From the Booking Desk:

We are hitting the summer stride with new releases. These are perfect for a day at the beach, by the pool, or just sitting outside in the backyard listening to nature. With a few paperback originals in the bunch, these are also budget-conscious options for those that are saving for a trip to that special vacation destination.

Louise Candlish – Those People (Berkley, Hardcover, $26.00, 06/11/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

There is a reason the adage “good fences make good neighbors” has been around so long. This is a neighborhood where that should be plastered on the sign as you enter the area! Louise Candlish continues to prove herself to be another very promising new writer out of the UK. If she keeps writing books like this and Our House, she will be around for many years to come. Look for a longer review soon.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Lowland Way is the suburban dream. The houses are beautiful, the neighbors get along, and the kids play together on weekends.

But when Darren and Jodie move into the house on the corner, they donʼt follow the rules. They blast music at all hours, begin an unsightly renovation, and run a used-car business from their yard. It doesn’t take long for an all-out war to start brewing.

Then, early one Saturday, a horrific death shocks the street. As police search for witnesses, accusations start flying—and everyone has something to hide.

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Leslie Budewitz – Chai Another Day (Seventh Street Books, Paperback, $15.95, 06/11/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Leslie Budewitz returns to the much-loved Spice Shop Mystery series with a new publisher, but the same quality of writing fans have come to expect from this multi-award winner. This is definitely a cozy mystery, but as Budewitz often does, she weaves in some heavier social issues that help to give this wider appeal.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

As owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle’s famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece is always on the go. Between conjuring up new spice blends and serving iced spice tea to customers looking to beat the summer heat, she finally takes a break for a massage. But the Zen moment is shattered when she overhears an argument in her friend Aimee’s vintage home decor shop that ends in murder.

Wracked by guilt over her failure to intervene, Pepper investigates, only to discover a web of deadly connections that could ensnare a friend – and Pepper herself.

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Gillian McAllister – The Good Sister (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Paperback, $16.00, 06/11/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Gillian McAllister new novel straddles the line between psychological suspense, courtroom drama, and women’s fiction – managing to please fans of all those sub-genres in the process. Similar to how Chris Bohjalian works, McAllister presents complex situations where readers are forced to consider what they themselves would do if placed in similar circumstances. Emotionally precise and devastating on many levels, The Good Sister might just be her best book yet.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Martha and Becky Blackwater are more than sisters–they’re each other’s lifelines. When Martha finds herself struggling to balance early motherhood and her growing business, Becky steps in to babysit her niece, Layla, without a second thought, bringing the two women closer than ever. But then the unthinkable happens, and Becky is charged with murder. 

Nine months later, Becky is on trial and maintains her innocence–and so does Martha. Unable to shake the feeling that her sister couldn’t possibly be guilty, Martha sets out to uncover exactly what happened that night, and how things could have gone so wrong. As the trial progresses, fault lines between the sisters begin to show–revealing cracks deep in their relationship and threatening the family each has worked so hard to build. With incredible empathy and resounding emotional heft, The Good Sister is a powerhouse of a novel that will lead readers to question everything they know about motherhood, family, and the price of forgiveness.

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Sandra Ireland – Bone Deep (Gallery, Paperback, $16.00, 06/11/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Fans of the Gothic will find much to enjoy in Sandra Ireland’s new novel. The folklore elements thread into the modern storyline with ease and that keeps readers turning the pages as this battle of wills plays out on the page.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Is a story ever just a story?

Mac, a retired academic and writer, is working on a new collection of folktales, inspired by local legends, and at the insistence of her only child, Arthur, she hires a young assistant, Lucie, to live in a cottage on her property and help her transcribe them. What Arthur doesn’t know is that his mother is determined to keep the secrets of her past from ever being discovered. And what Mac doesn’t know is that Lucie has a few complicated secrets of her own.

The creaking presence of an ancient water mill next to Mac’s property that used to grind wheat into flour serves as an eerie counterpoint for these two women as they circle warily around each other, haunted by the local legend of two long-dead sisters, ready to point accusing fingers from the pages of history.

This atmospheric page turner evocatively gives voice to the question: What happens when you fall in love with the wrong person?