Laguna Heat

by T. Jefferson Parker

In beautiful Laguna Beach, California, a young detective must investigate a series of murders that lead him into his own frightening past. Learning the truth is hard enough, deciding what to do with that truth will be even harder. " strong, tough, funny; with a sense of humanity and a fine eye for the telling detail." -- Robert B. Parker "Here is an author who knows America's voice, and more than a little of its truth." -- Whitley Strieber "A very polished and deeply felt performance." -- Donald Stanwood Laguna Heat was made into an HBO movie starring Harry Hamlin, Jason Robards, Rip Torn and Catherine Hicks. About the T. Jefferson Parker is the author of nineteen crime novels, and a three-time winner of the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Thriller, Suspense

341 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

T. Jefferson Parker is the bestselling author of 26 crime novels, including Edgar Award-winners SILENT JOE and CALIFORNIA GIRL. Parker's next work is coming-of-age thriller, A THOUSAND STEPS, set for January of 2022. He lives with his family in a small town in north San Diego County, and enjoys fishing, hiking and beachcombing.

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Shephard is the new homicide detective in swanky Laguna Beach, California, and he's come to town from L.A. after killing a boy in a justifiable homicide. But the rep and the psychological baggage has followed him to Laguna Beach. Shephard has barely found his desk when he's called to the scene of a particularly brutal homicide in which the victim has been doused in turpentine and set ablaze. Shortly thereafter, a second victim is dealt a similar fate, and Shephard finds himself drawn into a complex mystery involving sex, blackmail and murder that stretches back forty years and that also involves members of his own family.

This is an earlier novel from T. Jefferson Parker who even then was writing intelligent plots filled with interesting characters and demonstrating his command of the southern California landscape. Those who have enjoyed his later books will do themselves a favor by searching out this one as well.

[mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laguna Heat is Parker's first novel, which is my favorite read--first novels. I did this backwards, becoming a fan of Parker, then searching out his first work. Yep, maybe his best. Fitzgerald said of Hemingway: Something happened to him when he was twenty, he wrote about it, and then just wrote the same story over and over. Well, that's true of most fiction writers and it's true of Parker. (That's why I like First novels - they usually represent what it is an author has to offer. Many people (most?) find an author they like and keep reading him or her - essentially reading the same thing over and over. That says much more about the reader and the publishing world, than it does about the content of the work. Okay, I'll get off my high horse.) Before reading Laguna Heat, I read Hardball by Paretsky. Funny, both are novel's about crimes that took place forty years ago. Heat takes place in SoCal, HB in Chi-town. Heat was Parker's first novel and written in 1985. HB is Paretsky's latest. Parker was the same age as the protagonist, Laguna PD detective Tom Shephard, when he wrote the book and grew up in the locale. Paretsky is close to her protagonist's age, V.I. Warshawski, and grew up in Chicago. Parker's writing captivated me. He describes the beach towns, the scenery, and the characters accurately and poetically. (I was there often.) It's 1985 and everyone smokes and drinks a lot.
Parker's plot line is so interesting, however, that I often struggled to read the descriptive narration because I wanted to turn the page and find out what happened. That's some good writing. To Fitzgerald's point: Yes, the themes in Parker's novels are the same as are the characters. Protagonist Shephard is Silent Joe is Charles Hood. The women (love objects) are all similar. The family histories are similar. Yes, it is the same story told over and over. "Manly Man" (L.A. Outlaw's heroine's word for Charles Hood) solves crimes that involve his father, corruption, and ambiguous, powerful men; has issues with his mother (dies prematurely), loses and finds and loses - strong, independent, beautiful lovers; likes dogs, hot cars, speed (the driving kind) guns (but not killing), children, and drink. Questions authority and is not particularly intellectual, a somewhat bemused personality is he. It's good stuff.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In T.Jefferson Parker's mystery debut, Laguna Heat, he really brought on the heat in this stellar mystery. For Tom Shepard, he was a disgraced LAPD detective from a shooting of a young black teen, he moved to Laguna Beach. From there, he investigated a trail of fire murders, a path that lead him back to his darkest past of his mother's murder. When he finally encountered the man who destroyed his family, all best were off, when he discovered the cold truth on what lead to it and what happened beyond it. Now he had to make his peace and deal with it with a shocking ending.

