I always enjoyed collecting Hardy Boys novels and this one is my absolute favourite! Whenever I finish a chapter on a Hardy Boys book I usually put it down and wait for another time to read the next chapter when I'm in the mood, but I just wanted to keep reading this one! Joe gets haunted by spirits of a recent death from a girl and another haunting from his old girlfriend Iola Morton(who died from a bombing in the first Casefiles novel). This is full of suspense with plenty of unsolved mysteries! A definite book for Hardy Boys readers!

I read this book not very long ago, and I have to say it was one of those non-stop, edge of your seat, kinda books. It was origional, emotional, spine tingling and pretty much incredible! The brothers are really put to the test this time. Joe suffers through the death of the girl he loves once again when a bomb blows up Vanessa's boat - with her on it. The harsh reality of what Joe has and is going through hit's Frank when Callie is killed also. The surprising turn of events in this novel are astounding, and it's one book I HAVE to read again. I recomend it to anyone, Hardy Boy fan or not

Halloween has now become very real. Not in costumes but horror and murder. Joe's new friend Vanessa is killed just as Iola Morton was and the dead have come to haunt Bayport! When Vanessa's boat blows up with Vanessa in it the horror begins. After experiencing Iola's murder, Joe can't believe when she comes back to get him. Seeing the death of his girlfriend and his mother, Joe is the target for death in this book. Going to the cemetary where Iola is remembered, Joe sees all his worst nightmares come true! All the criminals he has fought are back from the dead. If you are into action, this is the book for you!

The book starts out with Joe on his way to Colorado to deliver a message to a man in witness protection . Before he can give it to him another man sends Joe over a cliff in the trunk of his car . When he awakens he can't remember who he is or anything except that a hitman is after him. Meanwhile in Bayport Frank is worried about not hearing from him sets ( His dad giving him only 24 hours ) out to find his brother . Still not remembering anything Joe meets Rita who helps him . When Joe sees Frank he thinks Frank is the hitman out to kill him . This book brings up memories of when Joe lost Iola and brings up how Frank feels about his brother . With trouble nipping at both brothers' heals throughout the book leaves you on the edge of your seat . I loved this book and would read it again and again .

This book is the best out of all the casefiles. It shows how close the bond is between Frank and Joe, and what would happened if they ever found themselves seperated. The plot is so simple, yet so compelling, that sometimes it can bring a tear to the eye.

This is THE book to find.

One of the best Hardy Boys novels. Joe suddenly loses his memory from a head injury and now thinks that his brother is his enemy. There's nothing more to say except to read this excellent novel!! Find out the whole situation on this story, you won't be disappointed!

There are three non-religious books I read and re-read constantly. "In the Shadow of a Rainbow" is one of them. Man and wolf become alive before our eyes, with unexpected depth and dimension, as does the land of BC itself - and my life has become the richer.

I despair of ever seeing this story done properly on film, but there is one person who could do it justice - Hayao Miyazaki, master storyteller from Japan, known the US for "Totoro," "Kiki's Delivery Service," and "Princess Mononoke." (He could also do a worthy animated "Diary of Anne Frank." With the eye and heart of a spiritual magician, and artist's touch to match, I wait for him to bring Nahani alive on the screen. In the meantime, I'll just have to keep reading the book itself...

What a lovely book. Leslie has captured the remarkable story of a young Indian man, who is befriended by a wolf, in living color. Greg (the Indian) and Nahani (the white wolf) meet when Nahani brings her pack into the area where Greg is prospecting for gold . Thanks to Greg's willingness to watch and learn from the wolves, along with his inherent respect for their boundaries and ways of doing things, the leader of the pack (Nahani)gradually comes to trust him. Eventually she sits by his fire, allows him to scratch her back, and pull ticks from her skin. This mutually satisfying relationship ends when the first snows of winter arrive and Greg must return to town.

Back in civilization, Greg discovers that Nahani has earned a reputation as a killer. There is a large reward being offered to anyone who can kill her and bring in the skin. Greg is naturally upset by this, and tries to convince people that the wolf is not a threat. He is opposed by a trapper named Dan who does all he can to stop Greg from helping the wolf. Concerned for Nahani's safety, Greg embarks on a 3-year quest to locate the wolf and save her if he can.

The story of how Greg manages to locate and track Nahani through one of the remotest and most inaccessible regions of the country is as inspiring as it is fascinating. Better still is the story of what happens when Greg eventually locates the wolves.

