Blog Tour: Reap the Wind

 

Action/Adventure/Thriller

Date Published: 02-06-2024

Publisher: Sunbury Press, Inc.

 

REAP THE WIND is THE PERFECT STORM meets THE FIRM.

 

The novel  is an action/adventure thriller in which three lawyers flee Houston heading to Cincinnati in a rented Lincoln Town Car. They must drive across Texas and the Midwest in the midst of the worst climate change-induced hurricane of the century so Josh Goldberg can be with his girlfriend who is giving birth to their baby. They have to survive a hurricane, tornado, hailstorm, driving rain, and each other to get there.

Josh’s travel companions are his best friend—an alcoholic, drug-addicted lawyer—and his boss who connives to derail his plans so she can get to Philadelphia for a business meeting with a Norwegian billionaire. The odyssey is dangerous on many levels and may be a suicide trip.

EXCERPT

From Chapter 14

The cop shook his head. “It’s better for y’all to wait a spell. If you're bound and determined to take it, though, I’d go slow. Real slow. This ain’t no rodeo. Be prepared for hard wind that’ll look to blow you right off the bridge clear to Galveston. Even in this big car. Just be prepared for it.” He looked toward the bridge and waited for the wind to calm a bit. Then he said, “Okay, pardner. You’re up.” Like in a rodeo. I was the one sitting on an angry bull with his balls bound up.

I thanked him and rolled up the window. I drove about twenty miles per hour. When we reached the opening for the bridge the winds, which were already roaring, picked up and the car rocked violently. The bridge wasn’t long, maybe a quarter mile, flat, cement, four lanes with a divider, and a rail on each side at about waist height. A red sign with big white letters at the entrance to the bridge read:

TRINITY RIVER

WARNING: DANGEROUS WINDS

The sign was whipping back and forth like it wanted to unscrew from the ground and fly off. I was sorely tempted to step on the gas and rocket across the damn bridge.

I started venturing across tentatively, slowing to maybe ten mph. When I was a few dozen feet across, the wind picked up even more and the car began to rock. I mean serious rocking. I glanced at Geoff. He was holding the above-head grip with one hand and had his other on the dashboard. I glanced in the rear view. Diane had put down her work and had her hands on

my seat to brace herself.

I tapped the gas and sped up to thirty. The rocking eased a bit. When we were about half-way across, a big gust coming down stream hit us from the side. The car began to go up on two wheels. The front and back wheels on my side felt like they weren’t gripping the deck. The wind was like a giant fist, pushing us off the bridge onto the narrow shoulder. As my wheels were pushed, the noise from the concrete corduroy strip on the shoulder warned me we were approaching the edge of the bridge. The car felt like it was going to roll onto its roof and over into the river.

“The hell with it,” Geoff shouted over the wind. “Get off the damn bridge.”

I stomped my foot on the gas and the car shot ahead. It was all I could do to keep the wheels on the bridge. I turned the steering wheel hard to the left, as though I was making a left-hand turn, to keep from getting blown off the bridge. The tires squealed on the wet pavement above the noise of the wind. When I got to the other side, just a few seconds later, I quickly had to correct the wheel and the car swerved wildly as we rocketed onto the highway doing at least seventy. A seagull shot past the windshield. Not flying. It was like it had been launched from a canon.

“Holy shit,” Geoff said.

I must’ve looked insane. As I pumped the brake Geoff said, “You should see your face, bro, you look mad. I mean crazy-mad.”

About the Author

Joel Burcat is an award-winning author of three environmental legal thrillers: Drink to Every Beast (about illegal dumping of toxic waste), Amid Rage (about a coal mine permit battle), and Strange Fire (about a fracking dispute). His most recent book, Reap the Wind, published by Sunbury Press, Inc., is about three lawyers trying to drive from Houston to Cincinnati in a climate change-induced hurricane.

 He has received a number of awards, including the Gold Medal for environmental fiction from Readers’ Favorite for Strange Fire, and as a Finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Amid Rage.  He has written numerous short stories. Burcat imbues his novels with facts to educate his readers about critical environmental issues while they are being entertained by the story.

Burcat’s books are infused with realism developed over a forty plus year career as an environmental lawyer. Burcat has worked in government as an Assistant Attorney General and in a private law practice. He was selected as the 2019 Lawyer of the Year in Environmental Litigation (for Central PA) by Best Lawyers in America. Among his numerous professional writings, he has edited two significant books on environmental and energy law. He has retired from the practice of law and works full-time as a novelist.

He is an active member of the International Thriller Writers and PennWriters.

Burcat lives in Harrisburg, Pa. with his wife, Gail.

 

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