Warning: Too good a read to believe. :P
Reviewer Name: Genida
Email: chj_951@godisdead.com

The goodhearted Richard Mayhew finds himself stumbling through a world he could never imagine existed, the London Below, as opposed to London Above; of which he was previously a part. A dark and extemely dangerous and treacherous world co-existing with the London Above, a world you enter when you fall through the cracks of existance. Noticing and saving a young bleeding girl off the sidewalk [Door] Mayhew tumbles head first into London Below, and want's more than anything to get back to his boring, everyday life.

Richard finds himself wound up with the beautiful and mysterious Lady Door, a girl who's lost her family and seeks the answers to their death; the marquis de Carabas, a seedy and somewhat untrustworthy character paying back a debt to Door's father, and Hunter; a legendary woman-at-arms, hunter and makeshift bodyguard.

[Regretfully Gaiman doesn't elaborate on Hunter, a lesbian and veritable superwoman who excites the fantasy, and fan-fiction, reader in me more than any character I've ever encountered.]

Hunted through the underworld by two of the most vicious and cruel professional murderers, killers and cutthroats ever, the beasts Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar; the group struggles through the best and most visionary adventure I've ever read, and I have read a lot.

Richard is in my opinion a veritable copy of any early Hugh Grant character.
..."He was a fresh-faced, boyish young man, with dark, slightly curly hair and large hazel eyes; he had a rumpled, just-woken-up look to him, which made him more attractive to the opposit sex than he would ever understand or believe."...

If that quote doesn't scream Hugh Grant, I don't know what would. Along with the way he acts, Gaiman cast the role after the very actor in my opinion.

Richard is a golden stepping stone into this rich world Gaiman so easily makes the reader a part of. A fantastically easy and light read the book is filled to the brim with details and moods making an exciting, unforgetable read.

When I get asked about my favourite book, this is the one i mention first and foremost. You read fantasy? Science fiction? If you read anything concerning either genre, read this book. If you read, period, read this book.

Stunning, captivating, fantastic and marvelously created by the creator of Sandman, Neil Gaiman, I can't stress enough how good this book is.
A clear top-grade.
Read. This. Book.

Comments:

[Link leads to excerpt, summary and Neil Gaimans own website. Go there as well, and order the book.]

http://www.neilgaiman.com/books/neverwhere_pb.asp

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
under SMPs Stonewall Inn Editions imprimateur

Warning: Spoilers
Reviewer Name: Carla

Mr. Davis' Old Man is a famous novelist, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes.  Joseph (Joe) his much younger lover is a noted author in his own right.  Davis' portrayal of two men of disparate ages very much in love is heart wrenchingly gorgeous and sketched out for the reader in the opening paragraphs.  How the Old Man mourns for Joe who is killed suddenly in a car accident is the rest of the book.

What Mr Davis does so well with this, his first book, is show how mourning, the process of it, the realization of it's need, is really about celebrating love.

Sixteen years later and it makes me cry every time.

Piercy creates a world of chaos and confusion in which coincidently all the protagonists are some how connected. For instance the twin sent to America lives with the factory worker.  The twin who remained in France leaves a diary which comes into the possesion of the resistance fighter who in turn was having an affair with the female pilot's older brother.

One of the joys of this book is keeping track of who is connected to whom and how.  At almost 1,000 pages Gone to Soldiers is not light reading but it most certainly is engrossing.   Suffice it to say that it's been more than fifteen years since I first read it but even now the idea of re-re-reading it makes my toes curl in pleasure.

Title: Carol Ashton Mystery Series
Author: Claire McNab
Rating:

Publisher: Naiad Press
Link: http://www.naiadpress.com

Warning: None
Reviewer Name: Shadow
Email: shadow@realmoftheshadow.com

A great series for mystery lovers.