Maine Books

Joseph Finder does it again. I have not read one book of his that I have not loved. This is another great one. Now I've read all of his books and can't wait for the next one. If you want a fast-paced, exciting, scary, thrilling, book, read this. It's fantastic. My husband and I read it together and both loved it.

I don't usually read fiction books - most of the time I read non-fiction adventure stories. I was given this book by a friend who highly recommended it. It took me six months before I finally picked it up to read - I should done this much sooner. I must say that this book was so good I will be looking for more of this type & by Joseph Finder in particular. The book had great characters you can relate to & just the right mix of technology & action. It is not only an exciting story but had many funny parts as well. This was one of the rare books I didn't want to put down & I pounded through the 400 pages in 2 or 3 days - at the same time it hardly seemed like I spent any time reading it - it was that enjoyable.

I'm looking forward to my next Joseph Finder novel.

I just plain ol' like Joseph Finder novels. I will plod through other novels with their nihilistic outlooks; liberal preachiness; gloomy settings; and depressing, unlikable protagonists (i.e., I had just finished The Shape of Snakes by Minette Walters) and by the time I'm finished, I realize that the hours of my life wasted can never be recovered. Then I pick up a Joseph Finder novel. Although Finder novels are not profound, they are catchy entertainment. Like other Finder novels, Killer Instinct is edgy and the protagonist is flawed yet likable. The pace of Killer Instinct is quick, so one can finish it in short order. And, as in other Finder novels, this one takes place in the corporate sector. If you like to bite into a fast-paced, present-day thriller between your slogs through erudite tomes, by all means read Killer Instinct or any other Joseph Finder work.

This is only the second book by Joseph Finder that I have read but it certainly won't be the last. His books are totally engrossing and keep the reader turning the pages at a rapid rate!

'KILLER INSTICNT' grabbed me from the very beginning when Jason Steadman meets tow truck driver & ex-special forces Kurt Semko and they immediately hit it off.

Jason soon gets Kurt a job at his company as corporate security. And before Jason knows it things begin to look up for him, his beautiful wife is with child and he is swiftly moving up the corporate ladder. However, it seems that his new friend has been helping him climb the ladder in some less than ethical ways. When Jason tries to put a stop to Kurt he soon realizes that it is better to have Kurt Semko as a friend than as an enemy.

Yet another gripping novel Joseph Finder, I cannot wait to get my hands on his next!

A great story with great theme and moral value. A friend who went out of his way to help another friend.....but for a high price to pay. In the end, they tried to kill each other. Very suspenseful pace. Cold Eyes

When Art Bechstein was finally able to leave Washington, D.C., and his mob father behind, he ran to Pittsburgh to attend school. His last summer in the sweltering city proved to be an exciting and intriguing adventure.

The handsome and personable Arthur Lecomte introduces Art to women, sex and a new way of life, but with the arrival of Arthur's mysterious friend, Cleveland, Art must face his father and the "family" he tried to forget.
Michael Chabon's debut novel, set in the 80s, is a coming-of-age tale of excess, sex and friendship. It paints a different side of the crumbling steel city, a side of grit and grime, where the unexpected is lurking behind every corner.

Chabon's writing is colorful and imaginative, but the story lacks real excitement. It is slow to take off and quickly fizzles. It is a story that is always on the edge of breaking through, but never pushes the reader over the ledge.

"Mysteries" is an easy read that doesn't force the reader to think too much. In short, if you don't want a tough plot that twists and turns like a rollercoaster, then this book is it.

I loved the flow of language and the development of character. This story develops like a fairy tale with a gritty edge and depth of reality that makes the reading a profound experience.

I received this book for Christmas 3 or 4 years ago and finally read it last weekend. I am very sad that I've missed out on Chabon's beautiful prose style until now and I am going to remedy this post-haste. I thought the narrative drive of this book, its sense of tragedy and events coming to an unavoidable head, was very powerful. I enjoyed Art Bechstein's character immensely. I enjoyed the others a little less--with the notable exception of Cleveland. I wish Cleveland had had more face time in the book. While Phlox and Arthur are there just to allow Bechstein to discover his sexual identity, or so it often seems, Cleveland highlights one of Bechstein's far more interesting, in my opinion, character issues--his relationship with his father and his father's profession, and the issue of being honest with one's self about anything period. My main complaint- and it's not really a complaint, just a comment- about the novel is that it is rather disjointed. For 100 pages or so Art/ Flox/ Arthur are just buddies and then all of a sudden, it becomes about Art being gay. Cleveland's self-immolation, positively Wagnerian, is also a bit sudden. However, this book was never dull and was always emotionally moving, and I am looking forward to reading more Chabon soon.

