Not bad for a mystery. There is a bit of humour thrown in, the premise for the murder is nicely twisted and the whole investigation of it throws up lots of red herrings. We are certainly given all of the clues but it is hard to put them together because Sussman has some of them as quite innocent incidents right at the beginning of the book and unless you have the memory capacity of an elephant (or at least a reasonable reader of crime fiction) you will probably be like me and not be able to figure the thing out by the end.

I found the main character - Morgan Taylor, a bit grating at first but she definitely grew on me as time went on. I think I disliked her because she is an actress and so has to be a bit pretentious. However she definitely has more to her than a bit of play-acting and she does prove to have many layers of character beyond her acting persona which was nice.

The whole thing starts when an actress is found dead in the toilets during an audition - and in fact there is no suspected murder until someone tips the paper off that the death might have been less than above board. So Morgan becomes one of the chief suspects - and in fact quite possibly a future victim as well.

There is a bit of romance in this, and while not Evanovich it definitely has enough sass in it to be an enjoyable side trip.

This is must read for anyone who's interested in the theater. The author captures all the joy and pain from the auditions to actual performance. While there are murders galore, the characters are so enjoyable that they distract the reader from solving the crimes. I loved the romances and family conflicts that fill out the plot. And Grandma Belle is like a cherry on the ice cream sunday.I adored her and the book.

Although this is a very difficult book to really get into, it's well worth the struggle for the reader. The writing is crisp and witty, and first person narration in a mystery (or in anything, as far as I'm concerned) makes for wonderful reading. Theatre drips from every page, and it's obvious that the authors know a good bit about that world. So what makes it so difficult? It's in present tense! Makes for a very strange reading experience. In fact, I think it must be the first book I've ever been able to complete, written in that tense. ('We walk down the street', rather than 'We walked down the street.') It's a perfectly valid method, but it does take some getting used to.

Any mystery lover who persists, however, should find the experience well worth while. And a mystery lover who also loves theatre will find it an absolute delight. One can only be thankful that most theatres are not quite so murderously inclined. Morgan Taylor nee Miriam Tiersky, is an Equity actress plying her craft in Chicago, with its abundant theatre life. Beginning with her audition for the part, and continuing through opening night and then some, we're introduced to all the hangers-on, the veterans, the novices, the entire panoply of the biz. The atmosphere is wonderfully detailed. Morgan's wonderfully ditzy family isn't ignored, either.

When the aging actress who is Morgan's audition partner is found dead backstage, the cases is assigned to Detective Frank Roblings, and Morgan's life begins to perk up. It is sometimes a bit confusing as to which one is the real detective, but Morgan's theatrical bent stands her in good stead, as she slowly but surely figures out who dunnit.

This is a must-read for theatre buffs, especially, as well as cozy mystery fans. I'm off to find the next book in the series.

it is easy to enter d'amato's world. her style is clear, her tone confident and her characters and setting are realistic. here, homelessness is the central theme. unfortunately, as in too many other works of contemporary fiction, the overly convenient psychopath rears his ugly head. even the author's afterword ends on a chilling note.

Chicago cop Suze Figueroa and her partner Norm Bennis exchange witty repartee in their squad car, but Figueroa longs to be a detective. Her chance arrives when the detective squad is felled by a bad dinner date. She and Bennis take on a serial killer while balancing their other cases and working within the confines of the city budget and their own time limitations.

Figueroa and Bennis are characters transported from a British cozy to the mean streets of Chicago, given some absolutely delightful dialogue and a fine-tuned sense of justice, and set loose to wreak havoc on the bad guys. She and Bennis come down to the wire in solving one crime, while another is taking place right in Figueroa's home.

D'Amato takes a solid plot, compelling characters, and an exciting location, and sprinkles in some terrifying antagonists to make "Authorized Personnel Only" a great read.

Chicago police officer Suze Figueroa and her partner Norm Bennis know how ugly the city streets can become. The duo deals with crime, mostly petty in nature, on a daily basis. However, Suze and Norm soon find themselves involved in an even uglier scenario when much of the Second City's detective force call in sick with food poisoning following the retirement dinner of the chief detective.

