Burnett Books

Clive Cussler is now an industry and he pumps out books with regularity and with a certain rythmic quality. Every one of his books has the same pattern: start off with a chapter that looks at an historical event (that is fictional) which normally means that some ungodly secret is hidden. Move to current times when the secret is unearthed by dastardly bad guys who want to take over the world. Next comes the team who uncover the plot by being in the right place at the right time and suffering through some bizarre events. The team figures out what is going on, manages to upstage the bad guys, and kills them. Oh, and the team leader gets the girl - very important part.

In this case - Polar Shift - the historical secret is some sort of discovery where you can cause not just a magentic polar shift, but an actualy physical geological shift which will destroy the world. The bad guys are a collection of anarchists - who are brilliant scientists, of course - and a shadowy person who is using the anarchists in his attempt to take over the world.

The team is Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala and the Trouts. They happen to come across this plot because Kurt is leading a charity kayak race when the mad scientist happens to run a test that backfires in the exact same waters; the Trouts happen to be right in the center of a several-miles wide whirlpool in a zodiac, and they manage to swirl around the rim of the whirlpool for long enough to have Kurt and Joe pluck them away in a helicopter, seconds from when the whirlpool collapses, etc.

The girl is one of the unique twists in this book. She goes after Kurt rather than the other way around as we saw in all the previous books.

Throw in some expeditions to islands in northern Siberia, woolly mammoths, tsunamis, ancient crystal cities in the bowels of extinct volcanoes, high tech gadgetry, and murderous thugs and you have a typical Cussler book.

So, given that all of this stuff is so generic, why do I give this book 4 stars? Because it is a fun read!!! It is a perfect book for a flight or two. You do not need to think too much about the contents, since you know how things will play out, you can simply enjoy the thrills and spills knowing that the world will be saved in the end!

Some of the plot lines were actually more bizzare than normal and I was hoping for resolutions - but was disappointed. What seems like a major idea (the woolly mammoths) completely dissipates and fizzles out at the end as does the whole ancient crystal city. Too bad, there seems to be the idea of a great Clive Cussler story in those ideas!!

The Cussler formula cranks out yet another wild adventure. History is re-written (this time only going back to World War II), a scientific formula is uncovered that could cause the end of life on earth, and our hero must stop a band of anarchists who mistakenly think they can use the formula to gain control of the planet's communications. Somewhere along the way wooly mammoths come out of extinction (which was a weird side story) and an underground city is found in the north.

This book reads fast and you get the feeling the authors were only going through the motions of writing it. But if you have never read a Cussler book before, you might enjoy America's version of James Bond.

Polar Shift was the first Clive Cussler book I ever read and it far exceeded my expectations. As a frequent traveler and consumer of paperbacks, I have read my share of stinkers. Here, instead, was an author writing action, intrigue, and suspense without cursing like a sailor (though most of his heroes are just that) and without a triple X rating.

Since then, I've read 8 of his novels and have another 4 on the shelf waiting to be taken on a future road-trip.

Polar Shift is part of Cussler's series featuring Kurt Austin and easily has one of the best prologues of any Cussler book I've read to date. You're immediately hooked and Cussler keeps up the suspense for the duration.

The middle and end are not as strong. Like most of his novels, there are long survival-against-the elements sections and some truly incredible (read far-fetched) episodes along the way. The ending was also slightly forgettable.

That said, you could do a lot worse and if you're looking for an easy read to eat up the miles on your next trip, grab Polar Shift.

I had to volunteer at my mom's work and I had a lot of downtime. Therefore, I went to the CVS across the street and purchased this book, which looked interesting enough. Overall, it was an alright book. This is my first C.C. novel, but it really hasnt given me a, "Im gonna read the rest of this author's books" impression. Though the details of the different shenanigans and fiascos that Kurt Austin gets into are well documented, it is kind of hard to take most of them seriously. When ever a main character is in peril and facing hopeless odds, Kurt Austin always seems to be able to save everybody, even if some of his antics require feats that transcend the limits of the human body. No one important is killed off or anything, making this an extremely linear story. And it doesnt help that this book is overflowing with cheese. To give you an example, when one scientist comments about how they will encounter 100+ foot waves, instead of looking at him in disbelief, says "I guess we should have brought our surfboards." I mean, some of this dialogue is cornier than the punch lines in the movie Commando, and thats saying alot. There are also some plot elements that could have been elaborated on more to make the novel more enriching. Should have known they were selling this at CVS for a reason. From what I have heard though, Clive Cussler didnt even write this book, and his Dirk Pitt adventures are supposedly superior to these Kurt Austin adventures.


Oh yes, and there is another thing I should mention....

It seems that who ever wrote this book(be it Paul or Clive), was overly obsessed with the bodily features of the characters. And why is it that all of the main protagonists have blond hair and blue eyes? :) My god, the author probably mentioned "blue eyes" 30 times! And how many times do we need to hear that the girl has blond hair!!! Jeez!

