I'm a twelve-year-old from KL and I first read this book when I was eleven, two years ago. Ever since then I have reread it about a million times. This book is the last in the series and one of the best. In the beginning Will begins to see shades of fleeing people. He calls a gathering of the Old Ones, only to find that the Lady is not present. He is drawn into an adventure with Bran Davies and the Drew children, ending in a struggle to cut the blossom from the midsummer tree on the Chiltern hills with the crystal sword, which will enable the Light to vanquish the Dark. This is one of the best books I have ever read. Susan Cooper shifts from time to time and place to place seamlessly. I loved the Lost Land and the climax at the midsummer tree. When I first read this book I was rather upset that Bran and the Drews had to forget their adventures completely. However, after rereading this book a few times, I began to think that the ending was, after all, quite appropriate. I did feel sorry for Will, though, because he had to bear this burden alone. I loved this book.

I could sum it up in one word: WOW. But since one-word reviews are not allowed for an amazon.com review, I'll elaborate. The whole series is the best one I've ever read about that on-going struggle between light and dark, good and evil forces. All of the young main characters from the other books get together in this one, and it is interesting enough to see how all these children, whom you know well, get along together. They each have a different part in the vanquishing of the Dark. In it, Bran also has more to discover about himself and the value of friends, which he gives everthing--everything!--up for. You'd have a hard time to decide who was more important, next to Merriman, of course, in the book, Will or Bran. Until the end, which is so fitting yet sad and tragic, because of the nature of the servants of the Light's existence. This book is true to the world of the other books, with funny times, serious ones, adventure, sacrifice, friendship, and power. This book is more rich in sensory details than the others, and has less sit-around-and-think scenes. The very end is bitter-sweet, you'll have to read it to see what I mean. If you're a careful reader, you'll see things hinted at from the other books happening in this one (for example, I believe it was in Over Sea Under Stone that had Merriman reading from the grail or the parchment something like "when the Light is no more than a dream"--forgive me for not remembering it exactly-- and in the book Merriman gets a faraway look in his eyes and repeats the line, but it is seemingly forgotten after that. But it has real meaning in Silver on the Tree, but I can't explain...you'll have to read it for yourself). Cooper has many crafty foreshadowings like that which are fun to find. The novels, while extremely original, are deeply rooted into the Arthurian legend, sort of a modern-day continuation of it. Like there is a cave in Cornwall like the one in "Over Sea..." that is called Merlin's cave. Little, generally overlooked real-life allusions make it fun and realistic, while the actual plot is deep beyond explaining, so i won't try. Just read them and see!

A couple months ago my very dear friend said "You have to read these books by Susan Cooper" Since she usually likes the same books I do, I checked out the first one. I was hooked! Just a few days ago I finally finished the last book, Silver On the Tree. Fantastic. Really, if any adult doesn't read this because they think it's a kid's book, think again. I know many kids my age (13) who wouldn't get the subtle hints that go throughout the series.

Susan Cooper is such an excellent writer. She can make totally realistic, everyday, family scenes, and then turn around and write about journeys through fantastic fantasy worlds. She is also really good about writing descriptive scenes that let you picture something so exactly.

I can't decide whether this ties with The Grey King as the best book in the sequence, or if Grey King is a bit better.

The ending wraps things up just right. Except, I don't think the Drews & Bran should have had to forget. That's was probably the only complaint I can think of.

When the Trewissick Grail is stolen, Simon, Jane and Barney know that the Dark must be responsible. The three of them arrive in a small coastal town to assist their mysterious Uncle Merry in retrieving the item. While there, they are annoyed to have to share their adventure with a strange boy that Uncle Merry brings with him-- one Will Stanton.

I have to admit to liking the Will Stanton focused books (Grey King, Dark is Rising) a little bit better than I like those with the Drews, they seem a written to a slightly older level than the others. All the same, Greenwitch is a classic of children's literature, exemplary of the moral fantasy at which Cooper excels. The whole series is a good gift for children *and* grown-ups.

"On the day of the dead when the year too dies,
Must the Youngest open the Oldest hills,
Through the door of birds where the breeze breaks,
There fire shall fly from the Raven Boy,
And the silver eyes that see the wind,
And the Light shall have the Harp of Gold.
By the Pleasant lake the Sleepers lie,
On Cafdan's Way the kestrels call,
Though grim from the Gray King shadows fall,
Yet singing the Golden Harp shall guide,
To break their sleep and bid them ride.
When light from the Lost Land shall return,
Six sleepers shall ride, Six signs shall burn,
And where the Midsummer's tree grows tall,
By Pendragon's sword, The Dark shall fall."

