Book Description
"[MORSE IS] THE MOST PRICKLY, CONCEITED, AND GENUINELY BRILLIANT DETECTIVE SINCE HERCULE POIROT."
--The New York Times Book Review
This time Inspector Morse brings the imposition on himself. He could have been vacationing in Greece instead of investigating a murder that the police have long since written off. But he finds the crime--the brutal killing of a suburban churchwarden--fascinating. In fact, he uncovers not one murder but two, for the fatal fall of St. Frideswides vicar from the church tower Morse reckons to be murder as well. And as he digs into the lives and unsanctified lusts of the late vicar's erring flock, the list of the dead grows longer. Not even the oddly appealing woman he finds scrubbing the church floor can compensate Morse for the trouble he's let himself in for. So he has another pint, follows his hunches, and sets out to untangle the deadly business of homicide. . . .
"A BRILLIANTLY PLOTTED DETECTIVE STORY."
--Evening Standard (London)
"WILY. . . ELEGANT."
--Observer (London)
Customer Reviews:
Oldie but goody.......2007-07-06
Came across the audio version at the library and listened in the car. It was fun hearing Kevin Whately, the narrator, competently do his own Sgt. Lewis and Inspector Morse. Service/Dead is a complicated mystery, one that highlights the likelihood that some crimes require more than basic investigative skills. Morse's intuition is what makes him an intriguing detective, though sometimes his irascibility is hard to take. If only he'd show some appreciation to Lewis, a dedicated cop if ever there was one, though one lacking Morse's innate talents. This is one of Dexter's more complicated cases, but step by step the solution becomes clear He is certainly a skilled writer, more literate than most in the genre. Always satisfying.
A Brilliant Take on a Conspiracy Murder(s).......2004-09-30
This is probably one of the best books that I've read anywhere that touches on the subject of a conspiracy murder. The plot is complex and convoluted, and absolutely brilliantly written. In this book Morse decides to pursue an unsolved mystery that is really out of his jurisdiction simply because he happened to stumble across it while on holiday. It fascinates him from the very beginning, and soon there is not just one body that turns up, but a number of bodies, all killed at various times. Morse knows they're connected, and he has to use his extreme intelligence to connect the crimes and determine who the murderer is. He does get there in the end, but in true Morse fashion, with quite a few missteps along the way. Wonderful book!
Underrated.......2004-02-11
I don't see why this book gets so mediocre reviews?
It's certainly better then "Last bus..."
But I admit, maybe I'm being unfair; I did read this book in my mother-language (as appose to the others read in English) But even so, I got a different experience from this book, it wasn't as... routine and pattern-like, as some of the books are. This book was a bit (!) different, more action-packed, and touching
Together with "Way through the woods" it's the best book by Dexter (In my opinion).
An excellent mystery!.......2002-01-24
This was my first trip into the world of Inspector Morse, and I am happy to say that it was well worth it. I can see how Morse has become one of the most beloved crime solvers in the genre.
There are plenty of plot twists and several suspects in this case, and you need to pay attention. But Dexter is a fine writer and although you may sometimes feel puzzled, you are never confused. The story moves along at a perfect pace and is brought skillfully to a satisfying conclusion.
It was a wonderful mystery novel and I am looking forward to reading about the further exploits of Inspector Morse.
Not the Worst Dexter.......2001-07-20
...but not the best. Last Bus To Woodstock is the best Morse novel, and the later ones pale in comparison. I liked this, especially better than The Secret of Annex 3, but it still doesn't have all the twists and turns of the first.
To sum up, if you've read the first, then go for this one; it won't disappoint. If you've read all but this and the last novel, by all means read this one, you'll still be content. But if you're a looking for a new mystery novelist, go for Last Bus To Woodstock.
Book Description
Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is an unsettling, profound look at the human face of health care. Both disturbing and illuminating, it immerses readers in the lives of four generations of a poor, African-American family beset with the devastating illnesses that are all too common in America's inner-cities.
The story takes place in North Lawndale, a neighborhood that lies in the shadows of Chicago's Loop. Although surrounded by some of the city's finest medical facilities, North Lawndale is one of the sickest, most medically underserved communities in the country. Headed by Jackie Banes, who oversees the care of a diabetic grandmother, a husband on kidney dialysis, an ailing father, and three children, the Banes family contends with countless medical crises. From visits to emergency rooms and dialysis units, to trials with home care, to struggles for Medicaid eligibility, Abraham chronicles their access (or lack of access) to medical care.
Told sympathetically but without sentimentality, their story reveals an inadequate health care system that is further undermined by the direct and indirect effects of poverty. When people are poor, they become sick easily. When people are sick, their families quickly become poorer.
Embedded in the family narrative is a lucid analysis of the gaps, inconsistencies, and inequalities the poor face when they seek health care. This book reveals what health care policies crafted in Washington, D. C. or state capitals look like when they hit the street. It shows how Medicaid and Medicare work and don't work, the Catch-22s of hospital financing in the inner city, the racial politics of organ transplants, the failure of childhood immunization programs, the vexed issues of individual responsibility and institutional paternalism. One observer puts it this way: "Show me the poor woman who finds a way to get everything she's entitled to in the system, and I'll show you a woman who could run General Motors."
