Anne Stuart is one of my favourite writers, has been since I picked up To Love a Dark Lord and then Moonrise. She is the Queen of the Gamma Rogue, blackhearted heroes with even blacker souls. She can make these bad boys so compelling so that you would think Robert Palmer wrote SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE about them!!

Her tale - Kissing Frosty - is a much lighter hearted Stuart showing she is a deft hand with humour. Written in 1996 is it a holiday tale I am so glad they reprinted. Megan McGraw is tired of the nomad life and wants a man, a home and a baby. She runs a healthful restaurant in a small town called Waston's Hole, and next to her is Nadjia, running a new age shop. They are facing eviction from their shops because the owner of the building wants to put in a high priced shopping complex. So on the night of the Winter Solstice, Meggie challenges Nadjia to summon up her true love. They use the giant snowman as a poppet, pinned the picture of the current heartthrob actor, and conjure their spell. And much to Megan's surprise, 5 days later the actor turns at her bean sprout restaurant!! Only problem, he is accompanied by John James O'leary, a blackheaded screenwriter that sends her temper and her pulse in orbit. It is a fun tale that will have you howling out loud. I mean with lines like "he was using his mouth like an instrument of the devil, seducing her into a brainless mass of bean sprouts marching toward destruction. Oh, Lord, and she wanted to go!!" Stuart keeps this one rolling. I am only sorry it was so short.

The much longer THE BOSS, THE BABY AND THE BRIDE is a reprint of Day Leclaire's 1994 short story. Reed Harding is hard on secretaries, going through 12 in less than six month. But suddenly he has Angie (Angel?) Makepeace has become secretary number thirteen, and soon begins to take over his life - after all she is his guardian angel!! It is a funny story that charms you as well.

WINTER'S EDGE (Anne Stuart) Molly Winters didn't even know her own name. All she knew was that she awoke in a hospital with no memory of her name, her face, or the husband the nurse said came to the hospital when she was unconcious. When she was taken home to Winter's Edge, a house she seemed to love, it was fraught with tension. Her husband seemed to hate her and was looking foward to having a speedy divorce. Soon accidents begin to happen and she can't help but suspect Patrick, her sexy and mysterious husband. Then she starts remembering things that don't seem to fit with the image she had made for herself with the people of Winter's Edge. This is a very quick read with a seemingly immature twenty three year old who married a man ten years older because she was in love with him. Everyone in her life except Patrick took advantage of her naivete and she soon realized that he was the only one who wouldn't let her down.

SAFE BY HIS SIDE (Debra Webb) Jack Raine is a wanted man. The U.S. government wants him brought in and the head of the family he infiltrated to bring down wants him dead. When a mysterious woman turns up on his doorstep during a storm, he knows he can't dare to trust her. When paid assasins follow in her wake, he makes a run for it and takes "Kate" with him. Soon Raine and Kate are involved in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the desire escalating between them more and more as each day passes. A very quick read that will hook you!

Don't miss it!

The first reprint of his duo is Anne Stuart's Winter Edge. I reviewed this and got many emails moaning it was suddenly out of print. Well, here is your chance to catch a nifty Stuart gem no longer in print. Molly woke in the hospital to find she could not recall anything of her life, not the dead man who was found in her car, the 350 thousand dollars - nor the husband. This book was a little rushed because of being a series, and would have been much better as a big book, but it still is a very good read. Molly leaves the hospital to return to Winter's Edge, the only home she has ever know. Yet suddenly, she is a stranger there. She does not recall her husband, nor the various people in their lives, and she especially does not to know the woman everyone says she is. She does not like the clothes she wears, does not like the bedroom she supposedly decorated, and she cannot believe she behaved as everyone said she did. She knows Patrick, her husband hates her, but not why. And she does not know who is trying to kill her. Stuart delivers as she always does, just wishes this one had a little more room to deliver fully.