When Simon, Jane and Barney Drew, along with Will Stanton, try to find the Grail, a thing of power, it is not complete. They need to find the scroll that was lost last summer. To do this, they must find help from the mysterious Greenwitch. What gave her life? What is her secret? Why do the Dark have such a sinister intrest in her? Read this book to find out! A must read. It should be required. I'd also like to recomend the other books in the Dark Is Rising sequence.

Simon, Jane and Barney are horrified when they learn that the Grail they tried so hard to find a year ago has now been stolen by the powers of the Dark. They are even more horrified to learn that the Dark may use the Grail to discover the manuscript needed to understand the message vital to the Light which is etched on the side of the Grail. They decide that, along with their Great-Uncle Merry, they must return to Cornwall, exactly where they went a year before, and stop the Dark from succeeding. But when they get there, they are annoyed by the fact that Will Stanton is there as well, seemingly getting in the way and stopping them. But what they don't realise is that Will and Merriman(their Great-Uncle) are Old Ones, here to stop the Dark just as much as they are. But now the Dark has angered the Greenwitch and her mother Tethys, and where is Great-Uncle Merry, and why has Jane seen Will wearing a cloak and, with her Great-Uncle, challenging the Dark. . .?

This book concentrates much more on Jane than the first book, and shows that sometimes all you need is a little bit of love and caring to win over someones' heart - as shown in Jane's immortal words: 'I wish you could be happy.'

Don't we all.

What first drew me to this novel was the fact that Susan Cooper is from my hometown of Slough. When I was growing up in Shaggy Calf Lane in the Seventies, the bottom of our garden still had a rusting Anderson shelter that my siblings and I never really bothered to explore. Along with the coal cellar, it seemed a part of everyday life. But times change. I still remember having a coal boiler, which went out of use as the years passed. The Anderson shelter was just a very familiar object. Much more vivid were the stories told by my great grandmother of having to dive under a kitchen table as she heard a bomb whistle to earth. Our Anderson shelter was guarded by brambles, impossible to enter, and quite uninviting.

I hadn't thought of that Anderson shelter for years until I read 'Dawn of Fear'. Very early on in the book, Cooper also introduces to us the Morrison shelter, which was designed to live under your kitchen table. However, Derek's family has use of the more famous, external Anderson shelter. Very vivid are the scenes where Derek and his family take to its cover. In one telling moment, Derek's mother says that they should stop talking lest they wake up Derek's baby brother - the little boy has already learnt to take as normal the sound of air raid sirens and bombs. During the less frantic cold war, I seem to recall hearing those chilling notes being tested once or twice. At first, it seems as though Cooper is writing this novel very much for a younger audience than her 'Dark is Rising' sequence. However, there is also much to interest the more mature reader. Particularly significant is the adults' agonising over the upbringing of their children during a war. They want their children to act with caution, but they don't want them to live in fear. But the war has already changed their lives, whether it is in the collection of shrapnel, or the playing of imaginary wargames.

However, Derek and his friends seem to be far more interested in the act of creating their own camp. Their inspiration is drawn from the ancient fortifications of the Chilterns and the Thames Valley. To Derek and his friends, it's just going to be a secret camp. But the role of such forts in the past comes to haunt them as everything they have built is threatened. Together, Derek and his friends decide to retaliate and embark on nothing less than a territorial war with a rival gang. Cooper cleverly juxtaposes this conflict against the real war. How easy it is to take up arms against your 'neighbours'. Like the real war, the rival gang seems to have way more resources and bodies to call upon, and in the shocking demise of the cat, they show early signs of psychopathic tendencies. If you're able and willing to harm an animal, current thinking goes, then you're not far from harming people.

Derek's gang has a hero of sorts in Tom Hicks. He's an older boy who's just signed up in the Merchant Navy just because they can take people younger. Here, Susan Cooper's historical research shines subtly through. Tom Hicks signs up even though he knows that the Merchant Navy is by far the most hazardous service, and where fatalities are high. Cooper is also subtle in her suggestion that all the boys will be touched by death: Geoffrey proudly mentions that his uncle is serving on the destroyer, HMS Hood, little knowing, as we do, that this ship and most of her crew are doomed. Tom also talks a great deal about Churchill's Dunkirk speech. But there's also a quote from Queen Victoria: "We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not speak." The Empress, of course, was referring to a far less noble British cause: the war for Boer gold in South Africa, where we unfortunately invented the concentration camp. Both sides, Cooper seems to be suggesting, have blood on their hands.

