Dunne Books

A short, easy to read book by Howard Engel, a Canadian mystery author who woke up one day to find that he couldn't read. Having suffered a stroke, Engel now suffered from a condition called alexia sine agraphia, which left him without the ability to read and make sense of letters and words, although he could still write. This odd seeming condition resulted because the stroke had damaged part of his brain which deals with vision, not language, meaning that while his facility with words and their meanings remained intact, he was unable to see them on the page and interpret them as he had inthe past.This could have been a horror story; anyone who loves books and the enjoyment and enrichment they bring to our lives will surely shudder at the thought of this happening to themselves. Engel, however, was not as terrified as I might have been. He was confused and disoriented, to be sure, but worked with therapists to relearn reading (still difficult for him) and to find ways to compensate for his other losses due to the alexia as well as vision loss and memory problems. Quite an interesting book.

In January, my husband had a stroke which left him with Alexia. The author's experience gives us hope that he, too, will recover his ability to read. The biggest problem is finding therapists who are trained to help.

Ugh. What a tedious book.
I received the book today, and finished reading it in just a few hours. I skipped over many pages. The book is too short for a proper book, really, and I think it would have been better had Mr Engel written a long-ish article instead of a very short book.
I did not find it fascinating or inspirational or wonderful, to me it was just..dull, and a bit repetitious.
When I finished the book, it immediately went into the pile of books I have saved up to take a local used book store.

Howard Engel woke up one morning, opened his daily paper and discovered he could no longer read. "The letters, I could tell, were the familiar twenty-six I had grown up with. Only now, when I brought them into focus, they looked like Cyrillic one moment and Korean the next."

He had had a stroke. As the morning proceeded he forgot names - including his own. Familiar landmarks appeared in unfamiliar places. He was unable to say what relation he was to his son.

While all this would be devastating to anyone, the alexia - his inability to decipher written words - was a special blow. Engel was not only a voracious reader, he was a writer, the award-winning Canadian author of the popular Benny Cooperman detective series. He had lost his means for making a living.

Or maybe not. Engel had alexia sine agraphia. Which meant he could still write - he just couldn't read what he had written. "The sine agraphia was the sop designed to make me feel good. It was like being told that the right leg had to be amputated but that I could keep the shoe and sock."

But the possibility continued to percolate as he went through weeks of rehab and readjustment. Engel relates this time of confusion and effort with humor, clarity and insight, exploring the mysteries of the brain and its elastic abilities to compensate and fill in gaps.

Back at home, while still putting garbage in the dishwasher or laundry in the fridge, a book begins to take shape. Benny, his detective, hospitalized with brain damage after a blow to the head, solves the mystery of how it happened without leaving his hospital ward.

Engle describes the strangeness of composing a chapter and being unable to read it; of starting down a plot path and forgetting its destination, of the tricks he uses to anchor himself to the text.

Spare, thoughtful and upbeat, Engel illuminates the "insult" to the brain and the business of learning to live with it. He had help - a wide network of family and friends and a relationship with neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, who provided an afterword for Engel's post-stroke Cooperman book and supplies another for this memoir. But it was his own calm acceptance and determination that got him through each day and will arouse empathy and admiration in the reader.

Five-and-one-half years ago I almost died during brain tumor surgery. Going into brain surgery, you would think that my fear of dying was my biggest fear... but it wasn't! I told my son Justin that I wasn't afraid of dying, because I know I raised him correctly, and he became the man he is today... and being the man he became, I was prouder of him than anything I had ever done in my entire life... so I knew he would be ready to carry on. I also was able to say goodbye to him the way I wanted to, as the second's ticked away leading to my surgery. A lot of people watch too many movies, so they think everybody gets to be like John Wayne... and get to give a big emotional speech as they die in someone's arms. My absolute biggest fear... which I told my son, and my brain surgeon... is becoming a "vegetable"... or having this super-fast brain I was blessed with... locked in a body... and not be able to communicate. I made my son promise to tell me the truth, and not lie to me after the surgery, if I made it through, and couldn't repeat certain key statistics to him such as all fourteen Major League ballplayer's who won the triple crown.

I survived the surgery (I wasn't told for three weeks about what really happened during the surgery.) despite some unexpected developments, including bleeding in the brain, which occurred during the surgery. When I was allowed to go home, I didn't know what Jello was... I didn't know what a lamp or dresser were... I didn't know what a bagel was. And probably the most heart-wrenching memory "shortcoming" was that periodically I knew who Justin was... but I couldn't remember that he was my son. It was the most frightening thing I had ever experienced... and remember I just went through major brain surgery. I had always felt such empathy for the poor human beings that suffered from the ever growing curse of Alzheimer's disease. Many people wonder, "What does that feel like?" Here's the best way I can explain it to you from firsthand knowledge: IT'S LIKE OPENING UP A FILE CABINET DRAWER TO GET SOME INFORMATION THAT'S IN A FILE FOLDER. YOU KNOW THE FILE FOLDER IS IN THERE... BUT THE DRAWER IS TWELVE INCHES DEEP... AND YOU CAN ONLY REACH IN TEN INCHES. IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW HARD YOU REACH... IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW HARD YOU STRETCH... YOU CANNOT REACH IT! That's what it feels like, when your brain no longer automatically gives you information you know you have... but can't get at.

The author, Canadian writer Howard Engel, is the creator of "the beloved detective Benny Cooperman series." Howard did not have to count down the hours and minutes to brain surgery... he simply went to bed one night... woke up on July 31,2001, went to the front door to pickup his newspaper, "and it looked the way it always did in its make-up, pictures, assorted headlines and smaller captions. The only difference was that he could no longer read what they said. The letters looked like Cyrillic one moment and Korean the next. Where he could make out the text, the letters of the words appeared as though he was trying to make them out through a heat haze; the letters wobbled and changed shape as I attempted to make them out." He was put in the hospital and was diagnosed as having had a stroke, which resulted in alexia sine agraphia, which means he can still write... but he can't read... what he just wrote!

Howard leads you through a very brief tour of his early life in which he informs the reader that his absolute greatest passion in life has always been reading. Now, about the stroke he says: "which put us out of the writing business by robbing me of the thing I loved above all things: the ability to read." To me, the real benefit to potential readers, is understanding a phrase I learned in a book written by a religious author, who stated one of the first steps in coming back from a major health/physical setback, is "ACCEPTING THE NEW NORMAL", and Howard shares his courageous adjustments utilizing the same theory. Howard finds out that in addition to not being able to read... he can't seem to remember people's names and match them with faces. He experiences the EXACT SAME HEARTBREAK AS I DID with his son Jacob. "When asked, I think I was unable to pinpoint my exact relationship to Jacob, which puzzled me more than it alarmed me."

