First a word of warning... Writing in flow is not a book about writing by a writer. It is a book about writing by a psychologist. If you read this book thinking it's from a writers point of view you may be dissapointed. It reads a little like a thesis, the author Susan Perry can get a little academic and reading this book does require a bit of an attention span to wade through some dull spots.

BUT

Writing in Flow is a very good on the verge of great book. It follows groundbreaking work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention) In writing in Flow Perry through interviews with 75 best-selling and award winning writers and poets to find out what is this flow thing? How does it work? how do you get there and how long are you there? The feedback from the writers is the real treat of this book. It's a real treat to hear how different writers deal with being blocked, or getting into flow or writing in general. Throught writing in flow perry gives you lessons what she calls master keys. These master keys are exercises that are supposed to help you get into the flow of writing. There are also sections in which writing specific questions are asked to the author and the author responds. I also found that to be very useful. Perry's book is extensively researched. There is a notes, section , a footnotes section there's even an appendix in which she goes into detail the who, what, when and where of her research. Another thing that I liked about Writing in Flow was that the author didn't try to find a one way to understand and get into flow. Her insights are alot like an good investagative reporter who not only finds out what she's looking for but also finds the contradictions. The answers to the who what when where and how are there but there not as simple as 1-2-3. In the end there are no hugeground breaking discoveries about writing although i found a few small ground rumbling insights. Not a perfect book but I found this book to be extrtemely useful. It really helped my look at writing from a different perspective. Recommended with little or no reservations.

When Dr. Susan K. Perry's book, WRITING IN FLOW: the Keys to Enhanced Creativity, first hit the stacks, I knew I'd struck gold. Finally, a book offering an in-depth study of a subject, whose mysteries elude most artists.

The day it arrived, I curled under my afghan with a mug of cocoa and found myself hooked from page one. It's safe to say I read in flow. I tuned out my singing cockatiel, Howie Birdell, and ignored the pleading eyes of my sheltie, Rudy, who simply wanted a game of tug. I hope they forgave me.

Dr. Perry researched and compiled interviews with more than 75 accomplished writers, asking them to probe their brains and describe their feelings about the creative process. Dr. Perry's diligent research paid off. Through her book, I learned how the pros handle writer's block, how they deal with distractions, how they wave their own pom-poms for self-motivation.

For me, WRITING IN FLOW isn't a one-time read. I'll refer to it often because the many ideas offered throughout the book deserve time and reflection. I'm sure I'll learn new concepts to apply to my writing every time I read it. If you're interested in exploring the mysteries of creativity, then this book will expand your horizons, too, and help you maximize your potential.

As a writer, with articles published in OMNI, Success, Writer's Digest (cover article), and numerous other publications, it was a genuine pleasure and surprise to discover Dr. Perry's book on flow and writing. Finding descriptions of how so many well known writers enter and experience flow in their writing was both useful and inspiring. It really helped me get revved up for some new writing projects. Susan Perry has taken one of the most pleasant, challenging, and sometimes difficult to achieve aspects of the art of writing and woven together a discussion of the science and art. Flow is a thoroughly researched concept, with hundreds of studies illuminating this unique yet ubiquitous process. I've been aware of the research on it since the eighties. And Flow has played a major role in my own model of Positive Psychology and Positivity, which I have lectured on at numerous national professional meetings. Reading the book, you'll understand this phenomenon and, more important, you'll get a handle on how to access or enter the flow state yourself, and use it to enhance your writing experience. Flow is not just another pop psych fad. It is an elegantly researched dimension of positive psychology. Some people write and some people criticize. I would venture to guess that critics who learned how to enter the flow state, might even become writers. As organizer of the annual conference on Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology, it was a pleasure to have the author, Susan Perry as a speaker. The decision to invite her to speak was based on this book.

Of all Thomas Perry's books, this was his least attractive. I'm a HUGE fan of Perry, so much so that every 2 years I reread all his books. Unfortunately "Death Benefits" was weaker than those preceding it and "Pursuit" is even weaker. I'm trying to think if I would have felt differently had I not read all of Perry's books beforehand. I don't think so. Since I get annoyed with reviewers who say "there's much better out there" and fail to make suggestions, I'll recommend the late Ross Thomas' books starting with "Briarpatch" and of course Perry's books prior to the last two.

