i admit i didn't read the whole thing, but i believe i am not overly critical, and i couldn't stick it out. first, the writing is very awkward; as i was reading i kept thinking, this writing is intrusively amateurish enough to interfere with the story. In addition, the author uses way too many actual historical figures, which i think highlights the awkward writing, because i found myself thinking, "that person wouldn't talk like that, or think like that. also, the plot was, well, trite. not recommended

A clever mystery onboard the greatest train of all - the Orient Express. Woven in the mystery are unique details of high class train travel in another time. as well as real historical characters intertwined throughout. Sam McCarver's second novel surpasses his first. A delightful read!

THE CASE OF COMPARTMENT 7 is a fun book. John Darnell, the world's first paranormal detective, boards the legendary Orient Express and journeys acorss Europe with a colorful collection of fictionalized historical personalities including Mata Hari, an Eastern European crown prince, and Agatha Christie. Sam McCarver does a great job weaving fact with fiction, and he tells an excellent detective story. There are murders. There's intrigue. There's danger. There's heroics. Here's a book you should read.

Found in the clearance bin of the local bookstore, the title intrigued me, so I bought it. Rarely have I had such luck resulting from an impulse buy. _Looking for a Ship_ seems to take its pace from the slow and stately progress of any seagoing cargo craft. And yet the reader feels not the plodding, monotonous roll of a modern roll-on/roll-off, but instead is a passenger on the proverbial slow boat to China. You are on vacation, with a known destination, and little to do along the way but enjoy the scenery, the daily routine, and the satisfaction that mundane tasks are complete until the morrow.

We follow the author's first-person perspective as he in turn follows his friend, a sailor in the United States Merchant Marine, on the never-ending quest of finding work. McPhee enters a world known only vaguely beforehand, and as his adventure progresses, we learn along with him what life is to a Merchant Mariner.

I say "adventure" somewhat tongue-in-cheek; there is very little such in this book. Do not expect swashbuckling tales of derring-do. The only scene of pulse-quickening, a pirate raid while in a South American port, has not a whit of heroism, unless one agrees that saving one's own skin is of greater heroism than saving someone else's cargo.

Yet McPhee weaves a compelling tale from his real life experience. The people we read about are well described, fully characterized, and vital. Everyday problems still require solutions, and the Merchant Mariner must be as adaptable and wise in solving them as any of us, if not more so in the current climate of too little work for too many sailors.

Yes, I was able to put this book down. No, I didn't lose sleep while reading it. But when I closed the back cover, it was with somewhat melancholy satisfaction, as I recognized that yet another romantic calling has died at the hand of modern technology. The book ends suddenly, almost prematurely. I had found myself very interested in the lives I was introduced to, and wanted to know more.

After you've finished your latest powerful read, and before you begin your next, I highly recommend that you cleanse your palette with this simple and fulfilling study of the modern Merchant Marine. I doubt you'll be disappointed. An "8" rating may be high when comparing this book with some of the classics, but _Looking for a Ship_ is not trying to be a classic. Its aims are limited, yet few books hit their intended mark as cleanly as this one does. I give McPhee great credit for so elegantly doing exactly what he set out to do.

McPhee joins a merchant marine as he tries to find a ship to work on - hence the title - then journeys with him as the boat does its work. I picked this book up because I've read other books by McPhee that make subjects that I would normally not even think about fascinating. This book was no exception. For readers who have read his geology series (compiled into Anals of the Former World) and found it a bit too technical and dry, this book will be a refreshing change. I never would have thought I'd be interested in this subject, but McPhee made it interesting.

I think I was born wanting to go to sea. I had never even seen an ocean as a kid, but I instinctually seemed to have a knowlege and a love of ships and the sea. As I grew older it puzzled me that the Merchant Marine wasn't considered a viable career choice. It also puzzled me that I never met anyone who had worked in the merchant service later than the early 50's. There was also the fact that the world's biggest industrial powerhouse seemed to have so few American flagged vessels..... Well, this book explains things. You can't get a berth on an American flagged ship for the same reason it is becoming impossible to find a factory job inland- the corporations decided that it was cheaper to hire cheap foreign labor and flag their ships in third world countries to get around taxes and decent working conditions.
That is why reading this book is a bittersweet experience. On the one hand it is great reading about famous captains or modern day pirates, but on the other, you realise that you'll never know any part of such a life. Pretty hard to get a sea card when licensed officers are being "shoved down the hawse-pipe" to serve as deckhands....
When I finished this book I dug out my old Bowditch and sextent and thought about what could have been. Maybe I couldn't have cut it, but damn it, I deserved a chance to find out.

