Charles Williams Books

This is considered one of the four great books on the Battle of the Bulge. The others are John Toland's Battle, Hugh Cole's official US Army History: The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge and John Eisenhower's The Bitter Woods. I have read all but Hugh Cole's book and will review each of them.

If one wants to know what was happening at the individual soldier's level, this is the book. Charles B. MacDonald fought in the Battle of the Bulge as a company commander and wrote his personal account of the European Theater of War, Company Commander. He knows what it was like to fight in that bitter cold battle with units widely spread out. MacDonald was at the critical Elsenborn Ridge in the North and helped prevent the Germans from spreading and enlarging the Bulge.

His book takes you into action with the sometimes ragtag groups of units that fought overwhelming forces. In some cases platoons of around 20 men fought battalions of 500 and larger.

This detail requires the reader to really look at the many included maps to keep track of this battle that stretched almost 80 miles from north to south. While the other books mentioned above have details of individual soldiers fighting, this is the most extensive. It is about twice the size of John Toland's book.

MacDonald builds on and cites the earlier books by Toland and Eisenhower. Because his book came out around the 40th anniversary of the Bulge he was able to incorporate the information released on the German Enigma intercepts. While this information builds on how the Germans conducted the deception that led to the Bulge, it does not greatly change anything previously known. It is interesting, though. What did the intelligence officers really know?

Because MacDonald concentrated on the soldier level so much he does not concentrate as much on the senior leadership level as Eisenhower. He does have some telling comments on the issue of Field Marshall Montgomery's belief that he should take control of the entire ground battle from General Eisenhower, the overall commander. MacDonald generally demolishes Montgomery's arguments.

MacDonald also does not spend much time on the strategic context, before or after the battle.

If you are looking for the best book on the Battle of Bulge that gives you the view of the battle from the soldiers' level and someone who was there, A Time for Trumpets is the best book.

On December 16, 1944, elements of four German armies -- 14 infantry and five panzer divisions in all -- attacked part of the American First Army along an 80-mile front along Germany's border with Belgium and Luxembourg. The sudden and unexpected counteroffensive hit the Americans in an area the Allies thought would be a nice, quiet sector for combat-weary divisions to rest and refit while green divisions fresh from the States could be acclimated to life on the line: the dark and deep forests of the Ardennes. Planned and ordered by Adolf Hitler himself, this massive onslaught was launched with one objective in mind: penetrate the American lines, pass through the "impassable" Ardennes Forest, cross the Meuse River, and capture the vital port of Antwerp. At the very least, the Allied supply situation would deteriorate enough to slow the Anglo-American advance to the Reich's industrial heartland by a matter of months and buy time for Hitler and his tottering empire. At the very best, a German victory would split the Grand Alliance in three, trap the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group on the northern sector of the front, and the Fuhrer could attempt to convince the Soviets that further fighting was useless now that the Western Allies had been defeated at the Reich's very doorstep.

For a few snowy, foggy, and bitterly cold days, things seemed to be going Hitler's way. Caught off-guard by the sheer size of the counteroffensive, hampered by bad weather which prevented Allied air power to provide ground support to the tankers and infantrymen along the front, confused and misdirected by a small number of English-speaking German commandos wearing American uniforms, and, at some points along the 80-mile "Ghost Front," isolated, outnumbered, and forced to surrender, GIs fought a seemingly losing battle against hundreds of thousands of German soldiers. But even when some units panicked or were overrun, many American soldiers -- sometimes in dribs and drabs -- stood fast and delayed the enemy, giving Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Supreme Commander, and his generals valuable time to plan a riposte and turn what seemed to be a disaster into a strategic opportunity. And sure enough, after a month's of heavy fighting in the awful cold of a European winter, the German counteroffensive was slowed, halted, and gradually pushed back to where it had started.

The late Charles B. MacDonald, one of America's premier military historians and himself a company commander in the Ardennes campaign, captures the chaos, misery, bravery, and drama of the U.S. Army's largest battle in history in A Time For Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge. The author of such acclaimed works as Company Commander and The Mighty Endeavor, MacDonald uses his skills as a writer and his knowledge of the infantryman's combat experiences to paint a vivid picture of Hitler's last gamble to gain even a temporary victory in the West and the efforts of over 600,000 U.S. and several thousand British troops to contain the salient or "bulge" that gave the Ardennes counteroffensive its popular moniker.

A Time for Trumpets not only covers the well-known episodes of the small teams of German soldiers wearing American uniforms (they actually did very little material damage, but their very existence caused jumpy GI's to quiz each other about baseball teams, state capitals, even popular singers and bandleaders), the heroic stand of the 101st Airborne at Bastogne and the infamous Malmedy massacre, but delves into the Allies' biggest intelligence failure of the war and the bitter recrimination between British and American commanders when Eisenhower placed the northern half of the "bulge" under the command of Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery. Attention to detail is also given to the German high command's reluctance to execute Hitler's plan by the letter, knowing in their professional soldiers' hearts and minds that the Nazi dictator was overreaching.

