Collateral

And lots of people have troubles and they seem to be in need of what Hannibal bills himself as, a "professional trouble shooter." In this second novel of the series, Mother Washington brings him a client even though it is Sunday and the ribs are on the grill. The last thing Hannibal wants to think about this crisp fall afternoon with ribs sizzling on the grill is work. But, you don't say no to Mother Washington.

The client is Miss Bea Collins and she is very worried about her finance, Dean Edwards. He had been acting a little strange the last couple of weeks and then disappeared the day before. Of course, the Police won't help since he is an adult and has not been missing very long. Hannibal does not see any reason to take the case but you don't say no to Mother Washington. Despite believing that Dean is nothing more than a con man based on the evidence so far that Bea tells him and that he has moved on to more financially lucrative pastures, Hannibal takes the case.

He soon finds Dean but Dean is not the con man Hannibal thinks he is. Instead, he has his own problems and appears to have nicely been framed for murder. In an attempt to clear Dean, Hannibal must follow a trail that leads over fifteen years into the past. A past both men unknowingly shared and ultimately worked to bring them together today.

Overall, this is a very good novel. While some lines of the story tend to be a bit over written, the Hannibal character is intriguing and complex. The mystery itself also works with plenty of twists and turns and quite a lot of action. The only real blemish on the work is that my ARC had a number of textual formatting errors, which were cleared up in the final published version. At 218 pages this is a fast and enjoyable read and an interesting series.

Philip Jones Griffiths's AGENT ORANGE, COLLATERAL DAMAGE IN VIETNAM is a complex, dense statement that can be viewed and read several ways. Foremost, it is unquestionably the greatest work of photojournalism ever published. I do not make this statement lightly or without professional judgement. For twenty-five years, I edited the work of distinguished photojournalists -- Capa, Richards, Salgado, Peress, and Nachtwey among many others. Comparable only to W. Eugene Smith's MINIMATA: LIFE -- SACRED AND PROFANE, a passionate chronicle of the devastating effects of post-WW II industrial pollution on a Japanese town, AGENT ORANGE surpasses all previous attempts to synthesize the medium of still photography with historical documentation. Griffiths's masterly images unselfconsciously insert readers into the scene of an historical crime and guide them through the evidence page by excruciating page as a means to elicit direct testimony from the perpetrators and their victims. With the possible exception of Erich Maria Remarque' s ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, no other monograph so successfully confronts citizens with the folly of leaders who commit atrocities in their name. The stares of genetically deformed children struggling to articulate humanity across the threshold of pain and disability give absolute lie to the facile excuses of national security used by politicians to conduct high tech assault-and-battery on unwitting, innocent populations. Then it was Vietnam, today Iraq and Afghanistan.

Beginning with his eloquent book, VIETNAM INC. first published in 1971, Griffiths has pursued an unrelenting inquiry into the truth of violence and war. He reported from the Mekong Delta battlefront and also the brothels of Saigon. Returning years later, he earned the trust of farmers who had rebuilt their devastated villages with the detritus of war. Pushing his inquest further he located and photographed war orphans, now shunned as the miscegenated offspring of foreign invaders (DARK ODYSSEY, 1997). Infrequently supported by the mass media, Griffiths parlayed his skills as a commercial photographer to raise the cash necessary to return periodically to Southeast Asia, as if excavating its pitted landscape for some fragment of reason that might explain the macabre body counts and haunting trans-generational birth defects. Some photographers are celebrated for their commitments in documenting a family coming of age or the rise and fall of a nation. Journalism schools promote the virtues of in-depth or extended coverage (sometime a whole week!) while network and cable news personnel embrace the fame of sticking with a big story only to defer, in the final analysis, to the desire of corporate sponsors. By contrast Griffiths has the determination of a seasoned forensic scientist. Although no maverick, he has paid the price of banishment from the newspapers and magazines "of record" whose editors remain too frightened by management to commission or publish his work. Why would they want to remind subscribers of their own inaccuracies and slavish pandering to the official story?

In this respect, AGENT ORANGE can also be read for its scholarship because it presents new historical research about the manufacture and deployment of chemical weapons during the Vietnam era. It has been almost twenty years since American courts acknowledged the gravity of dioxin poisoning in rulings on lawsuits filed by military veterans. Yet companies who supplied the military with these chemical defoliants continue to falsify experimental data on their products' potential for birth defects. Our government stands mute on the issue of "peace with honor" and refuses to contribute any meaningful economic assistance, nonetheless stipulated in the treaty with Hanoi. The war's apologists and neoliberal ideologues continue to deride Vietnam as a failed socialist experiment. Griffith's photographs and words rip their lies to shreds and dissolve their chauvinism in the cold truth of twisted limbs, hare lips, and hydrocehpalic fetuses preserved in formaldehyde. AGENT ORANGE is the black book of American infamy, its author has given citizens a priceless instrument to test their politicians sincerity and commitment to peace. Buy a copy and ask Kerry for a clear statement of conscience!