The entire book dragged. The killer might be called psychotic (I believe it means they can't tell the difference between right and wrong), but I believes he does, he just doesn't care what is right or wrong. The killer's history isn't interesting but we're exposed to a plethora of it. The minutea of his life doesn't enhance my knowledge of his character, especially since he's certainly not a sympathetic character.

The title describes the story. However the biggest disappointment to me was the careless fashion in which the pursuer constantly and incompetently lets the killer get away. Why there wasn't a poison gas canister in the trap in Buffalo, why there wasn't a source of lethal electricity in the house in Minnesota, amazes me. Granted hindsight is 20/20, but we're talking about the pursuer having weeks to plan. Finally, there are a minimum of 4 unnecessary deaths of probably good people before the pursuer follows the course of action he should have in the first place.

I'm sorry, this book started well with a nice set up that appeared to be a contest of cleverness, and dragged into a plodding story in which I just wanted to get it over with.

Thomas Perry is a remarkably good writer of suspense novels. You can pick up any of his books without worrying that you'll feel cheated. This book is not up to the level of the Jane Whitefield novels, but is, nonetheless, an entertaining way to spend a few hours. Perry's trademark trope of having his characters travel cross-country makes for a sense of progress, even when there isn't much happening. The games and traps he creates for his characters to evade and escape maintain a fairly consistent level of suspense--more than enough to keep you reading past your bedtime. Finally, his characters are rarely clear-cut good and bad guys, which makes them more interesting and more human.

So what keeps this novel from being among Perry's best? Two things:
1. Although it is interesting to see things from the antagonist's point of view, he is not a terribly interesting creation--pretty much a montage of stereotypical killers from psycho/spy novels. The time he spends hiding out does not so much illuminate his character (as Prescott's down-time does) as simply provide more of the same. Although the structural parallelling of the two characters' actions is stylistically intriguing, Varney is too conventional for this trick to work well.
2. The multiple points of view prevent the reader forming a real bond with Prescott. It would be interesting to deal with the cognitive dissonance created by identification with an ambivalent character, but just when you start to like him, you get a dose of Varney or Millikan, thus interrupting the connection.

These minor stylistic difficulties aside, this book is easily worth the money you'll spend on it and provides more entertainment than most authors pack into two novels.

I first encountered Perry in the Jane Whitfield series and then looked up all his previous novels and read them, too. The protagonist in this thriller does not endear himself to me as Jane did, but no matter, he is as smart and ingenious as Jane could ever be. The chase is utterly gripping and the surprises just keep coming. There is more than aplenty blood and gore. which is in keeping with the story. I recommend that you not read this while eating lunch! Perry always does an incredible job with the occasional characters in his books and this one is no exception. You will not soon forget the folks you meet in this book. Highly recommended!!

This is a very accessible and useful book--for those who teach and study leadership and management, as well as for those who practice one or both in government, the military, or the private sector. Perry Smith combines a wealth of experience as a leader, a manager, and a teacher of both skills, with a smooth, easy writing style. The result is the best one-volume introduction to leadership and management that I know. Two chapters I found particularly useful were #14 "Creating a strategic vision" and #13 "Teaching and reading." The former reminds leaders of their continuing need, indeed almost an obligation, to remember where they are headed, where they want to be headed, and where they should be headed--and how to keep their organizations on track. The latter encourages leaders to remain open to and actively to search out the best new ideas available, and to inspire those who work for and with them to do likewise. Also especially helpful is Smith's suggested reading list in the appendices. This book is an ideal starting point for someone in the leadership business, not, as Smith continually reminds the reader, the end point. I recommend it highly to colleagues and friends in the field.

If you are looking for common sense and practical advice for managers to use on the job, this book will be of benefit to you. Perry Smith has put together a series of narratives on timely topics from today's business world. The topics include integrity, ethics, getting the most from your people, how to hire and fire etc. all of which are useful to those who work with and/or manage people. The book also has a number of brief checklists which are tailored for specific situations and high stress events. Gen. Smith has provided a reading list at the end of Rules & Tools for Leaders for those who would like to read additional material on leadership. The author has a broad background, having been career military, an academic, a popular speaker at business conferences, and a consultant to corporations and non-profits. This broad point of view is beneficial, as he is able to provide situations that challenge leaders based on his personal experience. In addition, several of the organizations he has worked with are at the top tier of the business world, including Microsoft and the Harvard Business School. If you are seeking solid ideas that you can use immediately, this book is worth your time.

