I first became aware of Don Foster when I read JON BENET: INSIDE THE RAMSEY MURDER INVESTIGATION, the book written by one of the lead detectives on the infamous child beauty pageant queen. The Boulder Police Department used Foster's expertise to unravel the mysteries of the ransom note left of the back stairs of the Ramsey home.

I vaguely knew that Foster had been the expert who first 'outed' Joe Klein, the anonymous author of PRIMARY COLORS.

What I didn't know was that Foster had been one of the people who worked on the Unabomber case, leading law enforcement right to Ted Kaczynski's door, nor did I know he worked on "The Talking Points" memo during the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. I also didn't know his claim to fame was proving that an obscure poem was actually penned by one William Shakespeare.

Even if you're not particularly fond of non-fiction, this book is pretty interesting and will keep you turning page after page. I would like to know exactly what kind of 'searching' he does through the documents he reviews, but I suppose that would be giving away too many trade secrets.

I'll say this....If I'm ever involved in any kind of espionage or intrigue, Don Foster would be the first person I'd call to help me figure it all out.

Enjoy!

Foster is annoyed when his method is thought of as a computer program that will crank out attribution from material at hand. Computers were very helpful but more important was his familiarity with text databases that allowed him to find similar language and writing habits. When we write, our reading background greatly influences just what phrases and sentence structure we come up with. Foster's ability to detect greatly depended on his immersion in all sorts of literary works in order for him to proceed and follow fruitful lines of inquiry. In addition, the person's grammar, the way he or she puts words together, idiosyncratic punctuation, and other orthogonal marks can help. Such expertise is not build in a day, and also such immersion apparently put him on the road to burnout. He's going to give it a rest. But what he has done so far, I found fascinating and convincing (especially that Livingston and not Moore wrote "'Twas the Night Before Christmas").

AUTHOR UNKNOWN: ON THE TRAIL OF ANONYMOUS is an intriguing non-fiction work that will hook readers or writers with its different outlook. In an interesting manner with real world examples from today's headlines, Professor Foster explains his use of modern day science to ferret out the unknown behind writer of letters, books, poems, and the written word in general. This reviewer evaluated Professor Foster's writing style and concludes that his book is well written and very entertaining.

Harriet Klausner