Nate Rodriguez is a police sketch artist for the NYPD, and his success rate is high, with one out of three of his drawings leading to an arrest. But when he is faced with an unusually talented killer, he realizes that he may have met his match. For this killer is a man very much like himself–a man who sees and thinks in pictures. A killer who leaves drawings at the crime scenes depicting his murders in chilling, gory–and prescient–detail.
As Nate's portraits become more and more accurate images of the madman–the killer finds a way to steal Nate's portraits and then imitate Nate's own hand. The conflicting evidence leads the police to suspect that Nate himself could be the killer and pushes Nate into a frightening cat and mouse chase for his quarry. Life and death, art and artifice have never been so vividly bound together.
Jonathan Santlofer pushes the boundaries of the thriller to new heights with this masterful blend of art and suspense. With sequential sketches that alternate throughout the text–first the killer's, then Nate's–Santlofer teases us with irresistible clues and psychological details delivered in a highly original way.
Book Description
For Babymouse, school is a constant battle between good (Babymouse), evil (Felicia Furrpaws), and more evil (gym class!). Can things get any worse? Yup. Because it’s time for the annual dodgeball tournament. What’s a mouse to do? Don’t miss the excitement in Babymouse: Our Hero!
Customer Reviews:
Fun!.......2006-11-11
My daughter loved this book. It's a fun read-aloud, but not so difficult she couldn't read it to herself the next night. And the illustrations are so cute.
Love this series.......2006-01-28
Babymouse is a spunky little creature with a standard set of problems (chores, homework, mean classmates), and a very un-standard imagination. The humor, artwork, and characters make these books a must for young girls. Go, Babymouse!
The Annual Dodgeball Tournament... better start practicing.... I am a BookLoons reviewer.......2006-01-21
Josephine Anna Kaszuba Locke, a BookLoons reviewer, & book hugger, January 20, 2006,
Yes, the Annual Dodgeball Tournament is coming up, and she freaks out... Hm! our heroine thinks -- '...maybe a meteor will hit the school and stop the game.' Oh, no way, you 'better start practicing, Babymouse' if you intend to outshine your nemesis Felicia Furrypaws. Shown in cartoon cut-outs of the trademark pink, black, and white, creators Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm give the readers the scoop that Babymouse has a difficult time getting out of bed in the morning. She whaps the alarm clock with one of her books -- 'FWAP', but she must have a real heart inside her, as her decoration motif is pink hearts on her bedspread, wallpaper, cutout on her bedside table, and pattern on her clothing. She even imagines getting awarded 'The Pink Heart' medal for taking out the garbage without being reminded. Nah! she's still lingering in bed when she comes out of that dream, and is late catching the bus... again... and the school walking trail is 'long and dusty', and more than 2,000 miles long. (At least that is what Babymouse's imaginnation tells her, because she only lives two blocks away from the school!) Babymouse is good at a lot of things, like 'avoiding chores', swinging upside down on a tire tied to a tree branch, and 'sleeping'...but Dodgeball? 'BOP' 'POW' 'BAMM', Ow! so she avoids the game whenever she can, like running high temperatures, or 'spraining her ear' to stay home from school. Friend Wilson to the rescue... he helps to train her for the game, while Babymouse makes out her Last Will and Testament! You just have to give this girl mouse credit for trying, and imagining, especially on how to exclude Felicia! Does Babymouse ever become a hero? Read book two and find out, while watching for the next edition in May 2006. (From a BookLoons reviewer)
Also recommended: CHOPSTICKS by Jon Berkeley
THE NUTTY NEWS by Ron Barrett
Book Description
Asterix, the comic hero from the Roman era and the first international superhero, continues to conquer the world. With hundreds of millions of copies sold in 107 languages and dialects, plus 11,000 websites devoted to the character, these engagingly witty and record-breaking books have become the highest-selling series ever—surpassing even Harry Potter! And the phenomenon is spreading to other media, including the upcoming film—with an all-star cast and theme song by Celine Dion—that inspired this latest hysterical historical tale. Asterix and Obelix embark on one of their most dangerous missions, voyaging to the Vikings’ home territory to rescue Justforkix. Making matters even harder for our heroes? The Viking chief’s daughter, Abba, has fallen for Justforkix! A 16-page supplement reveals inside info about the making of the film.
