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Nora Roberts can write in a variety of 'voices.' This time she writes about Phoebe MacNamara, hostage negotiator. The ultimate climax of the tale is when Phoebe is at the center of a negotiation. What brings her there is a long boring story. Explaining the ultimate direction of the book by its end is so far fetched. The characters, by and large, are somewhat simple and don't hold your interest. Where there might be a plot line to explore, it meets a dead end time after time.
Wish it had been better.

High Noon by Nora Roberts It is a mystery, action and a love story and it is also a bestseller. The main Character is Phoebe McNamara. It tells about Phoebe's childhood and the life she and her brother had with their mother when they were young, it also tell about her life and her romances. Phoebe was an FBI agent, and later became a lieutenant and a negotiator in a local precinct in her home town. Phoebe found her calling at an early age, when her mother's boyfriend trapped and terrorized them for hours. She was only seven when this happen, she tried talking to her mother's boyfriend and negotiates with him, so he can let them go. She enjoys her job as a negotiator. It's satisfying work for Phoebe and sometimes those skills come in handy at home when she deals with her agoraphobic mother. She met the handsome millionaire Duncan Swift while talking one of his employees off a roof ledge. I think that it was love at first sight when Phoebe walked into the room. Duncan could not take his eyes away from her. Phoebe had twenty five cops in a training session. There was one cop who could not stand Phoebe being in charge because she was a woman. The officer name was Arnold Meeks. Officer Meeks disrespected Phoebe. After this incident it was clear that someone was stoking Phoebe, so her intension was to find out who was stoking her. This novel is easy to follow because there is something interesting going on every page. Duncan Swift seems like such a romantic person. I loved the way he would talk to her, so soft and gentle. I enjoyed reading Nora Roberts's books because there are always romances and a gripping thriller that will have you guessing from start to finish. It is so true about Nora Roberts; she always has a mesmerizing and intriguing tale to write.

Written by: Sawyer

I'm relatively unfamiliar with Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb's work, having only read one Eve Dallas short story, and nothing written under the author's real name, prior to this book.
I thought the premise and backstory of the characters were both good, but after a while, the pacing was a bit of a problem. The 'police procedural' aspects were fine, but the romantic subplot just didn't deliver as much as it promised. I thought the action really dragged from around chapter 15 until close to the end of the story, and many of the scenes involving Phoebe and Duncan seemed repetitive. Even the conclusion lacked a satisfying resolution for some of the plot threads. Duncan's personality quirks grated on me after a while, and his rather convoluted family background added little, if anything to the story, and could have been largely, if not entirely, left out.
Roberts just seemed to pull the story's 'real' villain out of a hat in the latter chapters, after forcing us to read through a rather pointless section in which she reviews a few of her older cases(all red herrings) before finally 'discovering' who's behind it all. I prefer the villains in mystery/crime stories to have been introduced earlier, rather than have a 'surprise' character thrown in like this. Even the tie-in with the film 'High Noon' was rather forced, particularly Phoebe's attempt to equate each character in the movie with the protagonists in the story.
With all of the 'twists and turns', much of the character-driven storylines weren't wrapped up properly. It seemed like the only thing that really made Phoebe realize that Duncan was 'the one' for her, was the fact that the author was running out of pages.
It's disappointing when a book that runs for nearly 500 pages still feels 'rushed' and not completely finished.

I read Roberts' Circle Trilogy and thought I'd give this one a try. The premise of each of her books, I have discovered, is pretty much the same: strong female type falls in love under strange circumstances and everything is happy-go-lucky in the end. "High Noon" was, nonetheless, cheesy and predictable. It was a really easy read because there was little to no detail in the scenery or anything else, for that matter. The focus was more on the dialogue and emotions between Phoebe and her new beau, Duncan - completely unrealistic dialogue and emotions, at that. I was thinking the whole time: "who says this stuff?"
But what really got me was the last 3 pages. Up until then I thought this was a cool little romance novel - not too deep... then I realized there were only 3 pages left. The situation in the final scene ends so abruptly and nothing is explained - absolutely nothing. It left me not even wanting to finish. But I did - I'd gotten that far. The last three pages? Happy-go-lucky cheese. How does everything go back completely normal minutes after what happens? It left me unsatisfied. Thanks Nora. I won't be reading any more of your books because they're all the same.

I've read many Nora Roberts books and "High Noon" was another book with the Nora Roberts "hook"...hooks that grab your attention in the first paragraph and usually hold your attention captive. This book seemed to have a lot of characters but without depth or much background. I started wondering if one of the "good" guys was really the criminal in question. It just didn't make sense to me that Walken would be introduced somewhere waaaay down the line with little background. Added to that, one thing I really dislike about most of these books are the abrupt endings. Once the catastrophe is averted, the story usually winds up without any follow-up as to the main characters. My favorites would have to be the Chesapeake Bay series and the Irish Trilogies becasue they did continue on with more storyline and actually left me very sad to end the saga. Please, more books that continue.....

Good read, very honest about her life, does not try to sweep things under the carpet at all. I felt I knew her/understood her more after reading this, she didn't gloss over things to make out she was some matyre who has it all together she was real. If you like a book that doesn't make out they are the perfect person then this is it

I did not know much about her at the time I read the book. There was something about her that was not right that i wanted to find out why she is the way she is. So i bought this book, i loved it. It did explain a lot about her her. However it did not go into to much detail on her childhood an how old she is. I have an idea but i enjoyed learning about her.

