Windsor Books

This is the Second Chronicle of Brother Cadfael and the author is still introducing the continuing cast of characters. As usual, a murder is discovered early on and eventually solved by Brother Cadfael's patient detective work, but the real interest here is less the crime than the character development. The redoubtable Hugh Beringar makes his appearance in this episode, and his complex and interesting personality is slowly and painstakingly revealed. While it is a good idea to read this series in order, this one will surprise and delight on a second reading after the reader has gotten to know the dramatis personae.

I have just started the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. It is a very enjoyable read. Perhaps the publisher has not chosen the best combination of font and typeface, but some chapters are visually a bit unclear. Stories are great.

Cadfael had answered the Crusader call when a young man. He had spent many years traveling the world, having adventures and learning many things but as he grew older he decided to return to England and become a Benedictine monk. Unfortunately the troubles of the world have followed him to quiet little Shrewsbury. The succession to the throne is in doubt, the country in tottering on the brink of civil war as the factions supporting Stephen battle those supporting Maud. The local castle is seized by King Stephen, executing the soldiers left behind to defend it.

When the good brothers went to bury the men though they discovered that there was one too many corpses, a discovery that Cadfael was not content to ignore. In his quest to discover the identity of the unknown man Cadfael uncovered a murder, missing treasure, betrayals and not one but two sets of star crossed lovers.

This is a charming blend of mystery, romance and history and does a creditable job of all three. The mystery will keep the reader guessing on at least some of the details. The romantic aspect is charming, although predictable and the history is woven into the story with skill. Peters brings the medieval society to life without turning the novel into a history lesson.

Ellis Peters has long been in my favorite author category. Having read most of her books 15 years ago I went back and started reading them again. Her style is still fresh. She's able to convey a story without dragging my head into the foul - foul language, foul thought, foul deed. Instead she writes about the vagaries of human nature as they confront the unthinkable.

The English/Welsh landscape is truly delightful - and in this "hobby" historian's mind - a fairly accurate portrayal of the time period.

I was disappointed with the first book in the Cadfael series, but there was just barely enough good in the first book to make me give the second a try. It was a good thing I did. One Corpse Too Many is more entertaining, more complex and more surprising than a Morbid Taste for Bones. While it reads more like a nice piece of historical fiction than a "whodunit", you will find yourself surprised and anxious to learn what happens next.

The other two books are better. This one is still good though.
But the plot is pretty much straight forward except quite few minor turns.
The tension mostly came from the thought "How will this all finally end?".

I chose this book for several of my students who were into sci fi. They were a great hit!

I do not think there are three juvenile novels that I enjoy nearly as much as these three. The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire are absolutely perfect examples of Juvenile fiction. The books teach moral lessons as well as tell a rip roaring good tale.

Without giving to much plot away this tale is covers a not too distant future when Aliens who roam the Earth in giant Tripods rule the land. Every person who reaches puberty is capped and there mind is controlled or at least molded by the Tripods.

These three books follow a group of runaways and rebels who have never been capped and who desperately want to free Earth and its inhabitants. This band of rebels must find a way to defeat the Aliens without knowing who they are, what there weaknesses are or any worthwhile knowledge. On top of this the `rebels' have to defeat these space age aliens with technology at roughly 19th century levels.

The first book was a mystery unfolding and the second was the most emotional. This book is really the were you feel the most tension and triumph

These books are even more remarkable as they were written in the late 60's. I first read these books as a cartoon serial in `Boys Life' in the early 80's. I enjoyed the tale back then and still enjoy the stories now. I highly recommend all these books for kids and or there parents. Read and enjoy.

My husband read this series with our girls. He remembered it from his childhood. It's a great book for boys especially (we have 2 nephews that have loved reading it as well).

The 35th Anniversary editions have prologues written at the time of their publication by Sam Youd, a.k.a. John Christohper himself. All three books have them and they are filled with a wealth of information about what he was thinking, aspects of the Masters, etc. For example, he originally did not set out to write a trilogy and did not even know what/who the Tripods were at the end of the first book. They also have the written text in the stories as he wanted them to originally to be. For those of you who grew up on this stuff, all the books are definitely a 'must have.'

