Burr Books

If you would like to read a novel in which the illegal aliens are the warm, honorable, compassionate characters and the Americans are the cold, crooked, conniving characters, then this is the one for you. As for myself, I have had quite enough of the NYTimes/WashingtonPost agenda of promoting the wonderfulness of the illegal alien invaders. I guess I'll try a different author for future reads.

I've read all twelve of Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski novels over the years. I don't read too many mysteries or detective stories, but I've consistently sought these out: Paretsky's a top notch writer, giving us a memorable cast of recurring characters and a sympathetic, tough-but-vulnerable protagonist in V.I.

Her previous outing, Blacklist, was a disappointment. Pacing was slow, and the plot felt secondary to political points that the author wanted to make. I'm happy to say that with Fire Sale, Paretsky has given us a much better read.

BySmart, really a stand-in for Wal*Mart, is a huge chain of stores, run by the Bysen family. The Bysens are used to getting their way. They do not renegotiate with their suppliers. They have a great deal of money -- thus a great deal of power. One of their suppliers is a flag manufacturing plant in Warskawski's home turf of South Chicago. An explosion that destroys the plant puts them out of business and means one less employer for South Chicago residents. It also draws suspicion and sets Warshawski on the path of an investigation that includes a missing Bysen family member, a runaway teen from the local high school, and a recording device that might tell the whole story -- if only it could be found!

Paretsky hasn't abandoned making points about social and political issues here, which is fine. However, we're introduced to a few too many stereotypically drawn South Chicago residents, battling the demons of unemployment, poverty, and teenage pregnancy. These characters feel a little bit two-dimensional. Still, unlike Blacklist, Fire Sale is still a page-turner: just what you want from a good Warshawski outing!

It's been a while since I got a mystery to read, but I was in one of those moods where I just cannot bare to read anything that I need to be able to remember or make sense of for teaching, or writing. I just looked quickly at the books available in the local pharmacy, and there was a Paretsky that I had managed to miss. As I've read most of her other ones, I thought I could take a chance. Some of the newer writers tend to go into areas that disturb me, or their language bothers me, but there are a few authors I feel comfortable with reading for 'light' material. Some people complain that Paretsky writes with an ulterior motive. Most of her material has stuff built into the plot to make a statement about something important to her. That's okay. I may not always agree with what she says, but then if I really wanted to read something asinine I would read a romance. I don't read those things because of exactly that reason.

Anyway, her plot in this book was much better than the last one was, though as per usual, she uses her novels to take pot-shots at what is currently bothering her. In this case, it must be corporate America as well as the current administration, plus current steps backwards that have been made in equal rights for women and other minorities in jobs and health care. Since I agree with her on this stuff, I have no problem reading a book with a decent plot utilizing this. It comes out a little preachy, a little heavy-handed...there was actually too much information in this book to make a good statement about any one problem. The plot deals with American corporations not paying decent wages, and paying unequal ones with an eye towards holding down health care costs by saying especially women cannot hold jobs that make a full 40 hour week. I guess they would have a problem if we were French, since they all currently work less than a 35 hour week. No one would be insured.

Paresky returns to South Chicago where she was born and raised to try to help, and ends up turning the place into a busy criminal beehive, with companies resorting to illegal tactics to keep costs down. The names of the entities may have changed, but anyone who reads a newspaper can pretty much determine who she is writing about. There is an awful lot of incongruity built into the plot...I figured out where the kids were prior to the chapters Paresky used to build up to the point. Others would have figured it out and checked with the other coach also.

As with many series, this one is getting old. AFter reading this much about Chicago, and visiting once, I have absolutely no desire to go anywhere near that city again. Makes me glad to live in Pittsburgh...between the attitudes of the cops, the criminals, the weather, etc. there is nothing of interest up there for me. It really seems like a dark place, a dark blot on our national landscape. Makes for great mystery novels, but wouldn't want to live there...

Karen Sadler

Sarah Paretsky started out as an amateur with a good premise: a real believable hard-boiled woman character. Her first books were entertaining, despite her obvious limitations as a writer. She no longer is an amateur and I no longer have patience with her incredibly awkward writing, her relentless inclusion of information that a talented high school-aged writer would know to edit out, lame dialogue and cardboard-cutout characters. After a dozen novels in what appears to be a very successful career, it is incumbent upon her to either try to learn more about her craft, or at least get an editor who can clean up her books for her. The mystery field has a lot of very talented women writers - Lindsey Davis, Donna Leon, Ellis Peters, Margaret Lawrence, Jamie Harrison, Martha Grimes, and on and on. Readers should demand better from their favorite authors than someone like Paretsky gets away with.

When I first heard of Sara Paretsky, she had only written two books. I used to go to a bookstore, and the owner recommended Paretsky to me as a writer who was similar to Sue Grafton, at least in the sense that both had female protagonists. That store owner told me that men tended to like her books more than women, and so she recommended the author to me. Those two books were quite good, serious, intelligent, straightforward detective novels with the one difference being that the main character is a woman. Since then, the author has built a good reputation as a detective novelist. At the same time, she's also gained chops as a "social critic", which at times is OK, but with Paretsky, it's not. She doesn't know how to do it subtly, and social criticism, if done ham-handedly, is just boring to read and silly.

PLOT SPOILER AHEAD
In the current episode, Paretsky's alter ego, V.I. Warshawski, has been called back to her old neighborhood by her former high school basketball coach. The coach is dying of cancer, can't coach the team anymore, and needs a replacement. Warshawski's reluctant: she runs her own detective agency, and doesn't have time for this, especially when she finds out that there's no pay. But her loyalty to her old coach overcomes that, and she finds herself blowing a whistle and yelling at a dozen girls as they run up and down the court.

