From The Booking Desk:

It is still winter in much of the US, so folks need those books to curl up with by the fireplace. Fortunately, publishers are more than happy to provide them.

The Reckoning – Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Minotaur, Hardcover, $26.99, 02/12/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s work. This is the second in her Children’s House series – after The Legacy – and it is every bit as gripping at the series debut. Sigurdardottir never shies away from the darker elements in society, but she also balances that out with heart, healing, and humanity.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Vaka sits, regretting her choice of coat, on the cold steps of her new school. Her father appears to have forgotten to pick her up, her mother has forgotten to give her this week’s pocket money, and the school is already locked for the day. Grownups, she decides, are useless.

With no way to call home, she resigns herself to waiting on the steps until her father remembers her. When a girl approaches, Vaka recognizes her immediately from class, and from her unusual appearance: two of her fingers are missing. The girl lives at the back of the school, on the other side of a high fence, and Vaka asks to call her father from the girl’s house. That afternoon is the last time anyone sees Vaka.

Detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja are called in. Soon, they find themselves at the heart of another shocking case.

From the international number one-bestselling author of The Silence of the Sea, winner of the 2015 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel Yrsa Sigurdardottir returns with the follow-up to The Legacy.

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David Swinson – Trigger (Mulholland, Hardcover, $27.00, 02/12/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

BOLO Books reviewed David Swinson’s The Second Girl when it was released a number of years back. In this third in the series, anti-hero Frank Marr returns with his timeliest case yet. Once again featuring Swinson’s distinctive narrative style, fans of the grittier side of crime fiction will not be disappointed.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Frank Marr was a good cop, until his burgeoning addictions to alcohol and cocaine forced him into retirement from the D.C. Metro police. Now, he’s barely eking out a living as a private investigator for a defense attorney–also Frank’s ex-girlfriend.

Ostracized by his family after a botched case that led to the death of his baby cousin, Jeffrey, Frank was on a collision course with rock bottom. Now clean and clinging hard to sobriety, Frank passes the time–and tests himself–by robbing the houses of local dealers, taking their cash and flushing their drugs down the toilet. When an old friend from his police days needs Frank’s help to prove he didn’t shoot an unarmed civilian, Frank is drawn back into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts, running in the same circles that enabled his addiction those years ago.

Never one to play by the rules, Frank recruits a young man he nearly executed years before. Together–a good man trying not to go bad and a bad man trying to do good–detective and criminal charge headfirst into the D.C. drug wars. Neither may make it out.

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Peter Robinson – Careless Love (William Morrow, Hardcover, $26.99, 02/12/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Another of crime fictions most consistent storytellers, Peter Robinson’s DCI Banks series feels as fresh as it did back at book one. Perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves, Deborah Crombie, and Elizabeth George, these books always feature solid criminal elements, but the characters are what keep readers coming back for more.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Two suspicious deaths challenge DS Alan Banks and his crack investigative team.

A young local student’s body is found in an abandoned car on a lonely country road. The death looks like suicide, but there are too many open questions for Banks and his team to rule out foul play. The victim didn’t own a car. She didn’t even drive. How did she get there? Where—and when—did she die? Did someone move her, and if so, why?

A man in his sixties is found dead in a gully up on the wild moorland. He is wearing an expensive suit and carrying no identification. Post mortem findings indicate that he died from injuries sustained during a fall. Was it an accident—did he slip and fall? Or was he pushed? Why was he up there? And why are there no signs of a vehicle near where he fell?

As the inconsistencies multiply and the mysteries surrounding these two cases proliferate, a source close to Annie reveals a piece of information that shocks the team and impacts the investigations. An old enemy has returned in a new guise—a nefarious foe who will stop at nothing, not even murder, to get what he wants.

With the stakes raised, the hunt is on. But will Banks be able to find the evidence to stop him in time?

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Lucy Foley – The Hunting Party (William Morrow, Hardcover, $26.99, 02/12/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Lucy Foley’s mystery featuring a closed circle of suspects in an isolated location will appeal to those who enjoy Agatha Christie and the traditional style novels of yesteryear, but this is an author intent on making sure her book feels relevant for today as well. I’d be hard-pressed to think of a book more appropriate for winter consumption.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Everyone’s invited…everyone’s a suspect…

For fans of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a shivery, atmospheric, page-turning novel of psychological suspense in the tradition of Agatha Christie, in which a group of old college friends are snowed in at a hunting lodge . . . and murder and mayhem ensue.

All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?