Agencies

It is hard to place this book in one category. It has some traits of an action book, some thriller twists, a bioterrorism plot, and romance. All these things are combined in a very compelling story about modern day Afghanistan and its relations with the world. You have a strong impression that the book is written by a seasoned writer, and yet, it is his first fiction work. The salient feature is a lot of research behind the lines, which makes the characters so vivid and the plot so believable. This especially concerns the bioterrorism part, where the author brilliantly used his own scientific experience and explained complex biology in a way that everybody would easily follow. It is a sad story about the country torn by long decades of wars including the most recent civil war. Yet, love and friendship surpass the sufferings and hatred making a clear optimistic note despite bad happenings. Being a big fan of Robert Ludlum, I was kind of skeptical about this book but it quickly surpassed my expectations and I simply could not let it go before the last page was turned. Unlike many thrillers/action stories that you don't remember a thing about only a week after having finished reading, the characters of "Winter in Kandahar" stay with you. This is why I believe that beside being a great story to read, it may soon become a major movie as well. My wholeharted congratulations to the author for such a wonderful accomplishment.

I just finished Winter in Kandahar and loved every minute of it. This novel is a thrilling adventure, told in a very realistic, but also, very interesting, enlightening and compelling way. The reader feels as if he is there in Afghanistan after 9/11/01. The reader leaves the novel with a better understanding of this troubled land and the rival tribal groups which inhabit it. Superimposed on this backdrop is an international thriller with bioterrorism at the heart of it. The prose is rich with detail and the main characters come to life. The story winds its way to the ending with a perfect crescendo.
Dan Belsky
Attorney in San Diego

I loved this book! The timeliness of the reality-based plot in the framework of an epic that spans the globe made for several weeks of enjoyment. I usually don't get an opportunity to read until we put the kids to sleep and climb into bed. I found myself eager with anticipation for the chance to crawl beneath the covers and return to the captivating Winter in Kandahar story.

The novel begins a short time prior to September 11, 2001 in the northeast corner of Afghanistan where the Northern Alliance remains precariously in control of territory that includes the Panjshir Valley where the Alliance Mujaheddin are making what appears to be their last stand against the combined forces of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The main character of the novel, a young ill-fated fighter named Ahmed Jan, is on the front lines of the see-saw battles that have seen his entire family wiped out. As shaky as the Northern Alliance situation is, it is made all the worse by the assassination of revered Northern Alliance leader Commander Ahmed Massoud at the hands of al-Qaeda in chapter 2. Ironically, in this darkest hour, the Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington D.C. turn out to be salvation for the Tajik, Uzbek and other groups of the Northern Alliance who are resisting the cruel Taliban domination. Within weeks U.S. Special Forces, Air Force, Navy, and other military units sweep the Taliban out of Kabul, Taloqan, Kandahar, and other major cities of Afghanistan and put them on the run, along with their al-Qaeda guests, into the Pakistani tribal territories along the Afghan border.

Ahmed Jan, along with ruthless Mujaheddin fighter Mustafa and old, rigid holy man Mohammajon, finds a mysterious communiqué in the coat of an al-Qaeda messenger and gets swept into an adventure that spans the globe from Islamabad to Amsterdam to Venice to Seattle to Vancouver to Karachi and back to Kandahar. The engrossing epic story includes CIA operatives and Special Forces soldiers interwoven with three love stories with very different endings. The adventure concludes with a moving and heartrending surprise finale.

I highly recommend this book for both women and men who are fans of adventure and romance novels. Daryl Everett, Detroit, Michigan

If you are in the mood for something quick, light, fun and funny, look no further than "e." I didn't really know what to expect from a book written entirely in inter-office e-mails, but it works! Matt Beaumont has done a superb job with this novel. I eagerly await the sequel.

"e" is the story of a group of employees at one of London's top advertising agencies, Miller Shanks, and the two weeks of preparation before the big Coca-Cola pitch. Landing Coke is quite a deal, but left in the...ahem...capable hands of the creative department, it is as good as done. Meanwhile, there are disasters on the horizon with other clients, and, of course, an office isn't an office without co-worker rivalry. "e" provides readers with all the juicy details!

