Then Came Heaven is my first Lavryle Spencer novel. And, unfortunately, I can only report mixed reactions. I have nothing but praise for the author's tender and heartwarming portrayal of 1950's small town Mid-western life, and clearly well researched and very compelling portrayal of life amongst an order St. Benedectine nuns. Spencer does a wonderful job of developing a cast of strong, credible and diverse characters.

My only complaint is that the plot's romantic development was simply not executed as skillfully as the other aspects of the story. I had a hard time believing that just weeks after the heart-wrenching loss of his wife (my copy of the novel now suffers a little "water" damage in the early chapters)Eddie was already succumbing to his sister-in-law's seduction attempts. And it made me uneasy that Regina seemed so intent on emulating so many little aspects of Eddie's late wife. Too often the budding love affair between Eddie and Regina seemed like more of a continuation of his life with his wife than the beginning of a "new" life with a "new" woman.

Overall, this is a good read. And I'll hope my next Lavryle Spencer might be just a little better developed.

I can't help feeling dissapointed with this book. I've read many of Spencer's books including Years, The Fulfillment, The Endearment and Morning Glory and enjoyed all of them. But this book, Then Came Heaven is a total letdown. The beginning and middle part of the book was interesting enough, when it kept you guessing when will Eddie confess his love to Sister Regina and vice-versa. But, to be honest, there's hardly any chemistry between those two. And I think it's not just because Regina is a nun... I find that the 'love' between them developed a little too quickly and out-of-a-sudden. Eddie's wife had only been dead for about 3 months.. and Eddie had already kissed and seduced his sister-in-law and has the 'hots' for Sister Regina. Eddie didn't turn out to be a very likeable hero after all. Nothing is mentioned on what Eddie and Sister Regina find so fascinating about each other. The love and emotional scenes seemed false and forced. I felt that Spencer could've done better. After Eddie (finally) confessed his love for Regina, the story just went downhill all the way.... you might as well close the book there and then to save you the awful dissapointment when you come to the end of the book. Unless you're a true Spencer fan, I suggest you stay away from this book, but read some of her earlier works like Morning Glory (which was made into a movie starring Christopher Reeves), Years (my favourite) and The Fulfillment.

This was truly a heartwarming and beautiful story. I've noticed in other Lavyrle Spencer books I've read that she does an incredible job of painting the picture of a grieving person. This book was no exception. I felt so much pain for Eddie and his daughters. And I could always feel the other characters' pain as well, especially Regina's.
Another thing I enjoyed about this book was the setting. The town she wrote about could have been the hometown I grew up in, except everyone was Dutch and Christian instead of Polish and Catholic. But the way of life was the same.
The only reason I gave this book only four stars instead of five is because there was a lot of focus on Catholisism, and since I'm not Catholic, I didn't find some of it interesting. Maybe because I don't understand a lot of it. I was amazed, however, at how much the nuns were isolated from everyone. I always had the misconception that they were out in the world helping people, but these nuns weren't allowed much at all. That aspect was very interesting. I also agree with some of the other reviewers that this wasn't Spencer's best, and it is a little disappointing that she retired on this note. Even though I liked this story, it just didn't have that "can't put it down" experience like I usually get from Spencer's books. But I do recommend this book if you like a sweet love story with a happy ending.

I'm not sure what book people were reading who didn't like this book. I thought it was wonderful, although it could have been a little longer. I loved the Marc Chastain character (I don't usually like the Alpha Male type, but I would be willing to learn with Marc) and I liked Karen just fine.

I would agree that I would definitely love to have a book featuring John Medina. Please, Ms. Howard, give us that book next. I loved your new book, but was disappointed that it wasn't John's story.

However, any Linda Howard novel is just fine with me. She ranks right up there with my other keepers - Nora Roberts, Julie Garwood, Judith McNaught, Dinah McCall. Keep up the good work and thanks from a very happy devoted reader.

If you're new to Linda Howard, or even a hesistant-romance reader, this is definitely the book to cut your teeth on! Howard pays great attention to detail in describing her characters-- the dark world of an ex-sniper, the life of an ER nurse, the nuts and bolts of being a detective, and she brings to life the steamy atmosphere of New Orleans. If you're not a romance reader you can still appreciate the suspense and mystery. I gave it to my husband when I finished reading it (he disdains romance) and even he enjoyed it. The main characters are both admirable and people you cheer for to get together, and when they do the smoke wafts from the pages! Once into this book I did not put it down until I was finished-at 2:20 am!

