Average customer rating:
- Change is good!
- Incredibly boring book...and I'm not even finished it yet.
- So many lonely people to write about
- Fat-phobia at its finest.
- I DON'T KNOW WHAT EVERYBODY'S PROBLEM IS?
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April Shadows (Shadows)
V.C. Andrews
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
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Girl in the Shadows (Shadows)
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Child of Darkness (Gemini)
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Broken Flower (Early Spring)
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Black Cat (Gemini)
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Celeste (Gemini)
ASIN: 0743493869
Release Date: 2005-08-30 |
Book Description
APRIL HAD ALWAYS FELT LIKE AN OUTSIDER.
Her older sister Brenda was tall, athletic, competitive, and sure of herself. But April Taylor was short, sensitive, and overweight -- and she couldn't bounce back from their father's cutting criticisms the way Brenda did. April didn't know why their once-loving dad had become a coldhearted monster, but she was sure it had something to do with her. And she could see how his cruel behavior was tearing away at her gentle mother. But a glimmer of happiness returns when Brenda brings home her college roommate: beautiful, bewitching Celia. And April wonders if she might not be so different from Brenda after all....
Download Description
"APRIL HAD ALWAYS FELT LIKE AN OUTSIDER. Her older sister Brenda was tall, athletic, competitive, and sure of herself. But April Taylor was short, sensitive, and overweight -- and she couldn't bounce back from their father's cutting criticisms the way Brenda did. April didn't know why their once-loving dad had become a coldhearted monster, but she was sure it had something to do with her. And she could see how his cruel behavior was tearing away at her gentle mother. But a glimmer of happiness returns when Brenda brings home her college roommate: beautiful, bewitching Celia. And April wonders if she might not be so different from Brenda after all.... "
Customer Reviews:
Change is good!.......2007-04-18
For many moons readers have been complaining about how similar all The VCA books have become.
This one is different. And that is a plus.
The story (by A.N.) offers a change-up to the franchise and is welcomed.
For once we do not have to put up with a raging beauty, but a regular girl who is trying her best to cope. The lesbian theme is different from previous novels.
The characters are written with feeling and depth. Brenda, Celia and April are easy to understand. I've yet to read the sequel, but have found this book to be a breath of fresh air compared to the last few (A.N.) novels.
Note to (A.N.) author: Please feel free to change the formula; it's gotten old and needs to be refreshed. We will still follow you.
Incredibly boring book...and I'm not even finished it yet........2006-06-18
I keep finding myself thinking "who cares?!" This book drags on and on and on. There's no suspense AT ALL. In the first few pages where we hear about Mr. Hyde, I pretty much deduced that Matt Taylor was in fact sick and that's why his behavior changed. No suspense. I knew the sister would end up gay--I don't agree with that lifestyle, but since I enjoy VC books (which occasionally had incest), I knew to expect one of the two. Figured out which it would be once they started pimping the fact that she never went on dates, boys liked her but she didn't give them the time of day, BLAH BLAH BLAH. It's all so very cliche. The story isn't interesting. April is a wimp, and halfway through the book, nothing about her has changed. It's making me feel as if it's not worth finishing. And that's disappointing b/c when I first started reading VCA books in school, I couldn't put them down....loved the Casteels, the Cutlers, the Adares, the Landrys, Logans, and to an extent, the Hudsons. I would search high and low in my county's libraries for an entire series just so I wouldn't have to wait to read the next one. Not soo anymore. I picked up the next in the Shadows series, but it looks like I'll be returning it along with this unfinished one.
I hope one day the ghostwriter wakes up and goes back to VC's glory days.
So many lonely people to write about.......2006-06-16
What I like best about VC Andrews books is that I know they will just keep coming. There are so many lonely people types in the world to base books on. In APRIL SHADOWS, Andrews does it again, taking a person who is not picture perfect in her own mind and suffers many losses to deal with. Voila! Another dysfunctional situation as well as a character many can relate to, to get to know.
Glad to see gay issues out of the closet and onto the page. The Uncle and his big doll make for a wonderful twist(ed) addition, too.
Now, on to book two of the series. Good!