With a husband at home receiving Hospice Care my days and nights were very lonely and heart-wrenching. This book is truly a treasure and one difficult to put down, yet the thought of soon returning to it, lightened my heavy heart. I am sorry it is in paperback as I would want to add it to my library and loan it to friends without fear of signs of use.

Marcia Willett's "A Week in Winter" is a very much modern day novel woven in a familial paradigm spun from threads of characters who appear in all dimensions absolutely real and vibrant and full of life. This is a book that comes as a refreshing read and employs a realistic portrayal of life in ficton. "A Week in Winter" as the title itself suggests is the life of a famly during Christmas and in a limited space and time windows the sudden and occasionally abrupt changes in the lives of a plethora of characters ranging from one-year-old Luke to old Maudie Todhunter. This is a moving story about human passions,dreams,hopes,expectations,acceptance and inability to go beyond the insulated boundary of perception,a riveting tale about man's tryst with inevitability and most importantly his own self.

Set against the backdrop of a week during Christmas time,Marcia Willett's amazing piece of literature revolves around Moorgate,a house of contention on the edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall,England. Indeed it is the proposed selling of Maudie Todhunter's late husband's home that spells troble which ripples diasaster and severe coldness across the family. Maudie is the second wife of Hector Todhunter and has never been able to make the transgression from a stepmother to a mother for Selina and Patricia,Hector's daughters from his first marriage to Hilda. Selina has been an eternal enemy to the hapless Maudie whose life has been rendered forlorn by her husband's death. Her only means to gain some respite from the gloomy atmosphere is exchange of emotions with Daphne,Hector and Hilda's old friend,and occasional but just as buoyed and joyous visits from Selina's daughter Posy. A disenchanted stepdaughter,a huge figure's death and financial insecurity are not enough to conspire and rip apart Maudie's life,and now that she has put Moorgate on sale,things are going radically out of hand.

Selina is fuming with rage at the inevitable sale of her father's home and like one of her realm---that of emotional unbalance and indecision of mind---is making all sorts of execuses to impede the sale. She coaxes,pleads and even threatens her husband Patrick Stone,a disillusioned and resigned-to-fate man,to but Moorgate but the odds are heavily stacked against her. "What is one man's meat is other man's poison". In this case though,the adage becomes "What is one man's poison is another man's meat". Rob Abot is the caretaker of Moorgate but given the splendor and charisma of the house he's steeply in love with it. He has not enough finance to buy it but an unconceived meeting with Melissa---who lives in London along with her writer brother Mike and his son Luke,and is a prospective buyer of the property---sripts a fantasy tale that is full of promise and anticipation Rob and Melissa both fall in love at first sight with each other and the five days spent together at Moorgate are the few moments of unassuming glory and fun before the threatening darkclouds swallow them up.

"A Week in Winter" is not just simply a novel about the selling of a house and the consequence of this act;its moral conviction and conjuring up of vivid truths of life are more taut ideas. The book has a tragic note right from the very inception and this sombre picture is carried throughout until the end punctuated by happy incidents. This shade of pessimism might be the flip side of the book but then again,life at its best never promoses any fairytale gratifications. The best feature of this book is the picturisation of the characters of the characters as possessing stories of their own;each figure has its own story to tell,a story patterned in overlapping patches of black and whiteand all stories are distinctly different and so all the more better for the construction of the plot.

Marcia Willett's magic lies in her well-drawn characters all aspiring to jump out of the pages,turn to life and form a part of the reader's environment. Each character is well-defined and massively crucial for the gradual unfolding of the story. "A Week in Winter" is an ebullient book that mirrors life in its exactitude and involves condensed descriptions and measured glimpses of intrinsic emotions and feelings. Patrick Stone's sudden realisation of his position and his metamorphosis,Daphne's acknowledgament of a dark secret,Selina and Maudie's relationship and a slight repitition of feelings of one generation in another are the most critical junctures of this lovely and exotic book. The authoress makes her book an absorbing read and we seem to live the experiences of the fictive characters ourselves. A fluid narration held by certain dynamic reflection moods,invokation of tragedy,romance and Nature and a brilliantly construed idea make this book a wondrous book,one that never attempts to gallop away from life's destined campaign.