Despite the complexity of the battle, A Time For Trumpets is highly readable and engrossing. There are helpful maps and many pages of photos to help the casual reader keep his or her bearings in this sprawling month-long battle, and the various appendices are valuable tools that illustrate the composition of a standard U.S. infantry regiment and the various Orders of Battle for the Allied and German forces engaged in the Battle of the Bulge.

Charles MacDonald, a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge and later an official historian for the U.S Army, wrote "A Time for Trumpets" as the comprehensive account of that battle. MacDonald covers the battle from the foxhole to the highest headquarters on the Allied and German sides.

In late 1944, Hitler's armies were in retreat across Western Europe, only able to consolidate a defensive line at the German frontier thanks to the fact that Eisenhower's Allied Expeditionary Force had outrun its own supplies. Hitler gambled much of his remaining military resources on a lightning counter-offensive through the difficult terrain of the Ardennes to cripple the Allied armies and restore the military balance in the West.

As MacDonald recounts, the Allies had been lulled into dangerous complacency in the Ardennes sector and were taken badly by surprise. MacDonald's theme is how individual American units, often at great odds, nevertheless stood their ground and slowly fought the German offensive to a standstill, and eventually retook the area known as the Bulge. While famous units such as the 101st Airborne Division get their due, MacDonald does a superb job of capturing the action from the perspective of a variety of participants on both sides as the battle unfolded. Of note are the accounts from the green and unlucky 106th Infantry Division, many of whose small units fought surprisingly well despite being bypassed and cut-off in the opening hours of the German offensive. MacDonald also captures the fierce infighting at the Allied Command level, as Eisenhower's efforts to stem the tide in the Ardennes triggered a crisis of command among Allied leaders.

At over six hundred pages, MacDonald's account is not only exhaustive but verges on exhausting. The dedicated reader will be rewarded with an excellent account of the battle that holds up extremely well despite its 1984 publication date.

FAR AND AWAY THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ ON THE BULGE. IT GIVES AN OVERALL ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE,IT'S ORIGINS PRIOR TO IT'S EXECUTION,AND THE AFTERMATH,FROM BOTH A STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL VIEW.MACDONALD OBVIOUSLY DID HIS RESEARCH WELL. FOR AN OVERALL ACCOUNT OF THE U.S ARMY IN ACTION IN WW II, THIS IS THE BOOK YOU MUST HAVE.

I purchased this book in 1985 at the bookstore in the German Reichstag of all places. I was attending college in Germany and needed a good reference work on the battle prior to visiting Bastogne. This book more than fit the bill and prepared me well as my train traveled from Aachen along the Meuse to Namur, Liege, Libramont and finally to Bastogne.

One of the most interesting aspects of this particular work is that you quickly learn that the German timetable for success was disrupted right from the start. The American combat infantryman put up a serious fight from start to finish. MacDonald's accounts of indiviual American efforts, especially those of the CCR's is particularly informative.

Overall, just a great and interesting read.

World War I haunted the populace of Europe for the lifetime of its participants and observers (victims all). Like the stoic "Greatest Generation" of World War II, but with even more horrific mental and physical challenges, the trench-maimed were put back into society and expected to buck up and continue with their lives. Some did and some didn't. Some could and some couldn't. The books of mother-and-son team Charles Todd catch the nexus of all this with their Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, a damaged, gifted war veteran.

As with the other books in this brilliant series, the story is multi-layered with a straightforward mystery at its center. This time, it is the murder of a constable in a forbidding forest under very odd circumstances. Woven with this mystery is the stalking of Rutledge by person(s) unknown who leave brass cartridges as silent, menacing calling cards. And the final layer is, of course, the voice of dead Scottish soldier Hamish, who resides in Rutledge's fractured brain. But the relationship with Hamish is changing! What was horrible, accusatory, and unforgiving in Test of Wills has stayed adversarial but has become more familiar and even somewhat collegial. There is no doubt that dependence is setting up on both sides of this bizarre union and I'm curious as to where this is leading.

In these books, much of the joy is in the journey. For those who are just joining in, it would be good to start with Test of Wills for no better reason than an explanation of Hamish.

I look forward to each book in this series for several reasons. They are well-plotted, without sex or profanity in excess, and faithful to the era in which they are set. But most of all, the authors do not resort to the extremely tired and common device of "hero in danger" that so many writers use over and over. (Examples: the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell, and the Stephen White books.) The Charles Todd books are thinking mysteries, about a gentleman, and while someone has complained about the Hamish "haunting", it seems to be used less often in the more recent books. But then I don't find it irritating, so perhaps I'm mistaken. In any event, these are good books.

With a combination of unusual mysteries and deft character realization, the Charles Todd duo create books with a fascinating perspective on the devastation to the psyche of individuals and of a nation caused by senseless slaughter in a war. World War I is as infamous for the pointlessness of the conflict and the incompetence of those generals who ran it as it is for the enormous heroism of the soldiers who fought and died in it. Inspector Rutledge is sensitively drawn and is a sympathic lead in these stories. Hamish is the truest of alter egos. I love all these books.

