T-Shirt Red Usa Aboriginal Community Constable Occupations
This is a great shirt. Great gift. All TopExpressions products are made under strict quality controls. 100% heavyweight cotton, weight aprox 9oz.
Golden Constables/Furious Killer
List Price: $9.99
Used Price: $2.16
Evan’s Gate (Constable Evans Mysteries)
The village of Llanfair is consumed by the wedding plans of Evan Evans and his fiance Bronwen. He wishes they’d leave him in peace to build Bronwen the dream house he’s been promising her. When he finds a beautiful shepard’s cottage in need of renovation he’s thrilled, until he discovers the skeleton of a young child buried in the front yard. It’s decades old, but the discovery eerily coincides with a present day missing child case that’s suddenly taking up all of Evan’s time. Evan dives into both, and soon realizes that if he can solve the decades-old death he just might find a crucial insight into the whereabouts of the child missing in the present day.
List Price: $23.95
Used Price: $0.48
Customer Review: guess I’m the only one who hated it
This book was grotesque. And here is why - our constable training to be a detective, without any hardcore facts or scientific evidence, confronts a family about their missing daughter/sibling and informs them that in all likelihood he has found her body. He does this on a hunch and at a party! No forensics at this point has confirmed the identification. Personally, in any police force across the world he would have been quickly demoted and kicked to the curb for improperly approaching the family without going through his superiors. Bowen also has her facts all screwed up about how the police give information to the media - it’s done only by an appointed Public Relations officer, not one of run-of-the-mill detectives. Next they bring the family to identify a skeleton? Obviously this author knows nothing, absolutely nothing, about how the police force works. I am sure even in small Wales, they have procedure and I can make you a bet it goes something like this: when the girl went missing a file was formed giving any relevant, identifying information, including dental. If no dental, broken bones etc… then the only positive identification that would be accepted in this day and age would be DNA no matter how “expensive” Ms. Bowen thinks it is. In no way shape or form would the family be brought in to look at an unidentified skeleton and then trotted off to have their mouths swabbed for DNA! The police came across as idiots and unfeeling throughout the entire book. And Evan? Does he inform his fiancee that he found a body and then shows any second thoughts living in a house where a body of girl he used to know was found? Heck no. He’s too busy hanging out at the pub or running off to tell the girl’s family members they might be suspects. And it only gets worse from there. The side mystery of the newly missing girl is grossly apparent from page one when it is introduced. To compare this story to the works of Agatha Christie is laughable. All you have to do is read the statements of the people he interviews about the weather and you know from the beginning what is really happening. Extremely weak. Sorry folks go read Hamish Macbeth if you want something that will actually make you think instead of laugh or throw the book against the wall. P.S. and it’s an old wives tale that sucking your thumb gives you buck teeth - but this one of the methods of identifying a skeleton! MY GOD let’s hope I never die in Wales!
Customer Review: Light, maybe, but deep
Evan’s Gate Rhys Bowen I pick up one of Rhys Bowen’s “Evan” mysteries whenever I’m in need of a fairly quick relaxing read. I know I can rely on this writer, and this series, to give me a thoroughly professional job of writing. Plot, characters, pacing, setting - all are first rate, but unless you are reviewing the book you don’t even notice any of them, they’re that good. Evan, the Welsh policeman, bridges the two worlds, the ancient Celtic culture of Wales and the trendy life in the present day British Isles. He is most at home in the Welsh culture of yesteryear but his work and his life demand that he keep up with changing times. Many of us feel for him in this dilemma. In this story the apparent abduction of a little girl resonates with Evan as the discovery of another child’s body on his own land reminds him of another child who disappeared years ago in the area. As he searches for the present day missing child he wonders ever more deeply about the other child. Are there any links here? Could one of his childhood friends possibly be the murderer of one, or both little girls? As you relax and enjoy the gentle tongue-in-cheek humor of Rhys Bowen you are led into much deeper waters than you expected. Very gently she presents both sides of child custody battles. Evan’s quest to locate the missing child leads to his personal journey of self-discovery. The final resolution, Evan’s realization of who might be responsible for the child’s body found lying near his own new home, digs deeper than you might expect from an apparently light read. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. On the one hand it was an easy read, the settings well drawn, the characters vivid and true to life, the writing fresh. On the other hand it left me thinking more deeply. The writer appealed to her readers on several levels and left at least this reader satisfied. Not many light mystery novels accomplish so much.
