What do you think?
Rate this book
Jo Spence Mystery #1
Killer Storm
The orderly life of Jo Spence is seldom disturbed, except when she is dreaming. As a Juvenile Probation Supervisor in Duluth, Jo loves her work overseeing a staff of highly dedicated professionals. They guide the youth of the city out of trouble while protecting the safety of the community. When a murderer strikes, Jo's job suddenly becomes unpredictably threatening. She is forced to abandon her home in the country to take refuge with close friend Kathy and her partner Donna. Set against a backdrop of the idyllic life led by the women of the Valley, this suspenseful story reveals the inside world of the courthouse, jails, and the criminal justice system. Multiple murders, an attempt to break a gang leader out of a local detention facility, raids, and drug busts contribute to an action-oriented plot. In the middle of this turbulent time in Jo's life, her friends set her up with Zoey, a new faculty member at the local university. Their first date turns into a three-day encounter during a record-setting snowstorm. Jo tries unsuccessfully to resist the strong attraction she feels for Zoey, but she is drawn into the most intense affair of her life.
188 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
6 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Jen Wright
12 books7 followersJen Wright is the author of the popular Jo Spence mystery series, including Killer Storm, Big Noise, and Dead Ahead, and Relentless that she co-wrote with Marcus Bruning. She lived in Clover Valley, near Duluth, Minnesota, close to the north shore of Lake Superior. She shared life with her partner, Kari, and their loving canine companions in a tight-knit community of friends.
Senior reviewer Shelley Glodowski of Midwest Book Review said that Jen Wright weaves "her own personal knowledge into a whodunit that is smart and contemporary. She relieves the tension of dealing with homicidal teenagers with a sweet emerging love story for Jo Spence, who is also sorting out in her own mind what it takes to create a lasting relationship." The second novel in the series, Big Noise, won honorable mention in the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards (NEMBA), and Dead Ahead won a NEMBA and was a finalist for a Golden Crown Literary Society award.
In her professional life, Jen Wright was a Senior Court and Field Supervisor with Arrowhead Regional Corrections.
Jen Wright passed away from cancer on March 15, 2016, at the age of 52.
Senior reviewer Shelley Glodowski of Midwest Book Review said that Jen Wright weaves "her own personal knowledge into a whodunit that is smart and contemporary. She relieves the tension of dealing with homicidal teenagers with a sweet emerging love story for Jo Spence, who is also sorting out in her own mind what it takes to create a lasting relationship." The second novel in the series, Big Noise, won honorable mention in the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards (NEMBA), and Dead Ahead won a NEMBA and was a finalist for a Golden Crown Literary Society award.
In her professional life, Jen Wright was a Senior Court and Field Supervisor with Arrowhead Regional Corrections.
Jen Wright passed away from cancer on March 15, 2016, at the age of 52.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 18, 2020
It is always refreshing when a protagonist has a profession slightly out of the ordinary. Jo Spence is a Juvenile Probation Supervisor—kind of a cop but different. When four members of a fairly well-to-do family are murdered, gangland style, Jo is called in to help because the suspect is a teenager on probation. As a treatise on what the duties, responsibilities, and possibilities of being a probation officer supervisor are, then this book fires on a lot of cylinders. As a novel, alas, it does not. And as a mystery novel, even less.
It only takes a few paragraphs for intelligent readers to realize that this is a book written by a first-time novelist and published by a fledgling independent press. It begins with a dream sequence that plows right into the story without a line break or segue of any kind. I thought “What the . . .” and had to go back several times to figure out what was going on. A couple of pages later Jo is briefed about the murders, but the crime is described so clumsily that it almost seems to have been written backwards. This happens often—scenes appearing either before or after they should have. And Jo Spence is hardly a sleuth. She is simply present as an observer. I want to be as kind as I can and tell you that the author’s description of working with juvenile offenders is interesting and educational, but working directly with juvenile offenders does not seem to be part of her job; she simply supervises other probation officers so that it's hard to get a real sense of what they go through.
