Irons Books

Set in 1860, at the close of the Golden Age of Sail, The Fastest Ship is an exciting novel of rescue, adventure and lost treasure. When the daughter of the Governor of Jamaica is abducted by pirates, the man she is destined to marry, and who will build England's first iron-armored warship, the HMS Warrior. The Warrior's maiden voyage in search of a long-lost treasure and hidden memory, on the brink of a revolutionary transformation in nautical technology makes for a rousing fierce saga of the high seas. An exciting historical novel especially for nautical buffs.

The 1860s proved to be one of the most pivotal periods in the history of naval warfare. For the first time in over 3,000 years of combat on the high seas, ships began migrating from being made of wood to being made of iron. As everyone knows, the MONITOR and the MERRIMACK were the first ironclads to do battle in the American Civil War. However, other countries were catching on to the idea of constructing ships out of iron at the same time.

This is a fictional story of a historical vessel: the HMS WARRIOR. Ironically enough, this technological change caused navies to hire more people per ship rather than less. More sailors were needed per ship than the crews that mustered aboard sailing ships. Additional men were needed to shovel coal in the engine room as well as man the machinery aboard these ships.

The novel also covers the waning age of the infamous pirates of the Carribean. Arnold toys around with history a bit to combine these two historical epochs into an enjoyable maritime tale.

From time to time the dialogue in the book is a little bit wooden, but the story itself is compelling enough to overcome this. Also, the climactic scene in the book could have been handled in a little more dramatic fashion, but these criticisms are minor.

I would highly recommend the current book to anyone with a passing interest in naval history or pirates. For that matter, people who enjoy love stories will also get a lift out of this book. We will hope that Larita Arnold will offer us more tales of the high seas in the future.

One of the reasons I became an Amazon reviewer was to give back to others what I have gained by reading other reviewer's comments. When weighing the decision to invest in a book, a movie or anything else sold on Amazon, I have always relied heavily on the reviews of others before making the monetary plunge and when I have bought a book, movie or other item and have found it to be either an excellent value or an albatross, I have returned the favor by sharing my views on the item in question to either recommend the item or warn people against it.

Giving warnings against an item is easy when I have plunked down money for an item that fell short of expectations, but it is not easy to do so when an author has sent you a review copy, obviously expecting a positive review.

I finished reading Larita Arnold's book a few weeks ago, but have been loathe to write a review that would hurt the author's feelings. After seeing copious positive reviews, however, I felt it was important to add balance to those reviews by countering praise I feel is unmerited.

Admittedly, romance is not my genre of choice when looking for a fiction read, but I have read a number of books that have had romance vignettes peppered throughout that enhanced the story, so I am not unfamiliar with reading "sexed up" literature.

The book's cover "art" does not give the reader a good first impression and it pretty much goes downhill from there. The story opens in the home of the book's main characters and principal love interests, Admiral Jack Ashbury and his amnesia suffering wife, Angelica.

The timeline takes place in the 1850s Britain and the Caribbean. Despite the Victorian era's nearly Puritan attitudes toward sex, and penchant for having all unwed couples chaperoned, at all times, the "angelic" Angelica is a 21st century girl. Not quite a rebel or radical feminist, rather a randy girl that everyone seems to wink and nod at. Before her amnesia, when she was 16 year old Elena, she ends up bumping uglies with her fiancee and quickly catching pregnant. In reality, a peasant girl may have had the occasional tryst in the barn with a farm boy at this time, but proper British girls of the 1850s did not simply roll in the hay. They were properly courted and promptly married. A girl raised in this era may have had the same sex drive as Madonna, but knew that not waiting until marriage could result in being shipped off to a convent and/or disowned by one's family, destined to live a lonely, shamed existence raising a bastard child that would unfairly inherit this stigma. It's not pretty, but that was reality... and a proper British girl, as Angelica is portrayed, would have been chaperoned at all times her gentleman caller was present.

After numerous circumstances involving pirates, prisons and revenge, Captain Ashbury is nearing the end of a 2-year tour of duty in the Atlantic, fighting off the French, pirates and the loneliness of being stuck on a smelly boat with smelly sailors when he spies a young, buxom, red-headed girl laying unconscious on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean. Not one of the 200+ sailors gives so much as a wolf whistle. They are all charmed by the little hottie and call her "sis." Yeah, right.

After she is given medical attention by the doctor, she is found to have amnesia, but otherwise in good health and is unchaperoned on the ship, helping the sailors polish bells. Apparently being in her "boy togs" makes her as cute as a 5 year old Shirley Temple and all the sailors adore her like a sister, despite her ample bosom.

After realizing she had not had her "woman's time" in some weeks, the doctor explains with astounding medical accuracy that her head injury may have resulted in damage to her pituitary gland, which would affect her periods. What makes this statement truly amazing, despite the fact that such topics were rarely discussed, even with doctors, was that the doctor cited the existence of the pituitary gland at all in the year 1859... when its function was unknown until 1912.

With the introduction of a dress, Angelica, as she is named by the Captain, morphs from Shirley Temple to Aphrodite and must be escorted at all times when not in her cabin. After weeks together, the captain proposes marriage to Angelica, and the now obviously knocked-up girl with no realistic hope of ever fitting into society otherwise, cheerfully accepts. While the captain may have enjoyed the company of comfort women during his various stops at ports of call, he is so smitten by her, he is ready to not only marry her, but call the child his own. Yep, that's very Victorian. During an island stop when everyone but Angelica leaves the ship to go swimming in a fresh water pond, the captain returns to the ship alone to knock boots with the young maiden. She could be pregnant, has accepted this man's proposal in marriage, and is in no way frightened that he will leave her, throw her off the ship, or dismiss her after they prematurely consummate their nuptials.