Despite knowing any background information or characteristics of the characters, Matt Beaumont has managed, through the e-mails, to give them all distinct voices. It took several pages to finally put it all together, but their personalities eventually shined through. I loved this novel and all it's two-faced bigwigs, [weak] employees, backstabbing, love triangles, and corportate politics. Hilariously written and one I will definitely read again. I also suggest Syrup by Maxx Barry, another great novel based in the corporate world, this time in behind-the-scenes Coca-Cola itself.

Corks, yet another former copywriter turning his back on the evil empire and following his muse!

Actually though, Matt Beaumont hasn't fallen very far from the tree with this one, an exposé of life in a purportedly fictional London ad agency over the course of two hectic weeks. You have to believe, then, that he knows what he's talking about. The result is a novel that rings so true you're feeling the characters' pain by page three. (And their panties by page 33.)

There are lots of reasons to love this book. The antipodean version (and I guess that means the UK one) is subtitled "a hilariously funny novel," which you have to admire. Its email-based format means it's a damned quick read. Let's talk about that format a little. There is no, absolutely no, linking text. The entire story is told through emails, complete with addresees, cc's, bcc's and time stamps. I thought this would make for a difficult read, but it doesn't. If you're used to working in an organisation where your emails and vmails outnumber f2f's it doesn't take long to pick up the flow of the story.

I think it's even got some edges over traditional narrative. In the time it takes to read six one-sentence emails you get six different perspectives on the same event, complete with insights into how each character chooses to "spin" their response to each other. Checking the cc and bcc lists tells even more of the story. Bit like real life really.

Good on you Matt Beaumont. Told straight, your book would have just been a bloody funny story about life at the advertising coalface. Wrapping it in a brilliantly crafted whole new genre takes it a long way beyond that. Amazonians; read and enjoy. Amazonians in advertising; make that a double and charge it to your favourite client.

Having worked in an office full of gossip and passive-aggressive agendas, every single character in "e" was easy for me to picture. The idea of writing the book as a collection of emails is brilliant, as is the huge dose of sarcasm that the British are known for. I read this book in 2 days, since once the story got rolling, it was hard for me to stop. Good fun.

This is the Watergate of high fashion.

Award-winning investigative journalist Ian Halperin went undercover as a model to expose what goes on in the fashion industry off the runway when the lights and cameras go off. I read this book with my jaw on the floor. You will be outraged to read how beautiful young girls, some from poor countries and others red-blooded Americans with dreams of making it big, are prime targets of being sexually used, abused, perhaps murdered; they are made to go through things one wouldn't wish on their worst enemy. If you want to be a fashion model, this book will scare the living daylights out of you; if you believe this book doesn't relate to you, think of your daughter, your neice, your granddaughter.

In addition to Halperin's investigating the darker, lesser known sides of this industry, also included later on in the book are top notch, in-depth chapters of more publicized occurences in fashion recently: the untimely death of Gianni Versace, the Fashion Cafe, Niki Taylor's tragedy, the John Casablancas scandal.

It's tragic, as John Casablancas and the way he took advantage of his models is a sort of a tip of the iceberg to what is described in the first part of the book, and somehow what's below the surface has yet to be picked up by mainstream media and be prosecuted by authorities.

Also: insightful biographies of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and other supermodels.

A well-rounded book, paced wonderfully and written skillfully.

This book rocks the fashion world. It reveals all the inner secrets behind the secrets of the fashion and modeling industry. And it is extremely well written. I highly recommend all fashion fans to consider Bad and Beautiful. The author posed undercover as a model to get the story. It is highly entertaining and investigative journalism at its best.

Mr. Halperin's excellent book fills a real need to expose the model industry for what it actually is. The book is full of highly informative case histories, and contains clear and understandable info on what it takes to survive in this gruelling business. This is an excellent book which I truly highly recommend.

