There were sections when the unabashed humor had me tittering like a schoolgirl. And there were sections that had me squirming, recalling what it was like to think and speak and act like a teenager. Mitchell has done a superb job conjuring the mood and scenery of Austria, along with the language and the people. He's also done a masterful job depicting the moral clashes that come from young men, unwilling to surrender their youthful playfullness, struggling to remain true to the rigid set of rules they have sworn to live by.

Mitchell does seem to capture the essence of a Mormon mission--the conflicts, the irritations, and the deep feelings. I was convulsing with some of the humor and moved by the deeper parts. It was a good read and might help someone understand a little about what a Mormon missionary experiences.

A unusual, often startling but wonderfully refreshing Mormon missionary novel. Angel, which promises to be to Mormon missionary fiction what God's Army is to the Mormon missionary film, is a moving and comical account of a young man's successful search for spiritual wholeness amidst an (Austrian) world of rejection. Tracking Elder Barry Monroe's spiritual odyssey through the Austria Vienna Mission is something like tracking Huckleberry Finn's discovery of his and Jim's humanhood, and even more like following Henderson on his comic journey into the heart of Africa in Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King. In fact, in Alan Mitchell we may have discovered our Mormon Saul Bellow. Writing his missionary journal in California-hip dialect (Mark Twain did it almost as well in Huck Finn), Elder Monroe, who calls everyone "Dude," is wacky and comical and essentially serious as he stands atop his bedrock Mormonness and calls the nonplused Austrians to repentance. Writing from what is obviously his own sound faith in the power of the gospel to change and improve lives, Mitchell has hung a rich and literarily satisfying coming-of-age novel upon an infrastructure of Austrian folklore and the ups-and-downs of Mormon missionary life. The result is a landmark novel unique in Mormon fiction that will delight everyone-except, perhaps, the Church Missionary Committee (Angel of the Danube will not become a supplement to the white Missionary Handbook). The rest of us will enjoy this fresh, original, thoroughgoingly Mormon, albeit wonderfully unorthodox treatment of the First Principles' pattern of the journey to belief. Hurrah for Alan Mitchell's rich contribution to Mormon letters and positive and affirming answer to the question: "what is left to be said, in fiction, about the life of a Mormon missionary!"

Richard H. Cracroft Nan Osmond Grass Professor in English Brigham Young University

Fun murder mystery; like many others, not altogether believable in the real world, but entirely cohesive in its own. The heroine, Merry Mitchell, has a true past we learn about and learn to care about. The characters are not, for the most part, caricatures or stereotypical but drawn from life, believable. Definitely a possibility as the first novel of a series; whether Granger can continue the writing of believable characters we care about ~ especially Mitchell and Alan Markby, the police representative ~ remains to be seen. I hope so.

This may be the first in this wonderfully entertaining series, but it remains one of the very best.

The characters immediately strike you as real and quirky, with great potential. They are interesting and likeable. The writing is good, and the setting of the small village of eccentric people is excellent. The writing tangs with realism, even though this is generally accepted as being a not-very-realistic sub-genre. (Although, in my opinion, it actually is. The category of the village mystery is filled with realism. Lots of different people all living in close proximity to each other and no one else is bound to cause...interesting, things to happen. The potential for crime in a village is just as real in a village as it is a large city. However, while in a city you could have many different murders being investigated at once, in a village, rules of proportion cut the number of murders down to one. (Or thereabouts.) And as such, you can bring across in your novel every single aspect of the society in which this murder has occured, as the society is such a small one.

The plot here is great. The characters realistic. The solution unexpected. And the style typically Agatha Christie's Miss Marple-esque.

Great, great fun.

I enjoy the Meredith and Markby series very much and recommend them to all those who enjoy English mysteries. Please keep them coming.

To any one who is going to take the plunge, go back to the beginning so you can enjoy them all.

Until this year's Friends of the Tucson [& Pima County] Public Library book sale, I hadn't heard of this series. I picked up the first, second, and fifth books there. After I read them, I bought every book I could find in town. As soon as I learned there were more, I ordered them. I liked this book as much as the others. The bits of historical information we learn along the way were interesting,(especially how the people of the Regency period obtained a certain shade of pink paint). There are at least three separate mysteries: Who is the vicious vandal? Who committed the murder? What was the secret of the elderly recluse? and are they in any way connected? I can't feel too smug guessing the vandal's identity 32 pages before it was revealed or the recluse's secret 4 pages before Alan caught on because I missed a lot of clues and I didn't guess the killer. Furthermore, I didn't get even a whiff of the final revelation's coming. However, it wouldn't matter if readers could guess everything correctly. This series is worth reading just for the characters. Other comments: There's a very good lesson to be learned from the vandal's motive, but I don't know how many readers will heed it when it's so much easier to look the other way. On p.44, full paragraph 3, Alan says they're on the first floor, but they're upstairs. It was nice to learn that the game I knew as "gossip" is called "Chinese whispers" in England. The dust jacket wouldn't tempt me to buy the book if I were not already a fan, but it's rather pretty. Ann E. Nichols