Suze and Norm are temporally promoted to help work the crisis. The brass assigns them two nasty cases: a serial killer and a pediophile. The murderer uses the homeless as his prey while the molester relishes attacking pre-teen aged girls.

Even more now than when she patrolled, Suze sees her home as her castle of normalcy, a place for her to relax and regain her soul. Unbeknownst to the dedicated cop is that the pediophile has moved into her home living in her attic while learning more about his adversary with a plan to punish her for disturbing one of his felonies.

The subplots starring a serial killer and a pediophile sound trite as they have been overkilled over the past few years. However, in the hands of the award winning Barbara D'Amato both themes seem so fresh readers will believe AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY has introduced new concepts. The story line is a combination police procedural and thriller, but what makes it so good is the depth to the characters, especially Suze, whose professional and personal lives are opened up like a book for the reader to peruse and understand. Rarely do police novels attain that level of excellence as this tale does.

Harriet Klausner

This book is not what I expected. This book is truly Unauthorized, Phil Jackson would not accept this book. It is a book of random quotes that are pretty useless. I would suggest his Hoops book instead. That is a great read.

Whether you are a basketball fan or not, whether you know the first thing about Zen beliefs, this is a great book for anyone interested in the concept of team. In a very entertaining way, this book shows how the principles of team and love can improve your life on and off the court. Plus, you will truly appreciate the success of Phil Jackson regardless of your loyalty to the Chicago Bulls.

this is a great book by a great man.Who can relate with anyone!

While the "psychological thriller" is not really my cup of tea, I found this poetic work to be inventive and at times provocative. Saenz, a passionate writer and reader of poetry, infuses this novel with his poetic verve. The plot, a modernized, ramped-up version of Hawthorne, is well-paced and for the most part carefully laid out. The weakness would have to be in the characterizations: the rugged independent-minded good cop, dog-kicked for his honesty, and the equally independent, honest and hardworking female public defender, who just happens to be attractive and southern. Unfortunately, we know these folks from tv. The reclusive (and of course famous) academic and his goddess kidnap victim are more realistic.

For intriguing, escapist reading, this book is recommended, not for overall literary accomplishment.

Saenz has a remarkable imagination, and a true poet's sensitivity to the complexity of human emotion. He weaves a mesmerizing and compelling story, not least because it is unusual. It is almost gothic, with Thomas Blacker's house and garden as it's center and it's beautifully evocative descriptive passages. The atmosphere is perfect and the characterizations (for the most part)are psychologically incisive. The character of Gloria is a remarkably human and "real" character, and it is worth commending Saenz for that alone.

However, I cannot help but wish Saenz had spent more time on the character of Thomas and his relationship with Gloria. I felt he could have done better on that end. He tries to pass Thomas off as a monster at the end, yet that is not how he was portrayed--when you write realistic fiction, you have to create real people and Thomas, in this world, was real. He wasn't a monster any more than Karl Marx was a monster. His ideas were overly idealistic and too simplistic, like Marx's ideas of communism. And his childlike puzzlement that his plans didn't work out as he thought they would emphasize his humanity as well as the mental illness that he labored under. Mental illness does not equal a monster--only a lost and curiously naive human being. To be a monster is to be intentionally cruel. Thomas was not intentionally cruel and didn't realize his cruelty, therefore, Thomas is not a monster.

I FOUND THIS BOOK BY ACCIDENT AT A BOOK SALE. I LOVED IT FROM THE FIRST PAGE. IT IS ABOUT A WOMAN WHO WAS KIDNAPPED AT AGE 7 AND LIVED HER LIFE AS A CAPTIVE IN A MAN'S HOUSE. HER VIEW OF HER WORLD IS PERCEPTIVE, POETIC AND SENSITIVE. SHE STABS HER CAPTOR, IS IMPRISONED AND THEN RELEASED. THIS BOOK GRABBED A HOLD OF ME AND WOULD NOT LET GO UNTIL I FINISHED IT. THE CHARACTERS ARE REAL AND I WAS LEAD ALONG UNTIL THE SURPRISE ENDING. I WASN'T SURE WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN AND THAT KEPT ME HOOKED.

