John Reed Books

For anyone who likes to spoil their cat rotten, this book is an absolute must-have! Much more than a catalog, it contains everything from simple catnip toys to an Italian sportscar with built-in kitty seatbelt and litterbox. And there's gifts of all shapes and sizes for cat lovers, from jewelry to books to home furnishings. There's even an elf's hat to dress your cat for the holidays! I enjoyed every page of this book, learning interesting and obscure facts, picking out items for my Christmas list, and dreaming of what I'd buy my pampered cats if I ever win the lottery. The Whole Kitty Catalog certainly isn't heavy reading, but it sure brightens my days.

If you haven't read a Chicken Soup book buy one NOW. When you find one that fits your life it is inspirational and comforting to read.

They definitely name this series correctly~It will comfort your soul while your read it.

Bring your Kleenex!

Merna

Pocket of Pearls: A 30-day pocket workbook to start hearing a softer voice inside of you!

I love this book, it's a feel-good book and can be read in short bits and pieces, ideal for someone like me who doesn't get a great deal of spare time.

As CEO Coach, Poet and author of a leadership book that helps leaders unleash their genis, the genius of teams and the genius of corporations, I have found the stories in this book to be inspirational. Story telling preceeds the written word as a form of communication and as I tell my CEO's, is the best way to inspire people. This book is full of masterful stories. Additionally, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield are doing good work in the world. They help people help themselves. Support them and their work by buying their books. Paul David Walker Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams and Corporations

Help sort out life's challenges; this book provides a basis for life's everyday choices and decisions and comfort for times of stress.

This is the original Chicken Soup book. It was filled with all kinds of various good true stories.

This book could have been better with more diligent editing. There are too many needless details, too much bragging, too much laundering of personal lives, too many names dropped, and too many photos of operatives that would likely prefer to not have their face shown. You may feel like a case is being built...which possibly happens to be true since the author was suing Time for defamation.

On the other hand, it is a thorough and frank history of an exciting story that is probably hard to tell. There are many disclosures that may be impossible to find in more mainstream publications. It will probably never become a movie because the story is simply too explosive.

You will find shocking revelations about the so called 'banana republic of Arkansas', Clintons history with the CIA in the 80s, Oliver North, Reagan, Bush, Arkansas state police, Nicaraguan contras, jackals, government money laundering, extortion, bribes, drug running, agent extra ordinaire Barry Seal, arms manufacturing, Vietnam, Laos, intentional POW camp (with US soldiers) bombing, FBI, IRS, and of course the CIA.

The unintentional hero of the story is the IRS agent who quit his job because he refused to lie under oath for the....IRS. I tend to respect law enforcement that will not break the law while enforcing the law.

This could be a very interesting movie for a very brave producer.

This is a great book detailing one man's experience in the Contra operation. It has high officials and low, but it is written a bit rough. Particularly the absurd repetition of "Compromised" to the point I was hoping someone would lay a beatdown on the writer. Still, if you care for the genre it is an element of something.

I still have a cassette tape of Mr.
Reed on Dr. Stan's fine Radio Liberty
show discussing how the alphabet soup
lettered agencies came at him with
both barrels blazing under the overused
guies of (get this!) 'National Security.'
Get this book Mr. & Mrs. America!!!!!!

This book underscores and confirms Peter Dale Scott's paradigmatic expansion (appearing in his book Deep Politics and the Death of JFK), of the parameters of American politics to the cesspool of secrecy just beneath the waterline of normal everyday political maneuverings.

Here, Air Force Colonel Terry Reed tells the story of being assigned, as an "Operations Officer" in charge of a CIA-run transshipment drop-off-point, disguised as a parking meter manufacturing plant, somewhere out in the boondocks on the periphery of the small Hamlet of Mena, Arkansas.

