Burke Books

Jan Burke tells a great story that's face paced, surprising, and gripping. You won't be able to put it down.

Don't let the beginning of this book throw you. For about 100 pages, this reader struggled through all of the seemingly disparate story lines to find a connection. Finally, they all start to slowly come together to form an action-packed thrilling conclusion. This is the kind of thriller that will make you stay up too late or make you late to work!

Whenever a writer veers off from a beloved series, I approach the book with an edge -- a mix of resentment and low expectations. My apologies to Jan Burke because this was a mystery masterpiece. It was one of those rare edge-of-your-seat books with continual curves that I did not see coming.
As you start into the book, don't be put off by the introduction to so many characters and her flipping between using last and first names...it will all come together. (Okay, yes, I'm at the age where I wrote a few names down so I could keep track when I started, but soon tossed my cheat sheet aside.) You get to know the characters and it all comes together brilliantly. Brava!

THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST THRILLER I HAVE EVER READ. I'M GOING TO WAIT A COUPLE OF YEARS AND THEN READ IT AGAIN.

THE CHARACTER'S ARE VERY INTERESTING, TO SAY THE LEAST, AND VERY WELL DEVELOPED.

THE PLOT TO KILL THE 10 MOST WANTED CRIMINALS ON THE FBI'S MOST WANTED LIST IS JUST GENIUS. AND THE WAYS IN WHICH THESE YOUNG MEN PULL IT OFF JUST MAKES ME GRIN. (I WON'T GIVE IT AWAY FOR YOU.)

THIS IS ONE OF THOSE BOOKS WHERE I COULDN'T GUESS THE END, AND I USUALLY CAN. AND THE ENDING WAS FANTASTIC. IT ENDED EXACTLY HOW I WANTED IT TO. (WON'T GIVE THAT AWAY EITHER)

I NEVER WANTED TO PUT THIS DOWN; I NEVER GOT BORED; AND I COULD NEVER GUESS WHAT WAS COMING NEXT. NOW THAT'S A BOOK WORTH 10 STARS.

At times when a writer abandons -at least temporarily -a long standing series the result can be revitalising ,a kind of literary second wind can kick in and there is a discernable gain in quality and intensity with benefits all round , both for the reader and the author .This happened in a big way when Dennis Lehane turned away from the perfectly good series about blue collar Boston P I's Kenzie and Gennaro and wrote the magnificent Mystic River .Similar but less spectacular results were achieved with the creation of new characters and stand alone books by such authors as Harlen Cobden and Robert Crais .
Sadly there has been no such transformation with this novel which sees an end at least temporarily to the Irene Kelly series and Nine counts as a major disappointment from the usually solid and reliable Ms Burke ,It is over-plotted ,low on plausibility and betrays a lack of narrative control with several plot strands being welded together without any real coherernce .There seems a striving after "significance " and "weight " which makes it a deadening experience to read .
At its core is a plot by a group of disaffected wealthy men ,alumni of an up-market private reformatory to slaughter names on the FBI most wanted list .Initilly they favour exsanguination -draining blood from their bodies while suspended over a bathtub -but subsequent methods are more diverse .Their victims are killers ,child murderers ,fraudsters etc -and the public response is favourable to their endeavours .Their real target is a fellow former reformatory member who had challenged the ringleaders dominance and who is love with Meghan the sister of a man wrongly placved on the list
The cop on the case is Alex Brandon and in keeping with the tone of the book he has "issues "-a recently deceased partner ,an estarnged former wife ,a fractured relationship with his nephew and a female partner whose sister has been disabled following rape .
The action when it comes is swift and competently written but the book is simply too unwieldy and badly paced .Burke seems to be striving too hard to create rounded characters and she simply spends too much time on infill ,resulting in a book with the dread disease of literary elephanaises -its just way too long .

Back to the drawing bosrd please Ms Burke

Not only is this a great true crime story, it's also extremely well written, not your typical dry rehashing of facts. I hope Burke writes more, I'll be waiting for his next!! I read this in one sitting.

I stumbled across an inaccuracy within the first few pages. Though licensure is through the Coast Guard, you either sail through a maritime union or with a private company. You do not get discharged for going AWOL. You are either blackballed with your union or fired by the company you're sailing for. The above holds true, even if you're sailing on a government contract vessel.

After reading this, I closed the book and returned it to my local library. Got to say, I'm glad I didn't pay good money for this.

Sounding like a non-fiction Mystic River, this is an excellent book about the darker side of the human psyche and one assistant DA's effort to protect society from it. Despite a previous reviewers' contention to the contrary, the author's case against a human predator is carefully laid out, citing corroborating testimony and evidence in a tightly constructed presentation. I found the writer's style refreshing and innovative. Facts from the author's experience and testimony are interspersed with minimalist best estimations of events and there's an interestingly variable boundary between a third and first person point of view. Its a real-life detective story that's difficult to put down.

This book is a chilling story and makes one think about who we let into our lives and why. My husband knew this guy and is mentioned in this book and still has a hard time believing the WHOLE thing, but does say that he did find some of The Quohogs comments over the years to be strange to say the least. Very well written and enjoyed reading what was found. Good Job.Looking forward to more information on this intriguing life of Lenny Paradiso.

I could not put this book down. A fluid read of Massachusetts crime history, this portal into the Law & Order/CSI type relationship between a motivated DA and "biker" trooper was gripping. Only the love of family member could blind a reader from seeing Paradiso for the monster that he was in life. The always playing radio anchored the chapters to the events and offered a moment of reflection for the reader. This is a must read.

