The third installment of the Derrick Storm short story trilogy starts right where readers left off in A Raging Storm. Former private investigator turned CIA recruit, Storm, has been out of sight since the failure of his last mission, which ended in death and disaster prior to the start of  A Brewing Storm.

This time, the Derrick Storm story has much more direction, resulting in a plot that isn’t slow moving at all (unlike the awkwardly slow buildup for the climax of the second book). There are conversations between Storm and other characters in this latest book, just as in the first two installments of the series, but they are blessedly brief: Derrick leaves London only to get sent overseas elsewhere.

Much of the novel is essentially one side trying to outdo the other. Between the CIA and the Russian President’s administration, there is a lot of ego to go around, more so when you factor in Derrick Storm’s skills and his current position as a small bug in a big web of lies and covert operations. Still, Storm knows what he’s doing. Recruited by Clara Strike for the CIA, he is a valuable and skilled operator who works outside the rules and without the agency red tape holding him back.

The story does tie into Storm’s past, as does the team that has been assembled to go after the Russian gold. Like a haunting shadowed ghost, there is a traitor in their midst. That could be more than Storm can handle; Who can he trust? The people he thinks have screwed him in the past or the people that he has just recently met?

There are moments in the story that line up a little too well, are too predictable or seem stretched too far within the realm of possibility. The dichotomy is strange considering it is usually one or the other, with a book usually being too easy to foreshadow or too impossible to believe plausible, not both as is the case with A Bloody Storm.

A small amount of fantasy exists in every authors mind, it adds to the creative flow, but in this case some events seem a tad scripted. There is a difference between a well-planned plot line and a storyline too pretty to be plausible. For example, Agent Showers happens to be conveniently located for rescue. Without spoiling the situation, it just seems too convenient.

April Showers is a complicated character, continually dealing with only half the information she needs. She eventually figures out just what the CIA and the Russians want, but becomes dead set on saving face. Torn between her sense of duty to her country and finding out who Storm really is, there isn’t an easy ride planned for Agent Showers. Too bad other parties involved are against her succeeding in any.

One of the new characters briefly introduced is Hasan Sadikov. He works for the Russians, he likes to read and he happens to torture people on a professional basis. His character rings true like church bells on Sunday. The qualities he posses are patience and skill and he tailors his methods to each individual person to achieve maximum information extraction. He isn’t crazy and he isn’t overly violent, which makes his brand of pin-point-precision torture even worse. Readers will imagine him to be dark eyed and dark haired with a grave voice. His methods involving a plastic bag and the threat of inhaling soda crackers to shred your lungs is cringe worthy, like nails on a chalkboard.

The action towards the end, though, seems too rushed. One moment Storm and his people are outside of a major city and the next they are in a building within it. This is all done without any indication of how they got there. The ending of the book could easily have gone sideways by mere yards in a fiery gory explosion. Still, fans will be happy to know that a dash of blissful ignorance will do the reader some good in this case so that they don’t consider too deeply, how the book would have ended in the real world.

In the spy-on-spy world, trust is a key factor. It can lead women to fall for the wrong man; it can lead men to trust in the wrong leader and enemies to become friends in the end. If trust is the key to a successful mission, then all the gold in the world is worthless if a man or woman has a price. The search for a partner or people you can trust is often more perilous than expected.

That is the bottom line of the Derrick Storm trilogy. Even with a vague ending and a plot hole, there is space for the next possible installment of books. However, that same plot hole will make readers re-examine the book in finer detail to see if there was something they missed. In this case, do you trust the writer and know that he is messing with your head or do you trust your gut and just sit tight waiting for the next Derrick Storm novel? This is a fine if predictable ending for the trilogy so far, but hopefully there will be more Derrick Storm in the future.

Rating: 3.5/5 For a good read that finally picks up the pace but then rushes to finish. Parts of the book are predictable, but the writing is entertaining enough to keep the reader plugging along.

The article Short Fiction Review: Richard Castle’s ‘A Bloody Storm’ appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Picking up from where the 1st past of the book leaves off,’ A Raging Storm’ progresses out of the initial stages of setting up the plot. Leaving behind the plots and side plots of the first book, ‘A Raging Storm’ transitions to the real meat of a story filled with betrayal, rogue operatives and broken friendships. This second part of three in total, ‘A Raging Storm’ see’s the unlikely duo of Derrick Storm and FBI Agent April Showers pairing up again to uncover the mystery killer behind the assassination cliffhanger from the first book ‘A Brewing Storm’.