This story, which ends on a very positive note, is said to be true. It was told to the author (Robert Franklin Leslie) by Greg himself. Aside from the few places where human motivations and emotions are attributed to the wolf, the story rings true. It is a real treat for anyone who believes in the interconnectedness of all living things.

I have read many books, both fictional and non-fictional, about wolves. This book was truly one of the best. It was refreshing to read a story about a wolf where it did not end up dead by the end of the story yet, the story is realistic. If you love wolves, you will be amazed at the friendship that is possible between a human and a pack of wolves. I will re-read this one!

This book was really good. I couldn't put it down until I finished. It's only 108 pages. I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. I definatly recommend it for readers who are fans of science fiction and suspense. I am not a fan of sci. fic., but I am of suspense and I really enjoyed this book.

This book is way cool! I am an X-phile to the extreme, I could not sleep good for at least one week, this book is wonderfully written and I would reccomend it to anyone who belives that there are places and things best left alone

I read this book a few months ago. At first, I thought it would stink, but my friend kept nagging me about how good it was, so I just borrowed it from a library, read it and did not stop reading it (And I mean I did not stop reading it, I finished it in an hour because I was so attached to it)! I highly recommend it (especially for X-Files fans). Now, I try to read it every day!!!

There is no doubt that this man is a hero. I am sure he has many heroic deeds and tales that Uncle Sam will not let him tell. That was the nature of Special Forces duty. I have read many books that are better written, and I wish Miller would have chosen a different person to document his story, but I am sure he had his reasons. The stories themselves are fantastic. I had to read the book in one sitting, I could not put it down. Someday I would like to meet Miller face-to-face, buy him a beer and hear him tell the story first hand.

A book about a real warrior. CSM Miller's life story has been one of inspiration to me throughout my military career. His stories of heroism remain in my mind constantly. Although, sadly I was never able to meet him in person, his stories were always there to keep me motivated. I cannot count the number of times I have read his book. It was always a favorite wherever I went. It would be passed around the platoon on every deployment I went on. I was saddened to hear of his death, this country has truly lost a great hero.

This is an amazing book. It runs a little over two hundred pages, but is so engrossing that you'll probably blow through it in one sitting (like I did). The recounts of battle are vividly written and capture the terror and exhileration of combat better than any other book I've read. The non-combat stories, however, are just as engrossing and often laugh-out-loud funny. If you have any interest at all in war memoirs, buy this book now while you still can. This is one of the few books that demands more than one reading.

Like many of the reviewers here, I was very impressed with Franklin's story collection Poachers, and especially the novella by the same name which dominated that award-winning collection. Franklin's lean style, and his obvious familiarity with the rural Alabama landscapes he portrays, remind me a little of William Gay's equally-fascinating depictions of rural Tennessee. When I saw that Franklin had a novel coming out based upon a real-life conflict set during late 19th-century Alabama, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Hell at the Breech did not disappoint.

The novel takes its time setting the scene, and giving the reader a true sense of Mitcham's Beat, a tiny slice of rural Alabama where poor farmers have too much work to do to stop and grieve over something like a dead spouse. Two teenage brothers, Mack and William Burke, sneak out for a night on the town and during a botched robbery, a man is accidentally killed. The victim, Arch Bedsole, is a shop-owner and local politician, and his murder prompts Arch's cousin Tooch Bedsole to form a gang, with blood oaths, who would set matters right in this neck of the woods.

We find out pretty early that the gang, calling themselves "Hell at the Breech", take their group quite seriously. You are either with them or against them, and you don't want to be against them. For obvious reasons, they don't handle rejection well since anyone approached about joining then knows their identity.

Over the course of the novel Franklin skillfully blurs the distinction between good and evil, creating some ambiguity in the reader as the violence escalates. William joins Tooch's group right away, while Mack, who is considered too young, keeps a low profile while working in Tooch's store, torn between his natural curiosity and his fear at learning too much. Lev James, one of the more ruthless of the gang, suffers tragedy at home and at the same time it appears he is about to lose his farm to foreclosure, although he claims to have made the required payment to the ruthless lender who is not about to cut him any breaks. Tooch himself, who starts out hell-bent for revenge for his cousin's unsolved murder, may have some complicity in his death, the cover-up, and may have bent the rules to take over the store. Even the widow, a mid-wife who raised Mack and William Burke, knows a lot more about the goings on at Mitcham's Beat then we are first led to believe. The self-righteos townfolk who comprise the "posse" demonstrate as much bloodlust as the gang they are after. Nothing is ever as black and white as we initially think.

