A Thousand Steps

by T. Jefferson Parker

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

T. Jefferson Parker has been a favorite of ours since his Charlie Hood series. Here, Parker takes us to a land and time as trippy as the gorgeous cover — Southern California in 1968. As Timothy Leary once said, "Turn on, tune in, drop out." We’ve got one more thing to add here: Read this book and dig it!

A USA Today Best of 2022, and a Los Angeles Times Bestseller!

A Thousand Steps is a beguiling thriller, an incisive coming-of-age story, and a vivid portrait of a turbulent time and place by three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker.

Laguna Beach, California, 1968. The Age of Aquarius is in full swing. Timothy Leary is a rock star. LSD is God. Folks from all over are flocking to Laguna, seeking peace, love, and enlightenment.

Matt Anthony is just trying get by.

Matt is sixteen, broke, and never sure where his next meal is coming from. Mom’s a stoner, his deadbeat dad is a no-show, his brother’s fighting in Nam . . . and his big sister Jazz has just gone missing. 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.

All Matt really wants to do is get his driver’s license and ask out the girl he’s been crushing on since fourth grade, yet it’s up to him to find his sister. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250793539
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/11/2022
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	98,407
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

T. Jefferson Parker is the author of numerous novels and short stories, the winner of three Edgar Awards (for Silent Joe, California Girl, and the short story "Skinhead Central"), and the recipient of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for best mystery (Silent Joe). Before becoming a full-time novelist, he was an award-winning reporter. He lives in Fallbrook, California.

Hometown:

Fallbrook, California

Date of Birth:

December 26, 1953

Place of Birth:

Los Angeles, California

Education:

B.A. in English, University of California-Irvine, 1976

Website:

http://www.tjeffersonparker.com

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2021

The backdrop to this solid standalone from Edgar winner Parker, set in 1968 Laguna Beach, Calif., is the burgeoning counterculture—hippies, drugs, be-ins, and protests—but 16-year-old Matt Anthony is mostly worried about his fractured family. His dad has fled. His mom’s addicted to hash and opium. His brother’s fighting in Vietnam. And his sister, 18-year-old Jasmine, has gone missing, last seen at a stairway to the beach. The police, who don’t take Jasmine’s disappearance seriously and are busy trying to bust drug dealers, think she’s just another rebellious runaway. So Matt works tirelessly to find his sister, but his plan—to canvass every house in Laguna Beach—feels more desperate than useful. He’s also reluctantly roped in to help the cops investigate local drug trafficking. Parker offers a telling perspective on the people who used youth culture to traffic drugs (and much worse), but this works best as a thoughtful coming-of-age novel and a portrait of a Southern California town in the throes of substantial societal change. Crime fiction fans may just find enough to like. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"This twisty tale of teen’s desperate plan to save his sister and right his off-keel family is a compelling coming-of-age thriller that will entrance you with its ‘60s vibe and backdrop, and captivate you with its engaging storytelling and a believable cast of characters –including one heroic kid you can’t help but to root for." —USA Today

"A unique thriller and also a coming-of-age story: the not-so-sentimental education of an impressionable teen. Mr. Parker has given us a well-designed flashback to a tie-dyed time that in some ways seems like the day before yesterday and in others feels like a century ago." —Wall Street Journal

“As powerful as a riptide in summer...A Thousand Steps reopens for our reconsideration the consequences of clashes between authority and freedom, order and chaos, that persist to this day — and the innocents that will always get caught in the tumult." —Los Angeles Times

“Parker already has two or three titles on my all-time best-ever list. . . and now comes A Thousand Steps, which might be his crowning achievement. It's a great story and a nuanced look at the nation in 1968, and above all it proves no one inhabits character as completely and intensely—Matt Anthony is a changing boy in a changing time, and you won't ever forget him.” —Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

"Parker is one of the greats, and has been for years. ...Pick up A THOUSAND STEPS, and journey to a California that only Parker could deliver with such vibrancy and verve. In a story that will squeeze hearts and steal sleep, Parker uses his prodigious talents to bury his readers deep in that special time, to make them travelers in the past, white-knuckled and breathless for fear of missing a detail, a moment, the ride of a lifetime." —John Hart, New York Times bestselling author

"A rousing standalone novel that is as much a coming-of-age tale as it is a mystery." —South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“T. Jefferson Parker is the poet of American crime fiction. . . There’s a damned good reason he has won three Edgar Awards.” —C.J. Box, New York Times bestselling author of Blue Heaven

“A brave and daring writer.” —Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of Shanghai Girls


“Parker ranks as one of the top contemporary suspense writers.” —Publishers Weekly

“As much sensitive coming-of-age novel as it is edgy thriller...Parker juggles his disparate elements superbly.” —Booklist

“If there’s a better mystery writer around . . . well, there isn’t.” —San Diego Union Tribune

From the Publisher