The subject matter of Polar Shift promised scientific intrigue and a storyline full of techno-thrills. What the novel delivered was a hodge-podge of gappy scientific reasoning, implausible circumstances, repetitive phrasing, random romance, excruciatingly over-detailed descriptions of alcoholic consumption, and excruciatingly under-developed stereotypical characters. (How often can one heroine be called `beautiful and intelligent' before the first piece of evidence is presented to make the case? Answer: 32 and still counting.)

As a vehicle for learning anything about polar shift, I think the book exhibited just enough research to be dangerous. If a magnetic shift really can cause geological shift of plate tectonics - which seems unlikely but perhaps there is some scientific merit here - how does this occur? How would an `antidote' work? Is it through wave cancellation? If so, why not go down that path a little further, both to be informative and to help the plausibility of the plot line? And what of the code/cipher nonsense that housed the critical Kovacs equations in a nursery rhyme? (What ARE these equations? I thought they were frequencies.) Either explain the code fully or not at all, but please spare the half-hearted attempt at a dialog-based explanation of ciphers and code-breaking that gets wrapped up prematurely by our hero's, "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

So if Paul Kemprecos is, in fact, the ghost writer for this book, it feels a bit disingenuous. Is this true and does it explain why such a touted writer as Clive Cussler would have produced (or merely signed off on) such a tour-de-farce? Can anyone rise to Cussler's defense before I resign to this being the first and last book of his I will ever read?

I don't know what some of the other reviewers are talking about, this was a great book. It delivered everything I've come to expect from a W.E.B. Griffin novel. I can't wait for the next volume.

This is the worst of the many book written by Himself. It reads very much like "The Saboteurs," his first collaborative effort with his son. There are hundreds of pages of repetitious reprises of things past, including a full review of the "plot" with every new cardboard character introduced. Followed by eight or ten pages of (near) action as they do in the bad guys at the very end. You could read the first chapter or two, the two or three chapters about Castillo at Cairns, and the last chapter without losing much, and saving a lot of time.

I was pretty impressed with "Death and Honor," where I thought WEB fils picked up dad's style and did a really respectable job. Now I'm beginning to really wonder just who's carrying the freight.

The one thing that has always upset me about WEB's novels, and is rampant in this volume, has been his utterly cavalier approach to classified access security. That is one issue WEB fils has had no difficulty emulating. Basically, I guess, both pere and fils were "journalists," and "journalists" have long confused "want to know" with "need to know." He is right about one thing, though. Senior executives and managers, industry, government and military alike, often do the same.

Here's an almost philosophical question for you? What would happen if a thriller/suspense writer penned a novel that had absolutely NONE, ZERO, NADA, NYET suspense, thrills, and/or action (I'm not kidding) in it? Well, if it were the author's first book, then it would clearly be his/her last. If you W.E.B. Griffin, a good half of your audience will forgive you because you've done so darn well in the past. This book, however, should never have left the editor's office. Conversation should have gone something like: "Hey Griff, got your last rewrite of The Shooters and love the dialog." "What else did you think?" "Well to be honest Griff, that is where it stops... aside from the dialog, the story just sort of meanders all over the place... did you forget to put in the action scenes we talked about?" "uh, No... my audience doesn't need that stuff to enjoy my books..." "Griff, have you gone mad?! They'll crucify you... a Griffin book with no action... like having a football game without the players... it doesn't work Griff and I cannot in good conscience sign off on this manuscript. You've got to give me something I can publish." "Fair enough, I'll get back to you..." Alas, that clearly did Not happen so Griffin fans were stuck with one seriously lame book. Buy it as a substitute for Ambien. And then move on to something better.

Another classic from WEB Griffin the masterr storyteller. This book is a great read and will be enjoyed by the Legion of Griffins loyal fans. As a reader of Griffins works for over twelve years, I look forward to the continued work with his son. I only hope that he will continue the tradition his father has established.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2YQ5S0R7QR576 WEB Griffin is my favorite author. But, are all of his books right for you or for someone who needs a gift? In this video I discuss Griffin's books and give you an idea of who will like them. I do not dwell on the plots or give away the stories.. instead, I help you decide if Griffin is for you and the people on your gift list. By Frank Derfler author of A Glint in Time [...]

I received this book as a present for my husband during the holidays and finished it quickly. I love Cussler's books, they are fun reading and enjoyable, which is what fiction should be.

Fire Ice is a Kurt Austin adventure, "taken from the NUMA files." Kurt is one of he newer Cussler characters and he's the head of the Special Assignments Team. In Fire Ice, Austin is after a Russian mining tycoon who is planning to take over the Russian Government, then attack the US with a methan hydrate. And in the fashion of Dirk Pitt, Austin also has a sidekick (Joe Zavala) and in the midst of stopping the takeover of the Russian Government, and subsequent destruction of the United States, Kurt finds time to impress a lady.

I think Dirk Pitt will always be my first love (well second love behind my husband) but Kurt can always find a place in my heart too.

While this definitely is not one of Cussler's best books, it still is great beach reading. The prolog tells how a single survivor of the Romanov ruling family escapes death, and this is the setup for the bad-guy later in the book..he's planning to claim Romanov heritage in order to reclaim the throne of Russia and build his own world-spanning empire. To help this plan out, he has devised a method of creating tsunamis that can be focused on a target. He plans to destroy most of the U.S. east coast in order to keep America busy while he solidifies his empire. Enter Kurt Austin to foil his evil plans.

