Maine Books

Imagine a combination of "The Premature Burial," "Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Body Heat"..that's what you get in this incredibly good thriller. Michael Kimball weaves a complex plot of betrayal, seduction, incest, murder and blackmail, and does so with such finesse one can hardly believe what they're reading.
Bobby Swift and his deliciously gorgeous wife, Noel, have a perfect plan: fake his death, bury him, dig him up and off they go to the Cayman Islands to spend the two million dollars he extorted from one of his associates. Add a wizened and weasly mortician named Wicker and you have a seemingly perfect plan. Enter Sal Erickson, Bobby's best friend, who becomes embroiled in the plot in the most despicable of ways. He's an alcoholic, who has tried to reform, but alas, can't stay away from the bottle. Sal is so bad that on many occasions, he has gotten so drunk that he can't remember what he did...hint, hint. Add his wife's sex-crazed brother, Jerry Royal; a couple of cops and detectives; Sal's wife who harbors a dark secret; and all hell breaks loose. Just when you think you've got it all figured out, Kimball adds another twist that keeps you guessing.
A tense, compelling and quite enjoyable thriller.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Description from back of the book:

Late one night, Sal Erickson's best friend calls him outside for a walk by the river. "Who do you trust?" he asks Sal. "Who would you trust with your life?"

It is this fateful question that will send Sal's precariously balanced life spinning out of control--propelling him into a strangely irresistible arena of passion and violence. For Bobby Swift and his stunningly seductive wife Noel are planning the scam of the century. And Sal, against his will, is about to be entangled in their plans.

It is a meticulously crafted scheme, one that Bobby and Noel have pieced together for five long years. Now they are ready. Bobby will use ingenious techniques to fake his own death. The small town doctor will be fooled. The greedy undertaker has been paid off. Bobby will be eulogized and buried alive until Noel can come to dig him up and they can run away together forever. They've got two million dollars hidden away in a bank in the Cayman Islands, and if they pull off the scam, they'll spend the rest of their lives basking in the Caribbean sun.

But the plan contains hidden twists that are yet to be revealed, and lurking at its heart is a betrayal of monumental proportions. Before he knows it Sal Erickson will be drawn into a web of seduction, lies and deceit-the like of which the small town of Gravity, Maine, has never before seen. Soon Sal will be fighting for his very life.

* I absolutely hooked on this book & it was near impossible for me to put it down. There was so much suspense & action going on that makes you want to finish it in one day. My only negative about the book is that it left me with several questions unanswered. What name was on Nell's plane ticket? Why did Iris dislike her mother? What was up with Sal's parents? & What really happened to his brother? I would've liked some of these answers but it didn't take away from the excellent story. I highly recommend this book. I'm now off to find the other Michael Kimball books out there. He just may be one of my new favorites.

This book had me hooked from page 4 until the end....a page turner that is very tough to put down. First time I read from this Author I will look for other Books from this Guy...great job!!

Maine writer Kimball's dark and riveting second novel is pure noir.

Bobby Swift has come up with the perfect plan to get his hands on the millions he's scammed from the government. He'll fake his death, his wife will dig him up, and off they'll go to the Cayman's.

But Noel Swift has a different plan. Hers doesn't involve Bobby.

Enter Sal Erickson, Bobby's best friend, and an earnest family man with a demon - alcohol. Sal thinks he's beaten it, but Bobby's sudden death has unnerved him. With a little nudge from Noel he takes a plunge that costs him his job and his marriage - and gains him Noel.

But strange things are happening in this small Maine town. The undertaker who schemed with Bobby is found dead in the grave and Bobby's coffin is empty.

Did Bobby escape? Is he watching Noel and Sal, biding his time for revenge?
Kimball ratchets up the psychological tension with terse byplay between the characters, all nurturing their own agendas, except for the hapless Sal and the canny town constable whose contributions are dismissed by the Staties.

And when the tension threatens to flag, Kimball pours on the action, raising the stakes with the knowledge that some people will go to any lengths, no matter how horrific, to get what they want.

Kimball's writing is charged with atmosphere and tension and his pacing is electric, right up the to explosive ending. A winner.

Sal Erickson is awakened in the middle of the night by Bobby Swift, his lifelong friend. Bobby convinces Sal to take a walk by the river behind his house, where he begins to talk about their friendship. Bobby asks Sal who he trusts, completely, implicitly. Sal answers, "Myself." The conversation ends abruptly. Bobby dies suddenly the next day, leaving Sal to reflect on the strange conversation, little realizing that he will soon be forced to answer Bobby's question in order to save his own life.

You see, Bobby has been keeping secrets from Sal. Eight years ago, Bobby fraudulently obtained an illegal three million dollar business loan. A year later, he declared bankruptcy and defaulted on the loan. But Bobby didn't spend the money--he stashed it in a bank in the Cayman Islands. To get their hands on the money, he, his sultry wife, Noel, and the town undertaker, Elliot Wicker, concoct an elaborate scheme to fake his death. It seemed foolproof, if only he could trust his co-conspirators...

Undone is a solid tale of suspense, very much in the tradition of Double Indemnity or Body Heat. The reader, hip to most of what's going on, is forced to watch helplessly as Sal, a very likable protagonist, is sucked further into the vortex in each succeeding chapter. Kimball keeps the action intimate and unfurls his plot at a leisurely pace, increasing the reader's anxiety and frustration.

The novel contains a variety of pleasures, but the greatest is Kimball's rendering of the characters who inhabit the small town of Gravity, Maine. Like Stephen King (apparently a potent force in Kimball's career), Kimball really makes you care about the people who populate his novel. From Alston Bouchard, the Columbo-like town constable, to the less than savory Jerry Royal, Undone is full of memorable characters who threaten to take over the book at any given moment.

I cracked the 'Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break' with an eagerness and fervor that I reserve for very few books, which might be one reason why I was so disappointed. It's a book of many neat ideas that just don't pan out.

This book starts with the question "what if the Minotaur, among other classic mythological creatures, were forced to live in our society," and doesn't go very far with it. We follow the minotaur as he works in a Southern steakhouse and on his rundown car, and listen to his internal monologue about his relationships with the people in his life.