The second tale by Debra Webb is a Harlequin Intrigue
reprint Safe by His Side (Intrigue, 583) which is also out of print. Is one in a series of Intrigues centred around a private detective firm called the Colby Agency. In this one, Kate is determined to get her 'man' even if it meant tracking him down in the great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. The man she is after is Raine a former government agent. He has been betrayed and set up by someone with in the agency, and until he can find out who he is running for his life. Kate tracks him down, but just as she is about to move in she is attacked by the people after him and looses her memory. She winds up at Raines hideout, no memory and must now depend upon the very man she was tracking to save them both.

Life is an ongoing, premeditated chess game and those who live life move like pawns on the chessboard. The chess game that took place in a train at the dawn of World War I in Ignacio Padilla's book, Shadow Without A Name, irreparably changed the lives of at least four men whose identities became warped even after death. The novel cleverly evokes the question of identity and selfhood against the historical backdrop of the darkest period of the twentieth century, as men appropriated names of each other, shielded off past memories and adopted new identities in the hope of a changed, better destiny. It was a time in which the truth became shrouded by lies and the lies adopted as truth.

Four men contribute to the narrative, which, in an overlapping interval of time, recounted the sequence of events that spanned decades as well as continents following the chess game in 1916, between Viktor Kretzschmar and Thadeus Dreyer.

In 1957, in Buenos Aires, Franz Kretzschmar reminisced his father, Viktor Kretzschmar, who faced Thadeus Dreyer on a chessboard for a life-and-death game. The winner would take Kretzschmar's identity as a railway signalman in Salzburg and the loser would head to the Austro-Hungarian eastern front, which promised death. When Franz's father (the true and only Thadeus Dreyer whose name had been appropriated and incarnated throughout the book) won the game, little did he know the exchange of documents would lend him a warped identity though he saw the deadly wager as a promise of immortality. However he despised trains, Franz's father approached the job with unbounded enthusiasm and not the slightest of his despondency betrayed his imposture until he was found guilty of premeditating a train accident near Salzburg. He wasted away in a sanatorium upon release from jail, rendered unable to recognize his son, let alone Franz's revengeful efforts to restore his father's peace of mind.

Richard Schley was a seminarist falsely elevated to priesthood who attended to near-death soldiers and gave vespers in 1918. Schley met his childhood friend Jacob Efrussi who changed his name to Thadeus Dreyer, in the time of the pandemonium caused by the Balkans on the Austrian front in 1918. Efrussi (or Dreyer), who had stolen so many names and lived under so many identities, persisted in denying his real name. Another name swap occurred as Efussi agreed to stake his fate on a chess game with Richard Schley, who found Efrussi in the midst of ravages and brought him home from the front.

Alikoshka Goliadkin was an orderly of General Thadeus Dreyer during his rise in the Nazi reign. This man was the key to unveil the clandestine relationships between Franz Kretzschmar, Adolf Eichmann and Dreyer. At the time, Dreyer supervised the training of a small legion of impostors (doubles) who would occasionally replace senior party officials or served as decoys in public appearances considered high-risk. Goliadkin was the only man who knew the where about of Dreyer and his impostor team (which was reported to vanish without a trace) when the project fell out of favor with the Nazi.

Daniel Sanderson, one of the three heirs of Baron Woyzec Blok-Cissewsky who left an encrypted code in a chess manual that would resolve the whole mystery about the aforementioned men. The baron, took residence in Poland during his late years, turned out to be yet another incarnation of Thadeus Dreyer. The seemingly impregnable encrypted code embedded the secrets of the many failed attempts by Nazi officers opposed to Hitler's policies to destroy the regime from within. As Sanderson investigated the baron's connection with Eichmann, he became alert at the fact that a fourth heir who resided in a Frankfurt sanatorium existed!

