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The Philosopher at the End of the Universe demonstrates how anyone can grasp the basic concepts of philosophy while still holding a bucket of popcorn. Mark Rowlands makes philosophy utterly relevant to our everyday lives and reveals its most potent messages using nothing more than a little humor and the plotlines of some of the most spectacular, expensive, high-octane films on the planet.

Learn about: The Nature of Reality from The Matrix, Good and Evil from Star Wars, Morality from Aliens, Personal Identity from Total Recall, The Mind-Body dilemma from Terminator, Free Will from Minority Report, Death and the Meaning of Life from Blade Runner, and much more. A search for knowledge about ourselves and the world around us with a star-studded cast that includes: Tom Cruise, Plato, Harrison Ford, Immanuel Kant, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigourney Weaver, Rene? Descartes, and Keanu Reeves.

Rowlands anchors his discussions in easily understood everyday terms and relates them in a manner easy to identify with. Interspersed with a ready joke or two, he wonderfully explains why those SciFi movies we love so much are much deeper than they appear to be on the surface. Mark Rowlands's entertaining and stimulating guide is perfect for anyone searching for knowledge of the world around us.

If Keanu can understand Descartes surely everyone can.

• Sales Rank: #557098 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.58" h x 1.06" w x 5.68" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
All the revelations of a college survey course on philosophy can be easily gleaned from a few science fiction films. At least that’s the premise of this thoroughly entertaining conversation starter by philosophy professor Rowlands, who explicates the musings of some of philosophy’s biggest stars within the context of cinema’s most enduring sci-fi hits. Under Rowlands’s guidance, these films shed light on such abstruse philosophical ideas as the "the problem of free will" and "death and the meaning of life." For example, the great lesson of Frankenstein is not that life can originate only from a divine creator, Rowlands says. Rather, the monster, a creature unable to choose his physical nature, his parents or his future, actually embodies the existential dilemmas explored by Heidegger, Sartre and Camus. In a particularly winning chapter on Star Wars, Rowlands compares the musings of Plato and Nietzsche, conjecturing that evil is not the absence of good but, rather, a contrast necessary in order for good to exist. (That is, Darth Vader is nothing without Obi-Wan and vice versa.) Rowlands recommends that readers watch each film before plunging into the corresponding chapter. And he makes no apologies for his "lowbrow" intellectual diversions into such crowd pleasers as Total Recall (a celluloid essay on memory theory and identity), Hollow Man (a meditation on moral vs. "prudent" choices) and The Matrix (a Cartesian daydream). Rowlands frequently injects his own thoughts with self-deprecating charm. His combination of humor and erudition produces an engaging read, delightful in its tone and accessible in its prose, that affirms the wisdom of numerous armchair philosophers who have declared that everything you need to know about life can be learned from the movies.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Irish philosopher Rowlands adopts a mildly smart-alecky persona for this Philosophy 101-type foray that uses "sci-fi" flickers to illustrate questions of meaning, knowledge, identity, free will, morality, and death. Frankenstein--actually, Kenneth Brannagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein-- serves to tease out the meaning of life as absurdity, a result of the discrepancy between interior and exterior perspectives on the self. Because of the same inside-outside clash--the rock, Rowlands says, on which all philosophical positions founder--certain knowledge proves elusive: see The Matrix. The mind-body problem (see The Terminator) and the concept of personal identity (Total Recall) come to ends similar, respectively, to those of the issues of meaning and knowledge. Only when the issue is "Why be moral?" are the bonds of rationality slipped; act according to your conscience, Rowlands, along with Nietzsche, counsels. While arguing by inference (they star in so many philosophically intriguing films) that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Keanu Reeves be hailed as actor-philosophers, Rowlands effectively covers an astonishing number of essential thinkers and positions, meanwhile betraying only individualist and antireligious biases. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“Rowlands succeeds in his aims remarkably well. Not only is each chapter a model of philosophical exposition, conveying philosophical ideas with exemplary verve and clarity, the book also manages to connect the philosophy to the movies in a natural and convincing way.... The irreverent style combines the folksy with the rigorous, the shallow with the deep – and philosophy needs all the humor it can get.”
- Times Literary Supplement (U.K.)

"Rowlands has a light touch. . . . Overall, this manages to be diverting without destroying too many brain cells, which is probably what you want from a holiday read."
- The Guardian (U.K.)

"Hugely entertaining. . . . Rowlands knows his stuff and marries some of the tougher philosophical arguments to the more accessible conduit of popular entertainment . . . enjoyable and illuminating."
- Waterstone's Books Quarterly (U.K.)

"The discussions are serious, but the tone of the book is irreverent; there are laughs for both newcomers and old hands."
- www.listology.com

"Some bits made me laugh out loud. . . . He has an excellent way of explaining complex ideas and terms. After reading quite a lot of Nietzsche (in my wayward youth especially) I think that Rowlands does a better way at explaining him than the man himself!"
- www.scifimoviepage.com


"Rowlands succeeds in his aims remarkably well. Not only is each chapter a model of philosophical exposition, conveying philosophical ideas with exemplary verve and clarity, the book also manages to connect the philosophy to the movies in a natural and convincing way…. The irreverent style combines the folksy with the rigorous, the shallow with the deep - and philosophy needs all the humor it can get." (Times Literary Supplement (U.K.))

"Rowlands has a light touch. . . . Overall, this manages to be diverting without destroying too many brain cells, which is probably what you want from a holiday read." (The Guardian (U.K.))

"Hugely entertaining. . . . Rowlands knows his stuff and marries some of the tougher philosophical arguments to the more accessible conduit of popular entertainment . . . enjoyable and illuminating." (Waterstone's Books Quarterly (U.K.))

