When a
murder investigation turns Detective Kelli Storm’s attention to a drug kingpin,
the last thing she expected was to find a link to her father’s killer from
twenty years earlier. The Washington Height's neighborhood has turned deadly
for NYPD detectives Kelli Storm and Bill Hayes. A young woman is murdered and
Kelli tracks the killer to a Gentleman’s Club in Manhattan. After an unwilling
witness is assaulted and left dying, Kelli and Bill turn their investigation in
a new and more dangerous direction. When the DEA steps in and takes over, Kelli
is forced off the case. Working behind the scenes, she pulls out one of her
father’s old case files and starts making connections she never would have
dreamed possible. An old gun, new witnesses and danger lurking in the shadows
have storms rising all over New York City.
Storm
Rising (Police Procedural)
By Kenneth
Hoss
Fountain
Blue Publishing
ISBN #978-1628681826
Price
$13.95
302 Pages
Rating
4-Stars
Detective Kelli Storm
works out of the 33rd Precinct. Her father was also a detective
before he was murdered twenty years previous. Kelli and her partner are looking
for a local drug lord named Carlos Rodriquez for questioning, but when a young
Puerto Rican prostitute is found murdered it swings her investigation away from
Rodriquez. Yet the investigation doesn’t stray far. Plus, she learns that this
case may lead to more information on her father’s death.
I really wanted to like
this novel more. I love stories with strong female leads. This was supposed to
be a police procedural, but it comes off like Dirty Harry. Remember Inspector
Callahan? That series was intended as a police procedural also, but it was
purely a men’s action series instead. Harry was always in trouble with his
boss; he often took the law into his own hands, breaking down doors without
warrants, shooting it out with the bad guys, and usually suspended for
something he did, yet continued investigating the case on his private time.
Kelli Storm is very similar. Remember, she is after Carlos Rodriquez for
questioning. The police believe he is involved in drug distribution, and possibly
several murders, but have no evidence and can’t prove it. Detective Storm would
like to “talk” to Carlos. A stoolie reports seeing him enter an apartment
building, and his Escalade is parked nearby, so that’s enough for Kelli and her
partner to call in reinforcements (this happens at least twice early in the
story). They bust into the building, kick doors down, and end in a shoot out. She
even kills Rodriquez’s girlfriend during one invasion. Carlos has slipped out
someway. No judge in his right mind would issue this woman a search warrant. They
even find one man with dope and arrest him. Does illegal search and seizure
sound familiar? How long will that arrest stick? Now I did believe Kelli was
tough (for awhile). I mean she acts it with her partner and back up, but when
two thugs break into her house, and she has a weapon in hand, instead of
blowing the creeps away like Dirty Harry would do, she hides from them. No,
Kelli Storm doesn’t come across as a police procedural for sure, and she also
fails as Dirty Harry. Overall, this isn’t too bad, I recently read one mystery
where a Wyoming sheriff drives his official car to North Dakota where he places
a ND police chief under arrest, and deputizes local citizens to hold weapons on
other citizens. The Wyoming sheriff would need a federal warrant just to pick
up a prisoner already in ND custody. His jurisdiction ended in Wyoming, so we
are getting some strange police procedural books today. I did like the author’s
writing on Storm Rising, and the characters were well thought out. Kelli Storm
would work a lot better if the author threw away the badge and made her a
private detective. As a female lead I think she would work better that way. Still,
a good read, and if you like female leads, I think you will like Kelli Storm.
Give it a try.
Tom Johnson
Author of BEHIND THE MASK
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