So I have been reading your books continuously now for the better part of this year.  I think I read all the Sharpes series, then on to the Saxon books, then the Grail, then the Starbuck series and just recently the sailing thriller adventures of Nick Sandman and Nick Breakspear.  You definitely have me hooked.  You must also be a sailor because you could not have written the following paragraph from Crackdown otherwise.  “ I like the sounds of a boat sailing at night. The sounds are the same as those of daylight, yet somehow the night magnifies and sharpens the creak of a yielding block, the sigh of air over a shroud, the stretching of a sail, the hiss of water sliding sleek against the hull, the curl of a quarter-wave falling away, and the thump as a wave strikes the cutwater to be sheared into two bright slices of whiteness. I like the purposefulness of a boat at night as it slits a path across an empty planet. I like the secretiveness of a boat in the blackness, when the only thing to dislike is the prospect of dawn, which seems like a betrayal because, at night, in a boat under sail, it is easy to feel very close to God—for eternity is all around.”.  It was perfect because I have experienced the exact same feelings aboard my sailboat.  Thank you.

Richard G Burton