Excellent writing as usual. I get lost in the reading. Can't wait to start the next book.

Clive Cussler was born in 1931 and grew up in Alhambra, California. He attended Pasadena City College before joining the Air Force. He went on to a successful advertising career, winning many national honours for his copywriting. He has also explored the deserts of the American Southwest in search of lost gold mines, dived in isolated lakes in the Rocky Mountains looking for lost aircraft and hunted under the sea for shipwrecks of historic significance, discovering and identifying more than sixty. He is married with three children, and divides his time between Colorado and Arizona. His credentials as a best selling author cannot be doubted and he has a large `stable' of best selling adventure novels.



This time Clive Cussler takes up to North Africa, a place in turmoil. The unrest that has been simmering there for years suddenly comes to a head. The new Libyan president has had the new Egyptian president assassinated. There are bound to be repercussions and the Egyptian president's widow, Susan Salaam has vowed to take revenge on his killers and the man who instigated the assassination.



She enlists the help of Air Force general Patrick McClanahan and his Night Stalkers. But the Libyans and their allies hold an ace up their sleeves. One that has a personal meaning for McClanahan and it could be one that will leave even the Night Stalkers powerless to do anything about . . .

I've been listening to Cussler's books on tape or CD and with each one have thought "this is the best one yet"....until now. It's not that Fire Ice is bad, it just isn't the rollercoaster ride I've come to expect and enjoy. Kurt seems a bit bland in this story and Joe's libido got on my nerves. And the ending (AFTER the encounter with Ivan who is GREAT and I'd like to read about again) is PITIFUL! Reads like an old fashioned romance book sequence..yuck! But seeing as how Gamay (dunno how to spell but Paul Trout's normally marvelous wife) was left in the background for the most part, I guess the poorly written tryst with the reporter shouldn't be a surprise. On the plus side, Paul Trout got to do a lot for a change, the computer sequences were great as was the overall plot. But when a non-NUMA character (Ivan) gets the heart stopping action parts, ya gotta wonder what's going on. Even so, I look forward to the rest of the Dirk/Kurt stories and recommend them to one and all for an adventurous read!

This is one of the better books I have read about the OSS operations in a theatre that is rarely considered.It lacks the impact of the first book in the series but is also a good book.

If you like Griffin as I do, this is another good tale. You learn a little real history along the way. If you don't know Griffin, he tells very good readable stories but they are certainly not Shakespear. Purely fun with a little true history thrown in.

Griffins book Secret Honor is a big dissappointment, I would suggest he has become a troll of commercialism. No plot, no suspence, no excitement, no story line. This book reads like a soap opera, a high school student could have written a better story. It seems Griffin is relying on his name to sell this book, also his other novels in this series are somewhat dull and redundent in character. I hope he wakes up, I will not purchase or recommend any more of his books.

Again WEB Griffin provides information about areas of conflict not writtn about. With its polyglot population of Italian, German, and British immigrants it must have been a hotbed of intrigue. He brings it to life.

This book was a disappointment. While it seems like the book is relatively realistic (unless you count the fact that there are military officers that are allowed to run around, doing as they please), it lacks the story to make use of that realism. The plot is hard to follow, taking turns that end up right where they started. It seems that throughout the book, the reader is bothered with the characters' problems that simply exist and do not affect the character.

This book has an somewhat interesting plot, but it is bogged down with memos between Nazi officers, which take attention away from the main plot. There is simply too much information to keep straight, especially since many of the titles of the character's are in German. A large portion of the book could have been eliminated, and the book would have made more sense and had more impact.
When I finished the book, I was not beside myself that I would never again experience that adventure of the characters again. I was happy that I was done with the book, and I then wondered where all my time had gone. At the end of the book, I ended up having a greater knowledge of the Nazi beuracracy. This is not a book that I would recommend.

MR. GRIFFIN HAS DONE IT AGAIN! CAPTIVATING POLICE NOVEL THAT IS A REAL PAGE TURNER

I loved all of the other books in the series, but this book was very disappointing. The time frame of the book was placed in modern day, versus in the seventies, yet the characters are all of the same age. The seventies time frame made gave the series some flavor that this one was missing. The series was great until this book as it was realistic. In this book matt Payne becomes a super cop and is using his gun more often than any other cop. The other books were good to not make it a Hollywood gun battle, but this book was no where as creative or enjoyable as the others.

I'm a huge WEB Griffin fan, but I was disappointed in Final Justice. Mr. Griffin has lapsed into a too-often used formula for the Badge of Honor series. The formula goes something like this: Matt Payne gets a new assignment; Wohl, Lowenstein, Coughlin and Washington then proceed to pontificate on how inexperienced and unqualified Payne is for his new assignment and proceed to illustrate in 100 different settings and circumstances why Payne is inexperienced; Payne falls for a girl; Payne eventually solves the crime and/or catches the bad guy. Mr. Griffin needs to put this series to bed if he has run out of new and fresh ideas for it.

The title suggests that maybe this is it for the Badge of Honor series. I hope not. I agree that sometimes he goes of on detailed tangents about the Philly PD and its inner workings, but he always comes back to the starting point.

