Longshot - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

It's been a long time since I read a book by Dick Francis, but when I saw Longshot on a "free books" shelf, I grabbed it. What a fun story! This book was published in 1990, but it holds up well -- even though characters have car phones instead of cell phones. Mr. Francis passed away in 2010 but his 40+ books are still entertaining.

Genre: Mystery
Book Length: 322 Pages (paperback)
Amazon Link: Longshot
Amazon Author Page: Dick Francis

Book Beginning:
     I accepted a commission that had been turned down by four other writers, but I was hungry at the time.
     Although starving in a garret had seemed a feasible enough plan a year earlier, the present realities of existence under the frozen eaves of a friend's aunt's house in a snowy January were such that without enough income to keep well fed and warm I was a knockover for a risky decision.
     My state of course was my own fault.

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 in my paperback):
In the now sunlit kitchen Tremayne was standing by the table, talking crossly into the telephone.
"You would have thought that someone would have noticed by now that they're missing a horse."

Synopsis (from Amazon):
"Fast-paced, meticulously plotted...Nobody sets up a mystery better than Dick Francis."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Travel writer John Kendall didn't think he was doing anything too out of the ordinary when he tramped off to rural England for an interview with a successful race horse trainer. Soon enough, however, Kendall realizes that completing the book will be tricky at best. In fact, the perils described in his survival manuals pale next to the dangers in rural England....
Selected by the Literary Guild, the Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Club
                

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The Shadow Cartel (The Dominic Gray Series) - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph

    I enjoy reading books that are set in places I've visited or towns where I've lived. So when I saw that The Shadow Cartel was set in Miami, where I lived for many years, I knew I had to read it, even though the story is outside my usual genre. 
    I've just started reading the book, and I'm enthralled by the story! The author obviously knows the city inside and out. He even mentioned the neighborhood where my husband and I once lived. From the venerable Tobacco Road bar to the high rise office buildings along Brickell Avenue, I'm enjoying my virtual visit back to South Florida. 
   The Shadow Cartel is Book #4 in the Dominic Gray Series.



First Paragraph:
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project,
Northwest Guyana
November 18, 1978
     The man known as John Wolverton cocked his head at the sound, a faint thwap that echoed through the vines and trees. He reasoned the shot had come from a poacher's rifle.
     Surely it hadn't come from the Port Kaituma airstrip. From Congressman Ryan's delegation, sent to investigate the conditions of Reverand Jones's utopian cult that had set up shop in the middle of the Guyanese jungle. Reverend Jones was a sociopath, but he wasn't suicidal, and the doctors agreed the two were mutually exclusive.


Teaser (from 21% on my Kindle):
[Here's a character's description of Miami from her memories. Yes, it's only two sentences.]
   She could still draw a map of the Fairchild Botanical Gardens, picture the evening light sinking into No Name Harbor, and tell friends visiting the city where to find the best ceviche, the most authentic sangria, the perfect little wine shop hidden in the maze of Cuban bakeries on Coral Way. She loved the smell of roasting coffee, the sexy fashion boutiques, the day trips to the Everglades and the weekend trips to the Keys, the serendipity of a peacock sighting on the way to the grocery store, the delight of biting into one of the mangoes weighing down the limbs of neighborhood trees in summer.

Genre: Thriller
Book Length: 434 Pages
Amazon Link: The Shadow Cartel
Author Website: Layton Green

Synopsis:

The sins of the past always return...

    The General.  A name whispered in hushed tones among the criminal underworld, from Miami to Buenos Aires.  A name even the drug cartels fear.  

    Yet the General is a man without a face.  There are no fingerprints on file, no known base of operations, not even a biographical sketch.  He operates in the shadows, but somehow controls a vast criminal empire.

    And he has never made a direct incursion onto U.S. soil -- until now.

    In Miami, disgraced DEA agent Fred Hernandez is called to investigate a bizarre crime scene, where the bodies of four drug dealers are sprawled around an iron cauldron.  Even stranger is the mysterious 'blue lady' that a drug-addled witness claims killed the men.

    Lana Valenciano, an ambitious CIA operative, informs Agent Hernandez that the murders might be connected to a legendary South American criminal known as the General.  Lana claims the General has become a threat to national security -- but has no idea how to find him.

    The government's best hope?  Private investigators Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek, who might be the only people alive with the skills to unravel the General's tangled web.  

    Thrown together on a covert manhunt, Grey and the two agents delve into the darkest reaches of international drug trafficking, only to unearth a sinister chapter in the history of the CIA that has spilled into the present -- and put them in the crosshairs of an underworld puppeteer with a frightening reach.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

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First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

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A sweet Texas romance, available in paperback and ebook formats: 
Amazon Link

Alki Beach - Saturday Snapshots

I'm really getting into this walking and hiking thing! This past Tuesday I joined a group on a walk in Alki Beach (West Seattle) - a more urban setting than my previous ventures. Alki Beach Park runs between Elliot Bay (Puget Sound) and Alki Avenue and consists of a path for pedestrians and a separate parallel path for bicyclists. 
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

The day was overcast and breezy, but we didn't have any rain. Because of all the clouds, we weren't able to see the snow-capped Olympic Mountains to the west; however, we had beautiful views of the Seattle skyline. 

It was too chilly to be kayaking!

High-priced condos line the inland side of Alki Avenue, with a few bungalows tucked in between. This one is an Alki Beach landmark ("Flower House") and is covered in blooms during the summer. 

Some members of our group walked along the sand.

But most of us stayed on the paved path.

At lunchtime we split up and headed for restaurants several blocks away. By the time we'd finished our meals, the sun was out.

Time to hit Interstate 5 and head home.

More info:
Alki Beach Park
Alki Flower House

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

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have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on the host blogsite. 

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