I'm hooked on Linda Howard! I didn't think I would find another author who writes such entrancing stories (I'm also a Nora Roberts junkie). The main characters are strong, sexy, and smart. The plot is an excellent blend of romance , mystery, and suspense. Howard explores the thoughts and feelings of her characters in more detail than Roberts. Some might think it boring, but I thought it was excellent insight. The whole book was a pleasure to read, I couldn't put it down!!

This is both a compelling and frustrating book. Gutcheon is a fluent and accomplished writer, but it seemed to me she couldn't decide how to knit together the disparate elements of this story, which contains (a) a coming-of-age romance with a jarring unhappy ending, (b) a ghost story, (c) an historical murder mystery. The narrative emcompasses two storylines: that of misunderstood, teenage Hannah, vacationing in Dundee, ME, in the 20's; and of the Claris, who lived in the area in the mid-1800's. For me the strongest and richest part of the book were the Claris chapters. Claris herself is an unappealing character: glum, rigid and resentful; however, the portrait of her rollicking, close-knit, musical family is wonderfully drawn. The historical details are carefully observed and richly illustrate Claris' unhappy story as well. But the points raised by other reader-reviewers are valid. For one, the love story between Conary and Hannah is essentially trite, with its stock characters:the wrong-side-of-the-tracks, sexy rebel (Conary); the sensitive adolescent (Hannah) and her harsh stepmother. For another, the ghost story and the historical murder mystery remain baffling on many levels. Repeated readings don't clarify who the ghost was supposed to be (Claris seems the mostly likely candidate, but it's never made explicit); why she (the ghost) pursued Hannah so singlemindedly (appearing in different locations and ultimately causing a fatal accident); or who, out of a possible three characters, killed Claris' oafish husband Danial. Claris' drowned son is buried in an apparently secret grave (why?) and someone visits it (who?). A subplot concerning a Mercy, a young schoolteacher who boards in Claris and Danial's dysfunctional household, is also puzzling. An intellingent young woman, she nonetheless passively submits to a loathesome regime of inadequate food, Claris' simmering rage, and Danial's sexual depredations. This last is mentioned almost as an aside; Mercy appears later, pregnant by Danial, but her reactions are left unexplored. The trio of possible murderers (Mercy, Claris and Claris' equally angry daughter, Sallie) meet in the schoolhouse attic, for no apparent reason other than to place Hannah in that same (haunted) attic years later. I would recommend this book as an intermittently gripping (and occasionally scary) story with some good writing and solid historical research on 19th century Maine, but it does leave you wanting a couple more chapters to tie up the loose ends.

I, too, felt confused at the end of the book. I had many unanswered questions. If you haven't read the book yet, please stop here! Was the ghost CLaris and why was she haunting Hannah and Connary? What was the point of the book ending with Bowdoin hearing the violin music? Why was Claris' son buried on the mainland? Wouldn't someone have told Danial about the grave? Gossip runs rampant through small towns. And how come no one ever saw Hannah and Connary together all that time? One minute Edith is obsessed with Hannah's relationship with him and the next minute she is running all over the countryside with him. Somebody please tell me what I am missing! The book was a fast read and I have to say I stayed up late to finish it. I loved the ghost story spin but there just seemed to be some major holes in the story for me.

"More than you know" was lent to me at a swim meet, during the down time in between races. I didn't know what to expect, having never read anything by the author before; was I in for a treat! I enjoyed the Maine setting, and the historical perspective that the story within a story provided. The main character is full of life, at any age during the story, and she made me interested in her, her story, and her town. The tenderness and respect she showed for her husband was so real and deep. Her feelings for him made her feelings for Connie all the more intense. I never anticipated any suspense in the novel and because of this, I spent a night reading because I couldn't go to sleep when I tried. This book is a perfect summer get away book, that can be read during any season, and it made me realize that I have to take my children's feelings seriously, at any age, something I had forgotten, becasue it is true that some of our most intensely felt relationships occur during that tumultous time of youth when we're sure we know everything and are totally in over our heads.

