-
Lies and other tangled webs
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE PUNISHMENT SHE DESERVES. By Elizabeth George. Penguin Audio. 23 hours; 18 CDs. Read by Simon Vance. $55. Also available in print from Viking. It’s been 30 years since Elizabeth George’s first introduced us to Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, in A Great Deliverance, her widely praised debut novel. It’s been…
-
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,…
-
Prepare for turbulence
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT. By Chris Bohjalian. Random House Audio. Read by Erin Spencer and Grace Experience, with Mark Deakins. 11 ½ hours; 9 CDs. $40. Also available in print form Doubleday. Chris Bohjalian is one of my favorite contemporary authors, not only because he’s a good writer, but also because…
-
History and mystery
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson JEFFERSON’S DAUGHTERS: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America. By Catherine Kerrison. Books on Tape (Penguin Random House Audio). Read by Tavia Gilbert. 17 hours; 14 CDs. Also available in print from Ballantine Books. This ambitious book by Catherine Kerrison, who teaches history at Villanova University, is, in…
-
It might be … it could be …
Did you know it’s only a few days until the major league baseball teams start spring training? Tom Dillon is well aware that it’s almost time for a new baseball season, so he figures it’s also time for a review of a new baseball book. MY CUBS: A LOVE STORY. By Scott Simon. Blue Ridge…
-
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…
-
Franklin Roosevelt, meeting the challenges
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: A Political Life. By Robert Dallek. Penguin Audio. Read by Rick Adamson. 30 hours; 24 CDs. $79. Also available in print from Viking. 704 pages, $40. Robert Dallek’s new book about Franklin Roosevelt, published in November, has earned well-deserved spots on more than one “best book of…
-
A prudent president at a dangerous time
Tom Dillon says Jeffrey Engel’s new book on the first President Bush takes a worthwhile look at a time most of us lived through without fully understanding. WHEN THE WORLD SEEMED NEW: George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War.” By Jeffrey A. Engel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 596 pages. $35. Reviewed by Tom Dillon…
-
The more things change…
Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer TWO KINDS OF TRUTH. By Michael Connelly. Little Brown. 402 pages. $29. ‘Things change.” On his way to downtown L.A. from San Fernando, Harry Bosch reflects on how the landscape, the office he’s going to, the former partner he’s meeting, have all changed. Not to mention his own life, of…