Tag: Mystery

  • 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…

  • Honoring the traditions

    Bob Moyer reviews the latest in a venerable series that’s long been one of my favorites. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer STARGAZER. By Anne Hillerman. Harper. 312 pages. $27.99 Any writer tackling the takeover of a series started by another writer usually has two challenges—keep the qualities that made it popular, and keep the series…

  • Putting those skills to work

    It’s so nice to have Bob Moyer busy reviewing books again. Now, if we can just keep him from gallivanting around the world for a while…. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE BURGLAR. By Thomas Perry. Mysterious Press. 288 pages. $26. Thomas Perry sure knows how to keep his readers turning the pages. He’s used the…

  • Serving up justice

    Water Mosley is another one of Bob Moyer’s favorite authors (I like him a lot, too), and here Bob takes a look at one of Mosley’s interesting and crusading detectives. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer DOWN THE RIVER UNTO THE SEA. By Walter Mosley. Mulholland Books. 322 pages. $27. Walter Mosley writes his best about African-American…

  • Battling demons

    Bob Moyer reviews the latest in a long-running and outstanding mystery series. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer ROBICHEAUX. By James Lee Burke. Simon and Schuster. 445 pages. $27.99. Year by year, book by book, Deputy Sherriff Dave Robicheaux sees more of the Confederate ghosts that appear out of the mist around his beloved New Iberia,…

  • 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…

  • The art of death in Detroit

    Bob Moyer takes a look at paperback original novel from a prolific writer of mystery stories. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer SHOT IN DETROIT. By Patricia Abbott. Polis Books. 302 pages. $15, paperback. The 12 bodies in this book don’t get dead the same way. Some are gunned down, some are stabbed, and one is…

  • Saving “runners”

    Here’s an intriguing review by Bob Moyer. The book is the latest in an interesting-sounding mystery series that I have somehow missed. What a treat to discover not just a new book that sounds good, but a whole series. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer A STRING OF BEADS. By Thomas Perry. Mysterious Press. 388 pages.…

  • A chilling Barcelona tale

    Antonio Hill’s day job, according to the blurb on the cover of this audio book, is translating English-language fiction into Spanish. He must have analyzed what makes fiction successful as he pursued his translations. Like his debut thriller, The Summer of Dead Toys, published a year ago, his new book is expertly plotted, intelligently written,…

  • Where there’s Hope, there’s a good story

    It’s always a pleasure when the latest installment in a good series arrives. Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE PRIME MINISTER’S SECRET AGENT. By Susan Elia MacNeal. Bantam Books. 301 pages. $15, paperback. Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope series has become one of my favorites. In Maggie, MacNeal has created an intelligent, sensitive, complex heroine…