From the start of the book, it seemed that the people accepted the Minotaur as a slow-witted human, which opened up an overarching theme of society's perceptions of outcasts. I found this to be creative and exciting: "people overlooking reality based on preconceptions, etc, etc."

I soon realized that I was looking way to deep into this. It turns out that everyone just sees him as a giant bull-headed man. They make jokes about his horns. They talk about branding. They moo.

Instead of speaking in words and sentences, the Minotaur only grunts and moans to communicate. His dialog is literally 90% the word "Mhnnn." This was another neat idea that gets annoying when every conversation becomes one-sided narration.

The Minotaur runs into a couple mythological characters throughout the story, but like so much else in the book, their interactions don't go anywhere. This was one of the biggest disappointments. There is so much to pursue here- the relationships between mythological creatures, those with that common, ancient bond, forced to live in our modern society- and yet the author skips right over it. He also skips over why these creatures can't use their powers to get better jobs (Medusa as a $1 side-show attraction. Great.), why they are not famous (even though they appear in encyclopedias), or even how the Minotaur survived his death at Theseus' hands.

Homosexual themes appear throughout the book, but also go nowhere. Is the author trying to approach the topic of homosexuality in the southern United States? Is he searching for parallels of homosexuality in mythology and modern society? Does he just like to describe muscular men in tight underwear? It's really unclear.

The final thirty pages of the book seem rushed and lost what little faith I had left. It's like someone forced the author to condense a hundred page ending into three brief chapters. It breaks from the meandering story and I found it really hard to swallow (in a book about a Minotaur chef, which is saying a lot).

Overall, the author had a lot of great ideas, but he simply failed to develop them. That's probably the most reccuring aspect of this book: storylines, ideas, themes that don't come anywhere close to their potential.

If the idea of defunct gods in modern society interests you, I recommend American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It examines in greater detail the relationships and ideas skimmed by this book.

I was fascinated by the premise of this novel but felt that it wasted many opportunities, passing over what struck me as fascinating narrative sidelines (the other survivors of the mythological world who cross the Minotaur's path) with an odd incuriosity. Sherrill does a fine job of building a vivid picture of the world in which the Minotaur lives - it's just a pity that what happens in it isn't terribly interesting. In a similar vein (mythological beings living in the modern world) I preferred Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which is less of a literary novel but considerably more sympathetic and entertaining.

I'm not a big English-writing-jargon-blahblahblah kind of guy, so statements like, "the over characterization of the mid-plot, doesn't even fit in with his standard style of the Victorian age." Whatever. I'm here to say that if you are looking for a fun book that is quick to read, buy this book. I liked it a lot. It made me smile. And I hate smiling.

This was a most intriguing book - I would go so far as to say it could easily become a classic of modern surreal literature. The Minotaur survives to this day, where he is a cook in a restaurant somewhere in North Carolina. Other immortals live and work among the mortals, such as Laurel, who is met during a trip to Florida taken by M and his landlord Sweeney. Interestingly, it seems that while people are occasionally taken aback by the Minotaur's appearance, no one seems terribly surprised by his presence.

I felt that, to me, this work spoke to the fact that there is within all of us a little bit of the freak that causes us to feel outcast and alone; this allows us to empathize with M. He lives very much in the "now" and has tended to forget much of his past and this is shown - among other ways - by the use of present tense in the narrative. M's search for love and acceptance is heart-breaking and heart-warming at the same time.

Definitely an interesting bit of literature for anyone who is looking to broaden their horizons a bit.

I say often that I'm not big on magic realism but if it all could be as Sherrill's fabulous novel, I'd happily snuggle up with the category until kingdom come. In any case, this novel consumed me entirely on more levels than I can count. There really aren't any cardboard characters here, even the minor players are drawn well (maybe two exceptions). Required reading for those who enjoy mythology, have a restaurant fiction fetish or a southern novel fixation and just anyone at all loves a really good book. Finest kind of reading; miss this one and be so sorry.

This novel excels, with Dan Lenson's first command turning into a nightmare. I would say "first real command", but whether or not he's even in command is part of the darkness looming over this book. Lenson replaces a drunk captain to overhaul a ship being sold to Pakistan. He then heads the Navy contingent aiding the voyage to Pakistan, dealing precariously with the arrogant and dangerously incompetent Pakistani skipper. Verbal order suddenly divert the ship back to U.S. control to fight pirates in Southeast Asia. As Lenson's pleas for orders and supply go unanswered, he sees this isn't the usual Navy mission. Commanding a mutinous crew of misfits, with a murderer lurking among them, Lenson struggles to maintain control, aided only by a handful of chiefs and an incompetent XO. Out on the edge of the world, beyond legal authority or help, a typhoon looming, Lenson reflects on the skippers he has known, on fictional characters like Queeg, Ahab and Kurtz, and, as usual, on how duty and honor apply to the murkiest situation he's ever been in. The unusual scenario for a Navy procedural takes this book into Age of Sail territory, earning comparisons with, say, O'Brian's Jack Aubrey novels.

I came across David Poyer's series of "Dan Lenson" novels by accident and was very excited about my discovery. As an ensign, I also got my sea legs on a Gearing class destroyer in the middle '60's. DD 818 was FRAM'd by the time I arrived, but a lot of stuff was still old on the USS NEW. The forward 5" mount was regunned during FRAM but not the after 5" mount. Going to GITMO with this inbalance made it near impossible to hit an air target. (We scored pretty good because we put up so much VT they were setting off each other)

As a long time Tom Clancy fan, I find David Poyer's books both refreshing and a reminder that Tin Can Sailors can save the world too. Poyer is right on target on so many things we shared on those WWII hulls. It brings back the memories of the good times, and more times than not, the reasons why I chose to leave active duty.

I normally recycle my paperback books to our Visiting Nurse used book store, but not the Poyer books. They will have a special place on my book shelf and will eventually be passed on to my grandchildren.

Whether you have a surface warfare backround or just want to read some quality sea stories, David Poyer is a great writer. He's been there and can tell it better than most. Now I'm looking for a copy of "The Gulf". It's out of print but a part of the story.

