1 comments about Bribery and Extortion: Undermining Business, Governments, and Security.

1. Alexandra Wrage's work on cross-border bribery and corruption comes at a pivotal time. Nations around the globe are joining together to form international compacts to combat the bribery of government officials. The United Nations has adopted an anti-corruption convention that compels its members to adopt national laws to prevent corruption. Enforcement agencies vigorously prosecute multinational corporations that use bribery to pervert free competition to their own benefit. The World Bank now denies lucrative development contracts from companies that have corrupted foreign officials. The tide of global sentiment appears finally to be turning against the corruption of foreign officials and the distortion of the free market, and Alexandra Wrage has been at the forefront of that fight for more than a decade. For this reason alone, her book is important, informative, and timely.
   
   Alexandra Wrage's book addresses what I describe as the sordid underbelly of international business - companies that seek to win business from foreign governments by bribing influential officials, and foreign officials who abuse their positions and extort business and private citizens in the performance of their duties. Wrage is the president and founder of TRACE International, a non-profit organization dedicated to combating these distorting practices. TRACE interacts with many constituencies, from corporations conducting international business, local sales representatives, consultants and distributors who promote products in their home jurisdictions, government officials and NGOs. In her unique position, Wrage has become something of a sounding board - or perhaps therapist - for those who have personally faced bribing corporations and corrupt local officials. She has collected more than a decade's worth of anecdotes in "Bribery and Extortion." As a someone who has practiced law in the anti-corruption field for fourteen years, I thought I had seen or heard it all, and still found myself sitting, mouth agape, as I read Wrage's book. The tales will shock, produce outrage and evoke sadness. But while Wrage acknowledges that the topic is serious and its impact devastating, she seeks to capture the absurdity of those seeking to do wrong by setting a light-hearted and wry tone. To the extent that a book on such a weighty topic can be delightful and funny, it is this one.
   
   Wrage's work, however, is not simply a collection of humorous, absurd and wretched tales. Rather, Wrage introduces a systematic way of talking about the twin problems of bribery and extortion. She provides order and categorization to the patterns of criminal behavior and to its corrosive effects. In this way, Wrage's book serves as a guidepost to those of us who combat corruption - compliance officers, counsel, government officials and NGOs. Knowing and understanding the many forms that the doppelganger of corruption can take is perhaps the most valuable tool to fighting it.
   
   I highly recommend Wrage's book This is a must-read for businesspersons, lawyers, scholars, students and anyone interested in cross-border business and it's challenging dark side.

No comments about The Moroni Code.

5 comments about Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street (Collins Business Essentials).

1. David Begelman would never have been exposed as the crook he was without the dogged, principled determination of Cliff Robertson to get to the bottom of corruption at the top levels of Hollywood. This excellent book documents Robertson's heroic efforts to get at the truth -- for which he was blackballed by the Hollywood establishment for years. Cliff once said to me: "Of all the things in my life I'm proud of -- if I'm proud at all -- it's not winning the best actor Oscar or Emmy; it's my part in bringing down that crook Begelman."
   
   But perhaps the book is most valuable for its exposure of the top echelon of Hollywood -- people with lots of money and no taste; people who know nothing whatever about movies. And could care less. I hope this book is reprinted soon. It is timeless.



2. This book gives details of David Begelman the head man at
   Columbia Pictures getting caught forging Cliff Robertson's name
   on a check. Robertson had won an Oscar for his role in Charly.
   As a result of Begelman getting caught Roberetson would suffer
   mightily at the hands of the powerful in Hollywood.Cliff Robertson wound up being blacklisted as a result of this scandal.This scandal would send shockwaves from Hollywood to
   Wall Street.You are given a complete coverage of this event in
   this excellent book.You are given good coverage of some of the
   individuals who were involved in this scandal.David Begelman's demise is also given coverage in this book.This is an excellent book on this event. Read it. You will not be dissapointed.



