Average customer rating:
- A Good Story, Well Written
- Great characters but somewhat predictable
- Dark Room
- Dark Room - Best book I've read this year!
- An action-packed book where one tantalizing clue is revealed after another
|
Dark Room: A Novel
Andrea Kane
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Kane, Andrea | ( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
Romantic Suspense | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0060741341
Release Date: 2007-03-27 |
Book Description
Seventeen years ago, Morgan Winter was traumatized by the discovery of her parents' brutally murdered bodies in a Brooklyn basement on Christmas Eve. Now shocking new evidence overturns the killer's conviction and Morgan is confronted with the horrifying realization that the real killer is still out there.
Trapped in an emotional hell, she hires Pete "Monty" Montgomery, the former NYPD detective who first investigated her parents' homicides. Now a PI, Monty has a personal score to settle—a promise he made to Morgan, the helpless child long ago, that he'd find her parents' killer. With nothing more than an old case file and the original crime scene photos, Monty enlists the specialized skills of his son, Lane, a photojournalist whose job is a perfect cover for the clandestine image analysis he conducts for the CIA. Constantly thrill-seeking, Lane is used to gambling and putting his own life on the line—for country, for journalistic integrity, for the adrenaline rush. But this time, the stakes are different . . . and this time, he can't afford to lose.
The murderer is still at large and has never stopped watching Morgan from the shadows, making sure a dark secret remains buried. Now, Morgan's fierce determination to uncover the truth consumes her, plunging her into the dark and terrifying past and an increasingly dangerous present.
Lane is closing in on the truth. But in a cruel twist of fate, what he exposes may be far more shocking and devastating to Morgan than anyone could imagine.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Story, Well Written.......2007-08-23
As with all of Kane's stories, this one is well written and a pleasure to read. Am looking forward to her next novel.
Great characters but somewhat predictable.......2007-08-13
Nightmares have plagued Morgan Winter since discovering her parent's corpses when she was ten. During that intense time, she bonded with the detective assigned the case. With the culprit in jail, she felt a small sense of relief until it is uncovered that he confessed to the crimes in order to avoid a cop killing conviction, and the crime is once again unsolved. The now retired detective, Pete Montgomery, always felt that the wrong person was convicted, and now Morgan has hired him to find the real killer. With the aid of his son Lane, a photographer who freelances for several clandestine organizations (thus having great resources and equipment), new details in the crime scene photos pop up to provide more questions. Lane and Morgan form an instant attraction. But as the investigation gets closer to the truth, Morgan becomes a target.
In a follow up to "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" featuring Pete's daughter Devon, Kane's latest is packed with action, but it's a bit predictable (I guessed the culprit within the first couple chapters). In Morgan, she's created a heroine that's both strong and fragile at the same time, and it's nice to see a hero in a job other than police detective. Despite the flaws, readers will be enthralled with how the story plays out as, Kane is a master at creating compelling characters.
Dark Room .......2007-07-24
When Morgan Winter learns that the man convicted of her parent's murder seventeen years ago did not commit the crime, she is determined to find the real killer. Morgan hires former police detective turned PI, Pete 'Monty' Montgomery. Working with Monty is his handsome, daredevil son and top photographer, Lane.
With the killer desperate to keep his identity secret, the danger to Morgan escalates. Monty and Lane are determined to keep Morgan safe until they find the killer, and they will find the killer because failure is not an option.
Wow! Dark Room is a very intense book! Andrea Kane is an amazing author. From the first paragraph Ms. Kane drew me into the suspenseful world of Morgan Winter. I felt all of Morgan's emotions, from her sadness over losing her parents to her desire for the gorgeous Lane. Who can blame Morgan, Lane is utterly delectable. Smart, dangerous and Alpha, Lane is the full package.
I loved Dark Room! The suspense kept me on my toes and on the edge of my seat. The romance was just as thrilling. Overall I couldn't have asked for a better romantic suspense novel!
Annmarie reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed
Dark Room - Best book I've read this year!.......2007-05-31
This is Andrea Kane at her best. It had me hooked right from the start with great characters and a plot loaded with twists and turns. It is also a very touching story. I couldn't put it down it was such an edge of your seat page-turner. I've read all of Kane's contemporary romance books and this one is definitely her best yet. If you like reading romantic suspense from Nora Roberts, Karen Robards, Jayne Ann Krentz, Linda Howard, etc.; you will love Andrea Kane's latest novel-Dark Room.
An action-packed book where one tantalizing clue is revealed after another.......2007-05-30
When Morgan Winter was just a child, she discovered the bloody bodies of her murdered parents on Christmas Eve. Luckily, Arthur and Elyse Shore, close friends of her mother and father, were there to pick up the pieces of her life, take her in and raise her as their own along with their biological daughter, Jill, Morgan's close friend.
Now Morgan and Jill run Winshore, a top-quality matchmaking service that strives to match men and women with their true loves --- not just on a superficial level but on a deeper and more meaningful plane. Morgan has rebuilt her life and moved on, even though the murder of her parents has always loomed over her. With Christmas just ahead, however, the past surfaces to haunt her again.
Morgan is dreaming of her parents, reading her mother's old journals and studying photos of herself and them in happier days. With the killer convicted and locked away, the past should be behind her, but Morgan can't shake the experience that is always with her just below the surface.
When old friend and retired police detective Pete Montgomery shows up on the doorstep of Winshore, Morgan knows it doesn't bode well for her peace of mind. Detective Montgomery, or Monty as he's known to friends and family, tells her that the wrong man was convicted all those years ago, and the person who killed her parents and destroyed her life has been free all along.
While Morgan is shaken to her core, rather than falling apart she immediately hires Monty, now a private investigator, and determines to see for herself that the right man is caught and punished for this horrible crime. Luckily for Morgan, she is surrounded by loving family and friends. The Shores, Jill and Monty do their best to see that Morgan is supported and upheld in this turbulent time that is shaking them all to their very foundation.
Morgan also meets and is immediately attracted to Monty's son, Lane, a photojournalist who conducts undercover image analysis for the CIA. Lane is used to living life on the edge. One thrill after another suits him just fine. His previous exploits, however, are nothing compared to the adrenaline that flows through his body when he meets Morgan.
Lane is drawn into the mystery surrounding Morgan's parents when Monty asks him to enhance and scrutinize the crime scene photos of Morgan's parents. He quickly becomes confidante and protector to Morgan as well.
It's obvious that Morgan, Monty and Lane's investigation is coming too close for comfort when Morgan and Jill's home is broken into and trashed, a frightening warning is left for Morgan as a cease-and-desist order, and one of Morgan's clients is the victim of a hit and run. Is anyone close to Morgan safe now, or has she placed everyone she loves in greater danger?
Regardless of what happens, Morgan knows the only key to lasting peace and happiness is unmasking the person who killed her parents and stole her youth. The question is, will that truth set her free or will it annihilate her when she finally learns it?