Howard starts devising tricks to help his memory of people's names... which offices to get to by remembering pictures on the wall... he overcame his initial fear of using a computer again, and has worked extremely hard to identify patterns in words to slooowwwlllly identify them. Howard has not only written the book I'm reviewing, but he has painstakingly taken this horrifying personal experience, and used characters and knowledge he's picked up along the way, to write a new Benny Cooperman book, built around a plot in which Benny has a serious brain injury, and has to solve the mystery of how he wound up in the hospital, without leaving the grounds.

I feel this very short book would be very helpful to any patient or family member that is facing brain surgery, or overcoming any type of stroke. It gives hope and guidance without a single instruction... Howard just shares with readers the notes he took along the way. And by the way... I am cancer and tumor free five-and-a-half-years later... and MY SON JUSTIN is my best friend in the world! I have been blessed!

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is a good read. It is an interesting evocation of China around 1900 and its English community. Readers interested in China, its history and cultural clashes between the Chinese and the English settlers will definitely enjoy this book. I wouldn't give it more than 3 stars however, because I think that the book is too long - often I skimmed entire paragraphs of superfluous or overlong descriptions of scenes and main characters' thoughts. I think the author could easily have skipped 200+ pages. Also I had trouble sympathising with the main characters in the book, particularly Henry (whose motives remain unclear), Helen (I couldn't shake off the feeling that she had it all coming) and fussy Dr Airton. The other characters remain a bit of a caricature, and the victims of the Boxer rebellion are not well developed in the book, so it's hard to be very shocked by what happens to them. The mandarin is a great character though, and the almost spiritual/ritualistic scene in which he meets the rebels in the forest is the best in the book.

A well written account of the Boxer rebellion, the book centers on the lives and fates of a small group of europeans in the fictional chinese city of Shishan. I found the first few chapters a bit slow but once the book picked up speed it was a gripping read. The characters weren't that well developed. Henry's dialogues are reminiscent of Bogart and while his character as charming spy/ne'er do well is well done, Helen Frances seems a petty little wretch most of the time. I was surprised at how the book ended. Not so much at how the events unfolded but at how the author chose to convey them. Instead of following the characters as he had throughout the book, he suddenly switched to a dialogue between two new characters to give us an idea of how Henry and Helen Frances finally ended up. Have to say I felt a bit cheated at that. After being shown every nuance of the relationship it felt like the end was cut short. Still a good read with some hefty skimming on my part. I particularly enjoyed the character of the Mandarin and the enigmatic Mongol Shaman. And I learned a lot about the Boxer rebellion too :)

I have read this book maybe four or five times since I bought it last year. Yes, the book is that good.

The story flows seamlessly as it describes life at the turn of the twentieth century in China. It details the culture, lifestyle and politics of the time beautifully. The book weaves the politics of the Boxer Rebellion, which was a peasant up-rising against the foreign rulers of the day, into a detailed love affair between a Victorian agent/spy and a goody-two-shoes, covent-raised young woman.

The story jumps back and forth between the foreigners attempting to modernize/dominate China and the happenings in The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure (A brothel in the city). The author makes these jumps effortlessly and manages to entwine the two into one majestic tapestry of story-telling.

The characters are so well drawn and the words so well-balanced that this book is impossible to put down. It is the ultimate page-turner.

This is the book you've been waiting to read.

Interested in Chinese history? Even just a little? Do you also like a novel that`s a real page-turner? Whether you know a lot about Chinese history or not, this novel will captivate your imagination throughout. A longer novel than most, I didn't get bored anywhere! The vivid portrayal of characters in constantly imaginative, challenging situations combined with what is obviously thoroughly researched historical context make this novel absolutely unforgettable!This is a good chance to learn about Chinese history and culture and enjoy every minute of it!

I bought this book last summer because it was the only English-language book available in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris that I had not read and was not written by Jacqueline Susann. As my plane lifted off for the States, I was at first afraid that I had made a mistake. The style is much more like something from the Victorian era than 2004. However, I soon became entranced by the story, and the anachronistic prose just made it better for a long flight. The characters are well-developed, even when not totally credible, and the reader soon comes to care about their trials and tribulations. Mr. Williams displays a thorough knowledge of Chinese history as he paints a panoramic portrait of a country in turmoil. If nothing else, the book should be nominated for a Bulwer-Lytton award, since it really does begin on a "dark and stormy night."

This was very helpful for me in finding out the right types of seed to put out for the birds in my area.

I have both this book and "Sibley's Birding Basics." I think that Dunne's book is better for the beginner. It is written in a MUCH more engaging style, is not nearly as technical (e.g. in details of bird taxonomy), and has a lot more practical advice.

This publication, authored by birder Pete Dunne, was published in 2003. It contains 334 pages. There are eight chapters; within these chapters are different sections. Appendixes, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index are also included. Throughout the chapters, certain words are boldfaced--they are defined in the glossary. Numerous black-and-white photos are contained; they display things such as birders in the field, kinds of birdfeeders, and types of birds. I find the section on binoculars to be indispensable and illuminating. The table that deals with seed preferences of common backyard birds is helpful. The information provided on types of birdfeeders is useful. I like the section that discusses landscaping for birds: the regional plant lists--for North America--are informative. The section on water being used as a bird attractant is worthy, along with the section that deals with nest boxes. Other interesting topics are field guides, birding apparel, basic bird identification, birding by ear, keeping records, bird censusing, and spotting scopes and tripods. In addition, I appreciate the glossary and the bibliography. This book is not only designed for the beginning birder but also for those that are more experienced. It is set up to follow the progressive gradients that birders pass through as their interest increases and more information is needed. Actually, I rate this book 3.5 stars. Pete Dunne on Bird Watching is instructive and recommendable.

This prolific writer on birding delivers again, taking many of his tried and true observations on birding and compiling them into an easy and interesting format. I would recommend this strongly to any birder but certainly beginning birders will profit the most from its insights. Especially good for anyone considering an optics purchase.