"The discussions are serious, but the tone of the book is irreverent; there are laughs for both newcomers and old hands." (www.listology.com)

"Some bits made me laugh out loud. . . . He has an excellent way of explaining complex ideas and terms. After reading quite a lot of Nietzsche (in my wayward youth especially) I think that Rowlands does a better way at explaining him than the man himself!" (www.scifimoviepage.com)

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Terrific
By Cosmoetica
Most books on philosophy are a bore because a) unlike art, which is ideas in motion, philosophy is merely ideas (no matter how wonderful nor complex they may be), and b) most philosophers (who claim that title in primacy) are simply bad writers- the two most notable exceptions to that rule being Plato and Friedrich Nietszche. And one of the main reasons why most philosophers are bad writers is that they eschew the notion that good writing (or good art, for that matter) has to entertain, as well as enlighten. Often the medicine must be put into a sugar lump, or, the exact opposite way the modern publishing industry, and Hollywood studios, work.

A notable exception to this comes in the form of a 2003 book by philosopher Mark Rowlands, called The Philosopher At The End Of The Universe: Philosophy Explained Through Science Fiction Films, which takes its name from the Douglas Adams book, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, part of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. The book takes the novel approach of explaining some of the basic `big' problems of philosophy via some of Hollywood's biggest sci fi smashes. While Rowlands admits, early on, that he is no great wordsmith, in the sense of being able to craft prose that poesizes itself into the nooks and crannies of mind and soul (thus I will not be quoting from it, as I would merely be recapitulating the same things available in the Modern Library's European Philosophers From Descartes To Nietszche), his book is well written in the most prosaic sense. It is concise, cogent, and witty. There is precious little waste in the small book's 258 pages (excluding a glossary of handy philosophic terminology).

While I would have liked to have seen the inclusion of such sci fi classics as Star Trek, The Planet Of The Apes, Solaris, Forbidden Planet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, for all of those films and series raise serious philosophic queries, none of them has an overarching theme, the way some of the films Rowlands describes (decidedly lesser films, but better didactic examples of simply laid out problems) do, for they are necessarily more complex and multifarious, as well as being more grounded in purely scientific (or sociological), rather than just philosophic, conundra....Overall, the book entertains and uses the idea of the films in service to the idea, while sometimes the reverse might have been the better approach. Although he disdains arts films, one cannot help but wonder what Rowlands would make of some of the classics of Bergman, Fellini, Antonioni, Tarkovsky, Mizoguchi, Angelopoulos, and films that do not merely reflect a philosophic idea(l), but immanently employ it. Nonetheless, The Philosopher At The End Of The Universe is one of the best primers on the world of ideas that I've ever read, making a nutritious meal out of the junk food of Hollywood; i.e.- getting something from nothing, creatio ex nihilo. Oh, wait, now that's theology. One wonders the filmic references a book like that could make!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
A New Genre: Sci-Phi
By James E. Mahon
Let me begin by saying that I met the author, Mark Rowlands, on several occasions while he was teaching at University College, Cork, in Ireland. Let me also say that I was extremely jealous when I first came across this book in a bookshop in Cambridge, England. For years I have shown my students clips from science-fiction films such as "The Matrix" (re: Descartes's first Meditation) and "The Terminator" (re: machines without sensation -- Descartes again) and "Total Recall" (re: Descartes's first Meditation again, and Locke's memory theory of identity) when teaching my Modern Philosophy course. But Rowlands beat the rest of us to it and wrote a book in this vein -- an introduction to philosophy by way of popular science-fiction films.

This Winter Term (2005), for the second year in a row, I will be assigning this book for my Modern Philosophy course. (Last time I had to order the books from England; this time they are available in the US). In 2004 my students enjoyed the book tremendously and it proved very useful, especially the sections on Descartes (chapters 2 and 3 on skepticism about the external world and the mind-body problem -- "The Matrix" and "The Terminator"), Locke (chapter 4 on personal identity -- "Total Recall" and "The Sixth Day") and Hume (chapter 5 on free will -- "Minority Report").

The author, Rowlands, is known best for his work in the philosophy of mind and applied ethics (especially the ethical status of animals). I believe that the earlier parts of the book, dealing with philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology, are easily the best. The final parts of the book dealing with ethics -- chapter 6 on "Hollow Man" (why should we be ethical?), chapter 7 on "Independence Day" and "Aliens" (should the scope of ethics extend to aliens?) and chapter 8 on "Star Wars" (good vs. evil) -- are not quite up to standard. Somewhere in between, standard-wise, are the parts dealing with the meaning of life -- chapter 1 on "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" and chapter 9 on "Blade Runner".

The book is written primarily for undergraduates. It normally does a nice job of presenting philosophical ideas and problems in an appealing and direct fashion. You can tell that the author is part of the generation that grew up watching Star Wars and then Buffy, but has a D.Phil from Oxford and can write about supervenience or Doug Lenat's CYC project.

This makes it all sound far too serious and educational, however. The most important thing about this book is that it is funny. It's funny about philosophy, and it's funny about films too. Exhibit A: ""Minority Report"... also has Tom Cruise in it, not a man you normally associate with complex philosophical issues. I mean, scientology? Give me a break." (p. 121) Rowlands is nothing if not irreverent, and you will laugh out loud while reading this.

So far, I have found only a few factual errors (references are to the English Ebury Press 2003 paperback edition). Heidegger's "Being and Time" was published in 1927, not 1926 (p. 7). Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logico-philosophicus" was completed in 1918 and published in 1921, not published in 1916 (p. 53). And the Cameron Crowe movie starring Tom Cruise is "Vanilla Sky", not "Vanilla Skies" (p. 121). The only philosophical error I have found is that he refers to Occasionalism as "parallelism" (p. 72) (parallelism is a different position and can be espoused by a Dual Aspect theorist such as Spinoza). But that is just something discussed in a footnote.

I am usually not happy with Rowlands' quick resolutions of various matters in the final sections of his chapters. But it would be unfair to beat him over the head about this. I also find some of the humor to be too laddish for my taste. It's not particularly funny to say how much you love beer and imagined sex with Sarah Michelle Gellar, and it becomes painful to say it the n-th time. But these are minor criticims of a refreshing read, on the whole.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
See the Movies in a Whole New Light!
By J. Baynie
This was a great book.

It made me appreciate these movies on a whole new level, (with the exception of the Matrix which I now enjoy for the FIRST time!)

By applying philosophical concepts to movies the author brilliantly breaks them down into proverbial 'apples & oranges'. Be warned though... once you pick it up its hard to put down half way through a chapter! So allow the time!

