Amazon.com ReviewGuest Reviewer: Benjamin Wallace on Skyjack by Geoffrey Gray © David Fields _Benjamin Wallace is a contributing editor at New York Magazine and the author of _The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine. It seems like all the good mysteries are gone. We know who Deep Throat was. We know where Thomas Pynchon lives. The missing 18 minutes on the Nixon tapes have proved unrecoverable. But then, winking at us like one last taunting fossil from the violent, paranoid 1970s, there’s the baffling case of D.B. Cooper.On November 24, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727, demanded $200,000 and parachutes, and jumped out over the Pacific Northwest. At a time when the country was beset by war, assassinations, riots, a faltering economy, and the Nixon presidency, Cooper was heralded as a Robin Hood of the sky. Enormous investigative resources were marshaled. Ballads were written. Cooper was never heard from again.Forty years later, Geoffrey Gray dives chute-less into the swirling abyss of Cooper mania and lands with a true non-fiction novel, with characters too eccentric to be invented and a hurtling pace rarely found in the world of fact. The writing is stylish. The reporting is unstoppable. Gray is sympathetic and funny and saucer-eyed--even, at times, unhinged. He wants to solve the unsolvable, and remarkably, for a famous cold case, his spadework turns up fresh material.As much as Skyjack is about D.B. Cooper, it is also a searing group portrait of those who even today find meaning in his mystery, a travelogue through a tumultuous era in American history, and a study of the paranoid style in American obsession. Most indelibly, it is an exploration of the mystery within the mystery, the puzzle of why these unfilled blank spots in our past have such a haunting grip on our imaginations.Review_“Out of the wild blue yonder comes this pleasing tale of obsession and mystery. Geoffrey Gray has essentially parachuted into the early 1970s and found a nearly forgotten episode that elucidates a swath of our cultural history. The result is a clean, smart whodunit full of quirky characters, imaginative sleuthing, and thrilling surprises.”_—Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail _“Here is writing and storytelling that is vivid and fresh—a delectable adventure from a talented new author.”_—Gay Talese _“With verve and assurance worthy of his protagonist, Geoffrey Gray pulls readers along on a kaleidoscopic chase through the cult of Cooper. Both a masterful re-creation of the paranoid 1970s, and an exhilarating firsthand account of an erosive obsession, Skyjack takes us down the rabbit hole with Gray—and what a journey it is.”_—James Swanson, author of_ Manhunt and Bloody Crimes_ _“Who was D.B. Cooper? In SKYJACK, Geoffrey Gray lures in the reader with this iconic unsolved mystery, and for the next 290 pages explores a story as attention-grabbing as a bag of hot money. D.B. Cooper emerges as the great McGuffin of 1970s America, a prism through which Gray exploits to the fullest with his propulsive writing style, mad commitment to detail, and explores everything from the early years of gender reassignment surgery to the birth of airline security culture to the ghostly legends of the Pacific Northwest's Dark Divide.”_—Evan Wright,_ New York Times_ bestselling author of _Generation Kill__“SKYJACK tells the legendary story of D.B. Cooper in a way that’s as inventive and as engaging as the subject itself. Only a writer as talented as Geoffrey Gray could knit together the many strands of this mystery and the extraordinary characters who have dedicated, and in some cases destroyed, their lives in pursuit of the truth. Just as Gray finds himself sucked into the tale, readers will leap into the void alongside him, landing on their feet and smiling at the shared adventure.”_—Mitchell Zuckoff, author of Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and_ the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II_ _“Easily one of the most delightful books I’ve read in a long, long time. In his obsessive search for answers in the legendary case, Gray becomes a little unhinged himself as well as encountering an array of characters I haven’t seen the likes of since Mark Twain sent Huck down the Mississippi. His style fits the case, and Gray can be compared with Tom Wolfe and Evelyn Waugh in his talent for unearthing the eccentrics of the world and the bizarreness of life.”_—John Bowers, Associate Professor of Writing, Columbia University, author of _The Colony and Love in Tennessee__“...An exciting journey into the byways of popular culture. This is hardly the first book about Cooper, but it may be the first to treat his story for what it has become: an ongoing phenomenon, like the search for Bigfoot, with a remarkable ability to consume the imaginations and lives of generations of searchers.”_—Booklist, Starred Views: 65
From the author of the award winning Unspeakable, and the bestselling PODs, comes the highly anticipated sequel to PODs. A world where death stalks the unsuspecting, and this time even the PODs might not save them.A virus nearly wiped out humankind...Months have passed since a human infection has been reported. Survivors of the deadly pandemic have finally started to build a life in a world left devastated by plague.Ironically, for nineteen-year-old Eva, life made more sense when she battled the deadly Infected than it does in the serenity of her new home in Rosewood. Separated from fiancé and former POD-mate, David, after an impossible ultimatum, Eva finds her life a little lonely and a lot confusing.But as troubled as Eva's life is, it's about to take a turn for the worse as untold dangers watch and wait for the right moment to attack...The virus refuses to die quietly. Views: 65
A gripping quest that pushes the boundaries of endurance and spirit. Age: teenage/young adult tHE SACRIFICE is a futuristic novel set in the top of the North Island and the Pacific. Decades earlier, eruptions around the Pacific 'ring of fire', and consequent devastating tsunami, had annihilated Western civilization and technology, along with most of the population. those who survive revert to hunter-gatherer mode, both in the absence of technology and in the belief that technology and even crop cultivation were the cause of the catastrophe. there is a return to a belief in elemental gods; some exploiting this as a means of social control. However, in the harsh new climate, and with ever-diminishing resources due to no cultivation or husbandry, youth are selected as the Chosen to travel into the unknown and save their people. One of these is taka, a gifted dancer ... A futuristic novel set in the top of the North Island and the Pacific by an award-winning writer. Age: teenage/young... Views: 65
Longlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize Critically lauded, The Beggar’ s Garden is a brilliantly surefooted, strikingly original collection of nine linked short stories that will delight as well as disturb. The stories follow a diverse group of curiously interrelated characters, from bank manager to crackhead to retired Samaritan to web designer to car thief, as they drift through each other’ s lives in Vancouver’ s Downtown Eastside. These engrossing stories, free of moral judgment, are about people who are searching in the jagged margins of life— for homes, drugs, love, forgiveness— and collectively they offer a generous and vivid portrait of humanity, not just in Vancouver but in any modern urban centre. The Beggar’ s Garden is a powerful and affecting debut. Its individual stories have been anthologized in The Journey Prize Stories and have been nominated for major awards, including a National Magazine Award for fiction. The collection has been longlisted for the Frank O’ Connor International Short Story Award. Views: 65
Why does it happen that when we are at the peak of our happiness we receive an unexpected jolt? Why life sometimes takes a 360 degree turn and suddenly we find ourselves standing at ground zero? Raghav was blessed with everything that life can offer to anyone – happy family, education, riches and comforts. Love blossomed in the garden of his heart when a beautiful girl came in his life. Then the unthinkable happened. Misfortune struck him, not just once but again and again. The only thing visible to him was darkness ahead. His faith in God brought 'Someone Special' in his life to show him the way out of that dark tunnel. Who was that special one? Raghav took up the task to re-build his fallen castle and the results were beyond imagination. Does faith has the power to change one's destiny? Answer it after you have read this book. Views: 65
Montana-born Rex loves nothing more than to take his kayak out on a river, the faster and more powerful the better. When he gets the opportunity to tackle the well-named El Furioso in southwest Colombia, he is thrilled. He anticipates the river's challenges, but finds himself in a situation where the real danger is human. In Colombia, he meets Myriam Calambás, an indígena, who has lived along the El Furioso all her life. Though she loves its rushing waters, she dreams of leaving to get an education so that she can help her people. Her dreams, and her very survival, are in the balance when she and Rex are caught up in the clash between paramilitaries, working for rich landowners, and guerillas, who are supposed to be protecting the poor.Pam Withers' skill at writing about extreme adventures combines with a compelling story about an endangered world and a people struggling for their very right to exist. Views: 65