I am a fan of techno thrillers and over the last few years, I have read more than my share of them. I have read good ones and not so good ones. I love reading and I have read some great novels. HOWEVER this isn't one. This is the most disjoined mess of a plot I have seen in quite awhile. You have the US Navy training a Packistan to take over a ship, Jack the Ripper, crew mutinities, pirates, and World War III all in one book and none of them fully developed. The only reason I finished this book is to see what the h__l was going on. Even then after finsihing the book I had a very bad taste in my mouth. The characters are so flat that they cold be used for arug. The writing was not smooth. I didn't care about any of the characters. I am also something of a Jack the Ripper nut when it comes to literature. I have devoured many novels and films on the subject and the Jack the Ripper element in this novel bored me. It only confused the plot and I had no idea why it was in the book in the first place. Now someone somewhere liked this book because it has four stars. This is a better mystery to me than this novel.

David Poyer writes wonderful books and the tradition continues with China Sea. Imagine hero Dan Lenson on his first command battling a part Pakistani crew who have their own way of doing things including primitive gunnery drills in an age of Tomahawk cruise missile strikes. There is also a murderer on board Lensons Knox class destroyer. Some people might think that this makes the American Navy look bad but there usually has to be a subplot in stories about warships and its better than the phantom crapper subplot in Flight of the Intruder. The showdown with a Chinese warship near the disputed Spratley Islands shows that Poyer is a master of relating geopolitical events. I highly recommend all of Poyers other books as well.

I first got interested in sea stories from reading Patrick O'Brien's series. Poyer's hero, Dan Lenson, is likewise a thinking person's sailor. He is also something of a maverick, at one time considering resigning over the destruction a weapon like the Tomahawk missile could cause. Lenson has watched his superiors intently to learn from their decisions and later to consider whether he would have decided the same. He doubts himself at times. Here he finally has a temporary command fitted to his maverick tendencies and testing all he has learned over the years. Of course we have the obligatory sea battle, and Lenson finally discovers he has a taste for command after all. Strongly recommended, as are all Poyer's books.

I read the Strangler first and later saw Mission Flats on the shelf in the library so I picked it up. It was a great read. I enjoyed the characters and the feeling of Boston and Maine. As in the Strangler Landay has the ability to make you experience the locales. The characters like Officer Kelly and his daughter were wonderful. I loved the description of swinging the night stick.
I would give the book five stars, but then I read some of the other reviews on Amazon. The ending is a problem. Without giving anything away we only learn at the end that the narrator Ben Truman knows more than he had told us. It is unfair to the reader to withhold the information. I am not sure if that is right so I lowered my rating by a star, although I doubt anyone will really take my rating too seriously.

I await Mr. Landay's next effort. He is a star writer

What is up? Struck out again. A cop mystery. Ben is a small town cop who gets dragged into a 20-year-old mystery involving several Boston cops and a drug lord. Lots of violence and bad language. I did figure out who one of the top baddies was, though. This is one of the rare books I wish I had not read. Disturbing. (Side note: as some have complained, the narrator violated the contract with the reader; that is, he lies about his involvement in the case. We don't know if he is a reliable narrator, an honest story-teller. ...But this was a minor complaint of mine. Even without this strike against the book, it has plenty of other reasons I didn't enjoy it.)

I enjoyed MISSION FLATS, but I don't think it lives up to the largely ecstatic reviews it has received.

The first 100 pages of this novel are indeed superb. This novel begins by detailing the everyday life of a young, inexperienced police chief of a small town in Maine. A murder takes place, and the state police swoop in, quickly relegating the police chief to the sidelines. The first 100 pages are a brilliant character study about the police chief's life in this small town, and I really enjoyed them.

Unfortunately, after the first 100 pages, Landay takes MISSION FLATS into a very different direction. The small-town police chief travels to the big city of Boston, and begins investigating the murder on his own. At this point, the plot begins to spin out of control and loses all credibility. Our young hero suddenly becomes a brilliant cop, beds the DA on the case, runs into key witnesses by coincidence, exposes a long-dormant conspiracy, and so on. None of these events develop naturally or believably.

There is an effective twist at the end of MISSION FLATS, but it is based on the narrator deceiving the reader, which really isn't playing fair. The deception does leave something of a bad taste in the reader's mouth. Still, I found the ending a true shocker, and I admire Landay's courage in coming up with an unconventional resolution to the story.

Overall, MISSION FLATS is a good book, but I can't recommend it with enthusiasm, largely due to the plot weaknesses I outlined above.

This is an excellent book. Being that it's a debut novel makes it all the more impressive. Many people are comparing it to Mystic River but that's not really fair as Mission Flats is MUCH better. It's longer, more in depth, better researched, etc. I enjoyed Mystic River but this is just so much better.

It's also been called a "proceedural" which isn't correct either. Wamabugh was goiod in a way that he had a formula that worked - over and over and over again - but this author is totally original in his set up, delivery and style.

Again, I read the negative review on here and can't really beleive that he read the same book (oh wait, he only read part of it he says)that I did.

Mission Flats is engrossing, inteligent, and very tricky.

* The author's next novel is about the Boston Strangler - so played out and lame - so we may have to wait a while for another good story from him but Landay is DEFINITELY worth watching.

It's a murder mystery: the protagonist finds a dead body early on and spends the rest of the book solving the murder. The quest sends him to the seamier sides of Boston, wherein the hoods, the cops and the district attorneys are morally indistinguishable from each other. This behind-the-scenes look at how crimes "really" are solved is the book's strong point. It is a dirty, gritty process, and all the secrets are spilled here -- nicely done as a police procedural.

The problem for me comes is HOW the story is told. You see, our protagonist, the narrator Ben, is given to us as the epitome of integrity and reliability. He is smart, earnest and credible, a former history graduate student, now a small-town Maine police chief. His steady character and determination guide us through the swampland of questionable ethics that is the Boston crime scene.

Now please read closely the Publishers Weekly review presented above by Amazon.com. Please note the lines:

"Ben occasionally seems in danger of violating one of the rules of crime fiction-that the narrator shouldn't lie to us about his role in the story. But Landay's book is such a rich, harrowing and delightful read that few will complain."

