Favorite Sons of 2015

Every year I tell you all what my favorite PI reads of the year were...
Well, here are my favorites again...

BEST PI NOVEL: The Ashtabula Hat Trick (Milan Jacovich) by Les Roberts
BEST DEBUT: The Shadow Broker (Finn Harding) by Trace Conger
BEST NEW PI: Greg Salem (in Bad Citizen Corporation) by S.W. Lauden
BEST ACTION SCENES: Hail Storme (Wyatt Storme) by W.L. Ripley

Storme Front (Wyatt Storme) by W.L. Ripley

I am so pleased I get to read this great series, back in print now. Wyatt Storme might be clearly made of the Spenser-mold, he still has an original enough voice to stand out from other Spenser-clones.
This book he gets involved with a weapons deal and ends up trying to help an old friend from his football-playing days. Luckily, skip-tracer / bodyguard and ex-spook Chick Easton (coolest psycho sidekick since Joe Pike) is along for the ride.
This is quite a personal tale for Storme. He has to face his attraction to an old flame, the nightmares from his Vietnam days and just how much of an adrenaline junkie he is.
Lots of action, some mystery and introspection make this a must-have for every PI fan.

Hail Storme (Wyatt Storme) by W.L. Ripley

For me, Storme Warning, the first new book in the Wyatt Storme series was the first one I read by W.L. Ripley. I loved it, so I am happy to see the older books being reprinted. This one is the first in the series and first came out in 1993 as "Dreamsicle" after a drug that appears in the book. I must say I like the new title a lot better.
This novel tells how Vietnam veteran and ex-NFL player Wyatt Storme meets superspook Chick Easton and stumbles upon a field full of marijuana. When the local sheriff is killed Storme investigates.
This is again, Spenser-type adventure and mystery. Fast-paced, witty and All American Hero kind of writing. Just the kind of stuff I like.Ripley's newer writing is maybe just a bit tighter than this first novel, but it still reads as one impressive debut.

Storme Warning 0Wyatt Storme) by W.L. Ripley

Man, as much as I love Ace Atkins writing Spenser, here's a guy that would be able to continue that series really well. This is totally new book featuring Wyatt Storme that will have me pick up the reprints coming soon as well for sure.
Wyatt Storme is an ex-football player and Vietnam veteran who is visited by his old pal and psycho sidekick, the ex-CIA agent Chick Easton. Chick asks him for help protecting a bad boy movie-star during the shoot of a Western movie. There's also an old enemy of Storme lurking around.
Storme is a really cool guy, a real John Wayne kind of guy. Tall, honest, kind to women and a bit of a loner. He also gets in quite a few witty lines in the Spenser veign. Chick is an almost superhuman sidekick, where there's of course some comparisons to Hawk
The story is paced well with enough twists and action and a shift to the POV of Storme's old enemy that nevers confuses or annoys.
Great, old-fashioned PI writing and a MUST for fans of Spenser, Elvis Cole or my own Noah Milano.
One of my favorite books of the year so far.