California Girl -- the Best of 2004?

Finished the latest book from T. Jefferson Parker recently. I believe that Jeff is one of the best of the "lesser-known" crime fiction writers so I was interested to see what did with this.

In a word... WOW!

California Girl is probably the best thing I've read all year. Incredible, mutli-dimensional characters, a fascinating, sweeping plot, wonderful historical and period details -- not to mention some of the finest writing you'll ever find, inside the genre or out. Reading this was pure delight.

California Girl is everything that Mystic River tried to be, but wasn't. You know how publishers like to blurb books saying stuff like "If you read one mystery novel this year, [insert title here] should be it!"? Well, in the case of California Girl, it's absolutely true.

Read this book!