I’ve read all the Lucas Davenport books and I’ve really enjoyed the series. This one fell flat for me just half way through. Some rare psychiatric conditions get way too much use in murder mysteries. I was disappointed to see one such show up here. And Lucas Davenport himself is so different from his early self, it’s almost unbelievable. How did that gritty, close-to-the-edge tough guy turn into a Ward Cleaver imitator? I’m hoping Sandford had some reason to rush this novel, so we can expect another good entry in his great series the next time around.

A little dry, but still crammed with history.

This isn’t one of McCammon’s horror novels. This is a good historical mystery novel set in NYC around 1700. The characters are interesting, the mystery is involved and held my interest, the history is well-researched. It’s just a tad gruesome compared with light, fluffy mysteries, but not as gruesome as, say, forensic mysteries.

Refreshingly risque movie, released before the infamous Hays Code was enforced (responsible for the stupid requirements that put film & TV married couples in twin beds). Miriam Hopkins loves & sleeps with both Gary Cooper & Frederic March, & all 3 openly discuss sex & relationships. I grew up thinking nobody back then talked about such thins. Loosely based – -some say mangled – on a Noel Coward play. It’s fun!

This is one of the best accounts of the Reconstruction South I’ve read, along with:
After Appomattox: How the South Won the War, by Stetson Kennedy &
Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, by David M. Oshinsky

The Bloody Shirt limits coverage to 3 primary locations in SC, MS, and LA. Sources include military reports, records of local, state, and nat’l gov’t bodies, newspaper articles, personal letters and diaries, and pamphlets and books written from the 1860s through the present day. The accounts of atrocities, legal manipulations, corruption, hypocrisy, and public opinion in both North and South.

Politics, publicity, corruption, cruelty – all too common traits of humankind all through time. The tactics used then are still being used now, but the chapter of human history covered within this book tell of a long-lived triumph of terrorism within the USA conducted by its own people against its own people, including the failures of everyone who wanted to stop it.

I love well-researched historical mysteries – generally. I enjoyed learning more about Shakespeare, although some conversations in this book went over my head. A couple of plot twists were predictable, and I hated the fact that the protagonist wanted to get her hands on the goal so much she ignored the fact that everyone who helped her got murdered. After the 2nd killing, I think I would have given up and just let “the bad guys” have it. I’ve got 1 CD left before the ending, but I’m moving on to something else.

Like Victorian-era English history, I’ve always resisted reading about the 1960s US I heard enough about it, I thought, growing up. It’s like Elvis – it’s DEAD, get OVER it!

Until I read Tom Brokaw’s book. Hearing old hippies and activists and vets take trips down memory lane never put a whole picture together for me, or showed how so much of today came from that day (as well as every era before then).

“The Island at the Center of the World” helped me see the direct connection between 1600s Manhattan with 21st century Manhattan, so it’s only logical that 40 years ago US history connects with 21st century US events and attitudes. I was just resistant.

Please refer to my entry under Swain’s “Jackpot.”

I clicked on the icon for “Midnight Rambler” by Swain, but this title popped up. It’s “Midnight Rambler” I read and liked. Good mystery, good detective, and I love it when a character lives in a cheap apt on a beach in small town Florida, with a good ol’ dog.

Okay, I admit that I find these improbable adventures of Dirk Pitt to be fun reading. I read ‘em all. Don’t tell anybody! :>