DEATH IN THE CLOUDS

A hodgepodge group of people board a flight from Paris to Croydon, and before they land, one turns up dead! Luckily, one of the passengers is the great detective Hercule Poirot. Thus starts another mystery by Agatha Christie, the most read author of all times. Published in 1935, this novel was originally titled Death in the Air. The victim turns out to be a very rich French moneylender, Madame Giselle, aka Marie Morisot. She is found dead in her seat with a red mark on her neck and a poisoned dart in her lap. Did one of the eleven passengers murder her using a blowpipe dart dipped in snake venom, or did a lone wasp sting her in the neck? Who wanted her dead? That is the dilemma facing our mustachioed Belgian detective, who prefers to speak French and lives in England and sometimes in France. When the plane lands in the aerodrome (I love the flavor of 1935 English language) in England, our stout gumshoe is met by Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard.

At the ensuing inquest, Hercule is nearly indicted because the blowpipe is found behind his seat on the aeroplane. Level heads prevail, and Hercule, Inspector Japp, and Monsieur Fournier of the Surete in France combine their efforts to solve this case. Of course the reader knows that Hercule Poirot will solve the mystery using his "little grey cells" without the aide of his fellow detectives. Mais oui! I have to admit that I had no idea who killed Marie Morisot; only our squat Poirot, who depends on logic alone, would have a chance to solve this murder. He eventually whittles down the other ten suspects to four and zeroes in on the murderer, or murderess. It's always so much fun trying to figure out who the killer is in Agatha's novels, but this time I didn't have any luck!
 

One of the amazing traits of an Agatha novel is how she can develop the characterization of so many suspects while also leaving the reader with a sense of sympathy for most of them. All that in under 300 pages! She was truly a great writer. I also get a sense of what is happening in the world at the time of publication. In this case it's 1935, and World War II is right around the corner. How about the words and expressions she uses, such as; saltcellar (a salt shaker), or Continental Bradshaw (a guide for railway and steamship navigation) or kerb (curb). This is what I love about an Agatha Christie novel - you get a great mystery and the cognizance of the times. Grab a copy of this Hercule novel and try to figure out which suspect is the killer, then move on to the next novel, The A. B. C. Murders.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Serious readers are all familiar with Agatha's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries, but not necessarily with the Tommy & Tuppence Mysteries. The couple was portrayed by James Warwick and Francesca Annis in a ten episode series made for T.V. in 1983. There were four full length movies made about this couple along with quite a few novels. Unlike Agatha's other detectives, this couple actually aged in each novel.

GRANT'S FINAL VICTORY

This is the seventh non-fiction book that I've read concerning U.S. presidents in the last year, and it ranks right up there with books about Presidents' Garfield, Cleveland, Mckinley, T. Roosevelt and FDR. Author Charles Bracelen Flood penned equally as well as his fellow historians Candice Millard, Scott Miller, and James Bradley did. In fact, this book was so well written that I felt like I was part of General Grant's inner circle. It's an attention grabber that doesn't let you go and fills the reader with sympathy and admiration for the General and his family during his last year of life.

I'm sure that most Americans don't know that General Grant was a victim of a early Ponzi scheme shortly after serving his second term as President of the United States and just before he was stricken with throat and mouth cancer. (Did he really smoke twenty five cigars a day?) Grant's son Buck had worked on Wall Street in finance with Misters' Ward and Fish. These people formed a investment banking firm with the General even though Grant knew nothing about the business. But Ward and Fish knew they could draw in many investors using the General's name. They did, but they bankrupted the company and left the General broke just as he found out that he had cancer. Suddenly he was destitute and dying! How would his family survive? He didn't even have a military pension since he had waived his right to it when he became President of the United States, and there wasn't a pension for that job at the time. Can you believe that?

