"Apocalypse Wow!" is probably the funniest book I have read so far this year. Garner totally debunks every apoclayptic prophecy and superstition from The Revalation to Nostradamus by sarcastically pretending to believe them. This book was an incredibly light read, I read it cover to cover at a coffee shop near my college. I think this is a vastly underrated book. I hadn't even heard of it until I noticed it on the library shelf as having a catchy title.

I would say this book is a hilarious and engaging work of common sense and skepticism in society obsessed with the "X-Files" and "Unexplained Mysteries". I found particularly funny the way he parodied the obsession with names and prophecy by rearranging names in the book (i.e. Nostradamus = Stud Oarsman, Roast Us Damn!) No supersition or archaic belief is spared here, including UFOs, reincarnation, or the lost city of Atlantis.

Perhaps the only downfall of this book was the last chapter, which was somewhat anticlimactic and didn't cover anything previous chapters already didn't. But a great book nonetheless.

I highly recommend this book to any skeptic with a sense of humor.

Chris

This is a very funny book with lots of great insights.
If you take it too seriously, however, you'll get mighty paranoid about the end of the world!
I recommend you buy it immediately

The book's setting is Chicago, Illinois. The author is the main character and parades around Chicago to learn about the Apocalypse and the signs that hint the end. He starts the book by explaining the philosophy of other prophets such as the well known Nostradamus.He explains the different dates of Apocalypse according to Nostradamus' most famous book.

In search of an answer James Finn Garner read books written by philosophers who tried to predict the end of the world.He tries to prove the theory of several different philosophers. While attempting to prove the theories of the philosophers right he also realizes that they are also absolutely inaccurate. James Finn Garner also conducted a tiring but hilarious analysis of almost every source available for predicting the future, such as boiled tea leaves, crystal balls, and severed donkey heads. Garner looks to uncover the truths behind crop circles, harmonic convergence, and channeling. It was a humorous take on the end of the world. Ganer seems to change a disaster to what one would call a grade A comedy.While using comedy he also may offend some readers as he does insult almost every religion ranging from Christianity to Judaism. Using his politically incorrect gestures he makes a reader laugh. Garner will jump from serious to humor but certain theories maybe confusing for readers as he tends to use scientific terms which a reader would never understand.His book is a comedy but a politically incorrect comedy. The question is why does the cover clearly state a that it is a politically correct story. The book really should never be given to a religous or fanatic person. This book has clearly been written for a person who is not easily affended.

I can't help but think that James W. Hall was wronged and wounded way back when and uses that pain to fill the souls of his characters (especially Thorne) with enough angst and weltschmerz to overflow the banks of Lake Okeechobee. This particular adventure was too heavily laden with suspense-impeding character histories. I really didn't care about how the mad doctor lost his legs in Viet Nam and certainly didn't need to know about Pepper's love affair with her father. Further, these extra tidbits come at points in the novel when the reader wants the plot to resolve itself, to keep the pace flowing as fast as the speedboats the characters are chasing each other in, not to slow it down. And as much as Hall's antagonists are fun to hate, relishing each one's well deserved demise as they happen, this time around the gruesome comic book style deaths were too much. This novel reminded me of the martial arts action pictures of the 1970s - ludicrous storyline, loads of gratuitous gore and half-assed existentialism posing as philosophical profundity.

Pain. There is no more lively sensation than that of pain; its impressions are certain and dependable. Marquis de Sade (1740-1814)

What a riveting book! This is my first James W. Hall novel and it I loved it. His strong, bold, vivid characters, often border on the audacious and bizarre. In "Red Sky at Night" Hall pulls you into worlds of paralysis, paraplegics and pain. And as Marquis de Sade said "there is no more lively sensation than that of pain". The Key West setting combined with the madness, murders, mayhem and macabre characters, makes this book a top ratebeach read. Strongly Recommended

James hall is far and away my favorite crime novelist. He's never written a book I have not loved. Even his weakest efforts are superior - his poetic prose and vivid images, his quirky and inspired characters, his odd and exciting plots. This is a step back, to a smaller and more personal setting, in which Thorn, Hall's protagonist, has a reason to be where he is (Unlike Hall's last two novels, _Buzz Cut_ and _Mean High Tide_, in which the connection was just a bit forced). This is a good thing. Thorn is like a force of nature, and is used to best advantage in stories like this, in which he's drug, unwilling, into heroism by his anger and his sense or right and wrong. This novel uses the character's nature to advantage, as did Hall's first two novels. For Hall fans, this should be a hugely satisfying book.