To me, it seems as though a part of this world has vanished for good. When nettles sting Derek, Peter suggests that he rubs a dock leaf on the rash to alleviate the pain. That sort of knowledge about the natural world was practically lost to my generation. If I'd known about dock leaves, I might have saved myself a great deal of pain as a kid. It's hard to say where exactly in Slough Cooper has set her story. I can't help but think of Elliman Avenue. Then again, that was fairly close to my own childhood home. So to me, the world of Susan Cooper's novel is a familiar place, but there are a number of extraordinary revelations. This may be a children's novel, but the conclusion shows signs of a more adult view of the world all too soon.

I read this book when I was eleven or twelve years old, and I bawled my heart out at the conclusion. This was one of three works that moved and upset me enough for others to notice (I seem to remember my mom walking in from hearing me crying). Another was "Sleepers", by Lorenzo Carcaterra (whether or not it was true) that I read when I was eighteen, and the third is the movie of Hyde's "Pay it Forward" which I recently saw on Pay Per View this past summer. This novel, along with the others, has had a tremendous influence on me and has made a mark in my writing. Hopefully, the world will witness it sooner or later.

I liked Dawn of Fear for three reasons.One reason I liked this book is because I lerned something in life.The thing I learned was that you should cherish the things in life that you have and don't let them go away. Another thing I learned is that many people die in a war.War is something that we should all try to avoid.After all we are going to be adults in our world in a few years.This book is for kind of people who like to read about war.

With this novel, I think that Cooper has created a fun and original work. It is a story of a boys acting company who travel to London to preform at the rebuilt Globe Theater. For one boy, the trip involves not just a voyage across the Atlantic, but a journey in time as well. Nat Field finds himself back in Elizabethian London acting in the role of Puck in Shakespeare's personal production of A Midsummer's Night Dream.

This odd transposition in time allows for some interesting interaction with the setting. For a twentieth century boy, the London of Shakespeare's day is a strange world. Having no modern convieniences (such as toilets) and having the drink at every meal be ale are things that don't fit the everyday life of a young American boy. But Nat gets along and proves himself as an actor in Shakespeare's own production.

Given the general elements of this book, not all young readers would enjoy it. To identify with or even to like the main character, one cannot by a typical American kid. The theatrical world and the ability to understand the historical setting of Shakespeare's time are, unfortunately, completely foreign to most kids these days. So this book is not for the typical nintendo-playing sports-loving kid, but rather for the imaginitive book-lover. (For the book is full of imagination and history.)

The book isn't perfect, but it is still a fun read. As an adult reader, I wished that I could have read more about the purpose behind the time travel, but I realize that what was written is sufficient for a younger audience. So, as a young adult novel, it is a great book, well worth the read.

King of Shadows, by Susan Cooper, is a great story with Shakespeare and a great adventure. This book is about a young boy named Nathan Field has been chosen to play the role of Puck for the play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', which was created by Shakespeare. The acting group that Nat is in, The American Company of Boys, was created by the enigmatic Arby who was the leader of the actors. The actors are very excited for the play. Then Nat gets sick. Nat goes to sleep and has a dream of flying into outer space and is being drawn back by an invisible hand. When he wakes, a strange boy says Nat had the Bubonic Plague! Whats happening? Read this book to find out. One of the extraordinary characters in this story is Roper. He is an amazing gymnast and is merciless to all others. This is shown in many places in the book. He shows it by showing scorn on all of the other actors and cheering at the death of two animals. Another character in the story is Thomas. He is very clumsy and isn't afraid to show it. Thomas has a big show in front of the cast and ends up proving that he is a real klutz. I would recommend this book for many reasons. First, King of Shadows has a theme, going back in time, which many people in the world might like to experience. Also, the story is well written so the reader will know where Nat is, past or present, and what he is doing. This book would appeal to Shakespeare lovers too. I think anybody who wants a great fantasy book with Shakespeare as a character or just a good adventure would LOVE this book!

