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Volume 3, Number 12 December 2004 Home | MBW Index

Table of Contents

Cynthia's Bookshelf Donovan's Bookshelf Kaveny's Bookshelf

Klausner's Bookshelf Laurel's Bookshelf Shelley's Bookshelf

Shirley's Bookshelf Vicki's Bookshelf

Cynthia's Bookshelf
Marry Me... Maybe?
Request 2's
Tori Carrington and Anne McAllister
Harlequin
PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269
ISBN 0373230273 $4.99 480 pages

Very highly recommended

Authors Tori Carrrinton and Anne McAllister come together for a delightful read in MARRY ME.MAYBE? These powerful storytellers have a proven track record that has long captivated fans, providing consistently excellent reads. While their styles are marvelously diverse, these authors share dynamic characterizations and distinctive voices, resulting in a combined effort certain to please series romance lovers. In each full-length tale, strong heroines have agreed to marry someone else, and these heroes are challenged to prove their love, despite their mistakes in the past.

First released in 1999, LICENSE TO THRILL was Tori Carrington's first Temptation miniseries entitled the Magnificent McCoy Men, and hero Marc McCoy certainly lives up to readers' expectations. When his partner Melanie Weber is hospitalized following an attempt on a senator, Marc cannot bring himself to visit her in the hospital, nor can he get past her interfering mother when Melanie returns home to recuperate. Believing his interest has waned, Melanie intends to marry someone else to give her child a father. Then Marc kidnaps her only two days before her planned wedding. A titillating read, LICENSE TO THRILL contains a couple of twists at the end that makes every page worthwhile. Look for the next two books in the series, THE P.I. WHO LOVED HER and FOR HER EYES ONLY to be released in a double offering in MARCH 2005 and new REAL MCCOY story in April 2005.

With over fifty books to her credit, author Anne McCallister's voice remains fresh and captivating in the release, I THEE WED. Three years ago college student Diane Bauer fell in love with Nick Granatelli while he attended Harvard Business School. His father's potentially fatal heart attack draws Nick back to his native St. Louis and into a life he believes that precludes a woman like Diane. Harsh words motivated by his own painful internal landscape motivate Diane to transform her life. When they meet again three years later, they have effectively traded places, with Nick feeling lost and having run away from home and with Diane living a life of independence and self assurance. Nick has never been able to get Diane out of his mind, but now she plans to marry someone else. McCallister's graceful prose resonance with the lyricism of poetry, resulting in a read that is both entertaining and elegant.

Until Dark
Mariah Stewart
Ballantine
299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10171
ISBN 0345447409 $6.99 400 pages

Very highly recommended

A stalker follows FBI compositor Kendra Smith. As she interviews witnesses and create a composite of a serial killer, she does not suspect that she being watched. Nor does she suspect that he specifically targets young mothers just to get her attention. Moreover, her own darkly tragic past creates deep sympathy for the families of the serial killer, having lost her brother and cousin many years ago, and more recently her mother to a supposed suicide.

Agent Adam Stark brings Kendra the package of information that lures her into the investigation into the deaths of these young mothers. Kendra and Adam share a history, sadly disrupted when her mother died. With her back in his life, Adam's determination to protect Kendra and their mutual work brings them closely together.

Life has a tendency to sidetrack me, despite my best intentions. So when a book waits until this long to receive a review, and I still feel the urge to rave, it is certainly one to remember! UNTIL DARK dazzles readers with richly realized characterization that spring from the page, from the spunky heroine to the identity of the serial killer in this fascinating police procedural. With rich emotional nuances, subtle yet creative plot devices, and a romance brewing in the midst, UNTIL DARK provides a fast paced read impossible to put down, coming very highly recommended.

Cynthia Penn
Senior Reviewer

Donovan's Bookshelf
Encyclopedia of Rape
Merril D. Smith, Editor
Greenwood Press
PO Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007
0313326878 $75.00 1-800-225-5800

Any college-level collection strong in social issues or women's issues will want to include the invaluable ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RAPE in their collection: it provides almost two hundred A-Z essays covering rape around the world, from basic concepts, offenders, and high-profile cases to social movements, legislative and legal efforts, and activists. From rape as an adjunct of wars to date rape and Catholic Church scandals, all the basics are covered along with statistics and bibliographic reference.

Florida Almanac 2004-2005
Bernie McGovern, Editor
Pelican Publishing
1000 Burmaster St., Gretna, LA 70053
1589801350 $15.95 www.pelicanpub.com

Del Marth and Martha J. Marth's FLORIDA ALMANAC first appeared in 1975 and has been published as an annual reference ever since, providing Florida natives and visitors alike with a popular blend of local history and color, facts, and travel guidance. Details on forests, state parks and recreation will prove of special interest to tourists, while statistics on crime, government and banking all will provide excellent basic facts for researchers. A fine multi-faceted tool is FLORIDA ALMANAC in its latest rendition.

Rowman & Littlefield
4501 Forbes Blvd., Lanham, MD 20706
www.romanlittlefield.com

Two important coverages on conservation should be considered essential additions to any college-level collection. Tim Palmer's ENDANGERED RIVER AND THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT (0742531414, $27.95) appears in its updated second edition to provide a history of American conservation efforts in river preservation. From history to politics and economics, chapters examine water development issues and conflicts, the history of river protection theories, and new lobbying efforts, providing an excellent historical overview of rivers as a whole. Palmer's LIFELINES: THE CASE FOR RIVER CONSERVATION (07425313920) also appears in its second updated edition and is the perfect companion volume, here arguing for goals of water quality, river conservation, and riparian preservation alike. Chapters reflect on the arguments for and against conservation efforts and provide excellent discussions of hydropower, concrete waterways, and other issues.

Praeger Publishers
PO Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881-5007
www.praeger.com

Two important, very different new books tackle social issues and concerns. M. Keith Booker's SCIENCE FICTION TELEVISION (0275981649, $39.95) analyzes the science fiction series so much a staple of American television from inception to modern times, creating a chronological survey which provides in-depth studies of some of the most important of these series. The genre as a whole has developed its on distinct culture apart from general TV viewing: professor Booker's background in English lends to a survey of modern literature, culture, and the impact of science fiction TV on viewers of all kinds. Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko's THE FRANKENFOOD MYTH (0275978796, $39.95) considers how protest and politics affect and limit the coming biotech revolution. The issues and health concerns around genetically altered foods have revolved for thousands of years, not just in modern times. Farmers have long bred crops for resistance to disease and high productivity, but never has the debate been more heated than post-1970s, when scientists developed the ability to modify plants at the genetic level. A fine look at all the issues involved, and the myths and realities of 'frankenfoods'.

Amacom
1601 Broadway, NY, NY 10019
www.amacombooks.org

So you're always under the gun, under-achieving at work, and wondering how to get more out of a business day? Don't waste another moment turning to Brian Tracy's TIME POWER: A PROVEN SYSTEM FOR GETTING MORE DONE IN LESS TIME THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE (0814472478, $24.95). Author Brian Tracy is one of the top business speakers and consultants in the country, providing plenty of insights on personal development: his approach incorporates over twenty-five years of research into time management strategies of some of the most powerful professionals across all business fields, and is packed with insights on how to improve productivity. Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned's DON'T THINK PINK (081440815X, $23.00) thinks beyond the sales box and helps brand innovators view market appeal through a woman's eyes. Johnson is a marketer who has developed seminars on marketing to women for the American Management Association, while co-author Learned has written many professional articles for the women's market. These two are a powerful combination and DON'T THINK PINK provides a unique focus on issues ranging from developing 'transparent marketing' approaches to analyzing how women buy online and different ways to analyze and segment the women's market. Simply an invaluable sales resource. William A. Cohen, Ph.D., Major General, USAFR, Ret.'s ART OF THE STRATEGIST (981440782X, $24.95) demonstrates neatly that if anyone understands business strategy's ultimate goals, it's the businessman with a military background. Using dozens of examples from both civilian business, military and political arenas, ART OF THE STRATEGIST analyzes 7,000 years of strategy feats and follies to cull out ten basic principles which can translate to business success. Not your usual strategy presentation, that's for sure.

Ivan R. Dee
1332 N. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60622
1-800-462-6420 www.ivanrdee.com

Ben J. Wattenberg's FEWER (156663606X, $24.95) discusses a little-known (among popular circles) phenomenon: for the last 650 years the world's popular has headed up but within a few decades the population will level off, then decline and when it does, countries around the world will find their social systems changed by depopulation's effects. Already countries around the world both modern and less developed are experiencing falling birthrates and fertility rates: depopulation is no longer a theory, but a fact. Wattenberg's background in world and domestic demographics has led to his appointment to numerous presidential committees: his book FEWER covers the important economic and social impacts of depopulation; from a US left with weaker allies who have greater proportions of Muslim voters to a Europe dependent upon vast number of immigrant works previously unallowed in the country. Wyatt Wells's AMERICAN CAPITALISM 1945-2000 (1566635381, $14.95) provides an intriguing survey of American history and economics since the second world war, showing how economic conditions have changed with the rise of new industries and technologies and the decline of established ones. Chapters offer a wonderful contemporary survey of issues of continuity and change as America moves to an information-based society: any who would follow this change will find AMERICAN CAPITALISM an essential key.

Firefly Books
155 E. 34th St. #5B, New York NY 10016
www.fireflybooks.com

Firefly's excellent, compelling 'visual guide' series expands with two new wonderful eye-catchers. Bruce Buckley, Edward Hopkins and Richard Whitakerr's WEATHER A VISUAL GUIDE (1552979571, $29.95) provides a practical weather reference assessing the effects of climate on plants, animals and humans. The latest research on weather issues accompanies discussions of weather extremes and their causes; but the real attraction of what sounds like a very technical discussion is its visual appeal, offering a book packed with color photos on every page. The dramatic pictures not only lend to information, they compel non-scientist browsers to learn. Mark A. Garlick's ASTRONOMY: A VISUAL GUIDE (155297958X, $29.95) achieves the same for astronomy, juxtaposing details of the latest space probe results and monthly sky and star charts with detailed space exploration facts and the latest photos of galaxies. An outstanding survey of the stars invites browsing and learning. Two others guides provide identification field handbooks and are designed as take-along totes on trips. A.P.H. Oliver's GUIDE TO SEASHELLS OF THE WORLD (1552979431, $19.95) covers a range of shells from the common to the rare, supplementing outstandingly realistic paintings of shell species with general details on classification and collection. Dr. John Pernetta's GUIDE TO THE OCEANS (1552979423, $19.95) provides a rich survey of world oceans, from history and exploration to local sea life, ocean currents, basins and more. Both lend to learning. Dr. David M. Bird's THE BIRD ALMANAC (1552979253, $22.95) provides a completely revised, updated edition of a manual described as the 'Rosetta Stone to birds and bird-watching' when it first appeared. Bird has better organized and re-arranged his details, reformatted its pages for quicker, easier use, and added two indexes to the almanac and to common names for the world bird list. Its heart lies in its Checklist of World's Birds, providing instant facts on the birds of the world. Highly recommended: not the visual dsplay of many a bird manual, but a college-level reference packed with detail ornithologists need.

O'Reily & Associates
1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastapol, CA 95472
1-800-998-9938 www.oreilly.com

O'Reilly's latest guides aren't for beginners: they hold industrial-strength tools for intermediate programmers and software developers and are highly recommended basic references for this specialized audience. Rael Dornfest and James Duncan Davidson's MAC OX X PANTHER HACKS (0596007183, $29.95) packs in a hundred 'tips and tools' for Mac OS X system users, surveying Panther's operating system, interface improvements, and details on building Mac's AppleScript with Perl, Python and more. The project applications approach is no one man's experience, but draws on real-world experiences of both Unix and Mac users with backgrounds in customizing hardware and software: the foundation of MAX OS X PANTHER HACKS. Or take Brett McLaughlin and David Flanagan's JAVA 1.5 TIGER (0596007388, $29.95): both authors have long experience in Java structuring and in writing and go for lively prose and developer-oriented solutions to common Java script issues. The next version of Java has been named Tiger and it's more than just another update: it has over a hundred core changes to its foundations including API additions and an expanded library set, and McLaughlin and Flanagan's title is intended to cut through both jargon and complex reference structures to bring the meat of the changes to the typical Java developer's aid. Both are highly recommended picks for applications developers at the professional level.

