The title of this,Estleman's second Holmes pastiche,pretty much tells you what to expect .The Stevenson classic is sufficiently well known to have coined a term ,"Jekyll and Hyde personality",that even non-readers are familiar with and thus we get no suprises in the outcome of the novel.Readers will know the true identity of the evil Edward Hyde and the pleasure to be derived from this book is in how the great detective finds the truth and the adventures he and the redoubtable Watson go through en route to the satisfying conclusion in the laboratory of the good Dr Jekyll
The book has pace and the Hansom cab chase in chapter 11 in particular is a model of crisp narrative leavened with neat touches of humour There is even a bar room brawl to keep the plot stirring merrrily

The affection for Doyle and Stevenson is evident and the book is a thoroughly satisfying page turner with enough nous not to outstay its welcome at a tad under 200 pages
Read it if you like Holmes,good Victorian thrillers or just like having fun with a lively tale

This is one of the best "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" follow-up books I've ever read. It really catches the spirit of Old Victorian London, and the storyline is most of the times credible. Even though you know the ending and you know Dr Jekyll's secret, this book still manages to be exciting, and it is very well-written indeed. The only argument is, when you know the original "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" well, many of the facts in this book are alredy known to you, and it's a bit boring to read them all over again. But still, a very good book, and I recommend it to Holmes and Jekyll fans alike.

Although I have read some "pans" of Loren D. Estleman's works, I thought "Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Holmes" was very well done in the re-telling of a familiar mystery, applying the familiar methods and byplay which Holmes and Watson exhibited in Doyle's "canon." First of all the time - 1886 - of Stevenson's novel would have been also that of Holmes. Although the original tone and spirit of Doyles' works have been carefully imitated, there is also much originality in the action and wit in this writing. The final dramatic confrontation between Holmes and Jekyll/Hyde is rather finely done and the final chapter of the meeting of Holmes and Robert Louis Stevenson adds very much to the reading. For those who do not prefer the many Sherlock Holmes pastiches and prefer the "canon", I would suggest they read "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes" before passing judgment.

i didnt get the plot of mission imposible

This book provides a wonderful illustration of the current modern and mobile fighting force concept, the Air Expeditionary Force (AEF). The AEF is the model by which the U.S. Air Force deploys and fights overseas. The AEF is a "packaged" unit of fighter, bomber, reconnaissance, electronic combat, transport, tanker, and rescue aircraft. The book shows the former 366th Wing based at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. The composite wing's squadrons are illustrated in excellent, first rate color photographs with intelligent, detailed captions: 390th Fighter Squadron (F-15C Eagle), 391st Fighter Squadron (F-15E Strike Eagle), 389th Fighter Squadron (F-16C Fighting Falcon), 34th Bomb Squadron (B-52G Stratofortress / B-1B Lancer) and the 22nd Air Refueling Squadron (KC-135R Stratotanker). The U.S. Air Force no longer operates composite wings as the 366th Wing was broken up in 2002 with the loss of its bomber and air refueling squadrons becoming the 366th Fighter Wing with just its F-15 and F-16 fighters. While the composite wing structure is no longer in use, the integrated fighting force that the book depictes is at the heart of current AEFs that waged war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As being another pilot from Mountain Home AFB in Idaho (391st FS), the book had a great history of the 366th AEW, and offered great photos of the various aircraft. Many of which I've flown the wings of around the ranges. A highly recommended book for the reader curious about being a fighter pilot, and flying for the best wing in the West; the 366th "Gunfighters".

It is a huge debate in Sociology and Political science: does democratization cause economic growth or economic growth democratization. But the authors seem careless: if there is a correlation between the two, it means that economic freedom and democratization must cause economic growth. Why? I don't know! Do you? And that is the first thing our students learn in Methodology courses: correlation does no mean causality at all!