Over the course of the novel, the tension escalates and a monumental conflict looms ahead. I loved the "gun for hire" character of Ardy Fox, whose brutal method for dealing with the lawless gang, under apparent authority from a local judge, reminded me of the ruthless game warden from Poachers. Sheriff Billy Waite is another character very skillfully drawn by Franklin, a fundamentally fair man with a weakness for whiskey, who is trying to make it to retirement in one piece, with a minimum of bloodshed on his hands. As the murders pile up and the Hell at the Breech gang veer further out of control, Waite realizes he is powerless to stop the mob mentality gripping the townpeople, who want quick results.

I read some commentary by the author, in which he revealed that while the conflict depicted in this novel actually occured in Alabama in the 1890's, there are conflicting reports as to certain of the details. After getting bogged down initially in the details of trying to sift through the evidence and get every fact right, a basically impossible task over a century later, Franklin eventually decided to use the known history as his roadmap, and tell the story his way. I am glad he did, as his debut novel is one of the better reads I have come across in a long time. Highly recommended.

Tom Franklin's first novel, HELL AT THE BREECH, more than lives up to the promise of his outstanding short story collection, POACHERS. In fact, I found the book to be one of the most exciting novels I've read in years. One could call it a gothic western/historical mystery/action thriller, but HATB transcends all those labels and functions not only as a page-turner but as a heartbreakingly beautiful work of art as well. Franklin's writing, like the work of many new southern writers, has been compared to that of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, and for once you may believe the hype. But don't view this book as a "regional" story. I'm a born and bred Yankee and I can testify to its universal appeal. If you like great storytelling, you'll dig HATB whether you're from Maine or Mississippi. Rarely have I seen such brutality described so realistically and yet with such poetry. Ardy Grant, Tooch Bedsole, and Lev James are certainly three of the most complex psychos in current literature (writers of "serial killer" fiction ought to learn a bit about character development from Franklin), and Billy Waite and Macky Burke are just as compelling as the reluctant heroes. You know you're in the hands of a master when the motivations of the "good guys" are as interesting and fresh as those of the "bad guys." All told, Franklin has has given his readers a virtuoso performance, and my advice is to get a copy of this book into your hands immediately.

In his highly praised short story collection, POACHERS, Alabama native Tom Franklin mined a neglected topic --- the modern South --- for narrative gold. He created vivid, visceral stories of present-day losers and rabble-rousers, and presented them as both regular frustrated humans and red-dirt legends.

Although his follow-up novel, HELL AT THE BREECH, is set more than 100 years in the past, Franklin's sensibility for gritty Southern realism remains in tact and in fact has become one of his defining traits as a regional author. Much like its predecessor, HELL AT THE BREECH refuses to romanticize the South, its inhabitants, or the violence they perpetrate, yet Franklin holds up his male characters as examples and exemplars of various strains of Southern masculinity, examining the morality of bloodshed in all its muscular complexity.

So many things work so well in this novel about a real-life gang war in rural Alabama that it's difficult to know which to praise first or foremost. Franklin's grasp of history is strong and confident; he ably recreates not just the language and the customs of turn-of-the-century Alabama, but also its lost landscape, a terrain that seems foreign at the turn of this century: "The woods were high all around, so green it felt almost cloudy, thrashers noisy in the bracken and sparrows flitting overhead, the ground slashed like paintbrush work with the shadow of pine needles."

Evoked in patient, sculpted sentences, the rough, unforgiving woods --- especially the impenetrable Bear Thicket that separates the city of Oak Grove from the uncivilized agrarian community of Mitcham Beat --- lend the story a sense of menace and mystery, and suggest an ever-changing world that seems impossibly vast. Introducing one of his main characters, a teenager named Mack Burke, Franklin writes that "the earth redefined itself around him, same as it had the day before and the day before that and as far back as his memory went, as if this dawn were no different than any other."

