The Fallen [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

T. Jefferson Parker (Author), David Colacci (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2006

My life was ordinary until three years ago when I was thrown out of a downtown hotel window. My name is Robbie Brownlaw, and I am a homicide detective for the city of San Diego. I am twenty-nine years old. I now have synesthesia, a neurological condition where your senses get mixed up. Sometimes when people talk to me, I see their voices as colored shapes provoked by the emotions of the speakers, not by the words themselves. I have what amounts to a primitive lie detector. After three years, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the colors and shapes of other people’s feelings, unless they don’t match up with their words. When Garrett Asplundh’s body is found under a San Diego bridge, Robbie Brownlaw and his partner, McKenzie Cortez, are called on to the case. After the tragic death of his child and the dissolution of his marriage, Garrett - regarded as an honest, straight-arrow officer - left the SDPD to become an ethics investigator, looking into the activities of his former colleagues. At first his death, which takes place on the eve of a reconciliation with his ex, looks like suicide, but the clues Brownlaw and Cortez find just don’t add up. With pressure mounting from the police and the city’s politicians, Brownlaw fights to find the truth, all the while trying to hold on to his own crumbling marriage. Was Garrett’s death an “execution” or a crime of passion, a personal vendetta or the final step in an elaborate cover-up?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. At the dramatic start of Parker's excellent 13th novel (after 2004's California Girl), San Diego homicide detective Robbie Brownlaw suffers a head trauma that causes his senses to get mixed up. The sounds of conversations, for example, are accompanied by colored shapes that reflect the speakers' emotions. But the confusion turns into an asset, as it helps Brownlaw recognize when suspects and witnesses are lying to him—and he encounters lots of falsehoods when he begins investigating the case of Garrett Asplundh, shot dead while waiting for a meeting with his estranged wife. As an investigator for the San Diego Ethics Authority Enforcement Unit, Asplundh had uncovered a widespread corruption scandal—and unleashed plenty of enemies, including city officials, a financier and a purveyor of high-priced call girls. The suspense is palpable as Brownlaw and his partner, McKenzie Cortez, work to identify Asplundh's killer, but the novel probes deeper mysteries, such as the victim's tragic life and Brownlaw's disintegrating marriage. With his trademark psychological acuity and empathy, Parker creates a world of fully realized characters coping with obsession and loss. The winner of two Edgars for best novel, Parker could well earn a third with this compelling effort.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Although critics could not decide whether Brownlaw's synesthesia was a gimmicky element or not, they agreed that The Fallen is a riveting read—perhaps, claimed a few, not as good as the Edgar Award?winning California Girl and Silent Joe, but nearly so. This stand-alone classic police procedural, replete with its portrait of big-city crime and power-hungry politicians, follows a recognizable storyline. However, its lively writing, well-paced plot, rounded characters (from call girls to shady politicians), and twists stand out. Though he hasn't achieved the fame of Michael Connelly or George Pelecanos yet, Parker belongs "in the first rank of American crime novelists" (Washington Post).

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD; Abridged edition (February 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596008660
• ISBN-13: 978-1596008663
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,596,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

T. Jefferson Parker is the bestselling author of numerous novels, including Storm Runners and The Fallen. Alongside Dick Francis and James Lee Burke, Parker is one of only three writers to be awarded the Edgar Award for Best Novel more than once. Parker lives with his family in Southern California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant piece of fiction from Parker, March 4, 2006

By 

Craig (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Fallen: A Novel (Hardcover)

Like the reviewer before me, I won't bother with rehashing the plot. Suffice to say that our hero is a cop working a tough case.

What seperates this from so many police procedurals is Parker's writing, and his ability to present characters as multidimensional. Robbie Brownlaw presents one face to the world, but Parker lets the reader know - without being obvious or heavy-handed - just how complex a person he is, and he makes it seem like everyone has those complexities even if they're not always noticed.

There were 2 facets to this novel that I think could have really harmed the book in the hands of a lesser writer. The first is the manner in which Robbie's ability manifests itself, which I believe would have been beaten to death by many authors. The second is the subplot involving Robbie and Gina's marital troubles. I've read many police procedurals where the personal relationships seem created for nothing more than filling pages, but this isn't one of them. For one thing, their discussions and problems are about as believable as any I've ever read in a novel. Secondly, the problems with Gina are the perfect vehicle for Robbie to use in his own self-examination, which adds greatly to his appeal and that of the book.

Parker has already won a couple of Edgar awards, and it's easy to see why when you read this one. Great story and a terrific writer, probably the best book I've read so far this year.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Despite praise elsewhere, I find problems with prose, characterization and plotting, October 29, 2007

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fallen (Mass Market Paperback)

"The Fallen" is a San Diego-based police procedural (sort of). On the first page of the book, we are told that the protagonist--for I find it very hard to think of him as a hero in any meaningful way--of the book, policeman Robbie Brownlaw, had been tossed out of a sixth floor window by a man he had attempted to save from a fire. Against all reasonable expectations, Brownlaw had survived his fall. Before long, we are told the same thing again, and a few pages farther on, again, and then again and yet again.

