Mystery Crime Books

As a 3rd generation Angeleno, I looked forward to reading about streets and scenes my mother often referenced. I was disappointed. However, the story was enough to keep me looking for Silver Lake, more specifics about Hollywood Blvd. and the people who lived in those romantic homes as you wound around and up to the Hollywood Sign. I was not "glued", but it helped lull me to sleep at night and in the end, I finished with a yawn.

"The Last Embrace" takes place primarily in Los Angeles, but Denise Hamilton is obviously aware of those far-flung residential areas that were also in existence in 1949. She expands the action in her story to include outlying cities like South Pasadena and even Duarte. Having grown up in Los Angeles and later the San Gabriel Valley myself, I found it gratifying that the author gave the suburbs an opportunity to impact her story's plot.

Denise Hamilton takes the reader back to Los Angeles, in the heyday of Hollywood, for two violent weeks in 1949 in her first standalone, The Last Embrace. The reader sees the city, and its dangers, through the fresh eyes of Lily Kessler. Her impressions bring the story to life.

Lily was a stenographer and spy for the OSS in Europe. Following the war, she found herself without a job, as so many women were as the men returned. She lost her fiancé, her job, and doesn't have a home. When she visits the woman who would have been her mother-in-law, Mrs. Croggan asks her to go to LA to look for her daughter, a starlet who took the name of Kitty Hayden, and disappeared. But, almost as soon as Lily arrives in town, and goes to the boardinghouse where Kitty lives, the young woman's body is found by the Hollywood sign. Lily feels she owes it to her fiancé's memory to find out what happened. And, once she meets the two detectives in charge of the case, she's even more determined to investigate. Lily doesn't trust the cops to find the truth. She'll keep probing, and upsetting people, until she upsets a few too many people. Two more bodies are found, as Lily continues to push herself deeper and deeper into a dark world.

Los Angeles in 1949 wasn't all glamour. The girls staying in the boardinghouse were wannabe actresses with stars in their eyes. They saw Frank Sinatra singing, fancy restaurants, movies and glamour. But, Lily saw a city of crooked cops on the take where rival gangsters were at war, a world where the movie studios paid off the cops, the newspapers, and abortion doctors. She encountered a city where men could be hounded to their deaths by cops and media, where cover-ups were likely.

Los Angeles became a dangerous city for Lily Kessler, although she falls for a cop, and finds a photographer friend. She discovers that murder investigation isn't quite the same as the spy business. Since she never knows who to trust, she might be heading down the same track as another bright girl, Kitty Hayden.


Hamilton's book has a couple problems. Lily's character is well-developed, but one of the other characters, Harry Jack, almost seems to be dropped midstream. Lily seems to be the only living character against a backdrop of stereotypes. The varying viewpoints sometimes makes the story feel disjointed. However, The Last Embrace vividly shows the contrast between the historic past of a small town, and the growth, with crime, power and ambition. Despite the character issue, this is a meaty crime novel with a great deal that could be used for a book discussion. I can't even touch on all of the topics - the roles of women, the history of LA, crime and the movie studios. In the end, Lily grows to accept LA, in all its dirty history and glamour. If some of the characters are weak, the city of Los Angeles itself is a strong character, in all its grit and glory. The Last Embrace is a crime novel, the story of a time and place, with all its flaws, portrayed with love by Denise Hamilton.

In 1949 Hollywood, former OSS agent Lily Kessler searches for actress Kitty Hayden, the sister of her late fiancé, US Army Major Joseph Croggan. As she travels by train to California Lily thinks of Joseph, whom she met and fell in love in London during the war as they battled spies together until he died eight months ago in a Budapest car accident. Lily is worried about Kitty who vanished while seeking either rich sugar daddies or men with influence who give her parts.

After taking a room in Kitty's dumpy boarding house, Lily learns Kitty has been murdered; conjuring up the notorious Black Dahlia homicide. Unable to resist as she feels she owes her late fiancé for failing his sister, Kitty investigate the homicide. The case and police corruption lead her to Police Detective Stephen Pico, who pleads with her to let it go. In spite of her attraction to the cop, Lily continues her inquiries though her efforts could lead to her to joining Kitty.

This engaging Hollywood historical mystery is fun to follow due to the antics of the fully developed heroine and the cop who adores her and tries to prevent her from getting killed. The support cast is a bit flat, but the audience will not care as Lily is the star of this look at the film industry between WWII and Korea inside of a well written whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

Weaving into her novel a series of murders in 1949 Los Angeles, and loosely basing her work on the disappearance of the statuesque Jean Spangler, a 27-year-old actress, and dancer who mysteriously disappeared in October 1949, Denise Hamilton has written a tense and compelling mystery that encapsulates every part imaginable of this multi-faceted and at times darkly menacing city.

Lily Kessler, an ex-OSS investigator who worked in Europe with her late fiancé, Major Joseph Croggan, has just arrived in Los Angeles to search for her sister-in-law, Doreen Croggan. Lily had never met Kitty, a girl who'd come to Hollywood dreaming of stardom in 1944, around the same time that Lily had fed to Europe. Doreen was a fiercely spirited girl who'd graduated from walk-on roles to a studio contract, changed her name to Kitty Hayden, and seemed awash in projects right up until last week when she disappeared into the L.A. air.

Let loose in the city of her childhood, "with its sugar-white beaches and pastel bungalows with red tile roofs," Lily ends up staying at the Hollywood Wilcox Boarding House for young Ladies, where under the under the watchful, strange eyes of the officious Mrs. Potter, the girl is positively overwhelmed by the ghosts and shadows of Kitty that no amount no sunshine could possibly dispel. It is her Lily's friendships with Kitty's roommates, their casual cruelty and silky competitiveness, that tell Lily much about the reality of Kitty's genteel poverty, which contrasted sharply with Mrs. Croggan's boasts about her daughter taking Hollywood by storm.