That dawn, however, is different for Mack: it's the first sunlight he sees after becoming a murderer, having accidentally shot a store owner named Arch Bedsole during a botched robbery. Arch was a prominent storeowner in Mitcham Beat, and his murder is locally assumed to be the work of city people trying to exert political power over the poor country farmers. In reaction, a group of Mitcham Beat farmers organize a gang called Hell-at-the-Breech to overthrow the city businessmen who hold liens on every crop in the area. Leading Hell-at-the-Breech is Quincy "Tooch" Bedsole, Arch's cousin and a deeply devious man who takes over Arch's store and indentures Mack to work as a stock boy.

As the Hell-at-the-Breech gang lash out at the farmers who won't join up and the city people who oppose them, Sheriff Billy Waite --- pushing 70 and nearing retirement --- tries to investigate, but finds only farmers too scared or too angry to take the law's side. Because he doesn't take immediate action, the townspeople see him as ineffectual, and because he drinks openly, they see him as a washed-up sot. But for Franklin, Waite's hesitation is a form of levelheaded mercy that few people in the novel possess or even recognize.

Waite's steady lawfulness and Tooch's manipulative lawlessness provide enough friction to ignite the forest between them, but for Franklin they represent nothing as simple as good and evil or right and wrong. HELL AT THE BREECH possesses a more complex morality: Franklin implies that hostility can be a useful tool but becomes evil when it is thoughtless and pointless, when men commit violence for its own sake. Both sides are depicted as righteous in their causes --- the Hell-at-the-Breech gang justified in its own push for independence, the city people merely protecting themselves from a threat --- but their violent actions are morally unpardonable. So many lives are lost, so many homes burned, so many farms destroyed, but nothing is won.

With HELL AT THE BREECH, Franklin lives up to the promise of POACHERS and establishes himself as an imaginative, intelligent, and important Southern writer. More importantly, he looks history dead in the eye and reveals how the Old South became the New South.

--- Reviewed by Stephen M. Deusner

At the time of Rumi/Molana/Molavi/Jalaledin Mohammad Balkhi and many tens of centuries before it and centuries after, there was no country called Afghanistan (how could he be an Afghani when Afghanistan didn't exist). I fully understand this is besides the message he conveys in his books, however from a scholarly point of view it would be appropriate to identify his country appropriately. Dari and Persian are the same language (two names for the same language), my friend Dari is short for Darbari, the language of Iran (Persia).

"Light a fire of love within your soul," Rumi tells us, "burn up these thoughts and words from head to toe" (p. 400). In his impressive, 686-page scholarly study of Jalal al-Din Rumi, Persian scholar Franklin Lewis illuminates the man behind the thirteenth century mystic poet and preacher. Through his meticulous research, Lewis, a professor at Emory University in Atlanta, offers us "a glimpse" into Rumi's life, as well as new insights into Rumi's teachings, widely-popular poetry, and modern influence.

"Three short phrases tell the story of my life," Rumi said, "I was raw, I got cooked, I burned" (p. 404). Many of the biographical details of Rumi's life remain unknown. ""Most of what we know about Rumi," Lewis writes, "comes to us clouded by a heavy mist of myth and legend" (p. 272). We follow Rumi from his birth to an Islamic preacher in September, 1207 (p. 272) to his death on December 17, 1273 (p. 276). Along the way, Lewis reveals that his subject married at a young age, about seventeen (p. 320), fathered two children, pursued legal and religious studies in Aleppo and Damascus (p. 273), became a lawyer or professor of law (pp. 123, 274), married again (after his first wife died) and fathered at least two more children (p. 320) before his death. Lewis also examines Rumi's relationship with Shams al-Din Tabrizi, the encounter that transformed Rumi's spirituality; "he became more ecstatic in his worship, expressing his love for God not only in a careful attitude of self-renunciation and control, but also through the joy of poetry, music and meditative dance" (p. 274). Rumi and Shams became "Sufi Bohemians," tasting life for themselves. Their path involved "disciplining and training one's soul, watching over one's heart and concentrating the mind on God" (p. 34). Rumi tells us that "the law of religion is like a candle that shows us the way; without that candle we cannot even set foot on the spiritual path. Once the way is lit with the light of the law, the wayfarer begins his spiritual quest" (p. 37). When Shams disappeared mysteriously, we witness Rumi's "frenetic quest to recover the vision of this spiritual guide turned inward" to the point where Rumi discovers Shams "within himself" (p. 275). Inspired by this remarkable relationship, Rumi composed more than 60,000 lines of verse (p. 314). Lewis includes a sampling of fifty Rumi poems in his book.