Grant started writing articles about his Civil War campaigns for the Century Magazine to earn some money for his family. It was later suggested by the magazine that he write his Personal Memoirs , but it became apparent that Grant's stipend wasn't fair. To his rescue comes the great writer Mark Twain! He has his own publishing firm, Webster and company, that publishes his own novels. He offers Grant a generous deal that will make his family well-to-do after Grant passes. The race is on...can Grant finish this two volume memoir before he dies? He hunkers down at his house on 3 East 66th street in Manhattan and starts the task. One thing I learned reading this book is that Grant was a very loyal and trusting man, which is why he had so many scandals when he was President (how about eleven?). He was such a fair man that he insisted General Lee and his officers not be tried for treason after they surrendered at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. I wonder what Grant would have thought about Mark Twain had he found out that Twain was a deserter from the Confederate States of America? We will never know.

As an symbolic progenitor for a young America, Grant refused financial help from people like William H. Vanderbilt, the richest man in America, and P.T. Barnum because his pride deemed that he earn every dollar on his own. Grant was truly an honorable and dependable man. As a ex-Marine I say "Semper Fi, General". I enjoyed the anecdotes pertaining to his Civil War soldier friends on both sides. The recollections of Grant's granddaughter Julia was both informative and enjoyable. As the final chapters close on Grant, he moves to Mt. McGregor in Saratoga, NY to finish his memoirs relying heavily on his doctors and his son Fred to finish the books. This book is a must for any Civil War historian or strategist. If you want to read a top-notch book that is both somber and intense, then this is it!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: After reading this book, I had the feeling that Grant was a military savant, his other abilities too trusting and naive to be an competent President. The President had the mistaken idea that his staff had the same moral obligations as he. This outright acceptance of their conduct led to many problems for Grant while he was President. I think the historian Eric Foner said it foremost when he said, "Grant was a decent guy who tried his best". Typical of Grant, his last words were "I hope that nobody will be distressed on my account." He is interred along with his beloved wife Julia in N.Y.City's Riverside Park.

ROADSIDE PICNIC

The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming! Whoops, wrong story. I meant, the aliens are coming, the aliens are coming! Whoops, no they've already left. They were only here for a roadside picnic. They left various landing areas, later called zones, strewn with their garbage akin to our cellophane wrappers and pull tabs. Are they litterbugs, or did they leave us godsent knowledge?

In this novel by the Russian brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, humans gather the dangerous alien debris left behind to sell on the black market. This occupation becomes extremely portentous when the government decides to police the zoned areas affected by the aliens. Did the aliens even notice that we were here? Are they so far advanced that we looked like insects to them? Or, did they leave objects behind to gauge our intelligence? That is the big question asked in this sci-fi novel that's been out of print in the U.S.A. for nearly thirty years and only recently translated anew. This is not your typical sci-fi novel as the aliens have left when the story starts. We don't know what they looked like or their visit's purpose, if any. We can't even figure out what most of the objects they left behind are. This is pure science fiction devoid of any space monsters or irritating technical jargon. The setting of this story is unknown, but is presumed to be somewhere in northern Canada.

The story is about the stalkers, men who risk death, horrible disfigurement, maimed or defective offspring to make fast money. The book follows the lives of Redrick Schuhart and his fellow stalkers for a period of about eight years. During that time, Redrick gets married, begets a daughter that looks like a monkey, and goes in and out of the forbidden zone many times with a stalker know as the "Vulture" Burbridge. Redrick gets in constant trouble with the zone police throughout the story as he risks his life in the zone against alien maladies, such as the slime, the bug traps, the disgusting fuzz, and death by the grinder. The novel alludes to xenology and asks who's out there and are they psychologically human? This story doesn't answer that question, but it sure makes the reader think. While the characters are interesting, I didn't feel any empathy towards them. Well, maybe for Redrick when he goes on his final trip into the zone for a five hundred thousand dollar payday...if he can find the Golden Sphere reputed to be able to grant wishes! Wow, what a story! If you want to know how Redrick's last trip to the zone concludes, just pick up a copy of this classic that many reviewers say is the best sci-fi novel ever written.