3. David Begelman, powerful head of a studio thinks he is above the law, until an actor by the name of Cliff Robertson exposes him. This book is a well written tale of immorality in a town known for it's lack of scruples. Hollywood insiders should not be surprised at this tale, but I was. The check Begelman forged was for a small amount. The man made more than that in a month. The book exposes the reasons why a man who had it all, would choose to commit such a crime and fall from grace. I was quite disappointed by Robertson's treatment by Hollywood's hierarchy when he was the victim, not Begelman. But it proves just how far studios will go to protect the bottom line. I read this book when it was first published years ago and I'm reading it again. The list of books I will read more than once is a short one. I highly recommend it.



4. I bought this book when it first came out and have reread it every year or so. Tends to be a bit long and sometimes slow, but it's great. Buy a used copy, or check at the library.
   
   Being from the Washington D.C. area I kept constantly asking why someone didn't leak this to the press and blow the whole compiristy.
   
   The only comparable book is "The Great Salad Oil Swindle"



5. This is not really a tale of embezzlement and disgrace - it is the store of power struggles between the Board of Directors for Columbia Studios, who were clearly had personal loyalty in their underlings as their top priority, and the CEO, Alan Hirschfield, trying to do what he needed to do to save the studio.
   
   I don't have access to people at this level, so I appreciate the peeping-Tom aspect of viewing the thought processes and actions of people who normally hide behind lawyers, secretaries, and call-screeners.
   
   The author obviously interviewed many many people to put this book together, and I appreciate how he reported on the media coverage, as well. I never really thought of how people manipulate the news as part of the story, but course it is.
   
   The book is like a newspaper story in that it is filled with information, but the narrative reads like a novel - very easy to read. The author does a good job of developing story-lines, so we have a sense of completeness, and a sense of an overview, while also sprinkling the famous names and the glamour that makes Hollywood so compelling to people.
   
   I've never understood why Hollywood turns out bad movies month after month, year after year, when it is so easy to tell from the beginning that a movie is going to be awful. Why make awful movies?
   
   This book doesn't directly address that issue, but it shows how irresponsible and irrational the leading powers that control Hollywood on both coasts are, and how corrupt the whole system is. It's obvious that normal things like making a good product become irrelevent to their attention span.
   
   I guess it's not really corruption, if everyone knows it's happening, and it's just a way of getting things done.
   
   My only complaint is that I wish I had more of a reality on the Board Directors. Their actions seem so irrational, but I'm sure it's because they were not forthcoming in their interviews, and did not take the opportunity to express their points of view. People at that level are notorious for avoiding the press, so it is not surprising.

5 comments about The Loo Sanction: A Novel.

1. In the mid 1970s three back-to-back best sellers were provided by the reclusive and somewhat mysterious author who wrote under the pen name of Trevanian. The three novels were first, "The Eiger Sanction", followed quickly by a sequel, "The Loo Sanction", and finally, by a complete change of pace with "Shibumi". Of the three, While The Eiger Sanction was easily the most commercially successful, the Loo Sanction provided more of a showcase for Trevanian's considerable intellect, panache for taking pot-shots at the British culture, and sheer gift for words. Like its predecessor, this is a taut and thrilling tale of a once famous mountaineer and retired government assassin turned college art history professor named Jonathan Hemlock, who is forced back into the "sanction" business both by personal greed and crude manipulation, this time around by the British through blackmail, setting in motion another terrific spy thriller.
   
   The book opens with a graphic description of a pederast being slowly impaled on a stake through the inexorable force of gravity by way of his bodyweight. An aggravating and dangerous entrepreneur named Maximillian Strange is using his own filmed trysts catching British government officials to blackmail them, and the British Intelligence was an outsider like Hemlock who cannot be traced to sanction (assassinate) him. To do so, Hemlock must infiltrate Strange's private estate/bordello called The Cloisters, and it is considered an almost impregnable fortress/resort. Of course, Professor Hemlock gets diverted along the way by the well-turned limbs of a lovely lady, and gets consequently involved in the trendy world of the London art world, where his expertise as an appraiser of original art is both highly regarded and which also allows him some humorous diversions along the way.

