What makes this book interesting is that it was written between the murders and the trial. Huie knew who the murderers were, how they did it, and never expected a guilty verdict.

The book introduces you in detail to Michael (Mickey) Schwerener and all the details leading up to his murder. This detail will help you understand exactly why and how these murders took place.

This latest edition includes updates by the author to compare his early speculation against the results of the trial.

This is my review: I am reviewing Where In The U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? Sticker Book By James Buckley Jr. Illustrated by Ron Zalme. Oh, no! Carmen Sandiego, and her gang are stealing their way across The U.S.A.! In this fun-filled sticker book, you will stop in each state in the U.S.A., to do a fun, educational, challenging puzzle. By solving these puzzles, you can return the stolen property, catch a thief, or learn a fun state fact. There are tons of fun facts in this book that will amaze you! After completing a puzzle, place that state's sticker on the indicated space. You can check your answers in the back of the book. Have fun learning about the states, in this excellent book! Also enjoy the stickers. I hope that you liked my review, and maybe even considered buying the product.

Like many others, I enjoyed this novella and will undoubtedly read it again. It is a slender book--both in length and in substance--but the lyrical quality of Carr's prose enhances a simple and charming "old-fashioned" story.

Tom Birkin returns from the First World War with a shattered body and to a shattered marriage. He spends a summer in a small church in a Yorkshire village and rescues a mural that had been covered by hundreds of years of paint and grime and had only recently been detected by the locals. As he restores the painting, he finds himself equally renewed, especially as several of the villagers adopt him as one of their own. There are a couple of small surprises concerning one of the friends he makes and the painting itself, but for the most part the story is like a leisurely vacation in the English countryside.

It's fair to compare this story to a Merchant-Ivory production (but without the lush landscapes). A period piece written in 1980, it feels like (as one reader points out) it could have been written in the 1920s. That is both the book's accomplishment and its weakness: although Carr impressively reproduces the tone of the era and its people, I couldn't help but compare his book to novels by, say, E. M. Forster (whose writing his occasionally resembles) or D. H. Lawrence and reflect that Carr just can't quite fill their shoes. (In his excellent introduction, Michael Holroyd reminds us that Carr initially wanted to invoke the work of Thomas Hardy, but, like Holroyd, I couldn't detect much of a likeness beyond the superficial.) Nevertheless, "A Month in the Country" is a worthwhile read, especially if you approach the book with reduced expectations.

It is a few years after World War I. A young artist suffering
from post traumatic syndrome(shellshock) effects of his wartime experiences comes to a small English village to restore a medieval wall mural in an Anglican church. Another veteran has been commissioned by a dead woman's executor to search near the same church for the body of her ancester who was not buried in the consecrated church cemetary.

What happens to these two men and how they are brought to resolution, love, and healing through their tasks and interaction with each other and the people surrounding them makes for a touching story. James Lloyd Carr is excellent in his description of intricate details, as well as in his unraveling of an exceptionally original plot, to reaching one's deepest feelings of sadness about experiences of unrequited and unfulfilled love, and finally to the revealing of the mural behind the old paint and the secret of the original artist himself.

Things slow down at times and we do wonder where it is all going, but patience wins the day and we are brought to the brink of both pathos and joy. It is well worth making it through a few dull pages.

I thought the movie flowed better than the book. Colin Firth plays the wounded artist, Kenneth Braughan is the one looking for the bones, and a very young Natasha Richardson is the wife of the vicar.

A month in the country, the movie which starred Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh was shown in 1987, but as usual, the book is better than the movie.

Lovely and beautiful in its simplicity, the tale of two great war survivors healing their battle-scarred minds in the village of Oxgodby is one of my favourite novel.

Watching the tape recently, I was strucked by the difference between the Birkin in the movie and that of the book. The Birkin in the movie is one-dimensional and the people around him, save Alice Keach is unpleasant. To exorcise this image of the Birkin of the movie, I re-read the book again and was immensely pleased at the Birkin of the novel, alive and likeable but certainly not flawless. The Alice Keach of the world would definitely falls head over heel for him.

The beauty of the novel is further enhanced by the portrayal of the healing process in Birkin's nightmarish experiences as a war veteran. He and Moon are not your typical citizens from a nation of victims, where crisis counsellors would intervene and encourage those ceaseless and endless whinings whenever fate deal them a bad hand, instead they resolved the inner demons through themselves, in their own unique way.