Perry Smith has written a well-organized, easy-to-read book that will undoubtedly assist anyone in a leadership or managerial position, from major CEOs to lower-level managers. The reason I like this book is that it presents invaluable, "common-sense" information in a manner designed to enable the reader both to think and to learn. The author includes numerous concise check lists (meetings, hiring, risk taking, etc.) that provide managers with exactly what they need. The beauty is that one can use or not use what is included in those checklists while resting assured nothing consequential will be forgotten. Another strong point is the number of actual case studies included in the book. What stands apart here is that in the appendix following the case studies appendix contains what really happened in each of the case studies. This is the type of book which should be read and reread many times, because the reader will get something new and worthwhile out of each reading.

After receiving a quilt from her deceased grandmother, Lizzie begins to "travel" to past generations through dreams and visions. These visions become eerily "real" as Lizzie actually bleeds from empathetic wrist wounds (stigmata) inflicted on the slave Ayo, one of her ancestors. Others, including her own mother, suspect that she has attempted suicide and is losing her sanity. By the end of the novel, what Lizzie had learned about the lives of her ancestors puts her in a position to help bring healing to her own suffering mother.

Told through a series of flashbacks to various time periods and ancestors interspersed with scenes from Lizzie's present and past, this book is at first confusing and hard to follow -- yet it is always intriguing. This narrative style reflects Lizzie's own struggle: her life becomes disjointed and confusing as her identity and memories become entangled with those of her ancestors. As observed by a Catholic priest who offers comfort to Lizzie, the "blood [of her stigmata] is a powerful sign." This blood could serve as a symbol for the interconnectedness of generations whose history shapes the present.

If you enjoy a thinker's book, the kind that leads you to discover meaning without just laying it out plain as day, the kind with rich symbolism, pick up Stigmata. It'll give you lots to think about.

Phyllis Alexis Perry is a gifted new author with a compelling and intriguing supernatural tale about Elizabeth "Lizzie" Dubose and her female ancestors. Stigmata weaves the stories of three women blessed with a powerful vision but cursed by a shared legacy of slavery, pain and struggle. Lizzie inherits a trunk and a quilt from grandmother. She believes she can feel the history of her family in them. Lizzie becomes determined to learn the truth of her past in order to clear the path for her future. She becomes so engrossed in her quest that she begins to physically experience the painful past through episodes, dreams, memories, visions and reincarnations. All of this is distressing to her parents so they commit her to a mental hospital. However, as the novel progresses there's also a sub-story about Lizzie and her mom; by the end of the novel what Lizzie had learned about the lives of her ancestors puts her in a position to help bring healing to her mother.

Told through a series of flashbacks to various time periods and interspersed with scenes from Lizzie's present and past, this book is complex and at times confusing and hard to follow. In spite of this flaw, Perry manages to pull off a powerful and imaginative debut novel which is refreshing and creatively crafted. Stigmata is an engrossing tale that will stay with you long after you've read the book.

Told through a series of flashbacks to various time periods and ancestors interspersed with scenes from Lizzie's present and past, Stigmata is a haunting read. Lizzie, at age 14, inherits her mysterious grandmother's trunk and upon opening it she discovers a quilt that awakens the spirits of the past. Plagued by stigmata of her great-grandmother's wounds from slavery and periodic episodes of memories/time travel, Lizzie is institutionalized for 14 years. She learns to play to game with her psychiatrists and is released to go home under the watchful care of her parents. There she begins to make a quilt to interconnect the generations and provide healing for herself and her family. Stigmata was a quick and easy read for me...it kept me wanting to read it and I'm looking forward to Ms. Perry's next novel.

I was interested in seeing what other vulvas look like as we are all different. I was amazed to see the diversity in their appearance and felt much better about my own. "It's not so odd looking after all!" However, from an artistic approach it was lacking. It is point-blank. The camera is placed a few inches from the vulva, lips spread and that is it. The same for all 32 shots. No lighting techniques, no poses, no description of the person. Just a picture of the vulva which isn't art, in my opinion. I like the book and am going to keep it but because I think it is a nice self-esteem booster and I think it is awesome that women can finally view the vulva with no shame involved and without a pornographic meaning behind it.