If I had to have a criticism it would be that some (maybe one, two at most) chapters go a little into overkill... but hey! Better a little more than a little less.

Hope this guy writes another book along similar lines!

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• Sales Rank: #621656 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-01
• Released on: 2005-05-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.50" h x .79" w x 5.50" l,
• Binding: Paperback
• 345 pages

About the Author

CARRIE ALEXANDER is the award-winning author of many romance novels, including Hidden Gems and My Front Page Scandal.

PAMELA BRITTON is the award-winning author of On the Move, Playboy Prankster and Total Control.

New York Times bestseller SUSAN DONOVAN is a former newspaper journalist with degrees from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and has worked as a reporter in Chicago, Albuquerque, and Indianapolis. She lives in rural Maryland with her family and dogs.

LORA LEIGH is the author of Live Wire, Forbidden Pleasure, and Enigma, among many others. Writing is her passion, her peace, and her lifeline, and she can often be found daydreaming and plotting and planning with the varied characters that fill her imagination. When she isn't writing, she tends her flower gardens, watches horses romp outside her home, or spends time with the family and pets she fills her life with. She lives in the rolling hills of Kentucky.

Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
So, so stories. Kinda cheesy, but a decent beach read.
By Beth
I ususally love all of these authors, but these stories left a little to be desired. Definitely decent, but not a book I would necessarily recommend to friends... Stories were reeeaally hard to believe. I mean hey, we read these books so we can escape from our everyday boring lives (LOL!) but they need to be somewhat believable in order to be enjoyed...
The cover hooked me and I was a little disappointed once I started reading...

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Hot times....
By Amazon Customer
Enjoyable short stories that heat the blood. I liked every one, and will re-read them.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
5 Flags from Euro-Reviews
By Amazon Customer
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For more than 40 years, David Niven portrayed onscreen the impeccable values of a lost breed of English gentlemen - handsome, elegantly dressed, well-mannered, and utterly charming. Yet behind those twinkling eyes, Niven was often deeply unhappy. From the death of his father when Niven was five, his mother's neglect and the stepfather who loathed him, to the death of his beloved first wife and his volatile marriage to his second wife, tragedy and hardship were never far away. Using new material from Niven's private papers, manuscripts, unpublished stories and correspondence, Lord has written a touching account of one of Hollywood's greatest heroes.

• Sales Rank: #1271694 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-14
• Released on: 2004-11-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.94" h x 1.34" w x 5.98" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
How do you write a biography of a film star whose memoirs are already considered among the best the genre has to offer? Lord, former editor of London's Sunday Express, begins by pointing out that the tales in Niven's books were frequently exaggerated, if not outright fiction, then sets out to gently correct the record. The real story is filled with absorbing details, particularly when Lord recounts the young Niven's struggle to make it in Hollywood and his varied military career during WWII. But as the "authorized" biographer of Niven (1910–1983), Lord is often overly sympathetic to the actor, most notably when the subject turns to "Niv's" second marriage to a Swedish model. Lord and his interviewees repeatedly attack the wife for alcoholism, extramarital affairs and an allegedly ridiculous desire to be an actress, while shrugging off Niven's constant womanizing and heavy drinking. Other unsavory aspects of his personality, like his treatment of his book publishers, are similarly glossed over. It's worth noting, however, that an overwhelming number of Niven's films are described as among his worst; even The Pink Panther is surprisingly dismissed as "dreadfully unfunny." Yet such harsh critical assessments do little to diminish Niven in his biographer's eyes, and the star's reputation as a lovable raconteur remains untarnished, even by the truth. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
British Praise for NIV:

"It is impossible to read this book without thinking what fun Niven must have been. Lord writes about his subject with great affection [and] it is an amusing yet moving story" - Sunday Times
"A major new biography" - Daily Mail

"A fresh, revealing and poignant portrait of a brave and brilliant man" - The Stowe Bulletin
"A compelling account" - Dublin Evening Herald
"You're going to have a hell of a time...Compulsive readability" - Literary Review

About the Author
Graham Lord is the author of many bestselling biographies (on James Herriot, Dick Francis, Jeffrey Bernard, and Arthur Lowe) as well as several novels, all of which are published in the UK. He is a former editor of the Sunday Express in London and has also written regularly for The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and the Daily Mail. He currently lives in France and is working on his latest book, a biography of John Mortimer.

Most helpful customer reviews

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Does this mean the moon's balloon has popped?
By R. Gregory
After reading Niven's two autobiographies in the 70s I wanted to spread the word that he was among the most likable movie stars who ever lived, a civilized sex-maniac who also couldn't help being urbane, loyal, thoughtful, generous, forgiving, bright, witty, tasteful and who therefore was obliged to know and to become eternal friends with just about everybody that mattered during Hollywood's Golden Age.

This new Lord biography says goodbye to most of that, revealing in a good-natured way, as any honor-bound hero-worshipper would, that Niven didn't tell the whole story, neglecting to haave mentioned that his second wife was a second-rate drunk with the kind of bad taste only the red states would brag about, that his fidelities went just so far, that his rigorously high standards of honesty often had to plummet, that his memory of events and headliners from the 1930s and 40s was not unerring, that he could be a bastard just as comortably as the next guy, that he often mistook panache for talent and that charm is not always commensurate with happiness.

Still, Niven, on balance, is as good an example as you'll find of long-gone Hollywood elegance and that must count for something---at least perhaps to the world's few remaining sentimentalists..

If Clark Gable, who could spot a phony a mile off, thought that Niven was worth admiring (a few gaping holes in his character notwithstanding), so can I.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Good read
By J. Carey
The author obviously likes his subject and treats him well in the book but since I have read both of Niven books some of this was a rehash of that. But it does offer some new information and a better insight into Mr Niven who was quite a character off screen as well as on. I can recommend this to anyone who likes the movies and David Niven. It is well written and hard to put down once you get started.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Definite miss
By motormouth65
Singularly disappointed with this book. Just a collection of quotations, "corrections" and disclaimers that really tells me nothing about the man, David Niven, and far too much about minor characters in his life. I read "Moon is a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses" years ago when they first came out. They reflected the wit and humor of Nivens' public persona and made for a very entertaining read. This book, however, was, to be blunt, a real yawner. I realize there was a darker side to Niven but who in this world DOESN'T have a darker side? I prefer to keep my image of David Niven as he presented himself. I will always remember his comment as he hosted the Oscars and a streaker ran behind him: (paraphrasing here) "Some people can't resist displaying their shortcomings" and kept right on with his presentation. That kind of cool class spoke volumes.

