Noel Hynde, a respected author (if his press is to be believed) has penned a promising murder mystery/ghost story, but ultimately fails to deliver the thrills and chills that the bookcover claims.

Frank O'Hara, a bright State Patrol Detective for the State of New Hampshire, is a haunted man. His primary demon is the stereotypical one of all literary Irish cops: alcohol. He invited this particular demon into his life upon the suicide of his long-time partner on the force. His partner, intelligent and one of N.H.'s best, one day, without warning, pulled out his own service revolver, put it to his head, and pulled the trigger. Word was that his partner had been slowly and quietly going insane...a fate that O'Hara fears is happening to him. See, a serial killer, whom O'Hara was instrumental in sending to the electric chair, is impossibly killing again. And to top it all off, the dead killer himself is visiting O'Hara's house, deep in the deadly grip of an east coast winter. O'Hara is "this close" to retirement...and doesn't appreciate this last big murder case...nor the fact that he's being pursued by the ghost of a killer, a ghost who is still claiming his unequivocal innocence.

One wonders in how many ways an author can show and tell a protagonists disbelief in all things spiritual...reading "A Room For The Dead" will quickly show you exactly how many, and show you how repetitive and irritating such a device can be. Perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad if the story actually delivered the goods at the end of the 300-something pages this book contains. But it doesn't, and O'Hara ultimately just ends up sounding whiny and ridiculous...grating on the nerves. While the premise of this story is promising, it goes nowhere, and takes a long, long time to get there.

This is the best book that I have ever read. I kept putting off buying the book because it just didn't look interesting. Then one day, when a long bus ride was ahead of me, I bought the book because there didn't seem to be anything better. I could not put the book down and the ending actually made me feel like crying.... not because it was a bad ending but because the main character seemed so real to me that I actually felt his emotions. I recommend "A Room for the Dead" to anyone who mentions that they are a "reader". I have read it five times now.

I love this book. I started reading it and I couldn't put it down. It is wonderfully written. I don't read as much I used to unless I find a great book like this one. I stumbled over it at my aunts house. i saw the cover and read the back and I was hooked on it. My mom wants to read it and she is a usual Stephen King fan! I recommend it to people who like to read a good book!

Brendan DuBois has obviously learned much from his previous book, Dead Sand. Black Tide picks up a few months after the conclusion of Dead Sand, and pulls the reader almost instantly into the plotline. Unlike its predecessor, Black Tide does not dwell on seacoast details for pages on end. DuBois learns to get past the filler and primarily utilize events and character to fill the page, rather than physical details of the landscape. DuBois' sense of character is refreshing for the mystery novel genre; he has created a both a protagonist and secondary characters that contain just about the right amount of toughness and humanity, but don't cross that borderline into the exaggerated realm of cliche. One sin Dubois did commit in both novels, however, is that of creating a murderer that the reader couldn't care less about. In both cases, a minor character is chosen as the guilty party -- the typical "seems like a nice guy, but I think there's some sinister under the surface" character that the avid mystery reader can pick out after reading just a few pages that involve the character. This is the fly in the soup that exposes what would otherwise be a fairly unpredictable plot. On the other hand, the story is very readable. This holds true in its pace, action, and dialogue. There are some very exciting moments that take place in this seemingly quiet little seaside town, and DuBois kept me hooked through each new development. In the end, what the reader gets is a good commercial mystery novel. I would recommend this novel to a friend, so long as the friend had not read every Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, or Three Investigators novel ever written. It is a great building block for an author that is fairly new in terms of novels (DuBois has published many short stories), and I look forward to his future development and books. I will be waiting in anticipation of his next Lewis Cole mystery...

This is a great mystery...even better than his first, Dead Sand...but the plot is just a little far-fetched, and DuBois/Cole are still hung up on SWEAT. Get over it!

ENEMY IN THE FORT provides a vivid glimpse of life on the New England frontier during the French and Indian War. The action begins in 1752, when Rebecca and Selinda are left homeless after an Indian raid on their family's farm. Their parents and baby brother are taken captive and their home is burned down. The girls are taken in by a sickly widow who lives inside the nearby fort. By 1754, Selinda has become indentured to another family living in the fort. At this time, the widow takes in Isaac, a settler boy who has been recaptured after being raised by the Indians. As the story develops, the family Selinda is indentured to decides to move to Connecticut. They insist on taking Selinda with them. Further, things have been disappearing from settler homes inside the fort, and some of the settlers are openly hostile towards Isaac. Rebecca's effort to prevent her sister from being taken away becomes entangled in the series of thefts. Is Isaac responsible for the thefts? Can Rebecca keep Selinda from being separated from her?

