FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[Red Falcon]

Originally Posted by tch65721

Several Rabbi Small Mysteries are currently $1.99 on Amazon.com
I know the first four are collected in an omnibus I paid only three or four dollars for in the recent past... Now every day is offered at $1.99 each.

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late
Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry
Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home
Monday the Rabbi Took Off
Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red
Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet
Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_p...price-asc-rank

[sufue]

The first two titles in Donna Leon's excellent (IMO) Commissario Brunetti series have dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US. They do occasionally go on sale, but not super often, like once a year, and usually not for very long, so if you've missed them before, here's another chance.

Death at La Fenice, #1
link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SIV41G

Spoiler:

Death at La Fenice is the first novel in Donna Leon’s internationally best-selling Commissario Guido Brunetti series. During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, a notoriously difficult conductor is poisoned, and suspects abound. Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine play a role. The novel that started it all, Death at La Fenice is an entrancing mystery, rich in atmosphere.

“Few detective writers create so vivid, inclusive and convincing a narrative as Donna Leon, the expatriate American with the Venetian heart. . . . One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever.” —The Washington Post

Death in a Strange Country, #2
link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0097CWKRS

Spoiler:

Early one morning Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice Police confronts a grisly sight when the body of a young man is fished out of a fetid canal. All the clues point to a violent mugging, but for Brunetti the motive of robbery seems altogether too convenient. When something is discovered in the victim’s apartment that suggests the existence of a high-level conspiracy, Brunetti becomes convinced that somebody, somewhere, is taking great pains to provide a ready-made solution to the crime.

Rich with atmosphere and marvelous plotting, Death in a Strange Country is a superb novel in Donna Leon’s chilling Venetian mystery series.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by BetterRead

Cold Granite, the first Logan McRae mystery by Stuart McBride, is currently $0.99 at Amazon US.
($4.99 at B&N, Kobo, and Google.)

Spoiler:

Stuart MacBride’s Number One bestselling crime series opens with this award-winning debut. DS Logan McRae and the police in Aberdeen hunt a child killer who stalks the frozen streets.

Winter in Aberdeen: murder, mayhem and terrible weather…

It’s DS Logan McRae’s first day back on the job after a year off on the sick, and it couldn’t get much worse. Three-year-old David Reid’s body is discovered in a ditch: strangled, mutilated and a long time dead. And he’s only the first. There’s a serial killer stalking the Granite City and the local media are baying for blood.

Soon the dead are piling up in the morgue almost as fast as the snow on the streets, and Logan knows time is running out. More children are going missing. More are going to die. And if Logan isn’t careful, he could end up joining them.

FYI, I just finished reading this a week ago and thought it was very good. Well-written, atmospheric, suspenseful, but not for the faint of heart. I've already added the next in the series to my TBR pile.

Thanks, Cold Granite is on special at $0.99 in Australia and New Zealand too (It is the same price at all retailers here though, not just Amazon.)

[ATDrake]

X-link to the Kobo Discounts thread for a mystery-focused Kobo Canada sale (likely matched at other Canadian retailers, may or may not also be matched in the US):

Until January 19th, “Electrifing reads to make your heart race” offers mysteries and thrillers for $4.99 CAD and under, with authors such as Agatha Christie for $1.99 and up, Elizabeth Peters, Len Deighton, Camilla Läckberg for $2.99 and up, and many more.

NB: For Christie, there's a 3-book bundle that will give you 3 Poirot tales for the price of one @ $1.99 (The Mysterious Affair at Styles is not public domain in Canada, yet). And a similarly, a 3-book Marple and a 5-book complete Tommy & Tuppence bundle (The Secret Adversary is also not PD for Canadians) for $4.99 each, which will likely be cheaper than buying the corresponding individual novels.

Last year, I bought and read Swedish author Joakim Zander's topical current affairs political/espionage thriller The Swimmer which is included in the sale at the $2.99 mark, and can give it a recommend if you think you might be into its sort of story.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

X-link to the Kobo Discounts thread for a mystery-focused Kobo Canada sale (likely matched at other Canadian retailers, may or may not also be matched in the US):

Until January 19th, “Electrifing reads to make your heart race” offers mysteries and thrillers for $4.99 CAD and under, with authors such as Agatha Christie for $1.99 and up, Elizabeth Peters, Len Deighton, Camilla Läckberg for $2.99 and up, and many more.

