The Famous and the Dead

Starred review from February 11, 2013
Edgar-winner Parker’s complex, ambitious, sixth and final Charlie Hood novel (after 2012’s The Jaguar) finds the affable, tireless deputy in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office working undercover for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Posing as an arms dealer named Charlie Hooper, Hood is trying to stop the flow of guns between Southern California and Mexico—and locate the elusive Mike Finnegan, a mixture of Professor Moriarty and Doctor Faustus who featured prominently in The Jaguar. Meanwhile, Bradley Jones continues to work both sides of the fence as a deputy with the sheriff’s office and as a courier for the Baja Cartel, while trying to reconcile with his pregnant wife, Erin. And Clint Wampler, a wannabe gun runner, is looking to make a score. As usual, Parker combines an artfully constructed plot with memorable prose (e.g., “the dusty burnt breath of a space heater”). This highly impressive thriller demonstrates how genre fiction can take on substantial themes in an entertaining and provocative way. Agent: Robert Gottlieb, Trident Media Group.

March 1, 2013
Parker reaches once more into the real-life story of Operation Fast & Furious to conclude his sprawling, multivolume saga of Charlie Hood, the seen-it-all deputy of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Operation Blowdown, which already went south, is now coming back north. Three years after a thousand Love 32s were smuggled into Mexico under the noses of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the weapons have begun to make their way back into the U.S. It's only a matter of time before liberal California congressman Scott Freeman is assassinated by Lonnie Rovanna, a schizophrenic former bodyguard who's been told to kill Freeman by the voices he hears on the radio, helpfully supplied with a Love 32 by Dr. Todd Stren, a psychologist who consults with the San Diego Superior Court. Charlie quickly realizes that Dr. Stren is actually Mike Finnegan, the bathroom-products wholesaler who's also a modern devil (The Border Lords, 2011, etc.). Even before Freeman hits the floor, Charlie's already under fire from his rabid congressional colleague Darren Grossly; once Freeman has been pronounced dead and somebody's got to take the blame, it's clear that Charlie's days with the LASD are numbered. Getting forced into two paid leaves, however, merely sharpens Charlie's appetite and frees his hands to go after his prey: Finnegan, North Baja Cartel head Carlos Herredia, falling LASD star Bradley Jones and a ring of insider thieves, including the extremely well-armed Clint Wampler, who's already cherishing a bitter personal grudge against Charlie for hurting his finger. The ensuing ritualistic showdowns, which seem to owe as much to The Lord of the Rings as to other cop novels, show Parker burrowing deep into his characters, so that both heroes and villains spring to unnervingly complicated life. Part cops-versus-drugs-and-guns procedural, part elemental morality play, part fire-and-brimstone mythmaking, all of it inimitably Parker.

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March 1, 2013

In the sixth and final volume of Parker's Charlie Hood series his hero is working undercover for the Feds and struggling to stop the flow of guns to Mexico. Undermining his efforts is Mike Finnegan, a former bath-fixture salesman who has turned gunrunner. Although Hood and his staff pose as cartel members during complicated sting operations, Finnegan's mysterious contacts enable him to transport 1,000 illegal guns into Mexico, a few of which are used to slay innocent civilians. The Feds hold Hood and his colleagues responsible. Meanwhile, the young L.A. deputy Bradley Jones must choose between upholding the law and working with the cartel while awaiting the birth of his first child. In the final chapters, Parker brings the series to a somber close. VERDICT Parker pulls it all together in a rather complex plotline that first-time readers might find confusing and slow-paced for a police procedural. But series fans will want this. [See Prepub Alert, 10/28/12.]--Jerry P. Miller, Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2013
A steady stream of trouble flows along the Iron River, the gun-trafficking corridor straddling the Mexican-American border from California to Texas. Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Charlie Hood knows the passageway's dark history all too well; he helps monitor it for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In this compelling conclusion to three-time Edgar-winner Parker's best-selling Charlie Hood series (after The Jaguar, 2012), Deputy Hood once again finds himself in the company of unsavory sorts. Shady Los Angeles cop Bradley Jones, son of late L.A. outlaw Suzanne Jones, is still in tight with the Baja Cartel. (Deputy Hood was deeply in love with Bradley's mother and feels a certain bond with her son, despite his wayward ways.) Bradley's wife is pregnant, and Hood hopes the responsibilities of parenthood will force Jones to shape up. Meanwhile, sinister salesman Mike Finnegan continues to snake his way into Hood's life. (This time, he mysteriously surfaces in a House committee hearing in which Hood is testifying.) The sheriff's new and equally nefarious nemesis is Lonnie Rovanna, an unhinged soul with an itchy trigger finger and voices in his head. Parker's knack for intriguing characters and steadily escalating suspense make this a memorable finish to a standout series. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Parker is a three-time Edgar winnerone of only three writers who has won more than oneand this stirring conclusion to a critically acclaimed series will draw his established audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)