"STORM RUNNERS" by T. Jefferson Parker (B)

The "Storm Runners" title of this book is a clever play on words partly derived from children who can't pronounce policeman Matt Stromsoe's name and end up mangling it to "Stormso." The rest is a play on words about his client, weather newscaster Frankie Hatfield, who is a scientist conducting experiments in rain creation originating from the meteorological research left to her by her grandfather.

This novel depicts the mano a mano conflict between two former high school friends who have taken starkly different paths in their professional lives. Straight shooter Matt Stromsoe became a cop while Mike Tavarez became "El Jefe," the head of a dangerous Mexican gang called La Eme. Their paths rarely crossed after high school, but their current antagonistic relationship turned deadly after a sting organized by Stromsoe ended in the death of a Tavarez's girlfriend. Tavarez had a bomb placed in Matt's car for revenge, but it was Stromsoe's wife and young son who were killed in the ensuing blast.

While well written and with strong characterizations, this book spends an inordinate amount of time on the setup with a very leisurely introduction of the lead characters including their nearly complete life histories. The true story doesn't really begin until a point somewhere after the passage of about a third of this book.

I would maintain that Parker is too generous in the development of his main characters. Each is fleshed out to more than complete satisfaction, but I remain unconvinced that this is desirable or even necessary. I learned more than I wanted to know about Mike Tavarez, the villain, and I also learned a lot more about Mexican gangs and life inside the California penal system than I ever wanted to know. I am sure that there are readers who thrive on this kind of inside information, but I am not one of them.

While I am hardly an expert in the genre of PI personalities, I would also have to say that Matt Stromsoe does not come off as a very interesting character. He has a rather plain, by the book, personality with very little embellishment. I like my PI's to be colorful and character driven with unusual quirks, so a PI like Stromsoe has trouble capturing my interest with his meat and potatoes approach to this case and his life in general.

As I have remarked earlier, the story begins all of the way back in high school where Matt Stromsoe met his future nemesis, Mike Tavarez, when both tried out for the Santa Ana High School Marching Band. Stromsoe became the band leader and Tavarez played the clarinet. Years later Stromsoe is still inspired by remembering the band's stirring rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In."

They were competitive in the band, but much more competitive over bright, pretty and vivacious Hallie Jaynes, who had transferred to the high school as a sophomore during their senior year. Both men were smitten with her, but it was Matt who had captured her affections. However, he lost contact with Hallie after graduation when he went off to a California college to become a policeman.

Mike Tavarez had received a scholarship to Harvard because of his superior intelligence, his musical talent, but also because of his ethnicity. His parents were proud that their son was so honored, however, Mike's life took a dark turn when he was recruited into the Delhi F Troop, a local Mexican gang in his barrio. Mike had a dangerous streak to his personality, and he prided himself on being the only Harvard student who robbed convenience stores on the side.

Hallie had stayed in town, and she took up with Mike after Matt went off to college. She was an adventurous girl who liked to skirt the wild side, and Tavarez proved to be just the man to lead her down this path. Years later when Matt was a policeman, he met Hallie in a nightclub where she was with Mike and his criminal entourage. It was clear that she had become a drug addict, and shortly thereafter Matt saved her from dying due to a drug overdose.

By then Hallie was a burnt out shell, and Matt was able to wean her away from Mike and her deadly lifestyle. He had never stopped loving her, and eventually they married and had a son. Their life was one of great happiness and familial normalcy until that car bomb. It cost Matt two years of his life lost in a drinking binge down in Miami, and it only ended when his good friend, Dan Birch, personally recruited him to become a private investigator.

His very first assignment is to protect local Fox News weather personality Frankie Hatfield from an apparent stalker, but this case quickly assumes layers of intrigue far beyond that of stalking. 2007, 370 pages, Harper Collins Publishers.