Briar Patch Books

Category: Popular fiction

  • Bosch, times two, with a twist

    Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer DARK SACRED NIGHT.  By Michael Connelly. Little, Brown. 433 pages. $29. It’s fitting that Rene Ballard and Harry Bosch share a book.  She’s the latest Michael Connelly character with one book under her belt, and Bosch has more than two dozen. They’re both cut from the same creative cloth Connelly has been…

  • Flavia on the case(s)

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GOLDEN TRESSES OF THE DEAD. By Alan Bradley. Random House Audio. Read by Jayne Entwistle. 9 hours; 7 CDs. $35. Also available in print from Delacorte Press, 323 pages. $26. A new novel starring Flavia de Luce, the precocious young English girl who uses her extensive knowledge of chemistry…

  • A little coincidence…

    Bob Moyer keeps trying to catch up on all the books he’s read and intends to review, but there are so many ways to have fun and put off writing. … Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer SHELL GAME. By Sara Paretsky. William Morrow. 385 pages. $27.95 Over the course of 17 novels, she’s been beat…

  • 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…

  • A book for those who love books, bookshops and mysteries

    I somehow misplaced this review when Bob Moyer submitted it last fall. He politely nudged me to find and post it.  And now I won’t rest until I have the book. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE BOOKSHOP OF YESTERDAYS. By Amy Meyerson. Park Row Books. 364 pages. $32.99. Some books are scary. Not Halloween…

  • Stephanie Plum’s latest adventure is delicious

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson LOOK ALIVE TWENTY-FIVE. By Janet Evanovich. Penguin Audio. 7 hours; 6 CDs. Read by Lorelei King. $32. Also available in print from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Stephanie Plum, the not-very-intrepid bounty hunter in Trenton, N.J., somehow finds new ways to career more or less unscathed through her zany, dangerous and outrageous…

  • 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…

  • A novel to savor

    In many circles, Bob Moyer is better known for his haiku than for his book reviews. I offer him this lead-in to his latest review: Finest French cuisine Clever detective at work Bob is in heaven   Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer A TASTE FOR VENGEANCE. A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel. By Martin Walker.…

  • Death in the Catskills

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson AN UNWANTED GUEST. By Shari Lapena. Penguin Audio. Read by Hillary Huber. 8 ½ hours; 7 CDs. $35. Also available in print from Pamela Dorman Books. This latest suspense novel by best-selling author Shari Lapena is set in a remote, small hotel in the Catskills in winter. Various reasons bring…