Adams is not widely available in my native UK and I cannot say I am experiencing any sense of cultural deprivation if this entry in the Carl Wilcox series is typical of its quality.
Wilcox has had a colourful past--veteran of WW1,former convict and now an itinerant sign painter in the Mid West in the Great Depression and a man who has established a reputation as a sskilled investigator Why then does he come across as so dull in the book?
He is asked by a relative in North Dakota to dig up evidence that will exonerate a friend who is suspected of murdering her husband.Suspects are not exactly scarce--there is the nubile neighbour and her mildly retarded daughter;his partner in a clothing store known to be resentful of the deceased's less than hands on approach to business,and members of a dance band he once lead some of whom feel they are being held back by his less than dynamic leadership
Wilcox questions suspects,sleeps around with several female charcters and teaches his nephew to fight and bored me into a light coma in the process
Turgid,Unexciting .No sense of place or period.
Its boring and no condemnation can be more damning

It's a good time for Harold Adams, whose novels about itinerent sign painter ex-cop Carl Wilcox had been languishing, garnering critical raves but little in the way of sales. Walker & Company, a publishing house becoming known for literate, sometimes off-beat mysteries, has released four books so far in trade paperback and published new ones in hardback. This is a series well worth investigating.

Wilcox reminds me of every boy's favorite uncle, the one who's a black sheep to the women of the family for not settling down, who stops by when he needs a bed and a few square meals, bringing with him a whiff of sin and a few great stories. He travels the small towns of the Dakotas and Minnesota during the Depression, taking on sign-painting jobs for grocery stores and law offices when they're available, and camping by the side of the road in his modified Model T. When the jobs are few on the ground, he'll take on a murder investigation.

In "A Way with Widows," his sister asks him to come to Red Ford, North Dakota, to help clear a neighbor of killing her husband, who was found on the stairs of another woman's house. In "No Badge, No Gun," a minister who has heard of Wilcox's reputation as an investigator asks him to solve the murder of his niece, found dead in the basement of a church. Wilcox's investigating style consists of wandering around town, talking to people, gathering threads of facts and weaving them into a plausible story. He's suspicious, but not cynical. Told about the perfect character of a churchgoing man, he observes, "Nothing in this world raises more doubts in my mind than apparently perfect young men."

Yet Wilcox is also a flawed man. He makes mistakes and is perfectly capable of being turned by a pretty widow with something to hide. His attempts at seduction sometimes succeed, but more often fail, which makes sense at a time when a woman's reputation could be affected by who she's seen with.

One hopes for better things for Adams and Wilcox, but if it doesn't happen, it won't be the fault of the publisher. Like most of Walker's books, these are beautiful to look at -- details from Edward Hopper's paintings appear on most of them, which is a nice change from the usual blood and skulls that passes for art on most mystery covers -- and the $8.95 price tag is more than reasonable for these absorbing tales of small-town crimes of passion.

I was initially very sceptical about a biography series backed by Penguin Books, and the fact, that only two of the books in the series are about Asian subjects, tends to confirm it. I therefore started reading MAO ZEDONG with low expectations. That the author was Jonathan D. Spence I accepted as a publicity ploy, since Spence is one of the most prolific and readable authors on Chinese subjects, particularly the modern period. I, therefore, looked at this very slim and very small volume as a throwback to the old Everyman series of books, and other Depression-era series. I asked myself while reading, if the layman would want to learn more about this subject after reading this volume.

This is not a scholarly tome, so most readers will not be intimidated by it. It is written very accessibly, with few endnotes, and is a quick read. It, however, restricts itself too much, almost as if the author (or the editors) cut material for the sake of the book's physical design. Aside form the absence of huge periods of Mao's life, his relationship with other figures of his time is de-focused, almost like Mao himself tried to do. It's as if, trying to keep a focus on Mao, the author cut Mao's competitors out of the book.

