Payback Books

This book is a very inspiring story about a boy named Danny whose dream is to become a soldier. That dream changes when he is rejected by the British Army RCB Center because his grandfather Fergus Watts betrayed the SAS regiment. Now Danny wants to hunt down the man who ruined his dreams. But how can he find someone who is an expert in covert operations and trained to avoid capture? This is the main plot in the story. You will think of it as a boring book in the start, but as you read deeper into the book it gets more and more exciting and you will never want to put it down until you reach the conclusion. When you reach the end, you will feel a little sad to know that people believe that Fergus was the traitor but he really wasn't. Danny was not able to clear his name and will have to remain in hiding. I would recommend this book to 4th graders and above because I noticed that the characters swear a lot. If you are interested in military stories grab yourself Andy Mcnab books on SAS training. I give this book a 4 star rating.

I love any any book,fiction or non-fiction that is based on military or secret service(aka MI6,CIA).I even like books about the military hardware.Since I'm not a huge reading fan,I prefer video games and movies lol typically.But I enjoy reading from time to time.so the only authors I've read books from that are military based are Tom Clancy(good videogames to),Dan Brown and Andy McNab.

I saw the book "Boy Soldier" in my school library,I knew by the title and "Sgts stripes" on the front cover as well as the snipers view that this book would be military related.So I started reading instantly,and I'm completely glued to it.Since its a fairly long book,I read it from Wednesday to now.I hid it under a book shelf,bookmarked and so far on page 133.I wasn't allowed to borrow it,because in my school you ain't allowed the borrow any books if you have any overdue books,and I owe the library 3 books since July.So today,I actually pinched it for the weekend.

This book is set in England and is about a teenager who is about 17 years old,his name is Danny Watts and has the life long dream to join the Army,he applies and completes the training coarses,even doing more than he has to and even in relaxation time,he avoids alcohol,unlike other candidates who go to the pub for beer in relxation time.But he just has a Diet Coke if he goes.However his application is turned down,not because he failed the training but because of his grandfather,an ex-SAS special forces soldier who won many medals and served in the Gulf War who on a mission in Colombia in about 1997,was thought to have betrayed his country and started dealing drugs in Colombia.The English Media despised him of this and was thought to have died in jail.

Danny,never knew his grandfather that well,all he knew is that he was in the Army and had an old photo of him.Danny is completely set off about this and he too hates his grandfather,but him and his best friend,Elene a star student who got a load of A's in her GCSE's try to discover more about this mysterious legendary soldier.
But on his journey begins to get tailed and watched by operatives of a secret service who are armed and hot on his tail.a sub-contience was bothering him,but nobody believes him.
It looks like I've spoiled alot of it but this is only beginning stuff of the book.

There are some issues though for example Andy was an SAS operative himself once,but I don't think he actually wrote this.some of the gun details are wrong,not most but some of them are.
he desribes the MP5 as an "AUtomatic Machine Gun" when its not precisely that,it actually a selective fire submachine gun.and NVG stands for Night VISION Goggles NOT Night VIEWING Goggles.But he got all the other data right though.

But still great book and I plan to read all of its sequels soon.

OK bye.

They are the same books under different names (and I bought both!). It is obvious that Mcnab did not really 'write' this one as there are some obvious mistakes such as describing an MP5 as an 'automatic machine gun', which irritates the hell out of me. One does not find the usual high quality material that is associated with the 'Nick Stone' series. Most of the SAS MO is old had have been seen elsewhere. The plot is somwwhat anemic and it appears that Danny manages to screw up just so that there is some shooting. I am personally quite dissapointed with this new series.

Having read all of Andy McNab's "Nick Stone" novels, I thought I'd try this YA book and ordered it from amazon.co.uk. I didn't see it in the bookstores here (though the third book in the series TRAITOR is on sale).

The story surrounds 17-yr-old Danny Watts's tracking down of his grandfather, Fergus Watts, whom he has never seen. Both of Danny's parents were killed in a car accident, so he was sent from foster home to foster home thinking he had no living relatives to take him in and care for him. When Danny tries to enlist in the army, he is denied acceptance. He learns his grandfather was a member of the elite SAS and a war hero, who turned traitor for drug money when he was serving in Columbia training their military, was shot and imprisoned, and then escaped to no one knows where. Full of anger, Danny is determined to find him. He is helped along the way by his computer wiz friend Elena who also lives at Foxcroft, a London home for orphans. Danny sets out to find Fergus, not knowing that he is being followed by some very dangerous people who also want to find Fergus and kill him. He meets his grandfather for the first time and that's when the action begins.