From the drum-like repetition of this scene, for the first, oh, say 340 pages of this 369 page paperback novel, I innocently assumed that the title of the book referred to Brownlaw, the man who had fallen out of a window. Thereafter it becomes increasingly clear that the title refers to the individual set up to take the fall as the villain of the piece, the one who has fallen from honor, from truth and from grace is, and always was "The Fallen."

Some Amazon reviewers have praised this book as well-written and well-characterized. I don't see it. In this first person novel, Brownlaw is as endlessly introspective as he is utterly imperceptive. He is a man who knows not joy nor anger nor hate, save as words on a Scrabble board. He goes on and on about love, but love to him is a sort of tepid, passive possessiveness. He is, in fact, a classic portrayal of the kind of person characterized in Yiddish (or as Leo Rosten would say, in Ynglish) as a "nudzh." And everybody else in the book is something of a nudzh, too.

All this is, in its way, a moderately impressive accomplishment, but it is not, I am sure, an accomplishment at which author Parker aimed. Here is a passage which, structurally at least, marks one of the few emotional high points of the book:

"Do you know what you're doing?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Can you explain it to me?"
"I can try." She crossed her pale legs and folded her hands in her lap.
"I came here for a new life. I think there must be more."
"More what?"
"More everything. I know that sounds really shallow but I'm aching inside for something I can't see and can't touch. But I know it's there. It's right there, just past my ability to understand. Just out of reach of my words."
"I'd be happy to help you look for it."
"It's something I want to do alone." [Page 356 of the paperback edition]

"Just out of reach of my words," indeed! And this affectless soap opera dialogue goes on and on.

In another scene, Brownlaw confronts a powerful man in his lair. Now, this is a good, traditional detective story set-up. The most famous and brilliant of all such confrontations is the fateful initial meeting between Sam Spade and the Fat Man in the latter's hotel suite: "I like a man who likes to talk, Mr. Spade." In "The Fallen" a sinister money-man has the opportunity to emulate Gordon Gecko in a "Greed is Good" speech. In the book, alas, Mr. Sinister speaks in the flat tones of the very same self-convinced voice that characterizes Brownlaw and everybody else in the book. Just another nudzh.

Here is a speech Painly intended to represent the emotional demolition of one of Parker's characters. The speaker recalls the action that initiated every plot twist of the ensuing mystery:

"It was one of those moments we talked about in my office where everything changes in an instant. It was an impulse. A speculation. I didn't think that what I had imagined would actually happen. The, a few minutes later I ... saw it really was happening. I only had a few seconds to decide. I decided to do the most terrifying thing I'd ever done--nothing. The sounds were quiet but awful, and nobody could hear except me. I knew that I'd sold my soul to the devil.... It was worth it." [Page 346-347]

For all intents and purposes, that is the speaker's suicide note. But do the words and tone carry emotional weight? I think not. I've heard stronger emotion and deeper stress in high school valedictory speeches.

Now let's consider the book's plotting. We readers are given every reason to anticipate a massive confrontation between Brownlaw and a group of shadowy and powerful foes. It may yet come, but this book wraps itself up in a powerful odor of red herrings.

In a subordinate plot line, a sex trade worker has participated in actions we are told (but never shown) that could have disastrous consequences for her. Strangely, neither she nor Brownlaw evidence the slightest hint of worry, even after her action. WHAT were they THINKING?

From that ever-repeated flight out the window, Brownlaw has acquired a synesthesia. After the fall, he is able to see emotions as colors. "... blue triangles generally came from a happy speaker. Red squares came from a deceptive one. Green trapezoids usually came from someone who was envious--green really is the color of envy, just like we were always told.... So I have what amounts to a primitive lie detector, though I'm not certain how reliable it is." [Page 5-6]

Amazon reprints this from Bookmarks Magazine: "Although critics could not decide whether Brownlaw's synesthesia was a gimmicky element or not, they agreed that ..." I can't imagine what puzzled these "critics." Of course it's a gimmick. Here's an easy test. For every passage in which Brownlaw maunders on about seeing red squares emerging from the mouth of a liar, simply substitute something along the lines of "I didn't think he was telling the truth." Having done that, does the change have any effect on the course of the book? The answer, of course, is no.

This is a book of unimpressive prose, flat characterization and indifferent plotting. It's not actually awful, but it's not especially good, either.

A run-of-the-mill three stars.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parker Does It Again!, March 15, 2006

By 

Nancy C. "napilinan" (SAN DIEGO, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fallen: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've never been able to determine why T. Jefferson Parker doesn't end up on the best seller lists. He ranks right up there with the best, and is much better than some of those authors who hit the Top 10 every book.

In "The Fallen", Robbie Brownlee of the San Diego Police Department has developed synesthesia after being thrown out of a window. (I had to research synesthesia since I'd never heard of it, and found it's a legitimate condition.) The author doesn't let Brownlee's condition overpower the plot, and the story and Robbie are central.

Mr. Parker has a beautiful way with words, and I highly recommend this and all of Mr. Parker's works.