NB: For Christie, there's a 3-book bundle that will give you 3 Poirot tales for the price of one @ $1.99 (The Mysterious Affair at Styles is not public domain in Canada, yet). And a similarly, a 3-book Marple and a 5-book complete Tommy & Tuppence bundle (The Secret Adversary is also not PD for Canadians) for $4.99 each, which will likely be cheaper than buying the corresponding individual novels.

Last year, I bought and read Swedish author Joakim Zander's topical current affairs political/espionage thriller The Swimmer which is included in the sale at the $2.99 mark, and can give it a recommend if you think you might be into its sort of story.

I'm sorry, but I have to ask this question:

Can Kobo be held liable for any death that might occur due to "Electrifing reads to make your heart race"?

I'm especially concerned about elderly readers and anyone with a pacemaker.

[maddz]

Re Elizabeth Peters, Amelia Peabody Bks 1-4 Omnibus is £6.99, and the individual volumes of Bks 3, 13, 16 & 17 are £2.49 on Amazon and Kobo UK. Other volumes are rather more expensive (up to £6.99 each).

It doesn't like this promotion is available in the UK; I have some Amazon gift vouchers so I'll spend those.

[pdurrant]

Luckily, I bought them all for £0.99 each back in January 2014!

[sufue]

Heads You Lose is the first in the Inspector Cockrill series by Christianna Brand. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US (coupon/VIPable at Kobo).

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Heads-Lose-In...dp/B00BERBMZK/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/heads-you-lose-1

Spoiler:

In the countryside, Inspector Cockrill investigates a wartime beheading
As war rages in Europe, the citizens of London flee to the country. At Pigeonsford, a group of guests plays cards, drinks tea, and acts polite—but Grace Morland knows the strong emotions that lurk beneath the placid social surface. She’s painfully in love with Stephen Pendock, the squire of Pigeonsford, but Pendock’s smitten with young beauty Francesca Hart. One afternoon, Fran debuts a new hat, and Grace’s jealousy gets the better of her. She exclaims, “I wouldn’t be seen dead in a ditch in a thing like that!” She will soon be proven wrong.

Grace is found dead with the hat on her head—and her head removed from her neck. To the scene comes the incomparable Inspector Cockrill, who finds that far more than petty jealousy lies beneath this hideous murder.

[sufue]

Nibbled to Death by Ducks is the sixth in the Jimmy Flannery series by Robert Campbell. It is a US Kindle Countdown deal at $0.99 for about 6 1/2 more days.

link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017EFPY7C

Spoiler:

***Edgar and Anthony Award Winning Author*** Jimmy returns from a vacation down in New Orleans and finds that old Mrs. Banjo is dead and his chinaman Chips Devlin is in big trouble. Jimmy cashes in favors all over town and discovers the seemy side of Chicago politics and nursing home corruption. Late night phone calls and multiple murders lead Jimmy to feel that something stinks worse than the Chicago sewers, and if he don't find out what, his old pal Devlin could end up in a box.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'm sorry, but I have to ask this question:

Can Kobo be held liable for any death that might occur due to "Electrifing reads to make your heart race"?

I'm especially concerned about elderly readers and anyone with a pacemaker.

That would be truly shocking!

[sufue]

Pale Kings and Princes is the 14th in the Spenser series by Robert B. Parker. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Pale-Kings-Pr...dp/B002PXFYPG/

Spoiler:

"Ebullient entertainment." -- Time

A hotshot reporter is dead. He'd gone to take a look-see at "Miami North" -- little Wheaton, Massachusetts -- the biggest cocaine distribution center above the Mason-Dixon line.

Did the kid die for getting too close to the truth... or to a sweet lady with a jealous husband?

Spenser will stop at nothing to find out.

Praise for Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels

"Like Philip Marlowe, Spenser is a man of honor in a dishonorable world. When he says he will do something, it is done. The dialogues zings, and there is plenty of action... but it is the moral element that sets them above most detective fiction." -- Newsweek

"Crackling dialogue, plenty of action and expert writing... Unexpectedly literate -- [Spenser is] in many respects the very exemplar of the species." -- The New York Times

"They just don't make private eyes tougher or funnier." -- People

"Parker has a recorder's ear for dialogue, an agile wit... and, strangely enough, a soupçon of compassion hidden under that sardonic, flip exterior." -- Los Angeles Times

"A deft storyteller, a master of pace." -- The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Spenser probably had more to do with changing the private eye from a coffin-chaser to a full-bodied human being than any other detective hero." -- The Chicago Sun-Times

"[Spenser is] tough, intelligent, wisecracking, principled, and brave." -- The New Yorker

From the Paperback edition.

