Rating: 
Summary: Cold war classic
Review: There are books that don't age, even if the time circumstances of their stories is long past. "The charm school" is one of those books. This is clearly a product of the Cold War times (close to its end, in fact - circa 1988), but the plot is still compelling and thrilling, after 16 years.Major Sam Hollis and press atache Lisa Rhodes are two of the hundreds of people working on the US embassy in Moscow. Deceit, provocation, threatening, all this is part of their lives, since the KGB won't take it easy on american personnel working on russian soil. When a young tourist inadvertently walks on the biggest secret of Mother Russia, Hollis and Rhodes are swept in a turmoil that will certainly end in death - unless they outsmart thousands of Komitet employees, and one in special: the unusually violent Colonel Burov. Maybe DeMille's creation is the definite fictional work on russian-american relations during the final stages of the Cold War. His depiction of Moscow and russian citizens is very vivid. The main characters are memorable, especially the despicable villain, Burov. The final chapters of the book are astonishing, fast paced, chases, ruses - the usual DeMille stuff. I put "The charm school" along with "Plum island" and "The gols coast" as DeMille's best books. Grade 9.1/10
Rating: 
Summary: This espionage thriller captures your interest & keeps it!
Review: This is my first DeMille novel and it was a great one. DeMille provides an interesting cast of characters with careful detail to setting. The climax comes within the walls of the "charm school" (where Russians are taught to imitate Americans). Although this is not my normal genre of reading, I found this novel to be a great choice and know that it will keep your interest.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Review: This is the first book by DeMille I've read, and I enjoyed it. After having read the reviews on amazon I'd assumed when I started the book that I was about to delve into a mile-a-minute suspense thriller, and while there is certainly that aspect to it, there are definitely a lot of quiet, ruminative moments in the book. DeMille really tries to impart a feel of the character and history of Russia here, and he is at least partially successful. I have never been to Russia, but after reading the book I feel a small step closer to understanding something about the country, especially about the country's Soviet past.
Ultimately the book falls short, though, because in the last third of the book DeMille suddenly changes tone. It's like we're reading a whole new book -- now we get the action-packed, faintly absurd type of plot twists one associates with these types of books. After so much interesting, subtle stuff at the beginning of the book, this transition was jarring. This wasn't a *bad* part of the book, it just didn't mesh too well with what came before it.
The characters are pretty well drawn, though they didn't seem to grow or change much throughout the book. I liked Col Hollis's bitter sarcasm, but the fact that he employed it all the time, no matter the circumstances, got a little tiresome. It would have been more interesting if DeMille had made Hollis really scared just *once*. Same goes for most of the other characters.
All in all though, the book was very good, and I can recommend it to anyone. It is certainly compelling -- you will find yourself reading nonstop, late into the night.
Rating:
Summary: From Russia with Love
Review: This was a very good book. I listened to it on CD. It takes place in Russia and involves the KGB and CIA going up against each other. It's just one more good read by DeMille that deals with a novel idea having to do with these two agencies. I recommend it. It will keep you guessing until the end as to what the outcome will be.
I hate to read books where you can guess the ending, but keep reading thinking there will be a twist and there is none.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Read the Authors New Forward
Review: What was he thinking? He gave away the entire plot in the new forward. In it he also suggested that The Charm School was the best Cold War thriller ever (that's an eye-roller). Even if the mystery hadn't been blown in the forward, the plot is run of de mille (sorry). Another Demille book where a middle aged police/ military man who recently lost his wife attracts an attractive young girl with a daddy complex. Mrs Demille must be wondering what that's all about. Furthermore, all of the characters are jerks so it's difficult to care about any of them. If The Charm School were 300 pages shorter it may have deserved 3 or 4 stars.
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