California Girl
T. Jefferson Parker
California Girl is a fantastic crime novel set in Southern California, the locale for all of T. Jefferson Parker's many entertaining novels. This author has been nominated three times for the Best Novel Edgar Award. This is his second winner, the first being Silent Joe. If you have never read one
of Parker’s books before, you don’t know what you are missing. He transcends the genre of mystery
novel, as his books have great depth and are not pure crime novels or mysteries. Like Silent Joe, this book is
a tremendous character study. Actually,
there are multiple character studies which intertwine and interact. California Girl is also a re-creation of an
era and a place: late 1960s Orange
County, California. While this is not a historical novel, the
appearance of many non-fictional characters makes this an even more interesting
read. These include such disparate
characters as Richard Nixon, Timothy Leary and a hyperactive and wild rock and
roll drummer named Charles Manson.
The
story is set up in the 1950s. Two
families feud after their sons are involved in a rumble outside of the
California Girl orange packing plant.
The Becker family (four sons) is respectable, church-going and hardworking. The Vonns (three boys, one girl) on the
other hand, are from “the other side of the tracks”, literally and figuratively. They are more interested in motorcycles,
alcohol and drugs than more mainstream pursuits. The one daughter involved, Janelle Vonn,
grows up to win regional beauty contests and rises above her sordid upbringing. The eldest Becker
son is killed in Viet Nam
and the remaining three mature into a minister, a newspaper reporter and a
police officer. The Vonn brothers remain
outside the law, engaged in everything from illicit drugs to stolen goods. The two family stories intersect again in
1968 when the decapitated body of Janelle Vonn is found in the now deserted
orange packing plant. Each of the three
Beckers investigates Janelle’s killing from his own perspective. Further clashes with the surviving Vonns are
inevitable. A conviction is finally
secured and the alleged perpetrator is incarcerated. The Beckers are never really satisfied with
this and thirty years later the case is brought to a startling and unexpected
conclusion. Dirty politics (a Parker
staple) play a major role in the resolution of the story.
This
book has it all: great characters which are well developed, a twisting but
plausible plot with unexpected turns, a spectacular Southern California setting
which the author obviously knows and loves and interesting historical tidbits
thrown in for good measure. I enjoyed California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker immensely and recommend it highly. This novel is more than worthy of the 2005 Edgar Award which it received.
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