Cold Pursuit (Parker, T Jefferson) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "That night the wind came hard off the Pacific, an El Nino event that would blow three inches of rain onto the roofs of San..." (more)
Key Phrases: brain thorn, bench laser, owl parrots, Sally Rainwater, Pete Braga, San Diego (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Why isn't T. Jefferson Parker as famous as, say, James Patterson or Robert B. Parker? He's that good, and in some ways better. In Cold Pursuit, his 11th novel, San Diego homicide cop Tom McMichael finds himself investigating the bludgeoning death of Pete Braga, a prominent city patriarch who was also a blood enemy of the McMichael family. It's a complex case fraught with political and economic pressures, ugly family history, police corruption, and multiple red herrings, made more complex by McMichael's romantic attraction to a key suspect.

Parker's writing is a pleasure from the first sentence to the last: intelligent, often quietly poetic, cliché-free, and as crisp and dry as a good Pinot Gris. Here is the book's opening paragraph, which accomplishes several scene-setting tasks while pleasing both ear and brain:

That night the wind came hard off the Pacific, an El Nino event that would blow three inches of rain onto the roofs of San Diego. It was the first big storm of the season, early January and overdue. Palm fronds lifted with a plastic hiss and slapped against the windows of McMichael's apartment. The digitized chirp of his phone sounded ridiculous against the steady wind outside.

At times the book's richly complex plot gets confusing, and some sections aren't especially suspenseful. However, every page is absorbing and affecting, and the ending is a shocker. Peopled by a teeming cast of full-blooded characters and set in a San Diego so vivid you can smell the beach and the blood, Cold Pursuit may be Parker's subtlest, most satisfying tale yet. --Nicholas H. Allison

From Publishers Weekly

Parker, whose Silent Joe won an Edgar in 2001, can turn his hand to many genres: this one is a thriller with elements of family feud, and with a setting-San Diego in an unusually rainy winter-that is wonderfully moody. Homicide cop Tom McMichael is called in on the murder of wealthy old Pete Braga, a legendary local character who was once a tuna fisherman and now moves in the city's top financial circles. The problem is that his Portuguese family and McMichael's Irish one have a rivalry going back two generations. The details of that past, and the picture that emerges of two feisty old men locked into a bitter battle, are the brightest part of the book. The actual plot is more conventional: Braga's attractive nurse is an obvious suspect, so it is unwise for Tom to fall for her. Was the patriarch's killing related to local politics, or perhaps to his changed will? There are numerous red herrings-including a lurid subplot about a crooked cop and a very surprising commodity being smuggled across the border from Mexico-before the violent, rather improbable denouement. It's not unusual for a thriller to begin much better than it ends, but the more eloquent passages of Cold Pursuit make the routine ones doubly disappointing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1st edition (April 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786868058
• ISBN-13: 978-0786868056
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #720,418 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Genuine Page Turner, October 24, 2004

By	R. Miller "soldierblue" (Woodstock, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cold Pursuit (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read many T. Jefferson Parker books and this is one of the best. You see the term "page turner" used a lot but this is one book that really grabs you and keeps you reading until the end. There is murder, a little romance and a dedicated cop who is tracking down a killer while dealing with his own demons. I dare anyone to start this mystery and not finish it in one sitting. It is really quite riveting.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Moody police procedural, April 29, 2003

By	Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Edgar Award-winner Parker ("Silent Joe") manages to do something a little different each time out and his eleventh is a police procedural made personal by family feuding. When 84-year-old Portuguese tuna-boat captain turned Ford dealership tycoon, Pete Braga, is bludgeoned to death in his San Diego bayfront home, homicide cop Tom McMichael catches the case. Braga had killed McMichael's grandfather 50 years earlier and gotten off with self-defense. Braga's son was later brain damaged in a beating long ascribed to McMichael's father, but never proven. Then, years later, the feud derailed the first-love passion between McMichael and Braga's headstrong granddaughter.

The initial suspect is the beautiful young nurse whose home is full of items from Braga's various collections, but her alibi pans out and a romance with McMichael heats up. The investigation branches out to include political wrangling and underhanded business-as-usual money deals in a proposed new airport, a Mexican smuggling operation using Braga's new Fords, and, of course, the heirs. The plot is complex (sometimes confusingly so) and McMichael's inappropriate love life comes to the attention of police department politicos, further muddying the waters. While the story is not particularly compelling or suspenseful, Parker's characters are well-fleshed, preserving a touch of human mystery and murk, and the blustery San Diego winter provides a moody backdrop.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly vivid, compelling mystery., March 22, 2003

By	Steve "Steve" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This was my first book by T. Jefferson Parker, & I enjoyed it thoroughly. Being a San Diego native myself, I'll happily vouch for Mr Parker's extremely detailed command of the finer details of our city's geography, climate, & incredibly incestous Port Commission. Overall, an extremely compelling procedural mystery that kept me guessing 'til the end.