Veteran birder Pete Dunne has written a book that is an excellent introduction to the popular hobby. As one who's been doing it for a little less than a year, I found his book very helpful.

The various chapters cover useful topics, including: how to select your binoculars (and what those numbers on them mean); what to wear - and not to wear - while looking for birds; how to set up a feeder and make your own back yard more attractive to birds; protecting birds from threats ranging from cats to glass; finding a good field guide; organizations and events; the basics of identifying birds; plus some interesting stories from the field, care of Dunne and other experienced bird watchers. There's a lot of helpful information, that will make a nascent birder feel less clueless.

A few things that might have made it better: there's little info on ornithology itself - Dunne frequently mentions various types of birds as examples, but you may have no idea what he's talking about. When discussing the all-important field marks, for example, there are some (black and white) photos, but more of them (and perhaps illustrations) might have made his points more clear. For instance, showing the difference between the different tail shapes would have been useful. Also, while he mentions many species and family, there's not even a basic rundown of the different types of birds - so if you don't know a sparrow from a warbler, some of his text seems meaningless.

Note also that this is not a field guide (nor does it claim to be) so you'll need something else to help you identify the birds you see.

Combined with a couple of other books like a good field guide (the Peterson guides seem to be the gold standard) and a basic text on ornithology (David Sibley's books get high marks from many) and Dunne's book on birding techniques, and you should be ready to go.

I was introduced in english young prose by the "Deadkidsongs" by Toby Litt...and, quite frankly, it didn't dissapointed me, like many other young prosaics tend to do, so I kinda approached this book with pre-empashized enthusiasm, expecting to read, at least, book in a artistic height of Deadkidsongs. And surprisingly, I was not dissapointed.
So, why do I praise this book in the mere beggining?
If you start to consider literature as something that shouldn't be just plain fun, thing for which you grab when there's nothing on TV, or every damn CD in the house is broken, than you start to have grasp on things in ways more brilliant and astounding than you ever imagined it existed.
This book represents one world. Many would say, that it represents Wales, and political struggles of it's cittizens, and rustical, narcotic ways of life of its sheepshaggers. And, really it does. But what also does is that it represnts an inside world of a man, which is not man anymore, whose manliness whas denounced by traumatic events in his childhood days, it shows what happens when one grow to quick into a grown up man, and every conotation that is linked with that term.
Consider yourslef warned, that this is not easy book if you really want to dig yourself in one subconscoiusness (I'm sure I didn't spell that right :), you can read it in one afternoon but than you'll just stare blankly in its cover, not comprehending what actually happend...Take time to enjoy this work (I suppose GB slang should provide little difficulty, but I cannot be judge on that, I read it translated), take time to drown yourself into words that speaks beautiful and dark mysteries of life, in a words that are life itself.
2of2 for young english litterature

Not much to add to what's been written... I'd downplay how much this is a novel about "revenge" and class-rage, as some of the editorial remarks seem to make it, tho'. While there are elements of both, and a fierce subtextual current of resentment towards the English presence in Wales, that run thru the book, to reduce the novel to such simplicities -- to sum it up as that and nothing more -- does it a grave injustice; the book is far more ambitious in scope, and one shouldn't ignore that for the sake of a tidy blurb. Time and again in the novel, the violence in it is connected to a singular vision of nature, red in tooth and claw; to a darkness in the universe, drawn in near-mythic terms; and to a history of childhood trauma that the main character, Ianto suffers; all of these are very much apart from his class or his dispossession. This ISN'T primarily a political text... On a quite separate note, I wanted to briefly note one important difference between Niall Griffiths and SHEEPSHAGGER and the novels of Cormac McCarthy. Unlike CHILD OF GOD, the obvious comparison-point (and a relevant one, in talking about this book -- since it is linked not just in terms of the superficial action and elaborate prose it shares with that book, but thematically, on at least a few counts), there are passages in this novel where Griffiths', the reader's, and one of Griffith's Welsh character's hearts are very much moved, are filled with sympathy and compassion for Ianto; where we are asked to understand and forgive his violence, and embrace him regardless of it. (Given the brutality of the murders in the book, and the detail in which they are drawn, this is no small accomplishment). While Lester Ballard is richly human and not treated unsympathetically, there is an absurdity to his figure, as drawn by McCarthy -- there's a level on which CHILD OF GOD comes across as a self-consciously black joke, proposing a rapacious, dim hillbilly necrophiliac as an innocent, and making him a protagonist; while we can understand Ballard's actions, we do so only by virtue of our capacity to find his baser aspects in ourselves, such that CHILD OF GOD stands (sort of) as a lesson in humility, a joke at our own expense as much as Ballard's. I might be going a bit too far here (it's been awhile since I read the book) but there seems to me to be something in it -- CHILD OF GOD, that is -- that borders on the misanthropic -- in a subdued but gleeful way. SHEEPSHAGGER does nothing of the sort; Griffiths compassion is sincere, and his concern is to raise his damaged protagonist to a level on par with any of us -- not to lower us to his basenesses. Don't get me wrong: I greatly admire McCarthy's books, and liked CHILD OF GOD immensely; and it's indeed more IMPORTANT a work than this book, even if only because it stands as the "original" text of dispossession, necrophilia, and near feral humanity. I ended up liking this novel in entirely other ways, for other reasons, however; and whatever one feels about McCarthy or the relationship between CHILD OF GOD and this -- it shouldn't matter in the end, at least not to the decision of whether to read SHEEPSHAGGER or not... People who enjoy McCarthy's books shouldn't be put off with the thought that this is just an imitation; whatever Griffiths "lifts," and his debt is such that he really should've tipped his hat to McCarthy in his acknowledgments, he does so in the service of a unique work with its own merits, that does things CHILD OF GOD doesn't attempt. Those who don't enjoy McCarthy's books, meanwhile, but are interested in reading a surprisingly moving portrait of a damaged, but very human character (and the people and landscape around him, both of which are also important to this work) -- will also find this novel worth their while; it's a good book, a good read, quite compelling. .... On a final note: to be totally pedantic, and split hairs with another reviewer, there is, in fact, ONE misplaced word in the text -- Griffiths slips and uses the non-word "irregardless" at one point. But then, there are also at least two typos in BLOOD MERIDIAN, too.

A blurb on the jacket of Sheepshagger makes a comparison between Mr. Griffiths and Cormac McCarthy. It then continues, to state Griffiths is "his own man."