Hesperus Press
Trafalgar Square, Dist.
PO Box 257, Howe Hill Road, North Pomfret, VT 05053
$12.00 each www.trafalgarsquarebooks.com

Hesperus Press specializes in republishing 'lost' works by key and notable literary achievers, returning to print in affordable paperwork many essential classics dedicated to returning works by illustrious authors to the English-speaking world. Their success in their endeavors has resulted in a rapidly-expanding list of important new contributions this season. D.H. Lawrence's DAUGHTERS OF THE VICAR (1843910837) tells f a Reverend who confronts isolation and hostility among his parishers; L.P. Hartley's SIMONETTA PERKINS (1843910918) tells of an ingenue who retreats to her diary in the face of her mother's unrelenting search for a suitor; Pedro Antonion de Alarcon's THREE-CORNERED HAT (1843910802) returns to print one of the most loved Spanish novels of 18th century Andalusia, Fyodor Dostoevsky's THE DOUBLE (084391087X, $13.95) tells of a nondescript government man who encounters a 'dobule' with the same name, face and background; Prosper Merimee's CARMEN (184910969) returns the inspirational novel-turned-opera to print; John Keats' FUGITIVE POEMS (1843910772, $15.95) gathers previously uncollectived poems; Anton Chekhov's THREE YEARS (1843910764) tells of a one-sided romance, Charles Dickens' A HOUSE TO LET (1843910853) provides a Victorian mystery; Louisa May Alcott's BEHIND A MASK (1843910861) tells of jealousy and quarrels; Alexander Pope's RAPE OF THE LOCK and A KEY TO THE LOCK (1843910926,$13.95) offers a satire of the sexes, Miguel de Cervantes' DIALOGUE OF THE DOGS (1843910659) tells of two dogs who satirize humans; Henry Fielding's JONATHAN WILD THE GREAT (1843910896, $13.95) tells of a callow 'lower' man who finds fame and glory, and Marcel Proust's PLEASURES AND DAYS (184391090X, $13.95) presents philosophical reflections in both narrative and poem styles. All are winning selections for any in-depth college-level literary collection.

Diane C. Donovan
West Coast Editor

Kaveny's Bookshelf
The Spiritual in the Arts

I decided to focus this month's Kaveny's Bookshelf on spirituality in art looking at it from my own personal standpoint. In doing Thus I concentrated on spirituality in the arts with examples of works which have touched me across the sixty-year span of my life. In order to do this, I first need to evoke the concept of standpoint epistemology, because sometimes a couple of big words can do the work of a paragraph full of little words. However, I feel confident in doing this because in general philosophical discourse "epistemology" and "theory of knowledge" are used interchangeably, and standpoint means the place from which one looks at their field. I feel confident in mentioning standpoint epistemology, because it is an emergent field in which I do formal academic work, including conference presentations and articles.

As I write this article, I am coming at it from the standpoint of a Christian, Universalist, open-theist who has been an active member of Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in Eau Claire Wisconsin for the last eighteen months. The long and short of this is that, over the course of my life, I have been a Roman Catholic, a Unitarian, a Quaker, and then again Unitarian, but for most of my life I have been an agnostic theoretical Marxist, and a materialist. Interestingly enough, as a child I was intuitively an atheist. As a matter of fact, when I discovered my own mortality as child, and my mother tried to comfort me, I decided not to break her heart by breaking the bad news to her that god did not exist

I don't want dwell much about how I came to my present standpoint as a Christian theist but it is mostly drawn from my study of the works the existential French Catholic theologian Jacques Martian (1882- 1973) in a philosophy of religion course I took at the University of Wisconsin Madison Forty years ago. At the time, I was a militant atheist, but I loved Martian's concept of "the leap of faith" which is a leap beyond rationality which one takes when adopting any belief system. I seemed to recognize that it took that same leap of faith to be an agnostic theoretical Marxist, and a materialist which I continue to hold, though now I am a Christian theoretical Marxist, and a materialist. If you are interested in Jacques Martian's works, there are hundreds of items by and about him in print. Read his

Approaches to God
Jacques Martian
Greenwood Press
CT, USA
ISBN: 0313206066 $9.00 128 pages

Or you could go to the Martian website
http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/art.htm

One can imagine that as Christian Universalist Anglican open a theist theoretical Marxist, and a materialist, I am will probably never get a job as religious apologist, or evangelist, since everybody knows the big bucks are in biblical literalism. However, all my life I have been interested in stories which bend around what I like to think of as the spiritual wall of the material world. For example, about the time I was five years old and did not want to break the bad news to my sainted Irish mother that God was dead, I heard a wonderful story on the radio about a lame little boy and garden, perpetual winter, and a dying giant read by Hans Conried (1917-1982), website http://www.angelfire.com/celeb2/hansconried/index.html.

For the next fifty-five years, whenever I would think of the story, or tell it to some it would bring little bitty tear to the corners of my eyes

As a matter of fact, I never knew who wrote the story and I always meant to find out, but never go around to it, even though I would love to mention to people over the years. Well all that changed about six months ago when I was talking about spirituality in art with Heather Kirby, Wife of Dean Rev Scott Kirby of Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in Eau Claire Wisconsin. I mentioned this wonderful story I heard on the radio about a lame little boy, and garden, perpetual winter, and a dying giant read by Hans Conried when I was five years old in 1949. Heather, who has a smile so warm it would thaw the heart of a frost giant, smiled and said. "Oh you mean, "The Selfish Giant," By Oscar Wilde. I read that aloud last Christmas; let me give you a copy of the his story collection."

I am now the proud owner of that short-story collection which I will treasure for a lifetime.

The Fisherman and His Soul and Other Fairy Tales
Bloomsbury Poetry Classics
Oscar Wilde
St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312190867; $9.95 128 p.

There are seven or eight other stories in the collection which are equally as moving, and none that are not masterpieces of both children and adult literature. It may seem strange to some of my readers that I, a sixty-year-old who will be entering a formal academic program of religious studies, would find so much spirituality in Fairytales. But, I remind my gentle readers that it is only since the advent of the Disney Enterprises seventy years ago that a fairy tale was a story in which everyone simply lived happily ever after.

As a matter of fact the English fantasist, philologist, and Author of The Century, J. R.R Tolkien (1892-1983), said it all much better in his 1938 essay "On Fairy-stories" first presented as an Andrew Lang Lecture, delivered at the University of St. Andrews in The U.K. If wish you may find excerpts available at this website: http://www.sff.net/people/Sherwood/reading/fairy.htm, or, in print form, in a number of in the collection Tree & Leaf / Smith of Wootton Major / Homecoming of Beorhtnoth ...with Tolkien Cover Art (Omnibus Volume containing Tree & Leaf: Introductory Note; On Fairy Stories; Leaf by Niggle / Smith of Wootton Major / Homecoming of Beorhtnoth: Ofermod, etc) London: Unwin, 1979, Reprint Mass Market paperback cover, contents include: Tree and Leaf: Introductory Note; On Fairy Stories; Leaf by Niggle..with Smith of Wootton Major ..with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth: Beorhtnoth's Death

The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son
J. R. R. Tolkien
Ofermod
ISBN: 0048200166 $10.00

I will quote directly from the essay.

"The 'consolation' of fairy-tales has another aspect than the imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires. Far more important is the consolation of the Happy Ending. Almost, I would venture to assert, that all complete fairy-stories must have it. At least I would say that Tragedy is the true form of Drama, its highest function; but the opposite is true of Fairy-story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite--I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function? The peculiar quality of...'joy' in successful Fantasy can...be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a 'consolation' for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, 'Is it true?' The answer to this question that I gave at first was (quite rightly): 'if you have built your little world well, yes: it is true in that world.' That is enough for the artist...But in the 'eucatastrophe' we see in a brief vision that the answer may be greater--it may be a far-off gleam or echo or evangelium in the real world." .. Oscar Wilde senses this almost fifty years before in his own fairy stories and creates a world in which god is as god and must be if god is what god is supposed to be, and not simply, a human social construction, created to support a hegemonic and oppressive patriarchal, homophobic, gynophobic capitalist, power structure.

We all had to read something or other by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) as part of a college English requirement, but, how many of us know the pathos, suffering, and beauty that was Wilde's life? I was luckier that most because I was privileged to see the great character actor, Vincent Price (1911-1993), do his one man show tribute to Oscar Wilde at The University of Wisconsin Madison Theater in 1982. Price played Wilde as an old and broken man shortly before his death years after his release from an English prison after he had been found guilty of gross indecency, as homosexuality was often referred to at the time. Wilde lived and works most of his life in a period called the gilded age, when Britain ruled the waves, and the sun never set on the British Empire, yet his stories are a mix of the embroidered and elegant, and cryptic and economical.

Suffering exists in all of Wilde's stories in The Fisherman and His Soul and Other Fairy Tales , but in some of his stories as in the Selfish Giant it is mitigated with hope and promise, in fact to me more hope and promise than all the books of the New Testament put together. In others, like The Happy Prince, Wilde brings tears to my eyes by teaching me how a God might hold a dead and frozen bird, and a statue's lead heart is irreducibly melted down in a slag heap more precious than all the treasures of a great kingdom. http://www.literaturepage.com/read/the-happy-prince.html. I could write a lot more about Oscar Wilde but I want to let it go at least for now and move onto another medium. Just so I make myself clear here, I am saying Wilde sought in his stories to redress the catastrophic aspects of modern Christianity as it was practiced in late Victorian England. I would say that his project spoke to me as a child and still does today.

In part two I will report on a local Eau Claire Children's theater production of one of my favorites films and plays of all time, "It's a Wonderful life," and report on our Buffy Project.

I did a great deal of juggling around of my schedule to see the Eau Claire Children's theater production of "Its' a Wonderful Life ," because my new friend Craig Yamauchi played the role of the absent-minded Uncle Billy. Of course, I am wrongly assuming that everyone who reads this has seen or at least knows about the1946 black and white film "It's a Wonderful Life," directed by Frank Capra, and staring Jimmy Steward and June Allison. The film is about a second class angel without wings who helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would had been like if he never existed. George Bailey is about to jump off a bridge into an icy river on Christmas Eve. If you have not seen the film or play you might expect it to be so sweet and sappy that you would need to take oral insulin before you saw it. But of course, you are wrong. The film is an American post-World-War-II classic, made at a time that the horrors of war had almost left the world with out hope and the cultural memories of the Great Depression (1929-1941.) were immediate.

The first thing I want to say about the Eau Claire Children's Theater's "It's a Wonderful Life" was that it was in fact wonderful. Cutting-edge media critic Marshall Mcluhan (1911-1980) made his career with the catch phrase "The Medium is the Message." He was famous for his work on print, radio, and television, and his concept of the global village. The concept is as simple as it sounds whatever message you chose to convey is defined by the media you chose to convey it with. Of course we live in an era of electronic bias but the fact remains that one should never underestimate the power and potential of a sixty-foot-wide, thirty-foot-deep stage, with a competent cast of local characters in a filled thousand-seat theater (complete with balcony), to tell a story.

It would be foolish to compare the two versions of Frank Capra's stage and film productions because they are presented in two different mediums. We hear much about gimmicks, special effects, and the potential of video, but the fact remains that even if you can afford the best plasma high definition flat screen television, it is still only a sixty inch screen in your living room, devoid of the twenty-five hundred year tradition of theater which goes back to the Greeks and which may go back another twenty thousand years to our Cro-Magnon ancestors. Of course I realize that I am speaking from my own standpoint, but I would like to hear how some others feel about it.

Why do I think that "It's a Wonderful Life," as it was performed by the Eau Claire Children's Theatre is a fine example of a great work of art of lasting spiritual importance? Well it is simple. It is about despair, spiritual loss, and finally, a kind of redemption through grace and spiritual community. It is about all of us, everyone, and I suspect everyone has felt like George Bailey one time or other. It's just that most of us don't end up on the railing of a bridge looking into a frozen river; rather we just suffer our lifetimes in quiet desperation.

Just as a writer, an interesting side bar question, at least to me, sort of jumped up in my face. The question goes something like this: Why would a work of great spiritual importance and intensity end up being performed as children's theater? Of course my question is just a bit rhetorical, since about 75% of the audience was adult, but for a deeper answer to my question, I turn again to J.R.R Tolkien's Andrew Lang Lecture "On Fairy Stories," where he suggests that in modernity the fairytale becomes the refuge for the powerful and the mythic. Almost seventy-five-years later, I would argue that Tolkien hit the nail right on the head and drove it all the way through the board.

Part three: The Status of my Buffy project.

I am now about a month into my Buffy project and my wife and I have watched the entire seven years of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series on DVD. We have also have ordered the entire Angel tie-in series. So at this point we have invested at least 400 dollars and about 120 hours in the project. I was encouraged to take my withdrawn conference paper proposal through an appeal process with The International Association for The Fantastic and the Arts executive Board. This was all done by email and telephone, and it reminded me a lot of a number of Labor Union grievance proceeding which I filed as a union steward during my thirty-one-year working life. The people with whom I spoke within the board of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, where gracious, helpful, and, off course, quite condescending, but I was in essence assured that if I removed this phrase from my proposal then of course it would have a very good chance of being accepted. The phrase is below:

"I have chosen a phenomenological methodology because it allows me to strip away the seemingly infinite layers of the filters that are placed between one and the object of one's study by parts of an academic establishment which in many cases has no other agenda than to further its own purpose, and which demands that one to speak in such reified registers that one's message becomes totally removed from ordinary language and thus virtually unintelligible to all, even to oneself"

I explained that my agenda was not to get a paper proposal accepted at their conference, but to do research with a methodology which would allow me to discover something to report. But as I close this month's feature, I would note what no one seemed to grasp: the offending sentence which I refused to strike was really a figurative rhetorical device which has its roots in the twenty-hundred-year old Socratic method of discourse. However, given the reception of my proposal by the powers that be, the phrase appears to be, sadly, much more literal and descriptive than I had intended.