The basketball isn't really what the book's about, though. If that were the case, it might have turned out to be a really good book: similar to Robert B. Parker's Spenser novel Early Autumn, which was the one that convinced me Parker was going to be something special. Instead, Paretsky steers the plot to the largest local business, BySmart, an obvious stand-in for Walmart (though that store is mentioned several times). BySmart is run by William Bysen, a World War II veteran, pulled-himself-up -by-his-bootstraps kind of guy, who has a large family who help him run the business. My first objection to the book is the portrayal of Bysen and his family. I know Paretsky well enough to know that they, or some of them anyway, are going to be the villains of the piece. They are Born Again Christians (of course), incredible hypocrites (goes without saying, doesn't it?), opposed to Unions (you knew that already), and incredibly greedy (why am I telling you this?). It's all written just heavy-handed enough to be silly, without going so far that you could say she was parodying herself. Anyway, Warshawski goes to the local warehouse for the company's stores to try and convince them to donate to her school basketball program, and they predictably have an ineffective, small charity that they've already set up, and trumpet in their TV commercials, so they don't need to give her any money. Then things get complex.

The mother of one of V.I.'s players works in a shop sewing sheets, banners, and flags. Someone's been trying to sabotage the plant, putting dead rats in the air vents of the building, gluing the doors shut with crazy glue, that sort of thing. She asks V.I. to look into it, then mysteriously backs off and insists the investigation is unnecessary, without saying why. V.I. won't buy that explanation, and doggedly continues her investigation (for which she isn't getting paid) without permission, and is watching the factory when it blows sky high, killing the owner.

Meanwhile, there's a separate issue in that another of Warshawski's players collapses on the floor of the court during practice. After a hospital visit and examination we learn she has a genetic heart condition, and can't play ball any more. It turns out her father is an old classmate of V.I.'s, and soon he's helping one of V.I.'s boyfriend Morell's colleagues, as that woman (her name is Marcena) as she tries to learn about "the America Europe doesn't know". She's English, a globe-trotting journalist who drove a tank through Bosnia one time, and Warshawski is predictably jealous of the rapport she has with Morrell, who's recently back from Afghanistan with many bullet holes, recuperating.

You can see there are a lot of plot threads here, and it takes a good long while for Paretsky to let her main character sort through them. This is a 500+ page private eye novel, and it's not tightly plotted like something Greg Iles or James Lee Burke would write, with everything sort of following from one event or incident to another. Here, poor Warshawski runs back and forth trying to keep all the balls in the air, and when the climactic confrontation between our heroine and the villains finally does occur, it's very predictable, and she's telegraphed it for at least half the book. It's also badly contrived, and doesn't really make a lot of sense, and once you discover who the actual killers are, their motivations are absurd, in the extreme, even for spoiled rich kids.

I used to really enjoy Sara Paretsky. I know her politics are different from mine, and that didn't used to matter. I still read Walter Mosley, for instance, and I'm pretty sure I disagree with his politics too: his stories trump that, however. Paretsky's gotten so lame with hers, though, that they cripple the story and make everything very very predictable. The only mystery here is why someone thought the book should be in the mystery section. It's sort of annoying, perhaps dismaying, to know that someone dislikes rich people (other than themselves, of course) enough that they can't find anyone or anything positive to say about a character they make wealthy. Yes, there are corporate moguls who every bit as evil as the ones she portrays in the book, but they're not *all* like that. I think Paretsky either doesn't think they exist, or alternatively thinks they'd make a bad story. Unfortunately, so did the characters she chose to portray.

I like her other books so I was fully prepared to enjoy this one....but I didn't. After the first part of the book, the bulk of it was an homage to her mentor. That is all very nice but I did not find it to be interesting and it was a chore to finish the book.

For admirers of Kathleen Norris' excellent "Dakota" and "The Cloister Walk," as well as those interested in the Academy of American Poets whose Betty Kray created the template for visiting writers programs, this is an engaging read. The principal attraction here is that of Norris's other books: she is very good company. When you read her work, you have privileged access to someone who leads a true life of the mind and the spirit. Her dedication to Kray is one of the book's major themes but Norris is also worthy of her mentor, someone who learned to stand on her own and create personal memoirs of a very high order. I would recommend Norris for anyone who wants a sane alternative to the values of American consumer culture.

A valuable history of several decades of poetry and "poetry politics" in the United States. As many other reviewers have noted, the title has little connection, however, to the contents. This fact was annoying to me, and perhaps detracted from my appreciation of the book's contents.

With the title of The Virgin of Bennington and knowing Kathleen Norris as a contemplative Christian author, one might expect something of a coming of age memoir on the heathen campus of Bennington. After all, Norris has written The Cloister Walk. Some of that expectation is met as Norris describes how a not very worldly girl arrived at the very worldly New York City campus. But Norris also writes about how she was accepted at Bennington for who she was and her meeting other poets (Jim Carroll, Stanley Kunitz, etc) and how she wanted to be a poet as well. But, more specifically, The Virgin of Bennington is about poets and poetry and most of all about Betty Kray, Norris's mentor and a guiding voice in American poetry.

I held off on reading this for years even after I was enthralled by Dakota, The Cloister Walk, and Amazing Grace; and so I was pleasantly surprised by my enjoyment of the book. In a sense, it is nothing like her other non-fiction because it does not focus on religion or spirituality, but rather on the other love of her life: poetry. There is a major treatment of her relationship with Betty Kray and how important Kray was to the shaping of American poetry even though Kray was so unassuming that if you didn't know her you didn't know of her.

Think of this book as a prequel, of sorts, to Dakota. It tells of how Norris went to Bennington, was immersed in the poetry scene, but finally ended up at her grandmother's home in South Dakota and truly found her voice. I found it most interesting because I am already familiar with her other non-fiction, but this book lacks the impact of her other work. There is enough to interest those looking to read about poets and poetry, but not nearly as much for fans of Norris's non-fiction. Fans of her poetry may very well find value here.