Maybe.

Griffiths is obviously heavily influenced by McCarthy, not necessarily a bad thing, but with the crawling out of the woodwork plethora of McCarthy imitators being published,
is he just another sheep in the flock?

Like some wide eyed proselyte Griffiths lifts ideas and passages from several McCarthy novels in Sheepshagger; The Shrike from Blood Meridian. Judge Holden's proclamations
on man and nature is turned into (or, in to, as Griffiths habitually disdains compound words in the rather of making up his own sometimes hyphenated ones, sometimes not- another McCarthy trait, the latter) one of Ianto's stoner friends declamation on good versus evil. Lester Ballard's necrophilia, from McCarthy's Child Of God, is evident. The omnipresent work of weathering as in "wind blown stone" used repetitiously by the author. There is more.

That said, Sheepshagger is one powerful novel. While others try to imitate, or duplicate, Griffiths expands. As a McCarthy purist, I found this novel an exteroceptor that stimulated the same primeval substrata of brain that McCarthy's works do.
Once the author puts aside his archaic thesaurus he is capable in a single sentence, or two, of accomplishing the description of feeling and place and objects that other writers ascribe to and do not accomplish with entire novels.
One can also read, in Sheepshagger, a wholly profound passage and find nary one misplaced word. The scenes overcoming their own velocity, their very decrepitation scrawled as if on paper described as if "wind worn" into a stone of the authors own making. The violence unapologetic, real for you to delineate.

I could find fault with this novel, anyone could, but the sheer intelligence of the writing does not allow that. Sheepshagger is a singular work of, at times, almost astounding brilliance. You will find reflections of Trainspotting and A Clockwork Orange, besides McCarthy's novels, held within. Go at your own risk. If you are a survivor of sexual abuse, please take extra caution.

Cormac McCarthy was awarded a `MacArthur Genius Award' for his writing. His being.
Mr. Griffiths isn't close to that yet. But, I will be most certainly waiting for his next novel with the hopes that he, like McCarthy, will not fear repetition.

The second greatest book Irvine Welsh might have written had he been from Aberystwyth instead of Leith. Grits, Griffiths's first novel, was so derivative of Trainspotting, the novel with which it is frequently compared (and if this trend continues for a thousand years, it will be a thousand years too soon) that even people who haven't read that novel for years can still pinpoint whole paragraphs from it lifted and used in Grits. Quite surprising, considering they share an editor at Jonathan Cape, and Welsh's opinion is inevitably sought and printed on the cover.

In this book, however, Griffiths manages to partly break free of his trademark unevenness and attitudinising, and produce something more original. The bald hills, the shapes in the rock and slate, the peat and all kinds of elemental fireceness is all there, as matched in even the more spiritually disinherited of Griffiths's characters. itt's like he has brought to life a group of more urbanised, lager-lout version of R.S. Thomas's hill-dwellers.

There is something rather forced about the Welshness Griffiths is forever putting forwards, too. It reads very much the as the over-heated product of someone who isn't actually Welsh and is trying to paper over this fact. The attempts at Welsh phonetic-vernacular don't convince, and Ianto's camped-up, allegorical rape scene near the rear of the book could have been done by anyone.

While Sheepshagger is Griffiths's best novel, it's clear that Griffiths will never fit the sorely needed role of major Welsh author. Wales needs a novel that shall achieve what Lanark achieved for Scotland. This isn't it.

While not a fan of Cormac McCarthy, this Welsh work I enjoyed immensely. Alternating vignettes of natural and inner beauty with harsh violence and chemically-induced ecstasy, Griffith allows Ianto and his mates to emerge here to gain both the sympathy and aversion of the reader. Never straining for sensationalism at the expense of character development, the author sets the figures in a landscape embodying the ancient clash of Welsh native against English invaders while avoiding heavy-handed allegory.

Griffith's accounts of raves, drunken binges, and sheer frustration provide an engrossing narrative. I wondered, when reading, if the characters had previous encounters in other Griffiths novels or stories; there's a lived-in quality they share that I found appealing--as if I was eavesdropping on them rather than viewing them as fictional figures. I don't give five stars easily. I suppose only waiting for more astounding heights for Griffiths to climb prevents five stars for a writer at the start of his career.

I anticipate his other books will gain greater distribution soon; if there's a trilogy, then it deserves serious attention.
Similar to Irvine Walsh, the dialect may slightly put off those wanting a quick dash through its pages; rewarding by its density and wit, this novel kept me eager to return to its pages. Similar to George Saunders' stories, a genuine compassion underlies the sensational surface. Similar to Magnus Mills' novels and Michel Faber's Under the Skin, Griffiths mixes stark settings with nearly symbolic tension overwhelming its visitors.

I liked this book because I am a lover of animals and I like to read further into them. I especially love cheetahs and in the genetic world, cheetahs are a prime example of a species that genetics can be traced and studied because they were almost wiped out.

It's nicely written, contains interesting genetic facts about the animal kingdom I never would've known.(cheetahs were so badly inbred plus the genetic distance of african lions to asian lions).

I enjoyed the book very much.I would recommend it highly for anyone who has an interest in understanding basic genetics or for someone who is just interested in learning something new. Dr. O'Brien is a wonderful story teller and writes in a language that is easily understandable. He slowly introduces the concepts in an interesting progressive manner which enables the reader to understand the more advanced concepts toward the end of the book. I thought the book was truly fascinating.

The bits of the book I have read so far have been interesting and fun to read. I think the reader from Seattle with the poor spelling skills who believes that wildlife conservation is a "special interest" should quit griping in his anonymous envy of O'Brien, who has produced hundreds of scientific papers furthering our understanding of human diseases, in many cases by studying related diseases in wildlife. Many of the stories are highly interesting. Read the book.

It has been but a few decades since the structure of the DNA molecule was discovered, a structure of astonishing simplicity. The complexity comes with the infinite arrangements of the four simple letters of the molecule, and the array of proteins that the arrangements code for. We are just at the beginning of understanding and using the coding, and Stephen O'Brien, head of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institutes, is one of the decoders. In _Tears of the Cheetah: And Other Tales from the Genomic Frontier_, he has told fourteen stories of deciphering DNA for the purpose of determining animal history. There are remarkable discoveries outlined here, in which O'Brien directly took part or supervised those who did (he is gracious in his acknowledgement of these colleagues), and some of the molecular science is complex and will challenge readers who are not familiar with the field. The stories themselves, however, are compelling, and will be a good introduction to just what sort of mysteries are being unlocked by our knowledge of DNA and genomes (the sum total of an animal's genes), and how the solution of the mysteries holds potential not just for intellectual satisfaction but for the benefit of humanity.

