Shadow Dance: A Novel

Book Description

Jordan Buchanan is thrilled that her brother and best friend are tying the knot. The wedding is a lavish affair–for the marriage of Dylan Buchanan and Kate MacKenna is no ordinary occasion. It represents the joining of two family dynasties. The ceremony and reception proceed without a hitch–until a crasher appears claiming to be a MacKenna guest. The disheveled and eccentric professor of medieval history warns that there’s “bad blood” between the couple’s clans, stemming from an ancient feud that originated in Scotland, and involving the Buchanan theft of a coveted MacKenna treasure.

Jordan has always led a cautious life and has used her intelligence and reason to become a successful businesswoman. So she is intrigued but skeptical of the professor’s claims that the feud has been kept alive by the grave injustices the Buchanans have perpetrated over the centuries. But when Noah Clayborne, a close family friend and a man who has never let a good time or a pretty girl pass him by, accuses Jordan of being trapped in her comfort zone, she determines to prove him wrong and sets out on a spontaneous adventure to the small, dusty town of Serenity, Texas, to judge the professor’s research for herself.

Maneuvering through a close-knit community in which everyone knows everyone else’s business, Jordan never anticipates the danger and intrigue that lie in her path, nor the threat that will shadow her back to Boston, where even in familiar surroundings, her life is at risk.

A powerful thug who rules by fear, a man who harbors a simmering secret, and an unexpected romance that pierces all defenses–beloved author Julie Garwood weaves these dazzling elements into a brilliant novel of romantic suspense. Shadow Dance is a searing tango of passion and peril.

Customer Reviews:

didn't even finish it.........2007-10-09

i am saddened to say that i couldn't finish the book. like many other avid jg readers i too waited with abated breath for noah's story and was quite disappointed that i couldn't even get past the first couple of chapters. it was pretty slow.. soo slow i felt no connection to the characters what so ever..
i couldn't give it just one star as it is jg, who has written my absolute most favorite book in the world.. the ransom.. so i gave it two stars just because i have faith that jg will come back with something better

Shadow Dance - One Of Garwood's Best.......2007-09-29

Again Julie Garwood has enchanted me with one of her books about the Buchanan family. She has written another superb book that readers who appreciate romantic suspense will enjoy. Keep up your wonderful story telling.

Julie...You REALLY Missed this Boat!.......2007-09-10

I have been eagerly awaiting Noah's story since Mercy, when it became obvious that he would be a recurring character. He is clearly a contemporary version of Cole Clayborne with his quick one-liners, witty charm, and undeniable way with the ladies. I was incredibly disappointed--actually a little heartbroken--to finally get my hands on Noah's story and find that he played second fiddle to a very dull Jordan Buchanan. In her previous contemporary novels, JG has done a thorough job of developing Noah as a likeable, believable, and all-around HOT character (although he is pretty slutty). After crafting such a solid foundation upon which to build Noah's potentially incredible story, Julie wasted him and all that his romance could have been with Shadow Dance. Noah was completely closed to the reader for most of the book. He was bland, unexciting, ordinary, and forgettable. I'm sad that Julie's readers will never get to witness the exciting romance that Noah could have had--with all of the charm, wit, temper, thunder and fight that I expected when he finally fell (in love). He didn't have to fight for a thing in this book. Pity. I was really hoping for some red-hot spark. What I found was much less. Poor Noah.

Julie Garwood could do better.......2007-09-04

I have read and own everyone of Julie Garwood's books I love her she's one of my favorite authors her female heroins are always funny and have some odd characteristic that I love, but not this one she just seem like the runt of the family a family that always seem spirited and strong not week.I like the Buchanans triology and I always new Noah the Buchananas trusted best freind would get his own story but how sad for Noah it was a stale one......

Shadow Dance.......2007-08-09

I loved reading any book by Julie Garwood. But getting to be updated about decendants of Cole from For the Roses was so great. I thought that this was an awesome read and could not put it down. I hope Julie continues to write about this amazing family in her future books.

Twelve Kingdoms, The - Hardcover Edition Volume 1: Sea of Shadow

Average customer rating:

Astonishingly good
A fun read...
Good ending, lukewarm beginning and middle
Outstanding !
Beautiful Read

Twelve Kingdoms, The - Hardcover Edition Volume 1: Sea of Shadow
Fuyumi Ono
Manufacturer: Tokyopop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1598169467
Release Date: 2007-03-13

Book Description

For high-schooler Yoko Nakajima, life has been fairly ordinary--that is until Keiki, a young man with golden hair, tells Yoko they must return to their kingdom. Once confronted by this mysterious being and whisked away to an unearthly realm, Yoko is left with only a magical sword; a gem; and a million questions about her destiny, the world she's trapped in, and the world she desperately wants to return to.More than just a fantasy story filled with horrific monsters, half-beasts, and magicians, The Twelve Kingdoms centers around a world reminiscent of Chinese mythology and rife with civil and political upheaval. Sea of Shadow, the first volume of this ongoing seven-volume epic, takes you on a wild ride that leaves you questioning the bounds of reality and fantasy."An exciting, fast-paced adventure that will keep readers on the edge of their seats."--BookLoons.com "This is a fantasy novel displaying a grand imagination and soaring adventure."--ActiveAnime.com"Fuyumi Ono weaves a bewitching tale of strength in adversity, bravery despite fear, courage above all, and trust â€" in yourself and in others."--Yabookscentral.comFuyumi Ono was born in Oita Prefecture, Japan. She graduated from Otani University with a major in Buddhist studies. During college she was a member of Kyoto Universityâ€™s mystery story club for readers and writers of the mystery genre. In 1988, she made her publishing debut in Kodanshaâ€™s teen-targeted X-Bunko Teens Heart series. Besides The Twelve Kingdoms, Ono has written other novels in such genres as mystery and horror.

Customer Reviews:

Astonishingly good.......2007-06-25

I couldn't put this book down. I stayed up all night to finish it, and went to work the next morning like a zombie. The story is extremely well-written and the translation is handled perfectly. I did not expect the character development to be so in-depth--this book is a must-read for both children and adults. I can't wait for Book 2 to come out!

A fun read..........2007-06-19

I enjoyed the anime series and since it's based on novels instead of manga I figured I'd read them. The book takes you deep into the world of the twelve kingdoms, and also into the mind of the heroine, Yoko, who is dealing with her own faults while trying to survive in an unfamiliar and hostile world. The author's descriptions give a vivid account of what it's like to be Yoko by mentioning "other senses" type of details, by which I mean senses other than sight. We hear about sounds, smells, and most importantly how things feel. The story is rich and complicated, but not so much that one can't put things together. I enjoyed this book, and anyone who is a fan of anime or manga would probably like it as well.

Good ending, lukewarm beginning and middle.......2007-06-12

I wish there were half-stars on Amazon, because my actual rating for this book would be a three and a half. For most of the book (i.e. the beginning and middle), my reaction was merely that it was okay. I had liked the premise for the book, which was why I bought it, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations as I began to read. After the initial set-up, I felt like the same things kept happening over and over again: Yoko fights demons, almost dies, gets help from strangers, and then the cycle repeats. There are also long periods of reflection, both in Yoko's mind and in conversation with "herself" (the blue monkey), which always seemed too similar to one another as well; there wasn't much progression until the final conversation. The whole idea of the "good girl" and Yoko's eventual lack of trust didn't feel natural too me~it was as though I could see the author pulling the strings, purposely feeding me information to get me to believe these character traits that just didn't seem to develop properly.

Don't get me wrong, though~there were quite a few things about the book I did enjoy, especially the ending. While much of the book gave me a humdrum feeling, by the time I closed the book I was left with the impression that I actually liked it. I am now even looking forward to the next volume. In short, the ending saved this book for me, which is why I wish I could give it three and a half stars instead of three. There were also other enjoyable points/ideas as well: I especially liked the concepts of beastlings, egg fruit, and the various other demons in the story, among other things. I just wish I was able to like all of the book, not just parts.

Outstanding !.......2007-06-09

I have seen the Anime version and was very pleased that the book is so different. I cannot wait untill the next book is released.

Beautiful Read.......2007-06-02

This book was a joy for me to read, plain and simple. I am an avid anime and manga fan, and I was intrigued by this book, simply because I had heard a friend mention the 12 Kingdoms anime long ago. I was surprised and delighted to find this book was worth far more than I paid. The book is very well written and I had trouble putting it down. The story is captivation and keeps you guessing, weaving a very surprising and I enjoyed it, just when you think you finally start to understand, you are taken in a whole new direction. The world put forth in this book seems limitless, and the characters, most notably Yoko, grow in such a fantastic way it's hard to put into words. I am very pleased and recommend this to anyone who has a hint of imagination, a taste for adventure and a love for the unknown

Average customer rating:

A confusing and over-long novel
Overkill
Please don't give me a test on this book
ZZZZZZZ
Overly-contrived potboiler

The Poe Shadow: A Novel
Matthew Pearl
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1400061032
Release Date: 2006-05-23

Book Description

“I present to you . . . the truth about this man’s death and my life.”