These photographs are shockingly beautiful, largely because ofthe deceptive simplicity of style.

[Some] have complained that the photographs in this book are not "artistic" enough. As I see it, the importance and beauty of this book is its willingness to portray women's genitals in an honest, non-sexualized way. Art or abstraction is entirely opposite to the purpose of portraying the reality of women's bodies, as free as possible from the typical conceptions of Western culture (think of how naked women are usually shown in canonical art, or, better yet, pornography). The remark one reader made that many of the vulvas depicted would scare male readers is quite telling. They might scare a lot of readers, and the confrontation and analysis of that fear is what makes this book immensely important rather than just visually beautiful.

Femalia is a wonderful book illustrating the many variations of vulva. If any girl or woman thinks her vulva is deformed, ugly, etc. this book should help them understand that each vulva is unique and beautiful. The photography was excellent.

Taming of the Shrew is not my favorite Shakespearean work. Actually, it's not even my favorite of his comedies, but it's a pretty good read. I didn't like it as much as I liked reading Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, or Macbeth. It drags a little despite the humor in it. I was annoyed that Baptista Minola allowed men to buy Bianca's hand rather than letting his daughters choose their husbands, although I realise that was the way things were done in Shakespeare's day. I think Bianca is a pampered little fool. She is spoiled by all the male attention she gets and by her father's undivided adoration. I think it's natural that she becomes the less perfect wife in the end. She was never very nice in my opinion. She ought to have been angry at her father for not allowing her to marry until Katherine married, not be angry at Katherine for not marrying against her will. I'm not sure whether to admire Petruchio's eventual love for Kathrine or hate him for initially marrying for money alone. The one character I definitely feel for is Katherine. I blame her initial shrewishness on the inattention of her family and the men of Padua. In the end, she loves and tries to please Petruchio. I think she will get her way with him in private. I can picture her speaking her submission with a glint in her eye and a plan for the future once she has his trust.

Of all of Shakespeare's plays that I have read, this is the most enjoyable. The characters are real and engaging - the sweetly stupid Bianca and her hoard of suitors, Baptista, who is more interested in selling his daughters to rich husbands than making them happy, the sly and masterful Petruchio, and most of all, Katherine, the Shrew. The play is full of action, comedy, and enough mistaken and hidden identities to keep the reader happily confused.

Katherine, who appears to be "tamed" by Petruchio's cruelties, learns the art of subtlety and diplomacy that will enable her to survive in a society ruled by men. Her speech in the last scene is not a humbling affirmation of the superiority of men, but a tounge-in-cheek ridicule of Petruchio, Lucentio, and Hortensio, who think that a woman can be tamed like a wild animal by a few days of bumbling controll.

The Folger Library of Shakespeare's plays are the most readable editions that I have seen. There are detailed side notes and definitions of unfamiliar words, which are perfect for the reader who is not familiar with Shakespearean English.

Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew is dramatic, witty, and hilarious all at the same time. The plot itself borders on ridiculous, as it is unlikely anything like it would happen in real life. However, the play is made plausible by realistic characters. Perhaps Shakespeare's characters are so believable because they all seem like people we could know today. The shrewish Kate and the seamless Bianca may as well be sisters in the house down your street. The doting Lucentio, Gremio, and Hortensio are reminiscent of high school teens trying to win the head cheerleader. In the end, this play not only takes us back to a time not so different from our own, but teaches us some lessons as well.
This comedy has a lot to offer readers. It reasons that like Petruchio with Katherina, sometimes it takes a little cruelty to show kindness. After days of starvation and punishment all under the guise of love, Kate learns to respect her husband. At the same time, she learns to love him.
Overall, this classic play is definitely worth reading. Those who take the time won't regret it.