I would hesitate to call this book propaganda, but it is little removed from the advertisements and paraphenalia pasted with Mao's words and face. As a matter of fact, the book feeds on that charisma. Although every person deserves a fair treatment by his/her biographer, Mao (and many other controversial figures) require a more philosophical approach. After all, Mao was responsible for the deaths of his compatriots and subjects, and some care must be given when analyzing Mao's life. Spence is too fair to Mao in this volume. My first wquestion was: how does an individual who leads a revolution become a murderer, of strangers and colleagues? What of the others who helped Mao? What of his role in some of the most earth-shattering events in global history? Sadly, this book is too small (in scope, size, and spirit) to tell us.

Some people, after reading this slim volume, may be so intriqued by the absence of material, that they will continue to study about Mao. But, this book is not, and cannot be, the last word.

Jonathan Spence is as knowledgeable a writer and scholar of modern China as one can find. Like all bios in the Penguin Lives series this one of Mao is short and hits but the highlights of this history-changing leader's life. Spence presents the highlights of Mao's life: his rural background, the long struggle to find a place and a way to oppose the old regime, the many wives and children, the incredibly difficult opposition to the Japanese and the Nationalists during WWII and the long, rather disastrous reign as China's leader.

But we are given--of necessity--just a taste of a life. Spence is a biographer and a historian, not a poet. And perhaps a poet is needed here. For me, this was a good, solid introduction to Mao. What I need is a fuller, more fleshed out biography wherein the subject comes to life, where his life feels real and one can really get inside his head to try and understand what made this marvelous, monstrous man tick. But, this is a good first taste.

Jonathan Spence's biography of Mao was my first experience with the new Penguin Lives series, and I was unsure what to expect. Certainly, one cannot expect too much from a biography of one of the major political figures of the 20th century that offers only 178 pages of text and 10 pages of endnotes. But I was game to try it, since I knew very little about Mao and gathered I would learn a lot in a relatively short time from this biography.

Spence certainly succeeds in compressing most of the major events of Mao's life into this thin volume, and concisely reviews much of Mao's political thought and how it evolved. He also does a good job of mining source materials, particularly some of Mao's more obscure writing and poetry. But my major frustration in reading this book was a feeling that I never learned much about Mao as an individual human being, except that he came from obscure bourgeois peasant roots, that he was "married" at least four times and had at least ten children with whom he had rather distant relationships, and that as the years passed, he became more and more of a megalomaniac. I would also fault the book for giving minimal attention to the history of the times and to Mao's principal comrades in arms. (For example, Zhou Enlai does not appear until the final quarter of the book and gets minimal mention at that. The Long March gets only 2-3 pages.) Also somehwat curious is that the book lacks an index.

All of that said, however, this is a remarkably informative book given its length. I should emphasize that the text on each page measures lightly under 6 x 4 inches, too--so not only is it a short book, but also a small book. I put the book down eager to learn more about Mao, which I suppose does commend it to other readers who know as little as I did before I read it.

Monster is Ardith Peake. A psychotic, near-vegetable who's been locked up in a maximum security hospital for the last sixteen years. Yet suddenly, the Monster is predicting murders before they occur. Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis must try to unravel a mystery that goes back twenty years or more to the time that Monster wiped out a wealthy family in the small northern community of Treadway. But how does this ancient history tie in to the grisly murders being committed today?

I'm a huge fan of Jonathan Kellerman and especially of his Alex Delaware series. I've read and enjoyed them all but this one seemed to lack the spark of the others. The premise is great and the book starts out strongly, but I didn't feel it was as captivating as some of his earlier Delaware novels. In fact, the end started to drag a bit.

However, all that said, Jonathan Kellerman still is a strong presence in the psychological thriller genre. He can write with authority when he discusses medication side-effects, neuroses, and psychoses since he really is a psychologist himself. All this information may sound boring but it really isn't. It all ties in to the plot and plotting is where he usually excels. I just felt the plot ran out of steam toward the end of the book. Still a good book from a good writer. Head and shoulders above a lot of what passes for mysteries these days.

Alex Delaware returns .... again. In this novel, Alex's best friend, LA cop Milo Sturgis, requests his company on a visit to the facility housing some of the state's criminally insane while investigating the macabre death of a resident psychologist. Before long, they get caught up in a bizarre web of family secrets, revenge and deeply psychotic behaviour, culminating in the "life or death" scene we expect from Jonathan Kellerman.