What haunts Frith's Wood--a long-ago Saxon massacre, or the more recent disappearance of a beautiful young girl? When the local constable is found there pierced with an arrow, Scotland Yard's Inspector Ian Rutledge is hastily dispatched by his foul-tempered superior to find the culprit. Rutledge, a veteran of World War I himself haunted by his experiences in the trenches, must solve these mysteries while fending off the murderous attacks of a stalker.

Todd realizes the life and people of the little English village very well, and the details of time and place feel authentic, but the stalker subplot fails to engage and feels superfluous. And, although Rutledge and his internalized ghost Hamish seem more collegial (Rutledge actually starts referring to himself and Hamish as "we"), it is hard to know how Rutledge's character can really continue to develop without putting Hamish to rest. It would be nice to think the series could sustain itself even without this singular, and signature, arrangement.

A darkly atmospheric read.

Just finished A Long Shadow and agree: couldn't put it down. This series has been a dependable source of suspense and excitement, and in additon I find Ian and many other characters described in a way that makes me feel I know them. And Hamish! How wonderful it would be to have a Hamish riding in the back seat with constant comments, warnings, and insights, welcome or not.

I've found some insights,too in earlier books, about the welcome home received by many soldiers after WW I: widespread lack of compassion for those who'd lost limbs, and especially for the "shell-shocked"...it's infuriating to think that people who were relatively safe at home during the war were ungrateful to the youth who'd risked their lives and spent years in the unimaginable misery of the trenches. I checked and found that this callousness was truly widespread and common.

This book is a "War of the Worlds" meets "Titanic" meets "Jurassic Park" sci-fi thriller that you won't want to put down till the end. From out of the silent depths of space, relativistic missiles slam into our solar system at 92% the speed of light: fast enough to impact with the force of multi-megaton nuclear bombs. By page 30, Earth and nearly all her colonies are cratered ruins. The few survivors desperately struggle to escape ultimate annihilation.

As a thought experiment, this is both a scary and intreaguing story. The book offers a plausible answer to why we haven't detected signals from aliens yet. It seems that intelligent life must remain hidden to survive. If it doesn't, there is at least one species out there which will kill any emerging competitors on sight.

The book does have its drawbacks. It spends an inordinate amount of time discussing the Titanic through an survivor's VR program. It goes on a tangent about a Jurrasic Park-inspired future history. It does a fair amount of Christian bashing. On top of it all, the characters have the personalities of carboard cutouts. But the hardcore science provides a feel of "Wow! This could really happen!"

This is an excellent but under recognized work, with a great deal of exciting and creative approaches, that a few groups of surviving humans use in order to attempt to evade being exterminated. If you have a love of science, you will truly be spellbound as the novel unfolds the innovative methods each group of survivors use to remain undetected. The character development is not very deep, but it is more than sufficent to allow you to hope the players survive their ordeals. As many reviewers have previously mentioned, this is not a happy meeting of humans and aliens as we have been taught from the likes of gifted writers such as Sagan and Asimov. However, it is refreshing to have an alternative look from the idea of friendly mentor type aliens. This novel will cause you to wonder if perhaps we are better off alone, or we are hopefully too far away from other creatures in this universe to be detected.

...but that's hardly a complaint, though, since the science is exceptionally good and the scenario is fascinating. If you can live with the fact that characterization is pretty well light-to-nonexistent, it's a damn good read just for the concepts. It's not for everyone, but if you like this sort of thing, tuck in your napkin and dig in.

When the velocity in the equation approaches lightspeed, even a small mass can retain energy far beyond even the largest nuclear explosion.

Other reviewers have blasted Pellegrino as "sick" and "paranoid." Unfortunately, that does not make him wrong. The brutal logic of this book is impossible to dispute. The "hope" that we and other intelligent species evolve beyond warfare is just that - wishful thinking.

As a novel, it is a decent read. Not much character development but lots of interesting science.

While looking for some hard science fiction I happened across THE KILLING STAR by Charles Pellagrino and George Zebrowski. This is hard science fiction at it's best. The novel comprises a number of cautionary tales and thumbs its nose at Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov.

The book opens with relativistic bombs wiping out almost all life in the solar system. Relativistic bombs are missiles (just chunks of rock, really) that have been accelerated to a significant portion of the speed of light. Carl Sagan has stated that any advanced civilization that does not destroy itself becomes peaceful. THE KILLING STAR claims otherwise. I do not recommend this book to anyone that has paranoid tendencies. It is well written and frightening. So clearly frightening that it reminded me of THE HOT ZONE which is nonfiction.

Most of the book follows the few survivors scattered across the solar system and their efforts to survive after the cataclysm. Many interesting scientific studies and theories are brought up muck like in a goor Arthur C. Clarke novel.

So why do aliens try and wipe us out? Michael Jackson wrote a song about unity. Hordes of artists sang it. In 1985 every radio station on the planet broadcast it simultaneously. The song was We Are The World and the broadcast was the single "loudest" shout sent by us into space. Think about the song's message and the way it was broadcast. Read this book.