This is can be a very painful book to read. All of the characters are larger than life except the women. Or should I say the woman, the female love interest who turns out to be a cardboard doofus. All the cool guys are cooler than frozen cucumbers; they are physically formidable and intellectually blank (as is the current ideal). Daddy is a gangster. Sonny is clueless. Then he discovers homosexuality. Wow! Brave new world that has such magical, mystical, manliness. I can't put it down fast enough.

For awhile now, I have heard the name Michael Chabon mentioned...among book friends, recommendations online, you know the sort of thing. I'd never read anything by him and didn't really know where to start. I just picked the first Chabon book I came across. What a lucky discovery for me. Even more so in that this is his first book (he later went on to win the Pulitzer for another....so I guess there should be little surprise that people had been name dropping Chabon).

In short, I loved "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," and can't wait to get more books by this wonderful author. For those of you out there who haven't discovered Chabon, you are in for a treat. This book centers on one Art Bechstein, a new college graduate who takes a summer job at a big chain bookstore for one last summer of fun before he truly settles down. What a summer it is! His conjuring of love, sex, and friendship (a coming of age story) is like nothing you've read before. There's magic in these pages.

Whether he's describing the pretentions of his girlfriend, describing a road trip to a summer cottage, or simply admiring his friends walking down the street, Chabon can captivate. You want to know these people, or maybe you already do from your own college/young adult life. There is a darker element to the story when he meets Cleveland, a thug wannabe (or is he just the shadow of someone that could have been great?). Cleveland also leads him to examine his own choices and family situation more carefully and reveals a darker side to Pittsburgh.

More than the interesting storyline, however, is the amazing picture painting Chabon is able to do with words: He can turn a bleak Pittsburgh landscape into something extraordinary. He describes the city lovingly, without the jaded eye of age and oppressive dose of reality. His characters and their actions lead into fully understandable, complex, and likable people that we hate to leave when the story ends. In short, it's little surprise that "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" has been compared with "Catcher in the Rye." It's a wonderful book. Don't miss it.

This book was okay, not as 'scary' as I assumed it to be, regarding all the hype surrounding the house at 112 Ocean Avenue, Amityville. I don't really believe its a 'true story' as stated on the cover. A well written horror novel by all means, but just a fiction novel at that.
Whether the Lutz's ordeal really happened is another thing, many people believe it happened, many don't. I'm undecided, I don't think I would of wanted to stay in a house where a family massacre occured.

For horror fans a good book to read and have in your collection.

This story is very well written. I'll admit that I slept with my lamp on while I was reading this. It scared the hell out of me! It's a fast read as well. Things just keep happening over and over again. It was hard to put it down! The Amityville Horror is a truely scary book. It's down right horrifying. I don't care whether it's true or not because it's such a good read. If you want to be scared, then read this. You will not be disapointed. Damn good book!

The movie left you with so many questions!!! This book leaves you with REAL answers! I couldnt put it down! I loved it!!!

I know this book has been around for decades, and was written at the request of the Lutz family who hired Mr. Anson to turn their story into a book. Most people by now have seen the movie(s) and are familiar with the fact that the Amityville horror story has been debunked.

But, I thought, what the heck? It's probably a good read since it inspired such a long series of movies and even a remake (what hasn't?). I have to say that I didn't particularly care for this book. It's not that the story wasn't there, or that it didn't have the potential to be scary. It was the writing style. I felt like I was reading an 300 page newspaper article. The author is SO withdrawn from the story that you just read event after event with no connection to the characters or their true mental state. I suppose that I had really high hopes from this book, it's rare to find a really good haunted house story. Unfortunately this is not one of them.

Jumping back and forth from watching the Lutz family and Father Mancuso you really get the idea that a reporter just sat and interviewed them then smashed it all together to make a book. By simply relating the events I believe that they were going for the "this is the truth, draw your own conclusions" but the problem is that now, 30-40 years later, we know it is all hogwash. Without the mystery of calling it a "true story" the writing style does not hold up as a fictional story.

I'm not going to tell you not to read it, because if you're like me you won't listen anyway. I'm just saying buy the book used or get it from the library because it certainly isn't something you will want to read over again.

I lived on Long Island at the time this happened, and it was a well known fact this "haunting" was staged by William Weber, the defense attorney to Butch Defeo, who killed his parents in the house. By making it seem as if the house was haunted, Weber was hoping to get Butch aquitted of the murder charges he was up against. So he got the Lutzes to move into the house (they didn't even remove the family's old furniture, incuding the beds they were murdered in) and act as if the house was haunted or possessed. It's a fabricated story that is disrespectful to the family that was murdered. The Lutz family is sick.