Lily soon learns from the other girls that the camera loved her sister-in-law: "even if she's only on screen for five minutes, you see the vulnerability, the nakedness, it's like you gaze through her eyes and see her soul." When Kitty's body is discovered in a ravine beneath the Hollywood sign, strangled, her purse and shoe missing, but with no obvious signs of sexual violation, the heartbroken Lily is empowered to delve even further into her sister-in-law's murky existence in those final days before she was murdered.

Teaming up with local newspaper photographer Harry Jack and then with two detectives from the Central Homicide Bureau, Detective Magruder, built like a pickle barrel and the loose limbed but dashingly handsome Detective Pico, Lily steadily pieces together the motives for Kitty's death. The girls at the Boarding House, with their swirls and eddies of conflicted allegiances, positively swear that Kitty had no vices - she worked long hours and dated a lot, but had no one steady, except of course, the RKO special effects technician Max Vranizan who had a crush on Kitty and who Kitty's roommates warned her was eccentric and prone to obsessions.

Had Max tried to control Kitty then killed her when that proved impossible? With the support of Pico, whom Lily becomes completely smitten with even though she suspects he knows things about Kitty's murder he hasn't yet told her, Lily tries to build her case. Unfortunately, the discovery of Kitty's body has also gets the attention of some powerful players, particularly local mobsters, Mickey Cohen and Jack Dragna who are currently are engaged in a fierce turf war that is reverberating throughout Los Angeles' criminal underworld.

This is also a company town where the movie studios rule, often desperate to protect the images of their movie stars who are considered gods and who think they can do anything they want, yet are also fearful of the negative publicity that would damn their careers and scandalize their marriages.

As Hamilton's narrative powerfully swirls and unfurls atop each page, the net begins to draw tight around Lily, the search for Kitty's killers and indeed the attentions of Pico unleashing strange desires inside of her. Where characters are more often than not fuelled by blackmail and greed and where criminals abound in a city of lost souls, Lily, now in danger of her own life, must try to navigate her way through this anti-paradise, its dreams written on parchment-thin bougainvillea that is in danger of crumbling with the first breeze of fall. A page-turning mystery from the outset, Lily finds herself battling a possible betrayal even as she finds herself the center of the novel's violent conclusion high atop the Hollywood Hills and beneath the sign, that eternal and almost mythical symbol of all that has come to represent Los Angeles. Mike Leonard July 08.

Three of these four [very] short stories relate to the holidays...

"Christmas Party" has (inveitably?) Wolfe in a holiday mood and role.

"Easter Parade" celebrates Wolfe's ongoing desire to stay home, no matter what.

"Fourth of July Picnic" recalls "Some Buries Caesar" a little bit.

"Murder is No Joke" is the only non-themed story here, and, in my view, it's the strongest for plot and characterization.

I hope we'll see these on audio CD or download some time soon...

Nero Wolfe is constantly getting himself into fixes through three character flaws. Arrogance, Cupidity, and Eccentricity. He must then shake off his indolence and use his intelligence to extricate himself from whatever predicament he stumbles into. Frequently he must extricate himself through the device of an elaborate caper designed to expose a killer while simultaneously burying his embarrassment.

Each of the four stories in this book has as its centerpiece an elaborate caper. In two of the stories Wolfe engineers a caper to extricate himself from danger; in the one the caper places him in danger; in the fourth, he is victimized by a caper and solves the mystery through sheer force of logic and deduction.

In "Christmas Party" Wolfe's fear that Archie is going to marry causes him to masquerade as Santa Claus and become prime suspect in a murder. In "Easter Parade" Wolfe's envy of a rival orchid grower causes him to stoop to petit theft and become embroiled in a murder mystery. In "Fourth of July Picnic" Wolfe discovers a murder at a picnic, attempts to flee without reporting it, and must expose the murderer before he himself gets arrested for obstructing justice. In "Murder is No Joke" Wolfe provides all the usual suspects with an ironclad alibi. How can he break an alibi that he himself provides?

Classic murder mysteries rarely bear any resemblance to reality. I've handled hundreds of homicide cases over the years, and the puzzles presented by real life homicide investigations bear no resemblance whatsoever to the puzzles presented in murder mysteries. You can imagine my pleasure on finding that Wolfe solved one of the mysteries in this book with exactly the same stratagem employed in a case that I prosecuted years ago. I've long since lost track of the investigator who solved that little mystery, but if I ever see him again, I'm certainly going to ask him if he has ever read any Nero Wolfe.

Spend the holidays with Nero and Archie, and quickly discover Wolfe quick thinking as he solves the mysteries faster than you can turn the pages. The last one is particularly good, as Wolfe takes offense to the fool who tries to fool him. In the others, Wolfe himself is cast in the spotlight as the police begin to even suspect his involvement - but naturally, his intellect always bails him out.

This edition now boasts "As Seen on TV!" on its cover, alluding to the fact that 1 (so far) of the 4 short stories herein has been adapted by A&E. Since 3 of the 4 are set during major holidays, Jane Haddam (author of the Gregor Demarkian holiday mysteries) was selected to write the forward. Apart from her forward and the afterward, the book is pure Stout, set after both _Black Orchids_ and _The Black Mountain_.

All four are murder investigations. The Ingram editorial review incorrectly implies that the killings were committed by 1 person - they're not. The cases are unrelated, and are only grouped in one volume because of a common holiday theme.