Fat-phobia at its finest. .......2006-03-27
I used to be a VCA fan. I even stuck with the books after Neiderman started writing them, and helped run the biggest (at the time) internet fan club for her. I grew out of her books somewhere after the Melody series, and since then haven't read her books that often. However, this book caught my eye. "Dares to break all the rules"! That's what the cover said! So I picked it up, and hey- April is short, sensitive, and overweight. Well, that does indeed sound different, I think to myself. How nice it'll be to read a book with a chubby protagonist, I wondered how the issue of her size would be dealt with.
Well, let me say this: poorly. Very, very poorly. Throughout the entire book April does not once ever think anything nice about herself or her body. She's criticized constantly for her size, and she refuses to stand up for herself. It's not at all an exaggeration to say that at least once every five pages there is some mention of her being "overweight", "obese", "20 pounds too much" or some other phrase that points a negative view on herself. There's huge focus on her dieting and on her sister and father being angry with her for doing things like - oh my god - eating a meal! To say that I was disappointed in this book is an understatement. In a world where there are so many young girls with eating disorders and self esteem and self image issues, this book only goes to further perpetuate it all. It's funny, because I always laughed at the typical moaning of VCA's characters over their "bony collarbones", but at least those characters appreciated their bodies for what they were, in spite of their flaws.
There are other issues in this book - yes, there's a homosexual theme. Yes, it's predictable. There are so many stereotypes floating around in this book that it's ridiculous. Brenda, the jock lesbian. Peter, the Native American whose sole purpose in the story is to tell April about native lore and to "follow the wheel." Of course, there's the chubby April, who's fat because she's lazy and eats too much.
I would say that the one and ONLY positive part of this book is in the way that it deals with Brenda and Celia's relationship - very straightforward and without a lot of explaining. Their relationship just is what it is, and there's not a lot of controversy around it. (You may insert your own controversy if you wish..)
I DON'T KNOW WHAT EVERYBODY'S PROBLEM IS?.......2005-12-29
Seeing people disgard this book, souly because it has homosexuality contained in it. well, the world also has homosexulity in it and the sooner people realize it and stop thinking as if we all were in the dark ages where people were be-headed for things like that, the better. Anybody who has read flowers in the attic series and liked it and wrote a review saying this book should't heve ever been published is one of the biggest hipictrits i have ever had the misfortune of having my eyes rolled across their reviews for this magnificent and defiant book. and defiance in a book is a rare but key quality in a memorable book that will be remembered for generations to come. such as myself. i read this book and i'm fourteen but i even know more about beautiful literature than some of these pig-headed, hipicrital, old bitties that think back to pilgrim eras and customs when women only wore black and gray and weren't allowed an oponion. and now that i see how some women take their oponion that many women died trying to uphold, and say things like "i threw it away the second i finished it" or "it is soft core porn" or "the homosexuality it disgusting", really makes me sick and sad to know that the women who died for our oponions, would be turning in their graves if they could read the horid way people have dishevled this beautiful and heartfelt book.
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- Shadows by April Pulley Sayre
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Shadows
April Pulley Sayre
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
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Binding: Hardcover
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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
ASIN: 0805060596 |
Book Description
Two friends find that shadows are all around them."My friend catchesmy shadow's hand.Hand in shadowwe walk the sand."Dragonflies zip by with their shadows behind them. Toe shadows wiggle along the bottom of a creek. In the shadow of a tree lurks delicious cool shade. On a long sunny day, two friends search for shadows and discover the hidden delights of the everyday world. Lush, sun-soaked illustrations and poetic text capture the childhood delights of a summer day.
Customer Reviews:
Shadows by April Pulley Sayre.......2003-09-09
I've used April Pulley Sayre's Shadows in my first grade classroom, both as a read aloud and for independent reading. It offers a nice alternative to straight scientific books on shadows. My students love the playful language, the new surprise on each page, and the engaging illustrations. The author points out things about shadows that we take for granted. For example: "A man keeps a shadow under his hat." I highly recommend this book to teachers of children of all ages.
Book Description
a continuation of the celebrated story of intrigue, treachery and adventure at sea begun in Erskine Childers' epoch-making thriller The Riddle of the Sands, this affectionate tribute to the world's first spy novel is a brilliantly original, utterly enthralling thriller in its own right.