Economic freedom may or may not be the way to spiritual or political happiness, but it certainly seems that it's one of the keys to economic development. Although it's difficult to prove once and for all precisely what economic environments are best for countries, this series attempts to get at the keys. I also believe that if they were to change their opinions on a measure or two, they would have no hesitancy to revise or amend their criteria. Whatever flaw their analyses have, it is a monumental effort they put together each year, and at the very least it's a benchmark for people to debate about. There's information in here that you can't get easily from anywhere else at this price...

We use the resource as a reference for business conditions and navigating the often difficult issues of world business. Its bibliographic resources are excellent, especially for smaller countries for which there are few published data. We have used it for many years, and find it thoughtful, thought-provoking, and insightful.

This is a collection of eight short stories, first published in October 1917, narrating some of the adventures of detective Sherlock Holmes, the last one entitled "His Last Bow." Sherlock Holmes is amongst the most famous characters ever created in literature, his popularity overshadowing his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to the point that some people are under the impression that Sherlock Holmes in fact existed. The inspiration came from Dr. Joseph Bell, a friend and tutor to Conan Doyle and who shared many personality features with the famous detective.
The author had Sherlock Holmes killed but public demand was so high for further adventures that we find him back in action. Determined to have a permanent retirement, Sherlock Holmes moves into a small farm and dedicates himself to other matters, refusing to offer his intellectual ability to the government. With World War I approaching he backs up on this determination and his return into action is narrated in "His Last Bow." The cases range from theft, burglary, kidnapping, to murder, and in all of the them Sherlock Holmes is a master in the science of deduction and analysis.
By those considered expert "Sherlockians," this is not Holmes at his best and certainly not as good as his masterpiece "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

After being killed in an adventure, Holmes suddenly reappears. Of course, the first thing he does is to tell how he came back alive. And then new, last stories, come up. The edition I read includes "The valley of terror", a convoluted and terrifying story in which Holmes participates indirectly. One can not go wrong with Holmes. Inevitably, the quality of the stories is varied, but they are always fun to read. Doyle is indeed a great writer, who must be counted among the best writers, right there with the big language-innovators and "serious" literates.

All the Sherlock Holmes short stories collections are 5 star efforts, of course, but this one has some of my absolute favorites in it. Sure, they aren't as well known as those in "The Adventures" or "The Hound..." novel, but they are great nonetheless. Particularly of interest are "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" and "The Adventure of the Dying Detective", a very suspenseful story indeed! These are must read Holmes tales.

The stories in this collection are among the weakest Sherlock Holmes pastiches this reviewer has ever encountered. (And I am guilty of reading a lot of them.)
To begin with, the character known as Simon Hawkes bears not the slightest resemblance to the real Sherlock Holmes. In truth the central character is so totally devoid of personality that he resembles no one at all.
The writer has relieved himself of any obligation to imitate the prose style of Watson by casting the stories in the third person. Also a presumed American accent might account for other oddities. Unfortunately the author's prose style is almost as drab as his characters are lifeless. In addition the author has fallen into the trap into which writers of historical stories often stumble - namely the tendency fill the story with irrelevant historical detail. For example, did we really need three paragraphs of background on the New York Elevated Railway in order to get Holmes (or whoever) into a train ?
Finally in regard to plotting, we will consider the first story, essentially a novella. The author apparently considers this to be an ingenious locked room story. Alas, the solution is so obvious that anyone beyond a complete novice will see it even as the events unfold, making the rest of the endeavor a truly tedious exercise.
Perhaps the overall result could be given two stars, but I see no reason to encourage, in this overcrowded field of pastiche writers, someone who cannot write well, who cannot create real characters and who has no ability in plotting.

These are well written tales that are sure to be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good story and mystery but which will prove, I think, to be especially tantalizing to the real mystery affectionado. As most mystery lovers know, Edgar Allan Poe originated the "locked room" mystery with his "Murders in the Rue Morgue". Since then the "locked room mystery" (in which the victim's body is found in a locked room with seemingly no possible way out for a killer) has been a staple of the mystery genre. "The Sign of Four" by A. Conan Doyle, the Holmes novella, was also a locked room mystery.

