Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A must read, 19 Apr 2006
What can I write about this book that hasn't been said or written yet? Everybody knows everything about its plot and its characters, so I'll better write about what this book means to me.

I started reading when I was four. When I was a child, my family spent the summer in the country, and in few years I had read all the children's books that we had there. So,when I was seven I decided to explore my father's library: since I wasn't allowed to climb on a ladder (nor did I dare to), I took the first book I reached. Yes, it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I won't pretend I understood everything I read there, but enough to make me want to read more. With the years I learned to love both Sherlock Holmes and its adventures. And I haven't stopped doing so.

Some may say SH is outdated, victorian, unreal and even a bore (oh, blasphemous rumours!). To me, it opened the doors of the "adult" literature and I will always be grateful for it. And besides, everytime I read a SH story, I enjoy it like the first time. How many books can claim to do so?

Mind puzzles and corruption in Victorian London, 05 Feb 2003
Sherlock Holmes stories often read like fiendishly difficult literary MENSA conundrums. Often it is almost impossible for the reader to guess how Holmes will solve his crime riddles and almost always the reader will kick himself/herself when the solution is revealed.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about Conan Doyle's writing is that he often does not reveal to the reader (or to Dr Watson who we see most of the action from) all the clues that Holmes uses to make his conclusions- and some are so utterly preposterous to be believed i.e. Holmes deducing a man is a labourer because the muscles in his right hand are more developed than in his left. This is very different from more modern crime authors such as Agatha Christie who tend to challenge the reader as much as the detective. Perhaps, then, reading Sherlock Holmes must demand some suspension of belief but this doesn't detract from the satisfaction of Holmes solving yet another seemingly impossible crime.
Good fun and also, at times, intellectually stretching. Conan Doyle exercises the reader's facilities to question events in real life whilst simultaneously creating one of the most enjoyable genres and popular characters in English fiction.

A Singular Book, 18 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine. Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of late Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today; even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be a cocaine addict in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, 'The Red-Headed League', Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law. The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder from The X Files in 'The Beryl Coronet' when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in 'The Red Headed League'that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of 'A Case of Identity', "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' will suffice, read and enjoy.

A Singular Book, 15 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine.

Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today, even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be of all things, a cocaine addict in A Scandal in Bohemia.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, A Scandal in Bohemia, to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, The Red-Headed League, Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law.

The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder in The X Files from The Beryl Coronet when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in The Red Headed League that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of A Case of Identity, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is for you. Read and enjoy.

Excellent intrigue and perfectly balanced stories, 29 Oct 2000
This book is superb not only because of the quality of the stories but also how well and economically written it is. It really transports you into the Victorian world and its values (a world of gentlemen), you can also enjoy the marvel that a new world of wealth bringed by the Industrial Revolution produced on the English people at the time and the pride of a nation which considered itself at the centre of the world. "The casebook" and "The return" are much mediocre books as Conan Doyle's technique to tell stories becomes too repetitive and obvious.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A must read, 19 Apr 2006
What can I write about this book that hasn't been said or written yet? Everybody knows everything about its plot and its characters, so I'll better write about what this book means to me.

I started reading when I was four. When I was a child, my family spent the summer in the country, and in few years I had read all the children's books that we had there. So,when I was seven I decided to explore my father's library: since I wasn't allowed to climb on a ladder (nor did I dare to), I took the first book I reached. Yes, it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I won't pretend I understood everything I read there, but enough to make me want to read more. With the years I learned to love both Sherlock Holmes and its adventures. And I haven't stopped doing so.

Some may say SH is outdated, victorian, unreal and even a bore (oh, blasphemous rumours!). To me, it opened the doors of the "adult" literature and I will always be grateful for it. And besides, everytime I read a SH story, I enjoy it like the first time. How many books can claim to do so?

