Very uncommon for Osprey books are the number of wrong or misspelled German words.

Example: Eisenlaub it should be Eichenlaub denoting the Oak leaves to the knights cross

Thus 4 out of 5

I have always had an interest in the luftwaffe in north africa, but have found information to be sketchy. until now. this book is excellent. the information is clear and interesting. the book is filled with amazing pictures from the region as well as color plates of the many different camo, and some color paintings of pilots. this book is an excellent introduction into the bf-109 aces who flew in the campaign. there may be more informative books out there. but this one is an excellent one to start with. if you have an interest in the campaign in the desert or the luftwaffe in general then give it a read.

Like all ospery books, this is one is well worth the price. A must for all 109 fans.

After Sherlock Holmes supposedly died at Reichenbach Falls, newspaper reporter Josiah Cobbett decided to track down the elusive history of Holmes' early life. The results of his research was suppressed at the time, as Holmes was not really dead. The research was only recently rediscovered.

From this excellent premise, the author has built a relatively good, but tragic story. Young Mycroft Holmes is a particularly strong and interesting character.

One of my complaints is the poor usage of Victorian English. It makes for difficult reading and I personally found its usage unnecessary.

It certainly cannot hold a candle to the original Holmes stories and devoted fans might be disappointed, but I still recommend this book to anyone interested in variations of Holmes stories.

The author truly gives you a feel for what the childhood of Holmes might have been like and how those events shaped the person that he became. It is apparent from the book that the author has a good grasp of the feel and voice of the period, unlike many authors of Sherlockian and other period stories. This book is definitely worth reading.

I am not a 'Sherlockian,' but I found this book to be a great read. I couldn't put it down, and I have now started reading the originals after reading this book!

I was entertained by the writing style - very Doyle-like. This was my first Mycroft mystery. The writing style made reading flow along. I thought the plot (treaty with Japan) a bit boring and if the writing hadn't been good the story would have bogged down. Also, I would have liked more Holmes action and less Guthrie in the story. I think that making Guthie be a second Watson is too much. I love Watson, but having him cloned in the form of Guthrie was not fun. Guthrie should have his own character. I liked Tyres and Sutton very much and hope to see them both in the other books in the series. I plan to read all or some of the others.

The first book in this series (Against The Brotherhood)introduced the reader to a Mycroft Holmes who was a bit too much of an action hero to fit my personal take on the character. Although I enjoyed the 1st book , the plot of Embassy Row better fits the character of Sherlock's brother. Filled with intrigue over a treaty with Japan, The Emperor's son and a mystery woman, and a murder that may cause the events to explode; Embassy Row does an excellent job of showing the behind the scenes role of Mycroft Holmes, hinted at in the few Sherlock Holmes tales he made an appearence in. I did have some problems with Holmes' late identification of the mystery woman, which will be patently obvious to the reader, and the constant appearence of The Golden Lodge's Miss Gatspy, whose role works as "deus ex machina." I hope Mr. Fawcett can avoid falling into this trap too often. I think Mycroft should remain the puppetmaster in these tales, it lends credence to Sherlock's assertions that Mycroft was the more intelligent of the two.

Excellent sequel to Against the Brotherhood. Fawcett takes us deep into the world of international intrigue, the habitat of Mycroft Holmes. Deeply involving story and an exciting plot. Keep them coming Mr. Fawcett.

Richard Lancelyn Green has examined nearly a century's worth of Holmesian pastiches and collected some of the very best in this book. Stories date from 1920 through the 1980's.

Many pastiches try to parody or reinvent the originals, but theses stories affectionately recapture the flavor and tone of the canon.

In this volume Richard Lancelyn Green has assembled some of the best of the noncanonical Holmes short stories as of 1986. I personally think _The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes_ by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr is a slightly better collection overall, but this one comes close.

Adrian Conan Doyle is represented here as well, the adventure of "Arnsworth Castle" being simply a republication of "The Red Widow" from _Exploits_. (I disagree with the reviewer who thought the story was a "complete failure," but I also disagree with anthologist Green that it is the strongest of the younger Doyle's Holmes pastiches.)