Well, I'm complaining. Ben lied to me. More precisely, he did not reveal crucial information about the crime until the last scene of the book, where he gives it in a narrator's flashback. I don't see it as a case of the "unreliable narrator" (viz. Holden Caufield or Ishmeal) whose personal perspective colors his/her reportage. That can be an enjoyable ride in the narrator's world. This was a cheap theatrical trick generated by the author to create suspense where there otherwise would be none. He wants our narrator to be both reliable and unreliable at the same time. That violates the contract.

Constructively, this same plot told by an omnicient narrator would not have had the same pitfall. The same surprise ending in that case would be nicely ironic, rather than self-contradictory.

Nice, gritty story. Poor choices made in presenting it.

I love mystery stories in general and when I spotted this book containing puffins - one of my favorite birds - I grabbed it immediately. However, it was apparent within a page or two that this was a sequel, and that I'd be quite lost if I didn't track down the first one to read before this. After a few months of watching my local bookstores for it and never seeing it, I finally just ordered Murder with Peacocks from Amazon so that I could get the book off my dresser and into my life!

Having read Peacocks and then Puffins pretty much back to back, I have to say that I appreciate greatly how Meg has "matured" between the two books. The Puffins story picks up pretty much exactly where Peacocks left off - Meg is still newly in love with Mike, and the big hullabalo over her "solving" of multiple murders has her hometown in a swirl. She spontaneously decides to run off with Mike to a relative's cottage on a quiet island in Maine for some time alone. Of course, in a plot twist that only a cozy mystery can try to pretend is plausible, her entire family has the same spontaneous idea - including bringing Mike's annoying dog - and now the cottage is chock-full of eclectic personalities. Oh yes, and there's a hurricane this exact weekend, too.

You have to just grin and bear it when these sorts of things happen. There's going to be MANY more coincidences springing up. It just happens to be the weekend that the local rich guy has brought in a buyer for his plan to turn the entire island into a resort. A local escaped prisoner just happens to be lurking around. You have to assume that all of these people live in some sort of alternative reality where coincidences are standard and always work to further the plot along.

My complaint with Meg in the first book is that she had been a perpetual doormat, and it was depressing if not frustrating to read about her just giving in to everyone. She has suddenly grown a backbone in this book, which is great. She finally stands up for herself and for her family. However, Mike seems to have suddenly lost HIS personality! Now he's like an anemic Dr. Watson, just tagging along gamely whereever Meg goes. I'm all for partners who can roll with the flow - but they should still have some intelligence and spark.

The book loves to make fun of birders as being boring and dumb, which is odd since you would think a book about puffins would appeal to birders. It's why I got the book :) I've been out to Machias Seal Island to see puffins, and I could relate easily to the landscapes and environments she described. I'm not quite sure why she was deliberately trying to ostracize one of her target audiences. It's one thing to gently poke fun at stereotypes, but she was rather heavy handed and repetitive here. In the first book she was targetting brides-to-be, but that portrayal was more cute than nasty.

Really, the overreaching problem here is that numerous characters and situations just didn't make sense. Some individuals were very one dimensional. The actions of the police and other characters in charge weren't logical in several situations. I was grateful that there weren't 80-trillion murders like in Book 1, but even so the reasons that things happened and how things wrap up are a bit tenuous.

It almost seems that the author got complaints about the first book - so she fixed up those issues but then in the process introduced some new issues. I really did enjoy reading both books in general, and have high hopes that future books will "settle down" and have well rounded characters with plausible plot lines that are fun.

Funny, upbeat and well-written mystery that's not predictable. I enjoyed Ms. Andrews sense of humor and recommend the book.

Although this book was recommended by a member of my book club, I didn't finish the book. It was just too cutesy for me. The characters were cariacatures rather than real people. Meg and her boyfriend, Michael, are not real people. Her actions are inappropriate and he is just a handsome cipher for her. I don't recommend this book.

I really enjoy this series - I've read all that are in paperback and would recommend them to anyone who wants an amusing time with the only sane member of a wacky family. Not recommended for the serious minded.

Meg Lanslow's relationship with her boyfriend Michael is going strong, but they are having a hard time finding some private time together. Meg thinks she knows the perfect place for a romantic getaway - her Aunt Phoebe's cottage in Monhegan, Maine. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned, the boat trip is rough because a hurricane is headed their way and once they reach the island, Meg and Michael realize it's been invaded by avid bird watchers. Even worse, once they get to the cottage they find that Meg's Aunt Phoebe, brother, and parents are already there! Due to the impending hurricane, Meg and Michael are stuck there and try to make the best they can out of the situation. But when a famous painter is found murdered on the island and Aunt Phoebe confesses to the murder and her father is a suspect, Meg is knee deep in murder once again.

"Murder With Puffins" is a nice cozy mystery. There's a nice sense of humor throughout the book, including the title of each chapter: "The Agony and the Puffin", "East of Puffin", and "A Cat Among the Puffins" are some examples. The book is full of eccentric characters, including everyone in Meg's family. Meg is a spunky heroine but Mike is a bit bland in this book. The mystery itself is well plotted with plenty of suspects and plenty of motives, although the way the murder itself is committed is a bit unbelievable. I liked the fact that, unlike in most cozy mysteries, Meg doesn't want to confront the murderer herself but wants to go for the police instead.

Nicely done.

i hate spending hours getting to know characters..then not knowing the rest of their story. the entire book held on to me until the ending. i kept waiting for closure that i never got. i LOVED More Than You Know by Beth Gutcheon and had high standards, and don't get me wrong, I loved parts of this book too, but the loose ends are DRIVING ME INSANE!!

Leeway Cottage by Beth Gutcheon is a wonderfully written story that is a blend of her vivid storytelling and obvious research. She paints such a clear picture of life in summer village in Maine, as well as the contrast between the summer residents and the lives of those upstairs and downstairs. The other portion the novel reveals a part of history that is unknown by many of the readers--wartime Denmark. I was familiar with the version of history where Denmark handed over the nation the Nazis but was certainly not aware of the nation's struggle to protect and preserve its Jewish population, and that it was done with such a massive success.

