Into the Mirror is deceptively good. My early impression was negative. The choice of fictionalizing the tale was odd, in my opinion. The dialogue was stilted, nerdy, Father-Knows-Bestish. But as I persevered through the book, I finally understood what the author was doing--speaking as Hanssen spoke--and began to appreciate it. In the end, the story resonates strongly.

It's helpful to know what the book isn't before you read it. It is not a detailed analysis of the specific criminal activities of Robert P. Hanssen, master spy. You won't learn the nitty-gritty on what secrets were passed to whom and when. Instead, Into the Mirror is a glimpse into the psyche of Hanssen himself; how he grew up; how he thought; how he wound up as a spy.

Part of the frustration in reading the book was that fictional tales generally require a likeable central character. Hanssen is not, and Schiller--properly--makes no apparent attempt to make him so. Once the reader accepts the notion that the protagonist is a weird, perverted traitor with few redeeming qualities, the reading gets easier.

The fascinating aspect of the story is that the trail leading Hanssen to spy for the Soviets and Russians against the U.S. wasn't littered with the kind of political travesties one would expect. Hanssen wasn't the victim of capitalism gone bad, or Rodney Kingesque mistreatment. His parents weren't ultra-liberals, communists, anti-American, or even particularly political. His father, though overbearing and mildly abusive, was a big-city cop. Hanssen was a converted Catholic who appeared to love his country and excel at his job. He was just your average schlep with a money management problem. This led to his first sale of classified secrets for cash, which quickly led to a near-clinical compulsion to spy for the pure excitement of it.

Into the Mirror reveals a strange man with unquenchable and unsavory sexual tendencies (allowing his best friend to secretly watch him make love to Mrs. Hanssen), and a twisted value system that somehow allowed espionage (which he knew led to the deaths of several men) to coexist with Catholicism. Oddly, we see a man who, but for an errant fork in life's road, could have easily been a patriot and contributing FBI agent. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

Lawrence Schiller's "Into the Mirror" is a riveting, page-turning expose into the secret life of FBI agent turned spy, Robert P. Hanssen. Hanssen's misdeeds and treason are depicted in a researched and documented book that conveys the dark side of betraying one's country. Schiller attempts to explain Hanssen's duplicity by creating a psychological picture of a very complex individual using literary license in an effective and believable manner. For those who do not want "just the facts" but seek some sort of explanation for Hanssen's betrayal of the USA, Schiller's book is the right stuff.

Schiller portrays Hanssen's life as full of contradictions; from his dogmatic membership in the Catholic society, Opus Dei, to his prurient pornographic pursuits; from his rise in the ranks of the FBI's prestigious counterintelligence squad to his indictment for espionage. Never before has the nation seen a traitor like Robert P. Hanssen gain access to the halls of justice masquerading as a protector of liberty all the while posing as Ramon for his Moscow handlers. We can only hope that it will never happen again.

I read this book in two short sittings finding myself pulled into Schiller's portrayal of Hanssen's clandestine life. You have to feel sorry for Hanssen's family for the pain and disgrace he brought on them, but you will feel no sympathy for Hanssen himself who you learn from the text took up spying to pay off credit card bills and live a more lavish lifestyle. Hanssen will never see in his mirror the face of a patriot.

"Into The Mirror" is the first work written by Lawrence Schiller that I've read. Naturally, I was extremely interested in reading about Robert P Hanssen's life. After all, who wouldn't wonder what kind of a childhood or life Hanssen had lived before/during that of a turncoat spy? When Hanssen's story first broke in the news media, and his position with the FBI that had allowed for his twenty years of spying, I was quite appalled. Who wasn't? Still, like every other American, I soon developed my own opinion. I thought Hanssen spied for the money. After reading Schiller's book, my first impression was right. With his back financially against the wall, Hanssen found an easy way out of his problem. Yet, I kept wondering how this man could sleep at night for twenty years, knowing what he had done. Not only had this traitor put the lives of every American in harm's way by divulging pertinent top-secret information to the Russians, but also the lives of his wife and six children. What a monster! There's no doubt in my mind that Hanssen has to be one very sick and mentally deranged individual. He endured a childhood that was a nightmare. An abusive father who openly flaunted his womanizing in front of his wife and Robert. No doubt, dressed in his policeman's uniform, Hanssen's father considered himself another King Kong. The things Hanssen's father did to him were incomprehensible and unforgettable. Yet Schiller showed in his research that Hanssen grew to manhood with a different outlook about life, marriage and raising children. The author is trying to convince his readers that Hanssen was unfaithful only once to his wife. That may be the case. Who oculd actually know for sure? But after reading the way Hanssen defiled Bonnie with his best friend, Jack, by showing Jack nude pictures of her and allowing Jack to observe what took place in the privacy of their bedroom...well, this is the part that proves Hanssen is mentally deranged. Perhaps he was trying to compare himself and his position to that of James Bond-Agent 007. The job put him above anyone or anything else. He too was another King Kong like his father, while toting his Walther PPK as an FBI agent. But instead of womanizing, which I would think he remembered his father here, he chose pornography. Everything Hanssen did in regard to sex was not normal. My only problem with this book was wondering if Schiller really did believe Hanssen's wife, Bonnie, was so gullible and naive. Surely he knows women better than that. If I found $10,000 in one of my husband's socks, I'd know something was going on. It's hard to beleive Hanssen succeeded for twenty years in giving his wife this kind of a snow job. Otherwise, I think Schiller has done a wonderful job in the research and portraying of Hanssen's life. I can't wait for the mini-series. I enjoy a book that keeps me wanting to turn the page. "Into The Mirrow" kept me turning its pages. I started reading and couldn't put the book down. I plan on recommending this book to my library book review group. And now, I'm going to the library and look for Schiller's book "American Tragedy".

