Class Pages Books

At last a book that distills the learning of the last 20-30 years in business management. Drennan and Penningtons book is unique in the simple and structured way in which it helps set out action plans for us all, no matter what our role in business. An irresistible feature is a checklist for carrying out an immediate evaluation of your company and its world class status. A special aspect of the authors approach is the people dimension and how to achieve world class performance through people.

It is also a great reference book for picking up and putting down. Its part of my toolkit for running businesses in different parts of the world. Well done to the authors!

The book focuses on the 12 key benchmarks that lead on organization to world class performance and results. We are using this book within our facility in order to help drive results. Best practices and continuous improvement are the emphasis. I strongly recommend this book for all organizations. All managers have a copy of this book and we are beginning our world class audit.

This give us a clear and focused point of view of what is necessary for to adopt world class in our daily duties, and said us that in in our dinamically contantly changing world our unique option is improved everything every day.

The fierce competition beetwen companies impulse her to adopt a customer-centered strategy based on investment in people, loyalty among customers, holders, employees and technology in order to achieve a world class standard of performance.

Editors aid, that a world class organization, is a organization viewed from a standard that involves a comprise to improve and this will be related with details required to become a world class organization, this book is based in self assessment questionairres for help our management to identify performance deficiencies and prepare a performance profile that can be used to decide activities, devise action improvements and monitor and evaluate progress towards the achievement of world class standards, I think that tis book is useful for every employee in a corporation, making desition, now is a shared process, this is the brand of world class organization.

More importat comprise is without a complete insight don't try to learn more, is try to understand, how we can use our tools?, and understand what is the basis related with sucess, and what part of the other experience will be useful for us.

If you don't try to catch this method you will be lost in this changing world.

This book chronicles the lives of five members of the Class of 1958 of Harvard University. It begins as the members of the Class enter Harvard from many parts far and wide - their first heady, promising days as freshmen in the autumn of 1954, and ends with their 25th year reunion, in June of 1983.

The book is a very enjoyable read, chronicling the fictional lives of the characters while weaving their lives into the important events of the world in the 1960's and 1970's. There is the tennis champ from Long Island, who wishes only to be 100% American, but can never be due to his Jewish heritage. There is the son of the immigrant, growing up literally in the shadow of Harvard itself, but who is too poor to afford campus housing and thus maintains an outsider status through his college years. There is the musical prodigy, who pines for the adulation of his father. There is also the immigrant from Hungary, escaping after the Soviet crackdown in 1956, and finally, the diarist, who is unremarkable in every way except that he is the latest of a very, very long line of Harvardmen. It is he whose letters intersperse the story and provide key clues into the lives of his fellow classmates from an outside perspective.

This book is a very nice read, I highly recommend it.

Truly, Erich Segal at his best. Its a must read. Takes you back to the college days...and as you read through you really can empathise with the characters. Its simply wonderful.

"The Class" is a great book and Erich segal has succeded in capturing the mind of the reader. As we read through the book it takes us back to our university days. I recommend this book to every person who feels proud of his college.

But it was better when it was originally written as "The Last Convertible" by Anton Myrer.

Skip this over indulgent pile and read "Doctors" by Segal instead, better character development, better subject matter and better results.

This was an unusual experience. One of the greatest, most honest hooks I've ever seen, which is how I knew after one short page (out of 551) that this well-written book just wasn't for me. It's an intelligent romance in a scenic setting, and I believe the reviewers who call it witty and literate. I picked that up pretty quickly. But I'm just not a romance reader. And Maeve Binchy, who I'm not saying anything bad about, convinced me to throw my informal "10% rule" right out the window. Okay, who's next in my list of unread authors?

I have read many of Maeve Binchy's novels and am always inspired at her amazing ability to weave a story that involves many different characters, their lives, and their personalities in such a real and thought-provoking way. She is an amazing storyteller!

