Outrun the Rain is the first book in N.R. Walker’s new Storm Boys trilogy, a same-couple series in which the two leads are a geeky fulminologist (someone who studies lightning) and a free-spirited storm chaser based in Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. It’s a quick, fun read, featuring likeable characters and a superbly rendered setting, and the topic – which the author has obviously researched extensively – is fascinating.

Dr. Jeremiah Overton, from the Bureau of Meterology in Melbourne, is heading to the Northern Territory – specifically, the wilds of Kakadu National Park – to spend a week observing and “running fancy tests” during the brutal electrical storms that typically arrive with the heat and humidity of the summer. Asking around has found him a guide by the name of Tully Larson, a guy who chases storms for fun rather than any scientific or academic reason; and despite Tully’s best efforts to put him off – they’ll be camping, there’s a lot of hiking, they’ll be on their own in the middle of nowhever – Jeremiah is set on going.

When the book begins, Tully is waiting at the tiny airport in Jabiru, expecting some old, crusty professor type – but his week starts looking a lot better when he’s approached by a man about his own age, wearing shorts, hiking books and a button-up shirt that makes him look nerdily sexy. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with him will be no hardship.

As the first in a series about the same characters, Outrun the Rain is very much an introductory story, setting up some character arcs and laying the foundations for their relationship. It’s a low-angst story, where all the drama is external (the storms Tully and Jeremiah experience provide plenty of danger and excitement), and the ending is a bit too pat, but there is clearly more going on beneath the surface with both leads, and the author has laid the groundwork for the rest of the series very well, so I’m hooked.

Both protagonists are easy to like and three dimensional, although they’re not fully-fleshed out yet. The author describes Tully: “If sunshine was a person, it would be Tully Larson” and that’s perfect; he’s easy-going and carefree with a great sense of fun, he says what he thinks and nothing (well, not much) fazes him. I loved his generosity of spirit and his sense of humour – and there are hints of greater complexity when he mentions his relationship with his siblings and his role in the family business, telling Jeremiah that “who I was with you this last week was the me no-one else gets to see.”

Jeremiah has deeply personal reasons for his lifelong fascination with lightning and his dedication to the science of fulminology – a passion he knows has made him something of a laughing stock and unpopular among his colleagues, some of whom have gone so far as to describe him as ‘creepy’. He’s quiet and earnest and determined to focus on his work, but Tully’s good humour and unabashed flirtatiousness soon win him over, and he finds himself slowly relaxing and realising he feels more comfortable with Tully than he’s felt with anyone in… well, ever.

Despite his determination to resist Tully’s obvious charms, it doesn’t take Jeremiah long to realise he’s fighting a losing battle. The enforced proximity of spending a week alone together in a hut in the middle of nowhere (with Only One Bed!) and Tully’s obvious interest in getting to know him, his enthusiasm about storms and interest in Jeremiah’s work, prove impossible to resist. I liked that, despite the playful banter and flirting and the growing physical attraction between them, they are very serious and business-like when in ‘work mode’. The closeness that develops between them, even though it happens over just a few days, feels very genuine, and their reluctance to leave the hut – despite the dangers from the storms and the lack of mod cons – because of what going back to the ‘real world’ means for them both, is palpable.

Another thing I really liked was the way the author upends reader expectations by making Jeremiah the reckless one when it comes to what he’ll do to get results. He might be the grumpy to Tully’s sunshine and the geeky academic to Tully’s wild child, but he’s the one prepared to take some, frankly, crazy-stupid risks in the face of Tully’s urge to caution.

Outrun the Rain clocks in at just under 200 pages, so it is, as I said above, a quick read, but it’s an enjoyable one, and sets up the series nicely. The main reason I haven’t rated it more highly is because, on its own, it’s a bit… insubstantial. The characters are drawn in broad brush-strokes rather than in detail, and the ending is rushed and too convenient. In fact, when I read it, I didn’t realise this was a same-couple series, so I was thinking I’d be giving the book a cautious recommendation, but then I saw information to indicate this wouldn’t be the only book about Jeremiah and Tully, and various things fell into place. (At time of writing, book two, Into the Tempest will be out in a couple of weeks, with book three, Touch the Lighning coming along a few weeks after that.) So I’m going to solidly recommend Outrun the Rain – the incredible descriptions of the terrain and the ferocity of the storms are worth the price of admission alone – and because I’m looking forward to finding out more about the Storm Boys and where they go from here.