The movie " In A Childs Name" was the best movie that I have ever saw. It brought back memories of what happened to my sister. Now I have ideas to help my nephew.

This poor girl should have gotten out of this awful marriage. It showed how close to her family she was and at what lenghts family will go to to do the right thing. The book presented how strong and what great character her sister had.I have met her sister on several occasions and she is nice,kind and sweet. How this family can go on the way they do is an inspiration to others.

If you saw the TV-movie of IN A CHILD'S NAME (starring Valerie Bertinelli), it didn't tell half the story of wife-murderer Ken Taylor, his child-stealing parents, and their accomplices, of whom some were unwitting. With this book author Peter Maas raises the stakes for true-crime writing. Read IN A CHILD'S NAME!

Peter Maas is a good, solid writer. This is the book that was the basis of the TV movie starring Valerie Bertinelli. However, there is much more detail in the book. For example, there is more of the background of the victim and the dentist/murderer. It also seems that the victim did use cocaine, although Maas does strees that it was only "recreational." (???--what is recreational?) Also, he admits that he beat her up in Mexico. It's a page burner.

I saw the 1991 miniseries of "In A Child's Name" before I had ever read the book, and I must say that, in both cases, I was saddened and angered at the murder of a beautiful, innocent mother and also by the manipulation of an innocent child, who was ultimately the real victim, along with his mother. Ultimately, however, I was moved by the family's coming together to raise the baby boy left by his loving mother and cold-hearted father. The book does go deeper into the horror of what happened after the young mother's murder than the miniseries. However, both tell the tragic but ultimately uplifting story about abuse, murder, cold-hearted manipulation, and ultimate strength and love.

Entralling from the first page to the last. If you've seen the movie, DEFINATELY read the book. Michael Ontkean's portrayal of Ken Taylor is terrific. Being from Indina, I was especially interested due to the custody battle that came as a result of Taylor bludgeoning his wife to death. The fact that this story is true is what makes it so horrible. My heart ached, not only for the child, but for Teresa's family members who were put through not only having to deal with her murder, but the idea of her child being in the custody of Ken Taylor's parents. Louise Fletcher, who plays Ken Taylor's mother gives a chilling reference to a mother turning a ridiculously blind eye to the fact that her son was a manipulative cold blooded murderer with very strange sexual appetites (records indicated that calls were made from the scene of the murder to 900-sex lines while Teresa lay dead on the floor). A chilling account.

The methods in this book work - we've proved it! Hundreds of people in my practice and in workshops have learned to heal their own pain with one or more of the simple, time tested methods described in this book. If you are ready to get rid of your headache I recommend this little book to open doors of relief for you and your loved ones. I wish you the best of health and success! Paula Maas, DO

I'd like to begin by saying that Serpico is a very great man. Without question he is one of my heroes. I respect his complete integrity. I think this book should be required reading. It shows the importance of integrity. However, I have one major criticism of the book. When Peter Maas wrote it, he had his own agenda. He wrote the book after he wrote The Valachi Papers. Valachi placed Italian-Americans in a negative light. So Maas wanted to focus on an extremely positive American of Italian descent. The only problem is that he did so at the cost of giving fair credit to other people who were involved. In the book and film, Serpico's former friend, David Durk, is reduced to a very secondary role. In fact, the book suggests that Durk's reasons for fighting corruption alongside Serpico are politically motivated. I've read other books about Serpico and Durk. Serpico was certainly incorruptible and a paragon of virtue. However, he would not have gone to the Knapp Commission if Durk had not persuaded him to do so. The two fought corruption together. A proper book would have been entitled SERPICO AND DURK. Maas story is quite exciting. Serpico was very much a street cop. Durk, on the other hand, although equally incorruptible, was a desk cop. They are both men of the highest caliber, and both deserve equal praise. Although I'm disappointed about the treatment of Durk, I still think Serpico is must reading. (P.S. Amazon, you should refer readers to Durk's biography, which is entitled CRUSADER. It's certainly not nearly as exciting as SERPICO, but Serpico does play a large part in the book.

"Serpico" is a powerful piece of reporting by Peter Maas, one of the best true crime writers in America. Hard to believe that the events of this book occurred thrity-odd years ago. The tales of corruption in the New York City police department could have come from the headlines of any big city newspaper today. Maas's genius is how he puts you with his subject to the extent that you are not even aware that he's guiding you through the story. Anyone with an interest in law enforcement should read this book and take it for what it is, a warning against the temptations of the job. As such, it is far from comforting.