He writes home to his widowed mother telling her of his engagement, not mentioning that she's pregnant, suffering from amnesia or will be arriving dressed like a boy. There is no explanation as to how his letter makes it to his mother before he does, when he is traveling to England with his bride-to-be when he pens it, but that can be overlooked. When they do arrive at dear old mom's house, she is a bit taken by surprise, but utterly delighted that her only child, a proper British gentleman and officer in the British Navy is bringing an obviously pregnant girl into her home that he has not yet married, and unfazed by the fact that the child is not even his.

Rather than claiming that they were married on an island months before, they publicly announce that they will marry the very next day. Wedding invitations are obviously run off at the local Kinkos, as hundreds of invitations are produced in no time flat and over a thousand pack St. Paul's Cathedral to the apparent wedding of the century. A newly promoted Admiral and his knocked-up wife showing her belly in public. Yes, that's very 1859. The night before their public declaration of marriage, the Admiral's mother is also unfazed that her unmarried son will be taking his pregnant-by-another-man fiancee into his bedroom. With "Mum" right down the hall, they still cannot wait until their wedding night and have another go at it. Jack brings this up to his mother, saying he's surprised she allowed it, when she giggling admits that she was carrying him in her belly before she and his father were wed. Is that a normal discussion, revelation and attitude in any era, especially Victorian England? I think not.

While I know that proper British couples in the Victorian era still had sex, it was not a topic of open discussion. Even couples who had been married for years did not prance around in the buff wearing nothing but a pendant and a smile, and they most certainly did not discuss the act with each other. Not only do Angelica and Jack have frank, open discussions about how he "enjoys [her] sexually," they use terms that were not coined for decades to come. The term "sex" had the exclusive meaning of gender until 1925, but Jack even refers to his bride as a "sex kitten," an expression that would not be coined for nearly another 100 years. In a handful of "romantic" interludes between them, Jack takes his wife in various positions that leave little to the imagination of the reader, while both spout off idioms from the 20th century.

Putting aside the time-travelling language of the main characters, their conversations are unrealistic and awkward. Even today, when couples frankly and openly discuss their sexual antics, and even video tape them, people simply do not speak the way these characters do. The dialogue is simply forced and awkward. As an example, here is a snippet:

"Darling, to express my love for you in an infinite variety of ways, to fulfill and satisfy you sexually and emotionally, and to make you content, these are the deepest desires of my heart. To be erotic and exciting with you and for you is my right as your wife."

Who talks like this?

So many things stood out as peculiar when I was reading the book, I cannot remember them all, but I will cite a few:

Conveniently, upon his arrival to England with his bride-to-be, Jack finds that he has inherited a lavish estate and over a million British pounds in cash. The estate comes with a yacht and a complete staff of servants. Jack's Mum, Eleanor, quickly sells her home and she moves in w/ the newlyweds to the new house. The ground floor has an entry way, a kitchen and grand dining hall - and on the second floor are the bedrooms and a large ballroom. This just seems odd to me. A ballroom for party guests right next to the bedrooms on the second floor? Naturally, the home is not only fully furnished and filled with fine silver and oil paintings, but all the clothes in the closets are stylish and fit both Angelica and her mother-in-law. How convenient.

While every other British home made the use of wardrobes, every room in their newly acquired estate had its own closet and the master bedroom had a large walk-in closet that was apparently lighted (see page 140). Since the electric light bulb would not be invented for another 20 years, I'm not sure in what manner that the closet is lighted, but it is.

In an era where people can die at the drop of a hat from infection and disease (as the owners of their newly acquired estate conveniently did), Angelica has a very carefree attitude toward life bordering on sociopathic. Her former lover and father of her child blows his brains out on their property. The only other mention the poor heartbroken clod gets is the middle name of his love-child. She is way too concerned with her new husband and child to give it another mention. She finds that her parents have been murdered by a pirate that forced her into marriage and shortly thereafter witnesses the deserved, but highly disturbing strangulation-type executions of several men - only to be swept up into her husband's arms again, with no more mention of those pesky dead parents, the recovery of her lost memories or the mass executions. The only topic of discussion is the pleasure they get in each other's bodies and yet another financial windfall in Angelica's favor.

I applaud the author's research into ship building technology of the era, but the way it is integrated into the story is well, poorly integrated. The author would have faired much better if she had had a professional editor look at her manuscript before it was published. There are typos hither and yon and the lack of an introduction or preface is immediately noticed when you open the book flap and -wham- there is the story. The tawdry tale was a page turner, fairly easy to read, but the story would have had more potential if it had been worked over by a professional editor who could have better integrated the various elements and cleaned up the historical inaccuracies and dialogue. As I mentioned previously, I am not a purveyor of romance novels. For all I know, this work of fiction may be the finest romance novel ever penned, but compared to other works of fiction, the story is mediocre at best.

"The Fastest Ship" is a blend of romance, adventure, and history mixed with historical fiction. The main focus of the story is a romance between the first captain of the first British ironclad, HMS Warrior, and a young woman with amnesia and a past shrouded in mystery. Lurking in the background is a vengeful pirate, his dead girlfriend, and the man who was the first (pre-amnesia) love of the woman who ends up with Warrior's captain.

For those of you who are fans of romance novels, I think you will like this one, although I am not a good judge of that, as romance is far from my regular genres. For those of you who like history and historical fiction, especially about the sailing ships of the mid-nineteenth century, this should be a pretty good book for you. If your main aim is to find an adventure novel, this might not be your cup of tea, as the adventure component is not strong.

The writing is technically good, and the pace is fairly quick. There is a lot of detail about clothing, jewelry, houses, and furnishings, but very little about the geographical settings. The characters are likeable and interesting, albeit a bit two-dimensional, i.e., the hero and heroine are nearly flawless, and the villain is purely evil.

If you like this mix of adventure, sailing, pirates, romance, and the sea, Robin Hobb's "Liveship Traders" trilogy, with a strong element of fantasy in it, might be another good choice.

