Briar Patch Books

Category: Thriller/Suspense

  • Putting those skills to work

    It’s so nice to have Bob Moyer busy reviewing books again. Now, if we can just keep him from gallivanting around the world for a while…. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE BURGLAR. By Thomas Perry. Mysterious Press. 288 pages. $26. Thomas Perry sure knows how to keep his readers turning the pages. He’s used the…

  • Tangled web, suburban style

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson SOMEONE KNOWS. By Lisa Scottoline. Penguin Audio. 11 ½ hours; 10 CDs. Read by Ari Fliakos and Brittany Pressley. $45. Also available in print from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Lisa Scottoline has written more than 30 novels, been on best-seller lists forever and won lots of big awards. She was a…

  • A taste of violence

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson NEON PREY. By John Sandford. Penguin Audio. Red by Richard Ferrone. 11 ½ hours; 9 CDs. $40. Also available in print from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. There’s no mystery why John Sandford’s thrillers routinely make it to the top of the best-seller lists. They are tautly written, with intriguing surprises and…

  • Betting on a killer

    Bob Moyer is flushed with pleasure after reading this novel, and he hopes you’ll go straight out to get a copy. More poker puns welcomed. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer BLUFF. By Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Poisoned Pen Press. 264 pages. $26.99. When “Mad” Maud steps into a Manhattan restaurant and shoots billionaire financier Sun Sunderland,…

  • Only the truth

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE SUSPECT. By Fiona Barton. Penguin Audio. 11 ½ hours; 10 CDs. Read by Susan Duerden, Fiona Hardingham, Nicholas Guy Smith and Katharine McEwan. $40. Also available in print from Berkley. Fiona Barton’s latest suspense novel is gripping, heartbreaking and thought provoking. It’s a story that any parent will find…

  • Reacher tackles a ghost and a host of bad guys

    Bob Moyer is taking time out from his travels to catch up on some of his favorite authors. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer. PAST TENSE. By Lee Child. Delacorte Press. 382 pages. $28.99. Wow. It takes a good writer to drive a single plot competently down a path to a satisfying destination. It takes a…

  • The right touch

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson When Stuart Woods is good, he’s really quite good, but sometimes he seems to be just cranking out yet another Stone Barrington ode to the joys of being ridiculously wealthy. A Delicate Touch, No. 48 in the series (which started in 1991), is better than most of Barrington’s recent adventures.…

  • Driving out the dark spirits

    Don’t you just love it when a reviewer introduces you to a promising-sounding series with a lot of books in it? Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer DESOLATION MOUNTAIN. By William Kent Krueger. Atria Books. 320 pages. $26 When the mining company moved out of the Iron Lake area, it left behind a ravaged landscape and…

  • 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,…

  • Crime, life and most of all, books

    Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE MAN WHO CAME UPTOWN. By George Pelecanos. Little, Brown. 263 pages. $27. Have you read the collection of Appalachian short stories Kentucky Straight?  How about westerns by Elmore Leonard, or The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien?  Michael Hudson has. In fact, he has read everything Anna the prison librarian…