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This is the first one of the series I've read. I must say I am so delighted that I'm now reading THE CAT WHO WASN'T THERE.

For a short time I have been to Pickaxe where I've made friends with Polly, the librarian, avuncular Qwilleran, and dear Mrs. Cobb. I should say, POOR Mrs. Cobb, but I have a feeling she is going to bounce right back after her big ordeal. I've suffered through a mean snow storm and a couple of startling catastrophies, reasons for which are not divulged till the end.

Was anybody listening to Ko-Ko and Yum-Yum?. They are cats who are indulged gastrnomically, but who maintain their independence...as all good cats do, especially Siamese. Someone should have been taking their insights and pranks to heart. They are certainly given credit at the finish of the story.

Each character in this book brings to mind someone, somewhere I've met before. Lillian Braun describes them so vividly they've stayed with me for days. And they are worth thinking about.

My only criticism is there were times I wanted more interaction with Ko Ko and Yum Yum.

In the 7th book in The Cat Who...series, James Qwilleran aka "Qwill", is becoming acclimated to his new life as a millionaire in Pickaxe City (400 miles north of everywhere). He has moved his two beautiful Siamese cats (KoKo and Yum Yum) into the old Klingenschoen mansion and has settled in for a five year stay to fulfill the requirements of Aunt Fanny's will.

As the book begins, Qwill is awaiting the arrival of "the big one", a huge snow fall, as predicted every day on the weather report on WPKX. He is starting to adapt to life as the richest man in Moose County, and has started dating the local librarian, Polly Duncan. He begins to get acquainted with the various families in town, and develops an easy friendship with Junior Goodwinter, the young, energetic editor of the Pickax Picayune. When Junior's father dies suddenly in an accident, Qwill sympathizes with his friend, and looks for ways to save the centuries' old newspaper run for years without profit. Qwill begins to become suspicious of Junior's mother, and her reaction to her husband's death. It seems the widow is ready to sell all of her possessions and has been seen around town with a new man. Could the death of Senior Goodwinter have been anything more than a bad car accident? Distracting Qwill from the suspicious death is the upcoming marriage of his beloved housekeeper, Mrs. Iris Cobb. Qwill brought Mrs. Cobb up from "Down Below" to manage his household and the new museum that is being created in the Klingenschoen mansion. But the man she is marrying is highly disliked in town, and Qwill works hard to insure that Mrs. Cobb is marrying the right man for her.

This is my favorite cozy mystery series! I had read all of the books in the past, and wanted to read them again for a second time. This time around, I have chosen to listen to them on CD, as I love the voice of George Guidall. I am happily rediscovering how Qwill became a resident of Moose County, and how many of the series regulars join him from "down below". In this installment, Qwill brings Hixie Rice to town, and begins to talk about having old friend, Arch Riker, join him in Moose County. Also in this book, Qwill's long-time romance begins with librarian, Polly Duncan.

This is a great series by my favorite author!

The first book in the series is called "The Cat who Could Read Backwards". Enjoy!

As we join the soap opera that is Pickax City in this the seventh book of this series we find that all is quiet, at least in the beginning. The people of Moose County are bracing for the first snow of the year, which they refer to as "the big one" and Jim Qwilleran has lost another love interest. Of course anybody who has read any of the other books knows that before long somebody is going to die and that usually the deaths just keep right on coming. With only 4000 people in Pickax City the author is eventually going to have to bring in new people or quit killing off so many in each book. This series can be just a little morbid but I have found that once one begins reading these books the marvelous characters and backdrop become addictive.

Right on schedule there is a death that looks like an accident but Qwilleran isn't so sure that it wasn't murder or even suicide. The first death to occur throws things into an uproar that particularly affects one of Qwilleran's close friends and he jumps into action to solve the problem. He also finds a new love interest and his housekeeper is hinting that she may be close to getting a proposal from her new beau. Along the way he opens a museum in his new palatial home and is suspicious of his old friend Hixie Rice's new boyfriend. Qwilleran also learns that the local radio station predicts snow every day in November until they are finally right and he learns a hard lesson about "the big one" after he starts to ignore the weather forecast. All the while Koko, the cat in the title, is trying to tell the former ace reporter something but somehow Qwilleran misses all of the signals. Koko, for his part learns to use the new elevator in the house and rides up and down a lot.

Like the previous books in the series, the mystery in this book becomes secondary to the antics of the people and cats of Moose County. Lilian Jackson Braun has an uncanny ability when it comes to character creation and the reader will get attached to these people, which makes it all the more sad when she kills somebody off. I have even developed a desire to visit Moose County, even though it is a figment of the author's imagination. I would particularly like to visit the town of Brr where it is always colder than it is anywhere else in Moose County. This is just the kind of extra touch that makes these wonderful books so addictive.

In the 7th book in The Cat Who...series, James Qwilleran aka "Qwill", is becoming acclimated to his new life as a millionaire in Pickaxe City (400 miles north of everywhere). He has moved his two beautiful Siamese cats (KoKo and Yum Yum) into the old Klingenschoen mansion and has settled in for a five year stay to fulfill the requirements of Aunt Fanny's will.