I disagree with John Kerr's review that said he'd take the opinion of the mother over the daughter. Why choose which one is correct? It's likely both viewpoints are accurate as a mother and daughter would naturally have different perspectives of the man.

I thought it was a great read showing a different side of John Wayne. She seems honest and sympathetic towards her father. The writing itself could have been better, otherwise I would have given the book a 5.

Having gone to school with Aissa, I always found her to be sensitive, kind and consistently honest to the point of self-deprecation. This book only confirms to me, what I had long suspected, that these qualities were a beautiful reflection of her father.

Although Steve Delsohn's writing reads more like a 3rd draft and he doesn't seem to find his rhythm until half way through the book, I think Aissa's voice still effectively comes through quite well.

This is not a book for those who "lived near back lots" and only want sun-baked warrior/actor stories about the 'image' they know from the screen.

This book is an amazingly honest and intimate narrative seen through Aissa's eyes and feelings. She takes great care not to denigrate or hurt anyone except herself. I suppose after reading this book and all the intimate emotions she shares, I would now have to add one more accolade to Aissa's character, and that would be "Courageous".

This book reached me.

With so many "tell-all" books out there about John Wayne, this one showed me the more vulnerable, real side of the man, as seen by his own daughter.

Aissa Wayne's candor was so refreshing, and it opened my eyes to a more human side of the strong man we all know as the "American Legend."

I've read other books about the Duke including the one by Pilar Wayne. While Pilar's book was nicely done, I appreciated Aissa's perspective very much, and I would recommend this book to everyone.

I have given "John Wayne, My Father" as a gift a few times, and it was very well received.

This book follows Call for the Dead, but is more of a murder mystery than a spy novel. There are surprises as the truth is uncovered, layer by layer, but ultimately, the story is not as compelling as his other works. Very little light is shed on the Smiley character.

So John LeCarre can write as good a murder mystery as the rest of the lot over there in Great Britain. At least he's not as precious and smug as most of them. And he uses the beloved Smiley, instead of trying to come up with some new (yawn) Scotland Yard detective. Still, it's not his best stuff. I mean, it's good, don't get me wrong. Better, as I said, than most, but I like the spy stuff the best, and The Tailor f Panama is brilliant and hysterically funny...more sophisticated. Anyway - you won't be disappointed.

A Murder of Quality is the second of LeCarre's novels that feature George Smiley. Unlike the others in the series this novel is not about the Cold War and espionage, at least not overtly. In this one; a woman with whom Smiley worked during the war contacts him. She publishes a small Christian paper and has a subscriber who fears that she will be murdered. Smiley investigates and eventually finds the murderer. It is a classic murder story but not a spy story or is it? I did find myself wondering why the paper was kept in business by the owners. Is it owned by British intelligence? There might be more to this murder mystery than meets the eye or perhaps not.

Smiley has to solve a murder and also face his wife's past. It's ironic that the basically decent and brilliant Smiley is considered unsuitable for his higher class but serially unfaithful wife. LeCarre includes much social comment about Britain as he leads Smiley to the solution of the crime.

Things are not what they seem and Smiley's investigations lead to truly nasty revelations. The twists, turns and betrayal that are LeCarre constants are present in A Murder of Quality. The reader gets to see the author as he is developing his craft.

A Murder of Quality is a murder mystery and perhaps LeCarre was considering pursuing this genre. Instead he reinvented the spy story incorporating seaminess and betrayal. A Murder of Quality shows us how deep his talents as a writer are.

