Arkansas Books

The requisite murder and its investigation are given short shrift in Arly Hanks' latest case. Still, the citizens of Maggody are good for a chuckle as their town is hit with yet another blast of culture shock. This time it's the Internet. Each of the quirky characters approaches the subject in his or her own inimitable style. Imagine Brother Verber's righteous joy at a new means of seeking out sin and depravity! Or Ruby Bee's response when told she's "performed an illegal operation." Such are the pleasures of this book.

Having read favorable reviews, I recently picked up Joan Hess' 2000 mystery .... In the recent, fairly substantial genre of "comic" mysteries, Hess places her story in the truly hillbilly Arkansas town of Maggody, and follows her heroine, Police Chief Arly Hanks, as she bumbles insightfully to a "brutal" murder's solution. I don't read many mysteries, but I suppose this book is fairly good as such novels go. Hess has a finely tuned ear for comedy, and presents her characters with both affection and irony. The murder plot itself kept me guessing - although I confess I am not one of these readers who tries to "predict" the outcome as I go - until the final pages. I have no disagreement with the favorable reviews, but am equally grateful I pulled this book off the $ 4 remainder table, rather than paid full price. A worthwhile entertainment.

The previous Arly-Hanks-in-Maggody mysteries have all rated four or five stars in my opinion. I have read most of them two or three times. Unfortunately, the 12th book in the series does not compare favorably with the earlier books. Arly is still chief of police in Maggody. Ruby Bee and Estelle are still doing their best to be helpful. Raz is still in love with his pig. The regular Maggody cast of characters is in the book, but Joan Hess' magical spark seems to be missing. (Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers had some efforts that don't rate four stars, so it can happen to anyone.) Read this one if you want to keep up with developments in Maggody, but if you have not read any of the Maggody mysteries, don't start with this one; it is not representative of the author's great talent.

MURDER@MAGGODY.COM is my first Arly Hanks book, but it looks like this one's about the 11th in the series that must have begun with MISERY LOVES MAGGODY. This appears to be a really popular series, and comes highly recommended by friends, but do NOT start with this one. Oh, sure, it has great local characters and a lot of humor, but I kept thinking I was missing out on something. The jokes seemed to be "in" jokes. I couldn't get the full understanding, as they say. I'm betting that if I went back and read the first one and then read this over I'd get more out of it. This book has a truly colorful story and takes quite a few twists and turns, but I won't read another one in this series unless it's the first one.

This is my first visit to the fictional community of Maggody, Arkansas. ....

Things move slow in Maggody, AK (population 755) and when the 21st Century gets ready to move in via a computer lab for the local high school the entire multitude of assorted and sundry Buchanons, as well as all the other good citizens, are in a royal dither. (Which I think is another way of saying an Ozarkian farce.) It seems as if everyone is worried about all the additional evils the internet will unleash - SEX, SIN, SPAM and SATAN hisself! But since the since the computers are already sitting in a storage shed behind the school, and the school is planning special cyber classes for all the adults in town it looks like Maggody will indeed be going online.

But like I said, things move slow in Maggody. (It does takes a while to catch up with all the coming and goings of the myriad Buchanons - how does Hess keep them all straight? By the way, Myriad Buchanon would probably be a good addition to the cast of characters in a future book.) So you're half way through the book before the first body shows up! (Population now 754) About the same time all hell breaks loose - people start receiving evil apparitions with their email, Ruby Bee and Estelle end up in the mud under a Pot O' Gold trailer and maybe Satan is indeed possessing the populace. To top it all off, chief of police Arly Hanks is having as hard a time getting a decent meal as she is find out what's going on.

In Maggody, I've discovered that the fun isn't in finding out "who done it" as much as it is finding out who's doing what and why among the wild and wacky cast of characters. So I'll admit it, while I hated vacationing there years ago, I'm hooked on the books! I just bought two more Maggodies and this one gets my ...!

...

I thoroughly enjoyed Garden of Lies but found this sequel boring. Several reviewers below expressed my feelings very well... too much rehash and reminiscing about past history... overly redundant... I kept reading (more like skimming), hoping for some progression in the story, only to find this continued throughout the book. Just when something was about to happen, the character went into memory mode. Sylvie faded into the background and her daughters are now just older whiners. Drew, Iris and Mandy were central characters but there wasn't enough background about their lives to give the reader a reason to care about them. When I'm enjoying a book, I don't want it to end; sorry to say this was not one of them.

I read this book from start to finish. Some parts are hard to figure out because of the switching of the babies, and I didn't care for the ending. I thought that this book was dragged out in parts. Wouldn't recommend it.

The story starts out with Rose who has lost her husband and soulmate Max. She is a practicing lawyer, who meets Eric at a business reception and knows she doesn't want to take up with someone else in spite of her secret interest there with Eric. And Eric keeps persisting until he will win her heart-maybe. If Rose wants him to. Rose also has children, and a stepdaughter Mandy with a drinking problem that Mandy refuses to think she has. Rose's son Drew, wants to marry Rachel's daughter Iris, who is very mentally dysfunctional and has a multitude of emotional problems. Part of that was because she was abandoned by her biological mother. Rose brought the child to Rachel when Iris was about 2, and Iris has always been traumatized by memories in the past. So she is a very difficult person to deal with.

Rachel who also is a doctor at a clinic, (most of them troubled teen girls who have become pregnant, has an author husband of whom she is growing further apart from all the time. Her marriage becomes more and more troubled until finally it may be headed for divorce-and Rachel is doing whatever she can to hold the pieces together. In all of this, Brian and Rose are fond of each other, always were, and this is part of the problem is that Rachel feels he loves Rose much more.