Abraham deftly weaves these themes together to make a persuasive case for health care reform while unflinchingly presenting the complexities that will make true reform as difficult as it is necessary. Mama Might Be Better Off Dead is a book with the power to change the way health care is understood in America. For those seeking to learn what our current system of health care promises and what it delivers, it offers a place for the debate to begin.
Customer Reviews:
Puleese!!!!!!.......2007-09-04
This left wing, socalist bent author wants to shame the government for not providing cradle to grave management of people's lives; maybe if the author focused on this nation's irresponsible people, who go through life thinking you can abuse your body then get Washington to pay your medical and nursing home bills..... sick book, sick thinking,
If your poor and sick, you may as weel be deead.......2007-09-04
I was required to read this book for a Social Problems Analysis class. Before, I had never thought about the major problems with our health system. Unlike a reviwer before me, I don't see her as being biased. If you have ever lived in a poor urban neighborhood, then you would know, Abraham is correct. People who live in poverty, often have no access to better health care, so they take what they can get. It is easy to say these people should take responsible for their health care if you have never been in this situation. Abraham did a wonderful job staying objective, even at times, when I don't know if I could have. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has questions about how the medical system works in poor areas.
Great book.......2006-11-06
If you're interested in health care in America, Medicare, Medicaid, Chicago, poverty, and health care disparities read this book. Great investigative journalism style.
Great read for a future doc.......2006-02-09
I was required to read this in medical school. This is a great book. It is leaning to the side of socialism, but it is certainly addressing a real problem in America. This book has been out for a while. I am wondering why in the world politicians and businessmen invovled in healthcare are not required to read this book. They should. I think it's good enough to qualify for 12th grade mandatory reading.
Eye-opening read, but very left-wing.......2002-12-17
Mama was required reading for a graduate-level nursing course. It was very enlightening -- a poignant and heartbreaking look at a poor African-American family living in one of Chicago's worst neighborhoods. However, I found the author's style and choice of words biased towards the subjects and exceptionally left-wing. Not that these things really don't happen, but the author's descriptive language is heavily biased against the "system" while downplaying the flip side of the coin, that people need to take some individual responsibility for their actions. Abraham does her best (one would hope) to remain objective, but it is most definitely a narrative and should be treated as such. Still, definitely worth the read.
Customer Reviews:
Great Omnibus.......2002-05-13
Inspector Morse is just one of my most favorite British murder mystery hero! If one is at all interested in Colin Dexter's mysteries, this omnibus (there are several other too) is a great way to get the best stories. One of my favorite being "Silent World of Nicholas Quinn".
Warning! Mistitled.......2000-07-21
Please note: this "first omnibus" is *not* made up of the first three Morse novels. Last Bus to Woodstock was his first book (1975), and these are '77, '79, and '81. Confusing.... (ignore the star rating, please)
Book Description
In this breathtaking sequel to Dead I Well May Be, which The Philadelphia Inquirer called "the most captivating crime novel" of the year, mercenary bad boy Michael Forsythe is forced to infiltrate an Irish terrorist cell on behalf of the FBI, and thus confront murder, mayhem, and the prospect of his own execution.
With the same poetic lilt and heart-stopping suspense that made Dead I Well May Be a critical favorite, the saga continues with The Dead Yard -- a thriller in which Michael Forsythe must insinuate himself into the good graces of a band of calculating political terrorists.
As the novel opens, he's on vacation in Spain, but when a soccer riot between Irish and English fans escalates out of control, Michael is suddenly arrested and thrown into a Spanish prison. Enter Samantha, a British intelligence agent as cunning as she is voluptuous. She makes Michael an offer he cannot refuse: instead of being extradited to Mexico to serve time for a prison break, he can help her by infiltrating an IRA sleeper cell in the United States, and she'll see to it that the Spaniards and Mexicans forget all about him. Filled with apprehension about the dangers of the assignment, Michael reluctantly agrees. Within hours he is flown to New York City and thrust into the nightmare world of men known for their distinctive brands of torture and revenge. Michael crosses and double-crosses key players, escapes his own lies by a hairsbreadth, loses his only ally, and falls for the daughter of his enemy -- a most inadvisable development.
Boasting spot-on dialogue, crackling wit, and one of the most memorable heroes in all of crime fiction, Adrian McKinty's dazzling new novel confirms his reputation as a brilliant storyteller and writer on the rise.
Download Description
In this breathtaking sequel to Dead I Well May Be, which The Philadelphia Inquirer called "the most captivating crime novel" of the year, mercenary bad boy Michael Forsythe is forced to infiltrate an Irish terrorist cell on behalf of the FBI, and thus confront murder, mayhem, and the prospect of his own execution. With the same poetic lilt and heart-stopping suspense that made Dead I Well May Be a critical favorite, the saga continues with The Dead Yard -- a thriller in which Michael Forsythe must insinuate himself into the good graces of a band of calculating political terrorists. Boasting spot-on dialogue, crackling wit, and one of the most memorable heroes in all of crime fiction, Adrian McKinty's dazzling new novel confirms his reputation as a brilliant storyteller and writer on the rise.
