This anthology consists of a novel (Drum Beat - Dominique) and several short stories all written in the 1960s. All the short stories are well written enhancing the image of Chet Drum as a no nonsense private investigator who cares for his clients.

Drum Beat - Dominique. Government "ghoul" Jack Morley looks like the pits when old friend Chet Drum meets with him in Paris. Jack explains that he no longer is a State Department VIP having fallen from grace following a divorce. He works for the Army Adjutant General determining whether World War II MIAs are dead though two decades have passed. However, his problem is that US Senator Clay Bundy accuses him of blackmail and threatens to have him killed if he fails to back off. Jack wants Chet to inform the senator he is not blackmailing him. Chet tells that to the Senator and persuades him to hire him to learn who is even while someone murders Jack. Great tale that fans of tough intelligent, but concerned sleuths will relish so much they will seek other works by Stephen Marlowe.

This is the reviewer's first taste of Mr. Marlowe (finally reprints besides Dickens in which I was too young to have read the first time around) and can say the author lives up to his surname. Drum sleuths to his own beat; he is a strong private investigator, who hooks the audience in each tale, short or long.

Harriet Klausner

A very clever novel which neatly compasses epic historical fresco, philosophical thoughts and almost devilish satire in the form of Christopher Columbus' "autobiography". We'll follow Columbus' tragicomical life from early childhood to an old age, while we witness his successes and failures, sea voyages and love affairs. The book is full of anachronisms (for example, Columbus constantly mocks or comments his latter-day biographers) and all kinds of literary novelties. Despite the abundant humour and sometimes plain wackiness, the book also offers a very humane and touching description of an era which saw, among other things, the horrors of Spanish inquisition, slavery and subjugation of Indians.

Mr. Marlowe's autobiography of Cervantes is stylistically very much the same thing.

This picaresque novel is a sweeping historical/satircal/mock autobiography that should please readers with different interests. Marlowe's novel is a well researched historical story that shows the tensions bewtween the uper and lower class Spaniards as well as the stuggles among Christinas, Muslims and Jews. These stuggles are highlighted by the section devoted to the Algerian prison. marlowe deftly blends in satire throughout the novel whose targets include literary critics, Lope de Vega, Christopher Marlowe and even William Shakespeare. In addition to these two aspects, and most importantly, this is the life of Miguel de Cervantes, told to us by the writer himself. Marlowe traces Cervantes's life and stuggles in a smooth narrative that never loses pace. Cervantes becomes a tangible character who is passionate, depressed, humorous, bitter and ultimately successful. This novel becomes a highly accesible (auto)biography that combines illusion and historical fact with well formed assumptions about Cervantes's life. The only short coming of the novel is Marlowe's hinting at some keen philosophy on writing but not carrying it through to any conclusion. Cervantes (Marlowe) should be more complete in his discussions on the creative process and substance of quality literature. This is a fine novel that should be read by anyone with an interest in Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Manch or the European Renaissance.

One of the best books I've ever read - it has humor, intelligence, and imagination - all woven together into a magnificent story that captures the reader from the very first sentence.

Passionate, intelligent, lively, rich, complex and light at the same time, this book doesn't look to give answers, just a story...stories...requires a reader with the capacity to feel and think independently...if you need someone to hold your hand read Lope.

It's a multifaceted adventure (the reading of it) fun and touching.

Edgar Allen Poe is a very eccentric and dark writer. Most of his writings have to do with lots of drama; therefore some of them are murder stories. He uses very big words, and most of his sentences are very poetic. He brought his nightmare-visions to vivid, dramatic life in his classic tales. This book brings out some of his darkest and richest thoughts.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was a story of two ladies that lived in a house and kept to themselves. None of their neighbors knew who they were. They had their groceries and other things brought straight to the house. They never came out. One day all of the neighbors heard terrible screams coming from the house. They broke in to find out what had happened. When they were finally in, they ran up the stairs to find the house a complete mess. It appeared that someone was looking for something. The neighbors found the daughter shoved up the chimney. She was dead of coarse. The mother was found outside, and she was dead also. The whole neighborhood was trying to find who had done it.

