On-the-print

Scotia MacKinnion works as a private investigator on San Juan Island between Washington State and Vancouver British Columbia. In the past, she's been a homicide detective for five years with the San Diego Police Department, so she knows the moves and she has the chops. Her infield team consists of Zelda Jones, a web site designer and graphic artist who does computer research for her, Ben Carey, a homicide detective in Berkeley who looks into police matters, and Jared Saperstein, a news reporter with a talent for hacking. Elyse Montenegro tries to hire Scotia to dissuade a stalker she insists is following her around, but Scotia isn't too certain she wants the case. Later, after having Zelda run the license plate Elyse gave her and turning up the fact that it belongs to a rental vehicle leased by a man that might be a private investigator himself, Scotia's interest rises. Only a short while later, Elyse's friend Campbell Sawyer is run off the road while driving Elyse's car. Elyse returns to Scotia's office, and this time she tells Scotia of her husband's murder. Julio Montenegro was a lawyer who worked with Latin Americans who had immigration problems or other legal entanglements. But Julio had another side to him as well: he also wrote an inflammatory column regarding United States-Mexico relations that offended major players in financial circles and political circles on both sides of the border. In addition, Julio was a player and had a mistress on the side. As if the case isn't complicated enough, Scotia discovers that other Hispanic attorneys have been murdered lately, and she has to give some thought to whether or not she's on the trail of a serial killer.

DEATH ON A CASUAL FRIDAY is author Sharon Duncan's first novel, but a second Scotia MacKinnion novel, A DEEP BLUE FAREWELL, is already on the shelves. Before turning to full time writing, the author worked with linguistics and statistics. She is also an avid sailor.

Scotia MacKinnion is an engaging heroine. She has a very full, very real life in addition to her work as a private investigator. Her relationship with her mother-Jewel Moon, a 1960s activist and former flower child-is strained. Scotia also has a college-aged daughter living out of the home who, when left to her own devices, tends to fall into her grandmother's orbit a little too much for Scotia's comfort. Nick Anastazi, a maritime lawyer, is her lover and gets somewhat too involved in his cases and his own teenage daughter to be around as much as Scotia would want. Scotia's world is realized very completely and with lots of details that make the reader feel as though he or she is walking at Scotia's side through Friday Harbor, San Juan. Zelda and Scotia's gossip feels real, and when the women start in talking about people the reader doesn't know-yet-the ears immediately start prick up and wait for the dish to begin. The mystery is ably plotted and gives Scotia plenty to do while tracking down suspects and turning up more information on the murder victim than she'd wanted. The story also gives the author room to discuss the political issues that are obviously important to her.

Sharon Duncan's light romp will be a fun read for cozy lovers and mystery fans who like their action relatively bloodless and at a tolerable adrenaline level. Readers of Carolyn G. Hart and Dorothy Cannell should have a new series to enjoy.

With this first novel, Sharon Duncan has begun what looks to be an interesting series. Scotia MacKinnon, the novel's leading lady, looks to be as vibrant and intelligent as any of the other leading female detectives.

Scotia MacKinnon is persuaded to take a stalking case that she really doesn't feel worth her while. The large retainer, however, is. The young woman fears she is being stalked by the same man who previously killed her husband, a lawyer fighting for the rights of Hispanics in California and elsewhere in Latin American countries. Disowned by her own family, and turned away by the police as hysterical, the woman begs Scotia MacKinnon to take her case. As she investigates the dangers that lurk in this case, McKinnon encounters police, professors, and civil rights activists, many with good reason to commit a murder of this kind, before she solves this particular mystery. What prods her on, however, is the subsequent murders so like the young woman's husband's death. The stalker may have good reason to want this woman dead as well.

Sharon Duncan's characters are as interesting as their particular story suggests, and this novel is well worth the read.

Sharon Duncan has written a remarkable first novel, one that can scarcely fail to please even the most discriminating fan of the mystery genre. Her principal character, PI Scotia MacKinnon, is tough and cagy, rather than hard or cynical, managing the difficult feat of dealing with violence and evil while remaining human and feminine. Scotia is complimented by a cast of well constructed supporting characters who never fail to seize the reader's attention and interest. These include two villains whose malice is, these days, altogether too believable.

A well drawn plot, from which humor is not excluded, is enhanced by the author's obvious familiarity with domestic terrorism and the machinations of white supremicists. She is, as well, familiar with police proceedure, the weaponry of assassins and the firearms black market. Combine the above with superb technical writing skills, and a sharp eye and ear for detail, and the result is a book which once opened, will prove difficult to set aside before the last page is turned.

