Beyond Line of Sight: A History of VHF Propagation from the Pages of QST

Amazon.com

A straight, not-so-smart cop who falls for a sexy married woman with her eye on a quick exit from her marriage (with the proceeds from a hefty insurance policy on her husband's life, natch) makes Line of Sight a noirish thriller that could go right from the manuscript to the B-movie screen. When Ray Dolan meets Sheila Travis, you can see the ending coming in this barely steamy mystery that's long on heavy breathing and short on characterization, pacing, and plot. The reader longs for Ray to smarten up and get out of Sheila's bedroom before she puts a gun in his hand and makes him do something he'd never imagined doing, but of course he does it anyway. The only surprise is that he gets away with it (sort of), but not until over 300 pages of turgid prose have been flipped. The real mystery is which James M. Cain novel Jack Kelly had at hand when he penned this one, and how many pages one can read until the flight attendant announces the in-flight movie and beverage service. (Hint: all of them.) Is "Howard the Duck" better entertainment at 30,000 feet? You be the judge. --Jane Adams

Book Description

Straight as an arrow, Detective Ray Dolan has always done everything by the bookthat is, until he meets the woman next door. Sheila Travis is intelligent, sexy, and married. From the minute Ray and Sheila meet, it seems, they have a bond between them. Line of Sight offers suspense from the first page to the last, and promises to put Jack Kelly on the same map with Elmore Leonard.

Customer Reviews:

Good cop tempted by pleasures of the flesh.......2006-07-11

GET IT. It was a good one. I picked this book up with no expectations and found myself drawn into the world of law enforcement and the pressure of what I can only imagine being in the main character's (Ray Dolan)position. Lots of twists, you will try to figure it out chapter after chapter! A good reminder that everyone is walking through a minefield of temptations.

Well done noir fiction.......2003-01-26

While there is nothing truly original here, this is nevertheless a very well done noir novel in the classic mold: as the back cover says, a cross between Body Heat and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Very true. This is a gripping read for sure; Kelly does know how to make you keep turning pages.

Officer Ray Dolan lives just down the way from the Travises, a very wealthy couple--Lance and Sheila--and their teenage daughter Brie. Dolan, single, has ambivalence about his job, possibly stemming from his father, also a cop, having committed suicide. But he gets along well with his fellow officers, especially Frank Kaiser, who, after many years of marriage, finds his wife having an affair. Also on the scene is Leanne Corvino, a local TV news anchor.

Dolan and Corvino hook up briefly, but after catching sight of his sexy neighbor, Sheila Travis, Dolan forgets about Corvino and develops serious hots for Sheila. Needless to say, complications ensue. Turns out Sheila's husband has questionable morals. Turns out Sheila is not happy with Lance. Turns out Sheila and Ray (Dolan) get something going.

It also turns out that Sheila, Lance, Frank, Ray, and Leanne all have stuff going on involving each other that does not seem apparent initially and that definitely makes for noir-themed fiction at its best.

This is a great read for those who like their noir juicy and involving. Yeah, I liked it a lot.

Comfortable yet stimulating.......2001-05-25

Line of Sight is full of classic noir-cop-detective elements, so I thought I was nestling into comfortable fiction territory as I settled into reading the book. But Jack Kelly has written a book that is simultaneously familiar yet new, nostalgic yet fresh. Kelly's characters are familiar with a twist, predictable yet surprising. His telegraphic style at first seemed choppy and awkward to me, yet by page three his concise words were painting vivid scenes of landscapes both psychic and physical. I thoroughly enjoyed the synthesis of familiar and new in this book. Its images and emotional mood will stay with you for a long time.

Bad Broad Gets Good Guy.......2001-02-22

Jack Kelly explores sexual obsession and how it leads good to become evil in this sharp and moody novel. The characters are thoroughly modern (a girl named Brie can only happen in modern America), their situation as timeless as Adam and Eve. The writing is funny, acute, and poetic. Ray and Sheila propell the plot to its cathartic conclusion, completely believably. This is a writer who knows how to combine the best crime writing with the best literary writing. Don't miss it.

Great book! Fun read. Important themes........2001-02-08

"Nobody's innocent," says Sheila, one of the key characters in Line of Sight.

Book Description

Filmmaker, film essayist, installation artist, writer: the Berlin artist Harun Farocki has devoted his life to the power of images. Over the thirty-plus years of his career, Farocki has explored not the images of life but rather the life of images that surrounds us in newspapers, cinema, books, television, and advertising. Harun Farocki examines, from different critical perspectives, his vast oeuvre, which includes three feature films, critical media pieces, children’s television features, “learning films” in the tradition of Brecht, and installation pieces. Interviews, a selection of Farocki’s own writings, and an annotated filmography complete a valuable biography of this pioneering artist and his legendary career.