James Burke's works are always engaging, stimulating, exhilarating, fascinating and awe-inspiring. Genius, it is often said, is evidenced not by what the genius knows, but by the connections the genius sees. Burke is by any reasonable definition therefore a certifiable genius.

"Circles," unlike earlier works "Connections" or "The Day the Universe Changed," has no illustrations and touches on the myriad of intersecting lives in history in only the briefest mention. This is "Connections" on steroids or "The Day the Universe Changed" for the ADD set. Burke's breakneck pace in racing through history makes you wish for more detail, more context, more elaboration -- which of course is a good nudge in the proper direction. Reading his clever essays is pleasurable on several levels, but the panoply of characters whisks by so fast you're left with not much but intellectual whiplash at the end.

This book consists of 50 different trips through
Technology,Science,History,Culture,Personal Relationships and a few other things;but in the end they all end up where the trip started.
The trips in this book are reminiscent of the trips Burke used to take us on in his TV series Connections. I enjoyed the trips on Connections much more than the trips in this this book for a number of reasons. Since the connections that are detailed are interesting asides which are quite surprising and entertaining ;but not particularly earth shattering.These trips are little else than entertaining;and as such they are far better presented with video than simply by prose.

After producing the marvelous and engaging series "Connections", Burke seems to have gone to the well one to many times with "Circles". Burke trys to take his 'Connections' approach to identify complete circles in the connections of history. But rather than taking the connections where they lead, this self-imposed, artificial constraint leads to a combination of wild leaps and tidy little packages that just doesn't ring true. Burke comes out looking like he's just trying too hard, and a reader who's really paying attention will just refuse to follow.

Okay, there are some curious and interesting historical connections identified here, but it's just too hard to follow Burke's route just to glean a few gems.

I am a true JamesBurkeophile. I love all of his books and DVD's. I found this book, like his others, to be full of quirky facts, engaging writing and thorough research. I would highly recommend this book to anyway with a bent in science, history or even politics.

Does anyone write about technological history better than James Burke? In this volume, Burke literally takes the reader in circles as he connects ideas, inventions, and innovations that have changed our world. Whether by purpose or serendipity, some of the critical inventions and discoveries came about in highly entertaining ways. With its brief chapters, this is one of those books that it you can easily pick up and set down, and pick up again days later.

Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid returns in her third outing, Close Case. Samantha's cop boyfriend Chuck Forbes has officially become her shack up honey. Everything is going well in her world, until the brutal murder of Percy Crenshaw, a local and famous African American crime reporter. To make matters worse, a white cop is accused of murdering a black unarmed female. Tensions run high as Samantha is forced to merge her relationship with a cop, who sides with his cop pals, with her responsibilities as an attorney, and satisfying the needs of a racially divided city. Between catching murders and prosecuting a cop, Samantha is making enemies left and right, and destroying valuable friendships along the way. New character, Heidi Hatmaker, colleague and friend of the now deceased Perry Crenshaw, dives into his files to determine if the next big story he was working on contributed to his murder. She pairs with Samantha and the two of them race against the clock to catch the real bad guys. The plot in Close Case is a little wobbly, jumping from one story to another. The climax and conclusion are so abrupt attempting to tie everything together that it appeared rushed, sloppy and slightly disappointing. The character development and the social and romantic issues where very solid and helped to keep the book afloat. The new characters and returning of others gave the book a feel of James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series, just maybe not so successfully. Close Case hit some great parts but completely missed others; altogether it was a good read and a nice addition to series. Valerie Jones mrsvaljones@netzero.net

Alafair Burke's later book shows much more maturity than her first book. She is coming close to the excitement and emotion that her father's books cause in the reader. I am becoming attached to Samantha Kincaid and hope that Alafair continues writing about her.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R34YIDZ4SIFA1P This reads more like chick lit than mystery.

This is a book by the daughter of the well-known writer, James Lee Burke. A thumbnail biography at the end of the book states that Alafair Burke graduated from Stanford Law School, is a "former district attorney in Portland, Oregon," and that she "now teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School."

James Lee Burke's books are widely popular and of the sort that I would read after extracting every last crumb from a crumbling set of Readers' Digest and maybe a 1948-51 run of National Geographic--but only if I were REALLY hurting for a literary fix. Alafair Burke is, thank heaven, a quite different writer. She skillfully avoids her father's orotundity on the one hand and his swamp snobbery on the other. She tells a straightforward tale in an admirably lean and efficient manner, comes to an end, and then stops.

I have, of course, no way in which to confirm the impression, but I find her descriptions of the activities and people of the Multnomah County DA's office and the Portland Police Department to be convincing to a degree not often found in mystery novels.

Burke's heroine, Deputy DA Samantha Kincaid, is refreshingly more astringent than she is likeable. She's given to occasional bouts of self-doubt and second guessing--none of which she would ever admit to anyone else. The exigencies of commercial plotting insure that Ms. Kincaid life and career may be a bit more ... intense than that of DAs in general, but I look forward both to catching up with her earlier adventures and following her new ones.

Four solid stars.

