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 Get stuck into this bunch of Free books. I'm sure you'll find something here to keep you awake until the last page.

 

 Looking for your next KU read. You'll find it among this list of mystery/thrillers.

 

 We all like something for free, here's a list of free mystery/thrillers to keep you reading for months.

 

 New Free Newsletter Giveaway.

Murder on the Murray 

When duty and death collide, The Devil takes the field.

Detective Mark Bannon earned his nickname the hard way as a crack shot in the South Australian outback who could track anything and never missed. Now confined to desk duty in Mildura after a misconduct inquiry, he’s meant to stay behind a computer screen and away from fieldwork.

When a fitness instructor is found bludgeoned to death by the river, Detective Inspector Gerske needs Bannon’s tracking skills and investigative instincts. As Bannon reads footprints in the dust and follows the evidence through the mallee scrub, he hunts a man who won’t let go. A man willing to kill to keep what he’s already lost.

With a dangerous suspect in his sights, and Professional Standards watching his every move. Bannon must prove he’s more than the cold-blooded killer the rumours claim.

But when a call from Geelong shatters everything, Bannon discovers some fights can’t be won with a rifle and some losses leave wounds no amount of justice can heal.

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R. Bownds Author News 

Merry Christmas 2025

 When I was a child there were three important days at the end of the year and beginning of the next. Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day.
Christmas day was the highlight, presents wrapped under the tree not to be opened until after all chores and breakfast was finished. The youngest would have the honour of handing out the presents while everyone sat around.
The Christmas tree was always a pine Dad sourced, cut down and brought home, we'd decorate it with glass baubles, ornaments, tinsel, an angel for the top and these little birds with wire claws that we'd clamp to the branches. Tinsel garlands would stretch across our ceiling from corner to corner and along the walls.
Santa came early sometime through the night, we'd try to stay awake but unfortunately drop off to sleep before the big man arrived and left presents on the foot of our beds. He'd eat the slice of Christmas cake and drink the milk left out for him and be gone without us knowing.
My mother always baked the Christmas cake and iced it with white icing and green coloured icing piped around the edges. The words Merry Christmas piped using icing of either green or red colouring. There was a small nativity scene and pieces of holly for decorations.
She also made the Christmas pudding, boiled in a cloth in the old traditional way. She'd make this two or three months before the big day, I remember it hanging from the kitchen rafters wishing Christmas would come earlier so we didn't have to wait. It contained sixpence and threepence which were considered good luck if you found one in your slice. Not so good for your teeth if you bit into one as my brother found out once.
Christmas dinner was always a big roast meal despite the summer heat in Australia. Duck or Chicken sometimes we'd have roast pork with crackling, accompanied by roast potatoes, roast pumpkin and green peas or beans.
Boxing day, we always referred to as picnic day because that's what it was, Christmas leftovers, packed up and we'd trundle off in the car to some picturesque spot, spread out the blankets and enjoy a cold picnic lunch.
Come New Year it started again, another cake, another pudding in the cloth and the big roast meal.
After all this my mother would take a photo of us children around the tree as a memory before the decorations were removed and the tree taken away.
In later years, the old fashioned values of these days and the trimmings that went with them changed and my mother began serving salads although still with the roast meat. Boxing day became just another day the same as New Year without celebrations although Dad still insisted on sitting up to see the old year out and the new year in.

On that note.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or however you say it in your neck of the woods for 2025.
Also a happy and prosperous New Year for 2026.

 

Tracking Jacky

Ever wondered about Detective Bannon's tracking skills? This short story will help to solve the mystery.

Young Mark Bannon and his girlfriend Rita return to the homestead after a successful hunt to get a kangaroo for Rita's pop and nan. Rita informs him she is going quondonging with her cousin Jacky and they can practice tracking. Jacky is good at hiding his tracks and has a secret hidden in his backpack he is sure will prevent Mark from finding him.

For those of you who don't know what a quondong is, it's an Australian native fruit tree that grows throughout the outback of South Australia. The fruit when ripe is ruby red, luscious and tart.

This would be one of the first stories I wrote many years ago now. I'm surprised it survived the many house moves on paper and eventually on floppy disk then transferred to computer to again survive crashes, until I found it in a dusty archive on an external hard drive while sorting out some files.

Well here it is, tidied up, polished and fit for publication.

Get it for FREE here now