Mary Daniels Brown

My mother always insisted that, as soon as I was old enough to sit up, she’d find me in my crib after my nap babbling away, with a Little Golden Book on my lap. I’ve had my nose in a book ever since. I grew up in a small town, with the tiny town library literally in my backyard. As an only child in an unhappy home, I found comfort and companionship in books. As an adult I wanted to be Harry Potter, although I admit I’m more Hermione. My life has been a series of research projects. Reading has taught me that human lives are deliciously messy and that “it’s complicated” isn’t a punchline.

“Santa Fe Rules” by Stuart Woods

Woods, Stuart. Santa Fe Rules (1992)   Harper Paperbacks, 332 pages, $5.99 paperback   ISBN 0 06 109089 1 After leaving his Santa Fe home one morning to travel to his Hollywood home and workplace, film producer Wolf Willett is stunned to read his own obituary in The New York Times. He, his wife, and […]

“Santa Fe Rules” by Stuart Woods Read More »

“The Ax” by Donald E. Westlake

Westlake, Donald E. The Ax (1997)   Mysterious Press, 273 pages, $23.00 hardcover   ISBN 0 89296 587 8 Most of the serial killers we meet in modern fiction are tortured souls, abused as children or tormented by multiple personalities. But what if an otherwise ordinary man made a perfectly logical decision to become a

“The Ax” by Donald E. Westlake Read More »

“New York Dead” by Stuart Woods

Woods, Stuart. New York Dead (1991)   HarperPaperbacks, 325 pages, $5.99 paperback   ISBN 0-06-109080-8 Having read two other Stone Barrington novels (Dirt and Dead in the Water) previously, I decided to go back and be properly introduced to this character whom Stuart Woods can’t seem to let go. In New York Dead Stone Barrington

“New York Dead” by Stuart Woods Read More »

“Smoke” by Donald E. Westlake

Westlake, Donald E. Smoke (1995)   Mysterious Press, 454 pages, $21.95  hardcover   ISBN 0-89296-543-7 Freddie Noon is a twice-convicted thief in New York City.  So when he’s caught by Dr. David Loomis and Dr. Peter Heimhocker stealing electronic equipment from their research facility, he decides that becoming their experimental subject is better than the

“Smoke” by Donald E. Westlake Read More »

“Run Before the Wind” by Stuart Woods

Woods, Stuart. Run Before the Wind (1983)   rpt. 1988; Avon, 310 pages, $6.50 paperback   ISBN 0 380 70507 9 In Run Before the Wind Stuart Woods picks up the Lee family from his first novel, Chiefs. Will Lee, the spoiled, restless son of politician Billy Lee and his wife Patricia who is just

“Run Before the Wind” by Stuart Woods Read More »

“Baby, Would I Lie?” by Donald E. Westlake

Westlake, Donald E. Baby, Would I Lie? (1994)   Mysterious Press 291 pages $19.95  hardcover   ISBN  0-89296-532-0 Singer Ray Jones has his own theater on traffic-jam strip in Branson, Missouri, new center of country-and-western music.  And Branson traffic is about to become even more congested than usual as reporters from everywhere pour in to

“Baby, Would I Lie?” by Donald E. Westlake Read More »

book review

Review: “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose

Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West Simon & Schuster, 1996Hardcover, 496 pagesISBN 0-684-81107-3 Recommended In Undaunted Courage Ambrose has managed to do the nearly impossible: create a book that is accessible to both the academic community and the general public. For the scholarly reader, all the

Review: “Undaunted Courage” by Stephen Ambrose Read More »

“Point of Origin” by Patricia Cornwell

Cornwell, Patricia. Point of Origin (1998)   G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 356 pages, $25.95 hardcover    ISBN 0 399 14394 7 I’m getting really sick of Kay Scarpetta. At least in Patricia Cornwell’s earlier novels Scarpetta waited until the plot began to develop before beginning her self-centered, self-righteous lamentations. But in Point of Origin Scarpetta starts

“Point of Origin” by Patricia Cornwell Read More »

book review

Review: “The Color of Water” by James McBride

McBride, James. The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother Riverhead Books, 1996Hardcover, 228 pagesISBN 1-57322-022-1 Recommended As a young boy James McBride recognized that his mother was different: “Gradually . . . I began to notice something about my mother, that she looked nothing like the other kids’ mothers. In fact,

Review: “The Color of Water” by James McBride Read More »

“Chiefs” by Stuart Woods

Woods, Stuart. Chiefs (1981)    Avon Books, 427 pages, $5.99 paperback   ISBN 0 380 70347 5 Recommended One benefit to discovering a prolific author with one of his later works is that you then have the pleasure of going back and reading all his earlier books as well.  I first discovered Stuart Woods in

“Chiefs” by Stuart Woods Read More »

Scroll to Top