Laura is an excellent reporter, fighting to establish herself in a man's world which means getting assignments off the feature page and on the front page. Michael worries that Laura's skills may someday encourage the London papers to entice her away from Yorkshire. But Laura has a grandmother living in Bradford with whom she is very close, so she's not likely to take off soon.

Sometimes Laura's investigative reporting efforts lead to conflicts with Michael, a relative newcomer on the local police force, who is trying to establish credibility with his new employers. Both Laura and Michael seem mature enough to deal with the job-related conflicts that can affect their personal relationship, but from time to time tempers flare.

Hall's plot device in PERILS is interesting--both main characters frequently turn up at the same job location because something of interest to both the newspaper and the local police occurs. In PERILS both become involved in the murder of a college student who turned tricks on the side before one of her clients apparently killed her. Laura had been developing an undercover piece on the exploitation of women prostitutes before the murder. Michael becomes involved when murder and prostitution intersect.

This is a short book--220 pages and can be read in one sitting, but it's rich and filling as a chocolate eclair.

Bradford Gazette Editor Ted Grant assigns reporter Laura Ackroyd int obtaining insider information on the feud between the town's prostitutes and its new Asian residents. Laura dresses as a prostitute and begins by seemingly soliciting customers on the Yorkshire streets. She gathers interesting information from Sherry the prostitute just prior to being busted by the police.

Laura feels a bit mortified that her lover police chief Michael Thackeray sees her in her new role behind bars. However, her investigative juices quickly replace that queasy feeling when she learns that someone murdered a university student Louise Brownlee on her street corner that very night. Michael and Laura seek the truth behind the student-hooker murder, which may have been an act of a vigilante, an unhappy customer, or just a mindless murder.

What sets aside a Patricia Hall novel from the run of the mill English police procedural is the detail and depth to the characterizations. Though her who-done-its are well written, they are no better than most of the sub-genre entries. However, the brilliantly defined emotions, motivations, and interpersonal relationships propel the audience into non-stop reading until they finish the novel. This trademark of Ms. Hall is in abundance in her latest mystery, PERILS OF THE NIGHT. After perusing this novel, readers will want to obtain Ms. Hall's previous tales such as the Thackeray-Ackroyd tale, DEAD OF WINTER, which too is an entertaining story.

Harriet Klausner

A Guide for Developing Interdisciplinary Thematic Units by Patricia L. Roberts and Richard D. Kellough is an excellent guide to developing an interdisciplinary thematic unit. By explaining the rationale for using thematic units, the reader becomes aware of the importance of and need to expose students to learning about a theme through various disciplines. Through easy to follow, step-by-step directions, a teacher can easily develop his/her own thematic unit. By analyzing the multitude of examples, a beginning teacher can develop complete, functional, and detailed lesson plans. Much care is taken to explain the development of objectives that would apply to the cognitive domain, the affective domain, and the psychomotor domain. The teacher's need to self-reflect and the assessment of student learning is explicitly explained. This book is indispensable to anyone creating an interdisciplinary thematic unit.

This is a "must have" for any educator looking to enhance teaching methods and creating lesson plans. The book is very detailed in explaining the associated terms and provides numerous samples and examples. The subject matter is relevant to the 21st century educational goals and definitely encourages the humanizing aspect between the teacher-pupil relationship.

A young girl named Dana Smith is shot dead as she leaves the hospital where she recently had an abortion. Was she killed by an aggressive member of the anti-abortionist crowd badgering the clinic daily? Was her death simply another aspect of the crime wave being carried out against her gypsy family by local skinheads? Or, did her death have something to do with the fertility work underway at the clinic? Laura is a female reporter and thus never asked to write the "crime" story by her male chauvinist editor, but she soon turns her "woman's" piece into an investigation of suspicious medical practices, antagonistic anti-abortion activists, and unhappy ex-wives. Meanwhile, boyfriend Thackery has his own clues to pursue and his own ghosts to fight.

I have read Hall's books from the gitgo, I find her protagonists Laura and Thackery well developed. Hall also does a fine job of developing minor characters such as feisty grandmother Joyce Ackroyd, who turns up regularly to protest outrages against women; Val Ridley, the blonde cop who lusts after Kevin Mower her counterpart on the Bradford police force; and Kevin Mower who seems to be going off the deep end over his recent losses. To truly appreciate this series, including the current angst Mower is feeling, the reader should begin at the beginning. Reading Hall's books is akin following a good police/reporter series on tv. Hall is not into forensics, nor does she do graphic violence. Her plots are clever and her characterization is well done. This is exactly the kind of book her Grandmother Joyce would enjoy.

When a thirteen year old girl is shot and killed on the steps of the May Anderson hospital after receiving an abortion, Michael and Laura both work the case albeit from different perspectives. When a nurse who works at the hospital is also killed, the police know there's a link because the same gun killed the two victims. Using their own resources, Laura and Michael come to the same conclusion about who the killer might be, but proving it to the point of an arrest remains difficult.

Patricia Hall writes some of the best British police procedurals on the market today. Her two protagonist are very independent individuals trying to make a life together while trying to cope with the baggage of their past. The who-done-it it is intricately complex with so many blind allies that readers will want to finish the book in one sitting to learn the identity of the perpetrator.

Harriet Klausner

The plot was very complicated, and it all seemed a bit of a mess. The characters were nothing special, and i this is the only book in which Cornwell manage to bore me with her normally insightful computer terminology. It's too long, and basically i dont think it has any substance. There is a great potential. The idea for the plot is superb, and could well have been one of the best, but somewhere along the line it all slips. I cant put my finger on it, but i just didnt come away from this with the satisfaction i normally get out of a Kay Scarpetta book.

Nevertheless this is still a necessary book to read if you intend to read the entire series. It is one of the major turning points. The first book to feature Temple Gault, who would later lead to Carrie Grethen, Newton Joyce, and all the other catastrophic events which culminate in the next turning point of "The Last Precint". each one has signalled a new era for Patricia Cornwell, and each one has not been quite as good as the others. But The Last Precint was still much better than this. It is, admittedly, very clever, but far too complicated, and im surprised it got the CWA's gold dagger.

nevertheless, i have given it two stars purely because it is such a major point in Scarpetta's life. You must read it if you intend to read the entire series, but dont expect to enjoy it as much as you do the others.

We enter the story with Scarpetta recovering from the death of a close friend. While this development certainly bodes well for future plot twists, it leaves the reader frustrated with the current one. The few details of the death surface mostly at the end of the story and while we're told of Scarpetta's devastation, we really don't witness it. Seasoned Cornwell fans are accustomed to these shallow depths in characterization but it nonetheless puts a damper on an otherwise entertaining mystery.

It is such a waste when this book can be really enjoyable. I wish that Scarpetta is a police detective rather than a medical examiner. Just think, how often does medical examiners go out and interview eyewitness?? Readers should also ignore the feminist tone of this book which can be quite irritating at some points. All men seems to be either stupid, evil, selfish, untidy or all of the above while the women are strong, tidy, clever.

So my conlcusion is, I may read her other books if i can get it from the library but i don't think it's worth my money to buy it. As a reminder, all forensic science fans should stay away from this book!

This was an absolute pleasure to read. "All that Remains" isn't bogged down with the Scarpetta preoccupation with her niece's social life which ruins later books nor is she coming apart at the seams emotionally (ummm..."Black Notice" anyone?) Cornwell's focus on the case makes for a seamless read that trully is fine thriller fiction.