This is the first in the series of Coffin books that I have read. I must tell you that this book kept me guessing until the very end. Although the ending was a bit of a letdown, the rest of it leading up to it was terrific. John Coffin is a great character and I plan to read more books in the series.

This book was quick to read and had enough twists to make it enjoyable. At different times throughout the book I thought I knew who the killer was and sometimes I was right and then changed my mind. I did this a number of times as more information was revealed. This is the first book that I have read in the series and enjoyed it. I imagine that by reading more books in this series, I would get the know the characters better and enjoy the books even more.

This is a gentle tale filled with scholarly allusions, about the last months and days Iris Murdoch spent in the care of her devoted husband, John Bayley. Since he was essentially alone, with rather formidable demands placed upon him by her Alzheimer's ailment, he coped by retreating into memories. In this situation, his memories were strikingly vivid, and reminded me of the memory-influenced dreams I had during my pregnancies, when my waking hours were racked by nausea. The memories were not so much a comfort to him, as a reminder of the fullness, the "worth-whileness" of life. I recognize this, having experienced it, as a natural way of getting through a difficult time.

Iris is a strong presence in this memoir, but it tells us more about this thoughtful, intellectual, sensitive, and good man. The deep love the two shared is apparent, yet it is not put on display in the arrogant manner, the "no two people ever loved as we did, no one ever had the adventures we did or knew the famous people we did" attitude of some other authors. The book is sweet, gentle, and not nearly as sad as you might expect.

Memories are the essence of the soul. They define our relationships, explain our actions, and shape our perspectives. They are a part of us, so inextricably bound up with our very selves that it is difficult to contemplate ever losing them. And when we do, it is a sentence more punishing than death.

But that is just the sentence that Iris Murdoch, noted British author of The Green Knight and Jackson's Dilemma and Professor of Philosophy at Oxford, received when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 1994. Her husband, John Bayley, has since written two memoirs about his beloved Iris. The newest, Iris and Her Friends, is Bayley's sequel to Elegy for Iris, which was published in December, 1998.

Elegy for Iris is exactly what its title implies: a book that mourns the premature death of Iris's mind, but it is also a tribute to her and Bayley's enduring love. It is a memoir that spans the history of their marriage, from the days of their courtship to the time of Bayley's writing.

Iris is in the later stages of Alzheimer's by the time of Iris and Her Friends: A Memoir of Memory and Desire. Here, Bayley uses his own memories to escape the maddening routine of caring for and worrying about his wife. Most of the memories he recounts do not include Iris at all, but are either recollections from Bayley's childhood or remembrances of old flames he knew before he met Iris. The memories, though they seem to have little to do with Iris, in fact flow from Bayley's desire to share them with his wife.

Bayley refers to the small respites from the worst of Alzheimer's as Iris's "friends." Her moments of clarity and the simple pleasures of holding and hugging become more cherished as Iris' condition worsens. The disintegration of Iris' memory is especially poignant; her incoherence and petulance stand in stark contrast to the gifted and articulate individual she once was. Bayley is brutally honest about his frustration with and sometimes irrational hatred for his wife, but his veracity does nothing to lessen the awesome devotion that is so evident in his innate concern for and awareness of her.

The mundane, domestic events of Iris and John's everyday life are interspersed with his vivid recollections. His escapes into memory inject levity into the sometimes desolate and seemingly hopeless atmosphere of the household. At heart, he is a fun-loving, adventuresome, imaginative individual; stories of his escapades as a child and his days in the army all display the same delightful sense of humor.

It is this flexibility and imagination that enable Bayley to survive the tough times of Iris' illness. His optimistic outlook on life ("Bad situations survive on jokes," he writes) and blunt, concise opinions on suicide, euthanasia, and sex make the entire book seem like a one-sided conversation between close friends. Bayley allows the reader to become intimately acquainted with the inner workings of his mind¡Van openness that is at odds with his childhood practice of keeping secret those things he held dear. Bayley's cathartic storytelling therefore seems to be an attempt to fill a void created by Iris' illness, to find a friend in whom he can confide.