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^^ Download The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman: Including The Brother, by Flann O'Brien

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The Various Lives of Keats and Chapman: Including The Brother, by Flann O'Brien

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"Along with Joyce and Beckett, [Flann O'Brien] constitutes our trinity of great Irish writers. And who is funnier?"
- Edna O'Brien

The cream of Flann O'Brien's comic tour-de-force, the Keats and Chapman stories began in O'Brien's column in the Irish Times. He called them "studies in literary pathology" -- monstrously tall tales that explore the very limits of the shaggy dog story. As one critic wrote, they will accumulate the fantasy to the point of sadism, and then cash home with the flat, desolating pun.

"The Brother" is another of O'Brien's funniest creations. He is the archetypal Dublin man -- an authority on every one of mankind's ills, from the common cold to the court case. Forget the experts, The Brother knows best.

"The best comic writer I can think of."
- S. J. Perelman

• Sales Rank: #3241228 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Released on: 2005-01-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.18" h x .81" w x 5.34" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
Flann O'Brien is the pseudonym of Brian O'Nolan, one of Ireland's great modernists. His novels include At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman and The Poor Mouth. He died in Dublin, 1966.

Most helpful customer reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
The Brother is universal human self-pride
By Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
This is the script of a one man show. The originality is not in the stories themselves that can be found in other writings by Flann O'Brien, but first of all in the language which is systematically colloquial Irish English. Yje, we have the situation that is a cliché about Ireland: It all takes place in the snug of a pub, downing stouts or plains. But this cliché is not gratuitous. It is thrown at the face of the Irish audience to show them how they look to outsiders. They look soused all the time. But it is a cliché that is untenable more than five minutes. And does it concern only the Irish?

Since this is a one man show it is composed of several stories and one is that of a drunkard who stops drinking one day but is put back on the beer road by his own wife and he ends up really badly and the conclusion is the introduction of Jem Casey, the working class poet who will tell you that in life there is nothing but a pint of plain, a poetry of the beginning of the 20th century when street singers were singing songs of that type at street corners. That's how Edith Piaf started. But once again it is derisive, overdone, exaggerated but it is also self-critical and directed at the Irish audience. Funny isn't it? But funny ah ah? Probably not. And does it concern only the Irish?

Some of the stories are very good indeed and the telling of them makes them even more dynamic than they could be in the novels.

We can wonder who the Brother is. Some kind of impersonation of the standard average median normal Irishman. If you can survive that kind of thrashing you get from that Brother, you have some eventual possibility to get back to sanity. Otherwise you are dead, body and soul and you have been swallowed by the Sea Cat. Good riddance. But does it concern only the Irish?

This script is full of real pearls and gems at times, here and there, and I do not want to list them all.

What is more interesting to reflect on is the use and value of derision and even self-derision. This derision is a common rhetorical means used by many. It has often been called black humor and Daniel Defoe is a great master of it. James Joyce has some of it. Yeats does not play on derision. He is too dramatic, even tragical in his vision of the future. Mark Twain is just depicting grotesqueness via exaggeration and it is not even derisive, just entertaining. Derision in this present particular case is directed at the Irish themselves and its aim is curative: let you laugh at yourselves and you may be able to change the clichés about you by being different, by reforming yourselves. The tiger is definitely an animal that cannot cultivate self-pity and tear-shedding pity-begging. But does it concern only the Irish?

Exaggeration then is not there to just make you laugh, or just to make you feel sad, nostalgic about the quaint past that is disappearing so fast we do not even have enough time to see its red rear lights. Exaggeration is there to amplify the message. It is a loudspeaker and a microphone to make sure you can hear and understand the message. It is high time to leave the past of colonization, frustration, humiliation that produced the over-famous starving, alcoholic, poor Irishman who believes his fate is to be a true Gaelic chap in this cultivated poverty, proud violence, even arrogant alcoholism and it is high time to develop the other Irishman, that of the future destiny that is hardly imaginable and definitely invisible in that fate: the destiny to be a champion long-jumper, a real conqueror of fear, riches (and treasure, that of Mael Duin?) and creativity.

Flann O'Brien then goes beyond Mael Duin. Mael Duin at the end of his voyage could only become a monk locked up in his religion and in his total resignation that life is god-given, both bright sides and dark sides, and that suffering is part of human life. Flann O'Brien is not locked up in a narrow religion that closes the sky but his positive message is to be found in the self-derision directed at the absurdity of any belief that considers the future is the same as the present which is the same as the past. Time never stops and then every moment is different and can be better, if we stop being locked up in the Murphy-Kelly syndrome: Murphy kills Kelly but transforms himself into Kelly and he will hand as Kelly for the murder of Murphy who has never been murdered.

The last image of this one-man show is that of a German locked up in ternary patterns and ends up killing himself in a ternary manner leaving a ternary suicide note. This German is anyone in the world who can only feel self-pity for their umbilical cords that were cut off so long ago. It is high time we learn how to walk and live without an umbilical cord, physical, ethical or cultural.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
HUMOUR
By w. alan west
Excellent writing, -- however, be prepared to be be let down, or at a loss to know what the punch-line actually means, therefore correlated with the short story.
Should you be up to date with the English/Irish grammar of the time, -- no problems; -- should you not be, -- work to be done.

4 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
thin stuff
By another reader
If you loved Poor Mouth, you may well be seriously disappointed by this collection, which consists of several very short sketches, each ending in an outrageous pun. The pun would be funny in a pub to someone who had drink taken, but not here.