Baltimore, 1849. The body of Edgar Allan Poe has been buried in an unmarked grave. The public, the press, and even Poe’s own family and friends accept the conclusion that Poe was a second-rate writer who met a disgraceful end as a drunkard. Everyone, in fact, seems to believe this except a young Baltimore lawyer named Quentin Clark, an ardent admirer who puts his own career and reputation at risk in a passionate crusade to salvage Poe’s.

As Quentin explores the puzzling circumstances of Poe’s demise, he discovers that the writer’s last days are riddled with unanswered questions the police are possibly willfully ignoring. Just when Poe’s death seems destined to remain a mystery, and forever sealing his ignominy, inspiration strikes Quentin–in the form of Poe’s own stories. The young attorney realizes that he must find the one person who can solve the strange case of Poe’s death: the real-life model for Poe’s brilliant fictional detective character, C. Auguste Dupin, the hero of ingenious tales of crime and detection.
In short order, Quentin finds himself enmeshed in sinister machinations involving political agents, a female assassin, the corrupt Baltimore slave trade, and the lost secrets of Poe’s final hours. With his own future hanging in the balance, Quentin Clark must turn master investigator himself to unchain his now imperiled fate from that of Poe’s.

Following his phenomenal debut novel, The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl has once again crossed pitch-perfect literary history with innovative mystery to create a beautifully detailed, ingeniously plotted tale of suspense. Pearl’s groundbreaking research–featuring documented material never published before–opens a new window on the truth behind Poe’s demise, literary history’s most persistent enigma. The resulting novel is a publishing event that, through sublime craftsmanship, subtle wit, and devious twists, does honor to Poe himself

Customer Reviews:

A confusing and over-long novel.......2007-09-20

This novel reads more like a rough draft than a finished novel. Throughout the book the text contradicts itself frequently - for example: in one section of the book the main character is unable to sit up due to restraints around his neck. Only two sentences later, he sits up. Also, the main character loses consciousness very frequently, and so that action loses all of its drama after it happens a few times.

Overkill.......2007-09-11

Pearl's latest foray into the literary thriller genre (following The Dante Club, which I did not read), revolves around the mysterious real-life death of Edgar Allen Poe. Our guide to mid-19th century Baltimore is wealthy young lawyer Quentin Clark -- a naive idealist and ardent Poe fan in an era where few cared for his macabre writings. The story open with Poe' death, ill-attended funeral, and a spate of ignominious obituaries, which spark Clark to try and clear his name. Alas, the book is far from thrilling, and falls flat on multiple fronts.

First and foremost, Quentin Clark makes for a poor guide and protagonist. His defining characteristic is an obsession for Poe and clearing Poe's name. This is so strong that it leads him to make all manner of improbable social, personal, and professional blunders. Unfortunately, as a motivation, it's never that convincing -- especially considering the serious effect it has on his life. Clark is otherwise totally uninteresting, and even somewhat annoying in his constant indignation. Secondly, while Pearl has done an admirable job of writing in the style of the period (the story is presented as a text written by Clark), the style of the period makes for clunky reading. It's stilted and mannered in a way that unfortunately only accentuates another big flaw -- the achingly slow pace of the story.

The bulk of the story involves Clark trying to track down the real-life inspiration for Poe's legendary detective, C. Auguste Dupin, and their joint efforts in Baltimore to learn the truth as to how Poe ended up delirious in a Baltimore tavern when he was supposed to be in Philadelphia. Pearl does a very nice job of bringing Baltimore to life, and there's clearly a lot of research behind the story. However, writing a novel to outline a possible scenario for what happened to Poe seems like overkill. The new evidence Pearl has uncovered is best suited to an essay or scholarly journal, and while weaving a novel around a few tidbit is certainly impressive in and of itself, the result is a clunky work that's only average at best.

Please don't give me a test on this book.......2007-09-10

Because I will fail it. I kept reading it and couldn't really begin to tell you what happened. The language is good and it's clearly well researched, but the plot goes into some minutiae that was impossible to follow. Very tedious and something was just wrong with it. It started off well and I liked it at first, but the whole Dupin/Duponte who's who just drifted off into some kind of pettiness and smallness that only Pearl could have followed or outlined. Reading this book was like watching someone with OCD organize a box of used staples with a pair of tiny tweezers. Impossible to follow and you're just observing someone who may or may not be doing a brilliant job as you would never know either way. A great idea for a book, but it seems like Pearl couldn't make a decision on all of the information he found in his research and just had to include all of it, making the plot extraordinarily intricate and impenetrable.

ZZZZZZZ.......2007-09-04

This novel was very tedious reading.
Did you complete it ?
Yes.
Why?
I kept thinking it'd get better...
Lame.
Yeah, but other books have gotten better toward the last third.
But not this one?
No.
What specifically did you not like?
A mystery not really solved; a period piece not giving us much descriptive context; and a main character who might have carried a hobby into an obsession, and nearly ruining his life, without giving us an understanding of why he couldn't have kept his business and his personal life in order while still uncovering what he did. And it's too long.
Well, why did you give it one star?
I couldn't give it less.

Overly-contrived potboiler.......2007-08-12

I didn't find this book very interesting; in fact, I didn't finish it. It is a work of fiction, a period piece, in which a young lawyer in Baltimore, one Quentin Clark, attends Edgar Allan Poe's funeral in that city (Poe died there in mysterious circumstances on October 7, 1849, at age 40). Afterward, Clark travels to Paris to look up C. Auguste Dupin, the father of all fictional private detectives, introduced to the world by Poe. Clark's purpose for this visit is an attempt to put together the true story of Poe's demise.

The book should have interested me because I have read much Poe, I like mystery stories, and much of it takes place in Baltimore (although around 1849), in a suburb of which I have lived for many years. But somehow it didn't. For me, it was an overly-contrived potboiler.

The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 6)

Average customer rating:

Great Look behind the scenes. Far better than earlier volumes
I hate to give this only 4 stars, but too much repitition.
For Hard Core Tolkien Fans Only!!!
Vital exploration of Tolkien's work, but for fans only
Warning-not a novel....but a great resource

The Return of the Shadow: The History of The Lord of the Rings, Part One (The History of Middle-Earth, Vol. 6)
J.R.R. Tolkien
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0395498635

Book Description

In this sixth volume of The History of Middle-earth the story reaches The Lord of the Rings. In The Return of the Shadow (an abandoned title for the first volume) Christopher Tolkien describes, with full citation of the earliest notes, outline plans, and narrative drafts, the intricate evolution of The Fellowship of the Ring and the gradual emergence of the conceptions that transformed what J.R.R. Tolkien for long believed would be a far shorter book, 'a sequel to The Hobbit'. The enlargement of Bilbo's 'magic ring' into the supremely potent and dangerous Ruling Ring of the Dark Lord is traced and the precise moment is seen when, in an astonishing and unforeseen leap in the earliest narrative, a Black Rider first rode into the Shire, his significance still unknown. The character of the hobbit called Trotter (afterwards Strider or Aragorn) is developed while his indentity remains an absolute puzzle, and the suspicion only very slowly becomes certainty that he must after all be a Man. The hobbits, Frodo's companions, undergo intricate permutations of name and personality, and other major figures appear in strange modes: a sinister Treebeard, in league with the Enemy, a ferocious and malevolent Farmer Maggot.

The story in this book ends at the point where J.R.R. Tolkien halted in the story for a long time, as the Company of the Ring, still lacking Legolas and Gimli, stood before the tomb of Balin in the Mines of Moria. The Return of the Shadow is illustrated with reproductions of the first maps and notable pages from the earliest manuscripts.

Customer Reviews:

Great Look behind the scenes. Far better than earlier volumes.......2007-02-20

`The Return of the Shadow' is the first of a four volume series (`The History of the Lord of the Rings') within a series, (volume VI of `The History of Middle Earth') edited by Christopher Tolkien, from the unpublished writings of his father, J. R. R. Tolkien, most famous as the author of `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings'.

For those who have been slogging through the previous three volumes dealing with fragments from the composition of `The Silmarillion', this volume is a great pleasure, as it deals entirely with early drafts of what becomes the first two-thirds of `The Fellowship of the Ring' (FR), the first volume of the great `The Lord of the Rings' (LotR). It begins at the beginning of FR and ends as the fellowship stand in the mines of Moria over the grave marked `Balin Son of Burin, Lord of Moria' (The dramatic encounter between Gandalf and the Balrog will have to wait until the next volume).

For those of you who may have read `The Lord of the Rings' only once or twice, this and the next three volumes in this series are an enormous treat, as reading this is far more rewarding than a second or third reading of LotR, and will make that second or third reading even more interesting. For those of us who have read LotR for ten or twelve times, and have seen Peter Jackson's films of same more times than I care to count, the interest tends to wane just a bit, as the percentage of entirely new material is small compared to early versions of text which appeared in the final volumes.