[sufue]

Icy Clutches is the sixth in the excellent (IMO) Gideon Oliver series by Aaron Elkins. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Clutches-Gide...dp/B00J84KRWU/

Spoiler:

Gideon Oliver expects to be amicably bored when he takes on the role of “accompanying spouse” at a lodge in the magnificent wild country of Glacier Bay, Alaska, where his forest ranger wife, Julie, is attending a conference. But it turns out to be exactly his cup of tea. There is another group at the lodge: six scientists on a memorial journey to the site of a thirty‑year‑old glacial avalanche that killed three of their colleagues. Their leader is TV’s most popular science personality, the unctuous M. Audley Tremaine, who is the sole survivor of the fatal avalanche. But he does not survive long and is soon found hanged in his room. If that is not upsetting enough, shocked hikers discover human bones emerging from the foot of the glacier—are they the shattered remains of the three who died, finally seeing daylight after their two‑mile, three‑decade journey within the glacial flow?

When the FBI seeks expert help, everyone agrees how fortunate it is that Dr. Oliver, the famed Skeleton Detective, is on the scene. Everybody, that is, but the person who wants ancient history to stay that way—and who believes that murder is the surest way to keep the past buried.

[sufue]

A Pinch of Poison is the fourth (SYKM) or third (blurb), depending on whether you count a book of short stories, in the also excellent (also IMO) Mr. and Mrs. North series by Frances and Richard Lockridge. It has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Pinch-Poison-...dp/B01AVTU7FC/

Spoiler:

At a swanky rooftop restaurant, a young woman takes her final sip

There’s a stunning view from the top of the Ritz-Plaza Hotel, but it pales in comparison to Lois Winston’s beauty. She arrives on the arm of David McIntosh—an agreeable young man who would marry her if she gave him the chance—to take in the scenery, eat a light supper, and forget the busy world below. Lois’s first cocktail lifts her spirits, helping her dispel the strange sadness that tugs at her soul, but her second drink isn’t so kind. Lois isn’t halfway done with her Cuba libre when her cheeks grow hot, her breath becomes short, and she falls dead to the floor.

Solving the case of this terribly fashionable murder falls to New York Police Department’s Lt. William Weigand, who tackles the investigation with the help of his friends, Jerry and Pamela North. The effervescent couple will catch the killer between cocktails—unless the poisoner targets their glasses next.

A Pinch of Poison is the 3rd book in the Mr. and Mrs. North Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

[sufue]

To Dwell in Darkness is the sixteenth (and next to last) in the Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James series by Deborah Crombie. It has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle US, a nice price for a next-to-last in series title.

link: https://www.amazon.com/Dwell-Darknes...dp/B00DB3A4B8/

Spoiler:

In the tradition of Elizabeth George, Louise Penny, and P. D. James, New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie delivers a powerful tale of intrigue, betrayal, and lies that will plunge married London detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James into the unspeakable darkness that lies at the heart of murder.

Recently transferred to the London borough of Camden from Scotland Yard headquarters, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his new murder investigation team are called to a deadly bombing at historic St. Pancras Station. By fortunate coincidence, Melody Talbot, Gemma's trusted colleague, witnesses the explosion. The victim was taking part in an organized protest, yet the other group members swear the young man only meant to set off a smoke bomb. As Kincaid begins to gather the facts, he finds every piece of the puzzle yields an unexpected pattern, including the disappearance of a mysterious bystander.

The bombing isn't the only mystery troubling Kincaid. He's still questioning the reasons behind his transfer, and when his former boss—who's been avoiding him—is attacked, those suspicions deepen. With the help of his former sergeant, Doug Cullen, Melody Talbot, and Gemma, Kincaid begins to untangle the truth. But what he discovers will leave him questioning his belief in the job that has shaped his life and his values—and remind him just how vulnerable his precious family is.

[sufue]

Murder as a Fine Art is the first in the Thomas and Emily De Quincey series by David Morrell. Per SYKM and the blurb, it was nominated for/won some awards when it was published. It has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle US.

link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008TUNSUW

Spoiler:

ALA Reading List Award for Best Mystery

GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL'S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts." Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.