[ML · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a long time to finish. It’s my first TJP book and I really wish this would have been a series. Tom is a strong enough character that a continued series would have been great. BUT instead a thousand characters were introduced and since this was a stand-alone I didn’t feel the emotional investment. Like who cares who that guy was. I’ll never see him again after this one book.

The writing style took awhile for me to accumulate myself to… TJP says 25 words when it could have been said in 4 words. Over describing became a thing.

The setup of the plot became so long that by the end it seemed rushed and then the epilogue was brief. I’m not sure this is the author for me.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mixed bag for me. Parts of Laguna Heat were really well written and compelling, while other sections of the novel seemed scattered and uneven. The bad actually slightly outweighed the good and I kept wondering what I was missing considering all the glowing reviews I’d read.

Sure, we have all the right ingredients: Det. Tom Shepherd, a recent transplant from the LAPD, now heading up a significant investigation into two homicides in the usually quiet enclave of Laguna Beach, carries the requisite baggage of a divorce and a guilty conscience over shooting a suspect back in LA.
We have a number of bad actors, a love interest, and a complicated relationship between Tom and his father, Wade, a former LBPD cop who is now a preacher. Whew!

Yet, despite a fine set of ingredients, the dish seems to lack something; the characters seemed a tad too one dimensional, making me apathetic towards them, and at times the author went on about meaningless peripheral elements that failed to add anything substantive to the final product.

So I’m left with a bit of a conundrum insofar as I enjoyed the plot and some of the scenes, particularly towards the end and denouement, on one hand. On the other hand, however, I thought the thread of the story became looser and looser, causing me to lose interest and look forward to finishing (rather than savoring) this novel. A generous 3 stars, no big regrets, but looking forward to my next book.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I have read a lot of T. Jefferson Parker's novels, somehow I missed this one (published in 1985) and it was even made into a movie two years later! I didn't see the movie either. The story is captivating. A young police officer in Laguna Beach (transferred from L.A.) has baggage from his former job, and also from his family life. His mother was killed when he was about three. During the course of this novel, two other people involved in Shepard's past are murdered, and one is attacked. It all stems from incidents that happened over 35 years previously. The "whodunit" and why were as mysterious as they were difficult to fathom. I thought Parker did a great job of writing an ending to this story that could probably be the only one possible. I also loved the description of the scenery along the Pacific Coast Highway, and Mexico. Parker's descriptions are just marvelous.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3* The Blue Hour
2* Iron River
TR Red Light
3* Laguna Heat

Solid.
:O)

[Carolyn (in SC) C234D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this first novel a lot. Tom Shepherd is a good cop who had bad luck. He solves a crime but has a big dilemma at the end. He winds it up in a satisfactory manner.

I read this almost fifteen years ago and don’t remember details. I’ve read about five books by this author and didn’t care for a couple of them at all, but really liked the others. Kind of unusual for me.

[Diana H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this book while driving. It was hard to keep my mind on the road - I got that caught up in the story.

[Bob Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in 1987. A refreshingly compelling mystery. Always a good mystery with Parker who I still read to this day.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars for me.

[Eric_W · Rating 3 out of 5]

No one does delving into the sins of omission and commission in the old gentry like Ross MacDonald who seemed almost to have a patent on the genre. Parker does a successful emulation in Laguna Heat.

Tom Shephard, recently retired from the LAPD where he was a decorated detective, but also the subject of widespread vilification for shooting a sixteen-year-old, has been hired to work as the homicide detective for Laguna Beach (annual homicide rate 0.5). His first case finds him looking for the killer of Tim Callahan who died with blue cobalt in his hair, $1000 waded up and stuffed down his throat, and a 32 oz piece of basalt smashed into his forehead. The trail leads to events that had occurred many years before with interlocking motives and actions that came back to haunt all of them decades later.

It’s an engaging story if unrealistic. The idea that a homicide detective could just take off and follow his instincts and a suspect down to Mexico struck me as bizarre. Apparently, this was Parker’s first novel and it doesn’t have the polish of some of his later work, but with that caveat it’s better than a lot of other stuff being published.

