From the Booking Desk:

The sweltering temperatures here at this mid-summer moment makes reading an ideal activity. Fortunately, this week there is a book for every type of reader being released. Read one or read them all.

Laura Lippman – Lady in the Lake (Willam Morrow, Hardcover, $26.99, 07/23/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

The spoiler-free BOLO Books review of Lady in the Lake ran previously, so this is your reminder that the book will be available this week. You rarely know what you are going to get with a Laura Lippman book, but you always know it’s going to be first-rate.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know—everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she’s bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life.

Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl—assistance that leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake.

Cleo Sherwood was a young black woman who liked to have a good time. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie—and the dead woman herself. Maddie’s going to find the truth about Cleo’s life and death. Cleo’s ghost, privy to Maddie’s poking and prying, wants to be left alone.

Maddie’s investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her life—a jewelry store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of people—including the man who shares her bed, a black police officer who cares for Maddie more than she knows.

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Cynthia Kuhn – The Subject of Malice (Henery, Paperback, $15.95, 07/23/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

It is no secret that my reading tastes tend to skew to the darker side of things, but there are lighter series that I love. Cynthia Kuhn’s Lila Maclean books, for example. With this fourth book in this wonderful academic mystery series, Kuhn tackles the ambiance at literary festivals, giving Lila the perfect setting to use her specific knowledge to help the authorities investigate. I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favorite in this series, but The Subject of Malice would be a contender.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

The organizers have rustled up plenty of surprises for the literary conference at Tattered Star Ranch. But the murder of an influential scholar wasn’t on the program–someone has clearly taken the theme of Malice in the Mountains to heart. This shocking crime is only the beginning: Other dangers and deceptions are soon revealed.

English professor Lila Maclean has a full agenda: She must convince a press to publish her book (possibly), ace her panel presentations (hopefully), and deal with her nemesis (regrettably).

However, when Detective Lex Archer requests Lila’s academic expertise, she agrees to consult on the case. While her contributions earn high marks from her partner, it could be too late; the killer is already taking aim at the next subject.

As Lila races to keep her colleagues alive, publish or perish takes on new meaning.

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Shannon Kirk – Gretchen (Thomas & Mercer, Paperback, $15.95, 07/23/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Shannon Kirk is well on her way to establishing her very own brand – maybe her own genre. After last year’s In the Vines, Kirk returns with another unique blend of Gothic, Horror, and Mystery. It is not easy to come up with something that is completely different, but Shannon Kirk certainly manages to do that.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

The new tenants have a terrible secret. So do the landlord and his daughter…

Ever since Lucy was two, she’s been on the run alongside her mother. She’s never understood the reason for a lifetime of paranoia, aliases, and lies. All she understands are the rules: never lock eyes with strangers, never let down your guard, and always be ready to move on.

Finally, after thirteen years and eleven states, their next hideaway seems perfect. An isolated, fortresslike place in the New Hampshire woods is the new home they share with its owner, a gentlemanly pianist, and his lonely daughter, Gretchen. She’s Lucy’s age and soon becomes Lucy’s first real friend.

But Gretchen and her father have secrets of their own—and an obsession with puzzles that draws Lucy into a terrifying new game of hide-and-seek. Lucy’s dark past is about to come calling. And this time, for her and her mother in the house on the hill, it might be too late to run.