Customer Reviews:
Big disappointment.......2007-06-05
Couldn't finish it, it was such a disappointment after Erskine Childers (the real thing).
It's awkwardly written, the narrative voice is contrived, the sense of adventure smothered under mannerisms.
Even Childers' opening is maybe a little off-putting, and certainly dated, but the glory of it is that, like his narrator, he leaves all that behind as soon as he gets aboard the little ship, and simply lives the magic of the sea and the adventure.
Llewellyn never gets over being an author, and never lets us forget it.
The Long-Lost Secrets.......2007-04-17
This 1998 novel is written as a sequel to "The Riddle of the Sands" and is dedicated to Erskine Childers. The warning of invasion may be metaphorically relevant today. The maps of this area are in the front for easy access, but there is no table of chapters. Llewellyn cannot imitate the style and prose of Childers. Some of the words seem obscure. Charlie Webb begins to tell about his life and times as a poor boy of Norfolk. Some of the words are nautical and not known by a general reader. The conversations seem anachronistic for that time (Chapter 4). In Chapter 5 Charlie Webb meets Carruthers. Webb agrees to work for the Duke of Leominster (Chapter 6). So the story unfolds in the succeeding chapters. Webb, the narrator, tells us what he sees and what he finds out about Eric Dacre and his sailing to the Frisian Islands circa 1903.
Llewellyn wrote a fast-paced interesting story. The anachronisms are jarring. The writing is not like Childers, or even the later E. Phillip Oppenheim ("Day of Wrath"). Its words would not be used in print before the 1960s. The book reminds us about life and culture from a century ago, about the then powerful aristocracy. Llewellyn could be more explicit where Childers had to be more discreet. Overall, Llewellyn wrote a more complex novel than Childers (the secret in Chapter 24). Webb's escape seems miraculous (Chapter 30). The adventures in this book are more from Ian Fleming than Erskine Childers. Of course there is a happy ending. The `Epilogue' ties up the loose ends. But no explanation of the death of Erica Dacre. This book is educational in telling how a mission might be designed for failure when it will better succeed that way!
Not to be confused with an EXCELLENT book by a great author.......2006-12-02
I started the book, and though I felt myself becoming sick pushed on through the entire first chapter.
Terrible.
I can see why the author wanted to link it to Erskine Childers' book "Riddle of the Sands", which was an EXCELLENT book (10 stars).
This author attempts to somehow capitalize on anothers work and fails completely.
Even to the point of starting the book in the middle of a race and then the "narrating character" decides to start from the beginning. I dont know much about the author except for this failure.
I would suggest you go read the Riddle Of The Sands again instead.
believeable heroics.......2000-06-29
somewhat slow but with a constant hint of exciting intrigue and believeable action. Vivid descriptions of the sea scape and the "art" of sailing coupled with excellent character development make this story a terrific adventure.
Pre-World War I intrigue and adventure.......1999-05-04
Sam Llewellyn's latest sailing mystery novel is a departure from others he has written. Set in the early 1900 in England - and off the coast of Germany- it is written as the memiors of a young man who captains the racing yachts for "gentleman." Charlie Webb, orphaned before his teens, starts out fishing for a living and can not understand people who "sail for pleasure" but, for extra money, he agrees to captain a gentleman's yacht. His talent for winning earns him a share of the prize money, and a nautical encounter with the Kaiser. A few years later, that encounter sets up an unwanted assignment by a mysterious Duke, a man Charlie hasn't trusted for a day. This voyage is full of twists and turns, literally and figuratively, right to the last. Witten in the first person, using the speech and slang of the early 1900's, the story is still fast-paced and full of sailing detail, but at times, difficult to follow. English readers will have less objection to the prose, and Llewellyn fans will find it worth the effort.
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Batman Shadow of the Bat No. 11 , April 1993 (Zero Hour)
Manufacturer: DC Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic
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ASIN: B000FHD2J4 |
Product Description
INCREDIBLE BATMAN SHADOW OF THE BAT "THE HUMAN FLEA" COMIC. A MUST HAVE FOR ANY FAN!
