One of the joys of reading is finding an author whose first book is good but somewhat unheralded, whose popularity grows incrementally at first with the publication of each new book, and then finds fame --- and sometimes even fortune --- growing by gigantic leaps and sumptuous bounds. I think that we can place T. Jefferson Parker on this list of such authors with the publication of BLACK WATER.
BLACK WATER is Parker's 10th novel. His previous, RED LIGHT, was nominated for an Edgar award for best novel; last year's SILENT JOE was as distinct and different from anything else you could name that came out last year. BLACK WATER...well, you're going to have BLACK WATER Velcroed to your fingers for a while. At least until you finish reading it --- and possibly thereafter.
BLACK WATER is noteworthy for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the return of detective Merci Rayborn. Rayborn is a flawed heroine, perfectly real; her conclusions in RED LIGHT, where she wrongfully accused a fellow officer (and her lover) of murder, were quite simply incorrect. It happens sometimes. In that case, however, the results were disastrous. She picked herself up as best she could and moved on. Rayborn is determined that she will never again wrongly accuse a fellow police officer. Yet, everything in her latest investigation makes it seem as if she's about to do just that.
Parker's technique in BLACK WATER is quite interesting. The book opens with the introduction of Archie And Gwen Wildcraft. Archie is a young, handsome Orange County deputy on an upward career trajectory; Gwen is a beautiful aspiring songwriter, rock singer, and artist. We meet them as they are returning home from a surprise birthday party for Gwen. We watch the initiation of some outdoor lovemaking, we follow them home, we tuck them in bed. We are there when they are awakened by a rock flying through their living room window and we watch while Archie leads his wife to their bathroom, closes the door and goes outside to see what happened. We are led up to the moment at which Archie is attacked. And then...
When we next encounter the Wildcrafts, Gwen is dead and Archie is barely clinging to life from a gunshot wound to the head. And though we know it is not so, we watch in horror as all of the evidence points, reluctantly but unerringly, to a murder/attempted suicide. The whole scenario feels wrong to Rayborn, and she even works the events out as we witnessed them, or at least some of them. The reader wants to scream through the pages at her, "Yes! Yes!" when she guesses correctly. The evidence, however, is the evidence. It is fascinating to watch Rayborn, impeded to some extent by the occasional ghostly echoes of her past mistakes, methodically investigate the victims and follow her instincts regarding the case. It is equally as fascinating to watch Wildcraft, hampered by the traumatic injury to his brain, slip in and out of consciousness, grasping and losing and grasping again at the memories of his past and what happened on the night that his world, as he knew it, abruptly came to an end. Parker, in the meantime, keeps the suspense flowing almost from the first page. You know and I know, he tells the reader, who didn't do it. Should we tell everyone else in the book? And who did do it? These are the questions to be answered in BLACK WATER and in time. But only just.
Parker has with BLACK WATER met and sustained the promise of the greatness hinted at in SILENT JOE and his previous novels. This is yet another impressive work from an author who is quietly but forcefully demonstrating a talent many wish for but few truly possess.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
