Tony Goldwyn Books

There is no black and white here, hence my title. That ominous music can be a bit overkill at times (though, few!). What makes this show so dynamic is the psycological profiles of the criminals and even Goren and Eames themselves. The well-written crime drama of today is displays the humanity of good and evil, hero and villian and CI does just that! I prefer Mike Logan on the regular L&O. His character was way more interesting on that show. Hands down, the earlier Goren/Eames episodes are the best - those endings are reminiscent of great theatre!

This is my favorite of all the other L&Os, and after the death of Goren's mom, it's just getting better. Each ep. shows how much closer he is too the edge. The last ep were he went undercover was great, I can't wait for it to come back on. Also I wish they would release more of the shows on dvd.

I am getting caught up on seasons 5 and 6 this winter. I can't believe how astounding the performances are by Katherine Erbe and Vincent D'Onofrio. I am compelled and even uncomfortable at times watching, and I am seldom moved by television performances as I am by these actors.

I watch the Goren/Eames team episodes first (OF COURSE) and the Logan/[insert new partner here]episodes second. I am less affected by those episodes, but they are interesting none the less.

I have not watched ALL of these shows. I absolutely love LOCI. I have watched L&O for years since the beginning. When I was in FL taking care of my brother, I was introduced to LOSVU and fell in love, but I have to say that LOCI is my favorite. The two main characters are perfect and I would not change them. I do like Noth however and like that they brought him back into the fold, but katherine erbe and d'ornofrio are the best. he has such a way for this character. Something that I haven't seen in any other series. Now, I already like the CLOSER, and the new Saving GRACE along with my Law and Order shoes. I wish I was rich cause I would be downloading ALL of them. 6 stars!

I have never seen a TV series with better characterization and writing. For well turned psychological drama, this series is the best. The writers deliver scripts that expose the human underbelly of criminals, showing us how real people, even ones who might live next door to us, can cross the line between simply being dysfunctional and committing murder. The actors present it in a way we can all recognize. I've always been fascinated with criminal psychology and the writers/actors/producers of this show explore it for us in a very entertaining way. I often finish an episode thinking to myself, "Wow... that situation sure reminds me of so and so." Disturbing, but mesmerizing.

The Devil in the White City is one of the finest historical novels I have read. It is both lyrically written and packed with fact, a balance which is very difficult to achieve. The plotline essentially reduces to a struggle between good and evil, as the struggles and aspirations of the 1896 Columbian Exposition's leading architect are contrasted with the schemes of a serial killer who runs a "hotel" near the fair. Larson does an excellent job of weaving excerpts of letters, newspaper articles, and even dinner menus into the story of these two men. The book also presents a wonderful picture of Gilded Age America as a whole, and perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the story is the way that, even amid strikes, recession, technical difficulties, and deaths, the fair remained an island of beauty and progress. The 1896 World's Columbian Exposition may not be a well-known historical event like the roaring twenties, the world wars, the Great Depression, or the baby boom, but, as this book shows, it had a huge impact on and in many ways, saved, the American psyche.

The author narrates two parallel stories: the struggle to create the Columbian Exposition of 1892 and the progress of a serial killer who preyed on women who were drawn to Chicago by the fair. Larson shifts back and forth between these two threads, parceling out his information in such a way that every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger.

For history buffs and mystery afficienados this is a super book. It is a non fiction book about the Chicago World's fair and the serial killer who preyed on the citizens of Chicago. I found it extrememly interesting.

