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Storm #3
Storm Surge
After ten years, FBI Agent Mick Kline thought he had put his past behind him. But when mysterious letters start arriving at his house, Mick finds himself drawn back to a case that had been solved ten years ago—a murder case in which Mick had once been the prime suspect. Mick's investigation leads him to a man on death row for a crime he claims he didn't commit and the homicide detective who handled the case. As Mick gets close to discovering the truth, a woman he cares about is kidnapped and held hostage. It's a race against time as Mick rushes to stop a murderer before he kills again.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Rene Gutteridge
40 books272 followersRene Gutteridge is the award-winning and best-selling author of more than eighteen novels, including the beloved Boo Series and Heart of the Country, her novelization release with director John Ward and Tyndale House Publishers. Her recent suspense titles include Listen, Possession and the award-winning Seven Hours project Escapement. She's been published by Bethany House, Tyndale House, WaterBrook Press, Thomas Nelson and B&H and novelized the successful motion picture The Ultimate Gift. She is teaming again with screenwriter Cheryl McKay for the romantic comedy Greetings from the Flipside from B&H and releasing her new suspense title, Misery Loves Company from Tyndale in 2013. Her romantic comedy Never the Bride won the 2010 Carol Award for Best Women’s Fiction. Her upcoming literary projects include the novelization of the motion picture Old Fashioned with Tyndale House Publishers and filmmaker Rik Swartzwelder.
Her adaptation of her novel My Life as a Doormat is in development with Kingdom Pictures and she is also a creative consultant for Boo, a film based on her best-selling novel, in development at Sodium Entertainment with Cory Edwards attached as director and Andrea Nasfell as screenwriter. She is also co-writer in a collaborative comedy project called Last Resort with screenwriters Torry Martin and Marshal Younger. Her screenplay Skid is currently in production and scheduled to begin filming in April of 2013. Find her on Facebook and Twitter or at her website, www.renegutteridge.com
Her adaptation of her novel My Life as a Doormat is in development with Kingdom Pictures and she is also a creative consultant for Boo, a film based on her best-selling novel, in development at Sodium Entertainment with Cory Edwards attached as director and Andrea Nasfell as screenwriter. She is also co-writer in a collaborative comedy project called Last Resort with screenwriters Torry Martin and Marshal Younger. Her screenplay Skid is currently in production and scheduled to begin filming in April of 2013. Find her on Facebook and Twitter or at her website, www.renegutteridge.com
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
April 25, 2013
Dear Rene Gutteridge, I see what you did here. You made the female characters stronger than the male protagonist. Girl power, right? Right!
Well, ladies, allow me to introduce you to Mick. If you have ever wanted to ask a dude out, make him fall in love with you and make him marry you, I think Mick is the right candidate. He kind of fell in love with Libby but he looks like he is the kind that doesn't mind being stalked! But be prepared to save him whenever he is in trouble...even when he is in the hands of a murderer.
Sad to let you know that Mick does not exist in real life and you probably have to wait to be asked out! :D
Well, ladies, allow me to introduce you to Mick. If you have ever wanted to ask a dude out, make him fall in love with you and make him marry you, I think Mick is the right candidate. He kind of fell in love with Libby but he looks like he is the kind that doesn't mind being stalked! But be prepared to save him whenever he is in trouble...even when he is in the hands of a murderer.
Sad to let you know that Mick does not exist in real life and you probably have to wait to be asked out! :D
October 25, 2018
So, quite a few years has passed since I've read the first 2 books in this series, so the details of book 1 and 2 are really vague. I just know I did read them.
Mick Kline is a character I enjoy due to his dry sense of humour and the banter between him and his partner, Reggie. There is a mystery which get closure which started from book 1.
All in all a series I enjoyed.
Mick Kline is a character I enjoy due to his dry sense of humour and the banter between him and his partner, Reggie. There is a mystery which get closure which started from book 1.
All in all a series I enjoyed.