I Wish I Had A Red Dress is a nice follow up to Ms. Cleage's previous novel. Joyce is a young widower juggling her career mentoring young women. She also has a budding romance after a 5 year period of being alone. In my opinion, the book addresses the difficulty of women and men to hear and respect each other;s opinion. This is evident by the dialogue Joyce has with her best friend's husband Bill as well as her interaction with the newcomer, Nate. It is definitely evident in the interactions between the young women at the Sewing Circus and their various boyfriends/lovers. The book also examines how young women define their independence and sexuality. The young women Joyce helps are encouraged to redefine themselves as free women and to review their lives and their relationships with men. My only critique of the book is that some reference should've been made to Joyce's sister Ava, the main protagonist of the previous book. How can Joyce talk about all the people and characters in her town and totally ignore her sister Ava's whereabouts? Despite that minor flaw, this new novel stands on its own. Ms. Cleage's writing style is straightforward and refreshing and I highly recommend this new book.

"I Wish I Had A Red Dress" It was a fast read.

CLeage Takes us back to Idlewild... this time she is traveling without Ava, Imani none of the main charaters in "What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day".

We are now focusing on Joyce Ava's older sister who in the first book lost her husband and her kids. She still has the Circus trying to keep everything under control with the girls.

The Circus is for women only which consits of teenage girls who are single mothers. Joyce is trying to help them to see that they do not have to put up with there abusive baby daddies.

Just when Joyce is just fed up with trying to get money for the circus in walks mister tall dark and handsome.......if you want to find out who the mystery man is make sure you pick up a copy of this book.

Cleage writes with an intelligent edge about a modern day black woman, Joyce Mitchell, who has gravitated towards teaching those less fortunate than herself how to promote themselves to be free women. The girls meet at the "Sewing Circus" their affectionate name for the gathering place. With a sense of distinction Joyce is there through the ups and downs of their daily lives, always ready with a cup of tea and an ear to listen as she helps her friends along. But life has something special in mind for Joyce; someone spectacular is about to walk into her lonely life.

Smoothly written with a rhythm that undulates from each and every chapter, our protagonist Joyce, not only finds delight in the strong black woman she is, she is able to share that ability with those that might have never had a chance to grasp a brighter future.

Cleage is also the bestselling author of WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY. She brings a strong sense of heritage to her writing. This book makes a fervent statement. I found it well worth the time. Kelsana 5/14/02

The first thing I thought when I read this book was, is this for real? Though the basic pconcept of the story, the twins living apart and on opposite sides, is rather contrived, and reminiscent of movies with bad stories, somehow, the way it has been written makes you feel that maybe, maybe all this is a historical account. That is one thing Higgins can do like noone else. However, there is a line to be drawn. I felt that the "twist" in the absolute end, those who have read it know which twist I'm talking about, and those who haven't, I won't spoil it, but the twist is, I felt, unnecessary. The story ties up quite nicely without it, and I can't figure out the author's motivation for that little extra.

But all in all, this play is an A-Class read! Definitely worth reading. It brought back a lot of the flavour of the era which seems to be fast becoming a lost art. All I can say is that this book was engrossing enough to make me miss a couple of appointments, and in the end, that's all that matters!

I found the Flight of Eagles by Jack Higgins to be very interesting and intriguing. The book had a strong plot in which Higgins caught the reader's attention by pulling in historical figures with fictional ones leaving you with suspense and thoughts of always wanting to find out what happens next. The books main Characters Harry Kelso and Max Von Halder are described with such realistic traits, thoughts, and actions by Higgins you would believe that they were real fighter pilots. The characters are described with great detail but often it is hard to keep track of them all until the end when Higgins ties them all together. I found it very interesting as to how Higgins used the bear Tarquin as a symbol in the book to tell the story of two separated brothers brought together by war. The realistic details of war, the planes the brothers flew, and the whiskey they drank made it seem as though you could be sitting right there with them. The book is full of suspenseful action that leaves you with a feeling that you just can't stop reading because you are eager to find out what happens next. The books ending is surprising but well organized in bringing all the events to a whole.

Flight of Eagles, by Jack Higgins,1998, Putnam Pub, New York,Hardcover, 336 pp., $17.47 U.S. (from Amazon.com)

"In the early days of World War II, brothers Max and Harry Kelso--born in the U.S. shortly after the first world war to a German war nurse mother and an American fighter ace father--find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. For it seems that forces much greater than they have set into motion an intrigue so devious, so filled with peril, that it will require that they question everything they know, all that they hold most dear. A new thriller by the author of The President's Daughter."

