Pitt Books

I like this book very mush,easy to read and very enjoyable.This book is different it will have you thinking about God and space. It will take you far away.Anyone who read this book will not for get it,so tell your friends.

This small book contains an interview between William Rivers Pitt and Scott Ritter, a former UNESCO inspector in Iraq. Ritter had an exemplary career in the Marine Corps during the first Gulf War, and later became a UNESCO inspector. He was in charge of finding and destroying Iraq's chemical weapons capabilities and stockpiles after the war ended. He debunks Bush administration deliberate misinformation to legitimize the 2003 invasion, namely that Iraq had nuclear, biological and chemical weapons capability and could give it to al-Queda. There were no new nukes or ballistic missiles because we would have detected the testing of them. There were no biological or chemical weapons because the factories were destroyed in the first war, and the capability could not have been rebuilt because UNESCO was monitoring the country. Any hidden chemical/biological stockpiles were destroyed by the 5-7 year shelf life of the weapons. What else is Bush lying about?

This book, written BEFORE the Iraq war, exposes the lie that "everyone" thought Iraq had WMD's. In fact, the most credible and knowledgable person who had first-hand experience in dealing with Iraq's WMD programs, UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, didn't believe they had any.

Ritter explains why he didn't believe the Bush Administration's now-proven hype and lies. This book remains as a poignant testament to what happens to a country as great as America when it is run into the ground by a deceitful, lying, ignorant, incurious, and incompetent scumbag like Bush.

It's interesting how some folks who have "reviewed" this book can't decide whether they want to liberate Iraq or nuke it. Their obvious hatred of Iraqis and Muslims reveals quite clearly their ultimate disinterest in giving democracy to Iraq. They'd just as soon bomb it to oblivion if it served their arguement.

I actually read this book, unlike any of the one-star morons here. Pitt and River provide detail to the falsity of the Administration's claims. Of course, in the years since this book's publication, all of these same claims have been independently proven to be false, from Iraqi connections to 9/11 and Bin Laden, to Nigerian yellowcake claims, to WMD stockpiles, to our ability to occupy the country with a bare minimum of troops. Not to mention the claim (made by Wolfawitz) that the whole war would cost only $50 billion. Ha! We're spending that much every 6 months.

Everything involving the Iraq War has been a failure and a disgrace to our country. Bush has lost America much of its prestige. He is, without a doubt, THE single worst president in American history.

How incredibly prescient this book has turned out to be, and how unbelievably wrong the neocons were not to listen. I guess the verdict is in, and it doesn't look good for Bush.

Bush blames his Iraq fiasco on "bad intelligence." If the intelligence was so bad, how come Ritter knew the facts on the ground? How was he able to accurately predict EXACTLY what we found--that there were no stockpiles at all? Maybe the problem wasn't bad intelligence, but bad ideology, blindly ignoring what the weapons experts knew to be true.

In the end, though, I can probably agree that Bush does have a problem with bad intelligence. His own!

IF YOU WANT A RECAP OF WHAT IS GOING ON ABOUT WMD'S THIS BOOK WILL ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE. IF I WAS A TEACHER I WOULD MAKE ALL MY STUDENTS READ THIS BOOK! IT REVEALS THE TRUTH!! WHICH IS VERY ELUSIVE....FROM THE BUSH CAMP!!!!!

The book was wonderful. The authors did a great job of pulling you into the story line to make you feel like you were living with characters. It is a must read

Virginia and Donna have done it again in this compelling story about friendship that will have you reevaluating your own friendships and how much they mean to you. Jewell, Carmen, and Regina couldnt have been anymore different from one another. Jewell, the childhood actress, grew tired of her overbearing mother, Vivian, controlling her every move and wanted to do something different with her life. Regina, the party girl, knew that she had to go to college to follow the collegiate tradition set forth by her family. Carmen, the smart one with the hardest luck, knew she had to do something with her life that didnt involve her lowlife brother and his friends. So Jewell, Regina, and Carmen decided to attend Columbia University where they formed an unbreakable bond of friendship. As their lives go on, they face all kinds of trials and tribulations but they held on to their friendship if nothing else. This story will make you laugh and cry as you step into the lives of these three women who needed each other from the very start. I had the privilege of meeting the beautiful and talented authors behind this story at one of their book signings. They are more beautiful in person than they are in their pictures. Keep up the excellent work, V and D!!
Latasha
Vice President of B~more Readers with W.I.S.D.O.M Book Club
Baltimore, Maryland
b_morereaderswithwisdom@yahoo.com
www.myspace.com/bmoreraderswithwisdom

