Carol Ashton is recovering from wounds she received in another case, so, to give her a chance to recover, she is assigned to be a body guard. The mystery now is who is trying to kill her assignment. Ashton also finds herself tempted by the woman she is guarding. Is this the end of her relationship with Sibyl? Read and find out.

I'm not impartial. I love Simeon Grist. The reluctant batchelor detective with wandering eyes, a handful of graduate degrees, and a soft heart is one of my favorite characters in crime fiction. This time, Simeon is hired to look into a questionable situation that ends up as murder. And Simeon's client is either a) the killer, or b) the next victim. Simeon has to discover why the killer is killing, find the person responsible, keep anyone else from getting killed, and, incidentally, keep himself from becoming the next victim. Hallinan continues his successful series of Simeon Grist mysteries, and they just keep getting better with each book. His fans definately won't be disappointed with this one.

I not only noticed when these books became Mario Balzic Novels instead of Mario Balzic Mysteries, I also applauded the change. After all, the chief attraction of K. C. Constantine's novels has always been the way our hero's mind worked more than the crimes in and around Rocksburg that he was trying to solve. There are those who applaud these novels for their regionalistic depiction of Western Pennsylvania, but I read them for Chief Balzic's fascinating conversations with everyone from the witnesses to some crime to the familiar patrons of Muscotti's.

However, the most important development in these last couple of novels has been the return of Balzic's family to prominence. Of course, now that family is reduce to Ruth, but that is more than enough. It seems she has unilaterally dissolved the marriage "in search of a better, more mutually satisfying relationship which I want to call a partnership." In the wake of Marie Balzic's death it turns out that not only did Mario lose his mother and Ruth her best friend, but also the couple lost the person that kept them connected to each other.

But our hero has other problems. The Rocksburg police force is woefully undermanned, the weather is unbearably hot, a strange woman tells a bizarre story about her violent husband going after a truck driver, and there is a crazy writer named Myushkin who pontificates without end at Balzic's favorite watering hole. To top this all off, the 64-year-old Balzic keeps flashing back to being a young Marine on the beaches of Iwo Jima.

"Bottom Liner Blues" is the 10th novel in this series by K. C. Constantine. The charm has always been the characters and the dialogue more than the mysteries or police procedure. Constantine has an excellent ear for the working-class dialect of Middle America and I can just picture the author working them out aloud rather than merely typing them on the page. Constantine also does not play favorites, more often than not giving the best lines and the most profound insights to characters other than Mario Balzic himself. In this one there is much more of a sense of all the pieces coming together than we have seen previously in these wonderful looks at the human comedy.

Buried in Quilts is one of those wonderful new breed of mysteries that allows you to see inside another world, in this case a small town in Indiana, and inside other people, too. It's not just about a murder, or quilts, the town or the people; the book is a wonderful quilt itself, weaving all the separate pieces into a marvelous whole. I think what I liked best is that the clues to the murder were right there for everyone to see. I don't know a thing about quilting and when the book reached its conclusion I found myself saying, "I should have figured that out!" There was a twist that caught me fair and square. I recommend this book very highly!

As 1916 draws towards an end, the war between Great Britain and Germany appears to have no end in sight. Prime Minister Lloyd George has been in office for a week when his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle persuades him to host a séance in order to contact his daughter, dead for nine years. Because he feels guilt, Lloyd agrees. Just as the medium goes into a trance, the lights go out. When they come back on, the Prime Minister's youngest teenage daughter is missing.

Doyle visits his friend John Darnell, a psychic debunker, to attend the next night's séance. As happened previously, the lights go out just as the medium enters a trance. When the lights come back on, someone stabbed to death an aid to the prime minister. Someone has used the cloak of the séances to kidnap a teenager and kill a person who unluckily chanced upon information. Lloyd receives a ransom note threatening the life of his child if he fails to agree to Germany's peace offering. John Darnell races the clock to save a life of an innocent caught up in world politics.

Sam McCarver writes a fascinating work that gives the audience a strong sense of the times. The mood of the British people before America's entry into World War I is fascinating yet understandable. Nonetheless, the magic to THE CASE OF THE 2ND SÉANCE lies in the hero whose actions insure readers get more than their money's worth.

Harriet Klausner

Classic Tales of Mulla Nasreddin (a.k.a. Nasrudin) is a bilingual, delightfully illustrated book of "holy fool" stories. The selection of stories is exquisite with a bias towards the pithy saying stories e.g. "Mulla was once asked: 'How long will people continue to be born and die?' Mulla answered profoundly: 'Until Heaven and Hell are both full.'"

A wonderful collection for anyone interested in Sufism, folk tales or religious teaching stories.

If you've read any of the Carol Ashton series, you know the formula for the books. There is always a mystery, with some twists and turns, and Ashton is trying to figure out what kind of personal relationship she really wants, with Sybil or anyone else. Each successive book reveals more of her personality. The issue of whether or not to come out of the closet is becoming an important one by this point. If you miss one or read the books out of order, you might get lost in the relationships. This is a good serviceable addition to the series.

I must confess I purchased this paperback expecting a cheesy mystery story. Was I ever surprised! Albert is a terrific writer. Although this is clearly a formula novel, he constructs everything perfectly. I loved his strategy of having Dave Garrett, the PI protagonist, go for 4 days without sleep, which does not leave the reader a convenient place to put the book down. It is non-stop action! Also I should mention that I experimented with Fastin diet pills to stay awake while studying for college exams, and I thought it was great that an author would incorporate such a powerful energizing substance in a story. Good job, Albert

I picked up this audio cassette and enjoyed the dramatic presentation very much. I've listened to a few books on tape but this was the first that I've heard as an audio drama. I'm looking for more now because of this tape. I'm not familiar with the Mountain Man series, but I have become a fan through this recording.

Ms. Conant constantly amazes me with her ability to weave dog info into mystery. Anyone who has ever shown a dog had had to deal with a gossipy trainer/handler/owner and few wouldn't like to take a pair of shears to one of them as well! I adore this book and highly suggest you get a copy!