Sadly, my expensive DJI Mini 4 Pro is no more. It’s back somewhere in S.E. Asia.
As a replacement, I bought last year’s model (discounted) of the DJI Neo.
Neo (left) and Mini 4 Pro (right)
cost as I post CAD $209
much less expensive than the Mini 4 Pro
more durable
4K/30fps only
no obstacle avoidance
Super lightweight (135g)
faster to launch. No satellites needed.
can be used indoors safely
The Mini 4 Pro was a huge commitment for travel. Neo 1 is a fraction of the size, weight, and bulk. I’ll shoot more video in more places with what I call a …
The Informant surprisingly finds Elizabeth Waring, now now high up in the Organized Crime Division of the Justice Department, visited by the professional killer (alias Michael Schaeffer) she’d been hunting for years.
A Mafia hit team finally catches up with Schaeffer who had been in hiding. He knows they won’t stop coming and decides to take the fight to their door.
He offers Waring information on the mafia, in order to get them off his back. So begins a new assault on organized crime and an uneasy alliance between opposite sides of the law.
Good premise. But ultimately too complicated & confusing.
The 30th book in the excellent series is not one of the best. Some are calling it the worst.
Exit Strategy (2025) finds Reacher sitting in a Baltimore coffee shop. Spotting a conman taking advantage of two elderly customers, he quickly teaches a lesson. Returning the money.
THIS is the kind of story I want in these novels.
… Unfortunately it got worse.
On the way out of the coffee shop, a young man drops a note into Reacher’s pocket. That leads to a lengthy & often confusing, slow, and eventual confrontation with an interesting villain. But the plot is too complex.
I assume the new books are mostly written by Andrew. And they are not as good.
Faulty Bloodline (2024) is 2nd in the series of books where former police dog, Banshee, is our favourite character.
Author Gary Gerlacher was a pediatric emergency physician. The emergency room situations in these books are based on real life
AJ Docker (Doc) and his guard dog, Banshee, move to a small town in the mountains for a slower-paced lifestyle.
Doc settles into the idyllic setting with a rewarding job and enriching colleagues, as well as with a romantic interest who leads him to contemplate marriage.
His new life seems perfect until he begins to uncover the town’s dirty secrets. A serial killer hunts in the woods, and dirty money flows throughout the town.
Read the AJ Docker and Banshee Thrillers in any order, or follow the series from the beginning:
like a dog wrestling with a sprinkler, and the sprinkler is always winning
I was lucky to be friends with P.D. James, who told me she outlined in so much detail that she would write the chapter she wanted to work on a given day. I wish I could do that. I would write so much faster and have so many more books out. I’d be like the Stephen King of private eye novels. …
I have an idea for a crime and characters who can set the story in motion. Then, the story ends up going down a dead-end alley, so I have to back up. Sometimes, the characters change roles. They become more or less prominent or even change whether they’re good or bad …
That makes sense now.
Overboard (2022) has no conventional plot that I could discern.
V.I. is — as usual — protecting Chicago’s weak and vulnerable without getting paid.
There are astonishingly well organized bad guys chasing V.I. — as usual — for reasons unclear.
I do like how they push issues of social and political justice. Paretsky makes clear that she hates Trump.
The Chicago setting is excellent. I love that city.
It’s unapologetically set during the pandemic lockdown.
I might keep reading these books. They are strangely compelling, even without a clear storyline.
The Woman in Suite 11 (2025) is a direct sequel to The Woman in Cabin 10 which I haven’t read.
When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer.
Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.
The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus.
Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests.
When Lo gets a late-night call asking her to come to Marcus’s hotel room, she agrees despite her own misgivings. She’s greeted, however, by a woman claiming to be Marcus’s mistress, and in life-or-death jeopardy.
What follows is a thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit across Europe, forcing Lo to ask herself just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save this woman…and if she can even trust her?
Rick McCharles 