The highlight of the collection is undoubtedly Denis O. Smith's "The Purple Hand." This is the first of Smith's Holmes tales (of which another -- "The Silver Buckle" -- appears in _The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures_); in general they are among the best pastiches in the short-story genre. (Smith has published them in three volumes under the title _The Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes_.)

Other high points include "The Tired Captain" and "The Green Empress," based on two unrecorded cases mentioned by Watson in the first paragraph of "The Naval Treaty." The latter of the two cases requires a brief explanation.

"The Green Empress" is the new title of the tale mentioned in a review below under the name "The Second Stain." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of course, wrote a story of that title as well, but the version he published does not match the description in "The Naval Treaty." Some Sherlockians (according to Green) also claim to find a reference to another "Second Stain" case in "The Yellow Face," though I do not happen to know the foundation of this claim. There would thus appear to have been at least two and perhaps three Holmes cases catalogued by Watson under the same name.

F.P. Cellie's tale fills in the details of the one mentioned in "The Naval Treaty." In 1967 it won a contest in South Africa under its original title of "The Second Stain," and its title has been altered for publication in the present volume. End of explanation.

Another highlight: this volume is the only one currently in print -- so far as I know -- in which Vincent Starrett's classic "The Unique _Hamlet_" is collected. In my own view this pastiche is somewhat overrated (being among other things ludicrously easy to solve), but at any rate it's a good one to have; at least it was one of the first, having been privately published in 1920.

And another point which may be of interest to Amazon shoppers: the larger and more recent collection _The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures_, edited by Michael Ashley (and with a foreword by Green), does not include _any_ overlap with the present volume. Owners of one may therefore feel safe in purchasing the other.

I've just finished this and am amazed by how much I enjoyed it - I'd bought it expecting to hate it but not so. It's very patchy but no more so than Conan Doyle's original stories, and the only really terrible bit is one effort by his son Adrian which is a complete failure, although a very involved thing about Scotland (which left me wondering, why couldn't he have just put the brooch in his pocket? - you'll know what I mean when you've read it) tries the patience rather. Best are the 'Purple Hand' and 'Second Stain' stories, both of which the man himself would have been very proud of, but all are honourable additions to the mythos, hugely enjoyable and very sensitive to the much-loved originals.

This book is great, the perfect introduction to the lay reader who isn't a student of philosophy. Welch is extremely knowledgeable, and it's obvious that he's researched the subject extensively. Mix this with his down-to-earth, conversational, and often amusing style and you get a winner! He explains this nebulous, dynamic system called Taoism comprehensibly. (Which is saying something, as you know if you've studied Taoism before!!) I'd recommened this book to anyone--you won't find a better one on Taoism!

If you are new to Lao Tzu, this is the book to begin with. Glad it's back in print. Much of the book is about the religion called "Taoism"--it's complex history. It is interesting in itself, but has little to do with Lao Tzu. Still, the first part of this book (about the Tao te ching) and the last chapter (about Lao Tzu in the modern world) are clear, common-sensical and often beautiful expositions to the philosophy. I first read the book thirty years ago, and none of the texts I've read in the intervening years have come close to its clear exposition, and appropriately graceful and witty exposition.

Awesome!! This book fully explains how Taoism took different forms depending on their environment.

The book ends in an awesome question and answer prose in Tao-think with many of problems of today.

Thank you Ann Cooper and Lisa Holmes! If you really believe "you are what you eat", this book may scare you into ACTION! This book was suggested to me by a parent of one of my son's friends, and I am so glad it was. Though sometimes "text bookish", this compilation of information really makes you stop and think about what you eat and what we feed our families. I found the historical information to be very insightful and the suggestions for how to offer healthier choices were terrific. The resources listed in the back of the book were nuts and bolts suggestions that answered the question, "now what do I do?" With recent "Mad Cow Disease" scares, and ever increasing rates of cancer, heart disease, etc. this is a fabulous resource for helping people to think about small ways to make changes in what we put in our bodies every day. READ IT!!

