This kind of book isn't written anymore and if you're a hardcore action fan that's a shame. Death on the Docks is prime Dirty Harry. What better compliment to the author Dane Hartman than to say it evokes the adreniline rush of the movie series. They should've made these books into movies themselves. Hartman's approach is simple yet as the same time hard hitting. Some of the violence is graphic but then so were the movies. In each of the series Harry is brought in to pursue some violent criminal. The premise remains the same but the locales are different and vividly described. But who cares about the fancy frills. Does the book deliver? You bet. I'd trade all of the so-called action specialists on the marketplace right now for one Dane Hartman. He is truly an underrated original. He makes Harry Callahan come to life in ways that the movies only gave you glimpses of. He'll make your day. Note to Warner Books- Do all Dirty Harry fans a favor and republish all of the Dane Hartman series in a hardcover edition.

I picked this book up for a nickle at an outdoor flea market. I had to buy it after reading the opening line, "The girl's body was torn apart as if she were a gold-fish whirling in a blender." It only gets funnier after that.

The story grabs you and you turn the pages. There are rough spots as one might expect in a first novel without strong editing, but--given the author's intimate involvement in the legal system--one is chilled at the depiction of the law enforcement process as described. I suspect that the truth is closer to the story than we should accept. A casual mention is made of the governor of Arkansas. That would be...?

What could be better than Victorian travel literature by Richard F. Burton. Not much. Burton is no slouch when it comes to travel, he takes the hard routes across his continents not the comfy ones that his fellows take and so he sees more and is better able to put the "normal" English experience of India into a wider context. Burton is never given the tasks or assignments he had hoped to get so he sets himself the task, out of mere boredom perhaps, of categorically describing India, its geography, ethnography, religions. He describes India in all manner of ways of describing a place including history of its cities and Goa's history is quite ripe with meaning for Burton as it tells the story of why the Portugese empire fell..., a tale which Burton feels has a lesson for the English. That he was an expert linguist helps and that he had an appetite, insatiable apparently, for all kinds of experience makes his book a kind of interdisciplinary collection of datas, some more significant than others but the effect is that he experienced a place in every way imaginable. He was romantic in that he was not suited to live within anyones boundaries but his own(he was expelled from Oxford), and scholarly, but his was a kind of scholarship that tested existing knowledge of India in the field. Perhaps a growing disillusion with England & what it really was to be English made him particularly susceptible to other knowledges and ways of being. He learned an immense amount about the lives of various natives by blending in and acting as one of them but he did this much as a spy does this, as a means of gaining information, not as an end in itself. He was perfectly suited to be a spy. Properly used someone like Burton would have been an invaluable source of information as to what actual Indians thought. If there were more like him the empire would have better understood the country it was ruling over and so more effectively ruled it, however, most Englishman felt it best to erect and enforce an invisible boundary between himself and the cultures of India. And Burton, who often dressed according to local custom even in his English quarters, was not popular among his peers nor was his information ever taken very seriously. His commanding officers simply were unable to see the value in his ability to play so many roles and so were unable to give him a role worthy of him to play. Among his narrow minded fellow officers he became his own man, a self-styled cultural anthropologist with a minor disciplinary interest in ethnographic mimicry who filled volumes with his very rare and particular talents for cross-cultural interaction and observation.
Like many travel narratives the highlights are in the little details(uncomfortable transports, unfriendly hosts) and side stories. No detail is ever lost on Burton and in matters of stories what counts most is the personality of their teller. There is none better than Burton.

I found this book to be very useful in its tips on how to care for and train this breed of dog. The only thing I felt was wrong with it was that I thought this author advocated only doing things one way and the rest were wrong.

This book was quite informative and easy to read. It would be particularly beneficial to someone thinking about purchasing a Dane. It gives a lot of information without being difficult to read or going into more detail than is necessary for a novice Dane owner.

In his study, "Islands of White," Dane Kennedy offers a novel perspective on the social dynamics of white settler colonies in imperialist Africa. Kennedy convincingly illustrates how these white societies were able to create a distinct and unified culture. Presenting a new interpretation of white settler society, Kennedy analytically demonstrates how the social identity of white colonists was radically recast to accommodate their special circumstances. Kennedy's study is of long lasting importance to the field of African history because it reveals the powerful dynamics of solidarity within colonial societies which consequently enabled them to create and maintain a system of domination over the indigenous African population. While the majority of historians have primarily focused on the social divisions within the settler populations, Kennedy asserts that economic, ethnic, and social differences were secondary to the overriding need for unification. Kennedy remains balanced in his approach by conceding that a certain amount of social friction within the colonies cannot be denied. Yet, he also sustains that the preoccupation of Marxist historians with the internal fissures of white society neglects to appreciate the external strength of the community. Through an analysis of the particular experiences faced by white settlers, Kennedy portrays how white settler society was not simply a transfer or replication of European national traits onto colonial society in Africa. He holds, "this was the distinguishing feature of the settler culture: not in the cherished values of the settlers' European heritage, but in the centripetal forces that distorted that heritage by securing it against all change."(192) To further establish this claim, the author effectively applies knowledge of social psychology to interpret and explain the pathological behavior of the white settlers. Kennedy's compelling argument is fully supported through his analytical utilization of many sources and statistical evidence. The extensive use of well documented private and official manuscripts further validate Kennedy's persuasive argument. Unlike many documents on colonialism, the volume appears to be written without prejudice and without reference to a preconceived view of determents. While historically solid, Kennedy's work brings a fresh, unbiased insight to the inner workings and far-reaching impact of white settler colonists. As Kennedy has firmly established in his study, "Islands of White," settler culture was the expression of the white community's delicately held position of dominance in the order of imperial Africa. In order to maintain this dominance, white settlers exerted strong social power to shape and control their identity and position. The significance of Kennedy's book is in its illustration of the power group solidarity can have in shaping a community and its neighbors.

This was a delightful book that shares the importance of teddy bears in the lives of young children. It was an eye-opener for this reader, as I never realized that children might look at teddy bears so differently from the way I do and did as a child. I was concerned with the sibling treatment shared in this book, but this could be an area of discussion within a family or even a class.

Over the last several months I have read several books about Scottish ghosts and have found a big problem. These books were very lacking in detail. There was very little about the possible cause of the haunting or its background. There was also very little in the way of eyewitness accounts. In many cases the whole haunting was delt with in one sentence. Much too rapid fire to keep track of.

Scottish Spectres does a much better job of telling its story than these other books. There are some rapid fire listings of haunted places but more often than not there is some detail. Dane Love has divided the book into chapters based on both the kind of ghost involved and the haunted place. This is a little hard to follow at times as for example one chapter deals with, "white ladies" while another involves, "haunted hotels." If for example a white lady haunts a hotel then Love has to decide which chapter to put her in and the reader is left with a hotel haunt in the white ladies chapter. There isn't much of that though so its a small problem.

Most of the stories involve eyewitness accounts and many identify the probable spectre giving some history of this suspect's life and death. I found very interesting the story of the Edinburgh home in which the new owners found a large, solid teak trunk. The trunk had been sent from Sri Lanka and had their name on it even though it had been sent before they bought the house.

This is a fun book. Well written and easy to read. It could have been better but it is still the best book on the subject that I have found.

I actually had to read this book for a class but was mildly surprised with what Mazur has to offer. This book begins just as the back cover description goes, with a woman finding a strange man bathing in her washtub. An odd beginning for an outstandingly odd story. While it seems to border at times with the fringes of a bad soap opera, this story manages to capture the reality of a strikingly different life situation. It gives further focus to the human condition of finding boundaries and giving definition to overlapping human relationships.