Wow, what a complex man Gary Evans was. And a huge narcissist if you ask me. This book grabbed me from the beginning and the ending was not what I had expected at all. Matt as usual your thorough investigating on the events are excellent! And some people's reaction of Jim Horton and his relationship with Gary is not fair. I bet if Jim knew earlier and suspected way earlier what Gary really was he would never worked with him as a CI. This is a must read.

Fascinating True Crime Story. Very well written and fast paced.

In true M. William Phelps style, we are introduced to State Officer Jim Horton and professional burgular Gary Evans who, through a series of 496 attention-gripping pages, play a real life of game of Cops & Robbers or Cat & Mouse yet amazingly establish a connection...a friendship, in a skewed sense.

If you are like me and don't mind long, very detail books, you will enjoy this one. Readers are provided with an indepth look into the life of Gary Evans from his meager beginnings; all the while, readers also enjoy a clearly present background of Investigator Jim Horton. And, although not as detailed as the main "characters," the backgrounds of those involved with Evans, whether they be paramour or victim, is also provided to help the reader develop an idea of how that person became involved with Evans and, often later, Horton.

I absolutely loved this book. This is one I would consider to be in the Top 10 of Best Written and All Time Favorites.

If you love true crime, and if you've got a few hours to burn, buy this book. There is something here, something that reaches out of this book and into your mind. You won't put it down, and you won't forget it long after the book is finished. Its like nothing I've ever read before. You are there. The facts, as they come to light,are presented in such a way as to make you feel YOU are the detective. Totally awesome!

I am an avid and continual reader of true crime. In EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE, I feel M. William Phelps has reached the level of some of the truly fine crime writers. (Jack Olsen comes to mind.) This book has all the prerequisites for great true crime: a fascinating story; intelligent literate writing; and meticulous and exhaustive research. Reviews of one of Phelps' more recent books, MURDER IN THE HEARTLAND, chastise Phelps for a sloppy rush job. I can assure you that this is not the case with EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE. This book was clearly a long time in the researching and the writing, and it presents to the reader the reasons contributing to the making of one of the more interesting sociopaths you'll read about. And Gary Evans is indeed a sociopath of the first order.
Additional points for lovers of this genre: the book is well edited. I recall no typos, and very few misused words. The picture section is also interesting and adds to the book, although in the paperback copy I read, the pictures will have fallen out by the 3rd reading.
And, thank God, there is NO interminable courtroom scene description.
I recommend this book unreservedly and totally, even to those who are not in particular true crime devotees.

A delight to read, Tyng's memoir only disappoints by ending too soon. For anyone who has read Morison's Maritime History of Massachusetts or my own recently published BULLOUGH'S POND and wondered what merchant shipping was really like, Tyng has the answers. But you can enjoy this book even if you bring no questions to the table, as long as you enjoy a good adverdure story well told. Diana Muir

Charles Tyng tells a most exciting real life tale which is better than the fiction which movies are made of.
To think of the hardships of a rather rebelious little boy from his mother dying who overcame to become a most successful gentleman is a profile in courage and chivalry. Tyng honestly overcame more by the time he was 15 than most people do in their entire lives.
This would make a most telling movie, but for now this is the perfect diary of life almost unknown from 1812 in America.
A 5 star enthusiastic review.

If you're not already into this stuff, it will put you to sleep.

If on the other hand, like me, the mere mention of the days of tall ships fills your lungs with salt air, gets your sea legs in motion, and gives you a faraway thrill, then this becomes the definitive life story of every sailor who ever went to sea.

And this guy has been through it all: pirates, mutinies, shipwrecks, storms, cruel officers, exotic foreign shores, wars (on both land and sea, including the American revolution and the China traders), sharks, starvation, marriage (that ultimate adventure), disease, and even "haunted" ships.

Beautifully written in the eloquent style of a man who had been an illiterate cabin boy and eventually educated himself with distinction, it even chronicles the effects that his life at sea had upon the way his family saw him and the business world dealt with him, and contains vignettes about minute aspects of life back then that I'd never been aware of.

What a find!

While Charles Tyng's brothers became wealthy as doctors, lawyers and land-based businessmen, Charles (due to his poor study habits) was forced to pursue the much more dangerous and uncertain vocation of sailor and sea-merchant. This is definitely no dry account of business deals. This story is about Charles' struggles against cruel and incompetent superiors, ferocious storms at sea, mutinous and violent crews, pirate attacks, shark attacks and, for good measure a bout with cholera. If even half of Tyng's account is true, he was very, very lucky to live to old age. Tyng was obviously a man who was very curious by nature and so he was able to describe in detail many aspects of the people, places and operations that he witnessed (such as whale hunting, sugar processing, and opium smuggling). Most of it is very interesting because it paints a piture of a world very different from our modern world. Tyng himself is likable, for the most part, although he definitely was a bit of a rogue; he pulls a few pratical jokes on people that adds some humor to the story. I only give it four stars because there were a couple short dry patches in the book. Overall, though, very enjoyable.

