VJ Books Presents Author T. Jefferson Parker!
 T. Jefferson Parker is an award winning author best known for his mystery novels featuring Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Charlie Hood. Rights to bring Charlie to the big screen were purchased by Lionsgate.
His most recent novel, A Thousand Steps, is a departure from Charlie Hood and the dangers of the U.S./Mexico border. Instead, he takes us back to Laguna Beach, California, 1968. The Age of Aquarius is in full swing. Matt Anthony is sixteen years old. When his older sister Jazz goes missing, it's up to Matt to find her. The cops figure she’s just another runaway hippie chick, enjoying a summer of love, but Matt doesn’t believe it. Not after another missing girl turns up dead on the beach. But in a town where the cops don’t trust the hippies and the hippies don’t trust the cops, uncovering what’s really happened to Jazz is going to force him to grow up fast… If it’s not already too late.
Parker discussed his latest work with The VJ Books Podcast host Roger Nichols. Though he’s never written a sixteen year old protagonist before, he tells Nichols, “It let me go back into my years as an adolescent… When you're going back in your mind, especially in time to a place that you loved at one time when you were there ---- that really fires the imagination.”
Parker’s novel Silent Joe won the Edgar Award for best mystery in 2001, as well as the coveted Los Angeles Times Book Prize for mysteries. In 2004, California Girl won the Edgar for best mystery once again and in 2008, “Skinhead Central” won Parker his third Edgar, this time for best short story.
His writing career began in 1978, with a job as a cub reporter on the weekly newspaper, The Newport Ensign. After covering police, city hall and cultural stories for the Ensign, Parker moved on to the Daily Pilot newspaper, where he won three Orange County Press Club awards for his articles. All the while he was tucking away stories and information that he would use in his first book.
Parker's first novel, Laguna Heat, was written on evenings and weekends while he worked as a reporter, and was published to rave reviews and made into an HBO movie starring Harry Hamlin, Jason Robards and Rip Torn.
He was born in Los Angeles and has lived all his life in Southern California. He was educated in public schools in Orange County, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Irvine, in 1976.
When not working, Parker spends his time with his family, hiking, fishing, beachcombing, exercising his dogs. He cannot pass a body of water without wanting to fish it. He also enjoys rock hounding, cycling and being outdoors.
You can find a signed copy of A Thousand Steps and a collection of other T. Jefferson Parker signed books below.
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T. Jefferson Parker Bibliography
Charlie Hood Series
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L.A. Outlaws - 2008
- The Renegades - 2009
- Iron River - 2009
- The Border Lords - 2011
- The Jaguar - 2012
- The Famous and the Dead - 2013
Roland Ford Series
- The Room of White Fire - August 2017
- Swift Vengeance - August 2018
- The Last Good Guy - August 2019
- Then She Vanished - August 2020
Merci Rayborn Series
- The Blue Hour - 1999
- Red Light - 2000
- Black Water - 2002
Other Novels
- Laguna Heat - 1985
- Little Saigon - 1988
- Pacific Beat - 1991
- Summer Of Fear - 1993
- The Triggerman's Dance - 1996
- Where Serpents Lie - 1998
- Silent Joe - 2001
- Cold Pursuit - 2003
- California Girl - 2004
- The Fallen - 2006
- Storm Runners - 2007
- Full Measure - 2014
- Crazy Blood - 2016
- A Thousand Steps - 2022
Essays
- A Mystery Writer Attends the Sprague Symposium
- TJP's columns from the L.A. Times "Orange County Live!", a selection
T. Jefferson Parker Awards
- Silent Joe - 2001 Edgar Award for Best Mystery
- California Girl - 2004 Edgar Award for Best Mystery
- Skinhead Central - 2008 Edgar Award for Best Short Story
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