   Once we finally make it to the Cloisters, the action is literally non-stop, quite accurate technically, and absolutely riveting to read about. While this is both amusing and fanciful stuff, owing more to Bond-like super-hero stuff than real life, it is escapist work of the first magnitude. The author holds our rapt attention with a plot that unfolds in a quite plausible and inevitably tragic fashion with no one necessarily spared as the frenzy reaches its natural conclusion. This is a terrific spy thriller, on e written by someone who has a wonderful command of prose and entertainment, and who employs them both to great advantage here. This is great entertainment, and something I can heartily recommend as a great summer read. Enjoy!




2. ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A SPY NOVEL WILL LIKE THIS. ANYONE WHO LIKES CHARACTER STUDY AND FINE STORYLINES WITH GOOD PACING, WILL LIKE THIS. IT SEEMS THAT MR. TREVANIAN MAY HAVE KNOWN A SPY OR TWO IN HIS (OR FOR THAT MATTER, HER) LIFE. THE CHARACTER OF HEMLOCK IS INDEED INTERESTING. MR. TREVANIAN TOUCHES A PART OF YOU THAT INVOLVES AN INWARD EYE OF SORTS. THIS EYE TAKES YOU INSIDE OF THE PERSON INVOLVED IN THE STORY IN A STRANGE WAY, HE SEEMS TO PUT YOU RIGHT THERE AS IF HE HIMSELF WERE THERE BEFORE. THE VISION THAT TREVANIAN HAS IS ALMOST LIKE A MEMORY OF SOMETHING THAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE. I CAN'T REALLY PUT MY FINGER ON IT, BUT THIS CHARACTER COULD CERTAINLY BE IN TODAYS HEADLINES ALONG WITH ANYTHING ROBERT LUDNUM OR LEN DEIGHTON MAY HAVE CREATED. SPY FANS, PLEASE READ "THE EIGER SANCTION" FIRST AND THEN READ THIS FOLLOW UP. I ASSURE YOU, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPOINTED. TREVANIAN IS TRULY GREAT!



3. I started this novel with high hopes....expecting something better than some self proclaimed thrillers I had recently inflicted myself with, but it was not to be.The plot is simplistic and the protagonist blunders from one accident to another.He only manages to succeed in the end due to an unbeliveable set of good luck and stupidity on part of the villians.
   
   While reading the novel there was a strong sense of deja vu .... of having been there and done that, especially with respect to the character of Dr Hemlock.There is very little that is original or likable about him.
   
   In my opinion Ian Fleming wrote infinitely better novels of this genre, viz. spy thrillers, I have yet to come across any author with a better command over language and creator of more interesting characters than him.
   
   My search continues......



4. I really enjoyed reading this book. The previous book "The Eiger sanction" was also really good. Good suspense, well written, and amazing charachters. The dialogue and tactics each of the charachters use in these books are what sold me on them. You will definately enjoy reading these books.



5. After reading Eiger, I figured I would pick up the sequel. I guess I was hoping that it would be decent. It bored me to tears, and the characters were horrible.
   
   Shibumi was a great book, and The Eiger Sanction is worth reading, but I would advise you not to waste your time with this one.

2 comments about The False Prophet: Conspiracy, Extortion and Murder in the Name of God (Berkley True Crime).

1. Taylor Helzer was a devout Mormon who lost his moral compass after diving into the teachings of a "self-help" program and heavy drug use. Charismatic since a child, he managed to manipulate his brother and a lonely woman into sharing his belief that he was a prophet who would save the world from the Apocalypse. His plan was to kidnap the top leaders of the church and force them to write letters to Mormons declaring him the new leader.
   
   Author and journalist Claire Booth gives an excellent narrative of the shocking events of the summer of 2000, when the Helzer gang brutally murdered five innocent Bay Area residents -- including the daughter of blues musician Elvin Bishop -- in an effort to extort money he hoped would finance his plan.
   
