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It's All Greek to Me!: A Tale of a Mad Dog and an Englishman, Ruins, Retsina-and Real Greeks

Average customer rating:

Been There, Done It!
Wasted my money
Amusing, absorbing, and just plain funny
Excellent writing, a fine eye for detail, and very witty!
Laughed until I cried!

It's All Greek to Me!: A Tale of a Mad Dog and an Englishman, Ruins, Retsina-and Real Greeks
John Mole
Manufacturer: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1857883438

Book Description

With unforgettable characters coming to life on every page, this humorous story of one family's search for the Arcadian idyll speaks volumes about learning to live, laugh, and drink Ouzo together while turning a tumbledown ruin into a place to hold their hearts.

Customer Reviews:

Been There, Done It!.......2007-05-17

As someone who has renovated an old property in Greece, I can recommend this hillarious and quite genuine account of the process. It also emphasises the support and hospitality one gets from the Greeks.

Wasted my money.......2006-06-27

Just about every page bulges with the "to be" verb, making the reading dull and monotonous. Sentences are unnecessarily packed with useless wording when simpler constructions would be far more clear. I can't imagine this book was edited by a professional. Simple grammar is incorrect in places. I got as far as the fourth chapter and gave the book away.

Amusing, absorbing, and just plain funny.......2006-06-24

If you enjoyed Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan, and A Year In Provence, you won't be disappointed with It's All Greek to Me! You'll love it. All three books have the same ingredient, which makes them so enjoyable: humor. The sub-title: A Tale of a Mad Dog and an Englishman, Ruins, Retsina - and Real Greeks, tells it all. As an Englishman, John Mole truly captures the psyche of these seemingly simple Greek people. Mr. Mole's writing is concise and a pleasure to read.

Excellent writing, a fine eye for detail, and very witty!.......2005-11-03

Mole is an excellent writer with a fine eye for detail and a very nice sense of humor. His observations capture the essence of Greek village culture with very funny descriptions of the locals, and particularly their conversations. He keys in on the rampant individuality of the Greeks in a warm-hearted way. He is really good at writing dialogue, athough with the normal problem of trying to convey Greeks speaking broken English and Anglos speaking very broken Greek. But he does manage to pull it off! A light-hearted, funny journey through Greek village life!

Reviewed by David Lundberg, author of Olympic Wandering: Time Travel Through Greece

Laughed until I cried!.......2005-08-21

If you liked reading Peter Mayle's stories of life in Provence, then you'll adore John Mole's story of Greek life on the island of Evia.
Having lived in Greece for 2 years back in the late 1970's, this book brought me right back - I could feel the sun on my shoulders, taste the souvlakia and hear the bells around the necks of the sheep and goats as they ambled past my window.
This was a book I could NOT put down once I started.
I read it non stop on a recent flight and am sure I got some strange looks as I doubled over in laughter many times, stopping only long enough to wipe the tears rolling down my face - pure enjoyment!

Average customer rating:

A good bginning to this series

Mad Dog and Englishman
J.M. Hayes
Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Plains Crazy (Mad Dog & Englishman Mysteries)
Relics

ASIN: 1890208744

Book Description

A blend of science and superstition recalls the wacky mysteries of James Doss (The Shaman Signs 0-380-97721-4 and The Night Visitor 0-380-97721-4) and the magical realism of Luis Borges.

Summer in Benteen County, Kansas, is a season possessed of all the gentle subtlety of an act of war. Winter, of course, is no better, but remembrance of its frosts and blizzards and winds that begin to suck away your life before you walk a dozen steps has grown faint by the early hours of a Sunday morning in late June.

While some try to sleep, and some like Sheriff English and his ex-wife try sex, the Reverend Peter Simms takes an early walk in the park and encounters someone counting coup. When the Sheriff’s part-Cheyenne brother, Mad Dog, arrives to meditate, he finds the Reverend’s mutilated corpse.

