T. Jefferson ParkerRezensionen

Crime

fine, nothing special

I thought this book would be a nostalgic look back at 1968 but instead it was a slog with contrived mystery and surface characters.

One sign of a good series is when you can jump in at the third book and not feel completely lost. It's even better when you're immediately engaged with the series protagonist and swept up in the story. T. Jefferson Parker is such a writer and Roland Ford is such a character.

In this novel, private eye (ex-marine, ex-boxer and ex-sheriff's deputy) Ford is hired by the older sister of a girl that's gone missing. As he works the case, he encounters a church that his hiding something, white supremecists that are hiding in almost full view, and a client that's also hiding something. Helping him uncover the truth, save the girl and save the world are 'the irregulars': the motley group of people that reside in the casitas on the large ranch that he has inherited from his late wife and her family and he is obligated to keep.

There's a lot going on here and the story is so fully packed that it could have gone off the rails at any time. The author keeps it hanging together and I can't wait to go back and read the other books in the series.

Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing a free copy of this book in return for my honest review.

Smooth as butter. That's how this book went down for me. Having been a teen in Southern California in the 70s, the echoes of 60s were always there, especially around the beach cities where this story is set. Without even getting into the plot or characters, I have to applaud the author's evocation of the times and places. He brings them to life in a way that will appeal to those of us that remember it, as well as those who have not.

In the middle of that scene, the 'stoner' 60s, we find teenaged Matt, bombing around the streets and beaches on his bicycle trying to make a life for himself without much support from is mom, his dad out of the picture, his older brother in Viet Nam and then his beloved older sister goes missing. Add in a dead girl found on the beach who's scarily similar to his sister and we're off to the races with a suspenseful story that never seems to cut Matt a break. The police don't seem to be much help. The hippies at the local head shop are helpful, but shady. And that's just the beginning of Matt's woes.

Matt is an immensely likable character. Amazingly resilient and resolute in his quest to uncover the mystery of where his sister is. He doesn't give up. But he will grow up. This is a highly entertaining book.

Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge Books for providing a free copy of this book in return for my honest review.

T. Jefferson Parker situates his novels firmly in his native southern California. Laguna Beach during the late 1960s serves as the location for this latest from the prolific author. His fictional version of the location is richly described, providing fertile ground for a mystery interwoven with the true—and truly extraordinary—backdrop. Matt Anthony is a feckless teen grappling with the counterculture movement while staving off starvation and pursuing his crush. While he would prefer to devote his attention to these more suitable efforts, he is diverted by the disappearance of his older sister. The authorities assume that Jazz has run away despite Matt’s repeated protests. Now, his new side job is to collect enough evidence to convince the police that she has been kidnapped. He indefatigably follows every possible avenue, even though his efforts expose him to a landscape filled with the clueless and the unscrupulous. He is left to navigate within this sphere of mistrust at a time when every traditional societal structure is being questioned. Parker wonderfully portrays the uncertainty and chaos endemic to the setting, but the central mystery becomes mired in Matt’s plodding search culminating in a farfetched resolution. With an inventive “McGuffin” injecting some overdue forward motion, the plot abandons its more realistic tone. Those looking to take a tour through mid-century America will find Parker’s protagonist a knowledgeable guide. Those looking for a truly thrilling and plausible mystery might opt to look elsewhere.

Meh, it was ok. Mercy is really NOT a likable character. Don't think I'll read the following two books in the series

Not a bad little book, a bit convoluted, and the writing style bothered me at the beginning. Not sure if it changed or I just got used to it, but the bother went away. Unfortunately, the more I think about the book, the less I like it. It was a bit predictable (Joe’s real father) and the characters you were supposed to be rooting for didn’t quite hold up under scrutiny, especially Will. So...I’ll just stop thinking about it. Not a bad read, but there’s better out there.

I enjoyed this book but felt hampered by the bouncing back and forth of first persons. I loved the storyline. I am just not the greatest at following a story that changes from one person to another.

If you’re into the peace-love-tie-dye scene, with or without the accompanying sex and drugs, Laguna Beach, California, is the place to be in summer 1968. Timothy Leary preaches the beauty of LSD to adoring crowds, and every other person, it seems, has a different mantra of self-enlightenment.

