Bryan Books

In the late 1870's, Magdalena Maguire defies the dictates of society by opening her own detective agency, Discrete Inquiries. Her beau, the wealthy upper crust attorney Quincy Applegate hires Maggie to extract Trini Malone, the niece of his oldest friend, from a cult. Apparently, Brother Ascension, the head of the Children of Golgotha, is an alias for Darby Halstead, a former convict who did time for some of his scams. Darby specifically seeks wealthy heirs so he can become their heir when they suddenly inherit.

The Trini project is in phase two as her mother recently died, leaving her a sizable inheritance. Maggie sets in motion a con that will obtain instant membership with the cult. She arrives at their current location, Conquistador, a town ten miles south of San Francisco. She appears tired and out of money, and claims to be seeking her wealthy grandfather Otto Obermyer, whom she never met. Otto is actually her downstairs neighbor. With his help and the assistance of other friends and relatives, Maggie begins to reel in her big catch, unaware that the drugged food and water place her life in peril.

The third Malone historical mystery, MURDER ON THE BARBARY COAST, retains all the charm of its two predecessors (see A RECORD OF DEATH and MURDER AT BENT ELBOW). The story line is clever and smoothly flows to a fabulous climax. The repeat characters make the era ring true as their relationships provide a special spark to the tale. Fans of the sub-genre will attain much pleasure from the Americana sleuthing series, especially this particular story in which Kate Bryan entertains the reader with and enjoyable novel.

Harriet Klausner

A very dynamic people and culture that has survived a long enduring time of trials. The "white man" taking over their lands and alienating them from the very soil they sewed for hundreds of years.

Mystical beliefs, omens and the rverence of the people in their communities and how everyone was imprtant to the whole.

THis is book is a beautiful example of what makes the Native American people so special, unique and strong. Read it!

In accordance with the Osprey Campaign series format, the book starts with a section on the background to the campaign and includes a campaign chronology. Zaloga provides good insight into the debilitated state of the Wehrmacht units and the rising competence of US units in the section on opposing forces. The section on opposing commanders is adequate, but French General Leclerc who made a contribution in the campaign is omitted, while non-involved characters such as Montgomery are included. On the German side, Panzer Lehr's Fritz Bayerlein should also have been included. The section on opposing plans is adequate but more mention of how ULTRA shaped Allied planning should have been included. The order of battle is a bit skimpy because it only addresses division-size units from both sides that participated in the initial phase of Cobra; American non-divisional assets such as independent tank, tank destroyer and artillery units should have been added. Nevertheless, Zaloga succeeds in providing fresh insights into material that is well worn, if not always well covered. Certainly he makes good points on Allied superiority in communications and logistics which are not viewed as "sexy" by some armchair historians who prefer to stress comparative tank statistics and such.

The maps are quite good in this volume. There are five 2-D maps, depicting: the theater situation on 24 July 1944, the plan for Cobra, the breakthrough on 25-30 July, the race through Brittany and the pursuit to the Seine. Unfortunately, there were no 2-D maps of the Mortain counterattack or the Falaise pocket. There are only two 3-D Birds-eye-view maps in this volume: the carpet-bombing of the Panzer Lehr Division and the Mortain counterattack (which is too small and difficult to understand). There are three excellent battle scenes: the carpet bombing of Panzer Lehr, US tanks in the breakout and Panther tanks in the Mortain counterattack. The photographs provided are also excellent, particularly if one enjoys viewing destroyed German vehicles and their dead occupants (there are no photographs of US casualties). Overall, the text is cleanly-written and the campaign narrative fits well together. Zaloga also makes a good connection between Operation Cobra's breakout and the landings in southern France; often Operation Dragoon gets short shrift in the Normandy saga, but Zaloga effectively points out the inherent linkage between the campaigns and how it precipitated the German collapse in the West.

Zaloga has marshaled the available facts well and there is little controversy in this book, although there are a few issues open to some debate. First, the actual effect of Allied airpower on the campaign was clearly significant but difficult to quantify. Zaloga seems to lean toward accepting all or most Allied claims for destruction of German vehicles, whereas some new research suggests the direct losses were not as large. Zaloga also accepts claims that most of the German divisions retreating from Normandy were "virtually destroyed," when this usually only refers to the combat elements. In each case, Zaloga might have advised the reader that other sources disagree with the extent of damage to German units. Another issue concerns the culpability for the defeat on the German side; Zaloga places most of the blame squarely on SS General Paul Hausser for poorly deploying his units and then making a hash of the withdrawal. Field Marshal von Kluge and the rest of the German leadership - aside from Hitler - appear almost blameless. This interpretation looks like the creation of an SS scapegoat by Wehrmacht officers, particularly given that Operation Cobra occurred only five days after the failed plot to kill Hitler. While Hausser's leadership of 7th Army was probably not the greatest, the German defeat in Operation Cobra was not due only (or mostly) to his mistakes. Additionally, the lack of any information on US losses in the campaign also appears to deprive this account of some balance. There is also one mistake in the text, when Zaloga states that, "the 2nd SS Panzer Division commander was killed by a US patrol near his command post." In fact, Heinz Lammerding, commander of "Das Reich," was wounded in late July but returned to duty later in the year. Aside from these points, this is a fine summary volume.

I am not a student of psychology and thus cannot recommend it as a study text. However, I will say that I read this book about 5 years ago and have been looking for it ever since. Its a great read.