Book Description
The bestselling barrister is back—and ready to take on his most timely case yet
When Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders—John Mortimer's first Rumpole novel ever—debuted last year, devoted fans came to it in droves. Now, just in time for Christmas, Mortimer returns with another Rumpole novel to tackle a truly relevant topic with his signature wit and style.
While defending a mind-numbingly dull theft charge, Rumpole finds that the new terrorist laws have hamstrung his beloved courts. Meanwhile, a Pakistani doctor has been imprisoned without charge or trial under suspicion of aiding al Qaeda in its plans for a terrorist attack. With the doctor's wife begging him to help her husband, the Great Defender is determined to bring the case before a jury.
Trouble is also brewing at home as Hilda—She Who Must Be Obeyed—sits down to write her own memoirs describing her view of Rumpole and her own love life. Rumpole's battle on the home front threatens to derail his case but where there's a Rumpole, there's a way!
Customer Reviews:
Four Stars Mostly For Sentimentality And Great Characters.......2007-09-10
Since it dealt with the stunned and paranoid Britain of post 7-7-05 this was unquestionably the most topically modern Rumpole novel of all. For Mortimer to take on the crushing of civil rights in this decade was a departure from the lighthearted simplicity of most (note I am saying most) Rumpole cases we've been privileged to read about these many years. I loved seeing Horace Rumpole and the familiar gang set into modern times and knowing that this check-in finds them alive, well, and as true to form as ever, but let's face it, anyone who couldn't see where this plot was heading was a bit innocent in the faculties, and the conclusion to it all represented yet another in a long chain of deus ex machina style endings Mortimer has long favored. I had to get that much said but make no mistake I enjoyed the book a lot, just do wish John Mortimer would add a few twists here and there in these pleasant, character-driven tales of crime and courtrooms, law chambers and the goings on in the venerable Rumpole "mansion flat."
Another great read!.......2007-07-27
These books never fail to entertain me. There's nothing heavy or intellectual about them - just a terrific story, told with humor.
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror.......2007-07-04
I was a little disappointed in this later novel of my favorite character, Rumpole, and one of my favorite authors, John Mortimer. Somehow this book did not have the pace and crackling humor that the earlier novels had. Still, it was enjoyable and I am glad I read it. I imagine it must be difficult to think up new and hilarious plots after all this time.
John Mortimer Forges On.......2007-04-10
Sir John Mortimer is a source of wonder to me. Despite declining health, he still manages to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard and compose new work. The latest installment of the "Rumpole" series is serviceable effort but has the feeling of a "paint by numbers" approach. Mortimer knows Horace Rumpole so intimately that he can almost channel him (no doubt employing the ghost of the inimitable Leo McKern to facilitate his efforts). Mortimer has long been a champion of civil rights, an outspoken defender of the golden rule of jurisprudence, that the accused is innocent until found guilty by a jury of his/her peers. Sir John's dismay at the increased police powers contained in Britain's onerous anti-terror legislation registers on every page and redeems and ennobles a lesser effort in a worthy, long-running series.
Rumpole's Reign of Terror A Pure Joy.......2007-02-22
John Mortimer's latest Rumpole novel needs another 5-star review about as much as his crusty, curmudgeonly bard of the Old Bailey needs a leader on a simple breaking and entering trial. But I'll go ahead and give it to him anyway.
Mortimer has bested his most recent Rumpole efforts with this modern case of terrorism and a goverment too eager to overlook longheld beliefs about rights and freedom.
In the hands of many, such a book could be tedious and preachy, but in Mortimer's deft hands, it is, like all Rumpole novels, a rollicking, witty, and light tale of intrique that Mortimer fans will delight in.
Amazon.com
Bakersfield, California, has earned a reputation for being tough on crime. District Attorney Ed Jagels took much of the credit for the incredible conviction rates in Bakersfield courtrooms, from high-profile child molestation ring busts to cases like that of Pat Dunn, a retired high school principal who was found guilty of murdering his wife--despite a disturbing lack of evidence linking him to the crime. Mean Justice tells Dunn's story compellingly, from his childhood in Bakersfield to the trial that would put him away for life. It chronicles his solid belief in justice and authority and his gradual disenfranchisement with the system that railroaded him for reasons that could only be political.
