Book Description
It isn't always easy to express the deepest thoughts and share the most meaningful things we feel. Still, we know that it's so important to do -- especially when it comes to telling the special people in our lives how much they mean to us.
It's those people who make all the difference in the world. They're the ones who are steady and secure, always there, forever in our hearts, always a part of our favorite memories and our wishes and dreams. They're the ones who are worth every effort it takes to make our appreciation known. But often it seems like the more important someone is to us, the more difficult it is to find the perfect words... the ones that truly share the happiness and hopes that deserve -- so much -- to be heard.
This book provides a way to not only say those very essential words... but to make them last a lifetime. I WANT YOU TO READ THIS TODAY AND REMEMBER IT FOREVER is a keepsake edition that will continue through the years to be a tribute and a tender reminder of some of the most beautiful and thankful thoughts the heart can ever hold.
Caring so much about someone who touches your life is a truly wonderful thing. Sharing a book like this and letting them know how special they are to you... well, as you're about to find out... that's a really wonderful thing, too.
Average customer rating:
|
U.S. Navy Special Forces: Seal Teams (Warfare and Weapons)
Michael Burgan
Manufacturer: Capstone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
 Military & Wars
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Careers
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0736803408 |
Customer Reviews:
NAVY SEALS.......2000-07-29
Good book, you should definantly get this if you are considering becoming a UDT SEAL.
Book Description
For the first time, one painstakingly researched volume unveils the weapons and ammunition that have served the SEALs in combat operations around the globe. Much more than a mere catalog of arms, this book traces each weapon from the development stage to its current form.
Also included are exclusive accounts from the men who were among the first to see these weapons used in armed conflict. Written with the cooperation of the UDT/SEAL Museum Association in Florida, and packed with detailed information and photos--some never before in print--this book offers fresh insight into the technology that for decades has sustained the Navy SEALs as an unstoppable military force.
Customer Reviews:
Nothing new here.......2004-11-27
This book missed it release date many times. I had hoped it would be up to the standards of the authors previous book Weapons of the Navy Seals Volume 1 from a few years ago (there never was the promissed V2). However this book falls short of the mark. The information is dated and there are very few illustrations. The information presented on pre 1990 is pretty good, however the lack of photos and supporting data is a great detraction. I really hope the author does follow up with better supported title. Until then I reccomend Pushies book on Weapons of the Navy Seals.
Average customer rating:
|
U.S. Navy Special Forces: Special Boat Units (Warfare and Weapons)
Michael Burgan
Manufacturer: Capstone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
Military & Wars
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Careers
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0736803416 |
Book Description
Fred J. Pushies. Of all the U.S. military's special forces, none carry the same name recognition, nor capture the public imagination like the U.S. Navy SEALs. In battle gear fashion, the book also includes a chapter describing the techniques SEALs use, as well as glossaries of terms and military abbreviations.
Customer Reviews:
kick-a** book .......2006-11-16
If anyone is interested in becoming Navy SEAL, then buy this book. (p.s. I never really bought this book.)
Average customer rating:
|
U.S. Navy Seals in Action
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0760727694 |
Product Description
Incredible, full color photo coffee table book. This book is one of the best ever on the US Navy SEALs. It contains the most information and the most pictures of the SEALs in action. It shows almost every single weapons they use.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from National Defense, published by National Defense Industrial Association on December 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1058 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Marines and Navy Seals Show interest in Backpack Missiles.(Brief Article)
Author: Sandra I. Erwin
Publication:
National Defense (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2001
Publisher: National Defense Industrial Association
Volume: 86
Issue: 577
Page: 24(1)
Article Type: Brief Article
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from National Defense, published by National Defense Industrial Association on October 1, 2000. The length of the article is 988 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Navy SEALS Choose Knight's SR25 Sniper Rifle.(Brief Article)
Author: Virginia Hart Ezell
Publication:
National Defense (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2000
Publisher: National Defense Industrial Association
Volume: 85
Issue: 563
Page: 38
Article Type: Brief Article
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Product Description
MacKenzie's Pleasure: Barrie Lovejoy needed a savior. The terrorist group, holding her hostage surely wouldn't tolerate her silence much longer. Instead they would silence her, forever. Then out of the darkness he arrived. Grizzled and dangerous, he led Barrie from her captors straight into his sheltering arms. Navy SEAL Zane MacKenzie was the best. No mission had ever gotten the better of him, until now. Saving Barrie Lovejoy had been textbook, except for their desperate night of passion. And though his job as a soldier had ended with her freedom, his duties as a husband had only just begun. For he would sooner die than let the enemy harm the mother of his child.