Then, in the center of the story, (in fact the main point), is Sylvie, the mom of Rachel, (and Rose, but Rose doesn't know this horrible secret), who is dying. On her deathbed she confesses to Rachel that Rose is her biological daughter, not her, and that during a fire she rescued Rachel, and Rose was lost to her. So Rachel and Rose are in a serious conflict of what to do after her death in the book.

Iris seriously needs help through the whole book, and Rose definitely hasn't wanted Drew marrying her, especially after the turns and twists that take place within the family scope in this story which as a whole, was very well written!

This book was most wonderful and interesting. It is the sequel to "Garden of Lies" which is a top-of-the-line book. This book is also awesome. Especially since I already knew the characters. The Baby Switch finally comes to the truth of what actually happened and why it happened. I definitely recommend this book, but read "Garden of Lies" first. I think these 2 books are Eileen's best adult novels. (By the way, I think her best teen novels are the series of 4 "Who Killed Peggy Sue?" which is a mystery.) This book was not boring at all.

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't read the previous book because I didn't even know there was a prequel. Goudge does an excellent job with her characters. Both the females are strong, admirable, but unique. The plot did move faster than her other books. I will say however, that she needs to rethink her heavy reliance on setting. Goudge spends almost three pages describing the old woman in her garden. We get it! She loves her roses! Otherwise, this is a good book.

I could hardly wait for the next Claire Malloy book. I'm just glad I didn't waste money on the hardcover. Instead of funny quips and jabs Claire is just plain annoying. Has Joan Hess run out of new things to say? I finished the book because I paid money for it but it was a difficult read, I'm sad to say. I always looked forward to her Arly Hanks and Claire Malloy series, but next time I'll check them out at the library so I don't dish out the cash.

I started reading the Claire Malloy mysteries because I am a huge fan of Joan Hess' Maggody, Ark. series. While never as good, the Malloy books were always a fun, quick read. Lately, however, the series seems to have taken a distinct turn for the worse. While the Maggody books continue to be ribald, wry and blissfully silly, the Malloy books have become muddled, badly written and stale (culminating in this negligible installment). It's interesting how the same writer can miss so consistently with some characters and hit the target so often with others. I've decided to skip Claire Malloy's future exploits and stick with Sherrif Arly Hanks and friends.

This book just didn't grab me. I finished it but the end was kind of anticlimatic. The thing that bothers me most is that the main characters never seems grow or change. Caron has been sixteen(and speaking in CAPITAL LETTERS) forever just as Claire has been Forty and in a going nowhere relationship with Peter Rosen. Enough already. This series needs a major overhaul!

I'm a big fan of this series, which features widowed bookstore owner Claire Malloy, and I have been eagerly awaiting this latest entry for some time. Although it was enjoyable to visit with these characters again, the laughs were fewer and farther between than I'm used to from this writer, and the mystery was quite a let-down.

The titular "convention" is a mystery convention with five major mystery writers arrived in Farberville from out of town. Claire, who hopes to make a small fortune in book sales during the convention, ends up in charge when the organizer is hospitalized. Between herding the errant authors from one place to the next while keeping track of her own teenage daughter, Claire hardly has time to rebuff the apologetic overtures of her estranged boyfriend, Lieutenant Peter Rosen. But convention chaos becomes the least of Claire's worries when a conference attendee dies under suspicious circumstances.

There's a lot of Hess's trademark charm in this book, including the characterization of the mystery authors, each a unique and interesting personality. Claire is a wonderful character, and her relationship with her daughter is fun and realistic.

Unfortunately, the plot just isn't strong enough. Hess goes to a great deal of trouble to depict the complex and frequently hostile relationships between the authors, even though these relationships have very little to do with the mystery. The resolution of the mystery is startlingly weak and poorly thought out. And the bizarre subplot involving Peter Rosen, which is presumably meant to be humorous, is so far out of character as to be contrived and distracting. Hess doesn't need to work this hard for laughs.

Despite the disappointing ending to this book, I hope I don't have to wait too long for the next Claire Malloy mystery.

A new Claire Malloy mystery is a reason to celebrate. A Conventional Corpse is an excellent addition to the series. The backdrop of a convention attended a group of eccentric authors is perfect for murder. The characters are delightful and well written. The teenagers add spice. The frightfully spoiled cat was a hoot.

Joan Hess always entertains but I think her plot twists in this book were especially clever. Also her character's anger toward her on again off again boyfriend rang true. Although as an incurable romantic I wanted to see them get together. In fact it is my hope that one book will contain a wedding and another perhaps a honeymoon with murder of course.

I recommend this book to all the Claire Malloy fans.

The combination of a mystery along with Joan Hess's humorous descriptions of Maggody Arkansas, make for delightful reading.

A very enjoyable book well written, excellent story development. I am glad I bought and read it! However - more crude than usual - I will not be so quick to pass it on to my daughter or recommend it to friends. Hess gives us a paragraph or two on her personal feelings on some social issues as well. Not too strong, just noticable and not there in earlier works. I do hope Hess goes back to the light humor with out the soap box that made her stories so enjoyable!

Despite the fact that this book had some "formula" style plot lines (very similiar plot to Maggody in Manhatten") I loved the Elvis references (and "sightings!") and the strange, strange, world of the Buchannons. It was a good quick read and I enjoyed it, although it was probably not the strongest book in the series.

