Reviews from STEVEN SILL

JANUARY - FEBRUARY  REVIEWS

T. JEFFERSON PARKER

STORM RUNNERS
T. JEFFERSON PARKER   
Harper pb 2/08

Matt Stromsoe is recovering both physically and emotionally from a devastating attack on his life when his life picks up. From the opening scenes where we meet a young Matt Stromsoe and Mike Tavarez, both in the same high school and trying out for the school’s band, we sense that as adults both are going to meet again, but on opposite sides. As both go their separate ways, Matt goes towards law enforcement to become one of the best undercover cops in California. Meanwhile, Mike gets a scholarship to Harvard to study music and economics, but at the same time he continues his gangbanger ways by robbing convenience stores. Thus, the opening scenes of T. Jefferson Parker’s STORM RUNNERS sets up the inevitable conflict between good and bad.

Mike Tavarez has become “El Jefe,” head of the La Eme, running gangs throughout most of the southern United States. Taverez has been running this group from the prison where he is serving a life term for attempting to kill Matt, but instead he killed Matt’s wife and son with a bomb. Meanwhile, Matt is rotting away in a Miami hotel room, drinking himself to death in order to forget what happened to his family.  He is also recovering from a blast which ruined his left eye and put nails in both his knees, which now have pins in them in order to keep him together.  Dan Birch, Matt’s friend from his law enforcement days, who has opened a private security company, travels to Miami where he finds Matt in a drunken stupor.

At this point, Birch threatens to get Matt into rehabilitation unless he straightens up. It seems Birch Security has a job just to bring him back to the land of the living. Frances “Frankie” Hatfield is a weather forecaster for one of the FOX stations in the San Diego area. Recently, Frankie has been stalked by someone who is either stupid, or trying to get caught; Frankie has pictures of the stalker, John Cedros, on her property. Matt is assigned to guard her and, if possible, get the stalker. Things go smoothly and the stalker is arrested one day while on Frankie’s property. However, his story doesn’t wash, and both Birch and Matt start digging, only to learn that Cedros’s boss is trying to dissuade Frankie from carrying on experiments that could possibly cause rainfall to accelerate.

With deftness of plot, strong characters, and pulse racing suspense, STORM RUNNERS is a great addition to the story telling abilities of author T. Jefferson Parker. 

- Steven Sill

A GRAVE IN GAZA
MATT BENYON REES  
Soho Crime   February, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-56947-472-3

Following on his adventures in A COLLABORATOR IN BETHLEHEM, Omar Yussef travels to Gaza to help UN Inspector Magnus Wallander investigate the schools there. However, as they are traveling to Gaza, they pass a procession for a fallen Palestinian soldier. Little does either realize that the soldier’s death will play a prominent role in their stay in Gaza.

Arriving, both Yussef and Wallander are told that a university professor has been arrested as being a CIA spy. Hoping to clear this matter up, Yussef’s investigation leads to other events that eventually turn dangerous and adventurous. First, Wallander is kidnapped, then James Cree, a UN member based in Gaza is killed by a bomb meant for Yussef.  During a Revolution Council meeting a contract is put out to kill Yussef.  Thrown in to these events are a stolen missile, buying fake diplomas, and the murder of several prominent Palestinian leaders.

With painstaking care and investigation, Yussef uncovers several plots to overthrow the Palestinian government, foment a revolution, and blame Israel for the recent assassination of a leading Palestinian. As the book comes to an end, it appears all will stay the same, but with several dissenting members suddenly disappearing.

This book has so much going on within its pages, that at first I found all these loose threads leaving me with the idea that there will be some threads not resolved. But in Omar Yussef, there is a characteristic of stubbornness that finally ties all the loose ends up with a modicum of reasonableness and logic that explains the political situation in Gaza.

 - Steven Sill

DAMAGE CONTROL
ROBERT DUGONI  
Grand Central Publishing pb 2/08

Dana Hill is a rising star at a prominent Seattle law firm when her world comes crashing down. First, she learns she has breast cancer, then her brother is brutally beaten and murdered and, finally, her husband is having an affair. Handling all this, plus raising a young daughter, pushes Dana over the edge. Thus is the opening of DAMAGE CONTROL, a thriller with some legal aspects in its pages.

Investigating James Hill’s murder is detective Mike Logan, who doesn’t believe it was just a random burglary gone wrong. His theory is proven when first one  burglar, Laurence King, is found murdered in a hotel room. Then, days later, the second burglar, Marshall Cole, is found murdered in a gas station bathroom. Both had been shot with a .22 right in the forehead.

Meanwhile, Dana is off investigating leads of her own, which take her on a whirlwind tour of Seattle and its islands. As both investigations start to show similarities, it becomes apparent Dana is in danger, not just from the cancer but from a killer who is trying to hide all his tracks.

DAMAGE CONTROL is a page turner. It starts off at a slow pace, but soon the action and suspense are moving towards a climax that will leave the reader breathless. Dana Hill is a complex character going through the motions of living while trying to maintain her control through all the stresses life is throwing at her. By the end, I was rooting for Dana to get by from all that life had thrown in her way.

 - Steven Sill

Home Page

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER  REVIEWS

THE KIND ONE
TOM EPPERSON   
Five Star  December, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59414-617-6

Danny Landon doesn’t know who he really is or where he came from. All he knows is that he works for Bud Seitz, 'the kind one,' a mobster who is considered the most brutal mob boss in 1930s Los Angeles .

What makes Danny special to Bud is unknown. As the story unfolds, Danny is given easy assignments by Bud. However, when it comes to killing or hurting someone, Danny gets queasy and has to have someone come along to do the killing. As Bud grows in stature, he asks Danny to guard his girlfriend, Darla. There is a hitch though:  Danny has fallen in love with Darla. She wants Danny to kill Bud so they can flee from Los Angeles and be together.

Meanwhile, Danny has become a guardian to Sophie, a neighborhood child whose mom and boyfriends keep abusing her. When it becomes apparent Sophie is going to be sent to an asylum where the patients are committed for life, Danny decides it’s time to take Sophie and leave Los Angeles.

There are lots of twists in this 1930s novel of Los Angeles. My problems with the book were that the characters didn’t really come to life, and the setting could have been present day Los Angeles or any other city. There isn’t enough description to depict the era of that time, nor the city as it might have been at that time. THE KIND ONE falls short in a lot of areas, but for those looking for a slow paced novel, this one does the trick.

 - Steven Sill

Steven's review of THE ARCHER FILES and THE WAY SOME PEOPLE DIE
by Ross MacDonald both appear in CLASSIC CORNER.