–From The Wall Street Journal by Hannah Karp– Until recently, falconry—the ancient art of hunting small game with trained birds of prey—was just a hobby for Michael Gregston, who makes a living leading canoe trips down the Missouri River. But to supplement his income, he has been toting four of his rare hawks and falcons in the bitter cold to an unusual destination for a bird enthusiast: an oil refinery. “The battle begins when the sun goes down,” said Mr. …

Christmas collides with unspeakable tragedy in “Directions For Disassembly Of An Old Set Of Swings.” Now available as a Kindle book.   Preview: It will have to be in winter, one of those bright frozen days when your wife is off volunteering at the hospital and the neighbor will let you borrow his pickup so you can carry the pieces to the dump. The old swings will be hard to pry from the earth at first; they will have stood in …

Today’s UK Telegraph carries an interesting article about a claim by Sudanese officials to have  captured a vulture equipped with Israeli aerial surveillance technology. The Israelis say the camera gear is merely part of a project to study vulture migration patterns. Whatever the truth, the idea of spy vultures raises some interesting issues. In addition to all of the drones flying around in Daniel Suarez’s new Sci-Fi novel KILL DECISION, the main character employs ravens outfitted with cameras to provide real time …

Timothy Hallinan’s PI novel CRASHED launches what may well be one of the most exciting new private eye series to come along in years. Already optioned for television and film, CRASHED introduces Junior Bender, “the favorite burglar-turned-private-investigator of Hollywood crooks.” Since he first started breaking into houses when he was fourteen years old, Junior’s never once been caught by the law. In CRASHED he is blackmailed by Trey Annunziato, one of the most powerful crime bosses in LA, into acting …