Jack Higgins, who also writes under his real name, Harry Patterson, is a real yarn spinner. Among others, he gave us the 1975 best seller, The Eagle Has Landed. He reminds me of another author whom I knew personally, named R. Wright "Bobby" Campbell, who wrote The Spy Who Sat and Waited.

Both men were high school dropouts, with interesting backgrounds. Higgins' background includes the military, circus roustabout, laborer, and truck driver before he went to college and became a teacher and author.

Bobby Campbell, who lived in Carmel, California when I knew him, would sit across a restaurant table from you and spin a story. He was a natural-born story-teller, and seemingly couldn't help himself.

Another fiction writer of the same ilk was the late Louis L'Amour. He also had a background as a roustabout, truck driver, merchant seaman, prize-fighter and other such jobs, which enabled him to know about life close up and personal.

After all, before you can write convincingly, you need some life experience, and the best of them seem to spend years participating in life before they begin to write about it. But I remember asking Bobby Campbell once how much time he had spent in the Orkneys (the islands North of Scotland) in order to write with such authority about the people and their customs, whom he described so well in The Spy Who Sat and Waited.! He laughed, and said he got everything he needed in the way of research from the encyclopedia.

That will only work, though, for someone who has lived a lot, and observed people closely in their griefs, sorrows, joys, loves and hates. Fiction is an art form, unlike report writing or editorial writing. Not everyone can do it, and of those who can, not all are equal. Jack Higgins is truly one of the master story-tellers.

His protagonists are convincingly drawn, and his plots seem believable even when they are far-fetched. In this one, the Nazis want to assassinate Eisenhower. In The Eagle Has Landed, it was Churchill they were after.

This is good fiction. He works in real people, like Bubi Hartmann, the top-scoring German fighter ace of World War II, and Adolph Galland, who was their highest scoring ace in the Battle of Britain, and who eventually became their chief of fighters. The last I heard, both were still alive.

Higgins weaves a good tale, and you should enjoy this one.

Perhaps Patrick McGrath's most celebrated novel, Asylum is an effective, suspenseful and intelligent drama about sexual obsession and depression. As with all McGrath novels, you must pay attention to who is doing the narrating, in this case psychiatrist Peter, who ultimately treats both Stella Raphael and Edgar Stark as patients in an asylum outside London. Because you are not sure of Peter's motives and entanglement in the plot throughout the novel, you never seem to completely trust the third party narrative you get from Peter, which is mostly told by him in flashback as related by his patients.

To summarize the plot, Stella is the wife of Max, a stodgy and intellectual psychiatrist and assistant superintendant of the asylum outside London where they live with their son Charlie. Early in the novel, Stella becomes infatuated with inmate Edgar Stark, who is being treated for severe mental illness culminating in the murder (and decapitation) of his wife. Stella embarks on an obsessive relationship with Stark, which, the reader is told in the opening pages, has devastating consequences. Finding out just what happens to all involved, spread out over three separate locations including the asylum, London, and a facility in North Wales, makes for some very interesting reading.

Ultimately, like some other reviewers here, I was left a little disappointed in some areas of the story. While Stella is clearly the focus of the novel, and of the narrator's attentions, I was a bit surprised that Edgar's presence in the latter half of the novel was so limited. And while I thought little Charlie and Max's mother Brenda were interesting characters, Max was so repressed and stoic as to be almost comical. I also have a hard time believing that nobody would have thought to follow Stella, in order to locate Edgar. All in all, I enjoy McGrath's writing, and look forward to digging into his latest novel, Martha Peake. He has an engrossing style that forces the reader to pay attention, as he skillfully tells his tragic tales of the grotesque in human nature.

I picked up this book about a month ago after reading that Stephen King had written the screenplay for the upcoming Jonathan Demme film adaptation (King's first script not based on his own material). I was curious to see what the book was like.

Before I was more than a couple of pages into "Asylum," I had already been grabbed by the magnetic pull of McGrath's darkly elegant narrative style. He's quite talented at setting a gloomy mood, the kind that, if you're a fan of Poe or Lovecraft, you just can't get enough of.

The gloom that hangs over the opening pages just builds and builds as you progress through this book. There's no escape, no asylum from the psychological claustrophobia of the characters' dark minds and ruined hearts. The psychiatrist who narrates the story of Stella and Edgar's destructive love affair gone horribly wrong proves to be much less distanced from all this obsessive madness than he would like to think. I came away from the book feeling that the narrator, in his calm, balanced way of trying to proclaim his sense of reason is probably the most unbalanced of all the unbalanced characters in this book.