Go back to the 1893 World's Fair that changed America. The Devil and the White City, a novel by Erik Larson, takes the reader back to the time of the World's Fair through the eyes of two remarkable men - Daniel H. Burnham and H.H. Holmes. Daniel H. Burnham was a brilliant architect who was forced to overcome many obstacles to construct the 1983 World's Fair. H.H. Holmes on the other hand was a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor while leading his victims to their death in his World's Fair Hotel, complete with a crematorium and a gas chamber. Erik Larson accomplishes what he set out to do, telling a tale with such drama and mystery that readers will find themselves double-checking to be sure they are not reading a highly imaginative novel. Although readers might find parts of Burnham's story slow at times or H.H. Holmes sinister activities grotesque, this can be easily overlooked by the vivid descriptions, great sentence flow, a nail-biting suspense story, and a terrific supporting cast that includes Thomas Edison, Buffalo Bill and Susan B. Anthony. It is no surprise that Erik Larson was nominated for a National Book Award for The Devil in the White City. He is also a former features writer for Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine, where he is still a contributing writer. Larson has also taught non-fiction writing at various colleges and seminars and has spoken to audiences from coast to coast. The magical appeal and disturbing dark side of 19th century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's masterpiece. The enjoyment of this story is only heightened by the fact that the story is true.

I found "The Devil in the White City" to be a truly amazing book to read. I expected that the portion of the book dealing with the serial killer, H. H. Holmes, would have been fascinating, and that ended up being true. Reading about the diabolical operation of this man, who had no moral problem murdering women who loved him and small children who had done nothing to harm him, was shocking and kept me turning pages.

I was surprised to find, though, that the descriptions of the construction of the World's Fair were just as compelling and suspenseful. I was astounded at the obstacles Burnham and the other architects were faced with, and the ways in which they consistently were able to make unthinkable things happen in a nearly impossible timefame.

The research of this story was impressive, and I liked the details making clear the issues that would have faced the building industry at the time, things such as difficult access to clean water, that wouldn't be a thought in the minds of workers today.

The events and especially the names dropped into this story, from Helen Keller to Walt Disney to Mark Twain to Susan B. Anthony, made me feel this fair took place in a truly magical time for the United States. It was hard for me to put this book down, and the contrast between Holmes' story and Burnham's story made this tale both horrifying and uplifting.

The book's hero is a former Israeli assassin presented by the author (pp. 269-70) as having led the Mossad operation to murder the Palestinian leader Khalil al-Wazir (nom de guerre Abu Jihad), which transpired in the country of Tunisia on April 16, 1988, in the presence of his wife and children. I wonder how many people reading the book assume this was a fictional event, part of the background story of the obviously fictional protagonist. Gabriel, our hero, seems to have completed that assignment with the usual Israeli efficiency - except for one thing. He stopped for a few seconds to "console" the wife and children of the man he had just murdered. I doubt the average reader will trouble his imagination by questioning how such a murder of a Palestinian could be justified. For Gabriel is seen as a "good" assassin. He condescended to console the wife and children. I was reminded for some reason of Golda Meir's statement ""I can forgive you [i.e. Arabs] for killing my boys, but I can never forgive you for making our boys kill yours." What a terrible tragedy for the Israelis, that despite all their natural goodness, they are forced, just forced, to murder Palestinians. Look, their assassin stopped to console the Palestinian's wife and children!

I read `A Death in Vienna' because a friend had recommended the author Daniel Silva. I chose this particular title randomly from several sitting on the shelf. My friend told me the hero's name is Gabriel Allon, and that he is an art restorer. Rather early in the book, I was tempted to stop reading. After a bombing in Vienna, the hero's Mossad superior refers to statements claiming responsibility as "the usual drivel about the plight of the Palestinians and the destruction of the Zionist entity" (p.22). But I didn't stop reading; I soldiered on to the end.

Is this book for you, or not for you? If you are among those willing to regard the plight of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis' as so much "drivel", then this book may be right up your alley. There's plenty of good times to be had, watching as the former Nazi is captured and brought back to Israel for punishment. It's true that the action is plodding and the suspense non-existent, but as one gentile reviewer said here on Amazon, "So sad, so sad. While reading this book, I cried and prayed for the Jewish people - 5 stars". Precisely one of the author's goals, I am quite sure.

If on the other hand, you are one who is aware of and disturbed by the plight of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis, then you may find the novel's glorification of the Mossad hit man to be, well, not something you can easily warm up to.

