Bargain Mysteries (K/N/E)

A Test of Wills ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the first novel in the Inspector Ian Rutledge Mysteries series by Charles Todd [HarperCollins], with the companion audiobook for $3.99 (a huge discount off the $20+ regular price).

Book Description
The first novel to feature war-damaged Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge, A Test of Wills is the book that brought author Charles Todd into the spotlight. This Edgar® and Anthony Award-nominated, New York Times Notable mystery brilliantly evokes post-World War I Great Britain and introduces readers to one of crime fiction’s most compelling series protagonists. Here the shell-shocked Rutledge struggles to retain his fragile grip on sanity while investigating the death of a popular army colonel, murdered, it appears, by a decorated war hero with ties to the Royal Family. A phenomenal writer, a twisting puzzle, a character-rich re-creation of an extraordinary time and place…it all adds up to one exceptional read that will delight fans of Elizabeth George, Martha Grimes, Jacqueline Winspear, Ruth Rendell, and other masters of the British procedural.

Whose Body? ($0.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the first novel in The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers [Open Road]. Be careful if searching from your Kindle, as this and the other Sayers selections have multiple editions - you want the ones from Open Road that are linked here.

Book Description
In the debut mystery in Dorothy L. Sayers’s acclaimed Lord Peter Wimsey series, the case of a dead bather draws Lord Peter into the first of many puzzling mysteries

Lord Peter Wimsey spends his days tracking down rare books, and his nights hunting killers. Though the Great War has left his nerves frayed with shellshock, Wimsey continues to be London’s greatest sleuth—and he’s about to encounter his oddest case yet.

A strange corpse has appeared in a suburban architect’s bathroom, stark naked save for an incongruous pince-nez. When Wimsey arrives on the scene, he is confronted with a once-in-a-lifetime puzzle. The police suspect that the bathtub’s owner is the murderer, but Wimsey’s investigation quickly reveals that the case is much stranger than anyone could have predicted.

Published in 1923, during detective fiction’s golden age, Whose Body? introduced a character and a series that would make Dorothy L. Sayers famous. To this day, Lord Peter remains one of his genre’s most beloved and brilliant characters.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Dorothy L. Sayers including rare images from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College.

Clouds of Witness ($1.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the second novel in The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers [Open Road]

Book Description
After three months in Corsica, Lord Peter Wimsey has begun to forget that the gray, dangerous moors of England ever existed. But traveling through Paris, he receives a shock that jolts him back to reality. He sees it in the headlines splashed across every English paper—his brother Gerald has been arrested for murder.

The trouble began at the family estate in Yorkshire, where Gerald was hunting with the man soon to be his brother-in-law, Captain Denis Cathcart. One night, Gerald confronts Cathcart with allegations about his unsavory past, leading the captain to call off the wedding. Just a few hours later, Cathcart is dead, with Gerald presumed to be the only one who could have fired the fatal shot. The clock is ticking, and only England’s premier sleuth can get to the bottom of this murky mystery.

Lord Peter Views the Body ($2.99 Kindle, B&N, Kobo), the fourth novel in The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers [Open Road]

Book Description
Only Lord Peter has the wit to find the solution to these twelve baffling mysteries

Some aristocrats spend their lives shooting, but Lord Peter Wimsey is a hunter of a different kind: a bloodhound with a nose for murder. Before he became Britain’s most famous detective, Lord Peter contented himself with solving the crimes he came across by chance. In this volume of short stories, he confronts a stolen stomach, a man with copper fingers, and a deadly adventure at Ali Baba’s cave, among other conundrums. These mysteries tax not just his intellect, but his humor, knowledge of metallurgy, and taste for fine wines. It’s not easy being a gentleman sleuth, but Lord Peter is the man for the job.

Nook Daily Find 4/10

Vanished ($9.99 Kindle, $1.99 B&N), the first title in the Private Justice series by Irene Hannon [Revell], is the Nook Daily Find.

Book Description
Reporter Moira Harrisons is lost. In the dark. In a thunderstorm. When a confusing detour places her on a rural, wooded road, she's startled by the sudden appearance of a lone figure caught in the beam of her headlights. Though Moira jams on her brakes, the car careens across the wet pavement--and the solid thump against the side of the vehicle tells her she hit the person before she crashes into a tree on the far side of the road.

A dazed Moira is relieved when a man opens her door, tells her he saw everything, and promises to call 911. Then everything fades to black. When she comes to an hour later, she is alone. No man. No 911. No injured person lying on the side of the road. But she can't forget the look of terror she saw on the person's face in the instant before her headlights swung away. The person she hit had been in trouble. She's sure of it. But she can't get anyone to believe her story--except a handsome former police detective, now a private eye, who agrees to take on the case.

From the very first page, readers will be hooked into this fast-paced story full of shocking secrets from fan-favorite Irene Hannon. Vanished is the exciting first book in the Private Justice series: Three justice seekers who got burned playing by the rules now have a second chance to make things right.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 4/10

Circle of Bones (£0.99 UK), by Christine Kling, is the Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK (the US edition is $3.19/KLL Eligible; companion audiobook $1.99).

Book Description
Sex and adventure meet history and intrigue in this breathless nautical thriller that spans decades to imagine a fascinating answer to the real-life mystery of the vanished French sub, Surcouf.

When Maggie Riley sets sail for the Caribbean, all she wants is a little R&R before starting a work assignment in Dominica.