I think the book was mostly written by co-author Robert Rigby with technical assistance and name recognition from Andy McNab. If you've read any of McNab's other books, you'll know that they are full of military terms and "letters," as is this one. By that I mean, there are abbreviations for many things and they are used a lot: ERV = emergency rendezvous; FOB = forward operating base; Recce = reconnaissance, etc. This, I think, is where McNab came in. Fortunately, there is a glossary at the beginning of the book to help the reader understand what's being said by the characters.

I don't agree with the previous reviewer. It is still a good story in the vein of McNab's adult thrillers, but toned down for the YA audience. For those who are looking for another Alex Rider type of action/techno-gizmo yarn, you'll be disappointed. There are chases and shootings and bloody parts, but nothing like the James Bond special effects books about Alex Rider, though I do like Horowitz's novels.

In Barbara A. Kiger's novel Payback, Ginny Arthur learns her client has been shot in the second paragraph, dead bodies turn up in the next two pages, and the pace doesn't relent until the final word.

The novel introduces an engaging cast of characters, starting with a plucky heroine. A lawyer by training, Ginny operates Arthur & Arthur Security Agency, which she inherited from her uncle in the wake of a scandal. Uncle David, who raised Ginny after her parents' deaths, used the security company to set up a series of robberies and then disappeared before he could be arrested. As Ginny deals with her uncle's betrayal and unravels who shot her client, she receives a black eye and a concussion and is grazed by a bullet, but through all the mayhem, she keeps her sense of humor.

The action begins when Dr. Leslie Parker's husband Bryan and his lover are shot dead in a motel room. Dr. Parker tells her lawyer Ginny that a man called her and told her to go to the motel room. She says that when she arrived, she saw blood-her husband's and his lover's. Then a scar-faced man pointed a gun at her, and she fled. EMTs found Leslie sitting in her car, bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound and sputtering her husband's name.
Leslie is more than Ginny's client; she is also a friend, who is renting Uncle David's apartment. Ginny promises to help Leslie find out who killed her husband and to take care of personal business for her while she is hospitalized, such as arranging for Bryan's cremation, taking care of Leslie's cats, and recovering the couple's vehicles and confiscated personal property from police investigators.

Dr. Steve Brock operates on Leslie to remove the bullet. Besides his medical expertise, Brock brings an element of romance to the novel as Ginny's lover. Their relationship is passionate but complicated by his anger when Ginny repeatedly exposes herself to danger and conceals from him just how perilous situations have been.

Another complication is the obvious attraction that Detective MacPhearson feels for Ginny. Ginny growls and grumbles at Mac, yet the magnetism between them grows as they elude a monster snowplow and hunt down the murderer.

Ginny learns that Leslie's husband Bryan had other secrets besides his affairs. After Uncle David's apartment is trashed, a scar-faced man is murdered there, and Ginny narrowly escapes being killed herself; she speculates that drugs are behind the double homicide. The dead man with the scar was Tim Williams, a known drug distributor connected to the Sandcastle, the hottest nightclub in Marion City. Ginny and MacPhearson pursue these drug traffickers, who have no intention of letting the law get in their way.

Drug distribution becomes personal when Thelma, long-time secretary for Arthur & Arthur Security Agency, learns her grandson Kevin has been arrested for buying crack from Tim Williams before his death. As his lawyer and friend of the family, Ginny helps Kevin confront a moral dilemma and straighten out his life.

Despite Ginny's aversion to guns, her friend in the police department, Lt. Larry Rhodes, buys one for her and signs her up for shooting lessons. Events pull Ginny inexorably forward to the confrontation when her life will depend on using the weapon. Betrayal and revenge are the forces that drive the clever murderer, who in the end, comes face to face with Ginny.
Even though he is never seen, one of the most intriguing characters of the novel is Uncle David, a man whose presence teases at every turn, right up to the action-packed conclusion. His crimes and his abandonment haunt the niece who loved him like a father. Unanswered questions about Uncle David beg for a sequel.

I loved getting to know Ginny Arthur and all the people in her world. Ginny is smart, gutsy, and a lot of fun to read about. The plot draws you in and keeps you turning the pages. I loved the surprise ending.

very well written mystery with characters that you fill like are your new best friends. You fill all of their pain as the novel progesses. The ending has the required test that is unexpected.

My motivation for 3/5 is that this comic, albeit funny, is the first of the "Rocky" books, and in my opinion, the character didn't mature fully until later in the series. If the book was in Swedish, I'd rate it 4/5, because the English translation removes a lot of the elements of humor, and to a certain extent some of the quirks that makes it funny in the first place.

As a native Swede, I have to admit that much of the humor and warmth in this comic stems from the author's use of colloquial expressions and language use in general. Much of the books' humor also contains many references to pop culture only known to Swedes.

But that being said, **GET IT**, I think as someone who appreciated the Swedish humor in the book, I felt a bit robbed, but it's very funny nonetheless.

It was a big surprise to see an English translation of Martin Kellerman's Rocky, a strip which was a big part of my learning to speak Swedish many years ago- and one which for me felt long overdue, given the difficulty of getting Swedish graphic novels outside of their native country. It's also a great introduction to the Swedish adult comic scene, which took me by surprise when I first travelled there, as it is as vibrant and sophisticated as any similar publishing scene in the world, and adult in every sense of the word, not just the adolescent sex-and-violence you see ever-so-frequently in other so-called 'adult' comic scenes.
Which isn't to say that you won't find sex and violence here- far from it- but you can also expect to see witty characterisations, rib-busting laughter and insight into the twisted lives of the universal twentysomethings by the bucketful. Plus it saves me from having to translate word-for-word this great strip to Australian friends who generally don't speak Swedish- officially one of the world's most impractical second languages.
From a technical perspective, it's great too- while it took me awhile to get used to Rocky et al speaking (American) English, the translation does a great job of conveying the humour of this series, something that's often lacking in other comic translations. All in all, I cannot recommend this graphic novel highly enough, although if you've got the time and the inclination, learn Swedish and dive further into the Swedish scene- you won't regret it. Probably.

I came at Rocky from the other direction - having learned Swedish years before, I was looking around for good Swedish web comics and found Rocky through Dagens Nyheter. I've been a big fan ever since.

Martin Kellerman's sense of humor is uproarious and I can't help but laugh in recognition of Rocky's "Why *me*, for @%#!'s sake?!" anger at trying to get by in the modern world. He may live in Sweden, but the situation he and his friends get themselves into perfectly mirror the experiences of the twenty- (and thirty-) somethings living from check to check in any major city around the globe. It's one of those rare mainstream comics that are worth reading again and again - for episodes like "Rabbit Goes to the Country", individual strips, or even the stage business Kellerman plants in many of the strips behind the ongoing conversation. Martin Kellerman deserves every bit of exposure he can get in the English-speaking world.

Now for the technical bit. If you're not a translator like I am, you can probably skip this and not miss too much.

I met the translator of this book at SPX 2006 in Bethesda MD, where I bought this book and talked to him briefly about the project. He doesn't speak Swedish - he grew up speaking Danish, but since he works for Fantagraphics they chose him to do it. For any serious translator, this should raise a big red flag.

It shows in the work. Among other gaffes, there are several strips where he mistranslates "granne" as 'grandparents' when it means 'neighbors'; he inexplicably changes "Costa Rica" to "Malta"; and in one strip ("Say something sexy in Swedish") he alters the original text. These are all errors any translator who is serious about the profession really should strive to avoid. For someone like me who enjoys Rocky in both Swedish and English, this takes away from what is otherwise a spectacular work. Fantagraphics folks, you should consider hiring someone who actually works in Swedish to English for the forthcoming volumes. Just so you know, I'm easy to find.

Those looking for anything like a conventional musical bio should go to "Mingus, a Critical Biography" by Brian Priestley; "Underdog" isn't that at all; it's an artifact of Mingus' peculiar world-view at a particularly hard time in his life.


