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A comfortable ride
Bob Moyer, traveling gourmet, has found time to sample a new book and write a review. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer Robert B. Parker’s LITTLE WHITE LIES. By Ace Atkinson. Putnam. 304 pages. $27. After dozens of Spenser adventures by Robert B. Parker, and now seven by his chosen successor, Ace Atkinson, the formula is pretty clear. There’s never…
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The mean streets of L.I.
The Briar Patch has a little catching up to do. Our excuse is that the Briar Patch’s physical location has moved. More about that later. But for now, fortunately, faithful correspondent Bob Moyer has taken time from his own travels to write a review. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer WHAT YOU BREAK. By Reed Farrel…
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Probing the past in L.A.
Bob Moyer takes a look at the latest book in a series he’s long enjoyed. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer HEARTBREAK HOTEL. By Jonathan Kellerman. Ballantine Books. 351 pages. $28.99 The duo of LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis and child psychologist Alex Delaware has taken on a number of demeanors over the many volumes of their adventures…
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Can Jack be back?
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE CUTTHROAT. By Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. Penguin Audio. Read by Scott Brick. 9 ½ hours; 8 CDs. $45. Also available in hardback from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Isaac Bell, the chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, would not normally be assigned to find an attractive young woman…
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Murder in Atlanta
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson OLD BONES. By Trudy Nan Boyce. Read by Rebecca Lowman. Books on Tape. 10 ½ hours; 8 CDs. Atlanta is a powder keg after someone fires on a group of students from Spelman College who are demonstrating for police reform. One student from the historically black women’s college is killed,…
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What the tide brings
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson BRYANT & MAY: STRANGE TIDE. By Christopher Fowler. Bantam. 436 pages. $27 Confession: I was so despondent upon finishing Christopher Fowler’s Bryant & May and the Burning Man last year that I never wrote the review. Something terrible had happened to Arthur Bryant,…
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Beneath the surface
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE TRESPASSER. By Tana French. Penguin Audio. Read by Hilda Fay. 21 hours; 18 CDs. $55. Also available in hardcover from Viking. What a delight it is to discover Tana French, a wonderful Irish writer who pours her prodigious literary skills into richly layered detective fiction. I’m a latecomer to…
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Dealing with the devil
Bob Moyer was in Germany recently, but at least part of the time, his imagination was in New Orleans. He offers a review of the book that transported him to the Big Easy. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer LET THE DEVIL OUT. By Bill Loehfelm. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 304 pages. $26. The last time we…
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Flavia, unbanished
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THRICE THE BRINDED CAT HATH MEW’D. By Alan Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle. Random House Audio. 9 hours; 7 CDs. Hardback print edition form Delacorte Press. 331 pages. $26. It’s happy days for the many fans of Flavia DeLuce, the 12-year-old sleuth and chemist. After a brief “banishment” to a…
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Absurdity, meet reality
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson RAZOR GIRL. By Carl Hiaasen. Read by John Rubinstein. Random House Audio. 12 ½ hours; 10 CDs. $54. In hardback from Knopf: 333 pages. $27.95. Razor Girl is Carl Hiaasen at his hilarious best, and that is very, very good. It’s wacky fiction that’s somehow crazily connected to reality. It’s…