I came across a reference to this book when checking the book reviews of another amazon.com reviewer. It is an autobiography of Captain Charles Tyng, covering the early part of his life and, in particular, his career in as a merchant mariner from the time he was 13 to the time he was 31. It was taken from a hand written manuscript which he wrote 45 years after the last event detailed, and not published until 120 years after his death after being found by one of his descendents. He started as a ship's boy, shortly after the end of the War of 1812 on a voyage to Canton, China; rapidly rose to a ship's captain by his own initiative, family connections, and matters of chance; and established his early fortune by the private trading allowed to ships' captains, trading in things as exotic as live monkeys, parrots, bird nests, and other commodities. He had an eye for potential profit. The book details the harsh life of merchant sailors, with miserly ship owners often giving them insufficient food and low pay (if they did not try to steal even that), and bad treatment from some sadistic ships' officers. Captain Tyng managed to become a ship owner at an early age, and was a successful merchant brokering cargo by the time he was 31 (the ending point of the tale). The last chapter covers a conflict in Charleston, SC, between the State and the Federal Government about 30 years before the Civil War when South Carolina passed the Nullification Act, refusing to pay duties on imported goods, and President Jackson sent a frigate to Charleston to enforce the customs and General Scott to restore order in the city. The book is the manuscript pretty much as written and has a few flaws as a novel, e.g., excessive repetition of the phrase, "I can't remember his name," some repetition of descriptions, and a lot of short digressions. It is an interesting historical account providing details of the U.S. merchant service during the early 19th century including shipwrecks, pirates, mutinies, connivery, etc., as well as extensive details of the merchantile business of that era when it was possible to make large profits on a well placed investment. There are some side details such as the U.S. and British business of smuggling opium into China.

LETHAL GUARDIAN (LG) covers the murder for hire of Buzz Clinton by an assortment of low lifes including a pair of thug/misfits, a drug addicted and sexually perverted lawyer, and Clinton's sister in law, Beth Ann Carpenter, who is also a lawyer. I feel about LG much as I did about another M. William Phelps book, PERFECT POISON.

Phelps is a good writer and an exhaustive researcher. This is no cut and paste, casually written, slop job as are many true crime attempts. Phelps has obviously spent a long time in the research and writing of LG and has turned out a creditable and entertaining book.

I have not rated this book 5 stars, however, because, as with PERECT POISON, I have some problems with the writing. I feel that the best true crime is written as reportorially as possible. Phelps does this to a large degree, but there are still too many "signposts", with Phelps indicating if not directly telling the reader what to think. His style is a little too chatty for my taste. This is, however, not criticism so much as observation. It is simply a matter of taste, and Phelps' is clearly different from mine in this regard. And it IS his book.

Secondly, as I have stated, Phelps is a serious and dedicated researcher. But LG is too long, by maybe 50 or so pages. This may be due in part to what I believe is Phelps' problem in deciding what information to omit.

Finally, Phelps engages in repitition - not a lot, but a little - and unnecessary verbiage - not a lot, but a little - which ultimately become somewhat irritating. I noticed this particularly in the last 100 pages or so where it felt as if Phelps started rushing as though he had become slightly tired of writing LG and wanted to hurry up and finish it.
To provide some examples, several times during the trial phase of the book, Phelps provides us with testimony and then reminds us that it "it was up to the jury to decide" its worth. Well, yeah.
As another example, throughout the book, and more than once, Phelps has provided the reader with important and detailed information about the personal weaknesses of the main characters. As such, it wouldn't seem to be necessary in the trial phase to repeat the numerous reasons that these people would be less than stellar witnesses. It has already been made abundantly clear.
And as a final example from page 428: "If the jury was in need of latching onto a particular witness and drawing sympathy from that person, Tricia Gaul was that person - and Kane and McShane knew it." Well OF COURSE they knew it. They have already been described as fine and experienced lawyers who could be presumed to know what they were doing. A little less of this would, in my opinion, improve Phelps' style, increasing its intelligence.

Still Phelps is a good writer and none of my disagreements are at all deal breakers. LG is fast paced and always interesting. Phelps handles both the trial and police investigation parts well. Lesser or unconcerned writers will often quote trial transcript directly, substituting verbatim copying for research, and will routinely discuss the minutiae of police investigation, probably because it is easily obtained, to the point of tedium. Phelps does not, and has no need to, do so.

LETHAL GUARDIAN is very good true crime. I'm glad I read it and I think most fans of the genre will enjoy it.

