Parker, who has produced some fine work in the past, has with "Iron River" arrived at a prose style, and with insight to rival James Lee Burke. In other words, a masterpiece, as good as the genre gets.

I'm new to T. Jefferson Parker. The book cover proclaims this to be part of a character series. Given that introduction, the novel far exceeded my admittedly uninformed expectations.

The narrative focus is the traffic across the U.S./Mexican border: not the drugs and the undocumented workers moving North, but the guns and money moving South. Take the artificiality of the border out of the equation, and you have not just a criminal enterprise stretching - within this story's ambit - from the suburbs of Orange County to the forested valleys of the Sierra Madres, but sophisticated tactical warfare and outright terrorism eerily similar to that which plays out in the headlines that are drawn from the Middle East. The struggle is about money and power, but not just on a criminal scale. There's an intriguing hint of nation-building: the replacement of one system of corruption with perhaps another, more populist one. There's also more than a suggestion that much of the struggle feeds off the unhealthy appetites and excesses of America.

But this also is a crime story, moving in two directions. On the one hand, our heroes are agents of the ATFE, set out to disrupt the arms traffic and to protect one of their own whose stray bullet has made him the target for vengeance by a narco-lord. On the other hand, the scion of a defunct arms-manufacturer sets out to rebuild his fortune and his future by crafting a deal that will help him rebound from a ruinous products liability judgment while aligning him with one of the most ruthless criminals on the planet. The stakes are high, and so is the tension.

An interesting blend of characters is thrown into this mix. At the center is an introspective man of action trying to sort out the moral issues. He resembles the Hero: upright, grounded, conflicted. At the other pole is a mysterious man who knows more than he should about the action around him, and whose motivations remain unclear. He resembles the Coyote: wily, mysterious, somehow supernatural, with echoes of Melville's Confidence Man.

The writing is deft and accomplished. The author knows where he wants his story to go, and he drives it there with purpose and style.

This reader is left with the sense that he has stumbled upon not just a popular mystery series, but a chapter in a more profound, expanded work of fiction. The expectations will be much higher next time around.

My first encounter with a T. Jefferson Parker book, and for the most part, I liked it a lot. I'm a sucker for any good evocation of LA/Southern California as the setting for any kind of novel, and "Iron River" delivers the California/Mexico border area and other parts of the Southland in fine and credible detail.

The book has several well-presented story lines--the struggle of U.S. law enforcement against cross-border gun trafficking; the gang wars actively undermining the social and political structures of Mexico; and the interactions of the book's key characters--Deputy Sheriff Charlie Hood (protagonist), Ron Pace and Sharon Rose Novak (gun runners par excellence), Bradley Jones (one man, teenage crime wave) and Mike and Owens Finnegan (space aliens?) If you've read this far into the review, you'll have noted that this is not your average formulaic action thriller. In fact, anyone who takes on "Iron River" is going to have to be somewhat tolerant of the strange sci/fi-ish turns that author Parker has thrown in here.

When all is said and done, Parker delivers a highly entertaining action story that is neither better nor worse for his dabbling in the supernatural. The characters are well-developed and the story context (the politically fractious border situation and complicating factors of gun and drug smuggling) is well informed, insightful and interesting. The story is cynical in outlook but holds out the possibility of redemption in a sequel. It delivers plenty of well-narrated action scenes to please any reader who is a fan of the genre. I was pulled into the saga of Charlie Hood, Mike Finnegan and Bradley Jones enough to buy the next installment whenever it appears. Recommended.

On one hand this is a pretty good tale of danger and retribution on the California-Mexico border. But there are elements that leave the reader scratching his head. There is sure to be a confrontation with young Bradley, who appears good, but acts bad. And the surreal agent of chaos that is introduced here, is just a puzzle. If the author can pull it off, it will be a ride. We'll have to wait and see.

T. Jefferson Parker's latest novel, Iron River: A Charlie Hood Novel is strangely fascinating. Although Charlie Hood is the main character, the strange character to whom I refer is Mike Finnegan...

The book opens with Finnegan being severely hurt in an automobile accident and Hood and others visit him throughout the book, trying to discover who he is and how he knows so much! He seeks a favor from Hood, to find and determine how his daughter is doing; and he then becomes indebted to Hood. Readers may feel that he plays a significant role in what is going on--perhaps he is a representative of the evil that taunts individuals with power and money, or perhaps he is just a well-read old man who has a "ear to the ground." No matter which, it was fascinating to me watch this somewhat minor character interact with Hood.

Charlie Hood is on loan to ATFE. Various groups in Mexico are in need of guns; Americans are providing them. In turn, drugs are provided to those in America who want them for sale or use. Both countries are at fault; neither country can control what is happening. Is a war the only answer? Parker's story brings us close to that when one of the Mexican groups first kidnaps one of the ATFE men, torturing him until a small group get him out. Then, while he is recuperating in the hospital located in the U.S., they swarm into the hospital, killing five and take him again.