Daniel Silva is a wonderful author. His books are hard to put down once you start reading one. His characters are full and extremely human-showing the best and the worst of humanity. Many of his books have the same characters but he makes it very easy to understand how they all fit together-in the past and in the time of the book. His assassins are even somewhat likeable because he gives the background showing why they became assassins. His books would make terrific movies. He better write another one fast because I only have a couple of his older ones to read before I will need more.

Daniel Silva's Michner like ability to weave fact and fiction truly amazes me. The research he puts into his efforts combined with the twists and turns in his plots and his character development are all woven together to make for one hell of a fine read. Now that the holacost trilogy is finished, I can't wait to see what his future offering(s) will bring.

I enjoyed the book as a novel, well worth the read. I enjoyed it even more for the background that it provides about the Holocaust. The presentation of this research material (historical material worked into the fabric of the story) provided an insight into this horrible series of atrocities that I never was able to appreciate prior to this reading. I have found this to be typical of Silva's work. His research is worked into the narrative in a manner that makes the historical aspect of the novel fascinating reading.
I grew up in an era in which I should have been well advised of the horrors of this part of our collective history (I was in my early teens during WW II), and although as a kid I was fully on board with the hatred of Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito, I never was told of these atrocities on the part of the Nazis except in the most sanitized manner. Silva makes it personal.
I have noted in his other works that he is careful to present the Palestinian side as well as the Jewish side of the MidEast conflict, and that is informative as well. But, in the case of the Nazi effort to eliminate the Jews, there is no rational "other side of the discussion", I am convinced.

I have read several other Daniel Silva books. I did not enjoy this as much although I do not think it was intended we enjoyed it. It is an emotional story about the evils of the holocaust. At that level it was moving. The spy portion of the book was really weak. There was no suspense and little action. I will continue to read Silva but I hope we get back to suspense.

I've come to watch for Larson's books as I've enjoyed his past histories. This one came highly recommended, but it wasn't as good an entry as his other books.

The book looks at a murder that occurred in the late Victorian Era in England, and the impact that the advent of the wireless had on closing this case. Larson spends a good amount of time giving the background of both the people involved in the murder, and the development of the wireless by Marconi. Marconi's work and attitude are interesting, as he really wasn't a scientist, but rather a tinkerer/inventor who managed to create something that proved vital to the communication needs of the world. Unlike Edison, who invented a variety of things most of his life, Marconi only did the one, and he didn't try to understand the science behind it...and that cost him.

The work done by the police in England was phenomenal. It's important to appreciate the amount of sheer dogged investigation that was done to bring Crippen back to stand trial. In our current world where everything must be immediate (like processing DNA on CSI), we forget how much time and effort was spent by both policemen and physicians in proving a case.

The book was a bit confusing, as one chapter would be on Marconi's work, and the next on Crippen and his wife. But the 'timing' of each chapter would be off. Larson would have to go back to explaining how the technology of the wireless was achieved, while the Crippen case would run ahead. A bit disconcerting...

Karen Sadler

Thunderstruck, by Erik Larson, reviewed by Sandy

Once again Erik Larson manages to weave two seemingly unrelated stories into one compelling and suspenseful narrative. A work of non-fiction, Larson paints a graphic picture of England between 1900 and 1910, during the short reign of Edward VII. The beloved Queen Victoria is dead, the memory of Jack the Ripper still sends shivers up the spine, new inventions create both fascination and fear, and there is the threat of war against Germany.

Against this backdrop, Guglielmo Marconi brings his wireless invention to London and begins the long process of proving the validity of wireless telegraphy, finding funding, and attaining his goal of sending wireless messages across the Atlantic. There are many competitors with greater scientific background than Marconi, and he has made some enemies who would delight in seeing his comeuppance. This alone would make a fascinating story, but the addition of a murder mystery heightens the suspense.