Bitter Harvest is a wonderful book. It highlights the importance of natural foods vs. the artificial foods we eat. However, this is a distinction NOT between junk food and vegetables, but agribusiness vegetables and local organic vegetables.
It turns out that, in search of the maximum profit, the massive agribusinesses engage in pratices that make vegetables much less healthy, and, in some cases, toxic.
Since allowing land to fallow and regain its nutrients reduces profits that could be generated from using that land, agribusinesses use the same land over and over again, and pump it full of chemicals to try to restore the nutritional content of the soil. This is not some wild claim, it is simply how agribusiness works according to their own information.
As a result, many vegetables are becoming less healthy and less nutritional. For instance, a USDA report comparing American broccoli between 1975 and 1997 shows that it has decreased in many important nutrients: broccoli in 1997 had 53% less calcium, 20% less iron, 38% less Vit A, 17% less Vit C, 35% less thiamin, 48% less riboflavin, and 29% less Niacin than 1975 broccoli. Additionally, food that is transported loses nutrients over time. Our vegetables travel an average of 1500 miles.
Unfortunately, thanks to NAFTA and GATT, our vegetables can be toxic. Mexico currently does not ban at least 6 pesticides that are banned due to health effects in the USA. Why does this matter to us? We get most of our off-season vegetables from Mexico: 97% of tomatoes, 93% of our cucumbers, 95% of our squash, 99% eggplant, and 85% of our strawberries. We are eating the poisons Mexico allows in its food.
The news is not all bad, and this book is largely a celebration of life, food, and nature. Above all, it stresses the need to find food sources that don't use the damaging practices of agribusinesses and are not far away-local organic farms. According to Consumer Reports Jan 1998 issue, "organic foods consistently had the least toxic pesticide residues." Similarly, it is more nutritional. Organic Corn has 20 times the calcium and magnesium of store corn. There are many more nutrients and vegetables listed.
And so, to question an earlier reviewer, who found it "really hard to figure out why any of it matters"--are you concerned about eating poisons and pesticides? Are you concerned about declining nutrient levels in our vegetables? If you are, then this book matters. In fact, it is difficult to imagine anything mattering more than what we eat and the damage it may cause.

This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the food they put into their bodies. It is definitively NOT a cookbook, nor does it make an attempt as such--the other reader from New York clearly did not read this book!

This author of this book is twice guilty. First he is guilty of the all too common academic act of reducing a fascinating subject to a dry and lifeless pseudo-rigorous study. Second he, while attempting impartiality, refuses to opine on what the reader really wants to know.

The characters involved, the location (a combination bar/whorehouse), the actual fight and the defense all could make for some seriously juicy reading. Richard Holmes has succeeded in completely boring the event down. Also he is too timid to really let us know what he thinks of Savage's parentage or Savages culpability in the murder. I suppose he is just trying to present the facts and let the reader draw his or her own conclusion. Holmes: these guys have been dead for centuries. You can go out on a limb and hazard some hard guesses!

The only thing this book really succeeds in doing is whetting my appetite for a good book on the subject.

