JOHN C. BOLAND

RECENT FICTION

NOVELS

SHORT STORIES

LOOSE ONES

DISTRACTIONS: POPPER

DISTRACTIONS: KAHNEMAN

DISTRACTIONS: DOTS

DISTRACTIONS: 2020-2018

DISTRACTIONS: 2017-2011

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Publishers Weekly Starred Review *



F. Paul Wilson says:

"
One of the great joys of reading is stumbling across a good book that neither you nor anyone you know has ever heard of. I'd never heard of Boland (though he's written a slew of books over the last quarter century) and never heard of this novel despite a starred review in PW. I picked it up because I'm interested in evolutionary genetics and the title caught me eye. I'm glad I did. I love a good science thriller and this one is a helluva read--a ballsy book that keeps taking unexpected turns. It's got a booby-trapped, centuries-old crypt with 3 lead-lined coffins, archaeological secrets, mind-boggling genetic mysteries, many murders and even a few explosions, a mysterious foundation, a relentless NIS investigator, and much more. I might have hesitated to tackle such a combustible farrago, but Boland plunges in and brings it off. As a lagniappe, I learned a few things. Recommended."

Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"Superior science thriller. . . . Boland's taut atmospherics are top-notch, and the evolutionary  themes he explores are easily accessible to nonscientists."

Mystery Scene Review

"A riveting scientific suspense novel on the order of the popular Preston and Child thrillers. . . . Boland makes complicated theories about DNA and genetically linked illnesses easily understood. And in contrast to many science-heavy suspense novelists, Boland also has the ability to create three-dimensional characters. [The hero's] love life is a mess; and even brutish Luther turns out to be much, much more than  your average killer. Hominid never fails to make for exciting reading."  Betty Webb

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine:  Four Stars. "A tightly written thriller."


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The stock market is murder!

 


Stockbroker John McCarthy and his actress wife set out to crack the murder of a hedge fund manager.

"Snappy mystery. Ross generates an enjoyable noir vibe with his snarky hero. He has also crafted a fine puzzle that doesn't require a deep understanding of high finance to appreciate."


Publishers Weekly
 

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A Spy's Daughter in Key Wasted


In Last Island South, young Key West sleuth Meggie Trevor
is so broke she'll take on any client who pays cash. That includes a politico named Hub Bennell, who's two steps behind a crazy Cuban gun-runner.

In Out of Her Depth, Meggie's new client Zinovi aims to become porn king of the Lower Keys. But a shotgun-toting chef and a homicidal banker would sooner see Zinovi and Meggie six fathoms under.





 
 

Publishers Weekly Review

"
A mix of old-line Commies, red-diaper babies, and more recent Russian emigres . . . engaging."
 
 
Booklist Review
 
"Tamar Gillespie, a young artist with a disabled husband, lives in a rural Connecticut village  . . . and paints dog portraits for a living. The village population includes Ultra-Orthodox Jews as well as old Communists and red-diaper babies who consider Prague Spring a betrayal. When the community board offers a run-down house to a family of Jewish refugees from the new Russia, old political feuds reappear. Historical-mystery readers who enjoy political debates will find much to appreciate here."

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Shamus Nominee Best Paperback Original



The President's dirty little secret is worth your life

After eighteen months in a federal prison, 
Hayes Rutherford figures he's done with the Washington crowd. He took the fall on a Pentagon billing scandal like a good soldier--silent and alone. 

When rumors ping the White House that someone is shopping an ugly movie script about the war-hero President, Hayes looks like suspect number one.

But Hayes is working for his daughter's PI firm in Hollywood, where anything goes--including a scheme to shake down the President who plans to kill him.


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Publishers Weekly Review

"Charming thriller . . . chases across Europe and 
tightly written gun battles. A delight for anyone who enjoys French crime cinema."



Booklist Review
 
" 'I was abducted on Tuesday, the second evening of October, and became an accomplice to murder on Friday.' So testifies Charles Mistinguett. a shady financial consultant, hotelier on the Cote d'Azur, and semiretired crook. Charles is everybody's fall guy, but he's not quite ready to fall--and definitely not ready to see his mistress, daughter and son fall with him.