However, sixteen-year-old Matt Anthony watches most of this from the sidelines. He’s too busy trying to put food on the table, because his mother, hooked on opium-laced hashish, can’t. His older brother, Kyle, fighting in Vietnam, worries he won’t make it out alive, and Matt worries too. Their father? He’s a deadbeat, a former cop who mouths off about discipline and keeps promising to visit one day from whatever state he’s just fled to, a lie Matt has heard for seven years.

But just when life could not get worse, Matt’s older sister, Jasmine, has disappeared. At first, he thinks Jazz has merely let loose after graduating high school, but he comes to believe she’s been kidnapped. And since the police assume that Jazz is simply another drug-addled hippie on a bender, it’s up to Matt to rescue her.

How he goes about it makes for a tense, plot-driven thriller, where the ambience feels pitch-perfect. Parker captures Matt’s hand-to-mouth existence, in which he delivers newspapers practically for pennies, fishes off the rocks to get protein, and cadges meals of leftovers from friends who work in restaurant kitchens. He tries to avoid the war between cops and hippies, views anyone over thirty as “old,” and sympathizes with the antiwar protesters who chant, “Hell, no, we won’t go!”

Parker’s careful about social and cultural markers, and Matt immediately sizes up everyone he sees according to the pecking order that places him at or near the bottom, a clever touch. The only glaring false note in this otherwise exacting portrayal is how brother Kyle enlists despite drawing a safe draft lottery number, when the first lottery actually took place in late 1969. To me, overlooking that easily researchable fact suggests a characterization overreach, which I’ll get to in a moment. Otherwise, this novel has a recognizable Sixties vibe.

Parker throws obstacles in Matt’s path every step of the way. The boy has his mother’s drug habit and fecklessness to contend with, a cop who wants to break him, bad guys of all stripes (including those masquerading as good guys), and vicious types all too willing to prey on a young, defenseless kid down on his luck. There are plenty of reversals.

Where A Thousand Steps falters is the characterization, often two-dimensional, as with Kyle’s allegedly superfluous self-sacrifice. I believe the portrayals of Matt’s mother and a cop — not the one who wants to take Matt down — and a few other “oldsters,” but not those of the kids. Matt’s about the most upstanding person in Laguna Beach, and though you want him to carry a certain moral weight, he’s too upright, respectful, and open. Given such a selfish, neglectful, dishonest parents, I don’t understand why he isn’t more like them, or at least struggling not to be. It’s as though, in this coming-of-age novel, the protagonist has already figured out this youth thing and gotten good at it.

Most obviously, he’s got no adolescent anger or rebelliousness, though he has more right to them than many people making noise in Laguna Beach. He’s also much too trusting, to the point that when his father (an over-the-top superpatriot) interrogates him about his sex life, he answers, without a qualm. No qualms, either, about opposing the Vietnam War, though Kyle’s in it; the narrative pays lip service to that moral complexity and zips onward. As for the two girls attracted to Matt, they’re types, with good looks and social and cultural markers, but little in the way of inner life.

Finally, the end disappointed me; after such careful plotting, I didn’t expect the hackneyed, predictable confrontations. The romance subplot also takes an odd twist, with little afterthought. Consequently, A Thousand Steps is a strange amalgam, a novel with an intensely strong physical presence yet flimsy characters, a highly inventive narrative that somehow loses its sure-handedness at the climax. Take that for what you will.

This novel takes place during the period of peace and love in the Laguna Beach area of California. It centers on a fifteen year old boy (Matt) and the kidnapping of his older sister. Dad is gone (divorced but he will come back) and mom is addled by drugs. His brother is in Vietnam. So the onus falls on Matt to search for her as he is getting little help from the police. He is dogged in his determination. Things are not all peace and love. This novel reads like a movie script and would make a good one..

Hood, Bradley and a mysterious man who knows everything are caught up in a world of Mexican guns. The ending left me dangling but maybe in next Hood novel by Parker.

Hood up against it with Draper. Draper is a sheriff assistant who takes advantage of the DEPT. He is secretly working for Mexico mafia and using status to run guns there. Good book

School teacher has a secret. She is also a thief detective Hood knows her secret.

A real whodunnitt of a novel. The period was the 60's in Laguna area. Solving a murder riddle is the main subject of the story.

A thousand steps, which are actually 219, down to the sandy beach. Laguna Beach, CA.

Well, this book captured my attention early. Dead girl found. A second girl missing. Shaping up to be a good who-done-it.

