Briar Patch Books

Category: Southern Fiction

  • Lee Smith alert!

    Once I get over being envious and annoyed that Bob Moyer got hold of this new Lee Smith novel before I did, I will find it and read it. She’s a bright star of contemporary Southern and North Carolina fiction.    Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer.    SILVER ALERT. By Lee Smith. Algonquin Books. 224 […]

  • A North Carolina novel you won’t want to miss

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson INDIGO FIELD. By Marjorie Hudson. Regal House Publishing. 410 pages. $22.95. Marjorie Hudson’s debut novel is so beautifully written, so powerful, so true and so haunting that it’s hard to come up with one adjective sufficient to describe it. Suffice it to say that if you’re making a list of […]

  • Murder at the salvage yard

    Here’s a remarkably good first novel by the latest addition to my list of outstanding North Carolina authors. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson IT DIES WITH YOU.  By Scott Blackburn. Crooked Lane Books. 304 pages. $27.99. When Hudson Miller was just a boy, his dad “dismantled” what had been a reasonably happy, church-going, middle class […]

  • A gem of a Southern novel

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson SOUTH OF HEAVEN. By Patti Frye Meredith. Mint Hill Books, Main Street Rag Publishing Company. $17.95, paperback. Patti Frye Meredith’s South of Heaven is a gem of a Southern novel, one of those rare books that captures life in the South with all its contradictions and nuances without turning characters […]

  • Tarheel troubadour

    Bob Moyer has returned from his latest adventures to give us another fine book review.   Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer IN THE VALLEY. By Ron Rash. Doubleday. 220 pages. $26.95   There’s gold in them thar mountains. North Carolina mountains, that is, and Ron Rash knows how to mine it. Critics frequently call him an […]

  • Faded dreams and vanished worlds

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE SWEET TASTE OF MUSCADINES. By Pamela Terry. Ballantine Books. 288 pages. $27. Pamela Terry has a winner in “The Sweet Taste of Muscadines,” her debut novel. The book is billed as a Southern novel, and it is – in the best sense of that descriptive. The geography is right: […]

  • In the swamps, Burke takes it up a notch

    Bob Moyer has been busy, moving to a new home and doing all the other things Bob Moyer does. Including reading. Now, at last, he’s found time again to write some book reviews and share his literary finds with us. Thank goodness. Reviewed by Robert P.  Moyer A PRIVATE CATHEDRAL: A Dave Robicheaux Novel. By […]

  • All aboard for Whistle Stop!

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE WONDER BOY OF WHISTLE STOP. By Fannie Flagg. Random House Audio. Read by the author. 8 hours; 7 compact discs. $40. Also available in hardback from Random House. You are in for a treat. Need an antidote to COVID, the election and all the other things 2020 has thrown […]

  • A beach read, and more

    I’ve followed Kristy Woodson Harvey’s writing career from the beginning, and I’ve enjoyed every step of the journey. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson FEELS LIKE FALLING. By Kristy Woodson Harvey. Gallery Books, Simon & Schuster. 384 pages. $16.99, paperback. Whether you’re heading to one of the recently re-opened beaches or passing the time at home, […]

  • The never-ending war

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE RECKONING. By John Grisham. Random House Audio. 18 hours; 15 CDs. Read by Michael Beck. $45. Also available in print from Doubleday. As John Grisham’s latest novel opens, Pete Banning, a highly decorated World War II hero, family man and scion of a respected cotton-farming family in northern Mississippi, […]