[3 no 7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading Laguna Heat for the second time. (The first was a LONG time ago.) I was impressed that the story held up so well after thirty years. This just reinforces the quality of T. Jefferson Parker’s writing right from the start of his career. The story focused on the characters and their interactions, not on frivolous technology or popular culture references that would have immediately dated the novel. With the possible exceptions of the ease with which the characters got through airports and the smoking in public places, Laguna Heatcould have been written in 2015 instead of 1985. My dad picked up this copy of Laguna Heatat his local library’s extra books sale. It still has the little pocket in the back where the librarian put your library card when you checked out the book. Now THAT is something that dates the book.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read somewhere that when Michael Connelly moved to Florida, T J Parker was the best mystery/thriller writer living in California. I would pretty much agree to that. This was his first novel ('85),and a very good setting in southern Calif, with a homicide cop digging into a mystery that goes back some forty years.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVE LOVE LOVE T.J. Parker. This is one of the earlier ones, and I really like it.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite (along with "Silent Joe") of all Parker's novels. This guy can write!

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

"For a brief moment Shephard felt that rare emotion, the opposite of déjà vu: not that he had been there before but that he would never be there again."

Laguna Heat (1985) is the debut novel by the three-time Edgar winner T. Jefferson Parker. It does not quite rank with Silent Joe or California Girl, two outstanding works, which - although technically a mystery and a procedural - clearly transcend their genre and belong to "real" literature, but it still is a solid, extremely readable crime novel.

Detective Tom Shephard is the sole member of Laguna Beach Homicide Division transferred there after his "trouble" in Los Angeles where he spent 12 years on the force. In contrast to LA Laguna Beach has had little need for homicide detectives. This picturesque wealthy little seaside town in Orange County and a Mecca for artists boasts little crime, perhaps one murder a year. But the statistics are to be spoiled now: Shephard is on a crime scene where a badly burned body of a well-known resident has been found. Before death the victim was tortured, then had his brains bashed out with a rock, and then was set on fire. Shephard's investigation will widen and will eventually touch events from over thirty years ago.

Shephard is still in psychotherapy after an "officer-involved shooting," a deplorable, vile euphemism for a police officer killing a person. The incident, quite relevant for today's readers particularly because the detective's victim had been a black teenager, has resulted in Shephard's deep trauma, rather plausibly portrayed in the novel. A bit less plausible are the detective's personal connections with the event of the past. His father had been a police officer before becoming a television preacher and the relationship between the two Shephards constitutes the most important motif in the substantial non-police-procedural layer of the novel.

The complex plot is extremely interesting and well paced. The portrayal of Pacific coast locations, my home for the last 34 years, is first class and the characters, at least in some scenes, resemble real people. Most of the book is well written: I like the long passage where Shephard ruminates on his life while in the background his father drones his empty and meaningless "spiritual" phrases on TV. Alas, Mr. Parker decided to include a truly cringeworthy sex scene. There is nothing more obscene than a badly written depiction of a sex act, so I will refrain from quoting the nauseating or giggle inducing complete sentences, but allow me just a few atrocious phrases: "mingled, locked, released," "slick abundance," "spilling in a rush," "he churned harder," and on and on. I am happy that I do not remember any such pearls of prose in the author's later works.

If we forget the debuting author's utter failure in the sex scene, Laguna Heat is a good psychological procedural and a very readable thriller.

Three and a half stars.

[Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I was gifted the author's latest book. Parker is highly regarded so I thought I would read his first book.

My parents read thousands of books and I became a reader too. They loved mysteries. I married a great reader and she and my mom would trade mysteries. I would read novels and non-fiction but soon they drew me into the world of the mystery reader. My method of reading was if I liked the authors first book I would read the next book. If I thought the book was just okay I might give the second book a chance. That is the problem I have with Laguna Heat, if I read it when it first came out I would have stopped reading Parker there.

Parker captures Laguna Beach and the other places in the book perfectly. The plot of the story though it starts well, soon sounds like he is just checking off points on his outline. In between these points he gets too wordy and I found myself first thinking and as the story went on saying out loud, "Get back to the mystery!". My other peeve was a four page gratuitous sex scene that I chalked up that the book was written in the 1980's. I am no prude but it was poorly written and was not close to being believable.