Humes's exhaustive account also covers prosecuting attorney Ed Jagels's rise to political power and influence and the juggernaut of prosecutorial misconduct that caught many others, along with Dunn, in its fury. But it is at its core the horrifying story of an innocent man who had faith in a system that would eventually destroy him. It's not an easy story to digest, and it is apparently not an isolated incident: Humes brings up case after case where seemingly innocent people were arrested, prosecuted, ostracized, and jailed for crimes that may or may not have even occurred. Mean Justice is a gripping and fascinating book that deserves to be read on many counts. --Lisa Higgins
Book Description
Deep in the heartland of California lies a city on the cutting edge of the nation's war on crime. Besieged by spectacular crimes in which pillars of the community were accused of murder, rape and the most vile conspiracies, Bakersfield found its saviors in a band of bold and savvy prosecutors. They descended on the courthouse like avenging angels, winning their cases, forging sweeping new laws and creating one of the toughest towns on crime in America -- a model for the rest of the country.
There is only one problem: The people who were arrested, tried and imprisoned in those landmark cases were innocent.
In Mean Justice, award-winning author and journalist Edward Humes embarks on a chilling journey to the dark side of the justice system -- the powerful true story of one man's battle to prove his innocence. It is a story both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, for Humes shows how the individual injustice done to one man is part of a disturbing national trend, in which innocence becomes the unintended casualty of the war on crime, and the immense new powers of prosecutors -- from Main Street to Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue -- are dangerously unchecked.
Combining the investigative reporting skills that earned him a Pulitzer Prize with the gifted storytelling honored by a PEN literary award, Humes tells how retired high-school principal Pat Dunn was prosecuted for killing his wife to inherit her millions. As taut and exciting as a suspense novel, Mean Justice reveals how Dunn's case was tainted by hidden witnesses, concealed evidence and behind-the-scenes lobbying by powerful politicians. More horrifying still, there were many such cases in this All-American town, where a well-meaning desire for public safety led to something dark and terrible and unjust. Finally, Humes asks whether the mean justice dispensed in Bakersfield, California, may be fast becoming the norm for the rest of the country, where, in our zeal for order, we are increasingly forgiving prosecutorial misconduct. American cities are enjoying their lowest crime rates in decades. But at what price? Mean Justice provides an answer both compelling and frightening.
Customer Reviews:
Humes an advocate as much as a journalist.......2005-01-15
There are early parts of this book that can seem comically one-sided. By the end, the reader is persuaded by the overwhelming evidence that Dunn cannot possibly be guilty. But in the opening pages, Dunn's behavior is so bizarre, so eccentric, so plain weird, that it seems perfectly understandable that the police consider him a suspect. And when Humes tries to explain away Dunn's behavior as ordinary and natural, it diminishes his credibility throughout the rest of the book.
However, I'm a great admirer of Humes. His writing is amazing and his books are smart and readable. Like 'Mississippi Mud,' this one cries for an update. Check his Web site if you want to read more.
This is also a good jumping-off point for reading further about some of the shameful Bakersfield scandals of the '80s and '90s.
Power gone awry.......2004-04-25
I've been interested in issues of criminal justice, particularly those of the witch hunts of the last several years. You know, there was the McMartin trial, a joke of astronomical proportions. Then there were "recovered memory" cases, and those of the alleged Satanic conspiracies. It seems the Prince of Darkness has emissaries here on earth abducting our kids, eating those he's forced us to abort, and on and on and on. Trouble is, as even senior FBI investigators have admitted, there's no evidence to suggest that these atrocities ever took place. No bodies, no dark rooms, no blood. Hmm. Makes a guy wonder.
Then I talked with an acquaintance who's interested in some of the same subject matter. After our discussion, I looked at Amazon.com and found this volume.
First, allow me to confess that I nearly gave the book four stars. I did so only because there is so much detail as to be almost overwhelming. But then I had to give it five (or more, if it were possible!) The detail is more than necessary for reasons which follow.
The text is ostensibly about the trial of Pat Dunn. He was a former high school principal whose wife died under mysterious circumstances. The prosecutors in Kern County, California, were so zealous that they performed what was the TRUE subject of the book: prosecutorial misconduct. That is, indeed, where the subject digressed from merely Pat Dunn. It seems the law enforcement apparatus of that county has a reputation for being "tough on crime." So tough, alas, that there were countless people going to jail. First that was the massive--yes, Satanic Conspiracy trial. Hundreds were sent to jail for a long, long time. The prosecution used dubious questioning tactics of children, social workers who should have been in the local home for the bewildered--again, on and on. Then a young black athlete was convicted under equally dubious circumstances. Then others. I could get tired of putting, "on and on" here so assume it's a phrase I'd use more if I even had to.
