Larry Chavis's Page

THE BRUTAL TELLING, Louise Penny

Minotaur Books, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-37703-8
Hardcover, $24.95
372 pages

Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis

One way for a great reading experience to occur is when a reader approaches a book skeptically, then is completely won over by the end. This was one suc… Continue

Tyrus Books, 2009
ISBN 13: 978-0-9825209-2-5
Trade Paper, 204 pages
$14.95, U. S. / $16.50, Canada

Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis

Remington James has a lucrative job in advertising, a wife he loves but from whom he is drifting, and an emptiness of soul he can not fill. When his father dies, Remington ret… Continue

REVELATION by C. J. Sansom
First published 2008 by Macmillan
Paperback Edition, 2009, Pan Books
ISBN 13: 978-0-330-44710-2



REVELATION is the fourth of C. J. Sansom's masterful stories about Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked barrister of Lincoln's Inn, London, during the time… Continue

In the spring of 1541, Henry VIII faced another conspiracy in the north of England, whose people and nobles were still largely opposed to the 'new religion' and still loyal to Rome. While the conspiracy was uncovered and many of its leaders imprisoned and executed, Henry and his advise… Continue

FAULT LINE, by Barry Eisler
Ballantine Books, March, 2009
Hardcover, $25.00 ($28.00 Canada)
ISBN: 978-0-345-50508-8

Reviewed by Larry W. Chavis

The United States has a long and treasured heritage of respect for the rights of the individual, personal liberty, and the rule of law. While it certainly hasn’t always played out that way in our history – one can think of our less-than-honorable treatment of the Native Americans, for example – still, this has been the tradition, a tradition that, in r… Continue

BURIED STRANGERS
By Leighton Gage
ISBN: 978-1-56947-514-0
Soho Press, 2009
Hardcover, $24.00

In what has been called the largest urban forest in the world, the Serra da Cantareira, a young man seeking a dog stumbles across what turns out to be an entire clandestine cemetery. The local police delegado, Yoshiro Tanaka leads the investigation, but the case has also drawn the attention of the federal police, and Chief Inspector Mario Silva, who assigns his team to it as well. In the midst of this,… Continue

RCMP Constables Craig Nolan, Ashlyn Hart, and Tain (no first name) worked together on a case the year before that profoundly impacted all three. Since that time, they've not worked together. As the story opens, each is working a separate case: Nolan, a series of rapes, Hart a series of arson, and Tain a string of child abductions, one of which has turned to murder. As the separate investigations proceed, it becomes clear that they are linked in some fashion, bringing the three together again. Wh… Continue

PLAYING DEAD
by Allison Brennan
Ballalntine Books, New York
September, 2008
Paperback, 462 pages


Fifteen years ago, police sergeant Tom O’Brien was sentenced to death for the murders of his wife and her lover, an assistant district attorney. The state’s key witness against him was his daughter, Claire, then fourteen, who found him at the scene, bloody and holding the murder weapon.

The thing is, Tom O’Brien was framed. With his execution date four months off, an earthquake allows him to escap… Continue