What I really looked forward to in these volumes was some insight into my second most favorite character, after Gandalf, and this would be the perpetual Middle Earth hippie, Tom Bombadil and his consort, Goldberry. Unfortunately, this book does not through a lot of light on Bombadil's origins. Thankfully, it also does not violate any of my lengthily speculations on where Bombadil fits into the history of Middle Earth and the cosmology of the world in which Middle Earth is set. The heart of the matter is that Bombadil is one of the very few true natives of Middle Earth. The elves are clearly immigrants from the Far West. Dwarves and men seem to be creations of the Valar, and orcs and trolls are perversions of elves, men, and dwarves made by Melkor or Sauron. He is certainly not one of the Valar, as nothing said about his lack of interest in The Ring would be true of a Valar. Similarly, he is certainly not a wizard, one of Gandalf's clan, the Istari. The fact is, Tolkien senior simply added him in as a `deux ex machina', pinch hitting for Gandalf in a way, to get the wandering hobbits out of two jams with powers far greater than their own, so that they can safely reach Bree and the assistance of Strider. And, it turns out Tolkien simply wanted to include Bombadil and Goldberry since he had written of them in earlier publications!

One thing that does come out is the fact that the minor character, Farmer Maggot is potentially a far more interesting character than may appear on the surface. For example, Tom Bombadil seems to get most of his information about the outside world from Farmer Maggot and there is a suspicion in this narrative that Maggot is not entirely `hobbit' bred. This is not too unusual, as there has always been a suspicion that the three strains of hobbits are a result of a bit on interbreeding with elves and dwarves (but you didn't hear that from me!). One thing about Maggot which tickles my fancy is that his physical description here is a strong image of the Pennsylvania Amish and Mennonite farmers, which fits perfectly into the land around the Brandywine and the cultivation of mushrooms, both features of southeastern Pennsylvania, the home of the very same Pennsylvania Dutch. And yet, editor Christopher seems to make no mention of this obvious connection.

Being a true fanatic, even little things about these books will please me to no end. One thing, among others, which makes me think that Peter Jackson used these books in his writing the screenplay for the movies is the similarity between the picture of Bag End and the surrounding Shire and Bag End as it appeared in FR. I'm also thrilled by the additional original Tolkien maps, as well as the usually excellent index to the volume. I look forward to a composite index covering the whole four volumes of the `History of the Lord of the Rings' series.

The greatest impact of this volume comes from the smallest note in the beginning. After all the preparation done on the history of Middle Earth, Tolkien senior still had no notion of what he will find in Bree, who or what was Strider, or any notion of the design of Moria until he actually reached these characters and events in his writing.

I hate to give this only 4 stars, but too much repitition........2006-03-14

I was hoping that this would give like amny differnent versions of these books, but it tends just to show you the evolution and showing you the rewritings of early chapters of the lord and some of them like the council of elrond show you like 6 different versions. Every version a new character will show up, somebody will turn from good to evil, or maybe their words will be given to some one else.

I guess I was just hoping that this would be more like the previous 5 books and give us new stuff like they did of the silmarillion. But it did provide me with enough new info and some pretty exciting evolutions in this.

For Hard Core Tolkien Fans Only!!!.......2005-07-13

I got the book thinking it was part of Tolkien's unfinished sequel to the LOTR "The Return of the Shadow", but the shadow here is Sauron's return to middle earth after the end of the second age.

This is a volume in the previously unpublished letters and papers of J.R.R. Tolkien. In this volume we follow the evolution of the different parts of the LOTR the Fellowship of the Ring over time. From its beginning as a sequel to the Hobbit to the final epic product of mythic proportions.

Its interesting to see all the various drafts of the original chapters and the progression of Bingo Baggins into Frodo and the Hobbit Trotter into the Human King Strider/Aragorn. But this is the main drawback also, how many variations of "A Long Expected Party" can one read without being bored?

For Tolkien enthusiatists and English Majors only.

Vital exploration of Tolkien's work, but for fans only.......2004-05-09

If you're not a Tolkien fan, you need not apply to the sprawling History of Middle Earth series. But if you're interested in seeing how the Professor developed the rich creation of Middle Earth, warts and all, this is a treasure trove of material.

The 12 volumes of the History of Middle Earth take a close look at the creation of Tolkien's greatest achievement - Middle Earth itself - through early drafts, unpublished texts, and dead end writings. For ardent Tolkien readers it is a fascinating look at one of the great literary creations of the 20th Century. For more casual fans, it's text better left unread.

"The Return of the Shadow" marks the first in the four volumes dealing with the history of the writing of "The Lord of the Rings." Like the other volumes in the series, it features unpublished writings by Tolkien, supplemented, explained, footnoted, annotated and expounded upon by his son, Christopher Tolkien.

Here we have the earliest versions of what would later become the most beloved fantasy epic in the world, detailing the extraordinary and convoluted history of the earliest chapters of "The Lord of the Rings." Some readers might be surprised to know just how different a book this was in its earliest stages, and just how much Tolkien was making it up as he went along in those early days.

The wealth of information is fantastic, and Christopher Tolkien goes to great lengths to examine each text, putting them in the context of the larger puzzle of his father's writings. The exploration of how "The Lord of the Rings" came about is fantastic - for those interested. Otherwise, it will bore. This is, after all, a series of unfinished draft chapters and essays on the text. I enjoyed it, but many won't.

Anybody wishing to do a study of Tolkien's craft, into "behind the scenes" writings, or just interested in finding a few snatches of new Middle Earth material (even if in unfinished form, there are some scattered throughout the series) will certainly find what they are looking for here. Christopher Tolkien's work here is appreciated by scores of ardent Tolkien fans.

Those looking for fresh new tales about hobbits and heroes, however, will be disappointed. This isn't new fiction, nor does it even feature finished works. Seek elsewhere if you are looking for more tales in the way of "The Lord of the Rings."

Warning-not a novel....but a great resource.......2003-01-10

Of the thrilling and informative History of Middle-Earth series, this is perhaps the most interesting part. Normal Tolkien fans will get the rare chance to see how the germ of an idea can explode into the most complex cosmology ever created. Although it may seem boring, as it is not a novel per se, it is an insightful analysis of a very beloved book. The Lord of the Rings was initially conceived as a sequel to the Hobbit, growing into something incomparably more vast. We see Bingo in the character of Frodo, the name Frodo applied to another character. Aragorn is named Trotter and the idea emerges that he might be a long lost Hobbit who has had many experiences on the road. Somehow, with many footnotes and comments in the margin, we see the evolution of these ideas into what we know today as LOTR. Fascinating and useful for the Tolkien scholar, the devoted Tolkien reader, or even an aspiring writer.

Average customer rating:

Engaging story, told well
Shamelessly indulgent.
A good, moving story
A real page-turner
For Every BOOK Lover...

The Shadow of the Wind: A Novel
Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1594200106
Release Date: 2004-04-12

Book Description

The international literary sensation-a runaway bestseller in Spain, rights sold in more than 20 countries-about a boy's quest through the secrets and shadows of postwar Barcelona for a mysterious author whose book has proved as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget.

Barcelona, 1945-just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn't find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.

As with all astounding novels, The Shadow of the Wind sends the mind groping for comparisons-The Crimson Petal and the White? The novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte? Of Victor Hugo? Love in the Time of Cholera?-but in the end, as with all astounding novels, no comparison can suffice. As one leading Spanish reviewer wrote, "The originality of Ruiz Zafón's voice is bombproof and displays a diabolical talent. The Shadow of the Wind announces a phenomenon in Spanish literature." An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller's art.

Translated by Lucia Graves.

Customer Reviews:

Engaging story, told well.......2007-10-10

I wasn't looking for deep thoughts, but for entertainment. This book delivers, an engaging tale spiced with hidden family histories, dark secrets, and a tragic hero. It finishes on an overly melodramatic note, building up to more of a climax and confrontation than was necessary. I'd deduct half a star, but not a whole one.

Shamelessly indulgent........2007-10-07

My sister strongly recommended this book when I was visiting her this year. So I picked it up when I saw it being sold at train stations and airports all over Europe.

First, I have to say that this was a nearly compulsively pleasant read. The literary equivalent of a hot bath and a glass of red wine. The Shadow of the Wind is a coming of age story with mildly supernatural/mysterious overtones with a strong theme of books and book lovers. In order to ensure that his readers are completely blissed out, Zafon includes romance, gothic family histories and political corruption. There is even a mysterious stranger with a hidden face who may or may not be the devil. Think Anne Rice in some of her better moments, and you'll get the idea.

The Shadow of the Wind is a reader's guilty pleasure. It harks pleasantly back to another time. It is evocative. It keeps the pages turning.