I adored this book. Marcia Willett is a true find, and I only wish there were more of her books available. I didn't think she could match THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, but A WEEK IN WINTER is every bit as good. What makes her writing so special, aside from her brilliant descriptive prose, is her characters. Even Polonius, the dog, emerges vividly, and you feel you know him. I chuckled over and over again when Willett described what he was thinking, because I could believe every word. Even the antagonists in the story, like Selina, were multi-faceted and fascinating. Willett is simply a master at creating full-bodied, believable characters who amuse, frustrate, fascinate, and engross. She also knows how to create and maintain suspense, making me want to turn the pages faster or peek at the ending (yes, I admit it, I sometimes do that). :) Please, Ms. Willett, can't you write faster? I only have one more book of yours left to read, and then what? VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This book was like a breath of fresh air...very Maeve Binchy and Rosemund Pilcher in feel...with characters who you fall in love with. Heartbreaking and hopeful...a book I would recommend to anyone who will listen.

Marcia Willett is no imitator. Her writing can be compared to Pilcher and Binchy as noted, and what a wonderful compliment...i.e., the descriptive writing and attention to detail so that the characters have the breath of life in them. They wound themselves around the heart of this enchanted reader.
The descriptions of Cornwall were so clear that I was transported.
The intertwining of characters, simply living their (not so) ordinary lives, becomes anything but ordinary. The main character, Maudie Todhunter, is delightful as is her step-granddaughter Posey. Posey's Mother, Selena was impossibly frightful and Ms.Willett weaves a wonderful tale of family strengths, weaknesses, falling in love (with a few mysteries thrown in) through them. I particularly loved Polonius, the dog.
I have her "A Summer In The Country" and eagerly begin another anticipated delight! Thank you Marcia Willett!

I just finished this book. It kept me reading, which is a plus. But it is very predictable and also the characters are a bit one dimensional. It's good for a quick, easy read. Skip it if you want something really fulfilling.

The plot is excellent and the action scenes just leap off the pages and kept me up long past bed-time.

The mix of high level politicians who are bad guys along with down and dirty crooks...will keep you guessing.

But alas, the author must have as his target audience readers who are anti-male. Every bad male stereotype since the beginning of time is brought forth for the reader to chew on ...chapter by chapter.

Lots of perfect lady victims if you are into victim hood!

DAMAGE CONTROL is an enjoyable thriller. It is a book with a highly sympathetic heroine in Dana Hill. She has so many things go wrong for her in this novel (breast cancer, brother getting murdered, husband cheating on her, boss hating her) that it's hard not to root for her.



Robert Dugoni is not a subtle writer, and I found most of this novel to be pretty predictable. I also thought most of the supporting characters were pretty two-dimensional (the villain, for example, is almost ridiculously evil, and Dana's husband is almost ridiculously stupid). So if you're looking for complex characterization, you will not find that here. This book also starts pretty slowly at the beginning, although it picks up speed after the halfway point.



Despite these problems, I found DAMAGE CONTROL smoothly written and enjoyable, with a highly likable main character. If you're looking for a light diversion in the spirit of John Grisham or James Patterson, I think this novel is a pretty decent choice.

Mr. Dugoni has an excellent writing style and has introduced several intriguing characters (Dan Hill, William Welles, Carmen, Michael Logan). The book just sucked me in from the beginning and held me.

Dana Hill has a rough time with her brother being murdered, her job in jeopordy, going through a breast cancer procedure, and having a cheating husband. She stumbles on an earring that may be the key to her brother's death. This search for the truth becomes her driving force and makes all her other troubles secondary. The author just lets the plot unfold without some of the cheap gimmicks imposed by many of the other current thriller writers.

This is an extremely well-written novel that moves along quite rapidly. The chapters are fairly short, so that the reader can put the book down (if he or she findss that possible) after just several pages, and continue reading later. I couldn't do that: I was hooked from the initial murder, and read my way all the way through it until the (expected, by me) ending. The characters well fairly well drawn, and the author creates quite a bit of sympathy for the female protagonist. If you want to spend some hours being captivated by a tremendous thriller, you will do well to pick up this book!

