Free/Bargain Suspense/Mystery/Thriller November 2012

[NightBird]

Free cozy mystery - Murder in the Round by Patricia Rockwell from Cozy Cat Press, small publisher specializing in cozy mysteries. This appears to be the latest (fifth) book in the series.

A night out with her husband to watch her best friend perform in a local community theater “in-the-round” production surely shouldn’t be cause for amateur sleuth Pamela Barnes to use any of her acoustic detecting skills. But when one of the actresses collapses on stage and dies, Pamela finds herself in the thick of things. The recorder in her purse making an audio copy of the performance for another friend who couldn’t attend, may now prove important when it’s determined that the victim was poisoned. Do the sounds on the recording hold any clues to the identity of the murderer? It looks like Pamela is on the sound trail again, and she––and her pals in the Pyschology Department at Grace University––will not stop until they find the person who committed this murder in the round.

The first two books in the series are $.99 each and two others $2.99 each.

http://www.amazon.com/Patricia-Rockw...011&sort=price

[BelleZora]

Free today from Amazon: In For a Penny (Cleopatra Jones #1) by Maggie Toussaint, a cozy from Muddle House Publishing. First published in hardcover in 2008, it is highly rated at Goodreads.

Amazon US
Amazon UK

Amateur sleuth Cleopatra Jones of rural Hogan’s Glen, Maryland faces an unwanted hazard when she skulls her golf ball across the number six green and it lands in the inseam of a very dead banker. Though the victim is a longtime friend of Cleo’s, his ongoing dispute with Cleo’s best friend and golfing partner, Jonette, is public knowledge. When the police key in on Jonette as the prime suspect, Cleo sets out to find the real killer.
Amidst the fun of wacky meals, dueling daughters, Mama’s heart problem, lovesick Saint Bernards, a sexy golf pro, a repentant ex-husband and a host of murder suspects, Cleo does what she does best. With her trusty spreadsheets and logical accountant’s brain, she organizes the information and ferrets out a crazed killer.
Set against the lush splendor of mid-Atlantic springtime, this fun-packed mystery with a dash of romance will keep you turning the pages to see what happens next.

"an amusing addition to the cozy ranks" – Kirkus Reviews

"reading a Cleopatra Jones mystery is a nice way to spend the afternoon” – Romantic Times

[BelleZora]

Free vintage pulp from Amazon / UK : Spy Killer by L. Ron Hubbard which first appeared in the April 1936 issue of Five-Novels Monthly. A short novel of 146 pages.

Discover intrigue and suspense. Kurt Reid may be innocent of the murder he's charged with (and of grand larceny, for that matter), but he's got no time to be thrown in jail and defend himself. Instead, Reid flees to pre-Communist China and Shanghai, the exotic city of mystery and death.

Reid takes refuge in a tea house where he meets White Russian Varinka Savischna, whom he manages to rescue from certain death. As beautiful as she is smart, she recruits him in her crusade against Chinese intelligence services. Unfortunately, Reid manages to get himself captured by the Chinese and blackmailed into pursuing and assassinating a Japanese spy.

Now Reid must enter the cloak-and-dagger world of espionage and intrigue, where everything and everyone is not who or what they appear to be.

"...novella length adventure-cum-mystery stories based in 1930's China offer further evidence of Hubbard's pulp-action mastery." —Ellery Queen

[BelleZora]

Repeat freebie today from Amazon/ UK: Midnight Murders (Trevor Joseph Detective Series #2) by Katherine Johns from Accent Press.

