author T. Jefferson Parker April 18, 2010

Meet the author of San Marino’s ONE BOOK, ONE CITY selection for 2010, T. JEFFERSON PARKER, in the library’s Barth Community Room this Sunday, April 18th at 2:00 p.m. Parker is consistently compared to Michael Connelly, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett by critics who also consider him “the best of today’s crime fiction” (Washington Post). He’s a three-time Edgar Award-winner and a former journalist who lives in Southern California.

Iron River immerses Parker’s most beloved series character, Charlie Hood, along the U.S.-Mexican border, where a group of lawmen try to stem the flow of illegal weapons feeding the drug cartel wars. In doing so, Parker gives us a window into the current problems law enforcement face every day. Deputy sheriff Charlie Hood is sent to join the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms task force “Operation Blowdown” -- a mission to try to curtail the constant flow of money and guns across the U.S.-Mexican border. When a stakeout goes wrong and the son of the head of a powerful Mexican cartel ends up dead, cartel soldiers cross the border to take revenge on Hood and his team. The lengths they go to and the innocent lives at stake are shocking, even to Hood.

Fast-paced and wholly original, Iron River simultaneously spotlights Parker’s talents as a vivid story teller and brilliant crime writer, and the complex and dangerous gun trafficking industry, a crucial issue of our day.