Better Than I know Myself....was really a great read. As I read it I could actually feel the intensity of the scenes. I could identify with the closeness of Carmen, Jewell, and Regina. Their love, concern, issues, fall-outs, relationships, were so gut wrenching real. If you have ever had a friendship that was truly geniune... where you loved your friend unconditionally...then you will definitely understand and enjoy this book. You, as the reader will actually move into apartment 5D and take the journey with them as they experience love, trails, and tribulations. When they laugh, you'll laugh, when they cry, you'll cry, when they triumph you will cheer them on and when the err you will feel their pain. This book is an awesome read. If you have never experienced a best friend and knowing someone better than themselves and them knowing you better than you know yourself, then you need to come and take this ride, sometimes bumpy....sometimes smooth, but oh so real roller coaster ride with three best friends who TRULY KNEW EACH OTHER FAULTS AND LOVED EACH OTHER, ANYWAY! Come on and take this journey with the "sisters" of 5D, bought together by a letter, but stayed together because of love.

Kudos to the authors for such a fine read.

I loved this book! It was hard to put down and I highly recommend!

'BETTER THAN I KNOW MYSELF' has been on my Amazon wishlist for ages, I had just never gotten around to ordering it but when I found myself with a little extra time on my hands I decided it was finally time to pick it up and what a treat I'd been missing! I fell in love with the story of these three college roommates and life long friends from the very beginning. I enjoyed the way the story shifts point of views between the three ladies. I enjoyed the way their story spanned over almost two decades to reveal all aspects of these three women's lives and I also enjoyed watching the characters develop over time.

Honestly, the only thing that kept me from giving this book a five star review was the ending. The beginning of this book grips you from the very first page and keeps you guessing until almost the last, however, what seemed an intriguing plot point at first just seemed senseless and unnecessary to me by the end, more for show than anything else. Had the ending been handled differently this would have definitely been a five star book but please don't let that deter you because all in all it was still a great read!

All of Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt books are a fun and exciting read! I have bought every one of them and my entire family loves them too.

Even though this is the only book I have read of Clives, I thought it was really good. I liked it because it got suspenseful close to the end. It was a really action packed book. If I could get any more of these books, I would. The other one I have is called Dragon. I was able to read this book in two days. I will have to find more books of his.

I love all things Clive Cussler. Relaxing, not taxing, easy read, great escape, nothing serious. Would always recommend one of his books!

I loved this book! I see a lot of reviews these days that state "the author needs to get his facts straight!". Who cares about facts in fiction!! I read ficticious books soley for entertainment, and this book is pure entertainment. People, pull the stick out and you may really enjoy a good adventure book.

Very fun Dirk Pitt novel. Great characters, both good and bad, and a fun plot. Dirk does it again in the 8th novel in the Pitt series.

Most vampire novels suck. They are usually pretentious, boring, and just writing one typically exposes a lack of genuine creativity. Most of them are Anne Rice knockoffs and Anne Rice has only written one decent vampire novel (actually one decent novel) in 30-odd years (Interview With A Vampire) and the rest have been reheated dreck. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King, also written over 30 years ago, remains the gold standard. Most of what has been written about the undead since it just sophomoric garbage.

Occasionally however, a writer will slam the conventions of the bloodsucker against a stone wall, brake all its bones and rebuild it from the ground up into something new, exciting and ingenious. That is what Charlie Huston has done here in Joe Pitt's Manhattan and his take on it is a nasty and fun read.

