Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 8, 1990 TAG: 9007080241
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This handsome book has its origin in the numerous destructions and desecrations that have overcome America's Civil War battlefields. Many have vanished altogether; some - Gettysburg is the prime example - have been so overrun with commercial encroachments that visitors have trouble imagining the original site; others - like Manassas and Antietam - are threatened. The Conservation Fund seeks to remedy, or at least offset, this indifference to the past by acquiring and thus saving key lands.
The book is a project aimed at raising the necessary funds. In concise prose summaries, a variety of Civil War experts detail the essential features of more than 60 battlefields south and west. The summaries are accompanied by maps and color photographs and are arranged chronologically; simple directions guide the visitor to the sites, and appendices give crucial statistics. It makes a fine and useful guide - though one has to add that the book's size makes it somewhat less handy to use on the ground than some other, smaller works, usually available at the sites. My own intention is to carry it in the car and use it as an overall guide, then shift to a pocket guide while walking. - PAXTON DAVIS
Milk and Honey. By Faye Kellerman. William Morrow. $18.95.
At $18.95, "Milk and Honey" isn't terribly pricey for a hard-cover mystery. Which leaves the reader wondering: Why did Faye Kellerman feel compelled to give the book-buyer his money's worth and then some?
The result, alas, is a whole that's less than its parts. "Milk and Honey" contains a multiple murder, an alleged rape, a child abduction, post-Vietnam angst, assorted bashings and shootings, and oh, by the way, the detective's mental gyrations over his religious conversion (Baptist to Orthodox Jew) and his widowed (Orthodox Jewish) fiancee.
Got all that? A bit more resistance to the temptation to keep throwing ingredients into the pot, and it might have worked. But the stew is less tasty than it could have been. There's so much going on that none of it gets covered or concluded in an entirely satisfactory manner.
It's not so much that anything is left unresolved - except maybe the question of why this is billed as "the New Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Mystery" when Rina (detective Decker's widowed fiancee) is only a peripheral figure. It's more that everything is tied up in such an offhand manner.
I'll admit that I couldn't give up on "Milk and Honey," and I'll also admit that I tried. Kellerman must be doing something right. And since this is Peter's and Rina's third time in print, Kellerman apparently is doing it right enough to keep on. I'll try the fourth outing - and hope she'll have figured out how to tell it all without having so much to tell. - NAN SEAMANS
Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love. Stories by Rumer and Jon Godden. William Morrow. $16.95.
At the age of 82, Rumer Godden continues to astound with the beauty and power of her works. Twelve of the 16 stories in "Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love" belong to her and the others to her dead sister, but the stories are so harmonious and vivid, they could have been written by the same person.
Each tale, some written long ago, illustrates and illuminates the mystery and complexity of India, the land where the Goddens lived as children, the land they loved. That love shines through every word, along with their efforts to make readers see and share the country's complexity, its glory, even its squalor.
Dedicated in spirit to Sarasvati, the Hindu goddess of pen and ink and all the arts, this slight volume proves a worthy offering. - LYNN ECKMAN
Bright Star. By Harold Coyle. Simon & Schuster. $19.95.
Harold Coyle's follow-up to his best selling "Team Yankee" and "Sword Point" is yet another song of tanks and men, a realistic war-game scenario played out this time in the shifting political sands of North Africa.
After their brief but vicious confrontation in Iran, both U.S. and Soviet forces are back on the track, making a point to stay out of each other's way while maintaining the requisite overseas show of force to keep their respective client states content and cooperative. With the fall of Iran, Soviet-backed Libya has taken up the sword of Islam and plans to carry it into neighboring Egypt, a country softened by democracy and misguided in its good relations with the "Great Satan." When a Libyan-backed plot to assassinate the American and Egyptian presidents is foiled, in part by Lt. Col. Scott Dixon, post-traumatic stressed-out hero of the Iranian conflict, Egypt makes good its case against Libya and invades, forcing the Soviets to begin a reluctant show of military support for their ally. In short order, Libya retaliates with chemical weapons (without the Soviets' knowledge or approval), forcing the reluctant Americans, in turn, into a show of military support for their ally.
Covering the complexities and logistics of a multiethnic war while maintaining the high-velocity narrative demanded of a military thriller necessarily forces Coyle to stylize the plot and streamline (sometimes to the point of formula) his often evocative prose. To his credit, though, Coyle has a talent for sizing up relevant political situations and for portraying with sympathy and understanding the hardships of a soldier's life - both U.S. and Soviet.
No new ground is broken here, but the familiar landscape should appeal to fans of high-tech war novels. - BARRY REYNOLDS
by CNB