Hurricane

Sometimes I like to read a thriller that takes place in the city, in a place I'm familiar with, because it's easier to identify with the characters, good and bad. But sometimes I like to be taken away to an exotic place, a place where everything is new to me and that's what happens here in "Hurricane," a thriller that takes place in the Caribbean. I liked the atmosphere of the book the characters and the sailing action. Bill Broxton is a DEA agent who made his debut in "Scorpion" is back and he's investigating the death of Hideo Tanaka, a Japanese American, off the coast of California. His American wife Julie and their daughter Meiko are living on a sailboat in the Caribbean, waiting for Hideo to come back from his boat delivery job, but instead they get news of his death, but before the women get time to grieve, a boatyard wants to confiscate their sailing home because of Hideo's unpaid bills. And it turns out that not only did he apparently owe money, but that he might have been involved with a drug cartel and also that maybe he wasn't just delivering a boat to the States, but drugs as well. Julie and Meiko flee in their sailboat, thinking the boatyard wants the boat for the unpaid bills that were not really owed, but actually the drug cartel has hidden lots of cocaine on board and they want it back. Broxton and a very likeable drug smuggler take off after the women to try and save them, but unknown to them all a Hurricane is on the way. This was an exciting read and as I said above, it took me away from the world I live in. I liked the characters of Julie and Meiko very much and I liked DEA agent Bill Broxton too, but I liked the smuggler T-Bone best of all. And that's what really did it for me with this book, characters I cared about.

Blonde and blue-eyed Julie Tanaka lives on a sailboat called "Fallen Angel," in the Trinidad and Tobago Yacht Club in the West Indies. As the story opens we find her piloting a dinghy through the calm waters off the coast of Trinidad. Her mind somewhere else, when her eighteen-year-old daughter Meiko shouts, "Look out!" Julie sees the log, makes a sharp turn to avoid it and passenger and local singing star Tammy Drake falls overboard. She can't swim, but she manages to make the log. Then she screams, lets go and starts floundering. Julie gets the dinghy under control, comes around and Meiko pulls Tammy into the rubber boat. "It's a dead man." Tammy says and Julie brings the dinghy over to have a look. Sure enough it's a waterlogged, bloated body. They try to tow it to shore, can't, so they head back to the Yacht Club to call the police, only to find them already waiting. They have bad news. Julie's husband, delivery skipper Hideo Tanaka, had been killed when the sailboat boat he was delivering to California blew up. Julie and Meiko are devastated. The police leave and DEA agent Bill Broxton arrives. It turns out that unknown to Julie, her husband was delivering a boat load of cocaine and the DEA believes her husband was murdered. Julie gets rid of Broxton, telling him she'll talk tomorrow, then a lawyer shows up with papers to seize the boat. Seems like a local German owned shipyard wants it for moneys owed. Julie knows their bills were paid, so she and her daughter sail out of the country without telling the authorities. The German owned shipyard is really a front for delivering cocaine to the United States. They fiberglass the drug into the hull, hide more in the mast. Then they let the unsuspecting boat owner take his boat back to the States, where they remove the drugs, with nobody the wiser. Sometimes using the same boat over and over again. That was what they'd done with the boat Hideo had been delivering to California and that was what they'd done to "Fallen Angel." Julie however, doesn't have a clue and she's just sailed off with a boatload of drugs the German crooks want back. The Germans are ruthless. They've killed before and won't be shy about doing it again. Broxton knows this, but can he stop the killers before they get to the women. And oh yes, I can't forget to mention that as the women are sailing away with both the German bad guys and Broxton chasing their wake, Hurricane Darlene is bearing down on the Caribbean with a vengence and she doesn't care who's been good, who's been bad, who's been naughty and who's been nice. She is an equal opportunity destroyer. And there you have a short summation of the first half of the book or so. I loved it and if you try it, I really do believe you'll like it, too. Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Julie Tanaka, her daughter Meiko and friend Tammy Drake are in a rubber dinghy off the coast of Trinidad in the Caribbean when they find a body floating at sea. They motor back to the Yacht Club and Julie's sailboat home when they are greeted by policemen. At first Julie thinks they are there because of the body, but how could they have known? Answer, they couldn't have. They are there to inform her that her husband, who had been delivering a boat to the States, has been lost at sea. Julie and Meiko are devastated. Then they get a visit from DEA agent Bill Broxton, who tells them Julie's husband is suspected of smuggling drugs into America. Then somebody tries to kill Broxton, then a lawyer representing a shipyard shows up with papers to reposs Julie's boat, claiming her husband owed the shipyard a ton of money. Julie doesn't believe this, but recognizes the law will probably back up the local shipyard, so she and Meiko sail out of the country in the dead of night. And thus begins a thriller that kept me burning the midnight oil. It seems the shipyard people have hidden drugs aboard the sailboat and they want them back, so they hire some very bad people go after the two women. Broxton too is hot on their trail in this book that is filled with lots of action and some terrific sailboat chase scenes. I couldn't put it down. I loved the story, the people, the fast-paced writing, the action and the surprise ending.

DEA agent Bill Broxton is in Trinidad, investigating the mysterious explosion onboard a sailboat off the coast of California. The boat sank and the skipper, Hideo Tanaka, went down with the ship, however mucho cocaine was discovered so the DEA is interested. Broxton goes back to the Caribbean, where the boat set sail from and confronts the skipper's wife and daughter, Julie and Meiko Tanaka. Julie Tanaka lives aboard a sailboat in the yacht club in Trinidad, her daughter is visiting on a break from medical school. They are clueless about the drugs and angry at Broxton for even bringing it up, right on the heels of them learning about their tragic loss. To make matters worse for the women, a local shipyard wants to confiscate their sailboat home, because they say Hideo was in debt to them for boat repairs. Julie doesn't believe this and besides, she wouldn't give up her boat anyway, so in the middle of the night the women leave Trinidad. However, what the women don't know is that when the boat was in the shipyard, where Hideo supposedly accumulated those bills, some bad guys hid a lot of cocaine aboard. Was Hideo in on the dastardly cocaine hiding? Did he know about the cocaine that was hidden on the boat he died on? Or was he an unknowing dupe? These are questions Broxton wants answered, but the women flee the country before he can learn the truth. And he has problems of his own. The drug smugglers have framed him for murder and he has to go into hiding. The bad guys are after him, the local cops too. Eventually he teams up with a marijuana smuggler named T-Bone, which is a bit ironic, and together they take off after the damsels in distress. And the women are in distress, as the evil, drug smuggling killers are after them. Okay. there you have the beginning of this super thriller. I really liked the Julie and Meiko characters and Broxton is well written too, but what really made the book for me was the action-packed scenes that take place onboard a couple sailboats as they head toward that Hurricane. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the Hurricane. Well, I'm mentioning it now. You know the characters, good and bad, are in for some serious trouble. All you have to do is look at the cover and you'd know that.

Joey Tanaka is in Trinidad, living aboard a sailboat in the marina there, when she gets word her husband has been lost at sea. The DEA believes he was smuggling drugs into the United States, but Joey knows better, her husband would never have done that. However, she has some problems to deal with, her husband had been the sailor in the family, this lifestyle is new to her and though she likes the people in the sailing community, she doesn't really know how to operate or maintain a big sailboat. To make matters worse, she finds out her husband supposedly owed way more money than she has to a boatyard for repairs. She believes the boatyard people are lying about the bills so they can get her boat. She's in a foreign country, subject to their laws. She doesn't know what to do. And to further add to her to her woes, American DEA agent Bill Broxton pays a call, telling her he believes her husband was involved in the drug trade. She has to get out of the country, so with her step-daughter Meiko, they sail out of the country after dark. This upsets the people from the boatyard, not because her husband owed her money, but because they hid lots of drugs on her boat, hoping to get them back when she and her husband unwittingly sailed back to America with the drugs onboard. They want their drugs back, so they take off after Joey. Bill Broxton isn't giving up either. He partners with a smuggler and takes off after the bad guys, who are after Joey and Meiko. The question here is will the bad guys, and they're very bad, catch up to the women before the DEA guy catches up to the bad guys. Oh, and I forgot to mention, there is a Hurricane on the way and everybody is sailing right into it. There's lots of action in this book, tension too, characters I believed in and a story that kept me burning the midnight oil as I sped through the pages. I couldn't put this one down.