"Breaking Free" is a present-day adventure story in which the action takes place mostly on one of the more than seven thousand small islands of Indonesia but also on the high seas between Singapore and Sydney, Australia. Alex Blackwood is a Brooklyn born man from Indiana who has seen the gutter from close up in his hometown and again in New York City and in Amsterdam and in Bangkok where he finally hits bottom. To keep from getting drawn into more involvement with drugs and trafficking he has to set himself adrift in a sailing dinghy in the Timor sea six hundred miles northwest of Australia...

Praise for Roy Garde's first novel Breaking Free (2005). Critics were generally positive and some made comparisons that ranged from the raw-"Robinson Crusoe meets Rambo" to the over flattering-"The novel that a collaboration between H.E. Bates and John Updike might have produced." When asked his opinion of them Mr. Garde said, "I never read any reviews if the critic's name is in larger print than the name of the author of the book. With the exception of Mr. Anon, of course." After listening to some excerpts over the phone he said, "Far too much nit-picking but overall they seem to be...

Praise for Roy Garde's first novel "Breaking Free" (2005).

Critics were generally positive and some made comparisons that ranged from the raw-"Robinson Crusoe meets Rambo" to the over flattering-"The novel that a collaboration between H.E. Bates and John Updike might have produced."

When asked his opinion of them Mr. Garde said, "I never read any reviews if the critic's name is in larger print than the name of the author of the book. With the exception of Mr. Anon, of course."

After listening to some excerpts over the phone he said, "Far too much nit-picking but overall they seem to...