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The ticking bombs…
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE KING’S JUSTICE. By Susan Elia MacNeal. Bantam Books. $17, paperback. Over the course of eight previous novels, Maggie Hope has been an assistant to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a code breaker, a spy, a prisoner…. She’s come way too close for comfort to a serial killer trying to emulate…
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Life and love amid the chaos
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA. By Isabel Allende. Random House Audio. Read by Edoardo Ballerini. 10 hours; 8 CDs. $40. Also available in print from Ballantine Books. A Long Petal of the Sea, Isabel Allende’s new novel, is historical fiction at its best. It tells a remarkable story that…
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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…
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An American in Paris – surrounded by Nazis
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson MISTRESS OF THE RITZ. By Melanie Benjamin. Random House Audio. 12 hours; 10 CDs. Read by Barbara Rosenblat. $45. Also available in print from Delacorte Press. Melanie Benjamin’s trademark gift is to take real historical people and events and carefully translate them into well-crafted fiction that comes alive with dialogue…
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Gifts: Good story and good advice
Philip Kerr, one of Bob Moyer’s favorite authors has died. Bob reviews his newly published book, amid reports that there may be one more yet to appear. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer GREEKS BEARING GIFTS. By Philip Kerr. Putnam. 511 pages. $27. During the course of this venerable series, Philip Kerr has given us a…
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To have and have not…
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson LOVE AND RUIN. By Paula McLain. Random House Audio. Read by January LaVoy. 11 ½ hours; 9 CDs. $40. Also available in print from Ballantine Books. Paula McLain is brave, choosing to write historical fiction/memoir about well-known people about whom much has already been written and movies have been made.…
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No. 20: Inspector Rutledge, at his best
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GATE KEEPER. By Charles Todd. William Morrow. 306 pages. $26.99. It’s hard to believe that The Gate Keeper is the 20th entry in Charles Todd’s mystery series starring Inspector Ian Rutledge, a British World War I veteran who’s now a Scotland Yard detective. But A Test of Wills, the debut novel,…
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Lights, camera, action, love and friendship
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE GIRLS IN THE PICTURE. By Melanie Benjamin. Random House Audio. Read by Kimberly Farr. 16 ½ hours; 13 CDs. $50. Melanie Benjamin has made quite a successful career by spinning the real-life stories of famous people into entertaining novels. As she does so, she largely sticks to the known…
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Watch out for Miss (Deputy) Kopp
Bob Moyer takes a slight diversion into history and an entertaining novel based on the true story of a woman crime fighter. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer MISS KOPP’S MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS. By Amy Stewart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 384 pages. $26. Don’t judge this book by its cover. Although the titillating title suggests some salacious material inside, there is…
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Dinosaurs, gunslingers, Indians and more
This novel arrived right about the time my husband and I were moving from the farm where we’d lived for more than 40 years to a new home 300 miles to the east, in Currituck County, N.C. The book made the move, but ended up under the stack of other books waiting to be read.…