While this book was top-notch even though actual aliens never appeared, I do miss a cognitive and aggressive extraterrestrial being. But I don't miss all the useless technical information some authors force upon us. Are you listening Vernor Vinge! The author I will forgive in this area is Arthur C. Clarke who wrote my favorite sci-fi book, Rendezvous with Rama and its sequels. In the afterword of The Roadside Picnic, Boris Strugatsky paints a sad picture on how difficult it was for him and his now deceased brother Arkady to get a book published in communist Russia in the early 1970's.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Several books written by the brothers take part in the same universe known as The World of Noon. Movies such as Stalker and Dead Mountaineer's Hotel are based on their books. Arkady was drafted into the Soviet Army and worked as a teacher and interpreter until 1958. He passed away in 1991. Boris graduated from the Leningrad State University in 1955 as an astronomer and engineer. The brothers collaborated as writers from 1958 to 1991 resulting in many classic sci-fi novels and movies.

The Thirteenth Tale

The launching of Diane Setterfield's writing career couldn't have gone better. This novel published in 2006 is reminiscent of the old English gothic novels such as Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre . I would also think that Agatha Christie's Miss Marple would have been proud of the novel's heroine Margaret Lea. Not that our heroine was tracking a cold blooded murderer, but she does use her deductive reasoning to solve a mystery festering for sixty years. This is such a delightful and well received novel that I am shocked that the author hasn't written her second book yet. Diane Setterfield couldn't be out there teaching French again...could she?

The novel begins when an antiquarian bookseller Margaret Lea receives a letter from Britain's foremost novelist, Vida Winter. After years of giving false information about her life, Miss Winter wants to tell her life's true story before she passes away. She has picked a somewhat dilettante biographer in our heroine Margaret Lea. Still unsure of accepting the commission, Margaret agrees to go to Yorkshire to meet Vida. Margaret finally decides to write the biography only when she learns that Vida had a twin. This revelation perks her interest since Margaret was also a twin. So Vida starts the story of the strange and reclusive Angelfield family. This tale is so weird that Margaret is unsure if Vida is just conning another writer or is finally telling the truth. Between interviews, while Vida is too ill to continue, Margaret investigates the veracity of Vida's claims. The intertwining of Margaret's detective work and Vida's tale are brilliantly done by the author. We meet some of the most interesting characters, such as: Adeline and Emmeline March, the Missus and John-the-dig, Dr. Maudsley, Hester Barrow, and who could forget Charlie and Isabelle! I don't recall a book I've read recently that had so many major characters, and the unbelievable part is that I had empathy for all of them. Well done Diane Setterfield on that difficult and rare achievement. I also enjoyed your perpetual description of the topiary gardens and the gothic mansion of the Angelfield family.

The culmination of this novel is both surprising and heartwarming. Setterfield states near the end of the book that she will have closure on all the characters in the novel and she does, or does she? I'm still unsure of the final outcome of the mansion's fire as pertaining to Adeline, Emmeline, and the ghost. If you have read the book, you know what I'm saying! If you haven't read this book, you have 406 pages of ambrosial entertainment ahead of you. As Diane Setterfield might say - "Don't get ajangle reading this story"!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Setterfield says that for many years she felt unable to write fiction at all, "I thought authors had to be orphans, or have a drug problem, or be out having lots of sex – and none of those things were me! Once I realized that the only difference between everyone else and writers is that they write, I felt I had cracked it." The above statement is from Book Browse - Diane Setterfield: Biography. I look forward to Setterfield's next novel with a trepidation that I'll miss the announcement.

THE EPIPHANIST

The author sent me a copy of this novel to review:

The debut novel of William Rosencrans may have spawned a new genre of writing. It's a combination of fantasy and China Mieville's weird fiction sans the neologistical vocabulary. Mr. Rosencrans does use diction that makes you run to the lexicon now and then, but these are real words such as: bulbuls, satyriasis, colporteur, and suzerainty. We might have a new category of literary composition! There are some ambiguities in the novel, but they make the story more intriguing. As the story developed, I had to speculate on some of the context, which makes the reader interpret the author's intention on a personal level. I like that style a lot, again a trait of China Mieville's writings. Does the protagonist Vladimir have actual visions or are they hallucinations - you the reader must decide. How does a biomime system make a building or a car grow? Where is Haven Island? What year is it? These are all unanswered questions that makes this book arcane and transcendental to the reader. This is a exceptional effort for this promising new author.