An engaging and entertaining novel, in which Binchy takes a rather ordinary experience and shows a deep understanding of the people involved. In this case, it is a group of working class Dubliners who come together for an adult education class in Italian at a run-down inner city school. The point, which she conveys brilliantly, is how this humble experience means so much to these people. Some have used up their savings to take this class. An unwed mother and her daughter, who work in a butcher shop; a bank employee who once dreamed of seeing the world, but who is now stuck taking care of his mentally handicapped sister; the son of a corner shopkeeper trying to protect his family's store from local thugs, etc. Basically, they all understand that this meager class is their only vacation from the rough neighborhood in which they will live out their lives. For balance, Binchy throws in a couple of rich characters too.
By telling each character's narrative seperately, but showing plenty of cross-glimpses such that we see them becoming friends, we get a sense of their struggles and what this experience means for them in terms of their dignity and their dreams. As always, Binchy is neither sappy or sensationalist; she tells the stories straight, without any melodrama. Marriages dissolve without fanfare, nice guys miss out on promotions and watch their career hopes fizzle with no more drama than it would get in real life. No major events need happen. This is a story of ordinary lives and you sense that the author truly understands them

Binchy does a marvelous job of entertwining of seemingly vast different people. Her characters come alive. I symaothized and found myself pulling for them all. A bit slow a spots and certainly no action adventure, but if you like well told stories full of realistic characters a good read. Liek sittign down with an old friend and catching up.

The new Signora moves into town... It is a mystery to the town folks where she is from and a mystery as to why she is able to speak Italian so well. Because she is single and lonely, she begins to start teaching Italian classes at the local college. The classes make her relive her life when she was younger and lived in Italy. They bring back fond memories of being in love. The classes change her life; they give new meaning and purpose to her present life. Soon after, through many twists of fate she comes together with Aidan Dunne, a teacher, who is surviving in a life-less marriage...

One of my favorite books of all time... The plot is simply amazing. Maeve Binchy is a master story-teller!

Aplicable to all classes to one degree or another. Very fun content and totaly worth the price.

As an ardent D&D DM, I collect all the generic source books when I can. Some are so-so, but this is one of my faves. Lots of general stuff for players and NPCs, and less "weird/nutty/overpowered or dumb" Prestige classes.
-The prestige classes in the book are pretty good, more for folk who preffer "quest/Roleplaying" than "hack n' slash". The vigilante, dread pirate and street fighter fit in well with "rough and ready", city campaigns and the like.
-Most of the feats are pretty good (though I don't like the one that lets you use a weapon in off hand as light, uh, no, too much potential for abuse)

Over all, pretty good if you're more "adventure/rp" and less "munchkin with dice", but the things in it are good "crunch" as well as "fluff"...it's nice though to see more believeable stereotypes brought to life in the PrCs, and be useful, such as the streetfighter and bloodhound.
-It also adds the "Ninja" as a full class, and the Scout. I dislike the scout's "skirmish" ability as it makes no sense (more damage while firing on the move, eh? Sorry, not believable), but many will like the Ninja, which is different enough from the rogue for them not to overlap too much, and still be cool to play.

:)

Been a player for almost three decades. Always seem to be a Dungeon Master and this book is helpful, though lately I tend to just sort of make up rules as I go along.

For those role players who like to read, try The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. This book is about a teen who role plays, goes to another world and uses the skills learned through roleplaying to help him survive. It's an action packed book that's hard to put down. Role Players rejoice!

This book, besides new classes, and prestige classes, contain a lot of information about new spells for all classes and feats that may lead your new adventures. I rate it OK. a must have book.

I find this book very helpful in my D&D games. With the new prestige classes introduce, I have completed my characters and so have my fellow gamers. I would recommend that any serious gamer aquire this book for their collection. It could be a life saver.

I purchased this book for a class that I had to take to graduate, but the content is wonderful. This books has opened my eyes(and ears) to the quality of the musical selections within.
I've always enjoyed classical(which is odd growing up with punk rock), but this book helped me to appreciate it on a whole new level.

Arrived quickly. My son needed them for his music course at Fordham. I was happy to see that Amazon had them!! No one else did!!!

This isn't a review about the work of the book but about ordering it online for people who might be nervous about buying this product online. I bought it for a college course. The bookstore wanted to charge me $50 downtown. I bought it online for about $25, including standard shipping. I was nervous that the book wouldn't make it here on time and I also wondered if it really would be the correct book. The book was shipping in 3 business days (5 days) which was faster than I thought. It was more than a great price, it was said to be in "good condition" and it was in great condition and it was the correct book!

The book itself is easy to understand and follow. I enjoy reading it and it has a lot of up to date information that makes it all the more interesting.

After having gone through nine editions, this text bears little resemblence to the original work published in 1955. That text, and the next few editions, were solid and informative. With the addition of co-author Kristine Forney, the work has definitely taken on a more modern perspective at the unfortunate expense of truly great composers.

