Reviews
Walleye Junction – The BOLO Books Review
Karin Salvalaggio’s third book, Walleye Junction, has recently been released. This continues the series of novels featuring Detective Macy Greeley and like the others books she has written, Walleye Junction presents some of the best plotting and characterization the...
St Ernan’s Blues – The BOLO Books Review
Regardless of how much reading one does, there never seems to a shortage of new authors to discover – writers like Paul Charles, who recently released St Ernan’s Blues, the third book in his series featuring Inspector Starrett. St Ernan’s Blues is reminiscent of...
Tastes Like Fear – The BOLO Books Review (UK Edition)
With just three novels currently available, Sarah Hilary has quickly risen to “must buy” status for many crime fiction aficionados. Her Marnie Rome series of books are guaranteed to feature hot-button topics, relevant themes, quality writing, and some of the most...
Blood Defense – The BOLO Books Review
2016 has been quite a year for Marcia Clark. The FX network aired their series, American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and finally the public was able witness the behind-the-scenes tribulation that plagued the participants of this legendary court case. Once...
Nightblind –
The BOLO Books Review (UK Edition)
Statistically, the occurrences of violent crime in Iceland are miniscule, but with Nightblind Ragnar Jónasson shows readers that the gap between a low crime rate and a low rate of reported crime is a chasm rather than a crack. When his English-language debut Snowblind...
Wilde Lake –
The BOLO Books Review
When I interviewed Laura Lippman last year, she had this to say about her next book: “I’m writing a crazy-ambitious stand-alone, a crime novel that asks readers to rethink an American classic.” With or without that in mind, astute readers will certainly see the echoes...
The Body in the Birches – The BOLO Books Review
Readers would be hard-pressed to find crime fiction more genteel than that written by Katherine Hall Page. Even though she is writing about murder, secrets, and other nefarious activity, Page does so with a restrained pen – making her a favorite of those who enjoy...
Fool Me Once –
The BOLO Books Review
(This is the second in a series looking at the work of Bouchercon 2016 Guests of Honor.) Reading the standalone novels of Harlan Coben is like placing yourself in front of a firing line, except instead of bullets, you are going to be assaulted with plot twists and...
Storm Warning – The BOLO Books Review
Every few years the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters In Crime releases a themed short story anthology. Next week, their newest offering will be available and this time out the theme is weather. To whet your whistle, I wanted to give you a small sampling of the stories...
Quiet Neighbors –
The BOLO Books Review
In addition to her Dandy Gilver historical mystery series, Catriona McPherson continues to write stand-alone novels that defy categorization. Just this month Quiet Neighbors was released and while it is certainly a novel filled with secrets, at its core it is a...
A Death Along the River Fleet –
The BOLO Books Review
Historical mysteries are a delight to read because they offer a glimpse into the past, but they are at their best when they also cause readers to reflect on the current state of life as well. Susanna Calkins’ Lucy Campion series does just that and the newest in that...
Sunset City – The BOLO Books Review
In the crime fiction genre, readers could easily fill a yearly to-be-read pile with novels by authors they have read before and/or series books they have been following for eons. But one should not discount the debut novels released each year. Within those books are...
American Psycho – Theater Thoughts from BOLO Books
American Psycho began life as a controversial novel by Bret Easton Ellis before becoming an equally shocking movie. Now, there is a stage production, wherein the story of the stunningly handsome psychopath Patrick Bateman is set to music written by Duncan Sheik. Yes,...
The Semester of Our Discontent – The BOLO Books Review
Academic mysteries are popular enough that they practically constitute a sub-genre of their own. With her debut novel – The Semester of Our Discontent - Cynthia Kuhn adds another winning entry to that ever-expanding category. The Semester of our Discontent features...
Random –
The BOLO Books Review
Craig Robertson will be the International Rising Star Guest of Honor at this year’s Bouchercon in New Orleans (September 15-18, 2016). In light of that and the fact that many readers may be unfamiliar with his work, I have decided to review his debut novel – Random...
Lie in Plain Sight – The BOLO Books Review
Maggie Barbieri’s series featuring Maeve Conlon consistently presents compelling mystery plots woven into dramatic and realistic relationship dynamics. The third book in the series, Lie in Plain Sight, was recently released and may just be the best one yet. Like the...
The Saints of the Lost and Found – The BOLO Books Review
Occasionally, a book will be released which is virtually impossible to classify. The Saints of the Lost and Found by T. M. Causey is just such a book. Yes, it’s crime fiction, it’s a family drama, it’s magical realism, but it’s just so much more than all of them. Any...
Jane Steele –
The BOLO Books Review
Any time a writer attempts to re-imagine a beloved classic, especially when doing so in the same style as the original, the journey before them is a treacherous one. On the one hand, it is almost guaranteed to disappoint some fans of the original; while at the same...
And Then There Were None – A BOLO Books Television Review
The Lifetime television network recently aired the BBC One-produced adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (it’s available on-demand and on Blu-ray/DVD). While the new version does alter certain details from the original plot – likely in an effort to...
Skies of Ash –
The BOLO Books Review
Like the sun slicing through the smog-encased Los Angeles skyline, Lou Norton broke through as a shining hope of diversity in Rachel Howzell Hall’s debut mystery, Land of Shadows. In a genre which can at times seem too cookie-cutter-ish, Hall’s fresh and urban voice...