Hawley Crippen, trained in homeopathy, has come to London to further his career in the development of patent medicines. His bugged eyes accentuated by thick glasses and his gentle, soft-spoken manner make him a man easily passed over. His wife, Cora, having unsuccessfully pursued fame in musical shows in America, eventually joins him in London. She takes the stage name of Belle, and again tries her hand a variety shows. A large, voluptuous woman, her public demeanor is one of great cheer and friendliness. Few are aware of her bouts of unreasonable anger directed at her husband. When Belle suddenly disappears, her friends doubt the story Crippen gives, and once Scotland Yard gets involved, a murder victim is discovered - or rather, various parts of. What remains cannot be identified as male or female, but there are clues. Could this be Belle? Is it possible that the meek Crippen is capable of such a methodical and thorough dismemberment?

And how on earth do these two stories become one? Read for yourself. This a book you want to buy and pass on to friends.

I enjoyed this book for its historical take on Marconi and even more for its story of the murderous Dr. Crippen. If you haven't read Larson's Devil in the White City I'd recommend that book too, its even a little better than this book.

With his previous book, DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, Erik Larson minted a fresh way of telling history: weaving together a well-known event in American social history with a now forgotten tale of true crime from the same era in such a way that both strands reflect and reveal much about one another. In that book, it was the creation and exhibition of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, a celebration of the Industrial Age and the technology age that would become the 20th century and a serial killer on the loose, preying on fair-goers. In his new book, THUNDERSTRUCK, it's not so much a weaving together as it is a collision between Guglielmo Marconi pushing for the world acceptance of his wireless technology and an international manhunt for a murderer.

The first thing you should know is, this is highly readable stuff. Larson has done significant research with the chapter notes and bibliography to prove it but his text reads with the ease of a well-tuned novel. The second thing you should know is, that for at least three-quarters of the book, you are left thinking, but how are these two stories ever going to pull together, except for what each reveals about the late 19th and very early 20th centuries? Larson leap-frogs the story strands at a head-turning pace but they are out of kilter, with the crime tale gaining time on the technology story. That said, when one catches up with the other, there is a big payoff, not only for the London police but for the driven Marconi as well.

Larson manages to make the story of an engineer and his technological invention interesting. He fully realizes the cast of characters. He invites wonder as he trots out details, like Marconi's competitor Nikola Tesla using the word "television" in 1900. The London forensics team of 1910 makes as much of technology with similar results as today's television crime scene investigators. It is the use of the wireless telegraph by ships at sea, however, to snare the unsuspecting murderer while the world listens in that is truly amazing.

This is a well-written narrative linking two strands of turn-of-the-century history - the invention of the wireless, and the conviction of Hawley Crippen for the murder/dismemberment of his wife. If anything, I found this book to be even more engrossing than Larson's similarly stereopticon-structured book, "The Devil in the White City."

As in that book, we get two converging views here of a bygone era. As different as that gilded age was from ours in many respects, you might be surprised to find some remarkable parallels. For example, I was amazed to read how Victorian travelers were subjected to intense searches when they passed through customs in many countries. The threat then was deemed to be, not from Middle Eastern terrorists, but from anarchists. Of course! I'd forgotten about anarchists. Italian travelers were especially suspect of having anarchic ideologies and therefore of trying to smuggle concealed bombs and weapons onboard. So despite his growing renown as inventor of the wireless, Marconi often came under special scrutiny in transit.

Larson evokes other aspects of the Victorian/Edwardian age very well, with its sooty fog, its penchant for séances, its mesmerized lecture hall audiences.

Chapters are short, easy to read, making for a close-grained juxtaposition - of what Marconi was doing, then what Crippen was doing. The only brief problem here is that the two narratives fall out of synch for a time, with Crippen getting well ahead of the consolidation of the technology making wireless communication possible.

My only other criticism is that I wish more pictures had been included. There are some. But when, for example, Larson describes a picture showing Crippen seated in among a bevy of white-clad tea-party ladies, with his thick glasses and impassive expression making him look like "a ventriloquist's dummy" - I wanted to see that picture!

