The Triggerman's Dance [Mass Market Paperback]

T. Jefferson Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1998

From the author of "Laguna Heat" and "Summer of Fear" comes an intense, masterful novel of murder and revenge on California's Gold Coast--a page-turning thriller with a deep emotional undercurrent about love, loss, and the need to make things right.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When a woman is mistakenly assassinated by a sniper from a white supremacist militia, her death brings together her FBI agent fiancee and her journalist lover, John Menden. The two team up to exact revenge by destroying the militia group, known as the Freedom Ring, with Menden infiltrating the group's Liberty Ridge compound. When he falls in love with the commander's daughter the plot becomes tautly complicated. In a scenario grounded in events on the right-wing fringes of U.S. society, Parker engineers a grandly violent climax to assuage all Menden's macho hatred. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Through four California-set novels (most recently, Summer of Fear, 1993), Parker has proved himself a gifted thriller writer, his suspenseful plots enriched by fertile prose and characters whose depths are revealed in the harsh light of violence. The author's fifth novel, a taut tale of a man undercover, will enhance his reputation. Orange County Journal reporter Rebecca Harris had two men in her life?her lover and former colleague, John Menden, and her fiance, FBI agent Joshua Weinstein. Now Rebecca is dead, killed by a sniper who meant to slay a left-wing columnist. Weinstein spends the six months after the shooting building a file on the man behind Rebecca's death: ex-FBI agent Vann Holt, now operating a private security firm in the California hills, is incensed at the columnist for her role, years earlier, in the vengeance-killing of Holt's son. Weinstein calls on Menden, a blond WASP, to infiltrate Holt's organization and find solid evidence linking Holt to Rebecca's death. Menden's mission grows more complicated when somebody close to Holt begins to feed the newsman incriminating information about Holt, and especially when Menden begins to fall for Holt's daughter, with whom the newsman can be neither honest nor close, for Rebecca's death is still an open wound?or is it? The narrative flows smoothly between present and past tense, floating the reader into ever darker, more mysterious waters. Ultimately, this is a novel of questions, not answers?questions about identity, shifting loyalties and the price of vengeance?and therein, as much as in its crafty plotting, lies its intelligence and excitement. $125,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (January 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786889179
• ISBN-13: 978-0786889174
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,086,828 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

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hang with this one..it gets better and better., July 20, 2002

By 

John J. Raspanti (Manteca, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Triggerman's Dance (Mass Market Paperback)

I think I understand why some folks gave THE TRIGGERMANS DANCE a fair review.

It starts really SLOW..so slow that I was thinking about the next book I was going to read. The character's..at the beginning..are not very interesting..and the story plods along.

But..as I said..near page 100 or so..I began to care about John and the FBI agent, Joshua.

The story is basically about revenge and what some are willing to do to achieve it. Two men in love with the same woman join forces to bring down the guy they think is responsible for a murder and there broken hearts. Is this guy guilty or innocent?

When the author introduces Van Holt, a former FBI agent things really begin to take off. The tension builds and builds. Summing up..I would say..Stay with this one.
T.Jefferson Parker knows how to write a good thriller, this time it just took a little while to get going.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I liked this a lot...don't understand the bad reviews, May 17, 2000

By 

K. Barrett "katibar" (Valley Mills, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Triggerman's Dance (Mass Market Paperback)

So, it's a little far-fetched, a little bit technical and ascary scenario to think about, I still liked it a bunch! Joshua, theFBI agent; and John, the unlikely sports writer turned secret agent, drew me in and kept me on the edge of my chair throughout the entire read. I enjoyed the tension between the two men--and the terrible bond that held them together. I'm happy to have discovered T. Jefferson Parker recently. Loved The Blue Hour also. Parker has the ability to capture the inner workings of his characters' minds--and besides that he can tell a mighty interesting story. I must also say I was drawn to the villain in the story. It was so very hard to hate him... I recommend this book....I really liked it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE EMPTINESS OF REVENGE, April 4, 2004

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Triggerman's Dance (Mass Market Paperback)

Parker has written a very interesting and evocative thriller in THE TRIGGERMAN'S DANCE. Ultimately, it is a novel of revenge: Both John and Joshua want to avenge the accidental death of the woman they loved; Joshua also inwardly wants revenge for knowing that prior to her death, Rebecca was going to choose her lover, John and not Joshua, her fiance. Fueled by this revenge, John and Joshua work together to bring the killer to justice. A complex undercover assignment begins, with startling, if predictable results. There are times in the novel when you want Parker to hasten things along; it seems like the time John spends on the ranch is interminable, and there are times when the action slows down. Fortunately, this doesn't hurt the overall impact of the story. Parker is to be commended for allowing us to like and dislike both John and Joshua; to like and dislike the villain, Vann Holt; and to feel sorry for Valerie, Holt's daughter who ends up falling for the mole, John.
This is a thoughtful, emotional novel and though not as suspenseful as some thrillers, still manages to both entertain and stimulate.