Amazon.com
With Moses Wine, Roger L. Simon's once free-spirited, dope-smoking, "people's detective" (introduced in The Big Fix, 1973) having dulled the bite of his political cynicism over the years--and even threatening to go Republican!--there's an opening for a new American anti-establishment gumshoe. Now applying for the job: the pseudonymous "Warren Ritter," a 55-year-old former "revolutionary guerilla" who's been hiding out from The Man for the last three decades (ever since an explosion in which he supposedly died), and who has worked for the last six years as a tarot card reader in counter-cultural Berkeley, California.
When we first meet him, in David Skibbins's Eight of Swords, this anarchist-hero is offering his "fortune-telling jive" to Heather Wellington, a plucky brunette teenager burdened with a controlling stepfather, a black boyfriend her parents don't approve of, and a cretinish, gang-running ex-beau she can't seem to shake. Discomfited by the "oncoming cataclysm" forecast in her future, Warren chooses to downplay any imminent threats. But the next thing he knows, Heather's been kidnapped, he stumbles across her mother's corpse in a downtown park, "pigs" (police) begin peppering him with questions, and his elderly therapist suggests that Warren expunge his guilt in these matters by locating the missing girl. For someone who's trying to lie low, solving crimes isn't exactly in the cards. However, this motorcycle-riding fugitive has picked up a few tough-guy moves during his "underground" years, and more than his fair share of resentment against an unjust world. So, assisted by a paraplegic computer hacker and a Hispanic security specialist, Warren embarks on a rescue mission that will lead him to tangle with malicious car thieves and meddlesome feds, face down slavering guard dogs, and--all in a day's work--foil an incendiary bomb designed to destroy evidence of several crimes.
Although Eight of Swords won the 2004 Malice Domestic/St. Martin's Press contest for Best First Traditional Mystery, the conventionality of this series debut shows only in its methodical progress from clues to conclusions. And, save for his tendency to refer to women as "chicks," there's nothing especially old-fashioned about Warren Ritter--a man prone to bipolar mood swings and haunted by his past: abandoned lovers, a sister who's only just discovered he's still alive, and a daughter he has never met. Skibbins, a California life coach, demonstrates a flair for dramatic pacing and plausible character development. If Warren can resist fleeing whenever his carefully constructed façade seems endangered, bright prospects for this rebel detective with a cause might not be so hard to predict. --J. Kingston Pierce
Book Description
Tarot reader Warren Ritter has never believed in the cards' power to foretell the future. But recently his predictions have come true with an unsettling regularity. When the first eight cards of teenage Heather Wellington's Tarot are ominous, Warren stops the reading at nine cards instead of ten. After Heather leaves, he looks at number ten-the Death card...Warren knows the Death card isn't a guarantee of doom, but it doesn't mean there are good things ahead either. So he can't help feeling horror later that day when he sees Heather's face on the TV screen with the word "Kidnapped!" slashed across the top...Now Warren finds himself pulled into the mystery of Heather's kidnapping-and then a bizarre murder heightens his fear for her life. Suddenly the cops, a beautiful lady, and a killer are all complicating Warren's life. But the cards have a final message for Warren: Only he can untangle the mystery of a young woman's disappearance before it's too late....
Customer Reviews:
Keeping secrets is hard to do..........2007-09-05
Warren Ritter has a decent life -- an apartment, a few acquaintances, a psychiatrist, and a job. He reads tarot cards in Berkeley and earns enough to meet expenses. He doesn't believe in the cards, he just reads them, but lately; well, they've been pretty accurate and that's scaring him. One sunny day Heather Wellington walks up and pays for a reading. It's pretty bad and Warren tries to forget it until he finds out that Heather was kidnapped. Heather's mother comes for a reading and she's later killed and someone is trying to frame Warren. Now he's angry and feels guilty about Heather and he's determined to find her before she too is killed.
An underlying problem is that Warren Ritter isn't. He's got several aliases but he's been Warren for a while now and he likes it. But a crime in his past has him running and he's never stopped running -- the guilt keeps him on the move but the nightmares and his innate sense of justice, which seems to have led to his problems in the first place, now cause him to look at his life and do what he knows is the right thing. There is also the fact that his sister Tara recognized him in spite of his plastic surgery. He learns that he's a father and about to become a grandfather. Going from no ties to seeing so many opportunities to put down roots hits Warren deep -- right where he thought no one could get to him.
