BOOK REVIEW: BOOK TAKES READERS FROM BOOTHEEL UP THE RIVER

"Between the Saints: Louis and Paul" really begins down around Missouri's Bootheel and takes us north on the Mississippi. Author Kathy Flippo accompanies her husband, Pat, upriver, photographing and mapping all the way. In addition to giving her readers a look at the interesting, if tiring, lives of the operator and crew of a tugboat, she becomes a fine tour guide for landlubbers. Many of the spots she finds for readers can be reached easily by car, on good roads. She has included mansions as well as the towns themselves. One of the most interesting is Sabula, Iowa, which is built on an island and is connected to Illinois by a causeway across what sounds almost like a wildlife preserve. Descriptions of scenic areas along the river are vivid, and a great deal of history is given.

"Roses are Red," by James Patterson is filled with murder and mayhem. Hostages are taken to assure the escape of perpetrators in the case of robberies. Sometimes hostages are killed even though instructions are obeyed; sometimes the robbers are found dead, done in by the planner of the crimes who calls himself the Mastermind. For a while there are no clues, then there are clues -- that lead to the wrong people. This fast-moving, scary novel will keep the reader's attention to the last page.

Work began "An Hour Before Daylight" in and around the small rural community of Plains, Ga. Used as the title of a book by the 39th president, the phrase suggests hard work and hard times. Although the Carter family was very comfortable by depression standards, everyone was expected to carry a share of the necessary labor. Farms were not highly mechanized during this era. The book explores not only the Carter family, both sides and in detail, but relationships within the community as well, especially between black and white neighbors. This is a good picture, not only of people, but of a time in our history; it is not just one more book about the Great Depression.

A first novel by Janet Fitch is a very complicated story, mostly concerned with the feelings of a definitely unbalanced mother and a daughter who she has wounded badly. Even the explanation given by Ingrid, the mother, to Astrid, the daughter, about why there has never been a father in their lives indicates madness. When Ingrid finally goes off the edge, killing the former lover who abandoned her, and going to prison, Astrid begins a pilgrimage through several foster homes. She is subjected to several kinds of abuse, including starvation, but has one interval that is too good to last; Ingrid manages to see to that. Astrid manages to struggle through to young adulthood. Read "White Oleander" to find whether she is able to escape her mother's merciless grasp.