An extremely informative & detailed read! Stevens iterates a tragic event in Marine Corps history with a direct, thought provoking style. As the current Commanding Officer of the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island, I am encouraging my officers & drill instructors to read this book in order to better understand how close we, the Marine Corps, as an organization, came to being disestablished because of the actions of just one man. Another book of interest on the same subject matter is Keith Fleming's, "The U.S. Marine Corps in Crisis: Ribbon Creek & Recruit Training." Another important book in helping to understand how the recruit training process has evolved.

I want to begin my comments by saying this is an excellent balanced book and that Stevens deserves a lot of credit. I would further recommend it to any Marine or others interested in Marine Corps history.

I will also state it is my opinion that S.Sgt. Matthew McKeon was a good man who made a tragic mistake. The factors leading up to the events of the evening of April 8, 1956 are manifold and can only be fully understood by reading Stevens' book.

My personal perspective comes from having served in the USMCR and the USMC from October 1956 until August 1962 when I was Honorably discharged as a Corporal E-4. I went to Parris Island in early February of 1957 and my recruit training virtually overlaps the events of a year earlier, putting me at the rifle range at about the same time of year.

Like all of us who went though boot training, I too pulled butts at the range. The discipline and control there was far different than back at main side so on several days I took the opportunity to spend my entire lunch break walking all over the Ribbon Creek area. I wanted to understand this incident.

Definitions from Webster...

Marine: Of or relating to the sea.

Amphibious: Able to live on both land and in water.

Swim: To propel oneself in water...To float on a liquid...

DI Motto: Let's be damn sure that no man's ghost will ever say "If your training program had only done its job."

And from Chesty Puller we learn the mission of Marine Corps training! "...success in battle..."

When I got to Parris Island, I was shocked to see recruits who could not swim had joined a service called the Marine Corps. I also thought it strange the USMC would accept anyone who could not swim, but I guess the Navy does too. How much W.W.II footage have you seen with Marines wading ashore under heavy fire when the Peter and Mike boats could not make it to the beach? Or, in jungles up to their chests and necks in water at Guadalcanal and then all over the south Pacific and Vietnam as well.

HELLO! This is the mission!

In training "...the nonswimmers had been taught how to float, tread water, and dog paddle. All recruits in the platoon had received ten hours of swimming instruction before April 8."

Platoon 71 got themselves into trouble by not following McKeon and by "joking, kidding, and slapping others with twigs while yelling "Snake" or "Shark! Suddenly there was a cry for help and panic broke out..."

I had looked closely at Ribbon Creek while at the rifle range and my "vivid" reaction then was someone would need to be retarded or radically incompetent to drown in that area! Several in platoon 71 fit this description.

"About three-fourths of the platoon was squared away. But the remainder were foul balls." "For example, eight of the men in Platoon 71 were either illiterate or had General Classification Test scores - approximately equivalent to an IQ test - below 70."

McKeon's colorful assessment that 25 percent of the platoon were "foul balls", may not have been far off the mark based on the testimony of several members of the platoon at the trial and in later interviews"

"The quality of some of the men under McKeon's tutelage may also be measured by their behavior after completing boot camp. At the time of the court-martial, two men were AWOL from Parris Island, one was AWOL from Camp Lejeune, one had deserted, one was in the brig, and one was awaiting punishment by his commanding officer." Remember these men did not complete their recruit training under McKeon, so other DI's also had a chance to make these guys good Marines.

SDI Staff Sergeant Huff had basically washed his hands of the young men under him...Stevens states "McKeon was failing, and he knew it." I think it was SDI Huff who was failing.

As far as the charges of being drunk the testimony is flawed and inconclusive. "Not until the court-martial nearly four months later would Dr. Atcheson admit that there was no clinical evidence of intoxication."

His own recruits "...testified that there was no evidence that Mckeon was drunk or impaired by drinking". Of all the recruits in the platoon who had made statements "...not one...had anything negative or critical to say about Sergeant McKeon".