Inspector Alan Markby and his girlfriend Meredith Mitchell share a holiday in Parsloe St. John where they learn that an old woman recently died when she tripped and fell down some stairs. Thinking of early retirement, Alan is very interested in buying the deceased's cottage while Meredith wonders if the rumors of murder are true.

Alan's disinterest in the senior citizen's death rapidly changes when the head of a handyman is found severed from the body. Other evidence of nearby satanic worship also exists. Instead of a laid back restful holiday, Alan and Meredith begin a working vacation as they investigate the rash of strange doings, that have rocked the tiny village and its eccentric people.

A WORD AFTER DYING is a very interesting entry in the Markby-Mitchell mystery series because the lead protagonists are not quite featured as much as in previous entries. Instead the local villagers seem to dominate the story line as Alan and Meredith propel their stories and the who-done-it forward. Surprisingly, this cleverly works, turning the story line into an invigorating, very interesting novel. Fans of the series and the English cozy need to read Ann Granger's newest novel (as well as the rest of the series) to enjoy some of the top books in the sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

A book consisting largely of senseless, desultory, inept prurience. Save for Burroughs and Ballard, the editors presume much in claiming for these nobodies a place approaching the original Lovecraft's style and wit. No Bloch or Clark Ashton Smith here, these are all lurid, incontinent emulators of weird fiction, and undeserving of that rubric. What's curious is that Lovecraft influenced many a great author, from Michel Houellebecq to Will Self. Why be laden with posers and third-raters? I returned this book with in 24hrs. or receiving it. Buyer be warned.

This anthology, overall, is IMHO quite horrible. There are so many disgusting sexual references and appearances of excrement that one wonders if it was a requirement for the stories' acceptance for the book... In particular, "Walpurgisnachtmusik" brings to mind the ludicrous over-use of the [f word] in the first 10 minutes of Tarantino's "From Dusk Till Dawn."

The ONLY reason I don't condemn it entirely is that there ARE a few good things in here. Most notable is Coulthart's graphical adaptation of "The Call of Cthulhu," an excellent adaptation indeed. Some others stand out- Lumley's "The Night Sea-Maid Went Down" (a reprint, admittedly), Conway's "Black Static" (just ignore the unpleasantness at either end), Webb's "The Sound of a Door Opening," Moore's "The Courtyard" (again, dodge the few unpleasant bits, which seem especially superfluous here), and Mitchell's "Ward 23." Campbell's "Potential" is tolerably good, as well.

In short, if you can buy this book cheap, it's probably worth it; otherwise, give it a pass until you CAN find it cheap. If nothing else, buy it for the Coulthart segment, the one part that Lovecraft might have truly considered a tribute...

Within the confines of Lovecraftian tributes there are sometimes successes that combine elements of the fantastical with the bizarre, mixed results that couple the failings of one author with the successes of another, or - in the most rare instances - there are failures that can be found utterly without merit. These are the wonderful worlds that we throw ourselves into whenever purchasing a set of names attributed to a larger creator, and its something I normally fear because I've touched the eye of the proverbial oven one too many times. Still, within The Starry Wisdom, you have something of the middle man of the bunch, giving you pieces of the lore that are actually well-written and concise, as well as pieces that have no redeeming qualities, however. Unfortunately that is the lifeblood of many collected pieces, however, and everything has to be taken as such because of this. Happily, though, I have to say that there are some things in the book that I wouldn't want to be without.

