Captain Hugh North of G-2 is on a river boat heading towards Shanghai during a time when there is much fighting and turbulence surrounding that city. On the trip a young Englishman named Trenchard is murdered. North is joined on the boat by his friend from British military intelligence, Bruce Kilgour. North learns that Trenchard was a British agent trying to get information on an arms shipment being sent to General Wang, a warlord with ties to French and Italian interests. Wang is now threatening Shanghai which is defended by General Yuan who is backed by England and the United States. A third army planning to attack Shanghai is led by an American soldier of fortune named Sam Steel. He is an employee of a warlord named Wu.

After North arrives in Shanghai, he meets with American Admiral Clegg who explains the task awaiting the military intelligence captain. North's mission is to locate the arms shipment before either General Wang or Sam Steel can seize it. Hopefully North can find the shipment in time to prevent a disaster for the American and English residents of Shanghai.

Almost every country with a political or economic interest in Shanghai has a representative engaged in the struggle to acquire the arms shipment. As usual North finds that the lines between friend and foe often seem blurred.

Set in Southeastern Asia just before the outbreak of World War II, this is a fast-paced story of international intrigue involving the struggle for a secret formula for making more effective steel for military armor. Most of the countries striving for power in the region at that time have an agent searching for the prize. Representing the United States is Hugh North who is promoted to Major in Army Intelligence early in the action. The author's development as a writer of international thrillers shows decided improvement in this book.

This was first published by Lancer in 1970 as science fantasy. (It includes modern technology as a subset of magic.) The wicked Myrdin Velis needs his skull transported back home, and twists the hero's arm into doing so. I liked Myrdin's approach to the problem of supporting his life style, he pays in gold pieces that are new, shining and quite real. I also like the answer to the problem of why sorcerous technology hasn't simply taken over from swords; the good sorcerers are enviromentalists, and feel everyone else should live the simple, rural lifestyle. The wicked sorcerers, of course, have no time for this claptrap, and simply treat the world and its inhabitants as a combined hunting preserve and amusement park. The only real revolutionary, in favour of radical and far reaching social change, is Myrdin. He makes the status quo seem very good indeed. After a series of adventures, Owen, the hero, transports Myrdin's skull back home, and then of course must assist in his elimination. The requirement of Myrdin and Owen to hold to a strict, magically enforced exchange of services is a bit artificial, but it makes the plot work. This is the advantage of magic as part of the background. I must admit I think this is probably the best of David Mason's books. If you like sword and sorcery, I strongly recommend it.

This play has some of the best characters ever, and a plot to match. I got caught up in Barry Daniels fantasy world. Superbly funny, a wonderful read.

In Spirits of the Great Hill, Winfield returns to the format of Shadows of the Western Door in retelling stories of hauntings and other supernatural activity in the Western New York area. This is a good book, but not nearly as gripping as Shadows was. Those who read ghost stories just for the chill will probably find this book boring. But for those who like a bit of history as well as a question left in your mind, you'll enjoy this. The book is especially enhanced if you're familiar with the WNY area. As a native of the area, I find I get a bigger thrill from being able to actually place myself in the locals listed in the book, especially the Roycroft section, since East Aurora is my home town. All in all, Spirits is quite good, and many stories are not such that you'll forget them anytime soon.

I read this book when I was in the first grade. That was over 25 years ago and it has stayed with me as a wonderful tale of a young girl, her family, and their cow, Susannah, as they move West in a covered wagon. This is a perfect story for any early reader interested in the West and/or Pioneers. It describes their journey and the perils along the way, including indians. I would compare it to an early readers version of the Little House books by Laura Ingles Wilder.

Colonel Hugh North of United States Army Intelligence is sent to Burma on a secret mission. His assignment is to locate and destroy a vital U.S. rocket capsule which has accidentally fallen somewhere deep in the jungle east of Mandalay. The pretext for the search is that an American plane has crashed on a flight from Karachi to Bangkok.

The trip from Rangoon to Mandalay will be made by boat up the Irrawady River. The Burmese Army General in charge of the expedition allows several passengers to accompany North and the search party. On the boat with North are a Chinese Army Colonel, an American ex-patriot pilot, two beautiful Burmese women and an American female archaeologist... The three women are on a quest for a rare ruby which is known to be in the vicinity of the crash...The book is loaded with quaint stereotypes and there may be too many amazing coincidences for some readers. However, Mason does give us another exciting spy story and the denouement is clearly explained in the final chapter.

THE VESPER SERVICE MURDERS is only the second of the author's twenty-six books featuring Hugh North. Captain North is invited to participate in the investigation of a series of murders in the city of Deptford, Massachusetts. Dr. Walter Allan, a friend of North, is used as a narrator by Mason. North is already famous because of newspaper publicity about previous cases he has solved dating back to World War I army service in Europe. Knowledge of American Morse code is employed by North as a tool of detection in this case. The novel is written in the style of a police detective story and it shows the promise realized in the later entries in this series which deal entirely with espionage and international intrigue.

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