Book Description
Step past the flashing lights into the true scene of the crime with Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand, a frank, unflinching, and unforgettable account of life as a crime scene investigator. Smart, sassy, and blessed--or cursed, depending on your point of view--with a stomach capable of working through the most horrific circumstances, Dana Kollmann details her true, unvarnished experiences as a CSI for the Baltimore County Police Department. Unlike the popular crime dramas proliferating on today's television networks, Kollmann's forensic tales forgo glitz for grit to show what really goes down once the yellow tape goes up.
With an informative, outspoken voice, Kollmann unveils the process and science of crime scene investigation in all its can't-take-your-eyes-away fascination. Whether explaining rigor mortis or the art of fingerprinting a stiff corpse on the side of the road, frantically brushing off a shower of roaches or pushing away a dead body, speeding to a horrific accident scene or cautiously entering a house of death, she shows what it's really like to work in the front lines as a forensics expert.
Vividly detailed and lightened by a disarming gallows humor, Dana Kollmann's true life-and-death experiences bring the sights, smells, and sounds of a crime scene alive as never before. She recounts stories that the cops and the CSI's usually leave on the field, far away from the delicate sensibilities of the average civilian--and forbidden from her family's dinner table. It's a strange world behind the yellow tape, and Never Suck a Dead Man's Hand offers a truly eye-opening perspective on the day-to-day life of a CSI.
Customer Reviews:
Ironic........2007-09-28
This book was intriguing, and especially for those of us brainwashed into believing the glamour behind crime scene investigation portrayed in television shows. Kickstart you into reality!
What's ironic, I went on a bus trip to New York City to see the Rockettes, and Dana came along with our group--she was friends and had worked with my sister-in-law's sister. So she was sitting there telling us all entertaining tales and gushing how excited she was her book was being published. Showed us the picture that would be on the jacket. I never thought anything of it 'til I saw it in a store, and how well it's doing. I spent four hours in a bus with something of a celebrity! And she's just as charming in real life, too. =)
Excellent, would recommend it.
Never Suck A Dead Man's Hand.......2007-09-12
I am a police dispatcher with Baltimore County and this book is great! Of course I can really relate to what Dana has written. So funny and so true!! Great Job Dana!!
This is what reallllllly happens..............2007-07-17
I was intrigued by the title just like you are. It's not a fake, get the book. I was lucky enough to see Ms. Kollmann in person at the library giving a talk on the book and I tell you she is even more entertaining in person. Forget what you see on CSI, ain't no tight skirts and button down shirts with chest hair on a real CSI scene....and what's that about 4 or 5 people teams going in at one time....nonsense. This book had me laughing out loud. Read it in two days and couldn't put it down. My recommendation is to get it. I might even try to go to a local CSI lab, just me and my dollar store trashcan with a liner.
Paints a more realistic picture of CSI...........2007-06-27
Kollman did an OUTSTANDING job telling the tale of the crime scene investigator. It isn't CSI: Miami, and those who think the TV show even remotely resembles real-life CSI work need to pick up this book and read it. Unlike the CSI TV series, there is more gore than glamour to the job, and you can bet that Kollman was never found walking around in a death scene wearing heels and a business suit.
For those who are not experienced in crime scene investigation, as long as you can tolerate very graphic descriptions of dead bodies and such, then this will be a good book to start with to get an understanding of what is involved in the world of forensics.
For those of us who have done crime scene investigation, there are several sections where you will find yourself laughing, nodding your head with the familiarity of what she is describing, and you may experience a little deja vu!
Either way, this book is a winner.
Witty, Informative, and Eye-Opening.......2007-05-12
With both a sharp wit and a sharp tongue, Kollmann's descriptive and creative writing brings to life the dead and dismembered in a way that keeps you interested and wanting to know more. It's appropriate here when they say that the truth is stranger than fiction; she speaks of a line of work so glamorized by Hollywood that the scenes in her book are refreshingly plain and gruesome, laughable and gut-wrenching; for those truly interested in the work and science behind CSI, her details and her comparative analysis of the real world vs. that of Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom is educational and humbling.