Then, in my opinion, it became a story about how Matt was going to get money to eat, and what he ate when he got it. And he has a newspaper route. Likes to fish too. Oh, and the first thing gets solved too. Kinda felt every one of those steps, it felt like. Hard to believe there were only a thousand...

A coming-of-age story with a sixteen-year-old protagonist, Matt Anthony, that the reader wants to root for as Matt tries to find his sister, who has gone missing. I've not read T. Jefferson Parker before but I Ike the richness in the details he uses in this 1968-story taking place in Laguna Beach CA. He really captures that time period and skillfully weaves in the details of what was going on in the world at that time.

A Thousand Steps by T Jefferson Parker is a 2022 Forge Books publication.

Set in Laguna Beach during the late sixties, this novel follows a teenage Matt Antony as he searches for his older sister, Jasmine, aka, Jazz, who has suddenly vanished.

Matt has a lot on his plate- his brother is winding up his tour in Vietnam, hoping to make it home alive, and his mother is falling deeper and deeper into the drug scene, leaving Matt to fend for himself.

Fearing his sister has met the same fate as a popular girl whose body was recently found after having gone missing, Matt navigates the LSD fueled world of Timothy Leary, dubious law enforcement, and odd religious temples, searching for his sister, while going through the usual teenage angst of a guy his age.

When I added this book to my reading list, I thought it was strictly a mystery/thriller. A missing girl, the usual stuff for this trope, etc., but I got more than I bargained for with this one. This is just as much a coming-of-age story as it is a mystery/thriller.

Matt’s character pulls at the heartstrings, his desperation nearly palpable. His physical hunger is juxtaposed against his emotional starvation, but he really is one cool kid, as he is forced to progress from being naïve and somewhat innocent to becoming older and wiser than his years.

The mystery is mired in the strange cultural shifts of the late sixties, and the author did a terrific job of bringing the era to life- not the mythologized version- but the wild, gritty, underbelly of it.

Overall, this is a well-executed combination of both historical fiction and mystery, with a poignant coming-of-age element that stands out and sticks with you. The historical setting, the war, drugs and the cult-like groups will bring back memories for some. While it is a little before my time, I’m wondering if people still feel as nostalgic about that time now, especially when viewing it through Parker’s lens.

4 stars

Disappearances at Laguna Beach in the late 60’s

The horrific death of a sixteen year old missing girl he’s seen around the traps, has Matt Anthony, also sixteen, nervous about his sister Jasmine. Jasmine is missing—only a couple of days true! Still the death of Bonnie Stratmeyer has him worried. Living in the Californian Laguna Beach area in 1968, Matt is the product of a separated family. He and his mother and sister work as they can for food and rent. Matt supplementing their diet with his fishing offerings.
Matt’s mother Julie is a product of the 60’s. Matt is surrounded by the ‘happening’ era. The free thinking, experiments with pysycholdic drugs, heroin, hash and of course weed. Timothy Leary gets more than a mention. The Vietnam War is raging, the Peace Movement is out in force, Hippies chill out and life’s cool. VW vans are part of the scene. (OK, I had one and loved it! Still miss it!)
There’s your obligatory swami and the beautiful people searching for evolution to a higher plane. There’s a rock star, regular parties (drugs and sex) for “rich old men” hidden behind high fences and security guards. Where there’s drugs and sex, there’s porn and crime. No surprises here.
I’m fascinated by Matt’s search for his sister, his ability to blend into situations, to observe the small details. Matt is a talented artist, intelligent and adventurous. He’s on the cusp of manhood, of girlfriends and dating.
Jasmine’s disappearance takes on a fantasy life of it’s own—except there’s nothing fantastical about the fact that she’s gone. Sinister is more like it. Matt is desperate. The police seem to be ignoring things so it’s up to Matt to find his sister.
A pretty full on story, I’m amazed by Matt’s ability to coordinate his search, the help he has from various friends and the weird circle his search draws through the Laguna Beach of these times.
An exceptional murder thriller with ooomph!

A Macmillan-Tor/Forge ARC via NetGalley

boy, a bike, and a paper airplane in 1968 Laguna Beach California

“A Thousand Steps” is about a boy, his bike, and the beach, a simple premise in a richly complicated story. It is an immersive experience; readers witness events in real-time along with the characters. There are two main stories whose characters are irrefutably intertwined. The first is the city of Laguna Beach, California in 1968, a time when things are beautiful, artistic, absurd, natural, and wild. Laguna is home to old money and the newly rich, dedicated surfers and outlaw bikers, free-living hippies and duplicitous hypocrites. Cultural differences are both celebrated and despised. It is home to the legal, the illegal, and everything in between.

