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Reviews (7)
Mar 08, 2007
A Wonderfully Enchanting Mystery
This volume opens with Maisie Dobbs being hired to find a young woman who has vanished. Her father is a wealthy owner of successful grocery chain in London and the surrounding areas and wants no hint of scandal to erupt. Therefore, he enlists Miss Dobbs to find his daughter before anyone else realizes she’s gone. At this same time, three similar murders have occurred in the London area and all three women murdered were close friends of Charlotte Waite, the young woman Miss Dobbs is searching for. As the case unravels, Maisie is unsure of whether she is looking for a young woman in need of protection, or a murderess. Along the way, she begins to apply lessons learned on the job to her own rocky personal relationships and helps out a few friends. All and all a very good book and an intriguing mystery.
Mar 24, 2007
A Good Read
As I said about the third Maisie Dobbs book upon reading it. It is an excellent book as far as the general heading of Mystery Novels go, but as far as a Maisie Dobbs book goes, it is just good.
The latest two installments, I feel, have lacked the character development of Maisie Dobbs I loved in the first two. Not that extensive character development isn't there, but it was even more present in Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather. Maisie's personality was more pleasant then as well. Now that she is older and more confident in her abilities, I find her snippy and downright rude at times. Perhaps she is just becoming more human! At any rate she remains entertaining.
The mystery angle of the book is quite compelling, if not pieced together quite well at the end. Anyone familiar with the plot line of the books will recall that Maisie usually accepts a case and the finds herself stumbling upon an interrelated deeper mystery and/or personal discovery. The way these elements were tied into the client's case in this book was almost a little too tidy and concise....the reader's are told that Maisie knows the answer, but we have little to no information to build our own theory before seeing if it is the correct one or not. So, if you like to solve the mystery yourself before the last page is turned, this one may leave you a feeling a little miffed at the end.
The secondary characters (the Bassington-Hope family) are quite well done though and will be a very good diversion. The young man whose death Maisie is investigating is very interesting indeed.
As said at the top, this book gets an excellent because it is of the top shelf variety of the mysteries out there, but it is a second shelf Maise Dobbs book.
Jun 21, 2008
A Great Workout!
4 of 4 found this helpful Kathy Smith's foray into the world of Kickboxing is an excellent addition to any home fitness collection. As another reviewer stated - you begin to feel the burn during the warm-up! You can choose to play the DVD as a 45 minute beginner workout or as a 55 minute challenge. Note: The "challenge" is the 45 minute workout with some supplemental material tacked on the end. Kathy leads the initial 45 minute workout. The challenge material features Keith Cooke (a martial arts champion/expert who appears in numerous Hollywood movies, including Beverly Hills Ninja) demonstrating some very cool moves that you can follow along with. A nice cool-down stretch is included, as is a brief segment of "light toning" that contains moves that will help you put more power behind your kicks and stabilize your core muscles. Also present on the DVD is a short Tai-Chi inspired workout led by one of Kathy's back-up exercisers.
In summary: For the average home exerciser this will be a quality addition to your library and a superb introduction to Kickboxing.