This novel is not the ususal light regency romance fare featuring a London season, clothes and beaux; rather it is a dark tale that tells of how a young woman and her family find themselves at the mercy of a malicious and deranged man.

Catherine Parrish incurrs the wrath of Jasper Rankin when she rebuffs his amorous attentions. In retaliation, Jasper spreads vicious rumours, painting Catherine as a degenerate and a wanton. Everyone seems only all too willing to believe the tales, and soon Catherine, along with her sisters and brother, find themselves effectively ostracised by the "good" people of Exeter.

The Earl of Rockhurst is an old school friend's of William, Catherine's brother. And out of friendship, he agrees to look into these accusations and to try and expose them as the lies that actually are. But he soon finds his work cut out for him. Jasper Rankin seems, outwardly anyway, to be all that is pleasing and honourable. And everyone seems content to believe the worst of Catherine and her family. But as the Earl begins to look into Rankins background, some rather disquieting tales come to light that point to misdeeds far more serious than the spreading of malicious rumours. Will the Earl be able to expose Rankin as a liar, salvage Catherine's reputation and keep her from harm?

This novel was riverting reading -- I kept expecting Rankin to explode into one final really horrific act of violence. But Allison Lane showed her mastery here and handled the final denouncement perfectly. As I noted earlier this is not the usual comedy of manners; indeed the romance betwen the Earl and Catherine plays second fiddle to the darker subplot. However, if you are looking for something not in the usual vein, and that deals with the darker psyche of people, this novel will definitely satisfy.

OBSESSION --- Mystery/Romance Janet Lane Walters Hardshell Word Factory - Dec. 1999 ISBN: 1582005230 - CD- Rom

Susan Randall finds the body of Barbara Denton, the hospital's gossip queen, in a storage room on the orthopedic floor. Little does Susan know that she was the intended target of a stalker. Patrick, a friend and tenant of Susan's, feels that Susan may have seen evidence of some kind when she found the body so he is very worried that she is in danger, but he does not want to smother Susan or drive her away from him as her dead husband did. After several more deaths at the hospital, Patrick is sure that she is in danger. Can he save her before it's too late without driving Susan away from him forever.

Obsession was a fast paced book with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on edge.

Janet Lane Walters has lead a dual life, both as a registered nurse and the author of short stories, poems, and two non-fiction books, one as a ghost writer and the other as a co-author. Obsession is her eighth published novel, the seventh romance and one cozy mystery.

Pam Stone

I used the 1st edition of Organizational Reality in my Organizational Communications course at Purdue in the early 80' s. The latest edition was published in 1997. This book is a primer on organizational dynamics. It uses a theory into practice model by offering organizational theory and describing how they are put into practice in real organizations. This is done via anecdotes in the form of case studies, play excerpts, poems, and song lyrics from the mid 70' s to the mid 90' s. Unlike a typical textbook, which is heavy on theory, this book is heavy on anecdotes, which makes it more readable to a wider variety of readers than a typical text. As such, it is not a comprehensive text on the subject due to the lack of theoretical foundations. But it is a fine supplement to typical textbook and an fine stand alone text for undergraduate college students and high school seniors preparing to enter the work place or college class room. It gives both populations an insider' s view of the inner workings of organizations, revealing some unofficial rules of the game and "maps" to help outsiders get through the irrational, illogical maze of organizational structure, human and otherwise. After reading it as an undergrad and re-reading it as a professional I conclude it is a must-have for any educational institution that prides itself on preparing its students for the real world.

What do you say about the book that does everything? Okay, so maybe "everything" is a bit of an exaggeration. But ORIGINAL SIN instantly became one of my favorites when I first read it, and I'm happy to find that my original opinion survived the book's reread. There's just too much good stuff here not to like it.

Andy Lane creates a lot of future history in this book. I'm not necessarily a fan of world-building; sometimes an author will be so busy creating a setting that they forget to actually have anything happen in it. But Lane fails to fall into that trap. The thirtieth-century Earth of ORIGINAL SIN is detailed, gritty, realistic and fantastically well conveyed. The poor dwell in the undertown, in the shadows of the floating cities of Earth, while the better off live above, but can only visit the floors and levels below their own. The rich can choose to visit and see the poor, but the poor must be separated out from the wealthy. Roaming around the planet are the honor-bound Adjudicators, dispensing justice and trying to keep the world safe as it plunges into madness and terror during the unfolding of the story. The overcities and undertown, taken from a few throwaway mentions in past novelisations, are so fully fleshed out here that the New Adventures could have set dozens of stories in these locations without exhausting the potential.

The characters depicted here are also wonderful creations. I remember reading somewhere at the time of this publication that Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester were not originally intended to be companions, but only became so after the editors saw how well they were turning out. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. But it's easy to see how someone in charge of the line could pick out continuing characters from a novel this rich in realistic and well-drawn people.

But before I overwhelm you with talk of the hardboiled setting and the no-nonsense characters, I must point out that there's a certain whimsy present in the proceedings. The jokes (and there are a number of them) are actually quite funny. There's a wonderful balance between the serious and the amusing. Many books in the Doctor Who range try to be too much of one or the other, but Andy Lane walks this line perfectly. The Doctor and Benny in particular are depicted well, being both intelligent and droll. The grittiness is never overwhelming; anytime the story looks to be taking itself a little too seriously, Lane instantly takes the pomposity out with a clever piece of dialog or a hilarious one-liner.

