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Purple Place for Dying
John D. Macdonald
Manufacturer: Fawcett
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0449224384
Release Date: 1995-05-27 |
Book Description
MUST HAVE COPY.... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING USABLE ON COVER....MARKED BOTB.
Customer Reviews:
Entertaining Mystery.......2005-01-13
Travis McGee does it again, with attitude. These books are loads of fun and this one is no exception. I had it sort of figured out pretty early on, but enjoyed watching the whole thing unfold. These books are so funny with their 1960s male perspective, and I love the little details that MacDonald includes. Suspenseful, funny and a good read.
Great title, good book..........2004-07-29
A Purple Place for Dying is the third book in John MacDonald's Travis McGee series, and McGee comes upon his most troubling case yet. McGee is brought to the Midwest by a big, brassy, bossy Blonde who needs help. Mona Yeoman suspects that her husband has pilfered her trust fund, and she wants a divorce. McGee's job is to find out what happened to the money. McGee doesn't particularly like Yeoman, but is tempted to take the case because he needs the money. But before he even has a chance to say yes, Mona is murdered right in front of his eyes, and this changes everything. What makes things even more mysterious is that her body disappears when the police are called to the scene of the crime.
McGee could simply take his return plane ticket and fly home to his native Florida. But for whatever reasons, he decides to stick around and do some snooping. There are many twists and turns and also a few more mysterious murders. As usual, McGee finds himself in danger the closer he comes to the truth. And the truth comes as a complete surprise.
Each MacDonald book gets better than the previous one. We also get to see McGee become more fleshed out as a character. Still, it seems that the early books in this series are more of a novella length, but MacDonald corrects this with later books.
Overall, the McGee series is a true gem, and I'm glad to have discovered these wonderful mysteries.
Not one of my favorites, but still great........2004-07-16
Even though I still find "Flash of Green" to be my favorite MacDonald book, there's something so appealing about the Travis McGee series that keeps me coming back to them. But "Purple Place for Dying" just doesn't have that quick pace that some of the others have. The secondary characters just are not as interesting. This is all a presonal reaction, so don't take it too serious. At least Travis is Travis. You gotta love this guy!
I just hope that MacDonald continues to gain in popularity, as I feel he is horribly overlooked.
The Color of Truth.......2003-11-11
When a friend recommends Travis McGee as the perfect man to solve a problem, Travis McGee finds himself employed by Mono Yeoman - a woman who is as tough, and as hard, as nails. McGee leaves his Florida houseboat for the Nevada desert, where he expects to to help Mono untangle her estate from the greedy fingers of her estranged husband. But he barly gets his bags unpacked when a sniper does away with his employer.
Any fan knows that nothing is more calculated to upset McGee than murdering someone right under his nose. The detective/troubleshooter has very little patience under the best of circumstances and he takes that kind of interference very personally. So client or no, McGee dives in to find the killer. And uncover a complex land and money scheme at the same time. In short order it becomes obvious that nothing is ever as obvious as it first seems and McGee is on his way to a showdown that might bring an unexpectedly swift end to John MacDonald's series.
McGee is the classic not-quite-noir hero, mad of the same cloth as Nero Wolfe's Archie. Tough, a dash sarcastic, but basically a defender of the underdog, his solutions to problems combines subtlety and violence in just the right mix. By now generations of mystery lovers have come to see McGee as their man in Lauderdale. A solution up to the toughest challenge. This is one of the earliest McGee's (The Deep Blue Good-by was first) and remains one of the best after nearly 40 years .
McGee in a wild Southwestern adventure.......1999-08-12
I've read that John D. MacDonald had 4 or 5 of the first McGee's written before he decided to publish them. As a result, these 1st novels in the series can be seen as experiments in developing a series character. In this, the 3rd or 4th published in the series, we see McGee in a situation as close as he will ever get to a classic mystery novel. Before he can be hired by Mona Fox Yeoman to free her and her money from the clutches of her husband Jass Yeoman, she's shot dead right in front of him by a desert sniper. -And the police won't start searching for a killer until McGee can prove she's dead. Seems her body disappeared while McGee was calling the police and she was always threatening to one away with her lover and weren't they spotted on a commercial flight getting away, and-. Eventually, Trav is looking for the killer for Jass, who may not be the tyrant that Mona described to McGee. McGee tracks down the true story, ending up unarmed against a pair of killers in the desert. Classic McGee with a "Ross Macdonald-ish" twist at the end as the solution becomes mired in the Yeoman past.
AS always MacDonald spins an enthralling tale.
Product Description
Meet Travis McGee - who risks a strange commitment to a woman he hardly knew well enough to dislike before she was murdered at his feet.
Product Description
Third Travis McGee mystery/adventure novel. The paperback book was published 3 years before the hardcover edition.
