Deathstorm is Gillespie s eighth mys-

tery this one featuring Ralph Simmons,

a retired newspaper executive and

amateur sleuth.

Ralph and his young friend Eileen

Engelhart are guests aboard a yacht

sailing in Long Island s Little Neck Bay

when a deafening explosion erupts

from the mainland, followed by a thick

column of smoke rising from the

Engelhart residence. Frantic with fear,

they return to find Eileen s father--an

eccentric inventor--dead as the blaze

turns into a firestorm, sweeping across

the wealthy community of Savage Point.

Local residents who resented the odd-

ball irlventor, maintain the devastation

was caused by the old man tinkering

with chemical agents. But her daughter

believes otherwise and Ralph is willing

to investigate furthe~ Soon he stumbles

on disturbing information concerning

Engelhart s connection to a fellow con-

script in the German army during World

War II and the Holocaust.

Then more strands of evidence accu-

mulate. A white rose was apparently

sent to the old man just before his

demise. And when Ralph meets the

widow of a titled Englishman and her

son, another killing occurs in a violent

New Year s Eve rainstorm.

This tingling story of murders masquer-

ading as acts of God charts the down-

fall of an upper class family whose bur-

ied past is only now beginning to churn

up disastrous consequences.