A Game of Chance: Undercover agent Chance MacKenzie knew that the best way to capture an elusive terrorist was to use the man's daughter as bait, so he cleverly seduced Sunny Miller and set out to discover her father's whereabouts. Sunny's own innocence was questionable, and gaining her trust was nearly impossible. And even with all his experience and training, Chance found it difficult to overlook her beauty. However, Chance soon relaized that Sunny wasn't running from him, she was running for her life, and she needed Chance's protection. But keeping Sunny safe would involve telling her the truth, about his mission and what she'd done to his heart.
MacKenzie's Mission: Night Wing, the revolutionary test plane with a top-secret weapons system, was Col. Joe "Breed" MacKenzie's number-one priority. And weapons expert Caroline Evans was his number-one distraction. True, the stubborn blonde was giving him the cold shoulder, but Joe hadn't become the best of the best by giving up. Then he discovered someone on the inside was sabotaging Night Wing, and with her late hours and specialized expertise, Caroline seemed the obvious choice. Now Joe had to choose between allegiance to his country and love for his prime suspect.
Customer Reviews:
Easy Read.......2007-07-31
This book was easy to read and gave excellent examples and case studies. it was short and to the point and didn't drag on an idea. It was also informative in that it gave you when it was the author's bias or actual studied facts.
Graduate student review of Program Evaluation.......2006-03-14
This book is used as a text book in my graduate class on evaluation in Instructional Technology. The book is clear, easy to understand, thorough and a good "primer" on evaluation.
The best evaluation survey text.......2005-02-24
This text surveys evaluation theory and practice in a manner that is easy to understand and teach. It's appropriate for undergraduate or graduate work in performance evaluation. The authors do an excellent job of reviewing the history and key literature. They also briefly explain popular methodologies and discuss different approaches, such as objective and holistic. The book includes case study material that highlights processes, advantages, drawbacks, and potential problems of evaluation efforts. The authors avoid consulting hype and focus on building the evaluation body of knowledge. An update with Fitzpatrick listed as the first author is now available and also is excellent.
All models evaluation book.......2000-08-05
Even though it is not an Evaluation Manual which sometimes comes in handy for conducting evaluation studies, it is a very good book. I have used it for my Masters Program (at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala) and found it very useful both for the theoretical and for the practical parts.It covers all major models tracing their origins. I plan on using it for my Doctoral Program, at Universidad de Costa Rica.
Very Thorough.......2000-02-05
I've been using this book as a resource for evaluating programs at our college and for my doctoral research. The book is well organized and contains several examples and paradigms with which to evaluate programs in both govermental and corporate settings. Expensive book but one that you'll keep handy!
Amazon.com
Larry McMurtry's Sin Killer is a wildly entertaining ride through the untamed Great Plains. The first installment of a proposed tetralogy, The Berrybender Narratives, Sin Killer follows the adventures of the Berrybenders, a large, noble English family traveling the Missouri River in 1832. This deeply self-absorbed and spoiled family leaves England for the unknown of the American West, based solely on a "whim" and Lord Berrybender's desire to "shoot different animals from those he shot at home." The novel joins the family as they make their way toward Yellowstone aboard a luxury steamer, accompanied by a motley assemblage of servants, guides, and natives. Along the way, this "floating Europe" and its bickering, stubborn passengers encounter constant adversity, including warring natives, hellacious weather, accidental deaths, and kidnappings.
Thanks largely to Sin Killer's gallery of colorful personalities, McMurtry keeps most of the action firmly in the realm of fish-out-of-water farce. One such character is the independent and opinionated eldest daughter Tasmin, who, frustrated by her family's conventions, escapes the steamer, whereupon she meets and falls in love with Jim Snow, a.k.a. Sin Killer. Snow, an Indian killer raised by natives, is a stoical, God-fearing man who won't tolerate blasphemy. With prose that flows as naturally as the Missouri, McMurtry weaves together a large cast and vast setting into a thoroughly exciting, hilarious adventure novel. Though Sin Killer focuses on a love story and contains plenty of realistic violence, McMurtry's efficient voice and matter-of-fact perspective leaves little room for tragedy or sentimentality, instead emphasizing high comedy. This is wonderful storytelling from a narrator in perfect agreement with his subject. Sin Killer should please McMurtry's many fans, who now have much to look forward to. --Ross Doll
Book Description
In Larry McMurtry's Sin Killer, the first novel of a major four-volume work, it is 1830, and the Berrybender family, rich aristocratic English, and fiercely out of place, is on its way up the Missouri River to see the American West as it begins to open up. At the core of the book is daughter Tasmin's relationship with Jim Snow, frontiersman, ferocious Indian fighter, and part-time preacher (known up and down the Missouri as the "Sin Killer"), the strong, handsome, silent Westerner who captures her heart.