DARK ROOM is an action-packed book where one tantalizing clue is revealed after another. The chemistry between the characters is warm and humorous, and they come across as real people who love and care deeply for one another. I found myself wanting to remain in their company and know what happened next even after the book ended.
--- Reviewed by Amie Taylor
Book Description
The story of a remarkable woman's rise out of the foster-care system to attain the American dream—and of the unlikely series of women who lifted her up in marvelous and distinctive ways
Born as a ward of the state of Maine—the child of an unmarried Yankee blueblood mother and an unknown black father—Victoria Rowell beat the odds. Unlike so many other children who fall through the cracks of our overburdened foster-care system, her experience was nothing short of miraculous, thanks to several extraordinary women who stepped forward to love, nurture, guide, teach, and challenge her to become the accomplished actress, philanthropist, and mother that she is today.
Rowell spent her first weeks of life as a boarder infant before being placed with a Caucasian foster family. Although her stay lasted for only two years, at this critical stage Rowell was given a foundation of love by the first of what would be an amazing array of women, each of whom presented herself for different purposes at every dramatic turn of Rowell's life.
In this deeply touching memoir, Rowell pays tribute to her personal champions: the mothers, grandmothers, aunts, mentors, teachers, and sisters who each have fascinating stories to tell. Among them are Agatha Armstead, Rowell's longest-term foster mother, a black Bostonian on whose rural Maine farm Rowell's fire to reach for greatness was lit; Esther Brooks, a Paris-trained prima ballerina, Rowell's first mentor at the Cambridge School of Ballet; Rosa Turner, a Boston inner-city fosterer who taught Rowell lessons of independence; Sylvia Silverman, a mother and teacher whose home in a well-kept middle-class suburban neighborhood prepared Rowell for her transition out of foster care and into New York City's wild worlds of ballet and acting and adulthood.
In spite of support from individuals and agencies, Rowell nonetheless carried the burden of loneliness and anxiety, common to most foster children, particularly those "orphans of the living" who are never adopted. Heroically overcoming those obstacles, Rowell also reaches a moment when she can embrace her biological mother, Dorothy, and, most important, accept herself.
Ultimately, The Women Who Raised Me is a story that belongs to each of us as it shines a glowing light on the transformational power of mentoring, love, art, and womanhood.
Customer Reviews:
Review.......2007-09-07
This was a well written book. The author gives a heartfelt account of her life in foster care. She begins her story as a small child in rural Maine and concludes as an adult actress in Hollywood. This is a great book that deals with foster care, mental illness, achievements, and adversity in a young woman's life.
Wanted more of an autobiography.......2007-08-16
I know the title says the women who raised me, but I really wanted to read more about how she got into acting, what it was like to be on the young and the restless and work with dick van dyke. She spends many chapters about her ballet years, but doesnt mention what it was like to get into tv acting, which is really her career, not ballet. She is known for being a TV star. She did a great deal of research into her families/friends - I think too much. I had to skip many many pages because it got boring. She mentions her marriage, but never talks about getting divorced. I never knew if she married Wynton or not, had to look it up on the net. She doesn't get into her relationships with men much or her children. I got the impression Wynton was raising her son? but who knows. She seems very multi talented though and it was great that she put so much time into writing a book in addition to her other charities/career.
Intriguing,surprising insights about foucs & tenacity.......2007-08-10
This is an exceptionally touching journey through the life of a foster child that was exposed to a number of phenomenal women.
All their lives were woven together beautifully by the author [Rowell]and revealed that despite backgrounds that were so different, these women all exhibited determined, giving spirits through their own talents.
A must read!!
The Women Who Raised Me.......2007-07-28
A very touching story , well written and informative. So sad at times. I loved that there were pictures of these incredible women to put faces on the heroes! Inspiring too, that with love and guidance, our children can thrive in difficult life situations.
As a grandmother to a mixed race child, very distubing also, that we still have so far to go in the US.
A wonderful book.......2007-07-01
I could not put down Ms. Rowell's life journey. I knew very little about her, only that she was an actress in a soap opera. She is an incredibly strong woman. I have great admiration for her. She could so easily have turned her back on her painful past and distanced herself from orphans; but she chose not to. She embraces her birth mother and all who assisted her.
Average customer rating:
- Creepy and Comforting?
- Moving Novel About Love and Loss
- All Over The Place
- Terrible writing
- Sad and pointless
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The Lovely Bones: A Novel
Alice Sebold
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0316666343 |
Amazon.com
On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.
Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue."
The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Book Description
On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue." The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife.Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Download Description
This edition of the New York Times best-seller and a Good Morning America "Read This" Book Club pick contains features available only in the electronic version! Included in this eBook edition are a Reading Group Guide, an exclusive interview with the author, and "The Oddity of Suburbia," Alice Sebold's comments on growing up in the suburbs of "Nowhere U.S.A." When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. (It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing set.) With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief-her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor-and begin the difficult process of healing. In the hands of a brilliant new novelist, and through the eyes of her winning young heroine, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful, touching, even funny novel about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.
Customer Reviews:
Creepy and Comforting?.......2007-09-29
Everyone else is right. Th book is great in the beginning. It contains some odd scenes that are unnecessary and hurt, more than help, the story's momentum and punch. The author tried to wrap up too many loose ends too quickly in the end, and I felt so dissappointed that a book I really enjoyed and that had so much potential ended so poorly. However, I so enjoyed the beginning, that I got over the ending.
The aspect that I think I most enjoyed about the plot of this book, was that the main mystery was solved very close to the begnning.
You do not feel suspense waiting to find out "who did it?" The author tells you who did it right away. Then you don't feel suspense waiting to see when one of the other characters will figure it out, because another character figures it out right away. You feel suspense waiting to see when others will believe and if the murdered will ever get caught. Very non-traditional suspense.
I really appreciate books that make me FEEL. Good, bad, hapy, sad, scared,or totally creeped out. I just enjoy having my emotions provoked by a good book. This book made me feel every one of those things. I laughed and cried, sometimes one right after the other. I definitely felt completely creeped out and oddly comforted really close together. That's why this book is a winner.
This book will make you think. If you don't like to feel sad, or uncomfortable, this book is not for you. If you appreciate emotion and creativity, you will enjoy this different book. I look forward to the movie, hoping they don't massacre the story.
Moving Novel About Love and Loss.......2007-09-19
After fourteen year old Susie Salmon is raped and murdered, she goes to heaven where she is able to look down at her family and friends and the rest of the world. As she is adjusting to life in heaven and making friends there, she is also watching her family deal with her disappearance. She watches as both her parents struggle to accept the fact that she is gone and the affect it has on their marriage; she watches her younger sister Lindsay grow and become stronger as a person; and she watches her little brother Buckley, who is too young to understand what is going on. She also watches her friends Ray Singh and Ruth Connors, as they grow closer after Susie's death. As Susie watches her family and friends grow older and mature, she begins to realize how much she has lost and longs for one more chance for life on earth.