This book is very well written and quite perceptive. If it weren't also so damned depressing, I would have given it five stars. Still, I would recommend it to readers who like their fiction dark, brooding and psychologically compelling.

As a gothic horror story, "Asylum" succeeds on the level of its atmospheric intensity. However, the brooding sense of foreboding that just builds and builds doesn't quite lead anywhere. In the absence of any discernable climax to the plot, the reader experiences none of the cathartic release he expects from the denouement in a novel of this genre. The subject is clearly Stella, the psychiatrist's (Max's) wife. The other characters are just wallpaper and background noise. Whether intended or not, the author has left me with the impression that her fatal obsession with Edgar, the hospital's murderously dangerous patient, has in fact nothing to do with Edgar. Edgar is simply the catalyst for the release of Stella's pent up frustration and hatred for her dead emotional life with Max. It could well have been anyone else. The disappointment is that Edgar started off as a fascinating Hannibal Lector type character until McGrath lost interest in him midway and decided to write him out of the plot. Well, almost. You keep waiting and waiting for his return but he doesn't quite show up. The use of Peter as first person narrator is, on the other hand, an eerily effective technical devise. You keep guessing at his possible entanglement in the whole sordid business and this works wonders in keeping up the suspense. Whatever the novel's shortcomings, McGrath makes up for the small disappointment of its underwhelming ending with his spellbinding way with words. He is such an accomplished writer I would gladly read anything by him anyday. His prose is smoooth as silk and always magnificently crafted. Not quite the stunner I expected but still, a worthy and enjoyable read.

I read and enjoyed two earlier works of Jan Burke, "Goodnight, Irene" and "Hocus." When I found Ms. Burke had captured the Edgar Best Novel Award, I was pleased for her and looking forward to reading the book.

The plotting is excellent, and the book gets off to a brisk start. She quickly and efficiently introduces her characters making them stick in our minds. There is a shattering incident in the first third of the book that for most authors would be the grand finale. My first thought was how was she going to top this? Unfortunately, she doesn't. The rest of the book is professionally done. The denouement is Hollywood-Special-Effects worthy, but we are not jarred as we were before. The tension level climaxed before the book was half over.

Irene is a likable, if jittery, protagonist, but she doesn't seem to be the same independent lady she was in "Goodnight, Irene" a few books ago. The strain of multiple homicides has almost done her in. While this is a likely scenario for a typical human being, we expect constant pluck from our serial heroines. She cries and trembles constantly. She has flashbacks that are harrowing, and some of this gets in the way of the story. I had sympathy for these normal, if repetitious, emotions. However, she rambles on about her "guilt" (for what, I could never figure out.) Also there is always a crowd around to "protect" her, therefore, every scene had to account for five or six people which made for confusing reading.

Nicholas Parrish, the mad serial killer, was an extremely campy over-the- top character who seemed left over from some old horror movie. Maybe we have had enough of "serial killers" for awhile. It could be we are jaded and unable to work ourselves up to a good scare.

I'll look forward to meeting Irene Kelly again-after she has fully recuperated.

Being a fan of Jeffery Deaver and Patricia Cornwell, this book was recommended to me by a fellow reader. I had read Burke's "Flight" last year and quite enjoyed it, but found "Bones" a very different kind of story. "Flight" was more of a human interest story with a mystery thrown in, whereas "Bones" definitely enters Deaver "grisly and creepy serial killer book" territory.

Burke's ongoing character Irene Kelly, a feisty journalist, is part of a team of mostly cops and forensic specialists going on a mountain trek with a serial killer to find the body of a victim he says he buried there. Thus begins a harrowing, tragic and creepy cat-and-mouse game that will keep you reading (and maybe even keep you awake) until the end.

I guess my only criticism would be that the book is packed with such an enormous cast of characters that it is sometimes difficult to keep them straight (this is more in the first half, though). Fortunately, the later part of the story focuses most of its attention on 4 or 5 of them so it's easier to follow.

The book's villain is not one you're likely to forget soon!