This book has its moments of classic Wambaugh police humor, and politically correct it is not. Having said that, it is nowhere near the epic police novels that were "The Blue Knight" or "The New Centurions." Hollywood Station is more a collection of funny cop stories, most no doubt (partially) true, than a tight novel. In fact, the plot does not even begin to roll out until well into the second half of the book. I grew up on Wambaugh and his early novels (as well as "The Onion Field") had an impact on who I am today. But this book did not measure up.

My all time favorite humorist is P G Wodehouse, and I never thought I'd find an author that made me laugh out loud like Wodehouse's books do. But "Hollywood Station" is outstanding, as read by Grupper.

Not to mention that Wambaugh's characters are sheer perfection. Who could forget Hollywood Nate, a policeman who longs to become a famous movie star? Or the surfer cop team, the Oracle, or Farley, the meth addict?

The police try to keep a lid on the boiling cauldron of Hollywood, with its crazy mix of drug dealers dressed in Spiderman costumes, prostitutes who are men in drag, and new immigrants with murder on their minds. And they have to do this with their hands tied behind their back due to the supervision and laws passed since the Rodney King incident. Not to mention while understaffed.

It's a crazy mixture, and Wambaugh paints it to perfection.

This is an excellent depiction of how officers of the law and their stations interact and function. I'll avoid plotting this fiction story because that type of review ruins the sub-plotting between pages. Hollywood Station is a complete overview of cop fuzzing full of fatuous dialog enjoyment between officers and criminals. Situational descriptions are full of huff and puff but they are entertaining. This is a great beach read. Enjoy.

I'm the author of the book KISSING FREUD KISSING FREUD, a psycho drama/comedy; and the author of DUBROVNIK DUBROVNIK, a thrilling spy action/adventure story in Dubrovnik, Croatia. You can purchase both books here on amazon.com/books.

It's been literally decades since I've read a Joseph Wambaugh police procedural thriller. Once his plots left the realm of the LAPD, I lost interest. But he returns with all the old panache with HOLLYWOOD STATION first published in 2006, 14 years after the legendary Chief Daryl Gates retired, or, as some say, was forced out by the 1992 riots that followed the wretched Rodney King episode (and "wretched" is used as a modifier of both King and the episode, especially the former considering his subsequent performance as a citizen). It's a new world for the force.

The characters of this novel are the law officers and miscreants they police in the Hollywood Division, which I drive through every day on the way to work unaware of the human dramas and comedies bubbling just below the surface. It's the beat that includes Grauman's Chinese, the Walk of Fame, the Kodak Theater (of the Oscars) and the famous HOLLYWOOD sign. On a broader scale, it's interesting to learn the author's take, as seen through the eyes of his cop heroes, on the doldrums the LAPD has entered under Gates' lackluster successors and the current activist city mayor. The federal consent decree, under which the department currently operates, is particularly odious. Only the watch of the current police chief achieves a hint of approval.

The crimes and misdemeanors of Hollywood's low-life, and the situations confronting L.A.'s finest, are often bizarre. You couldn't make this stuff up, and I suspect that Wambaugh hasn't. At the book's beginning, he gives credit to the police officers of Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs for providing him with anecdotal stories. So, even if the Hollywood Division isn't quite so lively on a daily basis as depicted, the stretch to the imagination is more about frequency than substance and the descriptive "Hollyweird" perhaps has basis in fact.

Wambaugh is back! And I've already got his latest book, Hollywood Crows: A Novel(involving many of the same protagonists), on my Wish List.

Excellent read, tough to put down, humor, and you can feel the real grit of working the streets of Hollywood. Wambaugh continues to do what he does best, nice to see that he brings the 21st century into his story.

I thought this book was absolutely wonderful. I felt like I knew the characters and was sad when I finnished reading it. Great for a weekend read and I felt completely satisfied. I would encourage anyone to read it!

I read this book a few years back after getting it from the library. I now want to buy it because even though much time has passed, the characters and the story still fascinate and haunt me. This is a story you won't forget, and it's a great one!

This is the story that Hannah Grey has waited a long time to tell. It's the story of what happened to her the summer she was seventeen, living in Maine. The summer she met Conary Crocker, the wild boy she fell in love with.

It's also the story of what began to happened with the Haskell family who lived in isolation on an island off the mainland of Dundee, Maine back in the late 1880s.

It's part love story, part ghost story.
And the two stories eventually collide...