The basic premise is interesting. The intricacy of the insurance world is explained quite well and John's life is boring. However the problem comes in the third act when Max, John and the new girl with many names are trapped in a town that is evil. Nice twist, an almost unexpected road leading to this final showdown. But here;s the problem Ellen Snyder (assistant manager at the Pasadena branch office of McLaren Life and Casualty, pays out a 12 million dollar death benefit to an imposter and then disappears, company red flags go up all over)a pivotal character dead before any other characters get to interact with her. John only reflects on his brief affair. I felt a little cheated when her body is found, quite impossibly, in a field. She's instrumental to the case yes but also to the who tableau of the crime and hence the book. The replacement girl is suppose to be this genius interesting thing but she comes in as a pale substitute.
Security consultant, Max Stillman, is called in to clean up the mess. Grabbing data analyst, John Walker, from McLaren's San Francisco headquarters to assist him, because he knew Ellen intimately, the two set off across the country, tracking Ellen and the money. Stillman's convinced she's guilty of insurance fraud. Walker is sure she's innocent and sticks with Stillman and the case to protect and defend her. But what these two find, at the end of the road, shocks and surprises even Max Stillman, and he's seen it all. However at a certain point the obvious becomes apparent and the three of them trapped in this town that kills for cash is played well but never pays off.
What hurts the book is that we're total outsiders to this town and its residents so they're all violent zombies attacking the heroes. There is no connection to the villains, they're just a mass facelss mob. If Ellen had been one of them then we could see some motivation see some betrayal, some game played. I love Thomas Perry's work but no one is close to getting into the scrapes that Jane Whitefield does and gets out of.
Max Stillman is good, not a Jane but good. John just gets to be a newbie and the chickie who loves computers is just there as a sex convenience and DC-esque Oracle.

A nice ride but don't expect the bells and whistles and porterhous you get with 4 out of 5 of teh Jane Whitefield books. This is a departure when instead there should have been some kind of combo action. Jane trying to hide Ellen as Max.John and towns[people close in all for different reasons. Now that wou;d've been interesting.

A page turner? Ehhhh, a finisher. You're 100 pages in, might as well finish it.

Death Benefits by Thomas Perry Random House 2001

While I am more familiar with Perry's Jane Whitfield series, which by the way are excellent, this mystery is rich in excitement, detail and well-developed characters.

A scam has been perpetuated against the McClaren Insurance company and Max Stillman, an insurance investigator, picks John Walker to help him because John had been very close to Ellen Snyder, a woman who has also disappeared. In their search for Ellen and some leads about the missing 10 million they encounter several bad guys and get roughed up and a computer specialist who can seemingly get into any data base. When a hurricane hits Florida, John is not only caught in the midst of it but uncovers a thread of the scam they are investigating. Several clever deductions lead John Max and Mary Catherine Casey ( John's new girl friend) to a small New Hampshire town that proves to be the base of a much larger scam than they started with.

The last 100 pages of the mystery are a real screamer and will keep you reading late into the night as John, Max and Mary struggle to save their lives and return with the story.

Once again Thomas Perry has not disappointed me. The only tiny point of criticism is that John's relationship with Max seems much too unlikely. He follows Max with too obligingly. Never-the-less and excellent read.

When Ellen Snyder, assistant manager at the Pasadena branch office of McLaren Life and Casualty, pays out a 12 million dollar death benefit to an imposter and then disappears, company red flags go up all over and security consultant, Max Stillman, is called in to clean up the mess. Grabbing data analyst, John Walker, from McLaren's San Fransisco headquarters to assist him, because he knew Ellen intimately, the two set off across the country, tracking Ellen and the money. Stillman's convinced she's guilty of insurance fraud. Walker is sure she's innocent and sticks with Stillman and the case to protect and defend her. But what these two find, at the end of the road, shocks and surprises even Max Stillman, and he's seen it all..... Thomas Perry has written a well-paced, page turner that pulls you into the story from page one and takes you on a roller coaster ride full of plot twists and turns, suspense and thrills that don't let up until the last page of the book. His writing is sharp and spare with great, down to earth, witty dialogue and his cast of well drawn characters are original and engaging. With action packed, riveting scenes and a superb, compelling story line, Death Benefits is an entertaining novel that's hard to put down!

Jane Whitefield, the last hope of persons on the run, has promised herself to remain home as a housewife to her doctor husband, but gets caught up in another hide-the-person-on-the-run situation. The title of the book refers to an awful lot of the Mafia's money which Jane must help dipose of while helping a septugenarian and a teenager elude a manhunt consisting of almost everyone in the USA with an Italian surname. Although some of the plot points are a little hard to believe, e.g., a nation of Mafia families working as efficiently as the FBI to find Jane and her runners, and Jane's almost unlimited reserve of financial resources, Perry keeps the reader's interest as Jane and company race around country trying to turn dirty money into clean charitable donations.