   Booth gives us insight into the real nature and history of all the people involved -- the victims, their families, law enforcement, the killers -- and shows us how Helzer transformed into the false prophet.



2. This extensively-researched true crime story reads like a novel. The players come alive to a disturbing extent. I hope Ms. Booth continues with her crime writing efforts.

5 comments about Black Maps.

1. Spiegelman clearly knows whereof he speaks and actually makes the world of banking interesting. He has created an interesting protagonist in John March, including a history revealed throughout the story. The story does start out slowly and one has to get through the information about the banking industry, money laundering and data security, which s interesting and relevant but not exciting. After that, the story definitely takes off and suspense builds to an exciting ending. I very much enjoyed this debut book and am looking forward to his next.



2. Black Maps is our author's first foray into fiction, and Mr. Spiegelman overall does a good job. There's action, guns, and plenty of bad guys. The plot, while somewhat pedestrian, is still substantive enough to hold the reader till the tepid conclusion. That said, Spiegelman needs to realize a few things as he plans his next outing with our hero, PI John March.
   
   It seems that every character March encounters is over 6'2", even the women. They can't all be tall and gangly, sir! A problem that surfaces in the next two John March novels is also plainly visible in this book, too. John's brothers and sister are vicious to him, and he sits by and takes it like he's been given too much thorazine. You want us to like Mr. March, right? Give him a spine transplant, then! Lastly, Mr. Spiegelman has to let us know how intimate he is with the geography of Manhattan and New York City. There's a paragraph that is truly hard to believe his editors left in on purpose--in this sort of vein:
   
   "I took the lefthand path that led off Central Park West, passed the statue of two fireman, and looped around 45th street to the 52nd street entryway. As the subway passed, I dipped around the construction on Lexington and ran along Park Avenue till it intersected 45th again. My pursuer had thought of this, so he looped back through TriBeCa and skirted the East Village...." Is he serious?!
   
   There's a fun spark in Black Maps that makes me keep my eye on the further adventures of John March, PI. Although this isn't a homerun ("the ball sailed out of Yankee stadium just to the right of 102nd street and Koch Avenue, skirting past the Queen's Community Center...."), it was a fun read.



3. I saw good reviews of the third novel in this series, and not being the sort of person to start in the middle of something, I went back and found this one -- apparently his first novel of any kind. And as a first, it's not bad. The protagonist is John March, born into a moderately wealthy New York banking family (all his siblings work for the company his grandfather founded), who fell in love his senior year in college with the daughter of an upstate sheriff, followed her home after graduation, and became a deputy for his father-in-law. Then she was killed -- the author was right not to overdo the backstory -- and March came back to Manhattan, where he became a PI. Now three years have passed, he's still not really over the trauma, and he's sort of floating through life. Through a lawyer friend, he gets involved in a blackmail case involving a collapsed bank (think international money-laundering on a huge scale) now in liquidation. The plot is well thought out, due undoubtedly to the author's own background in international banking and the design of financial software, and the complications are nicely explained for the uninitiated. The pace in the early part of the book is rather slow, though, and except for a couple of isolated scenes, it doesn't really pick up until eighty percent of the way through. Then he really lets out the clutch. The dialogue is well done, as are the characters, though Spiegelman could spend less time describing each passing individual and their attire in such minute detail; at least he stops short of quoting the laundry instructions tag. It's a very promising beginning, though, and I'll be following this series from now on.



4. I read a lot of mysteries, and I am really quite impressed with Peter Spiegelman's writing ability. For a first novel, BLACK MAPS is extremely well written. I think Spielgelman's prose can stand toe-to-toe with some of the best writers in the business right now.
   
   Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Spiegelman's plotting. BLACK MAPS is a pretty slow moving PI novel, and the first two thirds of the book is little more than a lengthy set-up piece that lacks any sort of momentum. But once you hit the last third of this book, BLACK MAPS becomes quite thrilling and enjoyable. But I must admit that I almost gave up on the book before this point.
   