As with other tales in the "History Mystery" series, the reader is drawn into a genuine historical setting. The problems faced by the young protagonists are real and their resolution requires courage and resolve. This particular story also has a rather involved plot and requires the main character to re-examine some deeply held feelings and beliefs. In short, there's plenty here to hold your attention.

I read this book with my daughter. She pushed to keep reading, so I know it caught and held her interest. When we finished it, however, her comment was that she didn't like it as much as some other books in the series, mostly because she didn't like the ending. I can understand her feelings. Some aspects of the story aren't tied up as neatly as a young reader might wish. For example, no immediate price is paid for the theft of Rebecca's spoons, nor does she recover them. The outcome is realistic, given the circumstances, but not entirely satisfying. I, on the other hand, thought the involved plot, complex characterization, and realistic ending made this one of the best books in the "History Mystery" series. You be the judge. At the least, I think you'll find this story isn't easy to put down.

All ten-year-old Rebecca Percy and her younger sister Selinda could do was watch in horror from their hiding place as Abenaki Indians captured their parents and baby brother and burned their New Hampshire frontier home to the ground one dark night in 1752. Two years later, the sisters live with the kind Widow Tyler at a nearby fort. Rebecca helps with chores, and Selinda has hired herself out as a maid to the cruel Cutter family. At the same time that the sisters learn that the Cutters plan to return to civilization before Selinda's contract is up, and plan to take Selinda with them, the soldiers bring a boy rescued from captivity among the Abenaki to the fort. Widow Tyler takes the boy, Isaac, in. But after spending most of his childhood in captivity, Isaac is more Indian than English, and seems to want to return to the Abenaki family that adopted him after he was captured. Rebecca doesn't understand how Isaac, torn from his home to live among the people who killed his family, would chose to remain with his captors rather than return to the society he was born into. After a series of thefts in the fort, Rebecca is quick to suspect Isaac, especially after the one thing that she may be able to sell to buy back Selinda's contract is stolen. To find out what happens next, and to discover who the real thief is, and to find out if Rebecca can save Selinda, read this book! It's a wonderful new book from the History Mysteries series that I reccomend to readers who enjoy historical fiction.

Garrod & Larimore's First Person, First Peoples is a fine collection of personal accounts of leaving home. The stories are at once unique and universal. They are expressive of an experience to which Native Americans can truly relate, and yet, set on the campus of one of America's most selective colleges, the stories are from a elite few who may be speaking of an experience that is virtually impossible to share. This is valuable as an oral history, and perhaps more importantly, as a voice of the Native American which remains too infrequently captured. Still, we must find those voices which are seldom heard, rather than continuing the habit of letting the elite culture speak for us all.

This was a truly wonderful and accessible book about Native American educational achievment. The story of Dartmouth College and its relationship to Native American education is captivating. The honesty of the students is at time heartbreaking and yet is continually inspiring.

Good source of information, but...has absolutely no photos! It's pretty hard to want to travel somewhere when you have no idea what the place looks like. Still, while traveling this book is quite useful.

i believe this book to be very useful. it not only gives you a variety of accomodations but many price ranges as well. the list of attractions is always accurate and explained very well. i recommend this book to anyone traveling anywhere! i have also used this good for Europe and it was fabulous. dates and times that sights were open was very accurate which made planning my trip very easy.

Janet Hobhouse dipped into Greek mythology for her title. The furies hounded mortals who committed certain acts of impiety. Patricide was such an act. No, such homicide is absent from this novel, at least literally. What a reader finds is an astute mind gifted in words conducting a pitiless self-examination thinly dressed as fiction. A devotee of genre fiction may not be attracted to such a novel. No body falling out of a closet or floating in a pool. No shoot-out on a dusty western town street. No menacing or benign extra terrestrial slumming our planet. No auburn beauty breathless in the arms of a regency stud. We accompany the author's persona on a journey through a life, privy to the joys and griefs, the romances, the break-ups, the successes, the set-backs, a beautiful, talented women is subject to. The furies (three in number) serve as a metaphor for the regret, guilt, and sorrow Helen is unable to escape. A large portion of the narrative is cast in the meditative style of the essayist. Scenes are not frequent, although a crucial moment, the climax actually, is presented in what for the author must have been excruciating detail. Another metaphor, again borrowed from the ancient Greeks, is appropriate to describe this work. Ms. Hobhouse explores the twists and turns of her life as Thesus explored the labyrinth, searching for truth, however devastating, at the center of her being.

