Rating: 
Summary: I miss the Cold War
Review: Nelson Demille is one of my favorite writers. Although the era has passed for this book to be cutting edge, it was a fantastic, exciting, and exotic read. It is an original and blow-your-mind resolution. Between the tension, he never fails to insert some humor. This is a cold war era spy novel with "spies within spies", double agenting, and the fear of another ideology all the way through. There is action aplenty, and you will find your pulse racing right along with the main characters...Then read the Lion's Game as Demille finds employment for some of his cold war characters.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I really enjoyed this book from cover to cover. I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen. I still can't help but find myself wondering if that could have really happened. I passed my book on and they had the same response. Excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: good for tinder, not much else
Review: the horrendous quality of writing and nonexistant character development in this book completely overshadow the interesting premise of a russian counterintelligence school that trains deep-cover spies. set in the waning years of the cold war, the author creates fantastically awful, overbearing spy v. spy nonsense, offensively sexist characterizations of human relationships, and sensationalized visions of life in the diplomatic corps. a one word summary of this book would be "pathetic."
Rating:
Summary: This one kept me up all night ... be ready to read!
Review: As an avid fan of Nelson Demille, I had somehow managed to miss this one, so a friend gave me a copy and WOW! This is one of his best ever. The suspense is unrelenting! At 5AM I didn't know whether to curse Demille or praise him! Sleep lost out and I had to finish it. How this man sustains suspense is an art. Don't miss this treat but be ready to read once you pick it up.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: At 5am this morning I didn't know whether to curse Demille or praise him! I had about a 100 pages to go and couldn't put this down without seeing how it ended! So I was literally up ALL night but it was worth it! I recently read his "The Lion's Game" but I think Charm School is even better. I am an ardent Demille fan but had never found Charm School so a friend loaned it to me ...outstanding! Nonstop action and fantastic characters. Why haven't they made this a movie? I can suggest the perfect cast: Michael Madsen as Sam Hollis, a good man who will do what he must, but with regret; Eric Robert as Seth Alevy, the ruthless CIA agent who ends up caring after all and Rutger Hauer as Col. Burov, the villianous KGB operative, a perfect picture of evil. Yes, the Soviet Empire is gone, but with the Russian economy at rock bottom and now a former KGB man as president, we should rethink our belief that this former super power is no longer a threat. This book points out the extremes of poverty, hopelessness and defeatism in the peasants and the total obsession of the KGB with destroying the West and everything it represents. The sleeping bear is still a giant, that has deadly claws. Demille's plot is riveting and how the man maintains suspense for such a LONG TIME is an absolute art! Don't pick up this book unless you have the time to finish it, or you will be like me, giving up a night's sleep! But don't miss this one, it's a real treat.
Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship.....
Review: This was the first Nelson DeMille novel I read and it was the one that got me hooked. I went back and read his backlist and then, like so many other readers, waited for each new release from this author from Long Island. I read this book before he became really, really popular and wondered to myself why he wasn't more so at that time. When I read WORD of HONOR immediately after this book, I wondered even more. Needless to say, this is a very fine addition to the spy-novel novel genre. Colonel Sam Hollis, a military officer serving in an intelligence role as the Air Force Attache in the US Embassy in Moscow before the fall of the Iron Curtain is a believable character. The premise behind the novel, where American prisoners from the Vietnam and earlier wars have been retained by the Communists to 'train' their agents to become sleepers inside the USA is at once acceptable and horrifying. It was not too much of a leap where the reader would have to suspend disbelief. It actually made sense and DeMille presents it in such a way so that there would be no doubt that the KGB probably did run a "Charm School" for its deep penetration agents. DeMille has a great way of also introducing enemies for the main character in each of his novels. He does not deviate from that policy here. Sam Hollis' enemies are both domestic (i.e. American) and international (the KGB). Along the way Sam picks up a friend or two and a new love interest, too. There are a couple of tricky moral questions introduced into the plot and DeMille handles them in ways that I didn't always like, but which I accepted as necessary to continue the story line. The answers to gray area questions notwithstanding, I enjoyed this novel immensely and it was this enjoyment that set me out looking for other works by this prolific and entertaining author. As Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine says to Claude Rains as Inspector Reynaud at the end of CASABLANCA, "Louis, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..." I thought the same thing of this writer after making his acquaintance through CHARM SCHOOL. I knew that it was the beginning of a beautiful friendsip. I have had many hours of reading enjoyment because I discovered Nelson DeMille with this novel. Read CHARM SCHOOL and his other works, especially the earlier ones and you'll find out why. Read THE GOLD COAST, PLUM ISLAND and LION'S GATE and you'll be hooked like the rest of us. I recommend DeMille's books to anyone who likes intrigue, suspense, sarcastic and witty characters and a rollicking good story. After reading him, you will, too.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best book I have ever read
Review: I will keep this short because there isn't much to be said. The plot and suspense of this book are unparalleled. Demille hooks you from the get-go and this book literally is impossible to put down. As was the same with another reviewer, I seriously ate, walked, used the john, with this book in hand. As I neared the end, I was caught in a difficult dilemma: I wanted to read what happened but I knew that once I did, the book would be over. I cannot speak highly enough of this book. The number of underlying themes in this book just suck you right in and give you a handful to think about while the action never stops in this book. I almost envy those of you who haven't read it because you are in for the ride of your life.
Rating: 
Summary: an engrossing read
Review: Unsure what to make of the title, I was unsure what to expect from "The Charm School." A bit to my surprise, the story started off quickly and gained speed right up to the end. Likeable characters and a powerful narrative catapulted the storyline along and left me wanting more. A book which could only have been improved upon with a more complex plot, this book is recommended reading for those who enjoy a good fast paced novel.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Will get You Hooked
Review: Nelson DeMille is a brilliant writer. "The Charm School" was the only one of his books I hadn't had a chance to read yet, and I'm really glad I ordered a copy recently. This is by far the best spy novel I have ever read. Like the other reviewers, I got hooked by that book immediately and have neglected basically everything in the four days that it took me to read these 600 pages. I do not think that it should have been shorter as Nelson DeMille's detailed descriptions of what it was like behind the Iron Curtain makes this book such a special treat. This is so much better than all of Tom Clancy's novels combined! Mr. DeMille not only writes in excellent and witty prose but knows how to create breathless tension. There is a lot of John Corey (Plum Island, The Lion's Game) in this book's broken hero Sam Hollis. Even though the end of the novel is a bit over-the-top, I was sad to turn the last page yesterday. Great stuff!
Rating: 
Summary: Borrrrrrriiing........
Review: This one could have been a good 300 page story, instead its a 600+ page book. Its full of unnecessary detailed description of events which has little or no connection to the plot. Being a Demille fan this one was an utter disappointment.
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