Mad Dog is the obvious suspect and begins to hang out in the town jail while Sheriff English widens his net and picks up not only several suspicious characters, but an increasingly dark history for the Simms family. The case grows stormier. Soon, so does the weather. As a tornado gathers to hurl its fury on the hapless town, the fury of the killer rises to meet it in an ending that will, literally, blow readers away.

Customer Reviews:

A good bginning to this series.......2000-12-12

For the most part, the citizens of Buffalo Springs, Kansas are law abiding. It has been seventeen years since the last homicide. The sheriff's brother, who is one-fourth Cheyenne, dresses up as an Indian. He goes to the local park seeking a vision, but instead stumbles over the mutilated corpse of Reverend Peter Samms.

The deputy chases after an outsider, a black man who the law enforcement official believes killed the Reverend. During the pursuit, the deputy wrecks the car. Next, police officials find the Reverend's father dead with his head scalped in the same way as his son. These two murders are linked to the kidnapping of the sheriff's daughter by two dysfunctional adults. The sheriff needs to outwit the psychotic duo while outrunning a tornado.

MAD DOG AND ENGLISHMAN does not contain Cocker or Russell, but remains a fascinating, unusual police procedural due to the cast. The ensemble seems to have just stepped out of the Twilight Zone or perhaps Eerie, Indiana. Thus, the plot and characters make for an uncanny tale that J.M. Hayes could turn into a series that serves as the exciting center of weirdness in the mystery universe.

Harriet Klausner

Plains Crazy (Mad Dog & Englishman Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

A Fun, Frantic Adventure!
plain great!
wild whimsical yet complicated conspiracy thriller

Plains Crazy (Mad Dog & Englishman Mysteries)
J.M. Hayes
Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mad Dog and Englishman

ASIN: 1590583337

Book Description

Spring bursts into bloom-and a whole lot more-as murder-by-arrow rattles Benteen County, Kansas.

Nothing ever happens in Benteen County, Kansas. Then, on a perfect spring morning, a member of the reality TV program filming in a local pasture dies with a Cheyenne arrow in his back. Sheriff English's brother, Mad Dog, the county oddball whose Amerind heritage has produced a born-again Cheyenne, is a prime suspect. Murder is a bad way to start the day. Explosive action follows. Notes left for authorities hint at a terrorist assault on the heartland.

If the sheriff, known as Englishman, doesn't have enough to worry about, his wife has begun acting strangely. She insists he fly off on a Paris holiday with her before sunset - or else. As Mad Dog swings between suspect and target, he encounters his long-lost high school sweetheart, and a secret that just may explain the unlikely mix of arrows and bombs.

It's Murphy's Law squared, as Mad Dog and his pet wolf, Hailey, test a shaman's powers, and Englishman struggles to balance his duties to family and community-enough to drive anyone Plains Crazy.

Customer Reviews:

A Fun, Frantic Adventure!.......2007-02-21

Plains Crazy is a fantastic book about a day when all hell breaks loose in a small town in Kansas. Sheriff English starts off the day with the death of a young man who has been shot in the back with an authentic Cheyenne arrow. But the sheriff is called away from that scene to an apparent bank robbery and then to various locations around town where pipe bombs have exploded or been found unexploded. Add in a mad motorcyclist, two girls named Heather, a lost love, a wolf, a fast car, a loose grenade, and a make-or-break deadline, and you have a tremendous story.

Plains Crazy is funny, well plotted, and well written. As I was reading this book, I was reminded of the great old movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The characters in Plains Crazy aren't on a treasure hunt, but they are working at a frantic pace to figure out what is going on and find those responsible. Hayes has the reader follow different characters around town (many of whom have been pressed into service by the seriously understaffed Sheriff) to see the unusual and sometimes outlandish events from different perspectives - and they all have their own interpretations of what is going on in their little burg.