I picked up this book for the cover, reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs, and when I saw that it had won the Edgar award, I definitely had to read it then. The book starts out with a horrific bang and doesn't let up until the end. Irene Kelly, crime reporter, sucked into the story of Julia Sayer who disappeared five years ago. Julia's daughter is struggling to keep the story alive to try and find out the truth. Nicolas Parrish, one of the most horrific serial killers in fiction today, makes a deal with police to lead them into the desert to uncover the bodies of more victims he has killed, including Julia Sayer. I was truly horrified by the event of this novel and by the creepy ending. Worth buying in hardcover, pick this one up in the paperback, it is not disappointing!

Thanks for reading!

**Pandora

This is very much an average book, with nothing new to offer but for a lot of explanation of a great deal of technical terms used in the field of medicine; and it is these details, which give this book some value.

Crichton, I feel is surely one of the best contemporary writers, and is the best, when it comes to writing science-fiction novels. Each one of his books, very different from each other, are not only gripping and entertaining, but also are very informative, with all the importance Crichton gives, to explain in detail, the science, he involves in these books. It is this unique quality of his writing-style, which makes him so different from other contemporary authors.

'A CASE OF NEED' is one of his older novels, and is nothing like his later ones. The novel is basically about this pathologist, who tries to save a fellow-pathologist, who is accused of accidentally killing a young girl - the daughter of a leading doctor, while performing an illegal abortion on her. Though this medical-thriller, in itself, is quite an interesting page-turner, however, in no way does it match the brilliance of his other novels. Being a brilliant page-turner is one thing; but being a brilliant page-turner by Crichton is something else, having a league of its own, and this particular page-turner just doesn't belong to this league. The book proceeds through its course in the most mundane fashion, and builds up to the end, which, in itself, is quite trite. This book is nowhere close to his later medical thriller, 'THE TERMINAL MAN', which undoubtedly, is Crichton's best novel to date.

On one hand, this book is a bit of a disappointment. On the other hand, however, not everything about this book is bad. Though in each and every novel of his, Crichton tries to give a detailed description / meaning of the scientific terms / scientific concepts used in the book, in this particular novel of his, however, his explanations to the scientific / medical terms used are to the greatest detail, more than any other novel of his. Moreover, his explanations are so simple, that these explanations can interest even the person, who is most indifferent to medicine.

Though this book has a very little entertaining value, (considering the standard of Crichton's other novels) it is really informative. Since this book was one of Crichton's earliest books, (infact, it wasn't even originally written under the name, 'Michael Crichton') he was more of a doctor, than an author, as the book shows. But, in the case of his later books, he developed into a better writer, and hence, as in the case of those novels, he is more of a writer than a doctor.

This is one of the very few books that I have enjoyed that is written in the first person. The story is about a doctor named John Berry. His coleage is arrested for an abortion gone wrong that ended in murder. So Dr. Berry plays detective and tries to get his buddy out of jail. The book takes place during one week and has an ending that I did not expect at all.

This was one of Crichton's first books, and the profit off this one sent him through medical school. The book is full of medical terms and has a lot of footnotes that make you constantly have to move up and down pages. Although this isn't Crichton's best, I didn't even use a bookmark because I never put it down.

This book won the 1968 Edgar Award for best mystery novel of the year. An obstetrician has been accused of performing an illegal abortion in Boston in the late 1960's. A pathologist discovers that the girl, who died in the emergency room of a hospital, wasn't even pregnant. He sets out to clear his friend of the charges. Although some of the discussions on abortion may seem dated, this is still a good mystery. Michael Crichton originally published this book under the pseudonym Jeffrey Hudson. Some earlier reviewers have suggested that he did this because of the controversy generated by the topic of abortion. While this undoubtedly was a factor, we also have to recall that this was his first book and Crichton was a medical student in Massachusetts at the time he wrote much of this book. I'm not sure if his faculty would have been too keen on having a student devote a significant fraction of his time to writing a novel instead of to his studies, had they known. But, I may be wrong. Some other reviewers gave it a low rating because it contained too much jargon. Of course, that is a trademark of this category of books; however, I seem to miss the jargon in this novel. Perhaps I missed it but "A Case of Need" seems to be the least technical of Crichton's books.

Earleys' rendering of a Perfect Past has it's attractions andcharms, and is in many ways endearing, as long as the reader remembersthat there was never a time in either their life or the life of anyone they know when such earnest happiness and satisfyingly extended good- will ruled the day. Suspension of disbelief is the best advice before perusing these pages.