Larson does paint such good pictures with words though, that actual photos might often be superfluous. When for instance he describes Crippen's early years (he was actually born, not in England, but in Coldwater, Michigan) Larson tells how the older men in town would gather around the stove in Philo's drygoods store - to relive their Civil War exploits. Larson says their conversations, though often repetitious, were always filled "with exuberance and gore." What a good phrase - "exuberance and gore."

As Larson pointed out in one of his in-person book-signings though - the irony of this whole history is that Crippen was in most ways the better man. Outside of that one aberration of murdering his wife, he in general treated women much better than the womanizing, indifferent Marconi did. That's another one of the surprises you'll get reading this excellent, highly recommended book.

This review deals with the picture and sound quality only. Read other reviews for the plot, acting, etc. "The Sixth Day" picture and sound quality are perfect. With an anamorphic widescreen format, the image is nearly high definition quality. The sound is quite good also because it was remastered. Viewed on a 46-inch Samsung high defintion LCD TV (and played on a Toshiba 1080p HD DVD player), the picture and sound are simply stunning!

Adam Gibson is an average guy living in the near-future (2015 according to Schwarzenegger). It's a nice place to live in. Cars can drive themselves, holograms are commonplace, helicopters can turn into jets and pistols fire lasers. But the most important difference is the widespread use of cloning technology. If your pet dies why not get it cloned? It's mind can be uploaded into a computer chip as long as it's still fresh and then downloaded into the cloned body through the eyes. The pet's back, good as new, and nobody could tell the difference. Of course a human mind is supposedly too complex for this procedure and human cloning is illegal anyway. However a corporation is secretly cloning humans as a way to achieve immortality, with the best intentions of course. No one wants to die and a clone is essentially the same person as the original.

This time they've made a bit of a booboo and they've cloned poor Adam Gibson while he's still alive. The poor guy comes home after a long day's work to find that he's already there. And to top it off people are trying to kill him and no matter how many times he kills the assassins they keep coming back. It's up to Adam to get his life back, defeat the bad guys and think of some witty one-liners to say while doing it.

The 6th Day raises some interesting metaphysical questions. If a person's mind can be stored in a computer chip and copied endlessly, is there really such a thing as a soul? Is a clone the same person as the original, considering they have exactly the same personality and memories? Is this really a triumph over death or just a delusion based on downloaded memories?

Some people have complained that this movie shows a very unrealistic portrayal of cloning. It involves an adult-sized fetus which is injected with the DNA of the person being cloned and then left to develop into that person before having the person's mind downloaded into its brain. The scriptwriters seemed to think this wasn't much different from today's cloning which kinda ruins the movie's message a bit but it doesn't really matter. The 6th Day is a great action-packed thriller for lovers of sci-fi and Schwarzenegger.

NOW I COULD EASYLY SAY THIS WILL GO DOWN AS ONE OF THE GRATEST MOVE EVER MADE IN THE WORLD THAT IS SO FOR SHORE & THAT IS PUTTING IT LIGHTLY

Really decent effort from the king of the action movie ! Really involved story line...something one might not expect from this genere. I was pleasently surprised by this movie. Definetely one of Arnold's better opus's. It's not as good as End Of Days (Arnold's best in my opinion), but it is at least as good as the Termenator series. Give it a try...You won't be sorry. 4 Stars.

The Sixth Day DVD


The Sixth Day is A Science Fiction movie about a man who is unknowingly cloned. Arnold Swarzenner is the protagonist, he must prove that he's the real one while, at the same time, battling against the organization that cloned him, they are out to shut him up. Plenty of action and thrills.

Recommended for both the Science Fiction fan and the Arnold Swarzennegger fan.

Gunner December, 2007

I finished listening to Millionaires and it was a great book. The story line was very realistic and enjoyable. The plot twists were surprising. I enjoyed watching the transformation of Charlie from a carefree anti-society guy to someone with a sense of responsibility. Oliver also underwent a transformation from society's cookie cutter gofer to a balanced guy that can enjoy life. I truly enjoyed the ending. The author did a wonderful job of providing a realistic solution for the main characters without disappointing. This was my first Meltzer book and I am a fan. His style is clear and well thought out. I give it 5 stars!