Peter Maas artistically tells a story of a man who always wanted to be a "good cop." Unfortunately, the dream is shattered when Frank Serpico confronts wide-spread corruption in the NYC Police Department. The famous Knapp Commission is a result of Serpico's complaints about corruption on the force.

Unfortunately, Peter Maas's story could be told about many large urban police departments. Make no mistake about it, corruption, bigotry, and racism are all a part of law enforcement. It was the case back in the 60's - 70's, and it is still the case today. Consequently, Peter Maas's story about "one good cop" fighting a sea of corruption is still relevant today.

The story drags at times. But, otherwise, it is quick reading. It is definitely a story that needs to be read. Hence, I recommend this book. Police corruption is still a current topic. But, more importantly, Serpico's story is one of hope. At least there is "one good cop" out there trying to make a difference. And, knowing this, has made a difference in the way I view law enforcement professionals. That is, they are not all bad.

This is a well written book.I only noticed some minor things I did not like. If you like books about Italians who are criminals this is the one for you. Serpico was great also

I dont read much as I find books get boring after about half way through. I read this entire book within a week and never got boring.

This is great book Mr.Maas has written.It takes you into the underworld like few have since.With Joe Valachi's words.He tells the story of the birth of the underworld as we know it today.How it was organized into families.What rackets he was involed in and how he worked day to day in his crew.

Richard F. Newcomb's "Abandon Ship!" succeeds in its primary goals of sifting through the reasons behind the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during the last days of World War II, and attempting to get behind the Navy's assignment of blame immediately afterward. Newcomb, a naval war correspondent, uses the reporter's tactics of extensive interviews and thorough research of unclassified documents to succinctly lay out his case for what happened and why.

In July, 1945 a Japanese submarine torpedoed the cruiser Indianapolis with almost 1,200 sailors on board. Eight hundred men made it off the ship, but when recovered four days later, only 300 of the crew were still alive. Five hundred men died of shark attacks, exhaustion, dehydration, drowning, and other conditions related to exposure. The ship's commander, Capt McVay, survived to face court martial charges for actions allegedly contributing to the loss of his ship. The Navy even called the Japanese submarine commander that sank the ship to testify against Captain McVay. This was the only time a ship's captain was court martialed for losing a ship in wartime. After the court martial, the Department of the Navy also publicly assigned blame to other Naval personnel, who weren't even previously considered, for failing to report the nonarrival of the Indianapolis into Leyte. The Navy never admitted to the gaping hole in its policy that allowed the nonarrival of a major vessel to literally "slip" beyond notice. This failure to check up on the ship's nonarrival contributed to the majority of the Indianapolis' crew dying through exposure and shark attacks. The men were in the water for four days until a US plane sighted them by chance. No resuce efforts were launched until then. The architects of this policy were the Navy's highest ranking officers, and they weren't ever considered for punishment.

Newcomb succeeds in piecing together the roles of several dozen key participants in the tragedy to explain what happened and why. His long experience with military organizations also enables Newcomb to translate the events for the lay reader. The book does suffer in its narrative prose at times due to Newcomb's colorful and fanciful phrasing, but in key passages it soars. Newcomb weaves over a dozen different perspectives of the sinking by crewmen in various parts of the ship to paint a vivd picture of what the ordeal was like. He also captures the atmosphere of Captain McVay's court martial and puts it in context with the average American's view of the sinking. At these times, the book crackles with tension. Newcomb's description of the sailors' ordeal in the water is lacking some realistic details, probably in deference to readers' sensibilities. After all, Newcomb wrote this only 13 years after the sinking. Many relatives and loved ones were still alive, and perhaps he wished to spare them anything graphic.

Newcomb has clearly done his homework through countless interviews and exhaustive research. However, his access to Navy records was severly limited due to the relative freshness of these events in the public and the Pentagon's eye. With over 50 years between the sinking and now, the story of the Indianpolis bears a second look.

Until then, this books still stands as an informative and riveting work.

H.R. 4205, the National Defense Authorization Act, contains these words, "Captain McVay's military record should now reflect that he is exonerated for the loss of the USS INDIANAPOLIS and the lives of her crew." On July 13, 2001, Navy Secretary Gordon English placed the exoneration in Captain McVay's jacket, albeit, slightly a little late. Captain McVay took his own life in 1968. Mr. Newcomb combines the talents of historian, author, and sleuth, and he writes in an interesting style in that his historical characters become alive. It should be noted that forty years ago, he wrote another masterpiece entitled "Savo: the Incredible Naval Debacle off Guadalcanal." Despite its unwieldy title, it proved fascinating reading for a young lad, and it was recalled thirty-six years later and formed a basis for my work entitled "The Bode Testament" which can be found on this site. Thank you, Mr. Publisher, for bringing back "Abandon Ship," a must read. Recommended works would, of course, include Newcomb's "Savo," but would also, include Bruce Loxton's "The shame [sic] of Savo, "The Bode Testament," and the Warners' "Disaster in the Pacific."