For those fans of legal thrillers, Close Case by talented Alafair Burke will fill the bill. It takes the reader step-by=step through the development of a case against a defendant and what could happen to make the case disappear at some point in the investigation. Samantha Kincaid is handed tow hot-potato cases that involve race relations as well as suspicious deaths. She is caugt among the many sides of the law in trying to pursue her case with fairness. The defense lawyers, the arresting officers and her bosses in the district attorney's office all seem to want to tell her how to handle the case or at least have a hand in her decision-making process. This puts a pressure on her private life that causes trouble between her and the police officer she is living with as he is involved in one of the cases. A delicate balancing act is called for, and that is not Samantha's specialty. She has been to lose it when pushed too far. Close Case is written from two points of view, Samantha's first person and third person for the others, an unusual combination in writing style, but it works in this tale. The author has carefully kept them separate and distinct in weaving the plot and subplots. This is not a shoot 'em up, has no car chases, but does offer a steadily increasing sense of tension as the story progresses, a sense of action to come causing the reader to wonder what will happen next. Written with a light touch that keeps the pacin even and moving forward, Close Case will hold your attention from beginning to end. Recommended as a well told tale that will have you looking for other books by this very able author. Enjoy. I did.

This is the textbook used for the math 223/224 Theoretical Calculus and Linear Algebra sequence in Cornell University. The book is designed for prospective math students. Although the book mainly follows a rigorous development of the theories of multi-dimensional calculus, the mathematical machinery used in developing the theories is immensely broad, especially in linear algebra. The book covers most of the standard topics in a first semester linear algebra course and touches on many other areas of mathematics such as, real and complex analysis, set theory, differential geometry, integration theory, measure theory, numerical analysis, probability theory, topology, etc. The highlight of the book is its introduction of differential forms to generalize the fundamental theorems of vector calculus. The author is not the first one who follows this path. There are many other books written before this one that have similar approach, such as Calculus On Manifolds by Spivak, which was written 40 years ago and was too old to suit modern students.
The author tries hard to retain rigor and present to the readers as many examples and applications as possible. Often he tries to cover a broad range of mathematics and digresses a little. The book more or less touches on most of the areas of undergraduate mathematics curriculum and does not go into depth. It sometimes gives me the impression that the book is almost like a survey of undergradute math. The book is also not error-free. There are many typos and some technical errors. If you buy this book, make sure to get the errata from the author's website.

This is one of the best math textbooks you'll ever find--it stresses the computational aspects of multivariable calculus and linear algebra without losing sight on the mathematical theory. Hubbard presents material that most math students wouldn't otherwise touch until analysis in a down-to-earth fashion.

The unified approach of this textbook is particularly enlightening. I am convinced that vector calculus must absolutely be taught with differential forms--there is no other way. While Hubbard's notation is clunky and unorthodox at times, compare the traditional notation of Stokes' Theorem to Hubbard's, and you will appreciate the elegance.

First of let me state that I own the 2nd edition of this book, and that I am a doctoral student in computational physics.

After borrowing this book from the library, I read it cover to cover. I then bought a copy for myself to use as a reference. I learned a lot about the foundations of mathematics that I had not learned as a physics student. The book is very clearly written and actually enjoyable to read, with many examples, applications, and historical notes. The proofs were easy for me to follow.

Although the book is mainly concerned with multivariate calculus and linear algebra, it touches on many interesting and important matehmatical topics from set theory, topology, differential geometry, fractals, chaos, and analysis. It also provides an appendix that gives proofs for 25 of theorems that are considered harder to prove than is expected for a text of this level.

I also appreciated that the notation is thoroughly modern. (A glossary to the notation is given on the inside cover, with references to where in the book that you can find the full definition and explanation.) This may well be a drawback for many people, but for me it was very helpful because I now have an easier time reading papers on the more mathematical side of physics. Another modern aspect of this text is the introduction of differential forms, which are becoming essential to theoreticians in many branches of physics (quantum field theory, string theory, classical mechanics, and general relativity).

Lastly, this is a book on "pure mathematics", so if you are only interested in applied math, you will not like this book.

For me, it's been a great investment!

Lots of people know vectors, even today a lots less know forms. This is a real shame because forms are simple and elementary, yet there are very few sources that introduce forms on a concrete level. The authors introduce the concepts of vectors, integration, and forms on a level that is accessible to a bright and interested high-school student.

Traditionally calculus in higher dimensions taught at an introductory level uses a vectors-only approach. This leads to considerable extra effort to account for two basic things: One is orientation, the second is how to generate higher-dimensional objects from lower-dimensional ones while keeping the same operations intact. For example how can one compute the length of a line, the area of a parallelogram or the volume of a parallelepiped (and higher dimensional version of this) in a linear context?

The answer to this are forms, and if they arise in a differential setting, differential forms. The alternating product (outer product) that calculations with forms bring automatically encode the important property of orientation. At the same time they describe what "area" would be in any dimensions, and if one takes infinitesimal versions of these how to integrate them together to areas of differentiable manifolds.

This book does all this right. It introduces forms in a straight forward way, gives pictures that shows how they look, gives geometric interpretations of computations (like the simple, yet all too rarely taught fact that the determinant of a square matrix is the volume of the vectors making up the matrix). Readers with this knowledge will suddenly have a deep understanding why one gets a determinant when one changes variables in integration!

For anybody who wants to have a good foundation for differential geometry, have a better understanding of vector calculus than most other/older text on the topic contain, or just wanted to know what those forms really are that geometers in more advanced texts just define algebraically, this is at present the best text I know to learn this.