Leathal Guardian blew my mind. It amazed me that the case was solved at all. Phelps does a great job of digging into the character's past and making it all make some kind of sense. His empathy for the victims shines like a beacon in his writing making him a star in the True Crime venue.
Kari Butler

"Minority opinions" are tricky but this reviewer believes one has to call `em as he sees `em, even if out of step with his friends in the amazon community. LG is a serious, studied tale of a custody dispute between 2 families that goes awry. Terribly awry. Someone meets his/her demise! The Clinton and Carpenter clans are the adversaries and a child names Rebecca is the focal point. LG is set in the area around New London, CT-not a typical true crime locale. Author Phelps weaves an interesting plot with some bizarre true life bad guys, though none qualify as "hardened criminals". In fact, two are decidedly white collar types. This reviewer tries to avoid divulging resolutions but most readers should be relatively satisfied and unshocked by the conclusion. LGs principal weakness, it says here, is its' length. There is too much detail! For example, Beth Carpenter's trip to England and Ireland could have been truncated. A stern editor with a sharp blue pencil should have shed some weight from the text. (Do such editors exist anymore or have they all been laid off?). Many may believe that LGs heft was needed to draw out the characters. As my friend Tundra has already noted, the Ann Rule rule is in effect! Skip those tempting centerfold photos because they divulge everything. For that matter, one should also ignore the front and back covers. There are "hints" thereon! The foregoing aside, true crime aficionados should still enjoy LG. Folks living in eastern Connecticut should pounce; they could easily add a star or two to the admittedly strict rating above.

Author M. William Phelps writes the mouth-dropping, mind-boggling tale of the Carpenters and the Clintons, described perfectly within as modern "Hatfields and McCoys." This well written story is the twisted actions of two attorneys, most specifically Beth Ann Carpenter, who would do anything for love and custody of Beth Ann's niece, Rebecca, respectively. And to accomplish their goals, they seek out low life criminals who will do anything for money to fund their criminal lifestyles.

I found this book to be one of the best true crime stories I have read. It has everything an avid true crime reader loves including dirty little secrets, sordid affairs and kinky sex, devoted parents, and thrill of the chase.

Five stars to this top author and his exceptional true crime book!

Lethal Guardian was an exceptionally well researched and satisfying read. Buzz Clinton was an imperfect man trying to get on the right track in life, who married Kim Carpenter, a young woman who had a vindictive and manipulative family. She brought with her a young daughter whom Buzz wanted to adopt and raise as his own. The Carpenters resented Buzz and fought hard to get legal custody of the daughter. Buzz never backed down, and though the Carpenters did what they could to mar Buzz's character, the legal system found Buzz and Kim to be competent parents. In an effort to remove his new family from the hatefulness and manipulation of Kim's parents and sister, Buzz was preparing to move to Arizona. This didn't sit well with Kim's sister, Beth Ann, who had started her own campaign to get rid of Buzz. Beth Ann used her feminine wiles with both her boyfriend and her boss and anyone else she thought might be useful. Her boss, Haiman Clein, completely smitten with Beth Ann, was a lawyer who not only represented a drug dealer, but was also a heavy cocaine user himself. Beth Ann was able to convince Haiman to find someone to kill Buzz. Hard to believe, but the story gets even better and more complicated. I won't go further into the tale, but Phelps does an excellent job of sorting out all the details and people mixed up in Beth Ann's web. In the end, I felt like everyone got what they deserved. My one question is about what happened with Kim and her children. The Clinton's did all they could to accommodate her and their grandchildren after Buzz's death, but I wasn't clear on what Kim chose to do with her life. I applaud the Clinton's for their strength throughout the long ordeal that finally put those involved in Buzz's murder away.

Mr. Burton Rocks, just wanted to thank you for this amazing work on Yankee baseball player Paul O'Neill. In these days of controversy on Barry Bonds and Pete Rose in baseball, it is refreshing to see sucyh a positive work on a Yankees player like Paul O'Neill. Contratulations and best of luck with your new blogging launch that's puts players like Paul O'Neill in touch with their fans at [...]

This book is about Paul O'Neill and his relationship with his father. His relationship included the life lessons that his father taught him while they were on the diamond. Remember, it is important to have this relationship with a special family member so that you always would have somebody to talk to. I personally enjoyed this book and loved reading it. The book was kind of fuzzy throughout some parts. By this I mean, that some of the book was filled with filler. The book then went on to talk about how his father was important while he was on the road for a long time. In addition, while he was on his way to the majors. It is evident that Paul is a great author and he has great writing abilities. Finally, I would just like to say that this was an all-around great book!

I am a Cincinnati Reds fan and will always associate Paul O'Neill with the Cincinnati Reds and not the Yankees. After all, he grew up in the Columbus, OH area and identified the Reds as his favorite team since childhood. He has also chosen to settle with his family in the Cincinnati area since retiring. The book is a wonderful exploration of the father/son relationship and reveals a human side of Paul O'Neill that we didn't always get to see on the field.

While I can respect the idea of this book as a tribute to his father, I can't recommend it as an entertaining read. Paul O'Neill was a decent ballplayer with the Reds who became a great ballplayer with the Yankees, but he's pretty dull no matter what uniform he wears. This was a nice idea, but check it out of the library unless you live and die Paul O'Neill.

Me and My Dad is Paul O'Neill's tribute to his late father Chuck O'Neill. The book takes you through Paul's life from playing homerun derby in his backyard as a child, to playing in the World Series as a New York Yankee. He places emphasis on his fathers influence and wisdom he shared with him through the many troubles he had in life. Throughout the book Paul tells us about his experiences and how his father could always put a positive spin on everything by relating life to baseball, or baseball to life. The book helps to give the reader a deeper and simpler look at professional athletes.
While it is a must read for any Yankee or Paul O'Neill fan, I can not recommend it to anyone else. Even for a baseball fan like myself it has limited appeal. It is short and not very well written; some parts seem to drag on and on about nothing. Yankee fans will love it just to get a deeper understanding of one of their better players, but others will laugh at Paul's girlyness and grow to dislike him by the end. Because of these reasons, I can only recommend this book to Yankee fans, and possibly women who like to see the softer and more sensitive side of men.