As the book begins, Qwill is awaiting the arrival of "the big one", a huge snow fall, as predicted every day on the weather report on WPKX. He is starting to adapt to life as the richest man in Moose County, and has started dating the local librarian, Polly Duncan. He begins to get acquainted with the various families in town, and develops an easy friendship with Junior Goodwinter, the young, energetic editor of the Pickax Picayune. When Junior's father dies suddenly in an accident, Qwill sympathizes with his friend, and looks for ways to save the centuries' old newspaper run for years without profit. Qwill begins to become suspicious of Junior's mother, and her reaction to her husband's death. It seems the widow is ready to sell all of her possessions and has been seen around town with a new man. Could the death of Senior Goodwinter have been anything more than a bad car accident? Distracting Qwill from the suspicious death is the upcoming marriage of his beloved housekeeper, Mrs. Iris Cobb. Qwill brought Mrs. Cobb up from "Down Below" to manage his household and the new museum that is being created in the Klingenschoen mansion. But the man she is marrying is highly disliked in town, and Qwill works hard to insure that Mrs. Cobb is marrying the right man for her.

This is my favorite cozy mystery series! I had read all of the books in the past, and wanted to read them again for a second time. This time around, I have chosen to listen to them on CD, as I love the voice of George Guidall. I am happily rediscovering how Qwill became a resident of Moose County, and how many of the series regulars join him from "down below". In this installment, Qwill brings Hixie Rice to town, and begins to talk about having old friend, Arch Riker, join him in Moose County. Also in this book, Qwill's long-time romance begins with librarian, Polly Duncan.

This is a great series by my favorite author!

The first book in the series is called "The Cat who Could Read Backwards". Enjoy!

The Cat Who is the best serries ever full of humor wit and complexity,
James Macentosh Qwilerin is a off beat repoter/Billion air with his 2 cats Koko and Yumyum who are no shorter than extra ordinary.
This is the best book serries I have ever read and would recomend it to any one over 10.
Trevor Oliver
12 Years old

There exists an unusually wide breadth of opinions about Armand Hammer -- he almost won the Nobel Peace Prize, and is revered by those who have benefited from his charitable endeavors, yet is excoriated by the political right. The latter group became particularly vocal in the United States around 2000, as Hammer's ties to Al Gore's father became fodder for talk-radio rumor mongering in that year's presidential election.

Dossier is the only biography of Hammer to have had access to both the U.S. government's records on the man, made available under the Freedom of Information Act after he died, and Soviet records, made available after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. It is therefore the only book that comes close to explaining the nature of Hammer's ties to the Soviet Union. (In the early 1920s, he set up some companies that were used as channels by the Soviets for financing secret operations abroad).

Unfortunately, Epstein was not satisfied with these records, and turns to some really marginal sources to sex up the story. The book contains a number of particularly shocking accusations that, if you follow through the footnotes, all come from a woman who claims to have been Hammer's mistress, decades ago. Take for example Epstein's rendition of the well-known 1920 conviction of Hammer's father for manslaughter. Hammer's father had performed an abortion after which the woman had died. Among those who testified at the trial were the woman's maid, who had been present when the operation took place. Every other source on Hammer treats this as the start of Hammer's business career -- with his father incarcerated, Hammer had to take the reins of the family business.

Epstein, on the other hand, writes that it was the 21-year-old *Hammer himself* who had committed the abortion, not his father, and that he had allowed his father to go to jail for the crime. Epstein bases this remarkable claim on the 1990s recollection of a woman who claimed to have been Hammer's mistress in the 1950s, and who said that Hammer confessed to this crime (along with a string of other appalling things) to her. He ignores the fact that much more credible contemporary witnesses testified to the contrary.

Repeatedly in the book, Epstein takes credit for "discovering" things that have been widely known for decades, and which are discussed in detail in previous Hammer biographies. Meanwhile, his discussion of Hammer's 70-year-long business career is cursory.

If you do read the book, be sure to check the footnotes on any novel claim; some of the sources are really weak. See Weinberg's biography of Hammer for a much better treatment of everything except the early Soviet material.

This book is a biography about an american oil mogul:Armand Hammer.The author is a jew, as the biographed.
If you read this book, you will see a true:marxism(leftism, eugenicism, environmentalism, feminism, etc.) is something for millionaries.
Hammer got a fortune linking to former Soviet Union's interests.Then he went to oil business.Again he linked his oil business to Lybia, even to Khadafy money.
Defects of this book are small.I don't believe ,that Al Gore had school's payment from Hammer.Another problem,of this book,is to forget that Hammer was a little linked to eugenics movement, at least until Hitler's time in 1933.These are small problems.This book is good.

Mr. Epstein places a great work on to the life of Armand Hammer. Many individuals wonder how such a man, whom was red flagged by the CIA, could remain connected to each and every Presidential administration and Kremlin since the days of Lenin. I was hoping for more information on their dealings with Robert Maxwell but it was only mentioned in brief. Hammer, like is father, presented to the public as immensely wealthy and powerful individuals, yet reality had dictated the opposite. Hammer, a man in quest for power, could have taken the time to do good things but instead he worked to expand not only his own personal image/power but to keep the secret line open to advance the Communist movement. I'd also recommend "The Perestroika Deception" - A. Golitsyn.

~Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer~ chronicles the life and despondent character of Armand Hammer. In his later life, Hammer invested great time and sizable resources to get a favorable authorized biography that portrayed himself as a generous, urbane and cultured philanthropist. Hammer no doubt would be dismayed by Epstein's account, though he never lived to see it. Epstein chronicles a different Armand Hammer. Epstein draws a picture of a power hungry man with an unscrupulous character. The real Armand Hammer led a life corrupted by avarice, adulterous sexual escapades and notoriously unscrupulous dealings with the Soviet Union and American politicians. Epstein by implication shows that Hammer may very well have been a Soviet agent. Hammer was in Bolshevik Russia while the revolutionary hadn't quite settled down. Hammer got a trade concession for a pencil factory that he operated in Moscow. While in the Soviet Union he moonlighted with Lenin and other Bolshevik revolutionaries. Hammer soon left Russia and supposedly almost went insolvent. His questionable business dealings in Europe perhaps as a launderer for Soviet enterprise to fund covert operations abroad would eventually gained the watchful eye of American authorities. Hammer got into art dealing and liquor distilling, but never lost his Soviet ties. He would eventually become the target of scrutiny by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI who took interest in his domestic and overseas machinations. While Hammer was the target of American counterintelligence, he ironically made use of his own intelligence clique especially later in life; he hired detectives, spies and former government agents to acquire information while manipulating business partners, competitors and politicians for personal gain. Hammer rose to fame as the Occidental Petroleum mogul and continued his shady dealings. Though, he tried to break into the market of the Seven Sisters oil cartel by getting an oil concession in Libya. His unscrupulous and devious dealings included bribery of foreign countries for trade concessions. Having lived a life of infamy, in his twilight years, the billionaire labored tediously to cultivate a favorable personal image. Hammer would have liked to have been remembered as a wealthy, cultured, humanitarian and religious Jew. Then Epstein came along to tell the real story.

This secret history is a window into the world of Armand Hammer: Hammer was an unscrupulous man, disloyal to his country, who put greed and power above family and nation. Epstein's conclusion is almost irresistible, yet he is never so obvious enough to state it: Hammer was a selfish opportunist who should have spent a substantial part of his life in a federal penitentiary.

Biographer Epstein does a straightforward, almost journalistic description of the life and times of Armand Hammer, considered by many to be a man of vision, humanity, and charity until details of his life began to seep out following his death. Even the New York Times gave this man a glowing obituary. But, thanks to the tremendous research done by Epstein, we see Hammer for what he was: an evil, self-serving, egomanic. And Epstein's non-sensational telling of the details of Hammer's life is appropriate; it is unnecessary to augment beyond the notoriousness of Hammer's own actions. What Hammer did speaks for itself, and Epstein catalogues his many sins. He was a traitor to his country, his family, his friends. He was such a lowlife that he allowed his father to go to prison for crime he, the son, committed. He was a perpetual adulterer. He laundered millions of dollars and had secret accounts everywhere. He drove what most believed to be a successful company to the brink of bankruptcy. But I could have done without the incessant mini-flashbacks that kept creeping into the narration. And I think it was a really bad choice to begin the book with the prologue describing Hammer's final days. It would work much better at the end, as this failure of a human being tops himself while he is dying with malicious, coniving, and deceitful steps to preserve his false characterization upon his passing. I would strongly recommend that you read the prologue at the end of the book. I would also suggest that as you finish each chapter, you turn to the source notes for that chapter and be amazed by the research Epstein did to compile his facts. He paints Hammer as such a dispicable character, that you will be astounded that this character got away with his ruse for his entire life. In this day of rotten corporate big-business, the book shows the rot has been going on for decades.

Although An Unfinished Season cannot compare to Just's recent Forgetfulness it was still a pleasure to read for the language alone. I don't agree with the other reviewers who thought the characters were not engaging. I grew up in the 50s and each one of these characters literally reeked of the emotional suppression of that period. What was difficult for me was that none of them seemed to enjoy anything very much. And as suppressed as we were in the 50's we had a lot of damned fun. Another thing not noted by other reviewers was the HINT of some kind of taboo love/attachment between Aurora and Jack. Now that would have been quite enough to make Jack end it all especially in the 50s. Forget the Bataan Death March...his attachment to Aurora was clearly off the 50s radar. No matter what, Just can certainly dance a beautiful dance with the English language. I wish for more like Forgetfulness which is a book I simply cannot get out of my mind.

What it was like to be 19 in the 1950's in the Midwest...excellent book, especially for those of us who lived through the era at the same age (albeit on the East Coast). A great story, well-written, which makes you think and remember with pleasure and the occasional wince what it was like in that era to be on the cusp of manhood, and then just past it.

The quality of the writing here is excellent but the story and characters are very boring.
It is the quality of the writing, alone, that can get you to continue reading beyond say the first 50 pages, however there is no big pay off at the end.
No punctuation is a travesty; a time waster in an otherwise dreary read.

The prose of this novel is pleasurable to read at times. Ward Just effectively conjures images of the 1950's culture of affluent suburbanites in Chicago. But I couldn't really get into the characters. There are moments where we begin to get to know a character, but then Just resorts to declarations like "I was never closer to my father than at that time" (I'm paraphrasing) instead of showing us how and why two characters were close. A couple of pages of dialogue between them wasn't enough to make me feel they were close.