Scotia MacKinnon is truly a heroine for today. Let us hope the author will allow us to delve deeper into her background and character in the course of many more adventures down the road.

This 316 pages of America isn't the America of the media or of Hollywood or of the headlines of shootings and money-grubbing, cheating and robbing, but of the REAL America. Of honest people and real places, of pride and honor and values that really count.

Here you'll meet the men who built the Golden Gate Bridge and a doctor who charges whatever his patients can afford. You'll learn about a woman who spends every day of her life cooking and feeding her neighbors because she wants to be a friend to man. These are the true nobility of our country, the real success stories of lives worthy of note and respect. In comparison to these, Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, Ted Turner pale in significance.

These are lives fully lived, the promise of the individuals completely realized. They are the human evidence of what happens when a person does unto others as they would have others do unto themselves.

Sunnye Tiedemann (aka Ruth F. Tiedemann)

Kuralt has a wonderful sense of humor. His wit shines through in every page of this book as he tells stories of Americana and his experiences while covering the news in Cuba, South America, Russia... His simple and descriptive style of writing flows by fast and I could vividly imagine his experiences. What were these experiences? Pick up the book. Suffice to say it spans from the story of a simple brick layer he met in rural america to a proud, grumpy soviet ex-pow who had been waiting 40 years to send a message to an old friend in America.

I put this book down with a great faith in humanity and a deep admiration for Charles Kuralt. He leaves you feeling that this world is filled with thousands and thousands of remarkable stories that are waiting to be discovered and that life is full of opportunities around every corner.

The genius of Charles Kuralt--and what makes this book great--is his ability to find insights from the smallest of things, which the rest of us would pass over on the way to more "important" matters. In some ways his life was extraordinary. But in other ways he led a rather conventional life, going from one greased pig competition to the next hoe-down on his rickety bus. He never walked on the moon, or cured a disease, or broke a batting record, or played at Carnegie Hall. But his insights into the simple experiences in life, from a field of wildflowers to the beauty of an autumn day, make A Life On The Road a book to cherish, and return to again and again. I can't recommend this book enough. America lost a true artist when Mr. Kuralt died. He probably never would have been so presumptuous to claim the title for himself, but that's what he was.

As usual, Max Lucado has done fellow Christians a service. "On the Anvil" has provided me with an inspirational blueprint for life. I have read and re-read the entire book and specific chapters as a reminder that our lives are worth living when we follow Christ's teachings. Give this book to any friend or family member as a token of your love for them. Amen, Amen, Amen!!

This book is about being more Christ like. You are one of the three categories in this book- in the broken tool pile (unwilling or unusable), on the anvil (have a heart for God no matter what the pain or the consequence), an instrument for noble purposes (being used for God's glory). all through out this book there are poems and Bible verses relating to what the next chapter will talk about. This book has done a great deal to my heart and is definitely worth it's money!

This book will move you and give you a realization of what God is doing in your life and teach you how to wait until your deliverance comes!

I've been under the care of a neurologist for 3 years because of severe menstrual migraines. I've also done extensive research online - about migraines and the drugs I've been prescribed. I did not feel like this book told me anything new. It also did not include the most up-to-date information about new drugs, including small doses of epilepsy medication for migraine sufferers. I DID find the "migraine diary" to be helpful. If you are unsure of the cause of your migraines, this tool could prove useful.

I GOT A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF MY MONTHLY PMS MIGRAINE AS WELL AS TIPS AND INFO REGARDING MY ALLERGY MIGRAINES. I HIGHLY
RECOMMEND IT!

I'm 16 and have had migraines my whole life. My mom and I went from doctor to doctor for years trying to figure out what my headaches were all about. when we finally found the right doctor, she gave me some medacine that accually works and had me start a migraine journal. I hadn't followed my doctors like I should have, I didn't write down what I was feeling, because I didn't know how to describe it. But when I found this book and read it cover to cover, I finally realized that I'm not aelone and discovered a way to describe my symptoms. After only a fiew months of following what my doctor and the book told me to do, I've found what triggers my headaches, and how I can manage them, prevent them, and avoid them. So this is a wonderful book with useful information that will help anyone and everyone weather they get migraines or not understand what migraines are all about.

For once, everything seems to be going Alice Nestleton's way. She has a good role in a television series that looks like it is going to be picked up by the network and she has a new beau who is also starring in the same series. She is on a bus taking her to her favorite department store when a non-descript lady holding a shopping bag and a cat starts firing at everyone.