Unlike a lot of reviewers, I was grateful for the small amount of character development achieved in this novel. Maybe that's because Kellerman is now writing for a particular audience of Delaware fans, and can assume familiarity with his characters. For the first time I can remember, Milo's sexual preferences were implied rather than proselytised and Alex and Robin's relationship seems to have settled into a comfort zone, thank goodness. Her work as a luthier was interesting at first, but I don't need in-depth descriptions in every novel - there was just enough in this one to show she's an independent gal. After all, these novels are supposed to be thrillers, not guitar making manuals, whatever the author's personal interest. And, thankfully, the house is finished, so we are done with endless building details.

Some reviewers say "Monster" forms a departure from the child psychology more usual in Kellerman's Delaware novels, but just consider when most of the victims/suspects suffered the trauma that lead to their adult behaviour.

I don't know how many police forces would grant a civilian, albeit an occasional consultant, as much investigational liberty as Delaware enjoys with the LAPD - they seem to be better served by a psychologist than trained officers. Happily for them, Delaware set off on the right trail almost immediately, while Milo first pursued the obligatory red herrings and chased the wild geese. I'm no rocket scientist, but I had the "monster" pegged pretty early on.

I once collected Kellerman novels (both J & F), but after the awful "The Web", happily donated them to my local library some years ago. I bought this one as part of a selection (give Delaware one more try, I thought) to gain bonus shopping points at a city department store and read it in one day just over a week ago - I've almost forgotten it already. Either I'm losing my taste for this kind of thriller (I hope not), or Kellerman is losing his edge.

Still, even a journeyman Kellerman novel is usually better than the average thriller, though I'm probably biased since I'm a bit of a fan of Milo and Alex, and enjoyed seeing what these familiar characters were up to. And it was great to see Kellerman return to this milieu after the extremely ordinary "Billy Straight".

If you need something that will keep you turning the pages on a long flight or for holiday or vacation reading, you could do a lot worse.

Dr. Delaware, serves as a psychiatric consultant to the police department. He and Detective Milo Sturgis set out to solve the crime of a psychologist who worked at a hospital for the criminally insane. The head of the facility tells them that the Dr. was safe when she was there--it was in the outside world that she met her untimely end. The victim had been working with Ardis Peake, a young man who had brutally murdered his own mother and another family many years ago. Her interest in him was spurred by dark family secrets in her own past, which are uncovered as the plot proceeds. More murders occur which bear a grisly resemblance to the Dr.'s murder and which are eerily foretold in the psychotic mutterings of Peake. There are many twists and turns until the final solution is revealed. Kellerman writes of the inmates with stark realism, but also with a great amount of understanding. An interesting book!

Introduction:
Loved the game, Disliked the book!
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I found this book to be a complete mockery of it's game origin. I found countless errors and pieces of conradictory information in this book regarding the starship and its crew and passengers that were hopelessly tried to be copied from the book in a failed attempt. But I found the begenning to be very creative and well tracked to the storyboard of the game plus a good ending. I also thought that some of the characters were poorly made including a nymphomaniac journalist and a (soon to be hopeless) couple plus the ship's crew (working bots) to have conradictory personalitys and vocabularitys to the identical ones in the game! Not only that but some of the technoligy is off-beat to the game including the end solution to get back to earth.
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Summary:
Bad storyline + facts not based on the game + nymphomaniac journalist + good beggening & ending - the touch and mind of the real Douglas Adams himself = the really dissapointing Starship Titanic book!

I really wanted to like this book as I really like both Adams and Jones.

Unfortunately the book is not cohesive. There are amusing lines and the potential for funny setups but it never really delivers. It needs more depth.

By the time I was done with the book I was not only suprized that it was already over but also left with that strange taste in my mouth, like when you eat some new foreign delicacy that leaves you wondering "What did I just eat and do I like this?".

This title is not at all worth the cover price. Only buy this at discount or better buy used.

Not that it's a perfect book by any means- I could have done with less romanticism. But the humor is absurd and freewheeling, and it's a good short read- just enough to wind down after a long day at work. A collaboration worthy of it's participants.