Of all the stories within the chronicled tales here, there is an artistic adaptation of Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu done by John Coulthart that is immaculately done. The quality of the work is fantastic and captures the visions within the madness so very well. Few things merit praise as much as this does, and it truly makes the book worth buying by itself. Still, there are other noteable contributions that add to this as well, including a little Robert M. Price (A Thousand Young), some Brian Lumley (The Night Sea-Maid Went Down), David Conway (Black Static), Ramsey Campbell (Potential), William S. Burroughs (Wind Die, You Die, We Die) and a little Allan Moore (The Courtyard). There are also pieces from Grant Morrison (Lovecraft in Heaven), James Havoc and Mike Philbin (Third Eye Butterfly), Henry Wessel (From This Swamp), JG Ballad (Prisoner of the Coral Deep), Dan Kellet (Red Mass), Simon Whitechapel (Walpurgisnachtmusik), DF Lewis (Meltdown), John Beal (Beyond Reflection), CG Brandrick and DM Mitchell (The Exquisite Corpse), Micheal Gira (Extracted From the Mouth of the Consumer, Rotting Pig), Adele Olivia Glawell (Hypothetical Materfamalias), Don Webb (The Sound of a Door Opening), Rick Grimes (Pills Fro Miss Betsy), Peter Smith (The Dreamers in Darkness), Stephen Sennitt (Nails), and DM Mitchell (Ward)that can be hit-or-miss depending on what you demand from your authors. Many of these titles have come and gone through various books in the past, some more than others, and there are many that I really didn't like in the set. Still, the illustrated portion of the book was done in ways that made it seems so wondrously worth obtaining and I'm glad I put it into my collection because of it.

For fans of HP Lovecraft's works, then you might want to look into these titles - provided that you don't own them already. I would also suggest picking it up because of the reason I listed before, noting that the illustrated portions of the book are something done in the most commendable of ways. Even if you aren't a fan of Lovecraft but you love some of the things doe with his ideas, then this would be worth at least looking into because of the tendrils making sweet music in the background of nightmarish dreams. To a point, depending on your ownership already, it comes recommended.

A very minor entry in an otherwise pleasant series. Two mysteries (one old, one new), neither particularly interesting. And neither one solved by Meredith or Markby! What gives?

This latest Meredith Mitchell & Alan Markby murder mystery proved to be a completely interesting and absorbing read for me. The thing I like about this series is that Ann Granger takes the old 'murder in a cosy village' motif, and expands on that so that it becomes something a lot more modern and accessible, and yet somehow manages not to lose that patina of nostalgia. And with "Shades of Murder," Granger has come up trumps again.

About 100 years ago, 'Wicked' William Oakley was tried for poisoning-murder of his heiress wife, Cora, who was about to divorce him and take all her lovely money with her. His was found not guilty of the crime, but such was the feeling in the village of Bramford that he had got away with the crime, that 'Wicked' William left Bramford and England, never to be heard of again. In Bramford, William is survived by his two granddaughters, Damaris and Florence. Now, in their 80s, the sisters hope to sell their crumbling ruin of an estate, and to move to more modern accommodations, in order to live whatever is left of their lives in some comfort. All this suffers a setback, when a young Polish man (Jan Oakley) turns up claiming to be their nephew, the product of 'Wicked' William's second marriage. Jan has decided to put in his claim for half of his great grandfather's estate, to the dismay of Damaris and Florence, and to the fury of the sisters' friends (who include Juliet Painter, the forensic pathologist's sister, Markby's own sister, Laura, who also happens to be the sisters' solicitor, and Meredith, herself). And then, just as the tension is at its highest, Jan is poisoned with arsenic. Leaving aside the question of who would want Jan dead as there are just too many suspects there, the question of the day seems to be where the murderer obtained from, as well how (s)he administered the poison.

For Superintendent Markby, this whole case is proving to be a both a professional and personal headache. His fondness for the Oakley sisters makes him want to handle the case delicately for their sakes, however his close relationships with everyone concerned makes it highly unlikely that he will be allowed to investigate Jan's murder. And his fears prove only all too true what the chief constable calls in the heavy guns and two investigators from the London Met are sent down to handle the case. Will the 'outsiders' be canny enough to handle the villagers and solve the case? And will Markby be able to stay out of the investigations, or will he throw caution to the winds and stick his oar in?

The Oakley murders have all the hallmarks of a murder mystery set in the Golden Age of Mystery: a cosy English village, the macabre coincidence of two arsenic poisonings that link two murders within the same family, a 100 years apart, a murder victim that had somehow managed to antagonise nearly everyone in the village of Bramford, and where the suspects for this later murder include quite a few prominent members of the village... However Ann Granger deft handling of this old plot device made everything seem new and fresh. The book itself is divided into two subplots -- one subplot deals with the murder of Cora Oakley, and 'Wicked' William's trial; while the second subplot deals with the intrusion of Jan into his aunts' lives and all the mischief and mayhem he causes. Both plots were well crafted and executed, and the development of characters in the second modern plot was especially well done. (However, I was so caught up in the second modern plot that I sometimes felt that the juxtaposition of the William Oakley murder trail plot to be a bit of an intrusion.) There were even flashes of humour as when the two detectives from London come to realise that all the major players in the Jan Oakley poisoning case are especially well connected. The novel also revisits the old question of exactly where Meredith and Markby's relationship is going, but this time, I felt as if Granger was more successful in making the reader understand exactly where Meredith was coming from, and her reservations in tying herself completely to one person or one place.

