Escape with Ava Gardner and Sophia Loren!

Advantages: Great cast, good disaster film, some good special effects
Disadvantages: Not the best film ever

...I love escaping into the world of films. I love many kinds of films, but two of my favourites are disaster movies (having been brought up by a Dad who loves The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno) and films starring classic actresses. I love Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood and the like. So imagine by glee when I heard of a disaster movie starring two screen legends ? Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner! The Cassandra Crossing was also nice and cheap ? just £2.98 from Amazon ? so how could I resist?! The plot is typically dramatic, of course. A man has been exposed to the plague virus and boards a train from Stockholm to Geneva. The authorities need to prevent the plague spreading, so they seal the train full of 1000 passengers and re-route it to a bridge called the Cassandra Crossing. However, the bridge is perilously...

KarenUK 31.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Cassandra Crossing (DVD)

Hide by Lisa Gardner

Advantages: Good pace and twists
Disadvantages: Previous book means not all characters explored fully

...I hadn't read any of Lisa Gardner's books before but had heard of her so when I saw she had a few in the library I picked up one that sounded good and wasn't too big to fit in my bag. The story is about a woman called Annabelle Granger who had spent most of her life on the run, as her father made the family move from place to place changing aliases throughout her childhood until eventually they ended up back in their hometown of Boston and her father died. One morning Annabelle opens the paper and discovers that she has been declared dead, her body found in an underground chamber along with five other young girls. Annabelle goes to the police where she meets Detective Bobby Dodge and Sergeant DD Warren. Bobby is new to working with the Boston police as he used to be a police sniper but due to events in the past he has changed...

starjen 12.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Hide - Lisa Gardner

You'll never look at your Neigbours the same again

Advantages: strong characters, plot, cover
Disadvantages: /

...I'm quite fussy when it comes to books. Usually will go for autobiographies, or fiction by the same authors . I don't normally read anything by a new author unless I've heard an awful lot of praise about them. Until recently though I had not heard of author Lisa Gardner, and when faced with her latest, 'The Neighbour', something inside me made me rather keen to give it a read! I have to hold my hand up and admit that I do judge a book by its cover, despite the fact that I shouldn't! Clearly, a lot of thought has gone into the cover of The Neighbour, as it caught my attention immediately. It has a main background colour of deep green, quite a murky colour. On the front is a faded image of a front doorway, wide open suspiciosly. It looks incredibly eerie and mysterious, enough to tempt anybody into reading. The book itself tells...

Amy69 29.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Neighbour - Lisa Gardner

Scuzzy wuzzy, lets get buzzy

Advantages: A bargain. Easy to install and used. Good entry level SCSI controller.
Disadvantages: No support for higher data rates.

...If you plug an SCSI card into your pc, don’t hold your breath because nothing exciting is going to happen. (Unless of course you have made a very bad job of installing the card. Then you might see smoke and flames coming from your cherished/reviled PC or even, in extreme cases, find yourself moving down a tunnel towards a bright light.) However, once you have installed you SCSI card you will be able to attach any number of exciting devices to your pc. Although this is an opinion of Adaptecs AVA-2900 series of SCSI card, it is also a general review of SCSI. I have done this because as far as I can tell this is the first review at Ciao of a SCSI controller card. This seems to be a bit of an over sight to me as any number of SCSI devices have been reviewed, (such as the excellent Plextor external SCSI cd writer which was...

shearerm 10.07.2001 (11.07.2001) · Read review
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Review of Adaptec AVA 2904

Was it the neighbour??????

Advantages: Fantastic return of characters
Disadvantages: None whatsoever

...The Author~ Lisa Gardner is an American who has been writing since she was 20 and has since produced 23 novels. she has produced two series type books, one that features Pierce Quincy and Rainie Conner and also Bobby Dodge. Although some of her books feature these characters they are all classified as stand alone novels. The Story~ DD Warren is a tough talking female cop who is on the trail of a missing woman. The Jones are a normal couple. It seems that Jason Jones and his wife Sandra along with their daughter Ree had a normal life, until Jason comes home and finds his wife missing. All there is to prove this theory is a broken lampshade and some missing bed sheets. DD starts the investigation and finds that Jason and Sandra's life seems a little 'too' normal for her liking. After delving, we are introduced to possible suspects...

KathEv 03.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Neighbour - Lisa Gardner

Gone . . . But Where? Why? Because of Whom?