The story that gives the book its title is about genetic studies of wild cheetahs, and it reflects a theme of a population bottleneck which is frequent in these pages. Because 12,000 years ago, the number of cheetahs were drastically cut (probably by an epidemic), only a handful remained to breed. When O'Brien came to investigate why cheetahs were breeding so badly in zoos and preserves, there was a shock: there was almost no variation in cheetah DNA. They were as inbred as lab mice. Some mice in China a thousand years ago, however, had been squeak by a viral plague because they had part of the virus incorporated into their own DNA; this may mean that all sorts of DNA strands of viral preventatives are awaiting our discovery, and use. There is a chapter here on Florida's endangered panthers, which like cheetahs are dangerously inbred, and the politics of conservation of species and subspecies. O'Brien explains how feline immunodeficiency virus (something like our HIV) infects many cat species but kills few of them because beneficial genetic changes are evolving. There is a fine chapter on the century of controversy about how to classify panda bears. There were good arguments from the physical characteristics of pandas that put them in the bear family, but there were others that indicated they were related more to raccoons. The argument was at a dead end; some of the means of classifying animals are based on simple human judgement and are therefore to a degree subjective. With examination of the DNA, however, O'Brien's team could show that the panda's ancestors split away from the family of bears about twenty million years ago. Pandas are bears, and the controversy is, thanks to molecular genetics, over. Looking at DNA has been the way to show that meat from endangered whales was being sold illegally in Japanese markets, forever changing the sham arguments that the Japanese used that their whaling was only for scientific research. O'Brien's team was involved in solving a murder by DNA fingerprinting, but not DNA of the murderer; O'Brien is an expert on feline DNA, and they had to make a link between the murderer and the only applicable physical evidence, cat fur on a jacket spattered by the victim's blood. The cat belonged to the murderer's family. Another chapter shows that amazingly, the human gene lines that squeaked through the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages may be the ones that are best fighting off AIDS. As both a memoir along the lines of "My Most Unforgettable Genomic Researches" and an introduction to what is going to be an increasingly important method of understanding our world's biology, _Tears of the Cheetah_ is a real success. The really tantalizing prospect, however, the main message of the book, is that humans and animals may have a genetic store of disease-fighting capacity that is only beginning to be understood, and has tremendous potential for improving health worldwide.

This is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it. John Boyne's style of writing transports the reader immediately into the world of Matthieu Zela. Finishing the book is like coming back from a wonderful vacation..one you would definitely take again.

I had loved the boy in the striped pajamas, however I am somewhat disappointed by this Boyne novel.
As entertaining as it might be to some, it gave me a very quick and shallow sum-up of the history of Europe in the last three hundred years more than follow a clear storyline. Some chapters were totally irrelevant to the main plot and the two phases of his life, its beginning and end, on which the author puts most weight, were quiet honestly, boring.
I had bought it along "Mutiny on Bounty" and hope that the second book won't disappoint me like this one did.

Frenchman Matthieu Zéla may be the only 256-year-old television executive in London. He has been gifted with extraordinary long life minus the nuisance of actually aging, but this supposed blessing comes with a price: Matthieu must bear witness to the destruction of a long line of nephews and grand-nephews, who all die young and violent deaths and are named some variation of Thomas.

THE THIEF OF TIME by John Boyne (author of the recent bestseller THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS and the acclaimed novel CRIPPEN) begins in the French revolution during Matthieu's natural lifespan. After his mother's murder at the hands of his stepfather, Matthieu leaves France for England, his young stepbrother Thomas --- the first of the doomed Thomases --- in tow. The boys soon meet Dominique, another French citizen fleeing Paris. They join forces, finding work as domestics in an English village, and Dominique becomes Matthieu's first love. Their story is told intermittently between Matthieu's adventures over the last 200 years to bring us up to 1990.

Matthieu is a Zelig figure, planning the first Olympics, partying with Charlie Chaplin and watching his first career in television fall victim to McCarthyism. After a dozen or so wives and nearly as many career changes, Matthieu is a TV executive worried over the current Thomas, Tommy DuMarqué, a soap opera star with dangerous habits. One of Tommy's girlfriends is expecting a child; in Matthieu's experience, as soon as a Thomas has ensured the continuance of the line, his luck runs out and tragedy strikes.

It's beginning to get to Matthieu --- all these young men dead while he remains perfectly preserved in his early 50s, almost as if the years his young relatives gave up were transferred to him. He is curiously blasé about his protracted life, expressing very little curiosity concerning how or why he's reached his miraculous age. But he wonders what would happen if, instead of passively standing by as Tommy tries to destroy himself, he tried to save Tommy.

Matthieu spares no effort. After a sensational drug overdose destroys the actor's career, Matthieu gets him a job and arranges drug treatment, ensuring that Tommy DuMarqué is the first of his charges to live to see the birth of their child.

As long as the reader does not ask too many questions --- such as why Matthieu is "the thief of time" when he has no control over his own years and isn't really stealing anything --- this is an entertaining foray through the years, told with style and wit.

--- Reviewed by Colleen Quinn

In 1999, Matthieu Zela turned two hundred and fifty six years old though anyone seeing him would guess he is in his late forties. Matthieu has never understood why he simply stopped aging back in the late eighteenth century, but he has outlived nine generations of descendents of his late younger half-brother Tomas. That is not saying much since they all died in their twenties after siring a male offspring due to either insanity or events out of their control.

Currently he resides in London where he earns a nice living as a satellite TV businessman. He worries about his nephew of the moment Tommy, a soap opera star, because he expects the lad to die soon especially since the youngster is out of control with a nasty heroin habit that makes him this generation's dolt. However, Matthieu vows not this time will his nephew pass on..

This is a fascinating historical fantasy that is fun to follow though the TIME THIEF never decides between a gallop through major Western historical events of the last two and a half centuries like the French Revolution, etc or a current thriller to save the life of the nephew. Matthieu is an absorbing protagonist with his employment over the years being similar but modified to the era while he grieves his losses. However, one strike is that the audience never knows why he is immortal. Still overall this is a fine rapid dash through history.