Everybody summarizes, don't know why but we all do sometimes so here is my Cliff Notes version: Manhattan is occupied by vampyres, carved up along political and racial, and in at least one case, spiritual affiliations. Think of major and minor mob families and a few large gangs who each have a cut of the pie and all, naturally, want a bigger slice at the expense of the others.

Enter Joe Pitt. Joe is a narcotic and riveting invention. Undead, hard-boiled like a 10-minute egg, works as a Rogue PI, but you could just as easily label him an assassin, a contract killer and a born loser. He can smack you around with his razor wit or his handgun, usually both. His smart mouth occasionally causes him to take a nasty beating, but no pushover is Joe, but he can take as good as he gives which is the essence of a good anti-hero. Bitter, worn down by fate, dangerous as a venom-dipped dagger, he still has remnants of morality and humanity that draws you to his side when things break bad.

What is best about this book is the raw energy and streetwise punch of the story. Its pretty exciting stuff, especially when you check out the odd format of the book. It is a fairly short novel by todays standards, (under 300p), the sentences are themselves stripped to the bone, and yet the author loads each passage with such force and life that you will hardly believe it isn't twice its actual length. The dialog is taut and spare, the characters are so vivid and colorful that they flash off of the page, and the action is almost completely non-stop. There are three Joe Pitt novels as of this review, this is the middle one. The other two are no-brainer, must-reads for me.

This is very street, nothing baroque, overwrought or dusty about it. "No Dominion" is full of drugs, booze, blood (and addicts of all three), nasty violence, sexuality, lots of heat and wild dialogue that will make you laugh hard enough to choke.

The only criticism that some will have for this book is the ending. Usually it is the mark of an amateur to have loose ends tied up in a few pages of exposition or dialogue at the end of a story. Usually. In the case of "No Dominion", it is not only forgivable, but you know the author did it on purpose like tossing his coat over a chair after a long day of slamming readers from wall to wall until everyone is wrung dry. It served dual purpose: it filled in the holes for people who want every last sliver of the shattered mirror put into place, and for the rest of us, it keep the dry stuff out of the way of the runaway train narrative of the story itself. It is clear that the author knows better, but it was a good choice as far as I was concerned because I was more interested in the velocity and vibrancy of the story than the loose thread or two that got sewn up at the back of the book.

A completely killer read by a noir knockout artist. After a book like this, I know I am going to read every single book Charlie Huston has written, as soon as I can get my hands on them. I hear his Hank Thompson trilogy is at least as good as this so this guy looks like a gold mine.

I have quickly become a Charlie Huston fan. I started with the Hank Thompson series (loved them). I love vampyre books and was looking for something different and thats what I found. Edge of your seat just waiting to fall off from the intensity and turning around to be pulled back again. Joe Pitt is not a hero by any means but he still has morals and you cant help but love the dirty underdog. The "disease" as he describes is not all sex and good times. Theres actual story and personality to the characters and twists that you just don't expect!!! There's non of your typical levitating and mind reading like in the LKH books which i quickly fell out of. No story. And if anyone has the same problem these are perfect!!! I finished this one to fast and now need the third installment. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to take a chance on something great.

If you're looking for some fast-paced, relatively believable, hard-boiled fiction, look no further than ANY of the Charlie Huston novels. WOW!

Ever wonder what would offend a vampire? What the forbidden addiction would be for someone already addicted to blood? This is the puzzle for Joe Pitt, vampire tough guy. Behind the ultra-violence and buckets of blood is Charlie Huston's keen ear for dialog and shrewd observations about human nature. An excellent addition to the vampire canon. Not for the easily offended.

Huston's follow up Novel to ALREADY DEAD is simply amazing! Pitt's back and He needs money...and blood

In planning a trip for 2008 I have found USA by Rail to be very helpful in deciding routes to criss cross the USA and Canada. Covers a multitude of important subjects in easy armchair reading or to use as a guide in route.

