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Guns, mean guys and other lethal weapons
Bob Moyer is back, again, from wherever it is he’s been, again. I can’t keep up with his globe-trotting ways. I’m just grateful that he keeps reading and writing reviews. Here’s his latest, with his promises that there are more to come. By Robert Moyer THE THIRD BULLET. By Stephen Hunter. Simon and Schuster. 485 pages.…
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She’s back, in great style
Readers who have access to the Greensboro News & Record’s lively book page will find my interview with North Carolina native Jill McCorkle there today, along with my review of her wonderful new novel, Life After Life, just being published by Shannon Ravenel Books (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill). Her fans will recall that McCorkle made…
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All this and a mystery, too
Novel readers are well acquainted with the darker side of Victorian England, the often-wretched lives of the poor and society’s gaping inequalities. We also may have had literary glimpses into the lives and adventures of those in government and law-enforcement circles. Julia Stuart’s hilarious novel offers a look at a slice of Victorian life that…
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Who’s dead, who’s missing?
By Linda C. Brinson I’ve read all Charles Todd’s books since that mother-son team’s first novel appeared in 1996. Now, we have the 15th in that first series (there’s now a Bess Crawford series as well). As with any series, some Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries are better than others. But even those that might not…
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The Third Reich and the power of fiction
Bob Moyer doesn’t throw glowing adjectives around lightly. If he calls a book “amazing,” it’s worth taking note. By Robert Moyer HHhH: A Novel. By Laurent Binet. Translated by Sam Taylor. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 327 pages. $26. The heated battle began shortly after World War II. As artists turned to the horrors of the…
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Aesthetics vs. pragmatism – what really matters?
Bob Moyer is back, taking a thoughtful look at a novel that depicts the travails of Germans and others caught up in the horrors of the cataclysm that was World War II. By Robert Moyer THE LIFE OF OBJECTS. By Susanna Moore. Alfred A. Knopf. 240 pages. $25. Beatrice, a bright young Irish girl, yearns…
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A most dangerous woman
A historical novel based on a real character, a rollicking tale of adventures across four continents, and a heroine who’s as charming as she is incorrigible – there’s a lot to like in this highly entertaining first novel by a psychologist whose first writing credentials were earned in scholarly publications. By Linda C. Brinson PARLOR…