Las Vegas bookmaker Bruce Weinstein was immediately enamored of the diminutive brunette, Amy DeChant when he met her in October of 1995 at The Mirage poker room. He bought her a car, a beautiful diamond necklace, purchased a carpet-cleaning business for her, and took very good care of her. Bruce Weinstein, was described as "the kind guy you loved to hate and hated to love." When the wealthy, 46-year-old 300 pound risk-taker suddenly disappeared July 5, 1996 from his Las Vegas home, Amy DeChant, his 48-year-old live in lover was the prime suspect. Amy said Bruce left at 11:00pm, to go out -- but his family suspected foul play. Why? Because he was always in bed by 9 or 10, the cellular telephone that was his link to his wealthy bookmaking business remained in the house, as did his beeper and an American Express card - "He never left home without it." But how could DeChant -- at 5-foot-1 and 110 pounds, and suffering a bad hip, carry the burly body of her lover out of posh house they shared? The police listed him as a MISSING PERSON, but his family knew something was amiss. They posted a $50,000 reward leading to the recovery of Weinstein's body and arrest of the killer and hired private investigator, Mike Wysocki, to delve deeper. After the investigator discovered blood on the underside of the mattress in the bookmaker's bedroom, Las Vegas Metro began a murder investigation. The remains of the 46-year-old bookmaker were discovered Aug. 11, 1996, in a makeshift grave about 60 miles north of Las Vegas, in an isolated spot in the desert near Mesquite, where it was carefully covered with rocks. Because the body was badly decomposed, it took investigators until September to make a positive identification using Weinstein's dental records. Immediately, the investigation focused on two people: DeChant, who operated a carpet-cleaning business, and Robert Wayne Jones, her employee. Why? Amy disappeared the day after the killing and was stopped by police in Maryland. In her car was more than $100,000 in cash, false birth certificates, wigs and information on obtaining false identification. Also, police investigators found blood stains in the freshly cleaned carpets of Weinstein's home after searching for clues to his mysterious disappearance. Her brother posted a $5,000 cash bail for her after she had spent @ 2 months in jail, but after being released on bail, she fled again. DeChant changed her story several times about the events leading to Weinstein's disappearance. Her story to police now was that vindictive, masked, "New York-looking type guys" actually were the killers and they allowed her to live only if she cleaned up the bloody death scene and kept quiet. Why? Amy said the four masked men entered the house, said they were going to "teach Bruce a lesson," then killed him and took away his body (leaving some bloody spots in the house that she was told to clean). Hummm! Also missing is Robert Wayne Jones, 57, who vanished on July 12, 1996, without clothing, money, even a toothbrush. Weinstein's family has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his whereabouts. He was on the lam for almost a year, but was later found and arrested in New Mexico. DeChant, disappeared in September 1997 after she and Robert Jones were charged with Weinstein's murder by a grand jury. She was profiled on America's Most Wanted and a tip from a viewer watching the program led to her capture. DeChant was tracked down in January, 1998, in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where she was worked as a bartender at two South Florida establishments. She was arrested at the home of a Port St. Lucie man who ran a commercial cleaning service! At her 1998 trial, Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane portrayed DeChant as a "dominating person" who never took no for an answer and was determined to get her hands on Weinstein's wealth no matter what it took. When she couldn't manipulate control of the money from the illegal bookmaking operation, he contended, she killed him and took it. He also said Robert Wayne Jones, supplied the semi-automatic pistol that was used to kill Weinstein and helped with the clean up. The .380-caliber weapon was found under a bush a year after the slaying, but ballistic tests were inconclusive, and the weapon that killed Bruce Weinstein could have been the same make or one of three other makes... Her attorney stated in closing, that police used high-tech methods to check for blood residue in DeChant's car and carpet-cleaning van and in Weinstein's car and found nothing! The jury of nine women and three men spent 15 hours over a three-day period deliberating the murder case of DeChant and her co-defendant, Robert Wayne Jones. DeChant was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder but guilty of first-degree murder and of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon and was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Her life was spared. Jones was found not guilty of direct involvement in the murder but was convicted of being an accessory to murder after the fact, and was given a five-year sentence. Bruce Weinstein's family cried with joy after Amy DeChant, was convicted of murder in his July 1996 death. Sylvia White, Weinstein's mother, said after the verdict, "All I want to do is go to the cemetery to see my son. We don't have him anymore, but we do have justice." Will the family's joy be short lived? In May 2000, DeChant's attorney appealed the conviction citing it was impossible for DeChant, who weighs less than 120 pounds, to have shot the 300-pound Weinstein, dragged him from his upstairs bedroom, put him into a car, rolled him down a ditch in the desert and placed boulders on his head. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in favor of Amy DeChant, overturning her October 1998 conviction for the murder of Bruce Weinstein. In their October 2000 ruling, the Justices said the trial judge erred in allowing testimony from a former homicide investigator, who termed DeChant's mob hit account a "fairy tale." The high court noted prosecutors used the same phrase later in the trial.