-Joe Sherry

This book contains the memoirs of the formative years of Kathleen Norris. Norris attended high school in Hawaii, where her father, a professional musician, was stationed with the Navy orchestra. When it came time to start her undergraduate studies, Norris found herself at Bennington College in Vermont, completely unprepared for the sexually permissive culture of the East Coast in the 1960s. During part of her senior year at Bennington, she worked as an intern at the Academy of American Poets in New York City. Following her graduation, she took a full-time position at the Academy, assisting with all manner of office chores, from fetching the mail to escorting poets to their readings for the Academy around the City. This book relates Norris' adventures during those years, when she was finding herself both as an adult and as a poet. The book is also a record of Norris' relationship with her mentor, Betty Kray, executive director of the Academy.

Far from the titillating blurb on the cover, which mentions Norris' acquaintances in New York, such as Jim Carroll or Erica Jong, the book is focused more on Betty Kray and her tireless campaign to bring poetry into the mainstream through her work at the Academy. Indeed, some of the anecdotes of the people Norris met during her time in Manhattan almost come across as name-dropping. In some places, the text drags a little as Norris breaks off the main narrative to give details about seemingly unrelated events from different time periods. Nevertheless, the story provides a slow-paced tale of Norris' early years as a poet, which may help fans of her other books better understand some of the events that continue to influence her today. The book is also a beautiful memorial to the remarkable work of Betty Kray.

This book has been given quite a good number of reviews on this site, so I would like to merely add some pertinent points. In my opinion, the format that Kennedy used in this book, zooming backward and forward in time, and in and out from one scenario or character to the next, was wholly appropriate given the task he set for himself. Kennedy did not intend, nor claim to intend, to review the full chronological history here. His intention was to zoom in on what he saw as the salient elements of the characters of these men. This style should not be confusing to one who has read previous biographies and histories of these men. I found the book immensely gratifying. I have been a "student" of Burr history for over twenty years. The truth is, there are a tremendous number of discrepancies in prior accounts of Burr, which no previous scholar has resolved. Kennedy has pulled together a massive amount of material to bring together the facts which lead to his insights, and I believe that those insights are dead-on right.

This book has a beginning but not a middle or an ending. He skips, for example, Burr's final trial in front of Marshall that was the cornerstone of the Jefferson/Marshall antipathy. (There is discussion of the surrounds political background and a touch of the law involved, but no more.) I was, and still am, very interested in the character of our founding fathers, and this is what is promised. Other than Hamilton was a good guy (you won't find out why) and Jefferson was a scheming politician with an uncertain grip on ethical behavior (Kennedy is certainly not the first historian to think so), I don't know much more than when I started the book other than to follow Burr's ramblings around the country while he was searching for either treason or a life purpose. I certainly know nothing more about Burr. He is defended generally, but there is no factual skeleton to which these conclusions can be attached. Why did Jefferson so hate and distrust Burr? No clue. Did Burr have treasonous plans? Kennedy thinks not, but never proves it. We learn that Burr is educated, amiable and good company but always from indirect testimony of side characters whose lives are pursued in painful and unecessary detail. This book is for historians already familiar with the duel, Jeffersonian politics and with overview of the times, and already knows whether Burr was looking for land or adventure. Burr's motivations? Unknown. There is a list at the end of possible motives but they are not compelling argued--and nearly not argued at all. The detail is excruciating without being informative. Sometimes I felt as though I was reading another book altogether: lush descriptions of architecture or the landscape or side trips into historical detail that doesn't have any bearing on the character of anyone. Kennedy's word choices are certainly academic but often unecessary flourishes that detract from the flow of his text. The time line tangles. I had the sense he wanted to impress me with his erudition and slap around unamed but apparently competitive scholars--neither of which are reasons for reading the book. I still would like to read the book the title promises. This is just not it.

If you are expecting to read about the influence these three founding fathers had on the development of early America, you will be disappointed. If you would like to learn about the backgrounds and development of character of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, again, you will not find that information in this book. However, if you intend to expand your knowledge of Aaron Burr and to reinforce any support you might have of the man and his politics, then this is the book to read.

The style of writing Mr. Kennedy presents as he attempts to study the "character" of these three founders is disjointed and difficult to follow. He initially writes about one of them and then continues on to the other two without any recognizable continuity of the point he is attempting to make.

Eventually, the book focuses exclusively on Mr. Burr and turns into nothing short of a complete endorsement of him, his personality, and his politics. Burr was definitely an intelligent and capable man, and he did not shy away from difficult assignments in the Revolutionary War. However, his personality defects, as well as his pursuit of power at all costs, have deprived him of an elevated status when compared to other founding fathers, particularly Hamilton and Jefferson.

To obtain clearer portraits on the character of Hamilton and Jefferson, I would recommend the books by Ron Chernow and Joseph Ellis. If you are interested in the life of Burr and support his politics, this is the book to read.

One of the worst books I've ever attempted to read. The author rambles from Burr to Hamilton to Jefferson with no thread between the characters or background. The author assumes you know all the background and gives you his opinions on it. Don't waste you time on this as I did!

Roger Kennedy freely acknowledges at the beginning of this study that he has a point of view: Aaron Burr had a greater character and value to our nation than his reputation provides, while Hamilton and Jefferson had lesser character and value to our nation than their reputations. This book is a clear and concise defense of Aaron Burr, amply annotated, easily read, and quite entertaining. On a larger scale, the study gives reason to contemplate the formulation of reputation, especially historically. Had not Burr's daughter perished at sea with all his notes and letters, we might have a much greater opinion of Burr. Any fair reader of this book will come to a much deeper appreciation for Burr, the man, and the failures and shortcomings of Hamilton and Jefferson. I highly commend this book to your attention.