Customer Reviews:
Uneven.......2007-08-02
This is a tough hard boiled thriller, until a woman is involved. And then our hero gets stupid. The author needs to make a commitment. A hero who is smart, tough and capable, or a wuss.
A gem from start to finish.......2007-05-31
Michael Forsythe, who first appears in Adrian McKinty's stunning debut, "Dead I Well May Be" returns in this sequel. If you have read "Dead I Well May Be", this book sets five years afterwards ...
Being jailed in Spain following a football riot between the Brits and Irish fans, 25-years-old Michael is approached by the British intelligent to infiltrate an IRA sleeper cell in Boston. "Trapped" between this offer and a threat of going back to jail in Mexico, Michael agrees to do it.
I read both "Dead I Well May Be" and "Hidden River" before I jumped into this one. So, in a way, I have been acquainted with Adrian McKinty's style -- of him giving few pointers of what will come to Michael's journey. But still, as you read through the pages, you cannot stop it. You want to savor the whole pages, especially during the second part of the book. The way McKinty writes is amazing, you can't really stop until the final page. His words are poetical, lyrical, even if it to describe violent acts. A great book indeed.
Even better than the first one. . ........2007-05-15
and that is no mean feat.
Here's why this one is, in my opinion, even more impressive than the first novel in this series ("Dead I Well May Be"):
1) The plot movement seems smoother (although there wasn't anything dramatically wrong with the first one; it's just that this one didn't sometimes lead to me going back and re-reading in order to make sure I knew where Forsythe was at certain points in the narrative);
2) The narrator's habit of teasing us with little clues to what the future holds also seems smoother, I think because perhaps he does it less and with a bit less detail so that we're more taken aback by the outcomes of some of his experiences;
3) The narrator remains largely consistent; he definitely changes as most human beings do, but the core of who he is remains consistent, and it's easier (at least for me) to understand who he is, what his motivations are, etc.; and
4) This second novel in the series doesn't have as much of the "in my head" stuff as the first one, where Forsythe needed to live in his head in order to survive the hellish Mexican prison into which he'd been tossed as the result of a betrayal within the ranks of his circle of bad guys.
In this one, Forsythe is "asked" to infiltrate a small terrorist cell, in exchange for which he will basically get his legal/criminal slate wiped clean so that he doesn't have to worry about the Mexican authorities coming after him. He agrees to the deal, basically because he wants that slate wiped clean and because he has little choice: he'll be turned over to the Mexican authorities if he declines the offer to assist MI6 by infiltrating the cell.
In the course of what is a really short period of time, Forsythe falls for a female with his usual crappy judgment, manages to wreak havoc wherever he goes, and basically proves once more that, regardless of how appealing he may be with his intelligence and droll wit, he is a man who brings violence to almost any situation and is becoming alarmingly comfortable with that aspect of who he is.
Enjoy this one; it's a great read. I could not put it down, and in fact I went straight on to Bloomsday Dead, so now I have no McKinty Forsythes to read. Dang it.
SOMETIMES TERRIFYING, ALWAYS COMPELLING TALE SUPERBLY READ.......2006-12-21
Gerard Doyle, a seasoned actor who has toured with the English Shakespeare Company and appeared on Broadway and London's West End, gives a compelling reading to this sometimes terrifying always compelling tale of the IRA. His trained voice with a hint of Brit to it perfectly suits protagonist Michael Forsythe.
In this sequel to McKinty's stellar debut "Dead Well May Be," Forsythe is at last enjoying a much needed vacation in Spain. As luck would have it he finds himself caught in the middle of football riots and is quickly put behind bars. In addition there are now some mighty tough laws regarding involvement in such a fracas, and he may find himself shipped off to Mexico to do time.
However, there is one way to avoid a prison sentence - he's approached by British Intelligence agent Samantha with a proposition. Will he infiltrate an IRA sleeper cell in the U.S.? At the time it seems an easy choice, and an easy out of a Mexican jail. Little did Forsythe know the violence and terror that would ensue.
"The Dead Yard" is the apogee of crime writing and listening. It's intelligent, tense, and fast-paced. Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
Irish Dirty Harry Undercover.......2006-11-15
Showing a better sense of characterization and pace than in his previous novels, Adrian McKinty has spun a violent tale of lust and terrorism in The Dead Yard. Our protagonist is Michael Forsythe, a.k.a Sean McKenna--he's been arm-twisted by MI-6 and the FBI into infiltrating a deadly IRA splinter group in Boston. To do so, he must befriend the blue-eyed daughter of the group's leader. What follows is a quick and entertaining read where justice is served Dirty Harry style.