Customer Reviews:
Life under the Stalinist Terror.......2006-06-14
This is the second volume of the Trilogy of which The Children of the Arbat was the first (see my Amazon Review). It continues to document Stalin's reign of terror, now after the murder of Kirov in November 1934. The balance between politics at the centre and the impact on the `Children of the Arbat' we met in the first volume has shifted markedly towards the former - not, I think, to the advantage of the book as a whole. We are sometimes given solid chunks of history in the sort of detail which are more appropriate to a history book than to a historical novel. Towards the end of the book, for example, the fictional characters become involved with a General Skoblin, who really existed and whose story as a triple agent for Russian emigrés in Paris, for the Soviet Union and for Nazi Germany, is told in rather indigestible detail. While the main political figures - Stalin, Yagoda, Yezhov, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Tukhachevsky and some others - are well known to most who are interested in this period, there are a host of lesser politicians who would be known to real specialists, but who are likely to be unknown to the rest of us and often figure as mere names. It is hard to keep track of them all, not least because they are sometimes referred to by their surname and sometimes by the first name and patronymic.
As in the first volume, we have a chilling account of Stalin's thought processes: ceaselessly megalomaniac, paranoid, crafty, cynical, treacherous, ruthless - and actually insane. Though expressed in fictional terms, they are pretty convincing. So are the discussions between Stalin and his henchmen (and on one occasion, between him and the doomed Zinoviev and Kamenev), even when one wonders whether they actually happened. The physical and mental cruelty that is unleashed on them (and later, even more savagely, on the victims of the subsequent trials) to force confessions from them are sickening to read about, anticipated though they have been by Koestler's Darkness at Noon. Rybakov also from time to time ends his chapters with historical passages in italics describing the fate of the victims and of their families in so far as these are not in the body of the work.
As far as the Children of the Arbat are concerned, we see how the Fear of the title permeates them all, even those who are instruments of the regime. The slightest chance remark, the slightest acquaintance, past or present, with anyone who is already in trouble, the slightest "error" in carrying out the tasks with which they have been charged, moving a bust of Stalin in a van and securing it by tying it to the side of the van with a rope around its neck, - any of these can and often do spell their ruin. And among Stalin's entourage a young man was shot because Stalin caught a look of dismay on his face when Stalin coarsely used his fingers instead of a paper-knife to separate uncut pages in a new book. (Fact or fiction?)
If the trilogy has a central figure it is Sasha Pankratov, who in the first volume had been exiled to Siberia just before the most intense phase of Terror, following the murder of Kirov, began. When Sasha's three year term of exile was over, the local police chief released him, and Sasha did not face the fate that befell so many other exiles whose sentence was simply prolonged or renewed. In Siberia he had been cut off from personal experience of the wholesale terror which could indiscriminately sweep up the humblest of citizens. A very telling part of the book is how swiftly Sasha comes to realize how infinitely more dangerous life had become since May 1934 than it had been even before, what strategies one has to adopt not to be trapped into some unwary remark. Even asking for the name of a popular song which had circulated since that date would betray his dangerous record as a recently returned exile. But Sasha's story loses tension towards the end of the book which, at 686 pages, is perhaps overlong.
The book, I think, fails to be the epic it is said to be in the blurb. A true epic has to have a heroic element in it, and there really cannot be anything truly epic about a society reduced to craven terror by an insane tyrant and his toadies, great and small. Even so, we get an invaluable picture of life in the Soviet Union, from top to bottom, during this terrible time.
The Soul of a Nation.......2001-12-15
Rybakov is a master story teller and tiller of the human soul.
I have read few books that have a better story and that tell it as well. His view of Soviet Russia in its early years with emphasis on the 30s and 40s is unsurpassed. If anyone seeks any
true knowledge of the Soviet Union and of the Russian people, these books are a must. The characters come alive and Rybakov's
portrayal of Stalin, his fellow Communists and those he had killed is without equal. THESE BOOKS ARE A MUST READ!!!!
