STORME FRONT

by W.L. Ripley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 13, 1995

When you want some reliable muscle to ride shotgun on a big delivery of guns to a major buyer calling himself Captain Marvel, who you gonna call? Retired footballer Wyatt Storme, that's who; so that's what longtime drug dealer Jackie Burlingame does. Righteous Storme turns him down, of course; Burlingame gets carried off the playing field on his shield; and Storme (Dreamsicle, 1993) finds himself up to his pectorals in bad guys, from blow-hot/blow-cold gun-buyer Crispin Purvis of the Sun King Ranch, to his quick-draw ranch hand Coy Montana, to ambitious congressman Joring Braden, whose son may just not have been killed in Vietnam combat after ali. While Storme and his equally well-endowed buddy Chick Easton (Special Forces vet turned bounty hunter) take turns baiting the villains, swapping snappy repartee about beta-carotene, and facing down adversity with guns, arrows, and their massive fists, the gun-selling plot gradually sinks beneath multiple homicides (especially the shooting of Storme's old friend Matt Jenkins) and a crazy quilt of subplots that link Storme's girlfriend, glamorpuss news anchor Sandra Collingsworth, to Jenkins's alluring widow, the entire support staff of the Sun King Ranch, some visiting CIA types determined to protect Rep. Braden's flank, and just about everybody who's anybody in the sovereign state of Colorado. Breezy patter, windy anti-establishment homilies, and playful violence (beating, shooting, forced projectile vomiting), all welded together with the emotional range of a Boys' Adventure serial. Travis McGee was never quite so adolescent, or self-infatuated, as this.

Pub Date: Jan. 13, 1995

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994

Categories: FICTION