There are a few distractions, however. One is the unrealistic and somewhat cliched presentation of Kit and McKenna's handler, Samantha. The women in this novel are subservient and awed by the men around them; they are sexy and drawn to the alpha males that abound in this thriller. A "touch" more realism would have been welcome--after all, this isn't the 1950s. The writing is acceptable, and it seldom detracts from an otherwise thoughtful first-person narration. McKinty surely was thinking of Hollywood when he wrote the script, but this isn't too bald as to be disappointing.
The violence is not overdone, and it seems like the true actions that dedicated IRA types would employ to achieve their goals. McKenna's actions in response are therefore believable as well. As in many books of this type, reality must be suspended so our hero can survive the unsurvivable treatment of his enemies. But by the time this minor issue surfaces, we're in the throes of the plot and couldn't care less. This is an assured novel from an accoladed young writer, and The Dead Yard is fun escapist fiction for someone who enjoys James Bond and Dirty Harry.
Book Description
Athens, 1913, is the capital of a country on the brink of war. The new prime minister, Venizelos, is tired of the Ottoman overlords, and has what he calls the Great Idea — a vision of a new Greece which unites all the Greek people scattered around the Mediterranean.
But this is not such a great idea, in view of other countries, like Britain, which believes in letting sleeping dogs lie. And cats. This includes the one recently poisoned in Salonica and belonged to the exiled former Sultan. Unfortunately, as is the way with the Balkans, rumors start flying around; one being that this was a sighting shot for the ex-Sultan himself. This, in the Balkans, could start a war, so Britain has to sit up and take notice.
Something has to be done fast. And, the diplomats have to be urged to be low-key. The lowest key of all is to send out a police officer from Scotland Yard to investigate, and, as it happens, the Foreign Office has a person in mind: Seymour, of the CID, who has had some experience of this sort of thing before.
Customer Reviews:
Well writtten entertaining historical mystery.......2006-11-10
Michael Pearce's latest comedy of manners mystery reads as if he is channeling Compton Mackenzie's entertaining spy mysteries set in the Med during WWI. Recommended for anyone who enjoys learning some history while being enterained
Average customer rating:
- 4 1/2 Stars - Big Recommendation for Charlie Muffin
- Complex and convincing
- Probably the Most Complex Novel in the Charlie Muffin Series
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Dead Men Living
Brian Freemantle
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
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ASIN: 0312243790 |
Amazon.com
Dead Men Living marks the return of Charlie Muffin (you've got to love an ex-spy with a name like that) to the minefield of diplomatic negotiations between England and Russia. It's a territory that, even with the end of the cold war, remains tortuously difficult to transverse. The need to step carefully is equally apparent in Charlie's personal life: newly reunited with Natalia, the ex-KGB agent (and mother of their 5-year-old daughter) who years ago managed Charlie's false defection, he's finding it more difficult than ever to draw need-to-know lines between work and family.
It's a decision that gets no easier when the thawing Siberian tundra reveals a World War II grave with an American soldier, a British soldier, and a Russian woman, stripped of all identifying marks. Charlie, Natalia (now in the Interior Ministry), and American agent Miriam Bell step warily into a dance of discovery, only to find that powerful, faceless persons are calling the steps. What were the Allied soldiers doing near Gulag 98, one of Stalin's most infamous prison camps? What decades-old secret could be so important that England, America, and Russia seem to be working overtime to keep it under wraps? Charlie's investigative journey into the past will take him into a world of looted Nazi art, terrified Russian exiles, and diplomatic wrangling.
Brian Freemantle (Little Grey Mice, Comrade Charlie) does a neat job of sketching the interdepartmental turmoil that informs a new era of international cooperation. With the roles of good guy and bad guy--so familiar, so comforting--in constant flux, it's everyone for him- or herself. He's not as adept as le Carré (but who is?) at unraveling the mysteriously tangled threads of espionage--too often, the reader is simply told that Charlie has "figured something out," and the villains in the matter are duller than they have any right to be. But Freemantle's observations are generally adept and well phrased: "Charlie had never liked being a part of diplomatic house-tidying; the dirt always had the habit of bulging the carpet under which it was swept." As Muffins go, Freemantle has served up a pretty tasty text. --Kelly Flynn
Book Description
In Siberia, a sudden thaw uncovers two fifty-year-old murder victims as well as a host of disturbing questions. Since each is dressed in the uniform of a WWII Allied officer, Russian authorities decide to invite agents from England and the United States to join in a collaborative effort to discover the truth behind the murders. Charlie Muffin, the British operative, is having enough problems without traveling to the hell-on-earth that is Siberia, but once there he begins to suspect that this might be just his sort of case.His phones are tapped, his own government seems to be against him, and his fellow agents are as uncooperative as the corpses they're investigating.When Charlie finally identifies the bodies, he finds he's unearthed a secret that all three governments will kill to put back in the ground--even if he has to go there with it.Dead Men Living is the much-anticipated next thriller in Brian Freemantle's acclaimed Charlie Muffin series, and as his fans and critics will agree, it's his best yet.
