Buck Books

This is another anthology of five Christmas stories with selected Regency authors.

THE CHRISTMAS GHOST
Sandra Heath's "The Christmas Ghost" was a pleasant enough read with a touch of the supernatural as Rebecca Winterbourne tries to recover from the death of her husband Edward and her father. Edward died two years ago but Rebecca still hadn't recovered; however she knows she must contract a marriage so that she no longer has to depend on her brother Clifford and his wife Margaret, and she has received an offer from Sir Oliver Willoughby, a friend of her father's. Sir Oliver wants her to attend an event but she is concerned that Piers Winterbourne will be there - Piers inherited the title after the death of her husband. She used to have a friendship with Piers but after her marriage that died and she dislikes him.

However Rebecca starts to see some strange things, papers get moved about that she is working on and she sees a man who looks very like her father. Eventually she is thrown together with Piers Winterbourne and he thinks she must be hallucinating. But is there more to Rebecca's strange behaviour? They find themselves having to talk to each other about past events and uncovering misunderstandings.

This was a pleasant enough story although some might not like the supernatural element. In some ways there were few surprises in the story but Rebecca and Piers were reasonable characters, if both a little blind to their own behaviour and feelings.

THE RAKE'S CHRISTMAS
I enjoyed Edith Layton's story "The Rake's Christmas" where new Viscount Ian Hunt finds himself attending a house party with Lord Shelton, a well-known rake. Ian himself is beginning to get a name as a rake and is unsure whether he wants that reputation. Lord Shelton tells him about a particular young women he is planning to seduce at the house party but on the way there is waylaid and Ian goes on alone.

Eve Thomkins is a poor relation, a woman who is overlooked by others at the house party. However Viscount Hunt soon realises she is the woman that Lord Shelton has described and he tries to get to know her so that he can warn her what to avoid in the rake. However as time passes and they get to know each other Hunt finds himself feeling more for her than he should. The resolution at the end, when Shelton arrives at the party, was hardly unexpected but it was an enjoyable story and hero and heroine were both good characters in their own way.

LADY BOUNTIFUL
Laura Matthews' story features Drucilla Carruthers who has been looking after the estate of her father, who has dementia, for many years. She's been trying to put off her father's solicitor who might declare her father incompetent so that Drucilla and her companion, Miss Script, lose their home to her father's heir, Lord Meacham. When Lord Meacham arrives following a letter from the solicitor Drucilla is careful to show him all the work that she has been doing and to convince him of its importance. However Meacham begins to discover that Drucilla may be more important to him than he had previously thought and that she is under a false impression of his style of landownership.

There isn't actually very much plot in this story, it is more a description of how Drucilla shows Meacham the work she has been doing and tries to cover up her father's unfortunate behaviour. Meacham is an amiable man and a good landlord and the reader is in no doubt that he will do the right thing. Still it's pleasant enough and a light read.

A MUMMER'S PLAY
Jo Beverley, a well-known name in this genre, writes about Miss Justina Travers whose husband died three years before. She blames Lucky Jack Beaufort, the Duke of Cranmoore and formerly her husband Simon's commanding officer, for his death - Jack Beaufort was the only survivor of an ambush when fighting Napoleon in Spain. She decides to go to Jack Beaufort's house and find evidence that he was spying for the French all along, surely the reason he survived, and so enters the duke's house with a band of mummers as her disguise.

She starts looking for evidence in his library and is soon discovered. They end up talking and, although Jack doesn't know who she is, he doesn't believe her cover story. Still they get talking and he tells her a little about the events in the war and eventually she seduces him in order to get the truth out of him. However the truth isn't necessarily what she was expecting and Jack's guilt might be for reasons other than she thought.

This is well written although Justina's behaviour seems very odd, particularly her seduction of Jack. It's a decent read and has some interesting insights into the fighting on the Peninsular and the ways in which officers and men related to each other.

THE SURPRISE PARTY
Mary Balogh continues to write with unrivalled mastery. I've become acquainted with a lot of her short stories and I have been very pleasantly surprised at how good they are. Often authors of full length novels can't write good short stories, or vice versa, by Mary Balogh, with one or two exceptions, seems to be able to excel at both. Her trick with her short stories is not to bite off too much plot but instead to focus on a small event and the way in which it shapes characters. As with many of her other short stories, the hero and heroine here have known each other a long time and are estranged. This story, similar in theme to many of her others, has the Christmas season and the traditional activities functioning as a turning point in various people's lives and bringing healing and rapprochement between them.