There are other texts (though not too many) that attempt at giving elementary treatments of vector calculus and forms. For example William Burke's "Applied Differential Geometry" is one such text, which also contains graphical representation of forms. By taking a more computational approach the present text does, I think a better job, in clarifying forms in application. Another text would be for example Harvey Flanders' "Differential Forms with Applications to the Physical Sciences". This is a considerably more advanced text than Hubbard's and lacks many elementary foundations and basic geometric properties that Hubbard lays out quite nicely. People interested in electromagnetical applications but also just lots of visual ways of representing forms should check notes of Selfridge, Arnold and Warnick.

I have just two minor remarks. The book is filled with interesting short bios of relevant mathematicians, yet Hermann Grassmann who is primarily responsible (and chronically undercredited) for the introduction of forms is not mentioned in the text.

The second is that I disagree with Hubbard's stance (citing Dieudonne) that multivalued function are meaningless. There are in fact problems that look simpler when multivalued functions are allowed and there are ways to compute with them (branch cuts etc).

But these are minor comments that don't take anything away from this being a great text.

In all this is a beautifully written text on vector calculus, integration and differential forms that I can highly recommend to undergrads yet also graduate students and working colleagues.

I really hope that texts like these will soon be typical for introductory courses on vector calculus and integration, because this is essentially how it should be done... it should be easy to see why after reading the text.

This book provides a good grounding in the essential topics needed to use calculus effectively. As other readers here have mentioned, the Hubbards' book presents a wide range of mathematical concepts that are very useful to develop mathematical thinking. Moreover, the material is presented in a basic level so that students just coming out of high school can easily pick up the material. Indeed, after taking one year of single variable calculus I used this book in my undergraduate class that was title "Honors Mathematics". Without it, and using the typical Stewart Multivariable book, I would have had much more difficulty adapting to the abstractness in my next year with Analysis, Algebra, and Topology.

There are some difficulties with the notation and typos, but none that can be overcome with some thought. The material is presented in such an orderly and integrated fashion that is hard not to learn from the book, regardless of your mathematical level as long as you fulfill the prerequisites (single variable calculus) and work to understand the material right off the bat.

Dead Connection is an entertaining, easy read. Detective Ellie Hachter
is temporarily teamed with seasoned, maverick Dectective Flann McIlray. Flann suspects that a serial killer is using the internet dating service First Date to select his victims. Burke provides information on both officers histories ( which plays a part in the story).

The story moves along at a good pace. The dectectives take some wrong turns along the wave but, everything comes together at the end. By the way, Dave Robicheaux makes a cameo appearance in the story. Three of the victims are drawn well. I felt sympathy for them. The officers are okay.

Over the last few years, Alafair Burke has delivered a fine series of mystery novels featuring District Attorney Samantha Kincaid. These books catapulted Burke (the daughter of bestselling author James Lee Burke) into the big time. Her newest procedural features NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher, an attractive, bright and street-smart rookie.

Hatcher lives with a haunted past. Her father, who was a cop in Wichita, Kansas, where she grew up, died mysteriously in pursuit of a serial killer dubbed the College Hill Strangler. After an internal investigation by his department, his death was ruled a suicide. But even as a kid Ellie never believed her father would take his own life. She felt a cover-up was easy to pull off because her mother would not question any findings or complain about losing the compensation to which she was entitled. Burke says of her new leading lady: "Her father always told her, Find the motive, and the motive will lead you to the man." These words are the foundation of Hatcher's tenaciousness and unflagging commitment to bring justice to victims.

In DEAD CONNECTION, Burke's story unfolds around the latest cyber-phenomenon: online dating services. In this Sargasso Sea of strangers who put themselves "out there," victims could be exposing themselves for trouble rather than love. Yet, ironically, Burke herself met her husband through "an online dating service [and goes on to say]...there I found the plot of [this novel] and...Ellie Hatcher."

Hatcher is surprised and flattered when bombastic detective Flann McIlroy asks her to be assigned temporarily to his department. So far the investigation has revealed that the only common thread in the lives of the dead women is the dating service to which they all subscribed. And he proposes to use the rookie as bait to catch a killer. She is not quite sure how she feels about this since she thought she was chosen for her brains. But her desire to work with the "legendary" McIlroy overrides any misgivings on her part. She doesn't dare question the plum assignment.

As they embark on their quest, one very explosive fact emerges: both Hatcher and McIlroy are hardheaded, stubborn people who want to do things their own way. But as the very junior side of this unlikely team is constantly reminded, she must take her lead from her older colleague. Ultimately, their relationship works and brings both pathos and humor to a chilling story.

As the two delve deeper and deeper into the dating service, they come to find the owner a scoundrel who may have dealings with the Russian mafia. If he does, how does that impact their serial killer investigation? Have they stumbled into a new crime and a new investigation? In spite of this possible complication, Ellie and Flann diligently continue searching for a mass murderer. And can he be part of some Russian tactic by using the Internet? As Ellie continues to think all of this through, she remembers how the College Hill Strangler played head games with her father. She slowly comes to the conclusion that her job is to find a mass murderer who's playing games with her. Can this insight help her in her quest to find this madman?