A truly awesome visual journey.

The topics covered in the book are too varied to adequately cover here. The overarching theme in each chapter, however, is this: Think about the consequences of current penal practices in the US. Moreover, think about all of the potential consequences, not just those readily apparent. For example, one chapter focuses on the denial of welfare benefits to persons convicted of drug offenses. For many former inmates, this means they cannot receive public assistance when released and are attempting to re-establish their lives in the free world. For some, it may mean that they cannot rejoin their families without jeopardizing their families' benefits (especially housing assistance). Regardless of your opinions on welfare and those who ought to be entitled to it, this chapter does make you question whether our national penal policies achieve their goals or do more harm than good. All of the chapters in the book take a similar approach to the topic at hand and stimulate thinking in the same manner.

The worst thing I can say about this book is that some of the chapters focusing on women, especially the one by Chesney-Lind, seem to advocate treating women differently than men. Though it is not explicitly stated in the book, some of the passages regarding women could be interpreted to advocate treating women better than men (i.e. not incarcerating women with children as frequently or for as long as men). If you are a feminist like me, who thinks equal treatment must mean equal treatment, not better treatment, you may struggle with some of what is implied here. That, however, should not deter you from reading it. In fact, it may inspire some much-needed thought and dialogue in this area.

Overall, I recommend this book without reservation. Instructors looking for material for corrections courses this fall should definitely consider this piece. An individual student may not find all of it relevant, but the individual chapters can stand alone to provide a different perspective on many corrections topics. Students studying corrections should also keep this book in mind, both for academic enrichment and for reference on specific topics.

My favorite chapter is by Meda Chesney-Lind, "Imprisoning Women: The Unintended Victims of Mass Imprisonment." As an enormous portion of American society which generally can be considered non-threatening to anyone who is not afraid of being called a heterosexist male chauvinist pig, women have typically conformed to whatever behavior has been most socially acceptable, and the crimes mentioned most often in this book ought to be considered more pathetic than anything else. The factors (I'll stop listing these when I get to the word "random") which seem out of place in any society which would consider itself liberal include the following:

"get tough" sentencing policies (p. 79)

"vengeful equity" (p. 80)

the number of women incarcerated in prisons and jails in the United States is now about ten times greater than the number of women incarcerated in all of Western Europe. (p. 81)

far higher rates of physical and sexual abuse (p. 83)

the criminalization of girls' survival strategies, such as running away from home (p. 84)

working in retail may actually increase their involvement in certain property crimes, much like women's employment in bar and entertainment outlets often increases women's likelihood of getting involved in prostitution and drug abuse. (p. 85)

because they made so little money, 20 percent of the active women dealers reported twenty or more drug deals per day. (pp. 85-86)

women's deteriorating economic conditions (p. 86)

increased penalties (mandatory sentences) for drug offenses (p. 88)

Many women are being returned to prison not for new offenses but for technical parole violations because they fail to pass random drug tests. (p. 90)

Today, Richard Michaelson works as a part-time political consultant, but for years he worked hard at trying to gain a slot in the government's top ring. Though semi-retired, he still looks for the opening that will grant him his desire. It appears that his dream might come true, when Phillips, a not so likable political acquaintance, asks him to obtain the real estate price of Culvert Mansion.

Richard attains the information, but concludes that the estate is clearly unsuitable for Phillips' clients. Richardson begins a bit of investigating so that he could possibly gain a political appointment, but also pay off a debt. However, before he can complete his inquiries, "a closed door" murder occurs. He realizes that Phillips has a hidden agenda tied to the mansion and Richard plans to learn just what that is.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE is an enjoyable "closed door" mystery that includes a clever who-done-it and an even more intelligent why it was done. Richard seems to be a poor man's 007, but that is enough for him to ooze charm that captivates the reader. The novel is loaded with puzzles that Michael Bowen smoothly converges into an exciting story line that turns into a thinking person's mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Read carefully, be mindful of the substance abuse, be amused by the entertaining lies, muse upon the wordplay. But be more careful to identify the truth, as when you find it, it is profound, and will make your heart soar and sink by turns. Mr Manning can see all that is inspirational and sickening on planet earth and inside himself, and he weaves it into cartoons and parables to sustain the rest of us who are cursed with artistic and economic cataracts. True prophets acknowledge that sometimes the wheat will fall on stony ground, but I really rated this little book for it's beautiful mess, cynical chuckles and especially for the queeny bickering and tramp fighting.

Good resource if your family line is there. Found some information on Ninian Beall, his father and grandfather. They were weavers in Scotland! A confusing marriage date is listed in the book but no information on my line through Ninian's Rachel.