Agent Books

First off, this book was well written. It was a fast read and my interest was kept throughout. Second, this was an important work for understanding the war in Northern Ireland. Specifically, it allows the reader to see how informants were used by the British to prosecute the war against the IRA. A lot of techniques, tactics, and procedures are learned from this riveting first-person account. The reader not only learns the methodology the British used to penetrate IRA organizations, but how the IRA responded in order to maintain their operational security. While the author was able to give good intelligence to his British masters for several years, he was eventually exposed and targeted for execution by the IRA's internal security service...the Nutting Squad.

The book was a fascinating read because of the real-life dilemmas the author faced on a regular basis. I definitely liked the human drama played out on the pages of the book. However, I did not buy into the author - Martin McGartland - attempts to elicit sympathy for his plight. He now lives on the run in a witness protection program and is a dead man walking. He can never return to Northern Ireland or he will most likely be dealt with quite quickly by the still powerful IRA.

McGartland was, by all accounts, a selfish scumbag. He fathered several children and never supported them or their mothers and always tried to explain away his irresponsiblity because of the war. Also, he was a life long criminal and thief who never earned an honest day's pay and took to being an informant because of the easy money. McGartland tries throughout the book to convince the reader he was a patriot and humanitarian, but this rings hollow. Ask his children and their mothers what kind of a man he is. I suspect, not a tear will be shed when McGartland dies in his sleep or is so foolish as to return to Northern Ireland where he is sure to eat a bullet. However, this is the kind of human material informants are usually made of. Again, an excellent book.

Well written first hand account of a Catholic boy in Northern Ireland who goes to work for both the Special Branch and the IRA. Read entire book at one sitting, couldn't put it down

Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (12/07)

Henry D. `Hank' Myers is writing to alert new and prospective real estate agents of the time-consuming effort required to become successful in the real estate industry. He draws from twenty years experience as a successful California Realtor®** and offers expert advice concerning the level of commitment necessary to succeed in this competitive market.

"The First Steps to Becoming a Real Estate Agent" is a compact user's manual for anyone thinking about commencing real estate as a profession. Each of the nine chapters is packed with information. Myers provides tools that will equip the reader to get started and to follow through with their decision to become a part of this growing and exciting industry.

Myers points out the fallacies in thinking prevalent among entry level agents and shares five cold, hard facts that need to be recognized before taking this first step. He points out the hidden costs that affect the realty agent's net income, the personal cost of time and stress, dealing with co-workers, the time commitment for meetings and events, and the art of negotiation. The final chapter emphasizes the rewards of the profession, both in dollars and in the sense of well-being that comes with a job well done.

I particularly appreciated Myers' candid approach in alerting the novice to the special skills required and the potential pitfalls that may be faced during the early stages after launching a professional career in real estate.

"The First Steps to Becoming a Real Estate Agent" should be prerequisite reading for everyone who is considering or thinking of pursuing a career in real estate. Every broker should supply a copy to each of his agents. The book is a valuable primer for the novice and an important resource for the veteran.

"The First Steps to Becoming a Real Estate Agent" is a fast, interesting, and challenging resource, providing insights to inspire the reader to attain a rewarding, consistent success and a lucrative career in real estate.


**Realtor® is a federally registered collective membership mark which identifies a real estate professional who is a Member of the National Association of Realtors® and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics.

I have completed two careers in my life. One was twenty plus years on active duty in the U. S. Navy and the other as a Civil Service Employee for the U.S. Government. During those years I moved my family many times. At several of the stations where we lived, my wife and I bought houses rather than just wasted money on rent.

We often thought the payment of Real Estate Agent's commissions were pretty expensive for what seemed like "easy work" on the behalf of the agents we used when buying and selling those properties.

During my second career, and now that I have retired from it, I have toyed with the idea of becoming a realty agent. I got a copy of The First Steps to Becoming a Real Estate Agent and am glad I did. It really is a good "insight" to the cost agents pay to be in the business. The public usually has no idea what all the "hidden costs" are, and a good agent can make it look like easy work that should be inexpensive to provide.