   Spiegelman is also way too fond of description. In BLACK MAPS, he describes almost everyone and everything in almost excruciating detail. People, clothing, rooms, architecture, business transactions, geographical locations -- you name it. He's actually very good at doing this, but I felt it really slowed down the momentum of the plot, at least for me.
   
   In short, Spiegelman is a superb writer with huge potential, but I wouldn't recommend this novel to someone looking for a page turner.
   
   Three and a half stars.



5. Knopf doesn't publish just anyone's first novel, much less a PI mystery. Not hard to see why they signed Peter Spiegelman - he's as good as Michael Connelly. Black Maps is an amazingly mature work, without the usual reservation "for a first novel." It's engrossing from the first page to the last. Spiegelman's writing never gets in the reader's way - it's never self-conscious or - fatal for a mystery - transparently tricky, coy, or cute. It's a real story - the characters that carry the plot are alive and interesting without exception, and even the minor characters at the second and third levels have energy. A wonderful, wonderful piece of writing. Spiegelman has a place among the mystery writers who are master craftsmen - Connelly, Robert B. Parker, Tony Hillerman (at his best), et al. But he's much more than a word wizard; his books have soul.

No comments about Fireworks at the FBI (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)).

5 comments about Invitation Only (Private, Book 2).

1. This was an excellent book. I loved it so much... somehow I can understand what Reed is going through. I liked how there are new characters, and how the abrupt ending leaves me wanting more. I can't wait to read Untouchable!



2. This was really good!
   i couldnt wait to find out what had happened to reed!!!
   lol :]



3. Reed Brennan has become something of a celebrity now that she's a Billings girl. She has won the admiration, awe, scorn and jealousy of everyone at the Easton Academy. But they have no idea how things are really like for her at the famous dorm. After all, they don't know that Reed is the servant girl at Billings; making the beds, serving breakfast and doing all sorts of humiliating chores for the fabulous four -- Noelle, Arianna, Kiran and Taylor. It doesn't matter. She'll do whatever it takes to be accepted. Being a Billings girl is a privilege, not a right, especially for a girl with a humble background like her. But things become complicated when Natasha, her new roommate, takes some incriminating photos of her with resident eighteen-year-old hottie Walt Whittaker, and threatens to send them to the dean. The catch? Reed has to snoop around and find proof that the fabulous four were responsible for the removal of Natasha's former roommate. With her position as the dorm's Cinderella, it shouldn't be so hard to search for this evidence, should it? In her search, Reed discovers secrets about her new "friends" that she wishes she'd never known. As if that weren't bad enough, her boyfriend Thomas is still missing. Her only shot of meeting face to face with Thomas is to get an invitation to the Legacy -- an exclusive party that only a selected few get invited. In order to attend the exclusive party, Reed has to become Whittaker's "plus one," which means she has to go out with him, to the dismay of her former roommate Constance, who has a major crush on Whittaker. Will Cinderella make it to the ball with her dignity ever so slightly intact? And will her Prince Charming be there, waiting to whisk her away from all the madness? After all, if she finds the evidence Natasha is looking for, she'll have to rat out her friends, or she'll be out of Easton faster than you can say "busted." Sigh. So much drama. It appears that being a Billings girl isn't as easy or as glamorous as Reed had thought.
   
   This is a great follow-up to the very riveting Private. We get a sense of who the Billings girls are and how far they go just to amuse themselves at someone else's expense. Yet there is also a part of them -- a more human, generous part -- that makes them the most unique, intriguing girls at Easton Academy. The girls are rich, beautiful and have the world kissing their feet, but they also hold a mystique that overrides all of that stuff. I like the way Brian is handling that part of the story. These aren't the typical rich and spoiled boarding school teens that are so common in YA books these days. They truly are an enigma, and it shows throughout the pages of the book. Reed is still somewhat annoying in her desperate quest to fit into their social circle, but it is understandable. She, after all, has never been accepted anywhere before, and getting the attention of the most fascinating girls she's ever set her eyes on, not to mention the admiration of some rather hot guys, would cause any teenage girl to drool in the same way. She has two new love interests in this installment -- Whittaker and Thomas's roommate Josh. I love Josh; dislike Whittaker, who comes across as one of those rich, spoiled high-class twits. Very one-dimensional, and he's meant to be that way, from the looks of things. There is a big twist at the very last chapter, one that leaves me wanting to find out what happens next. I can't wait to pick up Untouchable. In the meantime, I cannot recommend Invitation Only enough. I take away one star because I was able to figure out what was going on with the whole blackmail thing by the time the story gets around to it, but it's still a brilliant read. This series is proving to be very addicting.



