T. Jefferson Parker signs IRON RIVER

Charlie Hood is back for the third installment of T. Jefferson Parker’s popular series and he is fighting the good fight on the California / Mexico border. Iron River takes place in the badlands divided by an iron river awash in smuggled arms. Hood is a member of the task force Operation Blowdown, targeting local arms manufacturers smuggling American guns and ammunition to Mexican drug cartels. Although Hood is our hero, there are a lot of characters to keep track of in the intricate plotting and fast pacing of Iron River. Character development can be difficult when the characters are so enigmatic. Parker solves this challenge, however, with my favorite part of the novel, poignant epistolary asides Hood writes to his parents. The terse, immediate style keeps the action moving back and forth across the border, in and out of bars, hospital rooms and gun stores. Parker is a master of this territory, his description of this landscape is as accurate, yet as noir, as the Southwestern desert can be. Although Iron River is fiction, its relevance is that the violence from the drug cartels is a constant in our daily suburban life -- and that may be the most terrifying part of Parker’s story.
--sd

Allison is an L.A. celebrity, a folk hero, and a modern-day Jesse James who loves a good armed robbery. She has a compulsion to steal, a knack for publicity, and the conscience to give it all to charity. In fact, one of her biggest fans is a cop. And no oneas ever been hurtauntil last night. Now she and the rookie deputy are on the run for their lives.