From The Booking Desk:

This Monday I have three distinctly different books for you, each of them wonderful in their own unique ways.

Claire Booth – A Deadly Turn (Severn House, Hardcover, $28.99, 03/01/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

BOLO Books has covered the first book in Claire Booth’s series (The Branson Beauty). Now with a new publisher, she gives readers the third in the series and what I think is her best book yet. Readers will feel and relate to the guilt Hank Worth experiences after the death of these teenagers. With that as an emotional backdrop, Booth presents a complex police procedural that takes many unexpected detours. Hank’s team continues to utilize the strengths of each member in the solving of this unusual case. And the ending pretty much guarantees that readers will return for the next book.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Branson county sheriff Hank Worth struggles to uncover the truth behind a fatal car crash in this absorbing mystery.

Hank Worth thinks he’s performed a good deed when he pulls over the car of six teens caught speeding on a Saturday night and lets them off with a warning and instructions to go home. When he responds to an urgent call minutes later, he realises he made a fatal error of judgement – every teen is dead. Struggling to come to terms with his role in the crash, Hank begins to suspect foul play. While notifying the parents of the children involved, his suspicions grow when an unidentified body is discovered in one of their homes and a teenage girl is found after apparently attempting to commit suicide. Hank believes the incidents are connected, but those around him disagree. Is Hank right, or is his guilt making him search for answers where there are none?

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Alexia Gordon – Fatality in F (Henery Press, Paperback, $15.95, 02/26/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s The Language of Flowers is one of my favorite non-crime-fiction books, so when I head that Alexia’s new Gethsemane Brown mystery played with similar themes, I had to give it a chance. Boy am I glad that I did! This book falls on the edgier side of the cozy spectrum, with humor used as a leavening agent. With the Irish setting and the classical music, I will definitely be back for more adventures with Gethsemane and her “family.”

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Fresh from solving her third mystery, Gethsemane Brown’s ready to relax and enjoy her summer. Her plans include nothing more dangerous than performing in the opening ceremony of the annual rose and garden show and cheering on Frankie Grennan, who has entered his hybrid rose into the competition.

But when a mysterious stalker starts leaving Frankie floral bouquets as coded messages, Gethsemane fears a copycat may be planning to recreate the still-unsolved murders of the infamous Flower Shop Killer. Then Frankie’s main competitor in the rose show—and the reason his marriage failed—turns up dead in Frankie’s rose garden. Frankie takes first prize in the category of prime suspect.

So much for a relaxing summer.

As bodies start dropping like rose petals, Gethsemane must judge the other suspects and find the real killer. Or rose bushes won’t be the only things dead-headed in Dunmullach.

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Camilla Grebe – After She’s Gone (Ballantine, Hardcover, $27.00, 02/26/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

This Scandinavian crime novel with multiple points of view will hook readers immediately. While it was the second in a series, I was able to completely enjoy this without knowledge of the first book. The way Grebe brings her characters together in believable ways adds to the complexity of a plot that will keep readers guessing.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Out of the frozen depths of a forest in Ormberg, Sweden, a woman stumbles onto the road. Her arms are covered with scratches, her feet are bare, and she has no memory of who she is. Local police identify her as psychological profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön, who, with her partner, had been helping  investigate the cold case of a young woman’s murder. Hanne begins to recover but cannot recall anything about where her partner is, or what their investigation had uncovered before her disappearance. Police have only one lead: a young woman in a sequined dress who was spotted nearby the night Hanne was found.

The young woman doesn’t come forward because she doesn’t exist: Jake Birgersson, a local teenager, had been out walking in his mother’s dress and sister’s makeup, his secret shame and thrill. Terrified of discovery, Jake hid and watched Hanne get into a car, leaving behind her diary.

Reading Hanne’s notebook, Jake realizes that it contains the key to a major breakthrough in the case—but turning it in would mean admitting the truth about who he is. When another murder victim is found in the woods, Jake realizes that Hanne herself is in danger, and his only choice is to find and warn her so that together, they can stop the killer before he strikes again.