Recently read: T. Jefferson Parker’s Storm Runners

Parker is another mass-market thriller writer whom I think produces an excellent read. He doesn’t have a regular protagonist, but does a good job of creating well-rounded characters in the course of one book. In this novel, set in San Diego and various small towns throughout the state, former policeman Matt Stromsoe struggles to recover physically and mentally from the death of his wife and son. Their murderer sits in prison—the head of the Mexican Mafia and Stromsoe’s boyhood best friend.

Now another old friend hires Stromsoe to guard a weatherwoman who is being stalked. Stromsoe, in watching over her, discovers she has a secret life. The stalker turns out not to be what he appears to be—little is what it appears to be. We learn why prison doesn’t deter crime, and we learn about the history of water diversion to the city of Los Angeles in the early 1900s. All these enter into a nicely complicated plot. Oh, and it is confirmed for us that rain happens. A great read for a rainy weekend or when you’re stranded at the airport waiting for a flight.