What makes two stories in this collection so good is that they are very clever variations on the locked room mystery. There is originality here which is pleasant to see in a genre so much written in that one might think no further originality is possible. Yet here it is. "The Adventure of the Magic Alibi", a novella, turns the locked room story around and has the murder victim's body found outside the locked room while it is the killer who is inside the locked room with seemingly no way out.

So certain are the witnesses there on the night of the murder that the killer must have been in the locked room that the police are unable to arrest the killer even though the victim has written the murderer's name in blood before dying! And these witnesses are absolutely positive the killer was in the room with them despite never having actually seen him at the time! An impossibility! Well, not quite. That very "impossible" plot is pulled off nicely here.

The second variation on the locked room mystery is "The Adventure of the Glass Room" which is (unless someone discovers another) the first and only "locked room within a locked room" mystery. Here the victim(s) are found inside not one locked room but two! What is impressive about this story, besides the cleverness of the plot, is the fact that the existence of a glass room inside another room is so well explained that it seems rational under the circumstances. Very often clever "puzzle" plots outdo themselves by seeming totally unrealistic (as with a few mysteries by the great John Dickson Carr)but that is not the case with this story, which is grounded in a sense of 1893 reality.

The tale entitled "The Adventure of the Art Forger" is as much a suspense tale as a mystery and has its own kind of "tongue in cheek" connection with A. Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb". Sherlockians will appreciate the deduction made here as it harkens back to Doyle's own Holmes story. As with Doyle's story, the deduction is a simple one if the reader is paying attention.

Then there is "The Adventure of the Talking Ghost", a nice tale of murder and seances. Here is a serial killer plot that could have been expanded into its own novel if the author chose to do so.This story ends the book nicely with a suggestion by the author that Sherlock Holmes is about to leave his hiding place of New York City (remember that Sherlock is running from the revenge of Moriarty's gang) and "become Sherlock Holmes again. " That is, return to England, to his home. As we Sherlockians know, Holmes did reappear quite dramatically causing his friend Watson to faint dead away for the first and only time in his life while, at the same time, causing Holmes' fans to applaud with joy...Very nice job here indeed.--Behind the Curtain Review

As discovered in Carraher's previous Simon Hawkes novel, "The Adventure of the Dead Rabbits Society", Sherlock Holmes, fearful that Professor Moriarty's surviving gang members will hunt him down to take his life, has crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the new Continent. There he has taken up residence in New York City, residing at a males-only club called "The Dead Rabbits Society", living under the alias of Simon Hawkes.
"Alias Simon Hawkes" brings us four more of Holmes' adventures in New York City, and they are unique crimes to say the least. These are ingenious murder mysteries.

