3 comments about Anniversary, The.

1. Rachel Canon's THE ANNIVERSARY is a well-crafted suspense novel that starts with the premise that the first female President of the United States has been assasinated on her Inaugeration Day and that a year later, her best friend begins to find out some things she never suspected. The book deals with the "feet of clay" that have to exist in all public figures and does it in a wonderfully warm and humane manner. This is a book about love and it's consequences. Especially intriguing is the author's use of tenses to separate flash-back and present action. This novel has elements of political suspense, mystery, thriller and even a bit of romance. I highly recommend it.



2. Women, power, murder, politics, confusion. Someone assasinated the woman president of the US. This novel no worse than the ones pouring out of WDC by Senators, former Cabinet Officers, and whatever.



3. The first woman president is assassinated. Her friend is suddenly in the middle of a political maelstrom and is herself the target of death threats. A book filled with intelligent women, action and romance. If the author has a fault, it is to be a writer truly ahead of her time.

No comments about Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

No comments about The Assassination of President Kennedy: Opposing Viewpoints (Great Mysteries).

5 comments about Smoke-Filled Rooms (Smokey Dalton Novels).

1. Smokey Dalton has fled Memphis with Jimmy, 10-year-old witness of the Martin Luther King assassination. The man Jimmy saw kill King was not the man the police arrested and Smokey knows that Jimmy's life is in danger. Unfortunately for both, Smokey chooses Chicago as his hiding place. The 1968 Democratic National Convenction in Chicago makes that city a dangerous place for a man on the run. If someone has spotted Smokey and Jimmy, they are in danger and Smokey knows he must get to the bottom of it. Yet what can he do against the forces of the FBI and Chicago police? Author Kris Nelscott does a fine job with Smokey's complex character, the feeling of a city careening toward its date with destiny, and the complex relationships between white and black. Smokey's ambivalent feelings toward Laura, an anglo woman whom he must ask for help, stand in microcosm for the entire world he lives in. Nelscott has written a novel that uses the big historical events (and conspiracy theories) of a critical period of U.S. history, but this story is intensely personal. Smokey and Jimmy are what matter, not some amorphous ideal. Perhaps this is why this novel works. Highly Recommended. BooksForABuck.com I appreciate your 'helpful' vote.



2. While waiting for the return of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins and the ultimate fate of Mouse, I've been looking for some stand ins and found more than I was looking for with Kris Nelscott's "A Dangerous Road" and the introduction of Smokey Dalton, a getting-along private detective in Memphis in 1968 who describes his profession as "doing odd jobs", and the jobs are, indeed, odd.

   This book is more than the sum of its parts: Nelscott's writing takes the book far beyond the typical detective mystery;the plots turn in upon themselves and, even when the mystery of Laura Hathaway is solved, the subplots draw the reader on in pursuit of other mysteries and to surprises that could not have been imagined earlier;and the characters are drawn so finely that they are all familiar,sympathetic or dispicable but known from personal experience. Each character, no matter how minor, has a well-defined human face that is recognizable. This is a book that entertains, educates, reminisces, and touches the heart in ways that one will only understand at the last page. Nelscott's Dalton is a childhood friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but Nelscott manages to treat that relationship as, remarkably, incidental to Dalton's own tragedy filled life and the mysteries he is trying to unravel about his client, himself, and the child alter ego he is trying to protect, thereby avoiding what might have been a predictable plot of a detective trying to change history.

   The pain of waiting for Easy has been eased considerably by Nelscott in her first book. Bring on "Smoke Filled Rooms", Dalton's second outing. I can hardly wait for Smokey's return even though I suspect that his heart will, again, be more broken than healed at the end. And Dalton is a character one can only hope the best for while knowing the best is unlikely to happen to him. Perhaps the best Dalton can hope for is survival. I gave this debut novel five stars. I wish I could give it more.




