T. Jefferson Parker, Storm Runners

Storm Runners

T. Jefferson Parker

Morrow, March 2007, $25.95

ISBN 0060854235

In California, Mike Tavarez, a top gun in the Mexican Mafia La Eme, sets off a bomb intended to kill Orange County detective Matt Stromsoe. Matt is severely injured, but his wife and son die in the blast. As he heals physically, the scars remain mentally, although Tavarez, his former high school classmate, is convicted of murder and sentenced to spend life in prison.

Finally, able to go back to work, Stromsoe accepts work guarding San Diego meteorologist Frankie Leigh from a stalker. Stromsoe soon realizes that the culprit was hired by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to prevent Leigh, whom they consider a major nuisance, from presenting her research into rainmaking.

This is an exciting, suspenseful thriller that has a great opening sentence that sets the stage for the two antagonists. The story line is fast-paced, with the audience totally hooked with a High Noon anticipation from T. Jefferson Parker, cleverly building up from that first line crescendo. The deep look at La Eme interwoven into the plot is fascinating, and Mr. Parker provides a fabulous crime thriller with a touch of weather science to enhance the stormy confrontational expectations, as everyone knows what weather is coming.