4. Reed Brennan is now a Billings Girl. She goes to parties and is looked up to and envied by most students on campus. Yet things still aren't perfect. One of the other Billings Girls takes pictures of her at a party with a boy that could easily get her expelled. Then they use it to black mail. To make it all worse, her boyfriend, Thomas, is still missing. No one knows where he is but they do know where he'll be at on Halloween - The Legacy. It's an exclusive party that only the most important legacies are able to attend. Unless you can go as someone's plus-one. Which is what Reed plans to do. Of course, not everyone can take a plus-one and the one person willing to take Reed is the one person she doesn't want to go with. But if Thomas will be there, Reed's willing to do anything possible to be there.
   
   
   Invitation Only, the second book in the Private series by Kate Brian, is an amazing read. I didn't want to put it down once I started. It was full of drama, some action, and gave you an inside look at the life of private schools. The characters were easy to relate to and they make you wonder what's going to happen next, especially the Billings Girls. The ending was surprising but good. I think the first chapter of the next book should have been the last chapter though. I really enjoyed this and can't wait to get my hands on the third book. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys drama, romance, and the crazy life of rich private school students.



5. Invitation Only
   By: Kate Brian
   
   Reed has entered the high-classed, lip-glossed world of the Billings. All of her fairytales are just beginning, but when her boyfriend disappers everything seems to crumble. Will she be strong enough to survive? Could the disappearance of her boyfriend Thomas Pearson be her down fall in the Billings?
   Reed is a normal teen who is just beginning her sophisticated life in Billings. Reed's drive and compassion for Thomas makes her investigate farther into his disappearance. But not everybody at Easton is looking for answers to his disappearance. Could they be hiding something? Her search will eventually lead her into another guy's arms over the lonely Thanksgiving Break, but he could be hiding some skeletons in his closet.
   I loved this book because while Reed was on her journey for the truth I felt like I was right beside her. It was fascinating and kept me on the edge of my seat. It is a fast pace read with tiny cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. This is a book for people who like to be captured into an alternate reality of someone else's life. Will you join Reed on her journey for the truth?
   
   By: Kim G.

5 comments about God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18.

1. The subject matter is highly disturbing and a must read for anyone who thinks that this sort of horror only goes on in backwards third world countries. The writing is uneven but the content makes up for it's faults. I was angry for days.



2. I finally got this book after reading other books dealing with these problems and all internet articles I could find for three years regarding the fundamentalist Mormons in the US and Canada.
   
   I do not understand why a lot more has not been done to stop such outrageous practices as have been well documented by this author. I was in Utah a few years ago, prior to doing the reading I have since done, and there I saw headlines regarding the childbride problem and actual communities I now know are polygamist enclaves. (I noticed the poverty and backwardness in some areas and already had assumed the isolation and deprivation of polygamy could be the cause.)
   
   It is sickening to know that US citizens, born here for generations back, are suffering in all these ways because the states involved will not prosecute when "religious beliefs" cross the other existing laws made to protect the innocent and naive. This book should be required for all Utah and Arizona legislators, and unfortunately, also now Texas, Colorado, Canada, Montana, and Wyoming. This is a dreadful thing to allow to continue in our great nation.