Advantages: You find out what happened next (after "The Killing Hour"); The story is well crafted, with characteristic twists and turns; good characterisation; keeps you reading!
Disadvantages: The world is not a nice place to live . . .

.... . . ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ Although, initially there is no definite evidence of a kidnap, the kidnap notes start arriving, in Rainie's handwriting, "signed" by famous past kidnappers who failed. This has been carefully planned, and apart from proving Rainie is still alive, is giving no clues. The kidnapper wants "money, power, and celebrity" ~ will he get away with what he wants? And who will die along the way? ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ ~()~ MY OPINION: This novel again shows Lisa Gardner's skill in carrying you along the direction she leads you. Her descriptions and well-rounded development of even the minor characters makes you root for them, yearning for the correct outcome, dreading the complications you know will develop along the way. Once again there is an unexpected death, named after someone nominated by...

jesi 15.01.2007 (26.01.2007) · Read review
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Review of Gone - Lisa Gardner

Will Kimberly be drawn into Spideyman's Web?

Advantages: This is the sixth novel featuring Percy Quincy and daughter Kimberly Quincy
Disadvantages: The world of missing hookers and paedophilia is not really my scene.

... Will Kimberly be drawn into Spideyman's Web? Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner As a thriller writer publishes yet another book featuring her favourite protagonist(s) one would be forgiven for asking, "Just Where does she find her ideas?" In the case of Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner, we have no such bewilderment, as she already shared her secret with us before she published the book. from Lisagardner.com: I know exactly how I got the idea for my latest release, SAY GOODBYE . . . . My child spent a year obsessed with spiders. I'm pretty sure nothing says suspense author quite like a living room covered in tarantulas. . . . So night time became spider time. I learned that tarantulas are very beautiful and very shy. They are also rather fragile and prone to dying, except for certain species...

jesi 28.01.2009 (16.01.2009) · Read review
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Review of Say Goodbye - Lisa Gardner

Better than third place.

Advantages: Very well written psychology thriller
Disadvantages: Felt the ending let it down slightly

...Lisa Gardner - The Third Victim. Better than third place. ~ About the Author ~ Lisa Gardner is American, best known for her thriller books and at last count when writing this review she had eight New York Times Best Selling Crime books. She also wrote romance novels using the pseudonym Alicia Scott and it was how her writing career was launched. She has written a small series featuring the FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, and The Third Victim is part of this mini series. Deputy Rainie (Lorraine) Conner is the other main character in this novel. ~ Book Synopsis ~ Deputy Rainie Connor is one of only three full time Sheriff or Deputy's to be assigned to work in the small town of Bakersville, Oregon. She is currently on patrol with a rookie, who cannot carry a firearm until he completes his training, but he can help her with day...

runetune 06.12.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Third Victim - Lisa Gardner

Dispelling the myths of the Da Vinci Code

Advantages: a factual analysis of theDa Vinci codes "secrets"
Disadvantages: will open up many more questions

...It may seem as if a book such as the Magdalene Legacy is just an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of the success of Dan Browns work and the Da Vinci Code in particular. To a lesser degree and in terms of timing that may be true, but its author, Laurence Gardner, has been publishing books around such subjects for years. Its very probable that Brown is a fan of his work as he is an obvious source of information, along side the much more controversial and widely reported "Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent and co. So whilst the timing of the books release may seem to be a corporate strategy, it only seems that way because this book is the natural response to the hype of Browns work. Before the Da Vinci Code there was less of a need to set the record straight in the sensitive yet less than popular subject matter that is...

steerpyke 26.12.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Magdalane Legacy - Laurence Gardner

Quite Frank-ly a moving, educational autobiography

Advantages: It educates about Islam's roots and the hospitality of the Middle East
Disadvantages: I honestly can't think of any

...Blood and Sand is a beautifully written autobiography by BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner. Not only does he tell the tale of the terrible attack he and cameraman Simon Cumbers were subjected to in Riyadh, but he tells it with with an incredibly unweakened love for the Middle East. Born in London, Frank Gardner went on to study Arabic Studies at university, before securing himself a well-paid job in banking with many exclusive benefits. Feeling something was missing in his life, he reflected on past travel articles he had written as a student and during his early career, recognising that he wanted to become a journalist, and educate the West about the Arabic world. Gardner goes on to tell of his struggle to get in to journalism in his thirties, clinging on to every contact and offering himself for graveyard shifts and jobs...

Luvlylana 16.05.2008 (24.05.2008) · Read review
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Review of Blood and Sand - Frank Gardner