Evans is a fascinating man to listen to. He is a decorated veteran, but shuns the recognition he rightly deserves. He admits that some of his actions during the heat of combat "might have been foolhardy." Evans was not interested in medals, only in trying to keep his men alive. As Evans' Third Army Com mander, General George S. Patton remarked, "No one ever won a war by dying for his country. He won by making the other poor bastard die for his country."

Evans met several truly historical figures. First and foremost was Patton. After the first day of the Battle of Arracourt, Patton visited Evans' command post to commend him on a job well done. That was just the first of many encounters with General Patton. After hostilities ceased in 1945, Evans was assigned to a Prisoner of War camp near Landshut, Germany. There, while interrogating prisoners, he briefly met General Vlasov, another larger-than-life individual. Vlasov was a former White Russian officer who was convinced (some say coerced) to help the Nazis against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. Later, in Switzerland, Evans was able to get a glimpse of a compound full of Nazi war criminals, most notable of whom was Herman Goering.

Evans was also fortunate to have been able to participate in the design, testing and eventual combat deployment of the M18 "Hellcat" tank destroyer. The United States Army found that its antitank capabilities were woefully inadequate against the masses of German armor, so a new tank destroyer was desired. Evans, along with a handful of other armor officers from various posts around the US, was invited to Detroit to the Buick Division of General Motors, to offer suggestions for the design of this new vehicle. There are precious few times in a soldier's career that he is given the opportunity to impact upon the equipment he will use in the performance of his duty. Evans and these other officers seized the moment and helped to design one of the most effective combat vehicles ever. In ju! st a few short months the M18 went from the drawing board to the maneuver field and then the European Theater of Opera tions.

This book is a history of the death penalty in Germany. The book starts by describing an execution in 1616. That execution was the breaking of a man by he wheel. What was involved was the tying of a man to a scaffold and using a large wagon wheel to break all of the bones in the body of the condemned man.

The book charts the gradual move away from the use of such punishments by German Civil authorities. The reasons for it were complex. In the 17th Century there were heavy religious overtones associated with executions. This led to them being accepted by the victims and society generally. By the 19th Century one of the major reasons for the end of public executions was the behavior of the condemned. They would mimic the public officials, declare their innocence and the like. There was also concern that the public had started to sympathize with the condemned. (This however does not seem to have occurred to the extent that it did in Britain. Most of the German States were well regulated and authoritarian. The death penalty was generally reserved for more serious matters. In Britain a police force was not created until the 1830's. The death penalty was thus used for a range of comparatively minor offences such as theft. This led to outbreaks of sympathy for the condemned. In Britain public executions had to be moved to secure areas in London and later were carried out in private.)

In Germany after the enlightenment a number of intellectual currents led to changing attitudes which cut down the number of people actually executed. Thus the development of an awareness of mental illness, the realization of the link between crime and the bread prices led to a realization that crime was not the result of a free moral decision.

The book takes the history through the unification of Germany and the NAZI period up to modern times.

The book is well written entertaining and a must for anyone who has an interest in criminology and the history of the criminal law.

"The Sacred Mushroom Seeker" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy." http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy

Unlike Richard Matheson's other novels of frontier fiction (Journal of the Gun Years, The Gunfight), Shadow on the Sun is a horror novel set in the Old West. The book begins with an Indian agent negotiating peace between Apaches and the U.S. Government, before introducing a supernatural creature out of Indian legend bent upon survival whatever the cost. As a result, I got two stories for the price of one. Like The Gunfight, the author first creates an atmosphere full of hope and future promise, then chapter by chapter, slowly lowers that future into a lake of quicksand. The contrast between the main characters--the Indian agent and the Washington D.C. bureaucrat--are excellently drawn, but it is the growth of the bureaucrat--from skeptical adversary to heroic friend--that is the heart of the novel. Despite the suspenseful build up, the climax of the story seemed rushed with an ending more fitting to a short story than a novel. Nevertheless, Richard Matheson delivers another entertaining novel.