The Famous and the Dead (Charlie Hood Novels)

New York Times bestseller T. Jefferson Parker, crime fiction's most critically acclaimed and award-winning writer continues "the most ground-breaking crime series in decades." (St. Louis Post- Dispatch) with another gripping tale of the Mexican border.

Erin McKenna, a beautiful songwriter married to a crooked Los Angeles County sheriff 's deputy, is kidnapped by Benjamin Armenta, the ruthless leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel. But his demands turn out to be as unusual as the crumbling castle in which Erin is kept. She is ordered to compose a unique narcocoriddo, a modern-day folk ballad of the kind that have recorded the exploits of the drug dealers, gunrunners, and outlaws who have highlighted Mexican history for generations. Under threat of death, Armenta orders Erin to tell his life story-in music-and write "the greatest narcocorrido of all time." Allowed to wander the dark hallways of the castle retreat with only a guitar and a mysterious old priest to keep her company, Erin must produce the most beautiful song that these men have ever heard.

As the mesmerizing music and lyrics of Erin's song cascade from the jungle hideout, they serve as a siren song to the two men who love Erin: her outlaw husband, Bradley Smith, and the lawman Charlie Hood- two men who together have the power to rescue her. Here, amid the ancient beauty and haunted landscape of the Yucatecan lowlands, the long-simmering rivalry between these men will be brought closer to its explosive finale.

T. Jefferson Parker, who is widely hailed as his generation's most accomplished and talented crime novelist, delivers a crime thriller that dramatically redefines the landscape of the cartel wars as an epic clash of good and evil.

When the police tell a wealthy industrialist that her missing son has faked his own kidnapping, she hires Elvis Cole and Joe Pike-and Cole soon determines that it was no fake. The boy and his secret girlfriend have been taken, and are now lost in the gray and changing world of the professional border kidnappers who prey not only on innocent victims but also on one another-buying, selling, and stealing victims like commodities. Fortunately, the kidnappers don't yet know who the boy is, but when Cole goes undercover to try to buy the two hostages back, he himself is taken and disappears. Now it is up to Pike to retrace Cole's steps, burning through the hard and murderous world of human traffickers . . . before it is too late.

Year after year, T. Jefferson Parker delivers powerful novels of depth and intelligence that make it clear that Dutton is not just publishing one of the best crime writers of his generation, but perhaps one of the greatest crime writers ever. The novels in the Charlie Hood cycle are the most accomplished in Parker's long career, and The Border Lords is the pinnacle of what has become the most groundbreaking crime series in decades.

In this riveting new novel, Parker demonstrates once again why The Washington Post said he writes "the best of today's crime fiction," and why he has won the Edgar Award three times.

ATF agent Sean Ozburn is deep undercover supporting the sicarios of the Baja Cartel when he suddenly goes completely dark, his only communications being the haunting digital videos he sends to his desperately worried wife, Seliah. Charlie Hood must determine if Oz is simply chasing demons deeper undercover than anyone has ever gone, or whether his friend has suffered a permanent break with his mission and his moral compass.

A crime novel of unprecedented scope and unrivaled storytelling ambition by one of our most treasured talents, The Border Lords revisits the fevered landscape of America's southern border- and confronts the unexplored depths of humanity's dark soul.