Mr. Myers' book was a real eye opener for me! It is a very easy read that is about fifty pages in length, but discloses a ton of information that I'm sure every agent, old or new, and many buyers and sellers could benefit from reading.

I have read the book and could not put it down once I started reading. I can certainly recommend that anyone considering a career in Real Estate should, as stated on the cover of the book, "Read this book FIRST..." It probably would save them a lot of head aches, time, and money right up front.


William "Bill". Lineberger
CPO, USN, Ret.
Whidbey Island, Washington

Berry is a terrific main character, a former copy-a patrolman, not a detective-with a strong relationship to his family and friends. I enjoyed the secondary characters but a weakness was that his girlfriend Susan seemed unsympathetic in this book, so you didn't quite understand the ending. The sense of place is well done, there's good tension and a couple twists along the way. I particularly liked learning about the Montagnards of Viet Nam, about whom I had never heard. This is a very good series, well written series and is perfect for those who like some action but nothing overly dark

In Gainesboro, North Carolina, just before dying from cancer Montagnard expatriate Y'Grok Eban informs Boston cop Kevin Malone that the "Raven has come home" scaring the street tough police officer though he is not totally sure why. The brave Y'Grok saved many American lives during the Viet Nam war, but the exile never went home once he fled for the Carolina hills. Now a grand funeral befitting a genuine hero is planned that has caught the attention of the national media.

However, someone enters the Clayton & Clayton Funeral Home, knocking unconscious director Barry Clayton before apparently stealing the corpse of Y'Grok. Barry's friend local Sheriff Tommy Lee Watkins is upset for personal reasons because four decades ago Y'Grok saved his life when he served in Nam. Kevin, coming south for the funeral, joins forces with Tommy Lee and Barry an ex-cop to locate the body, learn the meaning of Y'Grok's last cryptic message and find out why something that happened forty years ago suddenly haunts those still living today over an ocean and a continent away.

Using a contemporary mystery, Mark de Castrique provides an intriguing look (through the memories of those gathering for the funeral) of the Viet Nam War in which the Montagnard served as loyal allies to the American troops. The search for the stolen corpse and the efforts to break Y'Grok's enigmatic last words turn into a strong investigative tale that spins into much more as the war still haunts these men while they each reflect back to try to define what the final words of their late brother in arms meant. FOOLISH UNDERTAKING is a fabulous thriller that grips the audience from the moment the corpse is purloined and never slows down until Raven comes home.

Harriet Klausner

This is must reading for parents and athletes. As a former high school coach I've seen many kids that struggled with not only the attention they receive as a top athlete, but with decisions they must make regarding their future education and/or career. This book will give the athlete and his/her family a step by step approach to the future. I really think that this book should serve as required reading in college. I don't believe that the NCAA or the professional leagues do enough to help prepare athletes for the future. Many of these athletes will make more money coming out of school than any CEO. Why don't we consider this education? Another thing this book does is teach that not everyone is going to make it to the big time, and all athletes need to prepare for the day the cheering stops. My hope is that every potential college or pro athlete takes the time to understand the lessons that Mr. Smith teaches.

This is must reading for parents and athletes. As a former high school coach I've seen many kids that struggled with not only the attention they receive as a top athlete, but with decisions they must make regarding their future education and/or career. This book will give the athlete and his/her family a step by step approach to the future. I really think that this book should serve as required reading in college. I don't believe that the NCAA or the professional leagues do enough to help prepare athletes for the future. Many of these athletes will make more money coming out of school than any CEO. Why don't we consider this education? Another thing this book does is teach that not everyone is going to make it to the big time, and all athletes need to prepare for the day the cheering stops. My hope is that every potential college or pro athlete takes the time to understand the lessons that Mr. Smith teaches.

