The trail descriptions are both concise and crystal clear. Sullivan does not meticulously describe each detail, which leaves much to discover on your own and allows for a more personal hiking experience. He writes eloquently, and often includes great tidbits of scientific and historical information that add context to your hike. For example, he might briefly describe how a specific area was geologically formed, and point out some evidence that you'll find along trail.

Sullivan's practical advice is invaluable. If he tells you that a trail passes poison oak, you better wear long pants! If he tells you that a trail is open from July to October, don't show up without snowshoes in March! Clearly, he knows these trails well. Readers should not overlook the preface, where he provides an equipment checklist, low impact camping guidelines, contacts for trail conditions, and other useful information.

The one downside of this guide is that so many people use it. If a hike is within an hour of Portland, and is featured in this book, you can count on a crowded trailhead on a nice weekend. Plenty of the featured hikes are off the beaten path, and still consistently provide solitude. Just plan on driving for awhile.

Anybody who hikes in Oregon should consult "100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon," or one of Sullivan's other books. I also frequently use his Oregon Coast and Central Oregon guides, and they too are first rate.

Just a quick additional note: When you do hike, always leave no trace! If you see trash, pick it up! Always be respectful of our Earth, and all of its creatures.

Many of the trails are suitable for the occasional dry weekend in the winter months as well. Sullivan provides many low elevation trails which extend the hiking season year round.

If you live in southwestern Washington or northwestern Oregon, you should own this book.

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

She needs to face Jack and settle her girlhood dreams, but she also need to see what sort of man Jack has become. His parents were jet-setters and from what she saw in the Tabloids, Jack has taken after them. He is world famous photographer, and has been linked to one model after another. Hardly material to be considered for marriage and fatherhood. Angela needs to know what sort of man he is because of Dani, her daughter. That prom night 10 years ago, after their breakup, Jack went out with her best-friend and got drunk. The result was Dani. 5 Years ago, Dani's mother, Angela's best-friend was killed and she was made Dani's guardian. She had no idea Jack was the father of Dani until she began trying to track down the man who fathered her.

Angela is a very real person. She feels things for Jack, but does not trust him, she loves her best friend and utterly adores Dani, yet she also feels twinges of regret and resentment over how things turned out, betrayed by both her friend and Jack. This is quite human. She is no paperdoll character, but a complex woman.

Jack believes Angela never knew about his drunken night with her best friend, and fears Angela would never speak to him again if she found out. He never knew or suspected about Dani. However, he comes to the class union hoping to find Angela. He has never know a family or home, and something inside him is crying out for this sort of security, and his heart tells him Angela 'his angel' is the woman to heal him and give him hope for the future. He unprepared for the siren who sets out to seduce him, just to get over him, but he is not about to let her go.

Once again, Leto gives 3 dimensional characters that leap off the page, with crisp writing that just gets better with each book. She is fresh, original and a rising star in the romance field.

I highly recommend you try and find this book.

I had no idea that this was Ms. Leto's first book! I was going to look for her earlier titles so I could read what I'd missed! But I guess, no such luck.

As they say in New Zealand, "Good on ya!" Julie!!

Higly recommended.

Richard Clifford, a deaf boy living on a farm with his mother, arrives home after a motorcycle ride.THE SILENT SCREAM is a fast read, blazing through the pages with the speed of a falcon in a dive. The main character, Tom Casey, and his wife are in a sense, the modern version of Nick and Nora Charles, only with their own unique bent. Tom's disfigurement for example only adds to his likeableness. Plus he's caring and compassionate, and almost non-violent, which are very rare elements in the modern PI story. The only downside though, is the ending, which slowed after the climax, though thirty pages remained! Despite this minor shortcoming, the novel is an amazing read, going back to the age where the PI often referred to his mental skills, got along well with the police, and often assisted them in the investigations. A delightful read for any mystery lover, though especially for those who miss the golden age of the thinking PI.

Seventeen-year-old Richard Clifford returns to his isolated ranch home from a motorcycle ride to find his mother and dog both slaughtered in their kitchen. Not having a telephone, he rides his motorcycle to the Zanker house ten miles away. The Zankers are gone and the only other neighbor, old Jerome isn't home either. Richard is deaf, his father died of cancer a year ago, he doesn't know where his only uncle is, he knows of no other neighbors but the Zankers and Jerome.

The smell in the house becomes nauseating. Richard buries his dog under his mother's favorite tree. After washing his mother's violated body and dressing her in a clean dress he wraps her in a quilt and a plastic table cloth and seals her body in a granary to protect it from rodents and insects. Richard cleans up the rest of the mess in the house and anxiously awaits the return of his neighbors. As soon as the crime is reported to the authorities he can begin to search for the murderer himself.

Private Detective, Tom Casey, better known as Hawkman assists the sheriff's office in their investigation. He alone is convinced of Richard's innocence. The boy does show an unusual ability with a knife, proven when he's attacked by a mountain lion and kills it, skins it and tans the hide. He becomes a focal point of abuse by an gang of outlaw bikers and since he can't hear, he can't anticipate the approach of predators whether two or four legged. Richard does perform his mundane chores as usual, milks the cow, does the chores, tends his mother's garden-appears to be going about life as usual, intent on staying on his own land. But he's a minor and unless his uncle can be found Richard will become a ward of the court.

Once again Betty Sullivan La Pierre has involved me in the lives of her characters to such an extent that after beginning, I didn't have the option of closing the book until the surprise at the end. Having a hearing disorder myself, I can attest to the authenticity of her character's struggles. This author consistently writes good clean, captivating mysteries peopled with substantial characters in sensorially credible scenes and settings that live in the reader's memory after the solution. I give THE SILENT SCREAM five stars.

