Product Description
Two women - once friends at Oxford - and a diamond mine in Vietnam are the bait that M16 hope will ensnare businessman-villain Robie Frazer. Frazer s business interests are multi-national and his wealth extraordinary. But he has become corrupt, selling arms to the Chinese, extorting what he needs from people by violence and blackmail. Eva Cunningham, undercover agent-turned-heroin-junkie, has reason to hate Fraser And her old friend Cassie Stewart, now a high-flying venture capitalist in the City, also finds herself involved in the game to trap Frazer. A game which will end in a terrifying hunt-to-kill pursuit in the jungles of Vietnam. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE EVER READ!
I read Nest of Vipers in one day, and I read this book the next day.I found it equally as good.I can hardly wait for Linda Davies next book!!!

Not as good as her previous work
I read this book after having read 'Nest of Vipers'. I was disappointed. The plot seemed to plod and did seem to be lost in some sort of Wilderness.

copycat
why did you use the same title that david c. martin did in his 1980 book?were you lazy or tired?

a little fuzzy in the beginning, but great
i loved this book. it was kinda hard to understand what was going on in the beginning, but after that it is great. it has everything, action, seduction, mystery, thrill.........

i am looking forward to reading her next book......... ... Read more

Product Description
They say your personality is set at age seven. This is the year Helen Jenks's father left, the day after millions went missing from the bank where he was a director.Helen never gave up her belief in her father, the familiar figure, Proustian smells, his classic BMW she now owned with that familiar smell of aftershave on rainy days, but everyone has doubts . . . and everyone doubts her.Did her heritage drive her to become a major player in the City's dealing rooms, where derivatives players earn millions?The jungle of the City of London leads to the Machu Picchu trail in Peru, where Helen Jenks's heritage becomes entwined with the world's secret intelligence services and the biggest business of all, cocaine.Linda Davies takes you from the world's financial centres to the mountains and jungles of Peru, where the old Incas succumbed to the Conquistadores.And, if you want to know how the City works, read this book.'A cracking, fast-paced thriller. Excellently researched.I thoroughly enjoyed it.'General Sir Peter de la Billière.'Excellent depiction of Peru . . . well handled cliff-hanger ending.'' Daily Express. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Excellent!
Linda Davies is an incredibly good author!Her stories are truly intriguing, well written, they keep you riveted, and her plots are fascinating. I have read all her books, after discovering "Nest of Vipers", and wish she would write more!

wonderful woman
In the opening pages of the novel, Linda Davies' character Sarah Jensen is pronounced "perfect" by the Director of the Bank of England.This means trouble.Smart and strong (physically & emotionally) women are Davies' speciality.See also Widerness of Mirrors with its Vietnam setting and Into the Fire, for a breath-taking trip to Manchu Pichu.

nb Get the Brit edition if you can, where the female hit-person is a lesbian.The American edition morphs her straight.Shades of Jerry Falwell?

Not so hot.
This book features Sarah Jensen, a young, gorgeous, exceedingly bright (When are we going to have a book about an ugly, old not-so-bright heroine?) currency trader who is asked by the British version of the Federal Reserve President to go undercover at a trading house and see if they are using inside information to make millions of pounds. Much trouble ensues.

The female lead is a little too well-connected (she always knows just the right person to help her when she needs something) and I was kind of bugged that the characters used dollars and pounds interchangeably in their financial wheelings and dealings. Maybe that's the reality of international currency exchange and the power of the United States. If so, "Go USA!"

Back to the book -It's better than reading nothing, but you might want to read an old National Geographic instead.

exciting and thrilling
great story line, couldn't guess the ending.A pleasure to read!

This is the worst book ever written.
Sarah Jensen is young brilliant and mysterious, just the sort of person the authorities need to penetrate a byzantine conspiracy involving the global currency market.However, the conspiracy is just the tip of a deadlier plot, one that will take any step needed to protect itself from disclosure.Okay.....

This has to be one of the worst books ever written.The author injects much experience into her character - perhaps too much.(like her heroine, author Linda Davies is a striking and apparently successful currency trader).The book is written not only for those who understand the dynamics of currency trades, but really care beyond the obvious implication that the millions at stake are really important.For the rest of us, Sarah is just a cardboard character, surrounded by jealous colleagues who desire her for her looks and envy her knack for amassing a lot of money in a short amount of time.The facets of the conspiracy are poorlydefined.The novel really never starts at all - just cuts between various shadowy characters who stand to make or lose fortunes, and will stoop to anything.Davies spends much time on telling us how unsavory some of these types are, but doesn't really care about what they do.What really stands out is how seriously Davies takes not only the premise but her storytelling skills.This is just another example of the sort of thriller we can thank Grisham for inventing - the guy who discovers that his lucrative but humdrum job actually veils something dark and interesting.Instead of lawyers, we have currency speculators.I suppose accountants are next (hey - CPA's sent Capone to Alcatraz!!).As long as readers are willing to believe that an author's experience on any subject is adequate substitue for storytelling - willing to accept minutiae in place of narrative - there will always be writers ready with books so enwrapped in meaningless technicalities that we won't realize how bereft of plot they really are.Absurdly pedestrian prose don't help.If I were in the business, I'd say this book was pegged to some defunct former east-bloc currency.

I'd suggest something lighter, like Po Bronson's "Bombardiers", a sort of M*A*S*H set in a San Francisco bond house where the most certifiably crazy brokers are also the richest. ... Read more

Product Description
Top-Notch Writing Advice from Today’s Premiere Writers
*From Glimmer Train--one of today’s most well known literary journals
*Features advice from some of the most accomplished and respected fiction writers today
*Features an illustrated, gifty package that will appeal to any writer

In this exquisite new series from the nation’s leading short fiction literary journal, accomplished authors offer advice and instruction on fiction writing and the fiction writing life that speaks to writers of all experience levels. Compiled from the best of Glimmer Train’s "Writers Ask" quarterly newsletter, this volume contains useful techniques, informed perspectives, and inspired nudges from a wealth of accomplished writers including Margaret Atwood, Ernest Gaines, Julia Alvarez, Jamaica Kincaid, Stephen Dixon, Mary McGarry Morris, and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

"Glimmer Tain" Glitters!
Consists of interviews with successful writers. They offer years of experience and expertise that no writing class could offer.

Philosophical not technical
The subtitle ("Guide to Writing Fiction") is a bit deceiving, because this led me to believe that the book was technically oriented, when it is actually emotionally oriented.

If you're a writer, you've probably discovered that all writing problems can be placed into one of two main categories:
1 - Emotional
2 - Technical

Emotional problems are things like, "I can't write and I want to.I need to find time, but I can't.What should I write about?Should I use a #2 pencil and a legal pad, or a word processor?"

Books can't help with much of this, but a lot of writing books try to, and they usually fall flat.

Technical problems are problems related to understanding what to write, when you want to show that your character is angry.How to plot a twelve chapter book.What details do you show or not show and how do you determine which is which.

I was expecting this book to be more of a technical treatise, but it fell flat for me, because it was more about the emtions of how a specific (interviewee) author felt when he wrote something that went on to be published.Does that really help me? No.

The entire book is made up of interviews (originally published in glimmer train's magazine for writers). However, to break up the book into "story elements" - setting, character, viewpoint, etc - the authors had to break up the interviews, so only the piece speaking of character are found in that chapter.So, often, you find one piece of the interview in chapter 1 and another piece in chapter 4 and yet another in chapter 5.Terribly disjointed and makes the reading quite boring.

One last thing. Many times I failed to even find the element (character, setting, viewpoint) exposed in the pieces.

Here's a example of what the book is like.If the item is supposed to be about viewpoint, the interviewer would say something like:
"What made you choose 1st person for this story?"
The answer would come something like:
"Well, I was in the bathroom shaving and the light bulb blew.As I turned to leave and get a new bulb I slipped and bumped my head on the toilet.That's when I knew I had to write this story from my point of view."

Uh, yeah.That's a ton of help.
I'm looking for something that teaches writing.
I'd see an answer like:
"This character was so quirky that I wanted the reader to be inside his head 100% of the time.I wanted to challenge the reader to see that the 1st person character was actually a bit lopsided, something like The Catcher in The Rye.It works because we see the world through his eyes and everything seems right, until we find out he is a bit imbalanced."
And then some teaching on how to do first-person.
Maybe something like: Have the character see his reflection in a pond.Have someone say something to the character about his blue eyes seeming brighter on a specific day.

Here are some books that do teach this way:
Elements of Writing Fiction - Scene & Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing)

Make Your Words Work: Proven Techniques for Effective Writing-For Fiction and Nonfiction

Bursts of Inspiration
If you're a writer who's knee-deep in your project, you might encounter a snag somewhere in the process. A character may be dry, dialogue may come off odd, or perhaps your descriptions may be clichéd.

The Glimmer Train could be your quick solution. Culled from interviews with dozens of fictionists on various writing topics, the book offers various perspectives on issues most writers face when working on their prose. Each issue (plot, dialogue, research, theme, moving on to the next piece, etc.) is given a chapter.

Structurally, the book doesn't present lengthy interviews. The Q&A's are short, usually one question and one answer, and each author's perspectives are nicely distributed across the various chapters.

I give this book four stars because a lot of the interviews are project specific, in that an author's answer relates to a story they've already written. So I get the feeling of detachment to the answer; I feel that I need to read the author's story to better understand where the author is coming from.

Also, the subtitle "Guide to Writing Fiction" isn't too accurate, since "guide" suggests direct instruction. "Inspirations to Writing Fiction" would be more accurate given the format and structure of the material.

Don't look any further, this book has it all!
What an AMAZING reference. I bought this and the second book within days of each other because I could not get over the amount of GEMS the first one contained, and knew I was in for more literary treasure!

I don't think there is ANY book out there like these, the very best info, insight and wisdom from the very best authors, compiled together in over 400 pages? I love how their opinions often vary but you turn each page completely enthralled with it all.

I can't stop raving about this series and even asked one of the editors about the third book because I am already fiending for it!