I just finished this book, and can only voice my disappointment. Not that it was a bad book,It was great, but that It wasn't finished. I have read The Stranger, The plague, The myth of sysyphus, and the fall. This book really helped to understand Camus more. You can see how his life overflowed into his other works, and i only wish he could have finished. I have been a fan of his work ever since a high school literature teacher recommended the plague, after a heated discussion about the belief that we need God to be moral people. I couldn't believe the criticism I was getting for turning away from religion, especially from some very immoral characters. Camus has had a major influence on me ever since, and I am sad this book will never be finished.

As a point of reference, I have read most of Camus's major works. The present novel is a straightforward story and it is supposed to be partially biographical. It was published decades after Camus's death by his daughter. The work was unfinished and it was never edited by Camus. As such, it has a bit of a raw feel to the story and I thought it was not as good as his other works, all of which are all excellent.

It could have been a much better novel if he had finished the work. The work does not contain Camus's famous irony and references to the absurd that are found in other works, i.e.: unlike his other works, he does not delve into his ideas on the absurd, and the revolt against a world of the absurd and of injustice.

Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) was a French writer and philosopher. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus rejected any ideological classification. Camus was a young recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature when he became the first African-born writer to receive the award in 1957. He died in a car crash only three years after receiving the award. He was a social activist and Communist, and fought with the French resistance in WWII. Later he rejected Communism. The present book is his last work and was never finished.

On January 4, 1960, at the age of forty-six, Camus was killed in a car accident outside Paris and the manuscript of The First Man was found at the crash scene. The protagonist is a man similar to Camus himself, Jacques Cormery, who grew up in Algiers. It is a novel about a young boy growing up and his interaction with his mother and grandmother. It is a story being told by an older Cormery, now 40 years old, who is visiting his older mother, now 72. Camus's technique is to use flashbacks of Cormery's childhood injected into the story during the visit by the 40 year old Cormery. In addition to the story of his youth from the era of WWI and post WWI, there are a number of comments on the struggle for power in Algeria and the attacks on the French in the 1950s.

This novel has just a neutral recommendation and it is not a good example of his work. It is different and perhaps Camus was taking a new path with his work, but as a novel as it stands it is flawed. The reader is left to wonder what Camus could have accomplished if he had lived. Having said that, the novel was unfinished, so The Stranger and perhaps The Fall remain as his best novels, followed by The Plague. Those works include his irony and philosophical views. Also, Camus has written some good drama and non-fiction. This leaves the present unfinished novel down near the bottom of his body of work.

The manuscript of this book was in the car with Camus when he had his fatal crash. His family held back publication for over thirty years. One reason was the incompleteness of the manuscript. A second was the hostile political atmosphere which had emerged in relation to Camus. Unlike Sartre Camus had refused to justify Soviet crimes. His position on Algeria which was a nuanced one , angered both sides.
The novel itself is closer to a memoir than anything else Camus has written. It lacks the kind of mythic and philosophical dimension of Camus most well- known works, "The Stranger" " The Plague " " The Fall" "The Myth of Sisyphus". it tells the story of a child whose father has been killed in the First World War, and who is raised by his mother and grandmother. It tells of a world of Algerian poverty .And it to tells of how the child finds a way out of this world through having been guided and helped by a beloved teacher. The teacher who Camus honored and remembered throughout his life saw the great ability in young Camus and developed this.
There are some outstanding passages in the book in which Camus shows the reflectiveness so central to his major works
" To begin with poor people's memory is less nourished than that of the rich : it has fewer landmarks in space because they seldom leave the place where they live, and fewer reference points in time throughout lives that are grey and featureles. Of course there is the memory of the heart that they say is the surest kind, but the heart wears out with sorrow and labour, it forgets sooner under the weight of fatigue. Remembrance of things past is just for the rich.For the poor it only marks faint trances on the path to death"

This work it seems does not rank with Camus' best work but does have importance in throwing additional light on the details of the life of one of the great writers and moralists of the twentieth century.

I was going to read this book. I bought it for a graduate class I'm taking in the English department at the university where I am attaining my Master's. Then I looked into the history a bit and decided that to read this book would be to engage in ideological rape. Albert Camus did not give his CONSENT to publish this book in this version. Period. Posthumous publishing of a dead author's UNCOMPLETED work or works is immoral and unethical. I don't need to quench my voyeuristic thirst by reading something the author never intended me to read. Some might argue otherwise, but I just don't see how peeking at your sibling's diary is EVER justified. It is someone else's private property, we don't have a right to read it without their permission.