3. I read this book yesterday, and several others over the last few months. They all provided the basic background for polygny in the US, primarily stemming from the roots of Mormonism. Carolyn Jessop's "Escape" was by far the most thorough and informative. The 18 individual stories in this book are very disturbing, and I do applaud these women for finally breaking away. BUT--I still have many unanswered questions and concerns about the women in these situations--both those who left and many others who did not. Many of these 18 women consciously and willingly joined the lifestyles, and even bounced from one bad situation to another before finally leaving.
   
   Overall the motivation of the males is obvious--power and dominance over weaker individuals. The men essentially are given free reign to physically, emotionally, and sexually abuse anyone in their household, and many take full advantage of the opportunities.
   
   The motivations of the females, however, are not clear, and this book did little to help me sort those out--it just made me madder. The maternal instinct is incredibly powerful, but for many of these women it is apparently either not present or not strong enough to combat their personal quest for religious salvation. This book (and none of the others I have read) does not attempt to explain the psychology that contributes to these mothers allowing their children to be abused.
   
   All that said, it is a book worth reading if only to get a better understanding of the scope of the problem, and the kinds of women involved in the lifestyle.



4. This is about Bible-based fundamentalist polygamy. This is a hot topic associated with the current best seller Escape and also Jon Krakauer sensational Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Those books convey polygamy is a euphemism for cults that promote child rape and women enslavement.
   
   The author discloses a map showing Mormons and Christian fundamentalist polygamist communities spread all over the U.S. and Mexico. Some members live in major cities besides Salt Lake City such as Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Sacramento. Fundamentalists LDS (Mormons following the original scriptures of Joseph Smith) are fragmented among tens of groups. Those groups split apart to create new groups in other areas. They are lead by self appointed leaders who claim being direct descendents of either Joseph Smith or Jesus.
   
   These self-proclaimed prophets are delusional. They rewrite the history of the world to fit their mad self glorification (pg 157). They have apocalyptic visions of the return of Christ. Some proclaim communicating with beings from other planets (pg 156). Others lead anti-government militia and believe the government controls the weather (pg. 169). A few have been arrested and placed in azylum.
   
   Groups splitting results from rivalries. A rival breaks away from a group to start his own, declares himself a prophet. The splitting gets violent with killings under the guise of religious "blood atonement." Such killings are also aimed at members trying to escape.
   
   The author suggests that the ills of fundamentalist polygamy emanate from Joseph Smith scriptures. She quotes his `Doctrine and Covenants': "And if he have ten virgins..., he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him,... if one... of the ten virgins..., shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed..." Those words engendered communities that both the author and Jon Krakauer compare to the Taliban.
   
   The author covers the history of the Mormon Church and how mainstream Mormons renounced polygamy only under military attacks from the Feds. To this day she indicates that in Utah State and police authorities make efforts to avoid prosecuting polygamy and related crimes (child molesting and rape, etc...). As polygamists referring to Utah authorities say "That prosecution dog don't hunt."
   
   Such communities are disasters for males too. If the average male has 5 wives, this means 80% of the males are ousted to maintain this unnatural 5-to-1 female/male multiple. What happens to the 80% of males? The author states on page 50 "they are driven away... [or] stay to become worker bees ... or they die mysteriously." On page 181, she reiterates how they die mysteriously of car accidents on rural roads with no traffic.
   
   Such societies are disasters for children. They are deprived from descent education, nutrition, and parenting. They are exploited as child labor to work for free for the businesses managed by those communities. The level of child abuse, beating, molestation, pedophilia, sodomy of young boys, and rape is sickening. On pg. 171: "My father began raping me when I was eight years old. My mother sexually abused all of us..." Herpes among very young children related to sexual abuse is common. Girls as young as nine are ordered to marry relatives sometimes in their fifties. They bear children soon after risking their own lives in the process. They never receive adequate medical care. They are taken out of school at a young age to ensure their total economic dependence.
   
   From a genetic standpoint, this lifestyle is insane. The level of in-breeding through inter-marriages is unprecedented in the U.S. The rate of Down syndrome, autism, dwarfism, and deformities in many of those communities is sky high. Down Syndrome is hoped for by expectant parents because such individuals are compliant and bring in larger government benefits (pg. 173). Community leaders attribute those deformities as God's punishments to wives that have not been subservient. They don't know that procreating through incest, uncle and nieces, and brothers and sisters is not good.
   