The story centers around Vladimir of Assuncao's Manor in the outcast area known as Abaddon on Haven Island. This is a time in the future where everybody is genetically engineered, where the good live in a biomimetically walled city known as the Holy City and the misfits, outcasts, and flawed are sent outside the walls to live their lifes in a prison atmosphere. A teenage boy named Vladimir is told by his teacher Mr. Singh that he is up for redemption, which means if he passes his examen in Chowtown he can regain entrance to the fabulous Holy City. Only eleven people have ever accomplished that feat. It's a time where everybody is watched by tiny nanite machines that report every detail of your life to the Holy City, ruled by 32 Patriarchs. Before he can take his test, war breaks out between the East and West. Suddenly Vladimir is on the run accompanied by a group of heralds led by a fly, a satyr, and a female known as Viryx. The heralds are uniquely made up of billions of nanites and can disintegrate in seconds. As he tries to make his way to Chowtown during the chaos of the war, he is being advised by the heralds. Can he trust them? Will he pass his examen? What will happen to him if he gains entrance to the Holy City? From the time the war begins till the exciting conclusion, this novel rocks!

To offer any criticism of the author would be unjust. Whereas you can say there wasn't enough character development for some of the minor mavericks in the novel, this reviewer did feel empathy for the kensei teacher Sister Agnes and the Duke of the Holy City. I also thought Immanuel the Savior and Ichabod from the temple were interesting side characters. What's next for this talented author? He did leave the ending cloudy for Vladimir - can that mean a sequel? It's too bad that this novel wasn't picked up by a major publisher because I think Mr. Rosencrans would have been nominated for Best New Writer at the Hugo Awards on 9/2/2012.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Mr. Rosencrans read my review of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi and sent me an email stating that he liked the way I summarized the book. He wanted to know that if he sent me a copy of his book, would I review it? I, of course, said yes - not knowing what a wonderful book it was. I have no idea why Mr. Rosencrans had to self publish this book. Are the people who read manuscripts at these publishing houses idiots or what? Go figure!

The Master and Margarita

This is a brilliant and complex work of art by Mikhail Bulgakov written in 1930s Russia and unpublished until 1966, 26 years after the author's death. This version was translated by Mirra Ginsburg. The novel combines fantasy, a satirical look at the Stalin run government, and a story within a story. This is a complicated story with many possible meanings and latent content critical of the Soviet system that gave him total denunciation as his reward. I would love to sit in with a group of litterateurs dissecting this novel with all its hidden meanings and innuendoes. It's a story of the Devil and his cohorts visiting Stalin's Russia critiquing the Soviet system with a satirical view of Russia's currency, atheism, and Moscow's Association of Writers (MASSOLIT).

The story begins with Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz (editor of MASSOLIT) and a young poet named Homeless (pen name of Ivan Nikolayevich  Ponyrev) discussing their belief that Jesus Christ never existed. They are sitting on a park bench in Patriarch's Ponds Park sipping apricot sodas. They are suddenly interrupted by a strange, tall foreigner with teeth of platinum and gold and one eye black, the other green. He tells them Jesus did exist, and there are five proofs. Furthermore, he states that he was there 2,000 years ago when Pontius Pilate was interrogating Jesus Christ! The foreigner then talks about how man is mortal and sometimes suddenly dies. Mikhail disputes that statement and says that he knows what is happening in his life everyday. The foreigner (I will now tell you that he is the Devil, also known as Woland) tells Mikhail that's not true, in fact, "Your head will be cut off!" by a Russian woman! Mikhail ask the foreigner what his profession is; he replies that he is a specialist in black magic.