Mind puzzles and corruption in Victorian London, 05 Feb 2003
Sherlock Holmes stories often read like fiendishly difficult literary MENSA conundrums. Often it is almost impossible for the reader to guess how Holmes will solve his crime riddles and almost always the reader will kick himself/herself when the solution is revealed.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about Conan Doyle's writing is that he often does not reveal to the reader (or to Dr Watson who we see most of the action from) all the clues that Holmes uses to make his conclusions- and some are so utterly preposterous to be believed i.e. Holmes deducing a man is a labourer because the muscles in his right hand are more developed than in his left. This is very different from more modern crime authors such as Agatha Christie who tend to challenge the reader as much as the detective. Perhaps, then, reading Sherlock Holmes must demand some suspension of belief but this doesn't detract from the satisfaction of Holmes solving yet another seemingly impossible crime.
Good fun and also, at times, intellectually stretching. Conan Doyle exercises the reader's facilities to question events in real life whilst simultaneously creating one of the most enjoyable genres and popular characters in English fiction.

A Singular Book, 18 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine. Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of late Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today; even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be a cocaine addict in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, 'The Red-Headed League', Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law. The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder from The X Files in 'The Beryl Coronet' when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in 'The Red Headed League'that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of 'A Case of Identity', "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' will suffice, read and enjoy.

A Singular Book, 15 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine.

Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today, even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be of all things, a cocaine addict in A Scandal in Bohemia.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, A Scandal in Bohemia, to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, The Red-Headed League, Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law.

The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder in The X Files from The Beryl Coronet when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in The Red Headed League that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of A Case of Identity, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is for you. Read and enjoy.

Excellent intrigue and perfectly balanced stories, 29 Oct 2000
This book is superb not only because of the quality of the stories but also how well and economically written it is. It really transports you into the Victorian world and its values (a world of gentlemen), you can also enjoy the marvel that a new world of wealth bringed by the Industrial Revolution produced on the English people at the time and the pride of a nation which considered itself at the centre of the world. "The casebook" and "The return" are much mediocre books as Conan Doyle's technique to tell stories becomes too repetitive and obvious.

A gripping read. I wanted to give this 4 1/2 Stars really. , 18 May 2008
An excellent book which held my interest from the 1st page. I was a bit dubious as this is the 1st i've read of Ms Heller!! Similar in some respects to Martina Cole but this was less gritty and less foul language.. There is a balance of good and bad characters and story is very believable/realistic and i could relate to the characters. Vinnie is a despicable boy/young man. Although there are a lot of surprises in this story, I partly guessed the end about 75% though the book which took the shine of it slightly Still well worth reading though and i recommend it.

Queen of Manchester, 13 Oct 2007
I am a no 1 fan of Martina, but really enjoy Mandasue's books, this one is my fave, I loved the characters and thought Vinny was unbeleivable, how could one boy/man get away with so much-or could he.... I won't spoil it for anyone, but my advice is read this and you will be hooked.

Fantastic Read, 11 Oct 2007
I read this book a few years ago and as soon as I started it I couldn't put it down. If you like Martina Cole you will love Mandasue Heller!

the 1st book of Mandsue's I have read, 02 Aug 2007
A friend gave me a box of books to look through and this caught my eye, Manchester is my home town so it interested me further, Well I was hooked from the start it is an excellently written book and the best she has written so far, I have since bought the rest of her books and have read them all except the Club which I have just started, this lady is good cant wait till Sept for the new one

Brilliant, 08 Jun 2007
This is my third book by this author and they get better. Was absolutely glued to it. Mandasue Heller classes herself as the princess of crime with Martina Cole being the queen, but believe me she has excelled herself with this book and it's her that's the queen of crime. Brilliant reading.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A must read, 19 Apr 2006
What can I write about this book that hasn't been said or written yet? Everybody knows everything about its plot and its characters, so I'll better write about what this book means to me.

I started reading when I was four. When I was a child, my family spent the summer in the country, and in few years I had read all the children's books that we had there. So,when I was seven I decided to explore my father's library: since I wasn't allowed to climb on a ladder (nor did I dare to), I took the first book I reached. Yes, it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I won't pretend I understood everything I read there, but enough to make me want to read more. With the years I learned to love both Sherlock Holmes and its adventures. And I haven't stopped doing so.

Some may say SH is outdated, victorian, unreal and even a bore (oh, blasphemous rumours!). To me, it opened the doors of the "adult" literature and I will always be grateful for it. And besides, everytime I read a SH story, I enjoy it like the first time. How many books can claim to do so?