Customer Reviews:
4 1/2 Stars - Big Recommendation for Charlie Muffin.......2002-01-14
An unxpected thaw in Siberia uncovers two WWII murder victims with a lot more questions than answers. The victims are wearing American & British uniforms so Russian authorities invite England and the US to join in a joint effort to solve the mystery. Charlie Muffin, the British representative, doesn't want to go, but after getting there the investigative juices take over and he starts enjoying the battle of wits in which he can't trust anyone including the British government much less the CIA who have wanted his scalp since the first great book in this series and a fine TV segment with the delightful David Hemmings in the title role. When Charlie does identify the bodies, he finds he's even more vulnerable and exposed and has to lead the other parties down the garden path so that enough of the truth can be exposed without increasing the danger to him and his lover, a high person in the current Russian spy organization that we've met in previous books.
While this book is complex, it's representative of the current state of espionage in which the good guys and bad guys aren't as easily identified as in the Cold War. Those who were bad guys yesterday can be the good guys today. It's often every man (or woman) for themselves.
The book seemed a tad long but each new devlopment added another useful piece to the puzzle. If you like novels in which the mystery is more who is going to outsmart the other rather than whodunnit, this is for you. Freemantle is a master at developing situations in which one survives or dies by their wits, ability to recognize clues you hope your "allies" don't see and how to anticipate where the attacks will come (from enemies and allies alike).
Charlie Muffin is one of the most clever (if not the most) series protagonists in the Crime/Spy genre. You can't breeze through this book, you need to pay attention all along so you don't miss the nuggets Charlie mines. Freemantle doesn't hit you over the head with clues, you have to work at it, and for me that greatly increases the pleasure from this terrific series.
I wish the next sequel would come sooner than this one did. Incidentally, I haven't enjoyed other books by this author nearly as much as the ones with Charlie Muffin.
Complex and convincing.......2000-09-17
Charlie Muffin gets by by not getting noticed. He can't do that when he's roped into solving an ancient World War II mystery--a British and American officer are found dead in the Russian gulag. Worse, someone is trying to keep their story as buried as their bodies were. Author Brian Freemantle does a great job describing modern Russia and also characterizing the office politics that are the bane of Russian, American, and British existance. Could it be, though, that the women were a little stereotyped?
Probably the Most Complex Novel in the Charlie Muffin Series.......2000-07-02
Mr. Freemantle has brought readers a great deal of joy over the years with his series of novels centered around the rascal spy, Charlie Muffin, and he does not disappoint in "Dead Men Living". He is one of the few authors to carry forward the merciless surprise ending so wonderfully developed in the short stories of Saki (H.H. Munro). And here the author almost outdoes earlier Muffin novels in stacking the conspiracies and surprises literally on top of each other to the point that the the last surprise will leave the reader pondering over the pieces of the puzzle.
If I had but one criticism it is that the conspiracies occasionally are so complex that the Author seemingly felt obligated to foreshadow certain events, diluting some of the intended effect; but this is more than outweighed by the sheer enjoyment in watching Charlie think and work his magic. Brian Freemantle's earlier Muffin novels are highly recommended as well, but are occasionally hard to find: read this one; and if you enjoy it, then dig into the Series with the first Muffin novel, "Charlie M" (as published in the US). You will not be disappointed.
Book Description
MechWarrior Tara Campbell faces two ruthless enemies. Should she be defeated,Terra is sure to follow...
Customer Reviews:
Not enough depth.......2003-11-19
Overall, I loved the trilogy by Delrio. There were some impressive twists included in the books and I enjoyed seeing a trio of books devoted to the new Mechwarrior string.
My main concern, however, is that the depth of each plotline as well as each battle is not nearly sufficient. It could just be that this is the first Battletech-genre writing for Delrio. The fight sequences were over way too quick and had some unrealistic results that would be hard to duplicate in the actual gaming scenario.
I remember speaking with Stackpole about eight years back at a book signing and asked him why his battles were so accurate. He explained that he actually gamed them out and would rarely change the results of a battle. If a secondary character died, he wrote it into the story. The only time he would alter the results is if a main character integral to a plotline he was trying to write died.
Also, while Delrio has some seriously wicked twists in his plotlines, the amount of development to each twist just doesn't seem sufficient. The chase scenes in the book could have been drawn out and the possible swerves could have been built up for an even more impactful result.
Regardless, I am happy to see the franchise is back up and running. I understand that these books are the seeds for the depth and breadth of the upcoming epic books that will continue the new story.
Good conclusion for a good trilogy.......2003-11-10
Martin Delrio's Proving Ground trilogy does an excellent job at advancing the Mechwarrior Dark Age storyline. Not only does the story bring together some of the Unique and Limited Edition figures from the game, but it is interesting to boot. This novel, the conclusion of the trilogy finds Tara Campbell, Countess of Northwind and leader of the Northwind Highlanders, fighting to save Terra from the Steel Wolves, led by Anastasia Kerensky. Tara must deal with the rogue Paladin, Ezekiel Crow, an unbelieving Exarch, and the wily Kerensky. Paladin Jonah Levin of the Limited Edition Atlas figure fame is introduced as well.