Lewis tells us that his book should be considered a starting point, at best, for understanding Rumi. Although it should not be considered "the final and definitive biography of Rumi," Lewis writes, it is "intended, then, as a kind of Rumi bible, a manual for anyone interested in the life, poetry, teachings and influence of Jalal al-Din Rumi, who has been called the greatest poet of mankind. The whirling dervishes plant one foot on the floor with their toes fixed around a wooden peg and turn in Rumi's memory. In like manner, I hope this book will help ground all lovers of Rumi as they circle, moth-like, around the flame of his works" (pp. 8-9).

G. Merritt

Rumi's works are valuable as social science in their reference to psychological development (the journey of soul). In order to understand Rumi, one must take a classical hermeneutical stance to uncover his intended meanings. This can only be done well if one understands Rumi himself. Franklin Lewis' text is now the greatest aid in so doing: there is no other extant text that gives such a thorough and accurate portrait of Rumi. It offers in-depth description and analysis of his antecedents, as well as the 13th century contemporary influences on his own psychological development. Other than Rumi's works themselves, no other book has been written that allows such insight into who he really was. Professor Lewis has written a work that is an invaluable aid in hermeneutically understanding Rumi, and in providing a richness of context through which one can better decode Rumi's own meaning-making.

This review concerns the revised 1967 edition. Mr. Hardy asks Frank and Joe to "break into" the house of a neighbour and retrieve a secret invention to prevent it from being stolen by a gang of thieves he is currently investigating. Later, at a party at Chet's home, Joe is kidnapped at the stroke of midnight. Frank, along with some friends, must find Joe and learn why he was kidnapped; as well, the Hardy's have to keep the gang from stealing the invention. Personally, I preferred this edition to the original. The original edition was better written; although, that is true in most cases. However, I found that revised edition had a more interesting mystery and it had a lot more action. I don't consider this book to be one of the best of the series, but it is far from being one of the worst.

This review concerns the original 1931 edition. At the stroke of midnight, Joe is kidnapped from a party at the Morton farm and Frank and his chums set out, not only to find Joe, but to discover why he was kidnapped. I'd more accurately give the book a rating of 3.5 stars. The writing, like with all previous volumes, is excellent and the mystery is alright, but the book doesn't quite live up to the intriguing title. Mr. Hardy does not make an appearance in the book as he is said to be on a case out West and, in my opinion, his omission only hurts the story. Most readers would probably not rate this book as one of their favorites in the set, but they probably wouldn't rate it as one of their least favorites either.

The odd thing about this book is that all the action occurs at the stroke of twelve midnight. The book starts with the Hardys breaking into a house, with Mr. Hardy's permission! They take a top-secret invention to hide for the owner. This is when the action begins. Then while at a party, Iola spots someone snopping around the brothers' car. When Joe goes after him, he ends up being kidnapped. Follow the adventure as Frank tries to find his brother and crack the case! This is one of my personal favorites!

This review concerns the revised 1968 edition. Mr. Hardy, Frank and Joe are hired by Mr. Alden,the president of a company that makes experimental race cars and motors. Three of their drivers have had accidents while on test drives because the windshields of their cars suddenly went white and blocked their vision. Alden is afraid that someone is trying to sabotage his company and steal a top-secret experimental motor. The theft of Alden's race horse, Topnotch, further complicates the mystery. This book is quite good; it is packed with action, mystery and suspence. The plot is interesting and would probably appeal to most young readers and even older fans of the series. However, I am disappointed with the manner in which the criminals were captured. It was purely by dumb luck and reminded me of something that would have happened in an episode of Inspector Gadget. Also, I didn't like it that the Hardy's friends were largely ignored in this book; Chet is the only one used to any extent and even he isn't really involved in the mystery. Despite this, I did enjoy the book and I would recommend it to other fans.

This book was terrific! I don't know about you but this was superb. Its was when a orange dragster bumps into the Hardy Boy's convertable. This leaves the Hardys mystified. Mr. Hardy talks to his sons about a mystery and wants his sons to help him solve his mystery. This is an enjoyable book.

This review concerns the original 1936 edition. Suspicious events at a home in Bayport and the disappearance of a valuable race horse combine to make one of the most interesting and exciting Hardy Boys books. This book was great; well-written, well-paced, and the mystery was highly intriguing. This book has one of the best endings of all of the Hardy Boys books that I have read and is especially good from page 172 on. It's an excellent book that I would recommend to all Hardy Boys fans.