A Raging Storm

Following the story that started in A Brewing Storm, this sequel finds Derrick Storm and his female FBI partner/counterpart April Showers (yes, he names his characters as badly as Ian Fleming - but I think that's on purpose), but this time they are investigating the death of a senator who seems to have had some connections to Russian communists and some hidden gold. They go to London to meet with a communist figure who had been in contact with the senator through some secret dealings. Derrick's swagger and confidence fade a little when he feels that he can't completely trust anyone involved in the case, but it allows him to open up a little bit more with April. The tension between them increases, but it seems that she's mostly just leading him on. She is powerful and ambitious and fiercely independent in this book, which I enjoyed. She breaks from the stereotypical mold that was cast for her in the first book. Dare I suggest that the ghost writer for this book might actually be a woman? A Raging Storm does, however, maintain the voice and atmosphere of the first book and becomes more of an international spy thriller. Yes, it's still cheesy and everything that one might expect from a TV-spinoff pulp fiction crime novel, but that's the fun of it.