A friend found an autographed copy of this book and gave it to me for a housewarming gift. I waited until I was moved in and dug into the first page. I live 15 miles south of Memphis, and I just knew this book would "knock my socks off." Like several others, I was disappointed in this latest Arly mystery. Perhaps the Maggody books are best when set in Maggody with its familiar, quirky residents. I still had some laughs and was interested in the plot and new characters, but this would not rate as the best in the series. Joan Hess, however, on her worst day tops many of the rest. I love the Maggody residents better than I love my own kin, and the townspeople of Maggody are much more entertaining!

The Joan Hess Maggody books, set in and around the fictional town of Maggody, Arkansas, are all delightful if you are looking for light, entertaining fiction. In this book, the murder takes place away from Maggody while some of the most enjoyable Maggadonians are on an Elvis tour. Maggody Chief of Police Arly Hanks winds up at the crime scene and finds herself up to her wry smile in mystery. If you can't laugh at the weird way Americans view our world, avoid this book. If you have a good sense of humor and don't mind that some of the humor is directed at your own values, read it and enjoy it. If you have not read any of the Maggody books, you might find the books more enjoyable if you started with the first book in the series and worked your way forward.

How does Joan Hess do it again and again and again? Her Claire Malloy mysteries are funny, smart, and interesting. She has me hooked by the cleverness of her heroine, as well as by the intricacies of the plot. I devoured this one in a single plane ride. I do think Claire may be becoming a bit TOO testy, but just a tad, as her ascerbic wit is part of her unending charm. Well done, Ms. Hess!

I expected more out of this book, I have enjoyed the series in the past, although the daughter Caron is irritating! I really thought the story dragged quite a bit in this book, and must agree with others that our main character did some really dumb things.

Joan Hess has done it again. The latest Claire Malloy mystery is a hoot and hard to put down. I have read all of the books in the series and am waiting patiently for the next book. If you're an avid fan like myself, don't miss out on this new installment in the long-running series.

Claire Malloy, owner of The Book Depot, in Farberville Arkansas is having a bad day. There are rats in her kitchen and she is going to have to move out while the problem and other emergency work is taken care of. This could take weeks.

Fortunately, Dolly, one of her customer's at the store is going away for a few weeks and wants Claire to housesit for her.

So she moves into the palatial estate with her daughter Caron and Caron's best friend Inez. What could be more perfect?

Not this. No sooner does she move in than Caron and Inez claim to have found a dead body in the back yard. The body has disappeared by the time the police show up and Claire tries to convince herself that the girls really hadn't seen anything.

Then things start to get strange. Madison and Sara Louise, claiming to be nieces of Dolly show up and claim their car had broken down while coming down to see Dolly and they needed a place to stay.

Other strange people seem to be lurking around the area and when Claire see's a dead body in the yard, which also disappears before the police can show up makes her worried about everyone's safety, which proves true, when the much seen dead body shows up in the freezer in the garage.

Who is the man? What was he doing there. Where is Dolly, who has disappeared and appears not to be who she says she is. What is going on, why are the FBI investigating and are they in danger?

Claire decides to investigate with the help of Lt. Peter Rosen, "her boyfriend" the web of secrets, lies and more murders as she wonders if maybe they shouldn't have stayed at the "Dew Drop Inn."

Highlights:

Claire Malloy, she is a very adult acting character. Serious-minded, but you almost have to be if you're a widow raising a teenager alone and trying to get along on an iffy business like a book store.

Peter Rosen, who is a great boyfriend and friend. He doesn't like her investigating, but helps all he can because he knows he won't be able to stop her.

Caron and her best friend Inez. Typical middle of the group teenagers, they're not in the "A" group of teenagers, although they want to be, but they're not in the "Z" group either. They are actually the funniest characters in these books.

A complex mystery. A lot of twists and turns. A very quick read.

The sci-fi fan pot-head, who spends most of his time trying to shop lift from her store. He's been in since the first of this series and add just a touch of humor whenever he appears.

Lowlights:

For the first time, Claire does some really dumb things. When you're house sitting, you don't let two total strangers move in without asking the home owner. And when they're obnoxious, and insulting to your daughter and her friend, treating them like maids and making it miserable for them to live in the house you throw them out. I didn't understand Claire's insisting that they stay, except as a plot maneuver to move the story along.

Except for Peter & Inez there aren't a lot of reoccurring characters that appear in this book. Claire needs a wider circle of friends.

Minor problems, but still a very good read.

I think this series has one of the longest time between books, the last book "Out On A Limb" came out in 2002 and it was a little difficult to get back into the characters.

Check out Joan Hess's, Maggody series, with Arly Hanks. I don't enjoy it as much as the Claire Malloy series, but it's also a good series.

NOTE: Do not listen to any negative review posted here. I've enjoyed most of the Claire Malloy mysteries thus far, and THE GOODBYE BODY doesn't dissapoint. The story is chock-full of surprises, twists and turns, and plenty of laugh out loud moments.

I like cuddling up with a new Claire Malloy mystery whenever possible, and this is one of Hess's best mysteries, and one of Malloy's most bizarre adventures.

If you've enjoyed other Claire Malloy mysteries, don't pass up this interesting romp. I'm looking forward to Hess's next book in the series.

Sara

I've worked my way through almost all of Hess's books, but somehow had overlooked this earlier one. It's a fun mystery, as all of her books are, and it was fun to see Caron tackle a problem on her own.

This was the first Claire Malloy Mystery i have ever read and based on it, i just ordered 8 more. i loved the humor in here. i am a 50 year old woman and for me, at least, there were some pages that had me literally laughing so hard that i had tears in my eyes. i am looking forward to passing each of them on to my best friend after i read them to share the fun with her.

After all the serious mysteries i regularly read, it was great to read something that was just plain fun.