Fast reader that I am, I picked up this self-published paperback while visiting friends in the states. On top of a pile of books in the WC, I'd read about 20 pages for each visit to the loo. My fam has a well established geneaology going back over 15 generations in England and Scottland. My own dear granddad would tell me stories of the ironclads mentioned in this story and his father, who died 30 years before I was born, was an officer on of the first ironclads ever built. My grandad told many colourful tales I sadly did not pay enough attention to at the time and now that he is gone, I cannot ask him about this time in history anymore.

While sitting in the loo, I spied this novel and read the back cover and was delighted that perhaps the name of someone my granddad had mentioned would appear on its pages. I quickly found that this was a perposterous tale revolving around this young tart who would have been shuttled off to be a char woman in Hungary if she had behaved this way in that time period. My own granddad, who was born decades later than this lead character, never saw a completely nude woman until he and my grandmother had been married for nearly 20 years. He had often joked that he had to guess what she looked like only from about a pound's note worth of skin he'd get to see at a time and had to patch it together in his head. He once accidentally walked in on her as she was exiting the bath and they had trouble look at each other in the eye without blushing for over a week. They were very much in love and had 12 surviving children out of 18, but they were raised in a time in which proper gentlemen and ladies only had their hands and faces exposed. If my granddad had entered their bedroom to find my grandmum's bare arse up in the ether, he would have probably died right on the spot... and I know my granddad's modesty all too well - he would not have been walking around even in the privacy of their honeymoon bedroom with his naughty bits hanging out for his bride to see out in the open.

I must admit that I had a good laugh in several spots, but it was rather at the pomposity of the writing and not because any portion of the story was intended to give the reader a chuckle. The young tart and her captain basically have a go at each other at every possible moment, are constantly aroused, and are always giggling and mentally planning their next lovemaking event. This is mostly a silly woman's fantasy and basically rubbish.

Where does one begin? Perhaps the bottom of the trash heap, because that's where this book belongs. But the CONTENT of this "'masterpiece'" (lol) is what really turns my tummy. For example, the world "prothetic" should have been replaced with "pathetic". This author invents words since he is not creative enough to grasp the nuances of the English language. Should be made standard reading for graduates of the Braille institute, because only a blind person could enjoy this. I've read fortune cookies with more substance.

I Scored! Girlfriend gave me this for xmas. Love has never been kinder (well sometimes, but that doesn't last).

This book is phat. I wouldn't purposely sign on to amazon to write a review, but really, support what you like

If you want to give someone special an impressive gift, give them this. You CAN'T go wrong.

i read this book ages ago and would love to see the author come out with more tales of these intriguing characters. what's taking so long?

The author uses a word 'prothetic'. I look it up, it doesn't exist but wait! I was thinking the author meant pathetic or prolific --- while looking up the word 'prothetic' I found 'prothesis' (:::the addition of a sound to the beginning of a word!) in its alphabetical place. The author is brilliant! He has rigged this book so perfectly - having prepared even for the critics who say this book has misspellings by pointing directly to the word which defines his actions, all while forming yet another beautiful word! The combining of the ideas that both words possess (pathetic prolific) gives the reader ultimate and unlimited ability to imagine "...My eyes were a gift, cruel clarifications of this prothetic reality."- A quote from Mr. Kolasa's 'An Interlunar Sunder'. I LOVE THIS BOOK, I cannot say it enough! Each time I read it's an adventure!

And the illustrations are a beautiful, perfect compliment. Hats off!

Disappointing -- the author dwells at some length on the courage of the Italian soldiers (which he establishes), but fails to address effectively the serious organizational shortcoming which put them in some totally untenable situations. Too many iterations of the same thing -- Italian tanks meet British tanks/artillery, and are destroyed. Would have benefited from a little more discussion of the Italian Army's organization, officer-enlisted relations, food/clothing/shelter issues (all of which compromise combat effectiveness).

Pretty Informative read, kind of dry at times in my opinion but has a lot of good info. Gives you a good rundown on the places, dates, and a quick summary of the battles that the armored divisions were a part of. Like I said a little dry but a good book to add to your collection for reference.

This book by Ian Walker is the best treatment of the subject in English I have ever seen. For those who read this book with an open mind, Walker succeeds admirably in what I believe was his aim, i.e., to put the performance of the Italian armored forces in North Africa in somewhat of a proper perspective. No, Walker does not cite specific examples of British and US negative bias towards Italian military performance (that in itself would be a work of monumental proportion), but any serious military buff or historian knows full well in how many ways, from outright falsehoods, to innuendo, the Italians have been marginalized. The facts, as Walker shows, are different. Somewhere, many years ago, I read an account by a British veteran who said something to the effect that "We made many jokes about the Italian artillery, but every time they fired at us, we took cover". Back to Walker's book. I was particularly impressed by his account of the battle of Bir el Gubi - I have written a couple of articles on the battle myself (one, in English, so many years ago that I can't even find a copy of it in my files, although I still have the original correspondence I got from half a dozen British participants in the battle), and one in Italian a few months ago. Walker's in-depth treatment eclipses mine by far. I was also impressed by Walker's reference to the Gruppo Cantaluppi on page 179 - I have never seen any reference to Cantaluppi in any other English-language publication. Cantaluppi was a very colorful commander who managed to squeeze more performance than could be reasonably expected from his exhausted troops on the retreat through Tunisia - but that's another story. My hat is off to Walker for the first serious, balanced treatment I have seen of the subject in English. This book is a must for anyone interested in the war in the desert, or in Italian military operations.

As the author says in his book, many military historians ignore or complete underrate Italy's contribution to the war in North Africa. In fact, it was the Italians who provided most of the Axis forces in North Africa, especially at the beginning of Rommel's counteroffensive. Poorly equipped by the standards of Germany, Britain and the U.S. the Italians nonetheless made war with what they had. The Italians might have been defeated but when well-led they fought as well as any WWII soldier.

Ian Walker really brings to life the difficulties encountered by the Italians, the deficiency of their equipment and (most important of all) WHY their equipment was deficient. Walker goes beyond the stereotype of the Italian soldier and then goes beyond THAT in way of explaination as to how and why he was in the predicament he was in in Africa. Anyone interested in the desert war will want this book.

"Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" is not footnoted, so it is impossible to verify the extraordinary claims made by the book. The bibliography shows that no archival or primary research was done.

"Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" claims that the book is to address the perceived bias of English-speaking sources. Yet the author fails to discuss this in any meaningful way - he merely makes assertions of lack of balance. If one is going to write a book accusing historians of a perceived lack of balance, then it is incumbent on that author to at least provide a discussion of the sources he used. This is not done.

Indeed, the assertion of selective reading and lack of balance can be laid at "Iron Hulls Iron Hulls". For example, on page 101 the author writes that the Official Histories show bias because they do not state that it was the `Ariete' Division which overran a New Zealand battalion. "It seems that the constant deluge of British propaganda about Italian military incompetence both during the war and ever since made the New Zealanders, even in 1953, reluctant to admit that the `incompetent' Italians were responsible for inflicting one of their most embarrassing defeats." This reviewer advises readers to look at the New Zealand official history for themselves - it is available at [...]. The reader can check for himself the credibility of the author's claim. Indeed, in other parts of the NZ Official History, remarks are made on the extremely tenacious resistance made by 9th Bersaglieri Regiment, which undermines the author's contention that the Official Histories were apparently biased (see page 293 of the NZ Official History). This suggests some rather selective research from the author of "Iron Hulls and Iron Hearts".

Much of "Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" is simply so implausible as to cast serious doubt over the entire accuracy of the book. For example, pages 153 to 154 describe Operation BERESFORD in such an inaccurate and grabled fashion that this reviewer was at loss to understand what action "Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" was actually trying to refer to. From "Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" one is left with the impression that the Italians won a minor success, capturing 22 prisoners. In reality, the attack by the Maori Battalion took captured 108 Italians and resulted in the deaths of up to 500 Italians when the Maori Battalion broke through to the transport echelons - something somehow overlooked by the author. The bibliography of "Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" includes the history of Cody "28 (Maori) Battalion", so it was apparently read by the author. That the author has omitted such important details raises very serious questions over the credibility of this book. (Readers of this review can make their own minds up: [...]

From pages 156 (Alamein) onwards, the book's lack of balance and lack of research become all too apparent. The number of Sherman tanks described in actions (and apparently lost to Italian fire) is far beyond what is credible, and it is apparent that the author of the book has taken Italian claims completely uncritically. For example, "Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" claims that 8th Armoured Brigade at El Agheila had 80 Sherman tanks and lost 22 Sherman tanks in the battle. This is, to be blunt, laughable. In fact, 8th Armoured Brigade had nothing like that number of Sherman tanks, and the actual British losses in the battle were 3 Crusader tanks and 1 Grant tank from the Staffs Yeomanry and a single Scout Car from the Sherwood Rangers - a number of separate British accounts describe a heroic but suicidal attack by a numbr of Italian tanks which resulted in the destruction of 13 Italian tanks whose wrecks were verified after the battle. It is obvious that the Italian claims of 22 Shermans destroyed is considerably exaggerated. Yet "Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" accepts these ludicrous claims uncritically, and bizarrely describes this as a "minor success" and a "sharp lesson on 8 Armoured Brigade".

The author claims to be trying to provide a balanced account. To do so would require a proper assessment, comparing conflicting Italian and British accounts and reaching a fair and balanced conclusion based on the strength of the evidence. This, after all, is the basis of history. As such, "Iron Hulls Iron Hearts" cannot be regarded as history.

It is difficult finding books that cover single regiments with solid information that only pertains to the unit itself sometimes. Author Craig Dunn has put together a very comprehensive book that covers the birth of the 19th Indiana to final muster in 1865. I liked the fact that Dunn didn't dwell on only officers but brought the private soldier to life as short biographies and the details of their involvement were written about. Dunn covers early exhaustive marches, campaigns, camp life, politics and explains the many personalities within the 19th. Dunn backs his material up well with references and also many statistics are added that enhance this book tremendously. This book serves as a great resource tool in learning about the hard fighting 19th and I recommend it to many interested in learning about the tough regiment of the famous Iron Brigade.

I've had this book for about 5 yrs. and just got around to reading it. Dunn's book is very readable and informative, he blends fact with a strong human element. I look forward to more of his work

What a great book on the Nineteenth Indiana Volunteers of the Iron Brigade. The book was maticulously researched and documented. The best part about the book was that the documentation did not detract from the enjoyable reading. The pictures and roster were very helpful. I have personally read over 200 Civil War regimental histories and this one was my favorite. I have read two other books on the Nineteenth Indiana and found them to be lacking in documentation and in ease of reading. This book is the best.

As an ardent student of history I found this book to be wonderfully documented and accurate. I have read all of the books about the 19th Indiana and the Iron Brigade and found this one to be the best by far. I was so intrigued with the book that I visited the critical archives and libraries cited in Mr. Dunn's book to verify their accuracy. Each entry which I checked was quoted exactly as I found them. I have heard through some Civil War circles that there has been an attempt to impugn this book in an attempt to increase sales of the other 19th Indiana books. If so, this is sad. I have recommended this book to all of my friends.

This book was simply a pleasure to read. While it was well documented, the documentation did not grind the book to a halt. I would consider this more as an anecdotal history rather than a military history. The author puts a human face on a serious topic. I have now read all of the books in print on the Iron Brigade and the Nineteenth Indiana Volunteers and this one is the best.

Ms. Muller's books get a lot of stars, so I was expecting something memorable. This is not it, maybe because it was an early book? The characters don't make sense, particularly sharon's relationship with a cop, who is first nasty (in a way that i would consider "over the top" for teasing) and later becomes just as inexplicably friendly. This was very jarring for the reader. I kept wondering why the beneficiary of the will, rather than the executor, was making legal decisions about the estate -- doesn't everyone know that there has to be an executor? this mistake bothered me. Regarding the actual antiques, while I don't really know, I find it hard to believe that business is conducted in the way described. All in all, pretty unpolished.