Now comes "the story within the story" as the foreigner relates what happened between the Procurator of Judea (Pontius Pilate) and Yeshua Ha-Nozri (Jesus Christ) to the dumbfounded writers. This tale of Pontius and Jesus will crop up from time to time during this 402 page epic. The story of the trial and crucifixion is an amazing sidebar to the main theme and is strong enough to have become another book. After the first part of the story is told, Mikhail tells the poet Homeless that he is going to make a phone call at the train station to have this lunatic arrested. We meet a strange companion of the foreigner, Koroviev (or Fagot), the one with the cracked pince-nez. Wouldn't you know that as Mikhail is about to make that call, he slips on some oil, falls to the tracks and is beheaded by a train with a woman conductor! The strangers take-off, and Homeless the poet winds up in the insane asylum as many characters from this book will.

All of this happens in the first 49 pages, so don't think I'm giving the story away! You, the reader will have 353 pages to meet: the fanged Azazello; Behemoth, the vodka drinking tomcat; the servants, Hella and Natasha; Margarita and the Master, who has just written a book about Pontius Pilate - strange as it seems. You will learn about the bizarre occurrences at Sadovaya, no. 302-b, apartment 50 in Moscow. You will be amazed at the magic show Woland produces with falling Chervonets (ten rouble bills) and the disappearing clothes of the audience. Wait till you read about the Midnight Ball that Woland and his crew host. This was an amazing read for me, and it's hard to compare with anything else I've read. I can slightly compare the black magic to Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel , but even that is a stretch of the imagination. It's a shame that Mikhail Bulgakov didn't live to see his works published. The Soviet government censored publication of all his books and plays in 1929. Facing daily ridicule from the Soviet system, it's a wonder that it didn't stunt his growth as an author. GREAT BOOK!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Bulgakov (5/15/1891-3/10/1940) gave up a career as a Doctor because of illness. He then wrote a short story that was published. He is also known as a great playwright featuring Zoya's Apartment. Two other novels of note that he wrote are The White Guard and The Heart of a Dog . It is said that Stalin had a soft spot in his heart for Bulakov since he protected him from arrests and execution.

BLOOD AND THUNDER

The title of the book is the moniker used to describe the dime novels written about Kit Carson's adventures during the turbulent Indian Wars of the 1850's through the 1860's. Hampton Sides writes an epic account of what really happened in the Southwest. This non-fiction work is more than a story about Carson's life; it's also about America's first imperialistic strike westward led by our 11th President, James K. Polk. During his four year term, The U.S. Government annexed California from Mexico. The guts of the book deals with what happened next - What to do about the colliding worlds of the Indians, especially the nomadic and fearsome Navajo tribe, and the white settlers moving west to occupy the newly won territories.

Based on Hampton Sides research, I found Kit Carson's life quite incredible. Here is a man who couldn't read or write, yet spoke Spanish and seven different Indian languages. He lived as a frontiersman, trapper, Indian fighter, guide, and as a Colonel in the Union Army. He had the innate ability to see right from wrong, act with bravery, honor, and commitment. During his lifetime, he was married three times and had eight children. His first wife was Arapaho, the second was Cheyenne, and the third wife was Spanish. He had meetings with President Polk, he was a friend of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Navajo leader Narbona, Senator Thomas Benton, John C. Fremont, and General Stephen Watts Kearny, the father of the American cavalry. Kit's escapades gave me the feeling that he was truly an American hero. This book was worth reading just to discover what a miraculous life he led during this dangerous period in the history of America's Southwest. Yet, the author cites incidents where Kit Carson gunned down people in cold blood because he was ordered to do it by a superior officer or someone he respected. Go figure!

The inane killing of Navajo leader Narbona by a drunken Union soldier over a stolen horse caused the leader's son-in-law, Manuelito, to declare war against America. While the Union Army fought the Confederates from Texas during the Civil War, the Navajo had carte blanche to murder emigrates and steel their cattle and sheep. After the Civil War ended, the U.S.A. realized that the Navajo had to be stopped, or else the move westward couldn't continue. Enter General James H. Carleton. He prodded Col. Kit Carson to prosecute the Navajo, burn their food supply, and force them to accept a reservation life far from their natural boundaries. Many Navajo were killed, while the survivors were in a state of starvation. The rest of the book deals with the "Long Walk" of the Navajos from New Mexico to the Bosque Redondo (Round Forest) Reservation, where infectious corn crops, dysentery, syphilis, and Comanche attacks almost destroyed the Navajo people. If you want to know how they survived, you will have to read this wonderful book.

As a child I watched The Adventures of Kit Carson, staring Bill Williams on television, thinking he wasn't a real person. Wow, now I know better! His T.V. sidekick, El Toro doesn't show up in this book. I also watched The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok.  These cowboys were real heroes from the 1800's and need to be studied. I find myself searching for books about old western characters that helped shape America in it's early years. Hampton Sides did a yeoman's job in his research and storytelling. While it's not non-fiction that reads like fiction, it is very close. I guess that's why I felt that I wasn't reading a history book, but a good old western! I give this palatable book my highest rating.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: The term "blood and thunder" originated as a oath, though not necessarily a religious one. It was used by Lord Byron in the poem, Don Juan, 1818-24. It became a term for cheap literature in 1859 London. The term was used by Irwin P. Beadle & Company in America for paperback fiction at 10c a copy. Kit Carson was given the rank of Breveted General near the end of his life. This was a temporary rank with no pay increase. Kit Carson died of an aneurysm at 58 years old in Fort Lyon, Colorado shortly after his beloved wife died from complications while giving birth.

The Swan Thieves

Elizabeth Kostova avoids the sophomore jinx with her second epistolary novel. While this volume isn't the fearsome novel that The Historian is, it does have plenty of enigmas and intrigue. (What would you expect without Vlad the Impaler) I enjoy reading novels that are based on old letters retrieved throughout the drama at just the right time. This is a modern day story of a troubled painter falling in love with a French painter from the late 1800s, who has long ago passed away. There isn't anything ordinary in this well conceived and original storytelling.

Robert Oliver, a renowned artist, suddenly attacks a painting in the National Gallery of Art. Psychiatrist Andrew Marlow tries to cure his presumed mental illness. Dr. Marlow has to become a detective when Robert Oliver refuses to communicate with him at the hospital. After tracking down Oliver's ex-wife and ex-girlfriend, he begins to put the puzzle together. This leads him to a 1870s painter, Beatrice de Clerval, and her husband's uncle, Oliver Vignot. What does an attack on a painting known as Leda by Gilbert Thomas have to do with French Impressionist painters who have died a hundred years ago?

The side characters and the hint of history from the Battle of Sedan in 1870 was refreshing and ingenious. Kostova has the ability to come up with seemingly useless pieces of information and tie them together later in the story. This seems to be nearly Charles Dickens-like. (Classic readers - don't get angry; I said "nearly"!) This story was so engrossing that it tweaked my interest in the French impressionist artists of the 1870s and 1880s. I found myself looking up the likes of Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Edouard Manet. They used common subjects, small brush strokes and a new depiction of light. Thank you Elizabeth Kostova for writing a novel that revived my interest in art. The last time that happened was after reading Carol Wallace's Leaving Van Gogh: A Novel . Great job on a riveting and engaging novel. I highly recommend this second novel by Elizabeth Kostova.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Elizabeth Kostova writes in the Historical/Gothic genre. Living in Slovenia as a child, she became interested in Bulgarian folk music. As a Yale graduate, she participated in the Slavic chorus. Her next novel is due in 2013. It's going to be a mix of myth and folklore, going back and forth between past and present. It's to be set in the U.S.A. and Eastern Europe. Familiar?

ISAAC'S STORM

The deadliest natural disaster in America is told by one of the rising stars in literature, Erik Larson. The time is 1900; the place is Galveston, Texas; the event is a massive hurricane aimed directly at the Texas island. This storm will kill 6,000 to 12,000 people depending on which report you read over the next hundred years. How did it come without warning? Why didn't the newly formed U.S Weather Bureau take this storm seriously? This is the main theme of this non-fiction thriller.