According to Reed, while operating under various "deep covers" and "cut-outs," he later discovered, that he was in fact working for Oliver North's Nicaragua-Contra "drugs-for-gun" project. Quite by accident he had discovered that his small operation in Mena was a link in a much larger and longer chain of activities that led from Ronald Reagan's NSC, to the Medellin cocaine fields. Apparently, as Reed surmised, cocaine was being picked up and transshipped through Mena, enroute to being laundered for guns (pick up at the Pentagon, paid for out of cocaine proceeds), and sent on to the Nicaraguan "contras."

All of cargo that arrived in Mena was of course carefully concealed in the typical large steel locked-down transport containers. According to Reed (whose job it was to make sure such containers were securely locked and un-tampered with), he, somehow was able to see inside that they were packed full of "one-kilo sized bricks" of cocaine -- one of which he wriggled out to keep as evidence to later either "blow the whistle" on the whole operation, or at the very least, to be used as a hedge against being called a "conspiracy kook and liar" once his revelations were made public. That is the essence of Reed's story.

Well, that theft by the "good old colonel" was a big mistake: For the rest of book is about what happened to him and his family as he was forced to "go on the lam," to avoid being "terminated with extreme prejudice" by his U.S. government handlers and overseers. According to Reed, he and his family are still being pursued all across the U.S., Canada and Mexico in a harrowing odyssey with enough twists and turns in it to make a move that would rival "The Bourne Identity," of Matt Damon fame.

At the time this book went to print, Reed's story seemed like so much "out there" conspiracy theory by the kooks, who were again weaving their familiar and always un-substantiated tales about the "goings-on" of people in power. However, the revelations since the book was published all seem to have produced nothing but a constant stream of cross-confirmation and convergence with Reed's facts. And here I mean the arrest of Eugene Hasenfus shot down in Nicaragua on October 5, 1986; the incredible well-written and revealing book by Gary Webb called "Dark Alliance;" the ultimate expose on the Clintons written by the renown British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard called "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, and the roller-coaster ride down the dark side of American history by Daniel Hopsicker called "Barry & `the boys," about the life and times of the Soldier of Fortune and known CIA agent Barry Seal.

According to Hopsicker, it was none other than the infamous Barry Seal who was piloting the plane that crashed in Nicaragua and who flew all of the other planes on regularly missions both into Colombia for the pick-up and back to Mena for the drop off, and on to Nicaragua with guns for the Contras. Seal in fact even had his own private "financial interests" invested in the whole Mena operation.

And as is by now well known, from Gary Webb's Dark Alliance, it was "Contra cocaine money" that was sold in America's black ghettoes that led to the "crack explosion" and that financed the whole "Reagan Contra" Operation (At the same time that Nancy Reagan was preaching "Just Say No!"). But it is Evans-Prichard's book that tied all these various loose strains together: from Mena, directly to the backdoor of the Clinton White House: Once the then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, got wind that a big CIA drug smuggling operation was taking place on his back porch, in Mena, Arkansas, he wanted "in on the deal" and "wanted his cut." Apparently he got both with a flourish, by utilizing the likes of Dan Lasater (Chapter 19), who became the Arkansas "Cocaine Kingpen," laundering most of his money through the Arkansas Development Finance Corporation (ADFC), which in a very short time became the largest bonding company in the world. The ADFC was such an improbable place for such spike in bonding activity that this activity alone actually triggered the IRS investigation that eventually led to Lasater and others arrest. [There is another whole story of how that investigation was eventually stifled and then completely snuffed out.]

As one of many postscripts to Reed's expose. Barry Seal was released to a halfway house in Baton Rouge, La, with a bulls-eye painted on his back, and the predictable happened: He was gunned-down in a hail of bullets from a Uzi, presumably by Colombian hit men. The May 23, 1992 (?) Washington Post entitled "Iran-Contra Figure Shot Down Again (by Guy Guliotta) relates how a Congressional Bill to award Eugene Hasenfus $805,209 for his injuries, was shelved: Bill Clinton had written Hasenfus' lawyers in Arkansas, saying that "he would not look favorably on the bill." In the mean time, Oliver North, who lied to Congress, almost won a Senate seat in Va., and then went on to lucrative book deal and an additional lucrative deal as a Rightwing Talk Show Host. Elliot Abrams, who also lied to Congress, did 100 hours of community service and wrote a book about how the Democrats had scape-goated him.