Phil Kaveny
Senior Reviewer

Klausner's Bookshelf
Firebird Trilogy
Kathy Tyers
Bethany
ISBN: 0764229273 $14.99

Firebird. Though a member of the Naetai royal family, Princess Firebird Angelo is a Wastling too low on the succession chain to matter; her life is expendable. She is trained to accept death as her highest calling. Her chance occurs when she is chosen to lead a suicide attack on the planet VeeRon. Instead, she does the unimaginable, dishonoring herself as she allows the enemy to capture her. Fusion Fire. Princess Firebird and VeeRon Master Sentinel Brennan Caldwell have bonded and are expecting the birth of twin sons. However, her older sister Princess Phoena detests Firebird for choosing life when her destiny like all Wastling was death. Phoena will try anything to insure Firebird dies while the Shur will kill to prevent the Master Singer's prophesy that the Messiah is coming as a member of the Caldwell clan. Crown of Fire. Phoena has managed to have Lady Firebird sentenced to death for treason and heresy while rebels are destroying cities on several worlds trying to eradicate the Caldwells and the Angelos. Her family asks Firebird to come home as a royal heiress to try to lure a deadly assassin out into the open even as Phoena plans to kill her dishonorable sibling. The FIREBIRD TRILOGY consolidates three fabulous novels into one terrific package. The Judeo-Christian science fiction story-line turns readers into believing in the varying worlds and the specific mythos starting with the intriguing sacrificial customs that the Naetai have for the younger members of the family that seem like the flowing of blood to replenish the land. The VeeRon beliefs in the coming of the Messiah add to the insight into their values system. This is a fabulous trilogy.

Alice's Journey Beyond the Moon
R. J. Carter, author
Lucy Wright, illustrator
Telos
ISBN: 1903889766 $7.99, 91 pp.

While renovating the library of the Christ Church, Oxford, a series of letters, doodles and a manuscript by Reverend Charles Dodgson is found. Everyone on the project is excited because a new Alice tale, ALICE'S JOURNEY BEYOND THE MOON, has been uncovered amongst the treasure. Since there is no reference to this tale amongst the Dodgson's notes, scholars debate the find, but believe it is an authentic Lewis Carroll Alice story. ALICE'S JOURNEY BEYOND THE MOON as related by Lewis Carroll follows Alice and her cat Snowball debating what makes up the moon with an eclipse on the horizon. Alice wonders could it be made of green cheese and how tasty that would be. Or could it be stone like her father insists? Of course, Snowball mostly purrs in response. Still not sure, Alice feels a visit is in order. She ponders how far the moon can be from her home as she knows the moon is closer than say Russia as she sees the moon, but not Russia. So Alice begins her latest adventure less than a year from her return from the Looking Glass. Lewis Carroll would be proud to include this terrific homage to the great Alice tales as ALICE'S JOURNEY BEYOND THE MOON will entertain children while also providing satire and wit to feed the head of adults as her earlier adventures do. The story line is fun to follow while the footnotes enhance the "discovery" and the fabulous illustrations highlight and enrich the delightful text. R. J. Carter provides a winning Alice adventure that all ages will appreciate while floating along with the heroine.

Slavery and the Making of America
James Horton and Lois Horton
Oxford
ISBN: 019517903X 254 pp. $35.00

SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA is a terrific historical account of the roles and influence that the black slaves made on the United States. The Hortons provide an insightful look on how the slaves impacted all aspects of culture from the first arrivals during the colonial period through the Revolution, the early nineteenth century fulfillment of Manifest Destiny, and finally the Civil War and post Reconstruction. The authors pull no punches while making a solid logical argument with strong supporting evidence that blacks were major players in the colonial and birth of a nation America. Especially interesting is the deep look at various roles and of unknown people. Anecdotal reciting and photographs augment this superb account of how much the black slaves influenced America. Easy to read but difficult to put down because the book is so engrossing, this is a fabulous tome that history buffs will take immense delight in as the Hortons make their case quite interesting as they shatter preconceptions of early American History with insightfulness.

Identity Crisis
Kate Donovan
Silhouette Bombshell
ISBN: 0373513348 $5.50

CIA profiler Kristie Hennessy is very good at her job helping field agents knowing what to expect. However, the somewhat reticent Kristie uses an on line sexy assertive alter ego Melissa Daniels when she provides her services to the department's field agents. She is so good at her job, her superior decides that Kristie-Melissa needs to leave the office and work on a case in the field. Kristie has doubts, but she knows that as Melissa she would want the opportunity. Though with qualms "Melissa" accepts the assignment; she soon finds a sexy masculine voice providing her clues and guidance just like she had done when she worked in the office. She fantasizes who he is and whether he would like Kristie as much as he seems to flirt with the bombshell Melissa. IDENTITY CRISIS is a terrific CIA suspense thriller that never slows down until the final confrontation between the Feds and the bad guys occur. The lead pair is a fine duet although the heroine is too perfect a Jane Bond handling everything tossed her way though she is on her first field assignment. Still the crisp action-packed story line contains two strong protagonists that make for a gripping tale of intrigue.

Knockout
Erica Orloff
Silhouette Bombshell
ISBN: 037351333X $5.50

Knockout Jackie "Jack" Rooney is beautiful and a highly regarded Las Vegas boxing trainer, a profession that rarely finds women performing. However, Jack needs a favor from her boyfriend police officer Rob that could cost him his career. She needs him to allow her time to protect her deceased friend's daughter Destiny, who witnessed a mob murder, before officially reporting it to the "police". He reluctantly agrees because the requestor is the woman he asks to marry him at least twice a week because he loves her. Jack does not realize how much the mob wants the youngster silenced, but would have protected him anyway for personal reasons. Years ago this same gang of thugs framed her dad destroying Jack's family. Now with a reluctant Rob at her side, Jack plans to keep Destiny safe and bring down the mob that would hopefully also prove her father was innocent. The Vegas boxing scene that includes a successful female promoter who knows how to throw a left hook plus the Damon Runyon feel provide a uniqueness to an intriguing suspense thriller. The cast is champions as the key players are fully developed. However, the relationship between the cop and the promoter never fully comes across as more a standing eight-count instead of a knock out romantic love story. Still contemporary fans who enjoy a whimsical tale starring a protagonist who throws mean jabs will enjoy this fine tale.

Pursued
Catherine Mann
Silhouette Bombshell
ISBN: 0373513321 $5.50

Air Force Captain Josie Lockworth knows that the military is only providing lip service to her dream to prove her mom's theory on stealth aircraft or why else would they embed a reporter with her on her test flights. Bad publicity would doom the funding, but to make matters worse in Josie's mind is that they stuck her with Shannon Connor, who she detested when they both attended the Athena Academy for the Advancement of Women. To obtain the millions needed to develop her mom's dream into a reality, Josie has to survive Shannon and persuade test observer Diego Morel to fund her project. Josie and Diego are attracted to one another, but she prefers a professional relationship although he wants more. As they work in close proximity, Diego has doubts on the merit of Josie's dream and knows rejection means the end of his relationship with the woman he loves before it soars off the ground. The latest Athena Academy romantic suspense is an interesting tale on what goes into aircraft testing starring an obsessive female pilot and a veteran knowing he may have to choose between the woman he loves and the right stuff for the military. The story line contains sold characters including the support cast, but except for the wonderful flying scenes the action is limited. Still military romance readers will appreciate the cross purpose pursuits of the likeable lead characters.

Her Kind of Trouble
Evelyn Vaughn
Silhouette Bombshell
ISBN: 0373513313 $5.50

Two months have passed since Magdalene "Maggie" Sanger secured the Melusine Grail although goons of her enemy billionaire slimeball Phil Stuart tried to stop her. After somehow costing Phil his latest girlfriend, the Clemons College Professor of comparative mythology wonders whether she can trust his cousin, her beloved former lover Alexander "Lex" Stuart with her back if he has to choose. Meanwhile Maggie learns that her next assignment as a Grail Keeper is to travel to Egypt to search for the missing Isis Grail. She knows the trek will prove even more dangerous than the previous venture where she alone almost lost her life because Phil will send his hired assassins to follow her and kill her if she succeeds. Still Maggie knows her responsibility lies in Egypt still wondering if she can trust her life with Lex. The latest Grail Keeper suspense thriller adds to the delightful mythos established in A.K.A. GODDESS yet HER KIND OF TROUBLE is a stand alone thriller. Magnificent Maggie is a terrific heroine carrying out her responsibilities while pondering her love life as she has deep feelings for Lex, but has doubts on whose side he is on. Fantasy romance readers will have a field day with this strong novel that makes the unbelievable seem genuine with little nuances and low keyed incidents serving as the foundation for a magical story.

A Precious Gift
Karen Rose Smith
Silhouette
ISBN: 037361389X $4.99

In Portland, Oregon, former model Carrie and land developer Brian Summers are considering adoption with the wife pushing it hard while her spouse reliantly goes along with her. Already filled with doubts, Brian has greater doubts when case worker Trina Bentley from Children's Connection offers an opportunity that he wants to refuse. Eight months pregnant eighteen year old unwed homeless Lisa Sanders knows she must give up her baby. Carrie takes Lisa into her home over the objection of her workaholic husband. As Carrie observes Brian ignore Lisa and her elation of having a child, she realizes that their relationship has been built on falsehoods. She takes much of the blame hiding from him an odious violent episode from before meeting Brian, which is why she cannot conceive and worse unable to tell him. His family problems lie with the desertion by his mother years ago. Can Lisa with her own demons innocently bring two scarred souls obviously in love back together or will she serve as the final straw that piled on the deceptions break the marriage? This is a terrific contemporary romance starring two fabulous likable protagonists whose respective pre-marriage traumas surface when they differ on adoption. The story line will have readers in tears hoping for the best for all concerned as these are nice people who deserve good things and times, but not expecting anything near that to occur. Fans fortunate to read A PRECIOUS GIFT will seek out Karen Rose Smith's back list (see TAKE A CHANCE ON ME) and the previous five Logan's Legacy tales by other authors.

Black Wind
Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler
Putnam
ISBN: 0399152598 $27.95

In December 1944, Captain Miyoshi Horinouchi, staff operations officer of the Japanese Imperial Navy Sixth Fleet, informs Lieutenant Commander Ogawa of Submarine I-403 of a change of assignment. Instead of patrolling the Philippines, he is to "escort' a special guest from the Kure Naval Base in Japan to the "enemy's doorsteps". The civilian Dr. Jisaichi Tanaka of the Army Medical College has found a devastating biological agent that will bring the Americans to their knees begging for peace. If he fails on this mission, Japan will inevitably lose the war as the Battle of the Pacific is all but over since the recent fleet devastation at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However neither this sub nor a companion ever made it to its intended target. In 2007 a South Korean knows where the subs sank and has plans for uniting his country by distracting the Americans with the launching of the deadly biological cargo on Los Angeles. Only Dirk Pitt Sr. and his adult children Jr. and Summer along with his crew from the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) stand in the way of success. This is typical Clive Cussler fare starting with a historical naval moment expanded into an exhilarating base for a strong contemporary watery thriller in which the action is everything. Dirk is aging gracefully (my knees hurt just reading about his adventures), but the torch as with the authors seem to be moving on one knot at a time to the next generation. BLACK WIND is an exciting tale that is like all the NUMA novels worth an oceanic adventure trek that takes enthralled readers merrily to the Pitts.

Survivor in Death
J.D. Robb
Putnam
ISBN: 0399152083 $23.95, 384 pp.

In the year 2059 two intruders break into the home of the Swisher family, killing the parents, the son, their daughter's friend, and their nanny. The daughter Nixie survived because she went downstairs to get a drink and hid when she saw a man kill her nanny and saw the men go upstairs to kill her family and friend. When New York Police and Security Department Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her partner Detective Delia Peabody arrives at the scene, Eve deduces that one person remains unaccounted for amidst the tragedy. She searches the home until she finds Nixie hiding in the bathroom. She feels that the frightened traumatized little girl remains in danger so she brings the lass home with her to keep her safe until she can bring the animals that did the heinous crimes to justice. When a social service worker is snatched in daylight, Eve knows the killers are on the move so she sets a trap that backfires with two officers dead. Now the entire department wants these killers caught preferably dead. Once again J.D. Robb provides an outstanding futuristic police procedural thriller that is loaded with action but contains the author's usual dose of romance. Readers will enjoy observing Eve and her billionaire husband Roark deal with hardened criminals without a second thought, but are deathly afraid of Nixie. SURVIVOR IN DEATH is one of the better books in a terrific series because Eve seems more vulnerable as she feels her latest assignment is the worst ever because it involves children and she struggles to relate to a child who has lost everything. Ms. Robb is one of the best writers of inter-crossing mystery, romance, and science fiction into top quality tales.

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?
Melissa Senate
Red Dress
ISBN: 0373250770 $12.95, 256 pp.