The second story is about a boy, his bike, and a paper airplane. Events unfold from the viewpoint of sixteen-year-old Matt Anthony who has one foot entrenched in childhood and the other reaching for maturity. He is living in this trendy beach city, without functional parents, with a sister who is missing, and a brother in danger every day in the war in Vietnam. Readers follow along as he struggles with completing his daily paper routes, looking for his missing sister, and finding paper airplanes. Matt is both an observer and a participant; he is an evaluator of events and the instigator of them. He is growing physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually with and without the help of those around him.

Parker presents readers with a portrait of a unique time, place, and people. His skill with words makes simple events come to life. There is not just music but notes falling from the air like rain. The sky is gray-orange with the sun a perfect half-circle above the horizon. People watch, their figures almost colorless in the vanishing light. The night sky has a waxing gibbous moon. Thoughts blur like bike spokes on a downhill run.

“A Thousand Steps” is so much more than just a “coming of age” story; it is the transformation of a boy into a man while struggling to hold his world together in the midst of chaos. I received a review copy of “A Thousand Steps” from T Jefferson Parker, Macmillan-Tor, and Forge Books. The story depicts people in a time and place that is like no other; time flies past in seconds but events are not gone, just shelved, like books, like drawings in a pad that one can open and study. When I finished reading it, I knew I might never read a more memorable book.

A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker is a very highly recommended coming-of-age story wrapped around a mystery set in a very specific time and place. This is really a compelling, extraordinary, excellent novel!

In 1968 Laguna Beach, California, is attracting members of the developing counterculture - hippies, protests, sit-ins, drugs, and free love. Matt Anthony is a broke sixteen-year-old who is just trying to survive. He has a paper route that he needs to buy food. His mom is neglectful and an addict. Drugs are readily available and she is becoming part of the counterculture. His dad is gone and is only occasionally in contact. His brother is over in Vietnam and will hopefully be returning home soon. But Matt is mostly worried about his sister, Jasmine (Jazz). She has just graduated from high school and hasn't returned home.

A girl they both knew has turned up dead on a beach, so Matt is worried about his missing sister and sets out trying to find Jazz. When there is still no sign of Jazz after 48 hours, Matt and his mom talk to the police about it. They assume she is a runaway and are much more concerned about the hippies and the drug problem over running the city. Matt takes it upon himself to search for Jazz as his mother is too stoned to do it. He tirelessly searches for Jazz while making sure he does his paper route.

The social and cultural divisions between characters is clear. In the pretense of helping Matt make money so he can eat, many of the adults are using him for their own nefarious purposes. They knew he was struggling and could have just gave him the money or bought him a meal.

Matt is a good kid. He is a sympathetic and thoughtful young man who is raising himself, which is heartbreaking and tragic. While his mother is off doing her own selfish thing, Matt is in a constant battle to obtain food or money for food, while looking for his sister. During this time, he has his first girlfriend, a girl he has had a crush on since fourth grade. He is also a talented artist and does sketches of the people he encounters. Matt is a memorable character involved in an overwhelming situation, both facets work together to make A Thousand Steps an unforgettable novel.

It is mostly a coming-of-age story, but it is also a mystery and a historical novel set in a very specific time and place. The time period adds insight into the actions of the characters and the atmosphere in Laguna Beach in 1968. This is when Timothy Leary was encouraging people to, "Turn on, tune in, drop out," use LSD, smoke hash, use opium.

The writing is exceptional and I am surprised I have never read anything by T. Jefferson Parker before this. A Thousand Steps is hard to put down once you start reading this intriguing and riveting novel. The plot seems simple, a young man is searching for his sister, but there are so many other parts to the story that give it depth and interest. A Thousand Steps will certainly be one of the best novels of 2022.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Tor/Forge Books.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2022/01/a-thousand-steps.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4459318203

It’s so great to begin the new year with a good book! This one took me back in time to Laguna Beach in the late 1960’s. The hippie era is in full swing, along with the drug culture and war protests.

The main character, Matt Anthony, stole my heart. This is really the story of Matt’s coming of age, but it all revolves around his missing sister and the Laguna Beach atmosphere of “spiritual” enlightenment.