This book presents a story within stories, twisted and shrouded. At each turn of a page, at each switch of narrator, the book challenges readers with the question: is the man who he says he is? I have to flip back and forth to make sure I do not have the slightest confusion of who is who, though it is sometimes inevitable to fall into the trap of which who I think the man is. Once I get used to all the name swap and appropriation, and the underlying connection or disconnection of all the Dreyer incarnations, the book is a tantalizing, suspenseful, mesmerizing read. The constant changes of identities do not lose the way. It is cleverly written, with finesse and attention to details. It holds your breath to the end. 5.0 stars.

I had heard that Ignacio Padilla was one of Mexico's promising young writers. When I purchased his book, I was expecting another book about "The Mexican Condition" or some new take on magic realism. What a pleasant surprise to discover a suspense novel set in Central Europe!

Padilla is not your average suspense or mystery writer. He is much smarter. In his ability to combine deep thinking with a simple but elegant style, Padilla reminds me of Borges. Yet he never leaves the shadow world as imagined by Eric Ambler and Alan Furst.

Break the swan's neck! No more flying burros! A new and very clever voice is emerging from Mexico City. A voice that complements Mexico's new generation of film makers.

Like a great game of chess, Padilla's books is challenging, full of twists and turns, and beautiful in its structure. The book is comprised of 4 interconnected stories, each one playing off the previous one(s). Identities change, assumptions are altered, and previously understood histories melt away. Pay careful attention as you wend your way through Padilla's labyrinth. The journey is well worth it.

It's always such a pleasant evening when reading an Anne George mystery. The sisters are up to their usual bickering in a way that brings a smile to the reader's lips on a regular basis (and out and out laughter on occasion).

This episode focuses on geneology after the aunt of the groom, a genologist, dies in a suspicious fall. Could she have been killed for unearthing a branch of a family tree that should have stayed buried? The whole lineage thing is all the funnier for the southern setting where what one's ancestors did in the Civil War really matters to some people.

The book loses a fifth star for a disappointing ending. Likewise, once you know the ending some of the actions of the killer don't quite make sense. Still, I certainly enjoyed the read to get there.

Anne George has written a wonderful book. Patricia Anne and Mary Alice obviously love each other, but they still argue like other sibling do. They are hilarious. When murder comes up, expect Patricia Anne to put her nose into it and expect Mary Alice to follow after her. With a fast moving plot, this book can easily be read in one day.

This third entry in the series is laugh-out-loud wonderful. I have never actually laughed while reading a book before. Yes, of course I've smiled, teared up, been disturbed etc., but I mean Ms. George can really make you laugh. Patricia Anne is a humorous, yet poignant voice. While signing on to review this book today, I couldn't help notice the AOL news about the latest horrible shooting in Atlanta. This made me think of Patricia Anne's simple true comment about the world "being too much with us." I found the book most hysterical when Mary Alice gives her fiction telling a try. Escape the world and the heat by spending some time with these sisters.

This is the first of many Anne George books I hope to read! It was a humorous and clever mystery about the two southern sisters who are more different than alike. They take you on a fun, exciting, and dangerous vacation that will keep you guessing until the end! This is a wonderful book!

I couldnt wait to get started on this, the latest paperback Southern Sisters mystery! And once again I couldnt put it down. I was reading, and giggling in the bathroom, the kitchen and on the bus to work! I love the sleuth sisters Patricia Anne and Mary Alice. Throw in the wonderful Fred and Woofer and you have another lighthearted getaway..this time to Destin Florida where our two heros get involved in another murder mystery (or two). I can hardly wait until my order for the three Anne George books I havent read comes in!

Murder Makes Waves was a truly enjoyable read! I stumbled onto this book in Denver, where I now live, after living for ten years about 20 miles from the Southern Sisters stomping grounds! It is truly a laugh-out-loud book and oh how I can relate to the dialogue! A truly wonderful southern writer. I have finished three of her books now and am waiting for more. Thanks Anne George for reminding me of home!

I really looked forward to the book that I finished in one setting. I was hoping based on the first chapter that she really was going to deliver the goods based on her knowledge and intimacy with the culture and its people. But alas it was not to be. Even though from western journalist standards it was much better effort. I think she could learn a lot more by reading Ayaz Amir and Irfan Hussain (dawn.com) about Pakistan instead of wasting hours talking to Benazir and others. I really wanted to get a grip on Musharraf and Benazir but she wastes her time on platitudes and makes Benazir and others looks more then they are ...A very hands off approach on Musharraf, Benazir and Zia alike. I guess she was trying her best not to offend anyone in case she ever wants to talk to them again. I could expect this from a novice journalist but not Ms. Weaver.
The rest of the book was bunch of newspaper stories stapled together and it had horrible flow--- you didn't know if these chapters are of the same book and no attempt was made to connect them. For example her chapter about Baluchistan and Arabs hunting had nothing to do whatsoever with current environment and she left everything about that in the Baluchistan 's wasteland 20 years back.
I really expected more then she gave. She also gave a short shrift to the US and Pakistan relationship and she doesn't give us any clues other then Gen. Zinny 's bit supporting his friend the general "w/o him Pakistan would turn in chaos" and other typical platitudes that western journalist have been known for when they are too lazy to get the real scoop. She also wastes her interviews w various leading Jehadi mullas and provides no insight then what you can get by driving around the compound or typically provided by a journalist sitting in a posh five star hotel from Islamabad... so alas a wasted effort from a very capable journalist. First Chapter is good but other chapters are just stapled together.
Please pass this on to that author I hope she reads it.

The sparkling essays that comprise this wonderful book seem unrelated yet all are intimately connected. This eyewitness account does more to explain the hell that bred al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorists than do ponderous works by historians, theologians, and other outsiders. Beautifully written, Mary Anne Weaver's narrative is part Paul Theroux travelogue, part Truman Capote celebfest, and part Bernard Lewis study of the Middle East. Weaver enlightens and informs the reader on a human level that is sorely missing elsewhere.

Pakistan: In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan is subtle and powerful at the same time. A territorial leader fears his isolated province may erupt into violence. "The price of a bullet is one rupee; the price of an egg is two rupees," he explains to Weaver. Newly elected Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto asks to join Pakistan's president at prayers. He declines because she is a woman. The relationship between the two soon-to-be-ex-leaders couldn't be better explained. Pakistani wildlife authorities assist wealthy Arab sheihks in the decimation of the local houbarb bustard population. In an essay obstensibly about billionaires who roam the desert with falcons in Mercedes in search of their prey, it becomes apparent Saudi Arabia has gladly financed many unseemly aspects of Pakistani society. Kashmiris find themselves flooded with ISI-inspired Islamic nationalists although the people in that troubled province only want a multi-ethnic state, a native explains. The CIA supplies Osama bin Laden and the other mujahideen against the Soviets although there is a 30 to 50 percent "slippage" in arms. The word "slippage" seems more appropriate to clothing lost to shoplifters than to shoulder-held surface to air missiles that now menace commercial airlines.

Weaver covers the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and chronicles the present day war against al-Qaeda. Both conflicts originated in Pakistan, fueled by indigenous Islamist hatred and funded by Saudi money (which raises the question, "with friends like these...."). Along the way Weaver meets the territorial leaders, mullahs, prime ministers, and everyday citizens who transform Pakistan from a bastion of nationalistic fervor into a state sponsor of religious terrorism (and perhaps the most dangerous nuclear power on the planet). How any American, let alone a woman, bagged as many interviews as Weaver did, and how she navigated some of the most dangerous territory in this misogynistic land, remains a mystery. Weaver acts as if her adventures in the darkest reaches of Pakistan were the most natural travels imaginable, and perhaps for her they were.

Her journeys certainly serve the reader well.

I highly recommend this book whether you want to enjoy some brilliant writing or learn more about Pakistan and terrorism. As Weaver demonstrates, the two don't have to be mutually exclusive.