July 16, 2015
A serial Arsonist...
A gruesome murder...
A questionable execution.
A riveting tale about a lover turning her head away, and allowing an inncent man to take the fall in order to save her own skin. It's been ten years since Sammy Earle, a returning soldier from Vietnam back in 1968, was tried and convicted for the murder of a DA. Now as his days have became limited, down to his final 29 days, does he reach out to FBI Investigator and part Storm Chaser for help to revisit his case and prove the innocence he harboured all along.
"You put me on that stand," Patrick said. "My words will be like fire."
Exactly what the trial didn't need, especially when he fled and vanished, stealing another soldier who was MIA identify and posing as Shay Crawford for years, even hiding his insanity behind the blood encrusted belongings of his, and the death he say everyday as A Homicide Detective and fellow soldier. Charged with another death, noone suspected a thing out of Patrick Delano, not until Mick's brother Aaron began digging into the Trial and Sentencing of Sammy Earle. Now, a year and a half after Aaron's execution stlye murder, does he begin to realize the pieces to a puzzle long forgotten, his heated feelings for Jenny, but also the undeveloped findings of the trial that captured his brother's interest for several years.
But that's not where Mick's problems completely lie, no, that's also with Faith Kemper, and a new woman, a hardcore ATF Agent named Libby Lancaster, a sarcastic and humored woman who doesn't have anything but surprises up her sleeve for Mick. As he was investigating Joel Leville for Embazzelment Fraud, do they discover his body after being strangled and set ablaze, by no other than his own wife Anita, jealous of the feelings he harbored for another woman, non other than his partner Ira Lamberson's wife Nicole. Yet. even Ira was in on the scheme, as he tried to reclaim the documents Anita stole, while he fell slowly more and more hateful towards his wife.
Now, as an arsonist set ablaze four buildings, do they discover that two families have become so twisted and darkned, nothing can stop the movement, not even after a three hour standstill while both Nicole and Ira held one another in the line of sights of two handguns in their homes.
"I won't share my bed with a murderer." (Ira Leville)
Falling in love with Libby and letting go of relations that will lead nowhere, Mick Kline finally lays to rest his brother's mystery, but also helped set Sammy Earle free after a decade long imprisonment, within mere hours of his set execution. His belief in a higher power, a belief in the powers of God, was what kept him sane, even after risking everything during a hurricane to save Taylor Franks, a woman who Delano forced to turn againts Sammy Earle so he'd take the fall.
A gruesome murder...
A questionable execution.
A riveting tale about a lover turning her head away, and allowing an inncent man to take the fall in order to save her own skin. It's been ten years since Sammy Earle, a returning soldier from Vietnam back in 1968, was tried and convicted for the murder of a DA. Now as his days have became limited, down to his final 29 days, does he reach out to FBI Investigator and part Storm Chaser for help to revisit his case and prove the innocence he harboured all along.
"You put me on that stand," Patrick said. "My words will be like fire."
Exactly what the trial didn't need, especially when he fled and vanished, stealing another soldier who was MIA identify and posing as Shay Crawford for years, even hiding his insanity behind the blood encrusted belongings of his, and the death he say everyday as A Homicide Detective and fellow soldier. Charged with another death, noone suspected a thing out of Patrick Delano, not until Mick's brother Aaron began digging into the Trial and Sentencing of Sammy Earle. Now, a year and a half after Aaron's execution stlye murder, does he begin to realize the pieces to a puzzle long forgotten, his heated feelings for Jenny, but also the undeveloped findings of the trial that captured his brother's interest for several years.
But that's not where Mick's problems completely lie, no, that's also with Faith Kemper, and a new woman, a hardcore ATF Agent named Libby Lancaster, a sarcastic and humored woman who doesn't have anything but surprises up her sleeve for Mick. As he was investigating Joel Leville for Embazzelment Fraud, do they discover his body after being strangled and set ablaze, by no other than his own wife Anita, jealous of the feelings he harbored for another woman, non other than his partner Ira Lamberson's wife Nicole. Yet. even Ira was in on the scheme, as he tried to reclaim the documents Anita stole, while he fell slowly more and more hateful towards his wife.