The writer's website call his new book his masterpiece. I think I will have to cleanse my palate from this book, by reading some writers I enjoy before I read his new " masterpiece ". If it is great I will let you know and if so I might have to read his books in reverse order.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Shepard has moved back to his hometown of Laguna Beach, California, after several years on the Los Angeles police force. Following in his father Wade's footsteps, Tom has taken a job with the Laguna Beach police department. The town is quiet with very little crime but it appears that a serial killer is making his way through a select group of residents. Next to each body he leaves a Bible with cryptic messages written inside. The bodies themselves are burned beyond recognition with only dental records able to identify them. Shepard knows he needs to find the person responsible before more bodies begin to pile up. While investigating, he learns disturbing details about the past: his father's and possibly his own. Wade had been a member of the police force until his wife's murder at the hand of a friend. Now Wade has become a minister and serves a large congregation in Laguna Beach. Shepard digs into his parents' past and finds so much more than he ever wanted to know.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit and I really liked Tom Shepard's character. The mystery is deep and slowly revealed throughout the story. I didn't figure out the solution and it was quite surprising.

[Mark Hurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid police procedural. Parker's knowledge of Southern California and his fascination with the connections between past and present provide a firm foundation for the tale he unwinds here. He imparts a deep sense of place with detailed, even poetic descriptions of Laguna, past and present. The dialogue and the evolution of Parker's detective Tom Shepard with Jane Algernon can feel forced and he does fall into some stereotypical tropes for the genre. Despite that, Laguna Heat is a solid mystery, an engrossing read, and Parker leans into the moral complexity and shades of gray that give his later works so much depth. T. Jefferson Parker is one of the most accomplished mystery writers of our time and his work often transcends the genre. You cans sense the promise of great things to come reading this debut, even if the ambition is not fully realized here.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

After having read 15 of T. Jefferson Parker's later books, it's easy to see that he improved considerably after this first book. I almost wish I hadn't read it. Laguna Heat is full of what seem to me to be unlikely events, his metaphors are inferior (cackling seagulls?), and the ending is unsatisfying. If you are considering a T. Jefferson Parker book for the first time, please don't choose this one. It will kill your desire to read any more of his books. I started with California Girl, recommended to me by a cousin. I gave it 4 stars and it deserves all 4. Read it and let Laguna Heat remain dusty on the shelf.

[Thomas Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the author's debut novel, written many years ago. I picked it up after hearing him speak at Sleuthfest. It's a fine murder mystery with many layers, very Hitchcockian. But what I found most impressive was the attention to setting - Parker obviously knows this part of California very, very well, and when you finished the book, you will too. I'm sad to say I figured it out about halfway through, but that did not spoil my enjoyment of Parker's lyrical prose. I'll be reading his other books soon.

[Sean Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even better the second time

I read this when it was released 40 years ago was at Jeff's book signing that I believe it was a Borders or a Crown books in El Toro, I've read a lot of his books . Reading this for the second time was an amazing treat, it's really did a great job of illustrating deep moral struggle of right and wrong , great story, great characters just an awesome piece of work

[Judy Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw Jeff at Warwick's books last week. He is charming, accessible, and erudite. Loved this first book of his. Descriptions of Laguna and Newport are spot on, his ability to express emotions outstanding. Well worth the time.

[Tom Britz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laguna Heat is the first novel by T. Jefferson Parker and my second by this talented writer. Mr. Parker is able to tug on the heartstrings while at the same time telling a compelling story. This tale of murder and revenge amid lies and conspiracy is highly recommended.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

,T. Jefferson never fails to entertain. This one finds a young detective with Laguna Beach P D trying to solve horrendous crimes. The trail leads to ok’d friends of his parents which eventually leads to his fathers guilt and the wrongful conviction of another man 30 years before.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

For being T. Jefferson Parker's FIRST novel, this was exceptional. He's only gotten better too.

[Lisa Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Didn't want to put it down! Kept me going right to the end; I'm glad it ended the way it did.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great mystery by Parker with more twists than your average pretzel. Tom Sheperd investigates grizzly murders connected to his family history.

[Drake Tungsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

Characters had no emotional resonance to them. They were all very one dimensional.