The novels in this series were set in the early 1970's, but suddenly in this one we're in at least the late 90's. For the first time the characters are using cellphones and digital cameras, and reporter Mickey O'Hara is now driving a Buick Rendezvous. Digital cameras figure in the plot as the rapist/murderer likes to take pictures of his victims but leaves his camera behind at one scene. Payne, et al, are able to track him through the purchase records.

Sometimes Griffin is predictable: Payne is the center of controversy; he and Detective Jesus Martinez hate each other's guts, while he maintains a friendship with Detective Charley Mc Fadden; he meets beautiful women and has intense sex with them; he again manages to deliver instant justice via gunshot wounds.

But this time he doesn't do well with it. He gets a little loopy after this, his third major "good" shooting since coming on the job. It seems like Griffin realizes that readers of the series may find it a little unseemly and he reflects that in Payne's reaction to this incident.

All in all, though, it's not a bad book, nor is the series. From what I hear the depictions of Rizzo and Company in the earlier novels aren't too far off the mark, and I'd also bet that there were Peter Wohls, Denny Coughlins, Jason Washingtons, and Charley Mc Faddens in the Philly PD.

Enjoy.

This is my first WEB Griffin novel ... any my last. The thin story, amateurish writing and plot inconsistencies congeal into an incoherent waste of time. Here's what I mean....

Mr. Griffin has the annoying habit of using the same words and phrases over and over and over again takes me out of the story to wonder if he read what he had written. Some examples: "critters", "take the door", "doers".

He often repeats knowledge the reader already has, such as conversations or events. Most authors would summarize previously imparted information with "Matt explained what had happened." Mr. Griffin takes no such shortcuts.

His characters are -- to put it nicely -- blithering idiots. For example, the newly promoted, top-of-the-list Sargeant Matt Payne somehow forgets points of law, evidence handling, police procedures and so forth. The fictional citizens of Philadelphia should be concerned.

Occasionally, the author tries to build some suspense by overly explaining a procedure or plan. Alerted by all the detailed information, the reader may suspect something is about to go awry. (For example, his explanation of how a prisoner is transported.) Of course, nothing happens. Maybe it's fun to be the teacher, but Mr. Griffin should remember he's really a storyteller.

I imagine even the dim bulbs in Mr Griffin's police department would recognize bad writing and stop this critter before he does it again.

I have accumulated 4-5 Linux books in the past 5 years, so I struggled a long while before I got this book as I am neither a great fan of Que's books, nor the in any way enthusiastic about getting a year-old book (especially in the fast changing world of Linux!) Anyway I got it in the end after browsing all Caldera and general Linux titles in a local bookstore - and looking back I never regretted my decision.

I find this book extraordinary in the breadth and depth it covers. It has very good coverage on a wide range of topics in addition to the usual installation and configuration and common sysadmin tasks that is present in most Linux books, and the authors had a lot of insight into the topics (I was skimming through the sections on pgp, ssh, tcp wrappers and firewalls and learned a lot from it).

It is, at the same time, very well written and easy to read and gave me much less headache than reading the howto's, man pages, RFCs, or my Linux Bible! My only criticism is that it is sometimes a bit application-oriented (e.g. it was focussing mainly on swat in the Apache configuration chapter and did not cover manual configuration nor gave explanation of the Apache directives).

In general I find the book well structured and very well written and I definately hope to see the authors continue to update the with the new features of the new versions of Caldera Linux.

While the back of the book says it is aimed at Intermediate to advanced users, the introduction claims that it is aimed at beginners.

I have never used Linux much, and have recently installed a dual-boot system. The book mentions LILO, but is completely incorrect regarding its installation..actually..it doesn't cover the installation at all.

This book has a very scatter-brained approach, and is incorrect far too often for me.

When I first installed Caldera OpenLinux on my PC, I was a newcomer to Linux and didn't really know my way around. Caldera does provide decent documentation for its product, but the installation and user's guide is a bit spare fora newbie to make much use of. This book is the one that took me from being a wet-eared newbie to a competent OpenLinux user. The book assumes that you know very little about Linux and gives you an introduction to the history of Linux, the open source philosophy, the distributions of Linux and a host of other pertinent information before taking through Star Office, the K Desktop Environment (using and manipualting), the command line, package management with RPM, the file system, configuring the X Server, configuring sound, the file system, networking (including using Samba and NetWare), connecting to the Internet, reading the XF86Config file, tweaking, programming languages, compiling source code, shell scripting, runlevels, troubleshooting, and a range of almost every possible problem that a home user or small office user will run into. This book can get quite in depth, and is suitable for those who want to get into Linux quite deeply, or for simple casual use as a reference guide. This is the one book that should ship with every version of Caldera. With this book, you'll find that Linux really can be quite fun to learn and quite easy as well.

This relates to 5th edition.

The overall content seems valuable for a starter to intermediate Linux user. However, individual chapters are very poorly organised. For instance, text switches from one topic to another, then back to the original one, almost as if points were noted down in the sequence the author thought of them. Typographical and syntactical errors are rife, making it impossible to rely on the information imparted.