Mind puzzles and corruption in Victorian London, 05 Feb 2003
Sherlock Holmes stories often read like fiendishly difficult literary MENSA conundrums. Often it is almost impossible for the reader to guess how Holmes will solve his crime riddles and almost always the reader will kick himself/herself when the solution is revealed.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about Conan Doyle's writing is that he often does not reveal to the reader (or to Dr Watson who we see most of the action from) all the clues that Holmes uses to make his conclusions- and some are so utterly preposterous to be believed i.e. Holmes deducing a man is a labourer because the muscles in his right hand are more developed than in his left. This is very different from more modern crime authors such as Agatha Christie who tend to challenge the reader as much as the detective. Perhaps, then, reading Sherlock Holmes must demand some suspension of belief but this doesn't detract from the satisfaction of Holmes solving yet another seemingly impossible crime.
Good fun and also, at times, intellectually stretching. Conan Doyle exercises the reader's facilities to question events in real life whilst simultaneously creating one of the most enjoyable genres and popular characters in English fiction.

A Singular Book, 18 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine. Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of late Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today; even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be a cocaine addict in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, 'The Red-Headed League', Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law. The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder from The X Files in 'The Beryl Coronet' when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in 'The Red Headed League'that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of 'A Case of Identity', "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' will suffice, read and enjoy.

A Singular Book, 15 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine.

Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today, even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be of all things, a cocaine addict in A Scandal in Bohemia.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, A Scandal in Bohemia, to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, The Red-Headed League, Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law.

The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder in The X Files from The Beryl Coronet when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in The Red Headed League that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of A Case of Identity, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is for you. Read and enjoy.

Excellent intrigue and perfectly balanced stories, 29 Oct 2000
This book is superb not only because of the quality of the stories but also how well and economically written it is. It really transports you into the Victorian world and its values (a world of gentlemen), you can also enjoy the marvel that a new world of wealth bringed by the Industrial Revolution produced on the English people at the time and the pride of a nation which considered itself at the centre of the world. "The casebook" and "The return" are much mediocre books as Conan Doyle's technique to tell stories becomes too repetitive and obvious.

A gripping read. I wanted to give this 4 1/2 Stars really. , 18 May 2008
An excellent book which held my interest from the 1st page. I was a bit dubious as this is the 1st i've read of Ms Heller!! Similar in some respects to Martina Cole but this was less gritty and less foul language.. There is a balance of good and bad characters and story is very believable/realistic and i could relate to the characters. Vinnie is a despicable boy/young man. Although there are a lot of surprises in this story, I partly guessed the end about 75% though the book which took the shine of it slightly Still well worth reading though and i recommend it.

Queen of Manchester, 13 Oct 2007
I am a no 1 fan of Martina, but really enjoy Mandasue's books, this one is my fave, I loved the characters and thought Vinny was unbeleivable, how could one boy/man get away with so much-or could he.... I won't spoil it for anyone, but my advice is read this and you will be hooked.

Fantastic Read, 11 Oct 2007
I read this book a few years ago and as soon as I started it I couldn't put it down. If you like Martina Cole you will love Mandasue Heller!

the 1st book of Mandsue's I have read, 02 Aug 2007
A friend gave me a box of books to look through and this caught my eye, Manchester is my home town so it interested me further, Well I was hooked from the start it is an excellently written book and the best she has written so far, I have since bought the rest of her books and have read them all except the Club which I have just started, this lady is good cant wait till Sept for the new one

Brilliant, 08 Jun 2007
This is my third book by this author and they get better. Was absolutely glued to it. Mandasue Heller classes herself as the princess of crime with Martina Cole being the queen, but believe me she has excelled herself with this book and it's her that's the queen of crime. Brilliant reading.

Calm down, 28 Mar 2008
I think you need to calm down, there is probably a good reason why its name got changed and there is a sequel to the book, called the six sacred stones!!

