Briar Patch Books

Category: Southern Fiction

  • Being human in a tempestuous world

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE MARRIAGE BED. By Tommy Hays. Blair/Carolina Wren Press. 300 pages. $27.95. On what starts out seeming like a typical Tuesday evening, Asa Flowers drives home from his job teaching poetry at a small college in Asheville, N.C. The car radio tells him storm clouds will be heading that way…

  • A cozy mystery, with extras

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE PRIMROSE MURDER SOCIETY. By Stacy Hackney. William Morrow. 339 pages. $15.20, paperback. Until recently, Stacy Hackney has been a lawyer who also wrote two well-received books for children ages about 8-12. These days, she’s taken on more of a challenge, and those of us who love a good, light…

  • When evil invades the bayous

    James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux crime/ Southern noir novels are one of Bob Moyer’s favorite series. Here’s his take on the latest. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE HADACOL BOOGIE: A Dave Robicheaux Novel. By James Lee Burke. Atlantic Crime. 477 pages. $30, hardcover. This is a big book, but then it takes a big…

  • A Southern town afire

    Bob Moyer reviews a new novel that seems to fit into a genre that might be called Southern noir psychological family drama – or thriller. Whatever the classification, the book sounds well written. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer KING OF ASHES. By S.A. Cosby. Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar. 333 pages. $28.99 Everything burns. In…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Tough times in the Big Easy

    Bob Moyer reviews a thought-provoking, haunting novel about justice – and lack of it – in New Orleans. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer SERAPHIM. By Joshua Perry. Melville Press. 272 pages. $18.99 In post-Katrina New Orleans, a woman, a local legend, is shot and killed on the street. Sixteen-year-old Robert is arrested and confesses. Except…

  • A look through different eyes

    Every now and then, my husband, Lloyd, reads a book that impresses him so much that he volunteers to write a review for my blog. This is one of those rare finds. Reviewed by Lloyd Brinson JAMES: A Novel. By Percival Everett. Doubleday. 303 pages. $28, Often, after reading a really good book – fiction…

  • Behind the glitter…

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE QUEEN CITY DETECTIVE AGENCY. By Snowden Wright. William Morrow. 260 pages. It’s 1985 in Meridian, Mississippi. It’s the Ronald Reagan era, morning in America, so they say. But in Meridian, once known as the Queen City but now more of a dump, there’s often more darkness than dawn, especially…

  • Surprise! Be prepared…

    Bob Moyer has found a new mystery/ thriller writer, and he likes her literary debut. It probably helps that the setting is Louisiana, one of Bob’s favorites. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer BROKEN BAYOU. By Jennifer Moorhead. Thomas & Mercer. 265 pages. $16.99. Very few writers can make a reader both gasp and wince. Jennifer…