Quite obviously, the book has not been proof-read. It is unfortuate really, because it could so easily have been a useful piece of work.

This book is rubbish. Please do NOT buy it! If I had to rewrite the book, it would have been 40 pages instead of 900! The CD-ROM's that come with the book are rubbish to. You're better off buying Red Hat Linux at your local computer shop.

D. Graham Burnett's "Trial By Jury" is not a "true crime" novel. In fact, it is to "true crime" what Jane Austen is to Harlequin romances. I am not writing this to sound smarmy, but just to let the reader know that while this is a story of a trial and the tensions arising therefrom, the reader should not expect anything resembling Ann Rule or even Truman Capote. [This mis-expectation, I think, accounts for several of the negative reviews.]

This is a autobiographical recount of D. Graham Burnett's jury duty on a murder trial. Burnett's rationle for recounting the trial is to give us a view of the machinations of the jury trial and, in so doing, reflect on such things as the difference between law and justice, and the ways in which we try to ascertain the truth of a matter when all we have are disjointed facts and clues.

The trial is that of Monte Virginia Millcray, who is charged with stabbing Randolph Cuffee about 20 times. Millcray says the stabbings were in self-defense, after Cuffee (posing as a woman) tried to rape Millcray. The prosecutions account is that Millcray and Cuffee were in a relationship and Millcray snapped.

About half of the book is about the courtroom drama and half is about the lengthy (20+ hour) deliberation process and it is clear that the author places much more emphasis on the latter half of the book. Witnesses are gone through rather quickly, summarized as might be done by a story teller quickly laying the obligatory groundwork for the "real" story. By contrast, Burnett's recounting of the jury deliberation is quite lengthy and detailed.

To this reader's mind, Burnett really does a good job with describing the jury deliberations and for those of us who've done jury duty before, much of his retelling will seem familiar. Tempers flare, opinions clash and fluctuate. Evidence is combed over again and again, in hopes that each time will reveal something missed the time before.

Burnett also reflects on the jury process. Some of his reflections - the mismatch between law and justice - are rather pedestrian and hackneyed. (I confess that I was sometimes annoyed that some of Burnett's more pedestrian reflections were sometimes treated as if he were the first to have thought of them.) Others - jury sequestration as an example of the virtually unlimited power of the state - were quite interesting. Either way, Burnett's retelling of the jury deliberation is as much recount as it is reflection. (If that would bore you, you might get bored with this book.)

"Trial by Jury" is not for everyone. As noted, it is not a "true crime" novel, and is not a page-turner. I don't think that was D. Graham Burnett's goal in writing the book. Rather, it is a sometimes entertaining and other-times thought-provoking examination of one man's experience with, and reflections on, a jury trial as a way to try and mete out imperfect justice in an imperfect world.

D. Graham Burnett, an assistant Princeton history professor, brings us a lively, honest look at the inner world of juries in the slim volume entitled, A Trial by Jury. Burnett's writing style is casual and easily accessible in describing the jury he joyfully found himself leading.

The Manhattan murder trial has the defendant claiming self-defense. The burden of proof lies on the state to prove Monte Milcray did not act in self-defense after stabbing Randolph Cuffee twenty-odd times. Milcray's story about the hot August night changes several times. Erroneous facts spring forth as key elements begin to slowly seep into the story: a rendezvous encounter with a transvestite via the dating phone service. Unfortunately, the author decides to reveal the verdict in the opening pages of the book. Burnett then back peddles to the beginning: a week of jury selection, two weeks of evidence and then the four days of closed deliberations.

Clearly those who need instant gratification will love the author's choice for the up-front verdict. This reader would have preferred more tension in the vein of 12 Angry Men; the movie magnificently portrays the inherent conflict of twelve disparate people dissecting evidence to reach a conclusion. That balled-up tense feeling one gets in the gut is sadly absent here since we know the outcome early on.

However, there are many keen insights and fine discussions about law and justice. The juror Adelle says,
"I realized that what I keep wanting here is for us
to figure out some way to do justice, but I am
starting to realize that the law itself may be a
different thing. What is my real responsibility?
The law? Or the just thing? I'm not sure what the
answer is? We've been told that we have to uphold
the law. But I don't understand what allegiance I
should have to the law itself. Doesn't the whole
authority of the law rest on its claim to be our
system of justice? So, if the law isn't just, how
can it have any force?"

Burnett effectively brings us the emotions felt within the sealed jury room. The writing is palpable and quickly sparks one's imagination. The reader is privileged to the endemic shortcomings of the court. A Trial by Jury enables you to be the proverbial fly on the wall, listening and watching twelve individuals from various backgrounds decide a man's fate.

Bohdan Kot

This is a terrible book by an atrocious author. The author is not very likable; at the start he has made up his mind about the case, so he makes fun of the other jurors for being stupid, especially the ones that don't support his position. His arrogance comes through easily, making long winded speeches to his fellow jurors and "putting them in their place" when they say things he doesn't like (despite his being younger than most of them).

He says early on that it was his goal to "hang the jury," and the only rationale he gives for that is that his whole experience in life has been academia, where the discussion essentially never ends, and he just doesn't have it in him to make such a final decision. How odd!