Compton Castle is a Victorian psychiatric hospital long overdue for demolition. Its warrens of rooms and acres of grounds, originally designed as a sanctuary for the mentally ill, now provide the ideal stalking ground for a serial killer. Physically and mentally battered after his last case, Sergeant Trevor Joseph is a temporary inmate - but the hospital loses all therapeutic benefit when a corpse is dug out of a flowerbed. Then more bodies are found; young, female and both linked to the hospital. Everyone within the mouldering walls is in danger while a highly unpredictable malevolence remains at large. And, as patients and staff are interrogated by the police, the apparently motiveless killer watches and waits for the opportunity to strike again...The pit reeks of rot and decay. Staring upwards she can see the sky, the moon, the trees and the silhouette of her killer as earth is shovelled over her. Another shower comes down...There can be no more fight for air - for anything. Only a soft blackness that caresses and envelops, plunging her into the darkest oblivion of all. Now she knows that she is going to die.

“John expertly weaves together information about the medical, psychological and procedural strands of this taut story of revenge and retribution” - Publishers Weekly

“Rapidly building a reputation as a thriller writer” - Wales on Sunday

"So intriguing…cleverly woven together and tensely written” - Sunday Times

[BelleZora]

Free today from Amazon/ UK: Turkey Ranch Road Rage (The 3rd Jolene Jackson Mystery) by Paula Boyd, Diomo Books.

No matter how hard she tries to escape her Texas roots--and her mother--Jolene Jackson finds herself dragged back to Kickapoo to deal with both.

This time, there’s an RV park going in behind Lucille’s house and they want her property too. She’s not selling and has joined up with a dubious group that just rolled into town to save lizards.

Protest rallies are underway, and with a naked lizard girl in a cage on the courthouse lawn, Jolene knows that quicker than you can say “I’ll have an ice tea with that chicken basket” things are about to get much worse.

Drill rigs and earthmovers are at work in the mesquites behind the house and they aren’t making camper pads. The owner of the would-be-park land turns up missing, the leader of the lizard group turns up dead and there’s rabbit chow raining down on Main Street.

And when her own family skeletons start flying out of the closet, Jolene’s got to find out who’s after money, who’s after blood, and who has a deadly case of Turkey Ranch Road Rage.

[BelleZora]

Free today from Amazon/ UK: Dead in the Water (Rebecca Schwartz Mystery #4) by Julie Smith. Originally published by Fawcett, Oct. 1991.

"A first-rate tingle” – Publisher’s Weekly

Attorney and exotic fish fancier Rebecca Schwartz would love to relax in picturesque Monterey, California, with her friend Marty. But when Marty's boss, the woman who's been sleeping with her husband, is found dead in a giant tank and the aquarium where Marty works, she looks sunk. Rebecca takes on her friend's case, and has some serious clue-harpooning to do. As she swims closer to the line, her friend looks more and more guilty, and Rebecca begins to wish she had just gone fishing....

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by NightBird

Free cozy mystery - Murder in the Round by Patricia Rockwell from Cozy Cat Press, small publisher specializing in cozy mysteries. This appears to be the latest (fifth) book in the series.



The first two books in the series are $.99 each and two others $2.99 each.

http://www.amazon.com/Patricia-Rockw...011&sort=price

Thank you! I have the first 4 books, two I bought and two I picked up for free.

[mitford13]

Two great deals today:

Deborah Crombie's most recent (believe her next one will be out in February) is the Kindle Daily Deal, for $1.99:

No Mark Upon Her

New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie makes her mark with this absorbing, finely hued tale of suspense—a deeply atmospheric and twisting mystery full of deadly secrets, salacious lies, and unexpected betrayals involving the mysterious drowning of a Met detective—an accomplished rower—on the Thames.

When a K9 search-and-rescue team discovers a woman's body tangled up with debris in the river, Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself heading an investigation fraught with complications. The victim, Rebecca Meredith, was a talented but difficult woman with many admirers—and just as many enemies. An Olympic contender on the verge of a controversial comeback, she was also a high-ranking detective with the Met—a fact that raises a host of political and ethical issues in an already sensitive case.

To further complicate the situation, a separate investigation, led by Detective Inspector Gemma James, Kincaid's wife, soon reveals a disturbing—and possibly related—series of crimes, widening the field of suspects. But when someone tries to kill the search-and-rescue team member who found Rebecca's body, the case becomes even more complex and dangerous, involving powerful interests with tentacles that reach deep into the heart of the Met itself.