Having looked at several other books on train travel, I believe that this is the one you need to have when embarking on a journey with Amtrak. With the price of gas having gone up as much as it has, there is still a whole land to see, so I highly recommend this book. We used it extensively on a 28-state, almost 9,000-mile trip. The book gives plenty of things to look for and helped us to better understand the geography (and landmarks) we were seeing. Each route is specifically detailed, including the stops. There are also sections with important information that should be read before embarking. I notice that the 7th edition is due this fall, so there were a few errors (scheduling, stopping, etc) that I'm sure will be corrected. So if you are not leaving until next year, you may want to wait for the newest edition. But again, don't leave home for Amtrak without this important guide.

Everything you need to plan (or dream about) a vacation across the USA by train!

The guide is very informative. It covers the Canadian rail systems, also.

I strongly recommend this guide for those who expect to take any substantial Aamtrak trip. We have taken a number of them and I throughly believe this is one of the best guides that is out. Not only does it provide information you can use as the trip progresses, but helps with distances so you can pick the right stop or what train to take while planning your trip. Some of the trains have small, specific brochures that provide similar information, but by the time you have boarded its a little late for the planning advantages. Even then, this book provides more detail than the pamphlets. The route maps alone are worth the price.

Very powerful book. This is perfect for teachers who want an emotional connection to immigration and the Industrial Revolution for their students. A great story for the casual reader, too!

Came in very fast and in great condition. Can't say I actually enjoyed reading it, though. Lol...

As someone has lived in the Pittsburgh area for over 30 years and is still considered a 'newcomer' by many, I have often wondered where the uniquely "Pittsburgh-ese" traditions and culture came from. For example, how is it that modern-day natives of Pittsburgh can be so incredibly conservative in terms of family values and gender roles, and yet align themselves with liberal political movements that tend to marginalize the family? Many of my questions were answered by this book, and in very human terms.

The descriptions of the characters and their lives are so very true to what I know of Pittsburgh and the wonderful, down-to-earth people who live here -- I was not surprised to read in the Afterward that much of the material is autobiographical. I was absolutely fascinated to read this first-hand account of what life was like, drawn from vignettes from the lives of the author's grandparents, parents, and his own family.

The places in this book are real -- you can still visit them. The people were real -- you can still see their gravesites. This is how it was, and this is how much of our modern world came to be. Forget Madison Avenue trends. This book is about building things (and lives) that last.

This text was required reading for a college course on immigration and, I must admit, I was not looking forward to reading it. I decided to read it before the semester started and fell in love with it immediately. The characters are well developed from Kracha, to Mike & Mary, to Johnny. A very moving tale of the development of unions, the plight of immigrants, and the dangers they faced everyday working in the steel mills. I highly recommend this to anyone, required reading or not.

Out of the Furnace was the assigned "text" for the first half of a 3-unit American History (after the Civil War) class. As a responsible and voracious reader, I bought and began reading the book. I found the style conclusory and turgid--this happened, that happened, something else happened--without any real character development to differentiate between and among the characters and clarify their relationships. As another reviewer observed, names kept changing and keeping the people sorted out was nearly impossible. Facts and emotions were asserted without textual basis or amplification, making it difficult for this reader to get interested in the book. For example, one plant was deemed "more dangerous" than the others--What does this mean? How was this known?

The cover lines on this book read "Long out of print" and I would say, "with good reason." Because the book was produced in 1941 by a writer describing life two generations earlier, there is not the detail and immediacy the reader gets from "Grapes of Wrath," for example, for which Steinbeck did actual site-visit research. Needless to say, the "direct" writing of "Furnace" makes it, as another reviewer noted, stultifying reading.

Further I seriously question the assignment of a novel written so long after the events "described," as the ONLY assigned text for this period in a history class. A variety of first-person reports (letters or other documents), statistical descriptions of wages, housing conditions, hours worked/injury rates, profit statements of the corporations, plus photographs of the living/working conditions would be more effective inconveying the same message.

I will confess I did not finish the book. Having determined that it was, in my opinion, unreadable, I dropped the class.

Billy Collin's poetry is complicatedly simple. That is, you read it and think, "I can write poems like this myself." Of course,most of us can't or we would take turns being poet laureate of the United States. His poems are clear and direct, like looking at the surface of a pond. The more you look, the more you see what's underneath. And his selection of subject matter is the nooks and crannies of life we often don't look in or don't think about enough to see how enriching they are.