I thought this was very well done. The characters were realistic, and well developed and I found it to be an easy and satisfying read. I will look for more books written by Beth Gutcheon.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW

This is my first Beth Gutcheon book but certainly will not be the last. I really enjoyed this book. It was cool how past and present were totally tied in with each other.

Hannah Gray tells of the summer she met the love of her life, Conary Crocker, resident bad boy. This is a summer during the Great Depression. Hannah and her half-brother and nasty, mean step-mother summer in Dundee, Maine. Not only does Hannah meet Conary, but they also meet some nasty, evil ghosts who are haunting the house where Hannah and family reside.

We also meet the Haskell family from 100 years earlier. They are a miserable, mean, unhappily wed couple who also have two children. Claris, the mother, marries Danial, which is odd due to the fact that Danial is a strange man, mean, cold, nasty, rude. Claris comes from a fun-loving, music-loving, happy, close-knit family and marrying Danial turns out to be the BIGGEST mistake of her young life.

All of these characters become involved with each other through ghosts and/or lost souls -- what have you. This book is a story of two couples and their relationships and how both of these relationships are intertwined even though they lived 100 years apart. The book tells of love, hate, hauntings, murder, great secondary characters, good story line, and history.

The wildly happy couple -- Hannah and Conary and the miserable, hateful couple -- Danial and Claris -- will stay in your mind for a long time. The book tells the stories of these two couples and their families in a way that will delight and scare you. This is good writing. I also enjoyed the history of the area, be it true or not!

This is a very well written book, one I thoroughly enjoyed, and one I will highly recommend to my friends/family.

Thank you!!! Pam

In "More Than You Know," Beth Gutcheon tells two stories, both set in a town in Maine, at once: first the story of Hannah Gray and the summer she spent with her irritating stepmother and the love of her life, Conary Crocker and second the story of the Haskells, a family that could not stand each other. As Hannah faces her own struggle with Edith (her stepmom), a spirit from the past begins to haunt her. At the same time, she begins to look into the Haskell murder mystery, which occurred many years before her time. The novel is about discovering our pasts and the importance of moving on--the danger of closing our minds to the world around us. Hannah becomes freer in her relationship with Conary while discovering what isolated and unhappy lives the Haskells lived because they were alone on an island and would not admit their anxiety and anger. This discovery is important to what happens later in Hannah's life: a reverence of the past, tradition and family, but not a slavish devotion to it. The ambitious, well-written and impressive novel is crafted beautifully and effectively. The problem is, in the end, the storylines are not all that exciting. Gutcheon's story needed more pizzaz, more flash and more style to draw the reader in more. She does all she can with the spare storyline, but to really accentuate the meaning of the novel, she needed to highlight it, rather than watercolor it across the page.

I saw this movie by Costa Gavras a couple of years ago at the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL. The movie moved me so much...that I decided to buy the book a year later. I loved reading it but it was so much like the movie that I knew what was going to happen...I probably should have read the book before the movie...I don't know. The MOVIE is simply excellent. I couldn't help seeing excerpts from the film as I read the book. It's a scary dark noir thriller of what could happen with outsourcing jobs to other countries and how one's home country could falter for it...very interesting reading.

This is the best book I've read in years for one reason: You almost become the main character, an out of work psychopathic murderer. Now, you may be asking yourself why you'd want to become a out of work psychopath, but trust me you'll like it... in a weird way which makes you worried about yourself when you finally put it down. The book is written in the first person with very little dialogue, due to this you get such an intimate bond with the character, through his thoughts, that you don't want him to get caught... because your so involved you feel like your at risk of being found out too. You sympathize with this guy to a degree that I didn't think was possible to feel for a killer, but you want him to succeed, you want him to kill again... It's a strange sensation that is wonderful and scary at the same time, like you're doing something you're not supposed to. If you want a read that you'll never forget, this is it. Westlake at his very best.

Although first published in 1997, "The Ax" remains relevant ten years later as the downsizing in corporate America continues unabated. The downsizing of white collar jobs is still topical and should continue to be for years to come. Dark, satirical, and surprisingly moving, "The Ax" is the crown jewel of Westlake's bibliography.

Last week I coincidentally read the above two books -- The Negligence of Death and The Ax...one right after the other. At the end of both, my reaction was the same. Chilling! Although they have quite different storylines, I saw a number of similarities:

...I didn't like what I was reading, but couldn't stop.
...Though fiction, I felt their "realness."
...They are perfect illustrations of the impact of society on one (or more) individual.
...Killing is a by-product -- a means to an end.
...Though I didn't like reading them, I am thankful I did.

Vietnam. The 60s. Many of us knew people who were in that war. Many of us wondered why few of those who returned were unwilling to talk about it. In The Negligence of Death by Jerome Gold, we learn why.