This is the 1st of the Sharon McCone books. I discovered it when another author's fictional detective referred to McCone on a "case." And holy cow! This book is copyrighted 1977. Where has it been hiding from me? Sharon McCone is quite a bit like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone (or vice versa), which is truly high praise from me. It's savvy, sexy, exciting stuff. McCone is way cool. EDWIN OF THE IRON SHOES is set mostly in an antique shop with the eerie "characters" of a headless mannequin named Clothilde and a little "boy" named Edwin who has strange iron shoes. The author creates only a sketchy sense of place, but a definite sense of character, with some really fun potental villains. A very interesting ultimate motive for the murder makes for a satisfying ending. I can see why this is such a popular series. I loved it!

Private eye Sharon McCone was hired by All Souls Cooperative, a San Francisco legal services plan, to discover who was vandalizing a small street of antique shops when one of the antique dealers was found murdered in her own shop. Sharon had no idea who had killed Joan Albritton, a pleasant older woman whose main fault was talking to the dressmaker's dummy, the stuffed German shepherd, and the little boy mannequin she kept in her shop, but she didn't feel confident in the police's ability to discover the killer. Especially after she met the unpleasantly patronizing Lieutenant Marcus who was in charge of the case. Uncertain of whether she would be paid for her work or not, but refusing to allow Joan Albritton's killer to go free, Sharon starts her investigation.

Suspects abound, with Charlie, the junkman who ran the shop across the street from Joan's, at the forefront. Charlie was Joan's former lover, recently jilted for a wealthier man, and he was the one who had discovered the body and called the police. Then there was Cara Ingalls, a real estate mogul with ice running through her veins. She made no secret of the fact that she was glad that Joan was gone so that she could buy the land and force the antique dealers out. Of course, Cara was not the only one trying to buy the land and then there was the slimy bond bailsman and the slick "antique-style" dealer who kept popping up at every corner. Not to mention the puzzling Lieutenant Marcus, who was grateful for Sharon's help and then pushing her aside the next. As Sharon takes more and more risks, she comes closer to solving Joan's death, but she also comes closer to being murdered herself...

Edwin of the Iron Shoes is the First Sharon McCone mystery and it was just okay. The book was well written, but the story was pretty simplistic and the characterization was pretty inconsistent. Sharon McCone is billed as this hard-boiled female private investigator, but I thought that she was pretty stupid myself. She took a lot of unnecessary risks and managed to solve the case more by being the only one around then following the clues properly. Also, I know that this book was written quite some time ago (I have the 1977 edition), but I have a hard time believing that the police ever invited female private investigators to look over the crime scene while the body was still there. With a stronger plot, more believe characters and some additional detail, this mystery would have been much better. Hopefully the series improves as it goes along...

This is the first Sharon McCone mystery written by Marcia Muller. In it, we find beginning her career with the All-Soul Legal Co-Op. This is a fine first novel and gives an early taste of some wonderful stories to come.

It took me a long time to discover Marsha Muller, but I am glad that I finally did. This is the first installment of her Sharon McCone Mystery Series which had a strong influence on later female authors and heroines. Sue Grafton, in a quote on the book jacket calls Muller the "founding mother of the contemporary female hard-boiled private eye". That's quite a claim considering how many well-known female investigators there are in fiction now. In this first installment, Sharon McCone is the investigator for a group of attorneys called All Souls Cooperative. Her boss Hank asks her to investigate the murder of an antique store owner who has been stabbed with one of her own knives. Sharon learns that the dead woman was about to make an important decision about selling her property and she feels that this might be a motive. She also discovers some shady goings-on among the art dealers and tries to fit this in to a motive for murder. Add to this some past and present romances, and there are several possible suspects. Muller's writing is clear and to-the-point. She tells a good story and carefully wraps up each loose end. I look forward to reading the other books in this series, which has so far spanned a 25-year period.

I loved this book though many of the people in it are not the way she describes them. knowing the author as a child i am glad the she wrote this book she will be a big writer some day. I wished that she would write about this town in the 60 s it was a lot nicer here than I live in this town and I would like some things to be written about it.

This is such a beautifully written story, filled with wistful poignancy and underlying sadness. Two small children grow up in a small mill town near the Allegheny mountains, peopled with Polish immigrants and with cold, unloving parents who struggle to barely maintain a living. It's a bleak life for all the town's inhabitants and even more so for this small sister and brother who daily face the burden of poverty, hand me down clothes and a father who drinks. I was particularly moved by the little girl who was always desperately trying to please her mother, so as to get even a moment's recognition from her, only to end up feeling unloved and unwanted. At the centre of the town's consciousness is the shameful occurrence of the handsome and talented young priest who hanged himself in the the local church, to the total amazement and disbelief of the townpeople. This sad little story concludes with the daughter finally realising the cause of her family's unhappiness. It's not a cheerful read but a carefully crafted gem of a book.

Brett Ellen Block is an award-winning young author and graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. Still, I found her debut novel, The Grave of God's Daughter, disappointing. Block can write, certainly. But this period drama, set in an insular Pennsylvania steel town settled by Polish immigrants, feels thin and underdeveloped. The plot hinges on a coincidence that seems rushed into place, as does the eventual explanation of the mystery at the center of the drama. Though I've no doubt that the poverty experienced by her protagonists is realistic for the time and setting, something about the treatment of it verges on melodrama. Cold! Mud! Burns and blisters! Entrails and blood! Drunken dads! Dying dogs! Dead catfish! I kept waiting for the kindly butcher to reveal himself as a child molester, but to her credit, Block avoids that Oprah book cliché. What she does not avoid, unfortunately, is a tendency towards literal, too obvious explanation in the narrative, e.g.: "My mother would gaze at the painting with such desperate, unrivaled adoration that I grew to fear and hate it. That flat, lifeless object had what I never did - her devotion."

I hate it when that happens.