The setting is an English family in a rented summer home in Tuscany. Odd things happen, water disappears, and then someone dies. The mother, Molly Partiger, becomes obsesses with getting to the heart of these mysteries, and with meeting her mysterious landlord. It is a particular pleasure to see Mortimer's love of Shakespeare comes through in Molly's Falstaff of a father, and the Hamlet-like play-within-a-play which gives Molly the final clue to the murder. Interwoven with the plot is an homage to Piero della Francesca (although it has been written that Mortimer gets everything wrong about Piero's Flagellation). The book ends with typical Mortimer poigniancy. The book is light in the way that a Tom Stoppard play is light -- an intelligent guilty pleasure.

this book is fantastic. the masterpiece theatre production was awesome too. i would like to buy a copy of the video if anyone has one. this is definitely worth reading - and watching too!

I read this book because I saw the Masterpiece Theatre production on TV in the early nineties and fell in love with the characters and the story. This is the type of detective mystery novel where one can truly relate to the detective as she is an average person with a highly developed sense of curiosity. While I shared Molly's intense curiosity about her absent landlord and her outrage at the so called "water racket", I would not have gone as far as she did to satisfy that curiosity. Molly is rather reckless (if not stupid) towards the end and doesn't realize the consequences of her actions until too late - and even then chalks it up to coincidence. All in all the book is a quick and delightful read that will have you longing to travel to those Tuscan hills. I wish Masterpiece Theatre would rerun the film or make it available on video. You've got to see the film. The cast was so well chosen and the locations are beautiful, especially the terrace on La Felicita.

There are many things to like about this book, most of which are described well by the other reviewers. What really struck me about this book (perhaps because I listened to the unabridged tape) was how so much of the plot turned on what happens when a writer is less than precise with language. Mortimer does a masterful job of creating Felix, a writer who doesn't even realize that his misstatements are misstatements or the trouble those statements cause.

Overall, it took me a while to warm up to the book but by the end I was rooting hard for the truth to emerge. The actual ending was a little corny but ok. It's a book filled with a fun assortment of characters. More than a few humorous jabs are made at the modern publishing world and modern society in general. Not a laugh out loud book but one that made me chuckle to myself.

A New York Times notable mystery in 1997 - for those who are fond of books with credentials.

A hapless middle-aged midlist author gets embroiled in the British legal system when he is accused of fathering a child and not paying support. You may need a certain amount of anglophilia and interest in the literary scene to fully appreciate it. The only fault I could find was that it's too short. I hate finishing books in one night before I fall asleep.

John Mortimer is the writer of many charming and wonderful books, although he is no doubt best known for his stories of Horace Rumpole, the irascible British barrister. In Felix in the Underworld, Mortimer showcases his comic and satirical talents most admirably.

Mortimer reminds me a little of bestselling Japanese novelist, Haruki Murakami, in that his characters in this book are quite ordinary people who live quite ordinary lives but have the absurdly bad fortune of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The protagonist of Felix in the Underworld, Felix Morsom, is a moderately successful, quiet, sensitive novelist at Llama Books who manages to become involved, much against his will, with a man named Gavin Piercey.

Soon after meeting Piercey, Felix notices the man everywhere in his life: at book signings, during radio talk shows and, most especially, at one fateful meeting where Piercey introduces Felix to a woman named Miriam. This meeting will have serious, but hilarious, repercussions on Felix's life.

From the moment Felix meets Miriam, his life becomes one of turmoil and wild, unbelievable events. He receives a letter from an agency calling itself PROD; he is accused of a brutal murder; he becomes involved with London's homeless population.