To stay he has to trust some people and he has to move past his fear of being found and that starts with saving Heather. The plotting is convoluted but it works. You find yourself turning pages anxious to find out not so much who did it but how and why. Warren isn't all that likeable but he is understandable -- one of those people who often does the wrong things for the right reasons because they couldn't see the right thing to do. I mean how could you not like a character that observes -- cafes are "caffeine's versions of an opium den."
This is the first of a series with this character and if the others build off the strengths of this one it's going to be one interesting set of books.
You can run but you can't hide.......2007-07-16
Rickard could have had a different life if his anti-war mother had not written that letter to his draft board. He became a member of the Weathermen. 30 years ago people thought he was buried in the rubble of a building that exploxed and burned. He has been on the run, and for the past half dozen years he has been a tarot card reader at a street stand in Berkeley using the alias Warren Ritter. Events have complicated his life, and he has come to people's attention.
It is partly a psychological drama as he deals with his bad dreams and the voices within. He has become bipolar. It is partly a mystery when someone is killed, and the unknown killer is trying to frame him for the murder. He has the police and FBI poking their noises into his life. He is afraid of what they may find.
The novel becomes a page turner as events unfold and he tries to carry out his own investigation. He can be a hero or a villain, but either way he is getting unwanted attention, and his past is catching up to him.
I would note that the scene with the dog is a classic. I wonder if the author actually researched this.
Quite Nice!.......2006-09-30
Quite enjoyable! We begin this little adventure meeting "Warren Ritter," at least that's what he's calling himself these days. Warren is an aging hippie who has made a few mistakes in the past and is now living "in hiding." His family thinks he's dead and he's got a nice, if slightly paranoid life as a tarot card reader on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley...how cliché, yet it works!
We start out with Warren giving a reading to Heather, a teen with family issues. He gives her what he thinks is going to be a standard reading, but as he goes on, he gets an ominous feeling from the cards, and ends up cutting the reading short. After giving her one of his cards, she's off and running to do more shopping...but no sooner is she gone than she's kidnapped and Warren's sister (who thinks he's dead) shows up and recognizes him. It's a double whammy and Warren is left to pick up the pieces and figure out what to do about being framed for Heather's kidnapping and the discovery by his sister that he is NOT dead...we are drawn into a pretty exciting and fast paced adventure as Warren tries to figure out what is going on and as he delves into his feelings about his family and the life he left behind.
As the story progresses we are introduced to a bevy of interesting characters...and each is more than a little paranoid, this seems to be a theme throughout the book (avoiding "the man" and all that). We meet the jaded but talented (and wheelchair bound) hacker chick, his tough, yet extremely likeable therapist, a paranoid private investigator/surveillance guy, and a pretty standard bullying FBI agent out to pin the kidnapping on the most convenient person...Warren.
Overall I enjoyed this and was pleased with the ending. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series and seeing where the author takes Warren! I give it a B+
Hiding in Plain Sight.......2006-07-14
EIGHT OF SWORDS is a good story that moves smartly
along. It's also a thoughtful novel, and the
protagonist, Warren Ritter, is one of the most
intriguing characters I've met in a long time.
And as much as anything, probably, I was fascinated by
a look into a fugitive's life.
Warren is, in his words, "the last revolutionary
guerrilla out there." He's been on the lam for 30
years but has settled into a reasonably comfortable
life as a tarot reader on a street corner in Berkeley.
For total privacy he climbs an old oak tree in a
cemetery to make phone calls. He thinks his tombstone
will read,"You can run, but you cannot hide."
Warren is not aging gracefully. He still hates "pigs"
even though one of his friends is a cop. He still has
contempt for the feds. He takes pills to control his
mood swings. But he has a sense of humor and a kind,
if carefully guarded, heart. I liked him a lot.
Warren has several false identities, with a healthy
bank account under each name. He keeps a residence in
Las Vegas so he can get a driver's license without a
photo or a fingerprint. He has a survivor's instinct
for smelling danger, playing dumb, fading into a
crowd.
Even so, his life is like the deck of cards he uses.
