From The Booking Desk:

If you stopped by yesterday, you hopefully read the guest post from Catriona McPherson. Her book is included on this week’s BOLO report along with a number of other excellent reads.

Rachel Howzell Hall – They All Fall Down (Forge, Hardcover, $26.99, 04/09/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

I’m pretty sure the BOLO Books Review of They All Fall Down did a good job of conveying how important I think this book is to the evolving history of crime fiction. Don’t be the last on your block to read it.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime.

Delighted by a surprise invitation, Miriam Macy sails off to a luxurious private island off the coast of Mexico with six other strangers. Surrounded by miles of open water in the gloriously green Sea of Cortez, Miriam is soon shocked to discover that she and the rest of her companions have been brought to the remote island under false pretenses―and all seven strangers harbor a secret.

Danger lurks in the lush forest and in the halls and bedrooms of the lonely mansion. Sporadic cell-phone coverage and miles of ocean keeps the group trapped in paradise. And strange accidents stir suspicions, as one by one . . .
They all fall down

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Catriona McPherson – Scot & Soda (Midnight Ink, Paperback, $15.99, 04/08/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Scottish lass Lexy Campbell returns to once again lead readers through the hilarious trials and tribulations of assimilation into a new culture. Lexy’s batch of friends are one-of-a-kind and every page here contains a laugh. But it’s not all fun and games: Lexy does discover another body and despite advice from the local police, she can’t help trying to help figure out what is going on.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Now settled in her little houseboat, moored in the slough at the back of the Last Ditch Motel, Lexy Campbell wants nothing more than to build her counseling business, avoid her mother’s phone calls and―who knows?―meet a nice guy. But when she throws a Halloween party for her motley crew of motel pals, the only single man is too old for her, too wrapped up in the case of beer chilling in the slough, and―oh, yes―too dead.

The sensible choice is to leave it up to the cops to identify the body and catch the killer. So faster than you can say “Tam O’Shanter,” Lexy and her friends jump into the case themselves, delving deep into their town’s past for the roots of a mystifying crime.

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Murder From Scratch – Leslie Karst (Crooked Lane Books, Hardcover, $26.99, 04/09/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Leslie Karst’s latest Sally Solari Mystery is a quick read that is perfect for fans of the Food Network. Peppered with a sampling of life in the culinary industry, it’s the variety of characters that readers will most enjoy getting to know. As a blind woman, Evelyn is a fascinating character that adds to the diverse landscape of the cozy crime genre.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Restaurateur Sally Solari’s cousin Evelyn may be blind, but she can see all too clearly that her chef mother’s death wasn’t an accidental overdose―she was murdered.

Santa Cruz restaurateur Sally Solari’s life is already boiling over as she deals with irate cooks and other staffing issues at the busy Gauguin restaurant. The rainy December weather isn’t cooling things down, either. So she’s steamed when her dad persuades her to take in Evelyn, her estranged blind cousin whose mother has just died of a drug overdose.

But Evelyn proves to be lots of fun and she’s a terrific cook. Back at the house she’d shared with her mom, Evelyn’s heightened sense of touch tells her that various objects―a bottle of cranberry juice, her grandfather’s jazz records―are out of place. She and her mom always kept things in the same place so Evelyn could find them. So she suspects that her mother’s death was neither accident nor suicide, no matter what the police believe.

The cousins’ sleuthing takes Sally and Evelyn into the world of macho commercial kitchens, and the cutthroat competitiveness that can flame up between chefs. In Leslie Karst’s scrumptious fourth Sally Solari mystery, Sally will have to chop a long list of suspects down to size or end up getting burned.

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Hanna Jameson – The Last (Atria, Hardcover, $27.00, 04/09/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

The BOLO Books Review of The Last posted last week. The novel blends the old and the new in unique ways that will please fans of both the traditional mystery and the thriller genre.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?