This is my first review so bear with me. This book reminded me a lot of Catch-22 by Heller because of the wartime scene and its cast of characters. Though King Rat is not that humorous, Clavell still wrote a fascinating story.

His style so easily reveals the key characters and what they're all about. Learning about King and Marlowe and Grey - early in the book, you know everything you need to know about them. The key is the dynamics between them - the interaction between them. I enjoyed every conversation between Marlowe and the King because I as the reader could feel the electricity.

As it happens with any good story, you get so immersed in "their" (prisoners') situation, that you suddenly realize how much your view has changed throughout the story. That is good writing.

I tried hard to read Clavell's Shogun - heck I went traveling to another country and still couldn't finish it - it's too long - it was a great epic but I needed answers or conclusions. King Rat is much shorter and as powerful.

One other mention - the version I bought included 5 or 6 sets of 10-15 pages that discussed what happened to a few of the wives of the prisoners. You can buy either version - the story of the wives' is interesting and touching, but you're not going to get your sappy Hollywood ending in this one so it doesn't add to the story much.

King Rat is a masterpiece and quite possibly the most in depth and personal World War II book ever written. Clavell, a Japanese POW, uses his own experiences at these horrid camps to create a narraritve that will not soon be forgotten. The book surrounds the life of British militant Peter Marlowe (based on Clavell, most likely) and the manipulative and un-named "King." These men are amoung the Allied troops captured by the Japanese in the South Pacific, and the story reflects the type of society they built to survive the horrible conditions of the camp. A deep plot, dynamic characters, action, and romance make this a must-read...one of the highlights of 20th century literature.

This is the only only book that written that in my opinion supplants Clavell's own Shogun as perhaps the best historical novel ever written.

Partly autobiographical, King Rat recounts the story of Phillip Marlowe, a character no doubt based on Clavell himself, and his years spent in the notorious Singapore POW camp known as Changi during WW2.

What is so stunning about this novel, is that perhaps because of the very real life experiences that forged its narrative, it becomes more than mere words on paper, it becomes a very real world where the old class lines are broken down as officers and enlisted men sleep in the same mud huts, where getting an egg in your rice for dinner constitutes a great day, a transvestite becomes the sexual icon of the whole camp and the very concept of traditional ethics and morals are challenged.

What makes this novel so very magical is that the depth with which the characters and their respective personalities and fates resonate with the readers, their laughter becomes your laughter, their sorrow becomes your sorrow, their joy becomes your joy, very rarely is a novel simultaneously able to so superbly entertain and make you affect your outlook on life, after the end of this short novel you will feel as if you have emerged from three years in a Singapore prison camp, and like the men in this novel, you will never be the same again.

This is verbatium of the memo I released to my company of a suggestion of what books to use for the MCSE Exams. "Gentlemen, In researching suitable material for MCSE exam preparation, I have found that Exam Cram is accurate and would help in passing the exams. I have tested the NT Server 4 (Exam # 70-067) book by taking two Trascender demo exams with it and passing both times using the material found in this book. The material in the book is presented in an easy to follow approach with detailed examination of each answer in a typical question detailing what makes it correct or incorrect. I believe that the other books in this series will have the same level and type of information found in this one. I recommend that we purchase the Exam Cram 4-Pack (Core Edition), published by "Coliolis Group "

I had truly given up on passing the NT Certification tests, until I read about this book. Two years ago, I read and practically memorized Sybex Press' Microsoft Windows NT certification materials. Then, took a transcender simulation and realized I was still not ready for the actual test.

After 3 years of working hands on with NT in various network enterprises, my experiences had provided me with lots of Windows NT hands on knowledge; but, I still felt uncomfortable taking the certification tests. After reading the reviews here, I took 1&1/2 weeks to read this NT Server exam cram book. Dared to take the test and gained a comfortable passing mark.

Only one word of caution, since Microsoft designed the tests with the expectation that 70% should fail; and, since recent statistics show that one has to take these tests an average of 2.8 times before passing, don't take it for granted that this book alone would guarantee a passing grade.