There's a certain order to the tarot, and if a card
falls the wrong way the whole deck could follow. The
catalyst for Warren's potential downfall is a reading
he does for a teenaged girl from the 'burbs. In short
order, she is kidnapped, Warren is set up for a
murder, and his sister Tara suddenly shows up on his
street corner and recognizes him.
Warren's impulse is to move on but Tara drops an
offhand bit of family news that will keep him in
Berkeley. It's the proverbial rock and a hard place.
If he stays he has to investigate kidnapping and
murder to clear himself of suspicion without blowing
his cover.
Fortunately, he has interesting friends. There's
Sally, a paraplegic computer hacker who has a personal
beef with the government and takes a special interest
in security systems. In Warren's words, "She looked
friendly and harmless, and was the most dangerous
woman I knew."
Her hobby is hacking Northern California law
enforcement computers. Sally's fees are commensurate
with the risks. Need a couple of files from the local
PD? No problem. That'll be two thousand dollars
please. There's also Mad Max Valdez who runs a
top-notch surveillance service. As Max explains his
success, "... nobody notices you if you've got brown
skin. Being invisible must be good for something!"
Being invisible is an art form with these people but
Warren makes one careless -- and colossal -- mistake
that will bring the feds swarming down on them.
How Warren exacts justice, works his way out of the
mess and faces up to emotional attachments that have
made him vulnerable kept me turning the pages.
If you remember the 60's, you might know Warren Ritter.......2006-05-08
Caveat Emptor: I read Eight of Swords several years ago when it was submitted to the St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Contest; I sent it on, and it won in 2004.
Warren Ritter reads tarot on Telegraph Avenue in San Francisco. Most of the time, his readings have more to do with his ability to "read" the client than they do with the cards. Every once in a while "the cards reach up and grab me by the throat. The spread in front of me was screaming that my client was heading straight for Armageddon." That client is Heather Wellington, "maybe sixteen, slightly overweight, decked out in a suede mini and a tight gray T-shirt", looking to find out where her love life is going. Will things work out with the new boyfriend, Curtis, who happens to be black and a nice guy no matter what her parents think? Or will her father, the control freak, push her back into the arms of her old boyfriend, Hal, a would-be gansta? Warren gives Heather a reading which brushes up against the danger the cards are showing, but doesn't begin to convey the enormity of what she is up against.
Later that same day Warren sees Heather on the news; she's been kidnapped and her parents are frantic. Warren isn't thrilled - he gave Heather one of his business cards, something he does with most of his clients. Of course, the police come calling. For most people, this might be discomfiting. For Warren, it's downright scary. Warren isn't his real name. Mr. Ritter has several identities, scattered around the Pacific edge of Amerika. Mr. Ritter used to be Richard Green, active in the 60's Weather Underground, presumed dead in a bomb blast a long, long time ago. He does not want the cops trolling around in his life.
There are other sub-plots. Later the afternoon of the bad tarot reading for Heather, Warren is confronted by his sister Tara. She is, as one might suspect, more than a little upset to find her dead brother reading tarot on a street corner. Warren is thrown for a loop when Tara informs him that she is soon to be an aunt . . . which means that Warren is a father, something he had not known before.
In his search for the kidnappers, which becomes the search for whoever set him up for the killing of Heather's mother, Lorraine Wellington, Warren utilizes one of his many resources. Sally is a paraplegic hacker "in the old school way, an outlaw who liked to f**k with security systems". Sally is one of those characters that I'd like to think I'd like to know, but I'm probably really not very comfortable around anyone who could know that much about me. Warren manages to get past that discomfort, and they begin a low-key romance.
Eight of Swords is not nearly so much about the mystery of who killed Lorraine and who kidnapped Heather as it is about the mystery of who Warren is, how he got to be the man he is, and where he is going from here. His therapist, Rose, has a lot to say about the "why" of Warren, at least in this scenario. Again, I'd like to know Rose, even though therapy with her sounds like it's really work. One of the risk factors in Warren's life is his manic-depression. Watching him "ride the waves" of this disease is not always pleasant reading; it serves as a reminder that Warren is not always a pleasant kind of guy. The forces that made him a revolutionary in the 60's still affect him today. Some readers may not like Warren's politics. The resolution of the killing and kidnapping are reasonable and tidy (well, mostly); the resolution of Warren's situation isn't anything like that.