Sincerely,

Sean Hooks

It is reallly not fair to rate a work that is not complete. As an artist, I know how horrifying it is to show unfinished works to anybody. It really is a violation. However, whether this is Camus's first draft or 2nd draft, the evidence is everywhere what kind of great book it would have been had he had a chance to edit it, re-structure and re-write it. It was a great learning experience for me to study what a potential masterpiece looks like in the early stage of its creation.

In this draft, it seems that he was just writing down everything that had come to his mind, the things that he remembered and thought could be part of the story. It's not edited or organized well, so there are some inconsistency, unfinished sentences, and confusions. The plot is not clear, you don't know where the story is going, and the structure is not solid. There are some parts that can be eliminated as well.
But the writing itself is still very strong and beautiful, and there is a lot of wisdom in it. I especially enjoyed the chapter "the school." In this chapter he talks about the school life of the protagonist and how the teacher M. Bernard taught the children with love and discipline, and how the children loved and adored him, despite the corporal punishment they received from him for misbehaving. It's the kind of teacher-student relationship you rarely see in today's society. Each episode is vivid, detailed, heart-warming, full of wisdom and love, and beautifully written.

At the end of the book, after the story ceases, there is a section called "Interleaves." It's a collection of notes and memos of Camus, bits and pieces of scenes or dialogues, thoughts and ideas, which didn't have a chance to take parts of the book. Obviously Camus was planning to use them. They suggest that had he lived to finish the work, it would have been a totally different story, or that the story would have developed and ended much differently.

While it is disrespectful to read an incompleted work, it would have been a great loss if I didn't read it.
Thus I shall give him bright shining 5 stars, and thank him for having written this story.

All of James Herriot's books are great. This is another one. All dogs are unconditional love on four legs.

Stephen Richey author of The Galley

I drive an hour each way to and from work, and this enjoyable book made the time go by quickly.

This is an exceptional book of true stories from the author's actual experiences... a heart-warming book that will bring laughter, tears, and a thorough enjoyment for readers of all ages.

James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories is a short but delightful book written by the world famous veterinarian. It is beautifully illustrated by Lesley Holmes.

This book consists of ten stories from Herriot's previous books that feature dogs that he has treated over the years. It's difficult to pick a favorite as they all have amazing personalities. There is Brandy, who is such a scrounger that he gets his tongue stuck in tin cans that he digs out of the trash can. TrickiWoo, a Pekingese, picks winning horses at the races. And Gyp, an epileptic sheepdog, only barked once in his entire life. Although all the dogs have special characteristics, it is obvious that it would take a veterinarian with compassion and humor to see that these animals are more than just pets.

I truly enjoyed Favorite Dogs Stories. However, if you've already read Herriot's other books (which I haven't), you will find that they're repeats.

I read his books as a teen and loved them. Bought the whole set for my grandsons, [teens]. They laughed until they cried. [so did I].

These books tell an amazing story. I was unable to put them down, and sad when they were finished. I highly recommend these books.

I enjoyed this book and it made me want to read the others (after having been introduced to the series by Masterpiece Theatre). The author really did create a world here, and follows up with every character, rather than just presenting one main character's point of view. It gave me a feeling of getting to know each person over time, as though I were another guest in the household. Particularly interesting was the backdrop of international events and Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler over Czechoslovakia. He is almost universally condemned for it today, with the benefit of hindsight. The reactions of the characters, and Britain's being so unprepared for war one doesnt hear about now. The one thing I didn't like was the author's compulsion to mention every single thing that happened, every move that everyone made, every bite at every meal. It got tedious after awhile; some things can be assumed. She should not mistake description of every breath taken for action.

As a reader whose primary interest is historical accounts and memoirs of World War II, I've shied away from novels about the conflict. I've read some, of course: Mailer's Naked and the Dead, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-5, Theodore Pleiver's great trilogy about the Eastern Front, for example.