The night before the test, I took NT 4.0 Transcender tests, and read (and practice hands on exercises) Mark Minasi's "Mastering Windows NT Server 4" chapters on RAS and Performance Monitoring for extra preparation [This shows that not all Sybex Press books are of little assistance]. Without these extra helps, my final grade would have been too close for comfort.

Thanks to what I believe to be a special Grace from GOD and the encouragement received from this book's focus on certification exam questions, after ONLY ONE try, I am now a MICROSOFT CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL on Windows NT Server 4.0!!

This book will do nothing for you, but make you a paper MCP, if you do not already understand most of the aspects of Windows NT Server 4.0. However, I am willing to bet that at least two thirds of everyone persuing their MCSE could pass the NT Server 4.0 exam by carefully studying this book alone. This book covers almost every aspect of the Microsoft exam for NT Server 4.0. It really shows you where your weeknesses are. This book is, also, one of the most accurate 'Exam Cram' books. I have to give Ed Tittel and the gang credit for my perfect score on the exam (1000 of 1000).

-6 Stars! Superb, intricately plotted and riveting story.

...If you havent read P.D. James....it might be better to start with "Death of an Expert Witness". However, for a taste of P.D. James- this is an excellent choice!
Newcomers would still enjoy it, but may miss a little of the depth of character of the key players: Adam Dagliesh, a Scotland yard Detective with his own tragic past, who is also a published poet; and Sgt Kate Miskin, newly assigned to replace Dalgliesh's previous longtime assistant, wanting to make an impression, but plagued with problems in her personal life.

As a dedicated P.D. James fan, I would say this is even a step above her usual fascinating, exquisitely crafted stories!
Beautifully written and carefully plotted as usual.
This book is notable for the wonderful glimpses into the life of Dalgliesh's Sgt.: Kate Miskin. These personal moments dont distract, but further the story, and converge with the mystery plot to create a moving and exciting climax.

James always creates characters who are complex and beautifully described, but in this book she outdoes herself. She has created a rainbow of personalities ranging from the most endearing to the most odious characters.
In brief, a well-crafted, imaginative, wonderfully absorbing mystery. Only caveat would be a fairly bloody crime scene encountered by the detectives. Hopefully this wont put you off, as James never throws in gratuitous gore or violence. This was my absolute favorite P.D. James novel. If youve heard the authors name, and want to see if you like her without starting "at the beginning": This is a great choice.
In short: If you love mysteries, and dont own this book- RUN, dont walk to the "add to shopping cart" link!

3/5/02 edited 3/19/02

This ranks as one of P.D. James' finer achievements. One of her longest novels both in scope and number of pages, A TASTE FOR DEATH once more proves James' talent for devising an intricate detective story and filling it with well-crafted characters and some of the most beautiful prose ever written. The story revolves around Commander Adam Dalgliesh's investigations into the murders of two men who have been found, their throats slit, in the vestry of a church. The plot is complex and, in addition to the intrigue of the mystery, explores questions of politics, society, and morality. This is a wonderful novel with an explosive climax, certain to be a treat for both Dalgliesh fans and lovers of contemporary literature.

If you havent read P.D. James....it might be better to start with "Death of an Expert Witness". However, as a P.D. James fan, I give it ***6 stars***! Beautifully written and carefully plotted as usual. This book is notable for the wonderful glimpses into the life of Dalgliesh's Sgt, Kate Miskin. These personal moments don't distract the reader, but add to and advance the story's plot. James always creates characters who are complex and beautifully described, but in this book she outdoes herself. We encounter the full range of personalities from the most endearing to the most odious characters she has ever created. This was (nearly) my absolute favorite P.D. James novel. If you love mysteries, and dont own this book.. *Run, Don't walk: to the "add to shopping cart" link!

I consider the books I buy as gifts to myself, and I relish the time I spend in reading one. The Last Valentine was a major disappointment, and a waste of my time and my money. Aside from being totally predictable, the author seems to underestimate the intelligence of his readers, and feels the need to explain details that are obvious to most of us. That, plus the incessant use of cliche after cliche, made this read boring for me. You could easily tell what was going to happen on the next page, and the next, and the next. If I can't learn something from a book, I at least want to be entertained. This did neither for me. I hope the author doesn't quit his day job.

