Free/Bargain Suspense/Mystery/Thriller April 2013

[AnemicOak]

Since Nightbird hasn't had time to start an April thread, I'll start things off.

Originally Posted by NightBird

Please don't post any self-published books, and please do a search before posting to avoid duplicates. Thanks!

Bank Shot by Donald Westlake ~ $1.99

Instead of robbing a bank, Dortmunder tries to steal the whole building
Encyclopedias are heavy, and John Dortmunder is sick of carrying them. While in between jobs, the persistent heist-planner is working an encyclopedia-selling scam that’s about to blow up in his face. The cops are on their way when his friend Kelp pulls up in a stolen Oldsmobile, offering a quick escape from the law and a job that’s too insane to turn down.

Kelp’s nephew is an FBI washout who’s addicted to old-time pulp novels and adventure stories. He tried being a cop, and now he wants to be a robber. His target: a Main Street bank that has temporarily relocated to a large mobile home. Breaking in is impossible—there are seven guards and a police station down the street—but mobile homes were meant to be driven. Dortmunder just has to drive the bank away.

The Valhalla Exchange by Jack Higgins ~ $1.99

A lone journalist unravels the mystery behind a Nazi war criminal’s escape



The classic Jack Higgins thriller—now available as an ebook

In 1945, as the Allies closed in on war-ravaged Berlin, Hitler’s personal secretary, Martin Bormann, made his escape. Since that fateful day, Bormann’s story has been shrouded in mystery.



Thirty-one years later, a journalist has begun to finally piece together Bormann’s cunning getaway. His electrifying investigation exposes the unwitting role of five Allied POWs in Bormann’s escape plot as the Nazi regime crumbled. Now, with help from a surviving POW, this journalist follows history’s twists and turns to a final, shocking conclusion.

[AnemicOak]

Bones Are Forever: A Novel (Temperance Brennan) - by Kathy Reichs ~ $2.99
/ Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Kathy Reichs, #1 New York Times bestselling author and producer of the FOX televison hit Bones, is at her brilliant best in a riveting novel featuring forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan—a story of infanticide, murder, and corruption, set in the high-stakes, high-danger world of diamond mining.
A woman calling herself Amy Roberts checks into a Montreal hospital complaining of uncontrolled bleeding. Doctors see evidence of a recent birth, but before they can act, Roberts disappears. Dispatched to the address she gave at the hospital, police discover bloody towels outside in a Dumpster. Fearing the worst, they call Temperance Brennan to investigate.

In a run-down apartment Tempe makes a ghastly discovery: the decomposing bodies of three infants. According to the landlord, a woman named Alma Rogers lives there. Then a man shows up looking for Alva Rodriguez. Are Amy Roberts, Alma Rogers, and Alva Rodriguez the same person? Did she kill her own babies? And where is she now?

Heading up the investigation is Tempe’s old flame, homicide detective Andrew Ryan. His counterpart from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is sergeant Ollie Hasty, who happens to have a little history with Tempe himself, which she regrets. This unlikely trio follows the woman’s trail, first to Edmonton and then to Yellowknife, a remote diamond-mining city deep in the Northwest Territories. What they find in Yellowknife is more sinister than they ever could have imagined.

[scottken]

Two more Owen Perry Books free today:

Rebels of Babylon Main UK

The intrepid Maj. Abel Jones, special agent to the Federal Army, takes on New Orleans in this satisfying sixth installment to Parry's humorous, well-written and meticulously researched series of Civil War mysteries. Dispatched to investigate the murder of a Northern heiress–cum–crusading abolitionist, our reluctant hero finds that despite the bitter cold of the winter of 1863, "New Orleans burns torrid." On his incredible first day in the Crescent City, Jones gives chase to a voodoo woman and survives kidnapping, being buried alive, a midnight gunfight, a venomous snake and paralysis by a poison charm. This is just business as usual for the puritanical Welshman, who fearlessly forges ahead with the assistance of Barnaby B. Barnaby, the rotund former haberdasher from earlier Abel Jones novels. While the rollicking plot pulls the reader along, Parry also sheds new light on Jones's character, juxtaposing his ardent Methodism against an exotic Francophone city and its outré denizens. Jones holds firm to his strict ethics and disapproval of others' sinful folly—as well as everything not Welsh—but learns a slightly more pragmatic approach in the face of certain New Orleans realities and superstitions. Though references to previous adventures may perplex newcomers to the series, all will delight in this installment's continuing vivid historical detail and engaging protagonist.

