Taylor Moore’s Firestorm is the latest in his series to feature Garrett Kohl. Being the second in the ongoing run, it makes little attempt to prove the lead’s credentials and capabillities. Instead the story quickly gets to the setting and plot for this particular volume.
In this partiicular volume Garrett has come home in an effort to maoe the ranch work, and finds a group named the Talon Corporation planning to move in and pit mine the area, citing claims of permanent pre-ownership of all oil and mineral rights to the area. With that the story quickly becomes as one might expect.
The evil developer narrative is common in any story featuring a ranch or farm. As a result there are more than a few aspects of this story which seem fownright formulaic. The fact that the developers ultimately have connections to a national security matter does not so much cause it to feel like two different genres are interacting as it does feel like an attempt to make the story siding against big business feel justifiable. The fact the man is a special agent for the CIA, yet the reader is supposed to feel good about him operating on U.S. soil, illustrates this further still. The general treatment is that presedents and politicians are soft if they don’t support the lead and the agency perfectly.
The jokes about having to like sweet tea and fried foods, references to the superiorty of living in the country, will feel familiar to those who have lived in the southern United States. The use of communist as a slur against those who dislike sweet tea is, in fact, something that actually occurs in a number of southern states.
Stranger Things and arcades are brought up at a certian point in an effort to show that a man is somewhat out of date. Given the relatively low number of pop culture references ( as opposed to regional references) in the book that was quite a surprise.
There are a nice brief set of aknowledgments at the end, and while they do not explain much about the author’s sorces they do make his intent clear. Sources and fact checkers as well as his editor are credited. Given the smooth flow of the story, this last is doubtlessly a deserved credit.
One detail besides the national security and ranch concerns, come from the fact that an ex-husband wants to spend time with his kids and former wife. Garrett thinks this is suspicious, and makes comments against it. While he may have reason to suspect the individual specifically, his complaints end up feeling more like he thinks a divorced father should have nothing to do with the children. This is, at best, bizarre.
Overall, as an introduction to the lead character this book works fine. It is not a deep dive into Garrett Kohl’s life, and includes a number of individuals from his past which the reader is given to understand are likely to be involved with his present. There is a fair bit of setup for future stories, although the incident and problem at present are quickly solved. For fans of the series it is likely to be continually enjoyed, although a lot will depend upon how one feels about the use of CIA assets on American soil, and the old evil developer plot.
(William Morrow 2022)