"The Lovely Bones" is a sad, moving, and at times odd novel. Extremely well written by Alice Sebold, it is told in the first person by Susie. This unique perspective means that we not only have insight into what Susie was like as a person, but who her killer was and how frustrating it is for her to not only watch the killer stalk other victims (including someone close to Susie) but watch the police try and find her body and determine who her killer is and prove it. Her ability to look down from heaven to see her family and others (and somehow be privy to their thoughts) adds poignancy to the novel, as each of her family members and friends struggle to cope with their loss in their own private ways. It is heartbreaking to read about how Susie's disappearance and the inability of the police to find her body affects her parents marriage, and how Susie begins to realize she didn't know them, especially her mother, all that well. It's equally heartbreaking to see Susie watch her sister Lindsay grow up and experience things that Susie never will, especially falling in love and having sex for the first time. Sebold makes the characters so believable that at times I wanted to hug them and say "I'm sorry" and at other times I wanted to shake them and make them aware of how their actions were hurting others. Although the book is sad, it's not as depressing as I thought it would be and there are some humorous moments in the book, mostly with Susie's Grandma Lynn. While I thought "The Lovely Bones" was well written for the most part, there was a truly odd section towards the end that felt out of place in the book.
"The Lovely Bones" is a moving novel about love and loss.
All Over The Place.......2007-08-29
I had heard great things about this book so decided to read it. I agree with a lot of the other reviews that say it started out really great and then fizzled out. I think the storyline was all over the place, and I couldn't understand what the point was, other than just to be a fly on the wall in the lives of Susie's family. I was also not happy with the bodily possession (a bit much in my opinion) or the weak ending. I think the concept was interesting, and I think I would have liked it better if it kept the same energy it had in the beginning. I did enjoy the fact that it was based in the Philadelphia suburbs, as I am familiar with that area.
Terrible writing.......2007-08-27
I couldn't finish reading this book after getting about 150 pages in. This turned out to be a fortunate decision. My wife tells me it got worse and worse. I'm shocked at how well-recieved it was... The writing is sloppy, we're given no descriptions of the characters, and the storyline makes you groan with its cliches. What really annoyed me were the incredibly strained metaphors tossed around, dice in a Yatzee game of literature, spinning like Disneyland teapots in the cosmos of ludicrousness. This was one gem: "leaden weights had been tied by anesthesia to the four corners of his consciousness".
Sad and pointless.......2007-08-24
I'm sorry to say it... I really wanted to like this book... but I didn't! In fact, I was quite stunned to discover how disappointing and unproductive this book is, considering the number of people who have read it. I read it on a recommendation from a friend whose book recommendations I usually agree with. Unfortunately, I wish I had gone with my gut instinct and put the book down after getting nowhere in the first 100 pages. Instead, I kept reading just to get through it. I really disliked this book! I'm not a book snob, but I like a book to be somewhat believable if the author is attempting to depict a real life scenario ie: a family's coping with the death of thier murdered child. The whole thing, start to finish, was so contained, so picture-perfect, so annoying!!!
It's funny, the person who recommended the book to me said the hardest part of the book was the first chapter because of the grisly details of poor Susie's death. I disagree. Though I am not a fan of horror or even CSI shows... I at least found the first chapters suspenseful and engaging... I cannot say that for the rest of the novel!
The concept of the narrator being in heaven is definitely an interesting one, but the story she tells is so contrived and meandering and really uninspired that her perspective hardly seems special.
I think this novel has the ability to be interesting or possibly helpful to someone who has had to deal with the death of a close family member because it so plainly shows that a family falls apart around such a loss and that this is sort of a natural process. But beyond that situation... I'm sorry, I would not recommend this book.
Average customer rating:
- Good Read
- Get rid of the psychology (and psychiatrist) please
- Add one-half star to my rating...
- The Best of Parker
- It's a family matter.....
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Spare Change
Robert B. Parker
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Parker, Robert B. | ( P ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Hardcover | Parker, Robert B. | ( P ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0399154256
Release Date: 2007-06-05 |
Book Description
Boston P.I. Sunny Randall joins forces with the most important man in her life-her father-to crack a thirty-year-old case.
Hi Phil,
You miss me? I got bored, so I thought I'd reestablish our relationship. Give us both something to do in our later years. Stay tuned.
Spare Change
When a serial murderer dubbed "The Spare Change Killer" by the Boston press surfaces after three decades in hiding, the police immediately seek out the cop, now retired, who headed the original task force: Phil Randall. As a sharp-eyed investigator and a doting parent ("You're smart. You're tough. You, too, are a paradigm of law enforcement perfection, and you're my kid"), Phil calls on his daughter, Sunny, to help catch the criminal who eluded him so many years before.
Sunny is certain that she's found her man after interviewing just a handful of suspects. Though she has no evidence against Bob Johnson, she trusts her intuition. And she knows the power she has over him-she can feel the skittishness and sexual tension that he radiates when he's around her-but persuading her father and the rest of the task force is a different story.
When the killer strikes a second and third time, the murders take a macabre turn, as the victims each eerily resemble Sunny. While her father pressures her to drop the case, Sunny's need to create a trap to nab her killer grows.
In a compelling game of cat-and-mouse, Sunny uses all her skills to draw out her prey, realizing too late that she's setting herself up to become the next victim.
Customer Reviews:
Good Read.......2007-10-05
I say "read". Actually I listened to this on CD. It is athouroughly enjoyable story filled with wry and wit. It even has a good ending. This is a keeper.
Get rid of the psychology (and psychiatrist) please.......2007-10-01
Years ago, one case had stumped PI Sunny Randall's father. The 'Spare Change' killer murdered, apparently at random, but left three coins behind. When Phil Randall had been assigned the case, the Spare Change killer had written taunting notes. But nothing the police did led to his apprehension. And then, after a string of murders, the killing simply stopped. Now, though, twenty years later, they've started again. Phil Randall is called out of retirement and he brings his daughter, Sunny, with him to work on the case.
Twenty years is a long time, and many cops would wonder if the killer had perhaps been locked up for another crime. Sunny doesn't think so, though. She soon fixates on one man--a man who seems to toy with her and with the police, yet who lacks a motive or any physical connection to the case--except that he was one of dozens captured when the cops closed down an area and rounded everyone up. Sunny finds herself flirting with a man she's certain is the killer (although he's young to have conducted the killings twenty years earlier).
Meanwhile, Sunny is trying to deal with her own life by seeing psychiatrist Susan Silverman twice a week. Silverman nods, smiles, and offers cryptic wisdom, pushing Sunny to insights into her own personality that somehow don't actually lead to any improvements in her case. Poor Sunny is hooked on her ex-husband--so much so that she does everything she can to steal him away from his new wife. She also plays Oedipal games with her mother and sister, vying for her father's affection. She recognizes she even picked her career as a cop and then detective to win his favor.