This story, entitled "The Surprise Party", begins through the eyes of three young children, orphans living with a nurse and mourning their parents. Christmas is approaching but Nurse has told them they can't celebrate it as they're in mourning. However when their aunt and uncle arrive things start to change. The aunt and uncle aren't blood relatives - Aunt Ursula, the widow Lady Carlyle was sister to the children's father and Uncle Timothy, otherwise known as Lord Morsey, was brother to the children's mother. The children's parents' marriage actually cause the breaking of the betrothal between Ursula and Timothy nine years before and Ursula promptly married someone else as an escape - one that didn't lead her to marital happiness. The two have avoided each other for years and yet they are brought together as they have responded to letters about the children's welfare and have come to each offer them a home.

The Christmas magic that Mary Balogh weaves with such mastery catches both children and adults and as they all spend time together they begin to understand anew what is important in life.

In conclusion, this is a better-than-average collection of stories and is pleasant reading at Christmas time but none of them are brilliant and I'm not sure this book will stay on my Keeper shelf. However it's one that many will enjoy and the variety of the stories adds to its charm.

I am working my way through a little horde of Regency Christmas anthologies, savouring them one at a time. I picked this one up whilst on holiday recently and just read it; what a pleasure it was! I don't ordinarly seek out short stories as a matter of course but I am very fond of this particular little mini sub-genre. Three of the contributions stood out for me.

"The Rake's Christmas" by Edith Layton is the poignant story of a young man, back from the Peninsular wars, saddened and a little self loathing, who throws himself into some half-hearted rakery in order to put the wars behind him. He is taken up by a truly accomplished rake, Lord Shelton. During a Christmas house party, the elder rake plays deus ex machina to young Ian, Viscount Hunt in order to bring him together with Miss Eve Thompkins. Eve is the daughter Shelton never had - the offspring of his true life-long secret and unrequited love. So, he stands in an almost fatherly way over Hunt, helping him to overcome his sombre loneliness and sad boyhood in making a match for him and Eve. Edith Layton is a favourite of mine and she packs a lot of emotion into just a few short pages.

Jo Beverley is a writer whose books I have been collecting with the aim of indulging myself. Why she and Layton and Balogh are not published in the UK is beyone my comprehension - such a shame! I was delighted with her contribution to this anthology. "A Mummer's Play" is the story of Col "Lucky Jack" Beaufort, by default the new Duke of Cranmoore. Justina Travers lost her fiance in the Peninsula when he was under the command of his close friend, Jack. Justina has some reason to suspect that Cranmoore may have been a traitor and, therefore, the cause of her fiance's death. She insinuates herself into Jack's first Christmas house party as the new duke by hiding herself amongst the mummers who come to perform. Her aim is to expose him as a traitor and murderer. The story takes place during the course of just one evening and, in just a few intense, emotional pages, Jo Beverley brings an almost unbearably high degree of tension and emotion as these two lonely, hurt but passionate people find an extraordinary and unexpected love and mutual redemption. Simply excellent.

Mary Balogh's contribution is, as always, as near to perfection as you can get. Hers is the story of three young orphaned children whose wastrel parents largely ignored them. Their maternal uncle, Viscount Morsey, and paternal aunt, Lady Carlyle, reluctantly leave London to come to the depths of the countryside to "do their duty" and make some half-hearted provision for their upbringing. It emerges that the two adults were once engaged but huge family problems, anger and recriminations tore them apart. The story is largely told through the eyes of the children and the theme of the story, as Lady Carlyle discovers, is that Christmas is about birth, parenthood, love, hope and commitment. In the context of this very brief piece, all five players find themselves turned into a loving family. Mary Balogh is pure magic. She writes such poignant, moving and emotional stories which are refined to pure gold. Wonderful.

Do find yourself a second hand copy of this anthology; reading it is simply a pleasure worth the effort.

(BTW, Moore's review is of the wrong book.)

Beverley's story left me a little unsatisfied, probably because this couple admits they may never truly love each other. It's a great story otherwise, and while their admission rings true, it's still something of a letdown.

I don't consider this one of Balogh's best, but it's still a powerful read. Although Ursula can be annoyingly waspish at first, the children turn coal into diamonds.

