Barbara is trying to unseat long time incumbent, Gayton True on a platform of "back to basics." True is all for expanding the tax base by building condominiums and, hopefully, a casino. Barbara wants to keep the small town atmosphere with a rural feel .

Barbara is a shy, retiring individual not at all a candidate with a chance to unseat the powerful incumbent, but she shows no signs of conceding victory to True until the final ballots are counted. True’s wife, Princess, is a hard nosed character who has publicly embarrassed Barbara on a number of occasions, thus becoming a thorn in Barbara’s already sore side. So when Princess is killed in a hit-and-run accident the situation becomes at once better and worse for Barbara.

She has lost a particularly objectionable heckler, but speculators can’t help but wonder at the timing, and whether Barbara or one of her supporters might be involved. The police, however, are treating the death as an unfortunate accident, but Milan, especially when his life is threatened in a similar manner, decides the matter is worthy of further nvestigation.

The Lake Effect is a paperback reprint of a title originally published in 1994. Except for a few references to the national political climate, the story could easily have been written more recently. However, devoted fans of Les Roberts will notice how much Mr. Roberts has developed as a writer during the intervening years. This is not to say that The Lake Effect is not a good, solid book, but some of his later efforts are much better. In particular the plot is not very inspiring. There are a few little subplots which add a bit of excitement to the story but bear little relevance to the main plot, and seem thrown in just to keep the reader’s attention. Also, if you are not a political animal, the story itself is boring.

However, forget the plot. Read the book for the pure enjoyment of Mr. Roberts’ talent to develop characters. Indeed, the city of Cleveland, often the brunt of many a joke with its flammable river, becomes a prominent character through Mr. Robert’s detailed descriptions. The reader gets a clear sense of the polyglot of individuals that settled in this area from different parts of Europe, and how these distinct populations play an important role in creating a unique culture in this Midwest city.

Individual characters from the somewhat socially inept, but clever Milan to his longtime friend on the police force, Marko Meglich, are vividly described by the author. The reader quickly makes friends with these people, becoming caught up in their lives. It must be difficult for an author to introduce his series characters time and again in each new book without boring his loyal fans, yet give new readers enough background that they can identify with these people. Roberts seems to have found a good way to accomplish this task, for I never feel as if I have read all this information before.

The fact that Milan deals with the criminal element in this story allows the author to interject some telling comments. Milan notices when he goes to visit Victor Gaimari at his estate that the more elite criminals spend considerable money to keep themselves out of prison, but they build estates surrounded by security fences and patrolled by bodyguards rendering their homes virtual prisons. What irony!

As always, Mr. Roberts has chosen a title which is significant. He suggests that the lake effect is not only a climactic condition which results in heavy snowfall on the east side of Cleveland, but a condition which affects the city’s residents. They enter a sort of depression at the beginning of the winter knowing that they will be snowed in for months. They will have little chance to see the sun, and with each new snowfall will find getting to work or just to the grocery store a real challenge. The additional burden of enormous heating bills during the long winter months has an effect on most of the city’s populace.

The Lake Effect is not one of Les Roberts best entries in his Milan Jacovich series, but it is a chance to look back at a younger, more naive Milan and should be worth the purchase price to fans of the series. To those who haven’t yet met Milan, read this one before, perhaps, The Best Kept Secret, which is much better.

--Andy Plonka