McKeon was victim of being a nice guy by helping Scarborough with his bottle, allowing him to leave it in the barracks, driving Scarborough to the NCO club and accepting congratulattory drinks he never finished. Granted, McKeon used bad judgement but he was certainly not a bad guy.

S.Sgt. McKeon was the first person in the water and he was the last one out. He was leading, not just ordering recruits into an unknown situation. It is empirically obvious that if they had just followed him, as instructed, they all would have gotten back safely. Basic for military training!

Bottom line, McKeon was a new junior DI carrying virtually the whole burden of squaring away this platoon. When I got there a year later there was a "Motivation Platoon". I don't know if this approach existed in 1956 but what I saw of the "Motivation Platoon" regimen would have straightened out these "foul balls".

Although busted to Private, McKeon was allowed to stay in the Marine Corps. He attempted to rebuild his career, capitalizing on his W.W.II carrier experience. He worked with an all-weather fighter squadron and supplemented his private's pay by working nights in the kitchen of the EM club. Remember he had a wife and kids!

Earlier that year he had earned his squadrons "Marine of the Month" award.

"With one exception, all of the men interviewed forty years later spoke as highly of their former drill instructor as they had at the trial."

Enough said!

I am so glad to have found this book. I am the illegitimate daughter of Charles Reilly whom I knew nothing about since he died one month before I was born. This book not only took me through the trial but also gave me incite to the person he was. Through the years I have only had a home town newspaper article of the incident and was never recognized by his family.
I am sure McKeon did not march the whole platoon into the marsh with the intent that some would surely die and do feel that he has been justly punished for his bad judgement on that fateful night. I could almost feel like I was at the trial by the way Stevens writes. As a former wife of a Marine who spent four years living the "life", I, too, would like to see this depicted on film. I would also like to locate some of the surviving members of Platoon 71 who might have more information of any kind about my father.

This book is written for a broad audience and aimed at exploring one of the oldest and most persistent problems in American history; the proper role of the Federal Government. Simon frames this book as a conflict between Jefferson, representing those who supported a weaker central government and emphasized the importance of individual states, and John Marshall, the great Chief Justice who led the Supreme Court to establish its critical role as arbiter of constitutional questions. The Marshall court's work strengthened the importance not only of the Supreme Court but of the Federal Government in general. This is not a new story, indeed, most of what Simon describes is the standard understanding of this period of our history. Simon is a good writer who describes the politics and legal issues quite well. His description and analysis of the behavior of the Marshall court is shrewd, emphasizing Marshall's careful attention to both politics and crucial legal issues. For example, it is clear that Marshall worked very hard to maintain unanimity among the justices, even for difficult decisions. Similarly, many of his important decisions were crafted to simultaneously achieve the goal of establishing his brand of moderate Federalism while avoiding inflammatory political consequences. Readers will finish this book with an increased appreciation for Marshall's considerable intellect and remarkable political skills. Beyond this, the book is disappointing in terms of explaining the wellsprings of these conflicts and important aspects of the debate. I think the emphasis on the rivalry between Jefferson and Marshall, which Simon probably chose as a framing device, actually tends to limit understanding of the nature of this conflict. While I respect Simon's desire to produce a relatively concise and accessible book, some aspects deserve enlargement. For example, Jefferson found the Court's tendency to rely on Common Law traditions irksome, believing the Court should have been more deferential to the wished of state legislatures. Does this represent a conflict between individuals like Jefferson whose primary intellectual influences came from the British Enlightenment versus a legal culture that grew up in the shadow of the great British Common Law theorists? To what extent did individual experience of the Revolution influence subsequent political positions? Jefferson spent the war as governor of Virginia or abroad. Marshall, in contrast, was an officer in the Continental Army and experienced in very concrete ways the inadequacies of the confederation government that preceded the establishment of our present constitution. This book is a good point of departure for individuals unfamiliar with this period of our history but further reading will be needed for anyone who really wishes to understand our early history. I recommend the The Age of Federalism by Elkins and McKitrick, a superb treatment of the Federalist period, as a starting point.