There are no real insights into the criminal justice process, just lots of very high-brow language that sounds almost put-on. Also, he exerpts from his diary at one point--showing that even in his personal life, this fellow can only write pretensiously.

Avoid this book!

In a two hour film (e.g., "Twelve Angry Men"), an audience can't empathize with some crucial aspects of a jury trial: the tedium, the ridiculous density of certain jurors, the uncertainty and fear, the perilous duty.

Many attack the jury system as criminally stupid. Yet as D. Graham Burnett's acerbic judge noted, jury duty is the highest civilian duty an American may fulfill in a time of peace. (Many condemn the military for similar density--even those who love it dearly.)

Burnett's book casts the jury experience as a journey. He strives to explain why a jury might decide that a moral wrong was not necessarily a legal wrong proven with sufficient certainty so as to punish a human being. As he depicts the deliberations, the book stretches tediously - repeating arguments, just as an actual jury would. A more dramatic presentation would slice a quarter or more from the book; but then the reader would miss the real-world of a jury.

After reading Burnett's, book one may understand that though the system is messy, putting facts into the hands of real human beings makes sense in our democracy. Also helpful for exploring the "black box" of jury reasoning.

Judges have become too powerful; they tell juries what evidence is admissible and which pieces of evidence must be discarded; judges instruct juries on the meaning and intepretation of the law; juries attempt to appease the judges by closely following the instructions and intrepretations in finding a verdict, their civic duty; the more constrainted the rules of law and admissible evidence the more influence the judge has over the outcome of the verdict; juries don't receive great threatment or financial compensation for their time and can be forced to remain silent, feed mediocre food, forced too appear in court with little regard too their personal considerations, and sequestered by confinement too a hotel.

I praise the author's courage in pointing out that juries have a responsibility to Justice and law secondary. Justice is the responsibility of the people. People's law guarantees liberty, justice, and truth. A jury is the people's last defense against a tyrancal government. If rules and evidence can be controlled, the final verdict of the jury can become predictable. I say, a jury should have the power too decided what evidence is admissible, a jury should have the power too decide, if a law is unconstitutional and have the right to dismiss the law according to their conscience.

A jury represents the finest power given too the people to administer Justice. Expediency is a power oriented goal for the law. Should a computer be given the power too decide guilt or innocence? The goal of law must always be too seek Justice. Objectivity and impartiality does not necessary guarantee justice. In any serious charge the defendant should always have the right to a jury. The power of Judges too administer Justice needs too be contracted and constrainted and the jury power expanded - maintaining the power too see Justice is served. Therefore, it seems the Judge and Jury are at odds with each other; the judge seeking more control over the jury by increasing his power and capability and the jury reliquishing its discernment power and confining itself too the boundaries of the law as explained by the judge. Can a judge rule on verdicts more wisely than a jury? Historically, for serious crime the English common law brought the King as a party in the criminal case? How did the crime hurt the king? Why did the king entangle himself into the criminal case? Is prosecuting crime really about forced collection of money?

An eye for an eye mean compensation for injury not revenge. The parties have the right to work out a negotiation for compensation. An eye for an eye did not mean two people walked around blind. Does the law sometimes attempt to be so objective that both parties walk around blind? Where is the discernment power? Should juries be given the power too discern guilt or innocence? Has law become too much like a business negotiation between a big company and the small business?

The power migration to the Judges must swing back towards the Jury. The defendant is entitled too defense counsel, a speedy trial, and an impartial jury for an serious charge. The state uses tax money to pay for courts and attorneys to represent the state's interest. It is in the best interest of the state to prosecute crime because crime is big business. When the defendants rights are forfeited, Justice is not served; Justice can not be fair if the power is removed from the people too decide what is Just.

The fact that the State becomes entangled in serious crimes where party one wrongs party two seems unconstitutional. The case should be between the parties involved in the crime. A fee should be paid to the court for usage of the facility. A jury should be selected from among individuals the parties know. A jury member should be able to bring insight and information to other jury members about the circumstances of the case.

The law should not be revengeful, instead it should only offer compensation for damage. In the Milcray case, the law measured "intent" equivalent with "depravation of human life"; so, if the defendant demonstrated by a reasonable doubt - heinous disreguard for human life, he could be charged with 2nd degree murder. The test for mental intent did not necessary have to be proven.

I came away disappointed from reading Day of Wrath. The two intrepid heroes fighting alone against impossible odds and a nuclear countdown are well too outlandish for someone who has written so much better fare. This book has the feel and look of just another royalty check for the author.

If you are looking for a military thriller like Bond's "Vortex" or "Red Phoenix", you won't find it here. Not that this is a bad book because it is not. It just was not the type of book I expected.

"Day of Wrath" is a military James Bond-esque type thriller with a large international plot that crosses continents and jurisdictions with lots of action. The odds are heavily against the good guys (of course) but they have pluck!...Anyway, you can see that it is sort of formulaic but it is still good. I think that it has a slow start but once the ball gets rolling it's worth the time to read it.

Bond delivers a story that could be true to today's world. Prince Ibrahim of Saudi Arabia, a millionaire, is the guy behind the terrorism across the world, financially supporting various factions. He also owns a powerful corporation, known as Caraco, and is very influential with the current administration in the White House.