Seven Ancient Wonders, 18 Feb 2008
Yes, Seven Ancient Wonders is the same as this newly titled book. This is down to the publishers not Mr Reilly. To those who have moaned about this book.... get a life for goodness sake!!!! My first Reilly book was 'Seven Ancient Wonders' and I am totally hooked. Think James Bond but working as team and without the superior attitude or the annoying sex and sexual overtones. This book if absolute fantasy and it should be read with that in mind. If you don't want to read fiction then don't read this book but don't criticise it either! I loved it and have now read its sequal Six Sacred Stones... please set that word processor on fire Mr Reilly because I'm on the edge of my seat :-)

Read this in a day, 16 Jan 2008
I have read some of the other reviews on this book and frankly I can't see what all the fuss is about. OK so there were parts of the book that were more Indiana Jones than Indiana Jones but this is a work of fiction afterall. I haveto agree with one reviewer, having a nine year old girl shouting "swear jar" in the middle of a shoot out didn't appear to be too realistic neither was the fact that none of what happened seemed to emotionally scar her at all. With all that said I did read the book from cover to cover in one day and although it wasn't as good as James Rollins offering it was a page turner and did keep me hooked so I guess Mr reilly can't be doing that badly afterall. I do think that changing the book title was a little off but then I don't buy a book unless I know what is's about anyway regardless of author.

Don't blame the author for the name change, 06 Jan 2008
Don't blame the author for the name change, it is likely to be the publishers
playing marketing games, and don't take the content of the Matthew Reilly books too seriously. They are light reads, full of escapist action. If you want intellectual go somewhere else, if you want fun read his books.

Stop complaining - it's a great book, 21 Dec 2007
This book is yet again a fantastic read from M.R. containing his usual mix of killer animals, hi-tech weaponry and, at the same second, super-fast pacing!

Now for all those people who feel ripped off buying this book twice etc. If you are any kind of fan of any author then do some research on what books they have out. Matthew Reilly has a good website, then there's Wikipedia or even the US version of Amazon to find out what a particular book is about.

Sometimes authors don't have the rights to assert what the title of a book is going to be in any particular market. His publishers decided on this name for the US launch and then changed it. I can't see how that is necessarily M.R.'s fault.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A must read, 19 Apr 2006
What can I write about this book that hasn't been said or written yet? Everybody knows everything about its plot and its characters, so I'll better write about what this book means to me.

I started reading when I was four. When I was a child, my family spent the summer in the country, and in few years I had read all the children's books that we had there. So,when I was seven I decided to explore my father's library: since I wasn't allowed to climb on a ladder (nor did I dare to), I took the first book I reached. Yes, it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I won't pretend I understood everything I read there, but enough to make me want to read more. With the years I learned to love both Sherlock Holmes and its adventures. And I haven't stopped doing so.

Some may say SH is outdated, victorian, unreal and even a bore (oh, blasphemous rumours!). To me, it opened the doors of the "adult" literature and I will always be grateful for it. And besides, everytime I read a SH story, I enjoy it like the first time. How many books can claim to do so?

Mind puzzles and corruption in Victorian London, 05 Feb 2003
Sherlock Holmes stories often read like fiendishly difficult literary MENSA conundrums. Often it is almost impossible for the reader to guess how Holmes will solve his crime riddles and almost always the reader will kick himself/herself when the solution is revealed.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about Conan Doyle's writing is that he often does not reveal to the reader (or to Dr Watson who we see most of the action from) all the clues that Holmes uses to make his conclusions- and some are so utterly preposterous to be believed i.e. Holmes deducing a man is a labourer because the muscles in his right hand are more developed than in his left. This is very different from more modern crime authors such as Agatha Christie who tend to challenge the reader as much as the detective. Perhaps, then, reading Sherlock Holmes must demand some suspension of belief but this doesn't detract from the satisfaction of Holmes solving yet another seemingly impossible crime.
Good fun and also, at times, intellectually stretching. Conan Doyle exercises the reader's facilities to question events in real life whilst simultaneously creating one of the most enjoyable genres and popular characters in English fiction.

A Singular Book, 18 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine. Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of late Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today; even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be a cocaine addict in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, 'The Red-Headed League', Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law. The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder from The X Files in 'The Beryl Coronet' when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in 'The Red Headed League'that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of 'A Case of Identity', "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' will suffice, read and enjoy.

A Singular Book, 15 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine.

Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today, even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be of all things, a cocaine addict in A Scandal in Bohemia.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, A Scandal in Bohemia, to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, The Red-Headed League, Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law.

The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder in The X Files from The Beryl Coronet when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in The Red Headed League that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of A Case of Identity, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is for you. Read and enjoy.