WOW Weddings provides the $100,000 funding for each of two marriage ceremonies if the brides agree to being videotaped, keep journals, and accept the type of ceremony offered. Thinking she will receive a free wedding, co-workers Eloise and Philippa agree to the terms. Eloise will have a modern ceremony while Phyl will be more of a traditional bride. Rather quickly, the two brides learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch as the cost of freedom is high. Eloise hates her modern wedding that emphasize a yellow wedding dress with bird feathers out of Sesame Street and a hall that looks like Dracula was the interior decorator; Phyl detests her traditional setting that reminds her of her grandmother. Both would like to swap roles, but neither wants to say anything that might jinx their nuptials as both have relationship issues to contend with even as they step closer to the first step down the aisle. Though this chick lit tale sounds like an inane reality show and contains some silliness, Melissa Senate injects several deep issues on relationships within the amusing story line. Eloise and Phyl are strong centers to the dual plot while the support cast provides depth either to the wedding scenarios or the brides. Sub-genre fans will want to attend the galas while agreeing with the two women as to WHOSE WEDDING IS IT?

Performance Anxiety
Betsy Burke
Red Dress
ISBN: 0373250681 $12.95

British Columbia native Miranda Lyme is a mezzo-soprano performer with a chance to work in London where her father obtained much of his fame. To pay for her ticket from Vancouver, she works four low paying jobs, but the opportunity to perform at the English National Opera is worth the time and effort. Miranda is falling in love with composer conductor star Kurt Hancock, who is very attracted to her. He informs her that they can see each other, sleep together, and have fun, but his other head will stay hidden from her until he divorces as he feels unsheathing this would be cheating on his wife Olivia. As Miranda wonders about her beloved hiding his third leg from her, she runs over Patrick Tibeau with a shopping cart. Patrick comes from her home town of Cold Shanks and is attracted to Miranda; however she seems to lean towards the married Kurt unless he can persuade her that he offers all of him including his third leg in love. With its double entendre title to lead the orchestra, PERFORMANCE ANXIETY is a fine chick lit romance starring a bewildered protagonist. Miranda needs to decide between the glamorous conductor, who she sees through starry eyes though not fully available as a kindred spirit or the down to earth townsfolk who sees her through his heart. The story line moves rather quickly yet provides insight behind the curtain in the world of opera. Though some amusing antics seem inane, fans will enjoy Miranda's internal relationship war while she tries to make it as a performer.

Too Good to Be True
Sheila O'Flanagan
Downtown
ISBN: 0743470443 $13.00

Air Traffic Controller Carey Browne flies from Dublin to New York on her vacation. On the flight she meets Ben Russell, co-owner with his sister Freya, of a successful chain of health-food stores. Still smarting from a relationship with a married man that went sour, Carey wants nothing to do with men, but Ben is persistent. They enjoy their first night in Manhattan together. Perhaps it was the alcohol, but the two Irish tourists fly to Vegas and get married. They return to their hometown of Dublin where his sister hosts a party in which family and friends honor the newlyweds. However, Freya invites Ben's former girlfriend Leah Ryder who thinks he is a form of excrement and a few drinks later wrecks the gala and more. Meanwhile Freya has her own concerns as she suffers with the early arrival of menopause. This is an intriguing chick lit tale that spends much of the book looking deep into the impulsive act of marrying without any solid basis. However the story line takes a perpendicular spin by abruptly refocusing from the shaky relationship between Carey and Ben to the physical troubles suffered by Freya. Either subplot would have made a strong lead, but neither takes charge for the preponderance of the novel as if there were two novellas. Still the cast is solid, the location terrific and the two competing subplots interesting albeit shortchanged.

Why Not?
Shari Low
Downtown
ISBN: 074348312X $13.00, 352 pp.

In London (not Minot), Jess Latham believes strongly that career and friends take precedent over men and marriage. However, as her three closest friends become married and have children, she wonders if her ambitions are causing her to miss some of the finer aspects of maleness. She has an affair with her boss, but loses her job when Mike "The Reporter" Chapman exposes her tryst in the tabloids. Jess continues her slide downhill when she has sex with Mike and becomes pregnant. As shoe plots vengeance on all things masculine with the help of her strategic friends Carly, Kate, Carol, and Stacey, she wonders if she wants Mike permanently in her life just like her mates have done with their men. WHY NOT? is a humorous London swings romp that like the five musketeers takes no prisoners. Jess is a terrific lead protagonist as she struggles with how far she ahs fallen just because of an affair while her tryst partner blithely goes on like nothing happened. Though the four friends never stand out with individual traits except in terms of their spouses and children, chick lit readers will agree with Shari Low WHY NOT this amusing tale.

Bloodhounds
Peter Lovesey
Soho
ISBN: 1569473773 $13.00, 359 pp.

The Bloodhounds are a weird mystery fan group who meet in strange places like crypts to hold discussions. Just prior to tonight's meeting Milo finds a rare Penny Black stamp inside a John Dickson Carr novel; the stamp was recently stolen from the Postal Museum. Not long afterward, Milo is found dead in his locked riverboat and the stamp is missing. The killer sends riddles to the police and the media driving an already irate Bath Detective Superintendent Diamond up a wall while his staff interviews the other members of the Bloodhounds. Diamond soon comes up with a theory on how the killer escaped the locked riverboat puzzle, but that fails to get him any closer to identifying the culprit making him wonder if his hypothesis is sending him down the wrong path. Paying homage to John Dickson Carr, no one writing today does locked room mysteries as good as Peter Lovesey does. In his fourth Diamond police procedural (see THE LAST DETECTIVE, DIAMOND SOLITAIRE, and THE SUMMONS) is a terrific tale that grips readers as the cops question the obsessed Bloodhounds only to uncover all sorts of personal secrets, but no murder motive as none seems like a thief. Diamond remains cantankerous perhaps more so this time because the serial killer is laughing in public at his foibles. Besides the locked room, Mr. Lovesey pulls a brilliant sleight of the hand that will fool and satiate the audience.

Haunted Souls
Denise A. Agnew
Ellora's Cove
ISBN: 1843609606 $TBA

After twelve years of being away, writer Clarissa Gaines returns to Pine Forest, Colorado to write a book on the haunted town. While Clarissa visits St. Bartholomew Catholic Church Cemetery, a "pirate" tries to mug her only to have Ronan Kiernan, claiming the territory as his, rescue her. He warns her to pick safer locales in the future especially since a serial killer is roaming the town. Ronan wonders if Clarissa is the mortal that the prophecy insists is needed to stop the Ancient One, a serial killer vampire. If she is, she would voluntarily have sex with a vampire, preferably Ronan for that will enhance his power and enable him to fight his superior opponent. As Ronan begins to "court" (some might say stalk) Clarissa, his enemy is also aware of who she might be. The third "Deep is the Night" vampire romance is an exciting extra heated tale that grips readers from the moment the lead couple meets by a gravestone (talk of eerie openings) and never slows down until the final altercation. The story line is actually an investigative novel with a deep look at the world of vampires and other paranormal species. Clarissa is a terrific intrepid protagonist while Ronan is a courageous as sexy of a hunk counter. Denise A. Agnew provides another triumphant novel.

All She Ever Wanted
Barbara Freethy
Signet
ISBN: 0451213653 $6.99, 416 pp.

In San Francisco, St. Timothy's Hospital ER specialist Dr. Natalie Bishop hears about a bestselling novel, Fallen Angel, written by an unknown author Garrett Malone that eerily sounds like what happened a decade ago to her college roommate Emily Parish. Natalie thinks back to the Fabulous Four (she, Emily, Laura, and Madison) and that fatal day that changed all their lives. When his irate girlfriend hits Tribune editor Cole Parish with a stapler, his friend takes him to nearby St. Timothy's. There he runs into Natalie. They were attracted to one another when the death of his sister ended their relationship and remain engrossed with each other even now though Natalie mentioning a book surprises him. When they try to meet the author at a book signing, he flees from Natalie or Laura who also arrived at the bookstore. Natalie and Cole agree to investigate further the claim of Malone that one of the other surviving Fab Four killed Emily. ALL SHE EVER WANTED is a fabulous investigative romance tale that grips the audience once Natalie learns of the novel obviously written by an insider but how that reflects the worse moment of her life. The lead couple is a fine pairing as both are very attracted to one another, but the ghost of his sister keeps them apart as it has for a decade. Though unnecessary coincidence staples and sutures the first meeting between Natalie and Cole, fan will enjoy this tense thriller wondering how Malone knows what he does and whether murder did occur.

Proud Eagle
Cassie Edwards
Signet
ISBN: 045121367X $6.99, 336 pp.

In 1880 Eagle Bay, Washington, Billie "Boy" Shaughnessy visits the grave of her recently deceased father as Makak Chief Proud Eagle observes her. He detested her lumber baron father who broke treaties with the tribe by cutting down trees everywhere he chose, which caused a mudslide that killed Indians including the chief's wife. Billie inherited her father's half of the business. Desperate to prove to her dad even though he is dead that she was like him and not her socialite mother, Billie discusses business with her partner Roy Clawson. He plans to rid himself of this "boy" even if he has to kill her if frightening her fails. Proud Eagle finds himself attracted to the daughter of his enemy; Billie reciprocates his feelings, but feels any relationship with the chief would dishonor her dad's memory. Though well written, PROUD EAGLE is exactly like most if not all of Cassie Edwards' tales with honorable male Indians and while females, and dishonorable whites. The story line is exciting and provides insight into Indians of the Northwest during the late nineteenth century while also providing an environmental shout for protection. The lead duet is a fine pairing who know that her father is a demonic ghost in the way of a loving relationship. Fans of the author or the sub-genre will enjoy the latest tale even if one size fits all.

Insatiable
Virginia Henley
Signet
ISBN: 0451213459 $6.99, 416 pp.

Catherine Seton Spencer works as a dress designer in the court of Queen Elizabeth. She is known by her friends as impulsive, which she agrees as she only wants a little fun and excitement and a lot of love in her life. Scottish Lord Patrick Hepburn spent four months patrolling the Middle March of the Borderlands, but completed his assignment. When he informs King James that his second sight reveals his monarch will succeed Elizabeth, the elated regal sends him to his future court as his emissary to Her Royal Highness. At court he and Catherine meet with terrible first impressions. He thinks she is spoiled while she concludes he is pompous. However, they end up working together trying to prevent a conspiracy to dethrone Elizabeth and prevent James from following her; that teaming leads to better understanding of the other and soon love. Few writers can bring together a spicy romance within a commanding period piece as the great Virginia Henley consistently does. What makes Ms. Henley so remarkable is she accomplishes this reliable quality while constantly changing eras. Her latest triumph stars two fabulous protagonists falling in love though seemingly opposites in attitude. Adding a touch of the paranormal to the mix, historical readers receive a wonderful Elizabethan Era love story that brings the intrigue of the age to full life.

Sweetwater Seduction
Joan Johnston
Dell
ISBN: 0440205611 $7.50, 383 pp.

In 1880 in Sweetwater, Wyoming Territory, the ranchers and the farmers are on the verge of war. The ranchers assert that the farmers are stealing their cattle; the farmers declare that the ranchers are destroying their fences allowing their cattle to roam onto their land and devastate their crops. Neither side will bend. Disgusted with both groups and worried about her students especially the safety of the children of both sides, too tall and too tough for any male, spinster schoolmarm Eden Devlin borrows a concept from the classic Greek play Lysistrata. No sex until the dumb males come to their senses and end the hostilities before someone gets hurt. The ranchers hire gunslinger Burke Kerrigan to capture the rustlers and offer a bonus of one thousand dollars if he seduce Eden and thereby end the boycott. As Burke begins to uncover who is behind the troubles, he and Eden fall in love, but can a cynical gunslinger and a prim teacher find anything in common permanently? Lysistrata in the Wild West is a terrific tale starring two likable individuals who are not quite the extreme stereotypes that everyone believes of both of them. The story line is typical of the range war theme, but is freshened up by the lead couple and a solid investigative subplot as Burke takes nothing at face value including the ranchers' insistence that the farmers are the rustlers. Fans of Joan Johnston will cherish this fine story while the award winning author should gain new recruits.

Nobody Runs Forever
Richard Stark
Mysterious
ISBN: 0892967986 $23.95

In a Cincinnati hotel room, seven buddies play poker intending to discuss a heist. Parker, sitting out the hand, gets up, takes off his tie, and wraps it around the throat of Harbin who is wearing a wire. Dalesia and Mott pretend the game is still on as Parker kills Harbin. McWhitney, who brought Harbin to the game, disposes of the body. The game breaks up with Fletcher pretending to be Harbin informing the others he will clean up. Stratton thanks "Harbin" as they all leave. However, Dalesia and Parker, who have a bit of history together, talk about being out of work. Dalesia says he has a somewhat risky idea for a heist of over a million dollars being transported by four armored trucks guarded by twelve security agents. Parker wants in though he understands that the prime risk comes from two key "rookies", the banker's wife and a former bank employee, neither of which can keep their enthusiasm nor fears quiet. Meanwhile Harbin's partners hunt for him by tracking the poker players. Now the gang, Harbin's partners, and Police Detective Gwen Reversa rendezvous with four armored-cars. NOBODY RUNS FOREVER is a typical exhilarating Parker tale that leaves no prisoners from start to finish. Parker displays his professionalism from the onset as he calmly kills the informant in the opening scene and continues on that criminal path that makes him a popular antihero. Though his partners are so tyro and unprofessional that long term fans would doubt he would try the caper with them, all things considered readers will appreciate Richard Stark's latest Parker thriller.

