Product Description

Los Angeles is gripped by the exploding celebrity of Allison Murrieta, her real identity unknown, a modern-day Jesse James with the compulsion to steal beautiful things, the vanity to invite the media along, and the conscience to donate much of her bounty to charity. Nobody ever gets hurt—until a job ends with ten gangsters lying dead and a half- million dollars worth of glittering diamonds missing.

Rookie Deputy Charlie Hood discovers the bodies, and he prevents an eyewitness—a schoolteacher named Suzanne Jones—from leaving the scene in her Corvette. Drawn to a mysterious charisma that has him off-balance from the beginning, Hood begins an intense affair with Suzanne. As the media frenzy surrounding Allison’s exploits swells to a fever pitch and the Southland’s most notorious killer sets out after her, a glimmer of recognition blooms in Hood, forcing him to choose between a deeply held sense of honor and a passion that threatens to consume him completely. With a stone-cold killer locked in relentless pursuit, Suzanne and Hood continue their desperate dance around the secrets that brought them together, unsure whether each new dawn may signal the day their lies catch up with them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45768 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 372 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The irresistible antihero of this outstanding thriller from bestseller Parker (Laguna Heat) calls herself Allison Murrieta and claims to be a descendant of Joaquin Murrieta, a 19th-century figure who looms large in California folklore (he was either a ruthless robber and killer or an Old West vigilante and Robin Hood). By day, Allison is Suzanne Jones, an eighth-grade history teacher with three sons in Los Angeles; by night, she dons a mask, straps on her derringer and steals from the greedy. Beloved by the media, she never uses the gun; her victims are never sympathetic; and she gives part of her loot to charity. But while stealing diamonds belonging to a master criminal known as the Bull, she witnesses a gangland-style bloodbath at the hands of Lupercio, a ruthless assassin working for the Bull. As she's leaving the scene of the crime, L.A. sheriff's deputy Charles Hood stops her, and that's when the plot gets complicated. The Bull wants his diamonds back. Lupercio knows Murrieta/Jones took them. Hood wants Jones to identify Lupercio. And the public wants to know who Murrieta really is. This tour de force of plotting and characterization may well be Parker's best book. Author tour. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
With his 15th novel (after California Girl ***1/2 Jan/Feb 2005, and The Fallen ***1/2 May/June 2006), critics agree that Edgar winner T. Jefferson Parker has written his best book yet. A noir thriller, L.A. Outlaw delighted critics with its fast-placed, suspenseful plot and compelling charactersâ€"a powerful heroine mirrored after Robin Hood, Zorro, and Joaquin Murrieta; a policeman haunted by his ethics and his Iraq tour of duty; and a killer scarred by his past in El Salvador. The plot is anything but hackneyed; the romance never dull. Not only a great choice for crime fans, L.A. Outlaws, with its deep, intelligent characterization, “is popular entertainment at its most delicious” (Washington Post).
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From AudioFile
An L.A. SheriffÕs deputy with an overburdened conscience falls in love with the witness of a gangland shootout who may be leading a double life as a masked outlaw. This unlikely scenario is made both believable and compelling in the fifteenth novel from T. Jefferson Parker. The reading, performed by real-life husband-and-wife team Susan Ericksen and David Colacci, is performed with sensitivity. As chapters switch between SuzanneÕs perspective and that of a third-person narrator, Ericksen and Colacci alternate as readers, with the other providing dialogue parts for the opposite sex. Both pairs--Ericksen and Colacci as well as the two lead characters--blend perfectly in this taut thriller about love, greed, and redemption. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Great character
A female Robin Hood drives this page turner. Why does she do what she does? There's no time to wonder, as this turbo-charged story distracts the reader. Enjoy the ride.

A Better Mousetrap
I once had a very hard time catching a mouse. This book suggests a better way. Read it and see.

Of course, that's not the main point of L.A. Outlaws. It centers on Suzanne Jones/Allison Murietta. Suzanne is an eighth grade history teacher. She's the loving mother of three children by three different men. Don't worry. It's cool. Allison is a bandit who: uses a loaded gun to rob fast food joints, steals cars, and runs off with a backpack full of diamonds that she finds after a gangster shootout. (When will fictional characters learn that you can't steal from criminals and expect to stroll away?)

Allison is a good outlaw (oxymoron?) who gives a portion of her ill-gotten gains to charities.

The author weaves the story of Irag War veteran and L.A. County Deputy Sheriff Charlie Hood into the affair. He has a big secret. Suzanne has a lot of secrets. They fall in love and share secrets.

There's also a hit man whose best friend is a machete.

Certain implausibilities are easily outweighed by the general excitement.

Ho...and hum.
Perhaps it's not fair to review a book you didn't finish, but since I've read from beginning to end everything else written by T. Jefferson Parker (I loved Silent Joe!), I'm giving it a shot. I couldn't finish L. A. Outlaws because A) I found nothing likeable or credible about Allison/Suzanne and couldn't get past her personal morality, her know-it-all-attitude about cars and everything else, her excuse that she robs the greedy and gives to charity--let her work for a living and give to charity like the rest of us do--and her victims: McDonald's? Burger King? lots of children go into those places and she carries a gun. Why not a Chucky Cheese, while she's at it? Can you tell I didn't like her?; B) Charlie Hood is not very credible, either; C) it's reminiscent but not as well done as No Country for Old Men (anti-hero comes across a stash of ill gotten goods, takes the loot, is identified by both the police and the bad guy, and is pursued by both), and D) I don't need to read another book about a patient with dementia, and E) it doesn't even feel like something written by T. Jefferson Parker.

I don't think Parker is very adept at creating women characters who serve as the heroine or anti-heroine of the story. He had a brief series about a woman detective (his books with a color in the title) and I found her uninteresting, too.

I'm happy for all those who liked it; personally I'll hope for better things in his next one.