifteen years. Could it have anything to do with the babysitter who went missing all those years ago . . . ?

MEET YOUR NEW FAVOURITE SLEUTH
Bea Jordan has lived in Kingsleigh all her life. She works on the checkout at Costsave and really cares about her regulars. She puts her maths skills to use making sure her

customers get the best value in their weekly shop. She lives a quiet life, until she ends up investigating murders . . .

Don’t miss out on this series of unputdownable mysteries! YOU GET ALL THREE OF THE ABOVE BOOKS IN THIS EDITION.

[sufue]

A Refiner's Fire is the thirty-third and most recent (2024) book in Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series. It's £1.99 at Kindle UK right now, although sadly not at Kobo UK, at least as of now. I had a review copy of this, and although I thought it was kind of a middle-ish book in this series, the whole series is so good that a middle-ish book in this series is a pretty darn good book compared to the whole of mysteries at large.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CM5QYM19

Spoiler:

Commissario Guido Brunetti returns with a gripping and powerful case about the murkiness of power and a test of loyalties

When two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s campi, the son of a local hero is implicated. But when Commissario Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy foreigner to vet this man, Monforte, for a job, he discovers that Monforte might not be such a hero after all.

This seeming contradiction, and a brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions. Soon, he discovers the sordid hypocrisy surrounding Monforte’s past, culminating in a fiery meeting of two gangs and a final opportunity for redemption.

A Refiner’s Fire is

Donna Leon at her very best: an elegant, sophisticated storyteller whose indelible characters become richer with each book, and who constantly interrogates the ambiguity between moral and legal justice.

[sufue]

John Grisham is more thriller-ish than I tend to go for, but today's Big Deal at Kindle UK is 10 John Grisham books for £0.99 each, and that may make someone else happy...

Titles are:

• The Judge's List
• A Time for Mercy
• The Whistler
• Sparring Partners
• The Reckoning
• Rogue Lawyer
• Sycamore Row
• The Rooster Bar
• Gray Mountain
• The Litigators

Kindle UK Big Deal page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?i=digital...n%3A4725112031

[sufue]

Two more Joffe freebie mysteries (yesterday's is still free, as of now)...

Murder at the PTA Luncheon is the first in Valerie Wolzien's Susan Henshaw series. I read a bunch of these cozies in DTB back in the 1980s and 1990s and have warm, if indistinct, memories...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WJ3JMF7
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WJ3JMF7

A Murder of No Account is the first in the Eve Duncan series by Julia Underwood. Per the author's bio, and also just per its length, it's really a novella, the first of three in this short series, and the three have also been gathered in an omnibus, Murders in the Blitz. But this one's free right now, so WTH...

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E5J79N8
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E5J79N8