The story revolves around Thorn and Gray, the Army Colonel, and FBI agent who were featured in Bond's prior novel, Enemy Within.
A Russian cargo jet crashes in northern Russia with U.S. officials onboard. Gray and Thorn both meet at the scene, and that's when their lives get interesting. Trailing clues to why the plane crashed with the help of a Russian MVD officer, Thorn and Gray pursue Germans into parts of northern Russia, into Norway and Germany. They get into trouble with Russian locals when the MVD officer is killed in an ambush.

They have a hunch that, jet engines are being used to smuggle nuclear weapons to the U.S. Disobeying orders from their government, Thorn and Gray pursue the leads to the U.S. and get help from General Farrell. With the German and Arabic terrorists after them as well as their own government, Thorn and Gray must elude them and get to the heart of the problem, before Ibrahim can unleash 20 150 Megaton nuclear bombs on the U.S.

This is not his best but still worth a read. He holds your attention. The situations are true. great raeding.

I almost gave this book 5 stars. The action is there, non stop. Peter Thorn really knows how to keep moving. Helen Gray was so manly that she might as well be just another guy helping Peter out. After all, it seems they don't know what to do with each other. Their "intimate" moments are the only awkward parts of this book.

An interesting part in this book is that an American undersecretary gets blown out to pieces at an Egyptian airport and there is hardly any comment about it. That part wasn't part of the main story I think. It was just there to make us dislike Prince Ibrahim.

I loved the language and the dialogues, especially when Gen. Farrell (ret.) enters the story. I never heard so many "Hells" and "Christs" and "Damns" and "God****" among military men. And I used to work with tough guys form SPAWAR and SPECWAR units. Well, I think they just talk that way out there in the field.*

The book is a good read, very entertaining, but it was written in a different world, so I don't know how many people would enjoy a story such as this today. Stasi mercenaries, incompetent Soviet military, fanatical Arabs, all ugly ghosts from the Reagan era are brought back to life. Loved the chases, the killings, the murders, the non stop action, and all the heroin wasted in this story.

But I agree with some of the other reviewers. It was a good read, but highly impossible

*(OK I admit it. I was just a PMT assigned to shore duty with a bunch of Navy corpsmen, bunch of yeomen and a whole lot Marine I&I's.)

No complaints. It just never really takes off. A good addition to my Coonts collection.

With Hong Kong, Coonts presents a story of anti-communist revolution that is initiated in Hong Kong. While the premise itself stretches one's imagination, Coonts nonetheless presents a compelling story that features Jake Grafton, the no-nonsense US Naval Officer, who in this case has a very personal reason to bring his skills and determination to bear. Coonts brings together a range of characters, while effectively blending a number of sub-stories within the main story. I recommend Hong Kong. You will want to go through it quickly.

This book drew my attention because it combined my interest in Asia (including China) with the excitement that I knew from other Stephen Coonts novels featuring Jake Crafton. The book is exciting but it lacks depth. Many have noticed the factual errors but it should certainly not be read as a realistic account of China. There are some truths in the book but over all it misses the actual situation. A revolution as presented in this book is no longer realistic, if it ever was. But taken as a fictional novel, it attempts to cross the border between the realistic and the fantastic. However, this is not Coonts type of novel and thus he is unable to leave his realistic style. Thus the book remains uneven and is not worth the money. Buy another book from Stephen Coonts instead! He knows how to make a story exciting without making you feel uneasy as in this book.

I had high hopes for an interesting novel when I first checked out this book. It begins promisingly enough with attention grabbers like murder, espionage, and political intrigue. There are some solid characters too, especially Rip and Wu. However, about two thirds of the way through the novel the story simply falls apart. As if the author has given up on all attempts at a plot or character depth, it begins to read like a summer Hollywood action movie. Seriously now... robots? Come on!

As the story begins to drag it becomes apparent how one dimensional most of the characters are. The lead Jake Grafton in particular. He behaves like a sort of meathead jock, but is portrayed as a real hero, and always knows just what to do- even when that involves killing bystanders. His remorse for doing this seems both passing and insincere. The story lacks a single genuinely strong female character. One runs a fortune cookie factory- not to tread over any Chinese clichés or anything...

On a largely irrelevant side note, it bothered me how little Coonts writes romance between Grafton and his wife. Grafton apparently loves this woman fiercely, enough that he would kill for her- yet when the two are reunited and make love; it covers the breadth of maybe a single sentence. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking for a [...] romance novel, but it speaks to the one dimensionality of the novel as a whole. Battles, planes, and guns are all described in excruciatingly long- and boring- detail (the caliber of practically every single weapon in the book is cited) yet the writer won't even touch on the subject of love or passion. Suffice it to say, I bet Mrs. Coonts finds him a lot of fun in the bedroom.

The book does have a couple of exciting passages that kept the pages turning, though they barely suffice to make it through the dregs that occur between the exciting segments. I finished reading the book out of closure rather than a genuine desire to see what happens to the players. If you payed to see the movie 'Stealth' this summer, support the war in Iraq, vote republican, or were the starting quarterback on your high school football team then you may enjoy this book. Otherwise, I recommend those considering this novel look for something written by an author with literary style greater than that of a freshman ROTC cadet.