Janice got down, dirty, and honest with this book in her tough journey to fame. However, she is an amazing woman who has survived much in life, while doing her best to thrive.

Kudos Janice! Thank you for sharing a part of you with us all!

A MUST read for everyone!

Merna Throne

Pocket of Pearls: A 30-day pocket workbook to start hearing a softer voice inside of you!

This book was AMAZING!!! SOOO good i thought it was fiction. A fantastic read.

This memoir delivers! Laugh out loud funny, and full of juicy show biz gossip. Janice rats out everyone in here. I like that her voice comes through 100%--it's like you are sitting with her listening to her stories over drinks, one on one. There is more to Janice's story--a darker side with a totally messed up childhood that shaped who she became. Think what you will of her, but she is never boring. A great read.

Maisie Dobbs reminded me of a grown-up, British, Upstairs-Downstairs World War I Nancy Drew. Overall, it was a delightfully and politely paced mystery. It was very enlightening about the psychological toll of World War I Britain on its soldiers and on its different castes of people. It was enjoyable, but I must admit, with so many great books out there, not quite enjoyable enough for me to be running out to read the series to come right away. Maybe someday.

"Maisie Dobbs" is simply of a higher caliber than most mysteries. The writing is great, Maisie the character is likable at once, & the mystery is first rate. I loved how the author used WWI as part of the mystery. The London setting post WWI was another plus, as I have had trouble finding books set during this time period. I intend to continue with this series.

I actually bought this book for my aunt, because I knew she would enjoy the charming Maisie Dobbs and the wonderful writing of the author. I look forward to the next Maisie and I will read it as slowly as the others, to savor the rich descriptions and characters. The descriptions of city and countryside settings and of time periods, as each book moves forward in time, is a door to the past for me.

As several reviewers have noted, this book is a slow read, particularly for a mystery.

But Winspear seems more interested in people and social developments than in mysteries.

The book is punctuated by a LONG central section, a flashback, to Maisie's years as a nurse in WWI. The section is harrowing, and rightly so, because the book is about the horrifying effects on everyone of the war.

As usual, her period details (1897-1929) are perfect, and her prose is notably crisper and less affected than in "The Messenger of Truth."

Her eye on emotions is profound, and her choreography and plotting are stunning.

A warm and involving book, to which the mystery is really a footnote.

There really are no "bad guys," only people more and less shattered by war.

After reading reviews, I purchased the first four books of the Maisie Dobbs series and am forcing myself to finish the third and fourth. Maisie is a private investigator, solving cases with her mind powers and her very calming manner, which is pretty much the way the books seem to be--too calm and boring! I found my mind wandering away from the reading, as the plots are too slow. The book starts out with Maisie being a servant with a lot of personal attention from her employers, her service in WW1, and her starting her own private investigating service. I feel more could have been written about these parts of her life, instead of sitting down constantly for a cup of tea. A good part of the book is Maisie taking trains or "motoring" around to interview different people, and to solve a case by singing a song? So disappointing! I liked some of the characters, such as Billy Beale and Enid, and enough wasn't written about them to make the Maisie Dobbs book more interesting. Even though it is supposed to have researched into World War I, I didn't learn much except that a lot of lives were lost and just about every family Maisie encountered had lost sons or were left with injuries, and while she served as a nurse, all that evolved was that she was cold in her tent and was injured, but nothing was written about the explosion that injured her or incapacitated her love interest. Perhaps this is a "young adult" book? Just too simple for me.

M Smith has keep the character first intoduced in Gorky to a new height. He has captured the cold of Russia anew.

Martin Cruz Smith wrote a few detective novels taking place in Russia. His knowledge of Russia is intimate and he knows things about the country that are inaccessible to academic researchers.
Stalin's Ghost is a good story with detective Renko solving a very complicated plot, in real life perhaps with a bit optimistic end. It is a compulsive reading and I recommend it to all who also want to know a bit about contemporary as well as the Soviet Russia.

And so is Martin Cruz Smith! A common criticism of his previous novel "Wolves Eat Dogs" was that it was as much a travelogue of the Chernobyl area as it was a mystery novel. There was some truth in this. "Wolves Eat Dogs" was a bit slow, and, when it came down to it, Inspector Arkady Renko didn't do all that much. But "Stalin's Ghost" shows beyond doubt that Martin Cruz Sith still has the chops for writing a great mystery. Arkady is as broodingly compelling as he has ever been. The supporting characters are alternately, and sometimes simultaneously, endearing and infuriating. All of this makes for a heady mix with Smith's noire, snow covered Moscow streets. You might think you have the mystery solved pretty early, but hold on because "Stalin's Ghost" has several truly bold plot twists coming at you. "Gorky Park" remains the truly best novel in this series, but "Stalin's Ghost" is certainly the best novel Smith has written since "Red Square". Arkady is back!

Having read most of his earlier books (altho disappointed at the previous one set in Chernobyl), I picked this book up as soon as I saw it in the bookstore. That's something I won't do again with another of his books. He's always been a bit of a "slow" writer, but this book lacks cohesion in storyline and meanders along randomly (and annoyingly) at times. More focus please! My advice - don't bother.