How do you give away over 10 billion dollars while still avoiding the Mafia who's searching for you coast to coast? That's the latest problem Jane Whitefield encounters when she has to make Bernie the Elephant and his housekeeper Rita disappear. Bernie has been nicknamed "the Elephant" because of his photographic memory. He knows where a great deal of Mafia money is invested but he's getting older and his memory is starting to falter. Thus, he has to disappear before the Mafia Dons decide he's no longer a help but a liability. Jane figures if all the accounts that Bernie manages are drained off and donated to charity the Mafia will no longer have a reason to look for him. But we're talking close to 14 billion dollars. And to make it worse, the Mafia has found out about Jane and has plastered her picture from one end of the country to the other.

I found the premise of this novel intrigueing. Perry handled the whole idea of donating the money to charities in a plausible fashion as well as still keeping the heat turned up on the heroine and her charges. Just when you think they're all home free Mr. Perry throws another monkey wrench into the deal. As usual, Jane is a well drawn character, the plot moves along nicely, and the dialog is believable. Perry, unlike many of today's genre writers, actually puts suspense into the suspense novel. Try this book, I think you'll like it. And then, if you haven't already, find the rest of the Jane Whitefield novels and read them too. You could certainly do a lot worse.

Once more Jane Whitefield is asked to help out. This time the Mafia itself is involved, from coast to coast. And for most of the time the author does his heroine and his readers right. The suspense is nailbiting indeed, and the plot in ingenious, to say the least. Maybe, for once, too ingenious. Until now Perry did made us feel that Jane's struggle with all kind of modern evil is totally believable, and that she acts with a deepfelt 'righteousness', rooted in her ancestry and her person. For that kind of writing, though, plotting must be subservient to 'reality', so we can step into Jane's world and feel for her and the victims she's helping to vanish. Not so this time. The plotting itself is meticulously carved out. But the premises are, frankly, a bit too much. Perry tries to convince us that the Mob has put alls its ill-begotten eggs in just one nest, a walking human nest. He tries hard, but it's simply too much to believe that most of the Mob's money is floating in one man's memory. Not with today's reader's knowledge about high finance, off-shore banking and other kinds of wizardy. The guy maybe guarded as the proverbial walking Ford Knox, but the idea that a simple heart attack or a stroke would end it all is too much. And as the believability of the plot goes astray, so goes the novel itself. It ends up as a giant Chrismas party (oh, wouldn't we wish....), and we even feel the smiling ghost of the Butcher's Boy reading over our shoulder. Mind you, the novel is still enormously enjoyable and everyone who has taken a liking to Jane Whitefield and het world will not be disappointed. The problem is that Thomas Perry's earlier four Whitefield novels are of such a high quality that a flawed fifth is keenly felt. I sincerely hope that Jane's next encounter will be more in the realm of believability. She's simply too good to vanish.

Naked Came The Phoenix was a book selection for two of my local reading groups because we were intrigued by its unusual format. Twelve bestselling mystery and suspense author joined together to contribute a chapter to this murder-mystery, soap-opera. The catch? Each other must pick up where the last left off and continue the story using the same cast of characters, all of who get zanier as the story progresses.

The opening chapter written by Nevada Barr sets up the story and, in my opinion, was the driest, dullest entry in the entire book. It's here that the lifeless main characters are introduced (luckily they don't stay that way!). After the recent death of her father, Caroline, wife of a big shot Congressman, agrees to spend some quality bonding time with her difficult mother at a high-end health spa. Caroline's fellow guests at the spa include an aging rock legend, a quirky psychic, a starving model and loads of other oddballs and Hollywood "it" types.

After the sloooow start, JD Robb picks up the tempo in chapter two. She breaths life into Caroline's character by bringing her down to earth in a funny little adventure brought about by hunger. She also adds a hunky pool-boy to the ever growing list of characters and kicks things into high gear by killing off the snooty spa owner!

Things get silly as each character seems to harbor some dirty secret and the murder count becomes ridiculously high as each author adds their own little twists and turns to the story and attempts to pick up where the previous author left off. A friend of mine described the characters as "manic depressives" and she was right on. Each character switches moods and personalities from chapter to chapter which only added to the sense of fun. Eventually, all dangling threads and over-the-top plot twists were neatly brought together by author Laurie King.

I'd read another book like Naked Came The Phoenix for the fun factor alone. But would I read this one again? Umm, probably not.

