A Storm of Pleasure

Some brilliant critic once wrote that T. Jefferson Parker was “the best crime writer working out of Southern California”--and that was before I read Storm Runners, just out in mass-market paperback. It’s literally a stunning story about failed friendship, revenge, and rain-making. There are two superb villains: a John Huston-like figure (from Chinatown) who runs Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power; and a Harvard-educated drug dealer who operates La Eme, a feared branch of the Mexican mafia, from his cell at Pelican Bay, the toughest prison in America.

These two get together to stop a San Diego television weather reporter from continuing her research into increasing rainfall. The stalker they send to scare her gets security specialist Matt Stromsoe back into action, after a car bomb set by the drug lord--meant to kill just him--instead leaves former cop Stromsoe one-eyed and mangled, and his wife and young son dead. Hired to protect the rain-maker, Matt finds himself falling in love with her--and risking his life and sanity once again to protect her.

Parker’s new hardcover, L.A. Outlaws, has received some excellent reviews--although it would be nice not to have the rave in the Los Angeles Times dismiss most other crime fiction as rubbish.