Sadly, it does not deliver on its promise. That is almost inevitable, given how many doors it opens and how many different themes Zafon tries to keep in the air. There are a few too many implausible ways that the loose ends are tied up in the last third of the book. The resolution is not really as satisfying as I had hoped. The flaws keep The Shadow of the Wind from being a really high quality novel, even though they do not really detract from the entertainment value.

In a way, the failure of the end is caused by the magnificent success of the beginning. The first half of the novel was always going to be a hard act to follow. Still, I would more than recommend it for readers willing to take it for what it is-- great entertainment value.

A good, moving story.......2007-10-03

The protagonist, Daniel Sempere is the son of a bookstore-keeper. At the age of 10, he finds a rare book by one Julian Carax in the "Cemetery of Forgotten Books". After finishing it, he finds out that there's someone who is trying to destroy all existing copies of Carax's books. This is how begins a complex plot that lasts about 10 years, and involves lots of mysteries and original characters.

"Original" is a good summary of this book. On one hand a typical thriller, but on the other hand not quite. There is something special about this book, about the way it is written. It's not a deliberate page-turner like many modern fiction novels aspire to be, although it could be, since it's obvious from the start that the author has the skill to make it so. Instead, its plot unfolds in a more relaxed tempo, spanning over a longer period of time.

There are many exciting characters in this book - like Fermin. This guy made me laugh quite a lot, he's a hysterically funny guy. Inspector Fumero is also a very unusual and interesting character, in his own wicked way. Another character is probably the city of Barcelona, where all the plot takes place and that's described beautifully.

I like books about books, so "The Shadow of the Wind" was a delight in this aspect. Additionally, I felt there's a certain closed loop in it - the enigmatic resemblance of Carax's and Sempere's lives. The difference is that Carax's life turned extremely tragically, while Sempere's ended well. There's a strange kind of emotionality hidden in this concept, and I found it very moving.

To conclude, this is a very good book. I can't say it's perfect - the author seems a bit inexperienced and there are some omissions and inconsistencies. However, in the whole, I loved reading it and hence recommend it.

A real page-turner.......2007-09-30

This book is CRAZY! It has absolutely everything: love, murder, betrayal, incest, and more! "The Shadow of the Wind" is set in post-war Barcelona in the year 1945. Daniel, a young boy, accompanies his father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books one evening and finds a book written by Julian Carax. After reading the book, Daniel is so engrossed that he attempts to locate other books by the same author, but cannot find any. However, he does discover stories about a mysterious man named Lain Coubert, which is the same name Carax uses for the character of the devil in one of his novels. Lain Coubert has spent years tracking down copes of Carax's books and setting fire to them. In time, Daniel comes face to face with Lain Coubert, and Daniel soon finds himself immersed in a story that began many years ago and may very well threaten his own life.

This is a truly excellent book that has the makings of a great gothic novel. It took me a long time to finish reading it because there are so many characters and plot twists to keep track of, but the intriguing story was well worth the effort I put into it. I couldn't put this book down. I highly recommend it.

For Every BOOK Lover..........2007-09-26

Whenever I read a book I underline key phrases or words that impact me in some way or another. During my recent flight from NYC to Los Angeles I finished a fabulous epic novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. In July, I was vacationing on the Carribean Island of Anguilla and I came across the book inside a basket in the living area of the Cove Castles restort. I started thumbing through the pages and thought it might be something I'd like to read. I was attracted by the fact that it was an epic Gothic-type novel that had spent two years on SPAIN's best-seller list. In the early pages a critic wrote that like A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION it is an ultimate love letter to literature. I found that to be true. The more lines I underline will determine the goodness of the book (for me). And so, I now share with you to decide.

Here are the fabulous LINES in the book that captured me:

"Some things can only be seen in the shadows."

Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart.

A secret's worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.

...frilly words.

Nations never see themselves clearly in the mirror, much less when war preys on their minds.

I bought the book on a whim. The title seemed suggestive.

That book taught me that by reading, I could live more intensely.

I wondered what on earth she saw in me that could make her want to befriend me, other than a pale reflection of herself, an echo of solitude and loss.

To truly hate is an art one learns with time.

His favorite language was money, the rest was neither here nor there.

"Age--the price we all must pay."

People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren't complicated enough.

"Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not for the merits of who receives them."

If you ever have a daughter--a blessing I wouldn't wish on anywone, because it's Murphy's Law that sooner or later she will break your heart--if you ever have a daughter, you'll begin without realizing it, to divide men into to camps: those you suspect are sleeping with her and those you don't.

"Nobody knows much about women, not even Freud, not even women themselves. But it's like electricity: you don't have to know how it works to get a shock on the fingers."

Cinemas are full of lonely people, I thought. Like me.

Disamred, I realized how easily you can lose all animosity toward someone you've deemed your enemy as soon as that person stops behaving as such.

I slipped on my trademark angelic smile.

I can assure you without a shadow of doubt that the girl was no apparition. I could even describe her smell. Lavender, only sweeter. Like a little sugar bun just out of the oven.

Real women are won over bit by bit. It's all a question of psychology.

The female heats up like an iron. Slowly, over a low heat, like a tasty stew. But then, once she has heated up, there's no stopping her.

If you really want to possess a woman (or man), you must think like her (or him), and the first thing to do is win over her (his) soul. The rest...is a bonus.

If you want problems, you'll get them. Life isn't like novels, you know. In Life you have to take sides.

To go in pursuit of your dreams...

All I wish is for you to be happy...that everything you aspire to achieve may come true.

At the bottom of the cupboard, I kept an old tin cookie box, a treasure chest of sorts. There I stored a menagerie of useless bits of junk that I couldn't bring myself to throw away: watches, and fountain pens damaged beyond repair, old coins, marbles, wartime bullet cases I'd found in the park, and fading postcards.

...hit songs by the celebrated crooner Antonio Machin.

The leopard cannot change his spots.

If a fly finds its way into his shop, he'll open the door and windows wide so that the insect, one of God's creatures, is swept back by the draft into the ecosystem.

The trouble is, there are some low moments, and when those strike close to home everything looks blacker.

The only card I could play was to tell the truth.

He would stare at you without saying a word, and you wouldn't know what he was thinking, and so, like an idiot, you'd tell him things it would have been better to keep to yourself.

He gave the impression that he was one of those people who cannot be happy anywhere.

He was a very private person, and sometimes it seemed to me that he was no longer interested in the world or in people.

He was living in the past, lockied in his memories. He lived within himself, for his books and inside them--a comfortable prison of his own design.

Time is a great healer.

His soul is in his stories.

"We exist as long as somebody remembers us."

"Someone once said that the moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever."

"Don't be offended, but sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger that to people one knows. Why is that?"
I shrugged, "Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are."
"And how do you see me?"
"Like a mystery."

At last I managed to retrace my steps within the tangle of corridors and tunnels until I entered a narrow passage that felt like a gangway stretching out into the gloom.

"You can see a mile off that she's worth a million bucks, but the crux of the matter is this:
is she the sort who makes one fall in love or the sort who merely stirs up the lower parts?"

In good time you'll see that sometimes what matters isn't what one gives but what one gives up.

Only three or four things are worth living for; the rest is manure.

Love is a lot like pork: there's loin steak and there's bologna. Each has its own place and function.

Money is like any other virus: once it has rotted the soul of the person who houses it, it sets off in search of new blood. In this world a surname is less lasting than a sugared almond.

Like old cities, Barcelona is a sum of its ruins. The great glories so many people are proud of--palaces, factories, monuments, the emblems with which we identify--are nothing more than relics of an extinguished civilization.

Greed will corrupt us all in the end.

Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.

Few things are more deceptive than memories.

"The fragrances of the eternal feminine no longer overpowers me the way it mesmerizes you. At my age the flow of blood to the brain has precedence over that which flows to my loins."

"People who have no life always have to stick thier nose in the life of others."

"Life flies by, especially the bit that's worth living."

I imagined she was thinking that I was dying of curiosity and impatience, so I decided to adopt a nonchalant air, making it very clear that if she wanted to play mystery games with me, she had every chance of losing.

"I believe that nothing happens by chance. Deep down, things have their secret plan, even thought we don't understand it....It's all part of someting we cannot comprehend, something that owns us."

"And keep your dreams," said Miguel, "You never know when you might need them."

Some of us suffer from an excess of juvenile ardor and a lack of strategic grasp of the situation.

Death makes evryone feel sentimental. When we stand in front of a coffin, we all see only what is good or what we want to see.

When everyone is determined to present someone as a monster, there are two possibilities: either he's a saint or they themselves are not telling the whole story.

Never trust he who trusts everyone.

When you're eighteen, in the absence of subtlety and greater experience, an old bathroom can seem like paradise.

Have you ever covered a woman (or man) with oil, from head to toe, completely and meticulously?

Contrary to what you firmly believe, the earth does not revolve around the desires of your crotch. Other factors influence the evolution of mankind.