This is my first Muller book and it was not a great start. I was engaged at first and read rapidly making mental notes of the characters and locales so I could absorb the details and emerse myself in the story. Halfway through the book it occurred to me that things were not coming together. The secondary characters never moved to the forefront. But most disappointing was the ending. The book just stopped. There was not a final wrap-up where the police and the surviving characters reflect on the past or project the future. This is not a spoiler, but be aware that it is never explained why Ardis acted like she does. She has no personality beyond the way Carly, her lesbian partner, and Matt, her ex-husband, see her. Even her daughter has remarkably little to say about her. The book would have been so much better if the focus had been the complex Gwen/Ardis and included her thoughts and point of view. Why was she so restless and uncomfortable to the point that she rearranged the lives of other people? What made Ardis so endearing that others wanted to protect and keep her - except her parents? Was it her sexual orientation, her sexual confusion, or, as I suspect, did sex have nothing to do with it?

What was the deal with the mayor and the developer about the gold? That subplot was never fully developed and not resolved, and in the end the fate of the property was not discussed. It made no sense and added nothing to the story, although it could it could have if done differently. What was the point of the focus on the gay couple? I thought the book was going to be about gays and pro-gay life, but I got little insight into the lives of rich gay couples and their children. Whatever sensitivity the character Ardis brought to her articles about gays was certainly missing from Muller's book.

In conclusion, I would have to say that this book was like the character Matt, spying on Ardis and Carly through the lens of his camemra. We saw bits and pieces of various characters lives, stepped in and then out, but without knowledge and understanding. Hollow observation. Shallow read. Provocative only if you have a vivid imagination.

greed, corruption, hate and murder take a back seat to the true lives and the complexities of people who enter into troubled relationships.

After fourteen years, Matthew Lindstrom, accused in the beginning of the book in the disappearance and possible murder of his wife Gwen, receives an anonymous phone call in British Columbia, where he's been running a fishing business and ignoring the photography career he once loved.

On Gwen's trail in Soledad County, California, he takes up the camera once again as a photographer under an assumed name for the SOLEDAD SPECTRUM, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning newspaper run by hard-nosed former "lesbian prom queen" and former social outcast Carly McGuire, in the city of Cyanide Wells, an apt metaphor for the poison that infects Matt and Carly's lives. That poison takes shape in Carly's life-mate Ardis Coleman, or more accurately, Gwen Lindstrom, whose lesbian nature presumably led her to run from Matt after he pressured her to have children. The irony: Ardis has supposedly given birth to a daughter, Natalie, after an affair that betrayed Carly...and Ardis has stolen Natalie, forcing Matt and Carly to join forces and find the woman they yearn to confront. Marcia Muller peels away the layers of the onion to give us a tale of complexity, subtlety and depth.

My one complaint is that Carly pretty much takes over, leaving us to wonder about Matt, who we care about equally, even a little bit more.

I'll fully engrosed with this mystery. Can't wait to see how it ends.

Muller has long been acknowledged as the mother the female hardboiled private eye subgenre, and when one has created and nutured as character as fleshed out and "alive" as Sharon McCone, it is disappointing when a stand alone book contains characters as unfleshed out, and even cartoonish as the people who populate "Cyanide Wells." She has created two potentially likeable characters in Matt and Carly, who team up to find what is up with the woman who both has loved...at considerable cost. When the truth about the missing woman is revealed, the reader is left with the feeling that the fatal flaw in each of the protagonists is they are truly lousy judges of character.

Muller returns to the North Coast of California, the fictional Soledad County, which in "Point Deception" stood in for the mismatched twins, Mendicino and Fort Bragg. She has captured a lot of the local color of those very different towns, yet even so, never conveys the outsider-local culture clash which has been a part of the area since I began to regularly visit there, which is for about thirty years. Still, it is clear that Muller knows the area very well, and that's fine....

However, the story just isn't a story. It is an outline, a few character sketches, and a concept, about as developed as the book the missing woman is supposedly writing. Also, from the various descriptions of gay culture in the area, I get the feeling this book was started 10 or so years ago, and was shelved and updated...by just changing the dates.

Admittedly, my opinion of this book has been colored by the awesomely horrible reading of this book, as released by Brilliance Audio....which utterly ruined by the vocal talents of "Sandra Burr" who sounds like a narrator who specializes in children's voices, and given over to handle Carly's point of view. I don't know where you come from, but in Mendocino, not too many lesbian newspaper owners sound like Rocky the Flying Squirrel! J. Charles, who does the man's part of book is okay.

Please, Marcia...do whatever you can to save your books from the clutches of Brilliance. They have one good narrator, Dick Hill...and if he isn't assigned to your book...you are fresh out of luck. And when Sandra Burr is assigned to direct as well as provide the voices....well...think of it as a learning experience.

Character-based. Does that make it `literature,' by definition? Perhaps. Marcia Muller is one or our more artistic and literate mystery writers, and this is a good one. It deals with an identity puzzle. Matthew's wife appears to have been murdered, but no body is found; because suspicion focuses on him, he hits the trail and makes a new life for himself in a different country. Then his `wife' calls, he travels to seek closure with her, and finds she's gone missing again, this time from the home she shares with her lesbian lover, Carly. She and Matt join forces to find this mystery woman, and...well, read the book yourself.

I thoroughly enjoyed Garden of Lies but found this sequel boring. Several reviewers below expressed my feelings very well... too much rehash and reminiscing about past history... overly redundant... I kept reading (more like skimming), hoping for some progression in the story, only to find this continued throughout the book. Just when something was about to happen, the character went into memory mode. Sylvie faded into the background and her daughters are now just older whiners. Drew, Iris and Mandy were central characters but there wasn't enough background about their lives to give the reader a reason to care about them. When I'm enjoying a book, I don't want it to end; sorry to say this was not one of them.

I read this book from start to finish. Some parts are hard to figure out because of the switching of the babies, and I didn't care for the ending. I thought that this book was dragged out in parts. Wouldn't recommend it.

This book was most wonderful and interesting. It is the sequel to "Garden of Lies" which is a top-of-the-line book. This book is also awesome. Especially since I already knew the characters. The Baby Switch finally comes to the truth of what actually happened and why it happened. I definitely recommend this book, but read "Garden of Lies" first. I think these 2 books are Eileen's best adult novels. (By the way, I think her best teen novels are the series of 4 "Who Killed Peggy Sue?" which is a mystery.) This book was not boring at all.

