Storm Runners

January 29, 2007
Matt Stromsoe is a walking-wounded former cop whose wife and son were killed in a car explosion meant for him. His last chance for salvation is being bodyguard for beautiful TV weatherwoman Frankie Hatfield, who possesses a secret formula for making rain that a sociopathic exec at the L.A. Power & Water wants destroyed. The exec has enlisted the aid of the same vengeful gang leader responsible for the murder of Matts family. Pretty melodramatic stuff. But just as Parkers storytelling skill transforms it into a credible, character-rich novel, Lanes clean, unruffled narration deepens the drama and sharpens its suspenseful edges. The author provides even the least of the participants with rich backstories that Lane smoothly delivers, often employing accents and attitudes that add a needed patina of realism to the scenes. The author and narrator stumble only on a few passages of cute dialogue between Matt and Frankie. But, happily, that is kept to a minimum. Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 18). (Mar.) .

December 18, 2006
Bestseller Parker's 14th California crime novel opens with an unforgettable sentence: "Stromsoe was in high school when he met the boy who would someday murder his wife and son." The wife and son are both killed by a bomb meant for Matt Stromsoe, an Orange County detective on the trail of his former classmate, Mike Tavarez, now a leader of La Eme, the Mexican mafia. Tavarez goes to prison for life for the bombing, while the seriously injured Stromsoe, after a long recovery, takes a job guarding Frankie Leigh, a popular TV weather reporter in San Diego. Leigh has a stalker, who turns out to be employed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; the DWP wants Leigh—and her research on rainmaking—out of the picture. Parker (The Fallen
) creates his usual interesting, multifaceted characters, though the plotting, which reconnects Tavarez with Stromsoe, is clunky. Still, the insights into La Eme and the science of rainmaking as well as the inevitable confrontation between the two principals show why Parker ranks as one of the top contemporary suspense writers.