The oddball detective Dirk Gently and his "client" Richard MacDuff go on an investigation to solve a murder, AND save the human race from extinction as well....No one could've expected Douglas Adams to write nothing but "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" books his entire life, and so, in 1987, he began a new series of books centered around a *very* unconventional detective named Dirk Gently, who uses his belief "in the interconnectedness of all things" to solve crimes. His introductory adventure, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency," is a very different creation altogether from the popular "Hitchhiker's Guide" books. Like it says on the back cover, "Dirk Gently" is a combination of ghost, horror, detective, time-travel, and romantic comedy. The results are mixed---the book takes a while to get going (Dirk Gently himself does not physically appear for a LONG time), the story is confusing at times, and it just isn't laugh-out-loud funny like the majority of the "Hitchhiker's" series. But "Dirk Gently" still has it's amusing moments, including the plight of Gordon Way, Richard's relationship with his cello-playing girlfriend, Susan, and Dirk hypnotising Richard into doing something that, for me, was totally unexpected and very, very funny (but I won't spoil it for you). Also, as a fan of the popular sci-fi series, "Doctor Who," which Adams wrote some stories for, I was also delighted to see the appearance of Professor "Reg" Chronotis, a character from Adams' "Doctor Who" story, "Shada," who plays an important role here as well.Unfortunately, Adams gives "Dirk Gently" an ending that only raises more questions than it gives answers. Besides not making any sense (well, not to me, anyway), the ending feels hastily written, as if Adams was racing against the clock to meet a deadline with his publishers, couldn't come up with a *plausible* way for Dirk to save the day, and so, he scribbled down a nonsense scene to end Dirk's adventure with. And also, what happened to the Electric Monk, or Michael Wenton-Weakes? Adams doesn't say. So, in the end, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" is a very mixed bag, but I'm going to give it 3 out of 5 stars because it's still a pretty amusing book, with some pretty amusing characters, and I AM curious to see where Adams takes Dirk next. Alright then, onto the second Dirk Gently book, "The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul".... :-)

When reading this book, don't try to figure out what is going on. You can't -- at least, not until the end. After all, this IS a mystery, a detective story. But, as is typical with Adams, this is unlike any other detective story you have ever read. It is extremely funny, baffling, and brilliant all at once. And in the end, it all makes perfect sense, in its own wonderfully unique way. On a more serious note, I have always thought that beneath the wacky humor of Adams' books, there are always very interesting concepts and certain truths that go deeper than the crazy stories on the surface. For instance, Dirk Gently's belief in the "interconnectedness of all things" is actually a true belief of many religious groups, such as the American Indians. But even if you don't buy into the philosophy, you certainly can enjoy this great book. Just stick with it until the end. For me, this was easy, since I have read all of Adams' books and am used to his sometim! es seemingly-disjointed style. I say "seemingly" disjointed because, again, it will eventually all come together. And it does so brilliantly.

I have read this book so many times I've lost count. Lets see now: The character portrayal is brilliant, Adams' humour is the kind that makes you laugh out aloud - in fact the humour achieved in this novel is unparalleled, the plot is delightfully complex and fascinating, the story is well-paced and makes you want to read read read, Dirk is utterly hilarious, and Adams' style of writing and mastery of wordplay has never been more evident.
Sometimes I'll read a passage over and over, not because I dont understand it but because it's so well written that I just about cant believe it. This book truly is a mental stimulation that you wont forget in a hurry, an absolute treat, and if I ever had to choose one book to be stranded on an island with, this would be it. Of course I would stash a few nudie books down the back of my pants as well, the authorities wouldn't notice.

5 STARS IS NOT ENOUGH for this book!!!!

Mr. Gary Webb may well be the very best "Fiction writer" of all times.....he has the unigue ability to take fibers of truth and weave it into a full fledged story..He never allows the truth to get in the way of a good story. It doesn't matter who he hurts, what he destroy's, what carnage he leaves behind. Just so long as he see's his by-line. Take this book as a piece of the true fiction. This was just another example of how Mr. Webb spins his little tales. But this time his ego forgot to check who his victim was, It was "The United States Government" who like Mr. Web, buys there ink by the truck full. Congradulations Gary, you finally self destructed ....your former victims all cheered....from the statehouse to the courthouse and remember all the times you lost your slander suits.

I followed the "Dark Alliance" story from the time it was published in the San Jose Mercury News to the time it was ridiculed by the country's largest newspapers and Gary Webb was hung out to dry by his own paper. I picked up the book with an open mind but no expectation of being convinced.