If you like the mysteries which play on words then this one is for you. The story line wasn't anywhere nearly as complex as the language. Many puns, word plays and an investigator that talks to herself if no one else is around because that is how important the word play is in this book. If you prefer more crime and detection you will not like this one.

This book was not as interesting as poisoned pins. I hope the author finds a better boy friend for Claire Malloy than The CID Inspector Peter Rosen as he seem to have no depth of character. I eagerly await to read the next mystery.

A pretty awful book altogether. I love the Claire Malloy series, but this novel totally missed. I never could figure out why Claire cared for the fates of those appalling secondary characters, each one more loathsome than the next, including a bunch of tiresome Druids (a plot convention indicative of a desperate mystery author). Her daughter's misadventure with the mall Santa Claus was much more interesting.

God and religion are the problems?

What about schools in communist countries? No God in that, and none of this mass killing, so that point is moot

Japan doesn't have any "God and Jesus", no mass killings.

NOTE: So These countries don't have mentally ILL????

The USA is a whole mix of kids and religions is what set some kids off, upper class mixing with lower class, shy with jocks, different religions, all combined. This has never happened in the society in history, all of this mixing. Yes we are trying to "have a go at it", and for the most part its working, but nothing is 100% perfect.

Everyone is getting it wrong, flat wrong

This author claims it's a mental illness that these shooters suffer from. It has NOTHING to do with a "mental illness", that's flat wrongo. I saw her on TV on the Bill Curtis rampage special she has no make up on, and is making a TV appearance, so that must be how she is, women with no make up on, and especially those who need it, always turn out to be radicals, and who trust a radicals view? Not many.

Oh no, I just put her down, will she go postal now? And have you notice a woman has never gone postal with a gun? Why? Because women, while they do suicide, they don't take it out on others, only themselves because they blame themselves if something goes wrong. If a woman has a weakness, a physical handicap, she still by because she can still get a man, IF she wants to, for a weakness in a woman does not bother a man, what's the only thing a man is really after? Hint hint, right you guessed it. More so if a woman has a weakness many men will take advantage of that and want her more, as man is a dominator and likes a weakness, to give him power. So bottom line is a woman with a physical impairment, or someone who doesn't fit in with a "click", can always find a man, if she wants one.

Well, the author doesn't get it. zero stars for calling it a mental illness, when its not. Or it would happen in other countries, for if we have mentally ill in the USA, then the rest of the world has some also. Where are the mass killers in other countries???

Cho's speech problem, the columbine killers were small kids, any weakness in a male, he then can have problems with girls/ women and asserting himself in any "male ranks". For females are the opposite, they do *not* like a weakness in males. Also males, have the need by nature to be strong, and if other boys/men treat them as lesser thans, over time, it builds up. If you do not suffer from anything physical, then you will NOT ever get this, I don't care how many degrees you have, how much money you have, how observant you are of the world, how smart you are, male or female, you will never get it.

Look at the animal world in the wild?, who gets all the females? The strongest male.

Males that get "excluded" from others turn inward, and start watching everyone and everything else from the outside in, they just watch and watch. See others having a good time. They just watch and watch and watch. It builds and builds and builds.

There isn't any "counseling" or "meds" that is going to change anything, I said, there isn't any counseling or meds that is going to change anything. That's a flat red flag for people that push that flat don't get it, and think they do, or are trying to get it.

You have a person that is "removed" from society, through "default" meaning its NOT anything they have done, but its how others are treating them, then your going to have people that "check out", for humans do not life to be alone. Animals like to be alone, hence, no suicides in the animal world. Yet more proof we are not animals, but that's another conversation.

This book does not really bring anything new to the table, but is worth having if for no other reason than it has a history of shootings that stretches all the way back to the 70's. (All trends, graphs and studies usually start in the 90's when the killings reached their appex.) It was interesting to see that back then the trend tended to be "Shoot Authority Figures!" as opposed to today's killers who tend to hunt their peers instead.

Exactly, and when did the all the "times change" and we all started to live with each other? In the 1970's , right? and no one did one of these rampages before the 1970's, right? *RIGHT*

Lastly, all these kinds of problems happen in big large schools, right? Right

Everyone is getting it wrong, flat wrong. What I just said are "the" answers, and I do not have a PHD, but I have a physical problem, so I know.

You either get to the point where you except it, through faith that after your outta here from this planet life will be better, or you succumb to it and always seeking help of the world, meds, counseling, nothing changes, then you lose it. For the nearly 99% of those who lose it and commit suicide they do it alone, and you never here about them, right? For the few that get so pissed off that they fell they need to send a message, and take out as many as they can on the way, that's what they do. I am surprised it doesn't happen more often, isn't anybody else? So we can be thankful for that.

Bottom line is, each generation of kids come along, none of them know about what has happened in history, kids being kids bulling and making fun of and excluding others has gone on for as long as time has been going on, nothing new here, nothing will change. All this new age of counseling and meds is a phony Band-Aid. Sure it helps suppress and save a few people, keeps some in check, but it doesn't change the problem. And I know many will debate it's not supposed to, it's only to help one person at a time, deal with their "own" stuff. But it's not working, more meds and counseling is going on than ever in history, and suicide is higher now than ever, right? Yes we have more of a world population, but the ratio is higher now than ever. Maybe that's because guns are new over the last few centuries, which is by far the most used method, especially by males.

I guess the only way outta all this is to move to the mountains and live an easy life! Well, that's no answer either, why do you think they have so many lil bars in all over in every mountain area.