Average customer rating:

More like 4 1/2 stars....
4.5 Stars: Line of Sight: The Athena Force is back!
terrific paranormal romantic suspense

Line of Sight (Athena Force)
Rachel Caine
Manufacturer: Silhouette
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Romantic Suspense | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

General | Romance | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

Romantic Suspense | Romance | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0373389728

Book Description

After three Athena Academy students are kidnapped, FBI special agent Katie Rush is first on the scene. The Athena grad will stop at nothing to make sure the girls are returned safely—even if it means working with a psychic. This unconventional relationship is not ideal for a by-the-book agent, but Katie can't dismiss his dead-on revelations. Now in a race against time, with young girls' lives on the line, Katie must do something she's never attempted: Put her trust in a handsome stranger.

Customer Reviews:

More like 4 1/2 stars...........2007-08-23

FBI Special Agent Katie Rush doesn't believe in failure. When Athena Force students, Teal Arnett and Lena Poole, are kidnapped, Katie is determined to find them, no matter what it takes. She's even willing to work with street magician and "Network Psychic" Stefan Blackman, who claims to have a psychic connection to Teal. Katie can't deny his information is valid, but is he trustworthy? And will they get to Teal and Len in time?

What a joy to have the Athena Force series back after the demise of the Silhouette Bombshell line! Rachel Caine starts this series off with a bang with LINE OF SIGHT as the action is nonstop from the very first page. Stefan's psychic flashes are interspersed throughout the tale, but even those are filled with action so that the reader is guaranteed to have nary a dull moment in this fast paced thriller.

Katie fits the ideal that the Bombshell line epitomized. She is tough and willing to sacrifice herself for others. As an Athena Academy graduate herself, she knows the importance of secrecy and the bond that all Athena Academy students, both past and present, share. Katie has a hard shell but Stefan manages to get past her barriers, showing the softer woman within. The attraction between the two is sizzling, although I did seriously question their sanity when they chose to have sex BEFORE calling the cops after one of Stefan's visions gave them a clue to the girls' whereabouts. You'd think someone as dedicated as Katie would have called someone first, rather than letting her own needs prevail. Other than that moment, LINE OF SIGHT is perfection indeed. Easily recommended!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

4.5 Stars: Line of Sight: The Athena Force is back!.......2007-08-20

Fans of the canceled line Silhouette Bombshell will be ecstatic to see that the Athena Force is back in action when they discover Rachel Caine's LINE OF SIGHT, the first book in 12 book continuation centering on the Athena Academy. In the true spirit of Silhouette Bombshells, the heroine is intelligent, strong and sexy. The adventure is fast-paced and suspenseful.

Students from the mysterious Athena Academy have been abducted. These female students are trained to be the best and have highly developed skills. These three girls have become targets for FBI special Agent and Athena graduate Katie Rush has been called to the scene. Have the girls been the victim of a sexual predator or has an enemy of the Athena Force devised a plan to bring about the school's downfall?

Stefan Blackman has a vision of the kidnapping and offers his services after flying to the scene of his vision. Can he be trusted? Katie might have her doubts, particularly when he was looking at her from the moment she arrived at the airport and keeps watching her but he may be the only means to complete a rescue mission. Can she combine her investigative skills with his psychic abilities to rescue the girls, particularly when clues show this might be more than an average kidnapping or abduction? The two must figure out whether this is a kidnapping or abduction, who is behind their disappearance and rescue them.

Rachel Caine's book is a fun light read full of adventure, romance, and suspense. The characterization is strong and the chemistry between the hero and heroine draws them together as they work to solve the clues, both psychic and more mundane, to rescue the hostages. The already suspenseful atmosphere of this book might have been heightened if the author had interspersed some of the fascinating details with little hints and more shadowy details more from the beginning and scattered throughout. Nevertheless, Line of Sight is a great read and Bombshell fans will be thrilled to know the Athena Force is live and well and on a mission!

terrific paranormal romantic suspense.......2007-08-12

The graduates believe that the safest place in the world is their alma mater, the Athena Academy near Glendale, Arizona. At least FBI Agent Katie Rush thought that was true until she receives the call that two students Teal Arnett and Lena Poole were abducted while going to the movies.

Katie immediately heads to Arizona where she meets psychic Stefan Blackman, who insists he left Los Angeles because he has mentally connected to one of the victims. Although attracted to Stefan a Venice Beach street musician, Katie wonders what exactly his con is. Still his information seems accurate so she hesitantly takes a chance that he is the genuine article. He seems the only person capable of finding the girls so she can save their lives. At this point Katie is unaware that there is a bigger stake than just these young pawns.

