Book details

Deputy Sheriff Charlie Hood—the hero of L.A. Outlaws—left readers clamoring for more, and in The Renegades, T. Jefferson Parker more than delivers.

Some say that outlaws no longer exist, that the true spirit of the American West died with the legendary bandits of pulp novels and bedtime stories. Charlie Hood knows that nothing could be further from the truth. These days he patrols vast stretches of the new American West, not on horseback but in his cruiser. The outlaws may not carry six-shooters, but they’re strapped all the same.

Along the desolate and dusty roads of this new frontier, Hood prefers to ride alone, and he prefers to ride at night. At night, his headlights illuminate only the patch of pavement ahead of him: all the better to hide from the demons—and the dead outlaws—receding in his rearview mirror.

But he doesn’t always get what he wants— certainly not when he’s assigned a partner named Terry Laws, a county veteran who everyone calls “Mr. Wonderful.” And not when Laws is shot dead in the passenger seat and Hood is left to bear witness by someone who knew that Mr. Wonderful didn’t always live up to his nickname. As he sets out to find the gunman, Hood knows one thing for sure: The West is a state of mind, one where the bad guys sometimes wear white hats—and the good guys seek justice in whatever shade of gray they can find it.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Parker’s superb new thriller continues the tale of Charlie Hood, the Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy who fell hard for beautiful gangster Allison Murrieta in L.A. Outlaws (2008). Deputy Hood now patrols the Antelope Valley, a desert region north of Los Angeles where still nights and stark beauty provide a refuge from his past (though he still hasn’t come to terms with Murrieta’s death). But Hood’s new beat has a breed of heinous criminals all its own. When his partner, Terry Laws, known by fellow officers as Mr. Wonderful, is gunned down in the passenger seat of their patrol car, Hood once again finds himself among the dark-hearted and the damned. It turns out that Laws wasn’t such a model cop after all. He and a former partner were involved in a lucrative operation running drugs south of the border. Then Laws found a conscience—a little too late. Two-time Edgar winner Parker vividly evokes the spirit of the Wild West, where bad guys prosper and good guys seek vengeance—at a price. He delivers steady suspense and a cast of damaged characters led by Hood, whose days crackle with moral conundrums and bone-deep regret. Approaching the novel’s climax, Parker writes: “a wiggle of fear came up Hood’s back and crawled across his scalp.” Readers will likely find themselves rattled—and riveted—too. --Allison Block

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.