Surrounded by enemies with friendly faces, pressured to find answers quickly while protecting the Yard at all costs, his career and reputation on the line, Kincaid must race to catch the killer before more innocent lives are lost—including his own.

************************************************** *******

And the first in the Eberhard Mock series is marked down to $3.49 (this series hasn't previously been available for Kindle)

Death in Breslau

Introducing one of the most stylish and moody historic detective series ever: The Inspector Eberhard Mock Quartet

Occupied Breslau, 1933: Two young women are found murdered on a train, scorpions writhing on their bodies, an indecipherable note in an apparently oriental language nearby ...Police Inspector Eberhard Mock's weekly assignation with two ladies of the night is interrupted as he is called to investigate.

But uncovering the truth is no straightforward matter in Breslau. The city is in the grip of the Gestapo, and has become a place where spies are everywhere, corrupt ministers torture confessions from Jewish merchants, and Freemasons guard their secrets with blackmail and violence.

And as Mock and his young assistant Herbert Anwaldt plunge into the city's squalid underbelly the case takes on a dark twist of the occult when the mysterious note seems to indicate a ritual killing with roots in the Crusades ...

[mitford13]

Also, I think someone was looking for this title as a freebie a while back -it's a companion piece to City of Light...and free again today on Amazon

City of Darkness by Kim Wright

City of Darkness takes place in 1888 London, where Jack the Ripper roams the streets with impunity and Scotland Yard seems helpless to stop him.

The science of forensics is in its infancy but a few detectives – Trevor Welles among them – recognize that they are dealing with a different sort of killer, a “modern criminal” who chooses his victims at random. If Jack is to be caught, he won’t be caught with Scotland Yard’s normal methods of deduction for there is no logic to this madness. The question is no longer “Why was the victim killed?” but rather “How was the victim killed?” For the first time in the history of detection, science is trumping deductive reasoning.

When a twist of fate puts Trevor in charge of the case, he hastily assembles Scotland Yard’s first forensics team: Davy Mabrey, the first bobby on the scene of the grisliest of the murders, whose working class common sense proves an invaluable asset, Rayley Abrams, a cautious intellectual whose future at the Yard is marginalized due to his Jewish heritage, Tom Bainbridge, a medical student with aristocratic connections and a secret drinking problem, and Emma Kelly, sister of the Ripper’s last victim who has a troubled past and a gift for linguistics. The team finds an unlikely ally in the form of Queen Victoria herself, who takes an unusual level of interest in the Ripper case and secretly funds the unit. But will they stop Jack in time to spare Leanna Bainbridge, the young heiress with whom Trevor has fallen in love?

While City of Darkness takes place in London, its sequel, City of Light, will travel to Paris on the eve of the Exposition Universalle, the ultimate World’s Fair which debuted Edison’s phonograph, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and the Eiffel Tower The third book, City of Silence, will take place in St. Petersburg where Victoria’s beloved granddaughter Alexandra is on the verge of marrying the young czar Nicholas, much to her grandmother’s dismay. Throughout the series the Scotland Yard forensics team, which serves as a sort of Victorian-era CSI, will circle the world to investigate high-profile cases, most often at the urging of the Queen.

[BelleZora]

Free: House of Blues by Julie Smith, book 5 in the excellent Skip Langdon series.
Amazon US Amazon UK

"The real star of this SUPERB EFFORT is New Orleans, which has never seemed more dangerous or alluring--or less easy." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"ONE OF THE BEST OF THE SKIP LANGDON SERIES. . . In the fast-growing field of fictional female police officers, New Orleans Homicide Detective Skip Langdon stands tall."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sugar Hebert arrives home from a ten-minute errand to find her husband shot to death, and the rest of her family missing, including her daughter Reed, heir apparent to the Hebert restaurant dynasty, and Reed's eleven-month-old daughter.