Alafair Burke's previous novels were tightly written and well plotted, and the characters all worked in sync. Unfortunately, in DEAD CONNECTION she doesn't pull the various subplots together into a cohesive whole. Here, the main plot seems to get out of control, and she leaves too many unanswered questions. And Hatcher, while charming and savvy to a certain degree, is too young and naïve to be a New York City detective. Burke built a solid fan base with her Samantha Kincaid series; her audience can only hope that she will return to familiar territory starring a more interesting heroine, or imbue Ellie Hatcher with more gravitas. Nevertheless, DEAD CONNECTION is the perfect summer read.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Congratulations to Alafair Burke on creating Ellie Hatcher. She is a great character, and I'm eager to read more books based on her.

The mystery novel is compelling and interesting, and the characterization is strong. The biggest flaw is that the author tried to add one too many ingredients into the plot. I could have done without the Russian Mafia stuff. It seemed far-fetched and felt like an editor told the writer she needed more complexity. She didn't.

Driven, young detective Ellie Hatcher, working scams and robbery in New York receives a surprising special assignment to the homicide department: A young woman had been strangled in an empty alley.
Like her two other victims have been killed. One 12 and one 24 months ago and the fourth victim is coming up.

All woman had something in common: They were connected to an online service named FirstDate. During investigations Ellie and her new partner won't get any help from FirstDate's CEO without a court order.
The killer's changing his M.O. and one victim wasn't even an user of FirstDate but a FBI informant releasing informations about credit card fraud and Russian drug dealers. Mentioning FirstDate to an agent got her killed three days later.

Searching for patterns that don't exist or don't add up Ellie and her partner use the help of former programmer and co-founder FirstDate to solve this case.

A fantastic mystery, very well thought through. As a former deputy district attorney and being the daughter of James Lee Burke, an acclaimed crime writer, Alafair Burke certainly knows what she's writing about. Twist and turns, dramatic and a little love is all this book needed to make it a perfect, suspenseful mystery, very well written and without leaving any questions at the end.

The character Ellie Hatcher is a stand-alone besides the Samantha Kincaid series, which I haven't read yet but certainly will read sometime soon.I read on e Alafair's webpage that there's going to be a series with Ellie. :-)

Detective Ellie Hatcher is specifically sought for a special assignment on the homicide task force when a clue left at the scene of a murder seems to connect two cases to an online dating service. Detective Hatcher is a rookie NYPD detective but Detective Flann McIlroy, seeks her involvement anyway. Why? I don't want to spoil the novel for anyone: suffice to say there is an explanation in the novel.

This thriller is set in the murky world of identity theft and anonymity: both made easy by the use of the internet. While Hatcher and McIlroy set out to solve the crimes, they uncover other crimes that may be related and a number of potential suspects. Along the way, both Hatcher and McIlroy break a number of rules and individual readers may find this irritating if not unbelievable.

And the conclusion? Some aspects are more clear-cut than others, and I found some parts of the storyline more satisfying than others. Overall, though, this was an enjoyable read and well worth picking up if you have a couple of hours to fill.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This tells the story of an innocent man killed by the state of Virginia for political reasons, an event made easy and in all probability common by a law banning the reopening of a case to hear new evidence later than 21 days after a conviction. This applies even to evidence illegally suppressed during the original trial.
The book is extremely well-written, and much of it is exciting and suspenseful, particularly that dealing with the escape. Stockton was in on planning an escape from death row, but did not take part in it. New evidence of his innocence had just emerged, and Stockton apparently had enough faith left in the justice system to believe that he stood a better chance of freedom by not escaping. He may also have been driven by a desire to declare his innocence. He later refused a deal from the state of life imprisonment in exchange for ceasing to appeal his conviction. He also published diary entries in a newspaper which he knew would win him the ill-will of many with power over him.
This excellent book is marred slightly by the introduction's instructing us that "...there is no need to pity most criminals." Such a comment transfers its author's inability to pity to the rest of us. I'd be curious to know how many readers of this book feel no pity for the escaped murderer who arrives at the border of Canada, grows scared, telephones his mother, and - on her advice - turns himself in to be killed.
More importantly, the comment about pity leaves the debates over criminal justice within the framework of a battle between vengeance and pity - a framework in which the reduction of harm done by and to both criminals and the falsely accused can have no place.
The vengeance-versus-pity idea shoves aside the question of innocence-versus-guilt, and even where guilt is evident it shoves aside questions of societal healing, restitution to victims, rehabilitation of offenders, deterrence, and costs to tax-payers.
Everyone knows that crime is most easily and cost-effectively reduced by fighting poverty. It is unlikely that America's recent draconian measures will reduce crime in the long run. Stockton chose to trust the system rather than attempt an escape, but he was relieved to be killed when the only alternative was the hell-hole known as a correctional institution, a place full of flying feces, rape, murder, and abuse of every sort.
Lately, Virginia has been doing to juveniles what it has long done to adults convicted of crimes. The director of the dept. of juvenile justice [pun possibly intended] has resigned effective Dec. 1, 1999, following the death of a retarded youth in custody, the initiation of a self-defense program allowing guards to hit and kick kids, a girl being handcuffed on her way to a hospital to give birth, and poor conditions at the state's largest detention center so egregious that the agency's board decertified the place last week citing overcrowding and sexual misconduct.
Concern for convicts (innocent or not) is not in conflict with crime reduction. It is in
conflict with state violence, with the anger promoted by politicians even in the names of victims who publicly disown it. As long as advocates of vengeance are permitted
to masquerade as advocates of crime reduction, justice will be a sham.
This book is so well done that to find anything significant to complain about, I had to turn to the introduction, which the authors didn't write. The authors are an editor and an ex-reporter for the Virginian-Pilot, a Norfolk newspaper. Much of what they write is taken from Stockton's diary, transposed into the third person, fact-checked, and supplemented. The only thing I could fault these talented writers for is the occasional misplaced journalistic balance. The preface mentions "ultimate fairness - or lack thereof," as if the whole point of the book were not to describe unfairness. On page 19, the authors accept the term "monsters" as a useful one, without really defining what it should mean. On page 234 of a book describing the Dantean conditions of a prison, they write of a victim's mother's dealing with the years before an innocent man was executed for her son's murder: "It was like she was in prison too." Maybe she had said those words, but had she read this book? Did she have any idea what being in a prison is like? On page 251 the authors say that Stockton was "witness to a struggle between justice and mercy." He wasn't. He was witness to a struggle between evil politics and vengeance on the one hand, and the demands of innocence on the other. Justice cannot be opposed to mercy because justice should be merciful. Justice is, after all, an attempt - where all else has failed or not been tried - to reduce harm.
This book is not just an exciting page-turner. It also provides a great deal of useful information, including some shocking statistics. For example: "An October 1993 report by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee said that forty-eight innocent men had been freed from Death Rows across the nation since 1972, That came to a nearly one-in-six ratio of freed to executed prisoners. Of the forty-eight men, 52 percent 'were convicted on the basis of perjured testimony or because the prosecutor improperly withheld exculpatory evidence.'" Is this surprising in a country with the bizarre practice of ELECTING prosecutors to office - and voting them out if they leave a crime unpunished?