Larry McMurtry has created a wonderfully engaging family confronting every bigger-than-life personality of the frontier as the Berrybenders make their way up the great river, surviving attacks, discomfort, savage weather, and natural disaster. At once epic, comic, and as big as the West itself, it is the kind of novel that only Larry McMurtry can write.
Customer Reviews:
Larry McMurtry Dead Or Missing.......2007-06-06
This silly book could not possibly have been written by the genius of Lonesome Dove, so Larry McMurtry must be dead or missing in the wilderness, perhaps stuffed inside some frozen dead buffalo on the prairie in a blizzard , trapped by the frozen hide. Or hiding, maybe. I read the first book, hoping it would Start at some point and Go somewhere, but it never did. This is the silliest, dumbest, most surreal book purporting to be about something actual, that I've ever read and contains some of the most annoying, egregious, and insulting characters ever created. This book must be a spoof on spoofs of the J. F. Cooper genre, is all I can conclude. I will not bother reading the rest of this "series," it is irredeemable! Mr. Larry McMurtry must be found---No Author Left Behind!
Masterful Messiness, Not For Ninnies Like Me.......2007-05-09
If you're going to read the Berrybender Narratives, start with this one and go no further. My dad gave me the books with the warning that I shouldn't get invested in the characters, meaning that there would be plenty of meaningless dying. The first book is striking in its portrayal of a brutal war for control of the West; the intersection of Indian, British and young American cultures; and a tough-but-literate heroine (beautiful, of course). The naturalism is present but unfulfilling compared to that of such authors as Jim Harrison or Peter Mathiessen. The story is compelling, and there are moments of hilarity. But as much as I hate--for karmic reasons--to complain, I was upset by the violence. These books should come with a warning label, especially the last of the series. Perhaps if I possessed a fancy literature degree I could express it better, but McMurtry intentionally skewered some conventions of character development and seemed to speed up the fatality rate as he went along. I say read the Master and Commander series instead. It'll take a year, but you'll be the wiser for it.
Silly Brits in the Old West.......2006-11-20
Sin Killer is an odd book that combines comedy with rather stark and sometimes graphic violence. I would not exactly call it a dark comedy; it's more like farcical humor interspersed with violence. It's a combination that does not quite add up to a coherent whole. I actually found it more bizarre than funny. The title character has the qualities almost mandatory for a Western hero -strong, silent, fearless, a loner. Jim Snow is called the "Sin Killer" because he is also a kind of religious fanatic. The main story is a romance between him and Tasmin, a young English girl who is part of a large family, the Berrybenders, who are traveling down the Missouri River "on a whim," as it is described. It is actually the whim of the clan's patriarch, Lord Berrybender, a rather absurd caricature of a wealthy English aristocrat.
The initial meeting between Tasmin and Jim is striking, as it is kind of a microcosm of the entire novel. Tasmin is fascinated by the taciturn stranger who quickly demonstrates his prowess at practical tasks such as hunting and building a fire. Yet when Tasmin makes an offhanded remark about religion that offends Jim, he gives her a hard slap in the face. Tasmin pretty much takes this in stride; in fact, it seems, if anything, to increase her attraction for the man. McMurtry must realize that he is, with this scene, directly challenging the sensibilities of the modern reader. We are tempted to, on the one hand, dismiss Jim Snow as a ruffian, a religious zealot and someone who has little respect for women. By the same token, we can question Tasmin's judgement at not immediately walking away from such a man. Yet we are challenged to put aside these modern, liberal notions and accept the possibility that Jim has something to offer the intelligent but insulated and spoiled Tasmin. This reveals a portion of McMurtry's serious agenda, that underlies the silliness. The Berrybenders are basically a buffoonish lot, completely ill-suited to the rough realities of the New World. In Sin Killer, the traditional values of Westerns, courage, self-sufficiency, practicality-- are given extra power by being contrasted with the effete British aristocracy (as well as some other Europeans, mainly French, who don't fare much better).
