Into Focus

by Andy Walker

When a merry band of pranksters saddled pretty Victoria Smith with a nickname—Richard, it stuck. Dauntless, with audacity to match, she landed at an Alaskan strip club earning fast cash for flying lessons that launched a meteoric ascent to airline captain. It looked like smooth sailing for life in this dream job, until her path crossed Ammon Lynch’s.With stupendous wealth, an insatiable appetite for more, and a team of law judges and devout hoodlums, Ammon ate up airline companies and spit out their bankrupted remains. All he needed was Richard’s employer, Global International Airlines, and he would become the industry’s crowned king and lay fifty years of hard-fought airline advances to rubble.Can Richard possibly prevail against Ammon’s ruthless deceit and corruption to save her company, indeed the entire industry?Will her turbulent marriage hold up as she scrambles for allies?In the end, she devises a perilous plan, one that has a razor-thin chance of her survival, but one she must complete.

395 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2024

About the author

Andy Walker fell into the bottomless mine of writing a couple of years ago. Forty-three years flying airplanes for a living gave way to the new passion which he entertains daily. When not writing, he can be found skiing his beloved Alta, struggling to learn the unimaginably difficult challenges of figure skating, or thrilling (and too often, spilling) on his mountain bike. Follow him at: https://www.andywalker.net/

Reviews

[Karla Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the details Walker infuses in the novel to bring this tale to life based on his years as a pilot. He has woven a story of hard-working people all facing dilemmas because of greed and selfish decisions by wealthy men who think nothing of who they are hurting. But the payback in this novel is such sweet revenge that I couldn't swipe fast enough to read how all of the threads came together. Walker pulls it off marvelously. As the tension builds, so does the worry that all is lost in the main character's life, possibly including her own. This action/suspense novel would make a great movie!

[Lon Osmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy Walker’s Into Focus was a fun read for me, but a fun read that at the same time forced me to think about what it means to commit one of the seven cardinal sins – pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth – and the impact committing one of those sins has on others. It also allowed me to recognize what it takes to stand up to someone guilty of one or more of those sins. And I realized after reading the first few chapters, that I was guilty of one of those sins, because I found myself feeling a bit of lust for the main character.

As with one of his other books – Fire on The Mountain – Andy places his fictional characters in real-life historical events that make his storytelling impactful and believable. His unique voice as a writer/storyteller reminds me of the guitar playing of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits – two notes/sentences in and you immediately know who the artist is. What makes it even more impressive for me is Andy takes on the voices of at least 15 separate characters in Into Focus, and tells his story through those many voices. In the end, though, Andy’s voice is one of a morale compass helping the reader to recognize and understand what it means both to be a sinner and hero.

[Cynthia N. Shumway · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've hesitated to review "In Focus," partly because the author is my brother, and partly because, although the book is a work of fiction, its events and characters lie mighty close to events and people in my own life. That said, Andy does a fine job fleshing out real life people and events as a fictional, parallel universe kind of translation. I recognize names and developments, but they're treated in ways that keep me guessing about what's coming next. An enjoyable romp!