Marsha Says.. Read This!

DARK ANGEL | FADE | STORM RUNNERS

DARK ANGEL by David Klass, 2005, 312 pages.

Seventeen-year-old Jeff has a secret that’s eating him alive.  Six years ago his older brother Troy was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.  Now Troy ’s sentence has been overturned on a technicality.  He’s coming home to live with Jeff and his parents.  Soon everyone will know the dark secret his family has tried to bury by moving to Pineville and leaving the past behind.  When they do, the misery will start all over again.  The bullying, the shunning, the judgment his family will have to endure.  Jeff’s been through it before and knows what lies ahead.

Things go sour as soon as Troy moves back in.  Troy ’s attitude toward Jeff and his parents is patronizing and vaguely threatening.  Jeff’s girlfriend, Beth is forbidden by her parents even to speak with Jeff at school.  He watches in misery while his soccer team rival puts the moves on Beth.   At home, Jeff feels like his privacy has been invaded.  Even though he puts a lock on his bedroom door, things are constantly moved out of place in his room.  At school, the provocative discussions of good and evil in Mr. Tsuyuki’s English class can’t calm the sense of impending danger Jeff feels lurking behind Troy ’s affable façade.  Jeff is astounded that his parents can be so naïve as to let this monster move back into the fold in hopes they can rehabilitate him. 

Troy finds an apartment and a job.  Then another young boy goes missing and is presumed dead.  The police are suspicious, but can’t link Troy to the killing and can’t locate the body of Thomas Fraser.  Slowly, the evil begins to seep through Troy ’s careful mask.  When Jeff finds out Troy has drawn sexy explicit pictures of Beth (including the small tattoo she keeps hidden) he knows his brother is stalking his friends and their safety is at risk.

There are many forms of evil in the world; psychopathic killers and drug dealers to name a few, and there are those who will not give up hope, even in the face of danger.  Jeff must find a way to thwart Troy ’s malevolence and protect his family and friends without destroying his parents.  When the inevitable disaster strikes, Jeff finds the courage to take a stand against evil.  This book is recommended for readers in grades 9-12.

--Reviewed by Marsha Bates, Mid-Columbia Libraries

FADE by Kyle Mills, 2005, 312 pages.

Salam Al Fayed, second generation Arab American, served his government well as a covert agent in the Middle East until a crippling injury cost him his career.   Abandoned by the CIA, Fade sought funding to pay for the life-saving surgery the only way he knew how.  He became a mercenary for a Colombian drug lord.  But the blood money he earned as a paid assassin came too late.  The bullet lodged near his spine was imbedded, surgery too risky.  Bitter and angry, Fade cut all ties with former team members and became a recluse with a big hate for his former employers.

Hillel Strand, top guy at the Office of Homeland Security is putting together a list of covert operatives with special qualifications to work undercover in the Middle East .  Al Fayed’s file rises to the top.  Against the advice of Matt Egan, Fade’s former best friend and Special Forces commander, Strand offers Fade a job.

Fade refuses, threatening violence if Strand and Egan bother him again.

The next thing he knows, Fade’s ramshackle house is surrounded by SWAT team sharpshooters and he’s the target.  Strand has manufactured evidence against Fade and leaked it to the police in hopes that Fade will be willing to negotiate his release by taking the job offered.  What follows is a bloodbath as the ex-Seal detonates booby traps, picks off the cops one at a time until the only cop left standing is the SWAT team leader, Karen Manning, whom Fade kidnaps.  Now he’s on the run and coming after Strand and Egan with a vengeance.

Egan knows this is not an idle threat.  His first concern is the safety of his wife and daughter, both of whom are unaware of his past career with the CIA.  Can he use his own skills as a former agent to capture Fade before he loses his job, his family and his life?  Will Strand ’s ego get them killed because he’s keeping Egan out of the information loop?  Will Karen Manning use her hostage negotiation skills to talk Fade into turning himself in?  Or will the bullet in Fade’s spine solve the problem before national security is compromised?

Mills keeps the reader on the edge of his/her seat from the first paragraph of his latest political thriller.   Powerful egos, political machinations and discrimination in the workplace all take a hit with his portrayal of a wronged government employee forced to defend himself with deadly force, using every efficient means of extermination taught to him by his former employers.  Fade was perfectly willing to disappear into the scenery until his damaged body gave out, but now he’s angry enough to expose government secrets in detail, to bring down the corrupt spin doctors who forced him out when he became a liability. 

They wanted him back and he refused.  Now they’re going to wish they’d never heard his name.

--Reviewed by Marsha Bates, Mid-Columbia Libraries

STORM RUNNERS by T. Jefferson Parker, 2007, 371 pages.

Parker investigates the power of La Eme, the Mexican Mafia, and their ties both inside and out of the California penal system in his latest suspense novel. 

Matt Stromsoe and Mike Tavarez are classmates and friends in high school.  They even date the same woman, although Stromsoe ends up married to Hallie.  After high school their lives take dramatically different directions.  Stromsoe chooses law enforcement and family life.  Tavarez rises in the hierarchy of one of the most feared organized crime gangs in Southern California .  Jealousy and vengeance lead to tragedy when Stromsoe is crippled by a bomb blast that kills his wife and son and Tavarez, El Jefe, is sent to prison for the crime.

When Stromsoe hits bottom, paralyzed by alcoholism and depression, a former colleague offers him a new job as a private investigator.  His first case involves a stalker harassing a local weather forecaster.  Stromsoe quickly captures and identifies the stalker who is not what he appears to be. 

Weather forecaster, Frankie  Hatfield, is a scientist with a passion for weather and water flow.  She’s not about to sell her family legacy under duress.  But when El Jefe is factored into the formula and sends his gang bangers to permanently discourage her scientific research, Stromsoe fears he could lose another friend and potential loved one to his deadly enemy.

Parker entwines the genuine historic information about Charlie Hatfield’s rainmaking discovery with the very real political posturing of a government agency intent on keeping secrets from the public.  Parker’s research into the bowels of the gang hierarchy in Southern California and their members’ protection and movement within the penal system rings true.   

Can Stromsoe stop his sworn enemy from killing yet another innocent woman?  Who’s really behind the intimidation and threats on Frankie’s life?  Stromsoe tries to protect the innocent and expose the guilty in this fascinating look at off-beat science, the government and organized crime.

--Reviewed by Marsha Bates, Mid-Columbia Libraries