"Christmas Party" - The A&E adaptation is faithful to the story. Archie, having arranged for a day off, receives brusque instructions to cancel his plans and drive Wolfe out to Mr. Hewitt's for a special orchid powwow. He whips out a marriage license (!), with the news that he must attend his fiancee's office Christmas party that day. You've _got_ to read this one, if only for Wolfe's reaction to this. :)

"Easter Parade" - Rumor (via his gardener) has it that Millard Bynoe has bred a pink Vanda, but he refuses to admit it or display it before his wife wears a blossom for the Easter parade. Wolfe, giving in to acute orchid envy, has Archie arrange for a petty thief to steal it under cover of parade photographers. Unfortunately, that's the day that someone poisons Mrs. Bynoe, apparently with a dart shot from a fake camera.

When originally published in a magazine, the photos referred to in the text were provided in color as clues. The old hardcover edition of the book provided them in B&W; this edition omits them altogether. It's a pity, but does not detract from the story.

"Fourth of July Picnic" - Wolfe never leaves the brownstone on business; his friend Marko Vukcic (and by extension, his restaurant, Rusterman's) is associated with most of the things that can get him out. He has agreed to give a speech at the annual picnic of the Restaurant Workers of America, if they'll stop harassing Fritz to join their union.

"Murder is No Joke" - A different version of this story appears in _Death Times Three_.

This is my first Ngaio Marsh novel. It is in many respects similar to an Agatha Christie in that the suspects are interviewed one at a time and then gathered for the final denoument. I guessed wrongly whodunnit, but the murderer and motive make sense when revealed. However, the murder doesn't take place until well into the book, and I got caught up with Martyn's story. The suspense for me was whether she would get the role and attain her dream of stardom. Ms. Marsh must have known a lot about the theater since there is a lot of detail about sets and actors. For a contemporary "closed set" murder mystery also based in England, I would recommend Christmas is Murder: A Rex Graves Mystery by C.S. Challinor.

Like many struggling young actresses before her, Martyn Tarne has a private fantasy of stepping in for a leading lady taken ill. In true Ngaio Marsh style, Martyn's dream is made a reality, in a twisted way; having just missed an audition at the Vulcan, Martyn wangles a job involved with another show set to open in a few days - as the leading lady's dresser, since Helena Hamilton's regular dresser just went into hospital. Martyn, a New Zealander who was robbed upon arriving in England, is alone and broke, and thankful to get *any* job until she can get on her feet - even at the Vulcan, where her mother's immensely famous cousin Adam Poole is both leading man and director.

The small cast and other Vulcan personnel involved in the production feature quite a few mirror images and parallels in their situations and their relationships with each other. In several scenes, actual reflecting surfaces underline this - shop windows as Martyn trudges to a late audition, a picture under glass of one character that reflects another, and so on.

Martyn doesn't want to establish herself on the London stage solely on the strength of her relationship with Poole - but she's ideally suited for a supporting role in the play requiring a woman who strongly resembles the lead. By contrast, Gay Gainsford, cast for the part on her uncle's insistence, requires heavy makeup and acting skills outside her scope, and is as prone to hysterical outbursts about her loathing for the play even as Martyn tries to fade into the woodwork and hang onto her job. Both women's relationships with older men in the company result in protective and sometimes over-protective reactions as clashes occur in the high-pressure atmosphere of the last few rehearsals and opening night.

As for the men associated with the Vulcan, Clark Bennington, Gay's uncle, is a once-fine actor now in a supporting role as an alcoholic both on stage and in life. On a particularly galling note, he seems to be playing second fiddle to Adam Poole in his marriage as well as his career - Helena Hamilton, the leading lady, has a career that eclipses Bennington's and tends to inspire devotion in most men, though she seems to collect only the young and artistic variety. Most of the other men on the scene apparently don't qualify, being either too old (her devoted admirer Jacques, the director's assistant; Gay's admirer Darcey, supporting player; the crabby playwright Dr. Rutherford) or ambiguous. All the men except Jacques and Poole do their bit to make the situation worse - even the playwright, whose "helpful" feedback is loaded with unprofessional attacks on the junior members of the cast, driving them almost to the point of breakdown when he isn't tactfully headed off.

The story plays out in a very compressed space and timeframe, set almost entirely within the walls of the Vulcan and mostly upon the opening night of THUS TO REVISIT, whose first performance ends with the discovery of the body of a member of the company; the investigation is wrapped up before daybreak.

I recommend James Saxon's unabridged recording of the text; Marsh's stories tend to function very well when performed, and this is no exception.

Drive in totals:
- Two deaths (poison); a third from a previous incident in the same theatre is referred to. (The Vulcan is not the same theatre as the Dolphin, which appears in other stories).
- One sexual assault (off camera, referred to indirectly).
- One openly homophobic character; it's made clear that that's only one of many unpleasant aspects of his rude, bullying personality.
- A character from A SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS turns up as a young constable.
- This story isn't about Alleyn, really; he serves to bring the truth of events and various motivations of the real main characters to light. Alleyn's personal life and family aren't a factor.

There's never a dull moment at The Vulcan Theatre--especially when a starving actress named Martyn Tarne walks into the job of dresser for the show's leading lady. What with a gifted but nasty author, an alcoholic actor, a hysterical bit player, and a host of other neurotics, opening night is more unnerving than usual. In fact, it's pure murder, and Inspector Alleyn is soon on the scene.

Ngaio Marsh is one of the great mystery novelists of the 20th Century, and she is particularly known for her skill at creating believable characters in memorable settings. But she is also uniquely gifted at portraying the complex world of the theatre, a task she takes on in several novels but never better than here. Marsh captures the contrast between the out-front-glamor and the backstage hysteria with the knowledge of an insider (she was, in fact, a theatrical director herself), and in VULCAN she offers a remarkably accurate, powerful vision.

