STORM RUNNERS
T. Jefferson Parker
William Morrow
Thriller
ISBN-10: 0060854235
ISBN-13: 9780060854232

Aside from pure, unadulterated excellence, you never know what you're going to get when you pick up a book by T. Jefferson Parker. Having reached the stage in his career where he could coast just a bit on his laurels, he delights in pushing himself and his readers into new places. He does this not by ground shifts, but by subtle twists and turns, taking plot devices that we come to accept almost as gospel and giving them a tweak here and there. This practice not only affects what is to come but also keeps the reader on an unconscious edge: if Parker is going to change one element, then he can change anything. And, as STORM RUNNERS demonstrates, indeed he does.

STORM RUNNERS introduces readers to Matt Stromsoe, a sheriff's deputy whose wife and child are killed in an assassination attempt meant for him. Stromsoe is left alive but is irreparably maimed by the act, which was carried out at the behest of Mike Tavarez, the head of a powerful organized crime gang. Ironically enough, Tavarez was one of Stromsoe's best friends in high school and had a relationship at one point with Stromsoe's wife. Their lives cross each other in lines of love, hatred, bitterness and violence that are, if anything, exacerbated by Tavarez's subsequent maximum security imprisonment.

After resigning from the sheriff's department and taking work with a security agency, Stromsoe is assigned to guard a television anchor who is being harassed by a stalker. This simple act gives him a chance to regain his life: as the book unfolds, however, it also gives Tavarez a second shot at Stromsoe.

In STORM RUNNERS, as in life, it is the smaller, seemingly inconsequential elements that sometimes have the greatest effects on events. Dan Birch, who flits on and off the pages intermittently, and John Cedros, who would probably escape your notice on the street, influence events here to a degree that far exceed their apparent importance in the grand scheme of things. There is another character, Susan Doss, who appears only briefly but has so much potential that I hope Parker sees fit to somehow reintroduce her in a future novel.

It is weather --- its unpredictability and our efforts to predict, harness and control it --- that provides the backdrop for STORM RUNNERS and also functions as a metaphor for what takes place. Just as weather is influenced by a multitude of random factors, so too are the events of our lives, where everything from the hem on a pant leg to being a step or two ahead (or behind) someone can make a difference.

Parker ups the ante and sets his own new standard with STORM RUNNERS, an unforgettable work from an author who has written bookshelves full of them.

   --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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