McMurtry is quite renowned as a writer of Westerns. Although this is the first of his novels that I've read, I can appreciate his knowledge of the land and history and his ability to tell a story. The events unfold slowly, and minor characters, as well as details of the landscape are given almost equal time as the hero and heroine. Yet I still could not quite buy into the worldview McMurtry is putting forth here. I understand that the Berrybenders are supposed to be out of place here; that is the main gimmick of the story. Yet this almost sitcom-like premise just doesn't mix with many of the novel's events, which include cruelty, torture and the struggle for survival. I think one problem is that Jim Snow is such a typically stoic, Western-type hero that he doesn't provide a good balance with the outlandish Berrybenders. Jim Snow is not funny at all; there does not seem to be any attempt to make him amusing. So when he is contrasted with a family that is like something out of Monty Python, it's like mixing up two different stories. Usually, the hero of a Western is pitted against an evil bad buy who is his counterpart. Here, the hero is pitted against a kind of symbolic order personified by the absurd Berrybenders (only Tasmin is not absurd, because she is sensible enough to recognize Jim's greatness). To me, it's not quite a fair contest. To create a balance, Jim Snow would have to be an absurd character in his own way, and he simply is not. Another thing that's annoying about Sin Killer is that it ends abruptly. I knew it was part of a series, but even so, it could have been a little more self-contained instead of ending like a TV series that continues next week. I read somewhere that McMurtry had the goal of writing an "anti-Western." I'm afraid he is just too fond of stereotypical Western heros such as Jim Snow to succeed at such a task. What we have instead is a slightly off-center traditional Western, but one that steadfastly upholds the rules of the genre.
The Western as Farce?.......2006-10-18
Larry McMurtry is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning Western "Lonesome Dove" and the TV miniseries based on it. Here, he revisits the genre in a rather farcical form. The saga starts in 1832, as the massive and massively wealthy English Lord Berrybender leads his extended family up the Missouri River on a hunting expedition via steamboat. The overly large cast of characters includes his long-suffering wife and six of their children, his mistress, fifteen servants, various exotic pets, a number of local guides and retainers (among them Lewis & Clark's Quebecois guide Toussaint Charbonneau, noted Western painter George Catlin, and a Polish master hunter), as well as three Indian chieftains.
The heroine of the book is the eldest Berrybender daughter, Tamsin, a fairly smart, headstrong, fearless, and of course, beautiful, teenager. When she gets separated from the steamboat (a plot device that occurs over and over throughout the story), she meets a local trapper, the titular "Sin Killer" (aka Jim Snow). Jim is wise in the ways of the land, known the various native tribes in the area, and very keen on the Bible. Naturally, in a rollicking romp such as this, opposites must attract, and before long, the duo are engaged (mostly so that Tamsin can upset her father).
There's barely time to register their "love", as the book zigs and zags willy-nilly in pursuit of entertaining story threads. The result is that most episodes are robbed of any dramatic meaning or importance as McMurtry races on to the next melodramatic scene. A related large problem is that the book's tone see-saws between slapstick comedy and ultraviolence. (One episode manages to combine both at once, as a drunk character stumbles down some stairs and breaks their neck.) On the one hand, there are gruesome killings and several rapes, and on the other, there are elements like the running gag that one of the children hasn't been seen for months. This illustrates yet another central flaw, the characters are so thinly developed and/or stereotypical that one is hard-pressed to care about them regardless of how much sex, violence, or gags McMurtry places their way. It's no coincidence that the most compelling character is Tamsin's youngest sister, a clever little girl who doesn't suffer fools and whose acid tongue spares no one. The best scenes in the book involve her berating her kinsfolk.
Towards the end, I started to realize that there was no way McMurtry was going to be able to wrap things up in the final thirty pages. That's when I discovered that the book wasn't a stand alone novel; it's merely the first in a four-book series! The other three are Wandering Hill, By Sorrow River, Folly and Glory, and are set in the Yellowstone, the Rio Grande, and the Brazos, respectively. While there are some entertaining scenes here and there, this first entry is so poorly conceived that I can't imagine trudging onward with this ship of fools for a further thousand pages!