Excellent intrigue and perfectly balanced stories, 29 Oct 2000
This book is superb not only because of the quality of the stories but also how well and economically written it is. It really transports you into the Victorian world and its values (a world of gentlemen), you can also enjoy the marvel that a new world of wealth bringed by the Industrial Revolution produced on the English people at the time and the pride of a nation which considered itself at the centre of the world. "The casebook" and "The return" are much mediocre books as Conan Doyle's technique to tell stories becomes too repetitive and obvious.

A gripping read. I wanted to give this 4 1/2 Stars really. , 18 May 2008
An excellent book which held my interest from the 1st page. I was a bit dubious as this is the 1st i've read of Ms Heller!! Similar in some respects to Martina Cole but this was less gritty and less foul language.. There is a balance of good and bad characters and story is very believable/realistic and i could relate to the characters. Vinnie is a despicable boy/young man. Although there are a lot of surprises in this story, I partly guessed the end about 75% though the book which took the shine of it slightly Still well worth reading though and i recommend it.

Queen of Manchester, 13 Oct 2007
I am a no 1 fan of Martina, but really enjoy Mandasue's books, this one is my fave, I loved the characters and thought Vinny was unbeleivable, how could one boy/man get away with so much-or could he.... I won't spoil it for anyone, but my advice is read this and you will be hooked.

Fantastic Read, 11 Oct 2007
I read this book a few years ago and as soon as I started it I couldn't put it down. If you like Martina Cole you will love Mandasue Heller!

the 1st book of Mandsue's I have read, 02 Aug 2007
A friend gave me a box of books to look through and this caught my eye, Manchester is my home town so it interested me further, Well I was hooked from the start it is an excellently written book and the best she has written so far, I have since bought the rest of her books and have read them all except the Club which I have just started, this lady is good cant wait till Sept for the new one

Brilliant, 08 Jun 2007
This is my third book by this author and they get better. Was absolutely glued to it. Mandasue Heller classes herself as the princess of crime with Martina Cole being the queen, but believe me she has excelled herself with this book and it's her that's the queen of crime. Brilliant reading.

Calm down, 28 Mar 2008
I think you need to calm down, there is probably a good reason why its name got changed and there is a sequel to the book, called the six sacred stones!!

Seven Ancient Wonders, 18 Feb 2008
Yes, Seven Ancient Wonders is the same as this newly titled book. This is down to the publishers not Mr Reilly. To those who have moaned about this book.... get a life for goodness sake!!!! My first Reilly book was 'Seven Ancient Wonders' and I am totally hooked. Think James Bond but working as team and without the superior attitude or the annoying sex and sexual overtones. This book if absolute fantasy and it should be read with that in mind. If you don't want to read fiction then don't read this book but don't criticise it either! I loved it and have now read its sequal Six Sacred Stones... please set that word processor on fire Mr Reilly because I'm on the edge of my seat :-)

Read this in a day, 16 Jan 2008
I have read some of the other reviews on this book and frankly I can't see what all the fuss is about. OK so there were parts of the book that were more Indiana Jones than Indiana Jones but this is a work of fiction afterall. I haveto agree with one reviewer, having a nine year old girl shouting "swear jar" in the middle of a shoot out didn't appear to be too realistic neither was the fact that none of what happened seemed to emotionally scar her at all. With all that said I did read the book from cover to cover in one day and although it wasn't as good as James Rollins offering it was a page turner and did keep me hooked so I guess Mr reilly can't be doing that badly afterall. I do think that changing the book title was a little off but then I don't buy a book unless I know what is's about anyway regardless of author.

Don't blame the author for the name change, 06 Jan 2008
Don't blame the author for the name change, it is likely to be the publishers
playing marketing games, and don't take the content of the Matthew Reilly books too seriously. They are light reads, full of escapist action. If you want intellectual go somewhere else, if you want fun read his books.

Stop complaining - it's a great book, 21 Dec 2007
This book is yet again a fantastic read from M.R. containing his usual mix of killer animals, hi-tech weaponry and, at the same second, super-fast pacing!

Now for all those people who feel ripped off buying this book twice etc. If you are any kind of fan of any author then do some research on what books they have out. Matthew Reilly has a good website, then there's Wikipedia or even the US version of Amazon to find out what a particular book is about.

