FREE/BARGAIN — Mystery, Suspense & Thrillers

[sufue]

The Graveyard of the Hesperides is the fourth in Lindsey Davis' spin-off Flavia Albia series, featuring Falco's adopted daughter as the protagonist. I've quite liked the spin-off, maybe even a bit more than the original Falco series. Hmmmm...hard to say...probably depends on my mood at the time. Graveyard has dropped to $2.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019N4X5FK
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B019N4X5FK
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...e-hesperides-2

Spoiler:

In first century Rome, Flavia Albia, the daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken up her father's former profession as an informer. On a typical day, it's small cases---cheating spouses, employees dipping into the till---but this isn't a typical day. Her beloved, the plebeian Manlius Faustus, has recently moved in and decided that they should get married in a big, showy ceremony as part of beginning a proper domestic life together. Also, his contracting firm has been renovating a rundown dive bar called The Garden of the Hesperides, only to uncover human remains buried in the backyard. There have been rumors for years that the previous owner of the bar, now deceased, killed a bar maid and these are presumably her remains. In the choice between planning a wedding and looking into a crime from long ago, Albia would much rather investigate a possible murder. Or murders, as more and more remains are uncovered, revealing that something truly horrible has been going on at the Hesperides.

As she gets closer to the truth behind the bodies in the backyard, Albia's investigation has put her in the cross-hairs---which might be the only way she'll get out of the wedding and away from all her relatives who are desperate to 'help.'

EDIT/ADD: And The Grove of the Caesars is the eighth and most recent (until July) in the Flavia Albia series. It's £0.99 at Kindle UK right now. Not sure if this is part of the monthly Kindle UK sale, or just that UK thing where they put most-recent-in-series titles at £0.99 for a brief time every now and then. So grab it now if you want it. I'll update later once I have time to look at the monthly sale, or @maddz may know already...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SVZZT8B
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SVZZT8B

Spoiler:

Don't go to the Grove . . .

Julius Caesar left his gardens to the citizens of Rome, a peaceful sanctuary across the Tiber. Now the gardens and their sacred grove are dangerous haunts, especially for women alone.

'Don't go to the Grove,' people mutter, but when her husband has to leave Rome, it falls to Albia to supervise his building project in an old grotto. Why has someone buried tattered scrolls by obscure philosophers - and does it involve a worse crime than terrible writing?

Soon that puzzle is overtaken. A woman disappears from her husband's birthday party; she meets a dire fate, then Albia learns that on the same night, two louche slaves given to her family by the brooding Emperor Domitian also vanished in the gardens. Apparently, it is well known that a killer lurks there.

The vigiles have failed to investigate properly for decades and this won't improve when the sinister agent Karus arrives. Albia must co-operate, in order to give the many victims justice and find answers for grieving relatives. But can she herself remain safe? And, after others have failed, can she at last identify the predator who has made the Grove his killing ground?

[sufue]

Now the third title, Deadly Odds, is free at Kindle US and UK.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H23N47H
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07H23N47H

Originally Posted by sufue

Another first-in-series freebie from Poisoned Pen Press...

Murder at the Filmore is the first in the Virginia Holmes series by Zelda White. It is free right now at Kindle US and UK. Also, rather oddly for PPP, the rest of the titles in the series are $0.99 each, so if you like the first one, and want to read more, you're in luck! Even more oddly, this appears to be their regular price, and each of them (per eRiq) appears to have been free at least once in the last year or two, and several more often than that. This is quite odd behavior for PPP, but if you are patient, you might be able to pick up one or more additional titles for free. No guarantees, of course, and they could go up too!

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FC7KYTC
Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FC7KYTC

[salty-horse]

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley is $1.99 on Amazon.com
This is the first Easy Rawlins mystery.

Set in the late 1940s, in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles, Devil in a Blue Dress follows Easy Rawlins, a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Monet, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.

[tch65721]

Murder on the Ballarat Train (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Book 3) by Kerry Greenwood - $0.99
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NP4S28P

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Clouds of Witness By Dorothy L. Sayers $.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Lord Peter Wimsey's brother is arrested for murder! British cozy

I found the first book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series to be too racist to be enjoyable.

[JSWolf]

@sufue what two eBooks would you recommend for the March 2021 Kindle First Reads? Thanks.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I found the first book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series to be too racist to be enjoyable.

I think it’s more helpful when people eschew criticisms of the type of book they don’t like anyway. And then when it’s a book you haven’t read....

My own opinion is that Clouds of Witness is one of the stronger books in the Wimsey canon, especially of the earlier books. In fact, it’s a good place to start, as Whose Body? has some of the issues of a first book in a series. Racism, however, is not one of them.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

I think it’s more helpful when people eschew criticisms of the type of book they don’t like anyway. And then when it’s a book you haven’t read....

My own opinion is that Clouds of Witness is one of the stronger books in the Wimsey canon, especially of the earlier books. In fact, it’s a good place to start, as Whose Body? has some of the issues of a first book in a series. Racism, however, is not one of them.

Certainly antisemitism for sure. It was not a nice book. The story was so-so if you ignore the other issues.

[sufue]

A few interesting (to me, at least) price drops, but I'm slammed for time, and can't do individual posts...

