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Meanwhile, don’t miss this uplifting novel
Bob Moyer reviews a new novel that sounds like the book we need to read these days. It is a joy to read, he says. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer HOW TO READ A BOOK. By Monica Wood. Mariner Books. 273 pages. $28.00 Coincidence. When it happens in our lives, it is remarkable. The phone…
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Vanished without a trace…
Iceland’s most successful author has teamed up with the country’s prime minister to write a mystery/crime thriller that’s one of the best books I’ve read in quite a while. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson REYKJAVIK. By Ranger Jonasson and Katrin Jakobsdottir. Minotaur Books. 363 pages. $19, paperback. It’s 1956, and Kristjan Krisjtansson, a rookie policeman…
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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…
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No rest for Sister Holiday
Bob Moyer loves to visit New Orleans, whether in person or through the novels he reads. Here he takes a look at the second in a quirky new New Orleans-set mystery series by Margot Douaihy. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer BLESSED WATER. By Margot Douaihy. Zando. 288 pages. $27.95 Fire first, then water. In her…
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She got by with a little help from her corgi
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE QUEEN’S FAITHFUL COMPANION. By Eliza Knight. William Morrow. 368 pages. $18.99, trade paperback. I was between books, looking for something engaging and not too heavy, when the mail lady delivered an advance proof of The Queen’s Faithful Companion. The subtitle read: “A Novel of Queen Elizabeth II and her…
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From chaos, violence comes a brilliant novel
Bob Moyer reviews the latest novel by one of his favorite authors. One note: Despite what Bob writes, not all Southerners called the conflict of the 1860s the War Between the States. Some – I think particularly of an elderly woman who owned a historic house in downtown Charleston that a group of graduate students…
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Good cop, bad system
Bob Moyer reviews No. 10 in a popular mystery/international thriller series that provides insights into contemporary Russia along with a gripping story. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer INDEPENDENCE SQUARE. By Martin Cruz Smith. Simon & Schuster. 272 pages. $26.99 Moscow policeman Arkady Renko has been a good cop in a bad system, surviving and fighting…
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Fighting the invisible monster
Bob Moyer has produced a review in which he manages to use, correctly, the word “antepenultimate.” He even spelled it correctly. Impressive. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer. DESERT STAR. By Michael Connelly. Little, Brown. 388 pages $29. “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” A witness being interviewed by…