Cold Pursuit - Softcover

Parker, Jefferson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007149344 ISBN 13: 9780007149346

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2003

Synopsis

When Vengeance runs in the blood only murder can stop it dead, in this stunning new thriller from the award-winning author of Black Water..

An 84-year old city patriarch, Pete Braga, is found bludgeoned to death. Not good news for Detective Tom McMichael as the Irish McMichaels and the Portuguese Bragas share a violent family history dating back three generations.

Years ago Braga had shot McMichael’s grandfather in a dispute over a pay cheque; soon after Braga’s son was severely beaten.

McMichael must try and see through the old family feuds and find out the truth about Pete Braga’s death. Braga’s beautiful nurse is a suspect, but the investigation soon expands to include Braga’s business, his family, the Catholic diocese, a multi-million dollar Indian casino, a prostitute, a cop, and of course the McMichael family.

About this title

Review:

Why isn't T Jefferson Parker as famous as, say, James Patterson or Robert B Parker? He's that good, and in some ways better. In Cold Pursuit, his 11th novel, San Diego homicide cop Tom McMichael finds himself investigating the bludgeoning to death of Pete Braga, a prominent city patriarch who was also a blood enemy of the McMichael family. It's a complex case fraught with political and economic pressures, ugly family history, police corruption and multiple red herrings, made more complex by McMichael's romantic attraction to a key suspect.

Parker's writing is a pleasure from the first sentence to the last: intelligent, often quietly poetic, cliché-free, and as crisp and dry as a good Pinot Gris. Here is the book's opening paragraph, which accomplishes several scene-setting tasks while pleasing both ear and brain:

That night the wind came hard off the Pacific, an El Nino event that would blow three inches of rain onto the roofs of San Diego. It was the first big storm of the season, early January and overdue. Palm fronds lifted with a plastic hiss and slapped against the windows of McMichael's apartment. The digitized chirp of his phone sounded ridiculous against the steady wind outside.

At times the book's richly complex plot gets confusing, and some sections aren't especially suspenseful. However, every page is absorbing and affecting and the ending is a shocker. Peopled by a teeming cast of full-blooded characters and set in a San Diego so vivid you can smell the beach and the blood, Cold Pursuit may be Parker's subtlest, most satisfying tale yet. --Nicholas H Allison, Amazon.com

Review:

Praise for Jefferson Parker
'Insanely imaginative' New York Times

'One of the most entertaining tough-guy writers' Esquire

Praise for Black Water
'Parker at the top of his form' Los Angeles Times

‘Both convincing and heartening. Parker gets better and better’ Literary Review

‘An entertaining story with an appealing heroine’ Sunday Telegraph

Praise for Silent Joe
‘Worth shouting about’ People Magazine

‘Full of quirks and great surprises’ Wall Street Journal

Praise for Red Light
‘Parker’s latest sizzles along, an infectious blend of atmosphere, action and passion’
Publisher’s Weekly

Praise for The Blue Hour
‘Jefferson Parker is a powerhouse writer’
New York Times Book Review‘

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0007149344
• ISBN 13: 9780007149346
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368