Briar Patch Books

Tag: detective fiction

  • 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…

  • One war ends, another simmers

    Bob Moyer takes a look at the latest book in a series about a detective in Germany during the World War II era. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE: A Bernie Gunther Novel. By Philip Kerr. Putnam. 400 pages. $27. Some things change. In this accomplished series about the moral and…

  • The real pursuit of truth

    A series has taken a new turn, and Bob Moyer hopes for a course correction. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE CROSSING. By Michael Connelly. Little Brown. 388 pages. $28. Harry Bosch has been banging around the Los Angeles Police Department for a lot of years.  He’s a unique creature, a badge-carrying paean to the…

  • Hardboiled, served up right

    Whether he’s in L.A. with Easy Rawlins or Manhattan with Leonid McGill, Walter Mosley delivers some fine books. Bob Moyer has a great time with the latest. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer AND SOMETIMES I WONDER ABOUT YOU. By Walter Mosley. Doubleday. 272 ages $26.95. What’s happened to the gunsels, the dames, the twists, the…

  • X is for ….

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson X. By Sue Grafton. Read by Judy Kaye. Random House Audio. 11 CDS, 13 ½ hours. $45. Also available in print from Putnam. So much for speculation about what Sue Grafton would make “X” stand for in her long-running series of alphabet-named detective stories, dating back to A Is for…

  • Where the fire always burns

    Happy New Year, at last! Bob Moyer is back from wherever he’s been when he wasn’t writing book reviews. That’s always cause for rejoicing. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE BURNING ROOM. By Michael Connelly. Little Brown and Company. 388 pages. $28. Harry Bosch has been an L.A. cop so long it’s easy to forget…

  • Looking through Easy’s eyes

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson I’ve come late to the Easy Rawlins mysteries, mostly because my longtime reviewer friend Robert P. Moyer always snatched them up. Bob’s thoughtful praise for Walter Mosley’s books always made me want to read them, but the downside of running a book review page or site is that you feel…

  • 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,…

  • Crime and politics in Scotland

    It’s always a pleasure to read a book review by Tom Dillon. He reads such interesting books. This time, he’s enjoying a bit of detective fiction, but as you might expect, it’s a bit more complicated than shoot-’em-up and whodunit. SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE. By Ian Rankin. Little, Brown and Co. 389 pages. $26…

  • A Buffalo girl – detective

    A few books and CDs sit heavily on the table in my office, emanating a cloud of guilt whenever I look their way. These are books I read or listened to and liked enough to review – but something happened, and that review never made it out of my head and into print. One of…