Help to make your way
I have read many books on writing fiction, mostly because I am inspired by reading about the creative process. The reason I love this book is that its breadth and variety provide a hundred little windows into the craft of story-telling. Somehow, it's refreshing to see that the experience of writing fiction is wildly different for different people; there's simply not a right or wrong way to approach the work.

As other reviews have said, this would be a terrific book both for students of fiction and for practicing writers who need occasional fresh perspectives. I've shared my copy with my daughter, a teenage writer who is absorbing all she can about the nuts and bolts of writing stories; we both enjoy reading it in bits. ... Read more

Product Description
Gorgeous short stories by established and emerging fiction writers. This issue includes the winners of Glimmer Train's 2001 Fiction Open and Very Short Fiction Award. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

run away
If you've read Davies' wonderful thrillers -- Nest of Vipers, Wilderness of Mirrors, Into the Fire -- and are hoping for more of that here, run away.Run fast.This is a romance/chic lit mess.Entirely narrated in the first person (there is almost no dialogue) the book hits new lows, even for the genre of stupid women making bad choices.

Here's hoping Davies goes back to writing action adventures with strong, smart women.Perhaps this was written by her evil twin?

Art imitating life?
I haven't read this book, but in real life the author shortly after writing this book ran into some spy problems with the Iranians, while cruising with her boat off the coast of Iran.

Art imitating life?Or life imitating art? ... Read more

Product Description

Ann Beattie, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Bausch, and twenty-one other celebrated American writers contribute to this moving anthology of fiction, compiled by the editors of the Glimmer Train literary quarterly.

In the ten-plus years since Susan Burmeister-Brown and Linda B. Swanson-Davies founded Glimmer Train, they have introduced an astonishing array of talented and innovative authors to a growing readership hungry for inspiring fiction. The stunning stories in this anthology -- many of which have never appeared anywhere except in Glimmer Train Stories -- explore one of the most complex emotional and psychological ties of all: motherhood, and its many facets.

The writers in Mother Knows include established authors as well as up-and-coming talents like Junot DÍaz and award-winning writers like Robin Bradford, Nancy Reisman, Lee Martin, and Doug Crandell. Their stories demonstrate that motherhood is more than toilet training and tantrum control, as they portray the full, fierce, joyous, and frightening range of experience that marks this state of being.

Mother Knows is a thoughtful and powerful exploration of the most mysterious bond in life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Powerful stories exploring the mother-child bond
From the editors of Glimmer Train comes this collection of 24 short stories exploring the ties of motherhood. While the stories encompass a wide range of experiences and writing styles, they are all consistently thoughtful, well-written and provocative.

If I have any quibble with this collection, it is that almost without exception, these stories deal with loss, and including some stories that touch on the more joyous aspects of the mother-child bond would have balanced out this anthology nicely.

Moving stories about real life.
All of our lives are inextricably bound with our mothers' lives. What I especially appreciated about these stories was that they told the truth--from all directions--about the complicated, but love-infused bond between mothers and their children. It's a meaningful, affecting, and hopeful collection. (And I've got some great new authors to follow now, too.)

A satisfying read!
Mother Knows presents a rich collection of emotionally meaningful short stories-some by writers I hadn't heard of before, but will be looking for now-about motherhood from all directions.

The opening piece, "What's Left Behind," is a deeply moving (but not sappy) story of a pregnant woman who loses her husband and children in a flash flood. Here are the first two lines: "He sweeps by me. My husband, Dizzy, rushes past me with his arms outstretched like a preacher at altar call."

There's the woman who's trying to take care of her small "determined" son and her equally stubborn father who, after a stroke, can only speak gibberish. The realism of this story is striking: the intertwining of love and dedication with exhaustion and a powerful, though passing, desire to flee from the obligations of family.

A remarkable range of authors and perspectives are included. There are at least five immigrants in this collection-wonderful writers with backgrounds and challenges very different from my own or my children's. (One author was born in China, another in Turkey, one in Puerto Rico, and one in Zimbabwe. I mean, wow.)

For me, the best fiction gives me a larger view of the world and yet reminds me that I am a part of it. And, although it sounds sentimental, these stories reminded me that it is the urge to love and be loved that keeps us moving through this world. This powerful collection of 24 (!) stories-by big names and soon-to-be-big names-has earned a permanent spot in my library.

Not just for Mothers!
I got this for my wife for Mother's Day and I think I'll actually read it when she's done! Unless she lets our daughter read it first.

Touching and Heartwarming book!
I loved reading this anthology of stories about Motherhood! Very touching. A fascinating and heartwarming read, for sure. ... Read more

Product Description

Education reform continues to be a dominating feature of education in the UK and many other countries throughout the world. As a result of this, it is now more important than ever that headteachers and school managers develop the skills which enable them to manage their new responsibilities effectively.

In School Leadership in the 21st Century all the major aspects of school leadership are discussed, including:

• the strategic and ethical dimensions of leadership
• leading and managing change
• leading and managing staff in high performance schools
• information for student learning and organisational learning
• transformation of schools in the tewnty-first century.

The authors of this completely updated and revised edition have addressed the new standards and competency frameworks, making this an essential read for all headteachers and aspiring headteachers on NPQH or LPSH courses and anyone else with an interest in school leadership.