People are killed but the woman escapes. Shortly after Alice gives her testimony to the police. RETRO, the Cold Case Division of NYPD, offer Alice a six week lucrative contract to investigate a possible link between the bus shooting and a similar incident that happened three years ago. Try as she might she can't uncover a connection but she must be doing something right because Tony Basillio gets knifed in her darkened apartment. More affected by Tony's pain than she expected, Alice puts a plan in motion to flush out the killer.

A CAT ON THE BUS is a delightful cozy that stars an intrepid heroine who likes adversity better than peace and harmony. Though why RETRO hired Alice is questionable, her bumbling investigation leads to connections that make the plot more credible. For the first time Alice does some soul searching to decide what she really wants and then goes after it. Lydia Adamson scores again with this winning mystery.

Harriet Klausner

If you read the back jacket flap on this newest of Alice Nestleton mysteries, you get the distinct impression that this may be the last one. Further, in the back of the book there is no first chapter of the next in the series, as there has been in pretty much every other Nestleton book; nope, in the back of this one there is the first chapter from the PREVIOUS Nestleton mystery, the disappointing "A Cat Name Brat".

And in reading "A Cat on the Bus" (without giving anything away), you do, by the end, get the feeling that this is the last in the series - and, as much as I will miss Alice, maybe that's not such a bad idea.

This one begins when Alice takes a bus ride to a sale at one of her favorite stores in Manhattan (one of the best reasons for reading this series is to "feel" New York City in its descriptions). While on the bus, sitting in the back, Alice notices a plain sort of young woman get on the bus with a beat-up-looking shopping bag and a cat carrier; she sits a few seats from Alice. Within a few stops, the woman has reached into her shopping bag and pulled out a gun, firing several shots at her fellow passengers before leaping off the bus and running, another bus passenger chasing after her.

A few passengers die from the incident, including the young college student who'd gotten off the bus to chase the shooter. Alice is of course badly shaken, and soon after the RETRO branch of Manhattan's police force - a special branch dedicated to solving old, unsolved crimes that Alice used to work with - calls The Cat Woman (Alice) back into work, trying to find a connection with the bus shooting, and a very simliar incident that had happend on another NYC bus a few years earlier. Currently on hiatus from filming the new "Sopranos"-like cable tv show she's just gotten a big role in (and happy in a new relationship with a co-star from the show), the actress/cat sitter takes the RETRO assignment and begins looking into both cases.

This is one of the better Alice Nestleton mysteries of late, actually taking an improbable (though original and attention-grabbing) beginning, and styling a pretty plausible mystery around it. To further complicate things, Alice's sometime-on, sometime-off boyfriend Tony has come back to town, and this time Alice decides to end her relationship with him for good. And the odd thing in this one is, the cat was completely incidental. There is, for the first time in the history of this "Cat" series, absolutely no real reason for the cat in the story to be there. VERY odd.

But again, overall this is a good and fairly plausible mystery. What bothers me about it - and has bothered me about the last several Nestleton books - is Alice herself. I can't quite put my finger on it except to say that the character has changed too much in the last few books; she seems more distant, not as psychologically sound, and says and thinks things that sometimes don't seem rational to the Alice Nestleton earlier in the series (and believe me, I have read them all) - her character has really evolved oddly.

But I would give this book 3-4 stars based on the story, which is much more simplistic and straightforward than the few previous to it were.

And even though the ending may have signaled this as the last book, I liked it; it was very fitting to Alice and Tony both, and more within their characters. If this is goodbye I will miss the series very much - I read each one soon as it's released - but maybe it's also about due.

Congrats Alice, perennially-out-of-work Broadway actress, on a job well done!! We'll miss you!

I have been a fan of Lydia Adamson for a LONG time, and I LOVE all her books. I thought this book was one of her best so far. I really, really hope this is not the last Alice Nestleton book. I recomend this book to anyone who loves cats and Alice Nestleton.

A great story and an otherwise excellent reading was spoiled for me by the APPALLING "Australian" accents used for three of the characters. I certainly don't expect perfection, but this reader didn't get anywhere near.
These Australians sounded like Cockneys with some bizarre speech defect. A little more research to find out how Australians actually speak might have helped.
Send us up, by all means - the Aussie characters were hilariously written - but please try to at least approximate the accent.
If Kate Winslett and Meryl Streep can do it, so can you. (Okay, Meryl's character was a New Zealander living in Australia, but all the more admirable for that!)

This was a very funny book. It had the usual Westlake shenanigans and completely outlandish behavior, but the twist is how the newspaper in the story is modeled after The National Inquirer. It made good fun of the "excessive news" industry and added a new concept: the body in the box. This is the holy grail of excessive news stories in this book. The protagonists try to take a picture of a dead famous person in his coffin. Absolutely hilarious! The female protagonist is naive and personable, very believable. The male lead is also believable as a cad who just wants stories that sell. I highly recommend this one to fans of Lawrence Block, Elmore Leonard, and Janet Evanovich (as well as Westlake fans).

