If you think this is an above average novelization,the fact that "Jack Martin" is actually horror writer Dennis Etchison has a lot to do with it. Etchison even adds a few scenes either never in the film or that were cut out. Great movie,great book!

I read this book in about a week. It only has 228 pages. I ended up liking it. It is slightly better than the movie, but it missing some good action scenes. It goes into more details about each character. examples: Dan Challis' depressing life, and Ellie's childhood. The gory scenes are described up to the fullest. Jack Martin, the author, also wrote Halloween II. His work is similar in this one. As I said before, this book is a little better than the movie, but it missing some exciting action scenes from the movie. Other than that, it is a good read.

Dennis Etchison, once again writing under the pseudonym of "Jack Martin", does a fine job novelizing the illogical but fun, Michael Myerless Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Unlike his more pedestrian work on the Halloween II novelization, Etchison, as he did with The Fog, expands upon the narrative, digs deeper in the main character's personal problems (his drinking and failed marriage) and attempts to fix some of the film's countless story problems (i.e. with time zones, conspiracy etc). He piles on the creepy, shadow drenched atmosphere as well. The novelization also contains a few in-joke references to The Fog as well as the unrelated Halloween films. Carpenter and Etchison fans will find plenty to like in this overlooked oddity. Recommended.

I just got back from two weeks in the Netherlands on my own, one week of which I spent in Amsterdam. I carried this book with me as I went and consulted it a lot. It helped me decide which coffeeshops to visit, pointing me away from high-neon blaring tourist traps to fun little places like Rusland and the Grey Area. It helped me find restaurants. I liked the neighborhood-by-neighborhood maps. And I loved the glossary of Dutch food terms! The history of Amsterdam in this book felt vibrant and alive, unlike the bowdlerized version given in the Lonely Planet guide. (Compare the descriptions of the Lieverdje and the Provos to see what the LP guide leaves out.) Good guidebook. Thumbs up!

If you are looking for a book that will tell you everything you ever needed to know about Amsterdam...look no farther. I have been to Amsterdam three times before, but I never knew there was so much to see, or the history about the places there. This book combines everything. It has great maps, good directions, and colorful historical information. No one would be lost or at a loss of things to do with this book. A must for any traveler going to Amsterdam.

Easily the best travel guide to Amsterdam and one of the best travel guides I've used. Rough Guides always pack a lot of information and this edition is no different. From how to use the trams to an informative historical backround section, this guide can not be beat.

Mississippi native Hegwood paints a seedy picture of the New Orleans and Bay St. Louis/Waveland, Mississippi area, but this is an enjoyable private investigator story--the mystery and P.I. Jack Delmas strike me as what "Miami Vice" would have been were it set in this area. Hegwood is from the Mississippi Coast, and his descriptions are fond and deadly accurate. A fine start to what will hopefully be a successful career.

As a South Louisiana native, and a big J.L. Burke fan, I have to say I rather enjoyed the "trip" to the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a refreshing change of pace! Lots of familiar locales, esp. the reference to the "White Kitchen". part of my childhood! While Hegwood does not have the fluid, descriptive passages that are so much a part of Burke's writing, I enjoyed his fast-paced story, and apparent knowledge of all things "New Orleans" and the area around it!! I haven't heard "Chef Mentour Hwy" in YEARS!!!! A good read!!!

I thought this book was an excellently written example of a well-thought out murder mystery that has a lot of real-life humor and characters. The characters are as diverse and entertaining as you would meet in any well-known author's novels. Hegwood is a must read !!!

A disappointing third entry in this series. A new character and good action in the first chapter and a big pause for the rest of the book. The villain and his motives are obvious long before our two heroes catch on. Let's hope for better the next time.

The novel starts with a 40-page out-of-place chapter as PI Jack Delmas and Sheriff's Deputy Jimbo McInnis spend a night on the town. Jimbo majored in football at Mississippi State University where he was a starting lineman. After drinking tequila shooters, Jimbo has a way of picking fights, e.g., going into a redneck bar filled with Univ. of Alabama fans and criticizing Bear Bryant's trademark hat ("What French Quarter queer joint you reckon he was cruising when he found that..."). The next morning he can't remember the brawl, doesn't know why he has a sore foot and mud all over his pickup, and he has a massive hangover.

