Escape Books

This isn't great literature or particularly "deep" writing, but it's a fun, readable book about a yellow fever epidemic in postwar Memphis. As in Brewer's other book, the most appealing character is veteran Masey Baldridge, with his bad leg, drinking problem and indifferent manners. In No Escape Brewer starts to hint at a romance between Salina, the rather anachronistically spunky female lead, and Masey, which all seems a bit stereotypical and silly. In this book, the setting and the descriptions of the epidemic are better than the plot, which is a little shallow. Still, it's an entertaining evening's read.

In the late summer of 1873, yellow fever grips the southern half of the Mississippi River. Since the first death in Memphis by the deadly disease occurred over a month ago, over a hundred fatalities has been reported. Besides worrying about the disease, Mayor Johnson is concerned that someone is stealing funds from the Howard Association, a charitable organization fighting yellow fever. Johnson hires the Big River Detective Agency to learn who is robbing money needed for the city during this crisis.

The three partners, who make up Big River Agency begin to investigate. Salina Tyner goes undercover as a nurse, working for the Howard Association. Masey Baldridge begins to look into the strange murders of two men, who were already dying from the disease. Though quarantined to his riverboat, Luke Williamson keeps his irate passengers from mutiny as they await the okay to finally enter the city.

NO ESCAPE is a fabulous entry in one of the best historical mystery series on the market today. Though the characters are all intriguing, it is the disease that stars in this fast-paced novel. Readers will also quickly be caught up with the fear that a true serial killer is on the loose, making for a real life horror tale. This is one author who's the brew-master of historical mysteriese. Readers who have not tried Mr. Brewer's Big River Detective series should try this novel and the previous four books for a great historical sleuthing experience.

Harriet Klausner

No Escape is for every historical mystery buff who enjoys all those mysteries set in England, Egypt or Ancient Rome, but asks - why aren't there any good mysteries set here in America? Here it is. The Civil War is over, but the country will never be the same again, nor will the men and women who survived it. It was a terrible time for them, but it makes great reading for us, especially when the story is told with James Brewer's skill.

Masey Baldridge, a wounded Confederate veteran struggling in alcohol's grip, teams up with former Union officer turned riverboat captain Luke Williamson to solve crimes along the Mississippi. Of course, they'd be lost without the help of Sally Tyner, who's determined to leave her career as a prostitute by becoming a private investigator. This threesome has been building since the series began, and they're now a formidable team.

No Escape presents a dual danger - murder and epidemic. Will they find the killer before one of them succumbs to Yellow Fever? Will Masey once again stumble to the rescue?

Besides presenting a good mystery for readers to enjoy, No Escape lets us immerse ourselves in life along the Mississippi (the Father of Waters) in the years after the Civil War. And no, this is not just another western. There really was more to American life 130 years ago than cowboys, Indians, and cavalry. And this book takes us there - the waterfront, life and death in Memphis, the fear, the danger.

The Baldridge, Williamson, Tyner detecting trio really make the stories, never getting overwhelmed by the fascinating backdrop, the history, life on the Mississippi. They'll make a new reader want to go back and get each book in the series, and then wait for the next one to come out.

And now, one gripe. The stories are good enough to sustain a longer book, go for it. Readers will enjoy the added pages, not wanting to leave the sleuths and return to the 20th century.

The best thing about the book is that it is believable. With that being said, it's just not real compelling.

An entertaining story. It's hard to imagine escaping from an interment camp simply to climb a mountain, planning to return to camp afterwards! And it is even harder to imagine planning such a climb with the sparse resources available.

An extremely well-written book, especially considering the author was not writing in his native language. A crazy idea about climbing a mountain by 3 novices; crazier still under the circumstances of escaping from a POW camp with the intention of returning. I bought the book after having read the story in National Geographic "Adventure" of 2 experienced & well-outfitted mountaineers who re-traced their steps. The original is better!

This just seemed too 'glamorish' of him. Yes, I can see how it can affect one to grow up as he did, but come now, he chose to 'kill' by his own choices. Kill...not steal or do drugs but KILL. Not just once. No, that does not give the right to officers/etc to be cruel, but come now, don't 'do' crime and you won't have to worry about it....that would put the officers OUT of a job!

Just trying to win our 'sympathy' is how I read it. Was interesting, but not 'great'.

Joe Sullivan's life has been documented through this book as a product of the "correctional facilities" of the US. In this book you will find a strong criticism of the correctional system and the results that it has for our society. It is a great biography that will make a great hollywood film someday. The book really goes deep into the mind of a person that the correctional systems (that the jails are suppose to be) has created.