Author Robert B. Parker can be depended on for a quick read with witty dialogue and a macho world-view where certainties abound and absolute truths are easy. When working on the mystery, Parker keeps the action moving along although I would have liked to see a bit more actual detecting. Unfortunately, the story comes to multiple crashing halts when we deal with Sunny's inability to get on with her life, the wonderfulness of her dog, the wonderfulness of her father (in intriguing juxtaposition to the wonderfulness of the suspected serial killer's father), the wonderfulness of Susan Silverman, and the wonderfulness of Sunny herself.
SPARE CHANGE is not a bad book--Parker doesn't write bad books. It's a short book with plenty of dialogue that could have probably been shortened another hundred pages by elimination of Susan Silverman (always a good idea in a Parker book) and by the elimination of the major eeew-factor relationship with ex-husband Richie.
Add one-half star to my rating..........2007-09-18
This was the Sunny Randall book I enjoyed the least of the six, yet it is still worth reading, at least the way I do it...get it from the library, hit it hard and bring it back within 72 hours for someone else to enjoy. The problem here is that the serial killer being tracked is identified early but caught late, and dispatched rather easily. He reveals no fascinating secrets which are in any way credible. Meanwhile, Sunny's romance with fellow Parker hero Jesse Stone seems to be over, and Sunny's nice ex-husband Ritchie appears to be ready to trash his second marriage and return to Sunny, but not as a spouse. Nobody gets any sex, though, in this one. I like Sunny very much, but I like both Jesse Stone and Ritchie, and I can't choose between them. It seems Sunny would refuse to marry anybody again, or live with anybody again, which kind of dooms her to a child-less life of dating with benefits. The whole book is OK, yet not...compelling, somehow.The first five were addictive to me.
The Best of Parker.......2007-09-08
To pick the best Book That Robert B. Parker has written is like choosing the Best Fight that I have ever seen. I would compare Frazier-Ali I and Morales - Barrero I. Who's to say? But this is as good a Parker as I've read. But You have to like Parker's style in the "Sunny Randall" series. You would have to enjoy the dialogue between Sunny and Ritchie. You would have to like sitting in on Sunny's sessions with Susan. And as another reviewer said do not read "Spare Change" without reading predecessor Novels. Having said all that this Novel is as good as it gets.
It's a family matter............2007-09-06
Robert B. Parker has something on his mind in Spare Change, the sixth in the Sunny Randall series. That something is family, and the various levels at which they function. Or don't.
We join the proceedings as Sunny and her father, retired Boston cop Phil Randall, are going over old crime-scene photos. They represent the evidence in Phil's definitive case, the Spare Change Killer. So named because the killer always left a nickel, dime and quarter at the scene of his crimes. The reason for this review is, it appears, the return of Spare Change after decades of absence. New bodies bearing the same signature are showing up, and Phil is being consulted, and he's brought in Sunny as support.
With that simple device, Parker spends a lot of time exploring the relationship between father and daughter, and the resultant blowback amongst the fairly fractured Randall Family. Phil and Sunny are the stable ones, Sunny's mother and sister are, well, not so much. This creates some fabulous family tension, well-explored in a particularly memorable dinner scene as Phil, who of course loves all these women completely, remains serenely bemused. He is the calm center of the Randall Family Storm, and the expansion of the character is extremely welcome, and even encouraging to men in similar situations.
As Phil and Sunny integrate themselves into the Boston PD investigation, we are given fresh looks, through Sunny's eyes, at characters Parker readers know lots about, particularly Marty Quirk and Frank Belson, and that's fun. Of course, Sunny's sessions with Susan Silverman are part of the proceedings, and our exposure to the professional side of her character are a great side-dish of this particular meal.
Suspects are, at first, hard to come by, but Sunny's persistence brings one fellow to everyone's attention--his name is Bob Johnson, and while there is no evidence to tie him to the crimes, Our Girl has the instincts that tell her he is Spare Change. So she uses her feminine wiles (they are plenty) to build a relationship with this guy. Paying no attention to the fact that Bob would have been barely a teenager when the murders began, she stages some fascinating "dates" with him, some at the restaurant owned by series regular Spike, self-professed "World's Toughest Queer", and one of Parker's most entertaining characters.
Added to the mix in this story are Sunny's ex-husband Richie, slowly working his way back into her life as his current marriage unravels. She knows she can't be married to Richie, but she's also learned that she can't be with anyone else (poor Jesse Stone). Quite the quandary.
There's also Sunny's pal, Julie, the world's most unqualified counselor. They have a double date with a couple of fellas about half-way through the book that is truly hilarious. In a tragic way.
As Sunny and Phil drill deeper into the life of Bob Johnson, they gain some insight into the personal life of this man, who at first blush is nearly a cipher. Some things support their suspicions, many do not.
The resolution is tense, action-packed, and deals very specifically with the themes that Parker is talking about throughout the book--the impact of fathers on our lives. He does such a great job of establishing the bond between Phil and Sunny--it's both the narrative and moral nexus of Spare Change.
It's hard not to read this series without thinking of Helen Hunt, for which the character was originally created as a movie franchise. It's too bad, seems that Ms. Hunt could use the work. But it also gives Sunny a persona that is consistent. It's almost as if Parker is thinking the same thing as he writes the books.
Regardless, the Sunny Randall series is one of the genre's most entertaining, and with Spare Change, Parker has added new layers of depth to the character, while telling a great tale of murder.
And yes, family.
Average customer rating:
- How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read one?The answer is Sixty-MinuteShakespeare Series
- helpful
- Great for studying Hamlet!
- Helpful edition; entertaining play.
- A good reading copy
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Hamlet (Shakespeare Made Easy)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Barron's Educational Series
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Binding: Paperback
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Accessories:
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Hamlet
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Hamlet (Barron's Book Notes)
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Hamlet (Picture This! Shakespeare)
ASIN: 0812036387 |
Book Description
Here are the books that help teach Shakespeare plays without the teacher constantly needing to explain and define Elizabethan terms, slang, and other ways of expression that are different from our own. Each play is presented with Shakespeare's original lines on each left-hand page, and a modern, easy-to-understand "translation" on the facing right-hand page. All dramas are complete, with every original Shakespearian line, and a full-length modern rendition of the text.
Customer Reviews:
How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read one?The answer is Sixty-MinuteShakespeare Series.......2007-07-14
Reviewed By: Beverly Krueger, Eclectic Homeschool Online
How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read or see one? Or how do you make it possible for those who just don't have the time to do the play full justice, but nevertheless want to have more than just a taste of the bard, to find the time to read it? The answer is the Sixty-Minute Shakespeare series. I've got in my hands their version of Hamlet. There are two important distinctions to this edition. First, it is abridged. The core of the play is left untouched, so the play and its themes are still understandable. Famous soliloquies are also left untouched. The dialogue that fleshes out the minor characters is often abbreviated. Second, the play is rendered in the original language, but uses standard spelling. This is not a modernized version of the play.
The Sixty Minute Shakespeare series was also written to give a shorter, easier to produce version of the play for theater groups that wanted to put on a production of a Shakespearean play. Any of this series would be a great production piece for a homeschool theater group. I recommend Hamlet in particular because there are so many resources available to help young actors learn more about their roles, especially the many fine productions of Hamlet on video or DVD. A short section on staging a production gives useful advice for staging and pacing of a production.