Interesting mankind's continual needs to be around people no matter where in the world, we hate solitary, but many animals in the wild the world over will only live solitary, and they prefer it.

God is playing tricks on us?

Could be, for although my wife likes it, my hair just doesn't grow much on my head anymore, where I want it, yet it continues to grow plenty on my face, where I don't want it, so man has to shave his face till he gets old and dies, yet many males have so little on the top of the head.

Yep, God "is" playing tricks on us haha

Research like this is useful for anyone who wants to understand the Virginia Tech tragedy. School shooters such as Cho Seung-Hui are not born raging to kill. They are molded through abuse. Cho is a textbook example of the type of school shooter featured in these in-depth case studies - shy, socially awkward, and tormented by high school classmates.

The social climates at the high schools attended by school shooters are typically vicious and hateful, with rampant sexual harassment of girls and women and antigay harassment of less dominant boys.

At Columbine High School, the most famous school shooting site studied in this book, jocks reigned supreme. The state wrestling champion, the leader of a clique of athlete bullies and the symbol of injustice for school shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, was allowed to park his $100,000 Hummer all day in a 15-minute parking space. The school indulged athletes' rampant sexual and racial bullying and physical abuse of others, including Harris and Kleboldand were given free license to abuse others. A coach did nothing when the athletes targeted a Jewish boy in gym class, singing songs about Hitler when he made a basket, pinning him to the ground and doing "body twisters" that left him bruised all over, and threatening to set him on fire.

Many of the school shooters featured in this book endured antigay harassment that contributed to their rage. Barry Loukaitis, who killed a teacher and two students in Washington state, was taunted by school jocks as a "faggot." Luke Woodham in Mississippi, who killed two students and wounded seven others, was often called "gay" by classmates. Michael Carneal, who killed three fellow students and wounded five in Kentucky, was labeled as "gay" in the school newspaper. Charles Williams in Santee, California, who shot at 15 students and adults and killed two, had been derided as "a skinny faggot."

According to an Associated Press news account (4/20/07), Cho endured similar abuse to the shooters featured in this book: "Classmates in Virginia, where Cho grew up, said he was teased and picked on, apparently because of shyness and his strange, mumbly way of speaking. Once, in English class at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., when the teacher had the students read aloud, Cho looked down when it was his turn, said Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior and high school classmate. After the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth," Davids said. "The whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,'" Davids said. [In middle school, another student is quoted as saying,]"There were just some people who were really mean to him and they would push him down and laugh at him. He didn't speak English really well and they would really make fun of him." "

The first thing one has to do, when trying to take a serious look at the subject of school shootings, is to put things in perspective. After all, despite the shocking and graphic images seen during the media frenzies following these events, the actual statistics do not support an epidemic of violence in schools. Less than 1% of homicides and suicides among school-age children actually occur in or around school grounds. 99% of the violence that school-age children are subjected to happens outside of school grounds and outside of school hours. Kids in violent urban neighborhoods are statistically safer in the classroom during school hours than in any waking hours.

That aside, I began working my way through this book, and trying to keep a disciplined perspective on things, on February 13th, a couple weeks ago, the day before the shootings at NIU. Besides the coincidence in the timing, the NIU shooting was the first of its kind where I had to worry about people very close to me being involved. Millions of kids represented statistically mean nothing compared to a single horrific story involving the real people who populate my life. It was a tragic reminder for me that no one is immune to gut reactions.

There is no minimizing the importance of this topic, and not just because we want to avoid future tragedies, but also because the discussion sheds light on themes that affect multiple aspects of our shared culture and our collective quality of life.

The authors here take an interesting approach. The automatic responses from most people, as far as preventative approaches, would be limited access to guns and a greater focus on screening for individuals who are likely to perpetrate these horrendous crimes. But, for a myriad of reasons, not all of which are simply political, neither of these approaches end up being straightforward. I could rant on and on about gun laws, we all have strong opinions, but that would steer me too far off course.

As far as predictive strategies, focused on identifying adolescents likely to commit serious acts of mass violence, you have the same statistical problems you would have trying to screen for a very rare form of a medical illness. The more rare the event, the greater the ratio of false positives versus true positives for any measure. This is not necessarily a problem, if resources are ample, costs of screening are low, and the outcome of being falsely screened in is completely benign. But in the real world, designing an accurate screening tool that is practical and not potentially harmful is not an easy task. Believe me. There are many researchers who have dedicated their entire careers to this without producing a demonstrably valid instrument.

The authors of "Rampage" draw on their extensive fieldwork in the aftermaths of two school shootings, as well as other data in the literature, and come to the conclusion that best solutions will be found in "the insights of sociology over psychology." The authors extensively review the popular explanations that get filtered down to us: mental illness, the "he just snapped" most-proximate-cause explanations, family problems, a culture of violence, bullying, peer influences, changing communities, media violence, the copycat effect, and gun availability. Katherine Newman et al. also report insightfully on the aftermath of these tragedies in their towns. There is an important chapter, "Blame and Forgiveness," which talks about the role faith plays in the public mediation of blame and responsibility. All explanations are explored thoughtfully, nothing is dismissed, but Newman et al. effectively argue that clinging to any one of these over-simplifications may be comforting but ultimately contribute to missing the big picture.