"I suppose I might be different from previous poet laureates by kind of emphasizing the playful or even screwball aspects of poetry." ~Billy Collins

Poetry can increase our capacity for viewing the world as a colorful, imaginative landscape of crisp words and vibrant images. In "Questions About Angels," Billy Collins presents the world in an almost animated fashion. At times his words glide across your mind like slow moving images in a movie or a long sweep of a lens. At other times, the "movie" is highly animated and takes on bizarre characteristics.

The first few poems flew by my mind. I was aware of the content of the poems, they were observations, memories of childhood. However, it wasn't until I reached "Reading Myself to Sleep" that I made a connection. While I had enjoyed the endings of the first few poems, suddenly, I was relating to emotions and images I had experienced.

"Is there a more gentle way to go into the night
than to follow an endless rope of sentences
and then slip drowsily under the surface of a page"

Then, I started to notice a unique imaginative twist to many of the poems and even an occasional tendency towards the macabre in "Purity." Billy Collins seems to see himself in an animated world where the laws of life and death don't always apply. While "Purity" is rather comical and shows a tongue-in-cheek attitude to the freedom he might be experiencing in his writing, "The Wires of the Night" is a solemn animation of death. While the skeleton in "Purity" is free, "Death" soaks itself into the poets mind and seems to present an instability and then a calm release from thought.

I had to smile while reading "Wolf" because it was just rather cute. We find a wolf reading a fairy tale and later in the evening he is found knocking over houses with his breath. I am sure this poem has a much deeper meaning. Devouring words and then acting upon them or perhaps words setting us into action or leading us to our fate.

While Billy Collins often seems to paint cartoons on the canvas of our minds ("Love in the Sahara" where a camel leaves a pack of cigarettes was rather comical) with a magical twist, the moment of brilliance, for me at least, was on page 70. He is describing himself as the New York Public Library.

"I would feel the pages of books turning inside me like butterflies."

What more can I say? This book lover has been charmed.

~The Rebecca Review
Author of Seasoned with Love: A collection of
best-loved recipes inspired by over 40 cultures

Several weeks ago I first discovered Billy Collins. A newspaper article had a quotation where he discussed the fact that he uses subjects and predicates when writing poetry. This peculiar poetic quirk led me to go online to discover that poetry. There I found the poem "Nostalgia", which is included in this book.

I read it, enjoyed it, passed it on to friends. Then a strange thing happened - lines from Nostalgia kept cropping up in my memory. Each time it happened, I gained a deeper respect for the poem. I read and reread my cut-and-paste copy of Nostalgia. Finally, the only possible result occurred - I bought the book that contained it. A book filled with similar marvels.

Reviewers far more renowned that I have already given incredible praise to Billy Collin's work. I'm a pretty ordinary person. I've never studied so that I know all the "proper" elements of a poem. So what can I add that hasn't already been said? I can add that Billy Collins reaches people like me. He takes our ordinary, everyday experiences and looks at them with magic eyes. He sees - and says - the things we all want to feel about life and its infinite possibilities.

Above all, he makes me feel good about my life and my world. I urge you to explore the Collins world - to get that same surge of energy that I have experienced.

As the title suggests, this collection of fifty-four poems by the former U.S. poet laureate is wondering. Billy Collins wonders about the afterlife. He wonders about fairy tales and cliches. He wonders about dreams and literature. He wonders about discovery and extinction. And when you get through it and try to pick out a theme, Billy Collins wonders about Billy Collins.

Despite favoring free verse in his poetry, Collins has made accessibility one of the hallmarks of his poetic style. This book is no exception: it could be used in junior high classes for its lyrical clarity, and college literature seminars for its depth. In "Putti In the Night," Collins ruminates on whether those baby-faced angels in Renaissance paintings could really embody divine providence. With "The Death of Allegory," he mourns the passing of eternal verities from our consciousness, while admitting that our modern variegated way of life can't admit of an all-or-nothing sense of morality. In "Memento Mori" he speculates on whether all the tchochkes and knick-knacks he's accumulated will be able to attend his funeral.