I appreciated the fact that Delrio included some character depth in the form of some of the Higlanders infantry; the three seargents, Will, Jock, and Lexa, are a nice reprieve from the "powers that be" residing on high and making decisions that could affect the entire Republic. Ezekiel Crow's character also is well-developed, and his fate within the Republic seems to have taken a turn for the worse, but makes for a much more interesting read than a Paladin whose loyalty belongs solely to the Republic.
One thing that I would like to see is more development of One Eyed Jack and his mercenaries. We're getting hints of Bannson's game, but I'd like to see more direct focus on Jacob and his megalomanical schemes.
Overall, though, this is a very satisfying conclusion to Dark Age's first trilogy. Hopefully, the success of this trilogy will induce WizKids to allow more of them as storyline development seems to proceed better when the same author has a chance to really go into the details without other authors slipping in books between with sometimes unrelated material.
Looking forward to the next novel.
Book Description
Chicago high school teacher Tom Mason decides to fill up his free time by working as a volunteer at the local gay youth services center. Overall, it's a rewarding experience-with the exception of the un-pleasant director of services who is disliked by everyone. So it is more shock than sorrow that Tom feels when he pries open a sticky drawer of a filing cabinet and comes face to face with the very dead severed head of the director stored within. Repressing the urge to close the drawer and pretend he didn't see anything, Tom alerts the police only to find himself at the center of a murder investigation. Now Tom has a limited amount of time to find the real killer before he himself takes the fall for this very unusual crime.
Customer Reviews:
A great series.......2005-02-04
I love Zubro's writing style: fierce, real, absorbing. His books are refreshing and full of life. Does anyone know how to get in conact with him?
Does a severed head get filed under S or H? .......2004-08-20
In this landmark 10TH mystery in the "Tom & Scott Mystery" series, we join high school teacher Tom Mason, as he arrives early one Saturday morning to do some volunteer work at the local gay/lesbian teen counseling center. He decides to catch up on some filing in the office he shares, and opens a file cabinet drawer, finding a severed head. Being no stranger to having the misfortune to stumble upon a murder, Tom tries to work with the police to find the killer. The problem is that the victim was the unusually unpleasant and nasty manager of the center, and there is no shortage of people who were glad to see the end of the man referred to - by employees and volunteers alike - as "Snarly Bitch". Various pieces of circumstantial evidence seem to point to just about everyone, including Tom himself.
The number one suspect seems to be Lee Weaver, a young man working as a counselor who Tom first met as a gay teen who came to him for help while in school. Tom believes Lee is innocent, but evidence surfaces that suggests he may not have told him (or the police) the entire truth about his activities the night of the murder.
As usual, this Zubro mystery has a "message within the story" and this time it is a sobering commentary about the counterproductive politics and internal machinations of the gay teen counseling center and other factions within the gay community. Tom was aware of the staff and voluntter strife, and some grandstanding and feather-ruffling going on with its Board of Directors, but talking with most of the kids who go to the counseling center makes him aware of what huge impact this has had on them over the years.
Tom's baseball-player partner, Scott, is mostly absent (on the road with his team) during this installment in the series, which makes it different from most. Like the others, it is well-written and holds the reader's attention throughout. Perhaps partially because I previously volunteered for an organization similar to the one featured in the story, I was especially riveted to this story, which had an ending that took me completely by surprise.
File Under---Disappointed.......2004-08-01
One of the best things about summer is the anticipation of another of Mark Richard Zubro's fine novels of realistic gay living in Chicago, my favorite city on the planet---for bunches of reasons. In fact, I'm proud to have collected first editions of all of his works.
Zubro writes a double series of works, both different and satisfying: one is based on the team of Tom Mason (high school English teacher and all-around solid good-guy--so good, in fact, that the Chicago PD basically leaves him alone in his investigations) and his lover, the out-and-proud two-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher, Scott Carpenter; the other series is strictly blue-collar and completely absorbing, featuring Chicago Police Detective Paul Turner (a gay father of two sons) and his lover, extremely butch automechanic Ben.
Zubro's strengths as a writer include believable characters, a strong sense of
exciting amateur sleuth .......2004-07-28
Although he likes being a high school teacher and interacting with the students as a gay man Tom Mason feels the need to work with gay teens, who need an adult's help to guide them through their various trials and crises. He volunteers at the Oscar Wilde Gay Youth services advising the teens who are suicidal, afraid to come out, and how to deal with their parents. There's a lot of backbiting and infighting between the staff and the head of the clinic Charlie Fitch, the executive director.
Tom tries to stay away from the politics of the situation but when he opens his file cabinet and finds Charlie's severed head, he becomes a suspect in a murder investigation. Eventually, the police arrest counselor Lee Weaver because his fingerprints are on the murder weapon (an axe) and had a motive as Charlie fired him the night of the murder. Tom counseled Lee when he was teen and he does not believe Lee is the killer. He intends to prove it since he has access to the people involved but before he can find Charlie's killer he finds two more murder victims.