Having been a serious student of music in earlier life, and a constant listener since birth, I have an avid appreciation of most genres of music. Having said that, I firmly believe the study of music appreciation should remain somewhat "high-brow". By this I mean that it should limit itself to what is considered, in common parlance, as "classical" or "orchestral" music.

Modern genres of music do display moments of true musical genius and originality. But, for the most part, the majority of the material is borrowed, ultimately from the "classical." Most popular musicians have little knowledge of musical composition, or even how to record their works in musical notation. Rap and electronic are the ultimate in this area, many times outright recording a piece of someone else's music and blending the cuts together to produce their own "song."

If one seriously wants to develop an appreciation of music, a solid exposure to and understanding of the "classical" composers is a must. Otherwise, as is the case with most modern and post-modern (whatever that means) teaching materials, a true understanding of the origins, history, and development of the subject is lost. Herbie Hancock and Michael Jackson may be interesting and enjoyable, but they are hardly groundbreaking from a musical perspective.

The authors should separate the "classical" from the "modern" into two texts. Both studies would greatly benefit. After all, with the proliferation of college students downloading music and playing it on every device that can produce a sound, does anyone really think students do not have an appreciation of "modern" music?

I really appreciated the older editions of this book and thought the language was clear and understandable. I still think these aspects of the book are good, however, I am disappointed at the content. I agree with other reviewers who have suggested that the work should be broken into two books -- one on modern music and another on classic music. It just doesn't make any sense to skip major composers and I feel this one size fits all approach misses the mark in this regard.

On the other hand, the book is well-written and has been well-received over its many years and editions. Some reviewers point to an overly politically correct stance, which I believe has some validity. Including minor women composers at the expense of major male composers is not politically correct, it is an inexcusable error. On the other hand, excluding women's contribution to the musical literature completely or leaving out a major woman composer is also an error. I am guessing that a chapter on the cultural issues around women and music with an overview of women composers that are largely unknown or underrated would have better served the target audience.

Textbooks are EXTREMELY expensive and after so many editions, I think this one should be a homerun. Unfortunately, it is now good, but not great. If you don't like this one, you may want to try Music: An Appreciation w/ Multimedia Companion 4.5 CD-ROM. This is done by a concert pianist and does justice to the major composers.

While I am not currently a professional musician, I was for 11 years and I continue to take lessons from a concert pianist. I play a variety of instruments and I've been studying music since before I could read. As such, I think I am in a good position to evaluate the merits of this text. It is still very worthwhile, but I hope they do better in the next edition. Another book worth considering is What to Listen for in Music and Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination. The former book, gives you an inside look at music through the eyes of a composer and the second is a wonderful and entertaining journey through understanding sound and how music produces pleasure from a psychological and biological viewpoint. Both books are very readable by non-musicians and laypersons without a background of any type. The second book is one that I read in two sittings.... AWESOME! I have reviewed both, if you want more details.

If you are also looking to understand some music theory, try Harmony and Theory: A Comprehensive Source for All Musicians (Essential Concepts (Musicians Institute).). This is a great short introduction to music theory and harmony as it relates to modern music. If you are musical at all, you will find that this covers a lot of ground in a short space.

I enjoyed this one. Very nice character development, as in the past, and good story line. A nice mellow read. A series is difficult to sustain, but the author has done well by this one. I certainly recommend it. I do hope there are more coming.

While I enjoyed this installment of the series more than the last few, I did find it be somewhat confusing, with too much going on.

Faith has never been a likeable character to me, but she seems to get worse with every book. She's always come across as pompous and superior, but with Ms. Page throwing in tons of French words and phrases, the books on a whole are starting to come across as arrogant as well.

Still, not a bad way to spend a couple of evenings.

I have enjoyed all of the Faith Fairchild series, not least because their milieu is familiar to me. Caterer Faith Fairchild reluctantly follows her husband. The Reverend Tom is taking a sabbatical leave to spend teaching at Harvard. Faith doesn't like being uprooted, especially because Tom didn't discuss it with her in advance. The family relocates to a historic house in the Brattle Street area of Cambridge. Two major plot lines run through the book; Faith runs into an old flame at a soup kitchen and her children find a post-World War II diary in the attic. Sometimes series' heroes seem too perfect to be true, but here Faith and Tom have their occasional warts on view.
The Body in the Bonfire is still my favorite of the series, but this comes close.