I do wish there was more of her personal timeline in the field. She jumps around a bit but, given the book is not meant to be a biography, it is simply a personal desire to read more about her long, strange trip.
All in all, this is a fabulous book that delivers exactly what the title promises. I hope to see more like this from Kollmann on CSI, archaeological digs, and other forensic adventures.
Customer Reviews:
Super Reader.......2007-08-01
Dead Man's Hand is set at the same time as the events of Ace In the Hole, during the 1988 Democratic National Convetion.
Chrysalis, a club owner and information broker, has been murdered. She also happened to be a joker with invisible skin.
One time lover Yeoman sets out to find the killer, and so does Jay 'Popinjay' Ackroyd, a classic rumpled private investigator, who also happens to be an ace with teleportation powers.
It is a twisting, turning ride to finally get to the murderer.
A thrilling ride.......2000-11-20
Wild Cards 7, written by George R. R. Martin and John J. Miller is one of the best Wild Cards books so far. Eventhough I don't generally like the mosaic novels, this is a prime example on how it should be done.
It's possible that it is so succesful because there are only two writers, which clearly helps the pace. And ofcourse, the fact that half the book is written by my favorite writer George R. R. Martin, speaks for itself.
Dead Man's Hand is a 'parallel novel' to Wild Cards VI: Ace in the Hole. It follows a plotline that was mentioned in WC6, but not exploared - Chrysalis's murder, and the attempts by Martin's Jay 'Popinjay' Acroyd and Miller's 'Yeoman' Brennan to find the killer.
Popinjay, previously meerely a secondary character, proves to be a classic Martin hero - witty, clever and seemingly superficial, there is more to him than meets the eye, although that is only revealed slowly. I must admit I was disappointed that we won't see the Turtle in this story, but Jay was a suitable compensation.
Yeoman was a different story. Although I have allways liked him, his new love affair with Jennifer 'Wraith' Maloy, is not only unlikely but uninteresting, unlike his past relation with Chrysalis. Now Brennan is little but your average action hero running aroung beating people up and delivering one liners.
As a mystery, the novel works rather well. Certainly the identity of the killer is unexpected. On the other hand, the authors don't quite let you feel this is a Mystery novel - you're too focused on the action/thrilelr plots resolving the story of T-Malice, the master that enslaved so many Wild Cards characters, and the Shadow Fist gang - who try to benefit from Chrysalis's murder.
One of the things I liked best about this novel was the focus on jokers. Although the heros are an ace and a nat, there are more Jokers active in this Wild Cards novel than in any other, many of them showing strength and courage. The Wild Cards series tends to focus on Aces, but I personnaly like the Jokers at least as much, and quite possibly more. The dark side of the Virus, so to speak, can be more fascinating than the more obvious Superhero stuff.
Overall Dead Man's Hand is a thrilling ride, filled with action, advanture, cool ideas, and an extremely powerful climax, in which there is a confrontation between several major characters. The confrontation at the end is one of the Wild Cards' strongest moments, and this novel certainly holds up there with DOWN AND DIRTY, as the best of the Wild Cards so far.
Book Description
He's Baaaack! Captain Jack Sparrow is once again setting sail on an adventure cloaked in mystery and intrigue. All kids’ favorite characters are back and thrust together for confrontations with sea monsters, cannibals, ghost pirates, and a gypsy queen! Features page after page of activities!
Customer Reviews:
Difficult to color.......2007-07-08
The images in this book were difficult to color - colored pencils didn't work on the paper, and crayons were too large to stay within the lines.
Jack Sparrow Coloring Book.......2006-11-07
Bought as a gift for my nephew who is a huge Jack Sparrow fan. He hasn't actually seen it, but I'm sure he will love it. Lots of pages to color as well as games and other activities.
