Briar Patch Books

Category: Mysteries

  • French food, light mystery – what’s not to like?

    Tom Dillon was almost apologetic when he inquired about reviewing Peter Mayle’s latest mystery novel for Briar Patch Books. The book is “light stuff,” he acknowledged. Never fear, I replied. Light is good, too. And on this blog, the only rules are the ones I set. Besides, how can someone whose most recent review was…

  • For your listening pleasure – Stephanie Plum

    I listen to audio books for a lot of reasons. Listening to someone read a book is convenient and entertaining, because I spend a lot of time in the car, driving alone. I find that I’ll listen to serious nonfiction and other heavy-duty books that I might not tackle if I had to sit down…

  • Ho, ho, ho, Merry Mystery!

    This isn’t really a Christmas book, if by Christmas books you mean those novels – usually fairly slim and quickly read – with a holiday theme that appear in the fall, just in time to be read or given as gifts. But what else do you call a novel with a main character named Father…

  • In time for the holidays, a fine new Grisham thriller

    Given the season, I’ll note that it’s always an occasion for Thanksgiving when a new legal thriller by John Grisham arrives. By Linda Brinson THE RACKETEER. By John Grisham. Read by J.D. Jackson. Random House Audio. 10 CDs, 13 hours. $45. Also available in print from Doubleday. The Racketeer, with its ingenious plot twists and…

  • Mortality in the bayous

    In case anyone wonders about the high-tech and high-brow credentials of this blog, I am posting a picture of how books for review are exchanged. In this picture, you can see Bob Moyer and his Harley, which he recently rode to Walnut Cove, N.C., for an editorial meeting with me. After a delicious lunch of…

  • Is there romance in Doc Ford’s future?

    By Linda C. Brinson I did this all backwards. The news here for fans of Randy Wayne White is that he’s introduced a new character, a woman who just happens to have an interest in Doc Ford, the hero of 19 suspense novels by White. I stumbled upon Gone, the book introducing Hannah Smith, grabbing…

  • Recipe for entertainment

    Want a book about travel, French food and wine, romance – and, oh yes, a good police mystery? Our world-traveling reviewer, Bob Moyer, has just the story for you. By Robert Moyer THE CROWDED GRAVE. By Martin Walker. Knopf. 324 pages. $24.95. Bruno, chief of police in the small French village of St. Denis, has…

  • Does Spenser really live on?

    Here’s another review Bob Moyer sent along during his sabbatical in Europe. He’s a longtime fan of Spenser as created by the late Robert B. Parker, so you know he read with a discerning eye the first Spenser novel to appear since Parker died in 2010. By Robert Moyer Robert B. Parker’s LULLABY: A Spenser…

  • A mystery, German style

    Fittingly, Bob Moyer has sent from Germany a review of a mystery dealing with wartime Germany. Will Bob keep traveling the world, sending reviews to match his locales? Or will he return to North Carolina and join the rest of us in armchair journeys? Stay tuned. Meanwhile, enjoy this review. By Robert P. Moyer PRAGUE…

  • To laugh or not to laugh

    Jesse Kellerman may know the business of writing best-selling novels as well as anyone. For him, it’s a family business; he is a son of Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, both highly successful crime writers. And he’s followed in the family tradition admirably with four novels: The Executor, The Genius, Trouble and Sunstroke. Sometimes, after a…