The world needs a book about John Marshall's contribution to America. In my opinion, "What Kind Of Nation" by James F. Simon is it. Though the nature of the subject almost guarantees that the reading will be somewhat dry, scholarly, and lawyerlike, the author did a nice job with it. As a scholar myself, I recommend it. If you're looking for an easy read on Thomas Jefferson, I also recommend Norman Thomas Remick's excellent book "West Point: Character Leadership Education, A Book Developed From Thomas Jefferson's Readings And Writings", in which West Point is posited as a metaphor for Jefferson's worldview of the way America ought to be.

On a recent vacation to Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello, my 14-year-old nephew commented that Thomas Jefferson didn't get along with Alexander Hamilton. The four adults accompanying him replied patronizingly that Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr certainly didn't get along, but didn't remember anything between Hamilton and Jefferson...

Of course, my nephew was absolutely correct. In an effort to rectify my obvious educational deficiency, I immediately embarked on a reading plan which led me to "What Kind of Nation", where I discovered that Thomas Jefferson also didn't along with John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

By the time I got to this book I had a pretty good feel for the politics of the period, having read "Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis, "Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington" by Richard Brookhiser, "Alexander Hamilton: American" by Richard Brookhiser and "James Madison" by Garry Wills. I believe this background helped me to maximize my enjoyment of "What Kind of Nation" because I was able to focus on Marshall's brilliance and perseverance in establishing the authority of the Supreme Court on an equal footing with the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Jefferson's antics were amusing, but old news. The way that Marshall dealt with Jefferson who was, after all, the President of the United States during the first 8 years of Marshall's 34 years as Chief Justice, is fascinating.

James Simon does a great job of telling the story without getting overly technical with the legal side of things. I think he strikes just the right balance, so that the lay reader (i.e., non-lawyer) can appreciate the significance of Marshall's extraordinary accomplishments.

Lucas Davenport is back and better than ever. With Winter Prey, Sandford relocates Davenport yet again, this time to the frozen countryside of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sandford's last Prey novel, Silent Prey, tried something similar, moving Davenport to NYC but it was, unfortunately, not at all successful. Luckily Winter Prey proves to be a much better installment in the series.

Much of the action and plot of the book follows Sandford's "prey format" and Sandford doesn't disappoint in Winter Prey. Quite a bit of the appeal in these stories is derived from the evolving back-story and the development of Davenport. And while Winter Prey largely ignored recurring characters seen in previous novels, Sandford's characters were likable and I can only hope that some of them return.

Overall, if you felt burned by Silent Prey, you'll feel much better after Winter Prey. A real page-turner.

The "Prey" series is one of my favorite. This one had me feeling cold while I read it. Wonderful!

Sandford creates some really great characters in this series and one great detective in Lucas Davenport.

The stories are always gripping and believable. The action is fast paced and nerve racking.

Most importantly, unlike so many other detective novel series by other other authors, the ending doesn't cheat the reader.

Start with the first book in this series and work your way through - you won't be disappointed.

Winter Prey is suspenseful and tense. The setting is rural Wisconsin at 20° below. The hero is the likable Lucas Davenport, who gets pulled into solving the murders of the LaCourt family by the small-time county sheriff, an inexperienced, near retirement, sometimes pathetic, but mostly sympathetic character. While the dialog was sometimes less than impressive, the story was action-packed. A real plus--there was never a moment before revealing the murderer that I even thought I knew who it was. The Iceman is a real surprise, not only because of the twists in the story, but also because you're not given enough information to suspect him. I plan to read more John Sandford after this, mostly for the character Lucas Davenport. I only hope they don't have such corny, awkwardly written love affairs as the one in this book with medical examiner Weather Karkinnen.

In the legal thriller/police procedural, Lescroart weaves an intriguing story with likable, believable, well-drawn characters. This is one of the Dismas Hardy series (I will go back and read the others) featuring Hardy as a low rent but hard working attorney and Abe Glitsky as a police homocide lieutenant with a very personal interest in the murder of up-and-coming attorney Elaine Wager. When the sister of a drug addict, charged with Wager's murder, asks for help, Hardy reluctantly assists. But when the DA asks for the death penalty in an apparent alcohol/drug induced murder, Hardy smells a rat. Actually there are lots of rats in the operation of the San Francisco police department/DA's office, making Hardy's job quite a bit harder to sort through.