I am a student in high school and this book saved me a lot of time and energy while writing a research paper for English. Any part of "A MIdsummer Night's Dream" that I didn't understnad was right there, explained in terms that anyone could understand. It helped me develop my thesis, and overall saved my paper from a certain 'C+' grade. It was a great book.

I'm a Shakespeare major, and my shelves are bowing under the weight of all my Shakespeare books. SHAKESPEARE A TO Z is the book I reach for most often, whenever I've got questions about the plays.

This book truly is the essential reference, but it is much more than a typical reference book. It's readable, interesting, and thorough. Inside, you'll find passages on every single one of Shakespeare's characters, no matter how minor; detailed analysis, as well as an act-by-act plot summary, on EVERY play; information on locations used in the plays, and MUCH more. Virtually every topic/character/place/important thing in a play is covered in this book.

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Shakespeare's plays, or is involved in the study of Shakespeare. This book not only serves as an accesssible reference, it's also full of thought-provoking facts and ideas.

Don't let the overly casual cover mislead you. This book provides excellent understandable commentary on Shakespeare's works. Using the "dictionary format" one may have to look up the invidual characters within a play, in addition to the play itself, to get all the pertinent information. But what excellent information it is! It contains better plot summaries, including character motivation, play sources, "real" facts for historical characters, and performance information presented more clearly and concisely than similar books. Good for virually all levels of study, reading, or watching the plays.

I love this book. It's fun to keep it handy and just flip through the pages from time to time. Charles Boyce presents from A ("Aaron" in Titus Andronicus) to Z (Zeffirelli, Franco"), an outrageous potpourri of the fictional and the real, the historic and the apocryphal, the comic and the scholarly. It's crammed with commentary, scene-by-scene synopses of plays, character background, background on the sources for the plays, biographical information on Shakespeare and lots of fun trivial information, too. I know my Shakespeare fairly well, but this delightful book always teaches me something new. (For example, there's an entry for the real-life inspiration for Shakespeare's line in HENRY VIII about "some Indian with the great tool come to court.") I think this book would be a great gift for Shakespeare fans. And if you're going to get a Complete Works for the student you know, why not splurge and get this one, too? It's the perfect companion to Shakespeare and easily accessible to all ages.

I'm just a student in high school, and not long ago was recieved the part as Lady Macbeth for our school play Macbeth. My drama teacher recommended this book to me to get an in depth analysis of my character and the rest of the play. I bought the book and I was totally blown away. The information packed in here is tremendous. In this book is everything you'll ever need to know about each play and every character, even if they don't have a speaking part. This book has also helped me with the other Shakespeare plays I read during school for Literature. It's a great study and reference. It's helped me understand so much about the characters and the play, I recommend this to anyone who reads Shakespeare for school or anything, this tells you things even your teacher wouldn't know. It's been truly a life savor, to me and the rest of my cast who couldn't understand what was going on or what their character was about.

The author did a lot of research and glad to have seen the interviews this Chris. I was a coworker of Jeanne and her murder/death was very shocking to all of us at Oxford who knew her. She loved her children very much and spoke of them constantly. Her desk was not disturbed for almost two months. Cards, flowers and photos of her appeared in her work space nearly every day. Even if bill sullivan gets another trial I sincerely hope that the verdict is the same and he stays permanently in jail. I don't think he'll every change.

When murder unexpectedly strikes a small New England town, hitting a single mother and affecting a teen daughter and her older internet lover, a tangled web of psychological drama ensues in this powerful investigative mystery, narrated by J. Charles - who has 50 years background in professional theatre - and perfect for any lending library strong in suspense audios.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Phelps really explores the characters involved in this human tragedy. Jeanne, the victim, was a struggling single mother working three jobs to support her two children. Her two teenage children could barely be brought to help with household chores. Jeanne was a loving person who reached out and tried to help others, even though her lot in life seemed terribly difficult.

The most chilling part of the story is that it was her daughter and her daughter's teenage boyfriend who planned the violent, sickening murder. The author explains the thought processes of the teenagers involved and they will make your flesh crawl.

One thing not covered was what I wondered about most, though. What was the moral background of the teenage daughter, and did she ever have any religion classes? There is a hint that she was into the occult, but that is not enough. The book was so good that I still want to know more!

I LOVE TRUE CRIME AND THIS AUTHOR IS A GOOD ONE. HE DID A GOOD JOB BRINGING THE VICTIM BACK TO LIFE. I FELT, AT TIMES, LIKE I'D KNOWN HER. SOMETIMES HE WENT A LITTLE OVERBOARD WITH THE FIANCE AND HIS FEELINGS.IT WAS A TRAGIC STORY TO TELL BUT HE HANDLED IT WELL.