This book isn't an unqualified success. For instance, with the poem "The Afterlife," he steps out of the role of the questioner and come up with his own answers, which are too squishy and non-committal to be substantial. In "Wonder of the World" he talks about some monumental, um, thing without bothering to name it or describe it, and he produces the same kind of adjective-rich meringue I would have written in tenth grade. And in the appropriately names "Cliche," he compares his life to a book, "outspread like a bird with hundreds of thin paper wings." Like no first-year poetry student ever thought of THAT simile before.

Still, on balance, the weak bits don't dominate. This is a good book of poetry for people who don't read poetry and for people who do, or for students who think they don't like poetry. It's light, sprightly, inquisitive. It's fun to read, and it gives you enough to think about that you'll keep coming back. Just like a book of poems should.

This book was a gift to me, and I am grateful to the giver.
She knows that I need stuff that makes sense!
That's one of the things I like most about this collection, it makes sense. It is accessible to the somewhat poetically challenged (as I consider myself to be). But beyond this... just the use of the words, the FIT of the words, the powerful (yet subtle) sort of surreptitious little attack in the end of each poem, always making the reader go... "Hmmm".
Collins is a wordsmith, and exquisitely so. Satisfying. He is to the typewriter what Bruce Hornsby is to the piano. You listen to both, and when they're done their thing, you say to yourself "It would be very difficult to have done that any better."

Billy Collins makes me feel like everything is a poem waiting to happen. This is because he chooses a lot of common occurrence, simple things to write about. Stuff like spending an afternoon examining ancient maps in a library while the rain falls outside. Or stopping to pick wisteria from the side of the road. Waking up with a wicked hangover. Kafka picking up a pen and promptly changing you into a goldfish or a lost mitten, or (better yet) the New York Public Library. How about having your own faithful table lamp showing up at your funeral... "like an old servant, dragging the tail of its cord / the small circle of mourners parting to make room."
Wonderful stuff. Everyday stuff like that.
He's witty and terse; thematically timeless / He's all in free verse, and totally rhymeless.
4.5 exploding stars!

It was great to be able to pick up this original Scribner's Classic with paste-on book plate in excellent condition!
I've been looking for this title for years! Good price, quick shipping, product in just the condition described in ad! Bring on some more!

About the title - A "verst" is a unit of measure. If you read Michael Strogoff you will quickly become well versed in "versts" since Jules Verne uses the word on nearly every page of the novel!

Besides the minor annoyance with the use of the word "Verst", Michael Strogoff is a fine adventure novel/epic. While it should not be confused with Verne's typical works of science fiction it is an adventure epic.

Other reviewers have complained about Verne's character development, but Verne acknowledged throughout his career that he purposely skimped on character detail. If you want detailed characters read Henry James... the styles of the authors could not be any more different!

The writing style is a little sloppier than typical Verne (it appears to have been rushed and poorly edited) but it is passabe. However, Verne is rarely read for the simple appreciation of his wordmanship... and he will never be compared to his friend, Alexander Dumas.

Michael Strogoff is one Verne's better plots, while it is not the page turner of a "Mysterious Island" it is much better than some of his other lesser known works (Measuring the Meridian and "800 Leagues down the Amazon" come to mind).

Final verdict - it may take a little patience to get into "Michael Strogoff" but I have no hestitation in giving it a hearty recommendation.

"This is the story of the indomitable Michaal Strogoff, Courier to the Tsar, and his intrepid journey from Moscow to Irkutsk, 'a rebellious country, invaded by Tartars', in an attempt to warn the Grand Duke of the traitor Ivan Ogareff's intent to destroy him and Mother Russia."

Too much, you say? Too flowery? Well, the above statement describes this, one of my favorite works of fiction, quite concisely. It is the story of Strogoff, Nadia, the intrepid pair Blount and Jolivet and, most of all, the panorama of Siberia. Verne makes it easy to visualize the greatest obstacle in Michael's path, the wide wilderness that is Siberia.