Bold Sons of Erin Main UK

No description of this one at website.

[NightBird]

Thanks, AO. I won't have time to do it anymore, so if you or anyone else wishes to continue it, feel free.

[KentE]

If you missed it back in December, Boyd Morrison's The Roswell Conspiracy is free again on Amazon US. This is #3 in the Tyler Locke series.
www.amazon.com/dp/B008TSWE72

After the 1908 Tunguska blast levels a Siberian forest the size of London, a Russian scientist makes an amazing discovery amongst the debris.

In 1947, ten-year-old Fay Allen of Roswell, New Mexico, witnesses the fiery crash of an extraordinary craft unlike anything she's ever seen.

More than sixty years later, former Army combat engineer Tyler Locke rescues Fay from gunmen who are after a piece of wreckage she claims is from the Roswell incident. Incredulous of her tale, Tyler believes the attack on Fay is nothing more than a burglary gone wrong. But when he finds himself locked in the back of a truck carrying a hundred tons of explosives and heading for a top secret American base, Tyler knows that he has stumbled onto the opening gambit of something more sinister than he ever imagined.
...

In a desperate race against time, Tyler must unmask a conspiracy a century in the making to rescue the United States from electronic Armageddon.

Morrison's books are pretty entertaining-- a little short on character development for my tastes, but good high-speed thrillers.

KentE

[Skydog]

Thanks, KentE!

[koland]

Rainy Nights: Three Novels By: J.R. Rain (mixed genres)

Three bestselling novels together in one omnibus, including:

MOON DANCE
Mother, wife, private investigator...vampire. Six years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire. Now the world at large thinks Samantha has developed a rare skin disease, a disease which forces her to quit her day job and stay out of the light of the sun. Now working the night shift as a private investigator, Samantha is hired by Kingsley Fulcrum to investigate the murder attempt on his life, a horrific scene captured on TV and seen around the country. But as the case unfolds, Samantha discovers Kingsley isn't exactly what he appears to be; after all, there is a reason why he survived five shots to the head.

DARK HORSE
Dark Horse takes place in Huntington Beach, California. Surf City, USA. Written in the tradition of Robert B. Parker's Spenser and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, Dark Horse introduces a new hard-hitting, wise-cracking hero with a modern twist. When high school student Derrick Booker, the only black student at a posh Orange County high school, is accused of killing his white girlfriend, ex-college football hero and detective Jim Knighthorse is hired to dig a little deeper into the murder. It doesn't take long for Knighthorse to realize that not all is as it seems at tranquil Huntington High, from a band director who preys on the innocent to a vice-principal with a secret agenda of her own. Not to mention someone's hired a professional killer to keep Knighthorse permanently off the case.

THE VAMPIRE WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Three years ago, high school student Veronica Fortune witnessed the brutal murder of her parents. Now armed and dangerous, she sets out to hunt down the very thing that destroyed her life. That is, until she disappears. Spinoza is a private investigator who specializes in finding the missing. He's good at what he does. Damn good. But he's also a recovering alcoholic and a royal mess. Hired to find Veronica, Spinoza won't let his personal demons—or demons of any kind—get in the way of finding the truth about the missing girl. Now following a bizarre set of clues that leads him into stranger and stranger territory, Spinoza is about to come face-to-face with something legendary...and something hungry for blood.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043VDX1A/

[mitford13]

Two of Geraldine Evans' Rafferty & Llewellyn series (prev pub by Severn House) are free today on Amazon US:

Dying For You (Rafferty and Llewellyn Procedural #6)

Blood on the Bones (Rafferty and Llewellyn Procedural #9)

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Two of Geraldine Evans' Rafferty & Llewellyn series (prev pub by Severn House) are free today on Amazon US:

UK too:
Dying for You (Repeat freebie from February)
Blood on the Bones

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

UK too:
Dying for You (Repeat freebie from February)
Blood on the Bones

"Blood On The Bones" only is also available free at amazon.ca ("Dying For You" is discounted)

[mitford13]

One of Max Allan Collins' titles is down to $2.00 (it's also enrolled in Prime) on Amazon:

The Baby Blue Rip-Off

Vietnam vet Mallory has been everywhere and done everything—from hippie life to construction work, from covering a reporter’s beat to walking a cop’s—before finally returning to small-town Iowa to try his hand at writing. In between crafting whodunits, he does his part for the community by ferrying hot meals to little old ladies. But then his worlds unexpectedly collide: home invaders murder one of his clients and leave Mallory black-and-blue when he catches them red-handed.

