The Abbot and the Sensational Squeeze

Rating:
Summary: Great mixture of humor and excellent bridge hands!
Review: David Bird's latest volume of stories about the Bridge-addicted Abbot and his Franciscan order of St. Titus wins over the reader on two levels. First, and most important for any Bridge enthusiast, every story involves several puzzles to bend the mind and promote logical thinking. Second, the rich character development will amuse and delight all readers -- particularly enjoyable are the Abbot's reliable vanity and his ongoing vendetta against the young upstart, Brother Cameron. Cards being fickle, both get their comeuppance against one another in various episodes. So that Bridge does not seem like a vengeful contact sport, Bird wisely emphasizes the brothers' roles as teammates in tournament play to ameliorate some of the sassier moments. While there is a lot of humor and able writing here, I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not play Bridge on at least a casual basis, as they will be hard-pressed to grasp the relevance of the puzzles to the stories and the pleasures of this wonderful book will be lost on them.

Rating:
Summary: The Foibles of the Abbot Amuse
Review: David Bird's latest volume of stories about the Bridge-addicted Abbot and his Franciscan order of St. Titus wins over the reader on two levels. First, and most important for any Bridge enthusiast, every story involves several puzzles to bend the mind and promote logical thinking. Second, the rich character development will amuse and delight all readers -- particularly enjoyable are the Abbot's reliable vanity and his ongoing vendetta against the young upstart, Brother Cameron. Cards being fickle, both get their comeuppance against one another in various episodes. So that Bridge does not seem like a vengeful contact sport, Bird wisely emphasizes the brothers' roles as teammates in tournament play to ameliorate some of the sassier moments. While there is a lot of humor and able writing here, I would not recommend this book to anyone who does not play Bridge on at least a casual basis, as they will be hard-pressed to grasp the relevance of the puzzles to the stories and the pleasures of this wonderful book will be lost on them.

Rating:
Summary: The Abbot goes on but the jokes get a little thin
Review: This is the first book in this series to be credited solely to David Bird. Previously, the magazine articles written by Bird had been revised by the original author together with Terence Reese prior to book publication. After the death of the latter, David Bird continued to work alone. Of course, he was always the original author and it was never made clear exactly how great an input Reese had to the book revisions.

Like all of the other works in this series, this book follows the adventures of the fictional bridge playing monks of the order of St. Titus. Each chapter sees the monks in some bridge situation where they play a number of hands. The bidding is normally English Acol style but this is secondary to the play of the hands which is where the interesting bridge problems can be found.

While the earlier books all concentrated on the exploits of the monks in England, they also contained a number of chapters detailing the exploits of a missionary outpost in Africa. Political correctness having see off that scenario, the "away" section of the book has the Abbot, the leading character, playing as the guest expert on a bridge cruise, an interlude which is a lot less funny than the rest of the book.

If you are new to the monks of St.Titus, I would recommend that you first track down some of the earlier books. Especially the first two: "Miracles of Cardplay" and "Unholy Tricks" as they are funnier and fresher. However, if you are already a fan of these books, do not hesitate. Reese may be missing from the front cover and the wit may not be as sharp but you will still enjoy the contents.

Rating:
Summary: Great mixture of humor and excellent bridge hands!
Review: This is the sixth collection of Abbot stories and I have bought the whole lot! David Bird is the world's best writer, when it comes to humorous bridge fiction, and I read these Abbot books time and again. My favorite story in this particular book is when the monks of St Titus play against a team of nuns! Apart from the narrative being extremely funny, and the dialog too, the quality of the bridge hands is first-class. I can really recommend the book to everyone.