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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…
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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…
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Waiting for the gun
Bob Moyer’s New Year’s resolution is to review more books even when he’s on the road, as he often is. He just doesn’t know about this resolution yet, but one hopes he will after reading this post. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE CUBAN AFFAIR. By Nelson DeMille. Simon and Schuster. 429 pages. $28.99. Looking…
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Zombies, a giant snake and a Plum good story
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson HARDCORE TWENTY-FOUR. By Janet Evanovich. Random House Audio. Read by Lorelei King. 7 hours; 6 CDs. $32. Also available in print from Putnam. How does she do it? This is No. 24 in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, and it’s just as outrageous, hilarious and entertaining as any of the…
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Murder, sex and Barbie dolls
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson DEEP FREEZE. By John Sandford. Penguin Audio. Read by Eric Conger. 10 hours; 8 CDs. $40. If you don’t think murder and assorted lesser crimes can be funny, you haven’t read any of John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers detective novels. A detective with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Virgil gets…
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Awakening? Not so much
Bob Moyer loves to read, and his interests are wide and varied. He’s also discerning, and he doesn’t mind saying what he thinks – all of which makes him a good reviewer. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer MRS. FLETCHER. By Tom Perrotta. Scribner. 307 pages. $26. It’s about porn. The dust jacket claims it’s about…
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The mysteries of life, solved – or are they?
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson ORIGIN. By Dan Brown. Random House Audio. Read by Paul Michael. 18 hours; 15 CDs. $50. Robert Langdon, intrepid Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, is at it again, with all the expected mystery, codes, drama, action, danger, beautiful women, evil villains, cosmic ideas and earth-shattering revelations. My audio…
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The tough side of the Big Easy
Bob Moyer knows New Orleans, and he knows good police procedurals. He finds much to praise in this lively novel. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE DEVIL’S MUSE. By Bill Loehfelm. Farrar Straus Giroux. 258 pages. $26. Mardi Gras. Most people see a chance to party, beads flying through the air, beads on the ground,…
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Watch out for Miss (Deputy) Kopp
Bob Moyer takes a slight diversion into history and an entertaining novel based on the true story of a woman crime fighter. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer MISS KOPP’S MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS. By Amy Stewart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 384 pages. $26. Don’t judge this book by its cover. Although the titillating title suggests some salacious material inside, there is…
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Dinosaurs, gunslingers, Indians and more
This novel arrived right about the time my husband and I were moving from the farm where we’d lived for more than 40 years to a new home 300 miles to the east, in Currituck County, N.C. The book made the move, but ended up under the stack of other books waiting to be read.…