This book is a detailed examination of the internal search for a spy that was supposedly in the CIA during the 60 - 70's that was headed up by the chief of counter intelligence James Angleton. The book focuses on Angleton's almost demonic search for this supposed spy. The spy was never found but the search did an incalculable amount of damage to the CIA and overall U.S. security due to the paranoid and distrustful management style that the CIA adopted. The book is written in the style of an investigative reporter, by that I mean straight forward timeline with backed up facts and lots of detail. It provides the read with an interesting view into the CIA and the problems the culture of mistrust caused. It is a very readable book and is a must for those who are interested in the workings of the CIA during the cold war.

I consider myself fortunate to have read "The Politics of Lying" by David Wise when it was first published at the time that I began my career as an airline pilot 30 years ago. The author's insight made it possible for me to understand much better the seemingly contradictory, illogical, malfunctioning government that I served as a Marine in [SE Asia]. I would also highly recommend "The Invisible Government" by David Wise to better understand how highly paid lobbyists for airlines and for defense contractors manage to raid the nation's tax revenues on behalf of their clients whenever necessary to compensate for their own mistakes without fear of enforcement of compliance issues. For instance, after the most disastrous day in aviation history on 9/11/2001, the FAA Rapid Response Team requested suggestions from the public concerning immediate actions that should be taken to protect the public from further aviation terrorism. As an airline Captain with many years of Boeing aircraft piloting experience, I suggested that aircraft be modified to provide the crew with sensor information about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the cargo or clues about missiles being fired at the aircraft (e.g., TWA 800). In spite of more than a year of unpaid lobbying and my filing of a whistleblower claim, the aircraft manufacturers and airline operators have still managed to convince the government not to take any practical steps to mitigate the problem of unscreened cargo until an incident actually happens. The subject has been classified to hide the lack of progress. Meanwhile the [money] that would be required to modify 10,000 aircraft at [a price] is being wasted through airline subsidies that don't address this continuing risk to the American public.

This is a high level 2nd edition D&D module set in the ravenloft domain of Bluetspur pre-grand conjunction. It is set in the inhospitable land of illithids and provides a great game for seeing the dangerous intrigues among the mind flayers, one of the most Cthullu like elements of the entire D&D millilieu. It is not very gothic but it is intense and high powered and will drive up character fears.

k.. If you don't posses the Van Richten's Guide books this is it! , but, if you are one of the freaks who mannage to get their hands on the original books, don't bother!

Essentially this book is a collection of 3 Van Richten's guides, his guide to ghost, ancient dead (mummies) and the Lich. If you already own those books definately skip over this one. But if you don't its definately worth picking up. Included in each section is detailed information about the creature to which the section belongs, everything from game statistics, special abilities (more then what you'll find in the monstrous manual), variations, stories of noteable examples plaguing the Ravenloft world. The thing I liked most about the guides was they can be read by player and DM alike (although certain parts should be reserved for the DM). Personally I photocopied a large section appropriate to the adventure, (taking care not to copy the sections I didnt want my players to see) and in the adventure previous to the one I wanted it used it the players stumbled across a copy of one of Van Richtens many works. It gave the players many ideas on how to combat the undead, short of just running in and batteling away.

This is the most misleading title ever. The book promises to help you resore your intimacy. For someone suffering from depression and looking for a way to fix their diminished sexual desire, this book is a cruel joke with nothing more to say than "Talk to your doctor about it".

You can save yourself a lot of time and money if you already know the basics about depression and its effects on your life. This book offers absolutely no solutions, just platitudes!

I would have given it zero stars, but Amazon didn't give me that option.

This book was easy to read and helped me understand more about the side effects of medication and the impact depression can have on relationships. I liked reading the questions/answers that were provided but I wish there were more tips on how to maintain my relationship through my depression. I would recommend this to someone who wants more of an overview/clinical view on depression. For those of you who want tips on how to strengthen your relationship, look elsewhere...

This book is a godsend. I am struggling with a husband who is depressed and this is the first book I found that addressed the problems of intimacy when a spouse is depressed. The panel of experts gave thoughtful and helpful answers. Most of all, it was hopeful and reassuring to know that I am not alone.