And I haven't even mentioned the storyline yet. It's actually fairly simple on the surface, but deceptively engaging. There's a lot of standard Doctor Who material here: unsolved murders, a vast conspiracy, an alien menace threatening Earth, people going stark raving mad, etc, etc. But even the stuff we've seen before never feels old or recycled. The plot moves quickly, and my interest never flagged. In the Acknowledgements, Lane mentions that he abandoned the original plot part of the way through and ended up improvising much of what appeared in the final product. All I can say is that he must have taken great notes on the way to the end, because the conclusion is quite good and perfectly logical.

There are just too many great things in this book to give them all the attention they deserve. The extracts from "The Empire Today" (proving that Fox News and CNN will still be around a millennium from now) that open each chapter. The witty banter between the Doctor and his foes. The bizarre names that the alien Hith have given themselves as reminders of their lost past. The fleshing out of the Samurai-like Adjudicators' backstory. The only thing that really irritated me were the constant continuity references that kept popping up all over the place. I really don't mind a sprinkle of them here and there, but there sure seemed to be a hell of a lot of them in this one and I couldn't figure out what purpose they were supposed to serve.

ORIGINAL SIN launched two new companions, and brought back an old enemy for the Doctor to fight. But regardless of the effect that the book had outside of its own covers, it's a seriously good tale in its own right. Andy Lane had quite a task following up the delightful and entertaining ALL-CONSUMING FIRE, but here he proved that he was as skilled at bring the thirtieth-century to life as he was at capturing the nineteenth-century of Sherlock Holmes. Recommended for all Doctor Who fans.

Since there is no synopsis of the book here, I will write one and then write my opinion.

It is 1973 and Peron is summoned back to Argentina after 18? years in exile in Madrid. He is now an old man and his movement has moved beyond his own strict ideology. His return is viewed through the eyes of no fewer than 20 people, who are in the process of making some sense out of Peron's life and his tendency towards Megalomania. These range from his wife, Isabella, his relatives, his president, ex-military companions, and some wierd extremist groups (which I DID NOT understand, sorry Tomas).

OK- now I transition into opinion. The truly unique thing about this book is that it centers around a one week period, but retells this same week from a multitude of standpoints, some even demented. Many times throughout the book I seriously considered flying to Iowa to hunt down the author and ask him "how much of this is true??" He puts himself in the book as a reporter, and it is plausible that he actually met Peron. I feel sure he has mountains of good info, and probably could write an engaging biography of this man (which then of course no one would read, so maybe this is his point).

While I did like this book, I was much more engaged by the writing itself and the odd twists or context and historical events that he describes than in the actual content. I forced myself to read it because I knew I'd like it, more than I was compelled to read it.

And if you're still reading this, go to Santa Evita and read that first, because it has all the advantages of this peculiarly odd book with a much more engaging topic. Then read this because this Tomas Eloy is a fantastic writer.

This is a charming book that will be of interest to storytellers and folklorists who want to think more about each other's art. Lane offers explanations of themes in folklore and emphasizes what is important in the performance of a tale, too. I have dabbled in storytelling and folklore studies and have found this book to be one of the best for melding the two together with respect and fairness to both. The book will be of greater interest to persons beginning study in either field. The analysis is fairly common and doesn't offer much beyond what is available in other scholarly texts. Storytellers should appreciate the invitation to think about the subtext of the tales they tell.

The CD was great and I would have given it five stars except that I despised Misty's Song. Other than that is was perfect. The way they extended the theme song was very clever. The booklet comes with the lyrics to all the songs and is a poster on the other side. Also, if you put the CD in your computer you can view the entire PokéRap.

I've found it a pleasure for reading and, what is more, very interesting and useful for my work.

Here is another text by William Lane Craig that deals with the issues of Divine Foreknowledge, human freedom, and future contingents. This is a very academic text and expects the reader to have a background knowledge in the philosophies at hand. However, it is a good text to read for the issues. Craig covers some of the major philosophers who have tackled the problems of Divine foreknowledge and future contingents. The philosophers covered are, Aristotle, Augustine, Boethius, Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, William Ockham, Luis de Molina, and Francisco Suarez. Craig covers what each philosopher taught, the works which each philosopher wrote regarding the issue at hand, and gives criticisms and agreements regarding each of the views espoused. The bibliography is very thorough containing mainly primary works, but including secondary texts as well. The only downfall in which I was able to detect was Craig's description of some of the things espoused by Aquinas. For instance, Craig declares that, "In De veritate Aquinas explains that what is necessary can be known even when it will happen in the future, as is the case with an astronomer's knowledge of a coming eclipse, but a contingent cannot be known as future because it can be impeded before it is brought into being." (page 101-102) This is simply not true, Aquinas does not espouse such a thing in De Veritate (On Truth) nor any of his other works for that matter. While I am not an expert on Aquinas in this area, I have done enough research to know that Aquinas would not suggest such a thing. Nonetheless, overall Craig gives a somewhat fair assessment of Aquinas, but there are a few things on which he just seems to miss the boat. However, all the chapters are very informative and helpful with excellent references to help the reader move into further study and research.

I usually am disappointed in books that are anthologies, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The first three stories were very good and I would have rated them 5 stars but the last two stories were not as good. My favorite story is the one by Alison Lane HEART'S DESIRE and I became interested in an unseen character, Emma's brother-in-law James. I hope she does his story in the future.