Mortimer's handling of the plot is superb, his writing as smooth as silk and the characters, although slightly cliched, are still polished and hilarious. One of the funniest is the lawyer, Septimus Roache, the man Felix turns to in desperation when he attempts to prove his innocence in the murder. Roache is an obtuse and self-satisfied man who has little to no interest in his clients and really doesn't listen to a word Felix is telling him.

Mortimer, who himself was a successful barrister before becoming a writer, knows how to create a rollicking good murder mystery and this is part of why Felix in the Underworld works as well as it does. Another large part is Felix, himself, an engaging character we can't help but like; a man who maintains his dignity and poise even in the face of adversity of the highest, and most unexpected, order.

Mortimer calls himself a "Champagne socialist," and is a champion of the poor and the downtrodden. In this book he manages to take us on a trip through contemporary British society, especially homeless society. The book is fun, though, above all, and never sounds like polemic. We can credit Mortimer's superb writing skills for that.

The snobbish character of Simon Tubal-Smith, Felix's boss at Llama Books is contrasted wonderfully with Esmond, a homeless man who was, at one time, a manager in a supermarket. Esmond left his job and home for a life in the streets when tragedy struck. Felix, himself, spends some time as a member of London's homeless population and is reminiscent of George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London.

The dialogue is pure Mortimer and always fun. When Felix is temporarily residing in jail, his cellmate is a man named Dumbarton who allegedly beat another man to death. "You killed him?" Felix asks. "Thoroughly," Dumbarton replies, quite satisfied with what he did.

Felix is both self-effacing and hilarious as he attempts to cope with unhelpful lawyers who do just as much to convict as help him, as he tries to sort out the mystery behind PROD, as well as develop his budding relationship with Brenda Bodkin, his publisher's publicity agent.

Although this book is a little formulaic at times, the formula works and works well. Maybe that is because Mortimer is a master who never lets us down. Felix in the Underworld is a first-rate murder mystery, a comedy of errors and a satire of the British class system. It is always delightful and filled with surprises up until the very last page.

I enjoyed the book. Apparently, beauty doesn't guarantee happiness anymore than money does.

Linda Sobek may have been "genetically gifted" but her beauty did not bring her happiness. Not to blame the victim, but her physical perfection was what got her killed.

What infuriated me was the fact that Tom Rathbun, Linda's murderer, had been allowed to walk free from an earlier rape charge. ([...]I'm sure that Linda wasn't the only woman he's killed.

As for Rathbun trying to convince the court that he and his victim had "consensual" sex, what a dreamer. As if a woman like Linda Sobek would willingly TOUCH him....he is creepy.

Good book for anyone thinking of getting into the modeling business....what NOT to do!

'Massacre at Waco' was one of several that came out almost immediately after the burning of Mt. Carmel on April 19, 1993. In essence this book covers the events leading up to and including the fiery end of the Davidians.

The most glaring fault with this book is its extreme bias. When reading about the Davidian "cultists" you almost feel like you are reading of Cthulhu worshippers in an H.P. Lovecraft horror novel. On the other hand the section on the history of the ATF has the feel of being plagiarized from an ATF publicity pamphlet. Perhaps because he is the author of several 'true crime' books Mr. Linedecker does not seem able to look past the simple crime scene aspect of what went on at Waco. He covers Waco as if it had been bank robbery, and seems oblivious to any greater picture.

Other problems with this book are a result of when it was written. Coming out so soon after the fire, many of the myths had not yet been exposed. The apparently untrue myths propagated in this book include: the babies being beaten during the siege, tunnels under and around Mt. Carmel, the brave FBI agent running into the burning building to save Majorie Thomas, and the FBI agents seeing the fires being lit. Events that have come under dispute, such as who fired first in the initial raid, are reported with only the government's perspective, possibly because other viewpoints were not available when this book came out.

This book also has no footnoting, or even a solid sources section. To the extent that sources are made known they are stated in the text and it is often very difficult to figure out where Mr. Linedecker got what piece of information. When you can determine the sources, they appear to all be either mainstream media, government spokesmen, or people with a real anti Davidian axe to grind.

On the plus side, the book is well written. The writing is almost conversational, uncluttered with obscure phrases or references, and it makes for a quick and enjoyable read. Even in its coverage of events it has some good points. If you can get past the astonishingly biased account of the initial raid in chapter one, its history of the early Davidians in chapter two is as good as that given in other books, and more clearly written. The book's main strength, however, lies in its coverage of the intents and methods of government agencies. It does a pretty good job of explaining what the official motivations of the ATF's initial raid were, how the negotiation teams were set up, and it examines the motives (if uncritically) behind the various tactics employed by law enforcement throughout.