Reviewed by ©Evelyn Gale 2/2002

After a motorcycle ride in the hills, one afternoon, Richard opened the front door, of his home, to find his beautiful mother, and his pet dog, Ruffy, laying in pools of blood on the floor. Both had, had their throats slit.

Richard didn't know what to do. There was no phone in the house. The Zanker's ranch was at least ten miles down the hill from the Clifford's little farm, and the only other person living anywhere near, was an old hermit named Jerome who lived up the hill from them. Both were not home. What could he do other than to try and preserve all the evidence he could, and protect the bodies from predators until help could be found.

And so begins the story of a remarkable seventeen year old, and the people who came forward to help him.

After what to Richard seemed like months, but in actuality was only four days, Herb and Elsie Zanker returned home from a visit with one of their daughters. Herb thought he should take up some supplies to the Cliffords as they were probably running low on things since he and Elsie had been gone longer than they expected. Upon arriving at the Cliffords farm, Herb found out what had happened.

Herb called the police. While the police were examining the scene for evidence, and recovering the bodies of the dog, and Richard's mother, Tom Casey, Private Investigator, otherwise known as Hawkman by his family and friends, was training the new falcon that his wife, Jennifer, had given him for his birthday in the woods nearby. He soon sees all the commotion up at the farm and decides to go investigate.

Standing in the shadows, and listening to the police talk to Richard, and to Richard's explanation of what happened, Hawkman decides that this young man needs someone to help him. Otherwise he doesn't feel that Richard has much of a chance against the legal system at all.

Ms. La Pierre has written a story that you absolutely will not be able to put down. She gets your total attention on the first page, and continues to hold it until you have finished the last page.

Her characters grab all of your emotions, from compassion to complete, and total hatred. I went through whole spectrum. I also went through a box of tissues before I finished the first chapter; it was so compelling.

I can't recommend THE SILENT SCREAM enough. To miss this wonderful book is something no one should do. You will not forget it even after you have finally put it down. It will stay in your memory for a long time to come.

I can't wait to read more of Betty Sullivan LaPierre's books. She is a very talented author, and I am so glad that she has decided to share her talent with the world. Her talent is one that should never be hidden, and she sure displayed it at it's best in THE SILENT SCREAM.

He relies heavily on voluminous correspondence to show the many facets of Helen and those in her life. Many of these details are not explained in other biographies. For example, Helen's father tried to shore up his finances with loans (often defaulted) from Helen's patrons. The "Frost King" incident caused many people to doubt Annie's veracity and credibility as a teacher for the rest of her life. Mr.Sandborn and Mr. Anagnos used the controversy to divert credit from Annie's role as Teacher to Helen and to re-focus attention on the role that the Perkins Institute played in her education. Lash also shows that John Macy had a complex relationship (for the good and the bad) with both Annie and with Helen. Helen was a radical Socialist and often risked her popularity and, therefore, their income by speaking out in support of Socialist leaders and causes. In the end the reader sees that Helen and many of those around her did great things, but they were not perfect. Insecurity, jealousy, money and a desire for love and fame caused all of them to act ugly sometimes.

The other point that was never clear to me before, is that Helen and Annie spent their lives marketing themselves in order to generate an income. Helen's father faced a serious financial downturn that prevented him from supporting them from Helen's young womanhood on. Therefore, to continue Helen's formal education and to maintain a home away from Alabama, they had to cultivate sponsors, write publishable material, and earn money speaking at a myriad of functions. In many ways, this was an uncertain life that dictated that they remain in good standing with public opinion at all times.

The other connection that Lash made for me concerns the complexity, the depth and the breadth of Annie and Helen's relationship. Because Annie suffered through a harrowing childhood, she desperately needed to create a loving family. Helen presented the perfect opportunity for Annie to be needed and to love and be loved unconditionally. While some people construed their relationship to be unhealthy or manipulative, it seems that it was a natural outgrowth of their particular situation. Once again, it was not perfect, but it served a huge need for them both.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to see a more realistic view of the lives of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan.

This comprehensive, fascinating and completely riviting biography does an excellent job of separating the two women's lives and analyzing each woman in her own right. Helen takes giant steps beyond the water pump where Annie first impressed upon her the concept of language. It is to this author's credit that the reader does not languish at that water pump, but follows these women throughout their lives.

The true symbiosis is fully described when other teachers as well as Helen's own mother Kate, try to separate her from Annie. Feeling that her maternal authority had been usurped, Kate understandably wanted to wean Helen from Annie. Each attempt by any person to effect such a change resulted in disaster. Even Annie's marriage to a gifted editor named John Macy ended in an acrimonious split because he felt Helen took up too large a portion of their lives together. From all accounts, Macy seemed to feel that Annie used the same domineering methods she had used on the child Helen with him. He also described Annie as "manipulative and controlling," which certainly seem like apt descriptions of her approach. Resentful of Helen's constant presence and feeling like an odd member of an equally odd triadic relationship, John retreats further from the marriage.

When Annie dies, Helen is disconsolate; she feels she can't survive without her "Teacher," although she, by that point had been at Annie's side for nearly half a century. A bright, progressive woman named Polly assumes the role of "Teacher," and Helen flourishes under her gentle tutlage and interpretation. Polly is clearly accepting of Helen's challenges and appears to make a sincere effort to see that Helen is fully included in all conversations and activities which she [Polly] is part of. One does not get the sense that Polly is a martyr. One gets the impression that Polly is loyal and determined with no agenda of her own.

Helen's relationship with Polly does appear to be much healthier than her relationship with Annie. This book fully explores Helen's character, her life experiences and the types of relationships she forged in the post-Teacher years with intelligence and sensitivity.