The change in the relationship between Bayley and Iris, from marital to almost parental, is accompanied by a change in the way Bayley sees the world. He often escapes to the comforts of memory and fantasy, seemingly more so as Iris' condition worsens and she becomes almost uncommunicative. Bayley reminisces about his childhood, bringing to life the members of his family: his melancholy father, his unaffectionate mother, and his mature, pragmatic older brothers. From the comfort of his home and in the company of Iris, he remembers his summers at a small beachside town called Littlestone-on-the-Sea. He recreates his childhood adventures but scrutinizes them through the lens of adulthood. During these retellings, he re-examines some of the complex events of his pastoral summers: a friendship between a German man and a Jewish family and a husband's desertion of his high society wife.

As Iris' illness advances, so does our progression through Bayley's life. He enlists in the British forces during World War II and revels in the open, affectionate way his fellow soldiers express their feelings. During this time and his subsequent college years, Bayley developed two significant love interests prior to Iris. It seems a bit strange that Bayley would devote such a large amount of page space to his former girlfriends in a memoir about his wife. But instead of detracting from Bayley's devotion to Iris, his accounts of these lukewarm relationships serve to reinforce the intensity and depth of his love for her.

Although Bayley and Murdoch are never physically separated during the course of the narrative, there is a wide gulf created by Iris' illness; immersed in his fantasies, Bayley seems very much alone. It is not until the close of the memoir that the reader gets a more complete sense of what Bayley and Iris are like as a couple, through Bayley's recollections of some of the later days of their marriage. He describes dinners with esteemed authors like Aldous Huxley and a vacation that included a ghostly visitation from Henry James.

Although Bayley finds solace and escape in his countless memories, he cannot imagine life without Iris, and he attributes his windfall of memories to Iris' very existence. His frustrations and impatience are only a tiny part of the huge field of emotions that are born from his love, a love that has been tested by and has endured tragedy.

Overall, Iris and Her Friends is a touching and exceptionally well-written memoir that is grounded and fanciful, optimistic and realistic. Bayley, a famous literary critic in his own right, adds depth and meaning to many of his stories by using multiple references to great works of literature. Unfortunately, this can be slightly confusing for readers unfamiliar with the books he mentions.

While Elegy is a lament for what has been, Iris and Her Friends is a celebration of the importance of life. By the end of the memoir, having been exposed to Bayley's stream of consciousness for nearly three hundred pages, the reader is so attuned to Bayley's heartache, so moved by his devotion, that it is impossible to remain detached and unaffected by Iris' death. We mourn her as if she had been one of our friends.

The Second City of London shimmers in the stultifying heat, and Commander John Coffin tries to maintain law and order in his sprawling bailiwick. His new hand-picked undercover unit--headed by an old flame--is trying to halt a violent money-laundering operation. Two of the investigating officers ar dead, "accidentally" it seems, but Coffin suspects murder. A bizarre fire yields another body, apparently the wife of one of the dead officers. Heat doesn't suit Coffin's Docklands--nor his personal life with his wife, mercurial actress Stella Pinero. But ironically, it is Stella's cool insight and Coffin's own instincts that lead him to a killer.

Very enjoyable book, especially if you like books about British police.

I've read tons of information and have researched into Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis' life and found Anderson's book to be almost fiction at times. He starts the book in a dialogue format and continues to use dialogue throughout the BIOGRAPHY. I found myself asking, "How does he know the exact words that Jack and Jackie said to each other when they were in private". The book is narrated many times and it just didn't seem to be authentic. It was a good story, however and it would be nice if the book was 100% accurate. I just like to know that when I'm reading a biography, I'm reading Non-fiction...not FICTION!

It was very good and I thought I was watching it right before me. But one thing I didn't like was the pictures. I have read other books about Jack and Jackie Kennedy's marriage and they had better pictures and more pictures than they did in this book. But overall, the book really good and good information. I wonder how long it took to write the book.

I enjoyed this book from beginning to end; and I could hardly put it down!!! I have read alot of material on the Kennedys, but there was a great deal of information in this book that I had never come across. Excellent!!!!