The dialogue rarely rings true; it feels like glossy pontifications, not something a real person would actually say. It's rather cumbersome getting through it without quotation marks, too. The other thing that undermined the believeability of this novel is that while the protagonist is only 19, his reflections and interpretations of things sound way too mature. Perhaps this can be explained away by the fact that the novel is a reminicence of a much older man, but he claims to be having all these wonderfully deep insights at the time, not as he's writing his memories. Overall, the book has nice moments, but it didn't move me. I didn't believe that much of what the main character said and thought could be authentic. I think Just is trying too hard to be ethereal but deep at the same time.

Ward Just is a writer with few equals. He wrote for the Washington Post for many years, most notably as a Vietnam reporter in the seventies. Just successfully made the transition to fiction and hasn't turned back in some three decades.

An Unfinished Season is an exceedingly well crafted novel, set in Eisenhower era Chicago. The narrative is exact in the details it reveals, yet still spare enough to leave a reader guessing.

The reader is offered a rare inside glimpse of the North Shore W.A.S.P.s of Chicago, frozen in some ways like the cold midwest they inhabit. And frozen like the mysterious poor woman who appears throughout the book.

This is something of a coming of age novel, for both the main character, Wilson Ravan, and his father, Teddy Ravan. Wilson Ravan's unfinished season is the period after high school and before college - he's gotten a day job of sorts at a Chicago newspaper. It's here that he gleans the smutty stories he tells at the debutante balls he attends in the evenings. He experiences his first love and his first heartache.

Teddy Ravan's unfinished season is the end of his middle age years and possibly of his marriage - the reader never really finds out if the marriage is ending, or just settling in for the long haul to the twilight of the couple's years.

This novel is so tightly woven, it's difficult to dissect - and even after finishing it, one can't be sure of it. The reader is never completely let in, which is just as telling as what is learned. Just's prose is deeply symbolic without being corny.

This is a quiet, thoughtful book - highly recommended. A beautiful piece of work, and an affirmation of why I read fiction.

"Infamous Scribblers" was a fantastic read. Newspapers haven't changed much since colonial times. the best part of the book was the historical facts brought up, and the infighting of politicians and printers, among themselves and with each other. It brought out things about our founding fathers that aren't in your regular history books. There is a very great likeness of events and people then and now, The one big difference today is newspapers don't attack like they did then. They didn't hold back much at all and would keep it up and not backdown. Give it a try I think you will enjoy it....Ken

The early chapters are extremely well-researched and well-written. Unfortunately, as work progressed and the deadline approached, the quality declined -- but only from an A+ to a B-. A little too much clipping and pasting of what other people wrote or what early newspapers published; a few too many gaps in historical context. By the last chapter, George Washington is reported to be retiring to Mount Vernon in 1787. (It was 1797, you can look it up; but I thought that was the job of authors and editors.) Nevertheless, recommended reading for anyone interested in American history.

I absolutely loved this book. It is exactly the kind of experience I want when I read history. I learned a lot, and had fun doing it. Eric Burns obviously knows his subject, and his style is relaxed and entertaining. I did a little research on him, and as it turns out, he was named by the "Washington Journalism Review" as one of the best writers in the history of broadcast journalism.

This book is a little over 400 pages, excluding the notes and bibliography. Burns takes the reader from the first American newspaper in 1690, called "Publick Occurences Both Foreign and Domestic", and shows the evolution of the newspaper through the pre-revolutionary period, the War for Independence, and the post-revolutionary period. In the hands of a less-skilled writer, this subject matter could be dry. In the hands of Burns, it is a page-turner.

Like many others, I began this book longing for the good old days of journalism. You know the ones, back when the media was not biased, back when newspapers did not sling mud, and engage in vicious gossip. After reading this book, I realize that things were a whole lot worse than they are now. Today's newspapers are models of balance and fairness compared to U.S. newspapers in the late 18th century.

The newspaper was an important tool in the days of the United States infancy. Prior to the revolution, Whig editors used their papers to stir up patriotism, or even hatred of the British. Tory papers aimed to counter, or at least cool, the initial fires of revolution. There did not appear to be any papers that were neutral, and that reaffirms for us the polarizing nature of this debate. One didn't sit on the fence. Once the war was over, the papers were used as political weapons by the Federalists and the Republicans. The sheer nastiness will astound you. Burns' book takes us through these heated policy debates, and gives us a feel for how hot the passions ran.

You will also learn about Benjamin Franklin's stint as an editor. One of his grandsons, Benjamin Franklin Bache, would grow up to be an influential and controversial editor. You'll learn about the first sex scandal involving a public figure caught in an adulterous relationship, and see how he used the media to try and repair his damaged reputation. Interestingly, the journalist who broke the nation's first sex scandal also broke the second one.

I think that most readers would enjoy this book. Sure, it will help if you are interested in history or in journalism, but that is not necessary. Anyone who likes a good story will like this story. Best of all, it's true!

Highly recommended.

Covering the lies and slanders in US journalism from colonial times through the revolution and Federalist time periods, the book delivers an overview of the major events during these segments of US history. There is little background delivered, just a series of vignettes as Burns chronologically delivers news coverage of the important events of the time.