I'm writing these words under the assumption that anyone who has found himself looking at this review knows a pretty good bit about Samuel Johnson, English Literature in general and at least a little about Mr. Savage (if only from his rather appropriate surname.) It's interesting how literary fads come and go; how a prominent poet or author of one era would find himself outcast in another, and, vice-versa; how an unknown of one era would find himself the talk of the town in another....Imagine Jack Kerouac in the days of Matthew Arnold! But I digress. I think I am one of the few people (the only person that I know of, in fact, Mr. Holmes included) who regards Mr. Savage as a great poet, greater than almost any writing during his lifetime: Thomas Grey and Cowper might be exceptions. He is an early, nearly forgotten path-setting pilgrim in the Romantic tradition, the Visionary Company (a phrase coined by Yeats and picked up as a title for his groundbreaking critical study of the Romantics by Harold Bloom). He is a Shelley, a Rimbaud, a Hart Crane before his time. Dr. Johnson is an anonymous, erudite scholar before his time. There just happened to be no satisfactory English dictionary before he came along, so he became famous for writing the (endearingly quirky) first of its kind. And there you have it. This book is to be commended for revealing what we know of Johnson before he became the old curmudgeon we love to ridicule. Like we all were at one time (Well, the better lot of us anyway.): Johnson was impressionable, naive and idealistic when he met the older Savage, and Savage was almost undoubtedly the subject Johnson had in mind when he penned "Slow rises worth, by Poverty oppressed." in The Vanity of Human Wishes. As Holmes makes clear, Johnson idolized Savage for some time, and with good reason. Savage was what we would call "the real thing," even though the book makes clear that he was a notorious liar, particularly about his birth. What I mean is that he was truly a man possessed by his poetic daemon. As Johnson himself put it, "...what was Nature in Savage would in another be Affectation." Besides Johnson's biography, The Wanderer (subtitled "A Vision") is Savage's (just) claim to fame. This review is no place to give the poem its full treatment. But a few lines Holmes quotes from Canto V will suffice to make my point:"Fishers, who yonder Brink by Torches gain,/ With teethful Tridents strike the scaly Train./ Like Snakes in Eagles claws, in vain they strive,/ When heav'd aloft, and quiv'ring yet-alive." As Holmes astutely points out, "There are moments when Savage's whole universe seems to be convulsed in pain like this, as if agony were the condition or proof of existence, 'quiv'ring yet alive.'...Mother Nature seems to be persecuting an orphaned Earth. This is the central vision of The Wanderer." You have to remember that this was the age in which Pope's pompous and didactic Essay on Man was the norm to gain a full appreciation of how original (and therefore unacceptable) such poetry was at the time. Compare this to Shelley's fragment on the moon (metaphor for himself of course): "Art thou pale from weariness, of climbing Heaven and gazing on Earth, wandering compaionless?" or Rimbaud's Le Bateau Ivre and his comment that "Everything is spiritual. Those things that are called material are merely what is evil in the spiritual realm." Or Hart Crane's "Bequeathe us to no Earthly shore until is answered in the vortex of our grave the seal's wild spendrift gaze toward Paradise." These are the words of the lost and dispossessed, those whose visions of other worlds cause them to despair of this one. But, let's not get too gloomy. The book is a rollicking good read for all that, and even readers not too keen on Savage will find it a page turner....Thank you Mr. Holmes for resurrecting a forgotten genius.

Richard Savage's sole claim to fame is that Johnson wrote a book about him. At the time it was written, however, Johnson wasn't very well known himself and was only marginally more respectable than Savage. Holmes does an excellent job of describing their relationship and showing us how Johnson lived before he bacame a tory sage. He provides an excellent counterweight to Boswell, who tended to play down Johnson's awkwardness and barely concealed rage. At the same time, Holmes never forgets that Johnson was a great writer and man.

Night Watch presents Holmes in a slightly different setting, but unfortunately, it is only looking at how he uses unusual bits of info and the bit of theological interplay that makes the book truly interesting. For fans of Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown, I recommend getting a different book.....

Stephen Kendrick enters the Holmes pastiche realm with this meeting of Holmes and Father Brown. Creating a murder mystery set at a secretive international religious conclave, Kendrick sets an interesting table. Populated with familiar characters (Mycroft, Lestrade, Watson) and using the clever excuse that this was Watson's undiluted (by Doyle) account; Kendrick creates a page turner. But the little errors kept nagging at me. Like when Holmes states he never caught the Ripper because "he was too random, impulsive and totally haphazard," then in the next paragraph Holmes says, "The odder the murder, the easier it is to solve." The Ripper murders were not odd? Later Kozan, the Buddhist monk, compliments Holmes twice on his familiarity with Buddhist principles. Did he forget the first conversation? I'm usually not that much of a nitpicker but these types of errors interfered with my enjoyment of this book.

Any author who undertakes to "do" Arthur Conan Doyle takes a great risk.

Trying to emulate the great Mr. Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes stories can be dangerous,
indeed. But Stephen Kendrick in "Night Watch" has done a splendid job of presenting yet
another Sherlockian story. Naturally (and would we expect otherwise?), this one is a
long-lost Watson recollection, but no matter.

Kendrick's story is quickly afoot and the pace never slows down. Tis the season:
Christmas Day, 1902, in London. A group of international religious leaders are meeting
and, voila, a corpse in their midst! A priest is found murdered, a real grisly affair.
Immediate authorities are without a prayer, and Holmes is summoned. Kendrick presents
all the standard clue requirements (red-herrings, too!), baffling to everyone but our
Sherlock. In an interesting--and delightful--twist, Kendrick enlists the aid of the liturgical
side, too, in the form of young Father Brown!

