It is December 1999 and Sammy Greene has only been in Los Angeles a few months but already she is getting her groove back. Fired from a Washington TV producer job for pushing hard on a politician, Sammy is blackballed in the journalism field. A friend found her a job as a radio host on a midnight shift at a small L.A. station, and Sammy is thankful. The Santa Anna winds, locally known as the devil wind, are blowing, spreading fires across the hills outside L.A. Sammy is working an angle on all the homeless people who need help.

Sammy's father lives in L.A. and after divorcing his second wife, a woman Sammy grew to love, he married a like-minded woman and his real estate business soared. Connections with a congressman who has inside knowledge of military land for sale have Jefferey Greene's business set. Sammy has been estranged from her dad for years.

Another person from Sammy's past is Dr. Reed Wyndham. Four years previous, Sammy broke up with Reed due to a fear of commitment. He just happens to be working in a local hospital. So when Sammy learns that a young woman is found burned from the fires and her name is released as Anna Pappajohn, Sammy realizes the woman is the daughter of her good friend, retired police officer Gus Pappajohn. She heads to the hospital and runs into Reed, where she learns Anna has died.

Sammy calls Gus and picks him up at the airport. Together they start to investigate what happened to Anna. When the coroner's report doesn't match what Sammy learned at the hospital, that Anna may have had a broken jaw and the body is cremated against Gus' wishes, Sammy thinks there's a cover-up.

Sammy arranges a breakfast for the homeless on Christmas morning in the parking area of the Canyon City tower building. Remodeling has begun on the building and it is her father who owns the building. Just as Sammy and the volunteers are feeding hundreds of homeless people, an explosion occurs and the building crashes, hurting and killing the fleeing people. An investigation of the accident doesn't add up for Sammy, so she digs into her father's businesses and finds connections to other buildings crashing down. Meanwhile, a sinister plot set to occur on Y2K has been set in motion. Unknowingly, Sammy will be right in the middle of its path.

DEVIL WIND is written by Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid, both experts in the medical and journalistic fields with professional contacts in the engineering field. This story is a thrilling tale of corruption, murder and nature's fury with a most satisfying culmination.

Book Summary

Outspoken, brash New Yorker Sammy Greene needs a second chance. Fired from her job as a Washington TV producer, her midnight to 3 am show "Sammy Greene on the LA Scene" at a small progressive radio station soon has Sammy ruffling the feathers of a popular Orange County Congressman. And everyone is listening.

December, 1999. 10 days before the new millennium. Already on edge with Santa Ana "devil wind" fanning fires threatening to engulf the city and Y2K looming, Sammy's callers imagine Armageddon - the perfect setting for a rogue CIA operative to manipulate fears as cover for his deadly plot.

A young woman's burned body identified as the wayward daughter of old friend, Gus Pappajohn spurs the ex- campus cop to join Sammy in what may be a murder investigation, along the way exposing the seamy underbelly of Tinseltown. If Sammy's not careful this time, someone will make sure she's off the air for good.

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