Because You Loved Me is a case study of different sorts of love, platonic, parental, romantic, and obsessive. It's easy to predict which type will go wrong. The High Queen of the drama queens, Nicole, falls in a twisted sort of love with macho manipulator Billy, and in a metter of days, she is blind to all the good things in her life. Her mom, her friends, her education, her home - Nicole no longer sees value in any of this, and when Billy enters the picture, purely by chance, her daily existence changes from normal to, in her estimation, a living hell. And suddenly, she cannot fathom how she can possibly live without this guy whom she barely knows. Together, Nicole and Billy make fateful choices that will ensure that they will have to live without each other, forever and ever. What is surprising is that they were so blind to the fact that their actions would have irreversible, devastating consequences.

M. William Phelps is a skilled researcher who knows how to delve for facts and nuances, and page by page, he uncovers the details, delineating the story of this young couple's disastrous obsession from its inception to its miserable conclusion. He approaches this murder from three angles, that of the victim and her fiance, that of the besotted, daughter and her maladjusted suitor, and that of the legal system. This is no mystery story; rather, it is a dissection of the anatomy of a crime committed by two terribly misguided, hysterical teens. It is nothing less than chilling, another example about what can happen when children are improperly parented. Highly recommended.

This book is one of the most meaningful of all time and one I think should be read more often than just watched on television during the Christmas season. It is a tale of a small, cruel, and heartless man changing into a kind and generous soul. He is helped by a long dead friend, Jacob Marley, who wishes to save Scrooge of a eternal fate of walking the Earth forever with the weight of his sins upon him. Jacob changes Scrooge by having him haunted by three ghosts who show him all the people he has hurt and all the people he will hurt if he does not change.
After the spirts visit Scrooge he rewards the Cratchit family with an anonomously sent Goose and immediately finds a charity, to which he generously donates. He also makes amends with his nephew Fred that has been trying to change Scrooge for years. Finally he helps Bob Cratchit by raising his salary so that Tiny Tim may survive.
I think this book is great for the family and though it is a little difficult I think it is suited for anyone over 12 years old.

I had to read this for Language Arts last year and I absolutely hated it. No matter how many times I reread the Staves, I still couldn't understand it. It is just a bunch of details, not a tied-together broad image. If you like to get confused and are in High School or older, be my guest and read this monstrosity.

This book is one of the most meaningful of all time and one I think should be read more often than just watched on television during the Christmas season. It is a tale of a small, cruel, and heartless man changing into a kind and generous soul. He is helped by a long dead friend, Jacob Marley, who wishes to save Scrooge of a eternal fate of walking the Earth forever with the weight of his sins upon him. Jacob changes Scrooge by having him haunted by three ghosts who show him all the people he has hurt and all the people he will hurt if he does not change.
After the spirits visit Scrooge he rewards the Cratchit family with an anonymously sent Goose and immediately finds a charity, to which he generously donates. He also makes amends with his nephew Fred that has been trying to change Scrooge for years. Finally he helps Bob Cratchit by raising his salary so that Tiny Tim may survive.
I think this book is great for the family and though it is a little difficult I think it is suited for anyone over 12 years old.

This book is one of the most meaningful of all time and one I think should be read more often than just watched on television during the Christmas season. It is a tale of a small, cruel, and heartless man changing into a kind and generous soul. He is helped by a long dead friend, Jacob Marley, who wishes to save Scrooge of a eternal fate of walking the Earth forever with the weight of his sins upon him. Jacob changes Scrooge by having him haunted by three ghosts who show him all the people he has hurt and all the people he will hurt if he does not change.
After the spirts visit Scrooge he rewards the Cratchit family with an anonomously sent Goose and immediately finds a charity, to which he generously donates. He also makes amends with his nephew Fred that has been trying to change Scrooge for years. Finally he helps Bob Cratchit by raising his salary so that Tiny Tim may survive.
I think this book is great for the family and though it is a little difficult I think it is suited for anyone over 12 years old.

Critiquing Dickens' Christmas Carol is a misnomer. Rather, it is Dickens who critiques us with this masterwork.

A Christmas Carol has burrowed into the very heart of our Western Culture to where few people would be confused if you referred to someone as a "Scrooge," that is to say a skinflint, miser.

Aside from presenting us with some of the most memorable images in literature as Scrooge is taken by the Ghosts of the Past, Present and Future to review his life and probable ending, we are brought along with his and given opportunity to review those elements in our own lives.

A Christmas Carol was not just a nice story of the Christmas Season to give warmth and cheer.

Far from it!

Dickens had an agenda. Just as in his other famous works, like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, Dickens longed to make a social statement to draw attention to the poor in England, their plight and hardship. A Christmas Carol is about Scrooge as a person, but also as representing a class of the wealthy whose abundance is wrested from the large working poor such as Cratchett and his family. THEY are the point. THEY are the ones Dickens sought to draw to public attention.

Heaven help us is we simply see this book as nostalgia and fail to see the point Dickens had to make then and which still applies today!