Through the course of these two landscapes, Gutcheon details the life of a marriage and how that changes and evolves between two people, especially between two people from such different worlds. Her characters will have you switching allegiances throughout the book, an impressive feat.

I finished reading this book with a feeling of love for Leeway Cottage as deep as that of the characters who spent their lives there. It is certainly a book that I will continue to recommend. It was purchased by my mother, who purchased a copy for me, and I then purchased a copy for my father-in-law.

I am giving this book three stars, because it is involving and you want to keep reading. The loose ends really bother me. Early on we learn that Sydney's father's first wife died from complications of childbirth. Later we are told she committed suicide and then nothing more. Very frustrating! It is hinted that Sydney may have been in love with a woman while Laurus is in Europe. We never learn more. Is this just a crumb to titillate or to indicate a change in Sydney? If so it is too inconclusive and leaves the reader feeling of dissatisfied. Jimmy, Sydney's son, drops out and does drugs for ten years. Other than Laurus getting him a job on a lobster boat early on to straighten him out--nobody seems to care. Wouldn't there be some parental hair pulling over this? So while it is a readable book I was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction.

I get the feeling that Beth Gutcheon knew a bit about the Danish resistance during WWII and created a story to fit around it. After doing extensive research of the role of the Danes in saving their Jewish population, she wrote the book. Unfortunately, the stories just don't mesh.

I found Sydney to be an interesting and complicated character. I didn't care for her for most of the book, but I understood how she became the woman she was. All she's looking for is acceptance and strives her whole life for her mom's approval, even while taking joy in irritating her. The fact that Sydney herself alienates her daughters as her mother alienated her makes perfect sense. After all, her mother's behavior toward her guarantees that Sydney will never feel loved enough. In her mind she's under-appreciated and for once wants to be the center of attention. She achieves that with her frequent angry outbursts and by being difficult with everyone. She finally gets a measure of acceptance from her troublesome son, Jimmy, but only as long as she lets him do whatever he wants and defends him, no matter what the charges are and how guilty he is. Yes, Sydney drinks too much, is self-absorbed and spoiled and has no concept of the enormity of what happened to Jews in Europe during WWII, but she herself mentions how small her world is. Her experiences are simply too narrow. How many of us would have been the same way if we lived during that time?

I was disappointed with the lack of info on Berthe's suicide after Sydney found out about it. What happened? And what about Sydney being found in the embrace of an obviously gay woman? What happened? After Candace and whats-his-face die, what happened to The Plywoods?

The portion of the book spent in Europe was absolutely compelling. I would like to read an entire book on that alone. It was well written and inspiring. I put myself in Nina and Per's position and wondered if I would've risen to the challenge. The last chapter, which I presume to be part of Laurus's life movie, was brutal and I'm glad there wasn't more of that in the book, to be honest. But in the other parts of the book, Nina is no more a major character than her parents, Gladdy, etc. So, how strange that the only portion of the movie we see is about her, and not all of Laurus's life, like why he stayed with Sydney.

One more thing - I reread the first chapter of the book, as I frequently do when a book starts in the present and then goes back in time. I'd forgotten about the big deal the kids made about The Dress they found in an upstairs closet. I had to really think about it and then realized it was the dress that Sydney wore at her Coming Out, when her mother came down in the exact same dress. I don't know. While it was a turning point in that it pushed Sydney out of the house, it just didn't seem memorable enough to warrant the treatment it got in the first chapter as if we were supposed to expect some big scene with the dress.

Aaaanyway, I know I had some other issues with the book and would love to sit in a room with the rest of the people who wrote reviews, esp. the 5-star reviews, but I'll have to be content with reading further reviews to see if anyone can give me the insight I missed.

One more thing, I read More Than You Know recently and didn't find it to be the Tour de Force that everyone seems to think it is. I obviously missed something!

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the beginning, reading about Sydney's unhappy childhood. She desperately wanted to be loved and approved of, especially by her stepmother Candace. She finally had enough and was strong enough to take her chances and pursue her dreams in New York. I also enjoyed the middle of the book about what it was like in Denmark during WWII. I don't know much about Danish history during the war. The stories of the Allies and Danish attempts to transport the Danish Jews and Resistant forces was inspiring. Reading what Nina went through in the camps was so heartbreaking.
What I did not enjoy was the last half of the book after the end of the war. The book jumped around too much about Sydney & Laurus's complex relationship and the lives of their children and Laurus's family. I was disappointed that Sydney, who once seemed strong and independent enough to leave her home and seek New York, who took up carpentry and painting their new home, ended up turning into this neurotic person. I felt the author did not explain this change enough in the book. Laurus remained devoted to Sydney but I was left wondering why? Guilt perhaps? The children were one dimensional and the book jumped from their childhood to their marriage, and then their own children too quickly.

The Canning Season is one of the best books I've ever read. It is quirky, funny and very insightful. (If you are not into the quirky, however, you will probably find it more weird than amusing.) Both adults and kids can appreciate this book and its advice. My parents loved it!

This book is about a shy girl named Ratchet who lives with a verbally abusive mother who doesn't let her have any friends. Not far into the book, her mother ships her off to stay the summer with her great-aunts in Maine.

There are several little twists in the story. Another girl is dropped off at the great-aunts' house. Ratchet learns to milk the cow. Ratchet's mom finds a boyfriend. Ratchet learns of her aunt Tilly's marriage.

To me, this story is about small joys in life, like gardening, milking cows, going swimming, and good people. I really liked it, but I think it's a personal thing. Also, it has the "f" word in it, so beware. I wouldn't want to shelter my kids from this book- this is a great story. If you're a teacher or librarian, I'd be wary of this book.

My 9 year-old and I read this book together. It is wonderful, touching, funny, and fairly sophisticated. I must warn you that if you are upset by curse words and unplanned pregnancy, then this book will upset you. However, it is a great story about Ratchet's summer with her elderly aunts in Maine. There is no sugar-coating of adult subjects, but rather honest treatment of them from a child's perspective.