The story revolves around the life of Dixie, a green beret. Some might say he is the main character. He's not. Death is the main character in this book. As a silent voyeur, the author takes the reader to Vietnam into Dixie's life -- his "daily" life in Vietnam. After a few pages, you really don't want to be there; you don't want to see and hear through Dixie...you want to go home, AWOL. But you can't; you're in for the duration . . .just like Dixie.

This book has just 179 pages. Fast reading -- if you can stand it. You join Dixie in his sixth day, when he tells you "the worst part was the bodies. They reeked, some were five or six days dead and the troops . . .did not like being reminded how negligent was Death." From then on, the book could easily be titled How Many Ways are There to Die?

And there is sex. "The woman lay on her back in a cave dug into the side of a trench. As I passed she opened her legs. I went on to wake up a man who was sleeping. When I saw her again, a Ranger was on top of her."

And there are drugs. "I was in great pain and the medic on board gave me morphine. In Saigon they gave me morphine again. It was a wonder to me that I did not die of good care, but I kept my mouth shut and waited for them to administer each shot."

Somewhere along the way you discover Dixie's real name and that he is a radio operator/communications officer. But it is really unimportant; it could just as well have been through Mitch's eyes, as he tells: "So these other two Arvins who are standing around take their oranges and put them between the guy's legs. And they're laughing. He's got half his face blown away and he's going `uh-uh-uh' and pointing to those goddamn oranges, and laughing."

There is no storyline . . .it could just as easily be actual tape transcripts of daily conversations and actions by those stationed in Vietnam. Oh yes, this is a story about Dixie, who is in Vietnam. He gets wounded and goes back home. You might think the book ends there.

But Dixie reenlists, to share one last scene: "...one of the small green uniforms appears in front of me and I fire a short burst, it is so pure and sweet and clear, like sudden knowledge, like certainty, and the small green man flies backward, it is as though he were flying, his arms lift, his back arches, his feet raise off the ground, it's Superman! Ha ha. Now almost to the perimeter, there are Americans, and I fire off the rest of the magazine, ha ha, they fall, they are so surprised...I fire right into them ha ha ha, I am hit again ha ha...it is so funny, everything is, and I feel such love . . ."

Read The Negligence of Death. Understand Vietnam.



Burke DeVore got The Ax. Vietnam is our history. Getting "the ax" is today. Vietnam was at war. Burke DeVore fights his own war (ours).

Burke DeVore is unemployed. He has been downsized. He was once a middle manager with a promising future. Then one day he was told "your job is not going forward."

Burke's wife has taken on two part-time jobs. His daughter is in college; his son in high school. Burke has been unemployed for two years with no prospect of gaining a similar job with a similar salary. Although everything they could do has been done to cut expenses, they are now facing loss of their home, schooling -- everything.

One day the history of the United States will reflect that, during the 90s, many middle managers were abused, harassed, and dismissed without regard. Those affected had no way of fighting back. Being excellent loyal employees was not enough to keep a job. The bottom line dividends ($) to the stockholders, to the owners, boards and other regulators was what mattered; people didn't. Burke DeVore is making history...but he might not make the history books, though he's fighting a war. I pray he is the only one that chooses his method of fighting.

Burke was not alone when he got axed. One-fourth of his company was cut; Burke's product line was dropped completely. (He was a production line manager at a paper company.) You may immediately empathize with Burke -- we hear about similar situations on the radio or read it in the newspaper every day.

The Ax is a story about many of us. Working from the bottom up, after 25 years Burke had become a specialist in his field. His loyalty, hard work and experience had allowed him to arrive at a place where he had finally been able to "buy" (which means a long mortgage) a home and provide for his children's higher education. He had planned his career, toiled diligently and reached a goal...and then was told, "Don't go away mad; just go away." Oh yes, his company tried to ease the action. Burke went through counseling, he took a class on how to prepare a resumé, and received a generous severance. With all of his accumulated vacation and sick leave, he even got a flat sum of "four thousand, seven hundred, sixteen dollars, and twenty-two cents." Then Burke adds, "To tell the truth, if it had been nineteen cents, I doubt I would have known the difference."

Burke needs a job. "More and more of us are out here now, another thousand or so every day, and we're chasing fewer and fewer jobs." Burke prepared a new resumé, hunted for a job, and interviewed numerous times, doing exactly what his former employer had taught him to do. He tried to do it their way.

You first meet Burke as he considers, "what now? I've never actually killed anybody before, murdered another person, snuffed out another human being . . . How do you know beforehand that you can do it . . .This has to work. I have to get out of this morass, and soon. Which means I'd better be capable of murder."