Gentleman Spies: Intelligence Agents In The British Empire And Beyond by historian John Fisher is a truly fascinating and informative look at political undermining between nations since before the first world war. The evolution of a British foreign intelligence bureau, originally called SIS and which later evolved into the legendary MI6, whose mission was to specifically provide vital information about activities stemming from the furthest corners of the British empire, is presented with incredible anecdotal tales of intrigue and deceit. An amazing, deftly researched look at the cutthroat machinations of international history, Gentleman Spies is totally absorbing reading from first page to last!

Gentleman Spies: Intelligence Agents In The British Empire And Beyond by historian John Fisher is a truly fascinating and informative look at political undermining between nations since before the first world war. The evolution of a British foreign intelligence bureau, originally called SIS and which later evolved into the legendary MI6, whose mission was to specifically provide vital information about activities stemming from the furthest corners of the British empire, is presented with incredible anecdotal tales of intrigue and deceit. An amazing, deftly researched look at the cutthroat machinations of international history, Gentleman Spies is totally absorbing reading from first page to last!

Good Sex Illustrated is the most revolutionary book I have ever read. However, that said it falls completely apart when Duvert argued right at the end that the answer to all the right on point arguments he had presented in the first 200 plus pages was the lowering of the age of consent to 14 as had been done in Denmark at the time the book was first written. I was so disappointed.

However, after some thought I have come to the conclusion it up to us to come up with the answers to the problem he presented so well, i.e., the necessity to create docile manipulatable people to staff and run our businesses who purchase their output for the profit of others.

Good Sex Illustrated is well worth a good read for anyone who is worried about the direction our cultures are taking us. I am looking forward to more of his books being translated into English becoming available at reasonable market prices. May Tony Duvert rest in peace as we explore his works and figure out how they guide us to a future without fear.

Semiotext(e) is to be praised for bringing to the English-speaking reader yet another work of incalculable significance. Published in France in 1973, Tony Duvert's 'Good Sex Illustrated' is as relevant today - if not more so - than ever. Utilising a contemporary five-volume 'Sex Education' encyclopaedia to demonstrate his points, Monsieur Duvert provides a brutal analysis of the established sexual order, together with its duplicitous role in enforcing the advanced, self-perpetuating, exploitative social order.

"Man is only exploitable if he produces something. The golden rule of a society of exploitation will therefore be: all expenditure must produce. Since sexual expenditure is unproductive, it must be severely restrained."

At the outset, Duvert exposes this economic underpinning of the contemporary sexual order, and subsequent chapters build upon this theory through detailed analysis of the manner and language adopted when providing sexual education to young people. He critiques the current (seemingly unchallenged) principle of providing 'age-appropriate' information, and considers the [dis]information provided for different age groups (7-9, 10-13, 14-16, 17-18, adult). In this way, he is able to portray how the medicalization of sexual information is deliberately targeted to achieve maximum social conditioning at each stage of life: inculcating the idea that The Family is of paramount importance; imposing the notion that the primary and ultimate goal of sexual activity is reproduction; limiting and diverting all other 'wasteful' sexual urges; deceitfully presenting sexual activity as something emotional and complex; instilling in young minds the notion of guilt and the desire to exploit others, and so on.

Although concerned with such monumental socio-political issues, 'Good Sex Illustrated' is brilliantly crafted, in lucid, simple - yet uncompromising - language, making it highly accessible to all readers, regardless of the state of their economic understanding. Though harsh and scathing, the work contains a phenomenal degree of wit, which lightens what would otherwise be a dark and depressing read. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Enormous gratitude is due to (the criminally underrated) author Bruce Benderson, who diligently translated the book with extreme attentiveness to the nuances of Duvert's work, and provided an insightful introduction, assessing how the theory has stood up to the test of time.

NB. 'Good Sex Illustrated' is only the third of Duvert's books to be translated into English (the two others are the exceptional novels: 'Strange Landscape' and 'When Jonathan Died') - we can only fervently hope that his brilliant mind is made widely accessible through translations of his other works.

If you follow the text and answer all the questions as presented you can't help but learn. I am already licensed and use this as one of my first references. Tip, don't enter the answers to the test question into the book, prepare a seperate answer sheet. If you do that you won't ruin the book for futuer reviews.