McPherson's "Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam" is McPherson's assertion that the south lost the war at Sharpsburg, Maryland in the September of 1862. While an enjoyable read, the book is a bit on the thin side and it did not have to be.

He does an excellent job of providing the reader with an examination of the larger politico-military situation running up to what was the bloodiest single day in American history. This is the book's main strength. By the time the reader actually reaches General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the north, one has a real feel for the true ebb and flow of the war. McPherson takes us to other theatres of operations, into politics of both the Northern and Southern governments (although, as is common with most Civil War works, the North gets the deeper examination), the politics within the Union Army, into the morale of the Northern and Southern people, and into the deliberations of the British and French governments regarding recognition of the South. The reader should almost feel Abraham's exasperation with his own constituents and the governments of Europe: after a string of major strategic successes, everyone seems to think that the war is on the verge of being lost because of Lee's string of tactical victories. NONE of the effects of the previous successes were overturned by Lee's victories, yet panic was rampant and many feared (or anticipated) the North's loss of the war.

This is followed by the battle of Antietam itself. From an editor's perspective, this is the book's major failing. The book is a bit short, and it is in describing the battle itself that McPherson has made it short. While Antietam is hardly new ground, the book is about the battle and it's place as a pivotal moment in the course of the Civil War. McPherson discusses the battle just enough to demonstrate General George McClellan's tactical incompetence, and leaves it at that. The drama of the bloodiest day in American history is left undelivered. McPherson tells us that by failing to win this battle, the South essentially lost the war, but the struggle itself was merely summarized. If I were McPherson's editor, I would have sent it back and told him to split the battle into two chapters at least - one dealing with the discovery of Lee's Special Order, Harper's Ferry and the fighting at South Mountain, and the other with the battle itself. It would have done a lot for the book to deal with the battle in more detail.

Following Antietam, McPherson returns to what is this strength - non-combat related material. He concludes his book by examining the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation with the same scope and attention he employed in his build up to the battle of Antietam. Here he concludes his thesis that the loss of Antietam cost the South the war, for it cost the South any hope of foreign intervention in the war. He also details the beginning of the war's transformation from a war to preserve the Union into a war to end slavery.

Overall, I think the book is an enjoyable read, even for serious Civil War buffs. The wide scope McPherson employs in bringing the various social, political and military threads of 1862 together is the book's main strength, and coupled with a good writing style, that makes it a joy to read. I would like to give it four stars, but I cannot because of its cursory examination of the actual battle of Antietam. It is a major omission and one that would have been ridiculously simple to fill.

Don't buy James McPherson's "Antietam" expecting a detailed blow-by-blow account of the battle itself. As he showed in his classic account of the entire Civil War, "Battle Cry of Freedom," McPherson is more interested in the political, social and even diplomatic aspects of America's deadliest conflict. The point of the book is to argue that Antietam, not Gettysburg, was the pivital battle of the war. McPhereson makes his argument by describing the events that led up to the battle and demonstrating how it affected what came after.

Antietam, McPherson argues was the moment when the South came the closest to winning diplomatic recognition from the European powers and a resulting negotiated settlement that would have secured its independence. The aftermath of the Union "victory" at Antitam also persuaded Abraham Lincoln to finally issue the Emancipation Proclamation, turning the war once and for all into a battle against slavery.

McPherson is a first rate writer and historian, and his book is well reasearched and highly readable. What it is short on, however, is accounts of the actual fighting, which resulted in the single bloodiest day in American history (far worse than even Pearl Harbor or September 11th). The narrative clocks in at a brief 155 pages, only about a third of which are devoted to the battle. Yet the book is well worth reading despite this flaw.

Overall, a brief historical overview of an epic moment in American history by one of our most distinguished historians.

On September 17, 1862, the Army of the Potomac commanded by General George B. McClellan met the Army of Northern Virgina commanded by Robert E. Lee in the fields near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The result was the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American History and a pivotal moment of the Civil War. The battle ended the Confederacy's first invasion of the North and gave President Lincoln the opportunity to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

In his short study, "Crossroads of Freedom" Professor McPherson weaves together many strands in discussing the significance of the battle. First, he places the battle against the backdrop of the prior military course of the war, both in the Eastern and the Western Theatres. He points out how Union successes in the early part of 1862 were followed by serious defeats in the Seven Days Battle and Second Manassas with the tide of the war turning to the Confederacy. Although the South would again invade the North culminating in the Battle of Gettysberg, Antietam was a clear check to Southern momentum. It gave the Union the courage, will and political force to fight on.

Second, Professor McPherson emphasizes the role of the European powers -- England and France -- in the Civil War. These nations followed events in America closely and were economically at risk from the loss of Southern cotton for their textile mills. They likely would have recognized the Confederacy if the results of the first invasion of the North had favored the Cofederacy.

Third, and probably most importantly to his theme, Professor McPherson discusses the role of Antietam in the changing character of the Civil War. President Lincoln was opposed to slavery, but his initial war aims did not include freeing the slaves. Rather he wished to hold the Union together. As the War continued, Lincoln became convinced of the necessity of issuing an Emancipation Procamation but believed that he needed a military success to give the Proclamation force and credibility. The victory at Antietam, narrow as it was, and tremendous as was its human cost, gave him that opportunity.

Emancipation was indeed a new birth of freedom. It also, as Professor McPherson points out, changed the character of the War from one with the aim of trying to persuade the South to come back to a state of total War -- which changed the character of a culture and redefined the nature of freedom in the United States.

Professor McPherson's book is part of a series called "Pivotal Moments in American History" whose aim is "to encourage interest in problems of historical contingency." There was a great deal of chance involved in the Battle of Antietam, more so than in most military campaigns. (There were also military blunders on both sides.) During the course of the southern invasion the Union discovered by chance a copy of General Lee's "Special Order No. 179" which had been dropped in a field. Special Order No. 179 detalied Lee's disposition of his troops and gave General McClellan the opportunity to attack in series each detachment of Lee's divided army. This was crucial to the result at Antietam. But McClellan missed the opportuniity to win a decisive victory and bring an end to the War. Human error and chance play a great role in human events. But Professor McPherson might have done well to refer to Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and compared Lincoln's reflections on the role of providence with the blind chance that led to the Union finding of Special Order No. 179.

There is only a short description of the battle of Antietam itself. The focus of the study is putting the Battle in its historial and political context rather than in a detailed analysis of military moves. Nevertheless, I fouund Professor McPersons's description of the battle (as well as his descriptions of the Seven Days Battle and Second Manassas) easier to follow than more detailed studies I have read. Professor McPherson gives a good annotated bibliography which refers the reader interested in a military study of the battle to more detailed accounts.

This is an excellent study of the Battle of Antietam which places it well in the context of the Civil War and which encourages the reader to reflect on the meaning of the War and of the nature of American freedom.

When I began to read "The Turn Of The Screw" by Henry James, I made the assumption this book would be different from all other books which I have read. I thought it would be different because it is considered an American literature classic. Although Henry James is among many great authors, he is without a doubt, a one of a kind.
In this book his unique writing style has me wondering why such thoughts went through his mind. His wordy and elaborate writing style presented his strange subject matter in a style that could be accepted in his time. While it is sometimes difficult to follow the story it allowed James to express what would have been a controversial topic.
At times in this story you become anxious and excited, while at other times you are left picking and choosing what you think is going on, and when you least expect something to happen you become surprised, and become more interested in the book.
The ending surprised me. What I thought was going to be a happy ending turned into a perverse finale and a total tragedy. From beginning to end, Henry James wrote a book that is different from all other books.

I had long heard of Henry James and his short novella, The Turn of the Screw and decided to read it, thinking that at only 88 pages long, it would not take more than one evening. Three evenings later, I finished the text and I must admit slightly confused. I had to reread the ending several times to truly understand what had happened. Thankfully, I had the critical edition, which included several essays on the story, one in particular by Edmund White which profoundly changed my opinion of the story.
A simple ghost story on the face of it, but in reality a pre-Freudian tale of sexual repression. Narrated by an unnamed governess who ventures to a country house to take charge of two young orphaned children, it soon becomes a tale of ghosts, mysteries and secrets. Always alluded to and never talked about at face value, the governess becomes convinces that the ghosts are after the children and she alone can save them. But are there really ghosts? The reader must go beyond the plot and carefully read the language...all the language. James writes like no other author I have ever read. The best word to describe it is "dense". With almost no dialogue, the narrator can spend pages describing her thoughts and feelings, yet these are so "coded" as to decipher her real meaning takes much concentration on the part of the reader. I know that James himself thought the story an amusement only, but the critical essays I read after the book deeply impressed me that the story has hidden depths which make it all the more interesting.
I would recommend this novella to anyone with the patience to read it thoroughly and with an open mind as to its meaning. I would strongly recommend the critical edition which helps the reader better understand the story's meaning and importance in literature.

I had been informed, before reading The Turn of the Screw, that it would not provide many answers to the questions it provoked. After finishing the novel, I would pass this along to future readers as well. The Turn of the Screw is an excellent story with wonderful details and an extremely creative plot. It is the first book I have ever read that has caused me to be frightened. Many times while reading the story late at night, I would find myself with my hand on my chest, holding my breath because I was so intrigued with the story line. Although it had a wonderful plot, Henry James does leave many questions unanswered. This allows the reader to interpret the events in whatever manner they choose. The complexity of the story depends on the complexity of the thought the reader puts into it. The Turn of the Screw is an excellent book and I would strongly recommend it to anyone. It is a clever novel for a clever reader.

P.D. James pulls out all the gothic stops. I sometimes wondered whether she was parodying the gothic genre. The characters and dialogue are unrelievedly morbid, but with a certain amount of depth. The plot is sort of slow. This is the second gothic novel set in Dorset I have run across recently (the other is Ex Libris by Ross King). I shall never visit Dorset. I liked this novel enough to finish it, but I don't think I will read any more P. D. James. Her detective is too introspective, sensitive, and filled with self-doubt.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh is recovering from a severe illness when he receives an invitation to visit his old friend and mentor Father Baddely. Deciding that a visit to the countryside might give him time to relax and give thought to perhaps giving up his career at Scotland Yard. But there is no rest, as there are a series of deaths at Troynton Grange, and with each death Dalgliesh is drawn inexorably back into his old life, solving murders.
'The Black Tower' is a little less in classical Agatha Christie style as 'The Skull Beneath The Skin', the other PD James novel I have read. The setting for 'The Black Tower' is in a local sanitorium for patients with long-term illness, which provides a suitable sense of dread and decay. James peoples it with several interesting characters. A fine effort.

"The Black Tower" is arguably the creepiest of P. D. James's works! In addition to having the highest number of murder victims, the novel has a claustrophobic setting--an isolated nursing home on the Dorset coast--that lends itself well to a level of suspense bordering on terror.

H. R. F. Keating has cited "The Black Tower" as one of the 100 greatest mystery novels of all time. (James's "A Taste for Death" is also on the list.) Interestingly enough, although the element of mystery builds throughout "The Black Tower," its resolution is not as satisfying as in some other works by P. D. James. The reason may be that the motive for the multiple murders does not seem to be as well integrated into the heart of the novel when compared to "Shroud for a Nightingale" and "Original Sin," to name novels that both preceded and followed "The Black Tower."

Still, the remarkable characters and, yes, the element of creepiness make "The Black Tower" a terrific read. The setting is atmospheric and plays a large role in generating the tension that pervades the novel. Bonus: Fans of both detective series in the P. D. James canon will be gratified by the teasing references to Cordelia Gray in this Dalgliesh novel.

Thorn and Sugarman have been friends since childhood. In this adventure they are faced with a truly evil character named Butler Jack. Together they must stop him from completing his to-do list of evil deeds. Battling incompetence and deception from the people in charge, and challenged by the genius of Butler Jack, they make some startling discoveries which will drastically alter their perceptions of themselves. The premise is wildly improbable but there were wonderful little pockets of sparkling prose scattered throughout which surprised me in a book of this nature. It kept me interested to the end and wanting to get to know Thorn and Sugarman better in future books

Thorn and Sugarman have been friends since childhood. In this adventure they are faced with a truly evil character named Butler Jack. Together they must stop him from completing his to-do list of evil deeds. Battling incompetence and deception from the people in charge, and challenged by the genius of Butler Jack, they make some startling discoveries which will drastically alter their perceptions of themselves. The premise is wildly improbable but there were wonderful little pockets of sparkling prose scattered throughout which surprised me in a book of this nature. It kept me interested to the end and wanting to get to know Thorn and Sugarman better in future books

Thorn and Sugarman have been friends since childhood. In this adventure they are faced with a truly evil character named Butler Jack. Together they must stop him from completing his to-do list of evil deeds. Battling incompetence and deception from the people in charge, and challenged by the genius of Butler Jack, they make some startling discoveries which will drastically alter their perceptions of themselves. The premise is wildly improbable but there were wonderful little pockets of sparkling prose scattered throughout which surprised me in a book of this nature. It kept me interested to the end and wanting to get to know Thorn and Sugarman better in future books

I borrowed the book from the library reading about how it was from the victorian type era, I had no clue that it was a romance novel. I guess I should have read the flap more intently. Aside from the cheesy romance things it was a decent read. It isn't historically accurate in the least, but who ... cares? If you want accuracy watch the history channel. They call it fiction for a reason.

The author is a decent writer. Its definately worth a shot reading. Kind of a rainy day read.

I read the "Potent Pleasure" and I enjoyed the story very much. After reading it, I came online here to read the reviews of other people. I was amazed to see both wonderful and very terrible reviews. I began reading the 1-2 stars reviews and I discovered that the historical errors the "unhappy" readers talked about were not present it my "Potent Pleasures" book. I was confused and I truly thought that the 1-2 stars reviews must be talking about a different book than I read. I even went back to try to find the numerous historical errors which other people found, but I couldn't find them. Anyway, finally I figured the puzzle out. Apparently, I am the first one to be reviewing the paperback version of this story (which came out in May 2000) and I can tell you that the story errors, that the other readers pointed out, have been cleaned up and/or rewritten before the paperbacks went into print.

This is Eloisa James's first novel and on the whole I found the story to be very interesting and enjoyable. However, I am surprised that an unknown author would have had her first historical romance novel printed in a hardcover book. If I had purchased the $20.00 version of the book and found all the initial errors in the story, I too would have been upset. But for $6.00 the revised softcover version it well worth the money. It's a good story, and I am looking forward to Ms. James next "paperback" book. This new author has alot of potential!

Once I started POTENT PLEASURES, I couldn't put it down. I can't wait to read more from this talented author. She had me hooked by her fascinating characters and witty plot.

The beautiful Charlote Daicheston wants a taste of freedom before she makes her debut in London, so she and her friend sneak out and go to a masked ball where she meets a handsome man who is irresistible. She finds herself in his strong arms in the garden and is overwhelmed by her own sensual nature, as well as the stranger's, and is ruined. She doesn't know his name or anything about him and thinks he may be a footman, so keeps her ruination a secret, but knowing she can never marry now she will have to pursue her life as a painter.

Charlotte never forgets her handsome stranger, a man with black hair shot with silver. Unbeknownst to Charlotte, her stranger can't forget his "garden girl" either and searched for her immediately afterward but without success. In reality he is Alexander Foakes, the infamous Earl of Sheffield and Downes and he has an identical twin brother, Patrick; two men who are always getting into trouble and after Charlotte's debut are sent out of the country. Now three years later, Charlotte meets the man who took her virginity but he doesn't recognize her! Alex has returned from Italy in a blaze of gossip and meets the girl everyone says is a "Diamond" and within 15 minutes tells a friend he is going to marry her. You are going to love reading whether Alex will win his lady's heart?

POTENT PLEASURES is told with a marvelous sense of humor, intriguing characters, sensual scenes that will rock you, and how life can get you into unpredictable situations. Will true love pull Alex and Charlotte through the hard times to reunite them, or will it pass them by? This is a very satisfying love story that makes you wish for more.

I read this book as part of an English course on late-19th and 20th century American literature. It's the first time I've read a novel by Henry James, having so far only seen the movie adaptations of 'Portrait of a Lady' and 'Washington Square'. Having been wary of reading James (because of his reputation for dense, convoluted prose) I was surprised at this novel's relatively brisk plot and overall readability. The story itself, ostensibly a simple one about one man's inability to understand a seemingly complicated woman, also has interesting things to say about gender, class and the relationship between the United States (personified by the heroine) and the rest of the Western world. I was actually somewhat amazed that the image of America created through the characterization of Daisy Miller still rings true 125 years after this book's publication.

I hadn't read James for about eight years or so when I came across a copy of Daisy Miller in a pile of discarded books at a local university. It sat on my shelf for a while longer, as I knew full well that James writes in thick sentences, making up for the lack of volume by quite a bit.

What I found was what I have come to expect from James, even in his early works. This book does a great deal in terms of pulling together many levels of interpretaion: Old World versus New World, common versus exclusive, and also the chaser and the chased.

This last viewpoint in particular is what stuck with me. We have a young girl, and a young man. They meet once for a few days, and the young man becomes utterly fixated on her, if for any other reason that she is playing, in his view, hard to get. When she turns her attention elsewhere, the ante is doubled and tripled when, for a variety of reasons most likely centered around our young hero Winterbourne, the American society in Rome starts to give our heroin the "cold shoulder". Given that James writes most often to examine the person most in focus in the novel, I tend to atribute most of the troubles of this young girl to both herself and Winterbourne, not just the society of the time. This is far from a safe academic interpretation, however.

The notes included in the book are helpful for getting into the mindset of the typical reader of James' day, but are not distracting. Overall, this would probably be suitible for an ambitios middle school student, and just right for most high school students.

As is often the case for Henry James, there is scarcely a detail of his work that can be made better somehow.

DAISY MILLER: A STUDY, 1878, is among the principal novellas of history and literature. Very simply, the story involves a young girl Daisy Miller, wandering through Europe, and from America. She is sensitive and capricious. Her ways attract attention, such that perhaps she appears a lustrous woman of carnal desires, or disrespectful to cultures not her own, or stupid. At any event, she catches the eye of another tourist, Mr. Winterbourne, a "nice guy" who not unlike the nice guys of our own world lucks out. He does not get Daisy, but watches as she kisses another and loses herself to unappreciatve men. She does this from anger, resentment, and want of attention. She becomes a symbol of many things, and in the end she dies. The book has been debated for decades.

The dialogue is so well crafted as to be sacred. No further editing of this story is possible, for James took very great pains to edit his work multiple times over. And here, we see a flow of talking and happenings that seem to real to even be on the page. As for instance the communication of Mr. Winterbourne and Daisy's little brother (I believe). The little boys talks, and behaves, as a little boy would. And, Mr. Winterbourne likewise behaves as a young man would to a young boy. Greatest of all are the marvellous dialogues between Daisy and Mr. Winterbourne. They flirt at times, and one feels Winterbourne's longing for her. They feel his sadness, a real sadness, as when she is not feeling for him nearly as deeply. I likened myself to to the man.

I am glad to know that Mr. James was credited as having been "the Master."

To my mind, any book of P.D. James is worth reading, but UNNATURAL CAUSES is simply not one of her best. Yes, the plot is fascinating, if a bit dependent on twists and turns that mean very little, indeed, to the solution of the murders.

Most interesting, as usual with James, is her development of complex characters. Unfortunately, as another reviewer pointed out, almost every one of these characters is, at best, unpleasant and since they are all writers or are connected with professional writers in some way, it seems James has a bit of a chip on her shoulder about her colleagues.

The last 20 pages contain a transcription of a taped confession which ties up all the loose plot knots, but does not, at all, let us in on the effects this confession has on any of the characters except for James' detective, Adam Dalgliesh. This is truly disappointing, especially for a writer who so carefully peoples her novels.

A small note: I do not consider myself a prude and perhaps it is mere political correctness on my part, but I found James' characters' negative comments about homosexuals and one physically challenged character to be in poor taste.

Curious that, with such an arresting opening as this book has (a handless corpse floating off the Suffolk coast), i should find it so difficult to get involved with. I think, more than anything, i found it a little tough to tell some of the characters apart at first. Once past that point, however, this became, like just about every other James, the best one she's written. One grows to enjoy the little community she has created, the petty spites and jealousies, the sniping back and forth between these largely unsuccessful (at least in terms of importance) writers, at the death of one of them. Even Dalgliesh, in Suffolk on holiday, so the death is not his case, has trouble in his relationship with the local Inspector in charge of the case, they are overtly polite, but there is tension between them; he cannot hold himself back from doing some investigation on his own, however, and is able to show that murder has been committed, though not prevent another. The actual revelation of method and motive are interesting and unusual, in that James makes use of the murderer's confession to show how it was done. Another classic James and Dalgliesh.

This is my absolute favorite of the Dalgliesh novels. The balance between exploring characters and expounding plot is just about perfect. The reader really feels for Dalgliesh as he struggles to decide about marrying Deborah Riscoe, and the murder than intrudes on his vacation is both horrible and intruiging. Finally, as an added bonus, in this book we at last get to read a bit of Dalgliesh's poetry: ten beautifully intricate lines addressed to Deborah. If you like and are interested in the character of Dalgliesh, you must own this book, because you will want to read it again and again.