What is not hard though, is to really like these characters. Hardy and Glitzky are best friends, a truly odd couple. When Glitzky has a heart attack and is suffering with regret for not having contacted his daughter, Hardy is there for him. Also engaging is Elaine's paralegal who turns up helpful clues as well as the villains in the case--I wont spoil it for you by telling who they are.

If you like the early Grisham legal thrillers and police procedurals this book is for you. A word of warning: it gets off to a slow start and at 560 pages is best saved for the beach, weekend away or a very long flight.

High-ranking police officers often receive calls to come to a crime scene in the middle of the night as just happened to San Francisco's Lieutenant Abraham Glitsky. Someone killed attorney Elaine Wager, a candidate for a judgeship, but this trip is personal as Elaine is Abraham's illegitimate daughter, a fact she never knew. He informs his staff that he expects them to "sweat" a confession from Cole Burgess, a two-bit junkie.

They succeed and book Cole for first-degree murder. Cole's sister hires Dismas Hardy to at least obtain drug treatment so he does not linger in a cell going cold turkey. He agrees to handle that, but nothing more until the ambitious DA decides to use Cole to further her political ambitions by seeking the death penalty. Dismas takes on the role of defense attorney because he begins to have doubts that Cole is the killer.

THE HEARING is one of the year's best legal thrillers as it entertains and shocks in a believable manner. John Lescroart masterly creates characters that are hard on the outside, but contain a soft spot inside their gut. The well-designed story line uses the motivations of the cast to propel the action forward, especially the humorous duels between Dismas and Glitsky. A great storyteller tells quite a story.

Harriet Klausner

In this latest of the Dismas Hardy novels, John Lescroart shows that he is more than up to the challenge of continuing series.

He brings back Hardy and Glitsky and a wealth of other characters. In past books he has tended to focus on Hardy or Glitsky as the main charater, but in this outing he gives them equal billing which provides for a nice balance. All of the secondary characters are eqully well developed and Lescroart keeps enough twists and turns going in the plot to keep this book from becoming predictable.

Lescroart is by far my favorite author of this genre and with this book out does himself. While many authors would turn to formula and coast through a story this far into a series, Lescroart never lets down. We find out more about Hardy and Glitsk's kids and once again David Freeman is back with a solid contribution.

On top of the characterizations there is a very well developed legal story here. Once again Lescroart goes outside the norm and has the bulk of the legal story take place during the preliminary hearing, another neat trick.

An excellant extension of the Hardy saga and well recommended.

This book is heartbreakingly beautiful. Bayley loved his wife, Iris Murdoch, so deeply, and on so many levels and that love comes across beautifully in this book. Bayley brings us into the intimate private world that he and Murdoch shared. As a longtime fan of Iris Murdoch, I am thankful for the insight into her life and her work. This book is very personal, so much so that I don't think it can be read in one sitting, but rather should be savoured slowly and deliberately. I remember the sadness I felt hearing that she had Altzheimer's and then hearing that she died. This book brings back that sadness, but it comes back stronger because it also brings John Bayley's sadness. That is not to say that this book is a "downer" on any level. Quite the contrary. John Bayley has constructed a beautiful book focused mainly on his love for his wife, and how the love between them grew, from his first sighting of her riding a bicycle to the time when he wrote this book, as she was suffering from the ravages of the disease.

If you've lost a loved one to dementia, whether caused by Alzheimer's or strokes, you know that this dreadful change in your life can be--as a woman in Elegy for Iris notes so terribly--like "being chained to a corpse." You may feel you exist in a perpetual state of mourning, and release seems impossibly distant since the process of degeneration can last for a decade, fifteen years, or more.