If this does not confirm Peter Dale Scott's theories, I don't what will. Five stars.

This book is simply amazing. It details the life of a CIA asset, pilot and businessman as he falls further and further into the rabbit hole and learns the truth about the CIA and its control of the government. In the book we find that Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and many other politicians are "compromised" and beholden to the secret government known as the CIA. If you think that there is a difference between political parties, prepare to experience a paradigm shift.

I have never laughed so much while reading a book in my life. Some of the stories told are hilarious. I enjoyed learning about Michael Crawford's life. If you have any interest in Michael Crawford, I advise you to get and read this book. You won't be disappointed.

Item in excellent condition and arrived on time.

I have just started reading Michael Crawford's bio but must comment on the service.I ordered the book on Tuesday and was amazed to find it in my mailbox on Thursday.Never have I received such speedy service before.Thank you Ed Silver!

This book is my favorite book of all time. Michael is the best! He truly wrote a wonderful book. I love it! I loved reading about his childhood . It was so interesting. Really,the whole book is very interesting. If you are a fan of Michael's, please read this book. Michael, Thank you for writing this book. Please write another one soon!:)

Though I've not read many autobiographies, this has without a doubt been the most entertaining that I've read thus far; indeed, at times it is simply hilarious. Michael Crawford's career is meticulously chronicled from its beginnings (he started out as a child performer) through to and including the international super-stardom he achieved with his coveted role as the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, The Phantom of the Opera. In the process, he tells of his short and disillusioning stint doing Hollywood movies in the late 60s/early 70s. He recounts the huge television success he had in Britain in the 70s with Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (and the hilarious upshot--hilarious for us, that is--of being nationally recognised as and taken for a disaster-prone half-wit!). Crawford went on to forge a name for himself in the 70s and 80s as a formidable lead in musicals (the culmination of which was, of course, his role as the Phantom). Greatest of all, though, was the tremendous honour of receiving an OBE in 1987.

Crawford, who was born in 1942, is extremely candid--even quite personal at times--as he recounts his life story, and sharing the limelight with his professional life are the many recollections he shares about his personal life. There are a great many happy and humorous memories (and even some embarrassing ones), but he doesn't hold back from sharing with us the painful memories as well--like his mother's unhappy marriage to his step-father, or the death of his beloved mother and grandmother.

What really makes this autobiography stand above the others I've read are the many humorous anecdotes that infuse Crawford's recollections of both his personal and professional life. He was a practical joker and a bit of a clown as a child--traits which he continued (thankfully!) to embrace wholeheartedly as an adult. That combined with his love for daring stunts result in some absolutely hilarious experiences that are rendered all the more enjoyable for being so engagingly told.

This 329-page hardcover has 24 pages of black-and-white photos, many of which are from Crawford's own private collection. There are photos of Crawford as a baby and as a child, photos of his mom with her first husband (who sadly died in the war after only a year of marriage), photos of his grandmother with each of her two husbands, photos of his two daughters at different stages in their lives, photos of his then-wife, and photos of Crawford--shots of him with his various co-stars or shots of him in his various productions--from the many stages in his career. Though published in 1999, Crawford ends his story in 1990, following his last appearance as the Phantom in Los Angeles. It would've been nice if he'd brought things up to date, but I suppose one cannot fault him for wanting to end his story on what has been (at least to this point in time) the apex of his career.

In conclusion, I heartily recommend this delightful autobiography to all fans of Michael Crawford. His engaging style reveals a man who is a very capable story-teller, and he certainly has no shortage of entertaining stories to tell.

This is one of those few books that was written from the soul. Reading Annie's book is like having a conversation with some of your best friends over a cup of cocoa in their livingroom.

The information given here prompts one to think about what's important in his or her particular circumstances. After reading this book I feel that I would not live completely like Annie and her husband but I would probably approach each problem of living aboard a boat and cruising in the same logical fashion.