Sasha Pankratov lives.
Testament of Strength and Terror.......2001-07-13
The Arbat Saga continues and , together with greats such as Arthur Koestlers 'A Darkness At Noon' Vassily Grossmans 'Forever Flowing'and the works of Solzhenitsyn ,the Orwellian terror of the Stalin years in the Soviet Union been captured so accurately. The true characters of some of the people who we met in Children of The Arbat are revealed. Sasha Pankratov becomes a wiser,more cynical man who finally realises the nature of the Communist society in Russia. Varya Ivanova blooms into a remarkable young women who faithfully waits for Sashas return and through her mistakes,trials and tribulations has gained great strength One of the most touching aspects of the book is the relationship between Varya and Sashas mother Sophia Alexandrovna who Varya is devoted to and who sees Varya as a beloved daughter Together they help each other through these terrible times .Yuri Sharok fully integrates himself into the NKVD with all the cunning and cruely which this evil organisation requires .Vadim Marasevitch shows himself up as a spineless flunky who sells innocent people out in order to survive.However unlike Sharok ,his conscience destroys him psychologically in MacBethesque fashion.His sister Vika -as opportunistic and immoral as she can be-has to be admired for managing to extricate herself from the Soviet tyranny and through an opportune marriage resettling in democratic France where through her husband and an aqauaintance with a colourful Russian emigre/celebrity she enjoys the high life she has always yearned for.Nina Ivanova for all her blind loyalty to the Communist Party falls victims to its brutal machinations and ,helped by Varya, flees to the Far East ,to escape being another victim of the purges,to her soldier boyfriend Maxim Kostin. Rybakov's extensive delving into Stalins mind is a brilliant study of evil. Ultimately we learn how tyranny and removal of even the most basic freedoms destroys the lives of so many ordinary people . We are forced to realise the terrible horrors we create by letting power be concentrated in the hands of one man,group,clique or party
Good - but not great.......2000-08-14
Fear - Rybakov's sequel to Children of the Arbat continues chronicling the lives of Soviet youths in the 1930's. The nature of the Terror - the Yezhovshchina - is chillingly described. While some have criticized the minor characters, I found they added depth to the story, although I did not care for Stalin's "internal dialogue" - an attempt to see the Terror through the eyes of the beast that created it. Fear is excellent fiction - although still not as good in my opinion as Children of the Arbat; but then again, sequels rarely are as great as the first episode.
"1984" -- but real, all too real........1998-07-09
This is a marvelous, and terrifying, sequel to "Children of the Arbat," given additional strength and authority by the clearly autobiographical protagonist Sasha Pankratov. Rybakov *was* Pankratov -- he knows whereof he speaks.
I cannot agree with Kirkus Reviews' damnation-with-faint-praise. There are weaknesses in "Fear," but many of them are due to a somewhat clunky translation which alternates over-literalism with quaintly inapposite English idiom, and also has a problem handling Russian verb aspect and verb reflexivity in the translation. These faults can certainly not be ascribed to Rybakov! Kirkus also considers Sasha a minor character (i.e., as opposed to Stalin) -- clearly not true; it is Sasha who represents the Russian people, as they are and as they should be.
I do share the Kirkus criticism of several of the (actually) minor characters. Home-town love interest Varya Ivanova, who sowed numerous wild oats in "Children of the Arbat," has become a plaster saint in "Fear," really too good to be true. NKVD agent Yuri Sharok is a plaster villian: you can see the black hat on his head all the time. But several of the other lesser characters are excellently drawn, particularly some of Sasha's comrades in exile and in post-exile wandering.
One is tempted to write that the character of Stalin is overdrawn -- that is, until one remembers that the hell of the 1930s purges really did happen. Rybakov does a fantastic, and thoroughly chilling, job of getting into the mind of the mad despot.
I'm sure that for full value this book should be read in Russian -- while not fluent, I do know enough of that expressive language to spot many of the clunkers. But even in English, this book stands alone in bringing to life the reality and horror of the Purges.
Average customer rating:
- Bank of Fears
- the last of this great trilogy is a winner again
- Enjoyable Read
- Five stars for its good characters, fast read, guts...
