Earlier this year, when I reviewed T. Jefferson Parker’s book A Thousand Steps, I wrote: When I first read T. Jefferson Parker’s Laguna Heat back in 1985, I had recently moved to Santa Cruz and was ecstatic to be living in a small beach town again — because I grew up in South Orange County (specifically in and around Laguna Beach) and graduated high school in 1965. So I know the area well (at least the area as it was then, because overdevelopment has ruined most of the good things about the area). Anyway, I have read all of Parker’s books since then, loving many and being “meh” about a few…but I always like the ones set in Orange County, so I was extremely happy to receive a copy of A Thousand Steps “. Thanks to Tor/Forge Books, I received a copy of his upcoming book, The Rescue, in exchange for an honest review. 

So, I’m a dog lover, a reader of mysteries, and I  grew up in Southern California– pretty much the trifecta of people for whom this book will be a favorite. In it, a journalist named Bettina Blazak is writing a story about the street dogs and includes a visit to a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico (just across the border from San Diego) as part of her research. On a whim, she adopts one of the dogs. He turns out not to be a street dog at all, but rather a drug-sniffing dog formerly “employed” by the DEA. As Bettina and her pup enter a “deadly criminal underworld” together, she realizes that her dog is once again a target of the bad guys. 

The story of the bond she develops with her beloved dog will warm the hearts of dog lovers, and the mystery will please Mr. Parker’s many fans. Those of us who have a connection with Southern California will get a bonus of terrific writing that captures the setting very well (a particular aspect of Parker’s writing that is appreciated by many). Four stars.