The story starts out with Rose who has lost her husband and soulmate Max. She is a practicing lawyer, who meets Eric at a business reception and knows she doesn't want to take up with someone else in spite of her secret interest there with Eric. And Eric keeps persisting until he will win her heart-maybe. If Rose wants him to. Rose also has children, and a stepdaughter Mandy with a drinking problem that Mandy refuses to think she has. Rose's son Drew, wants to marry Rachel's daughter Iris, who is very mentally dysfunctional and has a multitude of emotional problems. Part of that was because she was abandoned by her biological mother. Rose brought the child to Rachel when Iris was about 2, and Iris has always been traumatized by memories in the past. So she is a very difficult person to deal with.

Rachel who also is a doctor at a clinic, (most of them troubled teen girls who have become pregnant, has an author husband of whom she is growing further apart from all the time. Her marriage becomes more and more troubled until finally it may be headed for divorce-and Rachel is doing whatever she can to hold the pieces together. In all of this, Brian and Rose are fond of each other, always were, and this is part of the problem is that Rachel feels he loves Rose much more.

Then, in the center of the story, (in fact the main point), is Sylvie, the mom of Rachel, (and Rose, but Rose doesn't know this horrible secret), who is dying. On her deathbed she confesses to Rachel that Rose is her biological daughter, not her, and that during a fire she rescued Rachel, and Rose was lost to her. So Rachel and Rose are in a serious conflict of what to do after her death in the book.

Iris seriously needs help through the whole book, and Rose definitely hasn't wanted Drew marrying her, especially after the turns and twists that take place within the family scope in this story which as a whole, was very well written!

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't read the previous book because I didn't even know there was a prequel. Goudge does an excellent job with her characters. Both the females are strong, admirable, but unique. The plot did move faster than her other books. I will say however, that she needs to rethink her heavy reliance on setting. Goudge spends almost three pages describing the old woman in her garden. We get it! She loves her roses! Otherwise, this is a good book.

Edna Buchanan's prose style catches me up and sweeps me along, every time. It's descriptive, accurate, tense. And usually, Buchanan's plots and characters catch me up as well.

But not this time. Keppie, the serial murderess, is so wierd and wired that she is only an oddity, evoking no empathy from the reader. Her victims gradually lose individuality and become one senseless victim after another. And Britt Montero, erstwhile girl journalist, ends up being stupid and self-indulgent: she does anything for the story, including ignoring those around her who desperately need her help.

So much for the characters. It's also true that there is no mystery. Keppie is a mass murderer. Britt is a girl reporter in a dangerous situation. Joey is a small boy who exists merely to arouse our sympathy, and then disappears. The cops are after everybody. They catch Keppie, free Britt, and send Joey home.

But for the masterful prose style of Edna Buchanan, this novel deserves a miss.

The small stories at the beginning of this book were the best part. In the main story line, the killer's character was well developed and believable but Britt as a hostage just did not ring true. Although Britt admits, at the end of the book, that her actions were foolish and irresponsible, it left me wondering how such a smart and savvy woman wouldn't have figured this out in the beginning. The ending came as no big surprise. This was a fairly interesting character study, but as a mystery it was sadly lacking

In her latest book, Garden Of Evil, Edna Buchanan's alter ego, Miami News police reporter Britt Montero (Buchanan's alter ego) gets lucky and follows a couple of Miami's finest to the site of a particularly gruesome murder. A politician of questionable character has been found in a rent-a-room-by-the-hour motel. He's been shot in very personal places, with pictures of his wife and kids left on strategic parts on the body. A Viagra pill nestles in the dead man's chest hairs. Britt would've normally been surprised at the killer's MO, but not this time. For the past few days, a woman knick-named the Kiss Me Killer been on the loose picking up unsuspecting men, having sex with them and then killing them in a most brutal fashion. Her public spree begins with a sheriff in northern Florida and continues as she makes her way south into Dade County, Britt's territory. Because she breaks the story in her paper, Britt eventually ends up in a dialogue with the killer, who wants Britt to tell her side of the story. In order to get the exclusive story, Britt agrees to meet with the woman. However, the police are involved, so Britt has to wear a wire. Of course, the killer is smart enough to outwit them all, and Britt ends up as her prisoner and the killing continues. The author lost me a bit when she brought an innocent child into the fray. Maybe she wanted the reader to know just how sick and twisted the killer was, but, to me it was a bit over the top. And I didn't really understand one of the subplots involving a former Orange Bowl Queen, but it didn't detract from the main story line. Although the ending was a bit unsatisfying, maybe the author was laying the groundwork for a sequel. I disagree with Britt's conclusion about there being "evil" gene that caused the killer to act out her fantasies. Maybe it was the sex at six years old that turned her...or her mother's past.... or the fact that she grew up unloved and unwanted...or maybe she saw what her mother did to those men...or maybe it was the taunt of the kids at school that first gave her the lust for blood. I didn't have sympathy for the killer, but I could certainly understand how she might be wired differently from the rest of the world. I read the book in one sitting, and although I have serious doubt about Britt's reluctance to free herself from the hostage situation, I liked the story and look forward to reading more about her life as a reporter in a city that certainly contains a lot of dark and humid secrets yet to be told. What a joke of a book....I don't know if you publish PANS, but I thought I'd send it along anyway... Terry H. Mathews Reviewer

First there's Britt, our heroine. A self-actualized reporter enjoying her career and her on again/off again affair with a cop. Then there's Althea, the discarded trophy wife whose claims of being in peril are dismissed by everyone, including her family, as a pathetic plea for attention. Then there's Keppie, the sexpot serial killer (perhaps based on Aileen Wornoss -- sp?). What a thrill ride! As a fiction reader, I would have preferred it if Buchanan had tied up the loose ends a bit better -- was Britt ever investigated for the role as Keppie's accomplice, whatever happened to young Joey, does Keppie ever meet what seems to be her ultimate fate? But maybe the author handled it this way because this is how life is ... we don't always get the answers we want when we want them.