I was not only convinced, I was stunned by the story from start to finish. Webb has assembled not shadowy sources leaking dark innuendos but a thorough reporting of facts taken from congressional testimony, court testimony, declassified documents and personal interviews. It's clear, at a minimum, that the US government was connected to the people responsible for a large piece of the cocaine trade. The only thing that remains uncertain is whether US officials actually participated in the drug trade directly with these people or simply forged a marriage of convenience and looked the other way. It's worth noting that a large amount of information comes from documents that are only partially declassified -- meaning that plenty of incriminating information remains to be disclosed. Years from now we'll finally see what is still being concealed, and I suspect we'll learn that the story goes beyond the basic verifiable information that Webb reports here.

For those who believed the NY Times' cursory dismissal of this story, please note the Times' record in the case of El Mozote as told in the book "The Massacre at El Mozote" by Mark Danner. The Times pulled its own Latin American correspondent off the story of a massacre by US-supported Salvadoran troops when the government went on the attack. Ten years later, the hundreds of bodies were found and the whole story was confirmed. The Times was left looking as if it had participated in the official coverup, and maybe it did. It would be no surprise to find out a similar story in this case.

Although an expert in news gathering in Central and South America and a much decorated investigative reporter, San Jose Mercury News' Gary Webb was hung out to dry by his newspaper's editor. Why? Because he dared to document the details of the connections in the international cocaine trade between the Central Intelligence Agency, their drug dealing "assets," the Contras and Los Angeles street gangs.

Earlier, writers like Michael Levine and Laura Kavanau-Levine who published, "The Big White Lie: The CIA and the Cocaine/Crack Epidemic" or Alfred W. McCoy who wrote "The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade," seemed to have come through it unscathed. Perhaps the Central Intelligence Agency and their domestic propagandists allow historians to "get away with it. " That was then, but Gary Webb writes about now. Webb's serialized exposé in the San Jose Mercury News, where his book's title originated, caused such a public outcry that his reports simply couldn't be ignored. Indeed, when Webb's stories first broke one drug gang-infested Los Angeles community became so enraged that the then CIA Director was obliged to visit the public in a futile attempt to calm them and protect the "good name" of the CIA. He was virtually run out of town • • • shown on national televison. But since that didn't work, the next best thing was to unleash the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times to attack and marginalize Webb's story.

As Webb points out in his book "Dark Alliance," in their campaign to margimnalize him, the so-called respectable newspapers took potshots at his technique of news gathering and questioned the reliability of his methods and sources. But none of the papers print that Webb's story WAS NOT TRUE! Under pressure from all sides, Webb's editor caved in and assigned him to cover obscure stories 150 miles away from his home. They assassinated Webb's professional career. He got the message, and not wishing to put his wife and children through any more stress, Webb left the newspaper business. His book details this process.

A man of principle, Webb says the price he paid to get the truth to the public was part of being an investigative journalist. He does not regret that he wrote this story. "Dark Alliance" is a very important book of our time for those who wish to understand how it is possible for tons of cocaine to flow weekly into the United States while the most powerful country on earth is unbelievably, seemingly unable to stop the flow. This in spite of spending billions of dollars on the so-called Drug War.

For those who wish to understand exactly how American society is being subverted by the cociane establishment they must read "Dark Alliance."

If you've read Running with Scissors and liked (or at least appreciated) it, you'd better read Dry, too. It's mostly about Augusten Burroughs's re-entry after leaving rehab after his obligatory 30 days. Somewhere in the process of his experience 'inside,' something clicked, and he actually starts to examine himself, his motivations, his life, and the choices he's made - and it's not easy. Not easy for Burroughs to live through, certainly not easy stuff to write, not all that easy to read, either, but it sure makes for a good story.
Funny, heartbreaking, and searingly true. You couldn't make this stuff up.

