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A Novel
by T Jefferson Parker
Book Reviewed by:From the book jacket: The winds of change are raging in 1960s California. Orange groves uprooted for tract houses, people flooding into Orange
County, strange new ideas in the air about war, music, sex, and drugs, and new
influences, ranging from Richard Nixon to Timothy Leary. For the Becker
brothers, however, the past is always present - and it comes crashing back full
force when the body of the lovely and mysterious Janelle Vonn is discovered in
an abandoned orange-packing plant. The Beckers and the Vonns have a history,
beginning years ago in high school with a rumble between the brothers of each
clan. But boys grow up. Now one Becker brother is a cop on his first homicide
case. One's a minister yearning to perform just one miracle. One is a reporter
drunk with ambition. And all three are about to collide with the changing world
of 1968 as each brother, in his own unique way, tries to find Janelle's killer.
As suspects multiply and secrets are exposed, the three Becker brothers are
drawn further into the case, deeper into the past, and closer to danger.
Comment: California Girl is not only a gripping mystery but an
emotionally absorbing family saga. If you haven't already discovered this Edgar
Award-winning novelist I encourage you to do so.
This review
first ran in the January 18, 2006
issue of BookBrowse Recommends.
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Told from Frank's perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him.
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