Storm Cell: A Lewis Cole Mystery

by Brendan DuBois

Overview

In award-winning author Brendan DuBois’ new mystery novel, defense analyst Lewis Cole must try to save a close friend from a death row murder conviction.
In his tenth outing, retired intelligence analyst Lewis Cole faces his most daunting challenge yet: Trying to save his friend Felix Tinios from being sent to death row after a conviction on first degree murder—but Felix refuses to accept Lewis’ assistance.
Felix is being charged for the brutal murder of a local businessman—witnesses place him at the location; the recovered murder weapon belonged to Felix; and his fingerprints are all over the crime scene. It seems to be the proverbial open-and-shut case, but Lewis refuses to believe his friend—even though Felix is a former enforcer for the Boston mob—was responsible.
As he engages in his one-man attempt to free his friend, two FBI agents come to him with disturbing news: they have word that unless Felix is freed from prison in just three days, he will be murdered while in custody. With time running out, the FBI nipping at his heels, and with Felix’s own lawyer refusing to help, Lewis is on his own as he desperately tries to clear his friend’s name before Felix departs prison . . . as a dead man.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681772332
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/22/2016
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Brendan DuBois is the award-winning author of sixteen novels and more than 120 short stories. His short stories have twice won him the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America and have also earned him three Edgar Award nominations. He is the author of theLewis Cole mystery series. including Fatal Harbor, Blood Foam, and Storm Cell, which are all available from Pegasus Books. Brendan lives in New Hampshire. Visit his website at www.BrendanDuBois.com.

Editorial Reviews

09/19/2016
A jumbled plot mars DuBois’s 10th mystery featuring retired Department of Defense intelligence analyst Lewis Cole (after 2015’s Blood Foam). Tough guy Felix Tinios, who claims his official occupation is as a security consultant, is taking a puzzling tack fighting the seemingly solid circumstantial case against him—supported by video surveillance footage and his 9 mm SIG Sauer with his fingerprints at the crime scene—for murdering Tyler Beach, N.H., businessman Fletcher Moore. Felix refuses to talk to the only guy who appears to believe in his innocence, his friend Lewis, and he switches from his savvy usual counsel, Raymond Drake, to lawyer Hollis Spinelli, who looks to be making the prosecution’s case for them. Lewis’s efforts to rekindle romance with now-engaged former flame Paula Quinn, a local journalist covering the trial, as well as threats from Boston thugs provide intermittent diversion from the arbitrary twists and surfeit of suspects, but by the end some readers may feel bamboozled by the literary equivalent of a marathon game of three-card monte. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Amid the action—the chases and confrontations, all portrayed skillfully—what really holds the reader is the understated Cole himself.

Booklist

A well-plotted, tripwire of a novel that makes you recall the fictional detectives that have come before but in its own very energetic prose.

Criminal Element

Lewis Cole is at his best when he’s styling himself as the not-much-to-lose wiseguy, down on his luck but not out for the count. DuBois displays his expertise at balancing action and introspection, providing plenty of tense confrontations, clever reversals and surprising reveals, as well as many more character-based but still compelling scenes.

Portland Press Herald

In Storm Cell, Lewis Cole uncovers closely guarded secrets and makes clever use of some unwitting allies, but he still has to struggle against some surprising twists, as DuBois spins an elaborate web of deceptions to test his amateur sleuth in this entertaining tale.”

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

The hero handles his predicament successfully and to this reader’s immense satisfaction.

The Los Angeles Times

DuBois has created a fascinating character in Lewis Cole.

The Boston Globe

I've been reading in the genre for decades, so it comes as a very pleasant surprise for me to encounter the work of someone as accomplished as Brendan Dubois. I was held rapt by the adventures of Lewis Cole and company in Blood Foam. I eagerly look forward to sampling more of Mr. DuBois' wares.”

Mystery Magazine

It is impossible for me to overpraise Brendan DuBois.

Otto Penzler

Dubois' thrillers starring Lewis Cole can be picked up at any point in the series, but fans who have been reading them from the start will really appreciate how Dubois’ characters keep getting back up after being tossed around by life. Dubois gives us scene upon scene of incredible tension, relieved by Cole’s mordant wit, and building to a truly gasp-inducing climax. Dubois gives the reader both exquisite suspense and deeply realized characters.

Booklist (starred review)

With a pleasantly complicated plot and interesting characters, it's a suspenseful, entertaining read.

New Hampshire Union Leader

Filled with excellent twists, very good suspense from several sources, and a well-done ending.

Mystery Readers International

10/01/2016
Lewis Cole's best friend, former mob enforcer Felix Tinios, has been convicted of first-degree murder and may end up on death row, but Lewis is convinced this is all a frame-up. The victim, on the surface, was a fine, upstanding citizen of Tyler, NH, but in reality, he was a double-dealing, lowlife cheating husband. Can Lewis clear Felix's name before Felix is killed in prison? DuBois's tenth series outing (after Blood Foam) is another riveting read, filled with wit and intrigue.

Library Journal

Aug. 31, 2016
His 10th case drives a deep wedge—make that several wedges—between former government research analyst Lewis Cole and his long-standing comrade in arms Felix Tinios.The first barrier between Lewis and the shady “security consultant” who’s helped him in so many freelance quests for justice (Dark Victory, 2016, etc.) is prison bars. Felix has been arrested for shooting New Hampshire businessman/politico Fletcher Moore twice in the head, and Assistant Attorney General Deb Moran, rejoicing in a banquet of evidence that includes a record of Moore’s appointment with Felix, surveillance video that places him at the scene, and a murder weapon licensed to him and sporting his fingerprints, is looking for the death penalty. What makes Lewis feel even more helpless is that even though he comes to court every day to watch Hollis Spinelli, the hapless lawyer inexplicably defending Felix instead of Raymond Drake, his usual attorney, dig his client deeper into a hole, he can’t talk to Felix, who’s refused to add Lewis to his visitors list, or even to Hollis, who puts him off first with blather, then with a menacing thug. When Boston FBI agent Alan Krueger tells Lewis that he really ought to make some inquiries to help Felix, Lewis is inclined to agree, even though he’s lost the press credentials that would normally give him cover. Instead, he finds himself working on a bogus federal contract for a bogus magazine article, with alleged allies he can’t trust any further, evidently, than his old friend. Though the plot eventually bogs down in details of civic malfeasance, nobody is better than DuBois at kicking his reluctant hero into action or at rooting every complication in something that feels disconcertingly like the normal rhythms of life outside the justice system.

Kirkus Review