Mentally ill? Mingus was long noted for fits of depression (in spite of repeated success in the music industry, he nevertheless ended up working for the post office on a number of occasions) and a volcanic temper (he re-counts an on-stage knife-fight with Ellington trombonist Juan Tizol, but leaves out mention of his punching Jimmy Knepper in the mouth hard enough to break teeth). He sometimes channeled it for art: he was probably the first musician ever to release an album ("Black Saint") with liner notes from his psychoanalyst. In "Underdog", he recounts checking himself into Bellvue Hospital, in an ill-considered search for "some rest". That got him, he says, an offer of a lobotomy, but also yielded a song, "Hellview of Bellvue/Lock 'em Up", and he raised the interesting question: if a somewhat successful half-black jazz musician in 1960's America believed that people were out to steal from him and oppress him, was he acutely paranoid, just observant, or both?

Sexually escapist, and scatological? Well, yes, but before feminism, or political correctness, and not without pay-back: the man who bragged of trying to bury his misery in [...] and dope never apparently finds them to be a satisfactory release, and after all the orgies, writes a tune called "Half-Mast Inhibition". . .

So, listen to the music first. See the short b&w documentary. If you want accurate linear bio information or critical analysis, go to the Priestly book. Then put on "Black Saint", "Mingus Am Uh", or "Blues and Roots", and read this.

If you are a fan of Charles Mingus' music, you will certainly enjoy this wonderfully bombastic character in his autobiography. His story has his life woven in with some fictionalized characters and segments "jazzed" in, which adds quite a peculiar nature to his work. However, you will never guess what segments are true and which aren't. The work is very peculiar as an autobiography, revealing more the conversations and the feelings he underwent through his travels as opposed to a straight narrative from beginning to end. His work goes through a path of flashbacks and such, with a major emphasis on women (esp. his lovers), the road, and his jazz music. The interesting people he meets in his travels are well interweaved, and really make the story. My only criticism is when this "jazz" story starts to ramble out into peculiar segments which seem to lose your attention. The work tends to well reflect the chaotic nature of this genius. It is also a treat to listen to his music while reading... One of the many pleasures I've undertaken in. Highly recommended reading.

Expatriate African American writer Chester Himes's complicated life is the subject of a biography published in 2000 by detective novelist James Sallis, a longtime Himes champion. Sallis's biography weighs in at 368 pages. It is readable despite numerous repetitions and some awkwardness about introducing other figures in Himes's life, but Sallis's book does not seem to be based on any new research and relies almost entirely on reviews contemporary to the original publications of Himes's book augmented by what academic critics have written. It is very odd that Sallis provides so little of his own reading of Himes's writing.

The biographical research on which Sallis draws very, very heavily and without citation is the discerning and more succinct (209-page) 1997 biography by Edward Margolies and Michel Fabre, _The Several Lives of Chester Himes_. Margolies and Fabre knew Himes in his later years and did serious biographical research on Himes (and other black American expatriates to France, especially Richard Wright, who helped Himes in many ways when he moved to Paris). Sallis adds no discernible research and does not make more sense of Himes than they did, so I would recommend the Margolies and Fabre biography in preference to the Sallis one (and on Himes's writing, Stephen Milliken's 1976 book _Chester Himes_). One may read both biographies and both volumes of Himes' "memoirs" and still wonder "Who was this guy?" and "What made him tick?" (Himes's own answer was "hurt," but the way he deployed the category made it all but meaningless.)

"The Encyclopedia of TV & Movie Insults" is a great pop culture guide to put-downs, paybacks, pejorative nicknames and other foul phrases from classic movies and television.

As actress Bette Davis might say, "The Encyclopedia of TV & Movie Insults" takes the reader on a bumpy ride through the slings and arrows of outrageous affronts.

Flipping through the 292 page text, you can relive at a glance, all the anger, bigotry, meanness and hate that Hollywood has to offer.

Some examples: "Jane, you ignorant slut!"; "Yo mama!"; "Mother pus bucket!"; "You Dirty Rat!"; "Humbug!"; "Meathead!"; "Bite me, Pig!"; "Dummy!"; "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"; "Go ahead, make my day!"; "You'll shoot your eyes out!"; and "Hasta la vista, baby!"

And those are the nice insults. You book also contains darker and crueler sayings guaranteed to satisfy the more discerning TV and Movie buff.

