Who doesn't love an outlaw, especially one who donates to charity and never injures a soul? Believing herself a direct descendant of the legendary Mexican bandit Joaquin Murrieta, Allison Murrieta teaches history in public schools by day and steals cars and robs fast-food restaurants in her free time. Her outlaw life is going well until she witnesses the gory aftermath of a diamond heist gone awry-then runs off with the diamonds. Let the chase begin. Certain characters, both criminals and law officers, will do most anything to get their hands on these diamonds. Allison's biggest problem-aside from staying alive-is how to handle smitten LA sheriff's deputy Charlie Hood, who until now has channeled all his youthful energy into doing the honorable thing. Edgar Award winner Parker (Storm Runners) packs in so many characters and subplots that his speed-driven crime novel sometimes bogs down like a freeway at rush hour. But his ability to evoke the cultural landscape of Southern California, with all its audacity and media obsession, is spot-on. Expect high demand and buy for all popular fiction collections.
—Teresa L. Jacobsen
A legendary outlaw's DNA plays an unlikely role in Parker's latest winner (Storm Runners, 2007, etc.). "Here's the deal," proclaims our heroine at the opening of the novel. "I am the direct descendent of the outlaw Joaquin Murrieta," whose questionable virtues she goes on to extol. Apparently, he could charm, chill and kill with equal facility. But in 1853, Joaquin's larcenous career was ended the hard way by a contingent of Texas Rangers: They shot him dead, then cut his head off. Some say the year was 1878. Some say he didn't die or live at all, that he was a romantic myth, an amalgam of at least three Joaquin-like desperadoes. Numbered among the skeptical you would never find Suzanne Elizabeth Jones. She's the beautiful mother of three and currently employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District as a history teacher. She is also self-employed, involved in work that has been giving Southern California law enforcement fits for some little time. Masked, bewigged and packing her palm-sized Ca-onita (.40 caliber, ivory-handled derringer), she steals from the rich and, on occasion, shares a portion of the plunder with the poor and/or deserving. As a memento after each victimization, she leaves behind her card: "You have been robbed by Allison Murrieta. Have a nice day." Life changes abruptly for Suzanne (aka Allison) when she stumbles upon the aftermath of a fire fight that has left ten gangsters dead, and she discovers diamonds worth some $400,000. She takes the gems, setting off a chain of events that leads to violence and death, passion and love. In this latter regard, enter Charlie Hood, a good cop and good man who understands the ferocity inherent in Suzanne/Allison's nature-a sideof her as wild as it is deterministic. All the requisite action-suspense: No one does thriller-with-heart better than Parker.
"L.A. Outlaws is hard, fast, and etched with characters so sharp they'll leave you bleeding. This is the best T. Jefferson Parker novel yet." —Robert Crais
"No one does tough like T. Jefferson Parker, and this time tough equates to one Allison Murrieta, a combination of Robin Hood, Zorro, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Gloria Steinem. An amazing read." —Elizabeth George
"The irresistible antihero of this outstanding thriller from bestseller Parker (Laguna Heat) calls herself Allison Murrieta and claims to be a descendant of Joaquin Murrieta, a 19th-century figure who looms large in California folklore (he was either a ruthless robber and killer or an Old West vigilante and Robin Hood). By day, Allison is Suzanne Jones, an eighth-grade history teacher with three sons in Los Angeles; by night, she dons a mask, straps on her derringer and steals from the greedy. Beloved by the media, she never uses the gun; her victims are never sympathetic; and she gives part of her loot to charity. But while stealing diamonds belonging to a master criminal known as the Bull, she witnesses a gangland-style bloodbath at the hands of Lupercio, a ruthless assassin working for the Bull. As she’s leaving the scene of the crime, L.A. sheriff’s deputy Charles Hood stops her, and that’s when the plot gets complicated. The Bull wants his diamonds back. Lupercio knows Murrieta/Jones took them. Hood wants Jones to identify Lupercio. And the public wants to know who Murrieta really is. This tour de force of plotting and characterization may well be Parker’s best book." —Publishers Weekly
"Ambitious, daring...brilliant." —The Associated Press
"T. Jefferson Parker has burgled the crumbling palace of Edgar Allan Poe for inspiration." —The Wall Street Journal
“Parker, the winner of three Edgar awards for crime fiction, again delivers a tale that is not only well-plotted and suspenseful, but subtle, surprising and endearingly perverse.” —Washington Post
"T. Jefferson Parker has carved out a niche for himself as the Hemingway of thriller writers...His writing is a wonder to behold." —Providence Sunday Journal
“A spectacular close a crime series that obliterated the boundaries of the genre.” —BookReporter
"If you're interested in the best of today's crime fiction, [Parker's] someone you should read." —The Washington Post
"Parker could well be the best crime writer working out of Southern Caifornia." —Chicago Tribune
"The Charlie Hood novels are nothing less than addictive." —Tucson Citizen
"The most groundbreaking crime series in decades." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"This is gripping literary entertainment with a point." —Los Angeles Times
"Some of the finest writing you'll ever read." —Chicago Sun-Times