Ms. Oates sets up a perfect American family--a slightly ditzy but loving and beloved mother, successful, robust, salesman-type father, an athletic son, a brainy son, a popular cheerleader daughter, and Judd, the baby of the family, who acts as narrator. The Mulvaneys live an idyllic life at High Point Farm in upstate New York. They are filled with love for each other, and blessedly sure that life will be good forever. Alas, it is not to be. Marianne, the much loved daughter, is the victim of a date rape. The family soon feels the whispers and scorn of the town. At this point her father feels he cannot bear the ostracization by his former friends, and the shame he feels his daughter has brought upon the family. He banishes her, sending her to live with a relative. His wife makes the decision to sacrifice her daughter, believing she will save her husband by doing so. The fortunes of the family change dramatically. The father descends into bankruptcy and drink, and the family is shattered beyond repair.

I liked this book immensely, but the action of the mother in condoning the exile of her daughter in the belief that it would salvage her marriage really disturbed me. I had to stop reading for a while to calm down. Ms. Oates is a wonderful writer with a lot of insight into human emotions, but the dissolution of this ideal family is hard to accept. From the tenor of the reviews I have read on this site, people either loved or hated this book. All of Ms. Oates's irritating mannerisms are present. The exclamations!!! (The parentheses). "The quotation marks". The italics (can't do those here!). That aside, I did truly admire this book. My one objection would be that the ending was too pat. It felt as if it was wrapped up too neatly. But it is well worth your time.

The Oprah book club selections are certainly getting more complex!

This book will strike an immediate chord to a family 'putting on airs' yet within the house having its problems. It hithome for me and will most likely hit home for many others because we know of families that seem perfect.... and often we find out much later what was truly happening.

I do not believe that the choice of Mt. Ephraim as the hometown of the Mulvaneys was by accident. Ephraim and Manasseh were sons of Joseph - and while the latter committed heinous crimes against all moral authority, Ephraim was a redeemer. A striking metaphor against which much hurt is set - and one missed by the editorial reviewers.

This family functions quite well - all that we'd say is 'too good to be true' *is* actually true until Marianne, the girl so beautifully described that we actually *feel* she's the 'girl next door' to *us* is sexually assaulted. Actually, we are never told whether it was rape or consensual. And the beauty of this is that for the purposes of this story it doesn't matter.

It is the *effect* of the assault on the family that begins their descent. I will not spoil the book by telling you the details as to how each of the brothers and the parents fall off their respective wagons. But the cumulative effect is devasting, as told by the narrator, a now adult youngest brother Judd.

How can such a complete destruction of a classic nuclear family be a book I'd want to read? Because as someone once said, it is when a man stares into the abyss that he finds his character.

Suffice it to say that when you are done with this book you will feel as though you knew the Mulvaneys, suffered with them, and wonder how you would have reacted.

I believe everyone can relate to one or more of the characters in this book.

I also believe that this book is a *must* read.

If you want a book that will make you think realistically about life's challenges - and not give you answers, but rather present situations that make you think about how you would respond, this is the book for you.

The cliche that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes never applied more.

And all of us can probably stand to look at this side of life. As with 'The Dark Side of the Light Chasers', it is by looking at our human frailties and faults, shining the light on ourselves, warts and all, that we can come to true self-awareness.

This book is so real it hurts to read it. Yes, you can say it's wordy. Yes, the choices characters make may seem unlike the choices you might make. But it is nevertheless a hauntingly beautiful portrait of a family where everyone is dyfunctional but makes it in the end- with the exception of Dad. And frankly, we are ready for a happy ending by the time this book ends. Oates is masterful at character development and motivation. You will feel like you know each of the Mulvaneys personally by the time the book is over. Her words (reminds me of Annie Proulx) paint full-color pictures of people, places, and emotions- so poignant at times I was moved to tears. As difficult and dark are the situations in this book, they were understandable and profound. If there was one thing I didn't like, it was the portrayal of Christian faith as a form of denying reality instead of as a genuine comfort. But then again, to many, this might just be the case. This is the kind of book you'll want to talk to someone about after you read it. I've never been able to get through another Oates book before this one but I'm going back to try. You'll feel strong emotions towards each of the characters in the book, good or bad, and if you're like me, you'll leave the pages wet when you finish.