After doing all the right things, no employer had hired him. And, after just receiving the ax, like so many others, he knew he could not change these employers who cared nothing about their people. So, there was only one alternative that Burke could see; eliminate the competition for the available jobs.

Establishing a fictitious company and placing an ad for an individual who would apply for "his" job, as anticipated, Burke receives hundreds of applications. After studying each one, he finally, objectively, arrives at six candidates who are either better or equally qualified. He establishes a plan to eliminate his competition, then proceeds to kill each man. Studying trade journals to keep up with the job area, he reads an article about a nearby plant and visits there. Deciding that the job he wants is at this plant, he adds the elimination of one more competitor, the present manager, to his plan of action. The first elimination succeeds. The second, however, is a fiasco, and he winds up killing both his competitor and his wife. He then meets his third victim and they commiserate with each other: ". . .this is the first society ever that takes its most productive people, at their prime, at the peak of their powers, and throws them away. I call that crazy." But this becomes a problem, the competition has become a person, and Burke works to ensure that future kills do not become personal. He's merely eliminating the competition.

Thus the story follows Burke through his family life and the problems they face as a result of his unemployment; we follow Burke as death provides for his future.

Until the day occurs when he goes for the interview for "his" job, and requests, "Wish me luck."

After having just completed The Negligence of Death, upon finishing The Ax, I couldn't help but visualize that Burke never got that job, and he is still out there, quietly using death, eliminating his competition.

Another coincidence happened yesterday as I started preparing this review. A friend sent me an online joke, showing a man sitting at a computer, pointing out that the year 2000 has come and no computer bug has occurred. Two seconds later, a giant bug jumps out of the computer and pulls the man into the machine. It was funny the first time I saw it months ago. But yesterday, I remembered the following from The Ax:

...I think about the circumstances that have led me here, to this place. And I think about the millennium. Strange, that. I'd never thought about it before, that the simple arbitrary numbering of years could have an effect on us, but it turns out to be so... 2000; and it all stops. Maybe that is what they're doing. It's as good an explanation as anything they've offered. They're trying to make everything neat and perfect for the end... This kind of business management that has never been seen in the world before, trashing productive people from productive careers in productive companies, is happening because of the millennium. Because of the year 2000. I'm out of work because the human race has gone mad. On that thought, I fall asleep. It's only later that I wake up in terror.

Chilling, isn't it? Two time periods. One is our history; one is our future. The 60s were a major part of the history for many of us. The 90s has "changed" history for many of us. Prepare to be a part of history. Read these books. Prepare to wake up in terror.

This was my first Donald Westlake novel and surely not my last. I picked it up after reading Stephen King's much praised "On Writing". At the end of King's book, he gives a list of his all-time favorites and this was one of them. I am a huge King fan so I checked this one out at the library and will be adding the hardback to my collection.

This is a story that hits close to home, being that I'm currently on the market for a decent job after being laid off from a promising career.

I could not put this book down. I brought it to doctor's visits, restaurants, read it in the car when my husband was driving (feat in itself!) and into the bathtub with me.

Westlake succeded in fleshing out a man on the verge of losing everything in the wake of being laid off from a sixteen- year job and brings to light the corporate swine that ultimately makes those kinds of decisions. In a world of tough competition in the job market, Westlake gives new definition to the term "Dog eat dog world".

The pace was fast and had you rooting for the main character which in this case was the killer. A very difficult thing to do for any writer but Westlake does it flawlessly.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good dark comedy-thriller.

This crime novel has great descriptions of the area, wonderful langauge, great character names, and an interesting story. The character Legion is very evil and divine intervention "gets him" in the end. I love the Dave Robicheaux series .

Jolie Blon's Bounce, A good story, a welcome addition to my "Dave Robicheaux" collection. I do worry that the author is about to kill "Dave" off. The other characters in the story seem to feel that was also. I do hope this is not so, as I really enjoy Dave's adventures in New Orleans.

I won't add to the well written reviews and comments written so far. I mainly want to refute the reviewer who complained about the narration of Mark Hammer. It took a few minutes to get into but I think it's perfect for the bayou setting. The reader's voice seems etched with all the cares and woes of the characters who are woven through this fine novel. I hung on his every word and replayed many tracks to cement the impact of the incredible writing as transformed by the cadence and haunting voice of the reader.

I haven't been there physically, but James Lee Burke does a masterful job in placing you in the story. You can feel the heat while watching lightening flash across the night's sky. Your skin crawls with desperation of a depressed area. Your heart races with disgust as you are faced with one literature's most vile villains.
Very good read and very smooth prose.