A factual depiction about a troubled soul, Edward Howard, the CIA and FBI. I particularly enjoyed it because I knew the person personally for a number of years and went to school with some of his relations. He was always somewhat of a mysterious person, always attending college someplace, but now it all makes more sense.

The story is about a spy that literally got away from the FBI - right under their noses. He is now (at least one thinks) living in Russia, which I am sure, does not treat him the same way it used to. Overall I felt the story was interesting, but did not come away thinking this guy did that much damage to the US. He just did not hold a very high position and he left after a short period of time. He was no Walker or Ames. Given this was the case my complaint with the author is that he tried to make the spying this lame did as something more exciting then it was, I am assuming to get more buss about the book. Overall the book is a fine effort, Wise has a lot of knowledge about the working of the intelligence agencies in the US and Russia and he likes to display that knowledge in the book. If you are a nut about true-life spy's then this is not a bad little book.

Knowing that a book is non-fiction always adds a greater sense of mystery and wonder, which is certainly true about this account of an American intelligence agent who defected to Russia. It is obvious that the author spend a great deal of time researching every aspect of the subject in addition to the intelligence agency in general. THere are a lot of amazing details about the CIA, FBI, and KGB that are told through this story. Some of the long descriptions may bore some readers, but I found the novel to be very well written and very interesting.

Although this book does cover a large number of vehicles, it is mostly pictures of older vehicles. So, if you are looking for photos, this is a great source. If you are looking for a more historical reference, look elswhere.

There's a particular style of mystery that I haven't quite classified yet. Maybe I'll take a line from TNT and call them "mysteries for guys who like mysteries." They usually involve a whole lot of sex, a whole lot of gorgeous, curvy women with whom the protagonist doesn't have sex (unless he's James Bond, who should have had at least twenty-seven venereal diseases by now), many things blowing up... you get the idea. And all of them, at least all that I've read, share a particular writing style, from Iam Fleming to the team who cranked out the Nick Carter books to David Wise. Imagine if Dolph Lundgren were narrating a book, and you have the general idea. Accent and all.

Given that, the good points about David Wise's The Samarkand Dimension: Lots of gorgeous, curvy women, with whom protagonist David Markham both does and does not have sex; gunfire (although nothing blows up); and writing that can be read in a Dolph Lundgren accent without sounding too terribly silly.

The bad points: the editing, the proofreading, and the printing. Someone was more than asleep at the wheel when this thing was edited and proofread.

David Markham is a CIA operative who's chosen to go into the Soviet (yes, we had Soviets back then) psywarfare installation at Samarkand and try to find out how far along those evil Russkies are in their psy testing. They're far enough along to turn a top-secret missile back on its tail and send it crashing into Vandenberg Air Force Base; what else are they capable of?

Not a bad plot, and pretty well-handled. And the underlying mystery (which I can't give away without all kinds of spoilers) ends up being the kind of whodunit that made me sit there clutching the book and saying "you guys are GOOD." I never saw it coming, but then I'm awfully thick-skulled about this sort of thing sometimes. Others may get it a lot faster than I did. *** 1/2 for the story, * 1/2 for the awful presentation, we'll settle on a good, solid, middle-of-the-road ** 1/2 for the whole book.

Is this how the Double Diamond Triangle Saga functions? By lumbering noisily through every single plot point? This segment could be reduced to 20 pages, instead it's 96. Kern and Miltiades, so interesting in "Pool of Twilight", are here now reduced to squarejawed paladin stereotypes and are barely interesting. The way Piergeiron's illness is introduced is so amateurish that it seems like an afterthought. The tanar'ri subplot (since when does 96 pages allow suplots?) is incredibly dull, and our nominal hero is too klutzy for us to believe he would be sent on a rescue mission under any circumstances. And didn't anyone notice that a paladin dies solely because Kern's resistance to magic didn't allow Khelben to teleport him? Disappointing.

How can such a good author of non- fiction come up with this? I found the book dull, contrived and slow. I got to about page 200 and had to stop.