It is one thing to believe in women, and another to believe in what they say.

There are people you remember and people you dream of.

There was another silence, of the kind in which gray hairs seem to creep up on you.

I tried to conjure up the words I wanted to offer...but I was incapable of writing or feeling.

"We all do what we're best at."

"...what is really killing him is loneliness. Memories are worse than bullets."

Time goes faster the more hallow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don't stop at your station.

A story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.

He was learning to see the world again through your eyes, to recover the boy he had once been.

So long as we are being remembered, we remain alive.

He's not a bad person. We all love in our own way.

We're all whores sooner or later.

All that remains in my memory is the touch of her lips...

I often catch her marooned in one of her silences, alone with herself.

She still sees her old music teacher whose symphony is still unfinished and who, it seems, has made a career as a gigolo among the ladies, where his bedroom acrobatics have earned him the nickname "The Magic Flute".

Father and son disappear into the crowd, their steps lost forever in the shadow of the wind.

Average customer rating:

Poorly written Fairy Tale
Pleasant but predictable
One of the best....
An agonizing, wonderful book
Mezmerizing

City of Shadows: A Novel of Suspense
Ariana Franklin
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060817275
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

A cultured city scarred by war. . . . An eastern émigré with scars and secrets of her own. . . . A young woman claiming to be a Russian grand duchess. . . . A brazen killer, as vicious as he is clever. . . . A detective driven by decency and the desire for justice.

. . . A nightmare political movement steadily gaining power. . . .

This is 1922 Berlin.

One of the troubled city's growing number of refugees, Esther Solomonova survives by working as secretary to the charming, unscrupulous cabaret owner "Prince" Nick, and she's being drawn against her will into his scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered czar of all Russia. But their found "princess," Anna Anderson, fears that she's being hunted—and this may turn out to be more than paranoia when innocent people all around her begin to die.

Customer Reviews:

Poorly written Fairy Tale.......2007-09-17

This book doesn't deserve the rating it's getting......really. The writing is extreemly poor and hard to follow. The mystery and history is all that carries this book along and it's shallow. It seems she went into this book just to get to the twist ending which everyone seems to love otherwise they wouldn't rate this book so highly. Everyone's a hopeless romantic, just as the character in the book says, and a doop. They forget all flaws and give it a 5 star rating. Weak!
Read the low reviews on her book The Mistress of the Art of Death (great title but bad book) and you'll learn more about her awkward and inaccurate writing style. Don't waste your time.

Pleasant but predictable.......2007-05-26

While I enjoyed the book, and found that it had an engaging plot and some interesting historical background, I also found the plot predictable. I saw the twist coming for half the book, and many of the other scenes were also somewhat awkwardly drawn.

The most bothersome to me, though, were the anachronisms in the book. They were small things, really, but they were so jarringly out of place that, after seeing them, I began to question whether the author's research had sound historical footing. In broad strokes it did, but she seems to regard this period of time through a very 21st century lens. Even the interactions between characters is more in tune with our own times than with the era of which she writes.

The anachronisms that stood out included specific references. First, Nick went to the airport to fly to Paris in 1922. Passenger air service was VERY rare at that time, and most of it was for long flights to colonies and protectorates in Africa, India, etc. Air transport was established for mail at this time, but passenger travel through Europe would certainly have been by train, even for the wealthy.

Esther also says that her memories are like a movie with its soundtrack, running through her mind over and over. Talkies had not yet come out in 1922. The first commercial sound picture was in 1923, but the first to be released for viewing was in 1927 - no one would have had the language to reference a "sound track" back in 1922.

Again, these are small items, but they were so obvious to me - and I am not a historian - that I have to wonder about many of the other details that she leans on for her story. I love good historical fiction because it gives me a window into a time that I can't otherwise visit. But if that fiction doesn't have a firm foundation, it's no longer giving me a clear view.

As with many historical novels I've read, this spurred me to do a bit of online research to learn more about this very difficult period in history.

One of the best...........2007-05-13

One of the best books I've read in a long, long time. I'm on Amazon today searching for more by the author, because although I have a stack of books by my bed, it would be extremely unlikely that any will measure up to City of Shadows. The characters are unique and interesting, the historical setting is fascinating and disturbing, and the story line is mysterious and surprising. While the characters deal with dreadful suspense, they are also infused with a gentle sense of humor. I hated to turn the last page, and can't think why any reader wouldn't love this book.

An agonizing, wonderful book.......2007-05-06

This is a terrific novel that just happens to include a murder mystery.

Take the stew of Germany in the 1920s: the mark is in catastrophic freefall, WWI allied powers are demanding impossible war debt payments, refugees (possibly including Czar Nicholas' daughter Anastasia) are arriving from the east in droves to flee the Bolsheviks, morality has declined markedly in Berlin. Add a pinch of anti-Semitism, then leaven with a series of bizarre murders over a 10-year period and you have the backdrop on which the events of this book are played out.

It's an agonizing, wonderful book. The reader has the advantage of knowing what will happen in Germany in the 1930s, but the characters don't. Will the Jewish characters realize the danger in time? What will happen to the honest policeman attempting to solve the murders in an increasingly right-wing and violent society? Is Anastasia the real thing or an imposter, and by the way, will she survive?

Both the characters and the plot of this book will keep you mesmerized and at the same time give you a front row seat for the disintegration of law and order in Germany as it lurched towards fascism in 1933. Now, on to Franklin's new book Mistress of the Art of Death.

Mezmerizing.......2007-04-23

The first few pages are slow going, but by chapter 3 the book becomes incredibly addictive. The suspense is extremely well-sustained and the story flows very well; the characters are nicely drawn.

One recommendation: skip to the back and read the author's note before you start the book; in hindsight, I think I would've enjoyed the book even more had I read the 3-page author's note.

J. Avellanet, Co-Founder of Cerulean Associates LLC

Shadows of Ice (WarCraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, Book 2)

Average customer rating:

Trilogy Continues
Much like the first, the art much more impressive than the story.

Shadows of Ice (WarCraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, Book 2)
Kim Jae-hwan , and Richard A. Knaak
Manufacturer: TokyoPop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1595327134

Book Description

On the war-ravaged world of Azeroth, a young blue dragon's quest for a mysterious power has led him and his companions to the remote mountains of northern Lordaeron. In that frozen, treacherous wasteland, they find themselves caught in a battle of life, death--and undeath! Jae-Hwan Kim, artist of the best-selling King of Hell series, and Richard A. Knaak, the New York Times best-selling author, whisk you back to the world of Warcraft with the bone-chillingly sinister Shadows of Ice! "A well-told, exciting story. Kim's beautiful art has an amazing depth and fluidity that sets it apart." -Tina Coleman, American Library Association

Customer Reviews:

Trilogy Continues.......2007-08-09

This is not your typical book. Because it is TokyoPop it is (forgive me) more like a comic book. As such I read it in about 20 minutes. It was entertaining though.

Much like the first, the art much more impressive than the story........2007-04-04

This second installment in the Sunwell Trilogy of manga-style comics is neither overly impressive or disappointing. If you've read the first, you pretty much know what to expect from this one too. Basically, the art is beautiful and really carries the story, bringing to life heroes and villains. The text is bare-bones and only enough to move the story is included. The story develops nicley here and I'm looking forward to reading the final book (which has finally come out after a LONG wait).

If you enjoy fantasy comics, try these set in the rich world of Warcraft. Make sure you start with the first in the series though.

The Man Who Cast Two Shadows (Kathleen Mallory Novels)

Average customer rating:

Good addition to the series...
I love Mallory...
Even better than the first...
The Unwinnable Gender Wars
This series just keeps getting better and better

The Man Who Cast Two Shadows (Kathleen Mallory Novels)
Carol O'Connell
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0515118907

Book Description

The same 3-hour quality performance for less.

2 cassettes / 3 hours
Only $8.99
Read by Kate Burton

With prose that cuts like a knife, resonant suspense, and characters as inventive as they are compelling, O'Connell proves that she is a master of the art.

At the heart of The Man Who Cast Two Shadows is NYPD Sergeant Kathleen Mallory, a wild child whose intelligence is matched only by the ferocity with which she pursues her own vision of right and wrong. She now is faced with a case that strikes close to home - a young woman is found dead only a few blocks away, her skull and hands crushed, her neck snapped, and a label in her jacket which reads "Kathleen Mallory".

Nothing can prepare Sergeant Mallory for what she finds in her investigation - a cradle in a closet; a concerto filled with silences and creams; a cat that dances without warning; and three men, each with a great deal to hide and a great deal to lose . . .

Customer Reviews:

Good addition to the series..........2006-12-15

O'Connell knows how to write mysteries. I have found surprises and suspense galore in all of the Mallory books. But I have never understood the characterizations in these books. Everyone is basically an idiot around the amazingly beautiful, intense and threatening Kathleen Mallory whose mere stare can reduce most people to quivering jello. Only Mallory -- don't call her Kathleen if you value your life -- seems to know what's going on. Staying just inside the law, or at least not getting caught, Mallory is a very strange NY police officer with her own troubling ideas of right and wrong.