By the way, most of those convictions had been overturned; all, so far, except Pat Dunn's, despite the lack of any evidence to convince a sane court of his guilt.
Then there's the issue(s) of the convicted criminals whom the prosecutors made deals with to convict the accused--while the prosecutors kept details of such deals out of views of the defense and the juries. (I add something the book barely mentioned: if there are obviously innocent people in prison because of prosecutors more intent on winning then on finding the truth, then there are the guilty who are still among us! That alone is a criminal offense for which the prosecutors should be prosecuted!)
Among the conclusions of the book is that such misconduct seems to be happening all over the US. Indeed, the accused are losing their right to appeal; in G.W. Bush's Texas, the state with the greatest number of executions, exculpatory evidence was not permitted after a limited time so that evidence enough to free a convicted murderer could no longer be presented as evidence. So an obviously innocent men was put to death.
There's so much in the book I'm not even sure where to go with it. The text certainly affirms my acquaintance's observation that probably 15 percent in prison haven't done anything. (That proportion is suggested by the book too to apply to the death penalty. Many on death row have been freed over the last few years due to the misconduct of the prosecutors and the courts. And that doesn't even include the many whom the state has put to death who were not guilty.)
Who is criminal given those stats?
The second of the book's appendices consists of several pages of convictions obtained through the prosecutorial misconduct that is the real subject of the book. That itself is an eye-opener. (The first appendix, incidentally, is a list of the convictions and how many are still in prison after retrials or the cases having been thrown out in Kern County itself--many after the accused have spent incredible times in prison after bogus convictions. That information alone should cause the impeachment or resignation, and conviction of those parties to the courts of that county!)
The author concludes that the system is rigged to sustain itself. Try to find courts who've overturned convictions even when the prosecutor was exposed as a fraud who should have been jailed for his/her performance in the trial. They exist but they're few and far between.
To me the point of the book is that there MUST be a price to pay for the prosecutors and even judges for the sort of misconduct the book so amply demonstrates. I mean, these people are supposed to be public servants. Instead, they're public menaces, making a sham out of anything remotely "just." (Ironically, the Kern County DA, who claims to be a Republican, is more akin to a Soviet bureaucrat than most in positions such as his!) I think, in fact, that the most severe punishments should be reserved for those who abuse their authority like those described by the book.
Read this important book and make your own decisions as to how to punish these criminals, who are more a "lead" in the book than Pat Dunn. But be prepared to have your assumptions of American criminal "justice" challenged.
It's about time.......2002-06-30
Ed Jagels is a crooked person. It is about time someone told what he is like.
Spin, spin and more spin.......2002-04-16
I couldn't wait to read this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Humes' earlier work, "No Matter How Loud I Shout." I found NMHLIS to be balanced and thoughtful. Interested in reading more from this engaging author, and as a Southern California transplant originally from Bakersfield, I was immediately drawn to this book. Unfortunately, in "Mean Justice" Mr. Humes appears to have lost the reasoned approach that provided NMHLIS a ring of credibility.
"Mean Justice" presents an overtly biased perspective of the Kern County Sheriff's Dept/D.A.'s office. The tendency of the author to portray evidence indicative of Dunn's guilt as "unfortunate setbacks" to the defense case is hypocritical; especially since any minor inconsistency between prosecution witnesses' accounts are depicted as some blatant attempt to railroad an innocent man.
What a disappointment this book proved to be! There was a great deal of repetition as Humes attempts to bully the reader into accepting his flawed perspective of things. I think the truth is probably somewhere between the two extremes represented in "Mean Justice," but we will never know the truth from this book. Humes zealously advocates for his version of the "truth" in this biased presentation of "evidence".
Mr. Humes is a gifted storyteller, and I found the book engaging as pure entertainment; however, Mr. Humes' trustworthiness as a reporter of the facts was delivered a fatal blow by "Mean Justice."
Enjoy the story, but read this book with a critical eye for its inherent bias.