After reviewing the details of two particular school shootings, they tell us "there is nothing spontaneous about a rampage school shooting." School shooters, and the rest of us, inhabit complex and dynamic social and institutional worlds: "There are reasons why the shooters don't go out quietly when they decide to address their social dilemmas. They arrive at these tragic solutions after a period of small trials and big errors." From their perspective, solutions lie not in preventative models as much as in risk management models: "...the best bet we have for prevention lies not in trying to identify the people whoa re going to shoot their teachers and classmates- though preventative mental health measures are good policy across the board- but rather on intercepting the flow of information when the threats fly." Solutions have to do with the organization of schools and the relationships between individuals, families, and our institutions. All of this is handled with appropriate humility. The authors never pretend they have it all figured out. They acknowledge that any intervention will meet resistance and may have unpredictable negative consequences. But they certainly do a lot to advance the discussion.

So, guess what. Zero-tolerance policies that preordain overreaction- such as expelling a student for giving a friend an aspirin, instituting punitive penalties for specific language with no regard to context, or gang-marshalling a kid to the psychiatric emergency room instead of allowing them a minute to take space and collect themselves- are counter-productive. It works against fostering a sense of belonging within the school, and it discourages the flow of important information from students to administrators or counselors. It works against a sense of sharing information in good faith.

Improving the sense of trust and connection between kids, families, schools, and communities sounds like an over-simplistic solution. But it isn't. It's as simple or complex as you want to make it, but ultimately it will prove to be a much more effective way to decrease violence than intensifying efforts to label kids as potential sociopaths.

If I had to pick a beef with the authors, I would say that it would have been nice to see more about mental health services in the schools. The authors do endorse this, but it is a brief discussion. I would have wanted it emphasized that kids with trauma histories typically present with anxiety, hypervigilance, irritability, and a tendency to misinterpret social cues. They may react to perceived bullying or intimidation from peers or staff, and the typical "show of force" response to their behaviors will typically increase oppositionality, ultimately making no one safer.

In a brief summary, I can't do justice to a topic that the authors here spend nearly 400 pages discussing. So get the book and read it. I highly recommend this book for reading that is important and serious, but also written at a very accessible level. It manages to be very compelling reading, a hard book to put down, which is quite an accomplishment for such a heavy and heartrending subject.

An in-depth look at two school shooting cases, supplemented by statistics about the trends in school shootings over recent decades. Because each member of this group of sociologists writes his/her own chapter, there is some repetition of information, but the gain in reading each contribution is to understand the multiplicity of factors which coalesce in the shootings. It's not as simple as violent video games, or bullying, or family life, or youth culture, or socioeconomic status, or racism, or academic success. One key factor, among several others, is the tendency of school personnel and community members to overlook children's signs of distress and to give kids the chance to start over in a new year, neglecting to accumulate a historical record of kids' transgressions and thereby succombing to a kind of wishful thinking that kids will turn out okay in the end. So many do, but those who turn violent have escaped the radar of the adult world.

Rampage misses the elephant in the living room.

Although the public schools account for about 85% of the student population in the United States, they represent nearly 100% of the fatal shootings. This is statistically significant and is no accident.

For although the authors fail to mention it, the main reason for this discrepancy is that the public schools are basically amoral. God, prayer, and even american tradition are absent from them.

The separation of church from state has not kept religion out of the public schools. Far from it. Rather amoral secular humanism has become the de facto form of worship there.

Among other things, this has removed much of the inner self restraint that traditionally kept students in line which in turn has lead to school shootings.

This is one of those not bad, but not really good books.
After meeting that most horrible of fates for a woman, being jilted by her fiance, Lucy Richards ( whom I thought was supposed to be strong) abandons her teaching career in west Texas and flees back to her hometown of Bonham, where she hopes to scare up an alternate husband.
Once back home, Lucy frets incessantly about being "an old maid" and contemplates marriage to any one of three admirers, none of whom she loves. But Prince Charming, in the form of Josh Arnold, a west Texas friend, rides to the rescue.
Lucy agrees to marry Josh, seemingly more out of a desire to marry somebody, anybody, than from genuine affection for Josh.
Oddly enough, the rather unlikely couple enjoys a blissful marriage with lots of sex ( described in more detail than some readers may want).
The unrelenting bliss ( but not the sex) lets up a little when the couple relocates to Arkansas, where the whites are bigoted and the blacks "uppity".
The fates of some of the characters is left dangling, to be sort of resolved in the final book of the trilogy.
This book makes for light, pleasant summer reading, but don't expect much depth.

I found & read this book first. Later I found the first in the series, Train to Estaline. They are both very good. I enjoyed reading about Lucy & her family & all their quirks. Enjoy.

I read the first book in the trilogy and picked up A Place Called Sweet Shrub just because the author had killed off so many characters in the first and left much unanswered that I naively thought resolution would come in the sequel. I was wrong. Lucinda had so much going for her in the West Texas hardened by encounters with Christobel and Mrs. Sully that I thought her character would continue to grow. Instead, the book was a grandiose setup for the time displaced rehash of a race riot. The ribald humor was misplaced and characters are killed off haphazardly. I knew not to expect plot resolution, but some motivation would have been appreciated.

It has been three years since Lucy Richards returned from Estelline. Taking over the family hardware store and caring for family has taken her mind off her sister's betrayal and the man she had planned to marry, perhaps too well. Lucy feels that she may be too comfortable, and that life in Bonham may not hold much for her. When Josh Arnold visits Lucy on his way to Sweet Shrub, Arkansas(where he is to read law) he makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he is still interested in Lucy, and that he won't take no for an answer. Lucy discovery that her heart is once again willing to trust combined with Josh's insistance and the impending visit of Lucy's sister and former fiancee, propells Lucy to accept his proposal. Together they move to Sweet Shrub. Just as she had faced change and adversity when she left home to teach, Lucy is faced with a whole new life to claim. She is faced by the prejudices and fears of the townfolk, and must turn to Josh and an inner strength she did not realize she had to survive. This is the second in three books, and is told in a very different way than the first. The author is very skillful in including the events of the early 1900's, impending world war, friction between races and small town dynamics to weave a wonderful story of life in Texas.