I assume buyers of this must have read Running with Scissors, which means that they're unshockable non-homophobics. Shockable homophobics will need CPR within the first few pages. It continues the life of Augusten Burroughs. (Oddly enough he is more frank about his degree of fictionization in this book, although the events are less fantastic and more believable). He comes to Manhattan, works in advertizing, has an alcohol problem, goes in into a gay rehab tank, joins AA, relapses, and gets sober again. He has several love affairs, partly to get over his passion for a friend who is dying of AIDS.
In its way it is as funny as Running with Scissors. It's also more overtly tragic. You could say that Running with Scissors was about even more tragic events but seriousness was seldom allowed in, except in the most mordant and bitter way. This becomes almost sentimental at times.
Which is the better book? Dry addresses deeper issues of more universal concern. Running with Scissors was more startlingly original. I haven't read Sellevision yet.

I raise a toast to Augusten Burroughs for "Dry." This is a brilliant account of alcoholism. It is not addiction in the streets, it is addiction in the world of the successful and influential. No one has handled addiction by the affluent since Rikki Lee Travolta did in "My Fractured Life." Read it with a bottle beside you, even if you don't drink it - it will make you feel like a part of their world.

First published in 1998, "Whiteout" is a meticulously documented account of the CIA's decades long role as an international drug peddler and of the surprising support it received in this capacity from America's purportedly liberal press. Authors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair provide a detailed history of the CIA's drug business and its alliance with organized crime around the globe beginning with its precursor organizations in World War II (Naval Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Services) through the mid nineties.

While the authors span the CIA's fifty-year history of assassination, gruesome torture, and collaboration with evil figures such as drug lords and Nazi war criminals, the principle villain in this book is actually the American liberal press and not the agency itself. To be sure the agency has done some horrific things, but to anyone who has read their history, little of this is new or surprising and believers in "realpolitik" may even find them justifiable according to America's national interest. The latter point is often shallow and difficult to hold up under scrutiny but probably not worth examining here. Perhaps the only readers who'll find this book's portrayal of the CIA offensive are those whose view of the agency has been formed by James Bond movies and popular television shows such as "JAG", "Alias", and "The Agency". Sorry to burst your bubble folks, but don't worry, the tooth fairy isn't real either.

The centerpiece of whiteout is veteran San Jose journalist, Gary Webb who in 1996 broke the story that:

"For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the US Central Intelligence Agency."

Webb had stumbled on this story almost accidentally, but could verify it with irrefutable evidence including the sworn grand jury testimony of one of the drug dealers who was also on the DEA payroll, as well as DEA and FBI documentation. One of the most damning aspects of Webb's story was not so much that the CIA subverted congress by funding a secret war that the legislature had refused to, but that it knowingly-and with great indifference-launched a drug epidemic that ravaged America's inner cities with addiction, violence, and murder.

Despite such hard evidence, which the San Jose Mercury News made available on its Web site, Webb and his paper were hounded mercilessly by liberal publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. At first Webb's editor supported and encouraged him, but soon he caved in to the mounting pressure from these other publications and subsequently retracted the story. After bravely enduring an unprecedented attack on his work and professional qualifications, and after finally losing the support of his own paper, Web subsequently resigned and went on to publish his findings in book form.

Why, one might ask, would the liberal press go after one of its own instead of picking up the story and perhaps supplementing it with additional research? Cockburn and St. Clair argue that for a variety of reasons the liberal press-its reputation aside-is and always has been extraordinarily cooperative with the CIA. Several senior editors at the Washington Post, for example, make no secret of the fact that for years they have acted as agency "assets" and continue to collaborate with it to this day. Add to this the attitude of individuals such as the Washington Post's Katherine Graham who believe that most Americans are infants whose perceptions need to be managed by self appointed media parents such as herself. (Graham once stated: "We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know, and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.")

Whether it collaborates directly with the government or simply takes it upon itself to manage our perceptions on its own, the press hardly serves a democratic or informative purpose in matters such as its treatment of Webb's story. And when you factor in the press's complacency regarding the three most important stories of the past few years (The attacks of September 11th, the colonization of Iraq, and the wave of corporate crimes) it becomes evident that the press is a prime contributor to the "dirty" and "dangerous" aspects of the world we live in.

The CIA has always been a very secretive organization, and remains one today. In 1996, the publication of Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" series threatened the CIA with unwelcome public scrutiny by exposing its complicity in the drug trade: the CIA-created Nicaraguan contras were funding their operations, in part, by selling crack cocaine on the streets of Los Angeles, with the agency's knowledge.