The elderly victim is the first fatality in an organized burglary spree sweeping the town, but Mallory fears she may not be the last. And despite the painful cracks in his ribs, nothing can stop him from looking into the killing—not even the local sheriff, or the little blonde from high school days who got away...or even a beating courtesy of the ruthless goon squad that warns Mallory to steer clear.

Armed with his ex-cop’s instincts, soldier’s survival skills, and mystery writer’s savvy, Mallory bucks the local law and the love of his life to stop this brutal burglary ring. But writing a mystery can pay well, whereas solving one can pay dearly....

[bfisher]

Joseph Wambaugh's "The Black Marble" is $CDN3.01 at http://www.amazon.ca/The-Black-Marbl...SE/ref=sr_1_12

[mitford13]

Free on Amazon:

An Innocent Client (Joe Dillard Series No 1.) by Scott Pratt

PW: Starred Review. Former attorney Pratt delves into rural Tennessee law and politics in this brilliantly executed debut. When a preacher is murdered after visiting an infamous strip club, the club's owner hires jaded attorney Joe Dillard to defend Angel Christian, a beautiful waitress accused of the crime. Dillard, savvy but cynical, wants to quit doing criminal defense, but he can't resist the chance to represent someone who might actually be innocent. His drug-addicted sister has just been released from prison and his mother is succumbing to Alzheimer's, but Dillard's commitment to the case never wavers despite the personal troubles and professional demands that threaten to destroy him. Pratt's richly developed characters are vivid and believable, especially the strong Southern women who fight their male-dominated culture from behind a facade of vulnerability. Readers will eagerly anticipate Dillard's further adventures.

[mitford13]

Free on Amazon:

Good Morning, Darkness by Ruth Francisco

PW: Following her much-praised first novel, Confessions of a Deathmaiden (2003), Francisco delivers another outstanding stand-alone, a darker tale with some surprising twists. A Mexican fisherman makes a gruesome discovery on the beach not far from L.A.'s Marina del Rey: "I found the first arm. The second one washed up on Malibu Beach, seven miles north of here. The rest of the body must've gotten eaten by sharks." But whose arm? It would seem to belong to the alluring Laura Finnegan, who had a house on the beach and whom the fisherman used to admire through her window. Det. Sgt. Reggie Brooks of the LAPD is in love with Laura, as is real estate agent Scott Goodsell, who has asked her to marry him, but murder doesn't seem a possibility: Laura has quit her job and gone east to see her relatives. Or has she? Alert readers will suspect there's more going on than meets the eye, and further plot complications prove both serpentine and sanguinary. As in her previous novel, Francisco knows how to turn the screws: the adroit plotting and additional fillip at the end are sufficiently compelling to qualify this as one of the year's best mysteries.

[BelleZora]

Free today at Amazon: Blood of Others (Tom Reed and Walt Sydowski #3) by Rick Mofina, first published by Pinnacle (2002), winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel (2003). CA UK US

Blood of Others received one of the world’s top literary prizes for crime fiction, the 2003 Arthur Ellis Award, given by the Crime Writers of Canada for Best Novel. In his praise of the book, James Patterson, the #1 Worldwide Bestselling Author, said Blood of Others, was: “Tense, realistic, and scary in all the right places."

The disappearance and murder of a lonely San Francisco insurance clerk puts a relentless crime reporter and legendary homicide cop on separate tracks in their pursuit of a killer.

The suspect lures solitary women out of their quiet worlds and into his nightmare as he races the clock and travels the globe searching for the one woman who will forgive the unforgivable.

In the course of a widening investigation, Olivia Grant, a shy gift store sales manager who aches to escape her painful solitude, meets Ben Wyatt, an outcast San Francisco cop on the case, Wyatt is a man gripped with self-doubt over the shooting of his former partner.

Blood of Others is a study of loneliness and human frailties; a story steeped in terrifying suspense that threatens to destroy the lives of those drawn into it as it rockets to a heart-pounding conclusion.