With 'The Adventure of the Glass Room", we are offered the first "locked room WITHIN a locked room" mystery ever written. It is certain to become a classic in the mystery genre.
Alwyn Pritchett has had built in his parlor a room with walls and ceiling of glass, the purpose of which is to forbid the trickery of any psychic he hires to help him contact his deceased wife. He has been fooled before by false psychics and is taking this amazing step of building a room with glass walls to hold the next séance in which he partakes, to assure there will be no further tricks.
A psychic agrees to perform the séance under the conditions he has set forth. Together they enter his parlor and then enter the glass room. The sole glass door is bolted shut from the inside. The other members of Pritchett's family then leave the parlor after which the parlor doors are also locked by the butler. The two, Pritchett and the psychic, are therefore sitting inside a room, bolted shut from the inside, that is also inside another locked room.
Minutes later two shots ring out and there, to the horror of all, is Pritchett and the psychic are found dead, both shot through the head, an apparent murder/suicide. What else could it be, for they are found dead with the door to the glass room still bolted from the inside. The murder weapon on the floor at Pritchett's feet. The doors to the parlor too reminded locked until the shots were heard and the butler came running with the key to open them. It must be that Pritchett shot the psychic and then killed himself, determine the police. There CANNOT be any other possibility.
Yet there is another possibility. Both Pritchett and the psychic were in fact brutally murdered and it is left to Hawkes/Holmes to unravel the shrewd and cunning manner in which the double murder was executed.
"The Adventure of the Magic Alibi" is the longest of the mysteries. At over 100 pages it is a novella. It tells of an inventive plan of murder, in which the killer, planning the deed down to the smallest detail, has devised a means by which he can persuade twenty-one good citizens to swear to the police that they knew where he was at the time of the murder, and so prove him innocent of the crime, even though not one of those witnesses actually saw him at the time. They continue to swear to his innocence even though his victim has written his very name in her own blood just before dying, declaring him to be her killer! The alibi is so strong that the police cannot arrest him. Impossible but true! It is left to Holmes to solve the mystery, to break the ingenious "magic" alibi, and bring the killer to appropriate justice.
In "The Adventure of the Captive Forger" we have the story of William Lancaster, an art appraiser who is hired by the mysterious Charles Buonocore to come to his house in the faraway and isolated countryside of the Bronx to judge the authenticity of some drawings he is thinking of purchasing. Lancaster agrees to go and arrives at the lonely house, deep in the countryside, late at night. He finishes his appraisal too late to return home that night and so sleeps over. He is awakened in the dead of night to the sound of screams and a scuffle outside his bedroom door. Investigating, he sees Buonocore fighting with a beautiful and very frightened young woman. Any chance he has of assisting the woman is taken from him as he is hit on the head from behind and knocked out. When he wakes up he is back at the train station far from the farmhouse in which he was sleeping.
Lancaster is certain the young woman is in trouble and is being held by Buonocore against her will, but he has no idea how to return to the house to rescue her, the last leg of his journey being made in a long carriage ride along dark trails with the window curtains down.
He tells Simon Hawkes of his dilemma. The woman is in very serious trouble. He wants to help her but he cannot, not knowing how to once again find the house. It is up to Hawkes to discover the location and so help rescue the "damsel in distress".
In the last of the tales, "The Adventure of the Taking Ghost", a wealthy tycoon, Joseph Julius Carter, and two friends go to a séance and there are startled to hear the voice of his deceased daughter coming forth from the psychic's mouth. What his daughter declares is as startling as hearing her speak. She tells the audience that her death was not an accident and that she was in fact murdered! The psychic cannot say more after making that pronouncement and tells Carter he will have to come back another time to hear his daughter say more.
Carter returns, but not to listen to more talk from beyond, rather to kill the psychic to silence the accusations of his own dead daughter! The unusual motive is to silence a ghost! However, the psychic is able to defend her self and ends up shooting Carter dead.
A clear case of self defense. Or is it? Did Carter kill his own daughter and so desire to silence her accusing voice from the other side of the grave? Only Hawkes can see through the mystery and the lies to reveal the truth.

These are four inventive tales that mystery lovers everywhere are sure to enjoy immensely and that Sherlock Holmes fans must have.

I am not at all impressed with this book. very uptight and the information is written for the extreme paranoid. I have been unable to read passed the first chapter.

With 40 books on beer and homebrewing to compare this one rates almost as low as that rating guide by that Englishman (not Micheal Jackson). I learned more from the first few pages of Papazian the new complete joy of homebrewing.

For good and to the point informaion read Papazian. It reads like a novel and is fun to booth. It came highly recommended and now I see why.

Other goods books: Beer: Tap into the art and science of Brewing, Charles Bamforth The Classic beerstyle series is not bad either. And on a more advanced level Principles of brewing science is also very good and very readable.

This book was given to me as a gift, and it helped me to get started in homebrewing. A good introduction to the mechanics of homebrewing. But as the first reviewer suggested above, the author is a bit paranoid. For a first-timer, I'd probably reccommend Papazian's guides as a better place to start. It's a little more easygoing and makes for a more interesting read.