Stalin has been spotted, or rather his ghost has been seen in the Chistye Prudy Metro Station. Has he come back to Moscow to haunt the underground? Hardly. But the powers that be want Arakdy Renko to investigate and when he arrives on the scene he does indeed find people who had seen old Joe in the flesh, well not the flesh exactly.

So why was Renko given the case? Was it because he was investigating a woman who may or may not have hired cops to kill her husband? Was it because he resents ex-black beret soldiers who are now cops, but don't have the chops for the job? Was it because he's not a team player or is it simply because he's the cop the bosses like the least? Maybe a combination of all of the above.

Renko suspects Nikolai Isakov and Marat Urman, two of these ex-Black Beret cops, are on the take or, at the very least, inept. He's also having problems in his personal life. He's not getting on with with his lover Eva and her son has gone missing. To make matters worse, Isakov is Eva's ex, so can Renko really be objective?

Renko, as usual, is like a dog with bone, he won't give it up and because of his dogged determination he gets shot in the head and transferred to Tver where his nemisis Isakov is running for office. Is the ultra-nationalist, ex-black beret Isakov a cold-blooded killer? Will Renko survive long enough, yes there are people who want him dead, to unravel the evil that is afoot and make everything right? Should he? Could he?

Arkady Renko has been with us since Gorky Park back in 1981, when hardcovers were about a third of what they are now, paperbacks about a quarter as much as we pay today. We've followed Renko from Moscow to Alaska to Cuba and he's grown with every story and each story is better than the last. This one is no exception, it builds on those that came before and I'm sure Mr. Smith's next book will stand on the shoulders of this one.

Martin Cruz Smith and Arakdy Renko have given us twenty-seven years of Russian history, delivered it as entertainment, made our pulses race as we absorbed life in that vast and wonderful land. We understand Russia better thanks to Mr. Smith, he sort of snuck that education in under the raider as we poured through his stories and he keeps us coming back for more. How many writers can do that?

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Thank you for your excellence service and speedy delivery of this book. My Mother is enjoying this Kathy Reichs book.

If you are already a fan of Temperance Brennan, you will like "Bones to Ashes". If this is your first encounter, there is a good possibility that you will be turned off by the uneven pace, a few too many coincidences, distracting characters (such as Harry)and surprisingly plodding explanations of things that needed no elucidation. Definitely not a bomb, but neither did it have the bang found in her other books.

I was hooked on the TV show ever since the FBI guy said to Brennan, " you be Skully to my Mulder ". So when I started reading this book I was of course shocked to find that the universe of the books is nothing like the TV universe. I won't explain all the differences here, they are well known to the readers. This story is not very interesting. The writing starts out really good, and then deteriorates. By the end I just wanted it to be over.

very different from the TV series...
enjoying books very much, but cannot
compare novels' characters to those
portrayed in show--(apples to oranges)
the entertainment value of the TV
series is greater, but writing of
books is well done, worth reading.

this was a shocker because I watch the show bones and had never read a book by Kathy. It was a great book but dont expect the characters to be anything like the show. good smooth read.

Jeffery Deaver's "The Sleeping Doll" takes us far away from the New York of Lincoln Rhyme (although he has a cameo) to the Central California coast. Featuring Kathryn Dance (she turned up in the Rhyme novel "The Cold Moon"), who's an expert at kinesics (body language)--at one point, she's referred to as the "human lie detector"--Deaver takes us far from Rhyme's forensics to a more intuitive branch of the science of deduction.

When convicted murderer Daniel Pell (a Charles Manson enthusiast) is brought to her for questioning about another murder, Dance quickly figures out what's going on, but Pell escapes, and the rest of the book's a manhunt for him. Key to the tale is Theresa Croyden, the "sleeping doll" of the title, who--then eight--was found alive sleeping in her bed when Pell murdered the rest of the family. Dance wants to interview her to find out what she remembers. And while the hunt for Pell is going on, so is the hunt for Theresa.

The book has the usual Deaver touches--knowledge of police procedure, expert placement of clues, constant changes of mood (when bad things seem about to happen often they don't, and the reverse), and lots of action. But it's strangely bloated--by Deaver standards, anyway. Maybe in his attempt to portray real families (Dance is a widow with two children and with both her parents alive) living in an area far from the artificial families New York singles create in their New York moments, he devoted too much time to fleshing them out.

And even the surprise twists that Deaver's famous for didn't come as all that much of a surprise to me in this case. When the tale seemed "done" with about 50 pages left to go, I pretty much figured out how those loose ends were going to be tied up, and maybe you will too.

In The Sleeping Doll, a convicted killer and leader of a cult, Daniel Pell has escaped prison. It is up to the novel's main protagonist, Kathryn Dance, an agent with the California Bureau of Investagation, to track him down. Kathryn is an expert in kinesics - an ability to read body lanuage and behaviour.

I found this book quite a fairly enjoyable read. The cast of characters is quite solid, with the manipulative Daniel Pell, making an interesting, formidable and creepy villian. The character of Kathryn Dance is quite well thought out, also.