This is one of my annual must-reads. I have read it every year since it first came out and I still laugh uproariously at it. Westlake is famous for his comedy capers and this is the best of the bunch.

Fermor traveled by foot from the Hook of Holland to Constantiople; this book is the second volume of his remembrances of that trip, starting off halfway through the journey at Budapest (where the previous volume, A Time of Gifts, left off). Oh, wait, I didn't mention that he made this trip in 1934 when he was 18. The book is an incredibly dense package of flora and fauna, history and action, characters and settings. For someone as unfamiliar as I about this area, it provided a crash course in providing for an understanding of the region.

Fermor's second installment of his trilogy (I assume the third volume remains unfinished?) focuses on Hungary and Transylvania, and is an easier read than his first volume that described largely the German/Austrian stint of his long hike/hitchhike. I encountered fewer characters this time, due to his longer stays with people, and, as Fermor admits, he tended to keep to the company of the gentry more than the peasants and Gypsies he originally anticipated.

As in the first volume, vignettes stand out: he nevertheless manages to find a Gypsy encampment, Hasidim among lumberjacks deep in the Carpathians, a count who mutters in language out of Robbie Burns about his butterfly collection, and the romance with Angela, discreetly but poignantly narrated. My favorite scene is just before his great romance, when a briefer "roll in the hay" becomes exactly that in the company of Safta and Ileana.

Fermor's allusions to his later Crete exploits are tempting--I only wish he had had time to related these too in more detail. His comparisons to 1980s Europe and what transpired to some of his friends later on make for thoughtful and instructive entertainment--the mark of the best writing.

I can only echo the thoughts of the other reviewers and would urge the publishers to reissue this book and its companion, A Time of Gifts, that relates the adventures and thoughts of the mature author on his youthful odyssey. I also have a question for the publisher and the author. The author planned a third and final volume to go from the Iron Gates to the Black Sea and Constantinople. Is there still hope that we can be delighted by the language, insight, and wonder of the author on this last leg of a remarkable journey

Caution: This book deals with some pretty ugly subjects including spousal and child abuse, and contains much coarse and foul language. The crimes are pretty graphically described, which may also make this book a little too gritty for sensitive readers. As a movie, this material would definitely earn the book an R rating.

The Face on the Wall is the most subtle and rewarding Homer and Mary Kelly story in many years. I particularly liked the build up of suspense and tension as one calamity after another befalls children's book illustrator, Annie Swann, who is the Kelly's niece (on Mary's side of the family). Usually, the sense of drama in Ms. Langton's work is not nearly so palpable.

The plot is much more complicated than usual, and intelligently involves a large number of interesting characters. As a result, the action moves along faster and in more interesting ways than we have come to expect from Ms. Langton's fiction.

The book's major theme is about the vulnerabilities of innocence and goodness to those who are determined to do whatever it takes to succeed. In fact, the whole story can be read almost as though it is a morality play from the Middle Ages.

As you may know, Ms. Langton likes to let her readers in on who the murderer is early on. So the mystery is often mostly of how the mystery will be solved or the misdirection overcome. In this book, there are many more mysteries that do not necessarily match up with murder.

The book builds upon an opening in which Annie Swann is at the acme of her life. She has fame, fortune, talent, and rewarding work. Like many artists, she has conceived of a great masterpiece, a mural on the interior wall of a new wing she has built on her house. Obsessed with her creation, she finds herself pulled away from her goal by mysterious occurrences involving Eddy Gast, an 8 year-old boy with fine artistic talent who was born with Down's syndrome, and the unexplained appearances of menacing faces in her mural. Like an unstable scaffolding, the pieces of this self-perceived perfection suddenly begin to disintegrate around her.

After finishing this book, think about those you know who are most popular. Why do you think they are popular? Do they ever misuse this popularity? Have you ever misused your popularity? How can we help those who are popular to play a more positive role?

Seek first to do the right thing!

It is very interesting to note that our fairy tale stories & rhymes run parallel with our real lives. The innocent victims & the evil villains do exist...& the perennial saying "good wins over evil" applies & comes true --- though they may take some time. I specifically liked the tale of the fisherman & his wife being compared with our villains. Greed! Greed & selfishness destroys our being & brings our downfall. Fred Small & the Gast family deserve what they got. The story may sound so hideous to some, but it is reality. People kill for money. Husbands kill their wives like Fred Small. & parents can kill their unfortunate children like Eddy, in exchange for some convenience & take advantage of innocent victims like Annie.