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# Download A Ghost in the Machine: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Mystery, by Caroline Graham

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When a bloody, pulverized body is found lying beneath the rustic timbers of an authentic torture device so vicious and complicated as to be blood-curdling, there's sufficient unrest in tiny Forbes Abbot to call in Chief Inspector Barnaby. Was Dennis Brinkley done in by crooked business partners, a teenage seductress, a couple of would-be publishers who've just inherited--and then lost--millions, or perhaps by tired, timid little Benny Fraye, who wouldn't hurt a fly--would she?

Barnaby will soon find out just who set in motion the gruesome machine that crushed the unfortunate victim. Caroline Graham's delightful cozy village mysteries, which inspired the continuing Midsommer Murders series starring Inspector Barnaby on A&E Television, have long been fan-favorites; A Ghost in the Machine is sure to cement her reputation as one of the best crime writers in the mystery business today.

• Sales Rank: #949780 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Ingredients: Example Ingredients
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.98" h x 1.23" w x 5.36" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 375 pages

From Publishers Weekly
With its focus on a dozen or so richly diverting characters, British author Graham's well-plotted ninth novel featuring Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (The Killings at Badger's Drift, etc.) has more in common with Dickens than with Conan Doyle. After old Carey Lawson's natural death, her nephew Mallory Lawson, whose idealism has trapped him in a teaching job he can't tolerate; his wife, Kate, who nurses a dream of publishing good books; and their willful, spoiled daughter Polly share in a legacy that will transform their lives. Carey's amiable, competent financial consultant and executor, Dennis Brinkley, collects huge and ancient weapons of war. The indecisive, diffident manner of the late woman's companion, Benny Frayle, hides a steely core of determination. Other striking characters include a medium who's a frustrated actress and her strange, abused daughter; a fortune hunter whose rich wife turns out to be no bargain; and a childless woman who finds an unusual answer for her longings. The first unnatural death occurs well into the book and doesn't become a murder investigation till halfway through. Those impatient with the initial lack of action will be well rewarded when the redoubtable Barnaby finally starts to sort things out. FYI: This series inspired the Midsommer Murders series starring Inspector Barnaby on A&E Television.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* If Agatha Christie, Stephen King, and Maeve Binchy decided to collaborate, this might be the book they would write--a sort of police procedural, murder mystery, horror story, and English-village melodrama all in a single cover. It's an engaging, beguiling, surprising story with wonderfully drawn characters, laugh-aloud humor, sinister twists, and a splendidly multifaceted plot. Mallory Lawson has little hope of escaping his miserable teaching job at a London public school. Then his aunt Carey dies, leaving him a generous inheritance along with her lovely house in quaint Forbes Abbot. Mallory is delighted--he can finally flee his teaching job, and his wife, Kate, can fulfill her dream of starting her own publishing house. Life will be sweet, right? Wrong. The Lawsons haven't even settled into their new home when Aunt Carey's financial advisor is brutally murdered, and shortly afterward, a local medium dies in mysterious circumstances. Enter caustic police inspector Barnaby, who has experienced plenty of strange cases in his career but none so strange as this one. Before the case is solved, readers have been introduced not only to the victims, the heroes, and the bad guys but also to an entire village full of delightfully eccentric characters whose stories are nearly as enthralling as the murder itself. No surprise that Graham's Inspector Barnaby series has been made into a TV series in the UK. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
'[A GHOST IN THE MACHINE] allows us to admire the novelist's wit and her ability to create exasperatingly real characters before getting down to the policing' Sunday Telegraph, 28/3/04 -- Sunday Telegraph 20040328

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
If You Like Midsomer Murders...
By S. Campbell
This is a comparative review of books to the tv series. I'm a big fan of the "Midsomer Murders" tv series (now in it's 19th season). I wanted to read a few of the books. This one was really good. The characters are what you expect and the village(s) just as murderous and secretive as the show. I have not read the titles which are in the show series. I wanted to read something that I had not seen first. DCI Tom Barnaby is similar to John Nettles characterization of him. Sgt. Troy is different, more fleshed out in some respects, but less goofy and somewhat less likeable. I enjoyed this thoroughly. Entertaining, quirky, and twisty. Great for summer reading.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Skip to about half way through the book!
By R. Slater
"Slow starting" is an understatement. It takes half the book before the first person is done away with. Although some of Graham's books start this way, this book is way over the top. The first part is a semi-interesting character study of people in the typical small English village, but hardly a mystery. She takes WAY too long to get the story set up. As this is #7 in the series, I wonder if she was getting bored with Barnaby. Interesting characters but not particularly a good mystery.

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful.
Haunting and funny!
By Bradley Friedman
What a marvelous book this was! The cover of the novel likens Caroline Graham to Agatha Christie - a comparison given to all the finer female British mystery authors, even when their books are nothing like Christie's. The small village settings here do resemble those in the Miss Marple stories, but there is a modern sensibility and a fine nasty streak in Graham's work that is anything but cozy. In a way, this latest in the Barnaby/Troy series is more Dickensian to me than Christie-like. In some ways, it's barely even a mystery. Yes, there is a murder - two, in fact - and yes, there are a small group of suspects, one of whom is definitely responsible for those murders. But the mystery is secondary to the wonderful depiction of these characters and to the charmingly creepy village life in Forbes Abbot. The first murder doesn't occur till late, and yet I never once felt impatient. The second victim and her family are not introduced until the middle of the book, but Graham's marvelous way with characterization made them so compelling that I accepted them into the circle immediately. I consider it high praise indeed that I could have enjoyed this story without the murders...as a comedy of manners, in and of itself.

One could almost do without Barnaby and Troy here as they appear very late in the story. (Christie used to do this occasionally with Poirot and Miss Marple, as in THE MOVING FINGER and THE CLOCKS.) But I'm so glad when they arrive because their relationship is hysterical. They are a bit different than their counterparts on the TV series (which, by the way is, in my opinion, the best detective series to come out of Great Britain!), but they have a wonderfully, sort of snarky affection for each other. Their investigation this time around isn't particularly clever, but then A GHOST IN THE MACHINE is more about the effects of events on the characters themselves than on the parceling together of clues and alibis. Watching these people change and grow as a result of their own actions and the actions of others was compelling. I particularly loved the Lawsons and their horrible daughter Polly, whose metamorphosis is highly dramatic but inherently realistic. Even the smallest of characters never gets short shrift. You feel as if you know every one of these people and have spent a wonderful time in their presence.