DeKok and the Geese of Death
Baantjer
Speck Press
ISBN 0972577661 $13.00, 196 pp.

Inspector DeKok of the Amsterdam Municipal Police is trying to get a confession out of Igor Stablinsky for the murder of rich and elderly Samuel Lion. The interrogation goes nowhere when a woman calls about some geese. When DeKok turns his back on Igor, the criminal tries to kill him with a tire iron. He fails and is put back in jail while DeKok and his partner Vledder visit Happy House Estate where the matriarch Isolde Bildijk demands the police arrest her servant. He bought strychnine and Isolde believes he is going to kill her geese. They leave without arresting the man but soon return when all the geese die. Isolde tells them she fears her life is in danger and asks her family to stay and protect her. While DeKok is busy with geese Igor breaks out of jail and Isolde is one of the people they think he intends to kill. Three murders occur at Happy House, the servant and two of Isolde's nephews with Igor seen at the mansion. DeKok is under increasing pressure from his supervisors to find the killer before someone else dies. This is a short but fantastic who-done-it with many viable suspects though obviously Igor leads the list and there are plenty of red herrings to keep readers interested in the story. DeKok is getting ready to retire but remains at least as good a police officer as he was in his younger days. The audience gets an armchair's view of Holland, particularly Amsterdam, where legalized drugs and prostitution differ from the rest of Europe and the United States. Baantjer is an excellent writer and this reviewer will look forward to his next police procedural.

Beyond the Waves
Elizabeth Marek
NAL
ISBN: 0451213572 $12.95, 234 pp.

Though two years have passed since her daughter Sarah died, psychologist Abby Cohen remains in mourning. Her four year old son Ben has noticed how his mom is distant to him so he always turns to his father Michael for comforting and parenting. Twelve years old Miranda is found wandering in horror the streets of Manhattan. Barely able to respond to inquiries, Miranda is taken to St. Ann's Hospital where Abby takes charge of her. A few weeks later, Miranda's "daddy" surfaces; Jack Reynolds has been worried about his missing daughter who never leaves their home out of fear of the snakes. His search for his daughter finally succeeds when he finds her at St. Ann's. As Abbey challenges Jack in court over the welfare of Miranda, the psychologist begins to connect with her own family as she finally starts to move past grieving for her deceased child. However, the biological father has everything going for him in court so all Abby can do is pray for a miracle for this young girl. BEYOND THE WAVES is an insightful look at grieving, which is an individual process regardless of whose the person is. Abby is a terrific center of the tale as she struggles with showing her love to her family following the death of her daughter. However, it is the relationship with Miranda that makes the tale unique as the young retarded girl has lived a sheltered life until the hospital stay opens her eyes. Though the ending is too convenient and seemingly out of character for a key player, readers will appreciate this perceptive look at mental health.

Paging Aphrodite
Kim Green
Delta
ISBN: 0385337191 $12.00

Following her spouse Neil abandoning her within eleven days of saying I do, thirty-two years old interior decorator Rosie breaks down at work. Needing to get away, she decides to take her sister Canda on her honeymoon to Corfu with Neil's ticket. However, Canda transfers her ticket to her friend Anya. Thus an upset Rosie and Anya fly together from San Francisco. Her family, friends, and son think Claire is mad because she refuses to stay in Sydney working on reconciliation with her cheating spouse Gary who is sleeping with the facial massage lady. Instead she decides sun and sand in Corfu would be a better relaxant. In London wannabe author Keloh knows her life has collapsed as she not only moved back in with her parents, has no boy friend and a pal with talent has been published. Needing inspiration and to escape the London scene, Keloh decides Greece is the word. These four women with varying backgrounds from different parts of the Anglo world come together to hide from their normal existence back home and perhaps regroup. They quickly forge a sisterhood that remains solid even when the spousal and parental invasion begins. This is an interesting character study of four females struggling with the respective directions of their lives. This pleasant buddy tale relates the woes of each protagonist only each one of the women realizes that their lament is not so bad. When the invaders arrive, the sisterhood stands in solidarity but learn how far their pasts can reach. PAGING APHRODITE is an insightful chick lit tale that emphasizes you can run but can't hide from your relationships even demonic ones.

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders
John Mortimer
Viking
ISBN: 0670033561 $24.95, 224 pp.

Horace Rumpole looks back to just after graduating from Oxford to work his first legal case. Five decades ago Rumpole bit his acerbic tongue to defend a client Simon Jerold accused of a double murder, that of his father and a friend using a pistol taken from a deceased World War II German aviator. The evidence seems overwhelming and the legal fraternity shies away from defending the accused as no money can be made. Stunned by the reaction of his peers Rumpole dives into the defense with idealistic zeal. Rumpole quickly learns that the jurisprudence system is a haven for corrupt barristers trying to squeeze pounds out of helpless and at times innocent criminals. He drops the gloves applying his saber wit on opponents as he defends his client with his belligerent in your face manner. He will use that technique for the next five decades defending the downtrodden against powerful opponents except Hilda Wyston who he has just met through her father and quickly becomes known as "She Who Must Be Obeyed". This is a terrific Rumpole legal thriller that fans of the series will fully treasure due to the documenting of his first case referenced in many of the short stories. The deep support cast consists of "felons" from all sides of the legal systems, family members, and lest we forget the client. Though newcomers will feel aspects of the case and the protagonist's background seem missing (a tendency to rely on references in other books), readers will find pleasure with the character driven case that fans have wanted for seemingly almost as long a time as the hero looks back.

The Christmas Thief
Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark
Simon & Schuster
ISBN 0743271556 $21.00, 204 pp.

Packy Noonan is a natural born con artist who is able to talk people into investing over 100 million in his phony shipping company. He and his two confederates were about to cash out and leave the country when the scam was revealed. His two confederates escaped but Packy was caught and sent to jail. After serving twelve years he is freed and heads to Stowe, Vermont to get the diamonds that are hidden in an eighty foot blue spruce tree belonging to his one time employees Lenny & Viddy. He doesn't know that the tree is due to be cut down and taken to Rockefeller Center where it will be seen by millions of people. Opal, one of the people who lost money in Packy's scam, is also going to Stowe for the weekend, along with Alviah Meshim and her husband, Megan Reilly, her fianc�e and her parents. Opal spots Packy's cohort Benny and winds up kidnapped. When Packy and company go to cut down the spruce they don't realize that Lenny's neighbor Wayne already found the diamonds. Packy is determined to get his jewels or die trying while Opal's friends search for her before something dreadful happens. Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol Higgins Clark have written a holiday mystery that is entertaining and at times funny in a sardonic way. The Clarks put the readers in the holiday spirit with THE CHRISTMAS THIEF, a novel that stars characters from other books written by these talented authors. Readers will feel sorry for Packy who sees his dreams of getting rich slowly evaporate forcing a final Hail Mary.

Wolves Eat Dogs
Martin Cruz Smith
Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0684872544 $25.95, 336 pp.

In Moscow billionaire NoviRus Corporation CEO Pasha Ivanov jumps ten stories to his death. Prosecutor Zurin rules suicide immediately and informs Senior Investigator Arkady Renko that Colonel Ozhoggin, head of NoviRus Security, is coming to check the scene. Arkady thinks the suicide decision is typical of the incompetent Zurin so he looks around the apartment wondering why kilos of table salt are in the closet and on the windowsill as well as blood stains on the sill especially since NoviRus' senior vice-president Lev Timofeyev has a bloody nose from an alleged cold. Not long afterward, Lev turns up dead in a Ukrainian cemetery inside the Zone of Exclusion that centers on Chernobyl; his throat sliced and wolves having masticated his face. When Arkady continues to make inquiries, irritated Zurin exiles him to Chernobyl to investigate the Timofeyev death. Inside the still deadly radioactive circle Renko feels he will find the answers to the murders of Ivanov and Timofeyev. Though there is poison everywhere and real wolves prowling, Renko knows that it is the humans who must beware as someone besides his incompetent superior wants him to drop the investigation. This terrific Russian police procedural will have fans seeking previous Renko stories (see HAVANA BAY and RED SQUARE, etc.). Renko remains an excellent cop struggling with a difficult case and Zurin. However, what makes this a must read novel is the motorcycle trip within the Zone of Exclusion where a dosimeter is a key eating utensil as one tests radioactive amounts in food and water; "residents" consist of scientists, soldiers, seniors who could not or would not flee, and lunatic newcomers.

The Bloody Crown of Conan
Robert E. Howard
Del Rey
ISBN: 0345461525 $15.95, 384 pp.

"The People of the Black Circle". Due to Himelians' black sorcery King Bhunda Chand of Vendhya dies. His grieving sister who had to kill her sibling to give him peace wants revenge. None of her warriors want to deal with the evil seers except for Conan who fears nothing, neither sword or sorcery. "The Hour of the Dragon". Defrocked priest Orastes brings back to life High Priest Xaltotuan, who died three thousand years ago to teach him how to use the Heart of Ahriman. They plan to kill the ruling family of Nemedia through "natural" means, place an ally on the throne, and attack Aquilonia ruled by barbaric King Conan. "A Witch Shall be Born". Beloved Queen Taramis of Khauran is stunned when her twin sister Salome visits. Salome was left to die in the desert at birth, but being born a witch she survived. Salome impersonates her sister and uses mercenaries to take over. Conan survives warwounds, an attack by a vulture, and a tying to a cross to lead the counter insurgency. Miscellanea and Appendices. These segments include intriguing manuscripts and story synopsis by Robert E. Howard that show the development of Conan as a character and much of his age. The appendices further provide insight into the hero, the kingdoms, and his age. The well written stories by Mr. Howard bring out the best of Conan in an era of sword and sorcery and by themselves would make an ideal gift for aficionados. The miscellanea adds icing to an already delightful collection. Making this a winner for anyone who follows the Barbarian especially the opportunity to read what his originator scribed.

Dark Rendezvous
Sean Stewart
Del Rey
ISBN 0345463099 $7.50, 352 pp.

After the battle of Genosiss, the republic is plunged into a galaxy wide war led by Count Dooku, once a Jedi in training who studied with Yoda. Now he turns to the dark side of the force answering only to his master Darth Sidious. The count has captured Jedi Knight Jai Moruk and has him deliver a message to Yoda to see if they can negotiate a peace with the stipulation that Yoda must come to him on the planet Vjon; a place where the dark side of the force is very strong. After living eight centuries, Yoda knows he probably will be walking into a trap and sets up a diversion to avoid being captured by Dooku's minions. Accompanying Yoda to Vjon is Jedi Masters Jai Marak, Master Leon, their padawans (apprentices), Scout and Whie and Whie's manservant robot Fidelis. The force in Scout is weak but she has an important role to play in the upcoming confrontation between Yoda and Dooku as both try to persuade the other that it isn't too late to change sides. Sean Stewart has written in exciting Star Wars novels filled with action and adventures that is typical of the space opera sub-genre. He doesn't neglect his characters and in a surprise twist readers and Dooku realize that he still has a chance to take the road Yoda chose if he dares to betray his master. Fidelis is a robot butler who offers comic relief when the tension to threatens to overwhelm the audience. DEAD RECKONING is a terrific installment in the Star Wars saga.

No Laughing Matter
Peter Guttridge
Speck Press
ISBN: 0972577645 $13.00, 277 pp.

Bridget, Frank and Nick fly from England to Montreal to cover the Just for Laughs Festival for different newspapers. While Nick is tied up in a yoga position, he sees a young woman flash past his hotel room window. He concludes she is a jumper who he later learns was Cissy Parker, a movie starlet. The police rule it an accidental death due to drugs, but Nick has doubts when Frank mentions he heard a man screaming at a woman on the eighteenth floor. A reporter Julie informs Nick that she took pictures at a celebrity bash that Cissy attended. The starlet offered her a lot of money to buy the negatives, but Julie refused. One of the photos shows Cissy with an unidentified man. When Nick learns the victim was pregnant he concludes she was pushed. Not realizing the danger he causes to himself, his friends and others associated with Cissy on both sides of the ocean, Nick keeps digging as more homicides occurs. In between murder, beatings, chases, air travel, NO LAUGHING MATTER contains amusing comical scenes, but the prime story line is the protagonist is drawn into a homicide investigation that he prefers to avoid. Once he begins making inquiries, he continues to the bitter end, which he realizes could be his death, in an effort too learn the identity of the mastermind behind the killings and the beatings he suffered. Talented Peter Guttridge provides a journalistic investigative mystery that stars a fine cast worthy of sequels.

All God's Creatures
Carolyn McSparren
Belle Books
ISBN: 0967303583 $14.95

In 1960 Memphis teenage debutante Margaret Evans decides to attend veterinary school over the objections of her family especially her mother who wonders if her rebel daughter hates her by going for a career with animals. At school, Margaret finds many of her professors detest females in their classes and openly display their hostility with comments or give her the worse assignments to drive her and the only other female student farmer's daughter Elizabeth "Eli" Schlieber out of school. Still the two women persevere and become friends. Maggie who changes her name to McLain and Eli open up a joint practice in the Cleveland, Tennessee area where they slowly persuade the pet lovers, horse breeders, and livestock owners that they know what they are doing. Life moves on with success in their practices while Maggie marries and raises a family. Change the gender and place Dr. Herriot in the south to give readers a perspective of this tale. Yet that description feels inadequate as Dr. Herriot never dealt with the sexism from her family, teachers, peers, and clients that Maggie and Eli contended with on a recurring basis. ALL GOD'S CREATURES is a delightful account of a woman pioneering in a field that is now loaded with women doctors (My animal doctors in Stockbridge, Georgia has more females than males on staff). Carolyn McSparren salutes those who started the 1960s equal rights movement that has led to females today coming a long way baby.