This book is the boldest attempt by Mary Anne to warn the world of the perils of ignoring the present situation in Pakistan.
The pakistani economy is in shambles and Islamic extremism is on rise. MMA is in power in 2 states close to Afganistan and helping the residual Taliban agents. They are also trying to enforce Shariah which will push us back. We in Pakistan are being offended everyday by every country and its representatives who come here. This is fueling the extremism and I am afraid that within a few years Pakistan will become afganistan.

I was realy offended when I read about the way Anthony Zinni gave Gen. Karamat a 10 minutes notice of the in-coming missiles fired by US warships.

The story of Musharaff pushing Pakistan into Kargil war and subsequent defeat of Pakistan is something every Pakistani will be ashamed of. It is also frustrating to know that Mary anne found no positive points such as Pakistan's REMARKABLE ROLE as US ally in War on Terror. Without Pakistani help it would have been very difficult to fight it out.

Mary Alice (Sister) is excited when she bursts in on her sister Patricia Anne (Mouse) to announce that she's bought the Skoot 'n' Boot, a local dance bar she's been enjoying going to. But her excitement turns to horror the next day when the previous owner is found murdered in the establishment. Vowing to stay out of it, Mouse keeps getting drawn in by various people, including one of her former students. Things get personal when the killer starts making threats. Will these sisters be able to figure things out?

This is a fun, cozy book. The pace is slow and steady with plenty of time given to the sister's antics, yet I never got bored with the storyline. I often found myself chuckling at a line or scene, and a couple times laughed out loud. The two sisters are very different, but what could have been caricature was capably turned into character development by the author. The rest of the characters filled their rolls quite well.

I'm looking forward to getting to know these sisters and their family and friends better over the course of the series. This is a fun debut that promises great things in the books to come.

You've got to love the 60 & 65 year old sisters who are polar opposites, I particular think the dialogue and writing is way above the norm. "Mary Alice giggled. She's 65 years old but she still giggles like a young girl. And men still love it." .... "`Nice,' I said, feeling a slight slip in my personal reality cog." And the audio book a PERFECT marriage of reader and material - I couldn't wait to go to my car, and then didn't want to reach my destination. From the first lines of this story, which I listened to in unabridged format, I knew I'd found something special. Anne George manages to touch on just the right formula of family dynamics and occasional insanity, with sisters Patricia Ann and Mary Alice. The rather convoluted plot takes second stage to the wonderful personalities and characters and the craziness we all have in our families. From sperm bank babies to aging hippies, mother/daughter issues, and the lovably annoying spousal unit - I'm real excited there are more Southern Sisters books!

Meet Birmingham's sixty something southern sisters...that's big (250 pounds of woman), flamboyant, three times widowed, Mary Alice (Sister) and her petite and proper, retired English teacher sister, Patricia Anne (Mouse). All the trouble started when Mary Alice decided, on the spur of the moment to buy a country western bar, the Skoot 'n' Boot, because she and her main squeeze of late, have been into line dancing and the Skoot's the place to be. Patricia Anne thinks her sister has lost her mind, but has to admit the joint has appeal and real possibilities. That is, until the former owner is found murdered and hanging in the establishment's wishing well and the Skoot is completely ransacked. Now, as their curiousity gets the better of them, they're drawn into the case and these two aging belles aren't stopping until they get some answers..... Anne George has written a lighthearted mystery full of southern charm and humor. Her writing is crisp, with a talented ear for dialogue, her plot, entertaining and her scenes, true to life and laugh out loud funny. But it's Ms George's wonderfully quirky and engaging characters that make this novel stand out and once you've met the southern sisters and company, you'll be hooked, for sure. This is the debut of a terrific series that just gets better with each installment. So, travel to Birmingham, meet the ladies, dive right in and read them all. You won't be disappointed.

