Reviews
The Good Byline – The BOLO Books Review
The cozy mystery sub-genre is populated with a plethora of amateur sleuths working a multitude of day-jobs as they solve crimes on the side; but rarely have I encountered such an inspired occupation as that found in Jill Orr’s debut mystery, The Good Byline. Riley...
Betrayed – The BOLO Books Review
Like any good thriller should, Karen E. Olson’s Betrayed starts like a bullet – quickly gaining velocity and smashing through each obstacle in its path – before reaching a tension-filled climax guaranteed to please even the most jaded reader. Through each book in the...
Ragdoll – The BOLO Books Review
Ragdoll is Daniel Cole’s debut novel. From the description, it sounds like another gruesome serial killer novel designed to shock reader’s sensibilities. Please know this couldn’t be further from the reality. Daniel Cole has launched his writing career with a creative...
Conviction – The BOLO Books Review
The dense relationship between Rebekah Roberts and Saul Katz has been one of the cornerstones of Julia Dahl’s series of mystery novels set in and around the Hasidic community of Brooklyn, New York. Through all of their highs and lows, Saul has always been important to...
The Day I Died – The BOLO Books Review
For a woman who cannot be herself, Anna Winger is certainly skilled at knowing about other people from the barest of evidence - all it takes is their handwriting. This simple fact only scratches the surface of the complex lead character in Lori Rader-Day’s absorbing...
A Twist of the Knife – The BOLO Books Review
Sometimes with a series, the author is comfortable giving readers “the same, but different” with each new book release and that is often satisfying. However, with a character as unique as Brigid Quinn, it is fitting that Becky Masterman does not follow that mold. With...
The Cutaway – The BOLO Books Review
Media scrutiny is at an all time high. It seems that no matter where one turns, there is controversy, distrust, and scandal involving our news agencies. Of course, none of this is really "new," but in our social climate, it seems that everyone suddenly has an opinion....
Natchez Burning Trilogy
There are few novels as worthy of being called EPIC as those that make up The Natchez Burning Trilogy. What Greg Iles has crafted in this series likely won't be fully realized until years down the road. The scope of these three novels is bewildering and a true...
The Legacy – The BOLO Books Review
Readers of series crime fiction know that typically the linkage between books resides with the characters, so when an author tries something different, it does tend to get noticed. In her new series debut, Yrsa Sigurdardóttir centers the series around an institution –...
Sherlock Holmes and the Clocktower Mystery – A BOLO Books Guest Post
From the Booking Desk: When I heard that the Fleet Science Center in San Diego was opening an exhibit called Sherlock Holmes and the Clocktower Mystery, I knew that I wanted coverage of it here on BOLO Books. So I reached out to my good friend Erin Labonte-McKay and...
Six Stories – The BOLO Books Review
Everyone recognizes that different people going through the same experience can – and likely will – tell very different versions of that shared incident. Matt Wesolowski is well aware of this and uses this knowledge to create a cunningly plotted mystery in his first...
Quieter Than Killing – The BOLO Books Review
Across three novels, Sarah Hilary has slowly peeled back the layers on the complex relationship between DI Marnie Rome and her foster-brother (who at the age of fourteen killed their parents). Now with Quieter Than Killing, the dynamic between these two clash to such...
Wildcat – A BOLO Books Short Story Review
In any discussion of the living legends of crime fiction, the name Sara Paretsky will quickly be mentioned. Sara Paretsky became a champion for women writers when in 1986 she was instrumental in the founding of Sisters in Crime, but over the years she has proven that...
The Art of Vanishing – The BOLO Books Review
The Semester of Our Discontent, the debut novel in Cynthia Kuhn’s academic mystery series, is currently nominated for an Agatha Award for best first novel, so you can imagine that anticipation of book two is running high. Fortunately, The Art of Vanishing is almost...
Behind Her Eyes – The BOLO Books Review
Some novels arrive with a media buzz attached and one never knows if the reality will live up to the hype. In the case of Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough, regardless of what readers might think of the unusual genre-hopping, there is no denying that the payoff at...
Willow Walk – The BOLO Books Review
When SJI Holliday’s debut novel, Black Wood, appeared in 2015, it was immediately clear that she was not going to follow standard genre conventions. Just as she did with that novel, the second in the series – Willow Walk – defies expectations while still telling a...
My Sister’s Bones – The BOLO Books Review
One of the most powerful things about fiction is that at times it can allow us to experience in a tangible way situations that are foreign to us. Some novels allow us to travel to a distant time or place, walk in the footsteps of another, or see events through...
The Lost Woman – The BOLO Books Review
Sara Blaedel is the Denmark-based author of the Louise Rick mystery series. Next week, the sixth book to be translated into English will be released. Like its predecessors, The Lost Woman uses the tropes of the crime fiction genre in order to tackle topical and...
Garden of Lamentations – The BOLO Books Review
With Garden of Lamentations, Deborah Crombie has tended to her skills as a nuanced crime writer to cultivate her multiple plot-lines into what ultimately resembles a lush word bouquet. In Garden of Lamentations, help from Gemma James is solicited in the case of a...
Riverdale – A BOLO Books Television Review
Who Killed Jason Blossom? This appears to be the lingering question that will propel viewers through the first season of Riverdale. Oh, in case you hadn’t heard, Riverdale is the new television show (airing on The CW) based on characters from the Archie comics. The...