James A. Forrest - Eye of the Storm

Like many of the Dave Robicheaux books, this one is filled with violent people, many of whom the best can be said is that some day they will kill and be killed by one of their own kind. It's the in-between time that the rest of us have to be fearful. This one starts out with the murder of two woman in a similar way, both have been beaten brutally and raped prior to being murdered.



But the real story is the one that follows Dave around during the whole of the investigation into the murders, and that is how do you deal with real evil without becoming part of the pattern. Dave almost goes off the wagon by taking pills after he is brutally beaten by a man who is proud to go by the name "Legion". Legion is one of the devil's disciples/minions who is mentioned in the "Book of Revelations". So there is a lot, a lot of allegory going on in this book about people and the sources of evil and what people do to aide and abet evil.



In the end, the story plays out pretty much the way you expect it to if you've read any of the previous books by JLB, but this one ends with a quirky bit about a criminal that Dave calls the "Easter Bunny". EB is an albino who doesn't just break into peoples houses he does so for many reasons. In one segment Dave tells how EB broke into a Pet Store, and stole two large South American parrots. He then breaks into the house of a well-known ex-KKK leader (who is overseas), steals his computer records (which he sends to the FBI and IRS) and lets the birds loose in the guys house (they of course leave 'deposits' all over the place). I hope he brings this character back sometime in the near future.



All in all, though it is a little heavy handed at times, and has more violence than I think is necessary (IMHO), it's an enjoyable story.

This was one of the most boring books I have ever read.

The plot was uninteresting and plodding and all the characters were just cardboard cut outs; completely superficial and predictable and with no depth at all. The female characters were particularly unbeliveable and some of their dialogue was just awful.

I am at a loss to explain how so many people gave this book high ratings, perhaps it is due to his earlier work being of a higher standard? (It'd have to be surely for this writer to have had such a career.)

I am always worried about long time authors' ability to turn out another entertaining book. However, in my opinion, rarely has Francis failed to please and Under Orders is no exception. I welcome the return of Sid Halley (honestly, how has it been that there has never been a decent, mainstream series picked up of this character on television? With the dismal choice for watching these days, Sid would be a perfect vehicle for a really decent show that doesn't have CSI in front of the title.) as a happier more well adjusted hero. I disagree that there is any excess in bringing him back. This was another fast paced, hook me in tight from the first page Francis novel. I'm a little worried about reading the next one, as other parent/child torch passings have never lived up to my expectations but I am really pleased that we have at least one more novel in the cadre of Francis books. I think it's amazing with the volume of work he has done that he's managed to turn out mostly solid, entertaining books time after time. Please spare me the "formulaic" complaint. Mr. Francis has had a formula that was apparent since about book 3 but it has rarely failed to still be an interesting character driven piece with believable motivations. If you don't like the formula, stop reading after your third novel. But I think, as his popularity shows, its a formula that works, is intriguing and obviously appealing and his ability to draw me in to a story has shone through once more.

Another winner from Dick Francis. His later works depend rather much on a tried and trusted formula especially with hero Sid Hailey. However this very predictability has appeal at least you know what you are going to get. Heroes are brave, clever and underestimated, baddies are loud, brash and ruthless and women are beautiful and compliant.Great stuff!

I am a Dick Francis virgin, that is to say Under Orders is my first Dick Francis novel. Unlike some of the other reviewers I have no fond memories of his previous works and writing style and therefore I present my review based solely on my experience with the content contained between the covers of this book.

I was immediately drawn into this tale of a one handed former jockey, now surviving as a moderately successful P.I., and his main squeeze, a vivacious, blond, Dutch cancer research specialist as they navigate the perilous waters of steeplechase racing and internet gambling. They cross paths with a variety of characters including horse trainers and jockeys, who are suspected of being paid off to fix races, a journalist whose paparazzi tactics are less than honorable, a grieving father, an ex-member of MI5, a couple of English Lords, and a plethora of supporting cast members.

Murder, suicide, and muggings replete with an ample amount of blood and gore are the order of the day and the author's vivid description of the intricacies of internet gambling as well as his speculation as to the devious methods which could be employed by gambling site owners to ensure them windfall profits was quite enlightening.

Additionally, Mr. Francis obviously has his finger on the rather jaded pulse humanity as illustrated by an incident in his story depicting the publics' mournful reaction to the death of a racehorse and the news coverage generated by that event when compared with the apathetic reaction to the death of a jockey on the same day. It would appear that we are a species more willing to empathize with and bestow our compassion on an animal than on our fellow man.