The good news is that the Athena Academy tales that were a key reason the now defunct Bombshell imprint was so much fun is back; the great news is that the first return is as good as the previous entries. The story line is action-packed, but it is the cast that turns LINE OF SIGHT into a terrific paranormal romantic suspense. The captivating Stefan is a chip (make that a peanut) off the old block as he shares visions with his mom. While Katie is obstinate once she is on a case; even her superior recognizes her qualities which he worries will one day prove lethal to her. Fans will welcome the return of the Athena Academy graduates as the opening gamut in what looks like will be a fabulous miniseries

Harriet Klausner

A Line a Day Sight Reading Level 2 (Bastien Piano Basics)

Average customer rating:

A Line a Day Sight Reading Level 2 (Bastien Piano Basics)

Manufacturer: Neil A Kjos Music Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0849794269

A Line a Day Sight Reading Level 1 (Bastien Piano Basics)

Average customer rating:

A Line a Day Sight Reading Level 1 (Bastien Piano Basics)

Manufacturer: Neil A. Kjos Music Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0849794226

The Line's Eye: Poetic Experience, American Sight

Average customer rating:

The Line's Eye: Poetic Experience, American Sight
Elisa New
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0674534638

Book Description

Is American vision implicitly possessive, as a generation of critics contends? By viewing the American poetic tradition through the prism of pragmatism, Elisa New contests this claim. A new reading of how poetry "sees," her work is a passionate defense of the power of the poem, the ethics of perception, and the broader possibilities of American sight.

American poems see more fully, and less invasively, than accounts of American literature as an inscription of imperial national ideology would allow. Moreover, New argues, their ways of seeing draw on, and develop, a vigorous mode of national representation alternative to the appropriative sort found in the quintessential American genre of encounter, the romance. Grounding her readings of Dickinson, Frost, Moore, and Williams in foundational texts by Edwards, Jefferson, Audubon, and Thoreau, New shows how varieties of attentiveness and solicitude cultivated in the early literature are realized in later poetry. She then discloses how these ideas infuse the philosophical notions about pragmatic experience codified by Emerson, James, and Dewey. As these philosophers insisted, and as New's readings prove, art is where the experience of experience can be had: to read, as to write, a poem is to let the line guide one's way.

Lines Volume One: Sight Reading and Sight Singing Exercises

Average customer rating:

The Internet as it should be

Lines Volume One: Sight Reading and Sight Singing Exercises
Bruce Arnold
Manufacturer: muse eek publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1890944092
Release Date: 2003-07-11

Book Description

There are many methods of ear training available to the serious music student. The relative pitch ear training presented here is based on a two part approach involving singing and listening to an ear training tape. What makes this ear training different is that a student memorizes the sound of all 12 pitches against a key center. Steps and Exercises are given to reach this first plateau.

Customer Reviews:

The Internet as it should be.......1999-06-17

This book is great! I can download audio files from the muse-eek website and then sing along with it. I'm really starting to learn how to sing harmonies and how to hear them. I highly recommend getting Mr. Arnold's Ear Training CD's along with this book. The combination of both is really helping me.

Average customer rating:

Sight Lines
Arlene Croce
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0394561643
Release Date: 1987-10-12

Average customer rating:

Worth seeking out. Great SF, great world, great storytelling

A good book from a great author.

I'm 14 and I got the entire book!

Ummmm? What was the main plot?

C.J. Cherryh builds worlds..within worlds..within worlds
Angel with the Sword: Merovingen Nights, Book 1
C. J. Cherryh
Manufacturer: DAW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Cherryh, C.J. | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Baby-3 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Fever Season (Merovingen Nights, No 2)

Divine Right (Merovingen Nights, No 5)

Flood Tide (Merovingen Nights, No 6)

Festival Moon (Merovingen Nights, No. 1)

Deliverer (Foreigner Universe)

ASIN: 0886771439

Customer Reviews:

Worth seeking out. Great SF, great world, great storytelling.......2006-07-05

This book is CJ Cherryh at her best. Six hundred years ago, an alien race declared that a human colony was in *their* space and the humans needed to leave. But not all of them were willing to be evicted, and they endured the "Scouring" when the Sharrh came to finish the job. The planet itself added to the survivors' problems, with earthquakes and floods, so the cities -- particularly Merovingen, where the action takes place -- began to sink into the sea. The descendents cursed their ancestors for fools, ever since.

The story itself -- about a 17 year old "canal rat" who saves the life of a rich and gorgeous guy -- is one of her best love stories, and the action is non-stop. But it's her ability to create a believeable universe that awes me about the author. The world Cherryh created is absolutely real, and she brings it to life with its grittiness, poverty, and refusal to embrace despair. This is definitely SF, not simply a love story with space aliens on a blue screen in the background; Cherryh extrapolates the religions and economics that would result from the abandonment of the human colony.