"Sweet Shrub" was such a surprise. This book looked like dripy ole' southern novel. BUT...how wrong I was. This book was deep, emotional and I loved the characters. DEEPLY. This is such a great book.....it's clear, enjoyable, and such a pleasant surprise.

"Arkansas Mischief" was written Jim McDougal, the Clintons' Whitewater real-estate partner. The book was co-authored by a Boston Globe reporter.

In this book we find McDougal admitting, "I was put in a position where I might have to lie to protect the president," and in sworn testimony, "I told other lies."

Why would a reporter co-author want to be involved with the autobiography of an admitted liar? The only motive I can think of is to make sure that various stories and events were given the proper "spin" or were covered-up altogether.

The co-author gratuitously offers reasons to doubt McDougal. Footnotes also question whether the author's wife, Susan McDougal, had an affair with Bill Clinton as publicly claimed by McDougal.

But, there are some interesting tidbits that can be gleaned from this book: (1) Whitewater provided a conduit to funnel $2,000 per month to Hillary for services not rendered, and (2) Hillary illegally deducted loan payments made by the Whitewater corporation on the Clinton's personal tax returns.

McDougal, a real estate developer and savings & loan operator (who used his financial institution as a personal piggy bank), died at age 57 in federal prison after being convicted of multiple felonies in connection with obtaining loans and then applying the money to projects other than those covered in the loan applications.

It is only tempered by the shabby treatment that Jim McDougal received not only at the hands of his friend, Bill Clinton, but also long time political ally, Govenor Jim Guy Tucker, Clinton's sucessor. Govenor Tucker, like McDougal, went to jail. Clinton did not & went on to screw many others, figuratively & literally. Bill Clinton's charisma was such that long after it made any sense, McDougal, & especially his wife, Susan retained a great deal of personal affection for the president. Politically, being a "yellow dog" democrat, McDougal could do no less than support both the president & the govenor.
The political stories fronm an Arkansas insider are light & funny. Some universally true about politicas & others peculiar to Arkansas.
The legal morass that McDougal found himself & tries to explain make for rough going in places but these segments are brief. Any good ol' boy or political junkie will like this book. As to the veracity of this book, Mr. McDougal knew he was dying & in fact died before it's publication. Most people do not wish to leave this world with a lie. He had considerable help from Curtis Wilkie, a professional writer, which probably helped him keep it real. Lloyd James' narration made it seem as if it actually was the voice of Jim McDougal.

A very dry, self glorifying effort at expanding his image, Jim McDougal's book is as boorish as the man himself perhaps was. We were saved his testimony in the Grand Jury, perhaps for the better. Truly an old boy who liked to make himself bigger than he really was.

Jim MacDougal has writen a fascinating account of politics, logrolling, and back scratching in a one party Southern state. MacDougal, a fierce populist, detested Hilary's insider trading and other shakey deals that enriched the worst lady during the Reagan/Bush 80s that she castigates for its greed. He also recounts how Clinton's loss in the 1980 Governor's race made him resolve never to lose again and to do whatever it took to win. Thus we had the 1996 election and its campaign finance lawbreaking, orchestrated by Clinton, and carried out by the DNC. After reading this book one is left with the impression that some indictments should have been issued by Ken Starr out of the Little Rock Grand Jury. I think the co-author should look into MacDougal's death. Some inmates at the prison have claimed that he was denied medicine. He died in solitary confinement, ending up there because he couldn't urinate on demand for a drug test. Another FOB has taken the dirt nap.

Curtis Wilkie's name appears in smaller case type below that of Jim McDougal's on the cover, but there should be no doubt in any reader's mind that without Wilkie's dogged pursuit of the truth and his well-honed journalist's credentials this would be just another publisher's attempt to capitalize on the Clinton scandalmongering machine. Fortunately, Wilkie successfully navigates McDougal's obfuscations and produces a fascinating account of McDougal's sad life and role in one of the late-20th century's seminal political events. Required reading for anyone interested in southern-or national-politics.

Strange Valley was a fun read, and it goes fast, which is probably a good thing, because I'd hate to think I spent too much time on this one. It's got an interesting premise, but it fails to expand much beyond the premise. Character motivations are paper-thin and seem too often to just be a thinly disguised extension of the author's feelings with no logical grounding in the plot. And sure, it's fun to see someone taking a few pot shots at neo-conservative Christian mentalities, but hey, it doesn't always drive the book forward. And the sexual liberalism scenes, particularly the final one where the main characters are celebrating their success, come off as just some ridiculous throw-back to the 60s. Like something out of an Austin Powers spoof. Can you say campy?

Census Bureau career civil servant Harry Beales is stunned with the data that reflects Masterville in the Arkansas Ozarks. The small town contains no measurable crime, a much greater than average life-span, no international business chains as everything is locally owned, no federal money is received not even Medicare or Pell Grants, the marriage rate is very low, but offspring very high and no major religion has taken hold. However, the oddest fact is that these trends can be traced back to the Civil War.

Harry's findings reach NSA; they become concerned with this oddity in the center of the Bible Belt especially since the objective of the President of the United States is to imbue Christian family values as the Bill of Rights. NSA field agents Daniel Stenning and Shirley Rostervick are sent to Masterville to uncover and destroy this heretical conspiracy in the middle of the United States that the POTUS and the NSA believe is the biggest threat to national security since the wall fell.

