From the Booking Desk:

Summer is in full swing and this week is the Independence Day holiday in the States. Each of the books on this list would make for an extremely entertaining diversion – but each also contains elements that will have your mind contemplating some timely societal issues.

Alison Gaylin – Never Look Back (William Morrow, Hardcover, $26.99, 07/02/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

I am pretty sure that the BOLO Books review of Never Look Back conveyed just how much I loved this novel. Easily one of the best reads of the year-to-date.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

For thirteen days in 1976, teenage murderers April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy terrorized Southern California’s Inland Empire, killing a dozen victims before perishing themselves in a fire… or did they? More than 40 years later, twentysomething podcast producer Quentin Garrison blames his troubled upbringing on the murders. And after a shocking message from a source, he has reason to believe April Cooper may still be alive. Meanwhile, New York City film columnist Robin Diamond is coping with rising doubts about her husband and terrifying threats from internet trolls. But that’s nothing compared to the outrageous phone call she gets from Quentin… and a brutal home invasion that makes her question everything she ever believed in. Is Robin’s beloved mother a mass murderer? Is there anyone she can trust?

Told through the eyes of those destroyed by the Inland Empire Killings—including Robin, Quentin, and a fifteen-year-old April Cooper—Never Look Back asks the question:

How well do we really know our parents, our partners—and ourselves?

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Caz Frear – Stone Cold Heart (Harper, Hardcover, $26.99, 07/02/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Frear returns with her second book featuring Cat Kinsella and fans of Sweet Little Lies will rejoice. The new book solidifies Kinsella’s character as one of the most unique in crime fiction. While the first novel was more epic in scope, Stone Cold Heart has a narrower focus – the family of suspects at the core are thoroughly investigated by DCI Kate Steele’s team in a labyrinthine plot that constantly surprises. Meanwhile Cat Kinsella continues to negotiate the complexities that come with her previous deceptions, her secret personal relationship, and her unwavering loyalty to partner, Luigi Parnell.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

After a brief stint in the Mayor’s Office, Detective Constable Cat Kinsella is back at the London Metropolitan Police, wisecracking with her partner Luigi Parnell and trying to avoid the wrath of the boss, DI Kate Steele.

But for Cat and Parnell, it’s serious business when a young Australian woman turns up dead after a party thrown by her new boss. The initial investigation of Naomi Lockhart’s murder points to Joseph Madden, the owner of a coffee shop around the corner from police headquarters. Madden insists he’s innocent, that he was home with his wife Rachel at the time of the murder. When police question her, Rachel contradicts his alibi, swearing that she was home alone.

While the team builds its case against Joseph, Cat is tasked with getting to the heart of the Maddens’ marriage. Cat knows that one of them is lying—but the question of which one, and why, is far more complicated than she could have expected. As she tries to balance the demands of the investigation with a budding romance and unresolved family drama, Cat has to decide how far she’ll go to keep her own past mistakes buried.

With her trademark wit and brilliant plotting, Caz Frear ratchets up the tension and keeps you guessing as she explores the things we keep from our loved ones—and the secrets we’d kill to keep safe in the dark.

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Marcia Talley – Tangled Roots (Severn House, Hardcover, $28.99, 07/01/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Tapping into society’s current obsession with tracing lineage via DNA analysis, Marcia Talley releases another satisfying entry in her Hannah Ives series. The murder mystery in the novel hits close to home for Hannah, but honestly, it’s the detailed information about DNA that proves the most compelling element here. That larger concept is cleverly used by Talley to give the multiple threads within Twisted Roots a unifying theme.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Hannah Ives’s sister, Georgina, has some astonishing news. A DNA test has revealed she is part Native American, and Hannah’s test has similar results. The link seems to come from their late mother. But how?

As Hannah dives into constructing her family tree, she uncovers a heart-breaking love story and a mysterious death, while DNA matching turns up two second cousins, Mai and Nicholas. Hannah and her niece, Julie, are eager to embrace their new relatives and learn about their surprising ancestry, but Georgina’s husband, Scott, isn’t so keen. Are there more shocking revelations to come? And can Hannah untangle her family roots to uncover the truth behind a devastating tragedy?

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Layne Fargo – Temper (Gallery/Scout, Hardcover, $27.00, 07/02/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Temper is a master class in milieu. The ambiance that Layne Fargo throws the reader into is so dark, disturbing, and enigmatic it feels as though one has been sucked into vortex from which there is no escape. The less you know, the better. This will be a polarizing read, but there is no doubt that it will have readers talking.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

After years of struggling in the Chicago theater scene, ambitious actress Kira Rascher finally lands the role of a lifetime. The catch? Starring in Temper means working with Malcolm Mercer, a mercurial director who’s known for pushing his performers past their limits—onstage and off.

Kira’s convinced she can handle Malcolm, but the theater’s cofounder Joanna Cuyler is another story. Joanna sees Kira as a threat—to her own thwarted artistic aspirations, her twisted relationship with Malcolm, and the shocking secret she’s keeping about the upcoming production. But as opening night draws near, Kira and Joanna both start to realize that Malcolm’s dangerous extremes are nothing compared to what they’re capable of themselves.

An edgy, addictive, and fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deceit, and power, Temper is a timely, heart-in-your-throat psychological thriller that will leave you breathless.

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S. J. Rozan – Paper Son (Pegasus, Hardcover, $25.95, 08/02/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Fans of Rozan’s Chin/Smith novels have been longing for this one for a while – and it was most certainly worth the wait. This entry takes the private investigators to the deep south of the United States. Rozan excels at weaving historical elements into her writing and this change of setting allows her to explore some fascinating threads revolving around the immigrant experience, racial tensions, and family loyalty. But rest assured, the humorous banter between Lydia Chin and Bill Smith remains intact.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

The Most Southern Place on Earth: that’s what they call the Mississippi Delta. It’s not a place Lydia Chin, an American-born Chinese private detective from Chinatown, NYC, ever thought she’d have reason to go. But when her mother tells her a cousin Lydia didn’t know she had is in jail in Clarksdale, Mississippi―and that Lydia has to rush down south and get him out―Lydia finds herself rolling down Highway 61 with Bill Smith, her partner, behind the wheel.

From the river levees to the refinement of Oxford, from old cotton gins to new computer scams, Lydia soon finds that nothing in Mississippi is as she expected it to be. Including her cousin’s legal troubles―or possibly even his innocence. Can she uncover the truth in a place more foreign to her than any she’s ever seen?