Edna Buchanan is a writer with a wonderful conversational style. Five minutes into reading her gripping non-fiction or her Britt Montero books and I feel like I'm back with an old friend. Buchanan doesn't disappoint in Garden of Evil. We are quickly caught up in Britt's hectic business life and almost non-existent personal life. We find her at a low point in her career as she is assigned tedious and demeaning stories and has to fight again to show her bosses what a great reporter she is.

This time she is on the trail of the Kiss Me Killer - a woman who murders sexually predatory men. Things begin to click and Britt is able to connect with the killer. After a disasterous meeting Britt is kidnapped by the killer and unfortunately this is when the books begins to fall badly.

The life seems to go out of the book as Britt becomes a passive captive watching the killer, Keppie, committ mayhem. Maybe there is an inherent problem in having the protagonist of a mystery series be quite so helpless. The same problem seemed to hurt L is for Lawless, Sue Grafton's only Kinsey Milhone misfire. There is also a hideous scene where Britt is aware that Keppie is going to murder a harmless man while Britt takes care of his very young child. Realistically there is probably nothing more that Britt can do but the scene is very creepy and the moral implications of Britt allowing the man to die without putting up more of a fight are never explored. The novel even ends passively with Britt having little to do with the capture of Keppie but again, uncomfortably, having some complicity in the death of another, far less innocent man.

Any book by Edna Buchanan is worth reading. But if you have never read one of her books before, I suggest that you start with an earlier Britt Montero book and come to this one later after you are already addicted to Buchanan's imminently readable prose.

When a baby is snatched in the night, the lives of three women are forever changed.

The kidnapping of her daughter twenty-three years ago still haunts Ellie Nightingale, and her obsession with having another child is driving a wedge between her and her husband.

Kate Sutton has spent those same twenty-three years hiding the most soul-wrenching decision of her life from the rest of the world while learning to cope with her disability.

And Skyler Sutton is a champion equestrian for whom no hurdle is ever too high until she is challenged by her impossible love for a tough-talking New York City cop.

This fascinating novel is "Trail of Secrets" by Eileen Goudge. It will capture your heart in the first chapter and keep you reading until the conclusion.

I loved this story. It was awesome and interesting. The main character had a baby at a young age that was kidnapped, and then she was determined to adopt another one after she became a psychologist. That attempted adoption is very interesting - I won't say more in case you haven't read the book yet. I probably would have given it a 5 if it had of been a little shorter. This story didn't need so many pages to be told.

I really enjoyed this book. I have to agree with some of the posts that say it was not a mystery. It wasn't. I think it couldv'e been, had the author left out the truth in the first 2 chapters, but I also think that is kept us wondering when everyone would learn the truth. I liked the characters. They were sometimes unlikeable, which is real. I will have to read more of Eileen Goudge's books.

Not my cup of tea... no suspense.. too much heartrending emotions that went on and on but not convincing..

Is it just me, or was the whole plot written on the front flap of the book? I think this author should have kept some of the details secret, keep the reader in suspense & surprise us as the story unfolds. Like the majority of good books. How great is it when you are reading along & something amazing & shocking happens that you didn't see coming? I read about 35 pages of this book & I put it down. I just couldn't get into it. I found the dialogue very dry. I also felt like it was being written almost in movie format, not first person. Some of the thoughts were very over-dramatic. And I really just felt like what was the point in reading this book, when I knew what was going to happen from the flap? Maybe I should have stuck it out & tried reading more, but this book lost my interest, quick.

It may be truth or fiction, as other reviewers complained, but the book is written well and makes for a good read.

To quote Dan Ford, the grandson and biographer of John Ford, who for not good reason plays a large part in this biography, Leaming's book is a "cheap, exploitive work of fiction that pretends to be a biography; it's a romance novel that uses well-known and therefore marketable names for its characters. . . ." New York Times, May 14, 1995

With regard to the purported thoroughness of the research, the author of an upcoming biography of Spencer Tracy, Selden West, said in part in the same New York Times edition:

"Of the many instances of Ms. Leaming's distortions and omissions, perhaps the most egregious relates to the cache of love letters to Ford that forms the back bone of this book. As Ms. Leaming tells us "it was during the several weeks I spent in Bloomington studying the Ford papers that Katharine Hepburn first came alive for me in a way that made this book possible to write. Day after day, I would arrive at the library as the doors opened and begin to read Kate's letters to Ford -- letters unlike any others of hers I was to see. I read at breakneck speed all the while marking pages to be photocopied, pages I was later to read countless times until the words and phrases were carved in my memory."

These are the facts. The Lily library in Bloomington owns five letters from Ford to Ms. Hepburn and sixteen communications from Ms. Hepburn to Ford. Of these sixteen several are postcards and telegrams and half are dated after 1960 (Their serious involvement was in 1936-37, long before Ms. Hepburn met Tracy.) At most there are two love letters. The day after day regimen that Ms. Leaming describes is only possible if she is the slowest reader alive, she is reading the same letters over and over again or she is misrepresenting the Lily holdings.

The last seems clear when one re-examines Ms. Leaming's story. "In the spring of 1940 when Kate returned to Los Angeles . . . . her relationship with Ford was still somehow unresolved. Their correspondence shows that they never stopped caring for each other. Gradually the lovers became loving friends. Yet there was no demarcation, no definite unambiguous yes or no. To read their letters from that time is to watch them struggle, sometimes uncomfortably to forge a new kind of relationship."

There is no correspondence between Katharine Hepburn and John Ford from the spring of 1940 -- indeed from the entire 1940s - at the Lily library, or to my knowledge, anywhere else. In the Lily library there is no correspondence between Ford and Ms Hepburn at all dated between 1939 and 1954 - both those years are represented by single letters; the first a thank you note, the second a film offer. The next contact is a postcard in 1960. Ms. Leaming has bent the fact to establish a romantic triangle that simple never existed."