I did like some aspects of the book. The relationship between the narrator and her younger brother was realistic, loose and engaging. But I found it frustrating that though the brother's fate is revealed at the very beginning of the novel, we never learn through the story how and why he becomes the man he is. Nor do we learn how the narrator escapes her small-town, impoverished circumstances. I think perhaps this illustrates the greatest flaw of the book. It feels like a section of a larger work, like a chunk out of some great, mid-century American epic. As such, the novel that we have feels curiously incomplete.

I found The Grave of God's Daughter an absorbing and magical journey to a time and place that was not only Lost Allegheny, Pennsylvania among hand-scrabble, insular, obsessively private and shriveled-spirited Polish Catholic immigrant stock, but a sojourn reminiscent in a hundred ways of an emotionally-starved and delimited childhood savored and endured anywhere, on any dark streets or backroads. The narrator is being metamorphosed by the gigantic events of her lived world into an ultimately-wise but scarred, brave and (in her case) empathetic, self-reliant but regretful young woman before reaching adolescence and awareness of what being a woman will mean for her. The narrative is spare because the milieu of her and the younger brother dependent on her emotionally is stark and spare, darkened by overpowering but realistic foreboding and fear, by a graniness and plainness that darkens the sky and stunts childhood itself. The author is to be highly commended for not straying outside the bounds of that sadly all-too-common, even prevelant, milieu in the larger world beyond our tinsel and fading affluence. Lest we forget! At times, toward the end, I was almost afraid of what I might uncover turning the page... I, a child of the rural small-town protestant and anglo midwest, by far happier of circumstance, was taken back to that other world.

This story about Hyde Bend is a mostly true account of the lives and people of Natrona, PA. I am impressed that Brett Ellen Brock had such detailed accounts of actual people and events. She appears to be too young to have lived these experiences herself, so she must have done extensive research.

The hard facts she reveals are absolute:

- St. Ladislaus cemetery's decay
- Slatka Pani, the "slum lord"
- Recognition of River Road (the main street in this tiny town)
- Mention of local taverns by their real names. Bars outnumbered churches by a ratio of at least 5 to 1
- The closed society of Polish immigrants primarily from Warsaw and Krakow

Through this book Block brings life back to what is now a decaying steel mill town which is rapidly eroding toward ghost town status. She contrasts the beauty and simplicity of small town life with the hidden secrets that lived and died in Natrona, PA.

This book brings back my reflections on a safe, carefree childhood combined with the mysterious morals and ethics my grandparents brought with them from war torn Poland - the pain that is ever-present in the eyes of the elders, but never discussed. The people who lived in "Hyde Bend" learned to celebrate the joys of today and bury the pains of the past. Brett Ellen Block brings this these hidden feelings to the surface in "The Grave of God's Daughter: A Novel".

This notorious book is a thinly-veiled antisemitic attack on Jews claiming they are behind a vast conspiracy to undermine the United States and deliver it to the communist Soviet Union. It has clearly attracted rave reviews from Holocaust deniers and other Jew-bashing conspiracy theorists.

Colonel John Beaty's book is truly remarkable. The man is a scholar, a soldier, and, clearly, a devoted Christian. In his magnificient work, Beaty exposes the long term enmity of the Khazar people for the Russians, its impact and resolution in the Bolshevik Revolution, and the influence of these same Khazars on American foreign policy within the Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman administrations. Further, Beaty elucidates the motives behind the crazy hodge podge of Truman administration foreign policy in the post World War II period and prophetically analyzes the roles of MacArthur and Eisenhower. Keep in mind that this book was written in advance of the 1952 election season, which saw the elite come to support Eisenhower in order to prevent the election of MacArthur and Taft.

In the corpus of this excellent manuscript, Beaty does make the following observation. In 1940, the World Almanac listed the world Jewish population at 15,319,359. The same publication in 1949 listed the world Jewish population at 15,713,638. As six million were alleged to have died during the "Holocaust", the reader is invited to reach their own conclusion.

Beaty writes with the passion of a soldier and a compassionate leader of men in desribing the Korean conflict, its sabatoge by the Truman administration, and the terrible toll this subterfuge represented. In this, today, one is, of necessity, reminded of the ongoing tragedy in Iraq.

This is an excellent and terribly important book. Pick it up and give it a read with open heart and open mind. You will be informed and renewed.

I read most of the book and found nothing about any holocaust hoax mentioned by reviewer "ruggero." Looking in the index showed no listing for the word holocaust at all. It might be in there somewhere, but I doubt it. The author seems too smart and too honest to deny the genocide against the Jews and numerous others in Hitler's regime.

What I did find were plenty of impressively documented pieces of evidence that both FDR and Truman knowingly allowed communists to crawl throughout their administrations, even up to the level of positions advising the president. Furthermore, it's rather obvious that Truman passively helped the communist forces of Mao tse Tung take over the nation of China. He did that by cutting off aid to the Nationalists. Before that of course he winked while Stalin scooped up all of Eastern Europe.

Great book, important work, should be a part of everyone's library for quotes and reference value. Plus America needs to become more informed so we can combat the enemies of truth, those infesting and controlling the Democratic party and the mainstream news networks. Yes, that makes me sound like a conspiracy nut. The problem is, if there really were a conspiracy, what would we call the people who figure it out? That's me, nut or whatever.

The Iron Curtain over America by John Beaty. Originally published in 1951, scholar and WWII intelligence officer Beaty's classic diagnoses America's condition in mid-century and finds our land threatened by the cancerous growth of Communist and Zionist subversion and control. The extraordinarily well-informed and courageous Beaty was one of the first Americans to breach the Iron Curtain of silence guarding the Holocaust hoax and the Middle East mess, and to call (in vain) for Americans to clean out the Augean stables of New York, Washington, and Hollywood. A revisionist classic.

I tried to read all of Col. Beaty's book but found it impossible
since the contents became so intensive as I ventured further into the book.