Although it is occasionally beset by some of Marsh's less admirable tendencies, NIGHT AT THE VULCAN is easily among the best of the best, a novel that will not only fascinate you with it's look behind the grand curtain, but keep you guessing in terms of plot as well. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Who would've thought that so many murders could occur in theatres? But then again, it's all a case of life imitating art, and no one does this better than Ngaio Marsh. It's not surprising when you realize that she was a stage director/producer in New Zealand. _Night at the Vulcan_ beautifully captures the atmosphere unique to the theatre, while laying out a very clever case of murder made to look like suicide. This is all told through the eyes of Martyn Tarne, a young lady newly arrived to the London theatre scene, making it all the more interesting. The only reason that I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, was that the identity of the murderer became a little too obvious, in my opinion, but all in all, a fantastic read.

Night at the Vulcan has everything; sympathetic (and endearing) characters, lots of Shakespearean quotes, realistic dialogue, two very different (but equally satisfying) love stories, gorgeous prose...all of the things I read Ngaio for. The character of Martyn Tarne is one I wish Ngaio had re-used in a later book (like she did with some characters from "Death of a Peer" and "Killer Dolphin.").

Ngaio Marsh is my favorite author, and Night at the Vulcan is my favorite Ngaio Marsh. 'Nuff said.

I only recommend this one to completists like myself who compulsively insist on reading an author's full body of work. Final Appeal is my least favorite by Scottoline, but it's only her sophomore effort and from here it keeps on improving.

I have ready many of Ms. Scottoline's novels and have found all of them to be worth my time. This one was faced pace and had a couple turns I did not see coming. Highly recomend.

Grace Rossi is a single mother who is a parttime lawyer for a federal appeals court. Much to her dismay, she is assigned a murder case but things improve when Grace's researching the case leads to romance. After a romantic evening, Grace is horrified to discover that her lover has died of an apparent suicide. She discovers that he had had an active love life and she immediately suspects his wife of murdering him. This is the fourth Lisa Scottoline book I have read and is probably the weakest one so far. Most of the action and suspense are contained in the first few chapters, and the book begins to meander and lose focus after that.

I found this book entertaining to read, although the beginning was a little confusing. I just went back to read the first paragraph and it still doesn't really make sense to me - but after I got through the first chapter I was hooked. I didn't rate it a 4 because the author skipped ahead of herself, leaving what I felt was important details behind. Perhaps that was her intention and in a way it was refreshing because you couldn't get bogged down by details. The characters weren't terribly believable, yet they were likeable.
This is an easy read, so if you want something to just take your mind of the mundane of life, I would recommend you give this book a try.
I liked it enough to give another one of her books a try.

After reading and enjoying "Everywhere That Mary Went," Lisa Scottoline's first mystery novel, I was disappointed in this effort. Although the main character is sufficiently developed and the story will be of interest to those familiar with Philadelphia, the plot itself -- the cornerstone of any mystery novel -- is fair at best. The various clues seem contrived. There are fewer of the clever observations which permeated "Mary". Worst of all, the novel lacks the suspense which mystery readers crave: "whodunit" is reasonably predictable, and for obvious reasons.

I am surprised that this novel won an Edgar. It held my interest, but is nowhere near the novels of, say, Michael Connelly. It is a nice, quick beach read, but you can find many better novels in this genre.

If you love action, adventure, suspense and a quickly moving plot, Meg Gardiner will not disappoint you. Great read!

As most of the people who have written reviews for Meg Gardiner books, I also discoverd her via the artical Stephen King srote in Entertainment Weekly. Meg Gardiner has all the requirements of a writer that I am drawn to. She writes in first person, her heroine is smart and the most important the dialouge is "laugh out loud funny." I do hope that Ms. Gardiner does continue to write more Evan Delaney novels in the future and that they do become the "big hits" in the United States as they well deserve.

Evan Delaney is called to an accident site on Highway 1, where her father's car has gone off the road. However, she quickly discovers that there is no body. The authorities think Phil was trying to fake a suicide because, well, the authorities are usually missing a brick or two: a car falling off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean, then you might expect not to find a body, but a car falling into a ravine? Then Evan gets a phone call and she is informed her father has been kidnapped. She has 72 hours to find something to exchange for his life and it will involve taking her far away from Southern California, fleeing from not only the feds but also some rather unusual assassins, and whatever this is about has something to do with Jax Rivera. Meanwhile, Jesse finally checks his answering machine and finds a desperate message from Phil, telling him to keep Evan out of this at all costs: if not, Phil's family will become part of the kill chain. Of course, it is way too late for Jesse to keep Evan clear of this mess and the chase is on.

Because this is basically a chase story, this one ends up having less of Gardiner's trademark humor because, frankly, there is not a lot of time for that kind of stuff this time around. I read most of "Kill Chain" thinking this was the least impressive of the Evan Delaney thrillers to date, in part because I really enjoyed the previous story, Crosscut, but also because by the time you get to the fifth novel the formula is really becoming obvious. With Evan Delaney it is always personal and she is starting to run out of people in her life (of course, the solution to that is to add more people to her life). I was wrestling with whether I would be rounding up or down on "Kill Chain," and then starting to think I was going to have to go with a straight 4 star rating. That was, until I got to the endgame. Gardiner has been getting more and more cinematic in terms of the stunts, but in these last two books she has been working on damaging Evan's psyche as well as her body. But as the opening lines of this novel warn us: "Don't ever pray for insight. You're liable to get it." The end of this book really represents one step forward, and two giant steps backwards for our heroine and I can only wonder where does Evan go from here?