I can't remember when I bought this book, but as one of its reviewers noted, it can change your life. I'm a 67-year old retiree building Badger, the boat Annie's book is about. It's a wonderful book, and her occasional tartness about things we think we need but don't is icing on the cake. Building her is not difficult - epoxy is magic, read Parker and Buehler and the Gougeon brothers, and trust your eye and hand: you'll do fine - it has the single most gratifying experience of my life. The way the form emerges from the plans! You'll just sit and admire. I've less than a year to launch I think, and my brother-in-law has already staked a claim for the trip out the St. Lawrence. You'll need good tools - I've come to love the Makita impact driver and sliding compound miter saw, the Bosch electric hand planer and jobsite table saw, and the festool 'rotex' sander, among others from Lee Valley, Lie Nielson and the like. And Jerry Limber's blog has been invaluable (link from Benford Design Group website). "JUST DO IT!"

An excelent an informative book by someone with the runs on the board. Thank you Annie. Not the least for re-igniting a somewhat jaded enthusiasm. I want my own "Badger".

Very often the finances of cruising are left out of the discussion, and here it is not. It's really an inspiration. Still, I think it's important to note that Anne doesn't sail a junk anymore, and that she's living a bit different life that's perhaps a bit more moderate. Also try "Sea-steading" Jerome FitzGerald to fill out the vision a bit, get them both.

I found the information to be helpful and honest in opinion. I am restoring a sail boat and have been reading tons of books on all systems from electrical, mechanical, heating, cooking, efficiency, safety, etc and felt this book was helpful. It doesn't have all the answers, or cover all the choices, but the author shares what she knows in an honest manner and gives actual models and types of different items for comparison. I liked the female point of view as to ease of management, cleanliness of systems, & actual daily use efficiency. A heating system was rated high, but messy, which made author reluctant to use, I appreciated the candor. As I said....Food for thought, definately worth the price.

steinbeck captures the essence of the areas of california that he so much likes to descibe--and all the characters often somewhat described in other novels are here as well

Pastures of Heaven and The Long Valley are a matched set in the Steinbeck library. The two should probably be included together as a single work. It's difficult to separate the two books because they overlap so. With a writer of the Steinbeck sort a reader might experience difficulty declaring, "This is my favorite." I agree completely. However, if John Steinbeck had never written Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, and Travels with Charlie, I'd probably have to say Pastures of Heaven and The Long Valley were my favorites

Because I am such a fan of John Steinbeck's writing, I feel I am able to say that this is not among his best work. "The Pastures of Heaven" is centered around a beautiful valley in California. After its discovery by a Spanish Corporal, the book goes into the stories that happend on this land. While some of the characters recur, most of the characters are forgotten after their story is told. Steinbeck's character descriptions are the masterwork that is expected of him. However, since there is no running theme aside from the land itself, the reader may have difficulty maintaining interest. Without a main character, it is difficult to be drawn in to the story.

Each chapter in the book starts a separate story. Some of the stories are amusing. I found the story in Chapter IV to be the best. Other stories such as Chapter IX seem to lack any coherence with the rest of the stories, but serve only the purpose of forwarding an opinion on a social issue. In the case of Chapter IX, Steinbeck is discussing the ethics of the death penalty.

While fans of Steinbeck are certain to read this book, casual fans are unlikely to enjoy it. The Steinbeck fan who reads all of his work is likely to find some of the stories enjoyable.

More a book of short stories than a real novel, The Pastures of Heaven is one of my favorite of Johnny Steinbeck's. The book consists of ten stories centered around the very different and very realistic groups of people living in the California valley. Bittersweet is a good way to describe most of the stories as most seem to end tragically and hit where it hurts.

Steinbeck, as always, tells the stories as a passive observer with a great eye for detail and leaves it to us to form our own opinions on the characters and events. Each story will have you debating the characters' motives and actions. Easy to read and hard to put down.

You needn't be familiar with Steinbeck's work to enjoy Pastures of Heaven. Indeed, he wasn't a well-known writer at the time of its publication. But you DO need to be familiar with the way books used to be read -- over and over and over, allowing the richness of a work to be revealed after multiple readings. So it is with Pastures of Heaven.