Sweetwater and Gunslinger are the cllsigns of the crew of an F-14 fighter which was, when this book came out, the US Navy's top interceptor. While two-man aircews should be enough to generate the structure around which can be built a great aviation novel (like "Flight of the Intruder"), it's wasted here as we watch the two engage in the sort of antics popularized in Top Gun while the top brass watches powerless, and aged admirals watch wishing they could be young nuggets again. Much of the novel is episodic, and not written very well, following the boys as their aircraft carrier charts the expected hostile waters, but we never feel as is we are actually there. The airplanes aren't fully realized, nor are the struggles of becoming a proficient aviator made out well enough to describe the charachters and why their superiors tolerate them. Ditch this book for anything else by Coonts.

Althoug I enjoyed this book it was more of a collection of short stories with a connecting theme than a real novel. The main charachter "Sweetwater" is not featured quite as much as the title suggests and many of the other charachters are not described enough to give you a clear picture of them. I laughed at several spots an d at the end wasnt too dissapointed.....

I am a long time fan of Catherine Coulter and have read almost all of her books. It's a shame, when you know that an author can write books really well, to read one that is so poorly put together. After a week, I still haven't finished it--this from a reader that usually finishes a book this size in a few hours.

The first person perspective contributes to the very disjointed feeling I had throughout much of the beginning of the book. The story seemed to jump around a lot, bringing in lots of characters right at the beginning. I had a hard time keeping track of them all. In addition, I could see no motivation for many characters actions.

Worst of all--even though this is not technically a romance, I still feel Coulter should have followed some of the basics of romantic writing that she is so well known for and successful at. Particularly, I felt that Mac's "quickie" with Cal early on was too weird. Not even 2 days later he is in bed with Laura. This makes it very hard to believe in our hero, or to believe that our heroine (Laura) isn't a fool for falling for him.

I could go on and on about how poorly editted this book was, how inconsistent the jacket flap was with what the book was about, etc. Even the paper is deceptively thick to make the book appear to be more than it is. If Coulter is going to continue in the hardcover arena, she and her publisher need to spend more time on improving on the quality of the writing and finished product. I will probably keep looking for the "next book" from Catherine Coulter, but I will take a careful look for reviews before I buy it.

I just wanted to say that Catherine Coulter's The Maze is one of my all-time favorite books. I was very disappointed in this novel. The dialogue really got to me. It was a good plot, the characters weren't too deep, but entertaining. I hard a hard time getting through it, however, due to the extremely weak dialogue.

I read The Edge out of sequence, that is, after I finished reading the other books in Catherine Coulter's FBI series. I found it an enjoyable read, but totally different than the others in the series.

The plot, based on a mind-altering and libido stimulating drug and missing persons, is fast-paced. There's even a touch of supernatural with the telepathic link between Mac and his sister Jilly. All these elements combine to keep you reading.

Coulter's descriptions of the different settings are vivid. You'll find yourself squirming at some of the encounters Mac and Laurie have with the native animal life in the Rain Forest.

The 1st person male viewpoint is unique and, as you can tell from the other reviews, troubling for most readers. Because The Edge is not 3rd person POV, the characters appear to lack depth. You only get to view what's happening from Mac's viewpoint. I think that's why most reader found it more difficult to become absorbed.

The Edge seemed to focus on suspense and leave out the hint of romance that you find in the other books of the series. The usual romance elements and sexual tension between Mac and Laurie weren't obvious. Even Dillon and Sherlock didn't come across as well in The Edge as they have in the other books.

Not what we are used to from Ms Coulter, but the plot and the unique writing style make it an entertaining and interesting read. Worth the read for Catherine Coulter fans!

This book has been widely touted, so I talked two other political scientists into plowing through it for our reading group. We found the book to be a major disappointment.