Sometimes, an author will have a very clear picture of the world but deftly keep most of the details in her head, revealing them only as the need arises. In this case, the world-building details are clearly described, complete with appendices at the back of the book -- because Merovingen became the setting for one of the better Shared Worlds book series. (This is a whole, standalone novel, which you could read without feeling that you're committed to a lifestyle; the others in the series are short stories tied together with a Cherryh-written frame.)

I've had this book since it first came out, and I've re-read it several times. The spine is almost worn through, and my name is scribbled inside the front cover because I've loaned it out so often. It's truly a great SF novel: not in a life-changing Dune sort of way, but just a "Darnit, that's a good story!" sense. With so many Amazon sellers having inexpensive copies of this out-of-print title, it's silly *not* to get a copy.

A good book from a great author........2004-08-19

Before I talk about the story, you need to know two things about the book.
First, the story is set in the universe of the Union-Alliance novels, yet you don't need those books to know what's going on. The book is a stand alone and has lots of information in the back with maps, chapters on history, fashion and even language.
Second, this was meant to be the first in a series of books, very much like the Thieves' World series, but instead of a walled city of the Middle-Ages filled with magic and crime, this was more like a city-state of Italy (during the Renaissance) filled with politics and, sometimes, guns.
And the series did go on as other authors added their own skill and stories to the books that followed.
Now, for the story. Like all of her books, C.J. Cherryh starts small, with a character we think of as normal and a daily event. Altair Jones, the main female character, rescues a man who is tossed into one of the canals. This is normal - bodies are always being tossed in by gangs. But he lived and happens to be a high-born. He also happens to be in the middle of something that seems to get bigger and bigger as the story moves along. By saving him Altair might have also gotten herself involved with a mess that could end up with HER in the canals.
The dangers increase as the knots in this plot are untied and we get close to the truth about what is going on and why. C.J. Cherryh is an artist, crafting the story carefully from start to finish, she never wastes a page, a word or a letter.
This is a must for any of her fans or a good book to start with for people who don't know her works.
I plan to find the rest to see how well the saga went!

I'm 14 and I got the entire book!.......2001-06-07

ok alot of people didn't really get it, I did. I'm not sure if I just have good reading skills or what. I loved this book, after the first time I read it, I bought it. I love the characters, the descriptions of the scenes and the people were very precise and detailed, alot of books don't give me that clear of an image of the setting to which the author wanted to depict. this one did and it made the reading experience more enjoyable, the plot was difficult and thus made it more interesting and hard to follow, giving the reader more to think about and to keep guessing. I love books like these and I wish authors would write more like them.

Ummmm? What was the main plot?.......2001-05-24

This book, though I gave it a good rating, was laking a few things. The first thing it was laking was complex characters. They were good or bad, beautiful or ugly, smart or stupid. Second, was that the descriptions of both the sceneries and the characters weren't believable. There were also thing that were over complicated. Like the plot. There couldn't just be a thing happening, or even a thing inside of a thing. No, it was a thing, inside of a thing, inside of a thing inside of a thing, et cetra. I meen, come on, do you really need all those plots and scheems to write an interesting story and keep a plot going? Other than that I loved this book. There were quite a few moments in the book where I wanted to [hit] one of the charcters on the head and scream at them "What were you thinking!..." There were also time when I felt sorry for them, were proud of them, and pleased that they had done something I wanted to happen. The plot, though complicated, was understandable, and you knew exactly what was happening, when it was happening, and whom it was happening to. Not to mention that you were yelling at all the characters at the time! I loved this book, for all that I hated it, I think everyone who loves fantasy should read this marvelous book!

C.J. Cherryh builds worlds..within worlds..within worlds.......2000-09-08

Ignore any bad reviews of this book. Ignore the off the wall numbering system. Any book that kicks off a series like Merovingen Nights is a really good book. so who needs a really strange but coherent socio-political-religious system that evolved to meet an identifiable, reasonable problem and makes sense of everything that happens? Most science fiction books do. Only some of them have it-like this one. Who needs a lecture to get it straight? most of them, but not this one. who needs starcrossed teenage lovers who act just like teenagers? well, Shakespeare did, so did Cherryh. They got them. Altair Jones is a star-struck, insecure, inconsistent teenage orphan who talks real tough; Thomas Mondragon is a smooth young aristocrat, a cynical, idealistic rebel-turned- adventurer who's out of his element and in a lot of trouble. They need each other, and they'll turn the whole town upside down. this is the story Shakespeare might have written if Juliet had had a backbone and a boat, and Romeo's whole faction had just been wiped out. The plot is rich: the villains are deadly, the bystanders are nervous, the politics are dizzying, the action is intense, but for Altair Jones, self-centered teenager, every thing is just one thing- Mondragon and her. It's funny, it's fast, it's exciting..it's exceptional. Read this book- you won't see many like it.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books