What an awesome story! I very rarely read anything with military themes, but on a lark I picked up a copy of Abandon Ship! during a trip to the local public library, thinking I'd try it, but I probably wouldn't make it through the entire book. On the contrary, once I started the book, I couldn't put it down until I had read every word, including the afterward and the appendices, lingering over the roster of survivors. The book is a gripping and troubling tale of the loss of the USS Indianapolis to Japanese torpedos at the end of WWII, the Navy's failure to make any attempt to rescue the crewmembers for over four days, and the Navy's subsequent efforts to place all the blame for the incident on the shoulders of the Indianapolis's Commanding Officer, Charles McVay III, in order to avoid revealing the many blunders and oversights that led to the sinking and the grossly delinquent rescue effort (drunken officers ignoring SOS calls, failure to inform McVay of submarine threats, failure to track ship movement . . .) I was apalled that certain Navy brass would be so nonchalant about the Indianapolis's situation and that certain Navy brass compromise all integrity by punishing McVay for a trumped-up nonsense charge of failure to steer a zigzag course, in order to keep their own naval records unblemished. Even more unthinkable is the fact that the Navy called an unwilling but necessarily cooperative Commander Hashimoto, the captain of the Japanese submarine that sank the Indianapolis, to testify against McVay at his courtmartial. The book ultimately hints that the courtmartial of Captain McVay was an act of Admiral King, who was using the courtmartial of McVay to seek revenge against McVay's father, Admiral Charles McVay II, who had formally reprimanded King for an incident involving bringing women into unauthorized spaces when King was a junior officer under the senior McVay's command.

As an added bonus, the 2001 edition of the book contains a foreward and afterword that discuss the efforts of Hunter Scott, a schoolboy who took on the task of exonerating Captain McVay as a school history project aftrer hearing about the incident in the movie Jaws.

I recommend this highly to anyone who thinks that miltary brass always does the right thing. Many do, but the handful that do not can cause one to lose all faith in the system. Fortunately, a young schoolboy was able to vindicate Captain McVay four decades after the incident.

Being intombed on a disabled submarine, with your air slowly becoming more and more poisonous with each breath you exhale, has to be one of the most frighting ways to die imaginable. Recent events aboard the Russian sub Kursk have brought to life a largely forgotten similar story of the USS Squalus in May of 1939. The story of the Squalus which has a somewhat a happier ending is detaled in this stunnig and compelling book by Peter Maas."The Terrble hours" is a detailed account of Charles Memsen a dedicated submariner who could only stand by helplessly when a sub was disabled years earlier codeming all aboard to a slow death. Memsen, moved by the experience devised plans as well as the equipment to rescue submariners trapped under water all the while having to also fight the navy buracracy."The Terrible Hours" is a well written true story how one brave individual can make a difference. This story could also make a great movie. Some pictures and or drawings to help the reader understand the layout of the Squalus as well as the equipment used in the rescue would have been helpful but otherwise this is an excellent book highly recomended

If you followed the Russian submarine incident with interest, you must read Peter Maas' book "Terrible Hours". In the year 2000, Russian submariners perished while the whole world watched and waited. In the year 1939, an American submarine, disabled and sitting on the bottom in 250 feet of water, was located and its crew rescued, thanks to the determination and guts of one Swede Momsen.

Maas does an excellent job bringing to light the early days of American submarine warfare and his portrayal of the pioneer days of underwater rescue is fascinating.

The US Navy wasn't very kind to Momsen in his day. Maas notes that Momsen's efforts to develop and test rescue techniques and equipment were actually frowned upon by the brass. Momsen's accomplishments were achieved mainly on the sly and at great personal and professional risk.

"Terrible Hours" is truly a must read, not only for those interested in submarines and submarine history, but for anyone moved by the gripping human drama of crewmen trapped on the ocean floor, waiting, waiting for that tap on the hull.

If I did not know that this was a true story, I would have believed that Peter Maas wrote a great fiction submarine novel. What the men of the Squalus endured on that submarine, coupled with the genius of Momsen's rescue inventions and the efforts of the Falcon crew, made a gripping true story tale.