In 1939, M16 espionage agent William Hobbs seduces naive twenty-year old German Eva Bernhardt to work undercover in Germany spying for the British. After obtaining Eva's cooperation, William callously drops her leaving her at the mercies of M16, who believe Eva is the prefect person to drop in Berlin to learn when and where Hitler's invasion of France is to begin. The Nazis hope to uncover British moles to use them to transmit misinformation to the Allies.

In 1940, Eva hates both the Nazis and the British for their callous misuse of people. She is trying to obtain invasion information from Otto Klinger, a person who might have a grudge against the Nazis. However, the German Secret Service know Eva works for the British and plan to use her as a courier for disinformation to fool their enemies. Hobbs, who arranged a kidnapping of himself in Holland by the Gestapo, realizes the Nazis are using Eva as a pawn. He now knows he loves Eva and will risk his life to insure her safety even as the Nazis pursue him.

In his debut tale, A GATHERING OF SPIES, John Altman provided espionage fans with a taut World War II thriller. His second novel, A GAME OF SPIES is even better as readers receive a powerful historical spy tale that never slows down as both sides use people as fodder in a deadly game of trump. Fans of the genre will want to read this superb World War II novel that brings the era alive through the actions and reactions of a powerful ensemble.

Harriet Klausner

John Altman's A Game of Spies is a well crafted historical spy thriller set in WWII. The historical setting is wonderfully depicted and rich with detail, and the plot flows quickly--you don't want to put the book down! I greatly recommend A Game of Spies for history buffs and spy fans alike.

As I was browsing through the new section of the library, I noticed a plain book with a plain title: A Game of Spies by John Altman. Now I am always game for a spy thriller, but this book with it's drab gray and black background lacked the requisite eye candy I am used to. The Altman name was new to me, so I decided to check the reviews in the back. Lying at the very top were glowing reviews from Jack Higgins and Stephen Coonts. That settled the matter.

The story takes place at the beginning of the 1940's, just before the rumored German invasion of France. MI6-the British version of the CIA-desperate to find out where Hitler plans to invade, steps up there spying efforts. All hope seems lost, however, when a double agent reveals the names of all known British spies to the Gestapo. If it weren't for Eva Bernhardt, an unknown German born sleeper agent in her early twenties, all hope might have been lost. Eva, and the villainous Nazi double agent Hobbs who recruited her, must infiltrate deep into the heart of Nazi Germany to find the entry point of the German invasion. Both agents are France's last hope of stopping the Nazi Blitzkrieg. But how much do the Germans know?

At 259 pages, this short book was quite a powerhouse. I was drawn in by the first paragraph, and never looked back. I was impressed with Altman's ability to hold the reader's attention, and even throw in a semi-surprise ending, with the outcome of World War II well known. Most surprising from this short book was the depth of character development. He was able to portray karmic rewards for previous actions without being Pollyanna about it. Part James Bond, part Jason Bourne, Gritty enough to portray the pre-war conditions in Nazi Germany without extinguishing all hope, A Game of Spies will be a welcome suspense addition to any library.

I liked the premise behind the story; that a person's inner morals and beliefs can override a king's command and yet still work out in the end. However, both the hero and the heroine are lacking in almost all other virtues. Lady Gillian's father died to protect someone else, also to keep her and her brother safe. Even so, this doesn't keep her from blabbing the entire situation to the first stranger she meets. Gareth's behavior toward Gillian once he regains his memory is horrid; I would rather face the consequences than be bound to someone like that my entire life! Even towards the end he just barely redeems himself. Not my idea of a hero. It's not really a bad book, just not one I would recommend to the discriminating reader.

THE TRUEST HEART is a pleasant, but not great, read. It's the story of Gillian and Gareth, two people who meet in the most unusual and almost unbelievable circumstances. Gillian is of the purest heart and cannot tell a lie even to save her own life. Gareth is of the truest heart and would even give his own life to save Gillian's.

This tale covers a death sentence, amnesia, mystery, love, sensuality and a very good, unforeseeable ending. All of these are very good ingredients for a love story.

This is a wonderfully written book full of interesting characters. Gillen and Gareth definitely should be together, however, with the threat to Gillian's life and Gareth's son from the King James, things are bound to go wrong. Samantha James is a wonderful author I enjoy her books