Once, just once, I would love to see a character in these books who doesn't completely wilt in Mallory's presence after meeting her. In fact, I have repeatedly resolved never to buy another Mallory book because of this quality. It's hard to get into a book when the core characters are so completely unlikeable. But, ultimately, I love mystery novels. And O'Connell knows how to churn out some deft plotting. So I return. Maybe that's why I like O'Connell's Judas Child so much. No Mallory. She's ruthless. We get it.

All in all, a solid addition to the series. If you liked the first one, Mallory's Oracle, you'll like this one. If you didn't like that one, you will definitely not like this one since Mallory is even more of a black hole in this one. Not too many happy endings in the Mallory series.

I love Mallory..........2006-01-08

but this one is too tangled for me. Jumping around among a large number of principals, it gets a bit scattered for my enjoyment.
(Perhaps it's just that I've got a bad cold & can't concentrate.) O'Connell gave us a brilliant debut in "Oracle" and regained her footing in "Stone Angel." "Crime School" and a couple of others also outshine this one, so I shan't give up the series.

Even better than the first..........2005-06-02

Carol O'Connell's The Man Who Cast Two Shadows is the second Kathleen Mallory mystery, and it's even better than the first.

Mallory is a detective in New York City's Special Crimes Unit. Her colleagues all fear she has been killed when a body is found in a park, similar in appearance and wearing a blazer embroidered with her name. Mallory quickly identifies the victim (whose fingers have been destroyed to hamper a positive ID) and she is given the case. The detectives only have three clues to work with including an unpublished manuscript, a missing computer file and a cat who knows the murderer. The clues point to three possible suspects who all live in the same building. Mallory starts baiting them with computer messages in an effort to flush out the killer. Unfortunately, Mallory herself becomes bait.

The Man Who Cast Two Shadows is interesting in that it provides more background into the lives of those characters introduced in book one including Mallory, Riker, Coffey and Charles Butler. The reader gets a better understanding of their motives and their actions. These characters all have major flaws, yet they bring a brilliance to the job of solving crimes and seeing that justice is done. Mallory always seems to be one step ahead of everyone-maybe because she has the ability to think like a criminal.

Unfortunately, as in book one, The Man Who Cast Two Shadows contains a strong subplot of magic, and I'm beginning to tire of this angle. It's not always believable. Also, I prefer books with shorter chapters, and this 278 page book only has seven. But despite the magic and the long chapters, O'Connell is a thoughtful writer and I'm definitely a fan.

The Unwinnable Gender Wars.......2004-09-09

When men fail to realize is that for every woman they have envisioned as maid, there are a significant number of women who view them as butlers or caddies. Not well publicized, however, the gender reverse of Cinderella is the illusive conquest that represents the commitment that Prince Charming was after. Far too many women treat kings as caddies, and caddies as kings, for their to be any semblance of logic in the love game. But, the studies are required to be made so that both men and women know the difference of when love is possible and when it is not. Since the distinction is more real than not, generally, the male has little to gauge the relationship upon except the perceptions of relatively new relationships, and the example that is visible between the woman's parents and the way in which they relate, often duplicated or expected to be duplicated in most relationships. So, logically, visiting inlaws has much to do with the framework of how, when love is older, the reality replaces the fantasy. Wise words of caution to most males is that treating a woman as a maid often comes back to haunt him many times over, and becomes the misery from which it is difficult to extricate himself, and needlessly, since he always had the choice to begin with. If men don't want to be treated as caddies, they would not contemplate treating or thinking of women as maids. Logic is Logical, not fantasy.

This series just keeps getting better and better.......2004-07-11

First off let me say that if you're looking for a touchy feely maiden in distress kind of heroine - you won't find it here! When a young woman is found murdered and mistakenly identified as Mallory, our Mallory moves in and uses her expert computer skills to try and trip up three suspects who all live in the same building. Some creepy moments ensue until all is resolved at the end. The whole gang reappears and their characters are further developed to this reader's delight. Once again the author serves up a fascinating suspense that I hated to see end. Some reviewers seem to think that Mallory is this inhuman character that makes the story and author heartless and if you have one shred of decency, you won't like this book. Ummm, what version were they reading? Mallory is a little ruthless and heartless at times (she certainly maintains a "ends justify the means" mentality) but don't mistake that for having no emotion. Knowing her background of having to survive on the streets as a very young kid, the death of her foster parents who kept her somewhat grounded, and you begin to see the tight control she maintains over her emotions as a necessary function. Mallory is so intricate a character that she seems to be a real human being, albeit a flawed one, and not on of those cookie cutter females that pass as heroines.

Average customer rating:

Didactic
not my Furst book by this author
The War Before the Fighting Began
Taut, well-written yet ambiguous espionage novel best suited for deep reading
Erudite Exploration of Wartime Hungary

Kingdom of Shadows: A Novel
Alan Furst
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

War | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0375503374
Release Date: 2001-01-16

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Penzler Pick, January 2001: The thrillers of Alan Furst usually take place in the dark days preceding World War II, but while the main participants in that war are of course portrayed, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States do not usually star in Furst's novels. He prefers instead to focus his stories on the citizens of those countries whose allegiances and roles in that particular theater of operations are much more contradictory and conflicted.

Kingdom of Shadows is set in Paris during 1938 and 1939. It is unclear at that time what the fate of Hungary will be if Hitler has his way, but a small group of expatriates would like to insure that events turn out in their country's favor. Nicholas Morath is an Hungarian aristocrat who fought bravely in the Great War. He is now part owner of an advertising agency in Paris, while his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, is a minor diplomat stationed in Paris. Polanyi calls on Nicholas to take part in missions against the Hungarian Fascists: carrying letters or bringing individuals back across the border in the course of his business trips.

As Nicholas's dinner parties, business deals, and dalliances with his mistress start to take a back seat to the escalating crisis in Europe, his tasks become more complicated, dangerous, and bewildering to him. He knows far less than the reader, who understands that his actions will have far-reaching consequences even beyond the fate of Hungary. Nicholas just does what he can without the luxury of historic hindsight.

Furst has fashioned here an elegant gem that vividly portrays the city of Paris during the last peaceful days of 1938 and the menace of Hitler's ambitions in the Sudetenland and beyond. Nicholas Morath is a charismatic and sympathetic figure who will come to understand, as the war progresses, the consequences, both good and bad, of his smallest actions during that turbulent time. --Otto Penzler

Book Description

In spymaster Alan Furst's most electrifying thriller to date, Hungarian aristocrat Nicholas Morath—a hugely charismatic hero—becomes embroiled in a daring and perilous effort to halt the Nazi war machine in eastern Europe.

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Paris, 1938. Forty-four-year-old Nicholas Morath is a handsome, sophisticated former cavalry officer in a community of declasse royalty. The co-owner of a small Paris advertising agency, he seems to live for dinner parties and love affairs. But looming over this elegant world is the shadow of Adolf Hitler, and as the small nations of eastern Europe fall under Nazi domination, Morath's uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, recruits his nephew for secret missions to oppose the Hungarian fascists. As Europe edges toward war, these missions grow ever more daring and dangerous, until Morath is risking his life in the fight against the secret police, Germany spies, and Soviet assassins. Breathtakingly evocative and surprising to its final page, Furst's latest espionage thriller is a triumph.

Customer Reviews:

Didactic.......2007-07-10

Sorry -- a quick judgment. I only read a bit. The author seems very inent, and heavy-handedly so, on filling us in on details of Hungarian culture. This gave every sign of weighing the plot down so that it could barely move. Two of the principals are having lunch in a seedy cafe. They talk about a friend who died and they take the opportunity to review Hungarian customs and beliefs surrounding dealing with the dead. Of course, we will pay close attention to their eating habits, too -- equally well researched. If I were very particularly interested in or attached to things Hungarian, I might like this, and I can imagine sensible people who would enjoy it, but it isn't what I was after.

not my Furst book by this author.......2007-05-09

Once I discover an author I like, my life-long habit is to read almost everything that author has written. (This took several years in the case of Patrick O'Brian.) This practice is particularly rewarding with Alan Furst's books, since they provide different perspectives of the same period of time (1933-1943).

I claim to have "read" most of Furst's books but honesty compels me to admit that I had George Guidall read them to me. (Did you know that George has narrated over 800 audiobooks?) I think if I had read the Furst novels the old-fashioned way instead of listening while I drive I might have been more impatient with some of the minor weaknesses pointed out by other reviewers (plot, characters, motivation, abrupt endings etc.)