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's "Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press" jumps off from here. Wisely, Cockburn and St. Clair do not make Webb's story the core of their book; Webb's own book does that job admirably. What they do contribute to this story is a devastating account of the shameful way that the mainstream press, led by former intelligence officer Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, turned on Webb in an effort to discredit him and his story. Cockburn and St. Clair repeatedly expose the flaws in mainstream efforts to "debunk" the Dark Alliance series, and catch many reporters acting as little more than flacks for the CIA, often writing stories that said little more than "we know Webb's story is false because the CIA told us so."

But the core of "Whiteout" has a more historical perspective, as the authors set out to review the underside of the history of the CIA and its precursor, the OSS. And an ugly picture it is, too, as we see these agencies:

-recruiting the Mafia to assassinate foreign leaders.

-recruiting Nazi scientists to conduct experiments (often on blacks) in torture and mind control.

-helping war criminal Klaus Barbie escape Europe, and justice, to become a South American drug lord, arms dealer and apparent CIA operative.

-allying with the opium and heroin traders of Southeast Asia.

Working with drug dealers and other criminal elements is so common for the CIA that it would appear from this account to have been standard Agency procedure.

"Whiteout" is a well-written and well-researched book. Helpfully, the authors end each chapter with an annotated guide to further reading on the subject.

"Whiteout" is not pleasant reading; I could only take so much at a time before having to put it aside for the day. But it is necessary reading. In a democratic society, an agency such as the CIA, if it must exist, must be under constant scrutiny or it will lapse into lawlessness (the same is true of law enforcement agencies). It is clear that the mainstream media are not going to provide such scrutiny, so we must turn to independent journalists like Cockburn and St. Clair and others like them for the accurate information we need.

In Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press, authors Alex Cockburn and Jeff St Clair have synthesized a vast amount of information into an easy to read, cogent history of the CIA's involvement in the illicit trafficking of narcotics.

This unforgettable and very important book proves several things. First, that the CIA has been the world's biggest drug trafficker for the past 50 years. Second, that the major newspapers and TV networks have always known about it, but have chosen not to report it, under the aegis of national security. Third, that the end result of CIA drug dealing and the attendant media "whiteout" is the pacification of minority communities in America. And last but not least, Whiteout proves that when independent journalists like Gary Webb report the truth, they are inevitably smeared by the same powerful forces that put this unjust system into motion.

Whiteout is a volatile book and is sure to arouse the wrath of both Big Media and Big Brother. But it has been meticuously researched, and it is so well written that the case it makes is beyond any reasonable doubt. Authors Cockburn and St Clair are to be commended for their courage in providing such a valuable public service. Five stars for covering all the bases.

First of all, I like Daniel Silva's writing and I thoroughly enjoyed his first two novels. "The Unlikely Spy" was one of the best World War II espionage novels that I had read in a long time. "Mark of the Assassin", the prequel to this book, was also quite good. But, I guess I just missed the boat on this one.

The success of the Good Friday Agreement is being threatened by a new terrorist group and the current British Prime Minister requests that the U.S. President appoint a heavyweight to the Court of St. James to show U.S. support for this agreement. Senator Douglas Cannon, a political rival of the current administration, gets the appointment and since he is Michael Osbourne's father in law, we know that the former hero of "Mark of the Assassin" will be lured back into the web of dirty deeds and operatives. Even the "Assassin" from "Mark of the Assassin" returns. What more could one ask for.

Unlike many, I thought that the first half of the book was extremely well done. Especially where Silva lays the seeds for the problems in Northern Ireland and introduces his new paramilitary "bad guys" (and "bad gals"). But, with the introduction of a super-secret cabal known only as "The Society", whose directors are interested in world domination and control from an economic as well as a political/military level, I think he starts to lose it. First of all, the identity of the U.S. delegate to this group is a piece of cake to figure out. Then, "October", the assassin from the second book, performs a hit for the Mossad and Osbourne can recognize him from his hand (?). The Society itself - that world domination thing, again - is vintage Robert Ludlum. Even the three word title is downright Ludlumesque. And having Osbourne and Jean Paul Delarouche ("October") join forces to save the world.......well, let's say I double checked a couple of times just to make sure whose name was on the cover.