Search for Jack Sparrow (Coloring Book).......2006-08-18
My daughter loves the Pirates of the Caribbean and Orlando Bloom. She was so excited when she got the coloring book. My plans are to take one of the pages with Orlando and get a friend of mine to put it on a birthday cake for her.
Pirates activity and coloring book.......2006-07-25
I purchased this for my 6 year old son, who is crazy about Pirates of the Caribbean. I thought it was more of a coloring book with a few activity pages. It is a little hard for him. When he wants to do the activities, I have to help him with it. It is mostly activity pages that you can color. Overall, he likes it, but I think it is more for an 8 year old.
Book Description
//WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE/
The Internet...a world without rules, without boundaries. Where you can be anyone you want, whoever you aren't.
And it's all just a click away....
Nick Annunciato wants to impress his new girlfriend's father. So when he flies to Key West with his own father, who's a cookbook author and chef, and his stepsister, Annie, to attend a local food festival, he places an notice on the Internet: "I'm in Key West looking for the obvious contraband."
Nick does get a response. But what he doesn't realize is that he has unwittingly thrown himself and Annie into a dangerous swirl of murder, mayhem, and Cuban cigars. Who is the dead man missing a hand? Can Nick and Annie find the killer before he cooks up more trouble? Will this adventure be their last?
Different people in different places. The one thing they have in common is a new address on the Internet: danger.com. Where all your fears come true.
Customer Reviews:
So suspenseful, you won't want to stop!.......2004-11-08
Danger.com / Dead Man's Hand by Jordan Cray was a great fiction book for kids and adults of all ages. I really enjoyed the book because I never wanted to put it down. The suspense made it so interesting and you never knew what was going to happen next. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to read a good suspenseful story. A couple of reasons why I liked this book was because you got to know the main character Nick Annunciato very well and it almost felt like he was someone you knew, because the author gives such detail in what he does. Also, the suspense is a key factor into why I picked out this book, I always like to have a reason to keep reading a story, and this book you will never want to stop! I also read Danger.com / Shiver and they all were about someone on the internet, I found them very interesting also!
The book that had supense!.......2001-04-25
I loved this book so much because it never let you dry for suspense. I was always wanting to read more and more. I couldn't stop. This book had a fantastic main charcters that seemed like I could meet them down the street. I love these books and I have already read a couple of the "Danger.com". Each story almost seemed to almost happen on the internet. The charters in this book made a mistake to tell online that he wanted illegal cigars. This is why it left me in suspense because I never knew what was going to happen to them.
Danger.NET.......1999-07-18
This was a sequal to Shadow man. This is a MUST have if you have read that one. It takes you on differnt twists and turns, but it always leads you back one way or another. If you like the internet, you'll love this!
Customer Reviews:
Entertaining.......2006-07-25
I am a big fan of Deadlands (the RPG), and so I was looking forward quite a bit for this book once I discovered it. I have two stories left to read - which means I have about 30 pages left in the book (roughly 290 pages read of 320 pages total).
A word on the stories thus far...
1. Hell Come Sundown - it's a bounty hunter-esque old west ranger story... Weird West style, of course. Without trying to ruin anything, it is a very good story and a good twist on a couple classic horror genres. i really enjoyed this one.
2. Lynch - something along the lines of a Weird West Frankenstein, this one had me hooked from the get-go. Great stuff.
3. Walking Wolf - this story had the most potential of the three main stories (which are Walking Wolf, Lynch, and Hell Come Sundown). However, i found it to be more of a commentary on the whites' crimes against Native Americans in the 19th century. It was an entertaining tale - what can go wrong with werewolves - but there is quite a bit to wade through to get to the meat of the story. It follows the same basic formula as Lynch to some degree (wronged man seeks revenge), but it is composed of so much historical information and commentary that you almost begin to wonder if you are reading propaganda or fiction. Nonetheless, i did really enjoy this story. The tale also includes an interesting view of a werewolf society that moved into the Wild West much for the same reason the average Joe did.
