Windsor Books

Nirmala Shahani, only daughter of an Indian magnate, has dropped out of the California college where her wealthy father has sent her to put the cap on her education before her marriage to the sone of his business partner. The private eye engaged by the anxious Mr. Shahani has reported that she's living in an ashram near Los Angeles. Her father already knows that she's cleaned out her bank account! So Inspector Ghote finds himself in Beverly Hills trying to persuade her to return with him to Bombay, and with the help of Fred Hoskins, a beefy ex-cop - attempting to prove that the Swami With No Name is a confidence trickster instead of an Indian holy man. But Ghote is faced with a puzzle to rival the legendary rope tricks of his native bazaars: how a man could be killed and the murder weapon be made to vanish in a windowless room whose only exit was watched...by the good Inspector himself!

If you haven't read many of the individual histories and biographies of the Royal Family, this book will give you the real stories from Queen Victoria to the present Queen. These are strange people and it is only by accident of birth that they are where they are. Some parts will make you laugh and others will make you cry. The author doesn't give us much hope that history won't repeat itself. It may all be over upon the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

The story line here is simple. The little helicopter, Budgie is called upon to go on a rescue mission to help a lady who is about to have a baby. It is during a winter snow storm and there are dangers!

This little story is really quite well written. The author's syntax is very easy to follow and the story moves right along which keeps the little ones pretty well glued to the pages as you read them. The art work by John Richardson if very good and, for this type of book, very detailed. This is a fun book to read to the class and it is one that I note the kids continually pick out to read on their own, which is, after all, the best indorsement a children's book can get. Recommend this one highly.

I read this book some years ago on the recommendation of some online friends. I must say if you are a mutual fund investor and want to get better at it, this is a great book to learn from. Some of the benchmarks are dated but the general ideas are not. Additionally, the section on appropriate investment selections based on economic cycles is itself worth the purchase of the book.

Happy investing.

I'm a grad student and my mom is a professor, and we both love mysteries with academic settings. Ok, I'll admit it: We both love mysteries where evil professors and college administrators get murdered. The murder victim in "By Frequent Anguish" is neither an evil professor nor an evil college administrator - and she isn't even evil - but that's the only thing wrong with this book. In all other respects, it's lovely. The writing is so intelligent and witty that it lifts the book miles above the average mystery.

The other thing that lifts it is the emotional depth. In so many mysteries, the protagonist stumbles across a dead body, and it's all "Wow, a dead body! I better start sleuthing!" There's little acknowledgment that violent death is a huge violation; it destroys our sense of trust and security in the world. In "By Frequent Anguish," the hero is a professor whose wife died of cancer. He has spent the past several years cautiously rebuilding his faith in a benevolent universe, only to have it shattered again when his beautiful young love is killed. He determines to find her killer not because sleuthing is such a groovy game, but because that is the only thing he can do to bring any sense of balance back into his world. Underneath the puzzle - which is a good one - and underneath all the genuinely witty, erudite prose is a seriously moving story. I am definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.

This is an early, early Hammond Innes & one of his best!

A pale & wasted clerk in sooty old London trudges back to his colorless digs after being told he's going to die soon. It seems he's going to simply give up the ghost without a whimper.

Then he receives an airmail letter advising him that an uncle has died & left him his land, high in the Rocky Mountains in the wilds of Western Canada.

With nothing to lose, Bruce quits his job & sets out to see for himself what lies beyond the ocean & across a continent.

There he tumbles into an old feud, rarified mountain air & an isolated community split asunder by the discovery of black gold.

This is a hopeful tale of how a hopeless fellow regains his courage, his tenacity &, incidentally, his health.

Years ago it was made into a rivetting movie with a cast of English stars & I relish both!

Scary book but it didn't scare me into stopping. I only managed to quit when I got hold of a copy of Richard Craze's The Voice of Tobacco - now I don't smoke any more after thirty years of puffing that old devil tobacco. Cool book.

I like western stories and have read most of the Louis L'Amour books I have come across, as well as most of the Elmore Leonard westerns. The three novellas in this book are easily as good as anything else I've read. The characters are well described and interesting, not the usual cardboard cut-outs found in western novels.

Unfortunately, most of the other Frank Bonham books are currently out of print. I can't wait to see if everything he writes is this good.

Swift novel, great dialogue. Love the characters. Shelby is
a publisher who made a few wrong turns. In order to save her
career, she needs to put out a winning novel quickly. But her
star author is a recluse-type who hides behind a pen name
and usually a do-not-disturb attitude. But that can't stop Shelby now. And in the pursuit, a new hurdle swings in---romance.
One of the best Leigh Michaels!

This is one of Pattinson's best books. Ray Holden and Harry Skene are a couple of guys who are just drifting through life. They met onboard a ship but were late and missed its departure so stranded in Puerto Paramo, Mexico they are in need of way to obtain some cash to live. They are offered the job of driving a car across the US border to Texas where they are to hand it to a Mr Bradley who will pay them $1000 dollars for their trouble. The question of why someone would pay them $1000 to deliver and old car to the USA soon is unpleasantly answered.

Other great Pattinson novels are The Silent Voyage, Skeleton Island, The Time of Your Life, Away With Murder, Blind Date, The Murmansk Assignment, Obituary for Howard Grey, Crane, The Animal Gang, Spoilers, The Golden Reef and Life Preserver. Pattinson writes in an old man style where his characters use words that show Pattinson is obviously from a previous generation and not quite down with the lingo of today but this style does add something unique and enjoyable to his novels.