Harriet Klausner

"And I am not one of these long-living fictional characters who prays for death as a release from the captivity of eternal life; not for me the endless whining and wailing of the undead."

With these words, written on the first few pages of his novel "The Thief of Time," John Boyne pretty much sold me on the central idea of the book: a man who is over 250 years old but looks like a man in his late 40's or early 50's, and who has looked essentially the same for about 200 years.

Matthieu Zela, the long-lived main character, has lived a long time and seen much change in his life. I found the perspective he had on his apparent immortality quite refreshing -- he does not question it and he does not curse it. He simply accepts it as part of his life and lives...really lives. In his time he experiences the French Revolution, the Great Exhibition, the Great Depression, the rise of Hollywood, war, marriage, love, and death. So much death, all around him...but not for him.

The strength of the book comes from its ability to capture uniquely all the different time periods experienced and convince us that they are all seen through the eyes of this one singular character. Bouncing back and forth to different places in the past to modern day and back to the past again, Boyne tells several stories in parallel, and we slowly come to learn about the central events in Matthieu's life that changed him most dramatically, including the loss of the first true love he would ever know. Each thread of story is skillfully handled, coming together at last in a satisfying ending that explains only just enough, and still leaves much up to the imagination of the reader.

"The Thief of Time" is ambitious in its way, depending on the fact that the reader will be interested enough in the story to not question too much the whys and wherefores of it -- that they, as Matthieu himself does, will simply accept it as presented and enjoy it for what it is...an entertaining tale of a life, skillfully told. If there is a lesson to be learned from this book, it is that not everything has to be fully understood to be appreciated. Some experiences are enough in themselves. This book is one of them.

Alice in Exile is by no means a bad book, nor an excellent one. Well-written and thoroughly researched, the author attempts to delve into the life of 20-something Alice Fry as she battles with concepts of love, attachment, and eventually World War One.

The author attempts to play with the social and moral beliefs of London immediately prior to WW1. Alice is well-educated, and her beliefs tend to be slightly bohemian. Edward, her first love, falls deeply for her, sleeps with her, and proposes. His upper-class parents are dismayed at his choice, and are relieved when Edward breaks off the engagement when Alice's father, a publisher, is involved in a sexual scandal over a book he published. Heart broken and pregnant, Alice accepts a job as a governess in Russia for the lecherous Barron Rettenberg. This sets up the trials of Alice, her son, and the Ruttenberg family as they are involved in both WWI and the Russian civil war (1918-1921) that erupted during this period of time.

Some of the biggest leaps of faith in the novel include believing that Alice could fall for her employer. As the reader we see a side that Alice does not see--such as when he considers raping her as she sleeps--and his transformation into believing Alice to be the love of his life does not ring true. The ending is too-pat and unbelievable; and the relationships between most of the characters is not very well developed. The author perhaps spends too much time telling the reader about the characters that he doesn't take enough to develop the characters on the page so that they seem like breathing, tangible people.

The best parts of this book include the struggles of Alice during the Russian Civil War, especially considering her attachment to a landed family in Russia.

I found the first chapter or two of this novel a little confusing, the plot development was a bit vague, and the characters two dimensional....This all changed about 50 pages in, however. I ended up reading the entire thing in about 6 hours. Highly reccomended as a lazy sunday read.

I don't read much fiction, but I saw this book on Amazon and decided to pick it up. I'm glad I did, because then I couldn't put it down. The author has the rare ability to give thorough descriptions of people and places without getting heavy or dull. I majored in Literature in college, and have had a hard time finding really good writing in a novel. There are many interesting stories, but the writing itself leaves a lot to be desired. I would've enjoyed reading this even if it weren't such a gripping story, but it has that, too. I learned a lot about the Russian revolution in a painless, interesting way. Definitely worth the time to read.

On the eve of World War I at a party in Chelsea, young aristocrat Edward Cobb meets and falls in love with free-thinking liberal-minded suffragette Alice Fry. Educated at Eton and Oxford, this son of a baronet, who has just left the army to pursue a career in politics, has never met anyone like Alice. She speaks her mind, smells of cigars and doesn't mind making the first move. Despite their differences, Alice and Edward are smitten with each other and pursue a passionate affair much to the dismay of their friends and families.

When the couple becomes engaged, Edward's family draws the line and encourages him to consider his burgeoning political career and instead marry Elspeth, the far more suitable and proper young woman they have selected for him. Edward finally relents after Alice's father, a radical publisher, is taken to court for public obscenity after publishing an erotic sex manual. Heartbroken and pregnant, Alice accepts an offer to become a governess for a wealthy Russian baron and leaves the country.

When Alice's new employer, the charming and dashing Baron Rettenberg, discovers her pregnancy, he helps change her identity to conceal her shame and Alice becomes a French widow named Mademoiselle Chabon. Time passes and Alice and the baron tentatively begin to fall in love. But when the Russian Revolution forces Rettenberg to flee his manor, Alice is left alone to fend for herself and her young son. Not long after the baron's departure, Alice and her son find the danger too great and also escape.

Meanwhile, Edward's marriage to Elspeth falls apart and he sets forth in war torn Europe in search of Alice, whom he now believes to be the love of his life. In an exhilarating climax, Alice is forced to choose between the two men --- one is her first love and the father of her son, while the other is a man who loves her unconditionally but obsessively.

ALICE IN EXILE is a beautifully moving love story played out in a world ravaged by war. Meticulously researched and loaded with moral and emotional conflict, this story of lovers forced apart by differing social backgrounds and dire circumstances should appeal to fans of both the historical and the romantic.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Morgan

Alice in Exile is by no means a bad book, nor an excellent one. Well-written and thoroughly researched, the author attempts to delve into the life of 20-something Alice Fry as she battles with concepts of love, attachment, and eventually World War One.

The author attempts to play with the social and moral beliefs of London immediately prior to WW1. Alice is well-educated, and her beliefs tend to be slightly bohemian. Edward, her first love, falls deeply for her, sleeps with her, and proposes. His upper-class parents are dismayed at his choice, and are relieved when Edward breaks off the engagement when Alice's father, a publisher, is involved in a sexual scandal over a book he published. Heart broken and pregnant, Alice accepts a job as a governess in Russia for the lecherous Barron Rettenberg. This sets up the trials of Alice, her son, and the Ruttenberg family as they are involved in both WWI and the Russian civil war (1918-1921) that erupted during this period of time.

