The Gourmet Detective expects a luxurious trip including a gourmet meal as he rides the Danube Express on its twentieth fifth anniversary tour of Eastern Europe. He just sits down at the table ready to feast on the seven-course first evening dinner when security supervisor Karl Kramer asks for his help.

The Budapest Times reports that renowned passenger Hungarian stage star Magda Malescu is dead in her compartment. There is no body yet Magda is missing and the compartment smells of bitter almonds. The Gourmet Detective wonders how the reporter learned about the alleged death almost in a quantum physics way before the event occurred. Not even fully certain that the victim is dead The Gourmet Detective soon uncovers a wealth of suspects until the corpse reappears breathing quite nicely. However, murder occurs as someone kills Magda's understudy and a journalist. Karl and the Gourmet Detective wonder if the vanishing act and homicides are a diversion from an attempt to steal a valuable Mozart manuscript or improved grapevines found in baggage.

This novel needs to carry a warning label for anyone who is on the slightest health regimen as this tale abounds with good food and drink to the delight of the gourmand reader. Though fun, the mystery seems like eating rabbit diet food compared with the menu of dining palette that obviously clogs the blood system of the Gourmet Detective and the reader.

Harriet Klausner

Every Peter King book is a delight. However since I'm somewhat familiar with the geography of Austria, Germany and Hungary, I resented the liberties the author has taken in describing the route of the 'Danube Express'. (Time and time again, locales were transposed and places attributed to the wrong countries)
The description of the meals is, as always in a Peter King book, superb and the plot and atmosphere are interesting.

I have read this book as part of the trilogy, "Dracula Lives!", which also includes Tremayne's other novels "The Revenge of Dracula" and "Dracula, My Love".

The basis of this story is, that the author obtained a manuscript at a London street market (of which, this novel is a supposed transcript), that turned out to have been written by no-lesser a personality than Prof. Abraham Van Helsing himself (a prominent character in Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula".).

That manuscript, in turn, is a translation of a memoir by Mircea, the son of Vlad Dracula, and his encounter with his family in what is present-day Romania.

What then follows is basically a retread of Jonathan Harker's journey to Transylvania and other scenes from Bram Stoker's book, but set over four hundred years previous. There is even a Van Helsing substitute, in the form of Brother John; a Cornish monk.

Tremayne includes quite a bit of research into the text, which kind of detracts from the story itself, as these bits of information seems a bit forced.
Despite the amount of work that has clearly gone into the research, there are a couple of errors I have spotted. Take, for example, the term "mesmerise" (more commonly known as "hypnotise" these days) is used. The term was named after Anton Mesmer, renowned for the skill in the EIGHTEENTH century, and, ironically enough, the term "vampire" itself, which also didn't enter popular usuage until the aforementioned era.

On the plus side, the story moved along at a fast pace, and I really liked the scene with Brother John and Mircea (or "Michelino" as he is known to himself and others) are trapped inside a bedroom in Castle Dracula with a vampire woman on the other side of the door, trying to get in.
The origins of Dracula's vampirism is also given an inventive, occultish twist.

In the end, though, I'd only really recommend this book for the die-hard vampire fan, or, just for an entertaining, albeit fairly forgettable, read for others.

This is a 1979 biography of the Czar Peter I (The Great) of the Russian Empire. It appeared at about the same time as Robert Massie's "Peter the Great" (1980)and therefore suffered from comparisons with that much larger and more exciting book.

"Fire and Water" tends to be a favorite with Russian scholars who are already familiar with the outline of the life of Peter and seek analysis of the pschological motivations at work within the man--Peter. Fire is provided as a symbol of his desire to build up the Russian Army and do war with aggressive neighbors. Water is provided as a symbol of his desire to build up the Russian Navy, Russian shipping and trade with the distant friends of Russia.

It was all very interesting to have a psychoanalysis of a person that has been dead for 250 years, but may not be very useful in the understanding of Russian History. The book falls into the trap of the "great man" theory of history. Great men can not change the course of history merely at will. Most often they are created or molded by events, and social-economic forces of their time. Why would it not be more realistic and useful to view Peter as responding in a very talented way to the threats presented to the Russian State during his lifetime?

This books imagines that Prince Eddy, engaged to marry the late Queen Mary of England, never died. In fact, he did, and she married his brother, King George, the parents of the current Queen Elizabeth. (I think) It's a good thing they put a pedigree chart in the front, because I couldn't keep all these imaginary people straight and I had to keep referring back to it. I suppose the main reason for writing it like this is that the writer can imagine his own royal family instead of having to deal with the one we've got. But I was rather confused. I think the author should have decided to write either a straight mystery based on real people, one based wholely on imaginary people, or an alternate reality book. Instead it's a mix. The characters were well drawn but the mystery was a little unclear and the whole thing was confusing. Some of the relationships were a little unbelievable too.

I havent read the book, but I thought I was going to when I clicked a link that brought me here..

Published in England. Nicely done. Lots of illustrations. Text is very interesting. The only problem is: it is too short. You can read it completely in under 10 minutes. They should have included more kings and queens and more detail on the ones they did include. Its billed as being a children's book, but the names of some of the kings and queens were difficult for me and I have a master's degree.

A well illustrated general introduction to the life of a great medieval king and his campaigns in Wales and northern France. Examines the battle of Agincourt -- including material on the nature of combined arms warfare in the high middle ages -- and the events leading to the Treaty of Troyes. The author is careful to place dynastic struggles in context and his inclusion of a detailed family tree for the house of Plantagenet is a welcome addition.

Having had to read this book for a class, I found it quite detailed. It took a while to get started since many of the opening sentences did not flow together. It is a hard book to read but if you are interested in Russian History it is an important book to read. After the first chapter I had trouble poutting it down.

Although the questions sometimes get too detailed for purposes of Step 2 - type exams, the explanations are excellent and tend to cover more basic facts. This atones for the occasional question that states, "current research states ..." and puts it in the grasp of most medical students. This is a good book to cover (or at least sample) if you are taking NBMLE shelf exams.

What a sorry mess of a book. This a shallowly researched retelling of the lives of these fighters, based on outdated secondary sources. In fact, it reads like apologia for Crook. It is well known today that only 500-750 Lakota and Cheyenne warriors faced Crook (and his 1300 men) and beat him at the Rosebud, yet Aleshire tries to claim that the two sides were of equal strength. And later, the role of Crook in conspiring with Red Cloud to remove Crazy Horse as a potential rival to Red Cloud (who had no civil authority with the Oglala except that handed to him by Americans) is not even mentioned. Instead, Crook is portrayed as innocent of having anything to do with the death of Crazy Horse. I freely admit to knowing much more about the Lakota than about the Apaches. But if Aleshire can not get these details right, why should I trust anything he has to say about the Apache aspects? Again, this seems like a book designed to gloss over Crook's moral lapses, perhaps as a counter to recent books that expose these sad events.

I am a Phoenix, Arizona native and I Loved This Book! I bought 3 copies to share with family and friends for Christmas.

Although I have lived in Phoenix and the White Mountains of Arizona all of my life and have known of the diverse Native American nations sharing our community, I had never heard the fascinating histories told with such depth and detail. I enjoyed the dual biography format of the book which allowed the reader to see General Crook and Geronimo side by side as men in opposing political environments.

The descriptive, creative language Aleshire uses makes the scenes come to life as if I were there. His story makes the history of the White Mountains, Chirichauas, San Carlos areas rich, deep and vivid with history.

Many thanks to Peter Aleshire from an Arizona native.