Easy read for motorcycle enthusiasts who'd rather be on the outside, looking in, when it comes to the biker life-style. Can see this Thatcher character being developed for a TV series without too much effort. Can be read in a couple long evenings as you don't really want to put it down and if younger family members get an interest in the book, you don't have to concern yourself with X-rated language for the most part. Great lakes area riders will relate to the terrain that it covers. A light adventure...an interesting tale.

I've never been a motorcycle enthusiast, but Which Way from Here by new author, Tim Bloomquist, is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure that even non-bikers like me can enjoy. The mix of fast-paced action and witty dialogue make for a compelling and entertaining read. Squeamish non-bikers may find some of the violence a bit too graphically described, but the story is as exciting and unpredictable as the characters are sexy and intriguing. I can't wait for the next Thatcher adventure.

This new author's talent of maintaining the momentum in this wild adventure rivals that of the top best-selling authors. Bloomquist's characters are definitely "up for the game" in this highly unpredictable plot. I was definitely yearning for more thrills after the last page and hope that Bloomquist will entertain us with more "Thatcher" adventures in future writings.

A must-have for any student of Monet. Volumne I contains covers his biography proper, while volumes II-IV provide a COMPLETE record of the artist's body of work.

Wilderstein protrays Monet life for the most part as that of a debtor. However to his credit, he tempers the romantic "suffering artist" idealism with insight into Monet the creditor. By illustrating what a jackass the artist could also be, the author creates a deep and lively narrative.

Most of the personal insight into Monet come to us by way of coorespondance with Alice Hoeschede. Due to 'appearances' however she requested of Monet her letters be destroyed immediately and thus we're sadly left with a one-sided portrait of the man. While his artistic talents we're unparalled, it's his devotation to correspondance that allows Wildenstein to bring him back to life. Without giving away the ending, it's Monet's inability to write rather than paint that signals the end.

If you are in love with Claude Monet's Water Lily Pond paintings, this is the best book for an explanation as to their origins and where Monet found his inspiration. There is a photograph from 1926 showing the bridge covered with climbing plants.

The Japanese Bridge at Giverny, 1924 is just one of the outstanding paintings in a series of works devoted to the bridge that preoccupied Monet during his final years.

Monet loved his garden at Giverny with such a passion that one could say it bordered on obsession. Harmony in Green, The White Water Lilies, The Water Lily Pond are all explained in detail. There is even a picture of Monet photographed in his beloved garden in 1917.

In every life there is beauty and sadness. The beauty of the water lilies contrasts with the pain Monet felt when he painted Camille on her death bed.

When Monet's wife died, she not only left him without a companion, he then had small children depending on him. He spent most of his meager earnings on his wife's medical treatments and he was also deeply depressed and alone.

This type of revealing information makes him so very human and the paintings then contain a certain depth when these secrets are revealed.

I loved this book! The pictures were wonderful and the readings that went with them were as well. Learned many things that I did not know about his artwork. VERY informative...give it a try, it would make a great gift book!

I am very much into stories that involve working class people. They tend to have more spirit and more colorful and honestly, all the characters in "The Easy Hour" are interesting. However, the main character,Lisa Galisa seems to be a somewhat depressing character. Her almost stoic personality is what bore me the most about this novel . As the narrator of the story, Lisa does an excellent job in describing all the interesting people around her but that is all she is good at. Her feelings towards the people around her and her cynicisms of life doesn't make me want to care about what happen to her at the end. I've enjoyed many other "single working class woman living in an unfair society" novels in the past and to me this book just doesn't do it for me.

I became acquainted with Leslie Stella's work when she submitted one of the best short stories my magazine had received all year (look for it in the Fall 2003 issue of THE ADIRONDACK REVIEW, as well as an interview with the author). Since the story was serious and literary in nature, I was unsure how I would react to THE EASY HOUR. It sounded fun, but would it be worthwhile? I wasn't sure. Let me tell you that it was difficult to put down. EASY's protagonist, Lisa Galisa, had me unsure if I was going to like her or be annoyed by her in the beginning -- but as she grew as a person, she grew on me.