Early evokes the simple tale of a boy being raised by his mother and four uncles in such a poetically sustained way--sure language, spare cadences, a sharp ear for knowing when stop a description-- that you forgive the over ripe sentimentality that is at the heart of this book.

The success, I think, is in the author's ability to describe Jim's point of view in a straight forward manner, free of seeming authorial intrusion: Jim and the others, particularly the Uncles, emerge as credible characters, each with their particular character ticks and quirks. This set of relationships, balanced and relatively sober, almost makes up for the sheer mysticism that Earley wants to cast on rural South Carolina during the 30s.

There is something subtly fake about this beguilingly transparent coming-of-age story, a Disney tale for the the Postmodern period, a reverse Alice Walker, a past that is re-assembled into a more perfect union.

Needless to say, I'm ambivilent about the tale and the telling, but it is a tribute to Earley's art that his debut novel resonates as well as it does.

Jim The Boy is one of the best books I have ever read. It is a very exciting and wonderful book. I really wished it never ended. I read Jim the Boy with my mom. Jim the Boy is a novel, fiction. I really enjoyed it. Jim the Boy is about a boy growing up in North Carolina in a town called Aliceville during the depression. His father's name was Jim also, but he died a few days before "Jim the boy" was born. His beloved uncles who helped to raise him were Uncle Coran, Uncle Al and Uncle Zeno, and they were some of the main characters along with Jim's mom and his wicked grandfather. Three situations that I thought were important were when electricity came to his town for the first time, when his best friend got polio, and when the train first made a stop at Aliceville because the towns people named it after the conductor's daughter. I really, really hope that Tony Earley writes another book about Jim the boy as Jim grows older.

Jim the character and the "Jim the Boy" the story are both a delight. Earley's writing is a deft combination of simple and lyrical. If, like me, you've got children, this is a book you can share with them and both enjoy.

The story follows a year in the life of 10 year old in Depression-era North Carolina. Jim's father died before he was born but his three single uncles serve as wonderful surrogate fathers. There's also a wise old African-American farmhand, (appropriately named Abraham) to give Jim all the father figures he needs. The older men and Jim's mother are are all well-drawn characters. In fact, part of the book's strength is the strong supporting cast for Jim, including a best friend from the mountains.

There isn't a single strong enough thread to serve as the book's plot (other than Jim, himself). Though you could argue that point with several fellow readers, with each of you arguing a different aspect of the book as it's primary theme.

"Jim the Boy" is a fast read and can serve as a day or two's pleasant distraction, or can be mulled over and examined. I can easily imagine it being adopted by English classes of various age levels.

Buy the book and share it with the family.

Martini was beginning to stretch his courtroom characters a little too thin in The Judge; I'm glad he went off in a new direction in this book. It's as full of unexpected turns as all his previous whodunits, but this time with domestic and international terrorists. Its basic plot is believable (even if there are a few too many miraculous escapes) and it'd make a great movie. Don't start this book at bedtime because you won't put it down. Martini is to be commended for having a strong woman as protagonist; I only regret she never got her "constitutional rights". In the end Martini kills off the wrong character, the character I had really bonded to and wanted to see in future books. (Or, did he really die? In this book you're never sure!) A great trash read for a beach day, an airplane flight, or a lazy Saturday.

The story is gripping. Many twists and a surprise ending. Unlike Grisham, who writes complex stories with too many characters for me to keep track of, Martini keeps down on the number of characters and still makes the story compelling to read. Although the main character is a woman, it's the kind of book men would like as well. In fact, I mailed it to my brother -- and I've never given him a book to read before. I know he'll absolutely enjoy it. I'm also recommending Critical Mass to female friends. Get a copy.

Wow! What a wonderful book to read. When I finished reading this book (in one 4-hour setting), I put it down feeling completely mentally refreshed - it was that good! The first 6 chapters or so develop the plot while introducing the characters. Many books just dump the characters in your lap, but Martini weaves their introductions into the development of the plot, possibly better than any other book I've read. Our heroine, a lawyer who recently set up shop in Washington, gets pulled into the middle of a national security crisis when she gets retained by an arm's smuggler who has been hired to smuggle a nuclear bomb into the U.S. and blow up a city. But where is the bomb, who is the smuggler, and what city is targeted? Just when you think you're on to the plot and you know what is going to happen, the plot twists, and you are left in amazement. This is one of Martini's strongest books, and it was a pleasure to read.