Briar Patch Books

Category: Popular fiction

  • Lincoln Lawyer vs. AI

    Bob Moyer reviews the latest book in the Lincoln Lawyer series and finds that some things are different this time around. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE PROVING GROUND. By Michael Connelly. Little, Brown. 384 pages, $32. What’s wrong with this picture? It certainly isn’t the writing. Michael Connelly has once again fashioned a spot-on…

  • 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 14-year-old girl tackles the forces of evil

    James Lee Burke has a new novel out, so, fortunately for Burke fans and anyone looking for a good historical mystery/thriller to read, Bob Moyer has a new review. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer DON’T FORGET ME, LITTLE BESSIE. By James Lee Burke. Atlantic Monthly Press. 360 pages. $28. Reading a James Lee Burke novel takes…

  • Murder most foul – yet again – in that Scottish village

    I’ve enjoyed many of the books in the Hamish Macbeth series, and now that Bob Moyer has let me know about this latest, I will be looking for it. I have two questions: What would I do without Bob? and How does he get hold of these books before I do? Reviewed by Robert P.…

  • A detective in island exile

    Michael Connelly introduces a new detective, and reviewer Bob Moyer is on the case. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer NIGHTSHADE. By Michael Connelly. Little, Brown. 241 pages. $30. He’s not like Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly”s hard-boiled, hard-bitten ex-LAPD detective, who drives an old jeep around, drives women away and lives on a downtown hillside. Los…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…