Faith Fairchild uproots her family to join her husband on a short stay in Cambridge. She misses her home and familiar surroundings but is soon fascinated by the town, its people and the history hidden in the walls (and the attic!) of the house they are staying.

Not one of Page's best but certainly worth reading.

I became an avid reader of Katherine Hall Page's wonderful mysteries after reading an article about her in The Tufts Criterion, the alumni publication of Tufts University. In my estimation, The Body in the Attic is her best work yet. The protagonist, Faith Fairchild, is maturing as a mother and as a caterer. In some ways, perhaps she is an alter-ego of the author herself. While the two concurrent plots of the mystery provide a really good read, other themes such as balancing family with career, gourmet cuisine with urban homelessness and hunger, and ministry with personal fulfillment, are also of central concern. To be sure, there are feminine frills, presented with a delightful touch of humour, i.e. comments on accessories and designer clothes, but at its heart the novel delves in a lighthanded way into some rather serious issues of modern life.

Because Faith Fairchild's husband, Tom, is a minister, there is a spiritual overtone as well. But the religious theme does not usually enter through his character, not in previous works in which he is pastoring, nor in this one where he teaches at Harvard Divinity. Rather, it is Faith the minister's daughter and pastor's wife who usually interjects the element of living with meaning and integrity. In this volume, it is intriguing that the victim's diary is also the vehicle which speaks of God's love, as well as of the moral issues and dilemmas that spring from a commitment to live with some sort of integrity during the intolerably evil imprisonment within her home.

Then, too, the pleasures of food are presented throughout the book in a number of interesting ways. While this is true in all Katherine Hall Page's mysteries, the catalog of luscious-sounding restaurants that actually exist in Cambridge and Boston are worth researching on-line and exploring in person. Readers who live in the greater Boston area are doubly blessed.

Finally, it is worth obtaining a copy of this book for the narrative pages which follow as a sort-of postscript. Of special note in all Katherine Hall Page's works are the recipes, but as more a reader than a cook I really enjoyed this particular volume's notes on both comfort food and comfort reading. The author provides a lengthy list of authors one could curl up with for a long time to come.

In addition to our author's reading suggestions, I also look forward to curling up with a long list of future novels by this author. I wonder if she is as delightful a person as Faith Fairchild and her fictional friends. May Katherine Hall Page continue to bless us with years of new reading pleasure!

he Body in the Ivy opens with a May 17, 1970 newspaper clipping of the death of a Pelham senior, Hélène Prince, just prior to graduation, by a fall from the college clock tower. Mystery readers know that this news clipping is going to be important to the story that follows. But just how it's going to involve our intrepid caterer is certainly food for thought as the story unfolds.

Faith Fairchild is impressed that Barbara Bailey Bishop, a famous author, would ask her to cater a reunion of some of her Pelham classmates on her private island. It seems that Barbara remembered a delicious fennel soup Faith had served at a function years ago. The invitation came at a good time when Faith would be able to spend a week away from home.

Shortly after her arrival on the island retreat, Faith learns that the boat will return in a week and there is no phone, no radio, and no way to return to the mainland until the boat returns. Thus we have the classic setup for a country house mystery -- our characters are cut off from communicating with the outside world. Once we learn that they've been lured to this retreat under false pretenses, and that a storm is brewing literally and figuratively, there's nothing to do but to keep reading and hope that there's someone to be rescued when the boat returns. Since this is a mystery rather than a horror novel, the reader may assume that at least one person will survive but who that will be, and whether there will be more than one, is still unknown until the final chapter.

Page introduces each character as they receive their invitation, along with a short flashback to their college experience at Pelham. Through the flashbacks you get an idea of the women they were, who they've become, and their relationship to the young girl who died in 1970. Having lived in those years, I found the flashback awakening my memories of the time, and feeling a connection to these women and their past. Younger readers may have a hard time believing that at one time colleges took on the role of parents to their students, feeling the need to instill manners and morals.

Once all the characters take the stage or living room, we find that the years have not dimmed the memories of their years at Pelham or their hatred of Hélène Prince. Could it be that one of these women killed her? Is that the real reason they have been called together? But then why has Faith been invited? If it's not for her culinary skills could it be because of her past involvement with crime detection?

Each of the characters has their moment front stage as we learn more of their past and their present. Carefully, Page sets the scene and leads us to suspect first one then another of the guests or perhaps it is the hostess. There's red herring enough for a banquet, and that's before death begins to whittle the list of suspects down. Who'll be left standing? You'll need to keep reading to find out. I think this is one of the best of the Faith Fairchild mysteries.

