Iron River by T. Jefferson Parker

Once again Parker writes about his detective Charlie Hood of the LA Sheriff’s Department, who is on loan to the ATFE for Operation Blowdown as they work to stem the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico, which is the Iron River. Parker seems to have a fascination with tying in the decendents of the mega-outlaw, Joaquin Murietta, who we learned a lot about in LA Outlaws. In this book, he also connects the current bad guys, at least by outlaw contacts, to Coleman Draper, the bad guy in the Renegades. Bringing in the old characters does lend some continuity to the writing, but it is not necessary, since this book clearly stands by itself and does not need to be read as a part of the series. In this book, Parker does extend the remarkable information about how the drug dealers in northern Mexico get guns from the US and move them across the border. He uses the interesting device of making an Orange County gunmaker, Ron Pace, the narrator for the book. Pace has gone bankrupt as the result of one of his guns killing an innocent boy and then losing a multimillion dollar judgment to the boy’s family. Now, Pace is attempting to revive this company that was created by his father and uncle, although he is doing it illegally, with drug money. After all, the drug boys need their guns and are willing to pay for them. The action opens near El Centro as an ATFE gun bust goes bad and the 17-year-old son of a major Mexican drug dealer gets caught by a stray bullet and dies. He retaliates against an ATFE agent, Jimmy Holdstock, in what turns out to be some horrific torture scenes. There are other characters in this book, and I hope Parker writes more about Mike Finnegan, a mysterious man who seems to play both sides of the drug-alcohol trade with knowledge that he should not have access to. At any rate, I found the book with my time, and I learned more about the illegal movement of guns into Mexico than I had known before. I will continue to read T. Jefferson Parker.

West Coast Don