Between the author's name and the title of the book appears the words: "Hookers, Guns and Money. Everybody Pays," and, yes, a certain Warren Zevon song was immediately lodged in my mind. I see you can get this paperback from Amazon, which is a vast improvement from when I first tried to track them down and had to get four of the give from Amazon.uk (I never thought to look north of the border). My paperback edition comes from across the pond with a faux sticker on the cover with Stephen King's quote delcaring "She is up there with Michael Connelly and Lee Child." King raving about Gardiner's books on his website and in "Entertainment Weekly" may well have increased her readership to the point that there are more of us who checked out China Lake and the rest of these books because of his recommendation than there are those who lucked out by being onboard from the very beginning. Now I feel bad because I have no idea who those writers are, but since I am now all caught up on Gardiner's novels and have yet to pick up any sort of hint to when the next book comes out (yes, I will upgrade to hardback, because I am not waiting for a paperback sometime in 2008), I might have to check out Connelly and Child. After all, they are up there with Meg Gardiner.

Evan Delaney is near hysterical when she learns her father's car has been found wrecked at the bottom of a California ravine. The local authorities believe Phil committed suicide, but cannot answer Evan's calm question of where the corpse is. The FBI believes Phil set up a death ploy to flee the country just before the DA was to file charges against him, but they fail to be specific as to his alleged crime when pressed by Evan. She believes law enforcement at all levels is CYA as her dad was a spy who came in from the cold as a whistle blower; she fears something sinister has happened to Phil as she knows he would have called her if he could.

Her fear proves right although she gains no satisfaction with the affirmation. An assassin for hire visits Evan; his wife Jax is also missing just like her dad. Since his spouse and here father worked together on the Riverbend Operation, he and Evan agree the same culprit abducted both of their loved ones. Rio Sanger is a madam who caters to men with particularly twisted desires; she calls Evan with a deal. In exchange for the location of where Phil is stashed, Evan is to deliver the Riverbend file, which she does not have and will have to go on a treasure hunt to find it. Evan is on a scavenger hunt of 72 hours and counting down; the prize saving Phil.

Meg Gardiner writes some of the best suspense thrillers on the market today. In KILL CHAIN the author surprises her audiences with the way the story line develops as each spin seems plausible but comes from nowhere; finishing with an explosive climax that will shock the readers and the heroine. Evan is a strong willed individual who will need every ounce of her iron determination to save her dad irregardless of the consequences to herself. She is at her best fighting impossible odds established by a ruthless unknown adversary who does not mind collateral damage.

Harriet Klausner

Gee this book was fun. I read it and I love female superhero types and this one is totally fun. Way better than most thrillers out there. Evan (our hero) is like a female James Bond or a Modesty Blaise type. If you're looking for some fun and a highly original thriller with a cliffhanger ending this is it. I love two of the villains named Bliss and Shiver. Meg had a great way of choosing names. I feel like this series could evolve into something very special and this book would make a great movie. I can't wait to read the next one in the series. Highly recommended. Fast blazing fun read. Would be perfect to take on summmer vacation.

Ever since my wife brought me "Hard Candy" while in the hospital I have been hooked on Andrew Vachss' writing.
While many writers in this genre get tedious with their characters after a while, Vachss keeps his main man Burke refreshingly alive and different with each new novel!
I make it the top choice each year for Christmas, birthday and Father's Day when asked what I want the reply is always "See if there is a new Vachss book out there first, if so , that's what I want! I have read them all and am looking forward to his new one coming out in December 2008!
Enjoy!
Christopher J.Whedon

Vacchs' Burke books keep getting better! Like the characters themselves, the stories mature with each passing book. This one is terrific, especially the cliffhanger ending! So ... when's the next one?!

I also found this book a bit difficult to get through. Has a lot of sermonizing in it that takes away from the plot. However, I think Burke fans will love it anyway. If you haven't read the other Burke novels, it would be difficult to follow. Love the idea of what Burke and his family do to child molesters, doesn't even matter that they're running cons. Look forward to the next one.

This is the weakest of all the Burke novels. What is little more than a short story has been extended by the author, Vacchs, into a work that is 1/3 story and 2/3 polemics. I agree that abusers and destoyers of children all are of the lowest of the low in society and should be persecuted and prosecuted until they are removed from our world and locked away forever.

What I do not agree with is an author who creates a work of supposed fiction and then spends most of the work providing factual details to support his agendas. All that Vacchs says, as author, belongs in a nonficton work which should include additional information exploring Vacchs' ideas for dealing with child abusers; he has extensive knowledge and experience from which we all could benefit. But, he ought not to pack it into a so-called "novel."

I was expecting something of the caliber of Flood, which came out in 1985, and all of the subsequent novels. Terminal Burked me, blind-sided me, drawing upon Vacchs's name and reputation to entice me into entering the novel. I just wish I weren't hammered so hard by the author. Instead, I wish I would have been finessed by Burke, making the author's points through his actions.

Andrew Vachss is a man with a mission.

That mission is to open up the world of child abuse and to make the world a better place by cleansing it of the people that commit the horrible crimes.

Vachss's books are reads that need to be read but sometime you need a bath afterwards, especially if you are a soul who is innocent and just likes to read good crime writing.

This book is difficult to read as the characters are complex and have evolved over the course of many years to be who they are. The storyline is convoluted but the main story is not the "crime" or the "mystery", it is the social commentary that Vachss is giving us.

Good writer, great cause, difficult book to read, unless you are a long-term fan (like myself).