Furst's books have helped me better understand the events that lead up to the Second World War. This is partly due to his detailed research and partly due to my own research - I always hit the books and the Internet immediately after finishing each Furst novel. After finishing the "Kingdom of Shadows", for example, I read numerous articles on the Sudetenland which made me more sympathetic to its German inhabitants than Furst's pro-Czech point of view. This is not to criticize Furst's research but to compliment him for inspiring me to read more on this subject.

If you "read" the Guidall audiobook version of "Kingdom", you'll enjoy the bonus interview of the author. Guidall asks Furst about the interesting quote "life is like licking honey from a thorn" which Furst attributes to someone else. I poked around on the web and found several versions of this - nothing too definitive - including "Hungarian proverb" "Welsh proverb"(!), and "quotation from the Slovenian-American author Louis Adamic."

Anyway, "Kingdom of Shadows" was a good read and if in fact Furst mangled some Hungarian poetry as a more erudite reviewer pointed out it certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book!

The War Before the Fighting Began.......2007-05-09

The period covered by this novel are the years 1938 to 1939, just before the German attack on Poland on September 1, 1939. While the French and British try to placate Hitler, Hungary under Admiral Horthy is trying to remain an interested friend to everyone. But one Hitler starts to dismantle Czecho- Slovakia, the Hungarians have to decide whose side they will be on. For sure they will be on the anti-Russian side, but who will they be with.

We once again meet the incomparable Janos Count Polanyi who is working out of the Hungarian embassy in Paris. Janos is still doing his bit to try and save Hungary from the next war, by fighting against the facist Arrow Cross. He is now using his nephew (and heir) Nicholas Morath as a go between as part of teaching him the family business. Morath gets involved with various types of intrigue, mostly related to smuggling both money and people across borders.

After Janos sets up the suicide of the embassy fascist in charge of the intelligence service (by shooting him in the head), he disappears. Everything including the title is left to Nicholas. As Count Morath, he is now expected to take over ALL of his uncles duties. Though we get the feeling that Uncle Janos is really somewhere behind the scene watching to see how his protoge is doing. He has nothing to worry about.

All this is done against the backdrop of the German demands for the Sudetenland, the Ansluss of Austria, the take-over of Danzig, the splitting of Slovakia into an independent state, and the Hungarian take-over of Ruthenia. Furst is a master of creating the feeling that you are there in the steamy backrooms with members of the White Russians underground, and those from other empires destroyed by WWI as they bargain to get back to and control of their homelands.

Taut, well-written yet ambiguous espionage novel best suited for deep reading.......2007-03-15

"Kingdom of Shadows" is the first novel by Alan Furst that I have read, and I have to say that I am very, very impressed with Mr. Furst as a writer. Unfortunately, I am not in a position in my life where reading Mr. Furst's kind of writing is easy to do.

Full disclosure - I work long hours and I have two small children. Accordingly, there are very few quiet hours at home for sinking into the armchair for some "serious reading." Instead, I get to do most of my reading on the bus or on the elliptical machine at the gym. While I am able to enjoy most books to their full measure in that manner, this is not the optimum way to savour a dense or subtle book - and "Kingdom of Shadows" is both. (And I mean this as a compliment.)

A lean work at 238 pages, "Kingdom of Shadows" has a lot of story. The hero, Nicholas Morath, is a Hungarian expatriate living in Paris in 1938. Europe has barely recovered from the Great War, in which Nicholas fought heroically, and yet the Nazis loom on the horizon. Working with his uncle, a minor Hungarian diplomat in Paris, Morath is thrust deeper and deeper into an mysterious world of espionage where not only does the right hand not know what the left hand is doing, but the fingers aren't exactly communicating, either.

Furst sets most of "Kingdom of Shadows" in the world of Hungarian pre-war politics, something about which I was completely ignorant. That places me on a good footing with Morath, who has no idea what his missions are really about and surely has no clue as to the coming conflagration that will sweep across Europe. But I loved the book as Furst took me from the streets of Paris to the Carpathians to an idyllic holiday on the shore to a Nazi-occupied hotel in Vienna. Rich, vivid descriptions of both the countryside and daily city life make "Kingdom of Shadows" a wonderful read.

The only thing that makes me give this book four stars is the fact that the dialogue and plotting of the book was so darn subtle that I think I missed at least half of what Furst meant for me to catch. After re-readinng several passages, I still had virtually no clue as to what was going or why. Some will chalk it up to my shortcomings, but to be fair I have read books by John Le Carre, Daniel Silva, and Graham Greene on the bus and at the gym and not felt so stymied.

I am sure that if I can give Furst's words the care and attention they deserve, in an armchair and fortified with a tumbler of Scotch, I would write a rave review. As it is, "Kingdom of Shadows" must content itself with a very good review and a solid recommendation.

Erudite Exploration of Wartime Hungary.......2007-02-26

Alan Furst excels at bringing to life the nooks and crannies of World War II-era Europe. Furst's extraordinary knowledge of the history, politics and culture of that time is brought to bear in "Kingdom of Shadows," his sixth wartime novel. This time, the protagonist is a Hungarian patrician who owns an advertising agency in Paris and spies for a faction of the Hungarian government. And that small country, whose borders seem to shift every few years, contained no shortage of factions: enthusiasts of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Arrow Cross fascists, and those who simply wanted to cut deals with Germany to avoid joining the war.

The more interesting, and tragic, country described in this book is Czechoslovakia. Here was a country that was a liberal democracy and was at one time admired by the West. It also had a strong army bunkered in the hills of the Sudetenland. In order to obtain this prize, Hitler decided to provide justification for ceding the mountainous Sudentenland to Germany, by forming armed groups within the Sudetenland and fomenting riots. The Czechs, of course, were quickly blamed when they tried (with one hand tied behind their backs) to quench the flames. In a vain attempt to appease Hitler and avoid war, the West quickly agreed to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. With its defenses gone, the rest of Czechoslovakia fell quickly. Furst does not overly dramatize this story, but the pain of this betrayal stings.

As always, Furst's attention to detail is impeccable. The normality of pre-invasion Paris (women in bolero jackets and hats with veils) is juxtaposed with the giddy fervor of Austria on the day of Anschluss, when Nazis destroyed the Jewish community overnight. His clear discussion of the complicated details of late-1930s alliances and politics engaging. And Furst again draws sentences that you will want to read twice: a barman in Paris was "A man who hated having to be grateful for a job he hated." The night train from Budapest passes through one of Alan Furst's finest works.

Queen of Shadows: A Novel of Isabella, Wife of King Edward II

Average customer rating:

Waste of time and money!
Good Story but Full of Inaccuracies
Terrific historical novel
Edith the Historian
Hopelessly inaccurate, terrible ending

Queen of Shadows: A Novel of Isabella, Wife of King Edward II
Edith Felber
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 045121952X

Book Description

In fourteenth-century England, beautiful Queen Isabella-humiliated by her weak, unfaithful husband-is emerging from the shadows to take her revenge. But her newly arrived, twenty-oneyear-old Welsh handmaiden, Gwenith de Percy, also seeks vengeance-against the English invaders who crushed her beloved Wales. Isabella's once-golden marriage is now her penance. Due to his rumored relations with men, Parliament forced Edward to share his throne-a demeaning arrangement that torments Isabella.

With the help of her secret, noble lover, Roger Mortimer-an enemy of her husband, imprisoned in the Tower of London-the queen plots to take control. Thrilled by this turn of events, Gwenith realizes that a king cannot afford to be weak-especially when his formidable, discontented queen seeks his power as her due.

Customer Reviews:

Waste of time and money!.......2007-09-14

I realize a historical fiction is fiction but usually the author does research and builds the fiction around the facts. I am not an expert and even I picked up on the inaccuracies (not just the dates, places and events but the customs, speech, dress, etc.)
I gave this book one star because of the historical figures she started with and the only good parts in this book are Isabella's interactions with Despenser. I can't say this would even be a good book if you like romance because the love scenes were not fantastic.
Over all this book is poorly written and I am not sure it's the writers fault or the editor. There's so many mistakes it's hard to read through it. The characters are weak, the plot is weak, details of the period are not that discriptive or all wrong. It's so unbelievable, it's comical. As I was reading this book, I thought if it became a movie it would be a cartoon.
If your looking for a good historical fiction, look for Sharon Kay Penman or Anya Seton or even Philippa Gregory.

Good Story but Full of Inaccuracies.......2007-06-06

First of all, the term "Majesty" was not used until Henry VIII styled himself as such a couple of centuries later. There are many other details which are inaccurate and for the avid reader of Historical Novels, (NOT historical romances) it was sometimes difficult to get past them to enjoy the story. This author was not as thorough on her research as she should have been. Two authors who ARE who I love and I have read nearly everything they've written are Margaret George and Sharon Kay Penman.
As a descendant of Edward I, Edward II and Edward III, I am particularly interested in historical fiction from this time period. The author should be aware that unlike historical romances, the readers of historical novels DO know their history.