I would not cast storyline as a page turner. It is action packed in some parts, slow in others. The story has the usual Jeffery Deaver twists, that you may not see coming if you have not read any of this author's novels before. If you have, they may not come as such of a suprise. Overall, not a bad read, but not as good as the Lincoln Rhyme novels.

Could not find the magic Mr Deaver gives to his twisted plots, in the sleeping doll. He keeps doing what he has been doing in his latest books, no twist and turns the way I like and the unveiling of the mystery in the last chapters, the pace was in a way slow, to the point that I could guess that he had an ace under the sleeve with a given character. I was neither thrilled nor enthralled with this story

The back of the book sounded very intriguing but I was hugely disappointed when I started reading it. I struggled through the first 100 pages before finally giving up. There is no mystery involved and little action takes place. I didn't want to waste my time on a book where the whole premise was a cat and mouse game and where there was no real mystery. After reading the other reviews here, I'm glad I put it down.

Full of twist, turns and suprises. It is one of the best books I've read in a long time, though a bit too wordy, otherwise an excellent book. I thought Katherine and Michael were great lead characters. The tension between the two -- romance but can't because he's married -- made the book much more interesting. I can't wait for the second Katherine Dance book.

To someone like myself who had never been to India, nor had business dealings with Indians, this book was a Godsend. On the recommendation of a Bombay/Mumbai native I read it cover to cover before spending 4 months in India. The insight into the mentality and culture of Indian thinking is both entertaining and priceless to anyone wishing to visit, live or do business there. The author's personal adventure into the sometimes overlapping grey areas of law enforcement, mafia & underground, politics and entertainment make for a fascinating read that your average person, much less foreign visitor, may never get to experience in this land of a billion Gods. After recent terror attacks in Mumbai, the political Muslim/Hindu motivated clashes that are addressed become even more spine-chilling as this book was written years ago. In addition to being a good reference on the subject, the author's own life story and blind-siding humor make it often a book one won't want to put down. The "undercover" work it must have taken to put together as well as the fluidity of discourse makes this book a must read for anyone interested in India or the Maximum City itself.

Bought this book for my wife and was impressed by the state of the book. No pages were torn, though not all pages were cut in the right dimensions, which I take as the reason it was cheap. Doesnt matter to me, I love the book and the state it is in.

I read this book as Mumbai shooting was taking place. One of the gangsters described in the book said, "The next one (riot/terror attack) will be much bigger... it'll be planned..." !!! Then I read an interview in WSJ about the "top cop" in Mumbai, Rakesh Maria, whom I immediately recognized from the book, despite under a different name. It's a strange feeling because of the timing coincidence - almost like someone is describing what's really happening behind the scene of Mumbai Massacre!! When I read in the news that the capture gunman confessed, who at the beginning asking to be allowed to live, yet after the interrogations, asking to be killed, I could see in front of my eyes the tactics, perhaps tortures, used on this person, because of the detailed descriptions in the book. I knew nearly nothing about India prior to this book. Mehta had painted such a vivid picture of Mumbai, at time I felt I was walking the streets there. I admire his courage of going deep in the gangwar interviewing the "shooters", knowing he could be killed at any time. I gave it a 4 star instead of 5 because I would've appreciated an Index or Glossary section in the book, because for someone who's unfamiliar with Hindi, it's difficult at times to keep track of all the names, places, & terms. Overall an outstanding book. I truly enjoyed reading it.

"Bombay, Lost & Found," as its subtitle pinpoints, covers Mehta's quest as a native who returns there for two years around 1999. His own story's mingled into those told about a pro-Hindu political party, Sena; Sunil, hit man for the Dawood faction; Ajay who turns rogue cop to fight crime better than he can on a force where one officer missed a rampaging elephant at ten feet due to his antiquated rifle; a couple of memorably described "bar girls"-- Honey's a married man who dresses as a woman for his living while sultry Monalisa's skilled in learning what makes men hard and makes them soft in many inventive ways beyond the mere flesh. These precede his interesting but overly detailed experiences as a co-writer of a "Bollywood" film, "Mission Kashmir." This thick volume concludes with a slum family who moves to the exurban instant sprawl of Mira Road, and another family of Jain diamond merchants who renounce their wealth and their marital ties to wander the roads as they seek merit for a salvation that gives up even a belief in God. In this way, they move towards "moksha," the annihilation that they trust will follow a worthy death. This earns the narrative, at last after five hundred dense pages, its most poignant and powerful scenes.

Since Mumbai, as it's been renamed, somewhat spuriously by the Hindu nationalists according to Mehta, has unfortunately earned much attention the past ten days, I decided to read this book, which had been on my "what next" shelf anyway, right away. It's very broad in its scope, insightful but unwieldy, and crammed with minute detail that while it may please or anger those who have lived among its 19 million inhabitants (five hundred more enter the city each day), may test the patience of those, like myself, not up on many terms sprinkled from Indian languages. A glossary could have helped, as only at their initial mention does Mehta give the meaning; often it's contextual and not explicit. This makes for a smooth read if you're familiar with the lingo, but it can challenge the rest of us.