Now, as an arsonist set ablaze four buildings, do they discover that two families have become so twisted and darkned, nothing can stop the movement, not even after a three hour standstill while both Nicole and Ira held one another in the line of sights of two handguns in their homes.
"I won't share my bed with a murderer." (Ira Leville)
Falling in love with Libby and letting go of relations that will lead nowhere, Mick Kline finally lays to rest his brother's mystery, but also helped set Sammy Earle free after a decade long imprisonment, within mere hours of his set execution. His belief in a higher power, a belief in the powers of God, was what kept him sane, even after risking everything during a hurricane to save Taylor Franks, a woman who Delano forced to turn againts Sammy Earle so he'd take the fall.
September 8, 2014
FBI Agent Mick Kline is a storm chaser in his spare time. Not that he has much of that these days. The suspect he and his partner have been investigating dies in a suspicious fire, and suddenly his case is tangled with another bureau’s ongoing arson investigation.
The two departments aren’t known for working well together, but a mutual attraction between Mick and his opposite number, Special Agent Libby Lancaster, helps—until she’s sidelined by an injury. Mick’s feelings add another complication: after years of being single, there are now three women on his radar.
At the same time, Mick is receiving anonymous notes that point to a long-ago crime and suggest that a man on Death Row may be as innocent as he claims. Mick needs to uncover the truth before the execution.
There’s much more to this novel, and including flashbacks to the Vietnam War and to the trial that convicted a possibly innocent man of murder. It builds to a life-or-death climax in the heart of a hurricane.
Storm Surge is the third in Rene Gutteridge’s Storm series, and is heavily influenced by Mick’s experiences in the first two novels, Splitting Storm and Storm Gathering. Leave it to me to unintentionally start a series at the end, but everything a new reader needs to know is provided. Mick is an enjoyable character, and I’d like to go back and read the first two novels even though I now have major spoiler information.
The Tyndale House website says Storm Surge is out of print, although there are still copies available through cbd.com. The novel is also available as an ebook.
Besides the Storm series, Rene Gutteridge has written the popular Boo series and other novels. Her first novel, Ghost Writer , releases as a reprint in June 2012.
[Review copy from my personal library.]
The two departments aren’t known for working well together, but a mutual attraction between Mick and his opposite number, Special Agent Libby Lancaster, helps—until she’s sidelined by an injury. Mick’s feelings add another complication: after years of being single, there are now three women on his radar.
At the same time, Mick is receiving anonymous notes that point to a long-ago crime and suggest that a man on Death Row may be as innocent as he claims. Mick needs to uncover the truth before the execution.
There’s much more to this novel, and including flashbacks to the Vietnam War and to the trial that convicted a possibly innocent man of murder. It builds to a life-or-death climax in the heart of a hurricane.
Storm Surge is the third in Rene Gutteridge’s Storm series, and is heavily influenced by Mick’s experiences in the first two novels, Splitting Storm and Storm Gathering. Leave it to me to unintentionally start a series at the end, but everything a new reader needs to know is provided. Mick is an enjoyable character, and I’d like to go back and read the first two novels even though I now have major spoiler information.
The Tyndale House website says Storm Surge is out of print, although there are still copies available through cbd.com. The novel is also available as an ebook.
Besides the Storm series, Rene Gutteridge has written the popular Boo series and other novels. Her first novel, Ghost Writer , releases as a reprint in June 2012.
[Review copy from my personal library.]
April 6, 2010
If the name 'Rene Gutteridge' does not appear on your list of reading credits, your literary dossier is woefully incomplete.
