Silent Joe

Will Trona, Orange County Supervisor, is gunned down in front of his 24-year-old adopted son and protector, Joe. Joe mourns the loss of his father and ponders his inability to protect him. Joe, who has facial scar tissue resulting from his father throwing acid at him as an infant, was adopted by Will and Mary Ann when he was five. Joe vows to get justice.

Through an exciting web of kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, hired guns and violence, Joe tracks down his father's killers. A person who repels others due to his appearance, Joe also finds love in a radio reporter, June.

The story is fast paced. The action is constant. The writing is impeccable. The story drew me in from the beginning and I couldn't wait to get to the end. I wasn't show more disappointed with the ending. You like the good guys, even Will, who you find out was in the thick of the blackmailing, but with good intentions. Joe is truly likeable, shy, quiet, watching but rarely talking.

This is my first T. Jefferson Parker book. It won't be my last. That's for sure. show less

I had somehow missed hearing of T. Jefferson Parker until I saw that he had won the Edgar for Best Novel not once, but twice. The first, in 2002, was for Silent Joe. It's a standalone novel of Orange County, California, and one thing that came immediately to mind as I read it was "No wonder they went bankrupt!" The Orange County of Parker's book (and evidently this is his preferred setting) is rife with political corruption, greedy developers, racial tension, gang violence, and people with secrets.

In a way, this is a coming-of-age novel -- a genre I've grown to dislike immensely. But in Parker's hands, with the added attraction of a mystery to solve, it's more than just bearable. Silent Joe Trona, the narrator and protagonist, is a show more young man who grew up burdened with a horribly disfigured face, the result of his father throwing acid at him when he was a baby. After spending the first five years of his life in a very nice orphanage, Joe is adopted by Will and Mary Ann Trona and learns what a happy childhood can be. Will was originally a sheriff's deputy (with a wealthy wife) and later becomes a county supervisor. Joe has followed in his footsteps and works in the county jail by day, but nearly every night he acts as a combination chauffeur and bodyguard for his father. There is a lot of moral ambiguity involved here as Joe sees money changing hands, evidence that Will is cheating on Mary Ann, and other odd things -- and yet he still hero-worships his father. One night they are trying to retrieve a kidnapped child and things go horribly wrong; Joe spends the rest of the book trying to solve his father's murder and makes some surprising discoveries along the way.

Plot, setting, and character - this book has it all and was richly deserving of its award. It won't be long in my project to read all the Edgar Best Novel winners till I'll be reading Parker's second winner, California Girl and I am looking forward to it. But I must say that, based on this novel, Parker's Orange County is a place I will visit every now and then, but I wouldn't want to read several of his books in quick succession. show less

I have a signed copy of Laguna Heat, T. Jefferson Parker’s first mystery novel. It was a gift from a friend. My wife and I were living not far from Laguna at the time and it was a huge treat to receive the book. Everyone in Orange County was talking about it.

A few years later I met Parker when he was a speaker at an unusual college course on forensic science. In class, Parker talked about his book, his background as a newspaper reporter and some of the details of writing a good mystery story.

Here’s Parker’s first sentence in Laguna Heat: “A perfect morning in a city of perfect mornings; an artist would have worked, a god would have rested.” On his blog he says he was proud of that sentence. But it was the next two Silent show more Joesentences, especially the metaphor at the end, that I remember:

“The convertible slowed as it approached the stables, then pounced from the road onto a gravel driveway. Its headlights swung left-to-right, acute angles filling with dust, while gravel popped under the tires like grease in a skillet.”

Laguna Heat was a hit. It became a TV movie starring Harry Hamlin, Jason Robards and Rip Torn. Parker’s career was set. Since that time, he’s written 20 novels and picked up three Edgar awards. Silent Joe earned Parker his first Edgar in 2000 and it does not take a detective to see why the first-person novel about “acid baby” Joe won the award. If you’re looking for a place to acquire a taste for T. Jefferson, this is a good starting point.

Joe Trona is a 24-year-old Orange County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to jail duty. Many evenings, he serves as driver and often guard for his adopted father Will, a kind-hearted but dishonest county supervisor. The extent of his dishonesty, albeit with mostly good intentions, is exposed slowly to Joe throughout the novel. One evening as Joe is escorting his father Will on an errand that includes rescuing a young girl who apparently has been kidnapped, Will is trapped and murdered in an alley while Joe looks on, unable to dispatch all of his father’s attackers.

The balance of the book is Joe’s search for Will Trona’s killers. Along the way, Joe revisits his painful past. His birth father poured acid on Joe’s face when he was a baby, forever scaring him. Five years, later Will adopted Joe from an orphanage, an act of kindness that Joe has never forgotten. When he grew up, Joe went into law enforcement.

When possible, Joe wears a hat pulled low over his face. Parker’s description of Joe’s face makes him sound somewhat like the phantom of the opera.

