This delightful book about a small town on the Maine coast was published in England in 1984. Only now was it brought across the Atlantic. Why the delay? Maybe because it is not your normal routine American mystery with a middle aged detective who hasn't slept in weeks , forgot to eat for days on end, but gets soused every day. Here we find sheriff Jenkins who believes in educating people by overlooking minor infractions. But where is the borderline to major mayhem? And there is his redneck deputy Wilbur Cox who loves to beat up his wife and anybody in his path. Where is his borderline? Add three delicious young women renting a cottage for the summer; what is their game? Not to forget assorted political heavies; do they have any borderline at all?

The answers will surprise you in this tightly written worthwhile book.

WOW! Make sure you can pull your chaise lounge & this summer-reading treat into some shade--you'll need to get out of that hot sun because of the heat in the tightly coiled plot of Widow's Walk.

Andrew Coburn's writing is taut. Tense. The language is crisp, tearing right along the perforated line. His characters are so close, they pluck, poke and puncture.

Paul Jenkins, Boar Bluff's chief of police, is someone we think we know, but don't. His sergeant, Wilbur Cox, brawn and bloat, is a man we never want to know, but do.

The three summering visitors, Joan Weiss, Laura Kimball and Pamela Comeau, ice-sculpture beautiful, shimmer in the reflection of the bloodied East Coast waters, and are witness to Boar Bluff's underbelly as the summer days melt into night and reveal secrets, savvy and slayings.

Among the cast of characters who give spring to the coil is the man-child Bud Brown who is "a mistake in his mother's life;" and Skelly, the manly woman who runs the Mobile station whose mother's mantra, when Skelly was but a bit of a kid, was "leave 'em be, Ralph...just leave 'em be" (but Skelly's father didn't let 'em be) and who later sought safety in the grown-up body Mother Nature gave her to hide in; then there's Hazel Cox whose strength lies covered up like a dormant volcano. And the coils heat up in this sunny New Hampshire town.

Andrew Coburn's Widow's Walk is not a plot with character. It is characters with plot, and those characters--complex, ironic and layered--irk, beckon and repel. They pluck at you. Poke at you. Punctuate the summer days so real that you feel like you are a caught, sweating Peeping Tom.

But you can move to the shade... I'd highly recommed this sizzler!

the material gypsum is very well explained from its composition to its use in different fields. it is very useful for a dentist as one can get indepth information gypsum.

Do you remember the Friends (TV Show) episode, when Joey put the book in the freezer because it upset him. Well I kept telling myself I was going to do the same thing. This book is so twisted that in the middle of reading the book (at work mind you) I screamed out. Just when you think it's going one way...it goes another. I would just like to ask the author what he was thinking. Don't take this as a bad review the book is great. I like a book that's unpredictable. He does a great job of revealing the characters to you. You get involved in their lives and feel what they're feeling. I definitely recommend this book.

As one who has been interested in the kidnapping of Chas Lindbergh since a child, I found this book to be very interesting. The author takes historical facts and turns them into a magnificent work of fiction.

The downside to the book is that it ends without giving the full reaction to the ending. Although the book skips around from personas, toward the end, it skips too much to give the full perspective of anyone.

Due to some sexual content, I do not recommend this book to those under the age of thirteen.

This was a wonderful book to read. I could NOT put it down. The characters were so full of life. They could have been people you knew, members of your family and even a little of yourself could be recognized in them. I didn't feel that the book ever lagged in any spot and it grabbed you from the first sentance. I don't want to give anything about the book away because, if you choose to read it, you should have the full enjoyment and all the wonderment that comes with it. In my opinion, though, it was very well written with just the right amount of detail, not so much that you get bored and enough to picture every scene. The story was beautiful; full of human nature. Andrew Coburn makes his characters real and easily identifiable. I will definately be looking for other books written by this author.

Coburn's Birthright takes you by storm. His language is poetry; his metaphors music. The power of love, anguish, fraility, self-preservation,and death resound in the music of this sonata--note by note.

Hear the tainted timbre of Helen's maternal voice; the rasp on consumption in Rudy's. We want to wipe Shell's desperation from our sweaty palms. We know Father Henry's meancholy as he views with awe a rush of river that he knows will continue to flow, though he won't. And we feel the rod of Mrs. Dodd's spine straighten with cold resolve.

Coburn's words breathe; the metaphors emote. Don't miss it. And beg Coburn for more.