Move Over Jack Reacher

Absolutely brilliant. Move over Jack Reacher, Steve Vail is now “The Man”.


When FBI, Deputy Assistant Director Kate Bannon reveals that she recognizes the behavioral traits of a missing hero, while watching the video of a botched bank robbery—botched, thanks to the intervention of one of the hostages—she is tasked with bringing the former renegade agent Steve Vail one last time.

The Bureau is being targeted, perhaps from within, by a domestic terrorist group who call themselves the Rubico Pentad and who have already targeted, kidnapped or killed several upstanding members of society and the FBI has been unable to put a stop to them. They are ready to do whatever it takes, even if it means bringing back Vail for a limited performance.

Heading out as a one-man destruction squad, Vail soon uncovers who is behind the destruction and innuendo that has handicapped the FBI. That it makes his former employers look bad is just a feather in his cap. Working on his own agenda, even after being dismissed by the officialdom whose judgment he made look inferior, he gets the job done right down to the bitter end.

Lessons on Life, Love and Marriage from the Appalachian Trail

From the very beginning I had to have a good laugh. Being the anal retentive planner that I am too I really appreciated the thought and planning that went into the initiation process of the hike of this married couple, Randy "Windstalker" Motz and Georgia "Mom" Harris. Laugh, because when I started on my Appalachian Trail trip I planned not one iota and discovered myself on the trail as if by accident; this pair planned for years, something I normally would have done. It felt good to know that I was not be the only one that would have approached the hike in this fashion.

My hike was as a newly single man escaping the harness of marriage but this couple happily embraced their already strong union and actually considered if this six-month sojourn would be good for their relationship before fully embracing the journey. They are to people of great faith, educated and given over to a strong set purpose in their life. They knew each others strengths and weaknesses and learned how best to support each other while having no-one but each other to depend on. They learned along the way to accept the familiarity of others, the giving nature of the AT, the "trail-magic" that resounds from this phenomenal place known as the Appalachian Trail and, for a pair of self-proclaimed introverts, quickly adapted to the large 'family' of thru-hikers that inhabit it.

This book is truly inspirational, part hiking journal, part crash-course in marriage counseling, Motz and Harris imbibe in all that read their magnificent journey a desire to have the type of relationship that kept them together through thick and thin, 'for better or for worse', not only hiking but in their every day life too.