The Renegades (Charlie Hood Series #2) by T. Jefferson Parker

From the Publisher

From the New York Times bestselling author of L.A. Outlaws

Deputy Sheriff Charlie Hood cruises the dusty backroads of the new American West. But when his partner is shot dead and Hood is drafted to find the killer, the investigation takes him to places he never wanted to go-where there's no clear line between good and evil.

The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson

[The Renegades is] not as flamboyant a novel as L.A. Outlaws, but it's a good one, in which Parker replaces his gossamer tale of a sexy thief with the ugly realities of police corruption and the multimillion-dollar Southern California drug trade…Parker is an interesting and inventive writer. There's a nice detachment in his portrait of Los Angeles: It's often hell on earth, but he views it with affection and a hint of humor. Because he's unwilling to be locked into a series, 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.

Publishers Weekly

In this crackling follow-up to L.A. Outlaws(2008), bestseller Parker brings the Wild West to Southern California. After helping to bring down a corrupt lawman in L.A., sheriff's deputy Charlie Hood has transferred to the desert community of Antelope Valley, where his hopes for a quieter life are shattered one night during a routine call: someone guns down his partner, Terry Laws, in their patrol car. Nicknamed "Mr. Wonderful," Terry is an unlikely target for a hit, so Charlie joins forces with Internal Affairs to track down the killer. But Terry's squeaky-clean veneer starts to crack the deeper Charlie digs into his personal life. There are large influxes of cash, and Terry's old partner, a reserve deputy, has connections to the Mexican drug trade. Parker creates a desert no-man's-land unique in its corruption, but no less dangerous than the roughest of South Central street corners, and Charlie Hood is the perfect reluctant hero to patrol it. (Feb.)

Teresa L. Jacobsen - Library Journal

Terry Laws was, by all accounts, a superb law enforcement officer. But on the night he happened to be riding with fellow LA Sheriff Deputy Charlie Hood, he was gunned down execution-style. It looks like a straightforward case of a gangbanger getting even with Laws, but Hood is assigned to Internal Affairs and finds the tidiness of this line of thinking disturbing. He gradually teases out anomalies indicating that Laws might have been a corrupt cop following a skewed renegade style of justice. Hood's strong moral compass steers the plot through a bleak morass of drug-saturated culture, stretching from the dreary high-desert suburbs above Los Angeles all the way south to no-man's-land between California and Mexico. Allison Murrieta's spirit (L.A. Outlaws) still haunts him and is personified by her teenage son, Bradley, a smart young soul who hasn't figured out which side of the law he most admires. It's quite a showdown, done the Edgar Award-winning Parker way, in this engrossing tale of justice and redemption. Highly recommended for all popular collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ10/1/08.]

Kirkus Reviews

Further proof that nobody likes a cop who nails a cop. Deputy Charlie Hood, of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is doing a stint with Internal Affairs and hating it. "I signed up to throw the bad guys in jail," he complains to a sympathetic ADA. When she points out to him that some bad guys wear uniforms, it's a truth that does little to dispel his sense that things are out of kilter: Cops should never have to chase cops. On the other hand, his investigation into the murder of Terry Laws, Mr. Wonderful to his fellow officers in the LASD, seems a case of an entirely different color: Cop killers should never be allowed to breathe free air. But the case darkens dishearteningly when the victim, a champion bodybuilder and estimable citizen, turns up on the payroll of a fat cat Mexican drug lord. The partner who survives Mr. Not-So-Wonderful, slick Coleman Draper, is catnip to the ladies, a part-time peace officer who's also a full-time stone killer. Draper doesn't enjoy killing, but his approach to problem-solving is thoroughly lethal. All at once, Charlie realizes, he's about to become Draper's No. 1 problem. The pace is leisurely and the plot a bit obvious, but Parker (L.A. Outlaws, 2008, etc.) at three-quarters effectiveness still beats most others at their best.

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