For those who want to use this edition for a study of Hamlet, I suggest getting a study guide to help with understanding the themes of the play. The notes at the bottom of each page help with understanding some of the unfamiliar words used, but those who are not familiar with Shakespeare will benefit from additional explanations of what is happening in the text.
helpful.......2007-01-15
I have my degree in English... I like reading and teaching with this version as "help" not as a substitution. It gives a clearer understanding to Shakespeare for people who have difficulty with it.
Great for studying Hamlet!.......2007-01-10
I had to use this for a course I was taking. This book was very clear and very helpful. It definetely made reading Hamlet a lot clearer and simpler.
Helpful edition; entertaining play........2006-09-14
"Hamlet" was not a Shakespearean play I had plan on reading outside of my Movement in Theatre class and this edition made it one hundred times easier. I had to read the play in a week, so reading the modern English side made that process effortless. I then read over the original Shakespeare version when I had to focus on the character Ophelia. Overall, I found that this play was easier to read in Shakespeare's writing, as opposed to some of his other plays. The play is interesting, but I felt the ending to be boring. I "sorta" recommend.
A good reading copy.......2006-08-25
Once you get used to the layout, this is a good copy to read along with as you listen to the play. Some valuable insights too and not just for students.
Book Description
If One L is the book to read before law school, Relentless Pursuit is the book to read after-a real-life legal thriller that shows, from the inside, a prosecutor's quest to deliver justice to a family devastated by murder.
What happened to Diane Hawkins and her daughter Katrina-a brutal double murder in which the girl's heart was cut from her body-devastated a Washington, D.C., community and left its mark on everyone involved in the subsequent investigation. Especially moved was federal homicide prosecutor Kevin Flynn. He had handled any number of grisly murders, and was no stranger to the depravity of the human soul. Yet the way Hawkins's family and friends rallied together to help each other through the tragedy-and the generosity they ex-tended to Flynn, whose own father was dying of cancer at the time-turned this case into a personal mission. He was determined to use his position to effect real closure, to right a wrong-to bring justice on behalf of the victims and their families.
Relentless Pursuit is the story of that journey to justice, an intensely gripping beat-by-beat reconstruction of the events as they unfold-the murder, the arrest, the trial, the verdict-told with astonishing candor, and providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of a dedicated prosecutor. Above all, it's about healing and community, a story in which, in the end, the system works and-for once-justice prevails.
Customer Reviews:
An unusual perspective for a true-crime book........2007-09-29
True crime, sometimes, is far less interesting to read than crime fiction. In fiction, the author has many choices that a true crime writer doesn't. Fiction can place the reader inside the mind of the killer and/or inside the mind of the victim. Seldom is the author of a true crime book given that opportunity. Some writers can speculate with a great deal of seeming accuracy. That's not the road that Kevin Flynn takes in his book.
RELENTLESS PURSUIT is told from the perspective of an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, DC; he is prosecuting a man for the brutal murder of a woman and her daughter
Diane Hawkins and Katrina Harris were murdered in May of 1993. The trial took place over a year later, in August of 1994. This may seem like a speedy trial, all things considered. The family of Diane Hawkins and Katrina Harris didn't think so; they knew right away who had killed these two people and had a difficult time with the slow and measured pace of the legal process. It took cool heads to persuade some members of the family not to take justice into their own hands.
RELENTLESS PURSUIT is not the best true crime out there; Flynn can be redundant and verbose. The story he tells, however, is compelling and fascinating. It is unclear until the verdict is delivered in court whether or not he has done his job as a prosecutor. And the reader does want to know the verdict. While the case is already decided in the minds of the reader (probably) and in Flynn's mind, he makes us all too aware of the realities of a jury trial, the complexities of presenting a good case, and how little things can undermine the best presentation.
Amazing first book.......2007-08-08
This is a true crime written somewhat similarly to Ann Rule. A pair of victims, Diane Hawkins and her daughter, Katrina Harris, are brutally murdered. It is Kevin Flynn's job as a DC prosecutor to put the alleged murderer behind bars. In his tale, Mr. Flynn expresses outrage at their horrific deaths and loses the cool mask of distant prosecutor. He becomes involved with other family members and friends of the victims and contrasts their closeness to his own small family's experiences with his father's impending death and birth of his first child.
This book is clear and well written, although it will take some readers a bit to "get into" the book. Stick with it, it is well worth the read. I have bought this book for numerous friends and all have appreciated this thoughtful, insightful read.
Well-written and compelling book.......2007-04-24
Kevin Flynn is a homicide prosecutor in a city that has one of the highest homicide rates in the country, Washington, D.C. Being surrounded constantly with stories and photographs of death and murder, you would think he would have grown a thick skin, learned to objectify the cases and move through them in a detached manner.
But this case was different. The murders of 40-year-old Diane and 13-year-old Katrina Hawkins left a lasting impression on everyone associated with the case. Their murder investigation was one of the most brutal that police and prosecutors ever worked. Over a year after the crime occurred, during the trial, Detected Combee would still grow quiet when testifying about what he saw in the Hawkins house that day.
But this case is not about the terrible method these two victims were murdered. To quote from the book:
It's a story of extremes: the worst and the best the world can offer, humanity at its most brutal and most noble. It's the story of two families -- mine and another from a world that I thought I knew but didn't -- two families full of ordinary people who did their best under awful circumstances.
Relentless Pursuit does indeed follow the Hawkins case, from the initial night of the murders May 25, 1993 to the prosecution in August 15, 1994. But there is much more to the case than just the horror and the story of how they caught the man responsible.
This is also the story of the Hawkins and Flynn families, which became irrevocably linked together. The Hawkins family suffered one of the worst losses a family can, the loss of both a sister and strong influence in the family, and a child, who had just begun to show her gifts and talents to the world. But through it all, they clung to their faith in God, which also served to help their new-found family member, prosecutor Kevin Flynn.
The Flynn family though, was going through its own trials. Kevin's mother was suffering from depression and shortly after he began work on this monumnetal case, his father was stricken with cancer. Through the entire case, Kevin is required to balance his work and family life, including his wife and child, and try not to let anyone down. And part of that includes the Hawkins, who look to him as the only man that can bring them any measure of justice on Earth.
The book is told in a compelling style, taking us through the case, from the night the murders occurred through the entire case. There are procedural sections to the book, such as descriptions of how certain courtroom processes work, but that does not get in the way to the story, which is what the book is really all about.
Relentless Pursuit is not a book for those looking to learn about how the law really works, but you will learn a great deal about how the defense and prosecution work together and against one another, how much power a judge can wield, and some of the reasons why cases don't work out as cleanly as they do on television.
In the end, this book is just what the quotation above says, it is a story of two families. And it is an excellent book.