Matt is still in high school, living with his mom and sister, awaiting the return of his brother from Vietnam. He has a newspaper route and fishes in the ocean to supplement the family table. When his sister does not come home one night, Matt sets out on a journey to find her.

With an absent father and a mother who is on drugs, everything seems to be working against him. He’s much more mature than the average teenage boy and has a heightened sense of responsibility to those he loves. He’s also self-reflective and considers often what is the right thing to do in situations that seem to be confusing.

I was so caught up in the story of finding Matt’s sister, that it didn’t hit me until later, how close Matt came to losing every member of his family. That’s a tough reality for anyone, much less a teen.

The ending was exciting and satisfying. It was the perfect ending to the story to see Matt grasping the life that all teen boys yearn to have. This is a great read with the appropriate 60’s music playing in the background.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review.

Teenagers always have issues. Parents, siblings, girlfriends/boyfriends, navigating life, all while undergoing confusing physical and psychological changes. Turbulent times. Such is the case with sixteen-year-old Matt Anthony. It’s 1968 in Laguna Beach, California. Matt’s father has been AWOL for years, his mother’s a druggie, his brother’s crawling through tunnels in Viet Nam, and his paper route barely makes enough money for him to eat. On top of that, his sister Jazz goes missing. The police believe she’s just another hippie runaway. Matt knows differently. Toss in a religious cult, drug smugglers, and aggressive and corrupt police officers and you have the making of yet another great story from T. Jefferson Parker. He never fails to deliver and A Thousand Steps is no exception. Grab a copy and follow Matt through the smoke and haze as he attempts to find Jazz, stay out of jail, and avoid a cadre of bad guys.

DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series

T. Jefferson Parker’s A Thousand Steps is the coming-of-age story of a Laguna Beach, California, boy who is largely having to do it all on his own. Matt’s father deserted the family six years earlier; his brother is a Vietnam tunnel rat; his mother seems determined to drown her own problems in booze and drugs; and his only sister has just been kidnapped. Matt may be the youngest member of his family, but he is smart enough to know that he is the only hope is sister has now.

It’s 1968 and Laguna Beach is attracting naive dropouts and cynical drug pushers from all over the country. Idiots like Timothy Leary are taking advantage of the new drug culture’s chaos to make themselves famous and rich at the expense of anyone and everyone they can exploit - and it seems that way too many people in Laguna Beach are happy enough to be exploited. Those protesting the justifiably unpopular war in Vietnam make it even easier for the unscrupulous to make a quick buck from all the turmoil. Right in the middle of all of this, Jasmine, Matt’s sister, disappears and no one seems overly concerned about that other than sixteen-year-old Matt, who decides to find his sister on his own if he has to.

Tied down by a daily paper route that is his only source of income, and never sure where his next meal is coming from, Matt still manages to spend his every spare moment in search of his sister, a search that eventually attracts the attention of the Laguna Beach police. The police realize that Matt gets around, and one of them wants to turn him into an informer while another, more sympathetic, cop encourages Matt to keep doing what he’s doing because it is Jasmine’s best chance at being found alive. The boy is in so far over his head, though, that he will be lucky to survive the next few days himself.

Bottom Line: A Thousand Steps makes for a good coming-of-age story, but its setting is really the novel’s strongest point. Parker vividly captures a place, and a time, in American history that was every bit as ugly as it is memorable, a period that changed the country forever. For readers who don’t remember living through those days themselves, A Thousand Steps is a little like jumping on a time machine and traveling back to the counterculture of the late sixties.

Review Copy provided by Publisher - Will be published on January 11, 2022½

I received an advance copy of this book. Thank you

This was a really good book. It wasn't fast paced, but didn't drag either, it gradually unwound reveal more about the story and characters. It takes place in Laguna Beach, CA in 1968. The Author nailed the scene. It was very real and genuine; the whole hippie and 60's scene seemed really, really accurate. Matt Anthony is 16, his older sister has not returned home. His mother is addicted to drugs and isn't always tuned in. He's incredibly industrious, he has a paper route, holds odd jobs and makes lots of connections. He uses his connections to try and figure out where his sister has been taken, because he has never believed she'd run away. The police don't seem to be doing anything, so it's up to him. We follow along, going to Mystical Art Centers, and LSD laced orgies, spiritual enlightenment centers. Very good!