Briar Patch Books

Category: Detective fiction

  • Bad guys, beware

    Bob Moyer invites us to follow the Hawk as she pursues her prey – and is pursued. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer A SMALL TOWN. By Thomas Perry. Mysterious Press. 320 pages. $26. The opening pages of this book might just be the most painful Thomas Perry has ever penned.  A gang of prisoners kills…

  • Virgil Flowers takes on academia

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson BLOODY GENIUS. By John Sandford. Penguin Audio. 11 hours; 9 CDs. Read by Eric Conger. $40. Also available in print from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. First, Margaret Trane, the police officer who is handling the case, doesn’t really want his help and is annoyed that the governor has yielded to pressure…

  • Bad guys, beware

    I can’t keep up with the peripatetic Bob Moyer as he travels hither and yon, going to exotic places and doing interesting things, but I’m always glad when he finds time to send a book review. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer A DANGEROUS MAN. By Robert Crais. Putnam. 339 pages. $28. Joe Pike is indeed A…

  • A fitting farewell

    Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer I love it when Bob Moyer is in reading/reviewing mode. So many books to add to my list…. METROPOLIS. By Philip Kerr. Putnam. 381 pages. $28. In 13 books, Philip Kerr established detective Bernie Gunther as a German noir  detective equivalent to Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe. He also established himself as not just…

  • On the rough streets of D.C.

    Bob Moyer is on a roll when it comes to book reviews. Here he takes a look at the latest installment in a crime series that’s worth a try. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer TRIGGER. By David Swinson. Mulholland Books. 352 pages. $27. Frank Marr is a good detective with some bad habits – Laphroag 18,…

  • Back from the dead

    I’m catching up with all the reviews Bob Moyer sent we when he was catching up. And now you can catch up on your pleasurable reading. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer ONLY TO SLEEP. A Philip Marlowe Novel. By Lawrence Osborne. Hogarth. 256 pages. $26. The world’s oldest hard-boiled detective is alive and living between…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Spenser: The magic continues

    Bob Moyer takes a look at the latest Spenser novel and finds it worthy of the tradition. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer ROBERT B. PARKER’S OLD BLACK MAGIC (SPENSER). By Ace Atkins. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 336 pages. $27. Spenser, the singularly named Boston P.I., shares both a name and a proclivity for poetic expression with…

  • A tangled case, a lot of laughs

    Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer Bob Moyer finds much to like in Jonathan Kellerman’s latest whodunit. NIGHT MOVES. By Jonathan Kellerman. Ballantine. 395 pages. $28.99 Psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis have been tackling tangled cases over a number of books, a number of years. The astute intuition of Alex, the steely procedure…