I thought the characters were very well developed, and I could easily see this book becoming a movie. It has all the right elements: great plot twists, lovable eccentric sidekicks (and not overdone!), a fast pace, and tons of charm and wit. It had humorous moments -- perhaps not of the knee-slapping variety, but the kind that makes you smile a lot, and wish the book would last just a few more days.

This book has a lot of insight, much more than the blurbs might have you believe. It's not just a fun novel. You'll see more underneath, subtly spelled out in Stella's refreshingly non-preachy manner. Frankly, although I already very much believed in Ms. Stella's capacity as a writer, I just wasn't sure if I would be able to relate to the setting and characters since they were so far removed from my own life and I usually find these kinds of characters annoying, petty, and predictable. In the end, it's what made this whole book so enjoyable -- getting into someone else's world and being able to indentify with someone you thought you would neither be able to nor particularly want to. Lisa Galisa is a sympathetic character and you find yourself rooting for her most of the time, yet she is still human, which makes her both more and less attractive as a person. Her sister, a McDonald's worker-turned-pet-psychic, is particularly gentle and quirky. Her stereotypically gay friend, Tim, is portrayed well as her "best friend," but the nature of their relationship is brought under the light at one point and forces Lisa to wonder how close she really is to him, and why they are friends in the first place.

I very much enjoy Leslie Stella's style of writing: she is witty, highly observant, as all good writers are, and compassionate while retaining subtlety throughout. I warmly recommend this book and look forward to reading Ms. Stella's next novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. the characters were interesting, the story was intelligent, and i was thoroughly entertained by lisa's escapades. While not a sout sider, i did relate to the life she described in her hometown. This book reminded me of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.. and i was easily entertained by that movie as well... thx

For a light and quick weekend read, Jill Churchill's Fear of Frying fit the bill. For those of you unfamiliar with Churchill's Jane Jeffrys series (of which this is the ninth installment), amateur sleuth Jane is a single mother who likes to cook and/or eat, and has a detective boyfriend (a no-show in this story) and a best friend named Shelley. Despite the title, Jane doesn't do much cooking here, though it does give a hint with regards to the murder weapon of choice.

Along with various other people in their social circle (including two car dealership execs and their wives, a high school principal and her complacent husband), Jane and Shelley volunteer to spend a few days to evaluate Camp Sunshine, a wilderness resort which owner Benson Titus hopes to contract to the area school district for summer programs. Shades of Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" are evident during this trip as a bit of heavy rain spoils the atmosphere for Jane and Shelley, but not so much as the lifeless body of car dealership owner Sam Claypool which they discover lying by a doused campfire.

When Sam turns up alive later that evening, and the rest of their working vacation is marred by environmental activists, a washed-out bridge leading to freedom and a grumpy sheriff, Jane and Shelley are hardly happy campers. All the same, it's fun to read. I hated camp, I sympathize entirely.

Fear of Frying may be predictable for some, but as a cozy read it works: I enjoyed being introduced to Jane and Shelley and hope to become more familiar with them in the future. They play off each other with good humor, they seem like real people and their ability to rely upon observation rather than blatant snooping is reminiscent of Christie's Miss Marple. A good read to take to the beach.

Jane and Shelley are going to check out a summer camp for kids. Camping is NOT Jane's idea of fun and she and Shelley certainly were not prepared for a murder in the process! Then, before anyone can check out the crime scene, the murdered corpse disappears! This is really a bad moment for Jane and Shelley as they're the ones that discovered the body to begin with! Great, fun mystery.

I started the Jane Jeffry series with "A Farewell to Yarns" (being interested in knitting) and have since progressed to reading all of them - at a rate of 2 per week-end. While much enjoying the descriptions of the day-to-day life of a suburban American housewife (particularly the food she prepares!) - my time is limited, which means that my own housekeeping has gone completely to pot. However a little dust never hurt anyone and they are most entertaiing - to the extent of bearing re-reading.

Just recieved this item, the book gets 4 stars for layout and image quality, a good art book. The book gets 2 stars for the quality of the work it contains.