Matthews' story is the perhaps the weakest of the bunch because it is relatively undemanding and the romance is not altogether convincing. Still it's a pleasurable read.

This is possibly one of Layton's best stories, full of interesting characters, misinterpreted intentions, and a most unusual matchmaker.

The resolution of Heath's story comes too quickly, and the ghost is perhaps too obvious, but the romance is a powerful one and the inherent emotions capture the reader.

Definitely an anthology to read. In fact, this is my second reading of this book, and it's still enjoyable.

Dinner At Grillion's by Sandra Heath Shows us the beauty of rekindled passion when an estranged husband and wife are reunited. Christmas Magic by Emma Lange Proves how magical Christmas can be when a beautiful young widow is surprised with the visit of an old beau. The Best Gift by Mary Balogh A lonely schoolmistress who celebrates Christmas for the first time and receives the best gift of all, love. Christmas Knight by Emily Hendrickson Two sisters share one wish for the Yuletide, a knight to rescue them from their somber lives. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear by Sheila Walsh. Weves an intriguing triangle of a French viscountess, a sinister earl who desires her, and the dashing nobleman who will vie for her honor.

What a treat - to finally have this treasure-trove of Tinicum Township history. As a newer resident of the township, I'm eager for this type of historical information. Photos are great, text - succinct. Great job! Great book!

Over 200 old photos with captions identifying individuals pictured and accompanied by well-research historical context. Great! Any genealogists or family historian would be thrilled to come across a book such as this covering the locale in which their forebears had resided. It serves as a model to be emulated by other local groups wanting to preserve a historical record their township's past.

This will be a great travel guide next time I explore Bucks County. What
fun to travel the back roads of Tinicum in search of places illustrated in
the book--including the airport with historic bi-planes flying!

What a great book. The pictures were just fabulous. It truly takes you back to a time when there was the real meaning of family and hard work. It was wonderful to see so much about this little town I grew up in. Buy many copies and give them to your friends and family. Here's a chance to show your kids and grandkids what life was like "back when".

Having read Alan Axelrod's illustration of FDR, I had to pick up this book. Again, an amazing representation of the American spirit and perseverance. I don't know that Truman would ever have sought out the presidency had FDR not recruited him for VP. I have actually used a few of the lessons taught in this book in my own job, having been thrown ultimatums at inopportune times. Having the knowledge attained from this book helped me deal with the issues in a way I had never quite tried.

What really impresses me about Truman is his absolute decisiveness and resolution. And as history has come to show, the true legacy of a president is usually not evident immediately, rather many years down the road. I feel Truman's lessons will resound for centuries to come.

Author Alan Axelrod's 156 concise lessons on leadership from the life and writings of Harry S. Truman are vivid but, alas, often repetitive. The bigger paradox of this book is that many of the virtues it espouses - diligence, balance, thoroughness, patience and a thirst for learning - are thwarted by its very structure. Truman, a voracious reader, would likely have found these one or two page chapters frustratingly short. Any leader really seeking to model himself or herself on Truman should use this as an appetizer and move immediately onward to a meaty full-length biography or memoir. With that in mind, we recommend this book to executives and political leaders who haven't yet met Truman - or to those who only want a brief visit, a leadership pep talk and a few pithy quotes.

When Harry S. Truman left the presidency in January 1953, his approval rating stood at an historic low. But his reputation has been on a steady rise ever since. His blunt, plainspoken honesty has touched a responsive chord among Americans who feel their current leaders, whatever the party, offer them little but lies and double-talk.

Therefore, Truman seems a natural choice for the latest manual on leadership from Alan Axelrod. The author draws extensively from Truman's own public statements and private diaries to extract a series of 156 lessons on leadership, divided into a series of chapters with themes like "Hell: Giving and Getting" and "Do The Right Thing."Although primarily aimed at the business person, these lessons have value for anyone in a leadership role, including, of course, the poltical realm.