Well - I've read the reviews for this book and I conclude that everyone who's contributed must be closely related to the author - brothers, uncles and grandmother.

There is nothing in this little yarn that warrants anything more than a one star rating.

Firstly - the storyline is weak: someone gets murdered and who did it? We have a few suspects. There are no interesting lines of enquiry or clues - indeed nothing that captivates the brain cells, or gets the reader thinking or working the imagination. Okay - so the maid did it - and we are told this at the end, by the author - who dedicates a paragraph or two. It could have been Mickey Mouse for all I cared. There was no build up and no suspense. No building up of tension. It was utterly lazy.

It was a drab storyline which offered nothing and delivered less.

What was the bloody point? Dunno.

Secondly - the characterisation was thin - De Luca (our policeman/detective) was the "big personality" of the book and all we knew about him was that he suffered from insomnia. That was the total sum of his humanity - the insight into the man. He was enirely one dimensional. Everyone else in the book was not worth a fig.

Lastly - this book was boring. Although it was a short - my Gawd did it feel like a long read. I was yawning and constantly checking how many pages of this turgid stuff I still had to endure.

In conlusion: if this is Italy's finest detective writer - well I am a monkey's uncle.

First Sentence: The bomb exploded suddenly, with a ferocious blast, right as the funeral procession was crossing the street.

It is April 1945, the final days before the Allies move into Italy. Those in power are desperately trying to find a way to survive the coming days.

In the midst of this, Commissario De Luca has been given "carte blanche" in his investigation of the murder and castration of Rehinard Vittorio, a member of the Fascist Republican Party. With a mix of female suspects, drugs, witchcraft and more bodies, De Luca is a policeman trying to solve a crime.

This was a fast, and absolutely captivating, book. Lucarelli's creation of time and place provided a sense of the confusion and conflicting forces at play during this time when the primary concern was trying to survive.

Into that he brings the character of De Luca who, in spite of insomnia, dyspepsia, and political forces, is dedicated to being a policeman, solving the crime and bringing justice. De Luca's emotions are so well conveyed, as is the danger and frustration. The story is well-plotted and the characters alive.

There is good suspense and surprisingly ironic twist at the end. The mystery is solved, the murderer identified but you are left wanted to know what happens next to Comm. De Luca. Happily, Parts II and III of the trilogy await me.

Author Carlo Lucarelli's "Carte Blanche" is a reminder that even in times of national emergency--Italy at the end of WWII--ordinary life goes on and people go about the day-to-day business of living, behaving well or badly as they would at any other time. This short novella is tightly and very neatly constructed and literally races along to its conclusion. That conclusion leaves the story and reader somewhat suspended, but definitely interested in the next phase of the saga. This is an excellent beginning for a trio of novels about the chaos in Italian society brought about by WWII and the political vacuum that followed. If you aren't particularly interested in history or the geographic setting, it's still a fine mystery story that will keep the best-read of the genre satisfied. It has definitely encouraged this reader to get the two other books in the series.

Here's the premise: decent man in the service of the Fascist police with the allies getting closer and closer each day. Partisans on the roofs and various militias on the streets. The atmosphere takes care of half the job already. Some hints of "Fatherland" and the whole canon of decent men in service of nasty regimes. A very short novel as well, only about a 128 pages. But a decent start and I'd probably read the rest of the trilogy as well.

It is April, 1945. Mussolini's regime is in its death throes, clinging to power in the north of Italy. Chaos and anarchy is rapidly replacing repression and order as the predominant feature of Italian life. Yet there is still some semblance of law and order so when a prominent and quite unsavory member of Mussolini's Republican Party is murdered, the police are called to the scene to investigate the crime. The crime is deemed sufficiently important for the police to be granted `carte blanche', to take any means necessary to solve the murder. Commisario De Luca is assigned to lead the investigation and his investigation is the heart of Carlo Lucarelli's enjoyable short novel "Carte Blanche".

"Carte Blanche", the first volume in what is known as the De Luca Trilogy, is rich in storytelling and atmosphere. As drawn by Lucarelli, De Luca is an interesting character. He is neither a hero nor an antihero. He seems to want to be nothing more than to be a detective yet as the story opens he has just transferred back to the regular police force after a stint with the secret police. He'd left because he didn't like that sort of work and seems quite willing to point out that no, he'd never tortured anyone. He is savvy enough to know that an investigation like this is one with political undercurrents that could put him in danger but his compulsion to gather facts and put together the pieces of a puzzle outweighs his sense of caution. As a result we see a story where De Luca persists in pursuing an investigation even when all his instincts tell him he is walking through a minefield.

The strength of "Carte Blanche" lies primarily in Lucarelli's ability to create an atmosphere of Italy on the edge of chaos. I got a real sense of time and place while reading "Carte Blanche". Apart from De Luca, Lucarelli does not invest a lot of time in presenting us with a full-blown character analysis of the key parties to the crime and its aftermath. We also don't get a lot of the internal life of De Luca but De Luca's actions tend to speak for themselves and over the course of the book I got a nice feel for his personality without having had Lucarelli spell it out for me.

At the story's end we see the threads of the investigation pulled together while the threads holding together the reigns of government come fully undone. The resolution is not so much a conclusion as it is a signal that De Luca and Italy are in for some very interesting times in the months and years to come. "Carte Blanche" was a very satisfying first volume to the De Luca Trilogy. Volume Two The Damned Season (De Luca Trilogy 2) has been republished recently and the third and final volume (Via delle Oche) is, apparently, due out soon. I've read and enjoyed Volume Two and look forward to the conclusion. Recommended. L. Fleisig

Moe Prager, P. I. and wine shop owner, interesting, kind of like Sam Spade owning a gourmet cheese boutique or maybe Raymond Chandler a nice little French bakery.... But, Reed Coleman pulls it off and the James Deans won't disappoint even the most discriminating imbiber of classic P. I. Noir. Plus, I met Mr. Coleman on one of his tours and he's a nice guy. Buy this book!