In the Last Valentine you can relate to Caroline Thomas as she is going on with life while not knowing if her husband Neil is alive or not. He is in the Air Force and he has to go to war during World War II. This book was very interesting if you want to know what an Air Force pilot went through during the war. He was shot down during an air raid and was taken in by the Phillipino guerillas. The nursed him back to health the best they could. He fought with them against the Japs. He died fighting with them. His body was returned home fifty years after he left for the war. His wife Caroline then knew he was home safe and she could pass on and be with him forever in eternity.

This book is one of my favorites. Hopeless romantics will love this book. You will find yourself thinking about Neil and Caroline well after you have finished the book. The Last Valentine will have a permanent place in your library. Get out the tissues, put on your pajamas and get comfortable. You won't be able to put it down. My 15 year old daughter also read this book and she loved it. It is written so beautifully without the use of explicit love scenes. Their love is so powerful, you will feel it every time you turn the page.

The third entrant in the Kevin Kerney series, Serpent Gate would also rate third amongst the series. While entertaining enough, it lacked the freshness, the cleverness, and the impact of Michael McGarrity's previous works. Serpent Gate was a just a bit too predictable, and many of the ancillary characters (save Fletcher) were not developed to the degree expected from Mr. McGarrity. The descriptions of the New Mexico landscape were as well done as previously, but overall, while an enjoyable read,and one that fans of McGarrity will still enjoy, newcomers to McGarrity would be better served by reading either of his two previous novels...

Good job by Mr. McGarrity. Fast-paced story with some interesting characters. New Mexico State Police Deputy Chief Kevin Kearney comes off as the every man faced with impossible odds. Still he tackles them with pit bull-like tenacity. In this book, he's trying to handle two cases at once. The shooting of a small town cop who turns out to be not a very nice person, and the theft of millions of dollars worth of art from the Governor's office. Behind the theft is a man named DeLeon, a subtlely evil drug lord with connections all over the place and an obsession to kill Kearny. Lots of interesting characters throughout the story. Robert, the schizophranic man who may be a key witness in the cop shooting case, and Kearney's gay, dandy art enthusiast friend Fletcher Hartley. Really enjoyed the rapport with those two and Hartley's enthusiasm over helping out with the art theft case. At times I wondered if the two separate cases would ever come together, but trust me, they do. Big time. Also, McGarrity did a fantastic job capturing the social atmosphere of the Southwest. As someone who lives a state away in Arizona, I could relate to the resentment between old timers and newcomers and the battle between Western tradition and the building of tourist traps. Fine novel. I am sold on Michael McGarrity.

I'm addicted to Mr. McGarrity's novels now. After finished Talurosa, I grabbed this "Serpent Gate" and finished it in one setting. Just fantastic. M's writing is very smooth, no-nonsense, clear-cut, concise, and at least 98% logic(the missing 2% is that why the assassins didn't use the same high power, long range and sound surpressed rifle to shoot Kerney around the Serpent Gate wilderness, instead, chased him on foot with Uzi and handguns? I'm also kinda getting little tired of the Mexican mafiosio, Deleon. But if Mr. McGarrity could only put Kerney in a more pathetic way of status like what he did in his "Mexican Hat," I'd prefer getting Deleon back again, cuz Kerney's life would be less miserable.

Two disclaimers for this review: 1, this was my first P.D. James novel. 2, I believe that Agatha Christie was the goddess of all mystery writing.
I am used to a body within the first few pages, and letting Hercule Poirot deduce things from there until the solution is provided. However, there are no bodies until 80 pages into the book, and most of the discussion includes things that Dalgliesh brings out later with witnesses anyway, making them redundant.
Also confusing was James's apparent escape from reality with character names. Some are completely absurd, like the characters names "Makepeace" and "Gotobed." Combining words into names detracts from the proposed seriousness of the situation.

This book is much heavier than a true murder mystery, and the decision comes down to this: whether you want a true murder mystery, where you follow facts and psychology in the attempt to deduce the murderer, or whether you want a deeper novel -- a P.D. James novel -- where, along with the murder, time is spent reflecting on life and the world in a more philosophical fashion.

P.D. James' work occasionally collapses under its own weight as the author strains to combine psychological novel with crafty murder mystery--but DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS shows the writer at her best, creating a memorable setting in rural England, a host of very believable characters, and a complex plot, with all aspects of the work coming together in seamless fashion.