If you like Sherman than this is a good book for you,though I'd suggest re-evaluating you asthetic awarness :) If your looking for great art look elsewhere. Sherman is an overhyped artist. Popular because her work fits into the politically correct agendas and philosophies of the contemporary artworld, not because the work is good. Just read one of the reviews here. The book contains some good peices, some that are atleast interesting but far to many fall into the just plain bad category as represented in this book.

While recently attending a group critique an undergradute ceramics major stated she was a "process orientated" artist(said with artsy fartsy flair to make up for the fact she really didn't have anything to show). Sherman reminds me of her, a bad contemporary cliche masking itself behind feminist artworld dogma. If thats what you want, look at Jenny Saville, atleast she is a good painter, even if her content is often trite.

A great overview of Cindy Sherman's art with very few gaps. A quick response to an above statement: The disgust you feel is a great part of how one should look at her work. One of the most fascinating aspects in all her photos is the ability she has to construct blantant lies that we react to almost as passionately as what we feel to be genuine. As for her dolls, it's more along the lines of her very merrily reconstructing versions of the human body that are obviously false yet we still search for their anatomical processes. The aspects of them that one finds disgusting are more like the silly goo of a cheap horror movie or the ridiculous body part shots of the sleaziest silicone laden porno. Despite our knowing it's inherent phoniness, we still are frightened, disgusted, and aroused. As I said before, that's a key to her work. Frankly, if you are that disturbed by plastic excrement and genitalia, but not phased at all by the phycological twisting and tension so prevelant in her earlier work, then maybe modern art overall just isn't your cup of tea.

I can't believe it's taken this long for a compilation of Cindy Sherman's body of work to appear. But maybe that's the real measure of a major artist in this place at this time. Sherman is one of the strongest,most meticulous and most original artists to appear since the early 1930s. I'm not going to analyze the photographs, they've been analyzed to death and are far beyond analysis in any case. Suffice to say the quality and layout are excellent. A thrilling book! I do have one reservation which has nothing to do with CS. The accompanying essays are highly ideological (which CS ain't) and serve Sherman far less than their own agendas plus at least one of them is almost unreadable mumbo jumbo.

a good book, the greatest by howard's "successors". great opening. good battle descriptions. but there were also moments where nothimg much happened, and some things didn't feel so natural. but a good book, mind you.

The late and lamented Karl Edward Wagner, who wrote this pastiche, was the first to say that nobody could write like Robert E Howard but Howard Himself. Paradoxically enough, this came from the man who was best qualified to imitate the first and Greatest master of Sword and Sorcery.

This homage has some very good points, the compact, efficient prose with the right word where it is needed, and the often grim atmosphere, the violent and graphic action, natural and not so natural horrors and monsters, horror from indescribable gulf of space and antiquity... these are all elements found in the original stories, and very well rendered by Wagner.

However, Wagner, perhaps trying to outdo the Master, has committed a series of bad mistakes that detract from the book's value as a Conan yarn : First, and to my point of view worst, is getting Conan to a very high post and so close to getting a throne : if such an episode were to be added to his biography, then some of the stories set by Howard after he seizes the throne of Aquilonia would have turned differently, because he would have known of the price of power. Then, there is a problem with atmosphere: Howard's tales are characterized as very grim, this one has far too much humor, even verging on the comic... last, but not least is the fact that in this book, women are treated in a way that could never have happened in a Howard yarn: yes, he was a male chauvinist, (though beware such of his characters as Valeria, Bêlit or Red Sonya), yes his tales are written by the conventions of his times, which no longer apply, still I believe that pastiches should respect some of the original's specifications...

All being said, No, this is not quite the equal of the dark page turners Howard extracted from his tormented mind, but Yes Wagner has still produced a decent story that will please fans of the genre (or of the character) more than the general public, but for those who like a solid adventure yarn, this is your stuff, get it while you can.

Karl Edward Wagner has done a masterful job at creating another fantastic adventure for Conan and the reader. He is a welcome addition to the ranks of Conan authors. There is no shortage of action and intrigue in this Conan novel. For any Conan fan this one is a must and for any who have never read a Conan novel this is a good one to start with. I look forward to more from Wagner...