REAP THE WIND
by
Joel Burcat
Action-Adventure / Suspense / Climate Change / EcoThriller
Publisher: Milford House Press, an imprint of Sunbury Books, Inc.
Date of Publication: February 6, 2024
Number of Pages: 215 pages
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THE PERFECT STORM meets THE FIRM
Reap the Wind is a thrilling action/adventure novel that follows three lawyers as they embark on a treacherous journey from Houston to Cincinnati during a catastrophic hurricane. Josh Goldberg is on a mission to be with his girlfriend for the birth of their child. Along the way, they’ll face terrifying obstacles like tornadoes, hailstorms, and driving rain. But the real danger may come from within as they struggle to survive each other’s company. His two travel companions—his best friend, a drug-addicted lawyer, and his conniving boss who has her own agenda.
Don’t miss out on this unforgettable odyssey that might just be a suicide trip.
“Reap the Wind is a bold, bracing and blisteringly original take on the legal thriller form. Joel Burcat has fashioned a seminal tale focusing on the nightmare of all road trips in which a storm raging outside the car is matched only by the storm raging within. Burcat dares to tread on the hallowed ground of John Grisham and Scott Turow and ends up blazing a fresh, daring literary tale of his own. Not to be missed!”
—Jon Land, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author
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EXCERPT PART TWO
FROM CHAPTER 14 OF REAP THE WIND
BY JOEL BURCAT
Click to read Part One on the March 10th stop with Lone Star Book Blog Tours!
***
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.”
There was a pull off on the other side of the bridge surrounded by scrubby trees. It looked like someone’s driveway. I braked hard and pulled way over, almost in the grass away from the travel lane, and put the car into park. The Town Car purred quietly. A gust of wind buffeted us from time to time. We rocked back and forth with the trees.
On the southbound lanes, a line of trucks waited for the opportunity to run the gauntlet of wind. The deputy monitoring the traffic looked at our car and shook his head. His expression told me all I needed to know about what he thought of us.
“Just give me a second,” I said looking at Geoff. “Man, I could use a drink.”
Geoff immediately pulled a small metal flask from his jacket. He smiled at me and wiggled the bottle back and forth. “Seriously? You want some Makers?”
I shook my head. “Nah. It’s just a figure of speech. I need all of my wits for the rest of the drive…”
Joel Burcat is an award-winning author of three environmental legal thrillers: Drink to Every Beast (illegal dumping of toxic waste), Amid Rage (a coal mine permit battle), and Strange Fire (a fracking dispute). His most recent book, Reap the Wind, 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.
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