I thought that this book might be more for an older generation that would love to read very poetic stories. I personally didn't care for the book that much, because of his style of writing poetry. It was very hard to understand some sentences and I had to read them twice. Some of Poe's stories are well based and have a good plot. If you are a well educated person, you may like this book.

The Fall of the House of Usher was a dark, morbid, and absolutely creepy short story. It's a tale about a visit to the decaying House of Usher, a house haunted by the Ushers' past evil. In the end, their evil past ultimately becomes to great for the house to hold. Of course some might not agree with me; the story is up to a good deal of interpetation. The story emphasizes the gloomy, foreboding, atmosphere with great detail that never becomes too tiresome. The suspense was excellant. At the climax the reader is given hints at what is to happen, but still the reader is forced to hold his or her breath until it finally falls through. As in most short stories, the actual climax and resolution seemed to be too shortly written. Thus leaving the reader wishing for more detail and depth. The rest of the stories in this book weren't nearly as good, but still they had the gloomy suspense and horror associated with Poe.

Poe truly travels into the dark night of the soul. I first became acquainted with the works of Poe in my ninth grade honors English class. I've been wondering about Poe ever since. I have gotten a morbid sense of humor and laughed aloud at some of the stories, but of nothing evil. The book arranges Poe's works rather well, beginning with stories of being at sea and each story progresses into something deeper. The Pit and the Pendulum, the Mask of the Red Death, the Black Cat, were all good. One can never forget Dupin. That's some wild psychology there, but it worked. I'm just beginning my sojourn into the works of Poe (that stuff they gave me in high school English classes just wasn't enough). These stories haven't made me scared yet.

Great book. A bit slow at first, hard to get into I think. As you read it more though, the book begins to develop around you and draw you in. I enjoyed it greatly. Being able to walk in Poe's footsteps, see through his eyes, you begin to wonder and imagine that you are Poe. The sheer historical and visual aspect of it is enough to capture the imagination and intrigue of anyone.

I found the book hard to follow, and yet by the end I was strangely drawn to it - its bewildering account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe. I plan to hang on to my copy and reread it later, if anything, just to figure out the plot(s).

THIS WAS AN ATTEMPT BY BALLANTINE BOOKS TO COMPETE WITH THE NEWLY SUCCESSFUL STEPHEN KING.MARLOWE IS A LITTLE TOO HEAVY WITH ALL THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISATIONS HERE,AND SHOULD HAVE PROVIDED MORE SHOCKS INSTEAD. THIS HAS A FEW GOOD,SCARY MOMENTS BUT MOST HORROR READERS WILL BE DISAPPOINTED.BY THE WAY, THIS IS ABOUT THE HAVOC BROUGHT UPON A SMALL TOWN WHEN A PAINTING WITH SUPERNATURAL POWERS ARRIVES THERE.THIS PLOT SEEMS A LITTLE DONE TO DEATH 25 YEARS AFTER THIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED[AS FAR AS I KNOW THIS HAS BEEN OUT OF PRINT FOR YEARS].

This book is very poorly edited. The code snippets are wrong in many cases and even whole diagrams are incorreclt labeled. Moreover, even some of the errata on the website is wrong. Items promised on the accompanying CD are not delivered with the book. The practice tests cover questions not even addressed in the text.

Before I read these reviews I sent a email to New Riders describing the problems I had with the CD and asking if there were any bug fixes. They told me they had never heard of the problem, to try the cd on another machine and that the book was no longer covered by their support agreement anyway. The exam is still valid, so why isn't the book? Luckily I have used Access for a long time and could spot the errors, but a beginner is likely to get very confused. Use with caution.

This could be a really good book, but its content needs to be proofread on a technical level to correct some inaccuracies and contradictions. Its review questions are especially confusing; whole sections of code involved in the question often appear in a completely different question. Many code snippets throughout this book contain syntactical errors (missing or extraneous parenthesis, etc.), demonstrating that the code was never actually run before being included. Much of the text is well-written, and the book has rounded out my knowledge of Access quite satisfactorily, but after noticing the high level of errors, I don't feel inspired with confidence that I will ace this exam.