I downloaded the unabridged version of this from I-Tunes, so I gave it a listen. Nothing compares to Meltzer's first book, the Tenth Justice, but this was an interesting enough story. Fine plot twists and OK characters made my long commute a bit more enjoyable.

This was my first encounter with Brad Meltzer and I am anxious to listen to more of his books. The reader's voice on the CD was extremely expressive and could not have been better.

Brad's style is easy to read and keeps your attention.

This is an enjoyable story of two brothers who work in the world of private banking. One brother is a life-long dedicated under achiever, the other is a wannabe big time Wall St. operator who thinks he is on the verge of being accepted by the establishment.

I liked this alot.

As suggested on the back cover I thought I would find a financial thriller with all the gizmos and covert procedures to steal big money off the legal bank system and with very well outlined characters. But what I indeed found is a poor story written with a lot of sense of humor, but failing to transmit any credibility about the subject matter, and that keeps the ball rolling with a confusing plot and many senseless plodding turns that stretches for more than 500 pages draining the attentive energy of the reader. In addition, I do not like plots that do not exhibit any background research like this one. After this read I expect not to try Meltzer for a long time

I wanted to like this book because it was supposed to be the personal rememberances of a close friend of the great Katharine Hepburn in her final days.

But this memoir disturbed me. Scott Berg mentioned briefly that he felt like the guy taking care of Norma Desmond and that's when it clicked. In these memoirs, Berg was recreating Sunset Boulevard and the sad, lonely, delusional decline of a fading film star who desperately misses her public in his retelling of the final years of Katharine Hepburn.

The way he described he took care of her made him look more important and big and it made Katharine Hepburn look more insignficant and small. She really looked like a sad, faded, deluded film star who misses her public by the end of the book and this wasn't a pleasant image. I'm not even sure whether it was an accurate one. Kate seemed to have more independence even in her final days.

He does seem to emphasize how he defends his 'Miss Hepburn' mostly against the editors of Esquire and then the smarmy Warren Beatty who wanted to use her for one of his films but to be honest, almost everyone in the book other than himself and Katharine Hepburn come out looking a little sleazy and that doesn't make for pleasant reading. (It also makes you question his accuracy.)

The result of the Norma Desmond comparisons and the lack of any really sympathetic character other than the author and Katharine Hepburn herself made for a slightly sleazy aftertaste and ultimately a supremely disappointing read.

Wonderful insights into the life of this fascinating woman! Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in the "Golden Age" of Hollywood.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book.

As several people have already stated, the book is often more about Berg and his reaction to Hepburn, rather than a biography of Hepburn herself. It is often very touching and humorous in certain places, and is well-written enough to sustain interest.

However -- something just didn't feel right about the book. Berg was hardly the first or only person to interview her, so how exactly how did this relationship develop? I couldn't help feeling that Berg was exaggerating the extent of their friendship.

Additionally, I found his description of Kate's final years both depressing and exploitative. Berg seems to believe that he's describing her with respect and dignity, but I just found myself thinking - oh, sure, Hepburn would be THRILLED that all this would be in print. I certainly hope my "friend" would not write about my death that way.

All in all, this book contains interesting tidbits, but you can't help feeling that Berg is either a bit phony or opportunistic.

I had previously read The Making of the African Queen and Me, but Kate Remembered seemed to tie it all together. Actually, I picked up the book at Wal-Mart, on a table sale. Always having been a long-time fan, I grabbed the book and read it in 2 days. I think what comes through a lot, is not just Katharine Hepburn's life, but the relationshipt Scott Berg had with her, perhaps her only real confidante except for Spencer Tracy, and even then, perhaps not him, because she was there for him, not him for her. At any rate, it's a damn good read, and rather poignant at the end. I did shed a tear. Well worth the read.

No person in their right mind could write a biography of Kate and not be personally affected to this degree. The impact she had on Mr. Berg's life and vice versa showed through in even the most intimate of moments between them.