What I found most interesting about this book was how many details Janet Hobhouse packed into it, something that originally tricked me into thinking that it was autobiographical. It's not a book you want to sit down and read all at once, but you'll find it hard to put down if you're into aknowledging the harsh side of life.

Chief vs. Casino
I read Heart of a Chief. It is about a boy named Chris Nicloa. Chris is nervous because he is about to start his first day of middle school. Chris, to his surprise, becomes class leader and is very popular to the people in the school. He discovers that his town leaders have decided to place a casino on his island Penacock Indian Reservation. He decides to stand up for himself and class mates for what he believes in and to get the casino built somewhere off the island.
I think this a very good book because it shows someone with a lot of courage doing what he believes in. This book gives the mind encouragement in doing what's right. It makes you think anything is possible and worth trying. Chris is really bright and smart and does things that most people would be too scared to do. This is a heart-warming story that I think everyone can relate to in the end.

Joseph Bruchac presents a vivid and heart-warming story about the life of a contemporary Native American boy living between the wrenching descrimination and exploitation of his People and the beauty and peace of his home. I do not profess to know much about the Native American lifestyle, but I would trust any book Bruchac writes. His book has given me an authentic and sensitive picture of one boy's struggle to balance his heritage with the pressures of life on and off the reservation. I can now only imagine how this story is familiar to many people in the U.S. Beautifully written.

The 5th New Hampshire Volunteers sustained the greatest loss in battle of any infantry or cavalry unit in the American Civil War. Follow their trials and obsticles in the Seven Days Campaign, Antietam and Fredericksburg, to their glorious victories at Gettysberg, Petersberg and Appomattox. Several photo's, complete roster and muster rolls. A most for any serious Civil War student.

Dr. William Child was my Great-Great-Great Grandfather. I have read his regimental many times throughout my life. This book is THE history of the Fifth....it is well written and complete in detail.
"Great Grandfather" Child, as he has always been known to me, was a wonderful writer. During his time at war, he also wrote over 160 letters to his wife Carrie, back at home in Bath New Hampshire. All of his letters have reciently been published in a new book titled "Letters from a Civil War Surgeon".

Here's a description of the new book:
"The letters of Dr. William Child, of the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers, are now published for the first time. With 176 halftones including over 150 pictures of the original letters next to the text transcribed by Dr. Child's descendents, the entire collection is here.

The compassionate strength that gets him through the war makes Dr. Child a writer of wit, humor, candor, understanding, emotion and fact. His writings take us into the war, into his time, as we relive most of the major battles, the struggles, and are given special insights into the politics of his time. His words and honest assessment of the war give us an understanding that can help heal the wounds that still divide us, for he unites the country with letters that have balanced insights. As a witness to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, he writes an eyewitness account that leaves you speechless."

"Letters from a Civil War Surgeon" is also an excellent read!

I was somewhat wary of this book at first, as I had read some of Mike Pride's articles in Brill's Content, which I found rather offensive, as he uses extraordinarily patronizing language when discussing women's issues, and his clumsy style inspires very little confidence (one notrious example, which prompted letters to the magazine, asked why he would publish a "humourous" letter suggesting that Indian women somehow "serviced" Bill Clinton - a low class joke, and one made at the expense of women of color.)
Fortunately for readers of this compilation, there are a great number of colorful and note-worthy folks in the wee-small but beautiful state of New Hampshire. The book is especially nice for coffee-table browsing.

This is a treasure of interesting stories about the colorful people of New Hampshire.

Reminded me a little of the films of Paul Schrader, with the disaffected, alienated, and angry man brooding at the world. The spin on this novel was the letters and the outside narrator. Well-written, and interesting, but kind of a downer.

Finally we get an Asian American writer who doesn't just write about race or ethnicity. Am I the only one getting tired of all that "woe is me" ethnic angst? This guy is writing some good fiction. Not "ethnic fiction" but GOOD fiction.

The cover says it all. A man spiraling out of control. The book weaves together some of the major issues of our time in a story about relatively simple people: race, hate, adultery, revenge, ambition, and the ravages of lost dreams. Leonard Chang describes the characters as if there's a microscope upon them, until you can tell what they're feeling through his subtle descriptions. An altogether excellent book by an up and coming writer.