"Shades of Murder" was definitely a fun and absorbing read.

Ann Granger is simply superb. She is the mistress of the modern day mistress, and probably the closest thing we have to an accurate modernization of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple series.

The writing is flawless, and the characters utterly brilliant. They are incredibly well drawn, with what seems little effort. They jump off the page, and are very realistic.

She spins her plot effortlessly, and glides back and forward between the two time-frames completely effortlessly. The two crimes interconnect realisticly (not as they did in Mary Higgins's Clark's "On The Street Where You Live". A very good book, but the way the murders seperated by a hundred years were connected was completely far-fetched. This book is a much better example of how to do it.).

The double-plots do lack...excitement, is probably the word. But they are nonetheless very interesting, as well as being bouyed up by her sprightly writing style.

As always, the strength of this excellent series is found in it's two protagonists, Alan Markby and Meredith Mitchell. For over 10 books now, their relationship has been slowly developing. In fact, considering that theyve known each other for ten books is amazing, considering how far their relationship has actually gone. (Not all that far.) It's surprising that AG has got away with it for so long! But that is what adds freshness and an extra dimension of suspense to the story, the will they/wont they aspects of their developemental relationship. They are two brilliantly well drawn characters. Interesting. And the reader keeps reading, rooting all the while for them to finally get it together officially. And with this book, their relationship takes another small step forward, leaving the reader wonder just what might be in store for them in the near future...

This book is written by a British writer for a British audience. It is of limited value in the US. Many of the trees shown are not available here. The language is of course British and the meanings of some of the words used are not readily apparent to an American reader. The book does contain good information (for a Brit).

This books looks to be an excellent choice for someone having difficulty deciding what sort of trees to plant. It's got what you want - pictures of lots of different trees, advice on tree shapes, sizes, climate soils etc. Also nicely presented.

There's nothing really remarkable about this book to make it resonate in a reader's memory. On the other hand, if you like English village mysteries - with the implied promise that the villain can be found among the residents described and won't turn out to be a passing serial killer - you'll appreciate this story. Granger gives us plenty of players with motives and doesn't make it easy to spot the crucial one. Unfortunately, her leading characters have come to an "awkward" point in their relationship and aren't a lot of fun to be with. Let's hope they work things out before becoming less pleasant company than the bad guys they're chasing.

If you want an easy to read and mildly entertaining book for a long flight somewhere-this is the book for you. The characters are sterotypical--including a career policeman with a failed marriage, his professional but meddlesome girl-friend, a troubled child, her caring teacher, an embittered husband (of the corpse-natch), and gypsies not much different from Auntie Mabel and Uncle Herbert who bought a camper for traveling around the U.K. Heck, this book isn't even scary. Granger will make a mistake if she marries the two main characters at some point--then there'll be no tension. Well, I read it anyway, but hey, I'm home sick today with a head cold.

Inspector Alan Markby asks his long time girlfriend Meredith Mitchell to marry him, but she rejects his request. They continue to see one another, but their relationship has turned awkward as neither one is fully comfortable with the other at this time.

That changes when Alan begins an investigation that Meredith finds interesting. The Smith family members are tinkers who always stay on the Hazlewood Farm when they are in the area. This time when they park their camper, the murdered corpse of the farmer's wife greets the Smith patriarch. The tinker and the deceased's spouse Hugh report her stabbing death to the police. The victim's adolescent daughter Tammy is distraught over the woman's death and worries what will happen to her and he father, especially since evidence points towards Hugh. Tammy's teacher asks her friend Meredith to uncover the truth behind the slaying. Meredith and Alan travel down numerous paths in search of that elusive truth.

The twelfth Mitchell and Markby mystery remarkably retains its freshness due to the twists to their relationship. Readers obtain a glimpse of life in a small British village through the eyes of the lead characters. Alan and Meredith narrate the story line. That method works as it provides insight into what each one is thinking about their relationship as well as the case. The police investigation is entertaining especially the behind the scenes activities of an aid. An Ann Granger novel is always a wonderful reading experience and BENEATH THESE STONES proves the veracity of that statement.

Harriet Klausner