Sometimes authors don't have the rights to assert what the title of a book is going to be in any particular market. His publishers decided on this name for the US launch and then changed it. I can't see how that is necessarily M.R.'s fault.

Each story with synopsis and rated individually., 29 Sep 2008
Voidsong by Henry Zou
Inquisitor Obodiah Roth is dispatched to Sirene Primal. His mission is to investigate the mild psychic disturbances emanating from the planet. Obodiah is on-world for close to a month before his group meet the female Blade Artisan named Bekaela. At first Obodiah believes Bekaela is guarding the ship behind her from intruders. Instead, Bekaela of the Blade is guarding against whatever lay within from getting out.

**** This is the first time I recall reading about an inquisitor being so new to his career. The author has done a pretty good job; however, Roth does not come across as being ready for a solo investigation, no matter how minor it was supposed to be. ****



Mortal Fuel by Richard Williams
The planet of Bahani has been depleted of all natural resources. The result is for the Imperium to evacuate and leave Bahani's people to their doom, except from some Bahani who are bonded to the Navy. Midshipman Dal Marcher is with Governor-Adept Kaizen when the area is attacked. His heroism under fire, which also saves Kaizen, gets Marcher promoted to Sub-Lieutenant. However, once aboard the Relentless> Marcher becomes a pawn. The ship's captain has been dead several months and First Officer Tomias Ward is acting Commander. Needing to put those beneath him back into line, Ward sets Marcher up to become an example. At the same time, there is a Bahani saboteur in hiding, waiting for the perfect time to dispense revenge on behalf of his people.

***** This story happens BEFORE the beginning of the novel "Relentless". If you have already read the novel, you will already know most of the characters. If not, the author has done a terrific job with minor explanations and you will have no trouble what-so-ever. More than one nice bout of irony comes into play as well. *****



The Heraclitus Effect by Graham McNeill
They wear a variety of Imperial uniforms, but are the opposite of what the uniforms stand for. The group consists of former members of the Raven Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus, and more. Warsmith Honsou is after revenge against one who had walked away from a fight. Ardaric Vaanes is the new champion of Honsou. It is Vaanes's duty to train the monster recently created, known only as the newborn. The newborn is a creature of Chaos. Biological hot-housing, demonic magic and debased tech of genetic theft has accelerated his growth with strands of geneseed from Uriel Ventris (a man Vaanes loathes). Their target is a planet well loved by Ventris. This is where they will leave a terrifying message.

*** Though very interesting as a whole, there is a lot of unnecessary scenes and information. The title of the story does not make any sense until close to the ending. This story reads as if it were a segment ripped out of a full-length novel. ***



The Emperor Wept by Simon Dyton
Life-Eater is what the Imperium of Man uses to administer Exterminatus. However, an evolved Life-Eater is about to be used for the planet's sterilization. It is named The Emperor's Tears. When the Doom Warriors use it for the first time they learn the true meaning of betrayal. "Doom ye!"

*** Fans of the Adeptus Mechanicus will get a very interesting glimpse into the chapter this time. ***



Phobos Worked in Adamant by Robey Jenkins
The Fabricator Lords, the Nine, hear that the Planet Killer is coming to Celare Artem. Desperately needing some sort of defense, the Nine allow Archmagos Ghuul to explore the ancient alien relics for possible salvation. Ghuul finds it in the form of a shield generator which can cover the entire world. However, the device requires one last element to work, life-force.

**** This story shows that many people will gladly make sacrifices to climb the corporate ladder. The author did a wonderful job. ****



Seven Views of Uhlguth's Passing by Matthew Farrer
The planet of Uhlguth misses its master and all the ones who once worked upon its back. Not content to sit and wait for a new master, Uhlguth begins to travel. Uhlguth will travel forever if that is what it takes. The rogue world's velocity dashes apart all in it path. Its travels will even go through the most chaotic of spaces. During its search, seven entities notice its passing.

