From the Booking Desk:

People often ask me how I manage to read all the books I want to, but the truth is, I don’t always have enough time. On this week’s BOLO, I have chosen one book I have read and three that are must-reads for me as soon as I have a break in my schedule.

Cheryl A. Head – Catch Me I’m Falling (Bywater Books, Paperback, $16.95, 03/19/2019

BOLO Books Comments:

After reading last year’s Wake Me When It’s Over, there was no doubt I would be back for Charlie Mack’s next case. Once again, Cheryl A. Head gives readers a timely portrait of inner-city Detroit and its most disenfranchised citizens. A hallmark of Cheryl Head’s writing is the depth of empathy she elicits from and for her characters and this time out, she challenges Charlie to almost literally walk in the shoes of another. In doing so, this difficult journey transforms both Charlie and the reader.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Someone is murdering the homeless in Detroit’s Cass Corridor―by immolation. These horrific crimes wouldn’t require an investigation by Charlie Mack and her crack team investigators, except one of the burned bodies is her mother’s friend. There’s a lot wrong with this case: the police won’t admit a serial killer is on the loose, drug trafficking intersects with the deaths, and a rogue cop is involved. The timing also couldn’t be worse―Charlie and Mandy are finally moving in together. This case becomes the most difficult of Charlie’s career when she transforms herself into a street person, and mixes with the corridor’s gangs, do-gooders, and the down-and-out to uncover evidence the police can’t continue to ignore.

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Elisabeth Elo – Finding Katarina M (Polis, Hardcover, $26.99, 03/19/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

There was – and still is – quite a sale on the e-book version of Finding Katarina M. I had the pleasure of meeting Elisabeth Elo on a brief trip to Boston last year, at an event hosted by the Jungle Red Writers, so I am exciting to give this book a try.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Natalie March is a successful surgeon enjoying a busy life in Washington DC. As her demanding career has left little time for friends or romance, her deepest relationship is with her mother, Vera March, a Russian immigrant and MS patient confined to a rehab. Vera is haunted by the fact that her Ukrainian parents were sent to the gulag, Stalin’s notorious network of labor camps, when she was just a baby. All her life she has presumed that they perished there along with millions of other Russian citizens. Natalie would do anything to heal her mother’s psychic pain: it’s the one wound that she, a doctor, cannot mend.

When a young Russian dancer comes to Natalie’s office claiming to be her cousin, and providing details about her grandmother that no stranger could know, Natalie must face a surprising truth: her grandmother, Katarina Melnikova, is still very much alive. Natalie is thrilled to think that her Russian relatives are reaching out and that Vera may be able to reunite with her mother after so many years. In fact, Saldana has a darker motive for making contact. She pleads for Natalie’s help to defect, and Natalie soon finds herself caught in a web of shocking family secrets that will pit her against both the Russian FSB and people within her own government.

How far will Natalie go to find Katarina M. and satisfy her mother’s deepest wish? Masterfully plotted and beautifully written, Finding Katerina M. takes the reader on an extraordinary journey across Siberia―to reindeer herding camps, Russian prisons, Sakha villages, and parties with endless vodka toasts―while it explores what it means to be loyal to your family, your country, and yourself.

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S. C. Perkins – Murder Once Removed (Minotaur, Hardcover, $26.99, 03/19/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

When S. C. Perkins started following BOLO Books on Twitter, I checked out her upcoming release. The idea of a mystery series featuring an ancestry detective immediately caught my attention. I mean, how brilliant is that? It will certainly open up many avenues for complex investigation. I’ll be picking up a copy of this book at Malice Domestic.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Except for a good taco, genealogist Lucy Lancaster loves nothing more than tracking down her clients’ long-dead ancestors, and her job has never been so exciting as when she discovers a daguerreotype photograph and a journal proving Austin, Texas, billionaire Gus Halloran’s great-great-grandfather was murdered back in 1849. What’s more, Lucy is able to tell Gus who was responsible for his ancestor’s death.

Partly, at least. Using clues from the journal, Lucy narrows the suspects down to two nineteenth-century Texans, one of whom is the ancestor of present-day U.S. senator Daniel Applewhite. But when Gus publicly outs the senator as the descendant of a murderer―with the accidental help of Lucy herself―and her former co-worker is murdered protecting the daguerreotype, Lucy will find that shaking the branches of some family trees proves them to be more twisted and dangerous than she ever thought possible.

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Wendall Thomas  – Drowned Under (Poisoned Pen Press, Paperback, $15.95, 2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

I met Wendall Thomas last year during both the New Author Breakfast and Speed-dating events at Bouchercon. After the convention, I went on to read her debut novel, Lost Luggage, and was thoroughly charmed. I look forward to this next meeting with travel agent Cyd because there is no telling what crazy adventures she will get caught up in

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Eggnog notwithstanding, travel agent Cyd Redondo is not looking forward to the holidays. The borough of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn―along with most of her family―holds her responsible for landing her Uncle Ray in a minimum security prison.

So, when Cyd’s ex-husband, Barry Manzoni, announces his parents have disappeared from an Australian cruise, she rushes Down Under to enlist the help of travel liaison and friend Harriet Archer, who offers a free cabin on the Tasmanian Dream and insider assistance with the search.

Cyd’s flights are delayed, so she hitches a helicopter ride to the ship―which lacks a heli-pad. She and her Balenciaga bag barely survive the harrowing drop, landing on a gorgeous man in a Speedo. When she finally makes it to her cabin, she finds Harriet dead, lying in a pool of blood.

The ship’s doctor/coroner―now wearing a tux instead of his Speedo―declares the death an accident. While Darling Cruises hurries to cover up the “unfortunate event” and sanitize the crime scene, Cyd scrambles to preserve evidence, terrified the murder is connected to the Manzonis’ disappearance, and to prevent the heist of the world’s last Tasmanian tiger.