I passed my test the first time. This book is smaller, easier, simpler, and straight to the point.It's very easy to understand. I cannot say enough good things about it.The other real estate books, were three times as big, and very overwhelming. I loved the promissor book. Plus it has sample tests in the back of the book that really helped. This will help you pass your test. It is worth it!

When one reads Langguth's HIDDEN TERRORS: THE TRUTH ABOUT US POLICE OPERATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA, one is struck with the similarities between what was happening there and then and what is happening here and now. As we shall see, that similarity is not coincidental. For instance, there is the same attempt to justify torture by using the "ticking bomb scenario" (pp. 141-2). But when one examines the actual behavior of Latin American police trained by American "advisors" and at times, the advisors themselves, one finds that the reality has nothing to do with any such threat to human life and very little to do with the quest for intelligence.
Take for instance the case of Jean Marc Von der Weid, a Brazilian activist whose father was a Swiss banker and whose mother was from a prominent Brazilian political family. He first became involved in politics in 1968 after a high school boy was killed by the police in the course of a peaceful demonstration. As police methods of quelling demonstrations became more brutal, he went into hiding. Eventually he was caught and taken to a local police station where six other suspect were waiting. "They were told to stand with their feet far from the wall, and then to lean forward and press their palms against it. For half an hour they were beaten on their kidneys with clubs. It was not a punishment for refusing to answer questions. No questions had been asked. It was a preliminary lesson, to impress upon them the consequences of being arrested." (pp. 162-3). Needless to say, no policeman stopped to wonder if they might not even have the right suspects-- a person who had done nothing whatsoever and was picked up by mistake would have received the same treatment. Afterwards, Jean Marc was shipped to a prison where he was beaten with clubs and shocked with electric wires for twenty-four consecutive hours. "At first, the torture was purely administrative, the first step in the prison's routine." Jean Marc's captors did not even discover his identity until the third day, yet they were torturing him from the start (p. 163).
Then there was Marcos Arruda, a geology student who had protested foreign control over Brazil's mineral wealth. Unable to find employement commensurate with his abilities because of his activism, he went to work at a Mercedes-Benz factory. In 1970, he began to get involved with trade union demonstrations against the deplorable working conditions in the factory. In the course of this, he became involved with a woman named Marlene Soccas, who was a member of the resistence to the US-backed dictatorship. Ultimately Marlene was captured and tortured continuously for four days. The police got her to point Marcos out to them. When they brought him to headquarters, they beat him for hours before they asked a single question (p. 211). Then they started using electrical torture. The torture went on until Marcos went into convulsions, which did not stop. "For the next month and a half, Marcos could not stop shaking." The police sent him to a military hospital. They had gotten no information from him, but they were sure they were justified in torturing him. As a policeman who appeared at his bedside said, "You are not a worker. You are a geologist. That means that you were in the factory to spread subversion. When you get better here, you'll go back to that place again." It was obvious that the goal of the police was to get him to confess to a crime he did not commit. When he was taken back to the prison, they used his girlfriend Marlene to torture him, beating her in the next room while Marcos was forced to listen (pp. 208-216). One wonders how a human being could stand all this, without going insane, and indeed, many did, making them entirely unreachable for intelligence purposes, something which did not seem to bother the police. Fernando Gabiera, a labor organizer, was sent to a prison where he was kept in an isolation cell for two months. "But he did hear occasional stirrings in the next cell.. Fernando tapped on the wall. At last he persuaded the man to put his mouth to a crack in the wall and speak to him. "I'm alive," the man whispered. It was the only thing Fernando understood. The man was mad." (p. 202)
To those who have read Alfred W. McCoy's A QUESTION OF TORTURE: CIA METHODS OF INTERROGATION FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR, these methods are all too familiar. And indeed, it was the CIA who trained the Brazilian policemen who tortured the individuals mentioned above. They also trained an American AID official who has become famous through his capture and assassination by the Tupameros and consequent portrayal in a film I have reviewed, STATE OF SIEGE-- Dan Mitrione. Unfortunately, Langguth evidently did not know the full truth about this man, who looms so large in his narrative, until the book was ready to go to press. What he learned was from a book written by the Cuban Manuel Hevia Cosculluela is included at the end in "A Cuban Footnote". Hevia describes Mitrione personally preparing the basement of a house he had rented in Montevideo, Uruguay, for a torture demonstration, making sure that it was soundproof. As subjects, he used beggars including one woman, none of whom had committed any crimes. Hevia's book is not available in English, so I have to rely upon what I read in the English translations in Langguth's book and that of McCoy, who quotes him as saying, "The special horror of [Mitrione's torture class] was its academic, almost clinical atmospere." (McCoy, p. 72) Langguth quotes Mitrione as saying to Hevia (whom he thought was working for the CIA-- in fact, he was a double agent) that the object of torture is to humiliate the subject, to make him understand that he is completely helpless, to isolate him from the reality outside his cell," presumably including the reality of whatever activity he had been involved in, and which caused him to be arrested. Even after he had gotten information from a subject, Mitrione favored prolonging the torture session, "Not to get information now, but as a political instrument to scare him away from further rebel activity." (Langguth pp. 312-313).
Quite obviously, the object of the torture described in this book was not the acquisition of intelligence to save human lives, but the spreading of terror in order to prop up a totalitarian regime. What then are we to think when we read in NEWSWEEK that the CIA is presently torturing thousands of detainees in the so-called "War on Terror" who have no further use as sources of intelligence, simply because "they are scum and deserve to be waterboarded every day for the rest of their lives"? (NEWSWEEK, October 8, 2007).

