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A Novel
by T Jefferson Parker
Book Reviewed by:The emotionally wrenching tale of three brothers and the brutal act that irrevocably changes their lives.
A different world then,
a different world now ...
California in the 1960s, and the winds of change are raging. Orange groves uprooted for tract houses, people flooding into Orange County, strange new ideas in the air about war, music, sex, and drugs, and new influences, ranging from Richard Nixon to Timothy Leary.
For the Becker brothers, however, the past is always present -- and it comes crashing back full force when the body of the lovely and mysterious Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned orange-packing plant. The Beckers and the Vonns have a history, beginning years ago in high school with a rumble between the brothers of each clan.
But boys grow up. Now one Becker brother is a cop on his first homicide case. One's a minister yearning to perform just one miracle. One is a reporter drunk with ambition. And all three are about to collide with the changing world of 1968 as each brother, in his own unique way, tries to find Janelle's killer.
As suspects multiply and secrets are exposed, the three Becker brothers are drawn further into the case, deeper into the past, and closer to danger.
In this excerpt from California Girl, Nick Becker is a young homicide detective in Southern California working his first murder case.
The victim is beautiful, young Janelle Vonn, who grew up poor not far from the Beckers. Nick knew Janelle as a troubled young girl, a victim of incest at the hands of her criminal brothers, a dethroned beauty queen trying to find her way through the turbulent year of 1968. When her decapitated body is found in an old orange packing house in Tustin, Nick begins an investigation, and a journey, that will change his life and the life of those around him. This excerpt starts half way through Chapter 11, at page 87 (approximately).
Nick found Lenny Vonn that afternoon. Same house out in Modjeska Canyon. Brother Casey and father Karl were there too, the three of them sitting in the garage drinking beers while Lenny cleaned out the carb on his yellow and orange Panhead. Casey had a Hessians vest on. His hair was almost to his shoulders and ...
California Girl is not only a gripping mystery but an emotionally absorbing family saga. If you haven't already discovered this Edgar Award-winning novelist I encourage you to do so...continued
Full Review
(218 words)
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
This is Parker's 12th book. In publication order they are: Laguna Heat (1985), Little Saigon (1988), Pacific Beat (1991), Summer Of Fear (1993), The Triggerman's Dance (1996), Where Serpents Lie (1998), The Blue Hour (1999), Red Light (2000), Silent Joe (2001), Black Water (2002), Cold Pursuit (2003), California Girl (2004 hardcover).
The Fallen will be published in hardcover this March.
Incidentally, the 'T' in Parker's name is just that, a T - it's not short for anything. It seems that his mother thought it would look good on the door of the President! Consider yourself lucky he chose to be a novelist instead; we're richer for it. To his friends, he's simply Jeff.
If you liked California Girl, try these:
by Celeste Ng
Published 2015
A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait.
by William Kent Krueger
Published 2014
Told from Frank's perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him.
by Giles Blunt
Published 2008
Detective John Cardinal is on the hunt for an ingenious killer even as he mourns his own wife’s tragic death in this thriller of heart-stopping suspense. Published in the UK as The Fields of Grief.
You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think.
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