A seamless, poignant tale of a young boy's grief, time-travel and William Shakespeare.
Nat, an 11 year old who is orphaned and ridden with hidden grief, is chosen to join a contemporary, Shakespearian theatre group to perform as Puck in A Midsummer's Night Dream at the new Globe Theatre in London.
This journey becomes more than a transatlantic adventure for a budding actor. Nat finds himself plunged into Elizabeathan London 400 years earlier where he has to adjust to life as an apprentice in the original Globe theatre and play Puck with the great actors of the day but most of all meet and be entranced by William Shakespeare himself. Ultimately, this is a story of how a young boy must face his greatest fears and achieve healing under the guiding hand and poetic wisdom of the Bard himself.
Cooper creates a vivd and pungent world of London and does not shirk from the violence and political intrigue that must have existed at the time .
This book is for those of any age who can let their imaginations run easily and let the mastery of the author lead you through a deeply satisyfying and touching experience.

I found this book to be different than the typical management book. Rather than filled with the usual platitudes, it contains some real world advice on how to deal with and capitalize on situations that occur in a corporate environment. The book starts a bit slow, but it gets moving once it gets into the 10 strategies. The author has a nice conversational, straight-talking style of writing. The exercises and advice at the end of each chapter are excellent. I would recommend this book for new graduates starting in management and for seasoned veterans.

Marshall has written an exceptional book, a smart and practical book that reflects a very intelligent and perceptive grasp of business action and the people who are the action-eers. People run businesses and businesses are only as good as the people that run them. "How To Grow A Backbone" is at once very revealing and very familiar. We will all find ourselves somewhere in this book...for better or worse. We may smile or grimace at the unerring precision with which Marshall cuts straight to the bone, through all the usual fat, and shows us how much backbone we really have, I really have, you really have. Most important, she shows us how to grow what we're missing. Every CEO should read this book and then issue it to his staff, to everyone on the staff including the mail boy and the sweeper. If that CEO is big enough, smart enough (and secure enough) to encourage, to allow, to require, to inspire, his people to grow backbone, that boss will have one hell of a spinning business. Action, forward motion, innovation and fun the way business should be fun, going a mile a minute, breaking through. Everyone who dreams of being more than they are, or of being a CEO, should quit dreaming and dig into "Backbone". This is no "guru magic" that pumps you up for a week, this is the straight answer for anyone who has the courage to try to be what he or she can be. Miss Marshall will show you the way. "How To Grow A Backbone" is a lean, no nonsense bible for the feint of heart who want to grow the lion inside them. It's more than a business book. It's for anyone who hears their Jiminy Cricket whispering, you could have, you should have, why didn't you? Anyone who wants to know how to grow the seeds of character we all possess, who wants to be somebody, must read "How To Grow A Backbone". WARNING: Read only if you want to be better than you are.

This is a must read for anyone that wants to move further faster in the business world -- especially those who are fledglings in Corporate America! Marshall writes with clarity and good humor spiced with pithy observations and examples. This is more than a pie-in-the-sky, ethereal how-to book. She backs up her advice with practical, easy to implement ACTIONS to integrate the strategies into all areas of interactions with others. And her "excercises" are more than informative and effective: they're fun to boot!

Susan Cooper is best known for The Dark is Rising Sequence, a mix of modern fantasy, folklore and Arthurian legend. In "The Boggart" she goes into related but different territory, loosing an ancient Scottish spirit on a modern family. Often cute and very interestingly written.

The boggart has lived in a decayed Scottish castle for centuries, making harmless mischief and shapeshifting into different forms. But when the elderly caretaker dies, the castle is inherited by the Volnik family, modern Canadians who don't know about the boggart. They arrive in Scotland to check out their rather decrepit property; the boggart decides to take a nap inside a rolltop desk... right before the desk is shipped back to Toronto.

When the desk arrives, the boggart makes the most of his situation by wreaking havoc with the electricity, furniture, non-Scottish foods like pizza, and eventually with traffic. His tricks, though not malicious, can quickly spin out of control and become dangerous. But eventually he wants to go home, communicating with Emily and Jess through the computer. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to get a boggart back to Scotland -- especially when the adults believe the boggart is nonexistant, and an obnoxious parapsychologist is sniffing around.

Until relatively recently, few people knew about the mythical boggart (similar to the bogle). Cooper saves this book from being a typical story of a mythical creature wreaking havoc in the real world by using a little-known Celtic spirit; the result is that the boggart is charming and likable, almost childlike in its mischief, delight over electricity, and quickly-forgotten emotions. The best parts of the book are the ones from the boggart's point of view, such as its memory of a Scottish chieftain who died long ago.

"The Boggart" is a slightly less sparkling book than the "Dark is Rising" books, mostly because her prose is plainer and less detailed here. It only really blossoms when we head to Scotland, the sort of ancient atmospheric surroundings that Cooper seems most comfortable writing.

The boggart, the star, is likably mischievous; Cooper manages to make it inhuman at the same time. It never thinks or acts like a human. Emily and Jessup are likable characters, with distinct personalities. Supporting characters like the parents or the actors are well-fleshed out, never acting like idiots if they don't know about the boggart.

A unique mix of folklore and modern technology. This book could have been so very mediocre, but instead it's a funny, intriguing fantasy. Recommended.

I think this is a great book because it has excitement in every chapter. The Boggart is an invisible spirit that can change into anything at any time. The characters in this book are a computer whiz named Jessup, his sister Emily, and a mischievous little devil called Boggart. Some of the pranks that the Boggart pulls are making the furniture fly around the mother's antique store and then going into Jessup's computer game and becoming a blue flame. This was a fun book to read, and I had trouble puting it down!

This is a really neat book about an invisible and mischevious character. His name is the Boggart and he gets Emily and Jessup into lots of trouble. One of my favorite parts of the book took place on Halloween. The Boggart thought that all the people dressed up were evil spirits. To scare them away he threw chairs, bookcases, and other furniture out the window. Mrs. Volnick thinks that Emily and Jessup and their friends are causing the trouble and they get punished. Meeting a spirit from the past in a fictional book made this book interesting and fun to read.I reccomend this book to all kids who like being mischevious and playing tricks on other people.

Children might be tempted to believe that there are Wish Granters floating about, if one can just find them! This fanciful tale is set in Victorian England--an era of gas jets, scullery maids and coal hobs. Four children (as in THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE) discover a special fire egg which hatches in their nursery fireplace. Then their mother purchases a Persian carpet, which provides the vehicle for Space (if not Time) Travel. It even responds to written commands and obeys instructions without a human pilot.

All this magical flying about in response to wishes reminds me of the cloak in THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE and Mary Norton's THE MAGIC BEDKNOB. Nesbit's style also reminds me of Beatrix Potter, with many asides, advice or explanations directed to the reader. The setting returns us to the ingenuous nursery days of AA Milne's stuffed animal world.

The story takes place around Christmas and the children wrestle with their consciences over moral issues concerning the unexplained acquisition of wealth, curios, toys and pets. How much to reveal to skeptical parents and how ethical it is to whisk unsuspecting adults away to a remote island or to allow rational people to assume they are insane or just dreaming. How can the siblings plus their baby brother (called the Lamb) ever return to the status quo, since they can only enjoy their carpet rides and conversations with the Phoenix in secret?

This book is too naive for the elementary kids of the 90's, but it would be a good selection to read aloud, one chapter a night before bedtime to younger children. The more you have read of Children's Literature, the more you will recognize from other books. This one may have been the inspiration for the others...!

"The Phoenix and the Carpet" is about four children who find a carpet and then a phoenix shows up and tells them it's a magic carpet. The children have many adventures with the phoenix and the carpet including many in other continents and a place where there can be no whooping coughs. At the end, the phoenix has to part from the children. I thought this was a great book not only because it had magic and it was JK Rowlings' favorite author; but also because it was a fun well-written book.

The phoenix in an ancient animal, or to be more exact - bird. It falls into the hands of five cute children, who takes a real good care of it. It also brings along a magic carpet, just like everyone would like to have at home. The phoenix, is very bright, and its presence sure makes things much more interesting and fun. Its one of the books I liked the best.

As my family read this book and later listened to it on audiocassette, my wife and I both thought that this would make an excellent text for a quality kids movie that would also appeal to adults. This fun-loving story of kids helping a "mythical" creature while adults either belittle their efforts or try to take advantage of them contains the features that made many of the original Disney stories so much fun. The antics of the lovable boggart and his human allies Emily and Jesup as they try to save "Nessie" are easy to visualize.

Our son was 7 when we first introduced him to the story; he was bored and disinterested by it. However, when we reintroduced it a year later he loved it and promptly began making plans to visit Scotland to find a boggart of his own. That extra maturity was needed to appreciate the joys of the book and thoughtful humor that is presented.

This is a great story for older children developing an understanding of the subtleties of human nature. Particularly how "villains" are not always as dastardly as they may initially appear and how even heros have struggles and challenges to overcome. It also does a good job of illustrating how a brother and sister can work together to solve a problem.

The Boggart and the Monster is as exciting as Susan Cooper's first Boggart book (The Boggart). This is a fast paced, entertaining and witty book. I couldn't put it down!

This book is an exciting read not only because the Boggart is up to his old tricks, but also because the favorite characters of the first book (Jessup, Emily & Tommy) appear again and the character of the Boggart is developed and begins to take shape a definitive shape of his own.

Susan Cooper draws you into the story in a way that makes you believe in magic.

Reading this book you feel like a kindred spirit with the Boggart (not to mention the Monster, the children and Mr. Mac).

Anyone who is familiar with the ballad "Tam Lin" knows it's a story that is very much for grown-ups, or at least teenagers. Susan Cooper does a very good job here of adapting the old story so that it's suitable for any age. It requires changing a few plot elements, but the essential spirit of the story remains the same.

Margaret is tired of sewing and acting polite and talking about future husbands with the other girls at her father's castle, so she runs away to the woods of Carterhays to pick flowers. She has been expressly forbidden to go there, of course. There, she meets the handsome Tam Lin, and after arguing for a minute over who really owns the forest, they spend a pleasant afternoon talking and becoming friends in the woods. When Margaret gets back home, she's in big trouble--she has actually been gone a week! Her unlikely friendship with Tam Lin leads her to sneak out once again, to rescue him from the faeries during one of their processions. She has to hold on to him as he turns into all sorts of scary animals--and, well, you know the rest. Cooper does a wonderful job of depicting the feisty Margaret, and of adapting the story into something perfect for a little girl's shelf of fairy tale books.

I subtracted a star because I don't think the art really captures the magic of the story; it's too "cute" and too simple. But maybe I'm just spoiled by Kinuko Craft's cover for McKillip's _Winter Rose_. It just seems like the land of Faery requires absolutely lush artwork.

We've read all of Susan Rogers Cooper's delightful stories, including the six Sheriff Milt Kovak books, the (very difficult to find) two Kimmey Kruse stand-up comedian stories, and the previous six EJ Pugh mysteries. Obviously we like Cooper's great writing ability; one would swear she can turn a soccer practice carpooling chore into an event of note with her descriptive and insightful commentary on everyday life. All of her characters tend to be a little low profile, humble practitioners with an overdose of curiosity that leads to solving crimes, sometimes almost unwittingly. Unlike her sheriff, who of course was paid to catch killers, Kimmey and EJ are strictly amateurs who depend on cajoling friends and policemen into helping move along reasonably good plots.

In this story, EJ is far from her home (Texas), and is re-united with her three sisters (with spouses/partners along) in a contrived vacation in St. Johns cooked up by her mother who wants to see the girls "get along". Much of the story revolves around their childhood goings-on and/or their perceptions of each other's adult lives and situations in society. Hence, the plot is almost a little secondary to the mental and verbal meanderings in the Virgin Islands setting. There is a murder or two to solve, and even if a bit improbable in total, we're hooked enough by a few real clues mixed in with several red herrings along the way to feel some suspense. Indeed, we thought the ending fairly surprising, and hardly anticipated the ultimate culprit at all.

While we'd readily give almost all Cooper's books 4 stars, we don't think this one was one of her best -- maybe the unusual setting (although entertaining in itself in some ways) put our author off her usual game plan; and with none of the regular supporting characters to help out, we didn't know anybody here either. Still, the faithful will want to read this; and while many of her others seemed better to me, all 15 books are fun, worthwhile "reads" without demanding too much from us the reader but "enjoy". Why not ?!!

This was the first book that I've ever read by Ms. Cooper. I picked it up intially because I had been to St. John, U.S.V.I. a few times in the past, and wanted to see which sites were mentioned.

I liked this book, but I found the writing style to be a bit spare. I have no real mental image of what the protagonist and her husband look like, or whether or not I would like them if I met them. The story itself was interesting, and the sibling problems added a nice twist to the story. Actually, I probably would have liked the book better if the family relationships were the sole focus of the book (Ms. Cooper seemed to handle that well). The mystery seemed to be a secondary issue here, and the whole treatment of the crimes that were occuring seemed too lackadaisical.

Although I liked the book, I don't yet know if I care enough about the characters to read the other stories. I'll have to think about that for a while...

This is my first E.J. Pugh mystery. It was a very fast read, the mystery kept me guessing, and I liked the characters of the four sisters. The memories of E.J. and her sisters while they were growing up greatly helped in understanding the dynamics of their dysfunctional family. The mystery itself was good, clues were there, but not obvious. I will read the other books in this series with enjoyment. If you are looking for an easy fast read, this is it.