Kendrick has done his homework well and the novel provides great insight into the
setting/situation, as well as presenting a great story line. Not being a totally committed
dyed in the wool Doyle fan (I can appreciate him, but he's not my favorite writer of the
genre!), I found Kendrick's "version" an exciting piece to read, one that certainly kept my
interest as his suspense is well-paced and captivating. A fun book to read! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

Lots of typos, and no search capability. OK, if you're desperate for the Holmes stories on CD-Rom, and can't afford something better.

There are too many typos, and no search capabilities. But, for the prce, it's o.k.

My son is reading it at school & I've read some of it .But I'm anxious to find out what is the sign of four?

Being a huge fan of both Sherlock Holmes and vampires, I pounced on this book when I first saw it. I expected great things from two of my favorite genres put together!

Alas, it was not to be. The story is only a rewrite of Stoker's "Dracula" with Holmes kind of thrown in for flavour. There is absolutely no point for Holmes' involvement and, in fact, the client who brought him the case in the first place just sort of disappears. The story remains more-or-less true to the origional which, as I said, means there is no reason for Holmes to be there. The action, such as it is, is confusing and unnecessary. For example, a lot of space is taken up with a boat race which seemed like it was written in just to put some action in the story.

As much as I wanted to recommend this, I can't. A much better mix of Holmes/Dracula is Saberhagen's "The Holmes/Dracula File". Give this one a miss.

A rather clever retelling of the Bram Stoker tale with Holmes as a character, narrated, of course, by Watson, and purporting to be a part of the main canon. Estleman is good at recreating the Holmesian aspect: the boughs howling in moonlit graveyards, the gas-lamps' blobby light in thick fog, etc. He's done his research as to the period and the writing style, and it does work. (Less present is the macabre horror of Stoker's novel.) On the whole, it's a great idea, and the book presents Victorian thrills and action and chase scenes aplenty. Only the end of the book is a disappointment: in order not to rewrite too disruptively the Dracula side, Esteleman must leave Holmes out of the finale altogether, making for a rather anticlimactic ending.

What a read! This is a terrific book, fun to read and full of atmosphere as Holmes and Watson become involved in the Sanguinary Count's attempt to leave Transylvania and make England his home. Estlemen has written this chronicle, of course, as John H. Watson, M.D. It is Watson's account of Sherlock Holmes part in the Dracula saga, written to rectify this important omission in Bram Stoker's account, at Professor Van Helsing's request, according to Watson.

There is a fun exitement to this account, true to the flavor of the origional adventures. From the time a ship is discovered off the English coast, no crew but a dead captain with unusual puncture marks on his neck and a cargo of full of Tranylvanian earth, Holmes and Watson know this is going to be no ordinary case. Reluctant at first to believe in the possibility of Vampires, Holmes, and more unwillingly, Watson, finally accept the existence of the undead.

When Holmes and Watson track down the "Bloofer Lady" through the strange abduction of children, later found alive but disoriented from blood loss, she turns out to be none other than Lucy Westenra. Their chase culminates in the witnessing of her impalement at the hands of Van Helsing, Harker and the gang from "Dracula". Van Helsing is a little annoyed that Holmes knows who he and his companions are already and much more. Helsing and his friends fill Holmes in on the tale of Count Dracula but Helsing dismisses the offer of help from Holmes and Watson. Holmes and Watson go it alone while the Dracula crew continues their own well chronicled pursuit.

There is more than one dangerous encounter with the evil Dracula and when he uses Watson's beloved wife Mary as a deadly pawn, Sherlock Holmes must use all his intellect and cunning to save her life. Watson's bravery and the help of the Baker Street Irregulars play a part in this marvelous and thrilling adventure. There isn't a dull moment in this fast and fun read and you'll be sorry when it's over.

... The boat chase near the end as Holmes and Watson must thwart Dracula's attempt to flee to America, while saving Mary's life, is a particular highlight in a book full of them. So come, Amazon buyer, the game is afoot, and time is of the essence!