Given the invective inherent in the journalism of the time, I expected a more vibrant work than Mr. Burns provides. For all of our history up to the War of 1812, the US was an untested experiment, and the population split into decidedly rancorous, polar opposite factions, that sometimes violently disagreed with each other. This was when our 2 party system of government was formed and each faction had their own journals, gazettes and newspapers which behaved quite atrociously.

Somehow Eric Burns delivers coverage of the events with little or no passion. The result is a remarkably flat read that is quite difficult to get through. This book does sparkle at certain points, particularly with reference to Thomas Jefferson. Burns reveals Jefferson as something of a rogue, a manipulator of people, facts and freedoms. These pages were quite interesting as Burns delivers a Jefferson who is quite human. But the views of the rest of the Founding Fathers are traditional, and, as a result, repetitious of what many, many others have already written.

Working as he does, from actual newspaper accounts at the time, replete with the aforementioned published lies and slander, I had hoped he would deliver views of Adams, Morris, Livingston, Washington, Franklin, et al., with more of what he provided for Jefferson: Realism. This was pretty juicy stuff, but no, he simply quotes from 30-40 journals with little or no analysis. The result is a very flat read, one that the author himself does not participate in and one that is repetitious of so many others that it is difficult to stay with.

The cover claims the author as connected with Fox News and after I received it, I feared a right-wing diatribe. Au contraire. He is a social historian and the stories are a lot of fun.

I read three books like this one before starting my magazine. This one was definitely the most complete and understandable. She doesn't cover prining, computers or production technology. And she doesn't talk about writing or editing. But she does a great job showing you how to get subscribers, sell ads, raise startup money, and hire good people. If you want to start a magazine, forget the other books and read this one.

Don't let the raw art of the cover deceive you: this is a very good book. It complements Samir Husni's Launch your Magazine, with solid information on the commercial side of a magazine: how to study your market before you launch that dream magazine, what circulation is (and how to target for your audience), how to estimate your fixed and variable publishing costs (and how to balance them with your estimated revenues so as to break-even and then make a profit), and lots of other details. There are a few obvious pieces of info, but I read it twice, and marvelled at the insights and expertise which Cheryl Woodard offers us for a bargain price. Now I guess I'll read it a third time.

Woodard does an excellent job of explaining the financial aspects of magazine publishing. She also gives the reader many ideas on targeting an audience and advertisers. However, the book may fall a little short on creativity, such as how to color outside the lines in finding new ways to sell subscriptions and gain advertisers. Direct mailing and newstands can only go so far. Overall, the book allows the reader to get a good handle on the basics of starting a magazine.

I was amazed how informative this book is when it comes to getting the business started financially and how to devise a marketing plan, find employees and contractors, and build a readership. However, the book really gives no information on the creative aspect of the business, such as how to pick a layout scheme or weed out useless content. I feel more confident on the business side now, but am still lost as far as building the magazine itself.

Admittedly, I was disappointed when I sifted through the pages to find that many subjects listed in the content pages had been barely discussed in depth. Although this is a book about the business of publishing it fails to cover adequately the subject of editorial schedules and disseminating information. The layout makes it difficult (I found) to take in the information and use it to your benefit. There are very little illustrations or visual examples of layouts to guide the inexperienced publisher. Much of the information is written in a general nature and is basically just common sense. I found myself, after reading a few chapters, asking many questions and the answers, I'm afraid, are not in this book. As someone new to the publishing business I was looking for something that I could use as a reliable guide taking me through the process step by step. Alas, this book did not meet my needs.

At page fifty-three I had about had it with reviews from Pinter's previous book "The Mark". There were so many references to it, I thought I either had to throw this one away, or put it down and read "The Mark" first. At page 63, I decided in favor of the former. No sense reading the first book, all has been revealed. I picked this from the shelf primarily because of Lee Child's endorsement. I'll stick with Mr. Child; Pinter can't touch him.

Incredible and darn near unputdownable! I really enjoy the characters in the series and the new ones that pop up. Lots of action and suspense. Pinter, the author, really pulls you into Henry's world and it stays in your mind long after the novel is finished.

Some may find the plot a little `cheesy', and while I didn't find it the most original, it's how it played out that was the fascinating part. Like a reporter hitting the ground running, you're the reader that's sucked in before the first chapter is even finished, you're hooked, hitting the ground running right along with Henry in the second chapter.

My mistake was reading the excerpt at the back of the novel of the prologue and first chapter from his third novel, The Stolen, coming out in August 2008. I would have been content to eagerly await his third novel, but now I'm impatient waiting, LOL!

To reiterate, great characters, well played-out plot, tons of action and suspense... I couldn't ask for better. A new author has joined the crowd of thriller authors, ladies and gents, and his name is Jason Pinter!

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you intend to read this book, do not read past this point!

I found that Jack was butting in where his nose didn't belong. I would have expected this exact thing from Paulina, not Jack. Not everyone is the same, nor can they cope with the same things in life. Everyone is different and I was angry that Jack would naturally assume that Henry was like him. I don't think Jack would have ever had or every will have what Henry and Amanda have/had.

The ending was sad and a little frustrating. Amanda was safe and sound, Mya was going to survive - he doesn't love Mya, but he's going to stick by her - something he regrets he hadn't been able to do before. He loves Amanda, but he pushed her away `to protect her'. Now both of them are hurting because Henry can't get passed what `almost' happened? Someone (by that, I mean character in the book) should be giving Henry a really good smack upside the head!

i realy like this author, both the guilty and his first book the mark are very well writen but what i liked the most was that it was told from a different angle, not the same old cop or bad guy angle, but a reporter caught up in the middle of things. a very good read!