A number of authors of this genre have had their first couple of books be their best work and later novels become the literary equivalent of popcorn. I think that Silva is too good a writer to allow that to happen. But, I look forward to his next novel, just to make sure.

In the past 4 weeks I have read several books; novels, non-fiction and some that are somewhere in between. However, "The Marching Season" makes them all pall. Mr Silva now ranks with Clive Cussler, Jack Higgins, W.E.B. Griffin, Michael Connelly, and outshines Tom Clancy in my list of favorite authors. The book is extermely fast paced and readable. I started the book at 8:30 a.m. and finished at 6:30 p.m.. Mr Silva please don't change your style or your characters.

...is infuriating until it becomes clear that he/she is being ironic. It seems 18 people either realize that or agree with some deliberately outrageous beliefs.

Blum's book is probably the definitive overview of major American interventions since WWII, some 55 in number involving either direct military intervention or covert CIA-led subversion. Complementing this inclusive catalogue is a powerful on-target introduction to the new edition, which itself is a revised and updated version of 1986's *CIA: A Forgotten History*. If you are looking for a single volume compendium of US presence abroad, no holds barred, this is the book to get.

There is little need for editorial comment in these accounts of how the Pentagon-CIA axis keeps the world safe for Western commercial interests, or how effectively they remove the 'Free' from the Free World we are told they protect. Instead, Blum lets the record speak for itself, much as Noam Chomsky does in his series of expose's. The picture that emerges is not a pretty one, so be prepared in these pages to deal with realities unprocessed by the usual corps of Washington beauticians.

William Blum has written a book whose subject should be of interest to all Americans who believe in freedom.

Well-informed readers may already be familiar with the basic idea. In brief, the U.S. Government during the latter half of the twentieth century waged numerous secret little wars, of one kind or another, against foreign governments and groups of which it did not approve. The avowed purpose was usually to contain a perceived communist menace. In actuality, what might be called communist means were employed to achieve this end. These means involved spying, wiretapping, propaganda at home and abroad; the rigging of or interfering with elections; the granting of monetary and military aid to dictatorships and violent opposition groups; the training of same in methods of subversion, torture and terror. All this and more was done without Congressional approval or oversight. The American people were lied to by government officials to keep it that way. A complaisant media helped it happen. To some extent, it is still happening today.

The above is fairly common knowledge. However, though it breaks little new ground, Mr. Blum's book's sheer comprehensiveness makes it an invaluable resource, which is my first reason for recommending it. In 383 packed pages of narrative appended with 56 pages of source citations, Mr. Blum presents the essential facts--and horrors--of more than 55 U.S. military/CIA foreign interventions since WWII. For readers ignorant of these goings-on, the total impact will be mind-blowing. For those, such as myself, already somewhat acquainted with them, the effect is still staggering. Noam Chomsky, quoted on the back cover, calls it "Far and away the best book on the topic." I see no reason to dispute him.

My second reason for recommending this book is for what it shows about America today. And it is not that America is the Great Satan. It is true that America may be thought of, with some justice, as a terrorist country that has earned the world's hatred. But to use this fact, as do some leftists, for the sole purpose of bashing America, is unconstructive and wrong. Mr. Blum does not choose to focus on it (which does not surprise me), but the crucial message I see stamped in blood onto the pages of his book is of the disastrous consequences of our government's executive branch being unconstrained by its proper constitutional limits. This growth of executive power had several causes in the twentieth century, which the book shows in action as part of the reasoning behind the government's doing what it did. Overblown fears of communist world conquest; an altruistic desire to bring democracy to the world's benighted peoples; an ill-defined "national interest" with no objective standards to keep its pursuit in check--these all and more combined to expand the power of the executive branch to a level unknown in the history of our republic. The evils subsequently committed by the Presidency, the CIA and other executive agencies were necessary consequences of their having such arbitrary power at their disposal. If you want the real lesson from *Killing Hope*, this is it. Its 55 chapters read like case studies of what can and must happen when the exercise of executive discretion and secrecy is allowed, by Congressional and philosophical default, to grow unchecked in the foreign policy arena.