His rationale: he trades stories as his currency, and gains the trust of gangsters, cops, bar girls, a talented college dropout poet who lives on the "footpath," and ambitious filmmakers. What they have in common, he finds late in his account, is their eagerness for transgression. So many citizens live circumscribed by tradition, family duty, work, and the hassles of dealing with "influence"-- without the personal connection or the greased palm, one cannot succeed in a culture that values the collective ties as much as the individual merit. You must cultivate power.

Why does anyone put up with such an overwhelming place? "Your discomfort is an investment" (472); one sacrifices so one's children or cousins will succeed there. The human spirit, nurtured in villages, has yet to catch up to this megapolitan pace. Millions keep arriving; few seem to leave. This adds force to the Jain family's bold decision to "resign before dismissal" in their emigation, their reversal back to begging on the roads. They alone among so many characters turn from the accumulation of wealth that drives, of course, everyone else into the city.

Mehta's at his best in passing observations that support larger points: how two straight men tend to use a restroom if together, how a Bollywood film skips from point A to point Z, how a city of extremities of luxury and squalor manages to make anonymity a retreat for its lovers and loiterers who must copulate and beg and defecate in public. He notes how its residents automatically turn towards the sea, a counter-orientation, whenever they gaze. It's noisy, dangerous, yet within it for endurance, people must re-create their personal connections if they wish to make it there. "Bombay is, like any other Indian city, full of people in search of answers to the question 'Who am I?'" (100) The danger, as Mehta finds when interviewing the Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, "a tired, aging fascist," is that many in this tense environment will then take the interrogation to its next step: "Who is not I?" Analyzing the 1993 riots between Hindus and Muslims, Mehta delves into what's since then become repeated in strife all around the world.

"You own this city by right of your anger," (88) he seethes at one point, dealing with its endlessly labyrinthine networks. The recent terrorist attacks seem predicted, as this telling of roughly a decade ago warns of the Hindu enclave surrounded by Muslims eager to attack the financial core of India. Beneath the wedding-cake Taj Hotel, which we learn was erected in 1902 by a Hindu angered at his exclusion from the British-controlled Watson hotel, the desperation percolates: for the price of a breakfast there, one can afford a maid's salary for a month. A hit-man may murder for as low as his take of $35. Prostitutes may be procured for less than $1.50. "Black-collar workers" in the criminal underground infiltrate the police and vice versa. Mehta finally must retreat from his reporting for this reason that he may be "encountered" by the very officer he has been interviewing. Even with Monalisa, Mehta cannot reveal his family's existence, for fear that he can be traced and tracked as that "bar-line industry" merges with the underworld and back to the cops. It's a terrifying realm of "anti-alchemists," who turn all into iron.

So, this spawling, uneven, but thoughtful report from the planet's largest concentration of people shows much to marvel at, and lots to mourn over. It takes willpower to keep moving through it, as it repeats the nature of its massive subject. Form follows content. Density's the leitmotif. A 1947 Rent Act keeps much of the housing at rates that even a New Yorker like Mehta's taken aback by. People may pull you on to a train in solidarity, as it speeds past slums less than a yard from the tracks. Bar girls may be showered with rupees, enough to feed hundreds who beg outside the club. The endemic poverty, bribery, and failure of socialism make the untrammeled rout of capitalism all the more fearsome and, for most, appealing. As one actor rues, the success story of one who's made it makes for a hundred disappointments. The villages hear the city emigrant's rags-to-riches tale, magnified in the telling, and the allure of Bombay grows brighter on the rural screen.

Mehta reminds us that by 2015, the population will, unimaginably, again double, "the world outside gradually crowding the world inside." (538) It's a city of extremities, with all on display and nowhere to hide one's inner self except in the ambitions and dreams that compel its natives to yearn for it even if they can afford to leave, and once there-- if less favored-- most probably to cling to its humid yet inviting shores no matter what. Even in this press of people, Mehta holds out for the hope that "they have not yet been programmed."

Amazed though I am about how author tried to fit all stuff about Mumbai in this book the cost is that- without even reasoning and just mentioning facts it shows a level of inability to understand the actual ground facts and false of authority which is immature though not wrong. Being a Mumbai native does not give any one right to mention or come to indigenous conclusions with stated sense of accuracy. One needs high level of maturity and thorough knowledge to mention facts briefly but with sense of comprehensive authority.Mr.Mehta is seriously lacking these abilities and writing a book does not make one a master of subject as is understandable from this experience.Mr.Mehta needs to update his woefully inadequate sociopolitical knowledge and rewrite this book for everyone's sake and for accuracy.

To sum up my impression of Dec 6, I found it hard to follow, yet informative. It kept my interest even though I felt like I was missing vast chunks of plot, descriptions, etc. There were many situations that to me seemed implausible yet thought if I wasn't missing so much plot that perhaps they would make sense. Despite not feeling like I was getting the entire thing, the characters seemed very interesting, which means to me how really interesting they would be if I was smart enough to get the whole plot.

Hard to follow. It seemed like the events, spare the flashbacks to childhood were occurring in one day. This seemed really hard to believe. My mind kept trying to squish everything into one day and I ran into all kinds of logical hurdles, thinking, "this is this time, but what time did they bomb Pearl Harbor? and what about the international date line?" And then it was Dec 8 in Japan, but we think of it as Dec 7. Dec 6, was that Japan time or our time? Does the story last over 2 days? That would make a lot more sense to me for all those things in the book to occur over 2 rather than 1 day. In that case they should have named it "Dec 6 and 7 in the Japanese Time Zone" but that may have seemed a little clunky, but it would have alleviated a lot of confusion for me.