But I had always felt that this war was one that no novelist could understand. Part of this, I'm sure, came from the fact that my parents and their families were victims of the Nazis. I didn't want to be reading something about the war that was "made up." The war was too close to too many of those I loved.

The Novel Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard, however, has changed my attitude to fiction about the war. Reading this novel, I felt closer to the war than I had for a long time, and I am looking forward to reading the other novels in this tetralogy. Howard's knowledge of history and her comprehension of what people must have felt as the war approached are absolutely convincing. It's almost like reading a secret diary of that time.

I've not experienced anything else like her book.

If you enjoy Victorian/Edwardian writers like the Brontes, George Eliot and Forster, Elizabeth Jane Howard will be right up your alley. She takes you back to another age (WWII era) and recreates that world so realistically that it's easy to become completely immersed. Putting one of her books down is like emerging from underwater -- it takes me a few minutes to adjust to the light and air of the "real world"!

I love the fact that Howard pulls no punches. Characters and situations are portrayed so honestly and empathetically that it's hard to believe they aren't real.

I am partway through the 4th book in the Cazalet Chronicles and dreading the end -- but I feel confident that unlike most contemporary fiction, I'll be re-reading these books over and over again. (And for me, only Jane Austen and a few of the Victorians usually merit re-reading!)

Having decided it was high time I revisted the Cazalet Family (having read the Chronicles well over 20 years ago), I decided to "read" Book I, The Light Years, by listening to the superb Books on Tape unabridged version. I just loved it, from start to finish, and recommend it highly, especially for chilly fall evenings when one needs a good, meaty story.

The Light Years introduces the reader to three generations of the wealthy, upper-class Cazalet Family, of London and the countryside (the parents' estate) in the uneasy pre-War years of 1937 and 1938. Here, as in so many well-written books about this particular time period in England, we are on the very cusp of a way of life that will disappear forever during the war, never to return. The rigidly structured society, completely ignorant of the lower classes and their needs and wants, was doomed as never before, and that sense of doom is exquisitely portrayed, not in words, but in subtleties all through this first book.

The Cazalets are in a charmed world of their own, and although they are intelligent, mostly kind, very open-minded in many cases, and truly nice people in others, in fact they haven't a clue about what is to come to destroy their world and that of their society. England between the wars was such a tenuous, almost careful time, based on all of the books written about that particular microcosm, and this book seems to capture every essence and feeling, so delicately and yet so unforgettably.

From the most senior Cazalets, the elderly Brig and his wife, the Duchy, to their brood of children: Edward and Hugh, each having fought in World War I (one unscathed, one deeply wounded in body and soul), unmarried daughter Rachel, a lesbian who does not know her own bent, and younger son Rupert, shakily married to a much-younger woman upon the loss of his first wife, each is a true human being facing his or her own fears and doubts against the backdrop of a larger reality.

The daughters-in-law: Edward's wife Villie, grappling with an unwanted pregnancy and trying to ignore her husband's philandering; Hugh's Sybil, always self-effacing in the face of her husband's terrible wounds; and Rupert's silly Zoe, who is terrified of losing him, form the strength of the family along with the matriarch, the Duchy.

But it is the children, all the cousins who gather with their parents at the grandparents' summer estate, who truly speak the hopes and fears of a generation wanting to live a normal life while terrified of a faceless man named Hitler who might destroy it all.

This book stands up to its third reading (albeit by tape) as well as it did the first, and I look forward very much to the second in the series. For those who love generational family novels, The Cazalet Chronicles is a wonderful choice for very happy reading.

This book had me laughing out loud and disturbing the sleep of family members. My all-time favorite Heyer book. Her hero is instantly winning and sly, her heroine a madcap and best of her all her secondary characters (especially Pel and Pom) are hilarious. Other reviewers will tell you the story. I'm just here to tell you you will laugh on almost every page and end up very satisfied.

I'm reviewing this book after not having read it for many years, but I read it three times. I enjoyed the heroine. She is so much fun. And the hero was both romantic and believable.

Ignore the 5 stars if you don't like Georgette Heyer.

