Briar Patch Books

Category: Detective fiction

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Short but tasty

    Bob Moyer sent this review of from Germany. How can he read this book when so close to France and not go there? It’s a mystery to me. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer FATAL PURSUIT. By Martin Walker. Alfred A. Knopf. 320 pages. $25.95 Stuffed neck of duck. That’s the solution for a minor mystery…

  • Murder – or is it? – in WWII New York

    Many newspaper reporters dream of one day writing a novel. Dan Fesperman is living the dream – he just published No. 10. Paul O’Connor isn’t a big fan of mysteries, but he found this one quite entertaining. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE LETTER WRITER. By Dan Fesperman. Knopf. 372 pages. $26.95 The last few…

  • Channeling Robert B. Parker

    A new writer is keeping an old favorite series alive, and Bob Moyer thinks that’s quite OK. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer Robert B. Parker’s SLOW BURN: A Spenser Novel. By Ace Atkins. Putnam. 304 pages. $27. Robert B. Parker may have passed from this mortal coil, but Spenser, his iconic Boston P.I., still packs…

  • One war ends, another simmers

    Bob Moyer takes a look at the latest book in a series about a detective in Germany during the World War II era. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE: A Bernie Gunther Novel. By Philip Kerr. Putnam. 400 pages. $27. Some things change. In this accomplished series about the moral and…

  • Saucy Jack strikes again

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson LOST AND GONE FOREVER. By Alex Grecian. Read by John Curless. Books on Tape. 9 CDs; 10 ½ hours. When reviewing the newest book in a series, I usually try to judge whether someone who hasn’t read all the earlier entries will understand and appreciate the new one. This time,…

  • Down on the street

    Reed Farrel Coleman, an established master of the hard-boiled detective genre, has a novel out that’s billed as the start of a new series, about Gus Murphy, a retired cop in Suffolk County, N.Y. Bob Moyer, an established fan of noir books, finds it a promising beginning. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer WHERE IT HURTS.…