The Jaguar (Charlie Hood)
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Customer Review
The Jaguar~Gripping tale of Greed, Guilt, Gunfire, and a Singing Gringa
If a reader is still up at midnight, transported from a New England winter ice storm to an ancient castle in the steamy jungle of a biosphere reserve and home to the Lord of the Narcos, where a gun battle is raging while a red-haired American singer is crafting a tune to save her life, I would call that gripping.Despite languishing over the pages to savor Parker's writing, to stay inside the City of Gold, in Bacalar and Chetumal, the world of Charlie Hood and Bradley Jones with it's jungle cats, crocodiles, violence and beautiful music of accordions and guitars as long as possible, alas, it comes to an end and we're back in the land of snowplows.Scenes, such as the musicians performing on stage at sunset in the middle of the jungle with a hurricane coming were so vivid I admit I had to Google The Jaguars of Veracruz, ready to download their music. Scenes, such as Charlie and Juan floating down a swollen river hanging onto a suitcase filled with one million...
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Product Description
New York Times bestseller T. Jefferson Parker, crime fiction's most critically acclaimed and award-winning writer continues "the most ground-breaking crime series in decades." (St. Louis Post- Dispatch) with another gripping tale of the Mexican border.
Erin McKenna, a beautiful songwriter married to a crooked Los Angeles County sheriff 's deputy, is kidnapped by Benjamin Armenta, the ruthless leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel. But his demands turn out to be as unusual as the crumbling castle in which Erin is kept. She is ordered to compose a unique narcocoriddo, a modern-day folk ballad of the kind that have recorded the exploits of the drug dealers, gunrunners, and outlaws who have highlighted Mexican history for generations. Under threat of death, Armenta orders Erin to tell his life story-in music-and write "the greatest narcocorrido of all time." Allowed to wander the dark hallways of the castle retreat with only a guitar and a mysterious old priest to keep her company, Erin must produce the most beautiful song that these men have ever heard.
As the mesmerizing music and lyrics of Erin's song cascade from the jungle hideout, they serve as a siren song to the two men who love Erin: her outlaw husband, Bradley Smith, and the lawman Charlie Hood- two men who together have the power to rescue her. Here, amid the ancient beauty and haunted landscape of the Yucatecan lowlands, the long-simmering rivalry between these men will be brought closer to its explosive finale.
T. Jefferson Parker, who is widely hailed as his generation's most accomplished and talented crime novelist, delivers a crime thriller that dramatically redefines the landscape of the cartel wars as an epic clash of good and evil.
"Mexico is cursed. So far from God and so close to the United States."
Make no mistake: The Jaguar moves Parker's cross-border drug trafficking series decisively forward, LAPD's Charlie Hood on loan to the ATF and obsessed with the infiltration of the Baja cartel into Southern California, the elusive Mike Finnegan always in play and never quite within Hood's grasp. A major player in Parker's The Border Lords, this novel takes Hood and fellow officer Bradley Jones deep into the Yucatan jungle, Bradley's singer/wife, Erin, kidnapped by a powerful gulf cartel. Secreted in Benjamin Armenta's "Castle", Erin awaits the demanded ransom of one million dollars. Later she learns of Armenta's desire that she compose a "narcocorrido" in his honor, a song glorifying the life of the drug lord. The rescue is delayed by the inherent dangers of traveling through Mexico, Armenta's tactics and nature's impending fury, Erin becomes a modern-day Scheherazade.The badlands of Mexico overrun with mercenaries, corrupt officials and random violent confrontations, Hood...
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powerful stuff
This is the most interesting series going at the moment - I hate having to wait a year for the next episode. I am not sure there s ever going to be a solution to the puzzle. For anyone thinking about buying this it is worthwhile buying all four books. The real value is the exploration of the border gun and drug issues. This one isnt quite as good as the previous one - mostly because the main characters are a little too flat, drug lord and son and evil cohorts- but it is still very good and the pursuit and exploration of of the Mike character is spellbinding.
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Nice mild cologne but fades fast!