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multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
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Multiple books shipped as one item. Save on Shipping/Handling charges.
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One dark and gloomy dawn Petro and Falco put the evil Balbinus aboard ship, a criminal sent into exile. But an outbreak of robbery and murder suggest a new criminal ring has moved into Balbinus’ territory. Petro and Falco are called in to investigate...
Customer Reviews:
The Books get Better and Better .......2006-09-28
This is the seventh novel in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, an informer and sleuth in Rome at the time of Vespasian. A series of books that have become hugely popular, so much so that the author is now at the forefront of historical mystery writers. It was probably a stroke of genius on her part to have novels that are extremely well researched and contain all the elements that would be and should be found in the Roman world of circa AD70, but to have a lead character who has the vocabulary of a present day New York cop. In this the seventh novel Falco and Helena Justina almost seem like long lost relations to the reader.
Time to Depart the title of this latest offering from Lindsey Davis is quite a poignant phrase. If a Roman citizen committed a crime they were not confined to prison but in the true sense of the words they were given time to depart from the Roman Empire and very few were ever allowed to return. Exile was considered to be the worst punishment possible for a Roman. Falco is on the quay at Ostia. "It is Time to Depart" for one of Rome's most famous criminals and Falco and his friend, Petronius are there to see that it actually happens.
In this book Lindsey Davis has allowed Falco to remain within the confines of his beloved Rome. Working with his oldest friend Petronius Longinus, Captain of the Aventine Watch. There has been an outbreak of robberies and murder in the city and Falco and Petro pool their resources to try to get to the bottom of them. At the same time Falco is looking for a new place to live for himself and Helena. He believes that in a few months time their old apartment will not be big enough for them
Marvellous Stuff!.......2003-02-09
In this book Helena and Falco are back in Imperial Rome. The stories seem to be more exciting when Falco's on his own turf. This story tells about rival gangs and gangsters in ancinet Rome. I don't know whether it's comforting or not to know that these types of bad guys have been around forever. Falco and his friend Petro get involved in a city wide manhut. Corpses turn up along the way. We see heists, murders, fraud and the whole gamut in this book. It's a rollicking good tale, and I can hardly wait for the next one.
The Too-Long Arm of the Law.......2002-05-24
The Rome of the Vespasian's time may be ancient to us, but it's home to Marcus Didius Falco, the emperor's informer and hero of "Time to Depart," the seventh book in this series by Lindsey Davis.
The departure in the title is that of Balbinus Pius, the godfather of Rome's underworld. Convicted of a capital crime, he is given "time to depart" under law to escape execution. Return to the city would mean death.
Shortly thereafter, the city is hit with a number of grandiose crimes: a market is emptied of valuable goods, the goldsellers are robbed in daylight, and, worst of all, men connected with Balbinus' trial are found tortured and killed. Falco finds himself in the center of these troubles in a number of ways. The goods he bought overseas on behalf of his father were among the stolen goods, and his best friend, Petronius Longus, was the officer who put away Balbinus. On behalf of the emperor, he must help his Petro determine who is seeking to replace Balbinus, as well as secretly determine who in the empire's version of a police force, may be on the take.
Falco is also troubled by domestic matters when he finds that his lover, the daughter of a Senator who cannot marry him under law, is pregnant. Apart from the legal troubles (which, irritatingly, are neither resolved, nor did it turn out as threatening as Falco thought), he also needs to find a home, both for his expanding family and a mongrel dog determined to join them.
One of the pleasures of visiting a historical world is in seeing just how different it is from our day. The world of ancient Rome did not have autos or phones, windows or locks on doors. A high-rise meant a five-story building. You didn't walk down certain streets, especially after night, or you had a retinue of club-wielding slaves that you hope will protect you when needed. Family links were not just optional, but vital, even when its members were undesirable (and Falco's extended family provide him with a great source of frustration, from his neer-do-well father to his lazy brothers-in-law). Graft, prostitution, murder, influence peddling and organized crime are not modern inventions by any means, but in a world measured on the human scale, these are take on an intimate, almost claustrophobic quality. Falco's world is smaller than ours, who can live in one city and drive to another to work, and "Time to Depart," for all its grand scope, is also an intimate novel.
It's also a longer novel than needed. When the crime wave breaks out and no suitable candidates for the role of instigator offered, it becomes apparent what's going on, and suspicions are confirmed after about 275 long pages. After that, events pick up speed, and the resolution of most of these threads are efficiently weaved in the book's remaining 125 pages, concluding with a wedding (not Falco's) which will either leave you shaking your head at the licentiousness of ancient Romans, or remind you of the receptions you attended.