- A spy novel with the usual cliches
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The Bank of Fear: A Novel
David Ignatius
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0688131360 |
Customer Reviews:
Bank of Fears.......2007-06-16
A good read, but not quite up to "Body of Lies". I did like Sam Hoffman's sensitivity.
the last of this great trilogy is a winner again.......2005-11-18
even after 10 years i reread this novel mingled with truth and fiction. ignatius is a great writer who, like a great chef, could put together with all the raw ingredients together and made them into a cuisine with great taste. there are so many true stuff in his books that after you've read, you'd know more about what's going on in the middle east, and how and why the situation in the middle east would have become from worse to the worst. our american government and the foreign policies really need a complete reevaluation and overhaul as soon and as thorough as possible. the only thing that puzzled me again and again and could never find out the answer is that why 99% of our american people are so likable and easy to get along with would have a government turned out so arrogant and so dangerously strong-armed to other nations? why the good americans once been elected would turn suddenly into such ugly and arrogant bureaucratics? they are supposedly to be elected by us to be our public servants, but why once elected and sitting into the power seats would suddenly change their positions? the middle east policy is such a mess and double standard that nothing works but manipulations. before 1994 when this book was published, iraq was nothing but a domestic nightmare, now in the year of 2005, the nightmare has turned into an international monstrous disaster. i really don't know how this administration could free from and get out of this messy situation. saddam had killed a lot of his iraqi people, but after the invasion, just within 3 years, the iraqi people have been killed about 40,000~45,000 annually, the death ratio and the death statistics are far worse than what saddam has done to his own people. i really don't know what the answer is, but obviously we are doing something far worse than what saddam has done to his people. this trilogy only remind me one thing: we are the monster who could create nothing but more monsters.
Enjoyable Read.......2003-02-26
No, it may not be 'Nostromo' or 'Brighton Rock', but Ignatius has spun some enjoyably indentifiable characters in this spy thriller. Given the world's current state of affairs, a Hollywood producer would be wise to pick up the options on this novel for film adaptation (assuming it hasn't happened already). Taken in context, this is a wonderfully crafted novel with vivid scenery and palpable suspence. Ignatius creates such lush scenes and characters, while also highlighting America's covert involvement in the Arab world. Taking into account his experience in Middle-Eastern affairs, Ignatius' accounts of Iraqi intimidation on its own citizens, along with the presumption that many of his assertions are based on factual information, this is a frightening look inside the rule of this Iraqi dictator. I happened upon this book while in Thailand and have since read 'Siro' and 'A Firing Offence'. Of the three, I enjoyed this the most. If you're a fan of spy novels, this is as good a read as any.
Five stars for its good characters, fast read, guts..........2002-06-30
This is a superb "spy" thriller surrounding the mysterious
and often cruel military regime of Iraq. It took guts to write
a book exposing torture practices of such a regime, and
the nasty financial practices and human rights grievances
of what the author disguises: the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Those in exile from their country are
blackmailed into working for corrupt Iraqi agents...it depicts
this as a multi-tentacled octopus that chokes the life out
of these exiles and forces them to live lives of slavery and terror.
Sam Hoffman is a very likeable hero, and Lena a frightened woman who discovers reserves of bravery. A great read.
I don't know what the previous reviewer was thinking, when he called it a "cliche'd" thriller...I found it very unique and couldn't put it down.
A spy novel with the usual cliches.......1999-07-04
Bank of Fear is a "no-brains-required" spy thriller with all the usual cliches: heroes who are quick to fall in love and even quicker to rush into danger; villains with unlimited power and unquenchable thirsts for violence; complicated computer systems that (surprise!) a novice hacker learns to crack; and an abundance of utterly silly plot twists, double crosses, and character surprises. The story is so completely nonsensical I had a hard time remembering what happened to the characters ten minutes after I put the book down.
The one redeeming quality of the book is that it's a very fast read. Things happen so quickly and the pages keep turning, so you don't ever think to ask yourself why you're wasting time reading it.
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deeped upsetting.......2007-10-07
Worthwhile........2007-09-23
