After spending literally thousands of hours reading true crime books, I can say that this is the real thing. I was absolutely thrilled to see that it is available because I am going to make it required reading for the students in my Criminal Investigation classes! They may grumble at first about having another book to read, but when they start on "The Evidence Never Lies", they'll not want to put it down!

As the spouse of an award-winning crime reporter, we found "The Evidence Never Lies" to be a compelling, thought-provoking analysis of the incredible career of Herbert MacDonell. For those whose careers focus on crime, crime buffs, and seekers of great reading, this is a must-buy.

I first found this book in 1992...and it changed my life. I am not kidding. Because of this book, I went on to studying serial killers, profiling and forensics...I was a paralegal major before that. The Evidence Never Lies is one of those treasures that should not be lost....never mind out of print!! I searched for it to see if there were a newer edition; I cannot believe it is out of print. Please Mr. MacDonell, write another like it. It is truly great

Peter Bogdanovich has written a book that is for the movie enthusiast. I suspect the general reader may find some of the interviewees obscure, and the topics technical. I feel that is their loss. For the student of film or film history, this is a treasure trove of information, ideas, experiences, and feelings about films taken from interviews with some of the most distinguished directors in movie history. The author's selection is not encyclopedic, but the directors' experience spans from the earliest years of silent film to the present. These men are not just informative, but their strong and distinctive personalities show in each interview, giving the sense that one has actually met and understood many of them. Some of the interviews are brief, or even very idiosyncratic, but the best are delightfully personal. This is a long book, but affords many pleasant evenings of good conversation. It also makes one want to go back and see the films again!

Peter Bogdanovich pioneered the director interview in English, and this wonderful collection will give endless pleasure to film buffs. The book-length interview with Allan Dwan alone is worth the price of admission. Bogdanovich always did vast amounts of study before sitting down to talk with his subjects, and his expertise and enthusiasm encouraged them to open up in a way they usually did not with other interviewers. Anyone writing about the careers of the directors Bogdanovich interviews has to start with his work on them. A fitting companion piece is Bogdanovich's encyclopedic interview book "This Is Orson Welles."

The title was suggested by Howard Hawks who once observed, "...I liked almost anybody that made you realize who in the devil was making the picture...Because the director's the storyteller and should have his own method of telling it." Hawks is one of the 16 "legendary film directors" represented in this volume. It is important to keep in mind that these are conversations rather than interviews such as those conducted by Robert J. Emery in The Directors: Take One and its sequel, The Directors Take Two, as well as interviews conducted by Richard Schickel in The Men Who Made the Movies. It is also worth noting that Bogdanovich is himself a distinguished director of films such as The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?, They All Laughed (a personal favorite of mine), and Texasville. As a result of his own background, Bogdanovich's questions and comments reflect somewhat different interests and perspectives than do those of Emery and Schickel.

I rate all of these books Five Stars but probably enjoyed reading Bogdanovich's book the most because the conversations ramble along somewhat messily, as most of my own conversations tend to do, and also because Bogdanovich is more actively involved in the interaction than Emery and Schickel are. As a reader, I feel as if I were really an eavesdropper as 16 directors casually share their opinions, information about specific films and actors, gossip, "war stories," and overall evaluations of their careers' various successes and failures. At no time does Bogdanovich seem intrusive or manipulative. Moreover, perhaps to an extent he did not realize when writing this book, he also reveals a great deal about himself...much of it endearing and some of it admirable. His passion for film making and his appreciation of the great directors are almost palpable. Readers' interests about various directors and their respective films obviously vary. I include myself among those who are die-hard film buffs and so I enjoyed reading every chapter and every word in each chapter. Indeed, each conversation was for this amateur "gourmet" a feast to be consumed with delight and, yes, gratitude.

As a voracious reader of everything, but especially social history and even more of olde new york, I was so excited to discover this book. But, it is hard to plow through the verbiage, repetition, and confusion of this book. Each of these woman could have been the subject of her own book and Lewis has done little in the first three quarters to give us anything so we may understand connections that merit their lives being twined together in this fashion. Also, Lewis has tried hard to develop mystery and suspense where there doesn't need to be any - these ladies are great just the way they are, the endless foreshadowing, broad hinting and leaving a story just when it gets interesting is rather silly. The author has obviously done detailed research, but I found it confusing enough to have to jump back and forth between the narratives about the four subjects, but threw up my hands as chapter after chapter began with three pages on someone new who turned out to be the sister or next door neighbor of one of the subjects. Whew, I finally deconstructed the thing by reading each woman's story through by picking it out of the morass. What a shame, because these are interesting women.

Each of these women could easily have had their own biography, but the author does a pretty good job of covering all four, their relationships with their world and each other. This book is a bit disorganized, but once you sort out the characters, this is a wonderful view of four outstanding women and their world.

Thank you Alfred Allan Lewis for creating a book of these spirited women who were the backbone of New York City, American society and worldwide. They are invisible in our history books, but thanks to you and your accuracy for facts their spirit remains alive!

These women influenced their power, money, political and social status to unite and heal mankind. I should know, I was there........to carry on, and say every "Queen" to there own home..