It seems that there are several reasons for the lack of a forewarning. The main reason seems to be the imperialistic attitude of the U.S.Weather Bureau in Cuba. They did everything they could do to muffle the so called alarmism of the Cuban weather forecasters. Even though the Cubans were more experienced with hurricanes, the U.S. thought that their dire warnings caused unnecessary panic. Therefore, the hurricane that just passed Cuba in a much milder form was not judged to be extremely dangerous to the U.S. coast. According to the Cuban forecasters, that was a huge mistake.

The second problem was that the U.S. Weather Bureau's agent in Galveston, Isaac Cline. Mr. Cline, had previously published a book which stated that no hurricane could do severe damage to the Galveston/ Gulf area. That alone stopped the proposed building of a seawall. On the day of the hurricane, Isaac finally gave in and said that he urged people to get off the beach and seek higher ground. He said he saved at least 6,000 lives, yet no witness was ever found to substantiate his claimed warning. The book is filled with short, sad stories about local families that survived and those that didn't.

The loss of human life was much greater than The Johnstown Flood of 1889, which killed 2,000 people, or The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, which killed 3,000 people. The only good to come out of the Galveston hurricane was that the island finally got their seawall, and the U.S. Weather Bureau paid far more attention to hurricanes and to local prognosticators. As with any Erik Larson book, it was an extremely exciting, well written book and I would highly recommend it to readers of all genres.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: This was the third book Erik Larson wrote and I believe it ignited his new pattern of writing fresh and exciting non-fiction. Since Larson studied Russian History at the University of Pennsylvania, I'm waiting for a non fiction book involving Russia. Let's do it! He has taught non-fiction writing to several schools including the University of Oregon - lucky students!

FIVE LITTLE PIGS

Wee, wee, wee, I had the right murderer, but then I changed my mind; I shouldn't have. Mais voyons, I made a faux pas that Hercule never would have made. Now I'm talking gobbledegook! Once again, Agatha Christie entertains the reader with the great Belgian detective who lives in England and loves to speak French. This time Hercule Poirot  relies on a little epistolary to solve this sixteen year old crime. I say faugh to the murderer in this 1943 novel. I cheated, the word faugh was used in this novel by Agatha and is a interjection meaning "expressed contempt".

Our favorite detective is asked by a convicted murderess's daughter to investigate whether her mother killed her father. Apparently before Carla Lemarchant's (nee Crale) mother died in prison, she wrote Carla (then five years old) a letter stating that she was innocent of the murder of her husband and Carla's father, the artist Amyas Crale. Carla, brought up by a Canadian family for the ensuing sixteen years, gets the letter when she turns 21 years old. Her fiancee is upset that he is possibly marrying the daughter of a murderess. Carla wants to find out the truth in order to allay their fears. Poirot decides to take the case under the pretense that he is writing and/or editing a book about famous past murders. Did Caroline Crale really poison her artist husband sixteen years earlier? The jury believed she did and sentenced her to life in prison. She died shortly after the conviction.

There are five suspects (little pigs) that our 5' 4" sleuth zeroes in on. They include Amyas Crale's best friend Philip Blake and his brother Meredith Blake, Crale's lover Elsa Greer, the governess Cecillia Williams, and Caroline's disfigured sister Angela Warren. He interviews each suspect and then asks them to put their recollections in the form of a letter to him so he can clear up any ambiguities before the book is published. Needless to say, Hercule summons the five suspects together at Meredith Blake's house and to their surprise, he solves the murder case.

I think what makes Agatha's novels intriguing is the way Hercule Poirot solves murders. He really doesn't rely on clues, but instead he arrives at a decision by pure reasoning and only then does he draw a logical conclusion. In his own words he states "My success, let me tell you, has been founded on the psychology- the eternal why? of human behaviour." He is the forerunner of later detectives, such as The Thin Man and Columbo . Once again, as with all that Agatha Christie's writes, I highly recommend this enjoyable novel.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: This novel was originally published as Murder in Retrospect . Agatha's second husband was famous archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan. She accompanied him on many of his digs that served as future settings for Hercule Poirot novels. In 1971 she received one of Britain's highest honors by being named Dame of the British Empire.