This book presents itself as a story of a prison escape, and while it does include information about the Mecklenburg escape, that's not what the book really is.

The real intention of the book is to make an anti-death penalty pitch and to suggest that Dennis Stockton is innocent.

I don't have a problem with either of those positions (I am against the death penalty myself), but I do have a problem paying for a book that isn't what it claims to be.

Moreover, if they want to make a pitch for Stockton's innocence, they ought to be much more thorough and fair. Juries, judges and the governor of Virginia disagree with that view. Now it may be that they're wrong, but in order to make a fair judgment you need a complete presentation of the facts. What we get here instead is a lot of suggestions about possible exoneration but no serious analysis.

Still, it's an interesting story that I can't give a "1" rating to in good faith. It's an OK book. It's just not what it claims to be.

I'm not a big reader but this work reads fast and is extremely absorbing. I remember the Briley escape while I was in college, so the new context I never had was fascinating.

What I wanted to know, after reading this simple, eloquent, masterfully written prose blockbuster is WHERE DO I GO TO NOMINATE THESE GUYS FOR THE NOBEL PRIZE??? Not since I read JAWS have I been so absolutely riveted!!! And I HATE prison books. And, let me tell you, I never would have thought that I would glean so many powerful management techniques from a book about prisons!! I have learned more about human nature and, you'll pardon the expression, it's "Dark Side", than I ever dreamed possible!! When I was growing up in Southern California I met quite a few prisoner, usually working in my mother's garden. Later, when I was at a large insurance brokerage in San Francisco we often had underwriting meetings that touched upon the subjects that this book treats so eloquently and persuasively. But, I have to say, if I'd read this book before I moved to Oregon I would have remained in "the life" and kept applying the valuable risk management techniques described therein to my business. I give the thing SIX stars!!!!

"Dead Run" is the best prison drama I have ever read, made more gripping by the fact that it is ALL TRUE. The bookd recounts the final prison term of Dennis Stockton, who was probably innocent and spent over a decade on Death Row. The first part of the book deals with the only successful mass escape from Death Row in American history, but the drama does not end there. Following that, by following Stockton through the system and finally to his execution, one becomes acquainted with the grim, crushing reality of the brutality and neglect of the American prison system.

On top of being a gripping tale of prison life, the book is a damning account of capital punishment and our prison system in general. By picking Stockton as a subject, a probably innocent man singled out by the UN as an example of a case of capital punishment that did not meet up with the standards expected of international law, the authors make a ringing statement against death penalty laws and procedures in the United States. Only the most rabid pro-death penalty advocate could read this book and not come away questioning their support for the execution of criminals.

A further feature that permeates the story is just how seedy and corrupt everyone and everything in the book are. The courts, the cops, the guards, the prisoners, the politicians - they are all part of the same basically corrupt world. Only (not coincidentally) the reporters and some of the witnesses come off as being white in a very grey and black world.

The book is a magnificent, cannot-put-it-down peice of work that I heartily recommend to any lover of a good non-fiction tale!

My brother bought this book for me and I am so glad he did! This was my first book by Jan Burke and it won't be my last. This book was a great introduction to the Irene Kelly series and after reading it, I am tempted to go out and purchase all of the others in this series. I finished this book in less than a day. After beginning it, I couldn't put it down! It was full of page-turning mystery with a touch of romance...my kind of book. Read it!

I read NINE because Amazon recommended it. I liked it so much that I thought I'd give the Irene Kelly series a try and I enjoyed the first one. I imagine her writing gets better (it did in NINE) - this story is a little dated (they use pay phones not cell phones, use the term "yuppies" - stuff like that). I am going to read the next in the series - I found the main characters real and likeable.