Mark Richard Zubro has written an exciting amateur sleuth novel but FILE UNDER DEAD is so much more than that. It is a story about teens who do not know how to go against the norm in turns of their sexuality and the counselors who talk the more troubled ones out of considering suicide, and help them accept the consequences if their parents find out and can't cope with the truth. This fine mystery has heart giving readers an insider's view of the problems facing gay teens.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor -- in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland.
They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators.
Dead in Attic freeze-frames New Orleans, caught between an old era and a new, during its most desperate time, as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life.
Customer Reviews:
A must read.......2007-10-07
Quite simply the best book about the aftermath of Katrina. Rose is a feature writer for the Times-Picayune, and this book is a reprint of the columns he wrote between August 30, 2005, and January, 2006. A must read.
Marvelous and heart-breaking.......2007-10-06
I grew up near New Orleans (Gulfport, Miss) and I read everything that has to do with Katrina -- this is the book I give to friends who want to know more about the events of that year (and continuing) -- for people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, New Orleans is the nearby "big town" -- we read the New Orleans paper, watch the New Orleans tv stations, grow up with the New Orleans commercials, go shopping in New Orleans -- so we feel like we're a part of that great city and we sort of are -- Chris Rose gets it right, as only someone knowledgeable and on the ground can -- with all the tragedy and the humor intact. I don't know how he emerged on the other side at all -- but I'm glad he did -- you can read his more recent columns online at nola.com -- and keep up with the continuing efforts to rebuild New Orleans.
1 Dead in Attic.......2007-10-05
Well written. Enjoyed reading first person report-- it made Katrina that was a VERY REAL part of our world in southwest Mississippi come to life again.
Glad my daughter and son-in-law, who had a home in Bay St. Louis, MS recommended the book. Their home was destroyed by Katrina..
Outstanding!.......2007-09-30
As I read this I got chills. The whole aftermath of the storm and it's imprint on the citizens of New Orleans is surreal. Reading Mr. Rose's accounts of day to day life in New Orleans after Katrina hit is mind blowing. It's hard to believe anyone in America should have had to live like this. Can you imaging waking up one day and having no job, no utilities, no mail service, etc? As he wrote about the refrigerators lined up on the streets, I could just picture the absurdity of it all. This is a must read for all Americans. Let's hope New Orleans recovers to once again be the most unique city in America. And but for the grace of God what happened to New Oleanians could happen to any one of us. Brilliant writing Mr. Rose!
1 Dead in Attic - the reality of post K New Orleans.......2007-09-27
I'm a NOLA native who used to read Chris Rose in the Times Picayune. Now I'm a displaced person living and working in Houston with not much hope of returning to my beloved city in the near future. This book was so "right-on" with the torture of emotions in the aftermath of the destruction of everything that was home and normal. Chris Rose has captured my feelings as well as his and thousands of others who know and love New Orleans - or at least loved the New Orleans that was. It's the first time I've read anything since the storm that brought back the heartache of Katrina.
Amazon.com
"A dead man is everyone's business." Or so the saying goes in Trieste, a politically divided city at the north end of the Adriatic Sea that, a century ago, was the Austro-Hungarian Empire's principal Mediterranean port--and now serves splendidly as the backdrop of A Dead Man in Trieste, the first installment in a new historical mystery series by Michael Pearce. It's in Trieste, in 1906, that a British consul named Lomax vanishes, spurring an investigation destined to expose an identity-falsification scandal, risk fueling nationalistic hatreds, and thrust a young sleuth into the arms of a free-spirited "fancy woman."
The detective in question is Sandor Seymour, reared by immigrant parents in London's working-class East End and now a multilingual officer with Special Branch. Dispatched to Trieste at the request of the British Foreign Office, it is Seymour's task--operating under the guise of an itinerant King's Messenger--to determine whether the eccentric Lomax left his post voluntarily, or was removed violently. Discovery of the consul's corpse, beaten and dumped into the sea, settles that question, but leaves others tantalizingly unanswered: Why had Lomax been roaming the docks on the night of his demise? With whom had he visited the cinema earlier that evening? Is his perishing somehow related to his falling out with an influential Serbian businessman? And why is Seymour suddenly being followed? Aided by a gruff Austrian inspector and a gaggle of bohemian artists, and pleasantly distracted by Lomax's model friend, Maddalena, Seymour must deal with revolutionaries, farcical "futurists," and his own family's political past as he tries to solve the consul's killing and prevent Trieste from becoming the fuse that ignites a world war.