Too Wild
Jamie Sobrato
Harlequin Temptation
ISBN: 0373691971 $4.50, 216 pp.

In San Francisco her latest assignment has placed journalist Jenna Calvert in jeopardy so when Travis Roth, the brother of her twin sister's fianc� asks for a favor, she figures why not. Jenna's sibling Kathryn obtained facial treatments that have made her mug look puffy so she is in hiding until she can get her visage fixed. She needs Jenna to do what they did as children pretend to be her while attending social and charity events. Jenna agrees to spend two weeks in Carmel masquerading as her sister. However, the wild child as Jenna is known by her family soon finds herself in deep trouble as she is attracted to Travis when she is supposed to pay attention to the groom. As Jenna and Travis fall in love, the switch causes chaos and confusion for everyone else. This madcap heated romance is a wild romp that fans who appreciate laughter with love will enjoy this fine tale. The story line is fun as Jenna and Kathryn are opposites so that the masquerade is impossible without people thinking the bride has either jitters or is possessed. Though the love subplot between the lead couple seems secondary to the antics including the torrid encounters, readers will take delight with this amusing screwball comedy.

Serpent in Paradise
Jayne Ann Krentz
HQN
ISBN: 0373770162 $6.99

Jase Lassiter has lived on remote Saint Clair, a Southern Pacific island for the past decade. There he owns the Serpent bar and offers himself as a "souvenir" to females. When Amy Shannon shows up at his bar, Jase concludes that she does not belong in a dive like his. Still he figures he can score with her before he sends her on her way. However, he soon realizes how far outside her lane she is when thugs threaten her if she fails to stop her inquiries over what happened to her former brother-in-law. Unable to mind his business, Jase decides to protect Amy, not expecting to fall in love with visiting Miss Innocent. This is a reprint of a 1980s tale (written under the name Stephanie James) that will please fans of Jayne Ann Krentz. The story line is vintage Ms. Krentz as the lead male is more an antiheroic rogue until he meets the love of his life; his heart subsequently supersedes his brain forcing him to keep his cherished Amy safe. Though the male lead seems to be overly protective to the point of ordering his beloved around (hey this was the Reagan macho conservative age not the compassionate conservative Bush era we still had a long way to go baby), fans will enjoy this fine island romantic suspense.

Total Exposure
Tori Carrington
Harlequin Code Red
ISBN: 0373612877 $4.99, 248 pp.

In Courage Bay, California, though he needs an examination of an on the job burn, Fire Chief Ben Egan avoids Burn Specialist Dr. Natalie Giroux as if her touch would enflame him. Still with the coaxing of his daughter, Natalie goes to the station to confront the reluctant Ben so that she can see if his injury is healing properly. When a torrential rain causes a mud slide that threatens a trapped man suffering chest pains, Dan and Natalie team up. He flies the medvac helicopter and they rescue the victim only to have the storm force an emergency landing on apparently abandoned Shamala Island in Courage Bay. As they wait for rescue, they begin fall in love, but both have ghosts preventing them from moving on with someone else. Fourteen years have passed since Natalie's fianc� died from heart disease just before their wedding while his beloved spouse Eleanor also passed away several years ago. In the midst of this Code Red emergency, can a second chance at love blossom between two nice intrepid souls fearing the loss of loved ones? TOTAL EXPOSURE affirms that no one does romantic suspense better than Team Carrington does it. The story line uses previous loving relationships to provide the motive for both lead characters to avoid a new one as loved ones die until they are stranded with no place to hide or run from one another. The action is top rate with fans feeling they are in the midst of the disaster. Sub-genre fans will gain plenty of delight from this powerful tale of love and rescue in Courage Bay.

Sparking His Interest
Wendy Etherington
Harlequin Temptation
ISBN: 037369198X $4.50, 216 pp.

In Baxter, Georgia, the first arson fire was in a real estate office; the second occurs in an office supply warehouse. Fire Chief Ben Kimball decides he needs outside expertise so he persuades Atlanta to lend him fiery expert Cara Hughes though he knows his brother police lieutenant Wes will be unhappy that an outsider is coming to investigate the fires. Wes resents Cara as much as he wants to eye witness whether she really sleeps with a switchblade under her pillow. Cara is used to taking charge and makes no exception as to who will lead the inquiries. Still she reciprocates his desires so as she investigates the blazes with his help, she and Wes heat the sheets. As they fall in love while she tries to stop a fire bug from hurting someone, Cara knows she is big city while Wes realizes he is small town. Compromise seems impossible for this duet. This heated contemporary romance stars two fabulous heroes struggling with their passionate need for one another while trying to stop a potential serial killer from hurting someone. The story contains two torrid subplots, a fiery arsonist burning the town down and a fiery romance burning the sheets down. The heroic lead pair is likable and admirable though Cara at times may cross from assertive to aggressive as the male cops and firefighters resent her intrusion. That is just one more reason why this fire investigative romance will provide plenty of heated pleasure to contemporary fans.

A Protected Witness
Mallory Kane
Harlequin Intrigue
ISBN: 0373228090 $4.99, 250 pp.

Allison Barnes allows the visitor, the head of the FBI Division of Unsolved Mysteries into her home to see her spouse of eight years, field agent Joe. However, the visitor kills Joe and shoots Allison leaving her for dead. After healing, she suffers from amnesia and cannot identify who killed her husband. Allison enters the Witness Protection program. Seventeen months later, Allison, using the name Angela Martin, works at Colorado State University. However, Joe's executioner has penetrated the haze that hid her and is coming. Her only hope to survive resides in her spouse's prot�g� Mitch Decker. As he tries to keep her safe, they fall in love, but first they must deal with the culprit and then the ghost of Joe, who would applaud a permanent relationship between the two people who meant the most to him when he lived. This "Ultimate Agents" romantic thriller is an exhilarating tale that takes off from the start when Allison sees her spouse executed and the same person try to kill her, and never slows down until she, with Mitch on her side, and Joe in their hearts, confront the killer. The story line moves at a rapid pace with two solid protagonists although Joe is treated as so ethically perfect that he seems unreal. Still Mallory Kane as expected furbishes a powerful suspense novel that will have readers seeking her previous works (see BULLETPROOF BILLIONAIRE).

Not Quite Advertised
Tanya Michaels
Harlequin Flipside
ISBN: 0373442025 $3.25 219 pp.

Visions Media Advertising expert Joss McBride is a perfectionist so coming in second two years in a row in the prestigious ADster Gold Award hurts, but adding to her sense of failure is that her former lover Hugh Brannon won both times. At this year's banquet Hugh flirts with Joss, but she writes him off as just another inane ad campaign though she admits to herself she remains attracted to him. Hugh knows his previous drive for perfection cost him Joss in their rivalry, but he has changed his life ambitions ever since his brother suffered an eye awakening heart attack. Now his plan is to win the heart and mind of his beloved before she strokes out. The merging of their companies provides him the avenue, but he must convince Joss that he is the real deal. Surprisingly this often amusing contemporary romance contains a deep serious theme on what is most important in life. The lead couple is extremely deep as Hugh realizes how fortunate he is to have learned his lesson. Hugh prays that his Joss does not follow in his sibling's footsteps as he struggles to convince her that he truly loves her.

Good to be Bad
Debbi Rawlins
Harlequin Blaze
ISBN: 0373791631 $4.75, 250 pp.

In Manhattan, Karrie Albright of the Sanax Corporation looks forward to working on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when her boss Malcolm Sandhill informs her that she is representing the firm in Nevada because that is her home state. Sanax owns land that the University of Nevada wants to do a dig for training archeological students. Professor Rob Phillips will head the excavation while Karrie will insure that nothing is found that could prevent the company from making money off this desert property. Karrie and Rod knew one another as back in college. As they reunite, their passion reignites and neither can avoid the physical attraction. Soon they fall in love, but they have different agendas on how to use the Paiute artifacts, which means that when she leaves for New York, their dreams will end. Though the ending seems too simple considering the Hoover Dam could not cover the chasm between them and that an intriguing fortune teller opening subplot is unnecessary, this contemporary turns out to be fun to read. The story line highlights the inferno and the abyss between the likable lead couple. Fans will wonder if Karrie can find in her heart the path to keep forever the "man she does" when he shares her doubts as much as her love.

1-900-Lover
Rhonda Wilson
Harlequin Blaze
ISBN: 0373791623 $4.75, 250 pp.

Rowan Crosswhite loses her high school science teaching position due to funding cutbacks. To eat, she desperately tries to bring in income beyond substituting by opening up a 900 sex phone line. She finds working weeds in her garden while exciting customers helps her get through the detestable job. Will Foster, owner of Foster's landscape Design, is outraged to find six calls adding up to $1000 on his monthly phone bill. He knows his seventeen years old nephew Scott made the call, but decides to confront the owner of 1-900-Lover for having phone sex with a minor. A friend gets Rowan's name and number for him. Will visits with hostile intent until he sees how cute her butt looks. When she runs the tape of her calls with Scott, he realizes she helped him with his science homework. Will likes what she has done with her garden and offers her a consulting fee with a testy customer. As they fall in love, Will wants Rowan to hang up on the phone so that she will only have sex with him on the sheets. This reviewer found it difficult to accept a science teacher not only needing to find work when that discipline is always in demand but also taking a phone sex position. Still the lead couple pairs nicely although the real conflict ends early once Will hears the first tape. As readers root for Rowan to have sex only with Will, fans also will wonder if Scott can figure out who is the beautiful woman his uncle is madly in love with and visa versa.

The Children's Cop
Sherry Lewis
Harlequin SuperRomance
ISBN: 0373712375 $5.50 296 pp.

When things go bad on the job, Houston Juvenile Division of Missing Persons Detective Lucy Montalvo internalizes it though she knows she must stay aloof if she is to avoid burnout. Her last case did not end well but before she can mentally move on, she is assigned another missing teen investigation. Her neighbor reported that fourteen year old Angelina Beckett has vanished without a trace. Reluctantly Lucy begins making inquiries. The same neighbor calls Angelina's Uncle Jackson Davis. He immediately realizes that his sister-in-law has gone on one of her benders and his brother never cared, but he and gramps does. He travels to Houston to find his niece and hopefully take her home with him and shower her with love. As Lucy and Jackson search the mean streets, they meet and soon fall in love. However, the prime objective remains rescuing a frightened teen, who feels unloved by one and all. The latest "women in blue" novel is an enjoyable police procedural romance starring two likable lead characters and an intriguing support cast. Jackson cares about his niece who he has loved from the first moment he saw her as an infant while Lucy personalizes each teen she tracks. Though a key twists involving Holden is handled well, it seems overkill as Angelina has enough on her plate as a teen runaway. Still Jackson and Lucy in their combined search for Angelina make for a fine tale though how love had time to blossom is the real mystery of this contemporary.

Caleb's Christmas Wish
Debra Solenen
Harlequin SuperRomance
ISBN: 0373712383 $5.50 298 pp.

In Madera County, the deaths of Kern and Pamela Ryder in a black ice car accident stun their friends Allison Jefferson and Jake Weston. However, neither has time to mourn as the godparents to the four year old son of the deceased, Caleb must come first. Caleb is struggling with the loss of his parents that he does not fully understand. However, he turns to Allison and Jake for nurturing. Soon the child has a Christmas wish that he wants Santa to make Allison and Jake his new parents. With their hearts going out to the bewildered tiny matchmaker, Allison and Jake fall in love. Can they make a happy home with the child bringing them together while grieving the loss? Though the lead couple and young Caleb seem to set the 100 yard dash record for getting past grief, contemporary romance readers will enjoy this fine tale in which the two adults willingly sacrifice their own needs and desires to help their godson. The story line is character driven from the moment that Allison and Jake learn of the tragedy until the final efforts to move on. Caleb is to quickly a matchmaker as he has to wonder why the dramatic changes in his happy life, but no one will care as fans will root that this deserving trio finds love and happiness amidst the tragedy that haunts each one of them.

A Mom for Christmas
Joan Kirby
Harlequin SuperRomance
ISBN: 0373712367 $5.50 298 pp.

