Storme Warning

January 26, 2015
In Ripleyâs appealing fourth thriller featuring reclusive ex-football star Wyatt Storme thriller (after 1996âs Electric Country Roulette), Chick Easton, an old friend now providing security for obnoxious movie star Cameron Fogarty, shows up with movie director Geoffrey Salinger, who wants to film an epic western about Jesse James and his gang, on Stormeâs 275-acre property in rural Missouri. Complications arise almost immediately after the arrival of the Hollywood crew, which includes Fogartyâs sycophants. Rory Marchibroda, once beaten by Storme, is seeking vengeance. When Bobby Frank Ventura, a hood with a stake in the movieâand Marchibrodaâs former employerâmakes trouble, Storme manages to get rid of Ventura and his bodyguards. Storme, a wise-cracking tough guy, does his best to avoid violence, until someone tries to kill him and a shooter wounds Easton during the filming of a gunfight scene. Readers will hope that Stormeâs latest performance will earn him a quick encore.

February 15, 2015
Former Dallas Cowboy wide receiver and Vietnam vet Wyatt Storme is back after almost 20 years, still living in rural Missouri and still stomping bad guys with his pal, former CIA spook and all-around hard-ass, Chick Easton. Geoffrey Salinger is a movie director experiencing a bit of a slide. He needs his new Jesse James movie to be a hit and wants to use Wyatt's land. Easton has been hired as bankable but unlikable star Cameron Fogarty's bodyguard. Meanwhile, a former Mob enforcer whose shoulder Wyatt broke is looking for revenge. Oh, and the film is being financed by the mobster's former employers. There are a lot of tough people in one place, many with conflicting goals. Wyatt and Chick, who can't say Good morning without smartin' off, manage to annoy almost everyoneand that's before they draw their guns. In the tough-guy-protagonist-and-tougher-sidekick subgenre, Wyatt and Chick deserve billing just below Parker's Spenser and Hawk and Crais' Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)