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Agatha Raisin: The Quiche of Death & the Vicious Vet (BBC Dramatization)
Author:
Book Type: Audio CD
3
Author:
Book Type: Audio CD
3
Review Date: 12/7/2014
Helpful Score: 1
This is a BBC Radio dramatization of the first two Agatha Raisin mysteries by M.C. Beaton. The production qualities are excellent, with trained actors doing the voices of the various characters. Agatha is an intriguing character, being somewhat more curmudugeonly than you would expect a successful founder of a London Public Relations firm to be. Both stories held my interest very well. As with the Agatha Christie mysteries, the problem for the author is how the amateur sleuth can get involved with a murder investigation without interfering with the police. Beaton's approach is to make Agatha good friends with the local police detective, who indulges her somewhat. Now that I have heard these two discs, about 1 hour 45 min total, I want to go back and read or listen to the complete novels to see what was left out. But this is a very entertaining introduction to Beaton's second major series (after Hamish MacBeth) and I recommend the set.
Mark A
Mark A
Review Date: 9/7/2010
Helpful Score: 1
A superior Western from an academically respected writer. Pretty Horses works well just as an entertaining Western novel: the plot moves you along as two (later three) young men strike out to find adventure in 1949 Mexico.
Review Date: 11/16/2024
A detailed, sympathetic view of the life of an enlisted sailor on the Battleship California beginning in peacetime and through the Pearl Harbor attack and after. Mason was a radioman, an elite specialty for that time. His encounters with career battleship sailors are often amusing. The contrast between the simple peacetime life of a sailor in the tropics and the savagery the morning of Dec 7 and after is stark. One of the best "and I was there" accounts.
Review Date: 6/8/2012
Some top essays, mostly from Christian Science Journal, of the past twenty years.
Collision Course : The Classic Story of the Collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
1
Review Date: 6/19/2015
This account of the famous collision has been taited by later revelations that Moscow was paid by the Stockholm's owners while writing his book. That said, it is the definitive narrative from the standpoint of the Stockholm and her crew, particularly the third officer on watch at the time of the collision. The reader needs to refer to more recent accounts to get a complete account of the facts and draw conclusions. But still worth a read.
Mark A
Mark A
Review Date: 12/29/2013
An above average Western about a gunfighter who hangs up his guns after accidently killing a young girl who wanders into a gunfight. Randisi has a lean writing style that observes the conventions of the traditional Western novel, but entertaining for all of that.
Review Date: 6/22/2016
A good survey of the Isolationist movement across the century, especially in the pre World War and World War II periods. Because it was written in the 1950s, the modern antiwar movement of the 1960s on is not covered, which will disappoint some readers.
Review Date: 1/24/2016
One of the early Matthew Hopes, a real estate case that turns into multiple murders. Ranching must have been lucrative in Central Florida in the 80s. A well developed mystery relying on logic, not technical evidence.
Review Date: 6/30/2014
Helpful Score: 1
If you listen to Raymond Chandler on CD or cassettes, by all means get the Elliot Gould narrations. Gould made a serious study of Chandler and the Philip Marlowe character before portraying in film. His dramatic reading captures the noir mood perfectly.
Review Date: 12/31/2013
Another traditional Western featuring Lancaster, the reformed gunfighter. This time, he escorts a group of orphans West. Randisi has a clean writing style, with a lot of action, reflecting the 400+ Western novels he has produced (all the Gunsmiths, for example).
Review Date: 6/8/2018
This novel dramatizes Sherman's March across Georgia, and the Carolinas, as seen by slaves, common soldiers, and plantation families. War is Hell, as Sherman said later, everything changes for many of these Southerners. This book and Killer Angels are the two best novels about the Civil War at the front of the armies I have seen.
Review Date: 12/31/2016
This is a detailed picture of the experiences of Mary Baker Eddy as the Christian Science movement developed in New England in the mid to late 1800s. The book is realistic about the setting of the times and many hardships and trials the movement went through in its early years. The author was a writer for the Christian Science Monitor and is sympathetic toward Mrs. Eddy while more critical of key people around her.
Review Date: 8/8/2014
What if a Sam Spade like character was sitting in his office early one morning and a large man he did not know barged in, trying to shoot him? That is the premise of this noir comic detective novel. Rat City is Seattle, circa 1947 and Jake Rossiter, ex boxer, former Marine, is the detective. The book is entertaining, the writing adequate, not brilliant. Aided by his assistant, Miss Jenkins, and several former Marines, hindered by a very corrupt precinct of the Seattle PD, Jake sets out to solve his own case. Recommended
Review Date: 10/2/2014
Another excellent installment in the Cliff Hardy, Private Enquiries Agent, series, now up to 40 books (seven are short story collections). In this well-plotted one, Cliff is hired to find a woman involved with the expat Tongan community living in New South Wales. There are the usual fisticuffs and high level corruption revealed. I have read a dozen or so Hardys now and I can recommend them as among the premier detective fiction novels coming from Down Under.
Mark A
Mark A
Review Date: 4/1/2015
The best one volume history of Australia I have found- it is a summary of the five volume work by Manning Clark, perhaps the most famous Australian historian. Some (Bill Bryson) have criticized his writing syle as too arch or rhetorical, but I did not find Clark's style getting in the way of the narrative. It is more a social history than an economic or military one, but does pay some attention to the pre-European (aboriginal) era. Read it if you can find it...
Mark A
Mark A
Review Date: 7/31/2014
I used an earlier edition of this book as a junior Naval Officer 40 years and the new version is still extremely useful for those going into the Navy, Coast Guard, or even the Merchant marine. It is a handy reference for Sea Scout boat training as well. Lots of useful info on the watch at sea, emergency conditions, signalling, honors, etc.
Review Date: 5/29/2012
A very well done merit badge phamplet. It should help the Scout prepare well for the requirements and projects. I used it to supplement the U.S. Power Squadron Weather course and it was very useful for that.
Review Date: 7/14/2021
No. 5 in the series of Dortmunder caper novels, and quite funny. On a solo burglary of a suburban jewelry, Dortmunder gets extremely lucky and finds a huge, famous ruby ring, intended as a state gift to Turkey. What follows is a huge manhunt by Turkish and Greek Cypriot gangs, the NYPD, the FBI, and every crook in New York City. Dortmunder's greatest coup, but he can't fence the ring and must find a way to get out from under. Great characters and high humor.
Review Date: 3/25/2022
I had Philip Ketchum down as a good Western author. With this book, I rate his last seven or Westerns as "very good".
Dan Morgan fought the Civil War on the losing side, then went west to Wyoming. After a massive effort, he builds up a house and cattle ranch, only to have it destroyed by the local land baron. With some unlikely allies, Dan fights to reclaim his homestead.
Dan Morgan fought the Civil War on the losing side, then went west to Wyoming. After a massive effort, he builds up a house and cattle ranch, only to have it destroyed by the local land baron. With some unlikely allies, Dan fights to reclaim his homestead.
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