** I simply did not like the writing style of this story. Squeezing seven different views, not including Uhlguth's, into such few pages only succeeded in making the story choppy. I would have rated this story even lower, except that I honestly enjoyed the sixth view about a captain, a seer, and a spirit revolting. The author should turn the main character, Ashya Drael, and the spirit revolting synopsis into a full-length novel. **



Mercy Run by Steve Parker
An ork warlord has sent seventeen massive asteroids hurtling through space on a collision course with the Imperial planet of Palmeros. Just before Sergeant Wulfe and his crew were scheduled for evacuation, they are pulled for one last mission. The Cadian 81st Armored (tanks) are ordered to escort Sister Superior Dessembra of the Adeptus Sororitas and two others from the Order of Serenity to the town of Ghotenz on a mission of mercy.

***** I would dearly enjoy seeing more of Sergeant Oskar Wulfe and his men in future novels. This leader understands the necessity of successfully completing the mission, but still has enough humanity to feel pain when forced to make extremely tough decisions with little or not hesitation. The author has done an outstanding job with this story. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Gripping stuff , 26 Sep 2008
This is a re-read. It is a very good adventure, one of his best, maintaining a real sense of threat and suffocating claustrophobia under the ground. There are some internal inconsistencies in dates and timings which would probably not get past a modern editor. Good stuff.

short but not sweet, 06 Jul 2008
Axel Lindenbrock's uncle, Professor Otto Lindenbrock, has found a piece of paper written in Old Icelandic. Axel shortly manages to make sense of it, and it leads him and his uncle to Iceland to an extinct volcano called Sneffells. There, they go down into its crater with the help of an escort named Hans Bjelke, in hope to get to the centre of the earth! They will face hunger, thirst, and tiredness, but odd Professor Lindenbrock will not give up until he is at the earth's core...or until he is dead!

This is not the whole story but only a shortened version that takes only about 40 minutes to read if you do not want to read the whole story or you want to tell a friend about the book.

Great book, Wrong description!, 03 Jul 2008
The book is fantastic, and if a real review is wanted, then read one of the other ones. I'm just here to say that the book is not hardcover as it states in the product description, and is one of those crappy recycled green covers!

Deserved classic- science fiction with character, 21 Oct 2007
As well as being the gripping high-adventure story that other reviewers have written about, when I re-read this novel recently I was struck by another side to the story that I hadn't noticed before- it reads, especially at the beginning of the book, as a satire. Verne is not content with helping to invent science fiction in terms of the science- some of which is consciously out-of-date even as Verne writes it, as he explains away science facts such as why inside the Earth's core is not flesh-meltingly hot in a manner not dissimilar to those bits of Star Trek where they tell you how the teleport works. In addition to the science, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth has character. Verne invents in this story the very concept of the mad scientist, in this case Professor Lidenbrock, who struggles to teach coherently at a German university and who is sent on a wild goose chase to Iceland because of one scrap of paper found in a library book. The interplay between our narrator Axel, his mad professor uncle and the reliable but non-verbal Icelandic guide Hans has things to say about the self-importance of science as well as about class and social standing. The science of this book is horrendously flawed but I believe it's the strength of character as well as Verne's fantastically imagined underground worlds that makes this novel not an out-dated joke but deservedly a classic.

4 stars, 05 Jul 2007
Verne captures real drama and human response in this fictitious masterpiece.It's a book for those who like the somewhat sureal adventure story. The plot thickens as the book progresses and i've read it twice in very different circumstances leading me to give it 4 stars. Firstly i read it one summer holiday in one big reading session as i really couldn't put it down, it was magic. The second time i read it on the bus on the way to work and found that having to read it on and off i didn't enjoyit nearly as much and found it hard to get back into. Not a book to read on and off from night to night in bed even but great if you've got a few hours to kill and you want to make the very mos of them.great book.

A must read, 19 Apr 2006
What can I write about this book that hasn't been said or written yet? Everybody knows everything about its plot and its characters, so I'll better write about what this book means to me.

I started reading when I was four. When I was a child, my family spent the summer in the country, and in few years I had read all the children's books that we had there. So,when I was seven I decided to explore my father's library: since I wasn't allowed to climb on a ladder (nor did I dare to), I took the first book I reached. Yes, it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I won't pretend I understood everything I read there, but enough to make me want to read more. With the years I learned to love both Sherlock Holmes and its adventures. And I haven't stopped doing so.