An ex-cop turned successful wine merchant and sometime PI. A golden-haired politico wanting to be another "comeback-kid." An office intern who turned out to be a deadly researcher. These are the intriguing main characters in Reed Farrel Coleman's third Moe Prager mystery, The James Deans.

If you've got politicians in a story, then you know what the other elements will be--greed, betrayal, misuse of power, dishonesty, and in the wake of Monicagate and GaryCondit/Chandra Levy, sexual dallying will play a big part too.

Or will it? That's what's so intriguing about this specific mystery and the skill that author Reed Farrel Coleman brings to his stories--you think it's going to follow the path lead by headlines, then it veers off into uncharted territory, with roots laid deep and long ago. His style is lean and mean on one of its threads and spiraling with imagery on another. The combination makes his writing exciting and hard to forget.

The James Deans is a terrific page-turner, complicated with plenty of twists and made rich with believable, flawed characters. It's only a matter of time before Coleman and emerges from the pack and shines in the spotlight.

Moe is the refreshing antithesis of most characters being written today. He is a loving husband, father and brother, neither an alcoholic nor a drug user, but with secrets and burdens of his own. I still rave about "Walking the Perfect Square" as one of my favorite books. Coleman creates an environment that feels personal. But it's the writing that makes this book and series one I feel deserves attention and recognition. Highly recommended.

A pretty decent, fairly engaging mystery. The characters are pretty well fleshed out and the relationships, for the most part, are very believable and sympathetic.
The plot is a good mix of an old-fashioned Hammettesque detective story and modern day mystery.
My main problem is the observations, obviously from a post 9/11 perspective, of 1980's New York. I mean, come on, why would a 1983 detective be looking for the twin towers, thinking that "the skyline wouldn't look right without them?"
Over all, I enjoyed the characters enough to try another Moe Prager mystery. It's a decent, light read for a Saturday afternoon.

When he is cornered at an employee's wedding in 1983 New York, the last thing wine shop owner and private investigator Moe Prager is to work for a politician. A former cop who was forced on disability by a piece of carbon paper on a waxed floor, Moe has had enough of being manipulated and holds a secret that could destroy his marriage. However, a carrot and stick approach by the bride's father forces Moe into working for State Senator Steven Brightman and investigating the disappearance of his female intern in Reed Farrel Coleman's The James Deans (Plume)..

Moe soon makes headway into the case, but after coming to a conclusion that leaves everyone satisfied niggling doubts begin to force Moe into looking a little closer at a case that has been tidily resolved. Now, Moe must decide whether to open a can of worms that would leave the powerful and his own friends particularly unhappy with his actions. From the Senator down to the neighborhood bar owner, all are invested in the nicely wrapped package Moe has presented to the city. To continue investigating means that Moe risks sacrificing his career, his family, and his friends.

Moe Prager is a wonderfully down-to-earth detective who, although bored with his mundane life, would rather avoid a fight than wield his muscle. His love for his family makes him engagingly human, especially when he knows that a secret he shares with his father-in-law will one day explode and shatter his marriage (Walking the Perfect Square, 2001). Not overly bright but always quick with a quip yet never annoyingly so, it's his ethics and sense of honor that make Moe shine. Taking a turn at writing his version of the Chandra Levy/Gary Condit scandal, Coleman does an original twist with the plot as halfway through, just when you think the mystery has been solved, he boomerangs the story and leads Moe into making a decision that forces him to look deep into his soul and his sense of justice. While Coleman does make a few obvious references meant to give a wink and a nod to the present (a poetic look at the sturdy World Trade Center and jokes about a going-nowhere Arkansas Senator), he writes a riveting plot and creates a vivid portrait of eighties New York City. Always entertaining with a character who is never disappoints, Coleman continues a series that improves and expands on a truly unique character.

After reading about 11 JDM McGee series books I have to say that this is one of my very favorites. The characters interesting, the musings on target with today's worries and complaints and the story very entertaining. I was at Hilton Head and read this in a couple of days on the beach. Excellent beach read. Not too dark like some of the other McGee books. Satisfying ending. Loved the dated accounts of flying, lol.

JDM should have gotten a Pulitzer just for his creativity in naming his books.

MacDonald aka Travis had a serious intrigue in this one. Yet, somehow and remarkably, John D. worked out a decent ending.

"Turquoise Lament" is a poorly told tale of missing buried treasure documents, damsel in distress and some interesting locales: Pago Pago and Hawaii.

The positives were an extremely well drawn character Howie Brindle. We have all known the type, but he is elusive as a wisp of smoke. MacDonald does a great job of nailing him down. The descriptive scenery was interesting and set forth in a very reader-friendly way.

Travis did not behave well and showed some monstrous poor judgment. Perhaps this made MacDonald grumpy. Travis's voice was lost through the incessant monologues by the author. We expect a certain amount of authorly philosophizing in a McGee novel, but this one went so far over the line as to be mere self-indulgence. Just when things are getting exciting, we get a three-page diversion about the inner-workings of a sand filter.

Travis has a few affairs too many, falls in lust with a girl called "Pidge" who has all the charm of a juvenile hysteric, and is so irresistible himself that merely his voice on the phone causes ladies' hearts to beat faster and pour out their innermost secrets to him. We really can't blame Travis for getting out of line; his author deserted him.