Suffice it to say I found the time logistics challenging and this contributed to my overall distraction and inability to really focus on the author's amazing storytelling/descriptive abilities.

Informative. We generally get the western view point - "ATTACKED!" "A day that will live in infamy" etc. And though some cynics say we drew Japan into the war they never were able to clearly explain to me, or I wasn't able to understand, how we forced a country to attack us. This narrative gives some explanation. An island, no natural resources, being starved of oil and other things by embargo - add some Yamoto spirit and - whammo! -we have a world war on our hands.

The strange world of honor. It's something we hear about in the west but to see this description - honor on the first person level, a compassionate inside story, made the Japanese character so much more understandable. When he described the celebration after their "victory" at Pearl Harbor I can imagine similar celebrations in the US. Patriotic pride, 4th of July Parades. These things tend to make me feel nervous.

Kept my interest. Based on the above. Harry being so smart I wondered what he had up his sleeve. However I didn't know if I would have been so driven to complete the book if it wasn't assigned as part of a book club. The club kept me going when otherwise I may have given up.

Some implausibility. How is it that a lone American, a swindler, gets access to the oil records of these large corporations and dupes the Japanese navy into thinking that there were large reserves of oil hidden in Hawaii. I don't know. It may have been explained but because of the confusion I was having with the international date line I may have missed it.

Interesting characters. Kiko the art teacher, Ishigami as evil incarnate, the force of destruction no one can beat, like a gay Jason (from Friday the 13th) who happens to be a samurai colonel. And, of course Michiko, the infatuated fatalistic lover who would like nothing more than to a murder suicide.

Colorful descriptions. I particularly enjoyed the ambassador's party when Harry was a kid, playing tug of war, beating up the big guy, climbing the fence, I could just see the fire flies. I felt like there were a lot of great description that I probably missed because I was so confused by the logistics of the plot. I could benefit by a re-read. But I probably won't.

Poor Harry is neither a fish or a chicken, but halfway between. And the world of December 6 1941 is deeply in need of a strong swimmer. Really a very well written and researched novel by the master that would have gotten him lynched as late as 1950 for the politics. Harry is the social chameleon ( shape shifter) and gambler whose bet ( debts) all come due at once.
An unexpected clairvoyance in the main Japanese characters leads to an unlikely surprise ending.
More of an entertaining historical fantasy than anything that could actually have taken place.Man In A High Castle

This is the first book of Martin Cruz Smith that I have read and overall I would say that the book was pretty good. The sequences of flashbacks was a little too much for me and at times I almost forgot what time period we were in.

The story was very well done and made you question the main characters character many times over. Even at this point I wonder if he was a good guy or just another thief.

I will read another Smith book again.

I really like Smith's writing because he makes the characters come alive. Unlike many writers whose characters seem to be mere necessities to move a plot along, Smith gives you a sense that these are real people. That is what draws me to his books and keeps me turning the page. This book, I couldn't put down.

In December 6, you have a character like Bogart in Casablanca except the setting is the "Happy Paris" bar in Tokyo. Harry Niles is the anti-hero mostly out for himself, but just can't seem to turn away from people who need his help, even if it means he puts himself in jeopardy. Very interesting character and totally believable due to Smith's writing skill. If you like a well told story filled with interesting characters being tossed about in very tumultous circumstances, you'll like this book.

Also, being from Japan, and between cultures myself, I thought Smith did a great job of getting the feel of what it is like to grow up in a different culture, speak its language, understand and relate to its culture as your own, yet never be able to be considered part of that culture because of your looks or name. For someone who hasn't lived that life, (I presume), Smith had really good insights. That made this book especially interesting to me.

My only regret was that the ending was rather ambiguous. After piquing my interest to know how things would turn out, I felt there was no final clear resolution. Not so typical of Smith to do that, and as someone who likes closure at the end of a good read, I was somewhat disappointed. Still, it was a wonderful ride.

The days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor form the basis of this thriller focused on an American who lived in Japan from birth to his late teens, then returned ten years later--after the Nanking Massacre but before the United States entered the war. The son of missionaries who often left him in the care of others while they traveled, Harry Niles, as an adolescent, always considered himself more Japanese than American, though he was often tormented, and sometimes even tortured, by his Japanese peers for being different. When he embarrasses his parents by flouting their strict morality, he is hauled back to the United States in disgrace.

In the ensuing decade at "home," Harry learns how to manipulate others, becoming successful professionally by bending, if not ignoring, the rules. When he returns to Japan, he is distrusted by his fellow countrymen, while, at the same time, equally distrusted by his Japanese counterparts. Owning a Tokyo nightclub and living with Michiko, a woman whose self-serving nature matches his own, Harry reconnects with some of his acquaintances from high school, some of whom are now in the Japanese armed forces, and finds himself dealing with powerful yakuza figures, Nazi businessmen, and the confused diplomatic community. When he becomes privy to information which suggests an attack on Pearl Harbor is imminent, Harry tries to prevent war while protecting his own neck.