Using hyperbole to highlight the extreme of the fundamentalist religious right movement, Darrell Bain provides a powerful political thriller. The story line showcases a central government that feels so strongly in the end state of Christian based federalism that it leads the people to a restrictive faith in which the means to get there do not matter. This includes beating the bushes to thwart a small town whose residents are living together in harmony as that is not necessarily a pious life style. This reviewer kept thinking of the bane imposed on Rushdie as this strong thriller with a powerful message leaves readers to ponder what is right. Darrell Bain has written a fabulous eye-opening tale.

Harriet Klausner

Premise: The United States has an ultra-conservative, fundamentalist Christian ex-preacher as a President, and he gets upset with a Census Bureau analyst discovers that Masterville, Arkansas and the surrounding valley features a population that is markedly non-religious and features few marriages and many voters registered as Independents. The President chooses to overlook many of the other statistical anomalies in this valley: very low crime rate, very low usage of government funding, high life expectancy, large number of children, low unemployment, high percentage of intact families (even if the parents seldom are married), low divorce rate. The President only sees a valley of citizens who are not religious and who did not vote for him. His response: send in the National Security Agency to investigate the Godless mutants!

The N.S.A. sends in Shirley Rostervik and Daniel Stenning, who quickly find that Masterville is a great place to live. There is no apparent conspiracy, and no hint of danger to the national security. But, Masterville is quite different, in a positive and quite intriguing manner. It is definitely worth investigating, for intellectual curiosity, but not a place that is dangerous.

As the President and the Director of the N.S.A. continue to not find the conspiracy they are convinced is there, they escalate their efforts to ferret out what surely be a government-threatening rebellion in the making.

It eventually comes out that one of the N.S.A. agents is one of "them" (a Godless free-loving mutant), and begins to look at resigning from the N.S.A. and taking up residence in Masterville. The N.S.A. helps him make up his mind, through very direct and unpleasant means, and the agent is plunged into the true secret of Masterville. Is that secret a threat to national security, or a boon to all Humankind?

This is a very fast-paced thriller with a science-fiction component. It is definitely a page-turner, and I enjoyed reading it. Mr. Bain knows how to turn out an entertaining tale. But, there are several flaws that, for me, cost the story one of the five stars it could have earned, and came close to costing it another star.

There were several sex scenes that seemed unnecessarily explicit to me. The social mores of the valley had to be communicated to the reader, but I felt that the level of detail given was excessive. Robert Heinlein depicted similar attitudes and relationships in "Stranger in a Strange Land" or "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" without need of the play-by-play account given in "Strange Valley."

The extremes of the politicians in Washington, D.C. and of the residents of the valley are so polarized, that I could not identify with either one, and I think that many readers will be in the same situation. All of the "good (valley) guys" were caricatures, with no significant flaws, and all of the "bad (government) guys" were corrupt, rigid, narrow-minded, and authoritarian, with few redeeming qualities. In essence, only Shirley Rostervik came off as a fairly rounded, three-dimension character. "Strange Valley" thus ends up sharing that trait of Extreme-A-versus-Extreme-B that can also be found in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."

"Strange Valley" shares another flaw with "Atlas Shrugged": they both needed better editing. I'm talking about words with missing letters, sentences with missing words, and instances of mis-chosen words (e.g., "they" instead of "the").

The "science" component of "science-fiction" is also not well-explained here. The author covers this by having the genius behind the science be so caught up in his jargon that he cannot explain it in lay terms. The reader finally gets some idea of the science being described, but it was enough for me to buy the concepts.

So, after all these complaints, why still four stars? With a sufficient dose of suspension-of-disbelief, and an ability to overlook weak editing, "Strange Valley" is still a very fun read.

An entertaining story as far as that goes, but the numerous grammatical errors and misuse of words ruined it for me.

Numerous time I found myself re-reading long, poorly worded, compound sentences trying to figure out what was meant.

And the frequent misuse of the word "rouge" was embarrassing. At lease three time he used that word where he meant "rogue". It is a bit hard to keep oneself immersed in a story when you read about "rouge agents" of the NSA.

Darrel Bain has come up with many entertaining story ideas but he needs to take some writing classes or get a good editor.

Only a few of Masterville's citizens are aware of the anomalies and uniqueness of their behaviors and lifestyle, but with the NSA sending agents to investigate them and their valley will they have time to find the cause and prove they are not aliens, monsters, or a threat?

Harry Beales' work in the Census office is routine if not boring, until he comes across some unusual findings about the small town of Masterville.

NSA Agent, Daniel Stenning, is a bit confused by the NSA's interest in a small town on the Arkansas, Missouri borders. Why are a few unusual statistics and lifestyle choices considered a threat to national security?

When he arrives in the valley with his partner, Shirley, who is posing as his wife on this assignment, he finds a back-in-the-fifties, clean town, and Lisa. The minute she opens
the door of the B&B where Shirley and Daniel are registered for their stay in Masterville, the attraction between Daniel and Lisa is obvious. Impossible to hide, impossible to fight.
Daniel has no desire to fight it, and begins to suspect he has a lot in common with the unique residents of this pleasant valley town.

Someone else has discovered Daniels similarities to the valley residents too, and he finds himself marked as a target by the agency he used to work for.

Daniel must work with Tyrone and the Masterville council and prove they offer no threat before powerful and corrupt government officials use terrorist tactics to wipe out a small part of the homeland.

Darrell Bain keeps the questions and suspense flowing through the action packed pages of Strange Valley. Thought provoking, this story stirs the imagination with what may at times seem exaggerated and extreme, but then, the extreme and those who err on the side of it is where the danger lies.