"Langguth is a novelist as well as a newspaperman, and he must have realized before he began this book that he could not simply lay out the facts of our complicity in police terror in Latin America: he had to find a way to make us as angry as he is about the harm our government has done, or his book, like so many exposes, might be further used to inflate our old boast that the USA is a wonderfully free, democratic society to allow such publications. He chose to tell flatly, laconically, as if it were as early Sinclair Lewis novel, the story of Dan Mitrione, the American police advisor in Uruguay kidnapped and executed in 1970 by the Tupamaros, and to alternate this small-town Midwesterner's experience with what was going on in the more glamorous and various worlds of Washington, the CIA, the Brazilian and Uruguayan military commands, and the revolutionary underground. He succeeds in creating interest and suspense, and in making one share his moral repulsion; indeed, one wished, as naively as when one was young, that this book would make something happen." by Jose Yglesias, The Nation --from book's back cover

A wonderful new edition - everything you need to know. And the book is nicely organized into sections too (from agents to managers to lawyers). This is a must for anyone in the industry.

If you are an aspiring screenwriter seeking representation you need this directory! It not only contains most of the contact information you'll need, but many companies also list a "submission policy" which dictates how you should present your query. I have queried 20 agencies (of about 300 listed) and already got 2 rejection letters. That's good news, because it means that my letters actually got read by the person listed in the directory. Good luck getting your query letters read if you send them "To Whom It May Concern." You need names and this directory has them.

I second the other review written here; I have read this book several times and always enjoy it. It is insightful as well as funny, with a good mix of humor, dialogue, suspense and self-discovery. I recommend this book and am looking forward to reading Gazumped.

I was browsing the bookstore, not really knowing what to buy, and I picked up this book. I was put off by the cover - I mean c'mon, it's ugly; anyway, I read the summary and decided it sounded interesting, and I've always been a fan of Irish and British chick lit, so I decided it was worth $10 and bought it. The first chapter gave me pause, but I kept going and after a few more pages I was really into it. I finished it in 2 days and couldn't put it down before bed...I had to force myself to stop reading it so I could function at work the following morning. The characters are realistic and funny, it's humorous and sexy and there is a fun mystery thrown into the mix as well. You wouldn't really know by reading it but it was written by two women...there is no such person as Sarah O'Brien (well, maybe there is in the world, but not for this book). I cannot wait to read Gazumped! as well.