Once upon a time, Alan Dean Foster wrote a little novel called "Splinter of the Mind's Eye." Splinter was set between A New Hope and Empire and has long since been forgotten in terms of the continuity. It exists now as an intriguing little piece of speculative fiction on what might have been--a curiousity, but little else.

Hopefully this will be the same fate of Alan Dean Foster's latest Star Wars entry, "The Approaching Storm."

The real tag for this book is that it's a prequel to the upcoming episode 2. That's what got my interest up and made me eager to read the novel. However, like the episode one prequel "Cloak of Deception" this entry suffers from the inability to draw the reader deeply into the plot or to make you care much about the characters. Foster has created an entire world of characters and situations--all of which are largely forgettable ten minutes after having read the novel. The story is basically Obi-Wan and Anakan, along with another Jedi and her Padawan, are sent to keep a world from seceding from the Republic. On the world involved, there are many factions--esentially boiling down to the city vs the country inhabitants and the Jedi's attempts to bring the sides together and keep the planet in the Republic.

Along the way there is a kidnapping, some comic relief and some lightsaber fights, but little else. If you're looking to catch a glimpse of what's been happening between TPM and now, you're going to be out of luck. Vague hints of Anakin's being powerful and maybe being out-of-control are thrown in left and right as well as Anakin's feelings of missing his mother. Foster repeatedly beats the reader over the head with melodramatic moments so that they quickly become tired and tedious. Maybe after seeing episode 2 these will all make more sense, but I'm not really inclined to put too much stock in any of what took place here.

The only thing this book has going for it over Splinter is that it's officially endorsed by LucasFilm. So, the events here may not be addressed in the film, but they won't be contradicted later.

If you're a Star Wars completist, give it a try. If you're looking for a good appetizer to the next Star Wars film, look elsewhere.

Alan Dean Foster's first Star Wars novel in almost twenty-five years is a direct lead in for Episode II: Attack of the Clones, so it reads more like the first part of a trilogy rather than a stand alone novel. The story begins as Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are sent out to aide another Jedi Knight and her Padawan in negotiations with the planet Ansion,... Readers expecting a more action packed Star Wars adventure might be disappointed with the amount of world building that Foster does in the narrative and the conclusion leaves the reader hanging (like I said, it's meant to flow right into Episode II), hopefully Foster will write a sequel to this tale and interpolate the narrative events of Attack of the Clones, thus creating a book-movie-book trilogy within the arc of the prequel trilogy. Recommended to ADF fans more than SW fans.

"The Approaching Storm" is a great novel by Alan Dean Foster. Foster, it should be noted, is one of the biggest names in modern sci-fi as well as the ghostwriter of the original 'Star Wars' novelization. He also wrote the first ever Expanded Universe novel.

Still, if you're looking for action, this isn't the book for you. There is literally no fighting save for a battle at the very beginning and a battle at the very end. This book takes place directly before Episode II, and as such devotes itself to setting up the political background for the film. It also gives some much needed fleshing out to key prequel characters.

Obi-Wan and his apprentice, Anakin, are sent to the remote planet of Ansion to convince them to avoid secceding from the Republic. While the planet itself is insignificant, it is at the center of a huge and complex web of treaties and alliances.

They meet the city dwellers, who agree to remain within the Republic if the Jedi will settle their disagreements with the rural nomads. They set out of a journey into the barren, uncivilized deserts to seek out the nomads.

This book is set at a slower and relaxing pace than most Star Wars books. However, unlike 'Dark Journey' it still manages to move key character and plot points further. In regards to character development, I really enjoyed the entertainment for the first nomad group. It's not what you'd expect of a Jedi group, and it told something unique about each character. The highlight of the book for me.

If you don't mind the slower pace, and enjoy political thrillers of any sort, then be sure to find a copy of 'The Approaching Storm.'