Fresh from his mission in CUBA, U.S. Rear Admiral Jake Grafton finds himself on what he expects to be a relatively uneventful mission in Chinese controlled Hong Kong. His assignment there, to investigate possible ties between former comrade, software billionaire and US Consul General "Tiger" Cole and a group of political insurgents, seems so straightforward that he even brings his outspoken wife Callie with him to see the sights.

Jake's expectations are dashed when his associate, burglar extraordinaire Tommy Carmellini, retrieves a tape planted by the CIA from a Hong Kong businessman's office, even as said businessman's fresh corpse, discovered upon entry, enters
the initial stages of rigor mortis. It turns out that the corpse, China Bob Chan, had ties to both a Hong Kong crime cartel and the anti communist movement, as Callie discovers when Jake, unable to have the work done elsewhere, asks her
to translate the tape. Although Callie is unable to understand the nuances of the recorded conversations, someone is afraid she might, and thus kidnaps her. Her kidnapping makes things personal, as Grafton tears Hong Kong apart searching for his bride. His search also uncovers intriguing information about the scope of the revolutionary movement, whose roots reach far deeper than anyone suspects.

If you haven't yet read Coonts, you'll be pleasantly surprised by his sure footed story telling, larger than life characters, and his ability to juggle myriad elements in a complex plot. HONG KONG is a classic page turner, the kind of book that keeps you up way past your bedtime. The action never wanes; neither will your enjoyment.

The book had a most vivid narration and it was exciting in many ways up and until the end. The ending for me was a bit predictable as to the identity of Genesis and I had that figured out about halfway through the book. I was disappointed in the ending somewhat as it left some holes or rather some unexplained non-closure items with the legendary field agent, Todd Belknap that conveyed his character to be weak in the end showing a dramatic inconsistency as Belknap was so strong throughout the plot line of this novel. It was as if someone else stepped in and wrote the ending and ran out of runway with "I am woman hear me roar". If I knew how it would of ended, I may not have even started reading it. Attention! Tom Cain, Author of "The Accident Man", we need your new book, Part II: "The Survivor", and in a hurry!

As you (try to)read this book, you see an actual well told story...BUT with at least one Twenty-Five cent word on every page. I don't know the genius who could read this book, and not stop on one of these words and go "Huh????" If you haven't read this book, go to the book store first, thumb to ANY page and start reading. I swear 98% of the time you'll find a word you've never heard of before! Writers, this doesn't make you a better writer as your reader has to keep a dictionary next to them. Thumbs down, sorry.

I really enjoyed this book and will recommend it to my friends. I didn't see the ending coming. The minute I thought I had the plot down they twisted it. If you like this genre of 'spy action' books then I you will get your money's worth.

i enjoyed reading the BS,
as i do most ludlum books,
enjoyable, not great, but a good read, nonetheless.

Yes, another novel supposedly written by the supernaturally talented author from beyond the grave has hit the book shelves...and yet while several post-death Ludlum novels have actually been really good (The Jansen Directive & Sigma Protocol just 2 examples) this one has failed to pull off the so-called attempt to resurrect the patented writing style that the late Ludlum perfected 30+ years ago...and yet I gave the book 3 stars. You might wonder why. So here is my reasoning: for those who pop this book expecting the intricate plotting that we have come to know and love from Robert Ludlum, you will be sorely disappointed. It borders on insulting to issue this as written by this well-respected and talented author. And yet if you begin this novel KNOWING it wasn't written BY Robert Ludlum, I believe you can appreciate it for being what I like to refer to as *Ludlum Light*.

The actual story isn't terrible and while it makes a bold attempt to mimic the style and prose of our late beloved spy author, it just doesn't have that extra *something* we always could expect from him. I am having a difficult time exactly putting my finger on it, but suffice it to say that while this is an OKAY thriller, it would easily be considered the worst of all Ludlum novels had it actually been written by him. Based on what we have received in the past and what he has managed to deliver over the subsequent 30 years, I can safely say that releasing fluff like this in the guise of the great Ludlum is also an insult to his fans, and in no way helps advance the sales of his truly superior Cold War era spy thrillers the way they ought to.

If you have read this fully KNOWING it isn't written by Robert Ludlum and STILL enjoyed it, and yet haven't discovered his novels, man are you in for a MAJOR literary treat. Pick up all his early stuff and be prepared for weeks of absolute thrills. I recommend The Parsifal Mosaic, The Materese Circle, the entire Bourne Trilogy (especially the Bourne Supremacy), The Holcroft Covenant, The Chancellor Manuscript and the Acquitaine Progression just to name a few. In my opinion Ludlum remains the greatest Spy novelist of the Cold War era, and while some of the novels are a bit dated, for those of us who can recall the USSR and its communist regime as the Evil Empire as proclaimed by Reagan, discovering Ludlum is more than a welcome find.

The best thing I can say about the Bancroft Stretegy is this: it's okay and I'd say it probably doesn't suck...but doesn't even come close to the late authors worst book.