DWD's Reviews

Interesting Characters. So-so mystery. Published in 2011 by Multnomah. The Corruptible is the second in the Ray Quinn mystery series. It is written by now-retired police officer Mark Mynheir who adds a touch of authenticity to his work (although he misses the most obvious clue at the beginning of this mystery). Ray Quinn is a former Orlando police officer turned Private Investigator who was forced to retire due to disability as a result of being shot through the hip. His replacement hip is painful and he needs to walk with a cane and he often deals with the pain (physical and emotional) with a few stout shots of Jim Beam. He has a support team of sorts: a partner named Crevis who is trying to pass the entrance exam to be a police officer and a business manager who works during the daytime hours as a parochial school teacher. In this story, Quinn is hired by an investment company to recover stolen client information by downloading it onto a portable hard drive. The number one...

The controversial winner of the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for fiction Here we are, decades years later and The Confessions of Nat Turner is still in the news. Recently, Henry Louis Gates, Jr made comments (positive ones, now. Originally negative impressions, years ago) about the book. The primary controversy is quite simple - how can a white man, a southerner, and the descendant of slave owners write a novel about one of the few slaves who actually stood up and demanded his freedom by leading a rebellion? Some have even asserted that he did not even have the right to write the book in the first place - after all, it is not HIS history. But, is Nat Turner to be forever held apart? Is African-American history to be held apart? Can an African-American write about the Japanese Shogunate? Can an Asian-American write about the Alamo? Of course and of course. Gates makes this point in his comments (correctly). History is human history. Nat Turner (1800-1831) Styron's fictionalized...

A throwback to the early days of 'Spenser' Published by Putnam Adult in 2005 This edition of Spenser reminded me of the early days of the series - the days before Spenser would assemble a gigantic posse of bad guys and policemen (ie, Potshot ) in order to get the job done. Thankfully, this one is also basically Susan Silverman-free (not that I mind Susan, it's all of the repeated conversations about their relationship - it just gets old!) Unfortunately, School Days is also Hawk-free, so the experienced reader of Spenser books will definitely miss the witty banter the two often share. However, Spenser manages to get in a few good lines without the extra help and he does get a bit of outside help from some unusual sources from the past. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon here:  School Days (Spenser) Reviewed October 9, 2005.

This is my first Forsyth novel and for the first 250 pages... ...I had determined that it would be my last. Forsyth spends the first half of of the 500+ page  Icon just setting the reader up for the real plot of the novel. Unfortunately, the setup consists of a series of disjointed flashbacks interspersed with seemingly unrelated tales of what is going on in the present of the novel (1999-2000 in the old USSR, now Russia). Frederick Forsyth Suddenly, once the flashbacks work their way up to the present time the real story starts and it is a great adventure story! The meandering story redeems itself. There is a lot of action, intrigue and a bunch of frustrated Nazis. Unfortunately, the ending is just too neat - it ends the book with everything too well resolved. I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Icon by Frederick Forsyth . Reviewed on October 9, 2005.

YIKES! Released in 2005. NOTE: this is a review of the 1st re-cutting of this movie - the "director's cut." Stone has since re-cut it into a "final cut" and an "ultimate cut" 20 minutes into this movie I was thinking that it had real potential. We get to see the ugly details of Alexander's childhood. We get an understanding of his need to conquer, the need to achieve more than his father and his fascination for the non-Greek world (thanks to his mother). An hour into the movie I was confused and disappointed. Confused because of the incessant flashbacks. I knew what was going only because I teach this stuff for a living. How could the average movie-goer possibly understand why Alexander invaded the Persian Empire based on the feeble information supplied by Stone? Stone has an oblique reference to Phillip's murder, but the average movie-viewer does not know even know who Alexander the Great is, let alone that his father was mur...

Not the strongest of the series but very, very good Winner of the 2003 Anthony Award. Published in 2002 by Little, Brown.  Michael Connelly is one of the two best living detective writers, in my opinion, the other being Robert Crais. Having noted in the title for this review that City of Bones is not the strongest in the series, I must also note that it makes this book receive a grade of merely an "A" rather than the normal "A+." Michael Connelly Bosch's books are gritty but not over the top. He is principled but not a boy scout. This particular Harry Bosch novel, City of Bones , deals with an old homicide uncovered in the hills surrounding Los Angeles. Bosch finds romance, has a major career shift and it has a surprise ending. No other plot details to avoid spoilers. You can join the Bosch novels at any point but I'd recommend starting at the beginning. I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. This book can be found on Amazon.com here: City of Bones...

Oh, how I wanted to be able to recommend this book! Published in 2010 by William Morris As a history teacher I often decry the politically and factually correct, but dreadfully dry and boring history textbooks. I was hoping that this book, The Dangerous Book of Heroes, could be a popular antidote and a return to the famous Landmark books series that I grew up reading. Mostly, The Dangerous Book of Heroes is just that - a collection of biographies - some just a few pages, some longer. They are illustrated with the same kind of line drawings that I remember from the Landmark books. But, this book does have a danger to it, and not the tongue-in-cheek kind suggested by the title. The publisher markets this as a book for children with the phrase "here are amazing stories of heroism that parents can share with their children."   Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) One of the authors claims it is aimed at 14 year olds and above. That may be so, but the ser...