Synopses & Reviews
On a dusty highway just north of the United States/Mexico border a man named Mike Finnegan is struck by a fast-moving vehicle and flung into the desert. Miraculously, he survives and winds up in a hospital in the tiny border town of Buenavista, seemingly in full possession of his faculties-including the eerie ability to understand events happening well outside the view from his hospital bed.
Charlie Hood joins a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms task force patrolling the "iron river," where illegal guns flow from U.S. dealers to the Mexican drug business. Hood is part of a stakeout team when a federal officer's bullet kills an innocent boy.
The boy happens to be the son of Benjamin Armenta, head of the Gulf Cartel and one of the most violent men in the world. Armenta's thirst for vengeance even in routine business matters is well-known. His hired killers are credited with many of the murders and beheadings of the fifteen thousand people who have died in the cartel wars along the border in recent years. Hood and ATF brace themselves for brute vengeance.
As this unthinkable violence leaks from Mexico into the United States, and as Finnegan's predictive powers become even stranger and stronger, Charlie Hood works to understand the mysterious forces fighting for control of this tiny border town, forces that may have the power to slow the iron river-and to save the ATF men he has come to think of as his brothers.
Review
"A masterpiece of postmodern noir. Here is a brilliant craftsman and storyteller at the height of his powers."
-Providence Journal on The Renegades
"Parker's concise prose, at once low-key and lyrical, plays almost like cowboy poetry."
-Los Angeles Times
"Parker glides from novel to novel, usually taking us in unexpected new directions. If you're interested in the best of today's crime fiction, he's someone you should read."
-The Washington Post
Synopsis
T. Jefferson Parker ranks among the very top tier of contemporary crime writers, and his new series has received some of the most effusive reviews of his already stellar career. In L.A. Outlaws, Parker introduced Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy Charlie Hood, plunging him into a glamorous, fast-moving world of antiheroes-and antiheroines. In The Renegades, Hood was ensnared in a major case of police corruption. BookReporter.com raved: And while, again, The Renegades is complete in itself, my gut feeling is that with L.A. Outlaws and a future novel, it will form a trilogy that will stand as the high-water mark of Parker's work. In the meantime, a year seems too long a time to wait to find out. The wait is over. Iron River is here.
This time around, Hood is running the California-Mexico border with the ATFE, searching for the iron river-the massive and illegal flow of handguns and automatic weapons that fuels the bloody cartel wars south of the border. Gunrunners by nature aren't exactly ethical, but the lengths they'll go to, and the innocent lives they'll risk, are shocking even to Hood. Most shocking of all is the close personal connection Hood finds wrapped up in events south of the border-a connection that shakes him to his core.
Synopsis
The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "The Renegades" returns with his latest thriller featuring Los Angeles Country deputy Charlie Hood. This time, Hood is searching for the iron river--the massive and illegal flow of handguns that fuels the bloody cartel wars south of the border.
Synopsis
Along the U.S./Mexico border, a man named Finnegan wakes up in the border-town of Buenavista after a hit and run-eerily aware of events he should know nothing about, $90,000 richer, and with Charlie Hood's name and address in his wallet.
Meanwhile when tracking the flow of illegal guns into Mexico, Hood's team accidentally kills the son of Benjamin Armenta, head of the Gulf Cartel and one of the most violent men in the world. Now, Hood must work to grasp the enigmatic forces fighting for control of Buenavista- forces that circle back to Finnegan, and to Armenta's unstoppable plan for brutal vengeance.
About the Author
T. Jefferson Parker is the bestselling author of fifteen previous novels, including L.A. Outlaws and Storm Runners. Along with Dick Francis and James Lee Burke, he is one of only three two-time recipients of the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Parker lives with his family in Southern California.