Excellent true crime!.......2007-04-11
Thoroughly enjoyed this book - an excellent true crime story carefully and thoughtfully told - the writer's courtroom skill - I call it Flynn's Finesse - not only makes this book a great read but provides the reader with valuable lessons for the day he or she finds himself or herself in the Courtroom as a part of a prosecution or defense team or as a member of the jury.
AWESOME.......2007-03-12
I ran out and bought this book on a Thursday night. I couldn't put it down, I had to read every chance I got. I finished it very late Saturday night. By the end I was ready to read his next book. This is an awesome true crime writer.
Book Description
In one of the finest novels yet in Tapplys long-running series, Nervous Water explores the previously hidden past of his much beloved character, Boston attorney Brady Coyne. Contacted by an aged relative with whom hed long lost touch, Brady agrees to help his Uncle Moze with a sensitive family matter. Having received a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Moze is looking to mend fences with his only daughter. But the daughter seems to have simply disappeared, leaving no clues or hints as to her whereabouts. As Brady tackles the seemingly impossible task of finding his cousina case that looks less and less like a simple missing person caseit becomes clear that whatever is going on now is related to a dark, undiscussed episode in his familys past: the brutal, still unsolved murder of another of Bradys uncles.
Customer Reviews:
Nervous Water.......2006-12-25
"Nervous Water" is the 21st Brady Coyne novel by William G. Tapply whom I feel is one of the finest mystery writers working today. Brady is called by his Uncle Moze in Maine to try to find his daughter Cassie who has apparently disappeared. Cassie is actually Moze's niece, but he and his wife had raised Cassie as their own. Brady begins to search for his cousin and finds that most people who are close to her are not cooperative. Her husband Richard Hurley is not helpful to Brady and he wonders if Hurley knew something of her disappearance. When Cassie's former lover is killed, Brady knows that someone will stop at nothing to keep Cassie's whereabouts a secret. He even wonders if Cassie is still alive. When Moze suffers a heart attack, Brady knows that he needs to find Cassie. There is also a suplot in which Brady's girlfriend, Evie, is acting strangely. I gave this novel a 5 star because it is a fast paced and very suspenseful read. The only thing I felt was strange about the plot was the fact that Brady had not visited his uncle in 30 years, but I overlooked that and highly recommend this book.
Another page turner by William Tapply.......2006-06-15
William Tapply has written another winner in his Brady Coyne series. All books will stand on their own. I won't give away the plot. (Read the Amazon summary and other reviewers)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and read it in two sittings. Lots of twists and turns, there are some surprises and some---well you could guess whodunit. Great book for beach, poolside or plane.
First Brady Coyne novel I have read.......2006-03-22
I enjoyed this novel-an interesting and easy read. Storyline was intriging, plot twists convincing, and character development about as deep as a book of this length can provide. I could best describe the book as Greg IIles-lite.
A Dense Family Mystery That Doesn't Quite Make Sense.......2006-02-05
Brady becomes reacquainted with is favorite uncle from Maine, whom he hasn't seen or heard from in 30 years. Already you can see one problem with this book. That's an unlikely set of circumstances.
If you get past that one, Mr. Tapply throws you another unlikely event, Brady's uncle's daughter won't talk to her father and has gone missing. Uncle Moze wants Brady to be sure Cassie is all right and to get her to call Moze. Even if Brady can succeed in finding her, will she be willing to call?
Brady finds himself drawn to do something, especially after Moze has a heart attack. Brady isn't sure that Moze will survive without seeing Cassie.
Arriving at Cassie's house, Brady finds a family that seems to be pretending that nothing's wrong . . . but something clearly is.
As Brady checks out the alternatives by visiting with her family and friends, he seems stymied when a lead suddenly appears. From there the story takes many unexpected turns that will keep you turning the pages.
If you can buy into the story of Brady's connection to Moze and Cassie's relationship with Moze, you have a four or five star book on your hand. There are marvelous scenes of lobstering and fishing that make you want to head for Maine. The title theme of "nervous water" is nicely developed in the book. The mystery itself isn't all that mysterious, but it'll do.
There's an edgy backdrop of tension between Evie and Brady that adds a little personal touch to the story without advancing the plot very much.
After reading the book, I found myself wishing that Mr. Tapply had written this book as a case involving non-relatives of Brady's. I think the story would have worked better.
A glimpse into Brady's Coyne family.......2006-01-02
His uncle who he has not seen in thirty years contacts Boston lawyer Brady Coyne. It seems his Uncle Moze had a falling out with his daughter Cassandra and he has not seen her in a year and a half. Recently finding out that he has heart problems, Moze wants to make amends before it it is too late. The problem is that Cassie cannot be found. Moze wants Brady's help in finding Cassie. Is it a missing person or is it murder?
This is another fine entry in this underrated mystery series. NERVOUS WATER gives us a glimpse into Brady's family on his mother's side. There are a few skeletons rattling around on the old family tree. The story was well plotted and very engaging. In addition to the missing person case, there are a few sub plotlines that are interesting and keep the story moving forward. Brady is not the most dynamic of characters, he is a little to laid-back for that, but the character dynamic keep the pages turning....Brady and his girlfriend, Brady and his secretary, Brady and his dog. Tappley did a great job in setting the scene in small-lakeside town Maine.
Average customer rating:
- Best I've read this year!
- The King of Lies
- I admit it: I'm jaded. I did not expect this book to capture me like it did
- Outstanding Debut Novel
- Review of the King of Lies
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The King of Lies
John Hart
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 031234161X
Release Date: 2006-05-16 |
Book Description
John Hart creates a literary thriller that is as suspenseful as it is poignant, a riveting murder mystery layered beneath the southern drawl of a humble North Carolina lawyer. When Work Pickens finds his father murdered, the investigation pushes a repressed family history to the surface and he sees his own carefully constructed facade begin to crack. Works troubled sister, her combative girlfriend, his gold digging socialite wife, and an unrequited lifelong love join a cast of small town characters that create no shortage of drama in this extraordinary, fast-paced suspense novel. Harts mastery of prose and plot belies his newcomer status as he explores the true heart of a man. An illuminating anatomy of a murder and the ripple effect it produces within a family and a community, The King of Lies is a stunning debut.
Customer Reviews:
Best I've read this year!.......2007-10-09
When someone said you can't put this one down, they were absolutely right. Hart has won a place on my "keep 'cause your gonna want to re-read this one in your old age" shelf. Wow - great characters, so well described, that you willingly walk in their shoes and feel their pain. The story line was original and felt fresh. How many books have you picked up lately, and it's the same old, same old? King of Lies was a breath of clear, fresh air, - or maybe I should say humid, soggy, boggy air - I do love those Carolina settings. Hart is a master of the descriptive phrase "the decision stole into me like a thief" - "the physical slap of harsh words" - if you're like me, you'll wish for a yellow marker to preserve them. This review will be short, as I must go out and get Hart's new book, Down River - I can't wait to get back to the Carolinas! Time well spent - bravo, John Hart.
The King of Lies.......2007-08-23
The author wrote a remarkable book, full of mystery, heartfelt emotion, and suspense.
