Roger D. Jones, PA-C
Clinical Director
Bethel College PA Program

My husband has no idea - and I am clueless - and the girls want to know what happens next. I would have liked some sort of summary at the end that brings parents up to speed with the history behind the story.

Now, this isn't to say it is simplistic, or dull. It is quite well written, but is also short enough to be inserted into a larger collection (The 'Elements Of' series). Thus, the style of writing reflects the entire series more than the material really deserves.

All in all, it's a good start for those that wish to learn a little more about the differences between post Augustine Irish Catholicism and the older Christianity of Patrick.

Personally, I found this book answered many of my questions about the Celtic Church. It presents the issues and history of the Celtic Church in a context that is, in my opinion, fair and not idealistic or 'a romantic faery tale'. It is for the serious reader and has a theological tone.

This book is well written, let's you know what the author thinks and who disagrees with him.

great for anyone interested in celtic spirituality

"The Crime Czar" is not so much a novel as a continuation of "Shelter From the Storm", Dunbar's fourth Tubby Dubbonet mystery. Dunbar's novels tend to be short and to the point, but in this case, the point was made last time around and there was very little else to say.

In January's "Shelter", Tubby's friend Dan was shot in the chest in the aftermath of a daring bank robbery. After clinging to life for seven months, Dan dies, but not before telling Tubby that he knew his murderer "from the old neighborhood". Tubby decides not to find the killer, but the shadowy man behind the killer, the eponymous "Crime Czar". Inexplicably, Tubby is also tapped to co-chair the election campaign of a local judge.

Unlike the rest of the Dubonnet oeuvre, "The Crime Czar" is short on plot, though it retains the strange New Orleans ambience. Throughout, we feel a sense of underlying decay, in the buildings, in politicians, in Tubby. But lost are the plausible coincidences that guide Tubby down his confused path; instead we are treated to gratuitous and unbelievable turns of character. Gone are the easy transitions from humor to violence; they are replaced by slapstick.

Midway through the book, the shadowy Crime Czar emerges from anonymity to have breakfast with Tubby in a Shoney's. Why? Because Tubby asked him, through an intermediary, to do so. I ask you, if you had as much to lose as this guy, would you just out yourself on the whim of a down and out attorney? Later, when Tubby needs $500,000 seed money to set a trap and can't find anyone to give it to him, a figure from a previous book arrives unannounced with just that amount of money on her.

Don't get me wrong, I wanted to like this book more; so much so that I paid cover price, plus Amazon's $1.85 "special surcharge" and $3.95 shipping. But overall, this is a pleasant way to spend two hours (Dunbar's books are not heavy reading), but unless you are the type of person who gladly suspends disbelief, you will find much to puzzle and confound you here. If you have not read any of the Tubby Dubonnet series, you will thank yourself for reading "Crooked Man", but don't start with "The Crime Czar". This book is a good way for a Dubonnet fan to recapture some of that atmosphere and good will (like a business trip to New Orleans might be), but it is not a good starting place.

They put Tubby Dubonnet in a paperback novel.

Actually, this New Orleans lawyer resided awkwardly within the high-rent confines of a hard-cover series. He spends more time in a bar than at the bar in most of his books, and he handles clients with names like Monster the Mudbug. Communing with low-lifes makes his move to low-rent reading more than reasonable.

As long as he keeps eating in New Orleans restaurants, that is; Dubonnet is always a good bet for a good bite. Sure enough, Tubby takes us to four N'Awlins eateries, and mentions five others. Author Dunbar makes good eating come to life with good writing, treating us to lemon curd on a maple walnut scone at the Daily Grind on Magazine Street, and shrimp scampi at Uglesich's "unpretentious eatery" just past the Clio housing project.

The plot? (You expect a story at these prices?)Well, Tubby believes that a lawyer has to eat, but he doesn't get excited about work-unless he senses injustice. This time he takes after a supposed "crime czar," behind the death of his best drinking buddy. In pursuit of this theory, he runs a scam on the parish sheriff, runs over a hit man, and runs away from a murder scene with a possible suspect.

Needless to say the plot line is thinner than the fishing line Tubby tosses out at the end of the book, after he discovers a crime "committee," not a crime "czar." Of course, he has a videotape back home he hasn't looked at yet....

Hmmm-wonder where we will eat while tracking down THE CRIME COMMITTEE?

Since the shooting, Tubby has been in a state of semi-retirement as he drinks himself to death. This changes for Tubby when he accepts an offer to co-chair the reelection campaign of a judge. He also decides to find the person who killed his buddy and ultimately who is the kingpin controlling criminal activity in New Orleans. His obsession leads Tubby to the underbelly of the city, a place where he meets crooked politicians and graft seeking law enforcement officials, who will have no compulsion to reduce the Big Easy's legal population by one.

The uniqueness and darkness of New Orleans is brought to stunning Technicolor in Tony Dunbar's latest Tubby Dubonet mystery, THE CRIME CZAR. The audience obtains a taste of the city's ambience, allowing them to understand that it's one of the most unique locales in the world. However, the lovable, bewildering, but honorable Tubby remains the focal point of this and the previous novels. Readers will admire his tenacity and reflect on his actions that make him a real hero. This is a great entry in what is a stupendous series.

Harriet Klausner

Where have we heard about an additional planet, unknown to astronomers? In Sitchin of course. What about planets on cometary orbits? Baillie, Clube/Napier, Velikovsky, and other scholars, as well as Sitchin. What about periodic and predictable celestial chaos? LaViolette, Sitchin, Baillie, Clube/Napier...

The author claims that a tenth planet whistles on past the other planets at 892 year intervals, meaning that the most recent pass was no longer ago than 1109 AD, and has happened at least twice since Julius Caesar was a boy. This book may be worth reading, but not at this price. Try the local library, and if not found, ask them to purchase it for the lending collection.

The massive wave of extinctions that occurred around 15,000 years ago in the animal kingdom, the sinking of Plato's Atlantis, the voyage of Noah's Ark, the plagues that beset Egypt at the time of the Exodus, and even the Little Ice Age of the 13th century, may all have a common cause - a rogue tenth planet (we call Draco) in our Solar System. This is the outermost planet of the Solar System, orbiting the Sun only once in 892 years.

Draco caused the destruction of the planet that once orbited between Mars and Jupiter, and it still cuts through the plane of the asteroids, creating more new comets and Earth-crossing asteroids every time it visits us. When it passes by, a great shower of dust cools our climate!

Draco will sweep by Earth again in the year 2115! The real countdown to doomsday can now begin!