Certainly, a single reading of this work is rewarding and each story alone could serve as a great introduction to Steinbeck's style and grace. But these stories are interrelated in ways that appear only on the second and third and fourth readings. And...the book should probably be read slowly. (Hint: pay VERY close attention to the first story!)

Like other readers, I, too, was disappointed/puzzled after the first reading, but then I found certain images from the book would appear to me weeks and months later. I found the book again in my bags as I traveled cross-country and re-read it slowly, taking two nights to read each story. As I drove the next day, I'd let my mind wander over the textual terrain it had encountered the night before. The story grew in richness and complexity this way and has left me fully satisfied. It remains within close reach on my shelf.

While the book as written is a treasure -- one often neglected in discussions of Steinbeck's portfolio -- I have to say that time is changing its nature. As the book nears its 75th birthday, it gets only more true; the universality every good story has is here exemplified and magnified. Centuries from now, this book may be seen not so much as a portrait of its time, but rather a timeless tale, merely set conveniently in a place and era Steinbeck knew well; in this sense, the work reminds me of Shakespeare's work.

Final thought: the work also grows richer by the reader's extension of it. The reader will inevitably draw parallels with his or her own life; doing a little contemporary research to investigate side avenues also give the book more depth. I was distracted for a week comparing Steinbeck's Tularecito with Shakespeare's Caliban.

In short, if you are an inquisitive, thinking reader, one not afraid to give as much to Steinbeck's novel as he has given to you, then you will enjoy this book immensely.

Any book dealing with 9/11 issues has an uphill battle to win me over. If it was written poorly it would have been a disaster. However 'Snowball's Chance' was a crafted modern extension to Orwell's Animal Farm. It was tasteful, witty and a good read.

From the tongue-in-cheek title to the "Twin Mills," clever is the way to describe John Reed's "Snowball's Chance." If you're living in the twenty-first century, and you enjoyed Animal Farm, you owe it to yourself to read it.

It's many years after the events of Animal Farm. Napoleon and his successor Squealer have both died, and the farm is soldiering on in the hands of Minimus, the pig poet. Snowball comes back and institutes capitalism. This is a good thing. Or is it?

Reed turns Orwell on his head and uses Orwell's own analogy to show how maybe capitalism isn't the best way, either. The best part is guessing which animals represent which people in our world. A must read.

This book simply must be read. After being force fed animal farm in highschool, this is just what the doctor ordered. Oh, and it's damn funny.

Good work Mr. Reed

Snowball turns up again years after the Animal Farm debacle . Reed's bristling animal characters weave a symphony of ironies. We surrender ourselves to the unwinding economic distopia. Exciting reading.

The future of Animal Farm is sub-prime home loans for all and sequined mangers--Animal Fair! Need I say more? I do. John Reed is wicked smart. He's wicked. And smart. And not wrong. When every young girl dreams of becoming the next big dancing chicken, and the pigs are still running the show, it's time to be very afraid and seriously funny.

I just wanted to let readers know that there are several other books and resources out there with much better content and organization for less money

Having been involved with my own kids in different facets of kids baseball I am always on the lookout for new or original material. Unfortunately this very pricey book does not fill the bill.

I knew that this was going to be a good one as soon as I saw the authors' name on the cover (check out John T. Reed's *football* coaching books, excellent!). Based on my personal journey of 10 years coaching youth baseball, and associated 100+ books read & scores of clinics attended over that time - *this* is the best take on what constitutes effective 12 & under baseball coaching that I have seen to-date. Finally, a reasoned and thoughtful delineation of the differences between "real" baseball and "youth" baseball - and how to effectively coach to those differences. John T. Reed does it again!

My plug for the best companion coaching book out there - Positive Coaching, by John Thompson (a fuller exploration of the emotional side of effective youth coaching, IMHO). Utilizing these 2 books, you have all of the tools that you need to be an effective youth coach. Go get 'em!