Much of it is related to politics and an era (1945-1950's)
when concerns about Communism under, over and behind
the US Government and Economy, were in their heyday.

It became lacklustre...

However, I did find the book valuable because it:

1. Exposes some of the Khazar influence over the USA
2. Is quite Pro-Semitic (Pro-Arab relations)
3. Was written by someone "in the know" about the Insiders
4. Gives a slightly sane "Right Wing Extremist" perspective
5. Reveals major media problems in the USA/UK/Everywhere
6. Proves that some wise folks in Texas were/are Pro-Arabic
7. Exposes some powerful Selfish Interest politics
8. Was diametrically opposite New York City politics
9. Offered adequate accurate citations

If You are looking for a book that will satiate
some of your appetite and curiousity for activities
"behind the scenes" in many societies, from a military
intelligence perspective, then this book can be revealing.

But as a conspiracy investigator,
I did not find any of it sensational
after reading it a few times.

If You are interested in discovering and testing
different perspectives, from an "extreme" side of politics,
and are very interested in actual history and US politics
from 1000 A.D. to the late 1940's and early 1950's,
then this book is worth more than its weight in gold.

If You are looking for a truly delightful rewarding book
that gives You a positive outlook,
and would be useful in Disciplining or Limiting
the Military Industrial Complex
and its ruling New World Order then perhaps look elsewhere.

The author was too much a hawk for a dove like me.

Great story. Very complex for its time. Most enjoyable. I love stories that take place in Louisiana. Sequel was good too but harder for me to get through.

I am admittedly a Richards fan ever since I picked up Prospect Street by her and this book, while older, did not disappoint. I am also a fan of family sagas ~~ and this one did not fail me!

This is a tale about Aurora and the choices she made in her life. Facing her death, she tells Philip, a reknowned reporter, her story. And what a story it is! From the lush tropical days of the late 1800s to mid-1900s ~~ Aurora lives a life of regret, love and sorrow. She gave up her daughter at birth to her lover and repined over that choice for years even as she went on to marry and had two more sons. That single choice affected not only Aurora, but the daughter she gave up and her sons as well.

If you like stories with a Southern twist to it ~~ this book is it. It's a quick but heartfelt read. Richards delve into each character's heart and mind so intimately that she is able to draw the reader into their stories. It's a great read ~~ escapism read as well. Richards continue to impress me with her writing style and ideas. Rising Tides the sequel does not disappoint as well.

11-9-03

I have recently become a fan of Emilie Richards and this book was one of the reasons why. The characters are woven together so intricately, I can't wait to see what happens next. I picked up "Rising Tides" the same night I finished "Iron Lace". The reader becomes surrounded with the rich history of Louisianna.

I did not enjoy this book at all. The protagonist had to be the weakest woman I have ever read about. I kept reading about her strength and all I saw was a sorry, weak women. It does not take strength to do what she did but true selfishness. The character of Rapheal was not developed properly either. He came across as first angry, then confused, then accepting, then forgiving, she was all over the place with this character. As for the reviewer who was sick of being hit over the head with what the white man did, in this book its more what the white woman did to save face.

I usually do not read romance novels, but I couldn't put this book down. The chapters go back and forth between two stories that are somehow connected. You find out why at the ending of the book. This book made me feel all of the emotions under the sun, and I was upset when it was over. The sequel Rising Tides, is a great ending to this suspenseful and heart breaking story.

I used to think Iron Man was a stupid idea with a stupid costume. I was at the library looking for a comic to check out when I saw this. I looked at it, curious to see what was behind the cool looking cover. I liked the artwork(bad artwork turns a good comic story to garbage) and I thought the Idea of a hero stripped of his super powers(or armor), and forced to face them was pretty cool.

I think there where a few things I found frustrating, like Tony's relationship with Ru feels like it's falling apart( I find that frustrating), and the battles could have been more exiting(more heavily speed lined, different angles, more dramatic reactions, etc.). There were 3 to 6 fights of so.

Tony's armor is, to him, a menace. He tries to teach it to be a hero, because he can't kill it. It's to powerful. The armor get's the wrong idea and kills someone. the situation is very touchy, one wrong move and your dead. Thats the exitement.

The thing I think that sort of kripples the comics spice is all the words. He's telling the story to you, then there's all the talking. He(Tony) tells the story even in fights, which intimidates readers. It could have been made better (nearly everything in life could be better) but that doesn't mean it's bad. You might be the type who likes to read lots of diologue.

I have to say I really enjoyed this collection of issues from the latest Iron Man volume(!), the only part that didn't hold water being the relationship between Tony Stark and Rumiko Fujikawa.
Strange how Joe Quesada managed to actually make us feel sympathy for a deranged suit of sentient armor as it 'falls in love' with its creator, and the desparate battle that ensues is sure to quicken the pulse of loyal readers every time. The part I most enjoyed was the confrontation with Whiplash (formerly Blacklash) despite the kinky garb he was given, the ending of which I reckon would make a fantastic cliffhanger for the end of the long-awaited Iron Man movie- what a shame Tony wakes up and the revealing of his identity was... all a dream!! Maybe in an alternate reality this could have spun the comic into a completely different direction, and I feel it's a pity that it wasn't given a chance. Perhaps they should have kept that one 'in the wood' for a quiet moment in the title, as opposed to stunting this awesome opportunity in the middle of another big story.
As with all graphic novels I love reading comics without the advertisements, and the pace of this story arc is excellent. Give yourself a treat if only for another copy of the fantastic Sean Chen cover from issue #29.

Ok, I've read comics for years, but mainly DC. This isn't the first time I've read Iron Man, but the other times I read it was just flipping through pages at the comic store. The character always interested me but I never took the plunge. This paperback was my first Iron Man purchase and my first step into the world of Iron Man comics. With that said, let me assure anyone who is thinking about getting into Iron Man and is looking for a starting point, this is perfect.