The Blond Knight of Germany
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List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $16.47
Used Price: $9.79
Customer Review: Tha ace of aces !
Erich Hartmann’s life would be the perfect script for an Hollywood movie. In only 30 months on the eastern front, he shot down more planes than anyone else during World War two. Then, he was a political prisoner for the Russians during 10 long years. Only his enduring love for his wife Ursula gave him the force to survive this terrible ordeal. After all this, he rejoined the Luftwaffe and still served his divised country until 1970.Finally, he enjoyed a well deserved retirement until his death in 1993. Still, he had time to witness the reunification of his country.The book of Mr. Toliver is the definitive biography of the blond knight of Germany! There’s a few errors regarding the dates of some events but overall, it’s a fascinating story to read. Enjoy !
Customer Review: Hartmann’s score will never be surpassed
It is, perhaps, unamazing that Hartmann’s incredible lethality is lost in accolade’s to our far less dangerous allied pilots. Hartmann was, after all, the “enemy.” Still, it is a great shame that the greatest ace who ever lived has been virtually relocated to the dustbin of history. I know all the arguments: “Harmannn fought primarily against “inferior” Russions pilots; Hartmann’s victory numbers were inflated; Hartmann fought for years ad nauseum.” Well, we can’t be certain and, odds are great, that he didn’t shoot down a precise total of 352. Post WW II studies, indicate that fighter pilots overstate their kills by an average of fifty percent. There is, after all, the fog of combat with multiple pilots–who may be unaware of each other–ganging up on the same aircraft. One aircraft shot down is multiplied by the number of pilots shooting at it. There’s also the issue of unsubstantiated claims i.e. the aircraft “going down in flames” that miraculously survives. There’s also that oldest of human sins–false witness. Fighter pilots, eager for accolades, sometimes overstate their own prowess. Hartmann would seem to be free of most of these faults. In this reading, he has clearly forgotten most of the combats he participated in. This is entirely natural. No one could remember over 300 kills, no matter how dramatic. No one could remember the details. Make no mistake, a liar would “remember” them well. He could recite every emotion, every scene, every smell. Hartmann’s memory seems hazy which, in my opinion, confirms his incredible score. Was he the “greatest” ace of all? Who knows? Marseilles is is usually given credit for this distinction, which is fine. 157 western allies kills in less than a year was an incredible fete in and of itself. He was unfortunate enough to die in an accident else his score would have gone higher. Then again what is survival–and high scores–but a turn of fate? This introduces a more basic question. Were the Germans, overall, better fighter pilots than were the allies? After all, the top fifty German pilots are reported to have shot down over 10,000 aircraft whereas the top 50 western allied pilots shot down fewer than 2,000. Many critics argue that this was because most of Germany’s great aces fought on the Eastern Front. Others have said, with more justification, that the Germans weren’t rotated home. They fought until they died. I don’t know. Certainly the Germans weren’t and aren’t supermen but they did have a strong tradition of military excellence and order–yes–and of suicidal heroism. The most interesting part of this book, because it was burned into Hartmann’s brain, is the last which involves his confinement as a POW and ten years in a concentration camp. We learn of allied atrocities. German men, children and women, guarded by the Americans are turned over to the Soviets. The Russians immediately–before the Americans are even out of sight–start to rape and murder. By Nuremburg standards the Americans, especially those who ordered the turn-over [FDR], are equally complicit with the Russian rapists. The others “were just taking orders.” No matter. It happened and there was no punishment. Hartman, against all logic, remained in prison for ten years. It was unjust, to be certain, but this is exactly the same punishment the Soviets meted out to their own citizens unfortunate enough to be picked up as German slave laborers. They had been too long out of Soviet thought control and the Soviets needed a few years “to get their minds right.” Ron Braithwaite author of novels–”Skull Rack” and “Hummingbird God”–on the Conquest of Mexico