Some of the biggest leaps of faith in the novel include believing that Alice could fall for her employer. As the reader we see a side that Alice does not see--such as when he considers raping her as she sleeps--and his transformation into believing Alice to be the love of his life does not ring true. The ending is too-pat and unbelievable; and the relationships between most of the characters is not very well developed. The author perhaps spends too much time telling the reader about the characters that he doesn't take enough to develop the characters on the page so that they seem like breathing, tangible people.

The best parts of this book include the struggles of Alice during the Russian Civil War, especially considering her attachment to a landed family in Russia.

I've amassed several quote books over the years but this is the one I turn to first! In addition to the well-chosen quotes, the book also includes sayings and clean jokes (on subject, no less!). I've already bought several copies as gifts for new writers & PR professionals.

One of the sharpest collections of quotations ever compiled.

My only argument is with the subtitle that limits the audience to "speechmakers." This book is a treasure trove for writers as well as speakers, and I use it all the time.

It is just not well written, the quates were not dramatized more maximum effect.

"It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part."
--- Voltaire

If you're a public speaker, speechwriter, student or just looking for some new catchy phrases, this book will definitely "play a great part." Full of great quotes (like the one above), jokes and sayings, AND I QUOTE covers almost every topic imaginable. From the traditional subjects of love, failure and wisdom to the modern issues of abortion, drugs and psychotherapy, this book has it all. And no matter what angle you're speaking from, you'll find an appropriate quote from the wide selection available.

The book is well organized and easy to navigate, which makes it an excellent reference. There are reference lists --- listed both alphabetically and by subject --- in the front of the book, which makes looking up quotes quick and easy. The book is divided into six main topics, which are divided further into subtopics and then into specific issues. Each separate issue has well-labeled sections of "quotes", "sayings" and "jokes".

However, the authors have included an added bonus: speech-writing tips! After all, what good is a book of quotes if you don't know how and when to use them? The introduction of AND I QUOTE highlights the dos and don'ts of public speaking and explains when quotes and jokes are appropriate. Even the most experienced speechwriter will find this section useful.

The only thing worse than losing your audience is never having one. AND I QUOTE will make sure that you not only grab your audience's attention, but keep it as well.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Brown

I send everyone in our office a quote of the day, and this book is my favorite out of all the books I have. It has just about everything you would ever want in it; quotes, jokes, sayings.... Its GREAT!

Anneke Haagen has married the man of her dreams, Karl Genesco, former professional football player and now Ann Arbor policeman, and is on her honeymoon in the Foodie capital of the world, San Francisco. Between the souffles, fusion, calories, carbs and sensualness of what we eat, a critic of "unhealthy" food is murdered and the suspects are legion.
This is a light book (too many characters, its one fault) but the author, is obviously "fed up" (pardon the pun) with the new moral police, what I like to call the NPR crowd. Namely, the huge cottage industry of academia/bureaucrats who revel in telling the general public what and how we should eat, drink, smoke, wear, invest, travel - all with the rabid conviction of a televangelist on a last crusade against Satan. In this case, it's our public servants who want to tax "bad food" and force us to eat "correct" foods for our own good, you understand. The bad guy is an obvious take on Atkins (whose diet did wonders for me a couple of years ago I might add).

The perpetrator of the crime is a surprise - well, not really when one considers [plot spoiler] DC and the headiness of power. Throughout, Anneke has witty and sometimes deep insights about her fellow citizen and their motivations. The honeymoon is less-than-romantic since all emotions of desire and love center on food and not people. Nice read.

Which of the extremist Foodies killed the pleasure-hating Food Nazi? Her former boss, the nutcase nutritionist politician? The celebrity chef, or his anorexic social climbing wanna-be-lover (whose own hubbie strays with a Reubenesque beauty), or the going for broke restaurant owner? If you've ever wanted to slap silly someone who ruined a great dinner by dithering on about wine or varieties of mushrooms, this lightweight mystery is for you. Plus, series crimesolvers Anneke and Karl finally get a honeymoon.

Is it possible for Michigan computer consultant Anneke Haagen and her pro-football-player-turned cop hubby to enjoy a quiet honeymoon in San Francisco? Apparently not--their romantic idyll is disrupted when Anneke and Karl witness the murder of a beautiful graduate student in a sports bar, and Anneke and Karl must set aside their amorous exploits to solve the case.

This book is a delightful, one-evening read; just sit down with your favorite Midwestern cuisine and nibble away. Or better yet, take the book with you on your next trip to San Francisco. The author, Susan Holtzer, has included her own favorite real-world SF restaurants in the novel, so this book can do double duty: read it in the airport as a murder mystery, then take Better than Sex around the city with you as a local dining guide!

Lindsay Summers probably had it coming. After all, if you're a complete witch, sleep with a married man, try to get major food groups outlawed, blackmail your advisor, and produce bad research for your disertation, you are probably going to get poisoned. The only question is, who is going to do it.

Just about everyone at the San Francisco sports bar where Lindsay is doing her 'research' are candidates. Even our heroine, Anneke Haagen was just about mad enough to do something violent. But only one of them actually killed Lindsay. Anneke and her police lieutenant Karl volunteer to help the San Francisco police. Better yet, they bring on their secret weapon, Zoe Kaplan, 19-year-old journalism student, to investigate. It's just as well that they do. Zoe turns out to be the only character in the novel who does much investigation at all. While Anneke eats her way through San Francisco, Zoe puts herself in danger and digs out all of the facts.

BETTER THAN SEX is well written, amusing, and offers fine characterization for the minor characters. Unfortunately, the primary characters, Anneke and Karl, don't actually play much of a role in the mystery. Maybe they should have focussed on their honeymoon.

I enjoyed reading this book but think Holtzer could have toned down the food and turned up the mystery.

Even on their honeymoon in romantic and picturesque San Francisco, Ann Arbor police Lieutenant Karl Genesko and his new bride Anneke Haagen cannot get away from murder. The newlyweds are eating brunch at the trendy bistro Maize and Blue when a food researcher at Anneke's table suddenly keels over and dies. Somebody put poison in the deceased's tomato juice and since Karl is on the scene when the death took place, he is called by his San Francisco counterpart to explore the Ann Arbor connection.

