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This digital document is an article from Utopian Studies, published by Society for Utopian Studies on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1578 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Eden by Design: the 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for the Los Angeles Region.(Review) (book review)
Author: Michael Orth
Publication: Utopian Studies (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: Society for Utopian Studies
Volume: 12Issue: 1Page: 198

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Casey Collins, a U. S. Foreign Service officer, is thrown into a maelstromof agony when she learns a New York bound flight from England exploded soonafter takeoff, like a grim Lockerbie Two. Casey fears that her lover StefanKrajewski, a Polish operative for Danish Defense Intelligence, was on theill-fated flight and promptly flies to Europe to learn the truth. But she isswiftly embroiled in a twisted series of events that paint her as aterrorist conspirator and a suspect in the airline bombing. Discredited byher own State Department, pursued by the FBI, wanted by Interpol, Casey is afugitive whose only protection is a small band of skilled agents operatingoutside of the law.

With her career and credibility in ruins, Casey has only one chance to bringthe malicious mastermind behind the bombing to justice before he canmassacre any more innocent people. Setting herself up as a fake mediator forU. S. interests, she conceives a dangerous strategy for gaining access toher target. Hurled into a relentless, death-dealing mission, she senses amulti-leveled web of deception tightening around her, forcing her to rely onpeople she neither knows nor trusts--any one of whom might sacrifice herlife for his own corrupt motives.

In the pulsating tradition of Robert Ludlum and Helen MacInnes comes anelectrifying international thriller, a breakneck race against time toprevent a wave of airborne terrorism. Writer Diana Deverell goes behindtoday's explosive headlines and takes readers on a whirlwind internationalchase as a lone woman stands between a diabolical terrorist and thecompletion of his deadly master plan.Amazon.com Review
Diana Deverell was a U.S. Foreign Service officer in such places as SanSalvador and Poland. So when she has the central character of her tough andmoving debut thriller give us inside details of a State Department agencydedicated to fighting terrorists, they have the smack and tang of reality.Kathryn "Casey" Collins finds her work becoming personal and very dangerouswhen her renegade Polish intelligence agent-lover Stefan Krajewski appearsto have been one of the 200-plus victims in the bombing of an airliner onthe 10th anniversary of the Lockerbie massacre. When Casey tries to dosome freelance digging, she somehow becomes one of the bad guys--targetedby the FBI for possible involvement in the bombing. Also hot on her trailare the terrorists themselves, looking for revenge for the role she andStefan played in nabbing the original Lockerbie villains. Add to the mix aninscrutable Danish Lutheran priest and Army officer (known as Father-Major)now running a covert intelligence operation and you have a milieu worthy ofthe best of Len Deighton, if not John Le Carré. With those and othermasters of the espionage genre making increasingly rare appearances thesedays, it's good to have someone as skilled as Deverell arriving sostylishly on the scene. --Dick Adler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

no title
Dumb, dumb book.All about terrorists and plane bombings.Deverell's first novel and it shows.Writing is atrocious, plot far too intricate.Who could plot 12 bombings at the same time?

Unimaginative and Uninteresting
Deverell takes great pains to tell us that she was a diplomat.In the cover blurbs and the author's note and the bio page, her greatest credential is the five years she spent as a junior officer in the U.S.foreign service,.What she doesn't reveal is that as a junior officer, shespent two years in San Salvador stamping visas into passports, dozens eachday, the bureaucratic equivalent of flipping burgers.As a juniorpersonnel officer in Poland, she spent two years reading regulations aboutsick leave and salary grade levels.She brings all of this talent andexperience to bear in Twelve Drummers Drumming.Her purported detailedunderstanding of the inner workings of the State Department in Washington(where she never worked) consist of two facts:that S/CT is the name ofthe counter-terrorism office and INR is the name of the intelligencebureau.These are tidbits anyone can get out of the phone book.Beyondthat she really has no insights at all about what goes on behind the scenesin Washington or in overseas embassies.

However, her puffing up herresume is nothing new in publishing or any other field.It would all bequite excusable if only the book was a good one.Unfortunately, it's not. Casey Collins, the herone, shares many of the author's resume bulletpoints:El Salvador, Poland, Denmark.We can only hope that the Collinscharacter didn't also inherit her creator's personality.For Collins is awhiny self-absorbed bore.She thinks in puerile simplicities, she isbreathlessly in love or dangerously heartbroken.Childishly shocked bythis or that perceived insult, convinced by the heavenly purity of herlove, mewling about how difficult are her life and her mission, gettinginto ridiculous situations like a blind kitten and then pouting that shehas no way out of her predicament.The premise of the book is promising,but the writing is unimaginative, the characters uninteresting, and theplot unconvincing.There are lots of writers out there in thesuspense/espionage genre, better to give Deverell a pass.

12 Drummers Drumming
For over a decade Casey Collins has sought out, confronted and apprehended terrorists.And when a New York-bound flight from England explodes shortly after takeoff, killing all on board, she fears Stefan Krajewski, a Polishoperative for the Danish Defense Intelligence and her lover, went down withthe plane.Casey immediately flies to England to investigate.

Casey'smotives are pure, but her actions quickly become suspect and she's forcedunderground to prevent capture by her own people.Working with people sheneither knows nor trusts, she learns Stefan withheld information that wouldhave influenced her objectivity over the years; secrets that now threatento destroy her and those she loves.Betrayal...that fine line between loveand hate.The cost of betrayal...the number of lives of innocent peoplelost to kill one operative.

Not once, not twice, but three times sheoffers herself as bait to catch Reinhardt Kruger, the monster orchestratingthe bombings.Not once, but twice she rendezvous with him and twice he hasreduced the size of her little band of mercenaries in his wake toescape.

Faced with death on foreign soil by the enemy or imprisonmentback in the states by her employer, the US Government, Casey does what shedoes best.She meets her adversary head on and spits on those responsiblefor the violence surround her.

Each page is filled with fast-pacedsuspense and you'll find yourself wondering what's going to happen next. As a former Foreign Service Officer in San Salvador and Poland, Deverelldraws on her experience to give authenticity to the settings and nations ofpeople who value human life so little, thereby giving her audience anexcellent read.

Couldn't Put It Down
Diana Deverell has given us a new heroine, Casey Collins. Ms. Deverell's experience as a US Foreign Service officer makes this book a must read.I picked it up and couldn't put it down.The twists and turns in the plotkept me guessint right to the end.I am going out tomorrow to buy hersecond book.

Effective spy thriller with more humanity than most.
12 Drummers is engaging, exciting stuff, recalling the thrills and chills of LeCarre and Deighton. But here, the dusty old men's club is aired out, and human connections have real substance. (So does the food!) A great readfor a winter evening. ... Read more