Written in a first person perspective, the book so powerfully drew me into Work's world that I felt I was leaving a friend when I stopped reading, and couldn't wait to pick up the book again to reconnect with him.
Congratulations to John Hart for well deserved success with his first book! I look forward with great anticipation to the release of his next book, Down River, on October 2nd.
I admit it: I'm jaded. I did not expect this book to capture me like it did.......2007-08-16
Two late nights, and I was done. Not just another thriller, not like the others.
Hart's quiet, tortured protagonist Jackson Workman Pickens--known to all as Work--lives in the wake of his attorney father Ezra whose mysterious disappearance inhabits every crevice of his troubled life. Mix in a depressed, damaged sister, an ungrateful trophy wife, and the ruin of an inherited legal practice, and you have quite the mess when Ezra turns up murdered and Work is the prime suspect. The characters might seem like the ones we've read about before, but Hart is careful to give each a depth and "realness" that takes them beyond the stock thriller cast.
Hart, as North Carolina lawyer-turned-novelist knows trouble, and reading this double-quick, stylized novel shows off not only his sharp skills in storytelling but also an uncanny ability to grab a reader by the throat and not let go until the final page. A first novel that recalls early Grisham--when his stories were visceral--Hart makes the violence done to his father personal ("I saw a porcelain stretch of jawbone and remembered whiskers there..."), but Hart complicates things by Work's dispassionate reaction: "this was the most human my father had ever appeared to me."
As the title promises, lies abound everywhere, leaving the reader to wonder how the truth will out. (Unlike a few other prescient readers, I didn't figure out the end until I was there.) Hart, whose prose style makes me think of recent Dennis Lehane, allows the red herrings to perch on every well-tuned character's shoulder, and still delivers the ending that satisfies but never manipulates.
I await novel number two and expect that Hart is going to take us to the next level. Long live the literary thriller.
Outstanding Debut Novel.......2007-08-12
Hart captures the essence of small town life in this multi-layered story. The main character, 'Work', finds himself caught in a web of greed, power, and deceit after the murder of his father. The small town setting, and Works' reaction to the events around him, carry a ring of authenticity.
While the unveiling of the murderer is not a shock, it provides the most satisfying of the possible conclusions. Most of the other characters, while certainly flawed, just would not have fit the murderer role as well.
What makes this book deserve 5 stars is Hart's tight control on the plot, and his commitment to keeping the story true to its setting . Almost every scene and every conversation added meaning to the storyline. The only complaint I have was mentioned by another reviewer. The hit and run plotline towards the end seems a little forced. The same result could have been achieved with a more plausible approach.
Review of the King of Lies .......2007-08-02
John Hart, The King of Lies
St. Martin's 2006, 371pp
This is an absolutely terrific first novel which has me looking forward eagerly to Down River, his upcoming second novel.
The King of Lies begins with a dramatic start in looking at the complexity of life, the ability to live a lifetime of lies, and how small surrenders lead to a lifetime of pain.
The novel's believability captures the complexity of family maneuvers, passions, and uncertainties and combines tragedy with mystery to keep you awake late into the night turning the pages.
I found the ending totally unexpected but totally believable. That is a rare combination.
Finally, on almost every page, I found myself learning from the shrewd observations and insights of a man who clearly loves life, loves the South and loves his family.
Customer Reviews:
Candid, introspective, one-of-a-kind.......2007-06-27
Lionel Dahmer's memoir is the story of the dark journey of a father who was faced with the grisly reality of one of America's most notorious serial murder, mutilation, rape, necrophilia, and cannibalism cases. Lionel was a father who had to grapple not with losing his son to these unspeakable horrors, but with the fact that his son was the perpetrator. As a father, Lionel was asked if he could forgive his son, but before he could determine that, he had to forgive himself. The book presents Lionel's struggle with guilt, bewilderment, anger, and personal chaos during his son's life and in the aftermath of his arrest.
The memoir stands alone in its straightforward prose, introspection, and complete lack of blame shifting. Lionel provides broads stroke of details of the crimes, focusing more on the individuals than on the headline-grabbing depravity of Jeffrey Dahmer's deviance. Throughout Jeffrey's youth, and during the trial, Lionel grappled with his own responsibility for his son's social maladjustment. He identified with his son's need for control, extreme fear of abandonment, and general solitary nature. Lionel even contrasts Jeffrey's zombie experiments with his own hypnosis-control experiments in childhood. After Jeffrey's arrest, Lionel never wanted him to go free, but he did hope and work for psychiatric treatment for the son he was never able to save.
Lionel, I applaud you condor and introspection. You've written a book that will no doubt provide comfort to many parents of difficult children, and will help frame many of the "why?" questions felt by Americans with regards to your son's crimes.
Dahmer's father able to provide truth or not?.......2007-04-29
I loved this book and I love to read and study about Dahmer. This is a great book but after seeing a documentary on tv about it, I am a little concerned about the authenticity of the information that his father is giving in this book. He makes a lot of claims about the state of Jeffrey's mother that she denies..... so that leaves me feeling ..hmmm??
I have to imagine as a father, this book would be very hard to write, talking about the heinous nature of his son's life before prison. What is his motivation for this? Due to some of his comments, I believe perhaps he is a little bit "off" himself too and able to detach himself and provide mostly truths.
On a personal note, I'm very disappointed that the prison left him in a situation where he ended up murdered. He could have and should have been studied. Not that the studies of Manson has answered all our questions, but when you get someone like Dahmer, it's got to be studied. He was willing to discuss his crimes and do all he could after his sick, twisted lifestyle came to an end.
I feel bad for Jeff.......2007-03-28
After recently seeing the unshown interview Stone Phillips did in April, 1994, nine months before Jeff was set up and murdered in prison, my heart goes out to him. The mother and her mother were drunks. Jeff became an alcholic at 14, was molested as a child and seemed to be left out of the family.
I do believe Lionel cared and did the best he could. I also believe if Jeff had been born a few years later, he could have found a slave on the internet.
Jeff seemed like an intelligent man and was easy on the eyes. I have heard people at his trial said, "He looked like an angel and I would have gone home with him."
I wish they had studied Jeff's brain and I wish I could have met him. I do believe he was remorseful and full of guilt. Like most of us, he just wanted to be loved and not be alone. He was proud of his father for writing this book.
RIP Jeff With Love
the (lack of) sins of the father.......2006-04-25
Since Biblical days, common people have asked if parents are responsible for the shortcomings or bad acts of their children. This book tries to answer that from the father of a famed serial killer. Though the father's Ph.D. is not in psychology, this book felt very Freudian. The father finds things that he had in common with his son. However, at the end of the day, none of his actions caused what his son did.
Whether it's divorce, custody battles, or workaholicism to escape the homefront, Mr. Dahmer experiences what many parents, and especially fathers, do. Surprisingly, he never asks, "How was I able to get a Ph.D. yet my son could not finish one semester of undergrad?!" What stands out is how Jeffrey Dahmer failed at everything: he had no friends, he didn't survive college, he didn't survive the military, etc. Though his father doesn't mention it, journalists even wrote in the early 1990s that he was a sloppy murderer. Many parents of underachieving children will relate to this, whether they are famous or unknown.