After reading a good review of this book in the Sun-Sentinel, I decided to give the author a shot. The premise is interesting--somebody is using an antique rifle to kill controversial people in public fashion--and the main character, reporter Henry Parker, finds out that the truth to the killer's identity and motives are over a hundred years old and will cause some major controversy if revealed. Some of the situations need a grain of salt to be swallowed fully, but the characters, especially Parker and his love interest, are well-written and fun to follow. Plus some good research adds to the story without bogging it down. A well above average thriller, and I'm going to pick up the author's first book as well.

This book was even better than The Mark. It had a deeper story and there weren't as many "no action" spots. No offense to The Mark at all it too was a fantastic book. The Guilty is a fantastic sequel and I am looking forward to his next book, The Stolen, which is coming out in August!

I received my copy today and I tell you once I began to read the first 20 pages I have an article that I'm considering and from the one article I now have four. I am soooo glad I purchased the book and plan to pass it on to my granddaughter who is considering writing a romance novel. What an added plus to my library.

This step-by-step guide is an easy read, a wonderful resource for writers. Mainly focused on magazine queries, the text explains much more than how to make a quality first impression with editors. It also teaches how to find and clarify ideas; how to slant them into something fresh and "irrisistible", then how to format them into something a publisher will want to read. Other chapters focus on selling yourself as the author, securing a solid hook and polishing your pieces to perfection. Several sample queries are given throughout the book.

The copy I have shows a copyright of 1987. Amazon lists a more recent date of 2002. Whether or not revisions have been made, I cannot say. If not, then the new printing is more outdated than the old. I rolled my eyes a few times and skipped entire sections because of the obviously dated material. One portion devotes far too many words to encouraging writers to use the proper equipment on their typewriters. Perhaps some authors still use typewriters. They may need to be reminded which type and color of tape to use or which "white-outs" are or are not appropriate. For the rest of us, swimming beautifully in the computer age, a revised and updated version of this book would be appreciated.

Overall Rating: GOOD -- Even better if updated.

It's a good, basic text on magazine and non-fiction book queries and covers the ground well. The writing is straightforward, clean and informative. I was looking for a book on fiction queries and this one isn't it. I wish there had been a subtitle that said what the book actually covered.

Education, continuing education, and refreshers are never too much. This book should become quotidian for any writer that prepares query letters. The percentage of information for magazine article writers slightly outweigh the information for book writers. The tips to aid an author in personalizing the sales pitch were good. The chapters have been colligated under the following topics: Ideas, Writing the Query, Facts and Quotes, Editing and Submitting. There are numerous sample letters that have been proven to work for the author, Lisa Collier Cool.

This literary agent's guide for wannabe' writers is meant to help mostly novice authors persuade people just like her. The book's success is due largely to the plentiful examples of successful letters written by her and other authors. Templates abound, a happy state for any craftsman, not least beginning or intermediate writers.

Its second contribution is to humanize the mythic person of `the editor'. He or she is a busy professional--like many others, one might add--who needs to find good work. Few are large-fanged, drooly, no-monsters. But you do need to put your best foot forward. Collier Cool's little paperback will help you do that.

This book will find a place at your elbow as well-thumbed reference more than as a stirring read.

I have read several women sleuth series, and this one is very good. I could not put it down! I never guessed the ending! All of the story pieces neatly fit together by the end of the book. I can't wait to start reading "The Alpine Betrayal", the next in the series. The vivid description of the Pacific Northwest make me want to visit Seattle again and explore!

Sentences TOO choppy. Becomes very tiring in the beginning. Almost gave up on reading it.

I picked up The Alpine Advocate virtually at random while searching for a new mystery and was pleasantly surprised. Emma Lord and the snowy Washington village she lives in do remind one of the impeccable Jessica Fletcher and her Eastern roots. There is something reminiscent here about Twin Peaks, with the eccentric locals and their closets full of skeletons. The novel does have its flaws: Ms. Daheim spends a few too many pages establshing a relationship between Emma and her old flame Tom and I impatiently read through these passages waiting for more clues about the murders. Although I dare not reveal the ending, the conclusion is quite satisfying, and it turned out to be one of those mysteries in which I thought I had everything figured out but was pleasantly surprised. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Daheim's mysteries, and have already ordered the second novel in the series.

Meeting all the delightful residents of Alpine can be a challenge. Make a list as you go (that's what I did). You will be well rewarded as this series progresses; it provides a lot of chuckles, and you hardly care who-dun-it. As I write, I have read down to "Icon" and was only disappointed once!

In this introduction to her Emma Lord series, Daheim sets the stage, introduces us to her recurring characters, and of course provides a fun little murder mystery to solve.

Since this is a fanciful, cozy style murder mystery, the reader is prepared for the inevitable eccentric characters and the necessity to sustain disbelief in the interest of having an enjoyable story experience. Still, some of the characters' quirks and some of the coincidences are sufficiently over the top to warrant mentioning here.

