The Border Lords

November 8, 2010
At the start of Parker's adrenaline-fueled fourth thriller featuring L.A. sheriff's deputy Charlie Hood (after Iron River), Hood, who's still on loan to the ATF, and his ATF partners are watching a house in the border town of Buenavista, Calif., occupied by four young gunmen of the North Baja Cartel—and Hood's ATF agent friend, Sean Ozburn, who's operating undercover as a meth and gun dealer. When Ozburn goes rogue and fatally shoots the four cartel members, Hood knows he has to bring Ozburn in. Parker skillfully blends Hood's pursuit of the increasingly erratic Ozburn, who approaches a powerful cartel leader about buying the latest gun sensation, the Love 32, with that of L.A. deputy Bradley Jones, a man with connections both to Hood's past and the world of the cartels. The porousness of the U.S.-Mexico border and the ease with which guns, drugs, and killers pass back and forth is nowhere better illustrated than in Parker's white-hot series.

October 15, 2010

In the fourth of his ambitious Border series (Iron River, 2010, etc.), Parker pits veteran agent Charlie Hood against errant good guys, vicious bad guys and maybe something in the paranormal guise.

Blowdown, the ATF operation aimed at coping with nonstop wickedness sourced south of the border, is not exactly overmatched, but Charlie is unsettled. He senses a day of reckoning. Entrepreneurial no-goods like the remorseless Carlos Herredia make formidable enemies. In defense of a flourishing drug trade, his well-armed, well-trained minions will murder at the drop of a sombrero, and it worries Charlie that close friend and colleague Sean Ozburn has been undercover among them longer than is feasible. And then suddenly there is tangible evidence suggesting Sean might have gone over, evidence persuasive enough to shake even Seliah, Sean's loving and endlessly loyal wife. The fact is Sean's behavior has undergone a sea change. He says and does things that to Charlie—to Seliah as well—seem wildly out of character, so much so that the idea of demonic possession occurs at least fleetingly to all three. "Maybe we're really not normal people," a panicky Sean says to his wife. Meanwhile internecine warfare between cutthroat gangs has intensified, catching Sean in the middle. The southern border becomes a killing field as barbarian chieftains struggle for ascendancy, while to Parker the war itself becomes a metaphor for a civil society struggling to survive. An excess of subplots softens the middle a bit, but this is a rich book, packed with action, violence, love, lust, flashes of wit, moments of poignancy and the occasional sharp geopolitical insight.

Despite 17 novels ranging from first-rate to extraordinary, Parker has somehow managed not to become a household name, which means enough of you aren't trying.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2010

Father Joe is up to no good with his precious vampire bats, but Sean Ozburn doesn't know that when he befriends him. Sean is a reliable agent with the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), and his colleague Charlie Hood trusts him totally. But working undercover takes its toll, and now Sean's gone rogue, attacking the Mexican drug cartel on his own terms. Is Sean suffering from delusions of grandeur, or is his personality change caused by something more sinister? Meanwhile, young L.A. deputy Bradley Jones exerts his power, balancing his day job while conspiring with another branch of the cartel. Bradley's arrogance (he's a descendant of the infamous bandit Joaquin Murrieta) is breathtaking, and his devious plans complicate Charlie's operations. With no time to waste, Charlie is soon scrambling from remote airstrips to resorts in a desperate attempt to save lives. The devil is very much present in this troubled landscape, and he's the ultimate shape-shifter, as Parker has so adeptly proven with his Charlie Hood titles. VERDICT Parker's dark and gritty series takes readers beyond the drug war headlines, personalizing the toll it's taken on our souls. Series fans will devour this sequel to Iron River. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 8/10.]--Teresa L. Jacobsen, Solano Cty. Lib., Fairfield, CA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2010
Vampire bats and vicious criminals populate the pages of Parkers fourth thriller in his standout series featuring L.A. sheriffs deputy Charlie Hood. The Border Lords finds Deputy Hood still determined to battle gun and drug traffic along the U.S.-Mexico border. But this time, his greatest enemy may come from within. Veteran undercover ATF agent Sean Ozburn has dropped out of sight, leaving a handful of bullet-riddled bodies in his wake. Has the stress of years of leading a double life taken its toll, or is it something more sinister? Ozburns wife, Seliah, has received passion-fueled e-mails from Sean that speak of a gravely important mission but offer no indication of his whereabouts. Both husband and wife have been exhibiting erratic, often-violent behavior, symptoms characteristic of rabies. Clues to the couples condition lie in their encounter with a priest in Costa Rica, who may have been anything other than a righteous man of the cloth. Meanwhile, Bradley Jones, the son of the late, lovely gangster Allison Murrieta and a newly minted member of the Sheriffs Department, has been doing his part to bring down bad guys (and turn himself into a media darling along the way). Three-time Edgar winner Parker has created a memorable character in Charlie Hood, who remains a beacon of restrained hope in a world of despair and dark deeds. High-Demand Backstory: Three-time Edgar-winner Parker, long a favorite of genre cognoscenti, is making the transition to widespread mainstream popularity. His latest, to receive best-seller-type promotion, will increase the pace.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)