Ski patroller Aidan Wilde hates Christmas ever since his wife Charmaine fell to her death off Whistler Mountain six years ago when their baby Emily was almost a newborn. Most of the locals including Charmaine's mother believe that Aidan caused his wife's death. Still numb and mourning Aidan has not tried to defend himself. Nicola Bond, who loved Aidan, but hid her feelings as he was married to her cousin, visits her Aunt June and her second cousin Emily. Nicola's presence seems to have brought life into the sad Wilde home. As Aidan falls in love with his deceased wife's cousin, Nicola begins to hear the rumors about the man she still loves. She wonders if he could have committed the act that people blame him for. Needing to know the truth, she begins investigating before she totally gives away her heart. This is an engaging second chance at love romantic suspense that keeps the audience like the heroine wondering throughout the novel if Aidan actually caused his wife's death. That plot enhanced by wonderful twists and a strong cast is what makes this solid tale. Nicola is a delightful person who needs to know the truth though she thinks it may be too late to save her heart. Fans will feel for the shy Emily caught between her father and her maternal grandmother yet in that reticent way displays a "yippee" attitude. Aidan rounds out the strong lead cast as he suffers in silence knowing what everyone thinks. A MOM FOR CHRISTMAS is a fine Yuletide romance.

The Christmas Cradle
Linda Warren
Harlequin American
ISBN: 0373750463 $4.99, 249 pp.

All seven years old Ellie Kincaid wants for Christmas is a mommy. Her annual letter to Santa breaks the heart of her dad horse rancher Colter, but he knows he will never fall in love again. Marisa Preston feels lonely around Christmas time because eight years ago she met the love of her life Colter, a rodeo star. Her upper crust parents ended her relationship with her beloved as she just was not strong enough to deal with their pressure. Marisa is at the Dalton's Department Store in Dallas where she works in management being the daughter of the company's driving force. Colter happens to be in the store shopping with his daughter when he and Marisa see one another. Colter hates Marisa for breaking her pledge to marry him though she insists she made mistakes and was only seventeen. She meets Ellie, his daughter with Shannon who he married just after Marisa left him; they have since divorced. What he never knew is they had a son who died. Marisa needs to tell him what really happened, but will he listen? If Ellie has her way, Santa has finally delivered her present. Fans will cherish this entreating Yuletide second chance at love tale due to the lead couple especially Colter who is a rare realistic hunk; his placing his daughter first makes him a solid father. Though the ice storm seems a bit contrived as this strands Marisa, contemporary readers will not care as this device enables her to gain the time she needs with Colter. Still the cast makes for a strong holiday romance that will bring good cheer to one and all.

Santa Baby
Laura Marie Altom
Harlequin American
ISBN: 0373750471 $4.99, 250 pp.

In Alaska sociologist Dr. Whitney Foster makes her "virgin" flight on a small plane piloted by hunk Colby Davis. Global Oil has her Chicago based company to determine ways to counteract isolation that leads to high turnover. However, the weather turns nasty and the plane is forced down in an isolated area. Not knowing if a rescue is imminent, they fall in each other's arms and share a sexy Christmas Eve. The next morning neither one of the embarrassed duo want to talk about the previous evening's tryst when they are saved. Seven months later, a pregnant Whitney arrives in Alaska to inform Colby he is a going to be a father and to get him to sign away his rights as she plans to raise the child alone. Colby has not forgotten that one evening and even thought of going to the forty-eight to find his sociologist. He wants Whitney and their unborn as part of his life, but to persuade the stubborn doctor that they belong together when her role model is a mother who belongs in Guinness for her string of males will be next to impossible. This engaging contemporary romance star two pleasant protagonists whom readers will like and want together. The story line is a stretch especially with a veteran pilot like Colby not sure of their rescue seems either he used a line to score or the taleis just off kilter. Still fans will appreciate his efforts to persuade his beloved that he wants her and their SANTA BABY in his life permanently.

A Soldier's Christmas
Rachel Lee, Merline Lovelace, and Catherine Mann
HQN
ISBN: 0373770146 $6.50

"I'll Be Home" by Rachel Lee. SEAL Seth drives to Conard City, Wyoming where his former wife resides because his mother Marge asked him to spend the holidays with her. At his parents' home, Seth meets schoolteacher Maria. They hit it off from the start, but Seth knows the life of a SEAL is almost as hard on a spouse so he fears anything beyond the holidays though Maria wants that and many future seasons of cheer with him. "A Bridge for Christmas" by Merline Lovelace. USAF reservist on active duty Captain Abigail, her combat engineering unit and "hardheaded" pilot Major Dan prepare for the special operations detachment that will follow them into the remote Taurus Mountains. The war ravaged abandoned village has left behind only Father Dominic and his orphans. As Abby and Dan bang heads, they must rescue a young girl isolated on the other side of the river with a broken Roman bridge not connecting the two embankments, but soon connecting two hearts. "The Wingman's Angel" by Catherine Mann. Josh and Alicia are close to finalizing their divorce as the two soldiers were unable to maintain a duel military lifestyle. Before the Lieutenant Colonel and his Captain wife end their marriage; they are on a cold region training exercise in the frozen Alaskan tundra. As they work together, they stumble upon a uranium mining excavation with killers in pursuit of the beleaguered duo. The three exciting well-written military romance novellas showcase problems and real sacrifice (not politician lip service) confronting individuals dedicated to keeping our nation safe while maintaining relationships that suffer when one is away for long periods.

Stormy Challenge
Jayne Ann Krentz
HQN
ISBN: 0373770057 $6.99

Leya Brandon and her brother Keith jointly inherit Brandon Security Systems. Neither has experience managing this type of firm though Leya owns a bookstore and plans to open another store soon. Keith tries to make a go at running the firm and tentatively accepts a two-year contract from a high-powered consultant if Leya agrees. Leya, needing time to think whether they should agree to this venture, goes on vacation in Oregon to ponder this deal because the consideration demanded by the other party Mr. C. Tremayne leaves him with a major control of their company. In Oregon, Leya and Court Gannon meet and spend a few enjoyable days keeping each other company. As she is half in love and trusts him with her heart, she asks his advice on whether she should sign the contract, which he says she should for her sibling's sake. Leya reluctantly signs and mails the contract to Keith. However, she quickly learns that the man she entrusted her heart and contract to turns out to be Courtland Gannon Tremayne, who had arrived at the inn with the intention to obtain her signature regardless of the ethics. However, Court has changed his mind on what consideration he wants from the Brandons for now he decides he wants Leya for life, but she distrusts him as an amoral beast. This is an entertaining contemporary romance starring a likable female protagonist and a hunk who learns perhaps too late what really matters in life. Fans will appreciate the story line as Court tries to correct his error, but his intended's philosophy is once burned, never again. Though Court can become overbearing and macho, fans will enjoy Stephanie James' fine tale.

Billie's Ghost
Chad Hautmann
Plume
ISBN: 0452284813 $12.00, 176 pp.

In Naples, Florida, one year has passed since young Casey Cooper lost his beloved wife Ginny. Stunned and feeling guilt for living and culpability in his mind for causing her death, he remains in mourning as an urban hermit with only alcohol and jazz as his companions. His friends have written Casey off and his family is on the verge of excommunicating him as his depression overwhelms anyone who dares to enter his personal space. Only Ginny's cat Mashed Potatoes remains a companion though he often forgets to feed the feline. Suddenly out of nowhere Eleanora enters Casey's life singing with a voice and a look that make her an identical twin of Billie Holiday. No one else sees this enigmatic Eleanora with even Casey wondering if it is the bottle, his mental state, BILLIE'S GHOST or a real person? Still Casey does not care as Eleanora with the jazzy voice moves in with him. She provides him with a reason to rejoin the living as she boosts his self esteem. This is a very simplistic yet deep tale that provides several messages to the audience to include accentuating the positive in relationships because though mankind imposes but God disposes without warning and grieving is exclusively a lone act. The three key players, Casey, his deceased wife, and Eleanora are cleverly designed to provide insight into how far someone can fall when a loved one is lost early and abruptly in life and that grieving and recover are customized within a powerful character study.

A Woman of the World
Genie Chipps Henderson
Berkley
ISBN: 0425199134 $6.99, 384 pp.

Kate Goodfellow dreamed of becoming a photographer and with a steely determination she has made her aspirations come true even though it cost her marriage. In 1935 in New York Kate meets writer Hopper Delaney and soon they marry and collaborate on books together. Kate is on top of the world, but will not allow family or love to stand in the way of her globetrotting to take pictures at hot spots. In 1942 Kate is on her way to North Africa when the vessel she was on is sunk. While stranded with others in a lifeboat, Kate looks over her years with her box camera fearlessly going to locales and doing things women do not do, pondering whether she would have changed anything different like raising a family. Readers will admire the guts and spunk of the heroine as visits hot spots to take pictures around the world. The story line reads somewhat like a memoir as Kate looks back at the highlights of her life and the choices she made. To learn whether she is second-guessing and filled with remorse, readers will have to read this fabulous tale that shines quite a spotlight on world events circa 1930s to early 1940s.

Man of My Dreams
Sherrilyn Kenyon, Maggie Shayne, Suzanne Forster and Virginia Kantra
Berkley
ISBN: 0515137936 $6.99

Sherrilyn Kenyon. After five years, Adron still regrets his actions and drowns his sorrow at the Golden Crona rejecting all company. Princess Livia sneaks out of her father's castle seeking a male to deflower her so she would be unfit to marry her sire's choice Clypper. She chooses Adron who surprises himself as she lights a fire inside him. Maggie Shayne. In Pinedale, bakery owner Megan has a vision of the missing woman so she calls Police Chief Skinner. When she is proven right he sends Detective Sam to investigate Megan. Suzanne Forster. In Blanchard's Department Store customer Lucy tries to buy an attach� case for her finicky fianc� Frederick, but someone else beats her to it. Afterward the stranger gives her the case as a wedding present. Not long afterward, she meets him again as Noah owner of Hightower Electric works on her building. When her appliances go batty she asks Noah to help her although she thinks she needs an electrical exorcist instead. Virginia Kantra. Wade County librarian Janet travels a remote area in a North Carolina forest when she runs into Rod. He looks just like her beloved Ross who vanished without a word, but shows no aging or physical changes from the man she last saw fourteen years ago. These four paranormal novellas share in common the mystic, terrific protagonists, and delightful magical romantic story lines that readers will have trouble putting down once a tale is started.

Death Takes a Gander
Christine Goff
Berkley
ISBN 0425193926 $5.99, 212 pp.

Angela is a U.S. Fish and wildlife Agent being trained by Ian a senior agent. He calls dispatch who calls her to meet Ian for backup at Barr Lake but by the time she gets there, Ian is dead. She notices a swan acting peculiarly but her attention is mainly on Ian who the coroner says committed suicide. Without an experienced agent to train her, Angela's boss assigns her to Elk Park's first Annual Ice Fishing Jamboree to make sure the anglers don't catch any greenback cutthroat trout. The event is sponsored by Donald Tavern, CEO of Agriventures, Inc. Before the Jamboree begins, there are a lot of sick geese on the ice with similar coloring to what Angela noticed when she found Ian's body. They treat the surviving geese for lead poisoning. Angela investigates how the lead got into their bodies. She rescues an unconscious agent from the icy water and lands a plane when her pilot succumbs to poisoning. Angela thinks that the incidents are linked, but how and why remains to be proven. DEATH TAKES A GANDER is a great mystery because the heroine refuses to give up her investigation even when her boss takes her off the case. Angela is a feisty and independent woman who is not afraid to think outside the box seeking the connecting thread that ties the incidents together. Christine Goff creates an intriguing mystery with lots of action without resorting to blood and gore so that fans of cozies will appreciate his work.

Disordered Minds
Minette Walters
Berkley
ISBN: 0425199355 $10.00, 544 pp.

In 1970 Bournemouth, Dorset, the public is upset with the brutal murder of fifty-seven years old Grace Jefferies that is so reminiscent of the Manson clan. A few days later the police announce that Grace's bizarre twenty-years old grandson Howard Stamp confessed after being held for questioning for thirty-six hours. A year later, a jury convicts Howard. While incarcerated Howard was abused by his peers until less than two years after his conviction he committed suicide. Three decades later, sexagenarian councilor George Gardener believes that Stamp was guilty of being retarded and different and never killed his grandmother. Gardener has uncovered evidence that he feels might posthumously exonerate Stamp, but the justice system is satisfied with the neat ending. Gardener learns that thirty something years old anthropologist Dr Jonathan Hughes is researching case studies for a book Disordered Minds that he is writing that includes a chapter on Stamp. Gardner thinks he has an ally who might awaken the public that a travesty occurred. However, will the academic risk his reputation on a dead loner who in many ways reminds him of his own childhood that he prefers to forget? This is an exhilarating thriller that makes the key players seem genuine by selectively providing "chapters" from Hughes book. The story line is action-packed as Gardner makes his case while Hughes wants to hide from the evidence because his own could have easily paralleled that of Stamp. He begins to believe the real killer lurks waiting to murder again. Readers will be hooked from start to finish wondering if Gardener is right or just soothing his soul for failing at defending his client.

Whiteout
Ken Follett
Dutton
ISBN: 0525948430 $26.95, 384 pp.