After coaching youth baseball for sixteen years, after reading numerous books on the subject, I can now say that it's refreshing to read a book that tells it like it is! Mr. Reed identifies the coaching incompetence in us all and tells us how to correct it. I personally can accept this, many other youth coaches may not. If you are a youth coach and have a high opinion of your coaching talent, I do not recommend this book. However, if you are opened minded and seek to greatly improve not only your coaching abilities but also overall enjoyment of the game, I strongly suggest this literature.

I found this book recommended in the Amazon review of ANOTHER BOOK! I'm so glad I did. I've had kids in youth baseball for 6 years, and have had my various complaints regarding coaching and league rules. Everything Reed writes is extremely logical, reasonable, and practical. All well-organized, well-written, and with just the right amount of wry humor. He suggests ways to bring out the best in players. He outlines exactly how to prepare players for each position. He explains why it doesn't make sense to spend a great deal of time practicing things you aren't likely to improve (like batting) but to spend a lot of time working with players on things they can improve, such as intelligent baserunning and correct understanding of rules. His emphasis on safety is terrific. I bought this book for my husband, but I read it cover-to-cover myself. It makes me want to coach a team next spring. But even if you weren't interested in coaching, the information in this book could help you be a better "baseball parent," too.

This is a very helpful book and I will be a better coach for reading it. The most valuable points concern the limited time for practice and what to focus on. There are many interesting concepts in the book that are full explained.

However, the book was tarnished on several accounts. It was filled with details of Mr Reed's dubious adult baseball career that I really didn't need. His constant negativity and bitterness towards the players, fellow coaches, league administration, volunteer umpires,etc.... got to be too much by the end. All of this complaining done while reminding the reader it is for the kids. I ended up questioning why Mr. Reed spent so much of his time doing something that caused him so much unhappiness.

Read this book it is worth it. But, be very careful of adopting the attitudes and feelings conveyed in it.

What a refreshing character Mr. Clarkson has created with Reed. Most authors instill their character with some type of personality flaw but this author has taken a new approach and given Reed not an ordinary personal problem to overcome but a serious disabilty. Reed is a tough force to be reckoned with in spite of being a recent amputee. I would love to read more intrigue involving this character.

After reading And Justice For One, I read every book I could get my hands by J.C. I would rate them all 5 stars. I mean the books are page turning, can't put it down. I have shared them with friends who also agree. I am always on the look out for the next one. The only problem is that J.C's books are few and far between. I would love to know if anything is in the works for the near future. Again bravo for this author.

Diane Brown

Active man loses leg in motorcycle accident. During his convalescence, (and while he is feeling sorry for himself), he recieves a troubling communication from his cousin. Retarded, forty, and institutionalized, the cousin has worse problems than the pain of prosthesis. Thrilling, insightful, a newly handicapped man's struggle to overcome the evil in a closed world that has no compassion or respect for differences.

Bill Reed, a recent leg amputee, has to abandon the self-indulgent life he has fashioned to accommodate his disability and try to unravel the reason his cousin, a Down's syndrome victim is being mistreated in the private institution where he has resided for a number of years. In so doing, Reed learns to triumph over his disability in order to save his cousin's life. This is a fast-paced and engaging yarn, although the skulduggery seems based on a rather doubtful premise. The writing is good, and action outweighs introspection by a good deal.

I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 because of too much profanity, otherwise, it's a good thriller till the end. Bad guys were giving Bill Reed a lot of run around. Bad guys were bully around Reed's cousin, Johnny Boy (with Down's Syndrome) for no reason and it will make you feel like Johnny Boy is one of your own and wanting to protect him from bad people.

If you like the ancient Rome centered mystery novels of Lindsey Davis, John Robert Maddox, and Steven Saylor and want to try a different locale, read "One for Sorrow". It takes place in sixth-century Byzantium and takes place in the streets, docks, cisterns, and Great Palace. Scenes occur at the Hippodrome, the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), and even atop a column with a stylite. While this ancient capital is officially Christian, Mithraism and Egyptian religions influence the tale. Details of life in the capital of the Eastern Empire include references to Kollyba, Liquamen, and even an early type of organ, the Hydra.

