T. Jefferson Parker is the Pelacanos of Southern California, but this book was not up to his usual good story line. The main story is about a woman who has two identities. One is Suzanne Jones who is a 30-something 8th grade history teacher, and the mother of three. The other is Allyson Murietta, the descendent of Joaquin Murietta, a bandito who lived from 1830 until his beheading in 1853. Allyson identifies with the truth/myth of her ancestor and brings his persona back to current day life. She has acquired his severed head and keeps it in a glass jar, along with some of Joaquin’s other artifacts. She steals high end cars and robs fast food joints, especially the ones where she worked as a teen. At the start of the book, she stumbles across a black market diamond deal that has gone bad. After a fire fight in which 10 men, everyone on both sides of the battle, are all killed. So, she slips into the scene and steals the diamonds before anyone else can get there. Of course, there are people who know the diamonds exist, and she is pursued by several people, including her foil, Deputy Charlie Hood. In the course of investigating Murietta/Jones, Hood falls in love with her and ends up in bed with her. Meanwhile, Murietta becomes famous in California because of the crime spree and the fact that she makes generous donations to various charities, something she believes that Joaquin had done. She also has business cards which she leaves behind at the scene of crimes. In the fast food heists, she sometimes stops to pose for pictures with the customers. Charlie Hood figures out that the current-day Murietta and Jones is the same person, but he helplessly continues the affair until Jones is killed by a Crip in the process of robbing another fast food place. The book closes with the funeral and Hood’s apparently unsuccessful attempt to convince Jones’ very bright 17-year-old to go to college and not follow his mother’s path to crime.
As much as I have liked Parker’s books as a quick and easy read, this one does not cut it, much like Kirkendall felt about Lee Child’s “Nothing to Lose.” It was a pedestrian effort by a usually good novelist. Once again, this was a book given to me by Boedeker, one that he did not report in the blog. So, Chris, do you have a phobia about book reviews? Am I just being used – you read a book, pass it to me, and wait for my review? You could have saved me the trouble of reading this one. This was the 7th of my week-long vacation books, and I’m now back to my usual life, so it may be a while until you see another post from me.
West Coast Don
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