Pam and Gerald North get involved in this case through their friend Bill Weigand, a lieutenant in the New York City Homicide Bureau and John Leonard, a professor of psychology.

You may enjoy this book if you can tolerate too many pages devoted to analyzing possible suspects and motives. Aside from this one fault, the novel has a certain charm.

It is so hard to bring history together to give you a feel of what is going on at a certain point in time. Bartlett bites off a hudge chunk (1776 - 1890) and does a better job than I could imagine of making you feel what the people of that time were experiencing.

The AIrcam series offered in both its incarnations (Osprey's Aircam series and ARCO's AIRCO/Aircam series) two volumes about the famous F-86 Sabre, this one is about Aircam No.17 - ARCO/Arcam No.19. You get much for your money: 44 color plus an additional 3 in black-and-white- sideviews by Richard Ward, 5 pages of text -in small font- by Ernest McDowell and the rest of the 50 pages is crammed with black-and-white photographs, with an average of 4 for every page. Every nation using the Sabre up to the early 1970ies gets mentioned, photographed and almost all get sideviewed, I counted 18 different nationalities amongst the sideviews myself. Well worth searching for!

The only thing I don't really like about this book is the categorization. It discusses Napoleon, then skips to the industrial revolution, but then comes back to Napoleon again and the Bourbon restoration. In my opinion, history books should follow the chronology of history, and include everything from one time period in one section.

SKYWARD is a terrific book about the early days of aviation in this country! Written by one of our country's greatest explorers, the most highly decorated american ever, Byrd takes us from his early trainning days at pensacola to his north pole flight, transatlantic crossing, and south polar flight, and includes some other pretty exciting adventures along the way. It is a vibrant story written by a young man who is probably best known in literary circles for ALONE , a much more introspective book which he wrote later in life.

This book is a much underrated novel about the Scotsman Henry Sinclair -- Baron of Rosselyn and Jarl of Orkney -- who beat Columbus to the Americas by a century. In 1398, he sailed to Nova Scotia and Massachussetts Bay, which would become his legacy. While the characters are somewhat one-dimensional, the dialogue is superb, and the narrative brings to life 14th-century values, mores, and humor. The book is out of print, but it shouldn't be.

This book has a collection of interesting bike rides of varying lengths and difficulties. All rides have information on point-to-point mileage, nearby attractions (including Dairy Queens for stops on the way), and terrain/difficulty. The routes are great (have ridden several already), but the maps are only good to a certain level of detail. Bring a street-level map (and maybe a compass) if you don't know the area. If you are a recreational biker in the Twin Cities, this is a must-have.

I have been keeping up with this publication since the late 1980s. There is no doubt that a great deal of worthwhile information is presented to the reader for each metro area. However, I am bothered by the fact that the winners among metro areas always seem to be the major population centers. Smaller cities never seem to have a chance. The presumption made in the book is that the bigger cities have the advantage because they offer more culture; more to do. But how many of us live in big cities like New York or Chicago and take the cultural benefits for granted? And yet, every day is a battle with mind-numbing traffic, high crime rates, and pollution (not adequately mentioned in the book). Yet Madison, Wisconsin and Lexington, Kentucky, two of the most beautiful and livable cities I've ever seen are within relatively easy access to metro areas with a lot of culture (Madison is not very far from Milwaukee and Chicago, Lexington is fairly close to Cincinnati). And many retirees want nothing to do with a large city with all its congestion, but will be led to believe, based on the rankings in this book, that smaller cities simply are less desirable. A fascinating book in terms of data, but very skewed toward the larger metro areas.

This is an excellent statistical reference for evaluating and comparing N. American communities on the basis on the nine categories listed. But a key ingredient of 'Places Rated' should also include a ranking of the general 'quality of life' above and beyond these nine statistical categories.