Overall, though i have two very short stories to finish and can only comment on the main stories in the book, i am glad i bought this book. It captures a good feel of the "Weird West" which is a genre that I think is greatly under-utilized. That said, the stories use fairly common formulas - in general, protagonist is wronged, usually horribly, and he seeks revenge. Toss with supernatural and undead, and voila, you have Dead Man's Hand. However, that should not discourage the potential buyer - if you like Weird West, then chances are you will enjoy this book. Quite honestly, i couldn't put it down - however, i do think it is due more to my love of the genre than my love for the writing.
Which brings me to the writing - Collins does possess (at least if this book is any indication) a fabulous writing style. Her wording is not repetitive or overly descriptive - yet, at the same time, it is rich and engaging. If i were more into pure vampire books, i'd probably check out her Sonja Blue (i think that's what it is called?) stories - but i'm not into that stuff. i do prefer Weird West, and she delivers here magnificently.
Judge this book by the cover, you'll not be disappointed!.......2004-12-21
After reading a number of science-fiction and adventure-action books, I was in the mood to read something different, but I didn't know what type of book to read. I was browsing through the book store one day, and there was this dark cover on a book with interesting art work that caught my eye. From the looks of the cover, it appeared the book was a western; I was never big on western motifs, but like I mentioned, I was in the mood for something different. Remember when we were told as children to not judge a book by its cover? Well, I was glad to judge this book by its cover; because if I didn't pick this book up, I would have missed out on a series of short stories that were very entertaining to read! If you are in the mood for a western that is a little on the dark side, then look no further!
A Word From The Author.......2004-10-07
I hope those of you reading this review will forgive my giving my own work a 5 star rating. But I am very pleased with how this collection of Weird Western tales turned out. The cover art is striking--assuming it's ever posted so you can see it online. Also, the interior design is quite innovative, with the corners of the pages made to look like those of the poker cards that comprised Wild Bill Hickock's last hand.
My fondness for DEAD MAN'S HAND is also due to the fact that the stories collected within its covers were so much fun to write. Included are two previously published novellas, WALKING WOLF (about a European werewolf raised by American Indians), and LYNCH (a story of a gunslinger resurrected from the dead by a former student of Dr. Frankenstein), as well as two previously published short stories, "The Tortuga Hill Gang's Last Ride" (about a gang of outlaws who pick up a rather unusual companion-in-crime) and "Calaverada" (weird doings on the Mexican Day of the Dead).
There is also a brand new novella called HELL COME SUNDOWN, about a Texas Ranger who tracks down the vampire who destroyed his world. There is also an introduction by my good buddy JOE R. LANSDALE, who says a lot nice thinsg about. Some of which might actually be true.
So, if you like my stuff--or you enjoy weird tales of the Old West, or simply like stories that are one step outside the Usual, then you'll enjoy DEAD MAN'S HAND.
Product Description
Michael Corso, an unorthodox attorney, is at a crossroads in his life when he takes on the most baffling case of his career. A doctor has been accused of killing a member of his practice although two other members of the practice vouch for their friend's innocence. Are they simply covering up for a colleague or is there a more terrifying aspect to this mysterious partnership? To uncover the truth, Michael will have to put his career on the line, rely on the help of an unlikely cardshark...and risk the life of the one person he adores.
Customer Reviews:
It wasn't THAT bad........2006-11-12
Sure, there were a lot of different stories going on at once to help develope the characters, but I think the auther did it in a way that it wasn't extremely confusing (which it could have easily been had he not been careful). For the most part the deaths were interesting and depicted well and there was enough to keep me turning the page.
Not bad, but tons of character development.......2005-12-21
So all these people end up in Las Vegas after going through bits and pieces of their lives in excrutiating detail... (thats the first 200 pages unfortunately).
Then the casino/showgirls tower in Las Vegas holds this glass elevator, one that leads to the dining room. One where all these people tend to interact and then WOOSH! The elevator collides and the details are grotesque and fun. But then more crap happens and it seems that the survivors are dying in Las Vegas, and you can't beat Death anywhere!