Dr. Lorrimer is a forensic scientist employed at a police laboratory, well respected by the scientific community and a bastion of authority in the witness box. Unfortunately, he is also a singularly unpleasant man: bitter at being passed over for promotion, petty in his dealings with underlings, vindictive in his personal relationships. So it is hardly surprising when he is murdered--but the circumstances are something of a shock: he is clubbed to death in the middle of his own laboratory, a situation that seems to indicate one or more of his co-workers is involved. And Chief Inspector Dalgliesh has an abundance of suspects from which to select.

James' detective Dalgliesh is a rather dour creation, and in some James novels he can become a tiresome companion--but here James balances his darkness against the demands of the overall novel to considerable effect. The result is a stylish, atmospheric work with an intelligent plot and a satisfying conclusion--a book to keep mystery fans sitting up all night. Recommended.

P.D. James fittingly wears the crown as "queen of the mystery writers"! And in "Death of an Expert Witness" the title is clearly shown and deserved. Again, James brings in Chief Inspector Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard, and once again, this venerable, brilliant, and honorable investigator is in good form. James usually presents a model in human behavior--she's good at this--and gives Dalgleish the full run to work out the inconsistencies, the red herrings, and finally the truth of the case. Dr. Lorrimer is a cold, efficient, dislikeable scientist; now he is a cold, efficient, and dislikeable corpse. Dalgleish must find out why he was killed--and it is more than merely because he was disliked. What did he know that panicked his murderer? After all, he was cold, efficient, dislikeable, and very knowledgeable, "an expert witness," as it were. Bring along a dictionary, as James' vocabulary is challenging--but not distracting--and her works are refreshingly intelligent and worth the effort it may take!(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

This book is both thoughtful and thought provoking. It does to Web Services what the gang-of-four classic did to object-level design patterns and provides a catalogue of all of the technologies that are used in a comprehensive web services architecture.

This book is also more than just a catalogue. It is as much about the subtle paradigm shifts taking place in the post-dotcom era. Every programmer from the dotcom era knows about n-tier architecture - a bunch of squares representing tiers connected by lines representing communication between tiers. Web services introduce a new architecture called service-oriented architecture.

One thing to notice is that web services architecture is about communication and how servers publicize themselves and their products in yellow-pages and how clients here about these services and products from the yellow pages.

This book describes how services are registered / published in registries so they can be found and also dives into how to secure them and make them highly available. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about doing it right the first time.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an emerging technology. But it has not yet fully emerged out of the academic and research-labs closets. The book under review is the first accessible introduction to Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web services.

The book is directed towards managers, planners, and architects who may be in a state of FUDS (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubts, and Shock) at being suddenly confronted with a new paradigm. According to the authors (and many other industry experts) SOA is going to change the way we develop and use software. This has implications for every aspect of an IT-professional's life - social, psychological, and technical. The author addresses all these issues very well and does succeed in reducing the FUDS factor considerably.

The basic tenent of SOA is that at long last we should be able to develop and use software just as we develop and use hardware, namely, develop packaged and fully functional components and assemble them together just as we would do for hardware components of TV, stereo and so forth. This has always been the goal (the holy grail) of software but with hindsight we can say that objects, EJBs, and frameworks have been only steps in the right direction rather than "mission-accomplished". The missing piece in the puzzle had been a concrete and universally accepted implementation of SOA. Web Services is this long-awaited implementation, which would usher in the era of packaged and pluggable software.

The integration mechanism of Web Services is expressed by the now famous triangle: publish-find-bind. In short, a sevice publishes itself in a UDDI directory (yellow pages), another service which needs this service looks up its "address" in the yellow-pages (find), and then contacts it directly (bind).

The publish-find-bind triangle of SOA predates modern science. Since time immemorial, arranged marriages have been executed using this mechanism. Thus this triangle should rightfully be called " the holy matrimonial triangle".

I had the privelege of working with one of the authors several years ago. When I learned he was an author, I immediately purchased his book and was not disappointed. He and his fellow authors did a wonderful job of making web services simple to understand.

This book is by far the most complete book on web services to date. It has the most detailed security chapter and a great overview on service oriented architectures. This book will be a amazon bestseller for a long time to come.

I have asked several candidates that interview with my employer if they have read this book. I recommend to all candidates that they go out and buy it immediately.