While I enjoy this series because it's well-written and keeps you guessing, I think the author would've done much better by making it a stand alone, rather than giving us yet another installment of Faith where she really doesn't belong.

Faith has never been a likeable character, and it gets tiresome after awhile to see her get involved, take charge, nose around and basically insert herself into the middle of things that have nothing to do with her.

I also find the writer's style of writing a bit stiff and stilted. Things like, "She looked around for what she did not know" and "the night is nigh" really have no place in a contemporary cozy and come off sounding too uppity and snobbish.

Finally, I realize Faith is a cook, but has this woman ever made a hamburger? I've never heard of 90% of the things she makes or the ingredients she uses!

Nearly forty years ago, Pelham College senior Helene Prince plummeted to her death from the school's tower. A wealthy, popular, beautiful woman, Prin, as she was known, seemed to have everything going for her. Which made her suicide that much more tragic. But Prin's group of friends at Pelham, as well as her twin sister, suspected there was more to the story.

After graduation, the young women all went their separate ways, until decades later when all are summoned to a mysterious island by a famous suspense writer. The former friends would never have agreed to go if they had known the others would be there, and they certainly would not have gone if they had known that the nightmare of Prin's death was about to come back to haunt them. When the island's reluctant guests start getting killed off, it is up to the caterer, Faith Fairchild, to catch the murderer and stop the carnage. This isn't Faith's first experience with homicide, either. It seems that she is often buried in dead bodies while she is trying to serve delicious delicacies to her catering clients.

THE BODY IN THE IVY is an entertaining mystery that kept me guessing. I don't read many mysteries, and I found myself wondering why that is as I turned the pages of this book. It's fun to wonder "Who dunnit?" and to watch the clues and suspects as they are revealed. In this particular book, the setting - an isolated private island - added greatly to the mystery and atmosphere. The prime suspects were eight former college friends who had gladly shaken the dust of their all-women's college off their feet decades earlier. They were all successful in their own ways, and it was fun to see how they each had evolved since college, and how they handled the stress of being trapped on an island with a murderer.

About half of this book takes place in present day, largely on the private island where all the women have been gathered. The other half of the book is made up of flashbacks to the women's lives and relationships when they were in college. These flashbacks focus on each woman in turn, and show key turning points in their relationships with each other and, especially, with the dead woman, Prin. The flashbacks in the story where the women are in college will undoubtedly be of most interest to teen readers. Those readers will likely identify with college students in their late teens and early twenties. Although I believe that readers of any age will enjoy meeting the women that those college students became and seeing how their past experiences shaped their lives.

I recommend this book for readers who enjoy a nice, juicy mystery. The story is unique, too, because the sleuth is a caterer. That gives the author an opportunity to offer some recipes for dishes that are served during the story. That was a neat touch. I discovered that THE BODY IN THE IVY is the most recent in a series of more than a dozen mysteries by Katherine Hall Page. All the titles begin with "The Body in the...," so it's clear that Page's catering heroine, Faith Fairchild, has plenty of experience in solving murders. This was good news for me because now I have a long list of intriguing mysteries to add to my "to be read" pile.

Reviewed by: K. Osborn Sullivan

I was lucky enough to pick up an advanced reader copy for THE BODY IN THE IVY at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans, so I didn't have to wait as long as most to read the latest Faith Fairchild novel by Katherine Hall Page. At Malice Domestic this year, Katherine was the guest of honor and also won the Agatha Best Novel of the Year ('05) for THE BODY IN THE SNOWDRIFT. That's a tough act to follow, but she has pulled it off. The atmospheric Maine island and fantastic house she describes are the perfect setting for her "locked-room" type of mystery. The characters are interesting, strong, and ring a bell for this grad (coed, Non-Ivy, alas) of the late 1960s. I enjoyed the flashbacks to tell the backstory. And the Maine weather descriptions were perfect!

Faith Fairchild is asked to cater a reunion for reclusive author Barbara Bailey Bishop and her friends from Pelham, an exclusive women's college. The reunion is to take place at a remote island home which is owned by Bishop, whose real name is Elaine Prince. Most of the women who have been invited have a specific expertise, such as finance or gardening, which they have been asked to share with their old college friends. Once they arrive, however, they see that the agenda is quite different. Two of the women are murdered and it becomes apparent that their hostess is out to discover which of them pushed her twin sister to her death just before they all graduated from Pelham. Flashbacks of their college years show that each of the women had reason to want to kill Prin Prince, who act cruelly towards each one of them. This book is a real departure from the others in the series and is a clever tribute to Agatha Christie's classic "10 Little Indians" in which guests to a home are eliminated one by one by a clever murderer in their midst. I found the change refreshing and thoroughly enjoyed the guessing game as to who the murderer was.