Some may say SH is outdated, victorian, unreal and even a bore (oh, blasphemous rumours!). To me, it opened the doors of the "adult" literature and I will always be grateful for it. And besides, everytime I read a SH story, I enjoy it like the first time. How many books can claim to do so?

Mind puzzles and corruption in Victorian London, 05 Feb 2003
Sherlock Holmes stories often read like fiendishly difficult literary MENSA conundrums. Often it is almost impossible for the reader to guess how Holmes will solve his crime riddles and almost always the reader will kick himself/herself when the solution is revealed.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about Conan Doyle's writing is that he often does not reveal to the reader (or to Dr Watson who we see most of the action from) all the clues that Holmes uses to make his conclusions- and some are so utterly preposterous to be believed i.e. Holmes deducing a man is a labourer because the muscles in his right hand are more developed than in his left. This is very different from more modern crime authors such as Agatha Christie who tend to challenge the reader as much as the detective. Perhaps, then, reading Sherlock Holmes must demand some suspension of belief but this doesn't detract from the satisfaction of Holmes solving yet another seemingly impossible crime.
Good fun and also, at times, intellectually stretching. Conan Doyle exercises the reader's facilities to question events in real life whilst simultaneously creating one of the most enjoyable genres and popular characters in English fiction.

A Singular Book, 18 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine. Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of late Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today; even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be a cocaine addict in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, 'The Red-Headed League', Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law. The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder from The X Files in 'The Beryl Coronet' when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in 'The Red Headed League'that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of 'A Case of Identity', "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' will suffice, read and enjoy.

A Singular Book, 15 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine.

Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today, even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be of all things, a cocaine addict in A Scandal in Bohemia.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, A Scandal in Bohemia, to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, The Red-Headed League, Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law.

The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder in The X Files from The Beryl Coronet when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in The Red Headed League that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of A Case of Identity, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is for you. Read and enjoy.

Excellent intrigue and perfectly balanced stories, 29 Oct 2000
This book is superb not only because of the quality of the stories but also how well and economically written it is. It really transports you into the Victorian world and its values (a world of gentlemen), you can also enjoy the marvel that a new world of wealth bringed by the Industrial Revolution produced on the English people at the time and the pride of a nation which considered itself at the centre of the world. "The casebook" and "The return" are much mediocre books as Conan Doyle's technique to tell stories becomes too repetitive and obvious.

A gripping read. I wanted to give this 4 1/2 Stars really. , 18 May 2008
An excellent book which held my interest from the 1st page. I was a bit dubious as this is the 1st i've read of Ms Heller!! Similar in some respects to Martina Cole but this was less gritty and less foul language.. There is a balance of good and bad characters and story is very believable/realistic and i could relate to the characters. Vinnie is a despicable boy/young man. Although there are a lot of surprises in this story, I partly guessed the end about 75% though the book which took the shine of it slightly Still well worth reading though and i recommend it.

Queen of Manchester, 13 Oct 2007
I am a no 1 fan of Martina, but really enjoy Mandasue's books, this one is my fave, I loved the characters and thought Vinny was unbeleivable, how could one boy/man get away with so much-or could he.... I won't spoil it for anyone, but my advice is read this and you will be hooked.

Fantastic Read, 11 Oct 2007
I read this book a few years ago and as soon as I started it I couldn't put it down. If you like Martina Cole you will love Mandasue Heller!

the 1st book of Mandsue's I have read, 02 Aug 2007
A friend gave me a box of books to look through and this caught my eye, Manchester is my home town so it interested me further, Well I was hooked from the start it is an excellently written book and the best she has written so far, I have since bought the rest of her books and have read them all except the Club which I have just started, this lady is good cant wait till Sept for the new one

Brilliant, 08 Jun 2007
This is my third book by this author and they get better. Was absolutely glued to it. Mandasue Heller classes herself as the princess of crime with Martina Cole being the queen, but believe me she has excelled herself with this book and it's her that's the queen of crime. Brilliant reading.

Calm down, 28 Mar 2008
I think you need to calm down, there is probably a good reason why its name got changed and there is a sequel to the book, called the six sacred stones!!

Seven Ancient Wonders, 18 Feb 2008
Yes, Seven Ancient Wonders is the same as this newly