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Merci Rayborn is an investigator with the Orange County, California Sheriff's Department, whom readers of T. Jefferson Parker's thrillers first met in last year's THE BLUE HOUR. Now she returns in his new novel, RED LIGHT --- in an even worse predicament than the last time we saw her. I kept thinking (even while I knew it wouldn't make a good thriller), "Will someone please give this poor woman a break?" I'm sure Merci, if she'd heard me thinking that, would've bashed me on the head for it --- or at least given me a dirty look. This is not a woman who ever gives herself a break and, in fact, might not even know one if it was the size of the San Andreas fault and she fell in it.
Yet, she's a great character, the kind who could easily carry a whole series, let alone two books. Nearly six feet tall, dark-haired, big-boned, strong both physically and mentally, she has an appealing emotional vulnerability she keeps hidden from the world, but not from the reader. That's what makes Merci tick, and you can't help but feel compelled to hang in there with her every step of the way.
In THE BLUE HOUR, Merci learned the ropes from Tim Hess, an old law enforcement guy. Sick and disillusioned, he recovered some of his zest for life from her and became her mentor. Much of that book was warmed by an unlikely, yet believable, well-written sexual tension between Tim and the much-younger Merci; and no, I will not say how it turned out. If you haven't read BLUE HOUR, you might want to pick up the mass-market paperback (recently issued) and read it first. But you don't have to --- RED LIGHT stands alone well.
Two years have passed in Merci's life since we last saw her, and during that time she has become involved with another officer named Mike McNally. Her new work partner is Paul Zamorra, whose wife has a brain tumor and is in the hospital. Much of the time Zamorra is absent and Merci is working alone, yet Zamorra's subplot is engrossing and important to the book's overall texture and tone.
The plot revolves around the murders of two prostitutes, one in the present, the other a cold case twenty-plus years old. Merci is assigned principle investigator in both cases, and yes, they do turn out to be linked. Police and Sheriff Deptartment corruption, and the same ugly stuff in Orange County politics, are all factors that come into play as Merci unravels the truth.
T. Jefferson Parker just plain writes well. For instance, upon being told about a "kiddie-raper" on the loose in her territory: "Merci shook her head and thought about her own son meeting such an end. A dark, svelte violence in her shifted and stared out past its coils."
This is my favorite kind of book --- a thriller in which good writing and great characters drive the story. Personally, I don't care that much whether the protagonist is male or female, but it's a bonus for me (being female, myself, the last time I looked) when it's a woman who feels the way I do about a lot of things. For example, when Merci's mulling over why should she continue to do what she does for a living, she thinks: "Because people die every day who aren't supposed to, and the assholes who do it shouldn't go free." And again, when challenged on the same subject by another character, she says: "Tuesday night a woman got murdered. I'm going to find the creep who did it. To me, the questions that matter are still the same. That's why I do what I do."
In RED LIGHT, Merci pursues the killer to the bitter end --- even when first the current case, and then the old, cold case turn into scenarios that just about could not be worse for her personally. And speaking of pursuit, readers who enjoy a solid thriller will do well to pursue this book. Although, in my opinion, RED LIGHT is not quite as masterful as THE BLUE HOUR (few books are), it is still a very, very good read; the kind of book that leaves you feeling satisfied that sometimes things do work out better than you fear they will. Which in the kind of world we have today is no small thing.
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