This is such a powerful book that it will affect any reader profoundly. When he was a young teen Brent Runyon doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. He wanted to die. He was a wickedly funny young man who was having difficulties in school, and he feared being a disappointment to his parents.His underpinnings were good, living with his parents and brother in Falls Church, Virginia, and his prospects appeared excellent. With transparent honesty, Runyon details his year of physical and emotional recovery, and in one particularly touching moment, after he has had his first agonizing "bath", he enters his hospital room and views the many expressions of caring that arrived from family, classmates, friends, and strangers, and he writes, "I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy."

The reader learns about the treatment of burn patients, and the heroic efforts of their caregivers who emerge here as the heroes they are. Through it all, Runyon maintains his sense of humor through the skin grafts, and the crushing pain. He comes to appreciate small things like the feel of ice cream as it melts and cools his throat. Runyon’s physical condition meets his psychological dimension as he is forced to examine the reasons for his despair. He faced issues all young men face like puberty and his impending coming of age. The good news is Runyon’s triumph. He graduated from high school with his class, and he received a degree with honors from Ithaca College. He lives in Woods Hole with his girlfriend and her children.

The following is a message Brent Runyon wrote in August: "People ask me why I set myself on fire. And I think what they want to hear is a simple answer. Something that’s easy to understand. They want an answer that will make some sense-make it go away.And I’m sorry to disappoint them, that my answer is not so simple. My reasons at the time didn’t make sense-they’re not logical. I was sad. I was in trouble.I was worried about school and friends. Worried that my parents wouldn’t love me anymore. Those are good reasons to take a nap, not to set yourself on fire. And I guess what I’ve figured out all these years later is that these aren’t reasons-they’re excuses. When I was fourteen, I wanted very badly to die and I gathered up "reasons" until they equaled a quarter gallon of gasoline, a bathrobe and a box of strike anywhere matches. That was the grand mistake of my life-lighting that match-and I’ve spent most of the past thirteen years thinking about it. I’ve lived with this almost as long as I’ve lived without it. And here’s what I’ve come up with. The second hardest thing to do in life is to change from a child into an adult. There are so many ways top mess up. So many ways to get lost. It’s like crossing the ocean in a rowboat. Sometimes you lose an oar. Sometimes the boat takes on water. Sometimes it’s night and you’re lost in the fog and there’s left to do is scream, "I am lost in the middle of the ocean in a row boat, and I don’t know what to do." I encourage people to scream. Screaming, sometimes, is the only way to be heard. And I know there are so many young people out there who have stopped eating. Who are cutting themselves. Who are measuring the distance between rooftops and pavement. And I just wanted to say to them that you can tie your boats together. You can help each other paddle. You can cross the ocean in a row boat. Because the other thing, the hardest thing to do in life is to die." The value of this forthright and well written account is made self-evident by Runyon’s own words.

They gave us country music and NASCAR along with many prominent American icons such as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Bill Clinton, and George S. Patton among others. They are the Scots-Irish whose history, as told by Webb, is fascinating. Two thousand years ago, members of this ethnicity repelled the Romans. Later it was the English. This is the race that descended from warriors such as William Wallace (Braveheart) but who fled Ireland by the hundreds of thousands in the 1700’s, settled on inhospitable land in Tennessee and West Virginia and then migrated westward. The Scots-Irish were rejected by New England Puritan society because of their rowdiness and slovenliness, but some migrated nonetheless to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Virginia’s Anglican Tidewater communities rejected them as well, but allowed the Scots-Irish to dwell further inland in exchange for their fighting the Indians. They are called trailer trash and rednecks today, but their influence on the emerging nation was large, as it was, perhaps, in the most recent presidential elections. These are people from many of the red states. Webb has been criticized for excluding the contributions of Scots-Irish women from his work. His telling of the migration and its history is captivating, however, and it clearly illuminates the reasons for the troubles in Ireland which persist to this day. Webb is a descendant of this race which he alleges does not value education. Nor do these people honor any rules but those created locally. They are fiercely independent and they love to fight, and they are Presbyterians. They have fought in every American war, and they have produced more than a dozen presidents. Webb is a splendid writer who engages the reader completely on page one with his obvious love for his race and its long and volatile history.

A management consultant meets murder in this confident and polished debut. Tucker Sinclair, thirty, divorced, and up for a partnership in a Los Angeles firm, creates a business plan for a doctor with big dreams for his neurological practice. Tucker later learns that her client altered her proposal and apparently swindled $11M from his investors who are now suing her boss. The problem is Tucker can’t find a copy of her business plan, and her boss has suspended her and given her one week to come up with it.

Complicating Tucker’s life are her mother, Pookie the actress, who has moved in to Tucker’s small house on the beach with her West Highland terrier; her aunt, who is suing to open the probate that gave Tucker her inheritance from her father; and her ex-husband who is making noise about getting back together. Tops on the young woman’s priority list is getting back the documents and salvaging her professional reputation while babysitting a dog and dodging killers. The bright spot in all of this is a tall and handsome detective who’s keeping an eye on more than Tucker’s back.

Smiley’s deliciously funny one- liners come fast and furious. The plot is solid, and the writing is great. This one is sure to satisfy.

This is the fifteenth book in the Joe Gunther series, but you can start here even if you’re unfamiliar with Mayor’s work. Gunther, the bright and introspective top cop in Vermont, is chasing a killer who struck in Brattleboro 32 years ago. As his beloved wife lay dying from cancer, Gunther was torn between the case and his personal tragedy compounded by the suicide of the victim’s elderly wife. But now, the gun used in the old killing has resurfaced, and the memories, both personal and professional, have returned. The memories of his dead wife intrude on his current relationship with former prosecutor and liberal Democrat Gail Zigman who is running for state senate in a hotly contested race and who, at the present time, has little time for Joe.

Melancholy seems to overtake Joe as he interviews the suspects and witnesses from the original murder. They were all young and vital once, but some of them have died or deteriorated horribly. One of them was murdered just before the detective tracked him toGloucester. What is it that ties the past to the present, and what is at stake now to cause a recent spate of related killings?

The atmospherics of this series are so vivid. When Mayor writes that it’s snowing, you can feel the wet flakes on your face. When it rains, you can hear the swipe of the windshield wipers across car windows. When Gunther goes to the Gloucester waterfront, you can smell the diesel fumes and low tide. When he describes his characters, you know who they are, what they look like, and how they think.

Mayor, an assistant to Vermont’s medical examiner, has the expertise to inject realism into every one of his books. Recently he was honored by the New England Bookseller’s Association and received the group’s 2004 award for fiction, a first for a crime writer. This series is a winner, and this particular entry is its best to date.

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