The book also has a nifty appendix that lists such Top Ten TV & Movie Insult categories as "Foul Bits of Movie Wisdom," "Movie Threats," "Pejorative TV Character Nicknames" and the "Most Disgusting Movie Phrases" of all times.

A good coffee table book. Extremely browsible and a good reference for classic insults.

This novel moves African-American literature beyond African American, and ironically by way of it's oldest from, the slave narrative. Using his strong philosophical background in eastern religions and texts, Johnson appies Bhuddist and Taoist ideas of the self to deal with the concept of race in America. This book operates on many levels, some we've seen before in African American texts, which he uses as a backdrop for his transcendence of the slave narrrative's limitations. Incorporating these eastern influences into the novel sheds new light on the search for racial identity, and gender identity of the biracial chimera that narrates the tale. Johnson keeps the many ideas and happenings of the novel from being overbearing with a wonderful humor. The combinations of texts, and cultures make the reader reevaluate the very concept of race, and its history in America. An enlightening and very entertaining read, I highly reccommend it. (I save 5 stars for classics)

The back cover text is not currently available on this page, so I'm including it here...

START OF BACK COVER TEXT
Senator Darlene Christmas is the scion of the rich and powerful family that has controlled Mason County for generations. A predatory, ruthless politician, she has ensnared the county in a deadly web of greed and corruption.

Darlene's former classmates Jess Marceau and Mamie Todd learned the hard way what happens when the Senator is crossed. Jess was on her way to a promising career in journalism -- until she reported a story that the Senator wanted killed. Blindsided by Darlene, Jess was arrested and imprisoned for a crime she did not commit. Mamie, a hot-shot lawyer in the prosecutor's office, was disbarred when she refused to do the Senator's bidding.

Strengthened by the love they'd been afraid to acknowledge, Jess and Mamie return to Mason Counto to confront the evil that still festers there. It won't be easy. The only way their plan can work is if they put themselves in Darlene's power once again. And the Senator has plans of her own for Jess...

A gripping thriller of romance, revenge, and betrayal, Payback will hold you spellbound from cover to cover!!
END OF BACK COVER TEXT

As is so often not the case, the above text is actually a pretty good description of what happens in the book. Cohen does a nice job creating the story, but is an average writer overall. However likable, the characters in 'Payback' seem to appear out of nowhere, with little background available to the reader. They are relatively one-dimensional and have an almost unhealthy desire for revenge. Let's face it... at some point a person has to move on and start living life again.

I would like to give the book a 3.5 star rating, but rounded up as my only real option. This was an enjoyable read that required very little brain power to understand. Life won't end if you miss it, but it's worth the effort to pick up a copy if you get the chance.

Sly Rogers invites his friend private investigator Billy Oliphant and daughter Kirsty to spend a pleasant wintry weekend at Forestcrag Moorland Holiday Village. The trek to the remote North England resort is not fun, but Bill expects a luxurious relaxing few days spent with his daughter. However, director David Morland wants to hire Billy to quietly investigate the recent poisoning of employees. Billy says no wanting to just R&R with Kirsty and not impact his work waiting for his return home.

A nasty storm strands the occupants of Forestcrag. When the corpse of payroll manager Eric Salkeld is found hanging, Billy calls the local police, who cannot easily get to the death scene. Though it appears a simple suicide, the locals ask Billy as a former cop to conduct a preliminary investigation and to contain the scene until they arrive. He also receives a warning from the police that someone he once arrested has escaped and is in the area. Meanwhile Billy notices marks on the body making him conclude the so-called suicide is a cover up of a murder.

Fans of suspense laden investigation thrillers will feel they gained much PAYBACK from Alan Dunn's novel that reads somewhat like a police procedural once the first of several murders occur. The story line is very exciting so much so that the well-written climax seems weak by comparison. Still, Billy is a delightful lead character and those close to him accentuate the audience's ability to understand the hero's preference of non-involvement. When all is said and done, readers will appreciate PAYBACK and look for more novels from this British author.

Harriet Klausner

This is Ms Leigh's best yet. She changes her style and it is exciting and
very professional. The storyline moves along smoothly and keeps the reader turning the page as quickly as possible. This suspense novel takes place in the current political situation. It has personality, love interest as well as a serial killer. Good read. Go for it fellow book lovers.