So, I finished A Convenient Marriage yesterday. I must say that Horry
drove me up a freakin' wall! She's seventeen and naive and it never
occurs to her that maybe her thirty year old husband knows what he's
talking about. I don't know, maybe I've just forgotten how
hard-headed teenagers can be but she just seemed to me to be
bordering on TSTL status. And Rule was great.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

I loved when Rule snuck into the masquerade and tossed the bad guy into the duck pond. But then the end...ugh. Where he's got the brooch but he doesn't tell her he's got the brooch and he lets Horry and her brother drive themselves crazy trying to get it back. Bleck. I skimmed through all that part and skipped to the end. In fact, after Rule dueled with the
bad guy I pretty much skipped all the way to the very last pages.
Horry just got to be too much.

I thought her brother Pel and his cronies were amusing at times if a bit over the top in their besotted states. I was sad that Heyer seemed to be setting up a romance between the prudish sister and the secretary and then never developed it. The whole book seemed to me like Heyer had started out with grand plans for it and then discovered she only had enough stuff to make half a novel. It's probably one of my least favorite Heyers I've ever read.

Of course, it should be noted that a bad Georgette Heyer is probably at least as good as a mediocre book by anyone else.

It was not easy reading. I found myself reading each sentence
twice to understand what was being said. I decided not to finish the book.

This was a quick, funny read--the secondary characters were quirky and often LOL-hilarious. I adore the hero, the Earl of Rule, and how he's perpetually slumberous, amiable, and oh-so-polite. The heroine was also a unique character, although there were times that I thought she was too flighty and stubborn for her own good. I don't recall ever having read about a heroine who is a "hereditary" gambler, and it's a testament to Georgette Heyer's skill that I overcame my initial aversion to this aspect of Horry's personality. I would recommend to this fans of the Georgian period.

This is a wonderful book. A touching love story. The book just leaves a mark on your soul when you're finished. It deserves all 5 stars.

Not the most well known of his novels, but one worth very much consideration. The technology my be out of date now, Mirage fighter aircrafts having been retired from service for so long.
What remains in the mind is the twists of fate for the main characters and how they master them.

The fate of the main character, his partner and how they find their happiness togehter, despite the cruelty of what they have to bear.

I doubt it would have come to the happy end implied, but Smith placed his characters in such a complicated situation that anything is possible.

Essentially it's a "love conquers all" story, powerful, sad perhaps no longer accurate in terms of today's "fast food living"
But a worthy book indeed

I have read all of Wilbur Smith's books. There was not as much to this book as the others. It was a pleasant, romantic story, but I usually like a little more intrigue in my novels.

A great tale for switching from one locale to the other in phases, and incredible descriptions of everything from epic jet dogfights during the war of Attrition to bloody terrorist attacks inside Israel, to desperate hand to hand brawls with psychopath poachers deeper into Africa itself, the spectacular and horrific change in fortunes of the chief character 2/3 of the way through the book,
and his final plight at the climax, will touch you.

the reprint edition of the book shown on the Amazon mainpage, strange how the camouflaged Mirage III does not have IAF star markings but plain tricolour roundels of some kind, like as if its French or Arab airforces.

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Fluff or not? Fluffy but with impact
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---- Comments ----
Africa, Israel, high-flying jet fighters, Palestinian-Israeli conflict, terrorists, villains, and ultimately redemption make this a relaxing read that's hard to put down. Good for an engaging quick break from reality.
---- What I liked ----
Great visual scenery, good depth and plot development

---- What I didn't ----
Predictable.

Another delightful read! I love the series and I really enjoy spending time with Hamish in his quaint village. Makes you feel just like you're one of the regulars.

Lazy, loveable Hamish Macbeth returns for the 19th installment of this popular series of cozy mysteries set in the tiny Highland village of Lochdubh. His on again/off again romance with Priscilla seems to be definitely, and permanently off now that she is soon to marry someone else. The village is convinced that Elpeth, the pretty, young reporter for the local paper, is much better suited to their favorite policeman but Hamish and Elspeth are not so sure. And once again Hamish's desire for peaceful village life is ignored. He is a victim of his own success, every time he solves a village puzzle and gains the attention of the press and his superiors he is in danger of being promoted and moved out of his comfortable home.

