A good detective mystery story. The detective, Van Veeteren seems to be more of a one of a kind detective. I loved his mysterious character.


The story started out with a man being released from prison after serving two twelve year sentences, served at different times in his past for the murder of two women. He was a well behaved prisoner during both his incarcerations. When released he traveled to his home in the midst of the forest with some over-grown country-side on the out-skirts of Behren. He did make his way home so we’ll leave him there for a while…..


The story moves on to a couple days later when a day care school took the three to six year old children on a field trip to a wooded area on the out skirts of Behren. It was a place set up for this type of excursion. The children did their activities prepared for the day and then it was time to rally together and walk back through the woods to the bus. As it sometimes happens, one child wondered off and was unaccountable for. Two adults and six children went looking for the child. Within ten minutes they found the six year old little girl beside a half unrolled carpet displaying a dead corpse with no head, no hands and no feet…….


Now the police have been called, the area searched for the remains of the victim and the detective Van Veerteren on the case. However, the detective was going in the hospital in a few days for surgery so he worked the case from there. His co-workers did all the leg work and brought him their findings. However, for him it was going cold. They did find out who the victim was but he wanted the truth that never came to light.


After more then a week he was on medical leave and formed his own investigation around the information he had. He acted very casual but also determined. He was going to do things his way and find the answers he was looking for…. Why did this murdered victim get accused of murder in the first place? Why was this investigation slowly being put at the bottom of the pile?


The book was very good when looking for a good detective mystery. I highly recommend the book.

When reading this book I made sure I kept tracked of the people who were being questioned. It would have been easy to get confused because of the way Van Veeteren did his investigation. Mystifying detective work some what like Sherlock Holms but a more open forward type of guy…….A great read….

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Great Book. Bova concluded this series and tied it into his Grand Tour series. We met several familiar folks from the series. The book also managed to include many current issues--population control, nuclear weapons proliferation, religious freedom and dictatorship to name a few. I'd imagine that those are Bova's hot buttons. Although the book dragged a little in the middle, I got to the conclusion knowing that our hero would save the day. That finishes all the books of the Grand Tour for me. ( )

This one almost seems like a "Published by the Author's Estate". In a hastily re-written 80's plot, the family returns to a world gone wrong. Father Keith Stoner begins his own plan to set things aright tying in to The Grand Tour; meanwhile the children begin their own quite immature attempts at solving problems. Things start coming to a head, it should be time for the next arc where they have might have created a world afraid of beings of immense power, right? No, the end! ( )

Outstanding. I love the way Bova concluded this series and actually tied it into his Grand Tour novels. This book also managed to interweave a lot of current political issues and problems currently occurring on our world. Just fantastic and easy to read. ( )

An interesting look at a world gone awry by Ben Bova, this book follows a NASA astronaut, Keith Stoner, as he returns to Earth decades later after having been trapped by an alien spaceship. Now somewhat more than human, he finds the Earth he returns to a slightly different parallel version, America suffering under a virtual police state, the globe in chaos from flooding, global warming and unchecked population growth. Oh, and an imminent nuclear war.

As he does his best to save the Earth from itself, it makes for an interesting read, if extraordinarily heavy-handed at times. The police state is all too believable, even if other aspects of the book aren't quite as well written. In some ways, it feels like this book was written in the 80's and re-published today, but all in all, it's a good read. ( )