Vengeance for the accidental death of the son of the major Mexican drug lord.

A reason for the U.S. President to consider the hospital invasion an attack of America. Already 15,000 individuals have died along the Iron River (border). How many more will die?

Both Mexico and the U.S. work to alleviate the threat of the latest problem and secure a trade for Jimmy Holdstock, the kidnap victim, and it almost fails...

But even while all of this is happening, a young man who has designed a beautiful but very dangerous gun is working diligently to fulfill the bargain to provide 1000 guns... and succeeds! Will it ever stop? Not if Mike Finnegan has anything to do with it, me thinks...

Will the issue Parker is highlighting do any good to decrease the drug/gun trade? I pray that it does. What Parker has done, for sure, is create a thrilling novel of one of the most horrendous issues faced by both the United States and Mexico! Iron River takes you into the middle of this powerful corruption. They win some; they also lose some! Highly recommended for those concerned and watching this situation "in real life."

G. A. Bixler

The Talk of the Town Literature Circle in accord with the TOTT Rifleman Club has given a flat one star to this book because, although fiction, it makes the case for greater gun control. Gun toting members of our community need their firearms for the following reasons:

MOTHER - Has T. Jefferson ever heard of a beautiful lady being scared to walk the streets? A tasty bit of crumpet like me needs a .45 strapped on my luscious legs and a .22 in the unmentionables just to keep safe.

Jabber - I'm a shut-in, if anybody comes through the window of our newer double-wide, he or she better be prepared to meet Michael Jackson in Hades.

Father O'Hair - Trolling streets of Hollywood in search of sin, which I need to confront with my piety - I need a semi-automatic to take down Satanic evil.

Bozero - The cartel might try to kidnap ME!!! They'd force me to make balloons animals for their spoiled children and the CIA who assist them.

Sir Ian Hathcock-Waggerstaff - As an English royal, I'm well aware of the effects of gun control. The poor people of Britian must knuckle under to that tyrant Prince Charles. Rumor has it that he takes each young maiden from every village for his own because the commoners can't rebel. He shrieks, "Remember what happened to Diana - you lousy, flea bitten peasants!" We don't need gun restrictions here or VP Joe Biden would do the same to our ladies.

Mr. Schoenberg - How could I collect rent without a pistol?

Joey the Trucker - My herbs would be unprotected - NEVER!!

T. Jefferson stop making political points with Obama with your mystery writing - George W. is a tidier metrosexual anyhow.

This "guns, blood, and guts" suspense thriller illuminates the immense problems faced by drug and firearms enforcement personnel seeking to stem the flow of Arizona's "iron river"--the river that supplies guns for the drug cartels engaged in Mexico's drug wars.

IRON RIVER has many graphic scenes--scenes that are too graphic for this reader's taste--of ATFE stings and commando raids, drug cartel tortures and executions, and Mexican countrysides despoiled by the bodies of beheaded soldiers and policemen. There are detailed descriptions of a new and deadly machine gun (the Love 32), and plenty of mention of the male characters' sexual fantasies. Surprisingly, there are no graphic bedroom scenes. The writing is professional, and the novel is fast-paced, if not always a page-turner.

The plot unfolds through a series of chapters told from the disparate viewpoints of an ATFE officer (Charlie Hood), a bankrupt gun manufacturer (Ron Pace), and a rich young drug transporter (Bradley Jones). Their stories are bound together by the revelations of a mysterious hospital patient who is confined to a full body cast (Mike Finnegan) and who knows all sorts of things that he can't possibly know about Charlie's covert investigations and the operations of the Mexican drug cartels that provide the background to the novel.

The novel poses the question, "What if the Devil's minions walked among us, looking just like ordinary men?" The earthly presence of immortal journeyman devils, who carry out their assigned job of creating discord among human beings, is probably as good an explanation as any for the unadulterated evil and seemingly endless carnage that is associated with cross-border drug and gun trafficking.

There is no happy ending here, as the ultimate lesson Charlie learns is that the battle to control the flow of illicit guns and drugs between the United States and Mexico is essentially a lost cause. This is a hard-boiled thriller for men, but a highly unusual one that is definitely not a suspense thriller in the classic mode.

This reviewer knows next to nothing about the realities of the Mexican-American drug and gun trade, and thus cannot express any opinion regarding the accuracy of the book's factual background.

I have read most of T. Jefferson Parker's novels. The earlier ones were quite rooted in reality, one in particular touching on child abuse and sexual traffic. All were solid reads. Iron River and its predecessor, are quite different and add an element of history, Jouquin Murietta and his family to the present and a very unlikely and improbable character who appears more than human. The Iron River of the title refers to the flow of guns to Mexico to complement the drug trade. I don't see much comparison to Cormac McCarthy here, but I do think that Phillip Caputo's new novel, characterized as literary rather than as a thriller or mystery, is better written and plausible. I would recommend The Crossings over the Iron River.