After reading this book from the library - I turn here to buy it and thought I would check out the ratings.....for me it was 5 star all the way...no sugar coating here but a warm and straight forward tale - one that I am more then willing to pass along to my daughter and maybe if I can twist my sons arm - him as well. A few "F-bombs" aside (which they use maybe 2 times in almost 200 pages - believe me even though this isn't a word that we use - I have heard it and worse from the kids at the school where my children attend in their fine up-scale middle/upper class neighborhood), Why would I want to hide such a wonderful story about life from my children? As a parent I don't own rosy colored glasses nor would I put them on my children....as a parent we try to protect our children but I am not keeping my children in a box - what happens when they turn 18 and are no longer in the boxes we put them in? Who is there to shelter them then?
This is a story filled with warmth and humor and truth about realtionships that we have no control over. It's about change ( even thought for 72 years nothing had changed - when those two girls hit the house things changed) and love and finding happiness in who you are....
"Penpen said that Tilly lived the way she had chosen, in the woods, uncluttered and undisturbed and that we have to love people as they are, free from what what we want them to be..."
Two ladies live in a way that makes them happy and give two teenage girls a home, stability and love - something that neither have had in any great supply. It's an honest story...one that I have no shame in claiming that I love.

If the premise of the book sounds good to you, then I guarantee you will enjoy it. The tale is whimsical and meaningful, a rare combination. Though, I am not really certain the appropriate age group for the book, as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ignore the negative reviews unless you, like the nay-sayers, are prudish and uninspired, then simply skip this little gem.

The world became aware of Linda Greenlaw when her exploits were chronicled in the book "Perfect Storm" and she was portrayed by actress Mary Elizabeth Mastratonio, the captain of the other fishing boat in the George Clooney movie of the same name. Capitalizing on her new-found fame, Linda turned to writing and turned out three excellent non-fiction books: "The Hungry Ocean," "The Lobster Chronicles," and "All Fishermen Are Liars," plus a cook book co-authored with her mother, "Recipes from a Small Island." Now, she turns to fiction with "Slipknot." For a first novel, it is an excellent effort. She has created a singular character, Jane Bunker - former big-city homicide detective from Florida, current marine insurance investigator in Maine. Not much is revealed about her past, including a secret mentor. I suspect she is saving that for future novels. But, what we see of her character is fascinating indeed: a penny-pinching, soon-to-be old maid, with romantic overtures and appreciation for the look of her own breasts. She lays out the mystery in "Slipknot" with ambiguous clues, the occasional red herring, flashes of humor, and a host of interesting characters. For suspense, she gives us a number of surprising events that put the heroine in life-threatening jeopardy, and keep us reading until the end to find out what is really going on. As a mystery writer, she's got the skills down pat. But, she does have a few tell-tale signs of being a novice. First, everyone speaks in the same voice. With the interesting variety of accents available from Maine, she uses none of them. Each of the characters speaks like everybody else. Secondly, sometimes she forgets not-so-incidental occurrences. For example, during her last harrowing adventure, she breaks several ribs. But then, mostly forgets about them. I have broken ribs twice; I know they are not easily forgotten. For example, she lifts four gallon buckets of water (that's over 32 pounds each) over and over with no apparent pain. When she does remember the ribs, it's when she pulls apart a Velcro strip. She also goes overboard in showing off her fishing knowledge with a too-long explanation of cod fishing. But, I am definitely looking forward to her next book and the ones after that, too, with the improvements I know she will insist on making. Linda Greenlaw doesn't have to fish any more, unless it's angling for the right adjective.

Dade County Chief of Detectives Jane Bunker feels no regret at leaving her rising career as a homicide detective. More than a decade spent chasing down drug runners in speed boats and hauling illegals in inner tubes ashore in her Miami beat has left her yearning for a less stressful career. The peace and quiet of the sleepy little coastal Maine fishing village of her childhood beckons.

The pay cut as a marine insurance inspector is worth it. She has missed the winter snows, the cool summers, and the opportunity to touch base with her old friends and family.

She has barely moved into a tiny apartment above a tourist trap gift shop with a view of the harbor when she starts her first day of work, checking out a fish processing plant for a policy renewal. It is dawn, and as she walks around the building, she sees a body washed up on the beach in front of the plant and a small group of people clustered around. She recognizes the victim as a man who raised a ruckus at a community meeting the night before. Her police instincts kick in, and she starts taking notes and asking questions of the locals, who look upon her nosiness with little favor. The death is ruled as an accidental drowning or a possible suicide, but her instincts tell her otherwise. She convinces the local authorities to take a closer look at his death, embroiling herself further into the case.

The village's fishing industry is threatened by outside conditions. Over-fishing is depleting once-abundant supplies of popular food fish, and a profitable offshore wind farm for electrical generation is being proposed that has come up against local fishermen as a threat to their livelihood. The body on the shore is that of a proponent of the wind farm who made no secret of his interests at the meeting.

Jane tries to stay out of the investigation, carried out by a handful of small town would-be cops, but when clues quite literally fall into her lap, she feels compelled to do some checking on her own. She soon discovers that drug running, blackmail and smuggling activities are not confined to the big cities.

In a lively, fast-paced adventure, Jane soon finds herself in personal jeopardy as she peels back the cover-up of fraud, embezzlement and illegal environmental activity. As she is drawn deeper into the investigation, her life is endangered as she stows away on a fishing boat. A heart-pounding fight for survival during an ocean gale very nearly ends Jane's career as an insurance inspector --- and her life.

Linda Greenlaw has written three bestselling nonfiction books: THE HUNGRY OCEAN, THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES and ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS. She was the real-life swordfish boat captain who survived THE PERFECT STORM by Sebastian Junger. Don't let Greenlaw's petite appearance fool you. Her considerable skills as a tough fishing boat captain, successful writer and cook (she co-authored a cookbook with her mother, RECIPES FROM A VERY SMALL ISLAND) make her an icon among successful women.