The story then flashes back to the start when Jack was hired by a woman to determine why her daughter, along with three other young people, was murdered in a summer cabin on Dauphine Island. Matters are complicated when Jack's ex-wife runs her mouth about Jack's case. She only told her friend on Dauphine Island, but that was like telling the tabloids. Jack receives a death threat before he half begins his inquiries. The 220 pages following Chapter One are divided into 26 additional chapters.

The case involves possible smuggling, sports betting, environmental fanatics, various local watering holes with hard-drinking pool-playing rednecks, and assorted women (Jimbo is usually on the prowl). The reader learns various details about Jack's past life, and his incompatibility with his ex-wife - their preferred lifestyles are a mismatch (he was from a family of shrimpers and boat builders and played baseball at Ole Miss, she was a Rebelette from a cotton-planting banking family in higher society). Jack's ex- is jealous of the new women in his life, particularly if they have a bigger bust than she has.

The novel has an interesting plot, and contains helpful maps of Dauphine Island and the Mobile County, Alabama area. It will probably be of particular interest to people familiar with the Gulf Coast.

If you are new to Martin Hegwood, this is where to start. Other novels in the series are better than fair and worth the time( I prefer Green-Eyed Hurricane), but the necessary set-up information is here. Jack Delmas, divorced drop-out banker, private eye ( why are these P.I.s always retreads?) mixes with smugglers and bombers in an island setting in the company of a good ole boy "bubba" deputy sheriff with a high wheeled, swamp truck. Tavern brawls, parties with Jack's ex-wife's pre face lift crowd, and a next door group of costal undergraduates on weekend binge duty spice up an island inspired plot. This is a quick read, traditional who done what, that moves to a neatly prepared conclusion. Perfect book for a long plane ride or day at the beach.

This novelization of the mediocre sequel to one of the most successful independent horror movies of all time is a mixed bag. It is filled with spooky, late night atmosphere and tries hard to build tension and suspense from the filmsy story delivered by screenwriters John Carpenter and Debra Hill. On some levels it does succeed where the movie failed in sustaining suspense and atmosphere, but the lack of a strong story to anchor the events renders the chills meaningless. Jack Martin is a pseudonym for Dennis Etchison, who wrote the excellent novelization of Carpenter's ghost story classic The Fog.

This novel, the adaptation of the horror film, was quite a fine read.

The story: The continuation of part one, right from the second that it ended. The shape, Michael Myers, murdered several teenagers after escaping from a mental assylum the night before. He now follows the sole survivor to the hospital where she is brought. His psychiatrist, Sam Loomis, is hot on his trail.

The characters were extreamely believable and easy to relate to. The drugged up Laurie running from the killer. The psychiatrist slowly going mad in his quest to stop a patient. An unenthusiatic skeleton crew at a nearly abandoned hospital. All were handled well.

The author's prose was excelent. He went into fine detail throughout the novel, giving it a more believable feel. Unfortunately, this detail does not apply to the last few chapters. They seem rather hurried, as if the author just wanted to finish.

The terror, the violence, the suspense...all will appeal to readers whether a fan of the film series or not.

I can hear the eerie John Carpenter theme now. This book was actually cool. I've read all of the novels, including the three young adult titles, and consider this one to be one of the best. Try reading it after watching a news story on TV about gun control or gang violence in school and then you'll get the irony. This isn't as bloody as it should be, even though it was a novelization of the movie, but it still ranks as a terrific read. Other titles, if you can find them, to read: "Pretty Maids All In A Row," "Jason Lives: Friday the 13th part 6," "Blood High" and "Funhouse." By the way, Ana Alicia was the sexiest girl in the movie. Yowza!

I just returned from NYC guided by this book. The content on places discussed is wonderful, but the neighborhood organization leaves you flipping back and forth sometimes, as another reviewer describes.

I can't imagine how anyone purchases a tour book on-line (I have to browse at a physical store and then come here to buy!), but here are a couple of things I noticed:

1. This guide, while it advises travelers to use the subway, does not provide suggested stops for individual attractions. The exception is in the museum section. As a result, I had to walk around always having this book and a subway map on hand, with my companion and I shuffling through the two to figure out which stops lined up with which street addresses the best.