Unpleasant Prairie shenanigans!.......2006-09-12
Well, I am a big fan of the McMurtry oeuvre and some of his signature elements are here in this book series. He has a certain style that is unmistakeable--and in this case he seems to be trying to parody himself. There was enough to hook me to read this, and in a pinch read the second book, but there were times I was skimming portions of this book.
The main things to dislike were that the characters were mostly selfish and upleasant. It was hard to find anyone to like. The plot was not very interesting. It left me feeling unsatisfied.
Average customer rating:
|
Immigrant Killers
Carolyn King
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
New Zealand
| Australia & Oceania
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Endangered Species
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Birdwatching
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0195581156 |
Book Description
The devastation of native birds in New Zealand has been traced to the introduction of land predators--including stoats, weasels, ferrets, and rats--by the earliest human settlers. This richly illustrated book, written by a prominent New Zealand ecologist, surveys the thousand-year history of
introduced predators, from the arrival of the Polynesians to the present, and considers the related question of whether to protect the remaining bird fauna through predator control. Written for the non-specialist, this book raises controversial points which will provoke much debate among
conservations and ecologists, both professional and amateur.
Amazon.com
If you remember with pleasure those dark and gloomy Martin Beck mysteries by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, you'll be glad to plunge into the first of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallender mysteries to appear in English. Wallender's personal life can occasionally seem more depressing than even a provincial Swedish detective should be asked to bear, but his investigative skills are strictly first rate. And Mankell's story of the brutal murder of an elderly farm couple uncovers an unusual aspect of life in modern Sweden--a streak of fear and prejudice against the many newcomers from Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe who have sought asylum there.
Book Description
Faceless Killers marks the "brilliant US debut" (Library Journal) of Henning Mankell's highly successful Kurt Wallander detective series. Taut and atmospheric, this winner of Sweden's Best Mystery Award is a gripping mystery in the classic detective tradition, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "an exquisite novel of mesmerizing depth and suspense." Early one morning, a small-town farmer discovers that his neighbors have been victims of a brutal attack during the night: An old man has been bludgeoned to death, and his tortured wife lies dying before the farmer's eyes. The only clue is the single word she utters before she dies: "foreign." In charge of the investigation is Inspector Kurt Wallander, a local detective whose personal life is in a shambles. His family is falling apart, he's gaining weight, he drinks too much and sleeps too little. Tenacious and levelheaded in his sleuthing, he and his colleagues must contend with a wave of violent xenophobia as they search for the killers. Faceless Killers is a razor-sharp, stylishly dark combination of police procedural and searing social commentary that reaches beyond its genre to produce "a superior novel--and a harbinger of great things to come" (Booklist).
Customer Reviews:
Its Hard To Put Down.......2007-06-29
It's hard to solve the mystery. But, it's even harder to put the book down...
Imagine waking up during the middle of the night. You're awakened by a bad dream that tells you something is terribly wrong, awfully strange. You check your house and everything appears to be normal. You notice something peculiar about your neighbor's house- the same neighbor who is your best friend you share tea with every day. Once you enter the house, you wish you never entered. That's exactly what happened to one elderly Swedish farmer in Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers.
He discovers the scene referred to as a "slaughterhouse." His best friend Johannes Lovgren is dead and Lovgren's wife Maria is left to die. She is found tied to a chair with a noose around her neck.
It's a double murder mystery that is impossible to solve. There is no evident motive. Both Maria and Johannes are said to have no enemies and not much money. But, the victim has been brutally tortured and killed, while he wife has been left to die. The crime seems way too personal and gruesome to have been a random robbery.
When Maria eventually dies in the hospital after being in a coma, she gives detectives one clue with her last dying breath. "Foreign." Mankell's Faceless Killers addresses political and national issues that extend far beyond a murder mystery of country couple. In a country full of foreigners, Maria's clue doesn't help much. Mankell takes a murder from the domestic space to a national "international" realm. In a country with increasing anti-immigrant sentiment and crimes by "foreigners," the Lovgren murders touch a sensitive issue that parallels political problems in Sweden.
The detective called to scene is Kurt Wallander, a man with just as many personal troubles to solve. Although Wallander is a miserable man with horrible relationships, he gains the reader's sympathy and oftentimes empathy. Faceless Killers is not just a detective fiction with a murder to solve. It is an interactive work. Wallander takes the reader inside the workings of his mind and into his world of crime-solving as he tries to balance bumpy relationships with his father, ex-wife, and daughter.
