Landfall : a novel
(Book)

Critics hailed Tony Gibbs's first sailing thriller, Dead Run. Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "one of the best of the year, a characterful, salt-sprayed tale ... altogether a rouser." John Ellsworth of The New York Times Book Review called his sequel, Running Fix, "a clever and vivid mystery ... balanced and well-trimmed," and Publishers Weekly said, "This compelling thriller percolates with suspense." Now, in Landfall, the crew of the charter yacht, Glory set their course again for a voyage on the troubled waters of intrigue and danger. For Gillian Verdean, Glory's owner, life has taken a turn for the better, as her precarious relationship with Glory's sea-hardened skipper, Jeremy Barr, finally blossoms into romance. And the beautiful old yacht is at last booked for a successful winter charter season in the Caribbean, starting with the six-person party of a Mr. Jake Adler, due to come aboard at the Dutch island of St. Maarten. But only two of the party arrive, Adler and his Cuban mistress - and Adler himself is almost killed on the street in a suspicious "accident." Once on board, he reveals that he's a vacationing U.S. army colonel and strikes up a friendship with Glory's first mate, the ex-soldier Patrick O'Mara. Adler's stunning mistress, Isabel Machado, on the other hand, seems to want something more from Patrick than friendship. While Gillian worries over this triangle, Barr ss approached by his shadowy former employers, for whom he used to run occasional errands among the islands. Adler they claim, has a taste for violent action and unauthorized mayhem; the Caribbean, with its multitude of small, often fragile nations, is a perfect playground for such a man. Barr's former bosses are convinced he's up to something - especially after Adler's four missing friends turn up very messily dead. And with Adler's record, they suspect it could be anything from a political coup to an invasion. Under threat of blackmail, Barr agrees to cooperate, without telling Gillian. Soon he begins to see that while Adler is neither a disinterested patriot nor a loose cannon, the terrorist conspiracy he's stumbled into is real enough to kill them all. Landfall offers everything that fans of Tony Gibbs's previous novels have come to expect: stylish prose, serpentine plotting, colorful characters, and a talent for making the mysteries of the sea and sail palpable to even the most landlocked of readers. In this new nautical thriller, Gibbs confirms his reputation as fiction's master of the high seas.

BSLW RECAT 2023