As mentioned before, Richard Castle is a fictional man on a TV Drama played by Nathan Fillion, who writes about a fictional man named Derrick Storm. There is a smattering of Castle TV show references within, including more mention of Clara Strike and other Richard Castle type personality inserts. Fans of the Castle series will recognize Derrick Storm/Richard Castle’s vocal quips in his smart-alecky replies to people in this book.

Also in the Richard Castle fashion of creating names they aren’t the most original though they are certainly memorable. With names like Derrick Storm and April Showers, these are characters and others sound great rolling off the tongue and onto the page.

An international man of mystery he is not, Derrick Storm is still a man haunted by his past. In everything he does, he is shaped by his past. Longing to go home but unable to since the C.I.A have pulled him onto this case, he knows he is both pawn and insurance policy for the success of the mission. If he fails, the U.S government forgets his cover name, Steven Mason, ever existed.

If he succeeds, he gets to go home back to his quiet life in Montana. More than ever his trust to paranoia ratio is skewed in favor of a deep paranoia and rightly so. Storm’s personality unfolds more in this short fiction, maintaining that classic Richard Castle type wit while also adding in authentic details for literature within this genre.

The other main character is of course the lovely April Showers whom Storm finds attractive but treats in a mostly condescending manner. Smarter than she may appear, she’s not all looks as she sets about outsmarting friend and foe alike. She isn’t at all taken by Storm’s charming persona and knows how to handle herself. The first book had Storm working behind her back but as ‘A Raging Storm’ progresses, the two must work together to solve the case and save each other’s lives. This part of the character progression between the two is expected and feels mostly natural with both characters getting along despite Shower’s animosity for Storm’s recklessness.

Weather pun’s aside, the only bad part of this section of the short fiction series is that the set up for the latter half of the book takes too long. The back story for the real motive behind the kidnapping and murder of a Senators son and the subsequent assassination of that U.S Senator is explained well.

Yet fans hoping for a quick thrill ride at the start of the book will be mistaken as the informational part takes too long. It is true that Storm’s character is an exacting and untrusting paranoid man so it makes sense that his character feels the need to figure everything out himself without outside influence but the reader may feel this takes up too many valuable pages of writing.

On the other hand, without that information, the entire latter half of ‘A Raging Storm’ makes no sense at all. The Russian back story involving the Gold found in several photos is absolutely necessary but boring information that isn’t very engaging at all during that part of the book. Once bodies are in motion again, the thriller aspect thankfully picks up once more. This is one section that steps outside the normal rollercoaster high and low moment of a story arc and just falls flat, leaving readers with an itch to school ahead past all the talking. It is a good build up but lacks any real tension or emphasis on time.

However, there are still important facts and figures listed inside, such as the motive for the assassinations as well as the fact that there are as yet to be revealed outside operatives who are conveniently just as ‘dead’ as Derrick Storm. This motivation, to the tune of Sixty Billion dollars, is enough to reshape the political landscape of the world and it is this fear that drives the story forward.

There is a heavy russian rivalry between long time brothers in arms Ivan Petrov and Georgi Lebedev waging war against President Barkovsky of Russia with the possibility of a third faction emerging. Throughout all of this, the C.I.A has its fingers all over this political plot, set on aiding Petrov so that Petrov can use his influence and new found wealth as a Russian oligarch to politically push Barkovsky out of office.

Stuck in the middle of this rising catastrophe are our intrepid hero and heroine. Caught in a web of the thriller variety, Derrick Storm and April Showers make a good showing in ‘A Raging Storm’ but the characters fall a little flat. The next and last arc of the story should hopefully help to fully resolve any issues during the dramatic cliffhanger for the second book. While not as dramatic as the assassination of a U.S Senator from book one, the second book still ends in a suitable climax of the story. Fans will have to wait just a little longer for this Derrick Storm short fiction to resolve itself in ‘A Bloody Storm’ due out this August.

Rating: 4/5 for good writing that reflects the tie-in authors personality well but can do with some improvements in pace and character design.

Image Courtesy of   Richard Castle

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