Reading Faceless Killers, the reader is more inclined to learn what happens to Wallander than the answer to the murder mystery. Mankell's Wallander comes to life. He undergoes not only relationship problems, but also the struggles of everyday men. Wallander's journey through aging and weight-gain is equality a roller coaster as solving the murder. Mankell takes the reader into the mind of a police detective. Through first person narrative and self-reflexivity, Wallander directly tells his readers how he is thinking. The minds and workings of a detective and a middle aged troubled man are puzzling as investigating the crime.
Going back to the action-packed murder plot, the investigation process takes a deep turn when Maria's brother comes forth with secret information no one knew. The truth of Johannes' double life comes forth. It is revealed that Johannes was not the faithful husband and modest neighbor everyone thought he was. His secret "other" life brings light to valuable clues that further Wallander's investigation of the murder.
Unlike Sherlock Holmes who is a know-it-all detective with surprising conclusions, Wallander lets the reader join in on the investigation process. The reader is included in details and each piece of the puzzle. The puzzle is the answer to who committed the horrendous crime and the answer to Wallander's quest for a better life.
Faceless Killers is a must read for those curious minds who want more than a simple murder mystery. Mankell provides a smooth effortless reading that provokes the intellect (solving the crime) and emotion (empathizing with Wallander).
4 1/2 stars........2007-04-17
after two years of compulsive reading, i seemed to have hit a wall. suddenly nearly everything (and all novels) were boring me. so i took a few weeks off. read a few short stories, a little journalism, a bit of poetry, nothing else. then i decided to give the novel a try again. i seldom read genre fiction because it so often has no depth, and i hadn't read a mystery in years, but at the local bookstore henning mankell's "faceless killers" had caught my eye. why? cool cover, of course. the vintage paperback with the farm house sitting out in the snowy field during what looks like the approach of night. well, i read it, of course, and my slump with the novel has been broken. before i even finished it, i ordered two more of this author's books, that's how impressed i was. this book may even become a gateway for me into the whole mystery genre. if there is more stuff out there like this, i want to find it. the protagonist, kurt wallander, is not some overblown, cliche toting police detective. he is pretty plain, pretty believable. and i think that's a big reason why this book worked so well for me. the characters have depth, and the story does, as well. swedish society, circa 1990, is also brought into vivid clarity for the reader. the pages raced by, and i actually found myself enjoying reading again. hooray! anyway, enough said. i have a life and you have a life and we need to get back to things. but this was a fantastic book. i recommend it highly.
The Best Wallander Novel: Short and Well Written With an Excellent Plot.......2007-02-12
This is not a classic novel, nor will Mankell win a Nobel prize for the effort but this is his best novel as a balanced and well written piece of literature. It is probably not quite as entertaining as One Step Behind, a later novel. It is short and well balanced with interesting characters. It is the first novel in the Wallander Swedish police detective series.
I thank fellow reviewer Leonard Fleisig for bringing this author to my attention. The writing is simply superb. So far, I have bought and read six novels in the Wallander series.
I thought that the novel was excellent. It has a less complicated plot than some of the subsequent novels and there is more emphasis on the characters. Some of the later novels in the Wallander series rely on a string of bloody and gruesome murders to keep the story going. They go on and on - right to the end - and that becomes a bit too much. For that reason I think that the present novel is his best. The Wallader novels remind me a bit of the Peter Robinson Inspector Banks series, but Mankell's style is a little more spirited and more interesting and does not mimic Peter Robinson's style.
The book opens with a map of southern Sweden showing the location of the town of Ystad. The latter is the primary setting, although the crimes are spread around the southern part of Sweden. The police station is located in Ystad which is near the most southerly part of Sweden, south and east of Malmo and on the Baltic. Malmo itself is on the west coast of Sweden, just 10 km across the narrow straights from Copenhagen. Part of the tale takes place in Malmo.
I will not give away the plot and the essential plot elements are outlined by the publisher: there is a murder of a farmer and an attack on his wife. They live on a remote farm near Ystad. Kurt Wallender and Ryberg along with the other policemen in the Ystad police unit try to solve the crime.
This is a great and a fast read that I was able to read with a great deal of enjoyment in less than a day or two. I read it while staying at a hotel in southern Sweden, not too far from the crime scene, and that the details and descriptions of the places, people, and other details are made to seem authentic.
This is a book that I highly recommend. The writing is smooth and flawless. This is a good story with a realistic plot and a good balance between human interactions and the crime itself. He tries to tie the plot to current social problems in Sweden, and it works effectively.