For example, I live in the Riverside-San Bernardino, CA, given an overall ranking of 13. Relative to the 350 other communmities evaluated, 13 is clearly a superior ranking. But the real 'quality of life' issues of this region go beyond these nine categories. For example, San Bernardino, a community of approximately 180,000, lists 39.7% of its citizens on some sort of public assistance. This statistic was published in the San Bernardino newspaper during the past two years. The impact of every 2 of 5 citizens on welfare out of a community of 180,000, suggests a social climate not measurable in any of the above referenced nine categories, but may influence significantly the '! quality of life' in this region. This is not to suggest these citizens are necessarily 'lawless derelicts'. If they were, the crime category would reflect this condition. Nevertheless, their socioeconomic circumstance may impact where other more fortunate citizens shop, travel, when and how frequently they shop, what public functions they attend, etc., thus, impacting the quality of life of this region for many.

Further, today was a 'first stage' smog alert day. Environmental variables; air, water, noise, etc., are not factored into a 'quality of life' standard. For example, nowhere does 'Places Rated' account for the significant number of days which are heavy smog days in this region. Nor can we necessarily assume that all metropolitan regions produce and live with the same levels of air pollution. Air pollution is, however, an integral component of any quality of life standard. Air pollution, taken by itself may be sufficiently significant to encourage citizens to! resettle elsewhere.

Finally, a congestion component m! ay necessarily impact the quality of life for many. Given a high ranking for its climate, the Riverside-San Bernardino region is home to thousands of mobile homes, boats, assorted RVs, off-road-vehicles and two or three commute vehicles per many families. Freeway traffic may be stop and go occasionally even at 2 am. Congestion is fierce, frustrating and occasionaly even violent.

In summary, a 'quality of life' category might signifcantly influence the current metropolitan rankings of 'Places Rated'.

This book is just great. I have bought every retirement-places-rated type of book that I can get my hands on and this author is by far the best. The millennium edition is twice as big as the last edition and every subject is covered that anyone would want to know about an area; cost of living, transportation, jobs, education, climate, crime, the arts, health care, recreation. I can't wait for the next edition to come out! We're not retiring any time soon so it's helpful to really be able to study and evaluate where we are going to want to retire.

I am mystified by the folks who found No Safe Place dull or slow! I found it a very well-told tale (with a great twist I didn't guess) and a page-turner from the first scene. The characters are multilayered and the protagonist, Kilcannon, has a fascinating backstory, which Patterson skillfully laces into the main storyline. My only complaint, and the reason I didn't give this book five stars, is that the characters occasionally make speeches about their lives. Those monologues don't ring true, and in fact are jarring given how well Patterson usually handles dialogue. But absolutely, I recommend this book, and No Safe Place has made me a Richard North Patterson fan and admirer.

Good fun reading a novel about a senator fighting through the preliminaries to become presidential candidate for his party and comparing it to the real-life saga of Bush v. Cain!

During the first 100 pages I thought, so old-fashioned: Focus on one character (Kerry Kilcannon) and provide flash-backs to his childhood (have you noticed, every Irish male at that stage is an alcoholic and a wifebasher!) and formative years, for the reader to understand the motivation behind every decision he makes, every action he takes in his later life.

And then the depiction of his loveaffair with Lara: Just didn't seem like end of twentieth century, too romantic to be true.

I don't understand why the author had to throw in the storyline of the fanatical pro-lifer, intent on killing Kilcannon. I didn't think it did anything to enhance the suspense. Maybe because of the twist in the end...

But afterwards, the author concentrated more on campaign and less on Kilcannon and that's where the book gained momentum: Journalists hunting for a story that could end Kilcannons race; Preparations for a TV debate with the other contestant; how to get the pro-choice votes; how to provide security for the candidate; the relation between Dick Mason (the incumbent Vice President who of course wants the Precidency) and Kilcannon.

I have read all of Mr. Patterson's books. I have liked all of them well enough but none of them compare to "No Safe Place". The story is so well written and the characters so realistically defined that I had to keep reminding myself that it is a work of fiction. I may not agree with all of the political messages that are being expressed by the hero, but I couldn't help admiring him for the positions he takes and his reasons for taking them.

It is a political thriller and a love story all wrapped into one. I found myself alternately laughing out-load at the sheer brilliance of what was being said or silently crying for the hurt and suffering that these people were going through.

I wish there were an instant sequel to this story so I could continue to follow the lives of these characters to which I have become so fond. I say "Well Done" to Mr. Patterson and I hope his next book is soon to be released.