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Love vs. justice
It’s spring break, and I’m sure my students are hard at work on the articles they have due soon after we reconvene in Chapel Hill. My assignment to myself was to try to get caught up on some book reviews. There are some that are more belated than this one, but Defending Jacob is on…
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Plum good, again
My growing fondness for (OK, addiction to) audio books has been educational in more ways than one. I had been aware of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novel series for years. How could I not? Her new books regularly land on The New York Times best-seller list. But did I read them? Oh, no. Not me.…
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The unkindest cut?
Apologies for the headline, but Bob Moyer so often toys with puns and literary allusions that he incites others to try the same. In this review, the inimitable Bob amuses us by commenting wryly (?) upon our nation’s capital while reviewing a “gritty, atmospheric” novel set in that city’s “sleazy streets.” More good news: George…
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Annapolis and beyond – a mystery
I’ve stayed on the Naval Academy parents’ e-mail list-serve even though my son graduated in 2010. I stay because I hope that occasionally I can help some parent of a current midshipman, plus I enjoy reliving (some of) the memories. My unwillingness to let go paid off recently when another parent gave a heads-up about…
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Lynley, lies and secrets
Elizabeth George is one of a handful of women whom, as I’ve said more than once, I’d like to BE. She’s an American who’s made a grand success of writing British police/suspense novels. That means she gets to spend lots of time in England doing research and write it off as a business expense. As…
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Different landscape, same allegory
Bob Moyer reviews James Lee Burke’s latest offering, featuring Dave Robichaux, evil and fools. By Robert Moyer FEAST DAY OF FOOLS. By James Lee Burke. Simon and Schuster. 463 pages. $26.99 In a James Lee Burke novel, the landscape always comes alive. The Louisiana bayous where Deputy Sheriff Dave Robichaux parlays justice reek of the evil…
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H Is for Happy New Year
When it comes to mysteries, I usually like cozy, village-type mysteries better than ones featuring hard-boiled detectives and on-page violence. But there are exceptions. I enjoyed Sue Grafton’s series starring P.I. Kinsey Millhone way back when she was working through the early letters of the alphabet. Then somehow I lost touch with Kinsey around “M”…
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A chase with a twist
In advance of his homecoming from his European junket, Bob Moyer has been sending book reviews. I’ll have to reward him with more books when he arrives stateside. By Robert Moyer THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS. By Bill Loehfelm. Farrar Straus Giroux. 322 pages. $26. By page 43, both the bar maid Maureen and the reader…
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Listening and laughing
There’s an odd thing about audio books. I find that I can enjoy listening to books that I most likely would not read. That’s been true of some pretty heavy nonfiction. And now I’ve found it to be true of one of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books. I started to say “mysteries” or “thrillers” instead…
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Goodbye, and thanks for the series
Bob Moyer says this about this review: “I had the privilege to hear Robert B. Parker read from his excellent baseball novel Double Play. Afterward, he answered questions in his gruff but somehow gracious way – until someone asked him about his ‘research’ on the times, Jackie Robinson, etc. Parker interrupted him and said, ‘Wait…