Truman's decisiveness, his high moral standards, his unwillingness to accept anything less than the best from himself or his colleagues all shine through in this work. A timeline helps place Truman's life in context, and the bibliography offers a number of potential sources for anyone with an intertest in further exploring the life and philosophy of our thirty-third president.--William C. Hall

Those who have read Patton on Leadership and/or Elizabeth I, CEO are already aware of Axelrod's unique talent for rigorously examining an abundance of historical and (especially) biographical information to derive especially important lessons in leadership. In this volume, his subject is Harry S Truman. (How much I would enjoy being included during a "fantasy dinner" with Patton, Elizabeth I, and Truman!) Within a dozen chapters, Axelrod identifies and then briefly but insightfully discusses 156 "lessons" to be learned from the life and career of the 33rd President of the United States. Axelrod also provides a "Truman Timeline" and "The Sources of Truman on Leadership" (suggested readings) in an Appendix.

Most experts on the American Presidency rank Truman among the greatest, a fact which would have astonished those old enough to remember when Franklin Delano Roosevelt died and Truman was sworn in as his successor. There was little in the background of "The Man from Missouri" to suggest that he was equal to the task during one of the most dangerous periods of his nation's history. World War Two was still in progress, what became the Cold War was developing, West Berlin would soon be isolated by the U.S.S.R.'s blockade, the Korean War lay ahead, and the quite legitimate threat of thermonuclear weapons created an unprecedented sense of menace throughout the civilized world. Truman did indeed rise to the task and as Axelrod correctly indicates in this volume, there are many important lessons to be learned from his leadership from 1945 until 1952.

Suddenly my beloved uncle was gone. Just two days before he had come to our home for dinner with his new finance. My aunt, his first wife died of cancer three years earlier.

A week after his visit with us, I attended his funeral. Only 42 years old, he left three children. He did not have a will, or a living trust. All the children are under 16 years old. The legal complications could go on for several years to free up the funds.

Having seen this complex matter get more tangled up as time passes--his assets were impressive--I purchased a copy of The Art of Passing the Buck. Not only does the author emphasize setting up how to pass on wealth long before it is needed, but explains the complexities in simple terms.

I found myself reading and pondering, then being drawn back to the book. The chapter on Heirs: Favored and Flawed, alone is worth buying the book. What an eye opener!

With sufficient footnotes and court cases, this is not only a fascinating work to read, but it can also serve as a reference book.

My mother asked me to be her Trustee. Never did I think something, I though so simple, could be so confusing. My sister gave me a copy of The Art of Passing the Buck as a birthday present. Because I felt so overwhelmed about the subject, I didn't tackle reading it for at least a month.

Wow! The flashbulbs starting going off, as I read page after page. I began to put together what I was expected to do, what my priorities should be, and how to handle various parts of giving out the wealth. I found people to help me get my parents residential home properly transferred into their living trust so it could be sold, and I figured out the task of the paper work until the home sold--I'm still struggling with the administration, but at least I know what I am supposed to do.

Although many of the issues addressed in the book refer to how to educate beneficiaries about wealth-building protocols and learning how to discuss money with family members, I found the history of trusts more fascinating. Here is where I discovered what a political nightmare passing on and holding wealth has been since the beginning of time.

With the many trust types available, I'm surprised my parents did not get a little more education about the subject. Although the living trust I now manage is simple, it would have helped me if they had included more instructions. If they had read this book, they would have been more specific about many of the assets and where they were located. That would have helped me a lot.

Because some of my siblings are jealous, I found some of the insight about family relationships insightful. Unfortunately, the causes of our squabbles are rooted in how our parents raised us, and so the solutions are not so easily found.

There is much to be gained in this book, because if people want to keep their wealth in the family, they need to get the education, and this book was an eye-opener!

Now I know how to get there

The real estate deals I made twenty years ago were a long-term gamble. Three out of five turned out to be enormous gains. In one year, I went from an average, hard-working administrator to a real-estate tycoon. A couple of more deals and I was on a roll with both accountants and lawyers advising me about how to handle my cash flow.

My daughter brought to my attention The Art of Passing the Buck. I thought I knew all the ins and outs--after all that is what the CPAs and lawyers are for, to ensure I do not make any mistakes; but lawyers and CPAs did not write this book! Obviously written by those with hands-on experience, the tidbits of information are vital for the survival of the family.

The unbelievable variety of trusts available to those with creative thinking bewildered me. Who thought up a trust where all the income is passed through to a child for ten years? After that, the parents get the original funds back, while the taxes saved pays for the child's education. I wished I knew about that one, but when my kids were young I did not have this kind of money.

