Peter Faur's Blog, page 2

My book club’s selections for 2016

Here are the books my book club read in 2015. Check them out. You might find a few to be of interest. At the bottom of the article, you’ll find links to the books we read in 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

January – Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne. A study of the Comanches in Texas in the 1800s, with a detailed look at Quanah Parker, tribal leader whose mother was white. The tribe kept U.S. military forces at bay by being expert warriors on horseback. The odds evened only when U.S. soldie...

First chapter of my new novel, Red Metal

My new novel,Red Metal,is now available, and you can buy it here. It’s the story of the battle between the CEO of a copper-mining company and the hedge-fund manager who decides to shake him down or take him down.

The first chapter is below.Please share the news with anyone who might be interested, and click here to receive email updates about Red Metal.

Chapter One

Twice a year–once in the spring after the chill vanishes, and again just before it rematerializes in late fall–the CEOs of the wo...

The Big Brush-off: A Jake & Laura Mystery

Two years ago,Michael Murphy introduced us to Jake Donovan and Laura Wilson, two New Yorkers who hit it big as a detective turned mystery writer and a Broadway actress/movie star.Since that time, Murphy has been prolific, giving us four Jake & Laura mysteries in locales as varied as New York City, Los Angeles, Hawaii and now, in The Big Brush-off,Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Part of the fun of the first three novels were the glitzy, glamorous settings, but inThe Big Brush-off,Murphy demonstrates he...

Study Guides for C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters

(Thanks for coming by, and click here to learn more about my new novel, Red Metal.)

I recently led a class at my congregation, La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church, on C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. It’s a clever, insightful series of correspondence between Screwtape, a mentor devil, and his apprentice, Wormwood.

Whether you believe in a real cadre of devils or not (Lewis did), you should find the book to bea worthwhile look at all the temptations we face that pull us away from God and goo...

My book club’s selections for 2015

Here are the books my book club read in 2015. Check them out. You might find a few to be of interest. At the bottom of the article, you’ll find links to the books we read in 2010, 2013 and 2014.

January – The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. The story of how the University of Washington rowing team overcame numerous obstacles to win the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Great writing and strong characters make this book worth your time.

February – An Officer and a Spy by Rober...

Wings in the Dark – a Jake & Laura Mystery

Over the past year and a half, Phoenix-based mystery writer Michael Murphy and his publisher, Alibi (a division of Random House), have issued three novels in Michael’s Jake & Laura mystery series. I’ve read them all, and I gladly recommend them to you.

The latest,Wings in the Dark,incorporates all the elements that make these books such fun – exciting locations, colorful characters (including a few drawn from the pages of history), snappydialogue, and mysteries worthy of the name.

Each novel...