"For murder, though it have no tongue.......2007-01-16
will speak with most miraculous organ." Hamlet.
An aging farmer and his wife have been brutally attacked on their isolated farm in southern Sweden. They appear to have little money and no enemies. The only clue, if you can call it that is the dying word of the farmer's wife: "foreign". The police have have little else to go on but go on they must. That is the plot for Henning Mankell's first Kurt Wallander detective mystery: "Faceless Killers". The result is a well-done police procedural.
My `discovery' (I know he has already been discovered by millions of readers) of the Kurt Wallander series was the natural result of my reading a series of "Martin Beck" detective mysteries by the husband and wife team of Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. Wallander, like Beck, is a police detective in Sweden. Unlike Beck, whose beat was Stockholm, Wallander works in the small southern-Swedish city of Ystad. The Wallander series takes place in the 1990s while the Beck series took place in the 1960s and 1970s.
Since this book is the first in a series, it provides the reader with a great deal of background information on the main characters. Wallander is gritty and determined. He is also newly separated from his wife and estranged from his daughter. Further, his father is showing the first signs of senility. Wallander sometimes drinks too much and is clumsy in his dealings with the interim prosecutor, an attractive young woman sent down from Stockholm.
The book moves along at a relatively quick pace. Mankell does a good job of keeping the pot boiling without revealing too much too quickly. The detectives follow false leads and their fallibility adds a nice veneer of realism to the story. The importance of the farmer's wife's last word "foreign" is clear but its meaning is not fully revealed (or proven) until the book's climax.
I enjoyed "Faceless Killers". Although there was nothing uniquely creative or groundbreaking about the plot or its resolution, Mankell tells a good story. He also manages to evoke a compelling picture of life (and police work) in an area as far from Stockholm as you are likely to get. As such these books make a nice contrast with the Martin Beck series. (Mankell does make a quick reference to one of the Beck books, "The Laughing Policeman", so it seems clear that the obvious comparisons between the two books and series are also clear to Mankell.
"Faceless Killers" is worth reading. While I don't think it was the best book in the series (the natural result of having to spend a lot of time with the requisite development of a large number of characters that populate a series), I think it is worth reading. I've read two other Wallander books ("The Dogs of Riga" and "Side-Tracked") to date and have enjoyed both of them. If you like police procedurals and like the idea of a somewhat exotic (if cold) setting, I think you will like "Faceless Killers". L. Fleisig.
Will I read any more Kurt Wallander books?.......2006-11-28
This is my second Kurt Wallander Mystery and the first book in the series. As I mentioned in my review of Side-tracked it is my wife who is Mr. Mankell's big fan having read all of his books. I am not a big mystery fan so it would take a lot for me to be overwhelmed by a police procedural (as I guess they are called). So again here, I was not overwhelmed but I found the book entertaining and well written. Although I find it interesting that the case goes one direction all the way to the end only to have some small clue find things were not as they seemed. In this case the clue was rather hard to believe, but I guess it could happen. Will I read anymore Kurt Wallander books? Well I don't know but I understand Mankell has books with the daughter out now and that might be interesting to take in when the need to just be entertained on a plane is the mission at hand.
Books:
- Indigestion: LIVING BETTER WITH UPPER INTESTINAL PROBLEMS FORM HEARTBURN TO ULCERS TO GALLSTONES
- Intergenerational Relationships: Conversations On Practices And Research Across Cultures
- It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
- Japanese Childrearing: Two Generations of Scholarship
- Keys to Parenting a Child with Attention Deficit Disorder (Barron's Parenting Keys)
- La Sanjuanera
- Let Go and Live in the Now: Awaken the Peace, Power, and Happiness in Your Heart
- Living Well: Taking Care of Yourself in the Middle and Later Years (Large Print Edition)
- Mao: The Unknown Story
- MILO in the Woods of Wonder
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- Dissing Elizabeth: Negative Representations of Gloriana
- AISC Manual of Steel Construction: Load and Resistance Factor Design, Second Edition, LRFD, 2nd Edit
- And No Birds Sing: A True Ecological Thriller Set in a Tropical Paradise
- Chanel and Her World
- Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic
- Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara
- Sullivan's Music Trivia: The Greatest Music Trivia Book Ever
- ABC's of the Birds and Bees: A Guide for Parents and Teens
- National Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Cacti