In light of the fact that Ms. Hepburn has now been revealed as a lesbian whose affair with the gay Spencer Tracy was a big beard for the public, I find all these reviews objecting to any love relationship with John Ford because Spencer was her great love fascinating.

Barbara Leaming is a brilliant biographer. She somehow missed what William Mann et al. picked up on once Ms. Hepburn died - that is, that she, like everyone else in Hollywood's golden age was gay. If Hepburn was a lesbian, then Tracy was definitely gay. Gee, I wonder how Barbara missed that. Tsk tsk all that research, all that work and somehow that just never came up. She must not have talked to the right anonymous and inside sources. She probably depended on things like interviews with people who knew Hepburn, her private papers, studio documents, etc. She didn't know that in order to get info on Spencer Tracy, for instance, you have to go to secret gay flop houses.

As for John Ford - in a recent documentary about John Ford, we hear a tape recording between Ford and Katharine Hepburn made while he was very ill in which he tells her he loves her. Dan Ford was taping an encounter with them, went to get something in his car, and left the recorder running. The documentary states that Ford worshipped her (of course, you have to realize that Ford has now been outed as well). Since I head the tape recording, why should I believe any of you that there was no relationship? Was it love on Hepburn's part? I don't know. There was something, though.

Why people find all this endlessly fascinating, I have no idea, especially when one book contradicts the other. I'm supposed to believe that she and Spencer were gay, that Spencer was the only love of her life, that she was a big fat phony. Frankly, it's hard to believe anything.

I do, however, believe that Barbara Leaming is a wonderful writer and biographer. Her bios of Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles were excellent. I have no respect for James Robert Parrish, who is third rate, or people like William Mann who push forward their own agenda - as long, of course, that the person is dead. Wouldn't want a lawsuit now, would we.

I wish I could give it a big fat zero but anyway...
The author is delusional and puts forth her own agenda totally ignoring facts. She has this unrequited love between John Ford and Katharine which only she has ever wrote about. Unfortunately since them other writers take it as truth.
Kate herself said in her "All About Me" documentary that despite what many thought she was never romantically involved with him. Yet according to this author this was the love of Kate's life when everyone knows it was without a doubt Spencer Tracy who this author totally deems a horrible human being.
A total BS book lets hope someone out there can write as close to the truth book on this great lady not this trashy drivel????

To quote Dan Ford, the grandson and biographer of John Ford, who for not good reason plays a large part in this biography, Leaming's book is a "cheap, exploitive work of fiction that pretends to be a biography; it's a romance novel that uses well-known and therefore marketable names for its characters. . . ." New York Times, May 14, 1995

With regard to the purported thoroughness of the research, the author of an upcoming biography of Spencer Tracy, Selden West, said in part in the same New York Times edition:

"Of the many instances of Ms. Leaming's distortions and omissions, perhaps the most egregious relates to the cache of love letters to Ford that forms the back bone of this book. As Ms. Leaming tells us "it was during the several weeks I spent in Bloomington studying the Ford papers that Katharine Hepburn first came alive for me in a way that made this book possible to write. Day after day, I would arrive at the library as the doors opened and begin to read Kate's letters to Ford -- letters unlike any others of hers I was to see. I read at breakneck speed all the while marking pages to be photocopied, pages I was later to read countless times until the words and phrases were carved in my memory."

These are the facts. The Lily library in Bloomington owns five letters from Ford to Ms. Hepburn and sixteen communications from Ms. Hepburn to Ford. Of these sixteen several are postcards and telegrams and half are dated after 1960 (Their serious involvement was in 1936-37, long before Ms. Hepburn met Tracy.) At most there are two love letters. The day after day regimen that Ms. Leaming describes is only possible if she is the slowest reader alive, she is reading the same letters over and over again or she is misrepresenting the Lily holdings.

The last seems clear when one re-examines Ms. Leaming's story. "In the spring of 1940 when Kate returned to Los Angeles . . . . her relationship with Ford was still somehow unresolved. Their correspondence shows that they never stopped caring for each other. Gradually the lovers became loving friends. Yet there was no demarcation, no definite unambiguous yes or no. To read their letters from that time is to watch them struggle, sometimes uncomfortably to forge a new kind of relationship."

There is no correspondence between Katharine Hepburn and John Ford from the spring of 1940 -- indeed from the entire 1940s - at the Lily library, or to my knowledge, anywhere else. In the Lily library there is no correspondence between Ford and Ms Hepburn at all dated between 1939 and 1954 - both those years are represented by single letters; the first a thank you note, the second a film offer. The next contact is a postcard in 1960. Ms. Leaming has bent the fact to establish a romantic triangle that simple never existed."

. I understand that the authors are a preacher and his wife, but they are a little too "religous for my taste. Good advice anyway.

This book is a Christian primer for those wanting to get married, and is coauthored by a pastor (John Hagee) and his wife, who each write half of the book from the male or female perspective. I found Hagee's oneliners and jokes tiresome after a while, but his advice is solid: love and respect your mate, and understand the differences between men and women. It was a good read, but I've read better books on relationships.

great therapy for couples old and young. john hagee tells it like it is and if more people would follow these steps, their relationship would prosper for real. it seems kinda corny if you havent been applying these techniques already, but trust me it works, esp. if you want to please your partner. and i really love the way it has the wife and husband part all in one book.
it's good, it's goood!

I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE THAT IS MARRIED OR GETTING MARRIED.
JOHN AND DIANE ARE RIGHT ON WITH THE WAY GOD INTENDED MARRIAGE TO BE. JUST READ THE BIBLE TO VERIFY.