What an awesome read!!! Finally, the sleeping bull awakens to let the rest of us know his true story. Gail throws it all at us and Joe holds no punches. Be prepared for intrigue, brutal honesty, and blunt in your face challenges. Joe, though destined to die in prison, is more alive and perceptive than ever. Told through Gail, Joe's story will have you laughing, crying and empathizing. What would terrify us is his world and experiences, but even he sees that world with the truth that it is. Not only a fine biography, but a great lesson in rough justice and one man's journey as a notorious hitman...He now in his 60s has been locked in a box, but still reaches out to us, not for glory or fame, but to show all that can go bad in a life and how to avoid a similar fate...EXCELLENT BOOK...
David in Dallas

The Animals was an exciting story.The setting of the story in Germany in 1944.The main characters in the book were Clay, Danison,and Dulon.My favorite character was Clay becouse he was very smart.My favorite part of the book was when Clay crashed into a German Army base.I would recommend this book to friends my age who like stories about war because it is very cool.

The Animals is a book that lacks length. I gave it a four because it's a really exciting book and a good historical fiction. It needs to be longer though.1. The setting is Germany 1944. The story is about the captain of a B-17 American bomber who gets shot down and crashes in Germany. He is brought to a German doctor and is treated and questioned by the Gestapo, Hitler's secret police, then he is informed of the German's secret plot. The assisantation of Winston Churchill. a German squadron is going to disguise itself as an American squadron of B-17's and crash into Churchill's house. I thought the story was very exciting and I was satisfied with it. An element that was represented in this book is suspense. You know it's the it's close to the end of World War Two and an American bomber pilot is being held in Germany. What's going to happen to him? I would recommend this book to those who like a good historical fiction.

Ed and Doreen Dulka take turns writing chapters in this account of their time in Colombia. The first chapter opens with Ed's first trip up the Caño Ti river to the village that would become Nazareth, their mission post and home for some years. The chief of the village had become a Christian, and he made their work a little easier in the beginning. They thought they were making progress, until they went on furlough. When they returned, they found that most of the people had walked away from the Lord, and were also growing coca plants. They didn't realize the detriment of cocaine, they only knew that the men who bought the leaves paid well for them. The Lord worked in the hearts of the people, however, and eventually Nazareth hosted their own Bible conference for the other villages. Shortly after the conference, the communist guerillas paid the Dulkas a visit. No one was hurt, but when they left, the Dulkas cleared out in a hurry. They were just in time, for they heard the guerillas return and hunt for them. As they traveled down the river, the guerillas were close behind, but they made it Mitu, the nearest town, and took a plane back to the USA. On the plane with them was one of the communist scouts who had checked them out before the guerillas visited! There was no trouble, however, and they made it to safety. The Dulkas heard that the Christians they left behind have been faithful, even in the face of persecution and death, and the Dulka's burden is that people would pray for the young church on the Caño Ti.

It was encouraging to read about people today who have faced dangers to take the Lord's Word to people. They had a holy mission, and mighty God to take care of them in it!

This book gives a clear picture about missions and what a family experienced. They had a mighty God an there side!

Summary: Two young guys (linguist and pilot) are planning to go for a hunt to an Exotic Planet until a stranger in whit pants and cap shows up and asks them for a favor: Fly him to an uninhibited planet anywhere in the Universe. That sounds like a swell plan to spend a vocation until the arrive to the planet and find it in the middle of Dark Age. They fill an obligation to interfere...but should they?

Personal Thoughts: the story is intriguing, the characters ar well developed and as always in Strugatskys' books there is a certain philosophical twist with some thoughts about social structure and marality of the individual. However the ending confused me quite a bit. i just finished the book and didn't have time to think about it but it does leave you a little bit puzzled. Over all an excellent read.

Summary: Two young guys (linguist and pilot) are planning to go for a hunt to an Exotic Planet until a stranger in whit pants and cap shows up and asks them for a favor: Fly him to an uninhibited planet anywhere in the Universe. That sounds like a swell plan to spend a vocation until the arrive to the planet and find it in the middle of Dark Age. They fill an obligation to interfere...but should they?

Personal Thoughts: the story is intriguing, the characters ar well developed and as always in Strugatskys' books there is a certain philosophical twist with some thoughts about social structure and marality of the individual. However the ending confused me quite a bit. i just finished the book and didn't have time to think about it but it does leave you a little bit puzzled. Over all an excellent read.

Escape from Amsterdam was a surprisingly good read. It is the story of a Japanese college student in substantial debt over Mah Jong gambling loses. His Aunt has left him a large inheritance but he needs his sister to sign some papers first. Unfortunately, he doesn't know where she is.