The story arch is self-contained, and you don't need any knowledge of Iron Man history to know what's going on. The story is that over the many upgrades Tony Stark has made to the armor over time, and with the help of a massive electric charge by an enemy attack, the armor comes to life and becomes a sentient being. Stark opts to try to work with the armor and teach it right from wrong, but it doesn't work out that way and they end up facing off.

I skipped a lot of details becuase I don't want to give too much away. The characters are well written and there is definetly a lot of depth, and the story moved at a great pace. The artwork was fantastic and the whole thing felt really nicely done.

This is a very good paperback and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of comics and wants to get into Iron Man.

"The Mask in the Iron Man" is one of the more interesting stories since IM got rebooted since Heroes Return. Reason being, Quesada, rather than get caught up in trying to make Iron Man Cool with the latest improbable technology (which he does do), instead focuses on what makes Iron Man work in the first place: character. It's Stark himself, a man who suffers from the threat of heart failure and the relapse of alcoholism, that proves why this character still works after 40 years.

It's also an interesting study on why the armor exists at all in the first place. Is it more to keep threats like the Mandarin or Whiplash out? Or is it to put a barrier between friends and lovers, and himself? The awakening of the armor into sentience (which, I admit is a Rube Goldberg sequence of happenstance so improbable, I had to deduct one star, but it's still a rocking story) asks the old chestnuts "how do we define life" and "what is one life worth" in a whole new frame of reference, not from our P.O.V., but from the armor's AI.

Sean Chen's artwork is dense, but quality, and perfectly compliments Quesada's equally dense prose. Combined they show Tony Stark as the fascinating, contridictory character that he is, and "the Mask in the Iron Man" is a interesting study.

Now if they'll only collect Warren Ellis's "Extremis", I'll be a happy man...

Mask in the Iron Man, by Joe Quesada, Sean Chen and Alitha Martinez, was the first Iron Man tale in quite some time that managed to impress me. I started reading comics in 1989, and after a single issue (#246 in case you were wondering) Iron Man became my favorite Marvel character. Unfortunately I arrived just as the last truly great Iron Man run was ending. Since that point there have been a few good moments, such as John Romita's Armor Wars II and the ill-fated Heroes Reborn series, but for the most part the Iron Man series had been mediocre at best.

The Heroes Return relaunch put the series on a better footing, and with an artist (Chen) who was truly capable of handling the character. Two years into the series, Marvel head honcho Joe Quesada stepped in to handle the writing chores for the issues collected in this trade paperback. The basic premise is this: what would happen if Iron Man's armor gained sentience?

Never mind that the method it gained sentience is borderline absurd (bad Y2K software plus a lightning strike), it was still a fascinating concept. What kind of personality would the world's most technologically advanced weapon have? What would it want? What would it do? And could Tony Stark stop it if he needed to?

Apparently the armor is not unlike a surly adolescent. It wants attention and it is extremely jealous. It proceeds in pure stalker fashion to wreck Tony's life, destroy his relationship, and even kills one of his enemies. This is fascinating stuff, and for the most part Quesada handles the story quite well. Without giving too much away, the ending stretches belief, even by comic book standards. Quite frankly, there's no way the Iron Man suit is even remotely affected by Tony's "Survivor" tricks.

The artwork by Chen and Martinez is first rate. Both artists have a very similar style, and have the ability to inject energy into mundane conversation scenes as much as they do with the fight scenes. I would have much rather seen Joe Quesada provide the artwork for these issues as well (his cover art just made me want more), but I have no real complaints.

It's not perfect, but the series is by far the best Iron Man story I have read since the original Armor Wars saga. My only real complaint is that the Wizard send-away ½ issue, which was part of the story, wasn't included.

The writers provide excellent research and history on RAVENSWOOD, detailing convincingly how workers' battled back against rapacious employers. This is a timeless book, relevant for all times. Bronfenbrenner and Juravich, as usual, provide excellent research and analysis of one of the many struggles to save the steel industry in the U.S. Bravo.

As the daughter of a 5668 lockedout employee, who was really too young to fully understand the total impact of the lockout, I looked forward to this book. It has allowed me to have a better grasp of what it was really like for my parents and all of the other Steelworkers and their families. I have come to appreciate what it is to be UNION! This book gave me some suprises that I did not anticipate (PIC!! You know who you are!!!) It also brought me to tears on a numer of occasions. I know the fear, depression, hopelessness that all of these members felt. Bless our union! You truly held "ONE DAY LONGER" than that "Boyle on your Back" and prevailed!! BTW my dad did not make it through the 1st chapter before putting it down in tears, and never picked it up again, because it hits home that hard. Truly a must for anyone involved with this dispute or anyone involved in one of their own. Congratulations 5668

True-life tale of the Steelworkers victory in Ravenswood West Virginia. I lived through this event growing up, my father one of the proud members of Local 5668. This book is an excellent read, informative and entertaining. Excellent text for US History courses. I also recommend the film "Matewan."

Ravenswood is an excellent account of the recent labor victory for the USWA in 1992. The book reads well and does a very good job of holding the reader's interest as the tale of how Local 5668 fought the infamous Marc Rich and won. The drawback of the book is that is is written by very pro labor authors and the view point and opinion portrayed throughout is very slanted in the union's favor. Unbiased opinion and view point is missing, if you're looking for an objective view of the account, this book will not offer that.

This is a book about a strike against an aluminum plant in West Virginia by the United Steelworkers labor union in the early nineties. First, this is a genuinely good read (just based on the story....) with characters (all be they real...) that you root for and others that you shy away from (Emmitt Boyle and Marc Rich are drawn as evil incarnate....) Aside from this, this book serves as a record of a number of things: 1) a model for how a small-town labor struggle could be conducted on a broad-based front; 2) the ways in which capital does not exist in a locality so much as scattered throughout the world; and 3) an illustration of how labor stoppages in small towns have evolved from the days of Pinkerton thugs and picket lines to something more conplex and... well, modern....

I'd really recommend this book to about anyone but, well, honestly, only people really into labor are ever going to read this. This is a really good book....