The hero is John the Eunuch, once a mercenary but now Lord Chamberlain in Justinian's court who seeks to solve the murder of the Keeper of the Plate. Bodies turn up and John seeks to find the answer that ties together a soothsayer, a red headed knight from Britain, and the victims while protecting his former lover (from before the incident that gave him the appellation) and daughter.

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer provide a great detective story set in a different time and place. The copy I read from Poisoned Pen Press was crisply printed with a very readable type setting. It includes a small map of Byzantium and ends with an 8 page glossary (in case you don't know who Zeuxippos was).

Fascinating new series. Roman Empire - 6th century. The authors have generously included a map and glossary. John the Eunuch must solve the murder of his friend Leukos, Keeper of the Plate. After stumbling upon his body in an alley, John finds himself on the path to solving it. The authors tell a candid tale of whodunit when they write about the Roman Empire and a lifestyle their protagonist was forced to live in his time. The reader will meet many impressive characters and experience the authors' historical knowledge of Roman times and the different religions. I believe there are enough characters and twists to keep the reader's interest. Historical mystery readers will be thrilled to have another Roman mystery series.

I enjoyed this story, read the next book in the series and have ordered the third. However, I have never in my life read a book that had so many glaring spelling, grammar and other editing errors. It's as if an early draft was accidentally printed or, if this was a final, it was proofed by a not very well-trained chimpanzee. There are errors on almost every page. It's very distracting. If you can ignore that and finish the book, the second book has fewer appalling editing failures. The protagonist in this series is a rather fascinating character - interesting enough to make me curious to read his continuing adventures.

Byzantium, the heart of the Roman Empire in the 6th century, contains a rich mixture of old gods, deadly rituals and Christian doctrine. Justinian rules the land as a Christian Emperor, yet The Lord Chamberlain, one of the most honored in his court, holds fast the traditions of Mithra, an ancient religion that honors the great bull god.

The Lord Chamberlain, also known as John the Eunuch, is a man of loyalty, to his Caesar and to his faith. When his friend is murdered, the quest to discover his killer leads John down a trail full of twists and turns that challenge him to examine his beliefs, his past and even his deepest fears.

One for Sorrow captures the horror of the mutilation of John's body as well as the maiming of his soul. When he once again faces the woman he loved long ago, and the daughter he never knew he had, John also has to face his own deeply buried desires. At the same time, he cannot forget that a murderer is walking the streets of Byzantium. Who is the killer? Who will be next? And what part does a peculiar ancient soothsayer play in the strange events that swirl around John like a troubled sea of confusion and death?

The authors weave an intricate tapestry of characters and plot along with a fascinating look into the day to day life of the Byzantine Empire. There is even a mysterious knight who claims to have been dispatched from King Arthur to search for the Holy Grail of Christ, making this a mesmerizing mix of fact and fantasy that serves to make the story even more absorbing.

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer originally introduced John the Eunuch through several short stories, and have now brought him out as a full-time ancient sleuth. One for Sorrow is a novel that is hard to put down. The authors are superb artists who paint a well-presented mystery with the colors of a civilization that seemed shrouded in history until viewed on their life-like canvas.

I whole-heartedly recommend this novel for any mystery fan. A second novel Two for Joy is set to be released by Poisoned Pen Press in October 2000, with the paperback edition of One For Sorrow. I can hardly wait.

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer's One For Sorrow kicks off one of the most entertaining, thought-provoking new mystery series I've read in a long time. It takes place in 6th Century Byzantium, is rich with period detail and character. The main character, John the Eunuch, is the Emperor's chief advisor, a job that requires intelligence, tact and guile; many a chief advisor for the Roman emperor has had his head removed from his body for not accommodating his boss.

The second in the series, Two For Joy, is a treat as well. You don't have to be a fan of historical mysteries to like this book or this series. (I'm not, in particular). You just have to like well-written mysteries with terrific plots, even better characters and a depth of texture and detail that makes many, many other novels seem anemic by comparison.