Month: September 2017

  • Dinosaurs, gunslingers, Indians and more

    This novel arrived right about the time my husband and I were moving from the farm where we’d lived for more than 40 years to a new home 300 miles to the east, in Currituck County, N.C. The book made the move, but ended up under the stack of other books waiting to be read.…

  • A mad and maddening world

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GOLDEN HOUSE. By Salman Rushdie. Read by Vikas Adam. Random House Audio. 14 ½ hours. 12 CDs. 45. Salman Rushdie’s new novel captures this moment in time in America in a brilliant and disturbing way. Yes, The Golden House is frenetic, hyperbolic, often over the top and sometimes confusing…

  • A wreck, a murder, a mystery

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson A STRANGER IN THE HOUSE. By Shari Lapena. Penguin Audio. Read by Tavia Gilbert. 9 hours; 7 CDs. $47. If Shari Lapena’s first suspense novel, The Couple Next Door, was as good as most people seemed to think it was, then she’s suffering from sophomore slump with A Stranger in…

  • Same place, new face

    Bob Moyer takes time out from his traveling, petanquing, haikuing, swing dancing and other passions to get caught up on a book review. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE LATE SHOW. By Michael Connelly. Little, Brown. 405 pages. $28. Michael Connelly has been granted the mantle of successor to Raymond Chandler, and he has worn it…

  • One last taste…

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE PAINTED QUEEN. By Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess. William Morrow. 352 pages. $27.99. Fans of Elizabeth Peters’ beloved Amelia Peabody series can enjoy this final installment if they read it as light entertainment, a glimpse of sorts of the beloved characters and perhaps a reminder of just how extraordinary…

  • Beware the beasts

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson DEADFALL. By Linda Fairstein. Penguin Audio. Read by Barbara Rosenblat. 11 ½ hours; 10 CDs. $40. Alex Cooper is back – sort of – after her kidnapping ordeal, but she’s supposed to be on leave from work, and she’s struggling emotionally. A quiet time of healing is not in the…