The last thing Maggie expects is to rescue Cole Thatcher, a sexy—but possibly nuts—conspiracy-spouting archaeologist found swimming nude off the island of Guadeloupe. It turns out Cole is searching for the wreckage of a vanished World War II submarine, claiming it holds millions in gold coins and classified documents from a powerful inner circle of the secret society Skull and Bones.

Maggie has enough skeletons to deal with. But when she learns her own past may intersect this inner circle of Bonesmen, she realizes Cole might not be so crazy after all—and joining him in the search for the sub may be her only course to uncover a hidden truth.

New Releases 4/9

Today's featured new release is four volumes by Theodore Sturgeon, one of the most influential SF writers from the 1940's thru the 1960s. These are all priced at $9.99 on Kindle, which is a bargain compared to the print editions, which range from $26 to over $30, and all run to around 400 pages in length. The current price is $11.79 at Kobo, but using coupon codes you should be able to get that down to at or below the Kindle prices, while B&N is just above Amazon at $10.44

• The Ultimate Egoist: Volume I: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
  The Ultimate Egoist, the first volume of The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, contains the late author's earliest work, written from 1937 to 1940. Although Sturgeon's reach was limited to the lengths of the short story and novelette, his influence was strongly felt by even the most original science fiction stylists, including Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Gene Wolfe, each of whom contributes a laudatory foreword. The more than 40 stories here showcase Sturgeon's masterful knack with clever, O. Henry-ish plot twists, sparkling character development, and almost archetypal, why didn't I think of that? story ideas. Early Sturgeon masterpieces include "It," about the violence done by a creature spontaneously born from garbage and mud, and "Helix the Cat," about an inventor's bizarre encounter with a disembodied soul and the cat that saves it. Sturgeon's unique genius is timelessly entertaining.
• Microcosmic God: Volume II: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
  The second of a planned 10 volumes that will reprint all Sturgeon's short fiction covers his prolific output during 1940 and 1941, after which he suffered five years of writer's block. Showcasing Sturgeon's early penchant for fantasy, the first six selections include whimsical ghost stories, such as "Cargo," in which a World War II munitions freighter is commandeered by invisible, peace-loving fairies. With the publication of his enduring SF classic, "Microcosmic God," Sturgeon finally found his voice, combining literate, sharp-edged prose with fascinating speculative science while recounting the power struggle between a brilliant scientist, who creates his own miniature race of gadget makers, and his greedy banker. Voice found or not, every one of the stories here is readable and entertaining today because of Sturgeon's singular gifts for clever turns of phrase and compelling narrative.
• Killdozer!: Volume III: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
  Killdozer! is the third volume of a series of the complete short stories from Theodore Sturgeon's career. It contains a few of his best and most famous short stories: "Medusa", "Killdozer!" and "Mewhu's Jet." The series editor Paul Williams has dug into the background of each story, and come up with a lot of interesting lore about Sturgeon. Especially of interest in this volume is the alternative original ending to "Mewhu's Jet."
• Thunder and Roses: Volume IV: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon
  Thunder and Roses is the fourth volume in The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Included in Thunder and Roses are 15 stories, with major works like "Maturity," "The Professor's Teddy Bear," "A Way Home," and the title story, in addition to two works never published before.

In addition, here are a few bargain priced new releases that caught my eye:

• He Who Dies Last (Dr. Hoffmann series), by Christoph Spielberg & Emanuel Bergmann (Translator) [AmazonCrossing] ($3.99)
• Where Magic Dwells, by Rexanne Becnel [Open Road] ($3.99)
• When Lightning Strikes, by Rexanne Becnel [Open Road] ($3.99)
• Thief of My Heart, by Rexanne Becnel [Open Road] ($3.99)
• My Gallant Enemy, by Rexanne Becnel [Open Road] ($3.99)
• A Dove at Midnight, by Rexanne Becnel [Open Road] ($3.99)
• Happy This Year!: The Secret to Getting Happy Once and for All, by Will Bowen [Grand Harbor Press] ($4.99)
• Chocolate for Two, by Maria Murnane [Amazon Publishing*] ($2.99)
• Edward Adrift, by Craig Lancaster [Amazon Publishing*] ($4.99)
• Lucky Like Us: Book Two: The Hunted Series, by Jennifer Ryan [Avon Impulse] ($1.99)
• Slam!, by JL Merrow [Samhain] ($4.24)
• Hard Way (Vegas Top Guns), by Katie Porter [Samhain] ($4.24)

* This is an imprint of Amazon, not the KDP publishing used by indie authors, from what I can tell.

Diesel Daily Deal - Four Times the Trouble (E)

Four Times the Trouble ($5.99 $4.61 Kindle), a novel by Tara Taylor Quinn [Harlequin], is today's Deal of the "Day" at Diesel E-Books, where it's discounted to $0.80 (1 copy left).

Book Description

Girl trouble. Jacob's seven-year-old triplets are a handful. Allie is organizing her teacher to death. Jessie is crying in class. Meggie is becoming almost reclusive. Jacob is told what the triplets need is a woman in their lives. But the last thing Jacob needs is to exchange girl trouble for…

Woman trouble. Jacob's gone that route before. All it did was get his daughters' hopes up—his hopes up—only to end in disappointment. Maybe the answer is to enlist the help of a friend, someone like his partner, Michelle.…

Big trouble. Unfortunately, what Jacob begins to feel for Michelle is more than just friendship. And while Michelle's willing to be a surrogate mother to Jacob's children, it's going to take a lot of convincing for her to consider the idea of being a wife to him.

Get the book from Diesel; be sure to check the sales price, as the Deal of the Day often sells out.