Detective Skip Langdon’s hunt for a murderer and the missing Hebert heirs embraces worlds within worlds—splendid but dangerous Garden District digs, Faubourg Marigny drug dens, broken-down projects, lowdown bars, an elegant hangout for crooked politicos, and a dealer’s crib masquerading as a sultan’s palace, harem and all. A palm reader warns Langdon of danger, but it comes when she's least prepared for it. Before long, the mob’s involved (maybe there’s a reason Hebert’s Restaurant won the lucrative casino contract), and so are family secrets so ugly they’d make Tennessee Williams wince. Everyone has them—the Heberts, the mob princess, even the crooked cop.

And Langdon finds she should have listened to the damned palm reader.

[koland]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Deborah Crombie's most recent (believe her next one will be out in February) is the Kindle Daily Deal, for $1.99:

several more in the series are under $5, also.

And the first in the Eberhard Mock series is marked down to $3.49 (this series hasn't previously been available for Kindle)
Death in Breslau

I paid $3.99 this morning, but still a decent deal.

[scottken]

Ishmael Toffee by Roger Smith free on kindle today 11/16 main

Description:
HE'S KILLED MORE MEN THAN HE CAN REMEMBER, BUT CAN HE SAVE A CHILD?
Ishmael Toffee's knife put him behind bars and kept him there for twenty years as a prison gang assassin until he lost his taste for blood. Paroled, he finds himself with no money and no family. And no knife in his hand.

He gets a job as a gardener at the luxurious home of a prominent lawyer and makes an unexpected friend--Cindy, the lawyer's six-year-old daughter. When Ishmael discovers that Cindy is being raped by her father he must choose: abandon the girl and walk away, or do what he does best . . .

A gut-wrenching novella of violence and redemption from the award-winning author of DUST DEVILS, WAKE UP DEAD and MIXED BLOOD.


. This is a noir novella set in post-apartheid South Africa. I've read it and it's great.

[scottken]

The Kingdom of Shadows by K.W. Jeter free on kindle today 11/16 main

K. W. Jeter's first new novel in ten years -- available only online.

In the sinister and glamorous world of the film industry in the Third Reich and in Hollywood, a young actress struggles not just to survive, but to unravel her own mysterious heritage. As war begins, dark conspiracies tighten around her; to escape them will require a journey through the apocalyptic landscape of Berlin's last days...

[NightBird]

Premiere Digital Publishing has the Neal Rafferty series by Chris Wiltz and her standalone books free again, plus three thrillers from Gordon Thomas in his David Morton spy series:

Godless Icon

A military troika in Russia, a pastor in California bent on spreading global hatred, and most sinister of all, a powerful Chinese businessman, threaten world peace, whilst in Rome, a dying Pope Nicholas the Sixth strives to unite all the faiths of the world.

In a world ripped from tomorrow’s headlines, we once again meet David Morton, the intelligence agent who emerged as the James Bond for the 90s, in Deadly Perfume.

After the collapse of the Soviet Empire, a military troika is in power. Suspicious of the West, fearful of the Moslem fanatics to the East, the troika plans to ensure that the Republic of Russia emerges as a military superpower. In Rome a very different plan preoccupies Pope Nicholas the Sixth – to unite all the faiths and bring to the world a peace and stability it has never known. But Nicholas is dying from a brain tumor. It is to Julius Enkomo, South Africa’s first black Cardinal, that Pope Nicholas turns, entrusting him with a crucial, secret mission.

In California the pastor of the Church of True Belief, the Reverend Edward Kingdom, uses his satellite to spread global hatred. But the threat of Wong Lee is the most sinister of all. Head of the world’s largest conglomerate, he is powerful beyond belief.

Using a mosaic of shard-like details, each meticulously exact, this extraordinary novel explores the dark, turbulent forces which Morton must overcome if he is to destroy the cynical alliance around him.

Organ Hunters

On a remote island in Central America, David Morton must foil Dr. Gustav Romer, who performs transplants for the elite of the crime world with organs harvested from those killed by a sinister organization.