A Must Read........2001-11-15
It's been a while since I've read the book, but I wanted to share some of the general impressions that I had of this book when I read it. By showing the example of inadequate police work in one community, the author is able to raise many questions about the legal system in America. Plenty of evidence is given in this book which shows that a person was convicted for murder and likely sits in prison unjustly. Anyone who believes that justice is always served in our court systems should read this book to learn how various factors can come together to work against possibly innocent persons. This book is important, intriguing, and difficult to put down.
Average customer rating:
- The power of accusation
- Take two grains of salt and call me in the morning
- A Distressing Tale of Injustice
- Absolutely chilling
- Questionable Research
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No Crueler Tyrannies: Accusation, False Witness, and Other Terrors of Our Times (Wall Street Journal Book)
Dorothy Rabinowitz
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0743228405 |
Book Description
In No Crueler Tyrannies, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dorothy Rabinowitz re-frames the facts, reconsiders the evidence, and demystifies the proceedings of some of America's most harrowing cases of failed justice. Recalling the hysteria that accompanied the child sex-abuse witch-hunts of the 1980s and 1990s, Rabinowitz's investigative study brings to life such alarming examples of prosecutorial terrors as the case against New Jersey nursery school worker Kelly Michaels, absurdly accused of 280 counts of sexual assault; the as-yet-unfinished story of Gerald Amirault's involvement in the Fells Acres scandal; Patrick Griffin, a respected physician whose life and reputation were destroyed by one false accusation of molestation; and Miami policeman Grant Snowden's sentencing of five consecutive life terms for a crime that, as proved in court eleven years later, he did not commit.
By turns a shocking exposé, a much-needed postmortem, and a required-reading assignment for prosecutors and judges alike, No Crueler Tyrannies is ultimately an inspiring book about the courage of ordinary citizens who believe in the American judicial system enough to fight for due process.
Download Description
"In 1742, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, wrote, ""There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice."" Two hundred forty-three years later, in 1985, Dorothy Rabinowitz, a syndicated columnist and television commentator, encountered the case of a New Jersey day care worker named Kelly Michaels, accused of 280 counts of sexually abusing nursery school children -- and exposed the first of the prosecutorial abuses described in No Crueler Tyrannies. No Crueler Tyrannies recalls the hysteria that accompanied the child sex-abuse witch-hunts of the 1980s and 1990s: how a single anonymous phone call could bring to bear an army of recovered-memory therapists, venal and ambitious prosecutors, and hypocritical judges -- an army that jailed hundreds of innocent Americans.
Customer Reviews:
The power of accusation.......2003-09-24
Americans tend to put great faith in their justice system but, despite the legal doctrine of the presumption of innocence, they also tend to assume that persons accused of crimes are in fact guilty. This book deals with the power of accusations, in combination with dubious expert testimony, to undermine a person's right to a fair hearing and result in the incarceration of innocent individuals. It focuses on some of the most public sex abuse prosecutions during the 1980's and 1990's and shows how justice was subverted by a combination of overzealous "experts," unfair limitations on the defendants' ability to present exculpatory evidence, and the vagaries of the appeals process. These cases, and particularly the Wenatchee prosecutions, are about as close as American justice has come to the Kangaroo courts of the former Soviet Union.
One of the book's strong points is its explanations of how so called experts spend weeks coercing children to accuse adults that they had been sexually abused relying on the principle that a child who denies such events occurred is necessarily repressing their memory and a child that makes the accusation is telling the truth. In such a case, no accused person can ever be cleared. Readers interested in this issue might also want to look at Whores of the Court by Margaret Hagen. It also shows how prosecutors used the experts to present testimony that what the children said was true and how judges limited cross-examination and rebuttal evidence on the grounds that it was bad for the children. The book also offers some eye-opening detail on the limits of the appeals process to correct injustices.
The book could have been better had it gone into more depth on the viewpoints of the prosecutors and their experts. It also could have benefitted from a more detailed discussion of the kinds of testimony that occurs in bona fide sexual abuse cases. However, these shortcomings do not detract significantly from the major premise that in some cases the political and social weight given to an accusation can deprive patently innocent people of their right to justice.