This is the second book in the "Southern Sisters" series -- which looks to be a series that's worth reading in order. (Murder on a Girl's Night Out is the first in the series.) Once again, being sixty-something and retired in Alabama is looking to be lots of fun and a little bit dangerous.

This time the sisters get involved in a death at an art gallery featuring "outsider" art (think quilts, primitive oils, etc.) The book is strong on humor, sisterly chat (and teasing), winter in Birmingham and teacher love. The mystery is pretty weak -- particularly the conclusion which both comes out of nowhere and is way too convenient.

Bottom line -- a fun, light read of the cozy kind. As another reviewer mentioned about Anne George, it's nice to find an author that you can recommend to your senior citizen mother.

I have always been a big fan of Southern writers; Conroy, Samms, Edgarton, Burns, and of course Mitchell to name a few. And now I have a new name to add to the list: Anne George. Her books are just precious and her characters are lovable! As I have previously stated, since I live in Alabama, I especially enjoy all the references to the Birmingham landmarks. When I read about highway 280, the Vulcan and the Galleria I feel that I am part of the story. Speaking of the story, I loved it. The writing is crisp, the dialogue forceful, and the plot is scrumptious! If you want a great book that will grasp you on the first page and is effortless to follow, get a copy of Murder on a Bad Hair Day: A Southern Sisters Mystery--you won't regret it!

I usually have 2 books going...a more serious read and a light one. Just discovered Anne George this week-end. What a hoot! Two sisters in their sixties who are total opposites (one petite and more mild-mannered and one large and out-spoken). Just imagine the large one playing Mrs. Claus at the local mall (Birmingham, Alabama) with a funky wig and a top with blinking lights. An opening at the local art gallery ends in death. Now the sisters are on a quest to find the murderer. The

dialogue is clever, the situations are rather unique, and the gallery owner has been deemosoed. Read it to find out. I LOVE Joan Hess. Her tales of Maggody have often made me laugh out loud. Now, after reading all of Hess's, I have a new Southern author to seek out. Patricia Anne and Mary Alice (the sisters) are my new "light read." Funny, I finished this one in 2 days while my "serious" book kept calling to me. I'm off to Border's to find more of Anne George.

The narrative jumbled, the word choices poor, thinly disguised child pornography ... oh, but I could continue. Suffice it to say that Ms Phillips uses shocking subject matter and what she must fancy is unique story-telling in the hopes that any critic may be dismissed as Simply Doesn't Get It. I get it. It's smoke and mirrors designed to cover a singular lack of literary talent.

This is potent, unblinking, and very courageous stuff. Very beautiful too.

The stories are of two types here -- short, one page sketches that verge on being prose poems, and longer, fuller stories which still contain an elusive quality. Although critics, to a man, preferred the longer stories, I find the shorter ones equally compelling. The writing is first-rate; it is nuanced, poetic, and contains a wealth of psychological insight. I think this is Phillps's greatest accomplishment: her merging of the psychological and the political in stories that are always accessible. Those looking for pretension will find it only with reviewers who trash sophisticated story-tellers while including the (see more about me) tag at the beginning of their own reviews.

This is another book about Anne Frank that I get the chance to read. Although there are many biographies about this wonderful human being, this book is the closest one that can answer the questions that all Anne Frank fan has. I did for many years just read the Diary over and over but I wanted more! This book is definetly more! It tells you more about the relationship she had with her family and the rest of the people in hiding. This is a girl who could hardly see the light coming from her window and the only green thing that she could think about was a huge chestnut outside the Annex. This book describes this little things that she cherished and that she no longer had....her freedom. She didn't either had freedom of speach inside the Annex due to the critics about her attitude. This book develops more information about why Anne acted like she did and why she had an open opinion about everything. It also gives you a bigger idea of why she didn't like her mother and develops more about her childhood around her family and her friends. I hope all readers that enjoy the Anne Frank writings will enjoy this description about her persona. Is a total different thing to read her diary knowing more about her life and early aspirations. ENJOY!