Travis McGee once again takes on the torch of righteousness as he saves the daughter of an old friend. She thinks she's losing her mind, which is exactly what somebody wants her to think. But McGee sees through the charade, and undercovers a shady past that explains why he's willing to travel halfway around the world to provide justice. The last 50 pages are stunning in this thriller. Like all MacDonald books, you will get a heavy dose of philosophy from a sophisticated author. Enjoy this classic.

Had Travis McGee been in a science fiction novel, we would have had books like THE PHILOSOPHY OF MCGEE, similar to THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG, dedicated to the wit and wisdom of this, MacDonald's best known and best loved character. Perhaps it is for the best. While not quite given to epigrams as Heinlein, MacDonald definitely had a consistent vision of who this latter day Don Quixote was. Long before Robert Parker investigated male angst in the Spenser books, MacDonald had mined the entire territory.

In The Turquoise Lament, McGee must face doubt, guilt, and faith as the grown daughter of a deceased salvage friend is afraid that her newlywed husband is attempting to kill her. Culminating in a fight scene with a cable car that today's Hollywood would go nuts for--in fact, that gets me to wondering why we have never seen McGee on film. Maybe we have, and I just don't know about it? Sure, some of the dialogue might not work on the screen, but the mystery, adventure, and spectacular fights would surely fit today's current vehicles for male stars. Today's directors would probably make a mish-mash of it, though; MacDonald probably better fits a director like Hitchcock than Paul Rudhoven or James Cameron.

Jane Whitefield is a blue-eyed, half-Seneca woman who helps people in danger of being killed disappear and establish new identities. In this novel, the second in Thomas Perry's enthralling suspense series, she must protect both an 8-year-old boy who is heir to a multimillion-dollar trust fund and a woman convicted of savings & loan fraud, who has served her time and is on parole, from some evil, murderous men who are after their money.

At first I was afraid I might get lost in all the financial intricacies of trusts and banks, but Perry explains it all clearly without slowing the action. His heroine is clever, devious and resourceful, and I found her instructions to her client on how to establish a new identity and avoid being tracked down fascinating. Jane relies on traditional tribal wisdom as a guide, e.g., that dreams are a good place to obtain secret information. I liked the strain of mysticism running through the fast-paced, complex story, and the thrilling denouement is followed by a most satisfying epilogue.

This is second novel about Jane Whitefield, half-Seneca (and half blue-eyed) "guide," whose specialty is helping those on the run disappear into the cracks in society. Most of these fugitives are innocent -- women fleeing from abusive spouses, etc. -- but not all of the. Mary Perkins is one of the latter, a successful practitioner of S&L fraud who was caught and served her time in prison. The thing is, she still has a very large amount of stolen money tucked away that she never admitted to, and if that fact becomes known, her parole will be revoked. So she has no one to turn to when the Really Bad Guys go looking for her hidden wealth -- except Jane. At the same time, Timothy Phillips, whose parents died and left him a huge trust fund, really is one of the innocents -- but he has been targeted by the same Bad Guys. What makes these stories fascinating, at least to me, is the detail Perry brings to the business of convincing society you don't exist. Many of the things Jane does in the mid-1990s wouldn't work today, of course, not in our security-happy post-9/11 world, so it will be interesting to see how she updates her methods. As always, Perry is strong on characterization and back story, and the action seems to flow naturally -- most of the time, anyway. In this case, he appears to have rushed the ending. Earlier in the story, Barraclough demonstrates that he understands how dangerous Whitefield can be, but he seems to have forgotten this in the climactic scenes. And we're never actually told how Jane sets up her final encounter, though it's hinted at. Nor does it seem quite in character for her to coolly take a shotgun to those who are hunting her. Also, Perry seems to think it's necessary to bring in a boyfriend whose existence was never hinted at before. Why?

I really enjoyed the first Jane Whitefield book and was eager to read the second. Yuck. Jane was totally unappealing this time around; the plot was incredibly contrived. She has, all of a sudden, a lover. Their conversation is contrived and stilted. She acts like a teenager about his phonecalls. What gives?

I was bored by the long descriptions of how money was stolen from savings and loans. The descriptions of sadism were unnecessary. Jane does all kind of illegal things and gets away with all of them, including killing people. She performs tasks such as climbing fences and running for miles that seem impossible to me. She sees people from long distances away in office windows and can tell whether they are bosses or secretaries.

In the first book, the Native American sequences were woven in seamlessly. Here they were a mere add on.

And then, just when I thought I would make it through to the end, I'm stuck in the head of this sadistic guy who's after her. Yuck again. This will be my last Jane Whitefield.

I love books that are both exciting and actually teach me something--trusts and banking--without slowing down the story. Jane is a fascinating character, a Native American whose culture and history are provided through visions and dreams, who is capable and inventive. This is a very good book in a fascinating series.

I have read all of Thomas Perry's books. He is a great author! He manages to combine huge amounts of action and suspense with literate writing and well-developed, sensitive and interesting characters. "Dance for the Dead" is about Jane Whitfield, my favorite Thomas Perry character. Jane is a Seneca Indian who grew up near Niagara Falls, and the book is loaded with Indian history. Jane saves people by giving them a new identity and helping them to hide from whatever trouble they are in. This puts her in a lot of danger and provides plenty of opportunity to meet interesting people. Since her life is so dangerous, she keeps a very low profile and doesn't have much of a social life. In this book, she begins a romance with a doctor from her hometown who she has known for a long time, but thankfully this series really sticks to the action and adventure, and never veers too far into romance territory. As other reviewers have noted, it makes me really happy to find a male author who chose to write about such a take-charge, capable woman. I would recommend this whole series to anyone who likes well-written action adventure.