... is this book. I began homebrewing in 1993, and was immediately able to create basic and very good beers using only this book as my guide. It walks you into the process, providing the fundamentals, and then allowing you to learn more at your own pace (from full wort boils, to yeast cultures, to full grain). I quickly gained the confidence to not only progress, but to experiment with variations on the recipes to suit my own tastes, and as a result I have enjoyed this casual hobby for 8 years running.

When Sherlock Holmes's beautiful love interest vanishes, Holmes and Watson are quick to investigate. What they find, however, is that they have been targeted by a ruthless plot to make them appear to be the kidnappers--and murderers. In a chase that takes them from London to New York and on to Chicago, Holmes and Watson battle to find the edge that will let them pull ahead of the plotters and rescue Elsie Cubitt before she suffers the 'fate worse than death.'

Author Larry Millett has done his historical research and documents it in richly strewn footnotes. His accounts of city geography, turn of the (19/20th) century urban politics, and train travel all ring true. While the historical details ring true, the adventure itself has a bit of a hollow feel. It is difficult to imagine any criminal organization going to the troubles that Holmes's enemies go here. Surely it would have been easier to kill Holmes and Cubitt, if that was the goal, and then ruin their reputation later. Instead, they spend incredible amounts of money and energy for a pointless revenge.

Fans of the Holmes oeuvre may not recognize the Sherlock presented by Millett. Instead of cerebral, this Holmes is physical and impulsive. Watson, in contrast, was presented sympathetically with, I think, a properly balanced sense of loyalty and dogged determination. Doyle's Watson was never stupid--just an everyman like all of us who could not hope to do more than bask in Holmes's brilliance. So too, Millett's Watson is a man of action and integrity with solid if unexceptional intelligence.

In 1900 London the great Sherlock Holmes receives a message written in code that leads the detective to deduce that murdering mobster Abe Slaney survived his harrowing escape from prison rather than drowned as reported. Having barely stopped Abe before, Holmes knows the rematch will prove even more difficult and he also thinks someone else is playing him and his sidekick Watson like puppets on a strings.

Elsie Cubitt has vanished after withdrawing 5,000 pounds from her bank and Slaney is the most likely culprit. Holmes starts his quest by visiting a spiritualist, a confidant of Elsie. However, soon after Holmes leaves, the spiritualist vanishes too. The trail turns murky when a Holmes impersonator seems to be just in front of the London duo, leaving behind fallacious clues to throw Sherlock off and crime victims wanting retribution. The dynamic duo journeys to New York City where Homes also vanishes, leaving Watson and bartender buddy Shadwell Rafferty in Chicago in search of the great sleuth and Elsie.

Though a solid homage to Doyle and Holmes, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES never quite grips the audience as one would expect with Holmes missing and apparently a prisoner of a devious enemy. Instead, the reader sees an insightful look at the late Victorian era on both sides of the Atlantic and the ho hum of another case as related by Watson. Though the candid insight by Elsie, Holmes, and others adds depth, this tribute is more for the Baker Street crowd revering along with Larry Millet one of the notables.

Harriet Klausner

I thoroughly enjoyed this fourth novel by Sherlock writer and Minnesota native, Larry Millett. I was disappointed that it wasn't set in Minnesota (I'm from Minnesota...ya sure you betcha!) and missed all the interesting facts about St.Paul, Minneapolis, and other Minnesota cities. However, I really liked the plot, which has Watson doing some detecting work (or trying to) in the absence of Holmes. I liked that there was a tangled web of deceit and that the reader was kept guessing who the true mastermind behind the crime was and why they had it in for Holmes. I hope that Millett keeps writing Holmes mysteries because I'd love to read one involving Professor Moriarty. Millett has done for me what I think he hoped his books would do, he has made me want to read the original series by Arthur Conan Doyle. Bravo!