On a remote island in Central America, Dr. Gustav Romer – once the medical supreme of the now defunct Stasi, the East German security service, and the world’s leading immunologist until his reported death – has secretly built a clinic like no other. His patients are the elite of the crime world – Mafia bosses, Triad leaders, the new czars of the Russian criminal fraternity, the lords of the Japanese underworld.

For them, he provides organ transplants. The organs come from the bodies of those killed for that very purpose by the sinister organization which employs Romer and his staff. They owe allegiance to one person, the person known as Madam.

Rich beyond comparison, her wealth is equaled only by her evil. But to a still unsuspecting world she is best known for her charitable acts. And for her hatred of the other woman in her dead lover’s life – his wife. Theirs is an unremitting feud which straddles the globe. Once a year fate brings them together – at the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm.

This year, David Morton of Hammer Force, the police agency created by the United Nations, has a personal interest in the Awards – his long-time friend and collaborator, Dr. Yoshi Kramer, is to receive the Prize for Medicine. Only Morton knows that Yoshi himself has a heart condition and needs urgent surgery…

Voices in the Silence

Intelligence agent David Morton must avert a world crisis and destroy a Russian-made weapon capable of controlling the U.S. President's mind.

David Morton and his new Hammer Force – an intelligence agency created by the United Nations after the carnage in Bosnia – have a formidable task. To avert a world crisis they must win the deadly, invisible battle for control of the mind on the President of the United States. The weapon they must destroy is born out of the technology which brought victory in the Gulf War and supremacy in Space for an American that is no longer master of all it surveys. Created by the former Soviet Union’s most brilliant scientist, Professor Igor Tamasara, the weapon is designed to trigger responses in the President’s mind – responses that will bring the United States and Japan into conflict…and will lead to World War III. From that conflict will emerge Tamasara’s new paymaster – China – as the superpower of the 21st century.

Set against the background of Washington, Beijing and Hong Kong – this highly original and totally credible futuristic thriller builds to a climax of nail-biting suspense. Once more showing an astonishing command of the inner workings of international politics and the world of secret intelligence, Gordon Thomas has created a first-rate work of fiction, featuring unforgettable characters. Center stage is David Morton, and in Voices in the Silence Morton’s role as ‘the James Bond of the 90s’ is firmly established, as is Gordon Thomas’s reputation as a thriller writer of quality.

Robert W. Walker is back with a freebie from another series, Decoy.

Blood Seers (Decoy #2)

A DARK AVENGER

After his family is brutally murdered by deranged thugs, Ryne Lanark decides to channel his violent rage constructively. He leaves his acting career behind, and signs on as a Chicago city cop. Using his mastery of disguise and calculating perseverance, Lanark winds his way through the seamy netherworld of drug dealers and killers. A tortured loner, a relentless crusader, Lt. Lanark is the ultimate equalizer.

DECOY

The death toll on Chicago's elevated trains is climbing. The killings seem pointless: train routes are targeted at random, weapons range from spears to poison gas to Uzis. Those victims still able to talk offer a mad variety of descriptions;they can't even agree on the attacker's sex. It's not even clear how many killers are prowling the El.

Chicago's gripped in panic and Lanark's explosive temper is about to blow, pushed by a newsman's threats to print the story of Lanark's horrific past. Lanark and the killer walk the same tightrope: the killer leans one way, the detective the other. One of them must fall.

[Dr. Drib]

Premiere Digital Publishing has a book called Claws, by one of its authors, which is free.

However, one blurb writer says it should not be read at night, but only during the daytime.

I wanted to get the book, but now I don't know, because I like to read in the dark and the blurb writer says no one should do that.

I'm very conflicted, since it looks like an interesting story of rampaging animals and unadulterated passions, but I can only read at night. I'm afraid that if I read it at night, I will hear the stampede of many animals under my bed. And no one that I know of wants anything to do with unadulterated passions.

Any help or advice will be appreciated.





Dr. (Daytime or nighttime) Drib