In SLIPKNOT, Greenlaw's first mystery, we are introduced to the intriguing and diverse cast of characters of Green Haven, Maine. I would like to predict that we will see more of our insurance inspector/sleuth Jane Bunker.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

I listened to Slipknot. I enjoyed the story, but as others have said, there was room for improvement. It is a light read and I am awaiting another Jane Bunker story. I liked Jane and know there are more stories that can be written about her. As for the audio reader, please do NOT try to do Maine accents. She couldn't seem to decide between a very bad Maine accent or a very bad southern accent (though I am sure she thought it was a Maine accent). It really takes away from the enjoyment. Also, please research how the locals say a ciy's name. It is Bang-gore, not Banger, when refering to Bangor, Maine and learn the correct pronunciation of Gloucester, MA.

My 4-stars are for the story, not the audio. I would lower it to 3-stars for the audio version.

Jane Bunker moved north from Miami only days before Nick Dow, the town drunk of Green Haven, Maine, washed up on the beach with his head bashed in--possibly the result of a drunken fall, but maybe not. Jane, who'd been a homicide detective in Florida, is among the first to see the body, and though it's no longer in her job description--she's now a marine insurance investigator--she decides to investigate the death on her own by way of having a hobby. The more she looks into the death, the more fishy it seems to be. Jane suspects it's connected to the hot-button issue that's got the town riled up, the proposed creation of a wind farm off-shore, which would likely have an adverse effect on the town's cod fishing industry.

Jane is a likable protagonist, frugal in speech and finances. We're given to understand that she is running away from her old life in Florida while at the same time returning to her roots. Jane's mother was from Green Haven. She left family behind when she abandoned Maine--running away from something, just as her daughter would--during Jane's childhood. This back story will presumably be fleshed out in subsequent installments in the series. Greenlaw here introduces a number of characters who will likely be regulars: the laconic, slightly hunchbacked Cal, who's fast becoming her friend and accomplice; her frequently sloshed landlords, who are moving into position as surrogate parents; the brash young waitress at the local diner; a potential love interest. It's a cast I'll be happy to spend further time with.

Greenlaw has previously published a handful of nonfiction books, including The Lobster Chronicles and All Fishermen are Liars (see my review) based on her years of experience at sea. (In addition to writing, Greenlaw is the captain of a lobster boat.) Her first foray into fiction reads well for the most part. The mystery held my interest. The writing and the story flow well with a couple of jarring exceptions. There are two scenes in the book which don't work because they are so unrealistic: one at the diner in which Greenlaw has the waitress dramatically narrate events from the previous night's town meeting, and later in the book a sort of catfight between Jane and a local socialite. There is in addition one character--Ginny, a monster of the local fishing industry--whose behavior is too over-the-top to be credible.

My lack of familiarity with naval terminology was not an issue for most of the book, but there is a climactic scene toward the end that I probably would have enjoyed more if I'd had a better idea of what was happening. But even without knowing a turnbuckle from an outrigger I could understand the tenor of what was going on--grave peril and high drama at sea.

I liked Slipknot and look forward to more from Greenlaw. Next up is the series' second knot-titled installment, Fisherman's Bend.

-- Debra Hamel

I loved Linda Greenlaw's, "The Hungry Ocean", and plan to read her other titles, but first, I decided to see how she does as a fiction writer.

Not as well. Although Slipknot shines at times, particularly during the scenes on the water, the author's first person portrayal of Jane Bunker is a bit too uneven. The woman is in her 40's and still single. That doesn't happen by accident - but here it's never explained to reader's satisfaction. Does she fear commitment? Is she still a virgin? What is it that's kept her single? In non-fiction, an author can get away with shallow characterization, but in fiction, the reader needs to know the person inside because that's how their transference takes place. This woman is 42. She has to be hardened by now, yet she reacts like a teenager when the first guy smiles at her. That's out of character. She's supposed to be a veteran big city detective, but she seems oblivious of the danger she routinely puts herself in as she prowls the small town. That's out of character too.

I don't know why a person who has as much in-depth knowledge of the ocean and love for all things nautical as Linda Greenlaw would start writing land-based detective fiction. Whatever the reason, she did. Does she succeed? Yes. A person like Linda will succeed in whatever she sets out to do, but this time out, not to the same degree as in her non-fiction work: the best scenes in Slipknot take place aboard a fishing vessel during a storm, and that's where I recommend the author set her next fictional story.

Art Tirrell is the author of The Secret Ever Keeps

China Bayles used to be a lawyer, but now she is an herbalist in a small town in Texas. Her husband, a former policeman, is now a private investigator. China finds the body of a missing man while her half brother is reopening old wounds in looking into the death of their father many years before. China Bayles is a series protagonist, and I would suggest reading these books in order, starting with, I believe, "Thyme for Murder." Some author's books in a series don't stand alone as well as others, and "Spanish Dagger" could use some preliminary information. Despite this, however, China Bayles is a likeable heroine, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story. As a matter of fact Susan Wittig Albert is also one half of Robin Paige whose books I also enjoy.

This was the first China Bayles I read, and it fulfilled every expectation I have for a great mystery novel: good characters; memorable setting and atmosphere; and a serious plot that engages the reader all the way through. You will also learn a lot about yucca as you try to figure out the connections between Ruby, her (ex) boyfriend, Lucita, Sheila and drugs, police corruption and murder. There is also an intriguing subplot taking us through China's complicated relationship with her mother/father/half-brother. You will love the people of Pecan Springs and Texas hill country.

Ms. Albert is one of those rare writers who crafts her series books to work as stand-alone novels, and this book worked just fine as a stand-alone. I loved it enough to want to return to Pecan Springs again and again. I'm a big fan of Ms. Albert's "Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter," and am now equally enthusiastic about the China Bayles series.

Let's hope there are many, many more books to come from this talented writer. This is a very good way to spend $7.99, and way more satisfying than what's playing at the box office!

China Bayles' herb shop, Thyme & Seasons is doing well but not well enough to pay all the bills if her husband Mike's PI business doesn't get some customers. But in the vein of being careful what you wish for, Mike's next case is for China's newly found half-brother, Mike Danforth. Danforth believes that China's father was murdered and wants McQuaid to open this cold case. This, as you might guess, upsets China's mother.

