Reviews
Thin Air –
The BOLO Books Review
Ann Cleeves’ first Shetland Quartet is about as perfect a mini-series as readers are going to be able to find. In the first book, Raven Black, readers are introduced to Jimmy Perez and by the end of final book, Blue Lightning, our empathy for Jimmy has been pushed to...
Lowcountry Boneyard –
The BOLO Books Review
Her fans have been waiting patiently and finally, Lowcountry Boneyard – the latest in the Liz Talbot series by Susan M. Boyer – is available. Reading the Liz Talbot series is like sitting in your favorite rocking chair on a wraparound porch, sipping sweet tea in the...
False Tongues –
The BOLO Books Review
It has been roughly six years since Kate Charles’ last ecclesiastical mystery featuring Anglican cleric Callie Anson. Fans of the series have been waiting and False Tongues is sure to please them. Readers who have been following Callie Anson journey will be most...
Come to Harm –
The BOLO Books Review
No one can claim that Catriona McPherson plays it safe with her writing. Few authors today take as many risks as Catriona does in terms of genre, style, tone, and the various other components of writing. Even in her Dandy Gilver historical mystery series, McPherson...
What You Left Behind –
The BOLO Books Review
The idea of a crime novel which taps into the social zeitgeist of the moment is hardly a new concept. But the fact that the public’s attention span is always getting shorter means that there is constantly a new social ill worthy of being addressed through today’s...
Blessed Are Those Who Weep –
The BOLO Books Review
With the first two books in the Gabriella Giovanni series (Blessed are the Dead and Blessed are the Meek), Kristi Belcamino built a firm foundation on which to solidify her crime fiction career, but in book three – Blessed Are Those Who Weep – readers will realize...
Murder Boy –
The BOLO Books Review
There has been tremendous buzz in the crime fiction community over Bryon Quertermous’ debut novel, Murder Boy – and rightfully so. Quertermous has created a work which exists simultaneously as both a classic example of the noir thriller and as a unique dark comedic...
The Black Hood (Issue Two) –
The BOLO Books Comic Review
When we left Greg Hettinger at the end of Chapter One of The Black Hood comic, he was just starting to explore his vigilante nature. It was clear to readers that while his desire for justice was in no way dampened, his methods of achieving it were about to change. As...
Night Night, Sleep Tight –
The BOLO Books Review
Hallie Ephron is an author who plays by her own rules. She doesn’t produce a new novel every year, she doesn't write a series, and she creates works in both the fiction and non-fiction realms. The end result is that while she doesn’t have the same long list of credits...
Photoplay –
A BOLO Books Short Story Review
Hallie Ephron’s short story "Photoplay" serves as a prequel of sorts to her new full-length novel, Night Night, Sleep Tight. Many of the same characters appear in both pieces and yet Ephron succeeds in making each piece work as stand-alone narrative as well....
Blessed Are The Dead –
The BOLO Books Review
There are countless examples of fictional journalists who end up deeply embroiled in crime solving within the crime fiction genre. One may immediately think of Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan or Lindsay Gordon from Val McDermid’s first excellent series. More recently,...
How to Win at High School –
The BOLO Books Review
From Revenge of the Nerds to Mean Girls, our cinema history is filled with tales of teens who manage to find a way to overcome some perceived disadvantage to become popular. Now, Owen Matthews’ debut Young Adult book – How to Win at High School – gives readers the...
Kid Victory –
The BOLO Books Theater Review
John Kander is no stranger to musicalizing controversial topics. With Fred Ebb, he brought us Weimar Republic Germany set to music with Cabaret, the squalor of Latin American prisons as seen through the eyes of an idol-worshipping gay window dresser in Kiss of the...
The Black Hood –
The BOLO Books Comic Review
The union between noir-style crime fiction and comic books is hardly groundbreaking. After all, what is Gotham if not a crime infested inner-city setting filled with corruption? The same goes for Frank Miller’s classic Sin City. What makes The Black Hood stand out in...
Canary –
The BOLO Books Review
Sarie Holland is just your typical high school honor student. That is, until she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly because embroiled in a world she knows nothing about. Duane Swierczynski has taken his typical noir story-telling style and...
My Sunshine Away – The BOLO Books Review
Every few years there is a book that is released which immediately feels like a classic - something readers will re-visit over and over again, always discovering new things within the magical words on the page. This year, that book is My Sunshine Away by M. O. Walsh....
Hush Hush –
The BOLO Books Review
When Laura Lippman had Tess Monaghan give birth to her daughter Carla Scout, it seemed like the death knell for the series. After all, Tess was hardly the type to put her daughter in danger to continue her career. But then, at the end of last year’s stand-alone novel,...
Little Black Lies –
The BOLO Books Review
It is always a thrill to find a new book by a debut author that makes you anxious for more. Little Black Lies, the new psychological suspense novel by Sandra Block is certainly one of those. No doubt, part of the success of the work stems from Block’s knowledge of the...
Crazy Love You –
The BOLO Books Review
Crazy Love You, the new novel by Lisa Unger, is about obsessive love and all that is good and bad about relationships. The real feat here is that Lisa Unger has managed to write a book that is as addictive as the relationship at the story’s core. Prepare for a long...
Second Life – The BOLO Books Review (UK Edition)
By all accounts, SJ Watson’s novel, Before I Go To Sleep, signaled the auspicious debut of a promising new talent in the crime fiction genre. Anticipation has been at fever pitch as anxious fans wait for his second novel. With the publication of Second Life in the...