Take two grains of salt and call me in the morning.......2003-08-12
"No Crueler Tyrannies" retells the frightening prosecutions of supposed child sexual predators in the 1990s, focusing on the Fells Acre Day School case in Malden, Massachusetts. The book also skims over several other less notorious cases of horrifying child abuse. All of these cases show the alarming propensity among some prosecutors in the 1980s and 1990s to throw otherwise law-abiding citizens into prison, using the coached testimony of young children. Not to mention the Catch-22 judgements of so-called child experts who convinced juries that a child's denial of abuse was proof that it had taken place.
The 1980s-an era when it was more and more common for working parents to entrust their children to day care centers-were ripe for bizarre child molestation cases. The guilt and anxiety parents felt over leaving their children with "strangers" made it easy for parents to believe that their worst nightmares were coming true. When outlandish charges arose, the path of least psychic resistance for parents was to swallow them whole them than with a grain of salt.
The book is a quick read, and sketchy on details. Rabinowitz states her conclusions about testimony rather than laying it out for us to judge on our own. The accused are all ordinary, noble souls with all the cards stacked against them; the prosecutors all blinded by ambition or stupidity, desperate to placate a howling mob looking for convictions. This left me with a certain discomfort: a classic tactic for ideologues is to paint reality in black and white, shouting their conclusions without disclosing their premises or evidence. There is some of this flair to this book. I'd love to see the Amiraults do something boneheaded that feeds into the mob's preconceptions, just to show they are capable of making mistakes. This weakness aside, it's hard not to be angry and frightened that prosecutors can so skew facts (in one case, holding back audio tape of an alleged perpetrator's anxious denial of the charges) and that the rest of us can so blithely go along with them. It's one thing to see this on "The Practice," and quite another to see it in real life.
The post-9/11 environment is ripe for similar cases - this time targeting those who are perceived to be soft on homeland security. Books like Rabinowitz's, however imperfect, serve as cautionary tales of our paranoid propensity to believe the worst about each other.
A Distressing Tale of Injustice.......2003-07-28
In Malden, Massachusetts, for twenty years the Fells Acres Day School increasingly became the place parents wanted their children to attend. It was founded by Violet Amirault and run also by her daughter Cheryl and son Gerald, all of whom were well respected within the community. There was a waiting list for attendance. But in 1984, horrific charges were lodged against the school and incredible descriptions of abuse were spread. In 1986, Gerald was found guilty of rapes and indecent assaults and given a sentence of thirty to forty years. The next year, Violet and Cheryl were sent to prison for similar charges. As documented in _No Crueler Tyrannies: Accusation, False Witness, and Other Terrors of Our Times_ (Wall Street Journal Books) by Dorothy Rabinowitz, the three were not only innocent of the offenses; the offenses never even occurred, except in the minds of prosecutors, of so-called experts on child abuse, and of coached children. While this is material that will be familiar to those who have read about bogus satanic scares and incidents such as the more famous McMartin preschool case, Rabinowitz offers impassioned but reasonable histories of the Amirault case and others that raise serious questions about the functioning of our legal system.
The Amiraults' troubles seem to have begun when Gerald changed a boy's underpants. After that, the mother started worrying about the boy's bedwetting and other problems; bedwetting, according to a rash of media stories at the time, was a symptom of child abuse. Gerald was arrested, the school was closed, and charges grew. Other children began to report that they had been forced to drink urine and had been raped with knives and sticks, assaulted by a man in a clown suit, and tied naked to a schoolyard tree in front of the teachers and students. These atrocities had supposedly been happening for the past two years with no previous complaints, and no parents dropping in at the school had noticed anything out of the ordinary. There was never any physical evidence; how the children might have been probed with knives without physical result was never explained. The similar accusations within schools which had turned out to be fraudulent never made investigators or prosecutors doubt the rightness of their crusades. The officials involved never had to bear any penalty for ruining the lives of the falsely accused.
In many of the stories, reason eventually triumphed, and the miscarriages were rectified, although sometimes after long stretches in prison. Rabinowitz first reported on the Amiraults in the _Wall Street Journal_ in 1995, and readers who could easily see how stupidly the courts were carrying on donated thousands of dollars for their legal fees. One reader paid for the college tuition of Gerald's daughters. Gerald himself could not have paid. With eventual general public and legal agreement that he had been profoundly mistreated by the courts, his case became a political football. The usually unforgiving Governor's Board of Pardons ruled unanimously in 2001 that his sentence should be commuted. His mother and sister had previously been cleared of the identical charges. The Governor of Massachusetts at the time knew what a liability being "soft on crime" and allowing a child abuser to go free would be for future political support, and inexplicably connected the case to that of a real child abuser who had been easily convicted because of videotapes and other physical evidence leading to a confession. Gerald Amirault remains in prison. Rabinowitz's title for this clear and troubling book comes from a quotation from the Baron de Montesquieu, who in 1742 wrote, "There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice." We are not yet free of these tyrannies.