This is a very proficient debut novel in what has gone on to become an established series about Californian newspaperwoman Irene Kelly.
The book has -quite literally -an explosive start ,when Irene's friend and mentor the veteran journalist O'Connor is blown to pieces by a parcel bomb .Soon afterwards she herself is shot at in her own home and her former brother in law Kenny ,a resident in O'Connor's home is savagely beaten up and hospitalised .
She begins digging into O'Connor's recent cases and one turns out to be the key to events -an unsolved "Jane Doe " murder from 30 years previously about which O,Connor had repeatedly written . He was getting close to revealing both the identity of the murdered girl and in the process uncovering facts which several prominemt local politcal and social figures would rather leave in obscurity .
By continuing where O,Connor left off Irene is placing herself and others in harm's way -and the body count is by no means over
with Irene the target of two attempted murders before the case is wrapped up
Along the way she re-ignites a previous relationship with the detective in charge of the case and finds time to act as matchmaker to her oldest friend as well as getting closer to her sister
The book is moderately violent but not in lip smackingly gloating way and it occups the mid ground betwen cosy and hard boiled styles .

Good start to a series I will explore more deeply

This book was definately worth the time and money it took to read it, but I was not overly impressed. I have been worn out on all the typical mysteries - so I thought I would spend some time getting to know Irene. I did like the character and plan to read the next books in the series. Irene was well rounded and well written. If you're bored and need a new start - try this series out. It was enjoyable - just not breathtaking.

Irene Kelly, the woman referred to in Jan Burke's "Goodnight Irene," is a veteran reporter for the News Express, in the fictional Southern California town of Las Piernas. She is presently working for a public relations firm, however, after having quit her job at the newspaper. Kelly made the temporary career change as a result of an argument concerning professional ethics with the publication's very unprofessional editor-in-chief. Then Conn O'Conner, Irene's beloved best friend, and longtime mentor at the Express, is brutally murdered. The only clue Irene can come up with is O'Connor's obsession with a long-unsolved homicide and an unidentified female body discovered in Las Piernas 35 years before. The corpse's face had been destroyed, and her hands and feet cut off so that her identity could not be established. The police dubbed her Hannah and tried for years to solve the case, to no avail. Newspaperman O'Connor wrote the original stories back then and had never given up on finding the identity of this Jane Doe. Every year, on the anniversary of her murder, he wrote his famous "Hannah" column, usually targeting more recently disappeared people.

Homicide cop Frank Harriman, Irene's love interest from years before, is working on the O'Conner case, and asks Irene to get her job back at the Express in order to take over her former mentor's assignments. The rationale is that she might be able to find information useful to the investigation while continuing the dead man's work. In O'Conner's confidential files, she discovers a maze of forensic records that suggest a motive far more sinister than anyone imagined for the newspaperman's violent death, the unidentified woman's murder, and more recently, three horrific and separate attacks on Irene's, Frank's and O'Conner's son's lives. The unknown killer will obviously resort to anything to prevent past secrets from coming to light. And Irene and Frank develop a closer relationship as they work together to find the murderer(s).

I had never read an Irene Kelly mystery until last month when I picked-up "Bloodlines," the most recent book in the series. As that extraordinary suspense thriller goes back in time to Irene's initial days as a reporter, and tells the tale of her burgeoning relationship with Conn O'Conner, I was fortunate to read it before beginning "Goodnight, Irene." Jan Burke has written a wonderful series of mysteries, which are more than just good sleuth novels. She creates characters who are three-dimensional and grow as the series progresses. Her people are both sympathetic and flawed, and Irene Kelly, a combination of Lois Lane, Nancy Drew, with just a touch of Katherine Hepburn, makes a memorable heroine. Unfortunately, one of her flaws is stubbornness which borders on the extreme. As intelligent as she is, she frequently acts on impulse and winds up doing what she has been specifically told not to do, often with life- threatening results. Ms. Burke has surrounded Irene with a number of interesting and memorable friends and family members, characters who add to the depth and richness of the novels.

Overall, this is a well-paced debut mystery, filled with enough twists and turns to keep the reader riveted. I plan to read book two, "Sweet Dreams, Irene" ASAP!
JANA

I absolutely love and adore this little book. Having read it to each of my nieces and nephews and having promoted it to my 8th grade students, I had the good fortune to read this book with a wonderful group of 6th grade students. These students absorbed this delightful experience as they watched the rude, impolite Sarah Ida change and grow through the patience of three very important characters. These children loved the experience of learning how to shine shoes with me, an old timer who remembers the shoeshine stand. They were anxious to read and to follow the story; they showed patience and kindness themselves. Shoeshine Girl is a must read for anyone with children; grandparents who remember shoe shining and tougher times will especially enjoy sharing it with grandchildren. Important themes in the story include the value of money, learning responsibility, learning respect for others and for yourself. Everyone is a work in progress, capable of change and growth and love! Thank you, Mr. Bulla. Thanks, Edison, Derek, Zanisia, Dillon, Brent, Natalie, Zachery, Collin, Ben, Andy, Lexi, Pamela, Savanah, Miss Pruner, and Mrs. Brady.

I liked this book alot becuse it had a good point of view. If i could pick my favorite book this wouldd be it.

This is a story about a little girlthat had to live with her Aunt over the summer. She had to ride a trian to her Aunts house. Her Auant was wating for her at the train station and she asked if she could have some money, but her Aunt siad no becuse her mom does not whant her to have eney money becuse she had took her allwes for tow months. So she could go two a movie. So the little girl whent and found a job on a corner. The store was call the shoe shine stand. There is a old man sitting on the groud shinning shoes. she asked him if she could have the job becuse there was a sighn that said work whanted . so she got the job she worked for him all summer intlall something bad happend.

