Weather, specifically Hurricane Katrina, plays a big role in Ed Kovacs' novel "Storm Damage."

But the Granite City native is adamant that the hero isn't named after a former St. Louis weatherman/clown.

The hero is a tough cop, a mixed martial arts expert named Cliff St. James, who learns of a murder. Trouble is coming, though, from a Category 5 storm that will wipe away evidence and what little interest there is in solving the crime.

Kovacs says there is "no conscious effort to link my hero to Corky the Clown," a character local KSDK personality Clif St. James played from 1963-80.

The author grew up as Ed Kovach in Granite City and remembers watching from his back yard the Arch being built. He graduated from college in 1976 with a degree in mass communications from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. 

Kovach decided that if he started writing, he'd use Kovacs in honor of his Hungarian grandfather, whose name was changed at Ellis Island.

So Kovacs it is for his first thriller with St. Martin's publishers. He'll sign "Storm Damage" at 4 p.m. Sunday (Jan. 15) at Left Bank Books. His mother and some siblings still live in Granite City and other nearby cities.

But Kovacs has traveled and lived around the world, working most frequently as an armed security contractor in Central Asia. He's also taught in Cambodia and produced movies in Israel. He has a home in both Southeast Asia and in an airport hanger in Southern California.

Kovacs tends to be vague about his locations. The apartment in an airport hanger isn't entirely approved by local codes, and his work in other places is sometimes classified, he says.

But he pinpoints the inspiration for "Storm Damage." He was sent to New Orleans to help protect people and property after the hurricane:

"It was very dangerous. It was a war zone. Guys I worked with were shot at, and it was pretty much anarchy for three weeks."

Talking by phone Friday, before his homecoming, he says that the idea for the thriller came from a true life case and a police officer he met in New Orleans.

He heard about the murder of a bar owner right before Katrina. "I became friends with an NOPD officer who knew the victim. He ended up buying the victim’s bar."

As for Cliff St. James, Kovacs says every other street in New Orleans is "saint" something. And he met a tough guy named Cliff, which he used for the hero. After he wrote the first draft to "Storm Damage," Kovacs started remembering that there was a weatherman in St. Louis with a similar name. Now he regrets that he's getting questions from St. Louisans about the coincidence.

But in Kovacs' next thriller, St. James will return and we'll find out that he did live in St. Louis at one time. There isn't a chance, though, that he'll have a big red nose.