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MAIN JUSTICE

THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO ENFORCE THE NATION'S CRIMINAL LAWS AND GUARD ITS LIBERTIES

A lively and highly informative look at the modern Justice Department's criminal division, by two veteran Washington reporters. Most Americans see the Justice Department and its nationwide corps of lawyers and law-enforcement agents through the unflattering lens of highly public scandals like the Aldrich Ames affair. McGee (an investigative reporter at the Washington Post) and Duffy (investigations editor at U.S. News & World Report) are clearly out to reverse that perception by showing the dedicated people within the organization. Throughout, they offer larger-than-life profiles of officials, like longtime federal prosecutor David Margolis and the department's ethical watchdog Mary Lawton. The book sometimes threatens to get bogged down in these portraits of officials, to whom the authors are at times overly deferential, but they rescue themselves by chronicling several important anti-drug and -violence campaigns. These episodes, including the war against the Cali Drug Cartel, and the undercover operation against the Bottoms Boys, a ruthless gang based in Shreveport, La., read like real-life thrillers. Ultimately, the authors have a more important agenda: examining the ``price of power'' and demonstrating that the Justice Department, like any other large organization, ``is not immune to excessive zeal, personal ambition or political malice.'' To illustrate that point, later chapters describe the ill-fated battle against pornography distributors, waged for political purposes by the Reagan administration, and the case against Ames, nearly compromised by an FBI investigation that may have overstepped constitutional boundaries. One particularly complex tale recalls the bungled prosecution of Miami S&L lawyer Kenneth Treadwell; general readers may find the legal maneuvers here difficult to follow. Still, in the end the authors have skillfully portrayed a Justice Department that is intrinsically honest, but plagued by growing pains as it struggles to adapt to new threats and rules.

Pub Date: July 19, 1996

ISBN: 0-684-81135-9

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1996

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955

ISBN: 0670717797

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

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