The racial issue was barely addressed here, unfortunately. Mr. Dahmer said his son targeted black men, due to their lower socioeconomic standing, (and muscular bodies), not due to race. However, he never says whether Dahmer attended a diverse secondary school, had interest in other cultures, or had black friends. The father never once answers whether he encouraged his son to treat everyone the same or to celebrate diversity. The editor should have pushed him harder in this regard.
The gay issue was obviously a catch-22 for Mr. Dahmer. The grand majority of men do not do what Jeffrey Dahmer did, regardless of sexual orientation. So the father begins by referring to his son's "secret desires," "dark passions" etc. This is in reference to some of his nefarious acts. It is only deep into the book when the father says, "I come to things slowly. It took me forever to realize that my son was homosexual." Notice he uses "homosexual," rather than "gay." This failure to recognize may be a sign of homophobic denial. However, many fathers just do not get a clue about their children's sexuality or general personality. When Mr. Dahmer admits that his son went to bathhouses and liked male-on-male videos, this was an honesty that took courage to write. Celebrities (Cher, Sonny Bono, Betty DeGeneres, Madonna, inter alia) have spoken of having gay relatives. I think this book may be helpful to the PFLAG crowd. Mr. Dahmer tries hard not to offend gay men and lesbians that would not want to be spoken in the same breath as his son.
This book could have benefited from a postscript. Jeffrey Dahmer was killed the same year this book was produced. The man who killed so many black men was killed by a black man. What would Mr. Dahmer have said about transforming from the father of a killer to the father of a murder victim? Did the murder affect his job and neighbors as the serial killing did? The book doesn't answer this.
More than a decade has passed since the news broke out. Still, this was a fresh, insightful, quick, and enjoyable read.
Sad, but a very brave man indeed...........2005-03-18
Jeffrey Dahmer was unique amongst killers -- and I have studied many of them. Jeffrey was a tall, handsome, and articulate man. He went to great lengths to avoid his victims suffering. He was open and honest about his crimes. He was remorseful and ashamed of his actions. There is no doubt in my mind he suffered greatly all his life almost. We can never condone his actions, but we were never in Jeffrey's shoes. Jeffrey didn't choose to have these morbid desires....How can we be so sure we could control ourselves if we were in his shoes??????
I have read and seen much material on Mr. Dahmer, and have indeed read Mr. Dahmer senior's book. Lionel Dahmer, I firmly believe, was in no way responsible for his son's actions...sure he PROBABLY did pass on an obsessive nature to young Jeff, but so did my Dad to me....I became obsessed with tennis....others are in the same position as me, they become obsessed with healthy things. But Jeffrey, I believe, unconsciously became conditioned to relating sexual stimuli with thoughts of total possession, and I believe his obsession with the dead bodies and storing of them, somehow stemmed from his double hernia operation.
In summary, Lionel Dahmer, I firmly believe was, and still is, a decent, educated and caring individual. And he is immensly brave in coming out by writing this book. He is immensly brave by being in court showing support for his son. Maybe we actually need more fathers like Lionel Dahmer? I feel bad that he has suffered too. Also, as one reviewer stated, what was the point of pointing Jeff in jail? It was absurd in my opinion. Doesn't society want to stop these acts??? Well maybe if they had Jeff studied intensly in a psychiatric hospital, we could uncover some of the secrets of why he became so sick.
Jeffrey Dahmer was a sick man, not an evil man. He deserved to live. I truly believe this.
Lionel Dahmer, a decent human being, is not culpable at all for his sons actions.
At the start of the book, Lionel, pledges that a "portion" of profits would be given to the victims families. Some people have critisized him, saying all money should go to the victims families. But in actual fact, the remaining money went to court cases in which Lionel was wrongly sued as a irresponsible father. He didn't use the money to fly around the world, he used it for court costs!
RIP Jeffrey Dahmer
RIP to all the victims and sympathy to the victims
Stay strong Lionel Dahmer, you are brave indeed
Book Description
One day in March 1969, twenty-three- year-old Jane Mixer was on her way home to tell her parents she was getting married. She had arranged for a ride through the campus bulletin board at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she was one of a handful of pioneering women students at the law school. Her body was found the following morning just inside the gates of a small cemetery fourteen miles away, shot twice in the head and strangled.
Six other young women were murdered around the same time, and it was assumed they had all been victims of alleged serial killer John Collins, who was convicted of one of these crimes not long after. Jane Mixer's death was long considered to be one of the infamous Michigan Murders, as they had come to be known. But officially, Jane's murder remained unsolved, and Maggie Nelson grew up haunted by the possibility that the killer of her mother's sister was still at large.
In an instance of remarkable serendipity, more than three decades later, a 2004 DNA match led to the arrest of a new suspect for Jane's murder at precisely the same time that Nelson was set to publish a book of poetry about her aunt's life and death -- a book she had been working on for years, and which assumed her aunt's case to be closed forever.
The Red Parts chronicles the uncanny series of events that led to Nelson's interest in her aunt's death, the reopening of the case, the bizarre and brutal trial that ensued, and the effects these events had on the disparate group of people they brought together. But The Red Parts is much more than a "true crime" record of a murder, investigation, and trial. For into this story Nelson has woven a spare, poetic account of a girlhood and early adulthood haunted by loss, mortality, mystery, and betrayal, as well as a subtle but blistering look at the personal and political consequences of our cultural fixation on dead (white) women.
The result is a stark, fiercely intelligent, and beautifully written memoir that poses vital questions about America's complex relationship to spectacles of violence and suffering, and that scrupulously explores the limits and possibilities of honesty, grief, empathy, and justice.
Customer Reviews:
Sad but unsentimental, a real find.......2007-09-21
Maggie Nelson has written a powerful and deeply personal memoir that explores the world of quiet, enduring grief that settles on a family after suffering a horrific act of violence. Nelson doesn't seek easy answers or sentimental comforts, but rather delves unflinchingly into her own complicated life and the lives of her family as they revisit a tragedy that has left its stamp on them all for over three decades. One of the most haunting and original works I have had the pleasure of reading.
The Red Parts.......2007-06-07
I found this book interesting but sometimes hard to follow as it is a memoir of the author's thoughts and life weaved into the story of her aunt's murder. I find some of the the thoughts and actions of the author disturbing.
jaw-dropping horror and beauty.......2007-05-26
A stunning piece of writing that haunts the space between memoir and true crime. I re-read sentences over and over again because they were so perfectly shaped. It's the first book I've read about crime that foregrounds the gendered spaces of victim and perpetrator.
The Red Parts.......2007-03-21
The Red Parts is a deeply moving memoir. A compelling meditation on death, violence, justice and grief, as well as a gripping story. The writing is sharp and honest. There are no wasted words in this memorable book.
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