The Missing Corpse, fourth in the Brittany series, by Jean-Luc Bannalec, $2.99; I've liked all the titles I've read in this series, although I'm a little biased since I love France and books set in France...
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D2BYD53
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-missing-corpse-1

Death of a New American, Jane Prescott #2, by Mariah Fredericks, $2.99; I've read and liked the first one in this series
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D2BQGJZ
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dea...a-new-american

Girl Watcher's Funeral, Pierre Chambrun #6, by Hugh Pentecost; as I've said before, not quite sure why I like this series, but I do - I have most of them still in DTB, and happy to get some off my shelves!
Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0096LJMQ2
Kobo US (discountable): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/girl-watcher-s-funeral

[Tarana]

A Murder Too Soon By Michael Jecks $1.99 Amazon Kobo and B&N
Historical Fiction. My Mom is a huge fan of Michael Jecks but hasn't read any of this series. Jack Blackjack is an assassin apparently in the employ of Queen Mary.

Lady, Go Die! By Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N

[sufue]

I am really slammed at work, and haven't had a chance to look at the March choices yet. I typically don't know much about any of them that aren't mysteries. I'll take a look over the weekend, and see if I recognize any authores/books. Maybe others on here have already looked?

Originally Posted by JSWolf

@sufue what two eBooks would you recommend for the March 2021 Kindle First Reads? Thanks.

[sufue]

Blood Feud is the first in Mike Lupica's continuation of Robert B. Parker's Sunny Randall series. I haven't read any of Lupica's Sunny Randall continuation books, but FWIW I did read the first (Fool's Paradise) in his continuation of Parker's Jesse Stone series, and enjoyed that one. Blood Feud has dropped to $1.99 at Kindle and Kobo US.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Parker...dp/B07BD2BWDZ/
Kindle US/Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/Robert-Park...dp/B07BD2BWDZ/
Kobo US: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/rob...r-s-blood-feud

Spoiler:

Robert B. Parker's iconic and irresistible PI Sunny Randall is back, and the stakes are higher than ever as she races to protect her ex-husband--and his Mafia family--from the vengeful plan of a mysterious rival.

Sunny Randall is "on" again with Richie, the ex-husband she never stopped loving and never seemed to be able to let go, despite her discomfort with his Mafia connections. When Richie is shot and nearly killed, Sunny is dragged into the thick of his family's business as she searches for answers and tries to stave off a mob war. But as the bullets start flying in Boston's mean streets, Sunny finds herself targeted by the deranged mastermind of the plot against the Burke family, whose motive may be far more personal than she could have anticipated...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by sufue

I am really slammed at work, and haven't had a chance to look at the March choices yet. I typically don't know much about any of them that aren't mysteries. I'll take a look over the weekend, and see if I recognize any authores/books. Maybe others on here have already looked?

Thank you.Even if you just look at the mysteries, that would be good.

I have two choices. We are family linked at Amazon so we get two choices per month except when they give us two choices then that becomes four for that month.

[sufue]

Shell Game is the next-to-most-recent (if you don't count a book of short stories) in the VI Warshawski series by Sara Paretsky. Per SYKM, it won the 2019 Sue Grafton Award. It has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C2DR1CT
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C2DR1CT

Spoiler:

A SUNDAY TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH PICK

******

A V.I. Warshawski novel from the New York Times bestselling author pits acclaimed detective V.I. Warshawski against some of today's most powerful figures.

'The 19th Warshawski novel is also a panoramic vision of Chicago at a time when the city is so polarised that decent people don't know who to trust' The Sunday Times

'Paretsky is a genius' Lee Child

Legendary sleuth V.I. Warshawski returns to the Windy City to save an old friend's nephew from a murder arrest. The case involves a stolen artifact that could implicate a shadowy network of international criminals. As V.I. investigates, the detective soon finds herself tangling with the Russian mob, ISIS backers, and a shady network of stock scams and stolen art that stretches from Chicago to the East Indies and the Middle East.

In Shell Game, nothing and no one are what they seem, except for the detective herself, who loses sleep, money, and blood, but remains indomitable in her quest for justice.

[sufue]

The Price of Freedom is the 17th and next-to-most-recent in the Libertus series by Rosemary Rowe. This is another one of those series that I used to buy in paperback in the UK, when I used to have business trips there, and then read on the plane on the way home. It has dropped to £2.62 at Kindle UK. It was lower (£2.10) about a year ago, but I didn't notice it then. (Or, more properly, eReaderIQ didn't pick it up then....) But I like this series enough that I'm probably going to buy this one at this price anyway.

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077NL5B6F
Kindle UK/Smile: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077NL5B6F

Spoiler:

The death of a local tax-collector spells trouble for Libertus in this compelling historical mystery.

Having been inveigled into standing for the local curia, responsible for the submission of all local tax, Libertus discovers that any shortfall must be made good by the councillors themselves. So when news arrives that a tax-collector from a nearby outpost has committed suicide, having gambled everything away, Libertus is despatched to make enquiries, in the hope of recovering at least some of the missing revenue. He has also been asked to attend a wedding, in place of his patron, who is expecting a visit from an Imperial Legate.

But the assignment which should have seen Libertus for once treated as an honoured guest begins to take grisly and unexpected turns. As he pieces together the unlikely truth, Libertus finds himself in mortal danger. Freedom, in all forms, is only relative ? but there is a high price for it, sometimes paid in blood ?