Slow and uninvolving.......2001-10-11
I picked this up for some light reading after the recent tragedies, having read several of the author's previous books. This one is not up to par. The plot is uninvolving and a chore to get through. There is little wit and fewer surprises, and Falco seems uncharactistically heavy-hearted. Even the "Roman" details have gone missing; essentially, this mundane tale could have taken place anywhere. Looks like this series has run out of steam.
Davis + Falco >> Back on Track!.......2001-03-01
In the seventh Falco book Davis rebounds from the lackluster Last Act in Palmyra to give a wonderfully entertaining pot-boiler set almost completely in Rome. The story picks up with Marcus and Helena just returning from their adventures in Syria while at the same time, a criminal mastermind of Rome is being exiled due to the efforts of Marcus' best friend. Petronius Lucius. Davis takes the domino effect of what happens when an underworld figure is brought down and recreates it in Rome to great success. Sub-plots of police corruption, sex scandals, power plays, and other such matters are lifted from yesterday's headlines and used to great effect in this entry in the series. Of course, there are all manner of other complications thrown in the path of Marcus, just to keep things interesting. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of this entry is the exploration of Marcus and Petronius' friendship, which is laid out to greater scrutiny than ever before. A definite winner.
Product Description
multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
Average customer rating:
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Time to Depart
Lindsey Davis
Manufacturer: Mysterious Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Davis, Lindsey | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000K0IRSM |
Average customer rating:
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Time to Depart
Lindsey Davis
Manufacturer: ARROW (RAND)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Davis, Lindsey | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OHGBHK |
Product Description
Library edition on 12 cassettes... Put your work aside and spend a few entertaining hours in the crowded streets of Imperial Rome. The misadventures of disheveled private investigator, Marcus Didius Falco, will have you laughing out loud as he dashes through his latest dilemmas at breakneck speed. Balbinus, the kingpin of crime, has finally been convicted of a capital offense. But Roman law grants all condemned citizens a time to depart. As soon as Balbinus skips town, an extensive crime wave sweeps the city. Although Falco has been commissioned to discover the nefarious force behind it, he is also struggling with a more domestic puzzle. Hes got to find a bigger apartment for his patrician and pregnant girlfriend, Helena. Filled with humor and history, this lively series has earned world-wide acclaim for its author. Lindsey Davis won a Crime Writers Association Dagger award for her first Marcus Didius Falco mystery, Silver Pigs. Donal Donnellys sprightly narration perfectly captures Falco and the other busy citizens of Rome.
Average customer rating:
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Time to Depart. Signed
Lindsey Davis
Manufacturer: Century
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Davis, Lindsey | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000J1JGO6 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from American Journalism Review, published by Thomson Gale on August 1, 2005. The length of the article is 594 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: A great one departs.(John S. Carroll resignes from Los Angeles Times)
Author: Rem Rieder
Publication:
American Journalism Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 27
Issue: 4
Page: 8(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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Time to Depart
Lindsey Davis
Manufacturer: Century
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Davis, Lindsey | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000K2OJ78 |
Book Description
The incredible journey of Alcide Nikopol in the company of Horus of Hierakonopolis, the vengeful god and Jill Bioskop, the mysterious women with blue hair, from Paris to Berlin, Cairo to equator City. A unique mix of science fiction, anxiety, humor and strangeness.
Customer Reviews:
Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03
A story in the Heavy Metal by way of Aeon Flux vein.
This book contains three separate stories. Nikopol is a prisoner, returned to Earth after being in suspended animation for quite a long time.
You might expect a few problems after that, but not to be possessed by an ancient Egyptian god, for one.
Great Art, Lame Story.......2006-05-27
Originally published between 1980-92, the three books by Bosnian-French artist/writer/filmmaker Bilal that comprise this trilogy are collected here in a very nicely printed and bound volume. There's no doubt that they are a stunning achievement in illustration, however it has to be said that they are also a massive disappointment in storytelling. Set in a dystopian future in which the world appears to have reverted into some kind of city-state system, most of the first two books take place in Paris. The city's urban core belongs to the rich and powerful, and zones of increasing poverty and desperation radiate outward. Bilal's dense, detailed artwork is perfectly suited to capturing the dirty, grim cityscape, with crumbling buildings and train stations, ragtag people, and battered trains and planes. The fascist ruling elite are very distinctive, with uniforms and color schemes lifted straight from the Nazi palate and German iconography, accented by garish face paint rendering them horrorshow clowns.
The trilogy opens with a mysterious pyramid containing the pantheon of ancient Egyptian gods hovering over Paris. It seems they need fuel for their pyramid-craft and are negotiating with the fascist governor to supply them (gods who are hostage to fossil fuels, hmmmm) . It is these gods and their inscrutable machinations which drive the story (what story there is) forward, notably, the god Horus' desire to create a new world order. The vehicle for this is Nikopol, a man in stasis who pops out of a space capsule which falls to Earth over Paris (you'd think they'd have built in guidance systems to avoid populated areas). The body of this former dissident becomes the host to Horus, as the ancient god attempts to change the world.