I purchased this book a few months ago when my then fiance and I were having troubles which eventually led to us breaking up. I bought the book because of the chapter on honesty. I read pieces to my fiance that explained how his lying made me feel and what it was doing to me. Unfortunately, he was not ready to listen. We broke up, but are now talking again and have sought counseling with our pastor. He has now read the book and wishes he had been open enough to read it sooner. After showing the book to our pastor, he is now going to read it as well and asked if I would like to teach a class/study session with the book so that other couples- unmarried or married who are struggling with similar issues can learn ways to work through their issues as well.
I do not agree with every single word of the book. But, I agree with enough of it to know that a couple who has been married for over 30 years, has raised that many children and all are successful members of society that they must be doing something right.
As for the women who are having problems with the submission. Submission is about both people, not just the wife. After you experience "true" submission, you finally know just what God's intention for the sexual relationship is for. Too many of us are caught up in the everyday activities that we neglect our partners. If we spent a tenth of the time on our relationships that we spend on all the other stuff that consumes us..divorce would be a thing of the past.

This was almost like stepping back into the pages of Winnie the Pooh and the pleasure I remember from being in the magical 100 Acre Wood. Jo Coudert's memoir of seven of her pets, how she acquired them, lived with them, lost them, is fascinating, and each cat teaches a lesson about how our behavior impacts the life we experience. I think what Coudert wants us to know is maybe the cat can't change the way it is -- how its life experiences shaped its personality -- but people can if they understand why they do what they do. Her pen and ink illustrations are charming.

Now, where the controversy is: I don't know if a cat's early life experience shapes their behavior that much or if they just have personalities. I have a feral cat I caught when she was three months old and after six years, she's still shy and withdrawn, and I have a male cat we acquired at 3 weeks who is wild and unmanageable despite being raised by us since almost birth.

But the bigger controversy: Coudert keeps her cats in when she would go back to her city apartment, but in the country she let them out and some of them come to very bad ends as a result. You will shed many tears reading this book. I think only one of her cats lives a long life. She also did indeed, as one reviewer was horrified to learn, ship a couple out to be barn cats elsewhere, and they disappeared. I felt bad about that. I have one who sprays, too, and he is ruining our life, but I can't see myself getting rid of him even so.

Then again, the sainted Dr. Dodson in his behavioral book is on the side of a shorter cat life if it's a happier one - outside.

This book stays in my amazon.com shopping cart to give as gifts whenever I need one and I'm interested to see her other books on other topics. I've also been inspired to write my own cat book.

Although I basically enjoyed this book, I have very differing views of how cats should be treated. I believe that cats should be kept indoors for their health and safety as well as for the protection of wildlife. Remember, the "housecat" is domesticated, and is NOT a natural predator in the wild. You don't see people letting their dogs out at night, expecting them to return in the morning. We don't let our parakeets take a spin around town or let our goldfish splash in puddles in the driveway. So why do we let our cats roam the streets? Our attitudes about cats must change, and when they do, millions of cats around the world can be spared euthanasia due to over population. The author does, however, offer interesting insight into the different human characters that we certainly can learn from.

The author likes only the cats that behave according to her 'rules'. She blames the cats if they develop normal behaviors in reaction to the way they are treated. She expects them to be logical and to be able to 'reason'. When one cat hides much of the time as a result of being mistreated, the author says the cat should be more trusting and willing to take risks because the bad treatment is in the past. This is ridiculous. If you love cats, I don't think you'll like this book.

I truly enjoyed Jo's talents for writing and illustration and these talents shared with her readers on this wonderful book about her cats.

One can quickly feel the passion she has for these mysterious, delightful creatures. Reminiscing about these seven cats in her life all but transports the reader to GoWell (her home in the country) and the life she enjoys there with her dogs and cats and friends.

The heart she displays and articulates about her relationships with these seven are enjoyable to read, and the cat lover and/or owner can relate to the various emotions: the pain of losing, the thrill of discovery and growth.

Howeve, I must admit that this book would have easily been a five if she left it as this" "Seven Cats." She chose to allow this to become a commentary on living. That's where I humbly beg to differ, due to our different orientations of worldview. What I believe in is that all wonderful creatures (cats included) come from The Magnificent Creator God. I love his creatures and our cat Molly is one of our favorites. However, much as we love Molly and our two Shelties, we love the One who made them and us, and regard our relationship with Him as more important. God truly wants us to be good stewards of His creation, including cats and dogs. (Sidenote: I also take exception with her preference for cats over dogs. Dogs want to please their ownders far more than cats, and one can do much more activities with the dogs.)

Life brings with it many toils and troubles, as Jo relates. So where do we turn for help and relief and understanding and hope? I don't think we'll find the answer in our cats, as much as we cat lovers love them passionately. My suggestion is to turn to the One who gave us such remarkable gifts. Psychology and all the self-help advice in the world will not fill the void that only our Creator-Redeemer God can.

Jesus warned us not to turn inward into self or to nature (Matthew 24:24-26) but to Him who loved us and gave Himself on the cross us.

For those who share Coudert's search for truth, or see every path the same to truth, then this part of this well=written book will not bother. For those of the Christian-Judeo heritage who confess the First Commandment to be the highest, then this portion will not speak of the true art of living which we learn from in the Book of Life, the Holy Scriptures. However, the read is a good one, and I thank Jo for her passion for life, for cats and for seeking the truth to make sense of it all.

This is a gentle book, an easy read. Cat lovers will recognize the endless antics, distinct personalities, and uncompromisingly self-seeking behavior of these always amusing companions. The author describes the often devious methods that her cats have used in insisting that they will live with her in spite of her protestations, and she focuses on the unique qualities of each animal.

However, early in the reading, the real depth within the book becomes vividly apparent, and the telling goes beyond the surface stories. As the author explores the challenges and delights of living with cats, she discovers the life lesson each brought with her or him. The lessons learned are universal truths, ideas most of us are familiar with but too often forget in our hurried lives. The reminders of these truths are welcome, easy to accept, and appreciated as revealed through the various tales.

This is a lovely little book to give as a gift to good friends - even if they are not confirmed cat people.