I would never attach a spoiler to a mystery review (or to any novel, for that matter), but I must say a word about the ending. For the final page to this book contains one of the most startling surprises I have ever read in a book of this type, and it made me put down the novel with a chill and a smile. Let's just say that Graham stretches and switches around the concept of genre here. Otherwise, my lips are sealed.

I suppose I'm preaching to the choir here, but if one stranger happens upon this review and thereafter decides to read the Barnaby mysteries, then I will be satisfied. I fear that Graham will retire from writing, and we will be without new adventures. At least the TV shows are continuing and are being made available to those of us in the States on DVD. I highly recommend them as well.

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Ah, Treachery!, the last novel Thomas wrote before his death, tells the story of one Captain Edd "Twodees" Partain, drummed out of the Army and hounded by rumors of his involvement in a secret operation in El Salvador. Twodees gets hired on to help a fundraiser for the "Little Rock folks" recover funds that were stolen from an illicit stash used to smooth over problems and pay off hush money. Meanwhile, Partain is involved in a storefront operation called VOMIT (Victims of Military Intelligence Treachery) trying to defend former intelligence operatives such as Partain from those who are trying to cover up the past permanently.

• Sales Rank: #1767933 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Released on: 2004-03-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.50" h x .66" w x 5.50" l, .81 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312327040
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

From Publishers Weekly
Past and present sins involving covert army operations and shady campaign financing give rise to murder in this sprightly new suspense thriller from two-time Edgar winner Ross (Voodoo, Ltd.). In 1989, army major Edd "Twodees" Partain took part in an illegal operation in El Salvador that his former comrades now want expunged from the record. Meanwhile, top political fund-raiser Millicent Altford needs to recover $1.2 million in stolen under-the-table contributions. These two scenarios dovetail as Altford engineers to have Partain, who was drummed out of the service for assaulting a superior officer, fired from his job in a Wyoming gun store in order to hire him to "ride shotgun" as she goes after the loot. As their associates begin meeting violent, sometimes shockingly brutal, ends, Partain and Altford seek to flush out their enemies (among whom military honchos figure prominently), recover the money and keep themselves alive. Set primarily in L.A. and D.C., Thomas's yarn reaffirms his expertise at the black-humored political thriller, from the sarcastic title and swift pacing through the acronym for a veterans' outfit (Victims of Military Intelligence Treachery) to Altford's offhand remark that "Little Rock" is "real, real grateful for the two hundred and fifty-four thousand I bundled up for them, not the party, just three days after the New Hampshire primary." As usual with Thomas, the plotting is intricate and nearly as difficult to follow as that of his fellow iconoclast Carl Hiaasen, but readers willing to stick with his unpredictable, sometimes loopy story line will surely enjoy the ride. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
"Ah, treachery! One of history's favorite shortcuts." Now there is a signature Ross Thomas line. Look closely, and you'll see all the ingredients: a special mix of world-weary resignation and bitter irony; an implied sense of knowing a whole lot more about how things work than you or I do; and a nice, healthy dollop of mischievousness. This is Thomas' twenty-fifth novel, and it offers a return to one of the author's favorite haunts: Washington, D.C., and the treacherous (there's that word again) double-dealing of an assortment of behind-the-scenes types from both Capitol Hill and the Pentagon. It's early 1993, just prior to the Clinton inauguration, and cashiered army major Edd (with two d's; hence his nickname, Twodees) Partain finds himself riding shotgun for political fund-raiser Milicent Altford, who has lost 1.2 million in very soft money and fears for her life. What follows is a typical Thomas plot of labyrinthine complexity involving dirty doings in Central America (including the "disappearing" of Twodees' Salvadoran wife), the deadly cover-up attempt of two nasty army intelligence types, and the counterintelligence activities of a group calling itself VOMIT (Victims of Military Intelligence Treachery). As usual, the various plot elements are forged into an architecturally stunning whole, and the interplay between characters leaves us wishing we could, just once, see the world as clearly and react as shrewdly as a Ross Thomas hero. Bill Ott

Review
“It's good to see the world again through Ross Thomas' cool, clear gaze.” ―Los Angeles Times

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Thomas at his best!
By Writetrak
Ross Thomas left us with twenty novels- each uniquely entertaining and original- a rare commodity these days. Ah, Treachery! is perhaps one of his best. But then, I suppose that's like saying this well polished gem shines better than the others in the proverbial light. Then again, maybe it's just a matter of perspective.
These days the 50s are making a comeback in entertainment so perhaps you need to start with The Cold War Swap and let the Thomas books bring you up the mid-90s with a collection of rare and interesting characters, unique plot twists, and the kind of writing that makes a morning commuter ride seem far too short.
Take your time getting to Ah, Treachery! Edd 'Two-dees' Partain will be waiting for you. No need to introduce yourself. He knows what you're after.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Darkly funny with great characters and engaging dialogue.
By Michael G.
Millicent Altford of Los Angeles is a Democratic Party insider of long standing. A $1.2 million slush fund has been stolen from right under her nose and she is determined to get it back. To assist her in this task, she hires an ex-Army major by the name of Edd "Twodees" Partain.

Meanwhile back in Washington, D.C., two active Army officers, a colonel and a general, plot to have Mr. Partain rubbed out. You see, he has information linking them to some very serious crimes committed in El Salvador some 3 or 4 years earlier.

Ah, Treachery! has a lot in common with many other Ross Thomas novels. Deliciously bizarre characters, intricate plotting with an abundance of surprising twists and very engaging dialogue are all here, just as we've come to expect from Thomas.

Darkly funny with a body count that steadily increases as the narrative unfolds, Ah, Treachery! is a very entertaining book. The dialogue is exceptionally good and there's plenty of it. I particularly enjoyed a scene where Millicent Altford tells the political facts of life to a newly elected Congressman and a wet behind the ears subcommittee counsel.