The authors have an argument to make, but the quality of their qualitative and quantitative evidence is at best uneven. The survey analysis seldom includes multivariate tests and the interview sources, while extensive, are episodically not comprehensively analyzed. By the end of the book, we had little confidence that the conclusions the authors presented were well supported by their evidence.

It's a readable book, but it is difficult to put much faith in
its conclusions.

Reading this book, one phrase kept floating to mind - dash it all. I think..... well, I don't know. This book, er, doesn't do justice to the concept of intercounty by-elections, what?

This is a wide-ranging, theoretically rich and empirically focused look at whether politicians simply "follow" the polls or whether politicians use polls to help "sell" proposals to the public. The answer is both, of course, but Jacobs and Shapiro explain how and why public leaders develop their own policy views, and how the public's acceptance of those views shape how policies are ultimately formed. Politicians are "trustees" in the Burkean sense, but how they explain their actions have to be placed in a "delegate" framework. Their case study on health care policy is especially instructive. This book won the 2001 Goldsmith Book Prize, it should be read by serious students of the media and politics.

Despite the myriad typos and mostly confused presentation, this book has at least couple of redeeming virtues, namely that a few sections, like the point-set topology section, were decent; in general the proofs were mostly rigorous and solid; and the exercises listed many good problems to help our understanding. Most important, the integreation of linear algebra with the calculus/analysis was, as advertised, pretty good. But the text was unexciting and very often completely unhelpful. It gets the job done of presenting the material, but not very well.

This edition is riddled with typographical errors and general computational mistakes. Though some of this text's lack of clarity is due to the subject matter itself, it certainly isn't carefully-edited enough to make it more understandable. Very little is given by way of explanation, and solutions to the many problems in the text are given sparsely. The only positive thing I can say is that the problems in the text are generally appropriate for the material, but as an introduction to the subject, this text leaves you basically on your own.

Some information incorrect and not to be found where book directs. Not enough in-depth - very basic.

I've lived in Mexico for over 30 years and think this guide leaves a lot to be desired. I wonder if the author has ever lived in Mexico for any length of time. John Howell's "Choose Mexico' is a time-proven classic.

lawrence is a fasconating character, that's for sure. Only, I could imagine more exciting pieces of literature, sometimes it is quite boring...

Overall, it is easy book to read but you could really tell that each chapter was written by a different person. Some chapters are good but others are really poor. The end of the chapter tests were way too easy compared to the actual test. It has an incredible number of mistakes and typos especially in the calculation of subnet masking. I went round in circles and wasted so much time trying to figure out why I could never get a question correct. I think this book has a second edition that I hope is better. Avoid this book and you will be a much happier person.

OK! I know there are a lot of mistakes...especially for the beginner like me...I am really confused by this book because of its unnecessary mistakes...but, I really like the chapter 2...it's very easy to understand the ARP...IP or ICMP..However, I got confused on the chapter 5 with the wrong route table...Man, I hope it would be better when it come to the second edition!

I am using this book to upgrade my TCP/IP 3.5 to TCP/IP 4.0. I am already a CNE, NCIP, and MCSE. I'm working towards my MCSE+I. This book is a first print (or close to) of a TECHNICAL book. It will have errors! On New Riders' web site, they have a page with corrections which you can print out. I used these corrections as I went through the book. The CONTENT of this book is great and on target. I give four stars because I know from my past education, experience and my knowledge of what is expected on the exam that is book is key! Minus one star for the errors which DON'T affect the content due to the corrections page, but hopefully will be gone in the next print. MCP Magazine also did ratings on the best TCP/IP study book and THIS BOOK WON!

It seems like that most readers who try to understand Balthasar might want to have a structural grasp of his aesthetic-dramatic-logic trilogy in his own words. However, the selections are presented in traditional Catholic categories of God, Jesus, Church etc. which usually cannot easily convey the main thrust of the theologian's project. I bought this book together with Edward Oakes' and I found myself spending all my time reading Oakes' intro rather than this reader. This book is a complete disappointment for me.

In its original German, this book filled an essential need among the reading public. Unfortunately, the English version hobbled itself with a clumsy translation, one that a general reader unfamiliar with the Tuetonic style of the translators will have trouble deciphering. Moreover, the translators also decided to drop several of the essays, under the pretext (in the 1980's!) that some of those essays would "soon" be appearing in English. But by now, that is true of almost all of the selections chosen in the Reader. And yet, the presence of essays and selections scattered all over the place is precisely the readon for a Reader in the first place! Now the publishers have brought out the book again, unchanged and still truncated and abridged. The introductory essay is worth reading, but the the reading public would be better advised to read some of Balthasar's own shorter works that summarize his thought rather than trying to make sense of this densely and woodenly translated Reader.