Category: Humorous fiction

  • When the well runs dry…

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson WESTERN ALLIANCES. By Wilton Barnhardt. St. Martin’s Press. 400 pages. $29, hardcover. Wilton Barnhardt must have had a blast writing this latest novel. What fun, imagining (and researching?!) the travels of Roberto Costa, a spoiled, rich (inherited), overgrown kid-adult who’s never held a job and much prefers Europe to his…

  • Murder, monks and mirth

    Bob Moyer is back with a review of a book with plenty of “outlandish humor.” FELONIOUS MONK. By William Kotzwinkle. Blackstone Publishing. 278 pages. $26.99. William Kotzwinkle may be the most famous author you’ve never heard of. He has sold more than 10 million books across a swath of genres: the cult ‘70s favorite The…

  • Mastodon, big snakes and lots of laughs in Florida

    *This is a review of the hardback novel, published last year. The photo is of the cover of the paperback edition, which has a new epilogue written after last year’s election and some of the events that followed.   Every now and then, Tom Dillon, a friend from long-ago newspaper days, is moved to send…

  • All aboard for Whistle Stop!

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE WONDER BOY OF WHISTLE STOP. By Fannie Flagg. Random House Audio. Read by the author. 8 hours; 7 compact discs. $40. Also available in hardback from Random House. You are in for a treat. Need an antidote to COVID, the election and all the other things 2020 has thrown…

  • Frozen, a la Stephanie Plum

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson TURBO TWENTY-THREE. By Janet Evanovich. Read by Lorelei King. Random House Audio. 6 hours; 5 CDs. $32. Also available in print from Bantam Books. Janet Evanovich is one of those prolific writers with several series and a new novel of some sort appearing just about every time you turn around.…

  • Better than chicken soup

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE WHOLE TOWN’S TALKING. By Fannie Flagg. Read by Kimberly Farr. 16 CDs; 12 hours. $54. Also available in print from Random House. Just as there is comfort food, there are comfort books. Once again, Fannie Flagg has dished up the latter in fine style. Some people know Fannie Flagg…

  • 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…