From The Booking Desk:
The summer has brought us so many excellent novels and this week is no different. If you are still looking for something to pack into that suitcase, I suspect you will find more than a few options on this list.
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Karin Slaughter – Pieces of Her (William Morrow, Hardcover, $27.99, 08/21/2018)
BOLO Books Comments:
Karin Slaughter is one of the guest of honors at the upcoming Bouchercon in St. Petersburg, Florida. I am just finishing this one up, so a review will be coming shortly, but I can tell you now that this is not the book you think it is; it is very unique and completely captivating.
Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):
What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all . . . ?
Andrea knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s spent her whole life in the small beachside town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s never wanted anything more than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Because we all know our mothers, don’t we?
But all that changes when a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Because it turns out that before Laura was Laura, she was someone completely different. For nearly thirty years she’s been hiding from her previous identity, lying low in the hope that no one would ever find her. But now she’s been exposed, and nothing will ever be the same again.
The police want answers and Laura’s innocence is on the line, but she won’t speak to anyone, including her own daughter. Andrea is on a desperate journey following the breadcrumb trail of her mother’s past. And if she can’t uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either one of them. . . .
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Sandie Jones – The Other Woman (Minotaur, Hardcover, $26.99, 08/21/2018)
BOLO Books Comments:
Another domestic suspense novel focused on a marriage, but Sandie Jones finds yet another new spin on this – and has a ending that will sweep the rug out from under you.
Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):
HE LOVES YOU: Adam adores Emily. Emily thinks Adam’s perfect, the man she thought she’d never meet.
BUT SHE LOVES YOU NOT: Lurking in the shadows is a rival, a woman who shares a deep bond with the man she loves.
AND SHE’LL STOP AT NOTHING: Emily chose Adam, but she didn’t choose his mother Pammie. There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do for her son, and now Emily is about to find out just how far Pammie will go to get what she wants: Emily gone forever.
THE OTHER WOMAN will have you questioning her on every page, in Sandie Jones’ chilling psychological thriller about a man, his new girlfriend, and the mother who will not let him go.
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William Kent Kruger – Desolation Mountain (Atria, Hardcover, $26.00, 08/21/2018)
BOLO Books Comments:
William Kent Kruger is one of crime fiction’s most consistent practitioners; And few are as successful at bringing a setting to life like he is. Kruger proves that long-running series really can work, as long as the groundwork is laid early and authors remain true to their characters. If you haven’t given him a try, you really should.
Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):
To Stephen O’Connor, Hamlet’s dour observation is more than just words. All his life, he has had visions of tragedies to come. When he experiences the vision of a great bird shot from the sky, he knows something terrible is about to happen. The crash of a private plane on Desolation Mountain in a remote part of the Iron Lake Reservation, which kills a United States senator and most of her family, confirms Stephen’s worst fears.
Stephen joins his father, Cork O’Connor and a few Ojibwe men from the nearby Iron Lake reservation to sift through the smoldering wreckage when the FBI arrives and quickly assumes control of the situation. What seems like the end of the O’Connors’ involvement is, however, only the beginning of a harrowing journey to understand the truth behind the Senator’s death. As he initiates his own probe, Cork O’Connor stumbles upon a familiar face in Bo Thorson, a private security consultant whose unnamed clients have hired him to look quietly into the cause of the crash. The men agree to join forces in their investigation, but soon Cork begins to wonder if Thorson’s loyalties lie elsewhere.
In that far north Minnesota County, which is overrun with agents of the FBI, NTSB, DoD, and even members of a rightwing militia, all of whom have their own agendas, Cork, Stephen, and Bo attempt to navigate a perilous course. Roadblocked by lies from the highest levels of government, uncertain who to trust, and facing growing threats the deeper they dig for answers, the three men finally understand that to get to the truth, they will have to face the great menace, a beast of true evil lurking in the woods—a beast with a murderous intent of unimaginable scale.
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Elsa Hart – City of Ink (Minotaur, Hardcover, $25.99, 08/21/2018)
BOLO Books Comments:
Elsa Hart is probably not a name that you are familiar with, but with her three books set in 18th-century China, she has proven herself a force to be reckoned with. This historical series is first-class entertainment with characters unlike any you have seen elsewhere. If you are not reading Hart, you are doing yourself a disservice.
Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):
Li Du was prepared to travel anywhere in the world except for one place: home. But to unravel the mystery that surrounds his mentor’s execution, that’s exactly where he must go.
Plunged into the painful memories and teeming streets of Beijing, Li Du obtains a humble clerkship that offers anonymity and access to the records he needs. He is beginning to make progress when his search for answers buried in the past is interrupted by murder in the present.
The wife of a local factory owner is found dead, along with a man who appears to have been her lover, and the most likely suspect is the husband. But what Li Du’s superiors at the North Borough Office are willing to accept as a crime of passion strikes Li Du as something more calculated. As past and present intertwine, Li Du’s investigations reveal that many of Beijing’s residents ― foreign and Chinese, artisan and official, scholar and soldier ― have secrets they would kill to protect.
When the threats begin, Li Du must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice to discover the truth in a city bent on concealing it, a city where the stroke of a brush on paper can alter the past, change the future, prolong a life, or end one.