Four years ago before this book was published, Alzheimer's began to chip away at acclaimed novelist Iris Murdoch and she started to lose memories, associations and connection with herself. Her husband of forty years, English critic John Bayley, has written a memoir about this escalating series of losses that is imbued with admiration, love, and gentle humor. Bayley compellingly interweaves descriptions of his wife's sad deterioration with stories of their courtship and long, contented marriage. What is remarkable about this narrative (which needed better editing, however), is that despite the very real tragedy of Alzheimer's, he is not bitter or self-pitying, and what links him and his wife now is anything but a chain.

Murdoch and Bayley seem to have given each other the freedom to live complete lives, however they needed to, and that freedom was a profound tie. "We were together because we were comforted and reassured by the solitariness each saw and was aware of in the other," he observes. And tracing their growing love for one another, he makes one envy the balance they found between separateness and companionship (which counterpoints their domestic squalor). From the earliest days onward, marriage and solitude were not contradictions for them. They could "be closely and physically entwined, and yet feel solitude's friendly presence, as warm and undesolating as contiguity itself."

All that reverberates strangely with the ways in which Murdoch now is shut off from him far more than she ever was as a creative artist, but seems to need the constant reassurance of his presence. She is like a child hungry for attention, but unable to communicate clearly, and sometimes needs to be gently shooed away so that he can have time to himself. Yet she returns, anxious, needful. Sometimes her confusions drive him into a rage, but she often responds to these outbursts with the same ameliorative calm she always had.

Given their long, happy marriage, Bayley and Murdoch's first meetings were comically inauspicious. In his late twenties and a graduate student teaching at Oxford after World War II, Bailey spied Murdoch bicycling past one day looking grumpy, grim, and not entirely attractive. Yet for Bailey, she was almost an apparition, a woman existing only in the moment--and for him alone. But his instantaneous fantasies were soon crushed when he met her at a party and realized she was merely another teacher. How ordinary! Worse still, she was clearly a popular and magnetic woman with many friends (and not a few lovers, he would learn). Though he tried, he never managed to make conversation with her that night, and when his next opportunity came at a dinner, he was daunted by the seriousness with which this philosophy teacher considered his most casual remarks.

On their first date he was oddly shocked by her brilliant red brocade dress which struck him as inappropriate for her, and she managed to fall down stairs as they entered a ball. But not much later they were laughing and sharing childhood confidences, and it's thanks to their childlike joy that the bonds between them were first knit, lasting even into her Alzheimer's. Rather miraculously, humor survives between them, even now that her memory has faded, leaving her incapable of finishing sentences and often lost in a state of "vacant despair." Bayley can still make Murdoch smile with silly jokes and rhymes. There's so much love (and quiet suffering) in Bayley's observation that a smile "transforms her face, bringing it back to what it was, and with an added glow that seems supernatural."

Murdoch's kindness, her affability, her lack of egotism about her career make for odd continuity with the generally sweet-natured woman she is under the spell of Alzheimer's, and Bayley's deep appreciation of these excellent qualities seems to undergird his current devotion. Time and again, the author makes the best of a bitter situation, and even finds aspects of it enjoyable. He manages, for instance, to find something delightful in regularly watching the British children's show "Teletubbies" with her. But all his fond memories and his loving attention to her in the present cannot veil the especial cruelty of watching a sharp-minded and fertile novelist "sail into the darkness," as Murdoch puts it herself in a moment of lucidity.

Among various literary subjects, Bayley has written about Henry James, and Elegy for Iris richly and warmly demonstrates a truth affirmed by a character in James's The Ambassadors: "The only safe thing is to give--it's what plays you least false."

Lev Raphael, author of LITTLE MISS EVIL, the 4th Nick Hoffman mystery.

Jim Broadbent ("Topsy-Turvy," "Moulin Rouge") brought home Oscar gold for his role of John Bayley in the movie "Iris."

With the film (also starring Dame Judi Dench in the title role, and "Titanic" star Kate Winslet playing a younger version) now available for rental, it's a good time to also check out the book upon which the movie is based.