Anyone can find facts and anecdotes just about everywhere these days, but how often can such a personal glimpse offer the reader so much?

Kate came to life in this book. I saw her talking and felt her strong presense throughout. I was once again reminded of why I was such a fan. You can't help but fall a little bit in love with this woman and it shouldn't be a great surprise that even Mr. Berg was taken away by her presense, caring and passion. It shined in every passage.

In the latest Dimas Hardy mystery, Dis finds himself helping out another friend find the bad guy. There are alot of twists and turns in this one, so everytime I thought I knew who did it, I got fooled again. It did keep me listening longer than I wanted to. It was fast paced and interesting, highly recommend if your a Dismas Hardy fan.

A good book always has a hook. It may be as simple as "Gregor Mendel awoke to find himself changed into a giant insect..." or the like. But, John Lescroart's "Dead Irish," has a boxing glove at the end of a spring, like those old Warner Brothers cartoons. The hero, Diz (for Dismas, a name attributed to the good thief on the cross) Hardy is a bartender, an ex-cop, ex-attorney and divorcé who gets bribed into investigating the death of a young man, his boss's brother-in-law, an apparent suicide for a partnership in the business. The story goes down from there. We get exposure to cop-infighting, petty jealousies and one of the most unfeasible plots since Phantom of the Opera. The setting is San Francisco, which is described as being "hot," [well, I remember it getting up to almost 90 one summer in the city] and uncomfortable. The action in the story is convoluted, and we are exposed to shifting points of view, confused and confusing characters and one non sequitur after another. The writing drags and even at the climax, there is little pick up in the pace of the story. The ending, burdened with an unlikely motive and MO, essential in a mystery, unravels into a frazzled mess of unresolution. All in all, a very disappointing read.

Over that last few years I have read several of the Dismas Hardy books. What really stuck out for me as one of my biggest gripes was that the characters really felt set in stone. I never felt like they were growing from one book to the next. I also felt alot like Lescroart was writing the same story over and over again with slight variations. So in my mind I was viewing Lescroart as a talanted mystery/thriller writer who was trying too hard to write for an imaginary audience whom he felt wanted an exact sort of book from him and that he had become too attached to his characters to alow for them to undergo changes.

Thats why I think I felt that Dead Irish was such a refreshing Lescroart book for one who has basically worked backwards along the series arc. In Dead Irish the characters are just being formed, given substance. Its interesting to see the long standing friendships that would later come to be take shape.

The story itself is also pretty interesting, though nothing earth shattering. What I like about it is that all in all it is a fairly simple plot, no mass killings or huge rampages. Instead this book is about the small things. Dismas' friend is killed or has commited suicide and he takes it upon himself to uncover exactly what occured.

This is one of the best Lescroart books. I would say you should read this if you have not yet done so and have previously read others in the series. However, if you are looking for something earth shattering in this genre I would suggest that you turn instead to Cormac McCarthy's 'No Country for Old Men'.

It's always good to read the first book of a series as it lays the groundwork for the characters and their relationships. This book did a very good job of creating the defining the principal characters by making them interesting enough that I want to read more about them. The setting was well done. However, the story had too many red herrings and I found myself disappointed by the ending.

Dead Irish, by John Lescroart, marks the first appearance of series character Dismas Hardy. This murder mystery is set in San Francisco and the surrounding bay area towns. Living in Northern California, and having been to San Fracisco on numerous occasions, Lescroart (of Northern California) does a masterful job of describing the settings and taking the reader right to the scene. Dismas is a very compelling character as a current bartender and former cop; who has also passed the bar exam. The mystery surrounds the death of one of the guys that has grown up in a tight Catholic community. Cochran leaves behind a pregnant wife. If his death is ruled a suicide, which it could be by all appearances, than the wife is left with nothing. Dismas is called in to investigate if it was murder or suicide. Dismas runs into his ex-wife and we learn the compelling backstory of his life and a family tragedy.

This is a well-written and enjoyable read. Very recommended and worth a four star rating.