2. The restaurant section was not very helpful because of its organization. I would have preferred to have restaurants listed with things they are near in the neighborhood sections. For example, most of our days were organized by going to the things as listed in a neighborhood section of the book, but when we wanted to know what to eat, we had to stop and find the appropriate section way in the back of the book under restaurants and then cuisine headings.

3. As the editors suggest in the introduction, this book does a great job of suggesting bargain options for getting to, getting around, and getting entertained in New York City, but it still presents other options as well. People who like to travel on a budget but also like to splurge every now and then will be well-informed on both fronts.

4. The authors do a wonderful job of providing background information about sites listed in the book, which we found to increase our appreciation of places visited greatly. It also made it easier to decide ahead of time which places we wanted to see and which we could do without.

This is a great guide, but be sure you find a tour book that fits your style, especially for a city as daunting as New York.

The Rough Guide series is one of the consistently best collections of tour literature available anywhere. Previous guides I have used have been for France and Scotland, and both were excellent.

On the plus side, I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the restaurant recommendations (though I did not have the opportunity of staying at any hotels this time) and I liked the organization of the beginning as a neighborhood-by-neighborhood tour of New York. Many guides are so Manhattan-centric as to leave a false impression of the Big Apple: This one was remarkably even-handed throughout.

Curiously, the main problem was that, at times, the authors did not know whether to describe a particular tourist sight in terms of the neighborhood chapter or in terms of the museums chapter. At times, such as in the description of the Fraunces Tavern, one is sent scurrying between chapters. Other than this, I felt that this guide deserved five stars.

The numerous black and white maps are of high quality, and the index is particularly useful given the book's organization. This one's a winner.

This was my first trip to NYC and I found the Rough Guide very helpful. There were detailed maps of the bus system, the subway system, lodging and places to see. There was also information on the outer boroughs, useful for my trip into Brooklyn. The one thing I didn't like was that restaurants weren't listed in the index. You had to go to the restaurant section of the book and look in the neighborhood, then under the type of cuisine. Which meant when my friend recommended a specific place, I couldn't look it up in the book easily, or even be sure it was listed.

This "dictioary" is great except for one thing. Instead of being the Muskogee Creek Nation DICTIONARY, it is the Muskogee Creek Nation DICTIOARY. You would think a DICTIONARY would know how to spell its own name.

This is far the best ever dictionary of the Creek (Muskogee) language of Oklahoma and Florida. The authors are a native speaker and teacher of Creek, and a linguist specializing in the analysis of the language. The volume provides spellings in both the traditional and the technical (linguists') spelling systems, and is derived from 19th and 20th century writings in this language as well as the knowledge of contemporary speakers. This will be an essential tool for speakers, writers, teachers, and students of the Creek language, and for historians, anthropologists, and other who need to know the meanings and proper spellings of words in the Creek language.

If you are a Hegwood fan, come on, read this book. It is a bit slower moving than his other novels, but the usual Hegwood cast of characters is here. This time at a Casino music spectacular. And the insurance companies get stung. And there is some pretty good misdirection. And the untangling of the plot will grab you. And ,yes, you can figure it out - almost- but I will not spoil the fun. Guess what I like about Hegwood is that there are clues to the solution ,and so far he seems to play fair in letting his readers speculate about the conclusion.

Casino employee Johnnie Koscko leaves Vegas with enough of a stake to return home to Biloxi, Mississippi to buy the Jackpot Bay Casino. Johnnie envisions the area becoming part of the European high roller jet set. In fact his first plane load of the Monte Carlo crowd is coming to Biloxi in a few days to gamble at Johnnie's casino and to listen to the rock sound of the very popular Snow Mountain.

However, as usual for Johnny just when he seems paused for success he rolls craps. The casino insurance carrier is concerned over missing revenue. They send private investigator Jack Delmas to force Johnny to hire security auditor Tara Stocklin. Even with Jack and Tara involved, Johnny seems to be holding the "Deadman's Hand" as murder and robbery follow.

Readers who try a Jack Delmas novel will believe they hit the jackpot, as he is a strong character who consistently provides the audience with a quiet intelligent outlook as he tries to do the right thing though not always successful. However, the rest of the key cast members such as Johnny and Tara, etc. come across as worthless sharks with nothing much to redeem them so that they appear more a caricatures than people. Still the exciting story line of JACKPOT BAY is an engaging look behind the scene at the Gulf Coast gambling spots. For those who don't know Jack, he is worth the time to read about even in this novel, but especially in his previous appearances like MASSACRE ISLAND.