Absolutely chilling.......2003-06-23
The negative reviews to this book seem to be saying that, if we ever say that someone is falsely accused of child molestation, then we're pretending that molestation doesn't exist. This is *precisely* the twisted logic that rainroaded innocent people into jail for crimes that never took place.
Rabinowitz has to claim early on in her book things that are so obvious that it hurts to read them. *Of course* child molestation is a horrific crime which merits society's strongest possible response. That does not, however, mean that every accusation is true, and that normal stadards of evidence and logic can be discarded if the charge is sufficiently evil.
The cases that Rabinowitz recounts are not just of innocent people convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Her stories are about innocent people convicted of crimes that weren't commited by *anyone*. The only child molesters in these stories are the "helping professionals" who have psychologically maimed children by brainwashing them into believing that they were sexually violated.
I give Rabinowitz credit for her determination. I have quibbles with her writing style, but her work is a powerful resource.
Questionable Research.......2003-06-14
Read the Wenatchee portion of her book and realized she did not ask any hard questions of the people she feels were wronged.
Actual statements of some of the accused as reported in the newspapers and in court of appeals records raises questions about Ms Rabinowitz's conclusions.
Amazon.com
Aryeh Neier, human rights activist and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, has created a work that is both a comprehensive history and a forward-looking treatise on the institution of war tribunals. Shedding an especially penetrating light on the genocidal actions that took place in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, War Crimes catalogs and addresses the many issues surrounding the prosecution of war crimes, including accusations of "victor's justice," international jurisprudence, and the accountability of lower-ranking officers. Many times, Neier reveals, the parties responsible for war crimes manage to escape retribution for want of a favorable transition of political power. As a possible remedy, Neier argues for the creation of a permanent international war crimes tribunal. Without melodrama or hyperbole, Neier draws the reader into reasoned discourse on the conduct of soldiers and the appalling consequences of war. --Brendan J. LaSalle
Customer Reviews:
War Crime.......2003-10-09
My Teacher is makeing us read a book so i picked this one i have not read it yet. I heard that this book is a good one so i went and pick it up. I cant wait till i read this book.
Extract from ýBooks on Bosniaý, London 1999.......2000-03-13
This impressive work, by an Auschwitz survivor and lifelong campaigner for human rights, first reviews earlier attempts since Nuremberg to devise international mechanisms to deal with crimes against humanity, then examines the events in Bosnia and Rwanda which led to the creation of the special tribunals at The Hague which, the author hopes, may lead to the establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court (although, in the former Yugoslav case, Neier argues that setting up the Tribunal was the right decision for the wrong reason, since it was in large part a substitute for decisive action to prevent the crimes). Specific chapters are devoted to concentration camps, siege warfare, rape, incitement to mass murder, and guilt, and the whole work constitutes a powerful argument in favour of the Tribunals, concluding that: `for the first time in human history, those committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or the ultimate crime, genocide, would have to reckon seriously with the possibility that they would be brought before the international bar to face truth, be held accountable, and serve justice.'
A superb overview of the history of crimes against humanity.......1999-06-25
With the carnage in Kosovo now at an end, there is no better time to pick up this book - Mr. Neier is an objective, humane authority who mixes outrage and common sense in a tasteful and comprensive discussion of war crimes, international law, and preventive measures.
Book Description
Exiled Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman chronicles the crimes of Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile. He begins with the 1973 U.S.-supported coup that brought Pinochet to power and the devastation it caused in Latin America, and follows the story through Pinochet's arrest and detention in London, where he awaits extradition to be tried on charges of genocide.
Customer Reviews:
Essential reading.......2003-12-30
This is essential reading for anyone wanting to comprehend the crimes of Pinochet and the complicity of the United States government. As is always the case with Dorfman's books, it is beautifully written.