This book was a nice read, considering it was the First of the five (6 now unreleased) that I own and all the books don't relate to each other and are all by different authors if you have to order it like I did. This story is good, but when you read any of the other books (like the AMAZING: Looks Could Kill), this falls out of place.
The shower in the hotel room when dude was getting Chinese food was awesomly creative. The whole guy with the Asian giving 'suck sucky' and getting his naughty bits smashed was a little far though, but it adds to the series nonetheless and all these books should be treasured!
*Note The cover of this book actually has a chick in a red dress screaming and the elevator in the background and Las Vegas surrounding it. IDK why they change covers, maybe there are two different releases. But the cover on Looks Could Kill actually is purple with a model wearing a white mask and a shadow of a man in the background making the cover a lot cooler than advertised on AMAZON!
Final Destination: Dead Man's Hand.......2005-11-19
As a fan of the Final Destination film series, I have been reading the books, looking for something to hold me off until the third movie comes out in a few months. "Dead Man's Hand," the fourth book released, is by far the worst. At a little over 400 pages, the book takes 200 pages until the main accident occurs. The author of the book devotes the first half to establishing and developing his characters. Now, I have no problem with character development; it allows the reader to feel something when Death comes calling. However, the author wastes too much time giving mundane details about the characters, and then repeating them over and over so that the reader actually ends up thinking that the author is setting up something for later. How many times do we need to hear the main character enjoys sex? Do we really care that her boyfriend is a Star Trek fan, and obsesses about his girlfriend dressing up as one of the characters? Does telling the reader what each character had for dinner have anything to do with the story?
With all the time his spends describing the characters up until the accident, one would think that the author would devote the same attention to the death scenes that have made the Final Destination series famous. But no; instead of carefully setting up each death scene with little hints and twists as each of the previous films and novels have done, the author just kills his characters out of nowhere. The second half of the book has more pages devoted to police and FBI agents yelling at the characters than the kills. The one time that there are clues to a death scene, there are so many that the reader is beaten over the head with them, making it painfully obvious what's about to happen. And as farfetched as some of the deaths in the movies and other books are, at least they had some creativity behind them.
And then there's the unnecessary and somewhat offensive numerous references to the events of September 11th, terrorism, and AIDS. By the way, does a book like this really need any criticism on the state of the US government?
The Final Destination books are by no means incredible works of literature, but at least they have creative deaths and some neat twists and surprises. The author of this book ruins what could have been a fun and quick read with 200 pages of boring and gratuitous character development, unimaginative deaths, and unneeded political commentary. Skip "Dead Man's Hand," and read the other books, or just watch the movies again
Average customer rating:
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Diamondback 05: Dead Man's Hand (Diamondback)
Guy Brewer
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Westerns
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0515128880
Release Date: 2000-08-01 |
Book Description
After defending a woman's honor, Dex's friend ends up behind bars. And Dex must play all his cards close to the vest to save his friend-when the stakes are raised to life or death.
5th in the exciting action series
Average customer rating:
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DEAD MAN'S HAND
Manufacturer: Necessary Evil Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H42U4I |
Book Description
Captain Jack Sparrow has a problem. If he doesn’t settle a blood debt to the legendary Davy Jones, ruler of the ocean depths, he will be forced to live an afterlife of eternal servitude and damnation. Add to the mix a pirate hunter intent on destroying every last Pirate of the Caribbean, and the result is another rowdy and awesome adventure.
Books:
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- Off the King's Road: Lost and Found in London
- On a Pale Horse (Incarnations of Immortality, Bk. 1)
- On Call: A Doctor's Days and Nights in Residency
- Peter and the Shadow Thieves
- Physik (Septimus Heap, Book 3)
- Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types
- Power at Sea: The Age of Navalism, 1890-1918
- Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 Tutorial and MultiMedia CD
- Pruning Made Easy: A gardener's visual guide to when and how to prune everything, from flowers to trees (Storey's Gardening Skills Illustrated)
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