On the whole, Wright's prose is pretty dry.Have any of you seen any of the Dragnet TV shows of the 1960s? Well, Jo Spence sometimes talks like Jack Webb. As in “I had Lou drop me at the office, and I called chief Long at home, informing him of the murders . . . We discussed how to deal with the media . . .We agreed that this decision really needed to come from the Police Department, and Long asked me to call Chief of Police Knight as soon as his office opened.” In Webb’s case, the technique is brilliant and true to his philosophy of “just the facts.” In a novel we need more than facts.
It is almost as if Wright is constructing a novel in the form of a written police report. Unfortunately, she isn’t. If she were, I could give her some points for creativity, but not many. After all, a written report is still not a novel. And characters in a police report have little life or vibrancy in them. An exception to this dryness is in the few sex scenes in the novel, which are smoother and more interesting than the rest of the scenes—possibly because sex scenes are not generally part of police reports.
But there is really no point in dwelling on shortcomings. Wright did the best she could and evidently had a lot of help in the editing and production of this novel—including that of novelist Joan Drury, the founder of Spinster’s Ink, who I would have expected more from. Personally, I think Wright needed to spend a couple of years studying writing before she went back through the manuscript with more mature eyes. I scanned a bit of the recent e-book edition of Killer Storm and found no difference. I would avoid this one if I were you, just as I intend to avoid the two sequels. Sorry, but I have to rate this one closer to a 2 than a 3.
Final note: The edition of the book I read included a sample chapter from the second book in the series, Big Noise. In a very unusual twist, the novel is written from an omniscient point of view, while Killer Storm was strictly first-person. Unfortunately, from the sample I read, this doesn’t seem to be an improvement.
Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
It only takes a few paragraphs for intelligent readers to realize that this is a book written by a first-time novelist and published by a fledgling independent press. It begins with a dream sequence that plows right into the story without a line break or segue of any kind. I thought “What the . . .” and had to go back several times to figure out what was going on. A couple of pages later Jo is briefed about the murders, but the crime is described so clumsily that it almost seems to have been written backwards. This happens often—scenes appearing either before or after they should have. And Jo Spence is hardly a sleuth. She is simply present as an observer. I want to be as kind as I can and tell you that the author’s description of working with juvenile offenders is interesting and educational, but working directly with juvenile offenders does not seem to be part of her job; she simply supervises other probation officers so that it's hard to get a real sense of what they go through.
On the whole, Wright's prose is pretty dry.Have any of you seen any of the Dragnet TV shows of the 1960s? Well, Jo Spence sometimes talks like Jack Webb. As in “I had Lou drop me at the office, and I called chief Long at home, informing him of the murders . . . We discussed how to deal with the media . . .We agreed that this decision really needed to come from the Police Department, and Long asked me to call Chief of Police Knight as soon as his office opened.” In Webb’s case, the technique is brilliant and true to his philosophy of “just the facts.” In a novel we need more than facts.
It is almost as if Wright is constructing a novel in the form of a written police report. Unfortunately, she isn’t. If she were, I could give her some points for creativity, but not many. After all, a written report is still not a novel. And characters in a police report have little life or vibrancy in them. An exception to this dryness is in the few sex scenes in the novel, which are smoother and more interesting than the rest of the scenes—possibly because sex scenes are not generally part of police reports.
But there is really no point in dwelling on shortcomings. Wright did the best she could and evidently had a lot of help in the editing and production of this novel—including that of novelist Joan Drury, the founder of Spinster’s Ink, who I would have expected more from. Personally, I think Wright needed to spend a couple of years studying writing before she went back through the manuscript with more mature eyes. I scanned a bit of the recent e-book edition of Killer Storm and found no difference. I would avoid this one if I were you, just as I intend to avoid the two sequels. Sorry, but I have to rate this one closer to a 2 than a 3.
Final note: The edition of the book I read included a sample chapter from the second book in the series, Big Noise. In a very unusual twist, the novel is written from an omniscient point of view, while Killer Storm was strictly first-person. Unfortunately, from the sample I read, this doesn’t seem to be an improvement.
Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
August 3, 2020
Such a weird book.
The choice of profession for the main character is unusual and refreshing. The storyline is okay if a bit heavy handed sometimes.
But what put me off is the narrative style. A very cold, first narrator pov at present tense mostly and completely irrelevant to the story that make the whole thing kinda of unreal and a bit boring.
I'm still scratching my head with bemusement here.
The choice of profession for the main character is unusual and refreshing. The storyline is okay if a bit heavy handed sometimes.
But what put me off is the narrative style. A very cold, first narrator pov at present tense mostly and completely irrelevant to the story that make the whole thing kinda of unreal and a bit boring.
I'm still scratching my head with bemusement here.
May 12, 2018
The writing style was not my cup of tea, the first person perspective is written like a telegram, there was no suspense, it all read like a robot had written it. The story and the characters never came alive and I found myself skipping most of the last fifty pages.
Like many others said, the idea of the story is good and interesting, just the way the story has been written made it very boring.
Like many others said, the idea of the story is good and interesting, just the way the story has been written made it very boring.
January 2, 2021
Great.
I really enjoyed Killer Storm. A great combination of police work, actually Probation work, and romance. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
I really enjoyed Killer Storm. A great combination of police work, actually Probation work, and romance. Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
June 7, 2015
Jen Wright’s Killer Storm was one of those books where my impressions changed markedly in the course of reading. Several people on amazon commented about the lack of emotion in the narrative, a couple even using the term “grocery list.” You know, A happens, then B happens, then I said that, then she did this. At first, I shared their opinion, but instead of a grocery list, my mind dredged up Buffy’s description of Giles’ stuffiness: “Blah, blah, biddy, blah.” I’ll return to this in a bit.
There are a lot of positives, here: the characters are realistic and, for the most part, quite engaging and even the supporting cast is very well-drawn; the plot is well thought-out and holds your interest; there’s plenty of suspense to keep you reading and the budding romance between Jo and Zoey nicely balances the mystery; although the writing is rather flat at times, it’s grammatically solid. Telling the tale from the perspective of parole officers is a unique twist in the mystery/suspense genre and the author’s experience adds a great deal to the realism of the work. On the purely subjective side, as it’s nearing summer hear in the MidSouth, Wright’s vivid depiction of winter at Lake Superior’s North Shore makes me wanna be there. Now!
The not so positive: Despite the lack of grammatical errors, in places the writing, including dialog, feels somewhat stiff. Also, there are some brief scenes that contribute to neither the mystery plot nor the romance. Another subjective point: I rarely like dream scenes and there are several here; I feel they could have been left out or else the concept of their interpretation further developed.
To get back to the writing style, as I said, early on I had somewhat the same complaint as the other reviewers: it was basically emotionless. Somewhere around the middle of the book, though, the actual writing ceased to bother me. At times, a matter-of-fact – “dry” seems too strong a word given the book’s rich descriptive passages – is an asset, bringing into relief the drama or suspense of a work. In Killer Storm, it seems to highlight the main character’s detached persona, her tendency to sweep emotional issues under the carpet; in that sense, it’s not nearly as objectionable as others have suggested or as I had first thought.
Whatever the reason, as I warmed to Jo’s character, I warmed to the narrative style as well. This occurs pretty much around the time Jo is introduced to Zoey. Some might suggest that I simply became more absorbed in the story and didn’t notice the issues with the writing. Sorry, folks, but I’m just not wired that way; if there are problems with the narrative style, I notice them, just as I do grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. As Jo becomes more open with her feelings, the writing feels less constrained, too. Whether this is Wright’s intent, in which case it’s very nicely done, or simply my own perception, it’s definitely a plus.
So, in short, Killer Storm is a fast-paced, intriguing and suspenseful mystery told from a unique perspective. It’s peopled with engaging, realistic characters whom I wouldn’t mind revisiting. Recommended.
There are a lot of positives, here: the characters are realistic and, for the most part, quite engaging and even the supporting cast is very well-drawn; the plot is well thought-out and holds your interest; there’s plenty of suspense to keep you reading and the budding romance between Jo and Zoey nicely balances the mystery; although the writing is rather flat at times, it’s grammatically solid. Telling the tale from the perspective of parole officers is a unique twist in the mystery/suspense genre and the author’s experience adds a great deal to the realism of the work. On the purely subjective side, as it’s nearing summer hear in the MidSouth, Wright’s vivid depiction of winter at Lake Superior’s North Shore makes me wanna be there. Now!
The not so positive: Despite the lack of grammatical errors, in places the writing, including dialog, feels somewhat stiff. Also, there are some brief scenes that contribute to neither the mystery plot nor the romance. Another subjective point: I rarely like dream scenes and there are several here; I feel they could have been left out or else the concept of their interpretation further developed.
To get back to the writing style, as I said, early on I had somewhat the same complaint as the other reviewers: it was basically emotionless. Somewhere around the middle of the book, though, the actual writing ceased to bother me. At times, a matter-of-fact – “dry” seems too strong a word given the book’s rich descriptive passages – is an asset, bringing into relief the drama or suspense of a work. In Killer Storm, it seems to highlight the main character’s detached persona, her tendency to sweep emotional issues under the carpet; in that sense, it’s not nearly as objectionable as others have suggested or as I had first thought.
Whatever the reason, as I warmed to Jo’s character, I warmed to the narrative style as well. This occurs pretty much around the time Jo is introduced to Zoey. Some might suggest that I simply became more absorbed in the story and didn’t notice the issues with the writing. Sorry, folks, but I’m just not wired that way; if there are problems with the narrative style, I notice them, just as I do grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. As Jo becomes more open with her feelings, the writing feels less constrained, too. Whether this is Wright’s intent, in which case it’s very nicely done, or simply my own perception, it’s definitely a plus.
So, in short, Killer Storm is a fast-paced, intriguing and suspenseful mystery told from a unique perspective. It’s peopled with engaging, realistic characters whom I wouldn’t mind revisiting. Recommended.
January 27, 2009
Normally, I'm kind to new writers or to those who publish their own work (as is the case with Jen Wright). But, I'm usually kind to encourage more writing. I'm not going to do that with this book because I think Jen Wright's book is frankly one of the worst books I've read in a long time, and I wouldn't want to encourage more books like it. I don't mean to be mean, but there it is. This is a lesbian mystery minus the lesbian sex scenes, minus the mystery. The main mystery is how the author thinks this is good writing!
The plot is difficult to follow, as are the multitude of characters, (who's who?), as are the scenes. On the first page, for example, she states that the sun is on her face, and then that she's being called in to work in the middle of the night. I was so confused. Neither the plot nor the characters were well-developed. As a result, I didn't care about the characters, and wasn't even clear from the lovemaking scenes that they were passionate. So, when the narrator-cum-author says that she is passionate about her new girlfriend, I was, frankly, shocked. I also didn't care. I can't even remember the plot well enough to describe it here. I'm pissed I spent $14.95 and my time on this book. Do yourself a favor: Don't read this book. Don't bother.
The plot is difficult to follow, as are the multitude of characters, (who's who?), as are the scenes. On the first page, for example, she states that the sun is on her face, and then that she's being called in to work in the middle of the night. I was so confused. Neither the plot nor the characters were well-developed. As a result, I didn't care about the characters, and wasn't even clear from the lovemaking scenes that they were passionate. So, when the narrator-cum-author says that she is passionate about her new girlfriend, I was, frankly, shocked. I also didn't care. I can't even remember the plot well enough to describe it here. I'm pissed I spent $14.95 and my time on this book. Do yourself a favor: Don't read this book. Don't bother.
April 16, 2012
I enjoyed this first one and am glad I bought the next 2, great job Jen wright hope to see more from you
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews