Book #3, in the Maxine Benson Mystery

This suspenseful crime fiction is a “Rapid Reads” easy on the eyes. Its 150 pages (paper version) can be read in one setting: small pages and good size font and a style meant for young adults. This story is not taxing.

Maxine Benson, police chief in a small town, sets out to solve the murder of her ex-husband’s new girlfriend.

This is an entertaining and well-written drama that unfolds nicely. Not being my first “Rapid Reads” I knew that the plot would be too short and would come to a quick resolve and that the characterization would also lack development (not enough time) to do so.

Having said this “Murder Among the Pines” has nevertheless a captivating plot within the limited pages, a simple story yet not boring and one that stayed true to the characters.

I received this ARC from Orca Book Publishers via the Early Reviewers Program.

Mary is a case when she feels like someone is following her. But she cannot tell who at the moment. Once she sees her friend's husband talking to Colleen. She thinks the worse of her best friend's husband. 

On her way out, she confronts a man see that is following her. When she does, he wants her to look into his brother case that is that Ben Ali is not a killer. 

There seems to be some corruption going on in the NYPD in the year of 1894. Who does all the cover-up? Who the Killer of more than a dozen woman. 

Looks like Mary get pulled into an investigation that has to do with Sage Bombing and as she gets more into the case of Ben Ali she finds more clues and finding the killer. Who is Jack the Ripper, the killer? 

You will be turning the page to find out. Have you read the book you learn about that time period in NY? We even meet Teddy Roosevelt before he becomes President of United States and the reason why or at least partly. 

If you are a historical Fiction fan you will enjoy this book. It a Mystery and part historical so you will get both if you are a fan of both or one or the other.

Over the years I've developed criteria for judging new surveys of well-covered historical subjects. First, does it offer any new information? Second, does it offer a different perspective than other books on the same subject? Third, does it do a better job of covering its subject than its (sometimes innumerable) predecessors? In the case of a book like Sondhaus's history of the naval dimension of the First World War, it faces the added burden of being measured up against Paul Halpern's superb account of the subject, which was published not even two decades previously.

In terms of the first criteria, the answer is mixed. Sondhaus does take full advantage of the works published in the intervening period (such as Nicholas Black's book on the British naval staff during the war) to flesh out some new aspects to the story. None of it really revises our overall understanding to the conflict, but it does help him to offer a different perspective from Halpern. In this respect, Sondhaus does offer something different from Halpern's book, for while he covers many of the same battles and campaigns he spends his first chapters on the prewar naval arms race and focuses more on the broader political and strategic aspects of naval operations during the war itself. Because of this, Sondhaus's book is arguably a better overview of the subject than Halpern's book, especially for someone who wants to understand the impact of the naval war upon the overall conflict.

Does this mean that Sondhaus's book is better than Halpern's? The answer depends more upon what the reader is seeking than anything else. For a history of naval operations during the war Halpern's book remains unsurpassed for its coverage and thoroughness, as Sondhaus's own reliance upon it as a source can attest. Yet as an introduction for the uninitiated Sondhaus's book enjoys a slight edge. Fortunately we don't live in a world where we have to choose between the two books, and can benefit from reading both, yet Sondhaus's is definitely recommended first for a reader new to the subject before having them turn to Halpern's more richly detailed account.

I had planned on adding this book to my book box, but now I think I'm going to keep it. While Paul Halpern's Naval History of World War I is still the better book, Sondhaus does offer something different enough to make revisiting it worthwhile. It's also inspiring me to draw up criteria for judging historical surveys like Sondhaus's; I had devised three of them, but I made the mistake of not jotting it down and now I can only recall two of them. This is going to bug me all day.

Roberts is fearless: he's got big ideas, and he's not afraid to do whatever he needs to do to get where he's going. 

This is also beautiful and hopeful, but man, is it epically brutal. 

It's a good time to be a Transformers fan!