Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Black Water by T. Jefferson Parker ISBN: 0786890169 Publisher: Hyperion (Adult Trd Pap) Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.37
Rating: 4
Summary: The Quality of Merci
Comment: Black Water is the third in T. Jefferson Parker's series featuring Orange County, California detective Merci Rayborn. Merci is a single mother (the father having died in the first book) and an ambitious cop whose dreams of being sheriff have diminished after making enemies in the department in the second book. Her new case offers a chance at redemption but even a bigger chance of endangering her career again.
The case is a deputy who has apparently killed his wife and then attempted suicide. There are many who are ready to leap to this conclusion - not wanting the Sheriff's department to look like it's covering things up - but Merci has her doubts, which are strengthened as she continues her investigation.
Merci's not the only one seeking the truth. The severely wounded deputy, despite shards of bullets in his brain, is out to find answers and vengeance. He is almost a supernatural force, a seemingly undead being who knows his own life is limited and only has a mission to sustain him.
Parker is an accomplished writer who as always delivers an entertaining novel. The only problem I have is the inclusion of the first chapter which shows the deputy's innocence. If the reader doesn't know this, it deepens the mystery. While solid enough entertainment, it admittedly does not have the spectacular quality that merits five stars. But four stars is enough to make this a recommended read for mystery fans.
Rating: 5
Summary: Police procedure with real emotional impact--great
Comment: Homocide Sergeant Merci Rayborn has screwed up before--let made the wrong call in the battle between her emotions and her logic--and she swears she isn't going to in this case. The evidence looks compelling. A local sheriff's deputy is found with a gun in his hand, a bullet in his skull, and a dead wife in his house shot with that gun. Add in a recent fight and a spending pattern that a deputy's pay could never support and it's a clear murder-suicide. Except that Merci thinks that something is wrong. But then, can she even trust her judgement?
Author T. Jefferson Parker does a great job on the details of police procedure, making ordinary detection compelling. Where he really stands out, however, is in his development of character and character emotion. Merci Rayborn, in her third novel, is no longer the young innocent of THE BLUE HOUR. She still believes in what she is doing, but she is no longer so sure of where she is going. BLACK WATER delves deeply into her angst and is somehow more powerful but also more exciting because of it. Archie Wildcraft, the wounded Deputy, is also powerfully drawn as he battles with his loss of memory and especially the loss of feelings caused by brain trauma and the bullet that remains inside his skull.
BLACK WATER certainly stands alone and is a wonderful and powerful book. Fans of T. Jefferson Parker will be overjoyed to see Merci back--and rewarded for the wait. If you aren't familiar with this series, it would be worth a look to find the novels in order (the earlier novels, THE BLUE HOUR and RED LIGHT. Another excellent novel by an exciting novelist.
Rating: 4
Summary: Finally, an engaging Merci
Comment: (this is a corrected version of a review by me that you have already posted -- i inadvertently switched the sequence of the first two merci rayborn books, in two separate references to that sequence; please sub this for the one now posted. tom parsons)
After first encountering Merci Rayborn (and T. Jefferson Parker) in "Blue Hour," and then following
her growth in "Red Light," it is gratifying to see her become a fully engaging person/character in
"Black Water."
The locale is familiar to Parker readers, the L.A. area's polyglot Orange County, and so is Parker's
mix of business people and hustlers, police procedure and character interaction. But a difference
with this book is the focus not on "whodunit" aspects (those are resolved for the reader relatively
early on) but how the case will be disposed of in Merci's complex world of cops under pressure
from sensation-mad media and ambitious prosecutors, and how Merci will handle the resolution.
The climax comes not with discovering "whodunit" but with the wholly surprising denouement of a
suspect and victim. Well done.
As a fan of what I call "L.A. noir" (Harry Bosch is very high on my list), I had found myself engaged
by Tim Hess in "Blue Hour." But I was willing to give his partner in that book, Merci, a chance in
"Red Light." After finishing it, I was dissatisfied -- she was too self-absorbed and had too little
self-awareness to pull me much further into her life.
If I hadn't already bought "Black Water," I don't believe I would have read it on the strength of the
first two Merci books. But, I had bought it, so I did read it, and was pleased to find that Parker has
allowed Merci to develop a more complete, more mature personality. If his slow development of
Merci -- relying primarily on plot rather than the engaging aspects of a character, which were in
short supply in the first two books -- was deliberate, it was a large risk, but it is one that pays off
for persistent readers.
 |
Title: Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0316153915 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: Mortal Prey by John Sandford ISBN: 0399148639 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 13 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
 |
Title: The Last Detective by Robert Crais ISBN: 0385504268 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: City of Bones by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0316154059 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 16 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: Jolie Blon's Bounce : A Novel by James Burke ISBN: 0743204840 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 04 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