   The health of women is entirely subjugated to procreation. Women are ordered to produce a child per year regardless of their health condition. Women often have more than 10 children with little means to support any. On page 126, a testimonial describes a woman dying of brain cancer who gave birth against the advice of the doctors. She died during childbirth. Child birth is undertaken without any descent health care support. On page 136: "Brenda's pregnancy ended in miscarriage, and she hemorrhaged for four hours with out any medical attention." Treatment of women amounts to persecution (pg. 163: `Her husband had mutilated her genitals ... with fishing wire.'
   
   From an economic standpoint, those communities are failures. They live in some form of totalitarian communism whereby all economic resources and assets are owned by the Church. The individual laborers (mainly wives and children) keep nothing. Economic subsistence is solely reliant on State and Federal subsidies. Those communities are all adept in extracting the maximum government benefits totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And, they are proud of this feat. They call it "bleeding the beast" as an effort to bring the government down.
   
   The testimonials of the 18 women who survived polygamy are nauseating. This passage comes to mind: `When Laura was four, one of her stepbrothers tied her to a bedpost and attempted to rape her... After I was crying, my father told me he would slap me until I stopped crying, which he proceeded to do... My mother made herself busy in the kitchen so she wouldn't have to watch." Another passage: `on her 16th birthday, her father took her for a ride in his Cadillac because it was time for her "Sexuality Lesson."
   
   The book gives you much more in depth info that I don't come close to cover. This is an important book to read for anyone interested on the subject.



5. This book gives a small history of polygamy and then chronicles the lives of women who lived it. Short (6-10 page) chapters highlight each woman's experience and it is a very fast read.
   
   I am just finishing the book and my eyes have truly been opened about Polygamy in the U.S. It's sickening what I've learned about these poor innocent children raised in these sects. It's encouraged me to get involved to help stop this madness.

5 comments about Guilty.

1. In Karen Robards latest Guilty, you meet up and coming ADA Kate White and super cop homicide detective Tom Braga. Kate has lots of secrets and Tom wants to uncover them all because some of them may kill her.
   This book is nonstop, action, seduction,suspense just name your favorite verb. It's keep you on the edge of your seat spine tingling reading. This is definitely a must read for all you lovers of great romantic suspense.



2. Guilty is a really good book. I read it through in one night and was sorry to see it end. Kate White is a prosecutor with a young son who is threatened by someone out of her troubled past. Homicide detective Tom Braga protects her and suspects her at the same time, and this makes for electric chemistry between them. The suspense in the plot kept me turning the pages, and the romance made me root for the characters, including Kate's son, to end up together at the end.
   
   I recommend this to anyone who likes romantic suspense.



3. Kate has spent the last 16 years trying to forget the night that her friends held up a convenience store and killed the clerk. Now a single mom and an ADA in Philadelphia, she is trying her first big case and in a bungled and deadly escape attempt, becomes a hostage in the court room. When her assailant is shot, she is face to face with Mario the friend who pulled the trigger all those years ago, and he insists that she help keep him out of jail, or he'll implicate her. She immediately becomes a media darling for taking out her attacker, but Tom Braga, the detective in charge, knows she's hiding something; and worse, he's falling for her and her son. When a series of break-ins and suspicious characters find their way to Kate's door, Tom appoints himself protector of both.
   
   Robards keeps the suspense and action going from the first page to the last. Just when the reader thinks they know what will happen next, another surprise is tossed in. The chemistry between Kate and Tom is incredible, bringing a sense of authenticity into the story.



4. THIS BOOKS WAS VERY WELL WRITTEN, HOWEVER, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BOOK, FOR A FEW CHAPTERS IT SEEMED A LITTLE SLOW. ALL IN ALL IT WAS A TERRIFIC BOOK.



5. This book is awesome. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.