Reading "After the Armistice Ball" was almost like stepping back in time and a bit of a challenge. To begin with the author's, Catriona McPherson, style of writing was reminiscent of Nancy Mitford and E.F. Benson, with some (very) light Agatha Chrsitie-like touches thrown in. All this really takes getting uses to -- esp characters' tendency to pepper practically all their conversations with the word "darling." But once you get used to it, the book was quite the enjoyable read, full of atmosphere and colour, and fairly intriguing from beginning to end.

World War I is over, and the landed gentry is beginning to feel the pinch not only of the changing times and fashions, but also monetarily-wise. All except the Esslmonts, that is. Silas and Daisy Esslmont are enjoying all the comforts and luxury that owning the very distasteful and comercial enterprise of an insurance company can bring. That is until scandal rears its ugly head. Lena Duffy has discovered to her horror that the fabulous Duffy diamonds are fakes, and she's claiming that the switch must have taken place when she was visitng the Esslemonts during the Armistice Ball. She wants Silas to pay for stolen diamonds and because he won't (because the policy has lapsed) is conducting a whispering campaign about Silas' culpability and his lack of honour. At her wit's end about what to do, Daisy, Silas's wife, hires Dandy Gilver to find out what it is Lena really wants. Bored with life at the moment, Dandy readily agrees, especially since Daisy has offered her a fee to solve her problem for her. But the last thing Dandy expected when she agreed to act as go-between for Lena and the Esslemonts was to become involved in the suspicious death of a young giril she's rather fond of, or that trying to make heads or tails as to what's going on would bring her face to face with a very cold blooded killer...

Cationa McPherson has written a very absorbing debut novel. The prose style may take a little getting used to, and Dandy's tendency not to accept certain unpleasant home truths mainly because she cannot believe anyone of her set would behave that way can get a little grating, but that manner in which the author presents us with a strata of society that has had its time and that is struggling to come to grips with the change while valiantly plowing onwards, was fasincating. So that even though "After the Armistice Ball" was not very supenseful and lacked any telling plot twists and red herring suspects, it was a compelling read neonetheless. Reading of how Dandy gradually come to realise what's going on, and how she manages to solve the mystery was great fun -- I rather enjoyed the realistic manne in which the author presented us with how an amateur investigator would naturally blunder about while trying to solve her first case. A well written and enjoyable read, this is especially for readers who enjoy mysteries set in the 1920s and that is full of vibrant fun.

Shortly after the signing of the Armistice which ended WW1, British society was trying to recover some of the ways of easy living which was their lot before the war. Taxes and changes in society were altering the lives of the formerly wealthy and changes in attitudes placed people in very different positions from those which they previously took for granted. Socialite, Mrs.Duffy, claimed that her extraordinary diamond parure was stolen and replaced with paste replicas, after the Ball and accused an insurance company of trying to swindle her out of her just dues. A friend of socialite, Dandy Gilver, is the wife of the head of the insurance company and pleads with Dandy for help in bringing the culprits to justice. Dandy , with her children away at boarding school, is bored with her life, bored with her stuffy husband and sees herself as a glamorous sleuth. At Mrs.Duffy's holiday cottage. a huge fire razes the place to the ground and apparently takes the life of the newly engaged younger daughter of the house. Dandy enlists the help of the fiance of the supposedly dead girl and uncovers a trail of murder and deceit, which points directly to the girl's mother. I loved reading about the fashions and manners of the very wealthy of this period but found the whole story to be just too wordy amd meandering to be a genuinely gripping murder/mystery.

What a delight to discover Dawn Powell! This collection offers a selection of novels and short stories that bristle with well-observed details and uncanny insights. She writes with ascerbic humor about the "wanna-bes" and the "haves" in flapper society with sometimes chilling clarity. Like so many of her contemporaries, she was brave enough to make heroes of very flawed creatures indeed--and do it very well. I wanted to know more about her and read more. Discovering her makes me wonder why Dorothy Parker and Edna Ferber got all the breaks.