The slow motion chase scene at the end was very well written. Not the kind of thing you see every day. A nice touch!

I didn't expect to like this Hollywood murder/courtroom drama as much as I did. The material has been done in a thousand other books....famous film director marries younger star...she's killed in a dramatic fashion....he's framed/arrested/put on trial....good attorney is hired to represent him/figure out who actually did it/restore the director's reputation.

What surprised me about this book was the author's literary craftsmanship. He employs a simple writing style to shed a harsh light on Hollywood glitz and glamour, showing what actually happens in the world of show business. There isn't a lot of action...and he doesn't overuse dialogue.

Reading this book was like being in the presence of a very good storyteller who makes you want to sit a spell and listen to what he has to say, because you know it's going to be good and it's going to be worth your precious spare time.

Enjoy!

As usual Antonelli will have a close relationship with an attractive female character, and numerous clues will be dropped along the way to point the reader in one of several directions regarding the killer. Hopefully, Antonelli will not return to Hollywood, and return to accused murderers who engender more sympathy from the reader.

Ouch!!!! Talk about painful!!! Harsh (a history professor who grew up in Hagerstown) simply cannot write!! Some people can write well; others write poorly. Harsh is at the bottom of the latter group. (I feel sorry for his students -- they probably suffered severe ear and brain trauma from his lectures. And he writes as if he were lecturing!!)

He LOVES R.E. Lee. (According to Harsh, everything that went wrong was someone else's fault -- without exception!!) Then there are Harsh's numerous "moments" when he tells you what a particular person MUST have been thinking at any given time -- as if Harsh (or anyone else!!) could know! Finally come are his analyses of various events and situations. In Harsh's eyes, all ideas that contradict his opinions OBVIOUSLY MUST be wrong -- it's just plain "foolish" to think otherwise.

It's too bad that Harsh just didn't tell what happened and allowed us to form our own judgements. (By the way, he plays pretty "fast and loose" with the facts. Plus, he omits vital information that doesn't correspond to his interpretation.)
In his preface, Harsh even has the audacity to state that, besides his book, there are only one or two other books that cover the Maryland Campaign in depth. Well, I have been studying Antietam for over 35 years, have been there several hundred times, and have read literally thousands of books, articles, and documents about Antietam. Harsh is full of it!!

If you were thinking of buying this book, don't bother. You can gain just as much by pulling out all your teeth with a pair of pliars, then dropping a 200-pound lead weight on your foot.

(Disclaimer: I sat in on a few classes of Dr. Harsh's as an undergraduate).

b) NOT a service business (many more businesses provide services than actual products)

So, all in all, this book didn't help me much other than the great advice to go out and buy a good business plan program. So, I pass this advice on to you - free of charge. No reason to pay book prices plus tax and shipping for it!

Thanks Mr. Heywood.

What's missing is a sense of color brought on by perspective; the deep-down interpretations that the passage of time permits. As a long-time follower of Marquette basketball -- and a Marquette J-school grad to boot -- I believe too much of the book was newsy. Mr. Moran recanted stories that were well-known and well-publicized. Case in point: the oft-repeated Delsman fight.

What would have been interesting was to probe deeply the fundamental emotions that brought together some of the best college basketball talent and Al McGuire. What emotions were running through Jim Chones' psyche as he rejected UCLA and others for McGuire and MU? Or, why in succession, did Larry McNeill, Maurice Lucas and Bo Ellis all choose Marquette. What did their heart say? What was so special about this man that his players would attend college at Concrete University (despite McGuire's pleadings that Marquette had "green grass")with virtually no other African-American students.

The ballplayers had a profound impact on Marquette's outlook toward relationships among African-American and caucasian students. Mr. Moran documents this seldom discussed element of life at MU well. He effectively illustrates the Jesuit-Catholic response to one of the most basic precepts of the Christian church.

On the basketball side, Al lost as much talent to the NBA as he recruited in the early 1970s. Certainly the arguable loss of at least one and possibly two or more national championships weighed heavily on his psyche. We know from the author that Al wanted his players to make money -- but could have they made more by staying in school? The author glosses over these emotional and practical issues. It would have been nice to know what happened when the NBA called for Jim Chones. The look on McGuire's face, the visceral emotion that was overcome by logic and compassion.

As baketball's flower child, McGuire's views about casual drug use would have been interesting. Especially given that marijuana use on campus was common at the time and one star player was arrested for marijuana possession in the championship year.

Finally, there was very little discussion of what has since happened to Al's players. The author glosses over this point. The success of any college professor -- including a coach -- is the measurement of his impact on the post college career of his players. That's not just the NBA. It's what they did with their education and their lives.

What would have made this book special was to make it an oral history. Let then author narrate and then, rather than quote witnesses and Al, let people tell their Al stories in their own words.

PERSONAL MCGUIRE STORY.

I was at the Memphis State game described on Page 229 where with 45 seconds left and up by 5, an MSU player stepped in the foul lane losing the Tigers a one and one and probably the game. Yes, Al left the court with both hands raised. Raised in what he later called the "Irish salute", middle finger extended. Al had incited the crowd, touched us with his enthusiasm. When he came later to call some Keith Lee games, he fondly remembered the game and how he left the field. This is the "Al" the country knew and loved.