Mr. X is about a dysfunctional family whose members have various supernatural powers and how one member figuratively and literally comes to terms with various aspects of himself.......This 1999 release by Peter Straub is touted as a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft. It is also stamped with the all powerful marketing quote from Stephen King: "Ghastly, hide your eyes horror". Oh, it's ghastly alright. Ghastly dull. Plot twists abound in Mr. X which ultimately twists the reader out of caring about anything in the book. Whilst there is some promise in the beginning, Mr. X eventually wanders off into a very disappointing sequence of clichés that the Straubster doesn't even bother to revitalize. The ending was weak, rambling for too long, hoping to deliver a final twist that had already packed up and left town. If you're determined to pick up this piece of wood, be prepared to wade through page after page of uninspiring plot and characters. It is difficult to understand how it recieved a Bram Stoker award, just as it is difficult to understand how Straub continues to get published. Oh, yeah, Mr. X does have value - it's a great cure for insomina.

"Mr. X" is typical Straub, at times frustrating, at other times amazing. His style is decidedly not readily accessible at times, but he does possess a superior command of the English languague (which doesn't always make for quick reading....)

Ned Dunstan is a likeable enough sort, and his adventures in the search for "the truth" are convoluted but interesting. The book takes wild twists and turns, he inherits large sums of money, his mother dies, he hooks up with various women. But the biggest question of the book is, what of his double, Robert?

Working in a bit of Lovecraft fare is a cool technique also. This book really cooks in the first half, especially Dunstan's college experience, completely surreal and bizarre.

"Mr. X" is not an easy read by any means, but is ultimately worth it.

The Peter Straub acid test - you'll either love it, or hate it.

Ned Dunstan comes from a very peculiar family. Some of them see things that haven't yet happened. Others can teleport. Or, apparently, be in more than one place at a time. Their offspring are - well, sometimes not quite right. Occasionally they have to be buried out in the Back Forty. Ned has been haunted by an "Other" since his childhood, some shadowy figure who seeks him and those around him out to do grievous harm. And he seems to have a twin, who his mother never told him about...or does he?

Along with Ghost Story, this is Straub's best-written and most carefully plotted book. Also like Ghost Story, it requires tremendous patience to read. Straub writes like a Chinese puzzle box, and in highly convoluted form, presenting bits and pieces of his story in altered time frames and from different perspectives. His plot is half Poe's "William Wilson," half Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror." It is more sci-fi or fantasy than true horror, and in fact the award it won was the World Fantasy Award, which is most appropriate. It's tricky and clever, but really satisfies in the end if you simply pay attention.

Won't be everyone's cup of tea, but this description should help you decide whether or not it will be yours.

Like most people who buy this book, I am a huge fan of the movie, "Casablanca". I purchased, "As Time Goes By" to it to bring back the emotions of the movie. As I began reading the book I almost stopped myself many times thinking I was cheating my cherished Casablanca memories. The story or my love for the original movie kept me reading. Mr. Walsh did a good job of creating an interesting past for Rick, however his future was pretty hooky. Some of the characters headed into unbelievable areas. Victor Laslo turned very dark and jeopardizes Ilsa's life for his obsession. Mr. Walsh cheapens his tale with tongue in cheek references to Humphrey Bogart's career and cause of death. All that said it was not really a bad book. I hope it is not made into a movie so that I will not be tempted to see it.

For someone who loves the film "Casablanca" as much as I do, I was prepared to really pick nits in this book. Believe it or not, it was pretty good, and kept my interest.

This takes up right after the end of the film. All of the major players end up taking part in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, which then leads to the massacre and destruction of the town of Lidice. There are flashbacks to Rick's past in New York (which explains why he can't go home again), and some twists and turns in the plot to keep it interesting.

A good read, and "Casablanca" fans will have some fun spotting the references to the film. Enjoy!

If you are an fan of CASABLANCA as I am you will find AS TIME GOES BY interesting. The author creates a story line that give Ilsa and Rick and past and a future. The problem is that we all remember Ilsa walking off into the foggy night with Victor. Somewhere deep in each persons heart you think of the person that you really loved but whose love was unattainable. Therein lies the beauty of the movie. We all want to hope that someday she and Rick maybe got together or that they spent the rest of their lives with other people but still dreaming of Paris.

