Briar Patch Books

Category: Mysteries

  • The plain truth: A great new series

    Look in any bookstore or airport newsstand, or on the shelves of many variety, grocery and drugstores for that matter, and you will see that mystery series are flourishing.  Some are the more hard-boiled detective types; some are heavy on violence. There are also plenty of series for those of us who prefer the cozier…

  • Off to France

    Knowing Bob Moyer and how much he travels, I have a prediction: If Martin Walker’s mystery series has made Bob want to visit the Perigord region of France, Bob will be visiting the Perigord region of France. One day, I’ll be hard at work in Stokes County, N.C., and my phone will ring. When I…

  • Moonlight Mile

    World traveler Bob Moyer sometimes finds it hard to stay home long enough to write a review, but recently he touched down in Winston-Salem long enough to dish this one out. By Robert Moyer MOONLIGHT MILE. By Dennis Lehane. William Morrow. 324 pages. $26.99. It’s been 12 years since Patrick and Angie found the baby…

  • A Christmas Odyssey

    Anne Perry’s Christmas novels have become as much a part of the holiday tradition for me as cutting down and decorating the tree or hanging the stockings by the wood stove. Here’s a look at this year’s. By Linda Brinson A CHRISTMAS ODYSSEY. By Anne Perry. Ballantine Books. 193 pages. $18.  In Victorian England, it…

  • Worth Dying For

    Here’s a new review by Robert Moyer of Winston-Salem, who’s been traveling and reading.  Keep watching: In the next few days we’ll have a post by a reviewer who is new to Briar Patch Books. By Robert Moyer WORTH DYING FOR. By Lee Childs. Delacorte Press. 384 pages. $28. Page 128. That’s when fans of Lee…

  • A Nose for Justice

    I count Rita Mae Brown as a Southern author because she lives in the Virginia hill country, and many of her books are set there. In the book I review here, however, Brown has gone to a very different part of the country for the setting of a new series. It’s the Nevada desert, where…

  • Painted Ladies

    Here is Briar Patch Book’s second review. Mick Scott is an editor and connoisseur of good literature who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. By Mick Scott PAINTED LADIES. By Robert B. Parker. Putnam. 304 pages. $26.95. Spenser is observing the day outside his office window when someone with unusual characteristics walks in to hire him. That’s…

  • Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

    By Linda Brinson Here’s my first review for Briar Patch Books. It’s a fitting topic for the debut post. While my fellow reviewers and I will tackle a variety of books, I have a special interest in Southern fiction. Tom Franklin’s book is one of the best new Southern novels I’ve read in a long…