Terrific historical novel.......2007-01-06

Queen of Shadows is a marvelous book. I liked it so much I wrote a blurb for it. I have written myself about dark ages and medieval Britain, and Edith Felber captures so well the color, the sights, the sounds, the smells of a medieval English court. Isabella (whom I had always thought to be a villainess) comes across as a strong woman who has the guts to take her destiny (and that of her country) into her own capable hands. This is the first review I have ever written for Amazon, but I didn't want potential readers to miss out on this wonderful book because of a highly dyspectic previous review. Joan Wolf

Edith the Historian.......2007-01-03

As a previous reviewer apparently does not understand, this is a work of historical FICTION. The author has chosen the parts of her research that worked best for her story. And as all historians know, historical research can find a different answer for any side of an historical argument. History books are often slanted according to the politics of the era or the author, so unless an author has a means of time travel, there is very seldom a definitive answer to historical questions.

The parts of Isabella's life portrayed in QUEEN OF SHADOWS were chosen to illuminate her strengths and weaknesses, and to pull back the curtain and show the reader a slice of her life and loves. The book was written brilliantly to reflect Isabella's effect on history, from a woman's point of view. I thoroughly enjoyed this peek behind the curtains and the theory that Ms. Felber chose to put forward, and I'm looking forward to the next book!

Hopelessly inaccurate, terrible ending.......2006-11-26

Queen of Shadows tells the story of King Edward II's wife Isabella and her Welsh handmaiden Gwenith de Percy, from 1321-27. The novel's sub-heading `A Novel of Isabella, Queen of Edward II' is rather misleading, as it's equally Gwenith's story. (But then I suppose `A Novel of Queen Isabella and Some Random Invented Welshwoman' isn't quite as compelling.)

There are many events from Isabella's life during the period 1321-30 that would have made great fiction. However, Felber chooses not to dramatise most of them, instead focusing more on the fictional and rather tedious Gwenith. Much of the novel is seen through her eyes. As a child, she made a vow to her grandmother to avenge her grandfather and other family members, killed by Edward II's father Edward I. To me, this just seems like a silly and implausible plot device which forces Gwenith to spend a large part of the novel mooning about court wondering how to kill Edward II. Who did nothing against her family, anyway, and didn't commit any `atrocities' in Wales as Felber seems to think. Gwenith isn't a horrible character, she's just very blah. So is Isabella, unfortunately; she doesn't do all that much except irritatingly proclaim `I am queen!' what seems like every five pages, whine about how badly treated she and other women are, and argue with Edward and Hugh Despenser.

In fact, Isabella's spats with Despenser, her husband's lover, are by far the best part of `Shadows'. There's genuine tension there, the dialogue sparkles, and you can feel the rivalry and hatred between them. The novel improves immeasurably every time Despenser gets a scene; he's a lecher, a villain, inordinately ambitious, and the most vivid character in the novel. Shame you can't say the same for Isabella's lover Roger Mortimer, who's dull and comes across as a bit thick, because of Felber's decision to do most of her exposition through dialogue. Therefore, Isabella has to keep explaining things to him that he'd really know, like this bit: "There are no kings in Holland. William, count of Hainault and Holland, is as powerful and rich as any king." Much of the novel's dialogue is of this `As you know, Bob' type. Another example: "Why not ask your sister Eleanor, who is wed to Hugh Despenser? She sits right next to you."

Isabella and other characters constantly - and I do mean constantly - refer to "Edward, the king", just in case the reader has forgotten who Isabella's husband is in the last couple of paragraphs. Isabella, as well as reminding everyone that she's queen every few pages, also keeps repeating "My father was king, and my brother is king!" Yes, dearie, you're royal; I get it.

Isabella herself too often comes across as a modern, politically correct woman dropped into the fourteenth century, constantly bemoaning the fact that she, as a woman, is subject to her lord and doesn't have the freedom that he does to pursue extra-marital affairs. Speaking of which, it's constantly hinted throughout `Queen of Shadows' that Edward II is not the father of Isabella's eldest child, the future Edward III. But this is never resolved. There are frequent mentions of the fact that Isabella spent time in Scotland when Edward `abandoned' her, that she had a passionate affair, that she lost the great love of her life, that Edward III resulted from "an act of sorrow and rage and sympathy".

Historically, this is complete nonsense, and it makes no sense as fiction either. As much of the novel is told from Isabella's point of view, there seems to be no good reason for constantly hinting at Isabella's affair but never revealing the truth. I see it as cheating. Maybe Felber is planning a prequel? If so, I won't be buying it. I sincerely hope that William Wallace, of `Braveheart' fame, has nothing to do with it!
And Isabella keeps sneaking off to the Tower of London to have sex with Mortimer, a prisoner there and her husband's great enemy. Puh-leeze!! As though a medieval queen of England, who had less privacy than almost anyone else in history, could possibly have done such a thing, without being found out and grotesquely punished. Nice storyline, but there's no way the queen of England could have left court without dozens or hundreds of people noticing, and certainly not by the simple expedient of wearing a hood!

I had fun picking out all the countless historical errors in the novel. I don't have space to include them all here, or even a fraction of them, but here's a handful.
- Henry of Lancaster dying of plague in 1345 - 3 years before it reached England
- the religious order the Poor Clares founded by Edward II's niece Elizabeth de Clare. They were actually founded by Saint Chiara of Assisi in 1212, as a quick online search would have informed Felber or the publisher. I snorted coffee out of my nose when I read that particular mistake!
- Edward II marrying his niece Eleanor de Clare to Hugh Despenser (his father arranged it in 1306)
- Felber gets the order of the French kings wrong - Louis X came before Philip V
- many of the dates are wrong, such as Mortimer's escape from the Tower
- Isabella commutes the traitor's death sentence on the earl of Lancaster to simple beheading, and watches him die - historically she wasn't present
- Edward III moves against his mother and Mortimer `almost immediately' after marrying Philippa of Hainault. In fact, it was 2 years and 9 months later (January 1328 to October 1330).

And on, and on, and on...many of these errors are to be found in the Afterword at the end. Did no editor check this novel? There are also lots of anachronisms, such as royalty being addressed as `Majesty' and `Highness' centuries before they really were, the king's children called `prince' and `princess' centuries before they actually were, and `Plantagenet' used as a surname well over a century too early.
Felber's plot device, that Parliament ordered Edward II to `share his throne' with the Despensers, makes absolutely no sense. Parliament had no authority to do any such thing. That's like having Congress elect a person to share Bush's presidency!
Annoyingly, the kings are always called `King Edward Second', `King Edward Third', `King Philip Sixth'. Any good reason why we're missing the `the' there?

Felber is pretty unfair to Edward II sometimes; she states that he had Jewish people murdered if they dared to set foot in England (his father had expelled them from England in 1290). There's not a shred of historical evidence that he ever did any such thing. Isabella, by contrast, is so enlightened that she secretly consults a Jewish physician. (Again, a medieval woman with 21st-century values.) Amusingly, Felber has Edward playing `lawn games' during his imprisonment at Berkeley. It's fair to say that he was treated a tad more harshly than that.

Right at the end, we get the lines "Her beloved grandson Edward was the image of his father. God willing, he'd never know that. God would forgive her for that, she knew." In a novel that frequently makes little sense, that really makes NO sense at all. Isabella's grandson Edward, the Black Prince, lived to his mid-forties. I think it's safe to say that he knew whether he was the image of his father Edward III or not. I can only make sense of it by assuming that `grandson' is a misprint for `son', and Felber meant to say that Edward III looks just like his real father, whoever he was, and not Edward II. Again, where was the editor?? Is the attitude to God's forgiveness really medieval, or modern? And why, at the end of the novel, do we still not learn who Edward III's real father was?

Of course, it's perfectly well known who Edward III's father was: Edward II. There's no doubt about that (no more doubt than about anyone else's paternity). Edward II and Isabella were together in York for a few weeks in February/March 1312, in order to conceive their son, born 13 November 1312. Isabella was definitely not jaunting around Scotland, having an affair with some mysterious Scotsman.

This novel is appallingly inaccurate, historically, and doesn't work very well as fiction either. It doesn't end. It just - stops. Things are starting to get really dark and dangerous for Isabella; her husband has been murdered, her son has been imprisoned by her lover Mortimer, and she's beginning to become afraid of Mortimer herself. This is where Isabella's story REALLY starts to get exciting and dramatic. Then, you turn the page - and suddenly it's 28 years later and Mortimer has been dead for a quarter of a century! Huh?? Isabella's story is wrapped up, except that it isn't at all, in a little over two pages. Mortimer's fate is dealt with in one line. I can only assume that Felber reached her word count, or had a pressing deadline from her publisher.

Edith Felber is better known as Edith Layton, successful writer of romance novels. This is her first foray into straight historical fiction. I only hope her next novels are a lot better than this one. And please, Ms Felber, if you choose to write about real historical figures, can you stick to the known facts next time?

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