"This slick thriller combines the noirish cool of French
 cinema (think Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai) with an almost jaunty, witty charm (Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief and Charade). Stylishly written and cleverly
 plotted crime fiction."


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Publishers Weekly:  "Twists straight out of John le Carré. Sardonic wit."



Publishers Weekly Review

"Fans of hard-edged spy novels will hope that this  outing for disgraced Wall Street banker Patrick McCarry is but the first of many from Ross (Long Pig). When McCarry’s firm makes him the scapegoat after a hedge fund disaster, he manages to find a new position in London. Assigned to handle Chester Holt, an American looking to open a factory making engines in Hungary, McCarry learns on arriving in Budapest that his new client is actually in the arms business.

"Members of the American intelligence community fear  Holt may be pouring fuel on the continually combustible Balkans.

"The job turns dangerous, with twists straight out of a John le Carré novel. The narrator’s sardonic wit helps keep the  tone from getting too gloomy, despite the story’s basic darkness."


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"Sparkling first novel."


First Paperback Edition of  '91 Novel

Publishers Weekly Review:  "Boland hits pay dirt with this sparkling first novel featuring greed, vengeance, and murder on Wall Street." 

USA Today:  "Entertaining whodunit! Great fun!"

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine:   "Very much in the Dick Francis tradition."  

Baltimore Sun:  "Nice plot swerves . . . a polished work."  

Philadelphia Inquirer:  "A nice job, reminding us that in the category  of mean streets, Wall is up there."


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New Paperback Edition of '92 Novel


 


Baltimore Sun


"A breezy tale of financial intrigue."


Old money knows how to protect itself from the taxman . . . and from a hungry stockbroker like McCarry.



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First Paperback Edition of '93 Novel


 
Kirkus Review

"Boland scores big with this tale of complicated money maneuvering and family strife."
 
 
Publishers Weekly Review
 
"Intriguing . . . He excels at rendering epiphanies and, more impressively, in the painstaking creation of a sympathetic character from a dense tangle of inner conflicts."


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First Paperback Edition of '94 Novel


 
Kirkus Review

"Roars along like a BMW in heat."
 
 
Publishers Weekly Review
 
"A wry, intelligent Wall Street mystery."


Washington Times Review

"Hang on around the corners."


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First Paperback Edition of '95 Novel


 

Easton Star Democrat

"Deftly entertaining!"
 
 
Arizona Star
 
"The Welleses' prickly marital relationship adds substance. Anne, forging a strong bond with [the villain's] 11-year-old daughter, begins to break out of her shell. Distinguished by Boland's skill at keeping several plots going at once."


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Ed Gorman says

"One of the most surreal, savage and compelling crime novels I've ever read . . . wholly original in story and so witty and elegant and brutal by turns you just don't want to let go of it."



A year after the death of his wife, Clete Dowski has sought refuge from his grief in a quiet Florida trailer park.  He hasn't begun to wonder who owns the place . . . or how they deal with nosy old men. 
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We forget the divine visitations
 
"Impressively creepy jump scares . . . bravura set pieces. . . well-crafted moments of suspense."
Publishers Weekly



Kathy Bell's bad day at the office is about to get worse. On the twenty-third floor, a man with a knife is being transformed into something awesome.     buy at amazon 


 
 
Rural pagans, wild dogs, betrayal and murder. A failed poet brings his daughter to visit an estranged brother-- as a sacrifice?     buy at amazon 

 
 
OUT-OF-PRINT EDITIONS

 



The Margin

 
St. Martin's Press (1995)

 



Death in Jerusalem

 
St. Martin's Press (1994)

 



Rich Man's Blood

 
St. Martin's Press (1993)

 



The Seventh Bearer

 
Pocket Books (1993)

 



Brokered Death

 Pocket Books (1992)

 



Easy Money

 
St. Martin's Press (1991)