In this volume Hamish outdoes himself, solving not just one or two problems but several mysteries including locating a missing child, resolving a case of domestic abuse, exposing an insurance fraud scheme to name just a few. It seems that the more Hamish trys to keep his life simple, to maybe find a lady to settle down in Lochdubh and raise a family, the more complicated things become.

Fans of this series will definitely want to see what Hamish has been up to lately. Cozy fans who are not familiar with this series will enjoy this delightful trip to the Highlands although they will probably do better to begin at the start of the series and work their was forward. Anyone looking for more realistic or deeply challenging mysteries will probably want to look elsewhere because the true appeal of this series lies in the characters and not the crimes.

Marion Chesney as M.C. Beaton keeps us asking for more and she delivers by bringing back my favorite policeman, Hamish MacBeth. DEATH OF A VILLIAGE is a complicated mystery with all the personal problems that make Hamish a man of the hills.
Two new loves enters his life, a dog Lugs and a psychic reporter, Elspeth Grant who helps him discover the reason for the strange behavior of the citizens of Stoyre. Blair is at his heels and Hamish barely skirts a promotion to the big city.
All our favorite characters take a bow as one more Hamish mystery delights readers to the end.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

Greetings to the Ozarks, and thanks for recommending a delightful little ethnic cop series!
Hamish the hero is a village cop in the Scottish Western Highlands. He doesn't drink. He seems to like women, but somehow doesn't seem to handle it well. He is good at his job, but likes it so much he fears promotion more than anything in the world. Maybe apart from girls who don't dress properly. So he manages to avoid promotion by artful screw-ups, which don't damage the cases. His cases come at us by the half dozen.
Frankly speaking, that is why I deduct a star: the cases are too brief. Hamish hardly settles down to working at them and thinking them through, and there, bingo, they are solved already. Like the murderous nursing home, which is a case that probably interests a few people: it should have been developed more carefully, not with the short attention span approach of a pre-prime-time episodical. Or the insurance fraud case: Beaton doesn't even try to let us watch Hamish solve it; we just have to believe it, there is no indication of what kind of proof he found in the safe of the dealer.
But it is fun. Pity for Elspeth, had she worn different shoes, it might have worked.

Death of a Village by M.C. Beaton is another great addition of the wonderful Hamish Macbeth Mysteries. Beaton has given us a bit of a different serving with this one though. Don't worry though, Hamish is still Hamish and Beaton's Highlands are still the wonderful, character filled place we always find in the world around Lochdubh.

In Death of a Village Hamish is faced with a series of crimes, some small, some not so small, that must be solved and the flawed Hamish is up to them all. The author does deviate from her usual formula in this one, although I suppose you could count the one village in the book as the traditional one obnoxious character that sort of gets knocked off. Be that as it may, the story runs smoothly and there are few pages in the entire book where something is not happening.

Like the rest of the Hamish Macbeth Mysteries, this one is light reading and fun reading. For those who are not familiar with these books, it should be noted that while they are indeed, "light" reading, they are not by any means "bad" reading. Beaton can say more in four or five sentences than most authors can say in a chapter. These are very well crafted stories meant to entertain and they certainly get the job done. I am one of those that feel many of our newer authors could take some lessons from Beaton as to story telling methods and story telling skills. I mean when the author has our hero frying a trout, he does just that...fries a trout! We really do not need five pages of filler telling us step by step how to cook a fish. That is what cook books are for. On the other hand, with a minimum number of words, Beaton can perfectly describe a Highland storm, or a mountain meadow.

I was delighted to find in this work as to where and how Hamish obtained his wonder dog, Lugs. The personality of Lugs is so like that of Hamish, the author must be a great lover and observer of dogs. It was also interesting to read of the twists and turns our red headed hero took in order to avoid being promoted again. Now this is not meant to be a spoiler, but do not get your hopes up that Macbeth's love live will take a turn for the better....although it does take an interesting turn in this work. This poor guy just has no luck with woman...I wonder why? The author also, via Hamish, gives even more lesions on how to receive endless cups of coffee and tea and goodies at absolutely no cost to him self. This is actually quite useful information!

Short, easy reads which are simply fun is the best way to describe these books. I still have several to go as I think there are about twenty of them, but I must admit to looking forward to the next and am sort of worried that I will eventually catch up with the author! Recommend this one highly.