This is a wonderful printing of (in my humble opinion) Jules Verne's best novel. The N.C. Wyeth illustrations add greatly to the visualization of the work, 'though I wish more illustrations had been available/included.

It upsets me that this novel is not more widely read.

Great adventure across the Siberian plains. Lots of twists and turns that keep the reader honest. Vivid desciptions of life during Czarist Russia and the great divide between East and West.

Jules Verne wrote this book in 1876 and a 130 years later it is still being read and treasured. The reason why this adventure tale has such long legs is that Verne crafts his story around a great narrative devise. Michael Strogoff is charged by the Czar to a carry a secret dispatch to the capital of Siberia. Between Strogoff and the completion of his mission is an invading Tatar army. Strogoff must test his courage and his many formidable skills to pass through their lines. This is a classic adventure story that has stood the test of time. NC Wyeth's beautiful illustrations make this edition even better.

THE Victorian Era Author has once again done quite well.

This one I didn't like as much as the earlier ones, but that's probably just me. I'm getting near the end of the list and I'm getting worried about who I am going to read next. Thomas and Charlotte, who could ask for anything more? Except maybe somehow get Monk and Hester involved maybe in a flashback. After all the Victorian Era was a looooong stretch of time.

This is a five star book as are most of Ms. Perry's (except the WWI novels. I've never been able to get into them. My comment is prosaic at best but I couldn't let the anacronism pass. Tallulah Bankhead was the most famous of all the Tallulahs. In fact it is probably pretty certain there wasn't another Tallulah before her. Her father was the Powerhouse U.S. Senator from Alabama when his little girl was born and he named her Tallulah, a Native American name for a principal river in Alabama. So there is no way that Ms. Perry's character could have been named Tallulah. (It's still a five star read, tho.)

In the earlier books in this highly successful series about Detective Inspector Thomas Pitt in Victorian London, the author often got carried away with her fascination with the period and slighted the solutions to the mysteries she set up, in favor of sociological commentary. This is the sixteenth outing for Pitt and his wife and sister-in-law, and Perry seems to have finally reached a balance between period and mystery plot. It's 1890, Pitt has recently been promoted to Superintendent of the Bow Street station, and London society keeps ticking right along. In the poverty of Whitechapel, however, the torture-murder of a young prostitute gets Pitt's attention because a gentleman's club pin has been discovered beneath the body which implicates Finley Fitzjames, moneyed ne'er-do-well and son of a ruthless capitalist with lots of enemies. The investigation proceeds slowly, with Pitt sifting evidence, and finally comes to a conclusion with the conviction of the girl's pimp, who is then hanged. It all seems to be neatly wrapped up -- until the murder of a second prostitute, identical to the first. Did Pitt hang the wrong man? As always, Pitt's wife, Charlotte, and Charlotte's sister, Emily, poke their noses in, asking questions where Pitt cannot -- and, in fact, going too far by manufacturing misleading evidence. There's a certain amount of stylized melodrama, as in Jago Jones's dedicated ministering to the poor and Tallulah Fitzjames's ministering to him, but it's not too overdone.

I haven't read this book yet, but I really, really, enjoy Anne Perry and look forward to reading this book.

In 1890, two years after London roiled in the wake of the unsolved murders of Whitechapel prostitutes by a sexual misfit who called himself Jack the Ripper, the brutal slaying--in this case via strangulation---of yet another woman of the East End streets has society in a cold uproar. Shortly after beginning his investigation into this act of murder, Inspector Thomas Pitt finds clear evidence which links the killing to a young aristocrat named Finlay FitzJames. While the crime scene evidence is clear, Pitt is at a loss as to motive in the violent murder, heartily denied by the haughty and disdainful FitzJames, and while some among his superiors argue for an immediate arrest, Pitt's instincts tell him there is more to the matter than there seems. The plot soon mushrooms to dimensions unguessed-at in the early pages of this capable tale, and before she is finished here, Anne Perry delivers a story of long-fomenting hatred, bold revenge, diabolical plotting, and cold-blooded murder, all set in a convincingly recreated Victorian megapolis at the height of Britain's global empire.