I found this offering to be a quick read and a pleasant diversion and particularly impressive when one considers that the ingenious plot is the brainchild of an 86 year old author. Cheers to you, Mr. Francis.....and three and a half stars too.

I bought "Under Orders" 2 days ago and just finished reading it this morning. Housework and eating fell to the wayside as I entered the world of Sid Hadley, Jockey turned Private Investigator. Dick Franicis never fails to weave several plot lines together for an exciting ending. This book also lets the reader enter the real world of Police Departments lack of funding, how computers are enabling "easy to get away with" crime and how science is making sure that the right person is caught, not just an easy patsy. I'd recommend this book to any mystery lover.

I have to say that author Elizabeth McCracken has written a classic novel about a small town between Peggy Cort, a single librarian, and a young man, James, who is literally a giant. The story takes place decades ago where a relationship between Peggy and James bond over a love of books. Their relationship evolves from a friendship into a romance. McCracken writes clearly and precisely. The writing is not too difficult to understand. It's written in the first person from Peggy's point of view. There are other characters like Mrs. Sweatt, James' mother, and other characters. It was nominated for a National Book Award in fiction when it first came out in 1997. The book has an Oprah appeal to it too.

I read this book years ago, and have never gotten it out of my head. Simply marvelous. One of my favourites ever.

I read this book and truly was shaking my head through most of it. If this is getting published then I am speechless. After reading the positive comments here I can say that the people who liked it and actually called it a romance probably liked it because they like the National Enquirer also. The author's "hook" is using a freakish person as bait to draw you in to see what happens between these two characters. People keep reading thinking of that odd love affair that they will witness. This isn't a "love story" or a "beautiful story of a man and a woman." It is an author's attempt to sell a book by presenting the promise of something bizarre and tittilating. The characters are not developed, the whole premise is just the main character one day seeing the tall boy and, what, she suddenly loves him? He is 11? And she is 25? And she wangles herself into his life and his family and they just accept her as one of them? What kind of story is this? It is beyond odd. It is pure nothing. I read the whole thing because I always read books all the way through. But otherwise, I would have tossed it out on garbage day unfinished. And the ending? Baloney. This author is on the wrong track.

The tallest boy in the world, and a convoluted librarian with the biggest heart in the world, this was an enchanting read, complete with loveable oddball characters you'll worry about even long after you turn the last page. This book became an obsession, and is a great flash of lightning on the horizon, for the beauty of McCracken's next novel, "Niagra Falls All Over Again." Deep author, and this book will delve into your heart, deep.

The Giant's House is a biography of James Carlson Sweatt, a young man afflicted with giantism. Six feet tall at the age of eleven, James reaches a height of eight feet seven inches before he passes away. James' biographer is Peggy Cort, a librarian, who, until she meets James, is in danger of living a life of loneliness and quiet desperation. Peggy tells the tale of James'short life, chronicling the many triumphs and heartbreaks. She also describes the bond between her and the gentle giant, an attachment which grows into a deep, abiding love.

Reminiscent of the best of Ray Bradbury, and of Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, The Giant's House is an outstanding achievement. McCracken has a keen eye for descriptive detail, especially small town life. It's probably not for everyone, but if you value good writing, give it a try.

great summer read, thriller, fast paced and love the central character scot harvath. am a robert ludlam fan and thor's books are similar in the intrigue, mystery, action. right now reading a fourth book of his. can't beat it for reading on the deck and we all know there is nothing on tv.

One word to describe Brad Thor's latest: Vince-Flynn-Wannabe. While there is nothing BAD about this national security thriller, there isn't one good thing about it either. Simply put, the prose is lifeless and the plot is wholly derivative. Why drink (flat) beer when you can lift a flute of champagne? Forget about Thor and stick with Vince Flynn!

Brad Thor has written another page-turning pulse-pounding thriller here, and this one is going to have you flashing back to the above-named movies as the action races through a New York City gone wild due to terrorist bombings on all bridges and tunnels. Thankfully, Scot Horvath is already in NYC and its up to him to save the day. Suspend your disbelief and you'll be propelled into a terrific thriller. Start thinking about it and you'll be rolling your eyes.

I recommend it highly for sheer entertainment value. Seek literary greatness elsewhere.

Great writer His books always are great!!!!!! Try to get them all.

This book is a bit how you would expect it to be. Islamic terrorists strike New York City killing scores of people and wreak havoc on Manhattan, which also happens to be the current location of covert officers operating under the law. Not surprisingly, weapons are quickly assembled, information is gathered and a chase ensues. The story moves rapidly and I stayed interested until the end, but the book is average for this genre. The author left the book wide open for a sequential story. Who knows if I'll get to the next book or not.