While Skibbins probably pushes the envelope in terms of whether or not Eight of Swords is truly a "cozy", there is no doubt that he wrote a compelling story. Eight of Swords left me wanting to know more about Warren; the possibilities for this series are myriad. I look forward to Skibbins' next book with anticipation and hope that the dreaded sophomore slump doesn't apply. Skibbins has great potential, as this book ably demonstrates.
Average customer rating:
- Galumphing farce turns to murder
|
The Eight of Swords
John Dickson Carr
Manufacturer: Zebra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Carr, John Dickson | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0821718819 |
Customer Reviews:
Galumphing farce turns to murder.......2002-12-24
John Dickson Carr took a heavy-handed turn toward humor in "The Eight of Swords," and almost drove off the edge of the cliff. The characters say "What ho" more times than Bertie Wooster. What starts out as the story of a young man who is afraid to tell his father, the Bishop of Mapleham that he spent his time in America at speakeasies and hanging out with loose women, instead of attending criminology courses at Columbia University, ends in attempted murder and murder. The farcical characters fade from view and we hear no more 'what ho's after about the middle of the book.
Carr's serial detective, the humungous Dr. Gideon Fell, galumphs into view disguised as the Viennese psychiatrist, Dr. Sigismund Von Hornswoggle. He fools no one, least of all his friend Chief Inspector Hadley. In fact, Hadley is glad to see the enormous, eccentrically-dressed detective, as he is being badgered to investigate the case of a bishop who seems to have gone mad, and is caught sliding down banisters, attacking maids, and creeping about on his host's leads in the middle of the night. There is also the mystery of the poltergeist who biffed a vicar in the eye with an inkpot.
While in Hadley's office, Colonel Standish, who is currently hosting the eccentric bishop and the poltergeist, is informed that a man has been murdered on his estate back in Gloucestershire. The deceased was discovered with a tarot card clutched in his hand: the Eight of Swords, a minor arcana, which symbolizes (according to Fell) Condemning Justice.
The eccentric Bishop of Mapleham, his errant son, and Dr. Fell pile into Colonel Standish's tonneau (this book was first published in 1934) and set off for Gloucestershire to investigate the mystery surrounding the dead man.
"The Eight of Swords" leans more toward farce than Carr's usual blend of mystery and ominous, supernatural doom, although there is one rather creepy chase scene toward the end of the book. It is a fun read and one of the author's less complicated mysteries--actually it's the only one of his mysteries where I've been able to correctly pick the murderer before the grand denouement at the end of the story.
Customer Reviews:
INTRIGUING book for those who like some mystery.......2006-12-21
I have enjoyed my book and disagree with the other writer. It may not be DEEP historically, but there are LOTS of books out like that! I own some of them, but this book is different. I grew up in the mountains, my ancestoral Confederate Grandfather lies buried in a Vicksburg, Ms. grave. I feel a personal connection to these that are written of in this book. I LOVE a mystery and I sometimes like to read and contemplate a persons untimely end! I am GLAD that I own this book!
A Really Bad Book.......2004-05-09
Mr. Frazier simply doesn't know his Civil War history, managing to cram an astonishing number of errors into a small book. For example: Did you know that Thomas commanded the Army of the Cumberland at the battle of Chickamauga? (And I bet you thought it was Rosecrans.) Or that Bragg launched his attack from Chattanooga against the Federal advance from the southeast? (Which brings up the question how the heck did the defeated Federals manage to take shelter in the city?)
Ten minutes with BOATNER or any encyclopedia would have given Frazier a correct picture of the war's second largest battle. That he hasn't bothered to do that elementary research throws his entire methodology into question.
Frazier is barely better on the subject matter of the book: the untimely death of a number of Confederate generals during Reconstruction. In only a single case does he add much not already printed in GENERALS IN GRAY. Without anything really to say, he tries out some anti-government rhetoric but seems to lose interest even in that vain effort to save this dismal little book.
Frazier represents that class of amateur Civil War writers without the historical training or the intellectual integrity to take up so large a subject. Save your money; the book (published through a vanity press) isn't worth a dime.
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