For example, the main character, Emma Lord, hit the jackpot when her former boyfriend died, leaving her a quite substantial insurance windfall. This explains her ability to move to a quaint and super-quirky small town, buy its only newspaper, and set herself up as its editor. I can accept this as a valid plot device intended to set the stage and move the story along. However, nothing really explains her ambivalence to an advertising manager of stellar incompetence who came with the purchase of the newspaper, and who actively works to sabotage the paper's profitability. Equally incompetent is her junior reporter, who is portrayed as a likable but harebrained bimbo who can't spell and forgets to remove her camera's lens cap when taking photos in the field. Small town or not, no editor puts up with that for any length of time.

But, "quirkiness" seems to be the watchword, as is further illustrated by some of the characters' outlandish nicknames ("Eeny" and "Neeny") and weird personal idiosyncrasies (like the sidekick's bizarre propensity to rub the daylights out of her eyes whenever she becomes upset, which happens at the drop of the hat).

A particularly hard-to-swallow coincidence is the friendship between the main character's son, Adam, and the lynchpin character whose arrival in town is the catalyst that dredges up ghosts of the past and sets the rest of the story in motion. (They met in Hawaii after Adam moved there for college, and he arranges for his mother to pick him up at the airport). Really, what are the odds?

Still, let none of this serve to dissuade you from reading this book. Whatever this book's shortcomings, they are minor in the overall scheme of things. For all their foibles, the characters turn out to be likable (or detestable, in the case of the bad guys); the setting is unique and compelling; and most importantly, the puzzle portion of this mystery evidences a nimble use of time, motive and unexpected story twists that will delight the reader.

All told, The Alpine Advocate is a solid murder mystery that will appeal to those who enjoy quirky murder cozies. It's not bad at all for the first of a series.

The first entry in a long-running Australian series. This book is deeply flawed -- the climactic scene revolves, not around wits or daring, but a public display of affection -- but it's one of the few high points in the series. Phryne is charming, brilliant and amoral, and would be almost likable if the narrative wasn't continually telling us how special and remarkable she is. It's hard to generate tension around a character for whom the normal rules of society don't apply. However, the Jazz Age Australia setting is well-realised, and this is an entertaining start to a series best enjoyed as part of a drinking game.

The Phryne Fisher series came highly recommended by a man not usually given to Affirmative Action crits, but I can't help feeling that if this had been written by a bloke . . .

Female readers may well enjoy the anachronistic cheap shots at Twenties' inequalities, and God knows there could be worse heroines for the Noughties. (Or do we call the present decade the Oh-Ohs?)

Lovers of crime fiction will surely be disappointed, and not only by the fact that the King of Snow was obvious from the start. This is an amateurish effort, best illustrated by having the members of a White Russian noble family speak French (rather than Russian) when alone with each other in private, the better to be eavesdroppedupon by our French-speaking heroine.

It's not bad wordsmithery, as you might expect of a lawyer who moonlights as an author, but I'm guessing most male readers will not find this enough.

Phryne Fisher is so refreshing. She's young, smart, sexy, compassionate and bold. I'm looking forward to many more. Can't wait!!

This was a light and breezy mystery as befits the era it portrays. I can't imagine why, but I expected a little more P G Wodehouse flavor.

I was looking forward to discovering a new voice in the period piece mystery genre; but was disappointed in this one. Reviews that I had read implied that Kerry Greenwood was the Australian Agatha Christie. Not so, her flapper sleuth is just a little too self centered and selfish to be attractive. The improbability of the plot stretches credulity, the shallow characterization is unbelievable; and although set in Melbourne, is so lacking in atmosphere that it could be about Chicago. The only authentic Aussie flavor was in the street names and the obvious reversal of the seasons one encounters when going "down under". I will try one more title before I give this author up as a poor substitute for the real thing.

One reviewer on Amazon criticized Laurel Leff for the tone of outrage which informs this work. But how is it possible not to be outraged when one considers that the Times, and its chief during the Second World War Arthur Sulzberger may well have been responsible ,through their downplaying of the story of the Nazi extermination campaign against the Jews, for not preventing the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Stories from the 'Times ' pointing out the evil of the Nazi plan might have for interested induced the Allies to bomb the rail- lines leading to Auschwitz. And that ' small action' might have saved thousands upon thousands of lives.
Moreover Leff does not simply rage out of thin air, but very carefully documents the whole story of the Times action. And she puts especial emphasis on the bias of the then publisher Sulzberger .His anti- Zionism, his desire to dissociate himself from any national Jewish connection, his fear of having the Times be labeled as a 'Jewish newspaper' all these were part of the formulating of a top- down policy in which the story of what would later come to be known as the 'Holocaust' was downplayed.
One feels the author has done a long- due and necessary job.

Obviously, the New York Times did a horrible job of reporting the slaughter of millions of Jews by Germans and others during World War Two. And Laurel Leff has done us all a service by explaining this in detail.

Did this betrayal of journalistic standards harm anyone? Of course it did. Still, it happened decades ago, so why worry about it now? Well, there are good reasons for worrying about it now. For one thing, the New York Times hasn't improved much, judging by its biased coverage of Israel. And while it is too late to save those who died in World War Two, there is still time to help those who are threatened today.

Leff explains that the Times managed to ensure that fewer people would hear the last screams of those murdered in World War Two. Now, why did the Times do such a thing? The author analyzes this in some detail. And part of the reason was that Sulzberger did not want his paper to appear too "Jewish."

