From the Booking Desk:

Losing my mother this past March really threw my reading schedule for a loop, so I am trying to catch up on some reviews that are overdue. While these reviews are not as long as some I post here on BOLO Books, these novels are no less worthy of your attention. Both are from smaller presses and they dare to tackle some very difficult subject matter. Please seek them out; I just know that you will enjoy them.

Never Broken by Lori Duffy Foster

In Never Broken, Lori Duffy Foster tackles the difficult subject of modern-day slavery, in the form of sweatshops run by an abhorrent White Supremacy group. With Lisa Jamison, Foster has created a character – an investigative journalist – who is humanitarian in her beliefs, steadfast in her loyalty, and wholly relatable on a visceral level. When Lisa finds a disoriented man in the backseat of her car, the story he tells leads her on a journey to find a Black woman who has been missing seven years. Lisa’s risk-taking behaviors are organically-earned without ever straying into ridiculously reckless territory. Lori Duffy Foster populates the remainder of the novel with both returning characters and those who only factor into the current case without given short shrift to either type. Fittingly for a topic that is so fraught with emotional and cultural timebombs, Never Broken by no means purports to solve the epidemic, but rather serves to call attention to an ever-increasing problem that society must find a way to deal with. This is what crime fiction does best and readers going along for the journey will look forward to whatever Lori Duffy Foster – and Lisa Jamison – undertake next.

Buy Links: Never Broken by Lori Duffy Foster

Steadying the Ark – by Rebecca K. Jones

Rebecca K. Jones’ Steadying the Ark is a legal procedural of the highest order. Just as readers are used to following a police investigation from start to finish in police procedurals, this book allows for a glimpse behind the curtain of prosecution, trial preparation, and ultimately courtroom procedures. Main character Mackenzie “Mack” Wilson feels instantly familiar while bringing to bear her own unique viewpoints, history, and aspirations. The complex relationship with her ex-girlfriend – which factors into Mack’s life both personally and professionally – avoids cliché and yet remains wonderfully ordinary. Jones is not afraid to confront difficult subject matter head-on, helping readers to see both the good and the bad of our existing legal system. Here’s hoping that Mack Wilson and more books by Rebecca K. Jones are around for many years to come.

BUY LINKS: Steadying the Ark by Rebecca K. Jones