Double-dealing Orange County politics forms the background for the story. A rich developer and his psycho son, a county department head on the take, the county’s premier televangelist, an odd assortment of inmates and other crooks plus members of Joe’s unusual family populate the novel. But Joe is the star.

He’s a tough cop. He’s muscular and works out regularly, knows how to handle himself and is a skilled marksman. As a result, this could be a Rambo type story with a hard-ass tough-guy protagonist bent on revenge, but Joe is a complex character and the complications in his life lift this story to surprising and rewarding heights.

I marveled at Parker’s creation and wondered if other readers–or reviewers–recognized the subtle, elusive nuances I sensed in Joe. Bill Sheehan, a Barnes and Noble reviewer, said Joe was an “evolving protagonist with love and loyalty issues.” Some reviewers referred to Joe’s intelligence. He is smart and has an eidetic memory. He recalls everything he sees and hears.

But there’s more to Joe. He’s polite–not smart-alecky–and doesn’t swear. He’s slow and introspective; his scars are not just on his face. One reviewer said Joe was “hesitant.” The voice Parker gave Joe, however, is unique in a way that makes other “unique” voices in fiction sound commonplace.

Silent Joe gets more gritty and compelling as it goes along. Joe learns more about his suspects, his parents and himself. He exchanges barbs with the sadistic jail inmates and also falls in love.

Parker keeps up the pace using staccato sentences and fragments to move the action swiftly in some scenes. He doesn’t neglect metaphors, either. Explaining rush hour traffic he says, “But cars on Orange County freeways at six o’clock move about as fast as cars on showroom floors.”

The novel’s supporting cast–particularly the jail prisoners–from the crazy biker who carried the head of a victim around in a pillowcase tied to his hog for a week to a former assistant DA who planned to go to Tahiti with his family when he got out, fills the story of Joe’s life with fascinating details.

Toward the end of the book, Joe talks to one of his father’s friends, or more appropriately, acquaintances. After the meeting, Joe summarizes his situation and reviews his father’s oft-repeated advice that was possibly Joe’s nascent philosophy:

“The idea struck me that I was inheriting my father’s friends, as well as his enemies. I just wasn’t positive which was which. I wondered if Will was. You only had to be wrong once.

“Love a lot. Trust few.” show less

T. Jefferson Parker is an excellent writer; his characters are detailed, complex, and well-drawn; his plots are complicated, twisting, and completely believable; and his prose is wonderfully descriptive without being heavy or tough to read.

Silent Joe lives up to Mr. Parker's standard. In fact, it is one of my favorites of his books now. I felt bonded with the characters. Silent Joe, the main protagonist, is the adopted son of Will, a tough businessman in a town in California. Joe was burned with acid when he was a child, and Will rescued him from the children's home and gave him a normal life and love. So when Will is killed, Silent Joe feels compelled to find out exactly what happened and why. It is his homage to his adopted father. show more Along the way, Joe meets June, a beautiful woman who sees beyond the scarred face. Joe unravels layer after layer of mystery & secrets as he investigates Will's death; eventually he even learns some secrets about himself. I enjoyed the intricacy of the plot, the story, the supporting characters .... but most of all I read the book for Joe. show less

Not a bad little book, a bit convoluted, and the writing style bothered me at the beginning. Not sure if it changed or I just got used to it, but the bother went away. Unfortunately, the more I think about the book, the less I like it. It was a bit predictable (Joe’s real father) and the characters you were supposed to be rooting for didn’t quite hold up under scrutiny, especially Will. So...I’ll just stop thinking about it. Not a bad read, but there’s better out there.

I have heard of T Jefferson Parker for years, but for some reason had never picked up one of his books. That will be changing. This novel is an Edgar award winner, and deservedly so.
The story is of Will Trona, a young man who was disfigured as a toddler by his father throwing acid in his face. He spent some time in an orphanage, but is eventually adopted by a local law enforcement officer. Will grows up and follows in the footsteps of his adopted father. When his father is later killed in front of his eyes, Will must do everything in his power to find out who did it.
Excellent mystery and excellent characters come together for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

"The idea struck me that I was inheriting my father's friends, as well as his enemies. I just wasn't positive which was which, I wondered if Will was. You only had to be wrong once."

By day, Joe Trona is a fourth-year Sheriff's Deputy working a prison ward, trying to make sure the peace holds. By night, he's the wheel man and protection for his adopted father, Will Trona. Will is Sheriff, he knows everyone's goings on and he works the town like a chessboard. When a deal goes bad and Will is murdered, Joe has to pick up the game and figure out how all the pieces interact.

I don't have much to say about this book. The LT Recommendations engine tossed this one my way. All I had to read was emotionally and physically scarred law enforcement show more officer... and it reminded me of Karin Slaughter's Will Trent series, which is one of my favorites. So that's how I ended up reading it. It was okay. I got a little weary of the mechanations. I was really tired of reading how many rounds Joe and his lady love had gone. I had to remind myself who certain characters were - never a good thing. Oh well. show less