But this book isn't all a light-hearted adventure. Hayes expertly mixes in serious, and even tragic, elements that sneak up on the reader and wrench you in a new direction. But he doesn't belabor these moments. Instead, he expresses them in the most concise and meaningful way and then moves on.

My only criticism of this book is the impossibly neat bundle the ending was tied up into. I don't buy it, but it didn't diminish my love for the book by much.

Favorite character? Tough choice between Mrs. Kraus and Deputy Wynn. Did I guess it? This is more of an unraveling than a guessing book. I'll go with no. Will I read another? Absolutely! I may read this one again before it goes back to the library. [...]

plain great!.......2005-06-25

This book is a hoot! The minor characters are a scream, especially Deputy Win Some who mistakens plastique for cookie dough. A bit more editing and this author will steal the heart and soul of the fans of Janet Evanovich (Stepanie Plum series). Several scenes are laugh-out-loud (with a few more that were mightly close). For a good read, give as a gift , take on the airplane, or bring to the beach, run, do not walk, to buy Plains Crazy.

wild whimsical yet complicated conspiracy thriller.......2004-09-29

Benteen, Kansas is a quiet serene place where nothing much happens so when a PBS reality show arrives in town this is a big deal. The show deals with modern day Indians adapting to living like their ancestors did. The first inkling of trouble starts when Michael Spotted Elk leaves the family teepee to make out with Daphne Alights on the Cloud; someone kills him using a Cheyenne arrow. Daphne reports that Mad Dog and Wolf Hailey went past the; Mad Dog becomes the prime suspect until Daphne remembers he was not carrying a bow.

The sheriff's wife Judy English tells him they are going to Paris, but if he fails to come with her, she probably will not return to him. He does not believe that he can get away now because bombs and other explosives are going off all over town. A motorcycle rider tries to kill Mad Dog using a bow and arrow. Judy is mistaken for a bank robber because the teller fails to recognize her with her new hair-do. Someone placed something in the night deposit box that turns out to be a bomb with a $10,000 demand note attached which Judy gave the teller which made her think Judy was a bank robber. Nothing seems linked yet since PBS arrived hell has come to drive the PLAINS CRAZY.

This is a whacky dazzling ride into lunacy in which the sheriff, unused to bombs exploding, must find a way to defuse the mess. Complicating his professional life is his wife who gives him an ultimatum at a time when he cannot even ponder what to do for her for there is so much craziness overwhelming him. J.M. Hayes has written a wild whimsical yet complicated conspiracy thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Broken Heartland: A Mad Dog and Englishman Mystery

Average customer rating:

Broken Heartland: A Mad Dog and Englishman Mystery
J.M. Hayes
Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 159058452X
Release Date: 2007-11-15

MAD DOGS & THE ENGLISHMAN: CONFESSIONS OF A LOON

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MAD DOGS & THE ENGLISHMAN: CONFESSIONS OF A LOON
DAVID ENGLISH
Manufacturer: TED SMART
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S8GZYO

Average customer rating:

A Not-So-Common Man

Mad Dogs and the Englishman
David English
Manufacturer: Virgin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0753508168

Customer Reviews:

A Not-So-Common Man.......2003-07-15

This is one of those autobiographies that just grab you with humor, tales of luck and sheer talent. David English is only remarkable in that he comes from a fairly modest background and simply did what he wanted. It seemed that everything just fell into place. Starting from an early age, Mr. English humorously describes his schoolboy years and carries through to his incredibly successful career as one of the most successsful independent record labels in the world - RSO.

Void of any conceit or arrogance, English tells a tale of extraordinary success and the amazing people he met along the way. Imagine becoming close friends with George Harrison, The Bee Gees, Phil Collins and dozens more? There are fantastic stories of joining in on film sets, acting in stage productions, writing for film and organizing cricket fundraisers for charity. His is a life of hilarious chaos and lovable generosity. It's more than just a good tale - it's a human saga.

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