Toni Gallo is the facilities director at Oxenford Medical where the owner invented an anti-viral vaccine. Toni runs security. While making a routine check she finds a vial of the viral serum missing. She tracks it to an employee who stole a rabbit infected with Madoba 2 a variant of Ebola, but worse. The employee is dying from the rabbit's bite as the serum does not work on Madoba-2. While Toni and her employer Stanley Oxenford perform public damage control, his son Kit plans to break into the lab and steal the serum. Toni caught Kit stealing from the company to pay off his gambling debts and his father fired him even though he did a superb job of creating the security system for the firm. Kit owes over $250K to nasty people; the only way he can pay his debt is to steal and sell the viral serum. What he fails to understand is that the buyer is uninterested in the cure; he wants Madoba-2. Stranded at his parents' home by a blizzard, Kit must choose between his confederates or his family. WHITEOUT is a frightening thriller because it shows no one is totally safe even with top notch fail-safe security systems and processes to control laboratory viruses and bacteria. Toni is an independent strong-willed woman who risks her life to insure that the criminals do not escape with the deadly virus. On a par with the best of James Patterson and Nelson De Mille, Ken Follett injects the thrill and chill in his latest thriller.

The Hangman's Hymn
P.C. Dougherty
St. Martin's
ISBN: 0312300905 $22.95, 224 pp.

The pilgrims continue their journey to Canterbury, but are stopped by Luke Tiverton and his men providing the king's justice by hanging violators of the "King's Peace". One of the pilgrims, the carpenter faints at the grim sight. Continuing on their pilgrimage, the travelers stop for the night at St. Bardolph's Priory. While resting at the priory, the carpenter narrates his tale. Simon Cotterill a carpenter follows his beloved to Gloucester where needing work he joins a hangman's crew. In the nearby forest women are vanishing without a trace and a disfigured corpse has been found in the vicinity. Mayor Humphrey assumes that witches are toiling and boiling in the area and quickly has three crones arrested. Trying to keep the panic down and to insure the town continues to flourish, the mayor and his cronies arrange a kangaroo midnight trial to insure a guilty charge. Three days later they are hung in the forest, but the hangmen flee a nasty storm. When they return the witches are gone and their coven apparently seeks vengeance one mortal at a time. Simon hides while also serendipitously tries to solve who the real killer is. The latest Chaucer tale, THE HANGMAN'S HYMN, is a terrific entry in what is one of the best continuing sagas on the market today. The tale is fun due to the exhilarating story within an exciting outer tale as the carpenter narrates a chilling ghostly amateur sleuth when the travelers stop for respite. The two sets of characters are fully developed so that the audience feels they rest at St. Bardolph's with the pilgrims and that the Carpenter's Tale happened.

Deep Black: Dark Zone
Stephen Coonts
St. Martin's
ISBN: 0312985223 $7.99, 416 pp.

Deep Black, a section of the NSA, works mostly with communications; the agency spies through satellites and other devices that are so technologically advanced that their operatives are rarely placed in danger. Retired French agent Denis LaFoote informs former marine sniper and Deep Black operative Charlie Dean that his friend Mr. Vefoures is missing and that he was going to work an assignment for his former master. Vefoures built an explosive more powerful than anything in use today. The Americans know that a French warhead is missing also, but remain unaware that the lost man and bomb are part of a plot designed by the Arab terrorist Mussa Duoar to blow up the Chunnel and cause a series of devastating shock waves to destroy coastal England and France. Deep Black is putting the pieces of the puzzle together into a cohesive plot, but time is running out to prevent this calamity from happening. Nobody writes techno-thrillers better than Stephen Coonts does as his action-packed tales grip readers from start to finish with ever growing knuckle biting suspense that takes his audience to the edge and beyond. His latest tale DEEP BLACK: DARK ZONE does that and more with a host of heroes who just feel they are doing their job and some sly vile villains who have no compunctions about killing the innocent under the auspices of a "patriotic" cause. Chilling yet exhilarating, readers can count on Mr. Coonts for riveting entertainment.

Snowed In
Christina Bartolomeo
St. Martin's
ISBN: 0312320884 $24.95, 373 pp.

Three months ago freelance artist Sophie accompanied her husband Paul when his job caused him to relocate from Washington DC to Portland, Maine. After the hustle and bustle of the big city with the Metro to get around, the unlicensed Sophie finds the solitude disturbing. With so much time on her hands to brood and no place to go, Sophie worries that her spouse's new assistant bubbly yet effective Natalie seems to get more of Paul's attention and admiration than his wife receives from him. Depressed, Sophie several times calls her sister and her best friend, but neither lifts her from her doldrums while her mother-in-law Pepper adds spice to Sophie's already churning stomach. Desperate to get her mind off of her concerns Sophie joins a local walking club where she meets Ned who struggles with his own going nowhere relationship with a geographically distant girlfriend. This engaging character study looks at how a geographical change can impact relationships. Sophie goes from having no time to complete anything to having too much time causing her to brood and fret. The story line fully focuses on Sophie who holds the tale together while the rest of the cast predominantly relate to her. Her relationship with Pepper is a classic; while that with her spouse has deteriorated rather quickly as she feels he has moved on to being a rugged New Englander with a captivating snowbird assistant while she is turning into a boring SNOWED IN transplant failure. Fans of deep family dramas will appreciate the wry humorous asides inside the serious subject of the impact of relocating on marriage.

A Cold and Silent Dying
Eleanor Taylor Bland
St Martin's
ISBN 0312326653 $23.95, 272 pp.

With a change in administration Lincoln Prairie homicide detective Marti McAllister reports to Lieutenant Gail Nicholson. This situation neither woman likes because the lieutenant wants to be the only African-American in the department and Marti because she put too many years into being a police officer to deal with petty garbage. Lt. Nicholson is recording every move Marti makes waiting until she has enough evidence to fire her. While Marti is coping with the Lieutenant, she and her partner are dealing with a case in which two homeless people were murdered in an abandoned house. A Desert Storm vet was in the house but they don't have enough evidence to arrest him. The lieutenant wants Marti and her partner to forget about trying to get more evidence on the vet because the public cares more about a man who served his country than two homeless people. The case is far from closed because more bodies turn up murdered in the same way the first two victims were. Marti doesn't know it but this perpetrator is known to her and poses a danger to her and those she cares about. The animosity between the two cops feels realistic because Marti's boss is a woman who wants no competition and she knows that her subordinate could take the limelight away from her. The case is solved by good old fashioned detective work with many officers putting in plenty of man hours to catch the perpetrator before he strikes again. Eleanor Taylor Bland is an expert at creating true-to-life characters for readers who like strong independent women will definitely want to read A COLD AND DYING DAY.

The Druperman Tapes
John Goodger
St. Martin's
ISBN: 0312321996 $24.95

In Las Vegas normally just irascible grumpy Galaxy Hotel and Casino CEO Emmett Druperman has watched his temperament turn hot coal irate from minor irritants. Pickets were reducing the drop in leisurely casino players who detested stepping past the "ants" picketing his facility. The agent of his entertainer wants more money or he will cancel in spite of a half million ad campaign. His hemorrhoids on fire, Emmett receives a plain envelop addressed to him as the head of LVCA (Las Vegas Casino Association) containing videotapes and demanding $10 million or else from the casino owners. Realizing he has real trouble, Emmett hands everything over to his Vice President of Security Steve Forrester who takes the threat seriously. They think of possible strip con artists such as Dan Shiller and Jurgen Voss, but Steve cannot picture either doing what happened on the tape, the poisoning of a guest. Knowing that the culprit is most likely a casino insider, Steve needs to figure out who would be bold enough to risk murder as opposed to card game scams. THE DRUPERMAN TAPES is an enjoyable investigative tale that showcases Las Vegas glitz from the perspective of those who keep the casinos safe. The cast is powerful as all the key players seem genuine (hemorrhoids will do that) and a subplot involving a romance makes former cop Steve seem that much more real. Though the cat and mouse game never quite takes the audience over the edge, John Goodger hits black jack with his first hand.

The Blue Rose
Anthony Eglin
St. Martin's
ISBN 0312328702 $23.95, 304 pp.

From the moment they saw the Parsonage in the English village of Steeple Tarrant Alex and Kate Sheppard knew they found their dream house. Once they moved in, Alex and Kate work to fix the huge neglected gardens and soon find hidden under other plants a blue rose. Kate knows it must be very valuable because scientists have tried for decades without success to create one. They contact Doctor Lawrence Kingston who is an expert on roses and ask him to provide his expert opinion. When he sees the rose, he advises them to get a lawyer to handle all the buyers that will want to purchase the flowery gem. They decide to put it up for auction but before that can happen, two businessmen desperate for money call and try to get the rose. The Sheppards refuse to talk to them and refer them to their lawyer. Someone is desperate enough to kidnap Kate and hold her for ransom in exchange for the rose. The only problem is Alex no longer has it because someone has stolen it. THE BLUE ROSE is an exciting amateur sleuth mystery that will appeal to people who love to garden and those readers who don't like a lot of gore and blood in their who-done-it. The protagonists are beleaguered from every side by folks who will stop at nothing to get THE BLUE ROSE. What nobody knows is that the flower has an unexpected property that makes it dangerous. Anthony Eglin has written a wonderful garden mystery that like many vines takes a lot of unexpected twists and turns.

The Fire Baby
Jim Kelly
St. Martin's
ISBN: 0312321457 $24.95

Every night for the past four years, Weekly Crow reporter Philip Dryden visits his comatose spouse Laura at Ely's Tower Hospital. Laura's current roommate, cancer victim Maggie Beck expects to die shortly. She asks Philip to carry out a death wish favor. She has made tapes of her memories especially concentrating on a 1976 plane crash at the US air base in Mildenhall in which the dying woman provides a different report than the official one. Maggie also furbishes a spin on her daughter's marriage. She wants Philip to deliver her last words to her daughter. As Laura begins to awaken from her coma, she overhears much of what Maggie says. She struggles to warn her spouse that he could be in danger, but she is not fully conscious yet. Meanwhile Philip uncovers two homicides that he believes ties back to Maggie's death bed wish. As he investigates further someone tries to kill him. Only Laura, if she can communicate, can tell him the truth that might save his life. This exciting thriller combines soap opera elements with a tense journalist investigation that grips the reader mostly because the audience will like and admire Philip and hope that Laura recovers in time to warn him. The story line is at its best when Philip is investigating Maggie's contention and other underbelly stories. When the tale shifts to the hospital scenes the plot loses momentum but adds depth to the beleaguered hero. THE FIRE BABY is a terrific opening novel that hopefully has sequels with a healing Laura at Philip's side.

The Unquiet Dead
Gay Longworth
St. Martin's
ISBN: 0312310633 $24.95

West End Central Detective Inspector Jessie Driver believes actress Sarah Klein has pulled a publicity stunt claiming a missing-daughter to gain media attention to her new show. However, Detective Inspector Mark Ward and their new boss Detective Chief Inspector Moore harshly disagree. Meanwhile her personal life seems in chaos. Having returned from Africa, her brother Bill has flopped in her place and her romance with rock star P.J. Dean is tabloid food frenzy. Jessie makes inquiries into the missing girl case that leads her to the derelict Marshall Street Baths where instead of a child she finds a mummy of someone who apparently died in 1989. That twist takes Jessie to Anglican Church exorcist Father Forrester who insists that those caught between the moral realm and the great beyond need solace and forgiveness to enable them to move on. His ranting shakes Jessie who still mourns for her mother, but does not take her any closer to solving the missing child's case; it does lead her to ponder how far a person will go to help those "in-between". THE UNQUIET DEAD is an intriguing British police procedural that grips the reader with the insightful look at illogical rationalizing via faith to condone any action. The story line moves forward rather quickly though there are many twists and turns. Jessie is terrific as she struggles with her personal life and finds her professional life as a token estrogen in a sea of resentful testosterone turned worse with her new female boss being a Queen Bee. Still the investigation makes the tale as Jessie finds her value system challenged every step of the way.

Stroke of Midnight
Sherrilyn Kenyon, Amanda Ashley, L.A. Banks, and Lori Handeland
St. Martin's
ISBN: 0312998767 $6.99, 384 pp.

"Winter Born" by Sherrilyn Kenyon. At the Atlanta based Dragon.com gala, were-panther Pandora seeks the help of Acheron as she is a bit frightened having left her pack for the first time. Pandora is a virgin in heat. Enemy pack were-panther Dante is drawn to Pandora, but he believes it is more than just her heat though she assumes it is a basic law of nature. How to prove otherwise is his problem until he realizes he must keep his soulmate safe from others of their kind. "Born of Night" by Amanda Ashley. Lord Reyes captures Lady Shanara. However, to both their respective chagrins they are attracted to one another, a taboo since her father wears the pelt of his father after killing him. Still could love be the impetus to end his family's werewolf curse? "Make It Last Forever" by L.A. Banks. In 1979 a cursed Tara must leave Vegas to get help from her beloved Indian Nana in Arizona. On the bus she meets nomadic Jack. As they fall in love, weird happenings follow Tara due to the curse, but Jack led by his heart also follows Tara. "Red Moon Rising" by Lori Handeland. Just relocated from Chicago to Arizona, author Maya finds a Navaho skinwalker stalking her. Her only hope to survive her assailant is Clay, but she questions whose side he is on even as she falls in love with her only possible champion. The se four paranormal novellas are all terrific tales starring fully developed lead couples and delightful villains. At any time of day this is a winning anthology.

Follow Me Home
Jennie Corgiat
Onyx
ISBN: 0451411609 $6.99, 384 pp.

Alcea O'Malley knows how biblical Job felt as she believes her life cannot get much worse. The once proud woman learned the

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