Another shock was how ownership of anything at all can be used against me and how not owning anything worked to Ted Kennedy's advantage. The stories about beneficiaries and heirs and their gain or loss depending on how a trust is set up made me rethink everything I ever knew about inheritance, which I realize now was miniscule --except for the disaster stories told in the entertainment industry.

How the wealthy retain their goods did make me angry. Rigged by the power structure, they keep getting richer, while the rest of us live on a small portion of what they have not tied up.

Not much into politics, I read with interest the ways the rich abscond with the money and control it. While the author did not share this information to cause alarm, but to ensure those who handle money do not step on the "wrong toes," the methods described are still disturbing.

Now involved with professionals to set up a trust for my children, I find in some instances, I am clear about how to structure passing on my assets.

Now in a newly revised and significantly expanded edition, Back Roads Bicycling In Bucks County, Pa. by Catherine D. Kerr offers more than forty scenic bike path and country road routes throughout Bucks county, Pennsylvania upon which avid cyclers can enjoy their hobby. Maps, landmarks, notes and points of interest, all presented in easy-to-read and easy-to-follow format make Back Roads Bicycling in Bucks County, Pa. a perfect guide for its quaint locale. Also highly recommended for avid cyclists are three other titles from Freewheeling Press: Mountain Biking In New Jersey (0971461635...), The Back Roads Bike Book (0965273318, ...), and Bike Journal (0965273342...)

Wonderfully done maps and detailed cue sheets guide you on the less traveled roads of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The "sampler" cue sheet is my favorite. This book is great if your going to spend a beautiful fall weekend in Bucks County. Most of the rides are less than 20 miles in length, which is ideal for the casual cyclist. Includes bike shop and rental information as well as places to dine.

Wonderfully done maps and detailed cue sheets guide you on the less traveled roads of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The "sampler" cue sheet is my favorite. This book is great if your going to spend a beautiful fall weekend in Bucks County. Most of the rides are less than 20 miles in length, which is ideal for the casual cyclist. Includes bike shop and rental information as well as places to dine.

This is an awesome book to include in any first aid kit. I run my own outdoor adventure business and typically include this book in all of my first aid kits. It is concise and easy to understand, not to mention an invaluable reference in the backcountry.

Backcountry First Aid is an excellent choice for a small manual or compendium about first aid treatments when you are in the outdoors. It is four inches by five and a half, and 120 pages long, so it will fit in a first aid kit or bag. The back cover has an "Action Index" that refers you to the pages for 47 different conditions or accidents. Topics like Bites and Stings, hypothermia, shock, water disinfection, etc, etc. The topics are covered very well - succinct and as comprehensive as you could hope for in a portable manual.

Of course it pays to read the manual before heading out, and in fact is valuable for anyone who wants to be ready for an accident or sudden sickness, whether in the wilderness, driving to work, or in your backyard.

Highly recommended.

This is an easy to read nuts and bolts manual for wilderness medicine. Pictures and step by step instructions are easy to follow. The book is small and can pack easily and lightly.

I received the book very quickly, even though it was ordered over the holidays.

I enjoyed this book very much because it's a part of our history many Americans are unaware of. I was a child during World WarII and I seen the POW's working on the farms. My Grandchildren took the book to school to share with the History class and even the teacher was amazed. It's a book you will keep and re-read.

This is a book about a little known or less remembered phase of World War II history as it relates to Minnesota. It suggets the success of the Geneva Convention regarding treatment of prisoners of war in the United States. In the simple presentation of factual information, the author allows us to feel something of the fears, the loneliness, and concerns of prisoners and their willingness to work rather than be idle. The concerns of citizens are also presented clearly concerning escapes, those of labor unions interested in protecting American labor, as well as the general concern about work necessary to pursue the war. It is a facet of the war that most histories neglect.

This book gave me so many new ideas for marketing! I've been researching book promotion for months and this is one of the best resources I've read yet. Clear, concise and informative, any author should make this book a part of their permanent collection!

I got this book to help promote best selling author Ed McCabe's new health book "Flood Your Body with Oxygen." (Nice plug here folks) I was immediately impressed with the clarity of the author's work. She cover's many different marketing methods. I had missed quite a few. As soon as I implemented them I got results. She also gave me the confidence to get going and succeed. In short this really is the Best Bang for Your Bucks.I am delighted I got it.