Ms. Gutteridge's veteran pen has once again produced a superbly entertaining work with a wonderful balance of humor, poignancy and mystery. Storm Surge, the third in the "Storm" series, follows FBI Special Agent Mick Kline in a race against the death-row clock. The condemned prisoner, Sammy Earle, has been incarcerated for a crime in which Agent Kline himself was once implicated. Only now doubts begin to surface as to Sammy's guilt, and Mick personally takes on the case against everyone's advice, including his own.
The web of intrigue began to weave itself in steamy jungles of Vietnam with the murder and disappearance of two American soldiers. In the intervening years, it expands and stretches taut, ensnaring more hapless victims who stumble--or are pushed--into it. It finally snaps amid a Category 4 hurricane on the Texas coast, where it threatens not only Mick, but the woman he loves. The action is intense, the drama poignant, and the characters multidimensional. Having said that, my next comment may seem a little odd: it was really funny. By that I mean Ms. Gutteridge has mastered the tricky art of diffusing tension at just the right points with appropriate humor. How? By knowing how to write.
I've commented on an author's writing voice in a few of my posts, with notables going to Liz Curtis Higgs and Sibella Giorello. Put Rene Gutteridge right alongside them. I rarely laugh out loud when I read a crime novel, but my uninhibited reaction to Ms. Gutteridge's subtly witty narrative style and glib repartee between characters drew more than one raised eyebrow from my wife, who was lying next to me trying to concentrate on her own book. I kept saying, "Listen, you've got to hear this passage! You'll crack up!" I guess I said that too many times, as she finally exhorted me to stop before I read her the whole book. (Sorry, Jeannie, but just wait until you read it . . . )
I had the pleasure of sitting through a couple of Ms. Gutteridge's seminars at an ACW writers' conference two years ago. If I had taken better notes, perhaps I could write as well as she does . . . in a few years . . . or longer . . . maybe. (Sigh!)
Ms. Gutteridge's veteran pen has once again produced a superbly entertaining work with a wonderful balance of humor, poignancy and mystery. Storm Surge, the third in the "Storm" series, follows FBI Special Agent Mick Kline in a race against the death-row clock. The condemned prisoner, Sammy Earle, has been incarcerated for a crime in which Agent Kline himself was once implicated. Only now doubts begin to surface as to Sammy's guilt, and Mick personally takes on the case against everyone's advice, including his own.
The web of intrigue began to weave itself in steamy jungles of Vietnam with the murder and disappearance of two American soldiers. In the intervening years, it expands and stretches taut, ensnaring more hapless victims who stumble--or are pushed--into it. It finally snaps amid a Category 4 hurricane on the Texas coast, where it threatens not only Mick, but the woman he loves. The action is intense, the drama poignant, and the characters multidimensional. Having said that, my next comment may seem a little odd: it was really funny. By that I mean Ms. Gutteridge has mastered the tricky art of diffusing tension at just the right points with appropriate humor. How? By knowing how to write.
I've commented on an author's writing voice in a few of my posts, with notables going to Liz Curtis Higgs and Sibella Giorello. Put Rene Gutteridge right alongside them. I rarely laugh out loud when I read a crime novel, but my uninhibited reaction to Ms. Gutteridge's subtly witty narrative style and glib repartee between characters drew more than one raised eyebrow from my wife, who was lying next to me trying to concentrate on her own book. I kept saying, "Listen, you've got to hear this passage! You'll crack up!" I guess I said that too many times, as she finally exhorted me to stop before I read her the whole book. (Sorry, Jeannie, but just wait until you read it . . . )
I had the pleasure of sitting through a couple of Ms. Gutteridge's seminars at an ACW writers' conference two years ago. If I had taken better notes, perhaps I could write as well as she does . . . in a few years . . . or longer . . . maybe. (Sigh!)
March 30, 2018
Dit is heel zeldzaam: het derde deel van een trilogie dat er als het sterkste deel uitkomt. Wauw. Al die spanning die zich in de andere delen opgebouwd hebben, komen nu tot een uitbarsting. Te midden van een storm, zowel letterlijk als figuurlijk. Mooie symboliek, en mooie boodschap achter Rene Gutteridge's woorden. Haar boeken, vooral deel 3 niet, zijn niet overdreven christelijk. Ze laten zich meer spreken door de daden van de karakters. Het enige waar ik nog meer antwoord op had willen hebben, is het mysterie rondom Aarons dood. Maar dat is het enige. Zelfs met dat in het achterhoofd is deze trilogie een absolute aanrader.
January 5, 2012
This was a clean read.
Not my favorite though. The main character which is a man seems to be written by a woman who sounds like she's trying to think like a man to develope her main male character.
However i cant say that Rene is a woman. I just had a hard time with how "limp" or unmasculine the main character was. He wasnt a sissy but not a strong man in my opinon.
And the woman he ends up with was like a last minute decsion by the author.
Every other element was good.
Not my favorite though. The main character which is a man seems to be written by a woman who sounds like she's trying to think like a man to develope her main male character.
However i cant say that Rene is a woman. I just had a hard time with how "limp" or unmasculine the main character was. He wasnt a sissy but not a strong man in my opinon.
And the woman he ends up with was like a last minute decsion by the author.
Every other element was good.
April 11, 2013
As a meteorologist, the storm content of the plot first enticed me. But the rest of the story, a complex plot, well-developed main characters,as well as the mystery and romance, were what kept me reading. If you like crime dramas with mystery and romance, this is one you'll want to read. There were only a couple of weather-related events that stretched believability a bit. But I shouldn't criticize as I take weather elements to their extremes in my stories.
August 17, 2009
This was the third book in the series and it tied up some loose ends from the first two books. I did feel like the ending was wrapped up a bit too neatly and quickly, but other than that, I really liked it!
August 5, 2010
This was a random title from the library that looked safe and entertaining. It is both. This is actually the third one in a series, but I didn't know that and it didn't really matter. A good summer read.
March 5, 2014
I was hooked from the first page. This book has so much action, suspense, and several great characters that pull you into the story. There is also a delicate romance but thankfully it isn't the sappy, mushy kind. I am looking forward to reading more books by Rene Gutteridge.
June 21, 2016
Good clean story.
Good plot with true to life characters with situations we deal with in these times. Enjoyed being able to read every word without skipping over objectionable material. Inspired in handling God's message.
Good plot with true to life characters with situations we deal with in these times. Enjoyed being able to read every word without skipping over objectionable material. Inspired in handling God's message.
August 3, 2017
First time reading this author. He does a pretty good job of character development, and I liked the main one pretty well. This story is a combination of arson, murder, and storm chasing, which is described very vividly.
August 16, 2017
I really liked this book. I liked the first two books in the series as well. Great characters and great suspense. I would have liked a little more romance but the series was great with the little there was.
August 1, 2011
A Mick Kline detective story. Easy read.
October 15, 2011
An entertaining mystery. Even though I figured out a key plot point before the main character, I still enjoyed the read.
August 24, 2014
Great fiction with believable characters. I enjoyed this series.
November 19, 2021
Not a great conclusion to this trilogy. I figured out the ending to the mystery in this book by the time I finished the first book in the series. It might be better to read these in the order they were written rather than chronological order. But there is pretty much nothing surprising on this last book no matter how you go about it. Yawn.
November 26, 2019
Good read
Storm Surge was not quite as intense or thought provoking as the other books in this series. It is still a good read and wraps up the series very well.
Storm Surge was not quite as intense or thought provoking as the other books in this series. It is still a good read and wraps up the series very well.
March 17, 2025
Theme, plotting and characterization are exceptionally satisfying in this uplifting novel. Kudos!
August 6, 2008
Had some good moments. May have deserved a '3'
October 26, 2014
Great series. Very clever plot.
Read
December 13, 2018an absolutely very good read! loved the plot and writers ablitly to weave the story in an amazing way.
well done1
well done1
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews