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An excellent chapter ending on a hundred foot wave cliffhanger! Charles Lane, Anchorage

Sorry, synchronicity is not in my unabridged Random House dictionary. Is it really a word? Apparently synchronic has a meaning in linguistics, the study of a language at a specific time without regard to its history. If you mean there is a relation between what is happening to Henry, Ali and Trevor I could buy that. I had been wondering about Ali and am glad to see him go. The two crewmen in their greed could end up spilling their tale and sending out an alarm. So Trevor is headed for the Iles Kerguelen with only a hundred scientists as occupants. If my time line is correct it is summer down there, but hypothermia would still be a problem in such a windy place. I hope Trevor likes seal meat. Thanks so much for such an interesting story. I am beginning to build my week around Tuesday. You are an excellent teacher. Since many gay stories are about people who hate math and science it is refreshing to learn so much practical knowledge from a series. I used to entertain myself on two week ANWR backpacks trying to get my location by flooding sand, putting a stick on the north side and timing when the shadow was the shortest. Longitude was pretty accurate but latitude was off by a hundred miles. It never occured to me to use the tube from my pen like Trevor did. Charles Lane, Anchorage

Frankly I enjoyed this chapter. Maybe the escape was not certain as some have pointed out, but it was very clever. I was raised in the depression and WW II so I am used to serials where our hero is thrown off a cliff to certain death. Next week they rewind and it turns out he was not thrown off a cliff. Really stupid. Kind of like a Baptist preacher telling a Doubting Thomas that the story of David and Jonathan doesn't mean what it says, but Leviticus means exactly what it says. So for an author who claims he doesn't like cliffhangers I think he is a vast improvement over a 1940s serial scipt writer. Charles Lane.

Good chapter. I think everybody is ready for a little action. Mysterious boats leaving from Bridget's dock while Bridget stalls Lisa. Some evil soul feeding Jim with information about Trevor's whereabouts. Jim spending all kinds of money to find Trevor. And does he intend to pull a gun from his pocket or is he just glad to see a hunky man like Joel?

Scratch the Tula River on my reply and attribute it to old age! Here is an email I got about the trip, Hi Charles, Tom and I did a great trip in the Gates of the Arctic! On the 15th of August, we hiked off the Dalton Highway and up Kuyuktuvuk Creek (which is about an hour north of Wiseman). Tom thought our packs might have been 90 pounds when we left. We packed about 32 pounds of food. We made about five miles that day but we had a lot of bad bushwhacking to do along the bluffs. There was some rain that day so we had to dry off a bit. Kestrels and grasshoppers were plentiful on the gravel bars. We were able to see treeline from our camp. While having breakfast, I spotted wolf across the creek sticking its head out of the willows. It looked at us a few seconds and then moved on. Tom had an original plan of hiking 60 miles but we soon realized that with our packs we could not. We made a decision to do day hikes along the way to Oolah Pass. The next day we managed to go another five miles over countless ridges of tussocks. We continued to do day hikes until we reached the pass. We able to climb a 6,720 foot peek on a clear day. Tom and I could see a lot of the Brooks Range including Boreal Mountain. I saw two birds new to my life list. There were many singing voles near the Oolah Pass. These voles live in colonies and pile up vegetation on mounds to dry for the winter. They get their name from the high-pitched squeaking they make. There are only four or five papers on them. Very interesting! We were out for a week and we rented satellite phone so we could contact Jane at any time. According to our GPS, we hiked about 45 miles including our day hikes. I can

I have been on the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to the impressive Yukon River in late November. Really no sweat, just watch out for the big trucks. Last August my friend from Fairbanks and his son hiked up the Tula River Valley from the Dalton just before Atigun Pass. I believe they have driven further north than that on another trip. I could tell you how to contact them.

I really, really like this story. It is even better than the Scar series, perhaps because it is mellower and the characters are so appealing. I was wondering why it is OK to go through the Suez Canal but not the Panama Canal. Cape Horn is not a good place to be and it means more time before we get back to the mystery in Florida. As long as I am sticking my nose into the plot line I would like to request that Trevor not be made into a sex slave for Somali pirates! Dirk fills out the role of bad guy quite nicely. Charles Lane

I really enjoyed both "For the Love" and "Let the Music Play". The second story was about a very real scenario we may all have to try to survive. The action was gripping. I learned a lot, which made me feel good. I thought the last chapter and the epilogue were a little too neat and the ressurection of Helen unbelieveable. I also wondered about an Osprey with a payload of 10000 pounds lifting a Suburban weighing 6000 pounds and four people plus junk in both vehicles at 10000 feet altitude. I do think Tom Clancy better watch out because your stories are better than his. Charles Lane