Filled with realistic details which reflect a great deal of research into the political and cultural background of the period, the novel uses Harry's split loyalties to show Japan's belief that its desire to control the Pacific is no different from England's control of its colonies during the Empire. Showing the Japanese point of view, the author provides action scenes reflecting life in Tokyo for people ranging from Prime Minister Tojo to geishas and prostitutes, and the international colony of businessmen. Scenes of everyday life ring true, not just in terms of physical details but in terms of the cultural milieu of the characters.

Harry is not an admirable character, either to the Americans or to the Japanese, but he, unlike many of the people with whom he associates, makes no pretenses of being anything other than who and what he is. Suspense develops relative to Harry's predicaments, a necessary structural device since readers already know the historical outcome. The final confrontation between Harry and members of the Japanese military, however, is less realistic than one would expect and the introduction of samurai values into the scene seems gratuitous and even trite, an easy way out of a difficult problem of plot. Still, the novel is exciting, well-researched, and imaginative, another one of Cruz Smith's carefully written historical thrillers. n Mary Whipple

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I read a report on this novel which ofered a criticism to effect that Nathaniel didn't appear till half way through the novel. This should be igored. The author has chosen to illuminate a period of burgeoning capitalism about which the general public - me included - know relatively little.
Correctly, the history of the spice trade, in the far-east, the major players, etc. were identified to great effect.
I loved this book with its brave, treacherous, exotic characters all the way through.
I hardly put it down.
Don't be put off. Read it.
Arty Scott

An energized look into the harrowing spice race of the seventeenth century.
Spices were a valuable commodity during this time period, especially nutmeg which was allegedly the panacea for the plague and other medical ailments. Nutmeg grew only on one tropical island and it was called Run.

The author diligently takes the reader through the cut-throat competition between the English and Dutch for possession of not only Run but also other Spice Islands. Some chapters are very descriptive of torture and mistreatments of prisoners and may not be for the squeamish. Nonetheless, the rivalry between these two countries is taut, fierce and intricately detailed.

I, like a few reviewers, fail to make the connection between the author's leading character Nathaniel Courthope and the ultimate land exchange fifty years later of Manhattan for Run Island. Maybe it is a declaration of Courthope's courage and determination to quell Dutch uprisings for four years which eventually led to the land swap five decades later (?)
A good read, and above all a most informative study of these contested times.

It's a short book jam packed with characters and voyages. I have to say though that I could have used a time line in the begining to help me keep things straight. Reading this book takes focus (not the kind of thing you can read when you're tired or watching TV at the same time) but I enjoyed learning so much about the spice trade!

I give the author 2 stars for taking on an interesting topic and having done exhaustive research in a difficult area (very few documented narratives, and many of those destroyed at sea or over time). After getting through half the book, I skipped to the later parts and put it away. It is a linear timeline of voyages by English entrepeneurs to get a piece of the spice trade that was dominated by the Dutch and Portuguese. Each voyage begins with a brief introduction of what was known about the captain, ship and crew, then describes what went wrong during the voyage (and usually things went very wrong). There is a quaint quote from someone's journal along the lines of "nearley the entyre crewe dyed frome the bloody fluxe". The book's title character doesn't get introduced until around page 200 (out of 375 pages) and doesn't dominate the narrative until p. 240.

I think there was a good book in this material, but apparently Mr. Milton's editor couldn't get up the nerve to ask for a re-write. There isn't really much of a theme here, except to reiterate how lucrative the spice trade was at the time. From what I can tell, the author's intent is to give example after example of British pluck, moving forward against daunting odds and all that. That's why the English lost the war with the colonies (among other reasons), and why I'm so disappointed with this book.

I call it 'Connecticut Nutmegger' because like the nutmeggers, who were peddlers from Connecticut who would sell small carved nobs of wood shaped to look like nutmeg to unsuspecting customers, Milton tries to sell us his book as a special look at an interesting piece of 'history.'

Here is a story that should be fascinating. (One of my favorite books is "Salt: A World History"). Milton's inept handling of the writing makes it a long and boring read. It seems to be one sea voyage following another. Milton likes to end every paragraph with quotations from the original reference, in the difficult language and grammatical construction of the time; complete with the strange spelling. This slows the reading down considerably. It took me several tries to understand that by 'Pooloway' and 'Poolaroone' he was talking about Pulau (Indonesian for Island) Ai and Pulau Run.

While we don't learn anything about how native populations responded to the European conquerers or what the natives thought of them, we do get a true feeling for the evil and sadism of these colonists, both British and Dutch.

Why the book is called "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" is a bit of a mystery, except that a British factor spent several years on Run Island fighting the Dutch. He seemed to have very little to do with the discovery, cultivation, or promotion of the spice, but Milton chooses him as the hero of this story. We don't even meet Nathaniel Courthope until half way through the book and he is a rather pitiful hero, who admittedly steals from his own company. It is true hyperbole to try to convince the reader that Nathaniel is a 'spice trader who changed the course of history."

All in all, with good editing this book could have been written in 200 pages. It is a hodge podge of information about European sea voyages to the South Pacific looking for spices and why economically they mattered so much. Milton covers the venality of the VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) and British East India Company extremely well. But he never proves his case that Courthope was someone who changed the course of history.

