Storm Cell

September 19, 2016
A jumbled plot mars DuBois’s 10th mystery featuring retired Department of Defense intelligence analyst Lewis Cole (after 2015’s Blood Foam). Tough guy Felix Tinios, who claims his official occupation is as a security consultant, is taking a puzzling tack fighting the seemingly solid circumstantial case against him—supported by video surveillance footage and his 9 mm SIG Sauer with his fingerprints at the crime scene—for murdering Tyler Beach, N.H., businessman Fletcher Moore. Felix refuses to talk to the only guy who appears to believe in his innocence, his friend Lewis, and he switches from his savvy usual counsel, Raymond Drake, to lawyer Hollis Spinelli, who looks to be making the prosecution’s case for them. Lewis’s efforts to rekindle romance with now-engaged former flame Paula Quinn, a local journalist covering the trial, as well as threats from Boston thugs provide intermittent diversion from the arbitrary twists and surfeit of suspects, but by the end some readers may feel bamboozled by the literary equivalent
of a marathon game of three-card monte.

September 15, 2016
His 10th case drives a deep wedge--make that several wedges--between former government research analyst Lewis Cole and his long-standing comrade in arms Felix Tinios.The first barrier between Lewis and the shady "security consultant" who's helped him in so many freelance quests for justice (Dark Victory, 2016, etc.) is prison bars. Felix has been arrested for shooting New Hampshire businessman/politico Fletcher Moore twice in the head, and Assistant Attorney General Deb Moran, rejoicing in a banquet of evidence that includes a record of Moore's appointment with Felix, surveillance video that places him at the scene, and a murder weapon licensed to him and sporting his fingerprints, is looking for the death penalty. What makes Lewis feel even more helpless is that even though he comes to court every day to watch Hollis Spinelli, the hapless lawyer inexplicably defending Felix instead of Raymond Drake, his usual attorney, dig his client deeper into a hole, he can't talk to Felix, who's refused to add Lewis to his visitors list, or even to Hollis, who puts him off first with blather, then with a menacing thug. When Boston FBI agent Alan Krueger tells Lewis that he really ought to make some inquiries to help Felix, Lewis is inclined to agree, even though he's lost the press credentials that would normally give him cover. Instead, he finds himself working on a bogus federal contract for a bogus magazine article, with alleged allies he can't trust any further, evidently, than his old friend. Though the plot eventually bogs down in details of civic malfeasance, nobody is better than DuBois at kicking his reluctant hero into action or at rooting every complication in something that feels disconcertingly like the normal rhythms of life outside the justice system.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2016

Lewis Cole's best friend, former mob enforcer Felix Tinios, has been convicted of first-degree murder and may end up on death row, but Lewis is convinced this is all a frame-up. The victim, on the surface, was a fine, upstanding citizen of Tyler, NH, but in reality, he was a double-dealing, lowlife cheating husband. Can Lewis clear Felix's name before Felix is killed in prison? DuBois's tenth series outing (after Blood Foam) is another riveting read, filled with wit and intrigue.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016
You're some sort of bum. A magazine writer, one of the characters snaps at Lewis Cole. Well, yes. Time was, Cole had a sexy federal job, if intelligence analyst qualifies, but DuBois' tenth Cole adventure finds him making a dodgy living as a wordsmith and enduring a fresh humiliation. A friend from the old days is on trial for murder, and the evidence is overwhelming: gun, fingerprints, surveillance tapes. To Cole, all of that is proof not of guilt but of innocencea pro like Cole's friend wouldn't make such rookie mistakes. Cole watches helplessly as the man's inept lawyer sets up sinking him, andhere's the painful partthe accused refuses Cole's offer of help. Surprise help comes from the feds, who, fearing the airing of dirty laundry, ask Cole to investigate. The action picks up as Cole uncovers the secrets behind the case. Amid the actionthe chases and confrontations, all portrayed skillfullywhat really holds the reader is the understated Cole himself. He fights his last fight with an improvised weapon, something he bought at Home Depot because, I wasn't in the mood to hurt anyone. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)