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Hell on Earth
Bob Moyer takes a look at the latest book by an award-winning and best-selling crime novelist from southeastern Virginia, and likes what he reads. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer ALL THE SINNERS BLEED. By S.A. Cosby. Flatiron Books (Macmillan). 352 pages. $27.99 Charon County, the fictional Virginia setting of this novel, seems a typical Southern…
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Good cop, bad system
Bob Moyer reviews No. 10 in a popular mystery/international thriller series that provides insights into contemporary Russia along with a gripping story. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer INDEPENDENCE SQUARE. By Martin Cruz Smith. Simon & Schuster. 272 pages. $26.99 Moscow policeman Arkady Renko has been a good cop in a bad system, surviving and fighting…
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A fitting sendoff
If you missed this book when it was published in 2016, or over the years since, you may join Bob Moyer as he savors Richard Russo’s last, skillful look at his memorable literary creation, Donald “Sully” Sullivan of North Bath. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer EVERYBOODY’S FOOL. By Richard Russo. Alfred A. Knopf. 451 pages.$29.…
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A friendship forged in fire
Paul O’Connor, intrepid journalist and discerning reader, reviews a new book about the long-lasting friendship between two very different American heroes. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE WINGMEN: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams. By Adam Lazarus. The Citadel Press. 232 pages. $29, hardcover. There’s no explaining friendships. Often, people…
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Spies, love affairs, Nazis and history, told with a flair
Paul O’Connor reviews a work of history that has Nazis, espionage, steamy love affairs and writing that rivals today’s best spy novels. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor SISTERS IN RESISTANCE: How a German Spy, a Banker’s Wife and Mussolini’s Daughter Outwitted the Nazis. By Tilar Mazzeo. Grand Central Publishing. 254 pages. $30, hardcover. If you…
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This rich history falls short as fiction
Bob Moyer thinks that Jerome Charyn takes on more history and weaves more tangled webs than he can handle in his latest novel. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer RAVAGE & SON. By Jerome Charyn. Bellevue Literary Press. 288 pages. $17.99. The lower east side of New York City has a heap of Jewish history, and…
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Traveling the dangerous territory of family history
Paul O’Connor, a veteran newspaper journalist, finds the account Burkhard Bilger tells of his Nazi grandfather of great interest – and also finds much to like in Bilger’s dogged search for the truth. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor FATHERLAND: A Memoir of War, Conscience and Family Secrets. By Burkhard Bilger. Random House. 279 pages. $28.99,…
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“Plotless” – but telling – memories
Bob Moyer reviews a book that, both author and reviewer make clear, is not an autobiography. And yet… Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer STILL PICTURES: On Photography and Memory. By Janet Malcom. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 155 pages. $26. Janet Malcolm wrote many New Yorker articles as well as many books about interesting subjects—Gertrude Stein, Chekov,…