British author Pearce, best recognized for his series featuring Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt in early 20th-century Cairo, Egypt (A Cold Touch of Ice, The Face in the Cemetery), brings to A Dead Man in Trieste his usual flair for convoluted plots, humorous characters, and deft crime-solving compromised on occasion by the vexatious demands of diplomacy. Seymour is a charming protagonist, displaced from his London beat to make sense of Trieste and, in sequels to come, resolve misdeeds at other British consulates and embassies across Europe. With the added incentive of seeing Maddalena once more--clothed or not--this series holds great promise, and the potential of introducing Pearce to a broader U.S. audience. --J. Kingston Pierce
Book Description
From award-winning British author, Michael Pearce, comes the first in a new series introducing Seymour of Special Branch. Trieste in 1906 is one of Europe’s great seaports, the Austrian Empire’s main outlet to the Mediterranean and the world beyond. But various nationalist movements are threatening to pull the place apart. The heavy-handed militarist regime has trouble keeping a lid on it, the secret police are everywhere, and now the British consul has gone missing. Was this the result of an ill-advised liaison? Could he have fallen afoul of the secret police, or the even more secret revolutionaries? The Austrian police are of course investigating, but the Foreign Office would prefer this matter to be handled with sensitivity. Britain has commercial interests in the port after all, so perhaps it would be wise to send someone out—someone very special from Special Branch who is capable of speaking the relevant languages; a good officer, but not someone British. That someone should be born here, lived here, but a member of, say, an East End immigrant family from somewhere in Europe. You can never quite rely on them. A bit dubious really, but just the man for the job.
Customer Reviews:
Terrific mystery about an city unknown to many in days leading up to WWI.......2007-04-15
This book provides a fascinating view of Trieste and some of it's inhabitants in a time leading up to WW1. As with Pearce's series set in Egypt in the same time frame, it helps to know background and the way the British government operated at the beginning of the 20th century.
Pearce has a very dry sense of humor which some people may find off putting but how else to highlight the difference between the British Establishment's haughty world views when living and working among the inhabitants of a differnt world?
Terrible Series Debut.......2005-02-17
The first in a series featuring Sandor Seymour, an agent of the British Special Branch with a talent for languages, this slim work leaves a great deal to be desired. Most mystery series rise and fall on their detective, unfortunately Seymour barely makes a blip on the radar in his debut outing. We are given snippets of his East End immigrant background, and we are told he's generally so hard at work that he doesn't have time for the ladies, and he's got a knack for languages. By the end of the book we learn that he's a fair man, and got a fairly sharp mind ("for a policeman"), but that's about it... He's one of the flattest, least-developed fictional detectives I've come across!
Alas, the story that he's tossed into isn't so great either. Trieste in 1910 (it's not clear why the promo copy says 1906, it's clearly 1910) makes an excellent backdrop for fiction, one of the foremost ports in the world, it's brimming with intrigue and scoundrels from all over Europe. Pearce gives glimpses of this here and there of plazas, the canal, old coffeehouses (mostly telling, rather than showing), but it all feels as false as a painted set. There's no depth, no aura created, just a basic canvas backdrop for Seymour to operate against. His assignment is to try and find out what's happened to the British Counsel, who's gone missing. (It's not particularly convincing that some policeman would be plucked from Special Branch to investigate this just because he can get by in a few languages, the Foreign Office would have plenty of their own fluent people who would be more adept at navigating the perils of such as place.)
In any event, Seymour shows up and starts poking around. As he discovers, the city is a hotbed of high feelings, from the officious rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the passionate Italians who want the city back, to the various Serbs, Bosnians, and Herzegovinans who have their own agendas. The counsel's disappearance is linked to all this, and over the course of the story, Seymour pieces it altogether in plodding fashion. The prose limps along weakly without any style whatsoever, and anachronistic phrases jarringly appear in descriptions of Seymour's thoughts. This is writing at its most basic, which is a shame, 'cause the basic premise of a detective running around the major cities of pre-WWI Europe is a good one. I'm fairly big fan of historically set mysteries, so I'm hoping Pearce decides to actually give Seymour some depth for his next outing (Istanbul). in the meantime, this book is best avoided unless one has some kind of keen interest in Trieste or Futurism (see below).
The one somewhat interesting element in the book is that Seymour becomes friends with a bunch of artists hanging about the plazas of Trieste. These include James Joyce (for some reason "Juice" in the story), Italo Svevo (who is called by his true first name: Ettore), and the founder of the Futurist movement, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Indeed, the climax of the novel takes place at the very first "Futurist Evening", which was a real-life event orchestrated by Marinetti. The futurists come across as a zany, madcap, fun-loving, bunch of boozehounds in the book. What readers might not know is that Futurism was hugely influential in the development of Italian fascism, and that Marinetti was a Milanese millionaire who would go on to become a supporter of the Italian invasion of Libya, an intimate of Mussolini, and Secretary of the Fascists Writers Union!
Books:
- Ships of the Line (Star Trek)
- Smarts: Are We Hardwired for Success?
- Star Trek: Action!
- Star Wars Chronicles
- Starlight Surprise (My Secret Unicorn)
- Subterranean
- Subterranean Cities: The World Beneath Paris and London, 1800-1945
- The Best of All Possible Worlds: Mathematics and Destiny
- The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (James H. Silberman Books)
- The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back
Books Index
Books Home
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