This is the last novel Thomas wrote and it is a very fitting finale to an illustrious and prolific writing career. Age did not diminish his literary prowess one bit.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Ross Thomas is addicting
By Catherine A. Murau
After having read 5 of Ross Thomas' books, I keep picking up another one. He writes with such style and wit that one wishes one could meet the characters. But perhaps they would be just too cool for us regular folks. His male characters are smart and well-dressed and tough. His female characters are smart and well-dressed and tough. "Ah, Treachery!" is an excellent story about intrigue and the US military and second chances and revenge and impeccable taste in dress and getting the girl.

Read a Ross Thomas novel. You won't regret it.

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Jamie DeBroux's boss has called a special meeting for all "key personnel" at 9:00 a.m. on a hot Saturday in August.

When Jamie arrives, the conference room is stocked with cookies and champagne. His boss smiles and tells his employees, "We're a cover for a branch of the intelligence community. And we're being shut down." Jamie's boss then tells everyone to drink some champagne, and in a few seconds they'll fall asleep---for good. If they refuse, they'll be shot in the head.

Escape is not an option. Jamie's boss has shut down the elevators and rigged the fire towers with chemical bombs. Panic sets in, chaos erupts, and no one is sure whom to trust. Jamie quickly realizes that there's only one way he's ever going to see his family again: the hard way.

Severance Package shows author Duane Swierczynski at his thrilling best.

• Sales Rank: #968052 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-27
• Released on: 2008-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.50" h x .64" w x 5.50" l, 1.00 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 263 pages

About the Author
Duane Swierczynski is the author of The Blonde (St. Martin's Minotaur) and the writer for the monthly Marvel Comics series Cable. He was the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper, and almost never wanted to kill his employees.

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of this violent and intense noir and espionage hybrid from Swierczynski (The Blonde), David Murphy, the CEO of a Philadelphia financial company, summons his seven staffers for an important Saturday meeting, where he informs them that the business is being shut down, and that unfortunately he has to kill them all. Every escape route from the 36th-floor office has been sealed off or rigged with lethal sarin gas. Suddenly, mousy Molly Lewis pulls out a gun and puts a slug in Murphy's head. The resulting chaos sets off a panicked scramble, as the reader gradually learns that the business is a front for a covert intelligence group called CI-6. Thousands of miles away in Scotland, two men monitor Molly Lewis, who's actually a highly trained Polish operative named Ania Kuczun, as she performs her own private audition, which involves the systematic elimination of her co-workers using a truly imaginative array of methods. This action fest moves swiftly to its darkly satisfying conclusion. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“[A] kinetic story, which never stops moving...turbocharged entertainment.” ―Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

“Swierczynski writes a brand of thriller whose pacing forces us to reexamine our casual use of the word breakneck...This is essentially one long action scene that begs for the next Tarantino to direct. But if that sounds like faint praise, it isn't: there are both enough cliche killers and comedy to make us raise two thumbs up. If you want your thrillers to be, well, thrilling, pop a big bowl of corn--you won't leave your seat until the end.” ―Booklist

“The best word to describe Swierczynski's latest thriller is frenetic, and even that is likely an understatement.” ―Library Journal

“Fans of crime fiction will find Swierczynski's latest offering to be a guilty pleasure of unparalleled magnitude. With pedal-to-the-metal pacing, characters who appear to be meek cubicle dwellers a la 'Office Space' but are really cold-blooded, black-ops killers, and enough gut-churning violence to make a Quentin Tarantino movie look like a Disney musical replete with singing candlesticks and teapots, the dark, twisted energy in this novel is palpable.” ―The Chicago Tribune

“A hot shot of adrenaline straight to the neural plexus.” ―Joe Schreiber, author of Chasing the Dead and Eat the Dark

Most helpful customer reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Go out and read all his books as soon as possible. You will not be disappointed.
By Bookreporter
Fans of hard-boiled mysteries have witnessed a rebirth of the genre in recent years. Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime has introduced a new generation of readers to the long-forgotten works of pulp masters, as well as to exciting new writers such as himself and Christa Faust.

At the same time a new generation of excellent writers has reinvigorated the noir genre. Ken Bruen, Jason Starr and Megan Abbott have established themselves as mystery writers we will be enjoying for decades to come. Now add to the list Duane Swierczynski, former editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper. SEVERANCE PACKAGE is his fourth novel. And if you have not read him yet and you love mysteries and action, you are in for a treat. Swierczynski, like the above mentioned writers, is destined to become a hard-boiled master.

Swierczynski writes noir, but it's far from ordinary. This is noir on steroids, as his books are filled with nonstop action and mayhem. There is not a wasted word in his lean, adrenaline-driven prose. And nobody working the field today can build suspense as well. Read SEVERANCE PACKAGE and you will immediately want to seek out THE BLONDE, his novel from 2006 that was a unique modern reworking of the film noir classic DOA.

SEVERANCE PACKAGE starts with seven employees being called into a Saturday "managers' meeting" of Murphy, Knox and Associations, a somewhat mysterious "financial services" firm located on the 36th floor of a Philly skyscraper. It is a sweltering hot summer day, and the employees react the same way you would at having to get up, get dressed and go into work on a Saturday morning.

It gets worse. They are ushered into a conference room filled with cookies, three cartons of orange juice and four bottles of champagne. So far so good. Then their boss, David, tells them they are on "official lockdown." The phones don't work. Nobody can leave the building since the elevator has been fixed to bypass the floor, and the fire exits have been rigged with sarin gas bombs. Whoa!

They are then told they are being let go from both work and the planet. They have a choice: drink the champagne and orange juice, which is poisoned and will kill them in seconds, or be shot in the head. It turns out that the company is some sort of super secret rogue CIA-type outfit set up to disrupt the bank accounts of terrorists or just about anybody else they feel like messing with. And now the operation is being terminated, so to speak.

This is why noir is great fun. You might think you have a lot of bad days at work. Not like this.

The firm's second-in-command, Molly, then pulls a coup by shooting David in the head, and we are off to the races. It seems the entire 36th floor has cameras all over the place, and Molly is under the impression that she is auditioning for a new job in the super-secret spy agency. And, indeed, events on the floor are being monitored by two mysterious fellows in Edinburgh, Scotland, 3,500 miles away. Who are they?