I think there is a moral here, namely that journalists need to report honestly, even when honesty might appear to make their group look good or bad.

We humans do not make good choices when the information we need is omitted or reported inaccurately. It does no one any good if we lie on the grounds that truth might seem to be self-serving! And I think this case shows us why.

This is not a book about The New York Times and its miserable
coverage (never on the front page) of the War Against the Jews. It is
a book about a self-hating man, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, to whom the
very word "Jews" was anathema. No, we are Americans who happen to be
Jews. There is no such thing as a Jewish people, no such thing as a
Jewish nation; those are Hitlerite concepts.
And that explains why Sulzberger kept a Nazi as head of his Berlin
Bureau and allowed his nephew Cyrus to cover the Babi Yar massacre by
not mentioning that the victims were Jews.
And the people who revolted in Warsaw's ghetto were not Jews, either.
Wherever possible, the victims of the Germans were either part of a
larger group, including all the massacred Norwegians, Belgians, and
Luxembourgers, or simply "refugees."
Leff, whom I would not hire as a prospective reporter, lays it all
out -- and then some. She adds the superfluous detail wherever
possible and then pads out her book with a mish-mash of stuff that
she simply gets wrong, like the well-known sinking of the "Sturma"
(sic). She just has it sink without saying why. That sort of writing
gets wearisome after a while, but she just loves to throw in "sic"
when she catches a misspelling or a typo.
Not wanting to go on with superfluous details of my own, all I can
say is that this would have been a fitting subject for someone who
could discipline her writing. Leff did not.

Leff provides a necessary look at how the most influential newspaper in America dealt with the Nazi regime before and during the Second World War.

It seems to me that given the very important strength of anti-semitism in America during the first half of the 20th Century, the amazing thing is that the American Jews were not persecuted and interned on some pretext, that the US supported the creation of the State of Israel -- and just barely did so despite the opposition of the State Department -- and that American Jews have reached a position unequaled anywhere. It all might have been different and in the days of Father Coughlin and Charles Lindburgh and Joseph Kennedy it certainly looked like it would be different.

Ms. Leff has meant well and has made a contribution. Moral outrage in this case is less useful than a calm assessment of the real forces at work in America concerning the Jews and how best to prosecute the war.

The real outrage should be saved for the role of Christianity for fifteen hundred years or more in victimizing the Jews -- to the extent that only a small percentage of Christians could avoid the ever-present temptation of Jew hatred.

Laurel Leff has given us a nicely detailed description of how the New York Times, then as now the most eminent newspaper in the country, failed to appreciate the historical significance of the Holocaust while it was under way in Europe.

This was not a matter of suppression of news. Whatever news was available was published in the Times, but it was buried in back pages. The Nazis' systematic killings of Jews, when news of them reached the West, were not accorded the front-page status that, in hindsight, these events warranted. And here lies the fundamental weakness of the book as I see it. The author's vision is ahistorical, anachronistic; it applies what we know now to a judgement of what was done then.

Nevertheless, Leff's book cannot help but be of importance to anyone interested in the period. Her strongest point is the role of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the Times from 1935 to 1945. Scion of a wealthy family of German Jews, living in a period in which Jews were still excluded from many positions of influence and were strictly limited in the prestige universities, Sulzberger felt uneasy about his Jewish identify. He was, in the language of those days, an assimilationist. He was very much worried that the public might consider him a Jew before it recognized him as a newspaper man. Leff's description of his role in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism is most enlightening. But, as Leff also points out, the Reform Judaism of his day was also largely anti-Zionist. Sulzberger was not the only, nor the most rabid of the anti-Zionists among prominent American Jews. In any case, as Leff indicates, he was also basically fair-minded and was not given to suppressing news.

The extent to which Sulzberger's personal values may have influenced the Times's coverage of the Holocaust is not clear. This question, as well as the larger question of how unique the Times was in its Holocaust treatment, can only be explored by a comparative treatment. How did the Times compare with other news outlets ? How much better could it have done, given the limitations in the world's understanding of the significance of the Holocaust while it was in progress ? Leff suggests that the Times was not unique, but she gives no particulars. She is not interested in making comparisons with other papers, either here or abroad.

The New York Yiddish press of those days was still very important and very vibrant. There were several Yiddish dailies, with the Morning Journal and the Forward probably the most important. There was also the Tug (Day), and the Freiheit, the Communist Yiddish daily. Leff takes scant interest in any of these. She certainly does not do what would be required to understand the Times's treatment of the Holocaust, viz. a detailed comparative analysis of the Yiddish press accounts in relationship to those of the Times.

We are left with a description of what happened at the Times only, and this description is both enlightening and thorough. But we are not told whether, with all of Sulberger's qualms and other institutional peculiarities of the Times, that newspaper could have given us a sustained, balanced, meaningful treatment of the Holocaust as it was unfolding, given the fact that the world simply could not grasp the horror and the novelty of the Nazi crime.

I was a newspaper reader in those days, not only of the Times, but also of a variety of Jewish sources (but not of the Yiddish press). I read all the little facts. But I had no inkling of what was really happening, of the magnitude of the Holocaust. That came to me, as it did to the rest of the world, only some years after the war.