I received this note last month:
“We’re pleased to inform you that your book has been chosen for our monthly list of recommendations for Booklist Magazine.
“As you may know, Booklist Magazine is the premier review publication for libraries across the United States. In an effort to help librarians find exceptional independently published titles for their collections, Booklist and BlueInk Review have collaborated in offering a monthly list of recommended titles to be published in the magazine. Booklist Magazine is read by over 60,000 librarians for use in acquiring titles for their collections. – Patricia Moosbrugger, Managing Partner, BlueInk Review
The review:
A sequel to Outzen’s debut, City of Grudges (2018), this novel continues the investigative adventures of Walker Holmes, publisher of a struggling alt-weekly based in Pensacola, Florida. Here, the hard-drinking Holmes has sunk into an impressively long bender while coping with myriad personal issues, including his girlfriend leaving him, a corrupt sheriff who has it out for him and his newspaper, and a murderer walking free and taunting him with texts.
After a flood ravages the city and the Booking and Detention Center inexplicably explodes, Holmes’ ex-wife becomes involved in the case, forcing him out of his drunken stupor. Matters grow more complicated when Holmes and his staff uncover decades of grand-scale government corruption and police ties to white supremacist groups. As knotty as the best-constructed mysteries, Outzen’s novel is unapologetically dark.
The writing goes down like smooth bourbon; Holmes is a complex but endearing antihero; and Outzen brings the Florida Panhandle alive with a story that seamlessly blends Carl Hiaasen’s readability and Charles Willeford’s thematic impact. Readers will find the book impossible to put down.
Here’s the layout from March 15 edition: