After only two books, I've become a big fan of the mystery novels of T. Jefferson Parker. My first exposure to him was California Girl, a decades-spanning novel involving two families in Southern California (you can read my review here). For my second outing with the author, I picked L.A. Outlaws, which turns out to be Parker's first "Charlie Hood" book, named after the young Los Angeles County sheriff featured in the book. (Parker has gone on to do two more books featuring Hood, The Renegades and Iron River.)
But the real star of L.A. Outlaws isn't Hood, it's Allison Murrieta, a direct descendant of the legendary outlaw Joaquim Murieta. Allison is in reality schoolteacher Suzanne Jones, a woman who lives life by her own rules. By day she teaches 8th grade history in the Los Angeles school district and lives with her current boyfriend and three sons (all by different fathers). And on some nights she dons a mask and flashes a derringer as she rips off fast food joints and boosts cars, leaving behind a calling card that boasts who perpetrated the robbery. She fast becomes a media darling, but when she comes across a diamond heist that left ten men dead--and steals the diamonds herself--she becomes hunted by the killer Lupercio. Lupercio is one of those No Country for Old Men types, a haunting, deadly figure who wields a machete and has ties that can allow him to find anyone anywhere. Hood falls for Jones, suspecting that she is in fact Murrieta, and tries to protect her from Lupercio; Murrieta decides to take on Lupercio--and his shadowy boss--alone. The result is an absolutely thrilling book, one of those "it's midnight--I'll just read ONE more chapter" page-turners that keeps you up long past your bedtime. As an added bonus, most of Parker's book seem to take place in Southern California. I like the "in my backyard" feel of that.
L.A. Outlaws also has the distinction of being the first book I purchased for my iPad. I found the entire experience incredibly enjoyable, from the opening fact that I could just quickly download a book without leaving my couch to the very end where I didn't kill a tree or have to find a space on my already-crowded bookshelves to place the finished book. My only regret is iBooks currently doesn't have the second book featuring Charlie Hood...I would have downloaded--and devoured--that immediately.
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