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  • More murder and mystery in the desert Southwest

    Bob Moyer and I are both loyal fans of the late Tony Hillerman and his mysteries featuring the Navajo Nation Police. I have read one or two of the mysteries added to the series since Hillerman’s daughter Anne since her father died, but Bob beat me to this latest one. I will have to catch…

    June 20, 2025
  • A murder mystery with much to discover

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson DETECTIVE AUNTY. By Uzma Jalaluddin. Harper Perennial. 324 pages. $17.99, trade paperback original. Uzma Jalaluddin’s debut murder mystery is both familiar and different, a well plotted and well written whodunit that should appeal both to mystery fans and to readers who have enjoyed Jalaluddin’s earlier novels, which are generally considered…

    June 12, 2025
  • A patriot’s story, well told

    Paul O’Connor tells us of a new book about an old story, one we’ve probably heard many times before. But, as he discovered, there’s more to the story than the famous poem tells us. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE RIDE: PAUL REVERE AND THE NIGHT THAT SAVED AMERICA. By Kostya Kennedy. St. Martin’s Press…

    June 8, 2025
  • Speaking truth to corrupt, incompetent power

    Paul O’Connor, longtime newspaper journalist and something of a world traveler, reviews a memoir by a courageous man who died an early death last year after having been a relentless critic of the Putin regime in Russia. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor PATRIOT: A MEMOIR. By Alexei Navalny. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. 496 pages. $35, hardcover.…

    June 3, 2025
  • So many clues, so many possibilities

    Looking for a good mystery? Paul O’Connor takes a look at a 2024 book by a mystery author who’s new to me. Sounds intriguing. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE GOD OF THE WOODS. By Liz Moore. Riverhead Books. 476 pages. $30, hardcover. Liz Moore can really tell a story, as anyone who read her…

    May 25, 2025
  • A mother’s love, a mother’s war

    This fine first novel by a North Carolina author has its official debut this week. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson MEASURE OF DEVOTION. By Nell Joslin. Regal House Publishing. 254 pages. $20.95, hardcover. Susannah Shelburne has more than her share of worries when we meet her in late October of 1863. The deprivations of the…

    May 19, 2025
  • A family saga, set in a coastal Eden

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson WHERE THE RIVERS MERGE. By Mary Alice Monroe. William Morrow. 352 pages. $30, hardcover. This is a lovely book, a well-written novel that spans 80 years of a remarkable woman’s life in the South Carolina Low Country. We first meet Eliza Rivers when she’s eight years old, in 1908, and…

    May 13, 2025
  • Stories from the heart

    Paul O’Connor recently listened to Al Pacino’s memoir. He encourages us to do the same. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor SONNY BOY: A MEMOIR.  By Al Pacino. Penguin Audio. 12 hours, 28 minutes.  $45. Read by Pacino. Also available in hardcover: Penguin Press. 384 pages. $35. It sounds almost contradictory to say, but there are…

    May 7, 2025
  • Flutes, feathers, fly-tying and a surprising mystery

    Paul O’Connor takes a look at a true-crime book published six years ago, one that should satisfy those who love reading truly orReviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE FEATHER THIEF: BEAUTY, OBSESSION, AND THE NATURAL HISTORY HEIST OF THE CENTURY By Kirk Wallace Johnson. Viking. 243 pages, hardcover. $27. Also available in softcover, $18, by…

    April 8, 2025
  • Politics, power and pillow talk

    Kingmaker or gold digger? Paul O’Connor takes a look at a recent biography of the most famous seductress in the 20th century. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor KINGMAKER: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction and Intrigue. By Sonia Purnell. Penguin Random House Audio. Read by Louise Brealey. 16 hours, 58 minutes. Also available in…

    April 2, 2025
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