The Founding Fathers, were they alive today, would be shocked and appalled, but not surprised. As James Madison said, "The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse of all the trusts committed to a Government." The Founders saw this firsthand as they fought a war against a world power that in the eighteenth century occupied a position similar, in certain relevant respects, to America's today (though America's actions have been more destructive than Great Britain's ever were); and they designed a new form of government to prevent such tyrannical abuse in the future. Mr. Blum demonstrates that perhaps millions of people--some Americans, but mostly those non-Americans who used to look to America for inspiration and hope--have died as a result of the corruption of the constitutional government the Founders designed. I believe, meaningfully, that America is the greatest country in the world--with respect to her spirit and her original founding principles, if not to what she has become today. Islamic militants and others who denounce America for her embodying Western civilization's greatest achievments are wrong. But they do have an excuse. Instead of being a beacon, lighting the way to liberty and progress, America herself has tragically become a symbol of oppression for many of the world's oppressed. As the title of Mr. Blum's book implies, the actions of America's unaccountable government are "killing" these people's "hope." *Killing Hope* shows us what is wrong with America and the kind of government we must return to if we are to fix her.

The third book in the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency series is a little bit of a letdown. Having loved the previous two entries (which one should certainly read before this), I was rather disappointed that there of the five plotlines, only two were actually "cases" and two were left unresolved. Plotline one involves the agency's move to share space with Speedy Motors and Miss Makutsi's new role as Asst. Manager there. Plotline two involves a feral young boy found in the bush, which never really goes anywhere. Plotline three involves the apparent poisoning of the brother of an important "Government Man."

This case is much like those in the two previous books as "traditionally built" Precious Ramotswe must insinuate herself into a country household and unmask the poisoner. As always, she uses her intelligence, keen sense of human nature and a desire to help people to arrive at an outcome that's best for all. Plotline four embroils Miss Makutsi in an investigation of the character of four beauty contest finalists. She proves herself the equal of Mma Ramotswe as a detective, and in that sense, she steals some of the thunder in this book. The final plotline revolves around a mystery held by Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni which is hinted at but never unveiled, presumably leaving it for the next book, which is rather frustrating and annoying.

Like the earlier books, this one critiques forces of progress and modernization as well as patriarchalism (although in a lighter way than the other books did), and aims to portray a positive picture of modern Africa, one all too rarely seen in the West. As always, the story is delivered in a delightfully fluid and simple well-paced prose.

The series continues with The Kalahari Typing School For Men.

Morality for Beautiful Girls is third in a series about Precious Ramotswe, a lady detective in Botswana, Africa. For this Midwestern reader the landscape, weather, and daily life in Botswana were fascinating and clearly depicted.

This is not your typical mystery--there is no murder to be solved. Ramotswe and her assistant detective cleverly handle a couple of cases for clients, but her personal life is just as interesting: moving the office, caring for two foster children, and handling the auto repair shop belonging to her fiance who has suddenly begun acting strangely. Ramotswe deals with both the problems of her clients and her personal life in a thorough and straight-forward manner.

I had to buy the first two books in the series (The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, and Tears of the Giraffe) from Amazon.UK, so I was very happy to find this third book on Amazon.com.

For something just a little different--highly recommended.

The beauty of this series is its simplicity and non-formulaic pacing and style. With few words, with a seemingly simplistic point of view, complicated matters that go beyond the borders of Botswana are broken down into small parcels. The facts have life are not often so basically described.

One of the main aspects of the novel that I really love is the unpredictable pacing of the novel. Halfway through the story, a new and very important story line surfaces and without a lot of Hollywood-style drama, the story continues unfolding calmly, without exploding cars; wild, passionate scenes; predictable melodrama. Unlike most stories today, the plot doesn't build up to a dramatic plateau three quarters of the way through the story; rather it unfolds like rolling hills.

The plot is almost inconsequential compared to the telling of the story; it's the telling of the story and the point of views that make these books so captivating. This series successfully transports you to a new world and way of looking at life, something that can't be said for most fiction that I have read.

Between this book and Matt Lauer's report on Botswana, I am now looking forward to visiting this country someday.