Most of the people sitting at the table where the victim was killed had some kind of tie to Ann Arbor. The victim, Michigan graduate Lindsay Summers, was obsessive about food. She wanted legislation passed to force people to eat right and she had the ear of a Michigan Congressman who jumped on her bandwagon and made it an issue. Karl, Anneka and the SFPD work together to find the killer but in the end it is Zoe, Anneka's friend at the university who risks her life to solve the case.

In this long running series, Susan Holtzer has a knack of creating characters that will appeal to her audience ensuring that they will want to read all forthcoming books. BETTER THAN SEX is a who-done-it with a lot of humor intertwined into the story line, thus ensuring that the tension never becomes unbearable. The great aspect of this series is that Ms. Holtzer makes us believe that passionate love can be found at fifty as easily as it can at twenty-five.

Harriet Klausner

It is entirely possible that Lt. Martin Jerrold may be the bad luck magnet that the crewmen think; nor do they hold it against him, they are just glad he's got the luck and not them. Some of the luck is due to a strong partiality to alcohol. He is possibly the only man who was at Trafalgar who came out of it with no honor, having been trapped in the hold during the battle, after a drunken night. Now he's been relegated to a cutter assigned to patrol against smugglers out of Dover under a Captain who is also dealing with a disreputable past and out to prove himself. Jerrold doesn't even wish to prove himself, he's just trying not to be sent off to the Indies in ignominy by his uncle in the Admiralty.

Unfortunately, in the pre-dawn before he's due to report to his new assignment, Jerrold wakes to find a strange woman in his bed, he's got the worst aching head and when he goes out to relieve himself and goes for a little walk on the beach to get some air, he finds a body and is immediately suspected of murder and thrown into gaol. He gets a reprieve only because there's not enough proof--and his uncle writes him orders to clear his name or else!

The mystery is a good one, involving smugglers and treason and treasure. There's a bit of sea action, as they are on the Channel and the French as well as the smugglers ply their way back and forth. But Jerrold is on land much of the time, finding trouble there as well.

Jerrold is hapless, but not stupid nor a rogue. Despite his outrageous luck and lack of wisdom, he's pretty much an average guy. Put an average guy in certain scenarios and he'll not do much better. Despite himself, and his inclination to not exert him brain or his courage overly, he can put a few facts together. That, and fortune turning a bit for him, keeps him from total disaster on the blighted cliffs of Dover.

I enjoyed watching Jerrold being forced through adventures he'd rather have avoided at all cost. The author does a good job in keeping Jerrold realistic and sympathetic enough not to be a total buffoon and his adventures slightly humorous and yet with a sense of danger and import balancing it out. I'll certainly be looking for the sequels, curious to see what happens to Jerrold next.

I am a a lover of all maritime and Napoleonic wars fiction and I have to say, although this first installment in the series is a bit lighter and not as serious as many others, this is truly a delightful romp and nothing but swashbuckling fun. This book has everything you need for jolly good entertainment. Action, adventure, romance, espionage, intrigue, mystery, mischief and mayhem. Buckle up and enjoy the ride. !! Wonderful real believable characters, a hero you just have to love with all his charm, failures and flaws, a story you can't put down from page one to the end. Bravo for Edwin Thomas

I bought this book because it promised to be a naval analog of George McDonald Fraser's FLASHMAN. It was not but I was not disappointed.

The books takes place on the Kentish coast during the Napoleonic wars. Lieutenant Martin Jerrold has been sent there in disgrace. While he was at the battle of Trafalgar, he took no active part. He managed to get himself stuck in the hold of his ship and lost out on any chance of notice or distinction. So it is that he is sent to work with a revenue cutter and help suppress the thriving smuggling trade. He is only there for a single night, drunk, before he manages to get into trouble. While stepping out to relieve himself, he wanders into a smuggling operation gone wrong. A man is killed and the Lieutenant becomes the prime suspect. He finds himself in a situation where he must not only carry out his duties to suppress the smuggling trade, he must use all of his free time to try and clear his name before the deadline runs out. His bad reputation, bad luck and French intrigue do not help matters.

The protagonist of the book is not cut from heroic cloth but he is not the complete poltroon that the Harry Flashman character is; he does not seek trouble for its own sake. Instead, he is a bumbler who has bad luck. When the chips are down, though, he does possess a modicum of honor. He is not a character we like to revile. Instead, he is one with whom it is all too easy to identify.

This book is not as funny or exciting as the FLASHMAN series but neither is it as strained and contrived. It is a good read and I look forward to reading more.

There was Hornblower, then Aubrey/Maturin, now comes Lt. Martin Jerrold, not cut from the same cloth at all. It starts out with him waking up from a hangover, a state in which he had gotten through the Battle of Trafalgar.

This though is a murder mystery set in the same time frame. Lt. Jerrold is quickly suspected of murdering a British sailor. His new commanding officer, and the magistrate would see him hanged. They probably would if they could identify the corpse. His long suffering Uncle at the Admiralty gives him two weeks to solve the murder.

Written in the same style as the other books, this one is even better at painting a picture of the life of the time. Life at Dover, a center of smuggling is presented as dramatically different than life at sea as in the other books. The people are more varied, the situations more surprising.

This is supposed to be the first of a trilogy. Now the problem is waiting for the second volume. I also wonder if Edwin Thomas realizes just what he has created here. He may well be writing of the hapless Lt. Jerrold for a lifetime.

I bought this book based on a review which claimed that Martin Jerrold was a "nautical Flashman." I also thought that the opening lines were clever and well written, and certainly sounded like something Flashy would say. I found as I continued to read, however, that the witty tone of those opening lines soon disappeared. What I was treated to thereafter was a rather mundane historical mystery novel with an uninteresting main character. Both Harry Flashman and Martin Jerrold are anti-heroes who drink too much and find themselves falling into trouble, but the comparison ends there. Flashman is a coward, a bully, a toady, and a letch; he is a truly bad person, but he makes you like him despite these characteristics because of the humor and candor with which he tells his extraordinary tales. And George MacDonald Fraser (the author of the Flashman novels) has given Flashy such a wonderful voice that half the fun of reading the novels is not just what he says but how he says it. Martin Jerrold has virtually none of this saving humor, and he really isn't that bad a person. He is even somewhat honorable, something that could never be said about Flashman. So, if you want to read a Flashman-like character, stick to the original. If you want to read an historical murder mystery, one that is not bad, but certainly not great, then this might be what you are looking for.