This is all set up within the first part of the first book, and events grow rapidly more nonsensical as the story continues. Bilal has a gift for interesting notions, but is totally incapable of tying them together into any kind of coherent vision. Those who aren't adverse to impressionistic narrative may not mind this, but I found it pretentious and ultimately unsatisfying. There are plenty of funny little moments, such as the Egyptian gods playing Monopoly, or a little creature who lurks in a bar sink, cleaning glasses. There are also plenty of neat ideas about politics, such as the various turf wars in London between various ethnic groups, or the unholy industrial-religious alliance who rules over Equator City. But there are also many more bizarre elements which remain unexplained. The only robot in the book is a very capable AI-enabled construct who falls from the sky with Nikopol, why aren't there others? Why is the telepathic cat green? What are the gargoyle-like cherubs who are multiplying in Notre Dame all about? What's up with the giant egg bombardment in London? There are far too many scenes which don't seem to serve any narrative purpose, and seem to exist solely for Bilal's own amusement.
It also doesn't help that a lot of the dialogue and writing is really clunky and bad. This may be due to the translation, but I suspect that it's more to do with Bilal overextending himself. He's got an excellent visual style, but he should leave the writing to others -- for example, his collaborations with Pierre Christian are far better works. Overall, nice to look at, but not to actually read.
Note: Bilal wrote and directed a 2004 film called "Immortal" based on parts of the trilogy. It's almost entirely CGI , and according to the reviews I've read, visually stunning and totally incomprehensible.
Real surrealism.......2006-03-07
My favorite of the recently printed material in the DC/Humanoids fiasco. Pretty hard to describe, other than to say it swings back and forth between anxiety dream and nightmare, but retains a certain haunting beauty throughout. The movie Bladerunner owes much of its visual style to this collection, though it reminds me more of Fellini's Satyricon.
The hardback edition is also probably the one really good printing job in the whole DC/Humanoids line.
visually outstanding, but the story is rather insipid.......2005-12-03
Make no mistake about it: Bilal has a wonderful style as a graphic artist. I love to look at his art. Unfortunately, he did not stop there and tried to write a genuine sci-fi story.
I got this series when it first came out in France and was learning French, so had looked at the pictures and was intrigued to get into the story. Alas, dictionary in hand, I went through slowly and carefully and found it, well, stupidly unbelievable, with stilted dialogue, little hard sci-fi that reflected some current trend in reality (what can make sci-fi great literature), and silly characters with no resonance whatsoever.
So, if you just want to look at the images, I wd give this five stars - easily. Bilal's sense of scene and the atmosphere of decadence, the acuity of his characters' poses, and a mysteriousness that runs thru his work are wonderful. However, the writing is so bad as to be laughable, which a recent re-reading reinforced for me. Moreover, the Egyptian Gods are props and equally boring, without any dimension that makes them interesting in any quirky way.
Not recommended as a sci-fi experience, tho it is fun to flip thru as a visual extravaganza. Bilal should be an illustrator for a good writer.
Distinctive visual style.......2005-11-22
And I mean that on two levels. First, Bilal's comic style is distinctive. His palette has almost no saturated colors, except a few where you least expect them. His people - well, looking at most of his faces, you'd get the impression that he really doesn't like people very much. A few of the women aside, he uses many kinds of ugliness to express the many ways for someone to be worth avoiding. And, maybe it's just the French comic style, but his stories are baffling, if they're stories at all.
The second level, within the Bilal style, is the visual style created and sustained throughout this series. There are green cats, blue hair, and garishly painted faces. Those few features stand out against a world generally gray with decay, and apparently heading downward fast. Over this crumbling cityscape, the ancient Egyptians gods return for reasons unknown. So does Nikopol, exiled into deep-space hibernation decades ago, and also returned for reasons unknown. He enters into a dispute between the gods, unwillingly at first, then because he can't function function any other way.
That's about the last thing that holds together as a story. The rest of the book is more of a sequence of vignettes flying in close formation. Like Druillet's work from the `70s, it's probably best to sit back and let it all unroll before you. Fans of tight scripts (which I am, mostly) might not find much to cling to, but there are other ways to enjoy a comic.
//wiredweird
Book Description
This book arms you and your family with a weapon to defeat health-stealing viruses.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent information for all - protect yourself.......2000-07-07
As a doctor that uses natural medicines I found this book to be extremly interesting and useful. Dr. Stenger's previous book "Then Natural physician" is considered the bible of natural therapies. With "nature's virus killers" he goes into much greater detail about how viruses work and what we can do to protect ourselves from harm. I've already applied some of the suggested therapies with great success and reccomend that book to all of my patients. Bravo Dr. Stengler!
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