Peter Maas summed it up best when he referenced to Momsen as a modern era hero. The battles that he fought to overcome the status quo of the Navy with respect to submarine warfare; both in his rescue operations and his WWII or post-WWII efforts, truly render him such.

Peter Maas' retelling of the story of the Squalus is a short read, but well worth it. If you enjoyed Hunt for Red October, you will love this book. And this one is real.

Perhaps the publisher or Peter Maas was trying to do something new to appeal to the public. By selectively editing interviews this book is written in the prose of Sammy the Bull's slang and jargon, fragmented sentences, non-sequiturs, and poor train of thought. I didn't finish the book. To all others, in my humble opinion it's not worth starting.

Many reviewers have compared this work to Nicholas Pileggi's fine book "Wiseguy" (which was the basis for the movie "GoodFellas"). And rightfully so. "Wiseguy" concerned real life crime figure Henry Hill and how he eventually turned government informant against the mob. "Underboss" likewise tells the tale of a mobster turned informant, except this time the stool pigeon, Sammy Gravano, is a capo (and later a consigliere) in the Gambino crime family, and the mafioso he fingers is none other than John Gotti himself.

As you might expect, "Underboss" is a fascinating read. (Author Peter Maas previously wrote the books "Serpico" and "The Valachi Papers", among others, so he knows how to tell a good crime story). Gravano does not portray himself as a saint. He candidly reveals in horrifying (though not gory) detail crimes he committed in the mob, including some nineteen murders and literally hundreds of burglaries, armed robberies, and kickback/extortion plots. All the major New York crime bosses of the time (Carlo Gambino, Joe Columbo, Paul Castellano, Vincent Gigante, and of course Gotti) figure in the proceedings, as Gavano had dealings with them and others, as well.

Unlike some true crime books where you end up skipping chapters to get to the "good stuff", this book was gripping every step of the way. So much so that I ended reading it cover to cover, all 301 pages, in less than a week. If you're looking for a good insider's book on the Mafia, this is it.

I really enjoyed the behind the scenes look into one of the largest New York crime families that this book gave! The most difficult part about the book is trying to distinguish between fact and Sammy Gravan's version of things. He is thought of as a heartless thug. In the book he seems to be a fairly likable guy who took advantage of the glamourous life of a mobster.

I understand he is now out of the witness-protection program. Don't know how he is still around.

This book brings to life the continuing Irish struggle by examining the deaths of 10 men who lived their lives for a peace finally in the grasp of the Irish today. It clearly demonstrates the humanity and depth of courage these souls had, as well as the trials and indignities of life as a political prisoner in a criminal's cell.

The primary source for the narration of this account is the writings of the prisoners themselves, smuggled out of their cells by visitors and compatriots. The words could not ring any truer and cannot be doubted. This is one of the best first hand accounts of the modern Irish Republican struggle.

I've done quite a bit of reading on the 1981 hunger strike and have seen propaganda at its absolute worst. Various accounts available on the web are so ridiculously one-sided (usually in favor of the hunger strikers) it makes even me, an Irish-American Catholic, laugh out loud. This book was actually very striking in its in-depth research, which makes quite an effort to get to the truth of the matter. The author used actual communications from the prisoners (written on cigarette or toliet paper, wrapped in "saran wrap" and smuggled out in the rectum or hidden in the foreskin of the penis) to reveal real issues.

Many of the "secrets" revealed are actually not in favor of the IRA at all. For example, the end of the 1980 hunger strike was a huge error, which the IRA tried to cover up by pretending that the British government had offered concessions. Doesn't sound like propaganda to me!

Indeed, I doubt if "unenlightened" read the book at all. His crass comment about "weight watcher of the year" would imply that he has no grasp of the true nature of this issue.

Excellent book---I highly reccommend it for anyone even vaguely curious about Ireland, the strike, POWs or civil rights.

Social protest takes many forms. Some simply write letters. Some picket, or go on strike, risking their jobs. Some even go on a hunger strike for a few days.

The ten members of the IRA whose story is told (in incredibly moving detail) in this book take social protest to a level most of us are not familiar with. They quite literally agreed to sacrifice their lives...not in one fell swoop (like those who set themselves on fire), but in a slow, agonizing death drawn out over many weeks.

This is true dedication to a cause. Having read the book, one is tempted to view all other social protests as half-hearted. Of course, their protest only made sense because of the mass organization and widespread support the strikers had, both inside the prison and on the street. Bobby sands was actually elected to Parliment while dying!

Anyone who wants to learn about what it takes to effect change, and the pitfalls of adopting such radical tactics, must read this book.