What an amazing author Jane Langton is. One of the blurbs on my edition of this book states, "Today's best American mystery writer." I usually take such things as hyperbole but in this case, the reviewer may be right as I would certainly place Ms. Langton in the top three along with Elizabeth George and Elizabeth Peters. In this entry, Homer and Mary are helping with two mysteries, one involving an old student of Mary's and the other involving Mary's niece Anna who has just built a new house. Of course, the two different mysteries become one eventually. As always, the antics of Homer are fun to read and how Mary puts up with him, I will never figure out. I have read all but one of the Homer & Mary mysteries and am trying to find a copy of the one I have not read. I would recommend starting with this series from as close to the beginning as you can as the progression of the relationship between the two main characters is important.

I bought this book on my last day in Hong Kong after finishing a stay in China. Alec Le Sueur writes about experiences that were identical to mine. I sat in the lobby of the hotel waiting for the bus to the airport laughing until I almost fell out of my chair, much to the consternation of the hotel staff. If you have been to China or are thinking about going READ THIS BOOK! Mr. Le Sueur provides excellent insight into an amazing part of the world.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly for the author's sense of humour. What a sigh of relief reading a book about Tibet discussing issues which aren't related with the human rights issues. This is a travelling book, a book of observation which continues on the tradition of Bill Bryson & Jan Wong (of China Blues' fame). Still, we learnt a lot about the country by reading between the lines. I have read countless of books about Tibet & China & most of them were about how the authors survived their ordeal. Cliche`. Here, we also read about the author's ordeal but of a different kind. We were brought behind the scene of an international hotel & I'm adamant that most hotel operators haven't removed 200+ dead rats from their hotels before, rode in their hotel vehicle which were devoid of suspensions & driven in break neck speed by their driver who hardly spoke any English, etc. There's so much to be written but it's better to let the prospective readers discover for themselves what a wee gem this book is. I finished this book in 2 days as I couldn't afford to put it down. Damn hilarious, compatible with the Fawlty Tower as claimed, & truly a memesrising experience. Keep up the good work!

If you were to cross National Geographic, Bill Bryson and Fawlty Towers, then I'm sure that this book is what would pop out at the other end.

Covering the author's 7 years working in the most unlikely Holiday Inn in the world - in Lhasa Tibet - this is a real treat. From the rains of dead flies at a banquet to the bizarre Miss Tibet contest in the hotel swimming pool, back to the dead guest who nobody seems to be able to get rid of, and encountering various smells, accidents and infestations on the way, Le Sueur emerges as a Basil Fawlty for the 1990's, tackling each catastrophe with crossed fingers and invention in equal measures. It's genuinely hilarious, and more so because it isn't the product of a comedy writer's brain, but an account of real, if at times surreal, events.

Le Sueur is a very likeable protagonist who not only brings us the humour found in trying to run a top class hotel in a communist coutry cut off from the rest of the world, but also explores the effects of China's rule on Tibet and its people. What prevents the politics of the book becoming staid and stuffy is Le Sueur's naive angle - he sees the Tibetan situation in the same way that any other ordinary person might, with a mixture of fascination and outrage. It's clear he has a great deal of love and respect for Tibetans, and writes in a highly acerbic tone about their relationship with the Chinese. But at the same time, he is not afraid to show his downright frustration with both the Tibetan and Chinese staff in the hotel who it seems, will never understand the basic principles of customer service, or even hygiene.

It's a nice balance, and the book works on both the levels Le Sueur is obviously trying to explore. The humour is so abundant it's ticklish, the anecdotes are so interesting, you won't want to put the book down; in short, "Running A Hotel" is a very entertaining read.

This Singer series book is quite nice. However, it turns out to be a shorter version of another book, Exploring Textile Arts, published two years later by the same publisher. Nowhere does either book indicate this relationship, but the text and illustrations for the various techniques described are identical. Buy one or the other, but not both!

The variety of fabric and paint techniques inside this book were numerous. As an artist who works with both fabrics and paint; as well as various other media I was very impressed and pleased. The book features step by step instructions; great illustrations and photography. All in all a beautiful and very useful tool for an artist; home decorator; fashion decorator; designer; fiber art major; textile artist; and anyone fascinated by creating cool works of art or fashion! (...)

I had always wanted to dye/paint my own fabrics and my mother convinced me to buy a book instead of just winging it like I usually do. I'm so glad I listened. This book has all kinds of great methods, all full-color with easy-to-follow instructions. Also included is a list of suppliers so you can get ahold of even the weirdest stuff any of the techniques require.