Although I found the book an interesting read, it just didn't work. You really can't add to someone else's story.

I used this book to study for the LSAT and would recommend it for the person who has never taken the LSAT nor has much idea what they're getting into. Good basic information in terms of explaining how the test is laid out and what to expect the actual day of the test. Good explanations, specifically in terms of the arguments section and how to prepare for the different types of questions you're going to be asked. The two tests in the back are helpful (I had the copy without the CD-Rom, so can't attest to it's validity) and I appreciated the explanations to their examples (especially in terms of the analytical games section...

I used Princeton Review's book in conjunction with Barron's book and scored in the 98th percentile on the LSAT. Princeton Review's and Barron's test questions are the most similar in style to the actual test, although Barron's questions are much harder than the actual test. Princeton Review is right on target. Books like Kaplan, while similar to the LSAT in question format, are quite dissimilar in style. My advice is to use Princeton Review. The only problem is that they just don't have enough sample tests in the book, and that's why I had to use Barron's, as well.

I used Princeton Review's book in conjunction with Barron's book (albeit in 1998, but the 2001 edition is just as good, even better), and I scored in the 98th percentile on the LSAT. Princeton Review's and Barron's test questions are the most similar in style to the actual test than any other book... believe me, as a serious test-taker, I looked at every other book. Barron's questions are much harder than the actual test, but Princeton Review is right on target. My scores on the practice tests almost exactly matched my score on the actual test.

Other test prep books, while similar to the LSAT in question format, are quite dissimilar in question style and aren't going to give you as accurate and thorough a review as this one. My advice is to use Princeton Review if you are serious about scoring well on this test.

The only problem is that the book just doesn't have enough practice tests... I took at least one practice test per day during the week leading up to the test, and I am convinced that this is the best way to study. The more practice tests you take, the more comfortable you will be when you sit to take the actual exam. I used Barron's in conjunction with Princeton Review so I could get the extra practice.

Incidentally, I left law school shortly after I started it, to become a teacher, but I have a number of friends from college still in law school who used this system of studying, with Princeton Review, and they all did well on the test. Trust me, this book is essential.

Read and loved the whole series as written by Sanders. I thought with Lardo's second effort (I think) we'de see a lot more progress on his writing. I liked seeing another famous Sanders character named Delaney show up in this book. So far, Lardo hasn't made the cut. PLEASE take it seriously and give it another shot - I'll give you one more as well.

Like other readers, I found this book lacking "something". I knew Sanders had passed away, but thought this was perhaps a final manuscript. When I finally looked onto the copyright page I realized that the family had hired another author to continue the series.

The book was good enough, but the mystery was only all right (pretty simple to figure out early on - plus some parts that were a little hard to take - like not many people ever noticing the birth of a son took place twelve months after the death of the father when the plaques mentioning the birth/death dates were right beside one another!)

The characters, however were great. I love all of Saunders' series stories and thought the Archy Mcnally books were exceptional.

This book is worth reading if you are a fan or want a good story, although I would recommend any of the others, written by Sanders, first.

I do hope that the family of Sanders does continue with these books, however I think it would be fair to fans of the series to note on the book's cover that it is actually written by another.

In Archy's eighth volume in crime, his fun, familiar voice takes on a welcomed maturing tone. My only concern for our discreet inquirer is that he's smoking more, dressing somewhat more conservatively, and eating less gourmet dishes. Our Archy deserves better than medium rare steak tartare. Let's leave Archy's growth to solving crimes. It didn't take long to recover from the copyright page that proclaims Vincent Lardo as L.S.'s heir apparent to extend our beloved Archy. After reading Chapter one online, I knew I'd be buying and reading this book. The characters are wonderful as usual, but the plot is predictable, but painlessly enjoyable. It feels like we are spoon-fed more clues than in previous Archy yarns. Mr. Lardo repeatedly tells us which holes are empty, and which have been filled in order to solve the puzzle. Arcy's readers don't need that much help, Mr. Lardo. After all, as Melva tells Archy, "You're better at your job than anyone suspects."