Published by Minotaur Books on May 26, 2026
Storm Warning is the newest entry in the Dez Limerick series. I’m a fan. Most fictional tough guys engage in tough talk before they use their superheroic toughness to beat up or shoot their adversaries — including anyone who doesn’t adhere to their sense of proper behavior. Dez is tough, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He laughs, smiles, jokes, and has a sunny disposition. He jests with the people who want him dead. He spares lives that other tough guy thriller heroes would take. He’s driven by love and a connection to the human race rather than malice or a hatred of anyone defined as the enemy. He’s also considerably brighter than the average tough guy, but he doesn’t flaunt his intelligence. What’s not to like?
Dez is particularly talented in opening doors, a skill he acquired while training as a “gatekeeper” in the military. He’s invited to contribute his skills to a group that includes Trisha Jean Jackson, a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department, and Rusty Townsend, Trisha’s Secret Service bodyguard, as well as an FBI hostage rescue team.
The rescuers are traveling to the Fuchs Underground Neutrino Collector in a remote part of Canada. The Neutrino Collector is on the deepest level of the underground facility. Three of the top four levels are devoted to a “green” mining operation, but the miners are on strike and have gone elsewhere until the dispute is resolved. The scientists at the facility work on the top and bottom levels. They’ve been out of contact for some time, having apparently turned off their means of communication.
The authorities need Dez to help them enter the facility if the uncommunicative scientists are unable to open the door. Dez is in a casual relationship with more than one woman, including Petra Alexandris, the CEO of Triton Industries, a company that is financing the mining operation. Dez accepts the invitation when he learns that Petra is behind the closed door.
The story starts about eighteen months earlier, when Dez thwarts an assassination attempt in Paris. One of the assassins is a small woman named Ash. She’s helpless after taking a blow to the head before Dez confronts her. He disarms her but allows her to live because she’s not a threat to him. Ash understands that Dez is a killer but needs to think about his ability to choose not to kill. Maybe he can teach her something.
Posing as Elisabet LeCroix, a representative of Canada’s National Research Council, Ash joins the rescue team. She has changed her hair and is no longer covered in dust as she was when Dez saw her in Paris so he doesn’t recognize her. Why an assassin is being sent to the Neutrino Collector isn’t immediately clear to the reader.
Before leaving for the facility, a group of thugs try to bribe and then bully Dez to smuggle them onto the plane. When that plan fails, Dez is on his way to the frozen tundra in a plane carrying Trisha, Rusty, and Ash. A storm prevents the plane carrying the hostage rescue team from joining them.
Some occupants of the town in which the facility is located have been killed and the survivors believe that Russians are responsible. Dez soon discovers that not all the townspeople are who they appear to be. The organization that provided the thugs appropriates a plane and chases after Dez with the intent to kill everyone and be the first into the facility.
With that setup, Dez embarks on a typical Dez Limerick adventure. He opens doors, improvises bombs, outfights larger men, cracks jokes, screws Petra, and generally has a good time. He will, of course, eventually realize that Ash is also not who she appears to be.
The story is fun and surprising. Why have the scientists gone silent? What are the bad guys trying to acquire? Are the competing sets of bad guys pursuing the same goal? The novel delivers its biggest surprise well into the second half. Dez responds to it by saying, ““Hand t’god: That, I did not see comin’.” That makes two of us.
James Byrne makes the arctic setting seem authentic. While the action scenes are familiar, Byrne frames them in ways that make them seem fresh. The story’s pace contributes to its excitement, but Byrne takes time to develop Ash and the story’s villains in satisfactory depth. Every Dez Limerick novel has been a joy to read. Storm Warning is no exception.
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