"Elegy for Iris" is Bayley's heart-rending memoir of his wife, celebrated novelist Iris Murdoch ("A Severed Head" and "The Bell" among them). It is the story of Bayley and Murdoch's romance, from their first meeting and the bookish Bayley's instant attraction to the girl on a bicycle.

Love seemed to bloom almost immediately, despite Bayley's lack of experience and Murdoch's plethora of suitors. In fact, Bayley tells us that years later he happened upon Murdoch's note for their first date: "St. Antony's Dance. Fell down the steps, and seem to have fallen in love with J. We didn't dance much."

At the same time, "Elegy" is also a tale of the modern John and Iris, as the celebrated novelist suffers from Alzheimer's disease, and her husband watches as her once brilliant mind falters.

But while the book will bring tears, it isn't really a tearjerker.

Bayley shares some of the personal, silly little jokes he tells Iris that at one time would not really have amused either of them, but which draw a favorable reaction from her now. And the way that one of his exasperated temper tantrums settles her nerves now more than coddling will.

While Bayley is at times frustrated, understandably so, he seems more enamored of his wife then ever. He marvels at the things she does, reflects on their shared past, they way her mind worked then contrasted with the way it worked as he wrote "Elegy" (Murdoch died in February).

At no time does Bayley seem to resent being saddled with his wife. In fact, he expresses distaste for the wife of another Alzheimer's patient when she comments that it is "like being chained to a corpse, isn't it?"

No, declares Bayley, and he goes to bat for his wife.

"I was repelled by the suggestion that Iris' affliction could have anything in common with that of this jolly woman's husband. She was a heroine, no doubt, but let her be a heroine in her own style. How could our cases be compared? Iris was Iris."

So says a testament to quiet strength, bravery and love.

I bought this three-year-old legal thriller while on vacation in Uruguay because it was the least objectionable book in English I could find. I'm glad I discovered it--even at $11 for a paperback. The book is not as slick as Grisham and probably longer than should be but it's an easy read and quite engrossing. It's a nice look inside the legal system, a story about a cop-turned-attorney and his first murder trial. The lawyer is likeable, the client not so much, which makes it all the more fun. I hate to even hint at the ending because I get angry at reviews that do. I'll just say, I wasn't disappointed

Keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole book. It's hard to put down! Characters are believable. You want to shake Jennifer Witt, and make her admit she's a battered woman. And you also want to force her into counseling (with a woman, please -- you'll understand if you read the book!). The book also makes you want to hug Jennifer and her mother, Nancy, and tell them how beautiful and worthwhile they are, and that they deserve better men than the ones they choose.

A VERY good description of the mind of the battered woman who loves her husband, and the desperate lady who falls in love with the wrong man, very wrong, deadly wrong. Captures deep emotion.

The lawyers are very believable. I've met lawyers just as heartless as David Freeman and just as giving, loving and determined as Dismas Hardy.

Of course, Hardy is the character you fall in love with in the book, loving husband and father, determined defense attorney.

The 13th Juror is shocking, with a great surprise ending you will never guess. Hardy lucked out -- I'm afraid in real life, this woman would have gotten the death penalty.

A fast read, MUST READ for anyone interested in crime and courtroom drama. Anyone who knows a battered woman or who has been battered should read this powerful book.

My boss was reading this book and I picked it up one day out of curiosity (she had been talking about how good it was). I read the first page, then the second, and the next thing I knew I had read the entire prologue. Very compelling and chilling - in those few pages, Lescroart delves into the mind of a battered woman and gives real insight into her psyche. Here and throughout the book, he answers the often-asked naive question "Why doesn't she just leave him?" I then bought my own copy of the book (my boss had passed her copy on to her husband). Lescroart takes his time and carefully constructs his characters; the drama builds steadily as the murder trial looms and Hardy tries to convince his client to help herself. When the trial begins, the story starts to race as new evidence comes to light and the plot takes some wild turns (the analogy of a roller coaster comes to mind - trite, but true). This is more than a simple courtroom drama or whodunit - Lescroart really gets into what makes his characters who they are and why they do what they do. I actually found myself forgetting to try to figure out who the killer really was (although until the climax of the book there remains a shadow of a doubt as to whether the wife really did it or not - she's not exactly a warm, lovable gal and she certainly had plenty of reasons to off the guy). This is an intricate, multi-layered story that goes way beyond the basics - there's a lot more to it than the central theme of justice prevailing over injustice. Lescroart explores the grey areas of ethics and morality as his characters interact and their own stories intertwine. This is a fascinating and engrossing book.