Harriet Klausner

I don't quite understand this spooky Halloween book, but my 5-year old loves it. He insisted he was going to get it from the library every week for the rest of his life until I suggested buying it. It has added the words "stupefied," "albatross," and "foolies" to his working vocabulary. The story is a little confusing but it's got a good Halloween spirit and look to it.

Readers of Higgins' previous works would have been introduced to Sean Dillon, ex-IRA turned mercenary, a man who had his own codes regarding keeping of one's word but kills ruthlessly.

The background to the plot is this : a long lost sunked German U-boat from WW2 was found, and somewhere inside is a briefcase containing a list of secret bank account numbers to fund Nazism after the war, and a list of British secretly supportive of Nazi Germany, including the abdicated former monarch Duke of Windsor. The potential embarassment and backlash led the British PM to give the job for Group Four under BG Ferguson, who in turn sought the assistance of Sean Dillon, given the delicate nature of the job, the sub being in Virgin Islands, US territory and all. However, the operation is not as secret as it should be, for already, descendants of people named in the list were urgently seeking to get the briefcase first.

Higgins' flair in his work lies in keeping his story short, quick-moving with not too complicated characters who are just about credible.

Unfortunately, there were some loopholes in this one. First of all, the capture of Sean Dillon was rather hard to believe given the past records about him. If he was a chameleon who travels constantly under various guises, it would have been rather hard to believe that Ferguson could have known to bait him in Vienna.

Second, how the actual site of the wreck was discovered was rather incredible, given how no one thought of it earlier. Most divers would have come to it sooner.

Third, given the resources available to G4, and the critical nature of the job, it seems hard to believe that such a small force was despatched and they kept being tangled by simple hoodlums. People of experiences like Ferguson and Dillon should have been able to prevent most of their mishaps through simple but effective precautions.

What is satisfying though was how the villains were terminated.

What I could not forget though, was the promise of Martin Brosnan in a previous book, Eye of the Storm, who intended to hound Dillon down. Of course, it was not widely known where Dillon was, but if Dillon was going to come out in the open after completing his job, Brosnan would find him sooner or later to settle the debt. Can't wait for that to happen, hope it does, in a later book.

Jack Higgins has done a great job of marrying the shady end of World War II with a great action-packed yarn with Sean Dillon leading the way. A great summer book you can read in a day!

I admit that before I read most books, I check what others have to say on Amazon so I don't end up wasting my time. I noticed several mediocre reviews, and even a few very negative reviews about this book. This is only the 2nd Jack Higgins book I've read (the first being Solo, another excellent book), and I must say I'm glad I didn't let the negative reviews steer me clear.

As someone who has been to the Virgin Islands, I found that Mr. Higgins did a great job of capturing the feel and flavor of the tropical islands. Add to that a very interesting cast of characters, not the least of which is Sean Dillon, who is portayed as an ex-villain and general poor-man's James Bond who doesn't pull any punches, and always gets his assignment accomplished. The fact that Sean Dillon is portrayed as an ex-actor and is written with more depth than many 'leading man' characters in series today was an extra treat.

To the critics of this book, yes this was a fairly predictable plot. The good guys came out on top. But how many of us would read a book where the good guys ultimately failed? The book wasn't written as a mystery, but as an adventure. There were never any real secrets that you had to figure out, which is okay. The book wasn't intended as that sort of a book. What it did deliver was a fast-paced story with some very interesting bad guys, a lot of great action, and even a hint of romance.

Like other authors that I love and read regularly, this book is the kind where you find yourself staying up 'just a bit longer' so you can read an extra page or two. For those of you expecting one of Tom Clancy's epic stories with dozens of characters in settings all around the globe, mixing politics, intrigue, and lots of technical jargon, I'll warn you in advance. This book isn't like that. Instead, it's a focused story about some characters that I really enjoyed, going off on an adventure that was loads of fun.

This book was so great and easy to read that it's got me hooked on Jack Higgins. In fact, I've just started 'Eye of the Storm', the first Sean Dillon story from before he became a good guy. If you enjoy action, a bit of wit, and the sort of book you just don't want to put down, read this story.