The novel describes his adventures in finding his sister in modern Japan. The story is both an adventure tale and an amusing travelogue though one aspect of modern Japanese culture.

This is the author's first novel, but you wouldn't know that from the writing. While I would describe Escape as a light read (a few hours of good entertainment), there is also a subtle understory about the yearning for traditional Japan.

University of Kyoto student Aozora Fujiwara has run up quite a gambling debt to local gangster Mr. Uno who runs an illegal mah-jongg parlor. However, his IOU may be covered because lucky for him his wealthy Auntie Okane died leaving him and his sister Mai with a large estate. However, a stipulation in his aunt's will causes Aozora some concern; to collect his sister must be with him. She vanished from opera school.

While the yakuza mobsters seek to break some of his bones, Aozora searches for his sibling, whom he has not seen in over a year. Clues lead him to Amsterdam (Japan not Europe) where she is performing at the strange Dutch-themed amusement park home to the renowned "Harry Potterdam". However, even there Aozora runs into mobsters as local kingpin Gondo refuses to free the indentured Mai, who owes him; besides she does not want to leave her status as a princess entertaining his special clients here.

This is an engaging lighthearted farcical Noir look at the nastier side of Japan through the eyes of a beguiling rascal who can be summed up by his self deprecating observation that women see his penis as a lobster fest. Fans will appreciate his unwanted escapades as Aozora seems to cross thugs or bores everywhere even on the bullet train. Manga illustrations and photos augment this mellow young man's run through the criminal gauntlet.

Harriet Klausner

Got it quickly, in time for class, and less than half what the Bookstore wanted.

The pedigrees of the blurbers of this book give some sense of its mission--economists with impressive positions for the most part in the 'BRIC' (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries. The book is basically an argument for a renewal of Keynesian developmentalism, which to some degree these countries are returning to. Amsden offers a history in three parts. First there was European colonization, which opposed any industrial growth in its realms. Then there was the post-World War II American Empire, which allowed countries to find their own path of growth. Then this system went into crisis and was replaced by the straitjacket of neoliberalism, which stifled growth. This isn't bad as far as it goes, although Amsden tends to gloss over some of the weaknesses of the developmental period. She goes on about the virtues of import substitution without really examining some of its limits, and why it turned into such a dead end in Latin America compared to South Korea. I particularly liked her description of the economics of colonialism. There is still considerable confusion and sentimentality about this period in the West. Her description of the way experience with industrialization provides cumulative knowledge is also valuable. But her perspective is too top down for my taste, a perspective where all that matters are some decisions made by government bureaucrats and economists. And her insights into the developmental process are so concise as to be practically aphoristic--the book could have been usefully expanded by a hundred pages so that she could clarify with more specific examples how these processes work.

I don't know why there's so little info for this book, but I liked the book, so here's what the back of the book says about it:

ONCE A PRINCE, ALWAYS A PRINCE

Once again, instead of writing music, working spells, or training his apprentice, Bard Alaire is asked to turn his hand to diplomacy. Because he's the only man the king, his brother, can trust to investigate the death of the previous Ambassador, Alaire has been made Ambassador to the troubled kingdom of Suinomen. Once before Alaire was in Suinomen--and barely made it out alive from its Prison of Souls. Now he will face high seas, low magic, and kidnapping by giant spiders--and that's before he even gets there....

EfR is pretty entertaining, and I guess fast-paced, but I think Alaire got away pretty easily in this story. And I'm disappointed that our one and only Dark Elf Bard wasn't in the story. But it's still great, and I recommend it for everyone.

I read this book in the 5th grade and fell in love with it. I still think of it often. It started me in the Sci-Fi genre that still endures today. Get it for yourself or your kid, or both!!!

This book ruled. This was the first science-fiction book I ever bought, and I'm sorry to see it's out of print. When I bought it the first time, it was already older than me.

Summary: Unwitingly abondoned by his parents, Mykl is stranded on a hostile planet, from which escape sems impossible.

More in depth summary: Well, he's on this planet, which is a planet that gets mined off of all the time. Y'see, his parents are space miners, and this planet's a gold mine, but the only problem is that there's these things that eat metal here and, you guessed it, they haven't invented plastic space ships yet. So in thier hurry to leave, they accidentally leave Mykl there. And this dwarf girl who was a hired hand. And there they hang out at this cool dome thing with a robot named Ego.

A badical book. Not much now for me, but I think it's badical because of sentimentality. Get it for the kid in your life. You'll be glad you did.