I've always liked John le Carre novels best, re-reading each as soon as I finish it the first time, and reading it a third time a year or two later. Of all, my favorite has been (neither of the obvious -- neither the spy who came in from the cold nor tinker tailor -- but rather) the uncomfortable novel of chronic betrayal, "A Perfect Spy." The Dickensian vitality of Pym's wayward father and his cronies is the perfect foil to le Carre's astringent sensibility for amorality, Whitehall-style. Pym's life journey carries with it more atmosphere and vibrant detail than all of Len Deighton together. While I've never been to a desert island, a day trapped in Germany (a late flight out of Leipzig, a missed connection at Frankfurt) recently put my love of this book to the test! Ordinarily an official national standard for the Type A Personality, under any other circumstances I'd have fumed, cursed, stomped, shouted, badgered ticket clerks, and harassed impotent middle managers about my plight and their indifference to it. But I had brought Pym along as my companion for the flights, went happily off to an airport hotel, and re-read the book straight through till dawn.

This book is so much more than just another espionage thriller. It is really a character study of the central figure and a very satisfying psychological investigation into the anticedents of a spy's character. Magnus Pym was the perfect spy because of the way he was raised; specifically, the way he learned to perceive the world as he came to understand his father - a con man of great charm (based on Le Carre's own father) who always acted as though truth was whatever he wanted it to be at the moment. Maybe the title actually refers to the father and not to Pym. Perhaps?

Le Carre's use of language is always a pleasure, and here it is put to excellent use in recreating the world of Pym's past. The main plot of finding the missing Pym becomes less important than the subplots - often involving past events - and the overall structure of the novel is less driven by unknown outcomes than is a typical 'spy' story.

One is left with a great sense of sadness after finishing this book but no disappointment. Very original and very satisfying.

A Perfect Spy shocks, provokes, weaves a story of Magnus as he plots the ultimate betrayal. When I say the story is woven, I mean it. The structure is similar to The English Patient, where the story skips back an forth in time and amoung characters. I rate this book highly, much as I had done with other Le Carre books. A perfect Spy, however is not another Spy novel, indeed the suspence is not as central to the plot but the character development is truly epic. Magnus Pym becomes a close relation throughout the narrative, all the good, bad, ugly, and even sometimes boring. A Perfect Spy is a gripping portrait of a twisted life, and the injury of the life a spy.

A Perfect Spy is an unreal, yet believable journey in the life of a Spy. I highly recommend this book, if like me, you enjoy a non-linear story.

I just finished this novel. In the end, I was forcing myself to read the book in hopes that the plot would actually develop beyond the very subtle hints dropped throughout the voluminous pages. I must confess, I learned more about heather plants than about the secrets of Heathersleigh Hall. Nonetheless, I will give the next book in the series a chance in hopes that the many nuggets of possible golden plots will be fully mined by the author as the series progresses.

I enjoyed this book very much and am waiting for the series to be finished before I pass full judgement. I was able to identify with Jocelyn Rutherford as she struggled to accept her physical deformity. I found the book to be interesting, especially for people who enjoy learning about different time periods and lifestyles. I heartily recommend this book to woman who enjoy reading a long series, as I do. Michael Phillips always gives you your moneys worth - don't you just hate short stories?!

Mr. Phillips does a marvelous job of beginning to re-tell the parable,'The Prodigal Son'. One of the many things I enjoyed about the book was the time setting and place. It proves that children of the early 20th century had many of the some problems children have today (rebellion and wanting to belong to society). Amanda Rutherford and her family struggle through everyday challenges as they adapt to the newly adopted Christian life-style. As Amanda tries to pull away from her parents, they pray strongly for her to choose the Lord Jesus as her best-friend. With the "Suffragette Movement" in full-swing, Amanda is anxious to join in with it with a dream to change te world! Her parents and siblings watch to see what will happen as they continue to pray faithfully.... I have already recommended this book to many friends, and I hope you will read and enjoy it to!