I liked this book alot becuse it had a good point of view. If i could pick my favorite book this wouldd be it.

This is a story about a little girlthat had to live with her Aunt over the summer. She had to ride a trian to her Aunts house. Her Auant was wating for her at the train station and she asked if she could have some money, but her Aunt siad no becuse her mom does not whant her to have eney money becuse she had took her allwes for tow months. So she could go two a movie. So the little girl whent and found a job on a corner. The store was call the shoe shine stand. There is a old man sitting on the groud shinning shoes. she asked him if she could have the job becuse there was a sighn that said work whanted . so she got the job she worked for him all summer intlall something bad happend.

Shoeshine girl, shoe shine girl was illustrated by Grant Leigh. She wrote some other books like Paint Brush Kid; Tree is a Pant, White Bird, sound like good books. It was published by Harper Collins in 1975. The title of my book that I read is shoeshine girl and the author is Bulla Clyde Robert. It was a very wonderful book that should how the main character made better changes.
Sarah is going to her aunt's house over the summer. Sarah is very mean and greedy all the time. She runs away to find a job. Then she found a job at a shoeshine stand. She became best friends with her boss, a man name Al. When something bad happen Al, Sarah becomes nicer. She stays and helps him.
The author created an interesting character that is rude and mean. At one point in the story, Sarah is running away and going to look for a job and making her people worry. When Rossi was crying and Sarah doesn't want to go at aunt's Claudia's house and she doesn't give her a chance.
Sarah becomes a better person. When the man got ran over she kept the stand open. Some people were helping Sarah and she got more money. She went to Al's home and gave his wife the money. She kept doing it until she had to leave.
Do you like rude books that do mean things to people? She runs away and didn't come back. She looks for a job and she got a job. At the end of the story Sarah becomes better. Do you like a book with rudeness and then in the end something impertinent. If you like it with action this is like one.

I think this book was interesting because Sarah Ida was a cool character. I can't believe she actually got a job at the shoeshine stand! She is probably very brave to go on a train all by herself. You'll probably like reading this book.

Burke gets hired by a lawyer, called Kite, to investigate the allegation by a woman who was raped as a child. The trouble is, Kite has a specialty of getting rape cases tossed from court. To him, False Allegations are a challenge to his intellect, whether or not they are true. This Burke novel has the usual cast of interesting characters like Max the Silent, Mama, Michelle and the Prof. There is some actual non-fictional, interesting information on childhood trauma, repressed memories and how the media can influence the law.

Of all the Burke novels that I have read which would be all of them, this one disturbed me the most. It struck a nerve in me and it scared me because the truth can't be denied. False Allegations is a testimony of how to keep a rape society going. If you are interested in transforming our society than this is the book to read. Burke enters the controversial ground of recovered memories but not for the reasons he thinks he is. He meets Dr. Bruce Perry who is not a fictional person. I have made use of Dr. Perry's research in my career as a teacher of children who have been abused. If you like poetic justice, this book also includes that in such a way that one can't help but cheer. This is not a novel to take lightly.

After two mediocre entries in the great Burke series ("Down in the Zero" and "Footsteps of the Hawk") Vachss starts to breath life back into his main charachter again. Burke is reenergized and back at what he does best, dealing with abused children and borderline psychotic females. Vachss's early Burke novels ("Flood," "Blue Belle," "Blossom" and "Hard Candy") remain the best of the series. But with "False Allegations" he begins a revival which has carried him through the two most recent novels. Thankfully so. A world without Burke would be a duller world, indeed.

Okay, so this isn't the *best* Burke novel, but some of the things I had read about it almost had me scared to read it. Luckily, it's not nearly as preachy or slow or off-track as they'd have you believe. I was expecting it to turn into a textbook or something, but nope, it's definitely a Burke novel, and still a good one, with some convoluted plot twists going on, especially at the end. You can't really fault Vachss for having an "agenda" with his novels, 'cuz, face it, that's what the man's about. His novels are all about promoting the things Vachss likes (from dogs to cool cars to Judy Hensky to loyalty as the cardinal virtue, etc.) and damning the things he hates (which should be obvious - the man's obsessed, but more power to 'im for that). But the bottom line is, Vachss would never steer you toward anything that wasn't good for you. He ain't preachin' - he's *testifyin'*. And ya gotta respect him for it. This is one guy I have heavy, heavy respect for, both as a fine writer and a heckuva stand-up, sincere human being, and I've been putting in work to promote this guy's work to any and everyone I can. This may not be the Burke novel you want to start with, but it shouldn't be too big a disappointment to those who've taken the ride a few times already. Even if it's the weakest of the series, the series is so incredibly strong that you can't go wrong, schoolboy... ;)

Andrew Vachss would have to be considered my favorite writer. He write some of the most hard, heavy, disturbing, graphic, and redemming material I have ever read. This book, was certainly no less.

False Allegations is a story about Burke, a mercanary investigator dredging into whether a child abuse case was fabricated or real. He is hired by a man named Kite, who debunks false "Child Abuse" cases. One thing to note, is that Burke is fanatical in helping children. It is his one honorable and honest trait. Otherwise he is no less a con-man/hit man who presides over a "family" of criminals.

Anyway, this was excellantly written, the plot was really good, the characters were fully explored. Excellant book!

I would strongly recommend this book!