Still with all this fascinating data at hand, Milton forces the reader to suffer through his poor writing style. A style, which detracts from the immensely interesting story of the 17th century spice trade.

I have added an extra star to my review; because, had I not read this book, I would never have known of the little island of Run.

philosophizes the doppelganger-narrator of this marvelous book that resides within the body of an elderly, paralyzed man, (p 10) "Flanked by the great guitars of the ears, his hair lay thin over the orange-peel scalp, in white worms." Not a fan of those who try to help him, (p 4) "How I hate doctors...They are life's gatekeepers. And why would anyone want to be that?" he feels something sinister, (p 5) "the sense of starting out on a terrible journey, toward a terrible secret," and peculiar, as the dates seem to run in reverse, (p 8) "It just seems to me that the film is running backward," and, (p 7) "I have no access to his thoughts-but I am awash with his emotions." Yet, he has his own views on the world, (p 16) "The moon I actually like looking at. Its face, at this time of the month, is especially craven and chinless, like the earth's exiled or demoted soul," his inhabitee, (p 54) "Tod is a big depositor in the bank where fear is kept," (p 91) "John Young...daily straddles a storm of souls, which kick up in the wind like leaves..." and mankind, (p 40) "Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal."

What he doesn't realize (and what makes the novel so great) is that what he is observing is his host's life run backwards. To say more would spoil an absolutely original book. Also great: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

You hear what he's done -- written a novel in which time moves backwards -- and you think it's a clever gimmick. Then you read the book and are simply blown away at how insightful and genuine it is. You race through what he surely did not. This is why we read.

I realize that other authors have broken with the linear narrative pattern, but I have to say that the way Amis broke down the life of his protagonist here, by telling his life backwards, was amazing. I doubt that many writers could figure out a way to still insert some sort of social commentary, and yet Amis manages to do just that. I loved the way he snatches us right up in the beginning with the character's death, and we then spend the rest of the novel trying to piece together how or why he died, what he did in his life, and how these experiences shaped the character we saw in the beginning/end. It's an interesting read, and one that I'd recommend doing in one sitting if possible!

The main conceit of this novel is that time is moving backward. We learn, through dialogue which is chronologically backward who and what the main character is, the nature of his crimes, and the realization of what kind of character we are dealing with. In less deft hands than Amis', this premise could quickly become confusing or a bore. But Amis writes sentences of great declarative value, and is an extraordinary craftsman with words. So this POMO exercise in a non-traditional narrative never feels contrived or unnatural. It does not have a forced quality but seems a natural outgrowth of Amis' world of words.

"London Fields," Amis' previous novel, he tells us in its forward, could have been called "Time's Arrow," and that term comes up a couple of times in that sprawling narrative epic of environmental and personal chaos near the millennium. His experimental style in that novel (also reviewed by me) took on a mock-heroic, satirical tone that tried to fit its bitter social critiques and mordant humor. For "Time's Arrow," wisely, Amis stays sober. The voice assumed sounds much more American than the earlier novel, and this matter-of-fact style, reminding me in parts of Philip Roth's "Everyman," makes the mix of the bizarre and the mundane convincing. The daring of this novel may undo it from reaching perfection, but it remains worthwhile as an intellectual and spiritual quest into how a human contorts under pressures to do the wrong thing.

Reading it, I feared continuing as the horrors loomed ahead-- or behind. The ingenious structure of the tale fascinates. You fear how Dr. Friendly's medical skills will be warped, and how his care for children in his elderly incognito existence in America will be demonstrated to have emerged from the Nazi camps. This becomes a truly cathartic novel, in which fear and pity mingle as you turn the pages forward, backward into the origins of the doctor's past crimes.

An early passage: "A child's breathless wailing calmed by the firm slap of a father's hand, a dead ant revived by the careless press of a passing sole, a wounded finger healed and sealed by the knife's blade: anything like that made me flinch and veer. But the body I live and move in, Tod's body, feels nothing." (28) So we learn as his soul tells his tale. Like his spirit, we may not wish to continue the journey as the future recedes and the memories left repressed rear up and assault our senses, but this sometimes stunning depiction of the last century's historical regression into savagery, in its often relentless momentum, pulls us into their maelstrom.

The strain of this structure, perhaps, means that the underlying moral condition, buried as it is under the weight of time and of apparent suppression by the doctor, becomes less distinct. This may be intentional, but it blunts the impact of the novel. Perhaps, on the other hand, this has been an effective step back by Amis, for how many fictional works have tried and also stumbled in trying to "explain" the camps, the doctors, and the evil?

Amis, with relative reticence, and restraint, manages to take us into the labs of Auschwitz without exploitation or bathos. Parts remained rather unclear, but in retrospect I sense this shows the soul, and then Amis, stepping back from fully confronting the terrors that are summoned back from the lands of the dead. The necessary details that evoke this terrestrial hell, both in Tod's later life and his earlier years, have been integrated subtly, to show off by the estrangement of the form their parallel distortion in content, compared with conventional fiction and moral standards. This feat, in a novel that by its daring may (like "London Fields" in its range and hubris) show that Amis, even when he writes a less than perfect tale, can earn acclaim for his imagination, his innovation, and his performance in a bravura turn that compels you.