Designing Women by Margaret Russell is, simply put, the best book on interior design that I have ever read. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in this subject. It is informative and extremely well-written.

In addition to being a useful summary of current design trends,this book is simply one of the most beautiful interior design volumes produced in years.

We compliment Margaret Russell for her good taste and her clear, presentation, refreshingly uncluttered by hyperbole.

When it comes to design books, the bridge between aspirational and practical is hard to cross because it usually doesn't exist. This book not only showcases great ideas, but sources them. It is inspirational (especially for women) in that you feel empowered to create a room of your own. It is beautifully photographed and well-written; each brilliant corner seems attainable. I loved the sources in the back, which lead readers on a variety of paths. Unlike other design books, this is luscious and useful at the same time. I highly recommend Margaret Russell's interpretation and explanation of how modern women live.

This complex thriller offers one of the most heavily fleshed out characterizations in recent years; that may be the book's biggest drawback, however. The interesting premise of a Nazi "catcher" still on the prowl is fascinating, but at the same time, Katzenbach makes us plod through a lot of superfluous narrative, that overstates many of the characters' inner thoughts and slows the pace down a little too much.
Overall, though, characters like Simon Winter; Walter Robinson, and Espy Martinez, are glowing in their richness and intricacies. Even Leroy "F" Jackson, an ignoble druggie, turns makes an astounding turnaround in dealing with the horrifying murderer.
There are some riveting scenes, as well; early in the book, there's a scene where Sophie gets ready for bed, and it is laid out so slowly that it creates a tremendous aura of suspense, as you know the old lady is going to bite the bullet. Unfortunately, other lengthy scenes, don't quite have this edge.
The ending is quite well done, and it has one of those "ah no" endings.
All in all, despite is plodding pace, it's a very well written story.
RECOMMENDED.

Unlike some of the other reviews offered herein, I found this book quite refreshing. It offered a story that moved at a decent pace and offered some unlikely heroes. While this book isn't the best book I've read, it was quite compelling in its storyline. I found it immensely refreshing to find that the protagonists were not your everyday, run-of-the-mill "supermans". If you want to find a story that compels you to read further, yet without "suspending disbelief" too much, then this is the book to read. If you search for "the" book to define suspense fiction, maybe you should look elsewhere, however, if you want to find a diverting story, with nice balance, read this book! I'm going to read more from Katzenbach.

This is an excellent book of suspense and drama based on an interesting premise. For some, the war never ends and the hatred never diminishes. The joy of the hunt and the thrill of the kill must continue forever. Such is the mindset of the man known as The Shadow Man. For the elderly Jewish survivors who now live in Florida, their worst fears are realised as the horrors of their past come back to haunt them and, even worse, to kill them.

The Shadow Man was one of the people in Nazi Germany who was known as a catcher. A Jew who worked with the Gestapo identifying and flushing out Jewish citizens before sending them to the concentration camps. Seeing him and being seen by him was thought to be synonymous to death. Of all the catchers in Berlin, The Shadow Man was the most feared and most hated.

When one of the Miami Beach residents swears she has spotted The Shadow Man right there in the neighbourhood, the news is treated with some scepticism. But when the number of suspicious deaths begins to grow, the unthinkable possibility becomes more and more likely. The Miami police are up against a man who has had over 50 years experience. Okay, he may be a senior citizen now, but he's still very good at what he does and is just as determined as ever.

There are some remarkable characterisations in this story making it more than just a run of the mill suspense drama. From the suicidal ex-cop, Simon Winter, to prosecutor / avenger Espy Martinez and junkie Leroy Jefferson. All make vital contributions and at times provide some telling insights into what may motivate different people to act.

This is a fast paced thriller with a slightly skewed spin that manages to capture the attention from the opening page.