A neighborhood lunatic is poisoning the local pigeons so Lew appoints himself as the savior of the park denizen. He begins to investigate his style, resulting in a cerebral evaluation of the murders so fowl. He also feels strongly that he must protect his friend's daughter, an apparent victim of a stalker, and re-find his son who has pulled another Houdini vanishing act. While being the self-proclaimed neighborhood amateur sleuth and recovering from a stroke, Lew ultimately, in his meandering style, investigates Lew. This is all in a days work for one who firmly concludes that Murphy is an optimistic idiot.

The sixth and last Griffin tale, GHOST OF A FLEA, is a fabulous ending to one of the weirdest but delightful series of the past decade. The wild but entertaining story line is all over the place, especially when it wanders through Lew's mind leaving those readers who enjoy a classic amateur sleuth needing to go elsewhere. Anyone who has kept up with James Sallis' books will want to read this novel to gain closure. Those who have not read the previous books, will enjoy this strange tale, but will probably be better off perusing the previous novels first. Mr. Sallis' pulls off quite a heptagon with the grand finale answering many questions left from the previous five.

Harriet Klausner

Very useful for gardeners identifying plant zones. And excellent for anyone planning on moving to FL and trying to learn about hazards from an unbiased point of view.

Really a wonderful handbook to understand weather in general & FL in particular. Highly recommend it!

1. All his protagonists are extremely wealthy, or are loved by a person who is.
2. In his war novels, enlisted men apparently do not exist -- certainly not for long -- and his heroes are military geniuses and extraordinarily heroic.
3. All have an antagonist who hates their guts and completely misunderstands them. (I'm still mad as hell at his character Robert Bellmon (Brotherhood of War) who, as written, was a mediocre [very wealthy] officer who somehow managed to become a general despite the fact that he never did anything worthy of note. He should have been retired as a light colonel and forgotten. He misunderstood everything, without exception, about the protagonist, Lowell. He refused to accept the fact that Lowell was an outstanding officer, interpreted everything he did in the worst possible manner, and stepped in his way at every opportunity. At the same time, he promoted MacMillan and favored him constantly. MacMillan was a lousy officer, completely out of his depth at every job he undertook. He was, at best, a good sergeant, but Griffin couldn't have a mere enlisted man as a heroic figure in his books, so Mac became an officer.) Enough of that.
4. All of his heroes are handsome, easy-to-like, and charming.
5. All attract women who are unusually beautiful who immediately fall desperately in love with them.
6. All friends and acquaintances are wealthy or soon will be.

This book is no different in those respects, and to make matters worse the story itself is not nearly as interesting as most. Even for those of you who are Griffin fans, in my opinion, you can forget about this one.

It's not worth your time.

So why do I read Griffin? Because despite his obnoxious characters, he writes about war and the politics of war and he builds a story with lots of interesting details, mixing fact and fiction. His characters may be incredible, but he spins a mean yarn -- at great length it may be noted, but he's easy reading. He creates an air of authenticity with his military jargon and his confident descriptions of military culture.

This is one of his moderately good efforts, about the beginning of the Korean War. Truman is here as a character and MacArthur -- and Griffin can't seem to make up his mind whether MacArthur is more of a great man or a buffoon, which makes Big Mac interesting.

I would recommend that the reader start with the first book in the series and then continue reading the series in sequence -- until he can no longer tolerate another word about the detestable Ken McCoy.

Most of the characters that you have come to know, and like previously in this series are here. You won't see either Rickabee or Jack (NMI) Stecker, nor Stecker's youngest son, Dick, in this novel, but almost all the rest are here. And even one character that most everyone detests shows up again. Macklin once more attempts to give McCoy the shaft.

Flem Pickering once again consults with the President and Gen. MacArthur, in the time preceeding the Korean War and the opening days. Ken McCoy and Earnie Zimmerman once more use their multi-lingual talents to gather intellegence on the enemy.

This one is well worth the time and expense.

New Orleans resident Lew Griffin awakens from an almost year-long coma caused by a gunshot wounds head. He remembers nothing about the incident, but quickly learns that he had been leaving a club accompanied by an older white woman when he was shot. Lew does not recall the incident, his healing in the past year, let alone the identity of the woman.

Lew needs to know who wanted him dead and why. With the help of his friend Don Walsh, he begins to investigate who the white

woman is, who was the sniper, and why did they target him? While seeking the truth, Lew also searches for a missing writer, who was looking into a white supremacist group.

The fifth Griffin mystery, BLUEBOTTLE, is a fantastic tale that is highlighted by James Sallis literary and exciting prose. Lew tells his story ashe deles into his own past providing insight into his life. The who-done-it is fabulous as expected by the great Mr. Sallis, who deserves reader recognition. This

series is one of the best on the market.

Harriet Klausner

Overall, this book was satisfactory and provided the information I needed. If you are only interested in contents of the book, this will do fine but if you think how material is presented is also important then look at other books.

I recommend the Lindeburg book.