Exorcising Terror: The incredible unending trial of Augusto.......2003-08-29
This book is basic to understand from a personal perspective how the chilean people suffered under this animal regime. It shows how all bullies, those who get theirs kicks hurting other human beings become pathetic cowards when they are asked to pay for their acts.
A good synopsis of the trial of Pinochet.......2003-06-24
One should keep in mind that this is a personal and political view of the Pinochet case. The book is good in the fact that it is a personal account of a man who had friends who are among the disapeared of Chile. If you are interested in a personal account than by this book, however if you are interested in an acccount of Pinochet policies by a book exclusivly about his regime.
ignore the above review.......2003-03-04
Although Dorfman's views of the years of dictatorship are driven as much by emotion and opposition as they are by fact, his book about the Pinochet regime and the subsequent human rights trial serves as an interesting document to the chilean experience of dictatorship.
The true extent of the horrors that occured in Chile may never be fully known but Dorfman's book about his experience of the dictatorship and his emotions as a Chilean is an essential document to the Chilean healing process.
Some of the passages are extremely well written and the end of the book in particular raises some intersting questions.
There are without question finer books concerning the period, but this is the most emotional work available and Dorfman's lament for Chile is at times very powerful.
Ja, ja,ja, ja,ja........2003-02-25
Another of Dorfman "Masterpieces". This is the same guy who wrote how Donald Duck was an instrument of American Imperialism. (Yeah, really).
Dorfman is one of those Allende-Orphans who still believes everything that happened in Chile was because of this really, really bad man named Pinochet. Him, Allende, the left, the guerillas, did nothing wrong. The book is just a reflection of such a biased view.
I'm glad to be the first one reviewing this book. It means few are paying attention to this clown-author.
Customer Reviews:
RADICAL!!.......1998-01-19
This book was the coolest book! Not the best in my whole life, for animorphs take the cake for that. But this book was still action-packed, intense, and worth your money!
Average customer rating:
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TRIAL BY TERROR
Manufacturer: Alfred a Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HZJOAK |
Book Description
While teenager-turned-superspy Alex Fleming learns more about his hidden past and the battling secret organizations -- S.H.I.R.T.S. and S.K.I.N.S. -- responsible for his dual existence, Alex/SpyBoy winds up on the deadly docket of the criminal justice duo of Judge and Jury. Will SpyBoy get the mandatory minimum -- death? And why is the eye-popping assassin Barbie Q working undercover at Alex`s school? And who is she working for, the evil and exquisite Gila, mastermind of S.K.I.N.S., or the mysterious femme fatale Madam Imadam? Every guy wants to be a babe magnet, but this may not be what Alex had in mind! Collecting issues #4-6 of the ongoing series.
Customer Reviews:
Enter Spyboy..........2002-09-14
The second collection in comics in a really great line. Spyboy is just incredibly easy to fall in love with and has something for everyone to enjoy. The art is fantastic, the plot is pretty damn good and there's a fair amount and humor and adult humor to make it a really great read over and over.
This volume contains Spyboy's adventures against Judge and Jury and you find out a bit about Alex Fleming, Spyboy's alter ego and Bombshell, not to mention thier semi sidekick Bruce.
It's a hilarious read and the characters are loveable. Buy it and love it.
Product Description
Three mystery novels by popular mystery writers. He Didn't Mind Danger is a gangster thriller about post-war black market by Michael Gilbert. Trial and Terror is by the popular mystery writer Lawrence Treat.
Book Description
From the gruesome ogress in Hansel and Gretel to the hags at the sabbath in Faust, the witch has been a powerful figure of the Western imagination. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries thousands of women confessed to being witches—of making pacts with the Devil, causing babies to sicken, and killing animals and crops—and were put to death. This book is a gripping account of the pursuit, interrogation, torture, and burning of witches during this period and beyond.
Drawing on hundreds of original trial transcripts and other rare sources in four areas of Southern Germany, where most of the witches were executed, Lyndal Roper paints a vivid picture of their lives, families, and tribulations. She also explores the psychology of witch-hunting, explaining why it was mostly older women that were the victims of witch crazes, why they confessed to crimes, and how the depiction of witches in art and literature has influenced the characterization of elderly women in our own culture.
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Books Index
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Quite Honestly
The First Rumpole Omnibus (Rumpole)
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