From the Booking Desk:

It is another busy week at bookshops everywhere. Look for some hotly-anticipated releases alongside books you didn’t know that you needed. There is something of quality for everyone.

Attica Locke – Heaven, My Home (Mulholland Books, Hardcover, $27.00, 09/17/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Look for a launch day review of Heaven, My Home here on BOLO Books tomorrow, but rest assured that Attica Locke has outdone herself yet again. Following on the heels of her Best Novel Edgar Award win for Bluebird, Bluebird, this sequel is even stronger. Don’t miss it!

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

9-year-old Levi King knew he should have left for home sooner; now he’s alone in the darkness of vast Caddo Lake, in a boat whose motor just died. A sudden noise distracts him – and all goes dark.

Darren Mathews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness; after the events of his previous investigation, his marriage is in a precarious state of re-building, and his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother, who’s never exactly had his best interests at heart. Now she holds the key to his freedom, and she’s not above a little maternal blackmail to press her advantage.

An unlikely possibility of rescue arrives in the form of a case down Highway 59, in a small lakeside town where the local economy thrives on nostalgia for antebellum Texas – and some of the era’s racial attitudes still thrive as well. Levi’s disappearance has links to Darren’s last case, and to a wealthy businesswoman, the boy’s grandmother, who seems more concerned about the fate of her business than that of her grandson.

Darren has to battle centuries-old suspicions and prejudices, as well as threats that have been reignited in the current political climate, as he races to find the boy, and to save himself.

Attica Locke proves that the acclaim and awards for Bluebird, Bluebird were justly deserved, in this thrilling new novel about crimes old and new.

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Lisa Unger – The Stranger Inside (Park Row, Hardcover, $26.99, 09/17/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Look for my review of Lisa Unger’s new novel here on BOLO Books on Wednesday. Lisa Unger is one of those authors who deserves to be a household name. Every book she writes is unique and The Stranger Inside is no exception. If fact, not only is this Lisa Unger’s best book yet, it also happens to be completely original, unlike anything else on the market.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Even good people are drawn to do evil things…

Twelve-year-old Rain Winter narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friend’s house. Her two best friends, Tess and Hank, were not as lucky. Tess never came home, and Hank was held in captivity before managing to escape. Their abductor was sent to prison but years later was released. Then someone delivered real justice—and killed him in cold blood.

Now Rain is living the perfect suburban life, her dark childhood buried deep. She spends her days as a stay-at-home mom, having put aside her career as a hard-hitting journalist to care for her infant daughter. But when another brutal murderer who escaped justice is found dead, Rain is unexpectedly drawn into the case. Eerie similarities to the murder of her friends’ abductor force Rain to revisit memories she’s worked hard to leave behind. Is there a vigilante at work? Who is the next target? Why can’t Rain just let it go?

Introducing one of the most compelling and original killers in crime fiction today, Lisa Unger takes readers deep inside the minds of both perpetrator and victim, blurring the lines between right and wrong, crime and justice, and showing that sometimes people deserve what comes to them.

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Steven Cooper – Valley of Shadow (Seventh Street, Paperback, $15.99, 09/17/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

This novel comes out of nowhere to knock you sideways. Steven Cooper provides readers with a fresh blending of heist novel and traditional mystery. Lovers of art and high society will be fascinated, but it is the complex characters that will linger with readers after the exciting conclusion. This is a crime-solving duo that shouldn’t work, but Cooper’s ability to imbue them with humanity and compassion will have readers rooting for them for years to come.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

A cop. A psychic. And a dead socialite. Who killed Viveca Canning and where is the Dali masterpiece that hung on the walls of her estate? So many people had a motive. Phoenix Detective Alex Mills is on the case with the help of his sometimes-psychic buddy Gus Parker. You won’t find another duo like them. And once you hop on the wild ride, you won’t want to get off. Who will survive a doomed flight over the Pacific? Who tried to blow up an art gallery? Who saw Viveca Canning as a threat and shot her twice in the head? Those questions hound Gus and Alex as the case unravels. It’s an art caper wrapped in a murder mystery. The Valley of the Sun becomes a Valley of Shadows, where everyone has something to hide and the truth lies beneath Phoenix in a labyrinth of tunnels and dungeons.

There’s a lot at stake for Gus and Alex. With the case swirling all around them, the future of Gus and his rock n’ roll girlfriend hangs in the balance. For Alex, it’s a test of family loyalties as a health scare for his wife brings him to the breaking point.

Cooper’s style is, at once, scorching and wry. He deftly and seamlessly mixes thrills and chills with snark and wit. There’s good and evil, love and despair, compassion, deceit, and danger. The action swerves around twists and turns and collides with a cast of characters you will not soon forget. 

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Richard T. Ryan – The Merchant of Menace (MX Publishing, Paperback, $16.99, 09/17/2019)

BOLO Books Comments:

Richard T. Ryan continues with his line of Sherlock Holmes pastiches with this fourth book. This time out Holmes is on the trail of a criminal who is always one step ahead crime fiction’s favorite sleuth. Ryan clearly knows his stuff in terms of the Sherlockian canon, but he also always manages to blend in some fascinating historical angles as well. At under 300 pages, this is a quick and enjoyable read.

Jacket Copy (Publisher’s Description):

Reluctantly, Sherlock Holmes agrees to assist Inspector Lestrade who is being hounded by an obnoxious nobleman whose jewel-encrusted dagger has gone missing. However, what Holmes initially believes to be a simple theft turns out instead to be his first encounter with a master criminal, who is as ruthless as he is brilliant, and whom Watson dubs “The Merchant of Menace.”

Soon Holmes finds himself matching wits with a man who will steal anything – if the price is right. Moreover, this thief will go to any lengths, including blackmail and murder, to achieve his desired goal.

As Holmes comes to understand his adversary, he also begins to realize he can only react to the Merchant because he has no idea where this criminal mastermind will strike next. All Holmes knows for certain is the Merchant seems to specialize in priceless, one-of-a-kind articles. Will that be enough information for the Great Detective to outwit his foe?

From the British Museum to the Louvre to Blenheim Palace, Holmes finds himself in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. Set against the backdrop of early Edwardian England, the Great Detective and his Boswell encounter an array of luminaries from the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough to a young Winston Churchill.

For fans of Conan Doyle’s immortal detective, the game is always afoot. However, this time around Holmes must try to bring to justice a villain who might well be the next Napoleon of Crime.