Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay

Another great Barclay.

One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most people assumed Andy had got away with murder, but the police couldn’t build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom – he drank too much, was abandoned by his friends, nearly lost his business and became a pariah in the place he had once called home.

Now, six years later, Andy has put his life back together. He’s sold the house he shared with Brie and moved away for a fresh start. When he hears his old house has been bulldozed and a new house built in its place, he’s not bothered. He’s settled with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good. …

LinwoodBarclay.com

What happens when Brie unexpectedly turns up?

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva

Portrait of an Unknown Woman is the 25th novel by Daniel Silva.

I’d say it’s one of the best.

The legendary Head of ‘the Office’ (Mossad), Gabriel Allon, has finally retired.

A career in Israeli secret service that began in 1972. One of the team assigned to hunt down and eliminate those responsible for killing the Israel athletes in Munich.

He moved with his Italian wife and children to Venice. And goes back to his roots as an art restorer.

A well deserved retirement. Until he gets a call about an Art forger.

Many favourite characters from past books return. Including the Corsican goat.

I Love DJI Products

DJI (Da-Jiang Innovations) manufactures commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for aerial photography and videography. It also designs and manufactures camera gimbals, action cameras, camera stabilizers, flight platforms, propulsion systems and flight control systems.

DJI accounts for around 70% of the world’s consumer drone market as of March 2020. …

US government institutions have prohibited the internal use of DJI products …

There have been security concerns. Perhaps their products will get banned in Canada one day.

For now, I use their (Mavic) Mini SE drone. And OM 5 gimbal.

I highly doubt Chinese cyber hackers are (somehow) seeing what I do. But if they are, I’d welcome feedback on my videos. 😀

Photo by Alan Quirvu00e1n on Pexels.com

DJI just opened their new Shenzhen, China headquarters — a creative “community in the sky.”

PHOTOS

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Drifter by Nick Petrie

Petrie planned to be a writer, earning a MFA in fiction from University of Washington. But couldn’t get his books published, to start.

This book, finally, was a huge hit in 2017.

I’m starting this series about Peter Ash.

Ash has been compared to Jack Reacher. But the two characters are quite different in most ways.

The writing is similar to Lee Child, however.

Eight years a soldier, Peter Ash came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls ‘white static’, a buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming the Pacific coast’s mountains and forests, sleeping under the stars.

But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow and two young children.

While repairing her dilapidated porch, he makes two unwelcome discoveries: The first is a dog, the meanest, ugliest dog he’s ever laid eyes on, guarding a suitcase; the second unwelcome surprise is the suitcase’s contents – $400,000 in cash and four slabs of plastic explosive.

Just what was his friend caught up in during his final days? Ash will find that the demons of war aren’t easy to leave behind…

Israel And Palestine, Explained

Nuseir Yassin is an Arab–Israeli vlogger who is most notable for creating over 1,000 daily one-minute-long videos on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram under the page Nas Daily.

One reason I like Nas is his open-minded worldview. A Palestinian Israeli. With a Jewish American girlfriend. 

With Nas Daily videos, he tries to bring people together.

They are very uplifting.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

A Private Investigation by Peter Grainger

After 8 books, Detective Sergeant DC Smith is finally going to retire.

He has 3 weeks left.

A teenager doesn’t come home on a Monday night. A mystery.

For Smith there are some strange echoes of the case that has haunted him for the past thirteen years.

Maybe it’s simply his over-developed sense of irony, or maybe, in his final days as a police officer, Smith must look once more into the eyes of a serial killer.

This is a good book.

Sparring Partners by John Grisham

Grisham’s 2022 book is actual 3 novellas:

  • “Homecoming” 
  • “Strawberry Moon” 
  • “Sparring Partners”

Great story telling, as always.

I’d say Strawberry Moon is the best insight to Death Row I’ve ever seen.

The “Sparring Partners” Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two successful young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison.

All good.

Escape by James Patterson & David Ellis

The 3rd book in the Billy Harney series.

Patterson loves co-writing. This book does seem more sophisticated than his usual fare.

I credit David Ellis who is a practicing judge, the youngest-serving Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. He’s a very successfully author on his own, as well.

Chicago’s #1 detective, Billy Harney, takes on a billionaire crime boss in this follow-on to James Patterson’s highly acclaimed, multi-million selling Black Book.

As Chicago’s special-ops leader Detective Billy Harney knows well, money is not the only valuable currency. The billionaire he’s investigating is down to his last twenty million. But he’s also being held in jail.

For now.

Billy’s unit is called to the jail when six inmates escape, and two others are missing. Two correctional officers are dead. Approaching the scene, Billy spots something in an empty lot …

DavidEllis.com

I also enjoyed the first two in the series:

Black Book and Red Book.

Cycling Gabriola Island

I cycled Gabriola in the Canadian Gulf Islands in 2020. And again in 2022.

Easy access via a 20-minute ferry service from Nanaimo.

Small. With a full-time population of about 4500, I could live on Gabriola.

Grocery store. Liquor store. Library.

3 provincial parks—Gabriola Sands Provincial Park on the northwest shore, Sandwell Provincial Park on the northeast shore, and Drumbeg Provincial Park on the east shore—as well as Descanso Bay Regional Park and an adjacent community park near the ferry terminal.

There’s a hippie vibe.

cycling Gabriola Island

Only 14 kilometres long, I cycled all the main roadways. Took plenty of detours. Cycled some of the many hiking trails. And still had my tent set up by 6pm same day.