3. I inadvertently reviewed "A Dangerous Road" in this space earlier. But now I've read "Smoke Filled Rooms." I had braced myself for the possibility of a let-down because, after all, I felt that "Road" was a hard act to follow. Not to worry: Nelscott has done it again, and in spades. Nelscott's Smokey Dalton character has all the layers of an onion:there's always another layer for Nelscott to peel away and surprise the reader with more of Smokey's past, more mysteries within mysteries, more bad stuff from more bad guys, more pain for Smokey who just, really, wants to find a quiet place to live and be left alone, preferably back in Memphis although that seems increasingly unlikely. Then, Nelscott has me wondering if there ever will be such a place for Smokey.

   Arriving in Chicago, Smokey is having a tough time adjusting but thinks that he and Jimmy are, at least, safe. And now he's learning just how wrong he is as trouble prowls after him in the forms of Northern-style racism, gangs, undercover police, yippies and hippies, an old love and an old enemy, a serial killer, missing children, the fears and worries and events from Memphis that remain alive and well and real and bring more danger than ever, and the riots of the 1968 Democratic Convention. "Smoke Filled Rooms" continues where "A Dangerous Road" left off but can stand alone, although I would encourage reading them in sequence because, after all, this is a series.

   Nelscott successfully imbues her second Dalton novel with the same suspense, surprising plot twists, sense of dread, real horrors, historical realism, character development, and the all pervasive, weary sadness of a reluctant hero who rejects the idea of heroism that made the first novel such a joy to read. And I am not ashamed to say that, like "Road", there are passages in this book that require me to force back tears while reading it during my train commute back and forth to work. Sometimes it seems that Nelscott spends an entire chapter setting the reader up to have the button of emotion punched with a single, simple, devastating sentence. There are scenes of such mundane horror that I am tempted to close the book and put it away for awhile, but I can't because I have to know what is going to happen next. And she presents me with a dilemma: I can hardly wait to get to the end of the story to learn the answers that Nelscott makes available but I know that I will regret it very much when the story is done. Book two in this series confirms to me Dalton's role as a tragic figure even as I am permitted to learn that Dalton, through training, experience, and his own intelligence, is, once again, the right man in the wrong place at the right time. And again I find myself cheering Smokey on, hoping that he will find a happy ending that his entire life mitigates against or, at least, win a defining battle that will allow him a respite from the nightmares he has lived. But, as Nelscott reminds the reader, that's not really the way life is. Is it? At least, not Smokey's so far.

   Nelscott doesn't have any minor characters in these books. Each one carries a significance that pushes the plot or the mood forward. I really admire that ability to breathe life into each character, whether they appear only to speak one sentence or appear in every chapter as a vital element of the story. Look at Mrs. Richardson's disbelieving grief, the unnamed doorman at Laura's apartment building, Duffy, Detective Johnson, David LaVelle, Laura Hathaway's brief but pivotal appearances, Marvella, Jack Sinkovich's wife who never says a word, both Franklin and Althea Grimshaw, the patrolman who realizes who Mrs. Richardson is, Grace Kirkland and each of her two boys, and, of course, Jimmy. These are all, each and every one, recognizable people who, for whatever amount of time they do appear, walk strongly off the page into the reader's mind and make an impression that does not fade easily or soon.

   I have only one criticism which may have nothing to do with Nelscott: I was distracted by the presence of annoying spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in this edition of "Smoke Filled Rooms." That having been said, I eagerly look forward to the future installments in the Dalton series. Maybe Nelscott will give Smokey a break soon. Or not.




4. This book picks up where "A Dangerous Road" left off, and continues the excellence! Nelscott brings unique perspectives of the Black experience during the turbulent 60's. She does it while weaving a tale of mystery, intrigue and double dealing. This is the start of, I hope, a series of Smokey Dalton novels. Maybe Nelscott could have Smokey meet Tamara Hayle in Newark, N.J.



5. This is a good, but not great sequel. In fact, it seems like the first and second books were written as one. As a stand-alone, without having read the first book, the story isn't captivating. Nevertheless, I continue to admire the original voice of Nelscott's Smokey Dalton. He's a fish-out-of-water in this book, which takes place in Chicago rather than Memphis. Smokey and twelve-year-old Jimmy have been on the run, since Jimmy witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King. Finally settling on Chicago to take refuge, they stay with one of Smokey's good friends until they learn that someone has been following them. Unknown to them, they have gone from one volatile situation to another: the 1968 Democratic Convention. With the swarm of protesters, the Federal agents and police have increased their presence and undercover cops now patrol black neighborhoods looking for signs of trouble. As a precaution, Smokey has Jimmy stay with his white, rich friend, Laura Hathaway. Then Smokey discovers the dead body of a twelve-year-old black boy outside their apartment complex. To Smokey, it can only mean one thing: "We've found you!"

No comments about The Warren Report: The Official Report on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

No comments about Lebanon OK's Int'l Court To Try The Hariri Murder; The Syrian Regime Is In Trouble:.: An article from: APS Diplomat News Service.

1 comments about The Death of Lincoln (A Picture History of the Assassination).

1. If you are fortunate enough to acquire the 1968 printing of this book, you will have acquired a treasure. Although the book is simplistic and written for young adults, it is an excellent yet concise version of the death of the 16th President.
   
   The pictures in this book are worth the price alone. In today's politically correct book market, you can not find the picture of the assassination conspirators being hung. The other pictures make readers feel as though they are visiting a Lincoln musuem.
   
   The story itself begins with the Good Friday, April 14, 1865. Days after the Civil War ended, John Wilkes Booth murdered the president. Even more revealing than the documentation of the assassination and funeral is the trial of the acused. In a show of anger, Secretary of War Edwin Stantion strong-armed a trial and convictions on the acused with blatant violations of constituional right. Perhaps it was felt that this stance was important in maintaining the reforming country. This book certainly gave me a new perpective on the death of Abraham Lincoln.

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3 comments about The Assassin: A Story of Race and Rage in the Land of Apartheid.

1. A really beautiful book that makes you feel sorry for the assassin and for the country of South Africa.

   Henk van Woerden describes the life of Demitrios Tsafendas who killed the South-Afrcan prime minister Verwoerd in 1966. Demitrios was born in Mozambique from a Greek father and a black mother, a fact that haunted him for the rest of his life: there was no place where people really accepted him en his existence was a series of deportations (Mocambique, South Afrika, USA, Greece, Portugal) and rejections (by his father, his stepmother, his stepbrothers and -sisters and a potential wife. No wonder that this would make a human crazy. In the end he destroys the roots of evil by killing the face of apartheid.

   In between all this we can read the writers own experiences during a number of visits (1989-1998) to South Africa, the country where he lived from age 9 to 21. There is no reason to celebrate: a torn country full of violence.




2. Demetrios Tsafendas' life was one of rejection, depression, yearning, and mental illness. Try as he might, he could not fit in. Nor could he get acceptance for his bi-racial heritage. The author, Henk Van Woerden, writes a succinct biography of the man who murdered Hendrik Verwoerd, the "architect of apartheid". He peppers his story with his own perceptions of the South African policies that destroyed communities in order to segregate the races. South Africa's policies, however, of separating the black and white races (among other races and ethnicities), left those of mixed heritage with nowhere to go - not accepted by either race. Tsafendas lived in this nowhere land.



3. The killing of Prime Minister Verwoerd of South Africa in 1966 was considered a blow against white supremacy. In fact, it was the work of a crazed assassin who was acting on his own notions.
   The assassin Tsafendas was a half breed of Greek/black descent who was torn apart between both races. His illegimacy was also a source of tension in his life. Both factors contributed to stress on his mind and the result was the killing of the Prime Minister of South Africa.
   This was a little known event in the rest of the world but traumatic in South Africa. Tsafendas by thrusting his knife into Verwoerd demonstrated his hatred of a system that hurt him.
   Tsafendas was a lunatic, but his action showed the resistance of some to white supremacy. The book is a short but good read about a little known event.

No comments about The crime of the century, or, the assassination of Dr. Patrick HenryCronin; a complete and authentic history of the greatest of modernconspiracies. Profusely illustrated with original engravings; apart fromits value as a history of a celebrated case, the story itself is ofthrilling and fascinating interest..