And speaking of mothers, Ruby's mother is causing quite a stir in her seniors community and Ruby needs to have her moved to a new apartment where she can get the intensive care she needs now that she's showing signs of dementia. With all this going on, China has little time to spend with Carole Gayle who has arrived to give a papermaking workshop and needs help gathering samples. It's while they're out gathering Spanish dagger that they find a body and now time may be running out ... the killer needs to be found before the town gets torn apart by a jurisdictional dispute between local police and Texas DEA agents.

When you pick up a China Bayles mystery, you know several things: the book will be filled with interesting herbal information; the characters you've come to care about will be involved in some sort of mischief or mayhem; there will be a mystery to solve; there will be some delicious recipes to try out; and Pecan Springs will still be a smallish town filled with characters that can support even more books to come.

The mystery hinges on some very interesting bits of Texas legal history. I think I enjoy these books as much for their information about Texas history and culture as I do for the herbal lore and the characters.

If you like cozy mysteries where the violence is off stage but you still have characters you can care about and learn from -- give these books a try. You don't need to start with the first one. Albert manages to give you enough back-story to pick up on what's happening to the characters and how they inter-relate. But, I'm sure once you read one you'll want to start at the beginning.

The beginning of this book is very strong. I liked China's narration. Through Albert, she provided enough backstory for me to want to read more. I thought the story was going to focus on China and her half-brother solving her father's "accidental" death. It seems as soon as China's husband, McQuaid, agreed that her half-brother should work on the mystery, we were drawn into another one.

Ruby's ex-boyfriend, Colin, is found murdered in a patch of spanish daggers. This leads China, "inept detective, super friend", to work this mystery with her attorney knowledge of crimes. Ruby can't seem to handle mourning the loss of Colin and the loss of her mother's sanity. (I'd say her mother's frontal lobe dementia is more of a subplot than the father's death.) In just a few days. China is led down a maze of different paths filled with colorful characters: Crazy Zany, Rambo the Rottweiler, Hark the nosey reporter, etc.

China is not the best detective, but she so badly wants to help Ruby. She won't take direction from Sheila "Smart Cookie", police chief and friend. China makes some very foolish decisions, but by then, I wasn't interested. Albert threw together too many sub-subplots, and for a "China Bayles newbie", I really didn't need all of them. (Amy and Baby Grace come to mind, as well as Ricky the druggie) By the end, we discover the Colin's murderer, but we never know what really happened to China's father.

Albert has done her research on narcotics and corrupt cops. She knows the drug trafficking routes of the border states. I appreciated that info. The chapters began with a recipe or brief description of an agave (spanish dagger) herb.

I wish she stuck with one murder plot: Colin's or dad's death.

Albert gave a lot of nice descriptions of Pecan Springs and other parts of Texas. Pecan Springs reminds of southwestern places I would have liked to live in prior to my marriage. The area seems to have it all, from mainline churches to off-beat new age stores. I liked the characters, but throwing them all together wasn't necessary. I guess maybe she's wrapping up the China Bayles series? If so, then China has come to terms with dad's death and that's how it should be.

I like Albert's writing, so I'm going to read the other books in this series.

China Bayles is back. This time she is sponsoring a paper-making workshop behind her herb shop. However, while she is gathering wild yucca or Spanish dagger with the workshop teacher, she comes across a body--once again. Susan, a friend of mine, has written her sixteenth China Bayles mystery, all with herb titles and a plethora of information about the featured herb slipped in between page-turning mysteries. I have learned to schedule time to read my once-a-year treat because once I begin, sleep, meals, grandchildren, and other pleasures are neglected.

Spanish Dagger is no exception. Subplots abound, in some instances wrapped up from previous books; in others begun, such as China's complex relationship with her father. Not so much as to annoy the reader, however, because you could pick up any one of the books in the series and be fully satisfied with a complete story. This time, the mother of China's friend and business partner, Ruby, shows signs of Alzheimer's, and Ruby must work with that very serious issue through the book. Ruby's current love plays a major part as well.

China's involvement in the most recent murder begins when she volunteers to feed and water the murder victim's Rottweiler. She just happens to look around the place and discovers a note hidden in one of the potted yuccas. Naturally, she hands the note to her friend Smart Cookie, the police chief, but not before she has read it. The plot thickens!

Albert's writing is gripping, intelligent, and often humorous--not cute and coy humorous as some mysteries are. Her main characters are true-to-life and believable. She has written another entertaining mystery with the occasional pause for deep thought.

by Judith Helburn
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

This was probably the worst of all of the AT guide books out there. The information was not very thought out at all. I was also personally banned from the author's web page (...) for the mere fact that I am a republican and supported the president and our troops overseas. I couldn't believe it. He told me that supporters of the president were not welcome unless I could "keep my mouth shut." Despite any personal biases I have towards him, I objectively claim that ANY other books out there regarding the AT are going to be more useful.

Sorry for the 1 star.. It's a tentative rating, as I haven't read the book yet.. Lotta controversy surrounding the author it seems.. I was going to purchase the book, but after reading the bronx cheers, I'll check it out at my local library first.. After all 16 bux is 16 bux..

This is the only book I carried for the entire Appalachian Trail. It has all the services, shelters, water sources, and trail data in it. It's the only book you need.
I started out with the whole book--minus the cover--and tore out the pages I didn't need any more as I hiked. A new one is printed every year; get it at [...]

Information is very outdated. Doesn't seem to know about any trail changes made in the last four years. Only seems to list half of the services in most towns, and quite often lists things that have been closed for years. Author claims seven thru-hikes, but they must have been many, many years ago. Basically worthless, no thru-hikers on the Trail ever use it.

This is an excellent resource for anyone planning a hike on the Appalachian Trail. The information is accurate, concise and in a format that is useful to the long distance hiker as well as the day, week, or week-long hiker. I relied on Wingfoot's 2000 and 2001 Handbooks for my entire hike of the AT. If you only buy one book for your hike make sure it is this one. Wingfoot's book is a 5 star.
Little Steps
GA-ME 2000/01