Reviews
The Clockwork Scarab – BOLOBooks Review
There is a long-standing tradition of novels that alter an existing literary canon to suit the needs of a newer story. The Young Adult literary field is rife with this type of tweaking (not twerking). The latest example of this is The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen...
Help For The Haunted – BOLOBooks Review
Like many books that come out every year, John Searles’ Help For the Haunted, appears to be one thing, when it fact it is really much deeper than that surface impression may imply. In this case, what appears from its description to be a paranormal story is actually...
A Skeleton in the Family – BOLOBooks Review
There is little doubt that for those of us who are crime fiction fans, there are times when our brains need a break from peering into the dark souls of depraved human beings. So, when a book comes along that still has those mystery elements, but also has humor and a...
Leigh Perry –
BOLOBooks Interview
From The Booking Desk: I am a huge fan of Toni L. P. Kelner's Where Are They Now? mystery books. And I have long admired the editorial work she and Charlaine Harris do on their anthologies. So when I heard earlier this year that she was starting a new series about...
The Wrong Girl –
BOLOBooks Review
Last year, when Hank Phillippi Ryan released The Other Woman, it was a dramatic shift in her story-telling style. Gone were the days of the first-person narrator readers found in her much-loved Prime Time series; and in its place was a much more complex storyline...
How the Light Gets In – BOLOBooks Review
In light of the news that Louise Penny’s How the Light Gets In has reached the #1 spot on The New York Times Bestseller list (for the week of September 15), this review is likely to come off as preaching to the choir. But in case there are a few folks out there who...
The Red Queen Dies –
BOLOBooks Review
From the Booking Desk: Yesterday, BOLOBooks featured a fascinating interview with Frankie Y. Bailey. In case you missed it, you can find that interview here. Today, I am pleased to present the BOLOBooks review of her newest novel, The Red Queen Dies....
Noah’s Rainy Day –
BOLOBooks Review
From the moment Sandra Brannan’s Liv Bergen mystery series appeared, it was clear that she was not going to follow the traditional formulas for writing these types of adventures. In the first two books - In the Belly of Jonah and Lot’s Return to Sodom - her main...
Lowcountry Bombshell – BOLOBooks Review
From the Booking Desk: After reading the BOLOBooks review of Lowcountry Bombshell, be sure to check out our interview with its author, Susan M. Boyer. Readers who tested the waters with Lowcountry Boil, Susan M. Boyer’s award-winning debut mystery certainly know what...
Lake Thirteen –
BOLOBooks Review
With Lake Thirteen, Greg Herren has written a ghost story that will not only appeal to its teenaged target audience, but a story that will also resonate with anyone who remembers the summer vacations of their youth. You know the type – multiple families traveling to...
Heirs and Graces –
BOLOBooks Review
Fans of Downton Abbey will feel a sense of home-coming when they enter Kingsdown Place, the major setting in Rhys Bowen’s newest novel, Heirs and Graces. The book is the sixth in the Royal Spyness series, and like the others, it is a dream come true for Masterpiece...
The Wicked Girls –
BOLOBooks Review
From the Booking Desk: Yesterday, BOLOBooks featured an interview with Alex Marwood about her writing process and her newest book, The Wicked Girls; today we are happy to present our review of the novel. ...
The Wanderer in Unknown Realms –
BOLOBooks Review
Recently, John Connolly published a new novella called The Wanderer in Unknown Realms. Like his more recent novels, this short work explores the supernatural world as it seeps into our everyday surroundings. Perfect for reading on a summer evening, The Wanderer in...
The Cuckoo’s Calling – BOLOBooks Review
On Sunday July 14, news broke that The Cuckoo’s Calling, the debut novel by Robert Galbraith was actually written by J K Rowling. Since J K Rowling was using this pseudonym in order to garner honest reviews of the novel, rather than reviews weighted with the baggage...
The Never List –
BOLOBooks Review
In one of those strange coincidences only the Universe can explain, around the time advance copies of Koethi Zan’s debut novel The Never List were being printed, the world was riveted by the newscasts reporting the rescue of three women from a cellar dungeon in...
Kiss Me First
(BOLOBooks Review)
Kiss Me First is the debut novel by Lottie Moggach. While this book is difficult to classify, it certainly contains elements of suspense novels and psychological thrillers. It is a compelling read and is sure to be one of the most talked about books of the season....
This is W. A. R.
(BOLOBooks Review)
Imagine a group of teenage girls joining together to exact revenge on one wealthy family they believe to be responsible for wrongs perpetrated against a member of their clique. That is the premise of the new young adult novel, This is W. A. R., by Lisa and Laura...
Invitation to Die
(BOLOBooks Review)
Every once in a while a book comes along that is just a pure joy to read. From start to finish, you keep turning the pages, lost in another place – not wanting to return to the real world. With Invitation to Die, Helen Smith has written just such a book. Very much...
The Silent Wife
(BOLOBooks Review)
It is impossible to read A.S.A. Harrison's The Silent Wife without feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness, not just because of the untimely and tragic death of the author, but also because there will be no further novels by this literary talent. This debut novel...
Joyland (BOLOBooks Review)
It has always been profoundly difficult to classify the novels of Stephen King. They often cross the boundaries between horror, mystery, and literary fiction. But at the heart of all of them are incredible characters that become a part of the reader's psyche from...