Riders on the Storm

August 18, 2014
Gorman’s formulaic 10th Sam McCain mystery (after 2011’s Bad Moon Rising) focuses on the domestic conflict over the Vietnam War. Steve Donovan, an Iowa congressional candidate, savagely beats his fellow Vietnam veteran, Will Cullen, after Will announces he’s joined an antiwar group. When Donovan is found dead in a Black River Falls parking lot the next morning, everyone except for Sam, a lawyer cum investigator, assumes that Will took his revenge. Gorman skillfully depicts Vietnam veterans’ complex, often contradictory feelings toward the war—from rabid patriotism to rage toward the government—but is less subtle in the way he presents his female characters, who are all mysterious, arousing, and wear clothes that “love” their bodies (e.g., “A gray skirt that loved every inch of her lower body as the turquoise blouse loved the upper”). The cynical, detached, and plainspoken Sam, a detective in the classic noir tradition, redeems the paint-by-the-numbers plot. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.