This book is just what I needed! Not only does Julia Wilkinson make some excellent suggestions for how to promote a book, but she features real authors describing what kind of results they got from these ideas. That's what I really needed to know! I haven't seen another book on the subject that included this most important aspect of choosing how to promote a book.

I didn't expect my publisher (HCI) to do much to promote my book, "From Burned Out to Fired Up: How to Rekindle Your Passion for Work and Life." It turns out that they have been extremely helpful and dedicated. But I would have been prepared to do all the promotion on my own, and developed a detailed marketing plan, which Julia's book helped me fine-tune as well as to add elements I hadn't thought about.

If you're a writer and are promoting a book that's already been published, this will be very helpful to reinvigorate your marketing/PR campaign. If you are just writing the proposal for your book, the ideas in Julia's book will help you write the marketing section. And if you have self-published, you absolutely need to read this.

Julia is a very good writer, and comes across and helpful and friendly in this book. You feel that she really wants you to succeed with these methods, and she gives a lot of details to help you use her tips more easily.

Good luck with your book, and I am confident you'll really be glad you got this book.

The best part was when the man killed his wife and then he took out the eye of the cat.We like the ending because the cat took revenge. Good for the black cat!

An almost cryptic tale about an alcoholic who goes mad and attacks his cat, the start of several horrid events that happen in this short story. What makes this tale the more creepier; Poe himself was an alcoholic.

This book is about an alcoholic and what happens to his life after he gets hooked on "the drink." It's a very morbid and suspenseful story

"A Blood Red Rose" is a wickedly funny look at the inside forces of Hollywood and a page-turning mystery all rolled into one. Buck's hero, screenwriter Pete Castle, is asked to write a script for `Murder!' - a television reality program - recreating the 40-year-old unsolved murder of movie idol Jock Newhall. During a rehearsal for the program, Pete's friend and producer Clark Kester is killed in exactly the same way on the site of the original murder. It's up to Pete to solve both murders before someone else turns up dead.

Buck, a former AP columnist who's covered every aspect of the entertainment industry, takes the reader on a journey that weaves through the Hollywood Hills and through the front doors of some of Hollywood's most infamous players. The dialogue is crisp and witty, and Pete's relationship with his father, a former studio head of security, fine-tunes the mystery further with the notion that everything isn't always as it appears.

With Pete Castle, Buck has given us a new protagonist who is sure to be back in another starring role.

TV producer and host of the series Murder! Clark Kester hires mystery screenwriter Pete Castle to solve a homicide that will be the feature of this year's debut program. Pete is to identify who murdered movie swashbuckler Jock Newhall following the wrap party of the filming of Love's Lonely Quest. The homicide occurred four decades ago and no one has solved it yet, but on the positive side the key players still live. On the negative side, no one wants the investigation opened and Clark has been threatened.

As Pete makes inquiries questioning the prime cast members, his father (head of security at Pacific Studios at that time) comes under suspicion. Pops refuses to talk about what happened the night that someone murdered Jock. Soon a copycat murder occurs as the culprit, probably the same person who killed Jock, murders Clark, making it imperative that Pete identify the killer(s) before someone else is dead.

The cast makes A BLOOD RED ROSE an intriguing who-done-it as the hero struggles with his concern that his beloved Pop is intricately involved in at least a cover-up or worse. The story line hooks the audience with readers wondering how Pete will solve a case that is frozen. Though a punk's attempt to run the hero over with a forklift seems out of place, Pete makes the tale move at a fast clip. His interviews of the key players who starred in the ill fated film, the victim's granddaughter, the cop who investigated the homicide, his reluctant dad, and a medium claiming to speak with Jock's ghost leave readers with a fine mystery.

Harriet Klausner

This is a book that will appeal to hard-core mystery fans, and to those who like a look inside the workings of Hollywood. The author covered the entertainment industry for The Associated Press for a number of years, and he uses the knowledge he picked up there to pepper the book with insights and insider information not available to most authors.
Buck's hero, Pete Castle, is a Hollywood screenwriter who is asked to investigate and develop a TV program aimed at solving the 40-year-old murder of a top movie star before a room-full of wrap-party guests. Before long, there are death threats and more murders or attempted murders.
The author uses authentic-sounding dialogue as the hero questions those who were at the party where the murder occurred, and assorted others who might know something about it. Along the way, Castle comes in for a variety of bumps and bruises and attempts on his life.
It is a well-written book, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.