Naked Came the Phoenix is a riot from beginning to end! When Caroline and her mother visit the Phoenix Spa in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, they expect rest and relaxation, but soon after their arrival, the spa's owner is found dead in the mud baths and the "fun" begins! Thirteen popular mystery writers take the reader on a roller-coaster ride of murder, mayhem and mirth. What fun to watch one author plant a clue then lean back, rub her hands together and wait to see what the next author does with it! Kudos to Nevada Barr for introducing us to the cast of supporting characters -- King David, the aged rocker; Ondine, the wrath-like model; Howie Fondulac, the has-been Hollywood producer; Lauren Sullivan, the movie star; and my particular favorite, Phyllis Talmadge, the psychic who's at the spa touting her latest book, Flex Your Psychic Muscles! Brava, Lisa Scottoline for giving us detective Vince Toscana, who "retired" to rural Virginia to please his wife, but wants nothing more than to sink his teeth into a Philly cheese steak, and, oh, by-the-way, solve the murders. Wheee, to JA Jance who drowns a victim in the lake and to Faye Kellerman, who knew CPR! Ka-pow, to Diana Gabaldon who really knows how to throw the reader a curve. Ye-gads, to Val McDermid who gives new meaning to the word "incarnadine". Wow, to the amazing Laurie King, who ties up all the loose ends with delicious tongue-in-cheek humor. And, thank you, Marcia Talley who sewed the patchwork together into one, seamless novel and is a heck of a writer, too!! All I can say is, "Encore"!!

With the recent death of her father Hamlin Finch from throat cancer, Caroline Blessing decides to help her mother Hilda deal with her grief. Though she knows that reconciling their differences will be impossible because the only way to accomplish that is unconditional surrender. Still Caroline, a cellist and wife of less than one year to a first term Tennessee Congressman, takes her mother to the exclusive Phoenix Spa.

At the spa, Caroline's mother remains her usual obnoxious manipulative self though perhaps acting a bit more bizarre than usual. The owner of the spa Claudia de Vries, her mother's college roommate, behaves even weirder than Hilda does. However, Claudia's behavior becomes moot, as someone murders her. The police and Caroline conduct separate inquiries even while other patrons die.

NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX is an entertaining collaboration from thirteen of the leading female mystery writers on the market today. The story line is fun though the line up of superstars tend to void pronouncements from the previous chapters. Still, the plot seems fresh due to Caroline who is the one consistency throughout the who-done-it. For the most part the authors provided strong entries that help make NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX a likable story. What else would you expect from a who's who consisting of Nevada Barr, J.D. Robb, Nancy Pickard, Lisa Scottoline, Perri O'Shaugnessy, J.A. Jance, Faye Kellerman, Mary Jane Clark, Marcia Talley, Anne Perry, Diana Gabaldon, Val McDermid, and Laurie King.

Harriet Klausner

One of my favorites of the series -- I must say the plot twisted and turned and I admit, took me at every step! Gorgeously constructed, as all his Jane series are...I am an avid mystery thriller reader and have read hundreds of authors...Thomas Perry and this series stands out as the best I've read. You have to read this book, you'll find it fascinating, I guarantee it.

The first Jane Whitefield novel, *Vanishing Act*, offers a unique protagonist, a brilliant premise, non-stop action, and a conclusion that will have you treading softly the next time you go looking for Bambi. Perry is a superb craftsman, whose novels are always literate, challenging, and thoughtful. He seems to have lost interest in Jane after six novels, three of which attempt to retire her. Too bad. Even though he is right, that sustaining a character through decades is hard work and perhaps not even very interesting, she is missed.

Read *Vanishing Act*, *Shadow Woman*, and *Dance for the Dead*. These are the must-haves of the series. Perry manages to create a believable Seneca world while maintaining a respectful distance, and his intricate plotting sustains each book. Read for the plot, read for the Indians: either way, you'll be happy.

A great book! A good, old-fashioned, page-turner with a twist: Jane Whitefield. Whitefield is a woman who helps people in trouble disappear to better and safer lives. She maneuvers through a world of crime and deception with stealth, cunning, and strength. Whitefield is also half Seneca and her Native American upbringing plays an intricate role in her life and is crucial to her survival. Perry has done a fantastic job. I hope there's more Jane Whitefield to come!