Although it has some interesting aspects, because of its deficiencies, I cannot recommend 'Massacre at Waco.' Instead I suggest 'The Ashes of Waco' by Dick Reavis.

I thought that "Massacre at Waco, Texas" was the best account of the events at Ranch Apocalypse that I've ever read. It is a simple, straightforward description of the beginning of the Branch Davidian Cult, the rise of David Koresh as their leader, and the eventual showdown with the ATF. Most importantly, Linedecker tells the story in an unbiased way, in contrast to the numerous versions that have been produced by conservatives and anti-government extremists. Now it is true that the book was rushed into publication shortly after the siege, and consequently contains a small number of factual errors. However, it is overall a well-researched and documented work. For example, consider Linedecker's approach to the issue of Koresh's alleged abuse of children. It is true that he includes the incident with the eight-month-old baby, a story that later proved to be questionable. However, Koresh did regularly beat children and have sexual relations with underaged girls, and Linedeckers backs up these assertions with an impressive array of court documents and testimony from former cult members. Since some of Koresh's defenders have attempted to downplay the reports about his abuse of children, it's obviously important to get the facts straight on this issue. The author also documents the process by which the Branch Davidians obtained and constructed illegal firearms and their plans for a major terrorist attack against the city of Waco.

With that said, I can't pretend that the book is well written. The writing is quite mediocre, with immature word choice, frequent grammar mistakes, and paragraphs that have just one sentence. Linedecker sometimes goes off on tangents that don't really contribute to the story for several pages. He provides long lists of people who were part of the cult, but doesn't really get into their heads to make us understand why they joined the cult. Also, the eight-page photo section doesn't really serve any purpose. Even so, I still recommend this book because I think that it's important for people to understand the truth about the tragic events that took place in Waco in 1993.

Ever since the Waco tragedy happend years ago, I've always wanted to know more about what happend there. This is the very first book that I picked up concerning the subject. While it never really went in depth with things, it did give me an understanding of what happend. I finished this book in one night, believe it or not, but I really enjoyed reading it. Since that time, I've picked up several other books concerning the subject (and you should too after reading this one). Even moreso, check out the documentary.."Rules of Engagement". Each one offers several different sides of the tragedy so you can understand what happend there better.
Overall, this is a good place to start to find out about it. This book is a good read. Definitely. Check it out.

When I quickly thumbed through "The Vampire Killers", I couldn't wait to read it as homicides and vampires are two of the subjects I find to be the most fascinating. Sadly, I was extremely disappointed. Don't get me wrong -- the idea of a teenage vampire cult leader is startling, beyond wicked -- but Linedecker, being the talentless oaf that he is, managed to bore me half to death with his uninspiring, unmoving content. Thankfully, there are other authors out there who manage to do a decent job of writing about the stories that Linedecker ruins all together. If you'd like an interesting view of the Wendorf murders, then ditch this book and read "The Embrace" by Aphrodite Jones instead.

Being an avid reader of both vampires and true crime, I picked up this book with great interest. My fave TV series" Forever Knight" is mentioned twice in passing, which gives you an indication of the half-done research done here. Basically the author goves an overall good synposis of what happened, but omitted ( as I found out in other books) some info, such as the possible emotional shock of one of the four accused of the murders.

Background info, such as cult mind thinking and exactly WHY the group went as far as they did is not looked into here. It is an okay resource into the case, but incomplete.

I have to say that I remember this sad story like it happened yesterday. This is a very good book with alot of accurate information. I am going to have my 15 year old daughter read, so she will know that you really have to stay alert on who you hang out with. I read about 2-3 books a week (all on True Crime) and I find it hard to put this book down.

I just completed a college course titled "Introduction to the C language and Unix". Our instructor used this book, and I found that, as a beginner, I had a very hard time following the concepts. I constantly had to turn to "The Waite Group's - C Primer Plus" for detailed explanations. And it only provides just a short sampling of the Unix environment. If you have used the C language and Unix, and are somewhat comfortable with it, this book will probably serve you well. If you have never used C or Unix, look elsewhere!