Swierczynski has propelled us into a noir nightmare where nothing is what it seems and everybody is trapped in hell. Of the seven employees, only one is not a spy or covert op of some sort and is truly innocent. This PR man, Jamie DeBroux, is a former newspaper writer who needed this boring job to support his new child. The writer, in other words, as gullible dupe. There's a twist. Jamie is about to be seriously messed with.

Swierczynski's greatest creation here is Molly, a red-headed killing and torture machine who is so bad she is good. All the current summer crop of cinema fictional superheroes, including Batman himself, would run and hide under the bed if they ever met Molly. Think of Linda Fiorentino from The Last Seduction and imagine her being a million times more ruthless and violent. That's Molly.

But Molly, who may not be who she claims either, has a soft side. She is, after all, trying to provide for her ailing mother and ventures to the dark side out of unrequited love and a desire never to be a victim again. She's nuts, but a hell of a woman.

And she never loses control. Nor will she ever give up. But still, she finds time in the middle of a small war to stop and fix her hair. "The pain didn't matter though. Her appearance did," Swierczynski writes. After all, on job interviews: "A battered face would not impress her employers." You should not root for her, but you do. Molly is the ultimate guilty pleasure.

SEVERANCE PACKAGE is not for the squeamish. People are hung upside down out of 36th story windows. Others get sarin gas blasts to the face. Some suffer bullets to the head and other body parts or are attacked with razor blades, pix axes, saps, you name it. The blood flows. And yet, somehow the strongest manage to survive and fight on, at least for awhile. If you like action, you will love this book. It is a wild ride but also a fun read that keeps pages flying past.

Swierczynski is great at keeping the suspense building to a boil. Readers have no idea how this story will end. It is not clichéd. And in true noir fashion, he provides twists galore that will keep you guessing even beyond the last page. In his nightmare world, people fight and die, even if they don't know exactly why or for whom. Few are truly innocent, and heaven help those who are.

Noir was born in a time of uncertainly in the mid-20th century. Now we live in another uncertain time in a new century and noir is back, thrilling us with its bleak vision. Swierczynski is one of the up-and-coming stars of the mystery world. Go out and read all his books as soon as possible. You will not be disappointed.

--- Reviewed by Tom Callahan

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Fast, Furious, Crazy Fun!!!
By Don In Fremont
The world has been waiting (well, MY world anyway) for Duane Swierczynski's follow-up to the 2006 standout The Blonde for a long damn time, and it's finally here, in the form of Severance Package. Was it worth the wait?

Oh, yeah.

Severance Package is a rocket-fueled story of spy vs. spy, and then some, spanning continents as well as consciousness.

It opens with a fairly incidental death by potato salad. Really good, we're told, potato salad. From that point, the story gets unusual.

Right away we are thrust into the world of Murphy & Knox, a financial consultation firm run by one David Murphy. He's called a meeting for Saturday morning. As you can learn from the book flap, Murphy then informs his underlings that the company is, in fact, a front for an intelligence operation, and due to circumstances, it's become necessary for them all to die. He's been kind enough to provide Big Sleep-y time mimosas, or take a bullet in the head. Very considerate.

What Swierczynski has done here, with amazing skill, is create a multi-focused narrative of terror and laughs. The violence is by turns stunning and hilarious, the characters become our friends and we feel for every single one of them as they take their various routes to, well, wherever. It's these characterizations that elevates Severance Package beyond what it could have easily been--a set-piece extravaganza designed for commerce. Even the secondary characters are fully-formed, giving full weight to the proceedings.

If there's a nominal hero, it's Jamie DeBroux, the writer of the group. (Hmm.) He's our everyman, deposited by a playful God into some kind of apocalypse, when all he wants to do is get home to his family. Swierczynski has done a great job of letting us share his view, filtered by shock, then fear, then a comic determination, of the world exploding around him.

But Severance Package is RULED by Molly Lewis. Assistant to David Murphy, she promptly turns the operation on its axis, and from that point, becomes a character of such grit and playful brutality that you'll find yourself becoming her cheerleader. Her action scenes in Severance Package are as entertaining as you will find in a thriller this year. Swierczynski does an amazing job of giving us a visual field of events, as well as keeping up the funny. Needless to say, Severance Package would make one outrageous movie, but they can't really duplicate the outsized dynamics that Duane Swierczynski creates with the voice of his own narrative.

There is stuff in this book that I SO MUCH want to talk about, but I can't, so just dive in and bring your freakin' kevlar!!

Yeah, definitely worth the wait.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Bad day at the office
By D. Sturm
"His name was Paul Lewis and he didn't know he had seven minutes to live." With that, the gates fly open and "Severence Package" is off and running. Within pages, we're treated to a death by potato salad. Then, the last words a dying man hears from his wife is, "Well, this is ahead of schedule." And that's just the first six pages.

Whoa, Nelly!

Nearly all the action in this book happens on the 37th floor of an office building in downtown Philadelphia and it happens over a period of about four hours. That's also about the time it takes to read the book. I read it in one sitting on a Sunday afternoon.

This noir at its pulpiest. Or maybe pulp at its noirist. Other writers here have summarized the plot, so I won't bother. But realize up front that you have to suspend an elephant-sized amount of disbelief. Feats are performed that are hardly humanly possible. People survive despite incredible amounts of damage being inflicted on them. There is torture, mutilation, amputation and a guy gets a cookie crumbled into his mouth (very funny scene).

Want characterization? Don't bother. Want emotion? There's only one -- rage. Want cold, hard logic? Not here.

Want over the top action? In spades. Some posters have compared this to the movie "Three Days of the Condor." Not so much. Think more the machine-gun-leg part of "Planet Terror." But less tasteful.

Then there's Molly Lewis. She's one thing with a gun. Another with an Exacta knife. And still more with the unscrewed cutting arm of a paper trimmer.

And I'm not even going into the woman who pulls the trigger of a gun with her tongue because she can't use her hands.

Terrific cover and b&w illustrations inside.

And any author with a redneck first name and a Polish last name is OK in my book.

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