Rating: 
Summary: Minute detail equals big pay off.
Review: I struggled through the first 500 pages of this book. Demille is one of my favorite authors but the details here were too minute. Then just as I was about to give up the book just took off. All of sudden those details helped to create one of the most chilling and horrifying books I've ever read. I agree with the reviewer who said do not read the author's forward. I think that made it hard for me to get through the details. As a DeMille loyalist though, I look forward to his next book.
Rating:
Summary: a good story
Review: Ive read lots of books on the old soviet union, and this is one of the better ones.
The plot is good and the storyline is not too unbelievable.
I liked the first half of the book best it was kind of hard to finish.
Rating:
Summary: DeMille does it again!
Review: Nelson DeMille has a unique ability to create and build lead characters that are colorful enough to leave the reader wishing for a sequel. Sam Hollis is just such a character. DeMille fans will most certainly group Hollis with the likes of Detective John Corey and CID investigator Paul Brenner among their DeMille favorites. Charm School is a bit depressing at times, but it is an exciting and suspenseful story, filled with just enough colorful history to make it an interesting page turner; Just the perfect read for idle entertainment.
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Summary: My first Demille
Review: The Charm School was my first Demille read, and I must say I was very impressed. I book never seemed to slow down. Mr. Demille is a master at inserting historical perspective right along with dialogue, and never missing a beat. Being a resonably young man, my knowledge of Russia and the Cold War is somewhat limited. Despite my ignorance of the topic, I was very comfortable reading the book and had no trouble following along. I'm looking forward to reading more of Mr. Demille's work. If you are looking for an exciting read that still makes you think, this book is perfect.
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Summary: You'll read this one over and over
Review: This has been one of my favorite novels for years, and it was practically required reading for my intelligence unit during the Cold War. Unlike DeMille's more recent work, this one isn't written in the first person, which is a major plus for me. The only downside is the lousy Russian used in the book. I don't know where Mr. DeMille scraped up his translator, but I do hope he's fired that translator by now. Nevertheless, if you don't speak Russian, there is no downside for you, and this book is likely to be the most suspenseful novel you'll ever read.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite DeMille Book
Review: This book was intense, suspenseful, exciting & dramatic. It kept getting better and better. The descriptions of Russia during the Cold War were right on. I can't express how much I enjoyed this novel. I have recommended it to everyone I know. My only complaint is that I want more! I wish DeMille would continue all of his novels like he does with John Corey!
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Summary: I couldn't put it down
Review: this book was great I just couldn't put it down. The whole time you read it you have to think what if this really happened and to an extent it did
Rating: 
Summary: mission unbelievable
Review: As a person who travelled in the Union in the 80's I find the plot hilarious. It would not have been possible for an American to travel from Berlin to Moscow by car in the 80's. There would have been no internal visa (it was extremely difficult to obtain in Finland at the time - you had to have a good reason for your travelling, and tourism was not one), no way of finding decent fuel and above all, the Russians would have stolen the tyres at the first stop, most probably in Belyorussia. Otherwise I enjoyed the book, Mr. DeMille has a knack of making you like the main characters and does not resort to your ordinary Russian-bashing. He shows empathy for the people (and did that country suffer before, during and after WW II!) and has some clever remarks on the system. And he has done his background work on the tragic history of Russia and even the Russian language, which is very strange him being an American.
It's not "Crime and Punishment" (very few books are), but it's great holiday reading.
But please, don't read the author's new forward ('98 edition) - he gives most of the plot away!
Rating: 
Summary: Do NOT read the new authors forward in the 1998 release
Review: Was Demille drunk? 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.
Rating:
Summary: Just like being in Russia
Review: Another jewel in the bookcase by Mr. DeMille. The characters are 'real'; the author takes you into their minds and hearts without compromising the action-packed rhythm that doesn't let you put the book down even if you really should've gone to work or school half an hour ago. But I want to very briefly touch on another attractive aspect of this and Mr. DeMille's other books (such as Up Country): he studies the countries he writes about in such detail (unlike some other famous spy-novel or thriller writers) that greatly enhances the veracity of the story. You can't build a good book only on knowing, e.g., what a certain Russian car's trunk looks like, as he does, but it sure helps. I spent a great deal of my life in a Russian-occupied Commie territory, and I appreciate the author's 'courage', rather unusual in our times of false political correctness, to describe the situation as it really was: the sickening stench when you crossed the border from West Berlin to the East, literal as well as metaphorical, the ever-present fear and coldness, the colorlessness of East European towns, the dreary concrete bleakness of East Germany, etc. So, if you're into high quality thrillers and spy novels, and also like to know that the book you're reading describes a real place or a real situation, this is it. He tells it how it really was. Or is. Because it's still true, as he says in Up Country, that "the shadows stretch from there to here."
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