Rating: 
Summary: Excellent mystery
Review: This book was great fun. The author definitely knows how to write a mystery/thriller. Any book that has a good enough command of plot that I don't want to put it down gets major kudos from me. What sets this book apart however is that unlike many thrillers, the characters and their emotional responses to events aren't as two dimensional as in so many books of this genre. The author delves deeply into what motivates the protagonist and his enemies and allies, but he doesn't make a point of it, and so we as readers get to know the characters without realizing it. The depth of the writing doesn't take away from the fast-paced nature of the plot. So I'm glad I discovered this author and I'll certainly be sure to check out his other books soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Hurrah for Joe and Shag
Review: This is a real slam-bam thriller. It took me a while to get into the author's stride, but once we got together, I could hardly put the book down. The book is much more than a thriller. Something that interests me is, why some pieces of art work, and others don't. The successes must be tapping in to some basic human themes which we all respond to. Silent Joe, the hero with half a face, renders many of the elements of myth, in his search for Father and Mother, part of which ends in the author's own hometown, maybe even his own house, with little male and little female splashing in the water. The river metaphor is especially well done. Well, come in, it's a detective book, who cares about all that? Nonetheless, in reading this book, I couldn't help admiring the author's skill and attention to detail. Bamboo 33 is such a clever name that either there really is a club by that name, or the author speaks Viet Namese. A very nice coincidence especially endears this book to me. Joe mentions his favorite childhood book, Shag: Last of the Plains Buffalo. Me too! Shag is one of three childhood books I have always kept on my shelf. Once you finish Silent Joe, you might want to see if you can find Shag (written by Robert McClung, illustrated by Louis Darling, 1960, William Morrow). It's full of magic, a book for all ages.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book but "2 hours later you're hungry again" - 3.5 Star
Review: This is a well done book that's more than a mystery. The story keeps your interest for most of the time. I did want to like this book more, but ultimately it was just a nice story to me. The protagonist, Joe Trona was scarred, in infancy, with acid in the face by an angry father. He's saved by an Orange County, CA politician from a life of anger and the attendant manifestations anger can bring. The politician and his wife adopt young Joe who grows up to become a Sheriff's deputy all the while being tutored in the political life by his new father, an ex cop. Unfortunately the ex cop's instincts fail him and he is assassinated early on, leaving 24 year old Joe to vow vengeance. Joe is a loner without much experience with women but his first encounter in the book with a woman his age becomes a mutual total commitment immediately. The budding relationship is handled nicely. Just as Joe's Dad ignores his cop instincts, Joe forgets his and is taken captive. The scenes following the hostage taking are very well done. I found it hard to believe a 24 year old living in a uniformed environment could be as methodical and correct as Joe needs to be in order to be successful in this satisfying story. Ultimately, soon after reading this story, not much had stayed with me and I was reaching for the next book. I will buy Jeff Parker's next book which I hope will stay with me longer, as most of his previous works have done.
Rating: 
Summary: Warmhearted hero immersed in a feeble plot
Review: This is not a cops suspenseful tale, this book is all about Joe Trona's life, the twenty something weapons master, martial arts expert police deputy with a partly disfigured face, product of the work of a vengeful dissapointed empty-headed father that thrown him acid when he was in his crib after he learned that he was not his seed. Years later, Will Trona, stepfather of Joe Trona a politician with clout and shady deals, is murdered before Joe Trona's eyes after that big blow, Joe Trona commits himself to discover the perpetrator and make justice. After Will Trona murder, the author instead of developing the intrigue with alluring elements to grab the reader as it is expected in a story like this one, decides instead to delve deeper into Joe Trona's character, how he projects his feelings over the psychological wounds left by the acid thrown to his face by his father when he was a baby and some lovemaking details about a not credible affair with a starlette who anchors a TV program that interviews people like him, those who have undergone one of a kind awful tragedy in their lifes As I said, the weak point is that the mystery of the plot is left aside in the background and not developed as it should, all we can get as readers halfway, is a strong character in the foreground immersed in a very confusing plot full of secondary one dimensional characters and shallow circumstances that pop up chapter after chapter turning everything more and more blurred, (Where this name comes from ? Have I noticed him/her before ?) Do not expect deceitful twists and turns either as you may find in novels of this sort, just something crafted to give meaning to an ending.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC!
Review: This is one of the best Parker books I have read. He is usually good but this one is above even that. Joe Trona is a cop, assigned to a jail for his first five years then he will go somewhere else. He is also working for his adoptive father, Will Trona. His father is murdered as Joe is trying to protect him. Joe then sets out to find the killer or killers as the case may be. Joe works within the system using the police force to his advantage. He finds out many secrets and maybe, just maybe, Will was not the saint Joe thought he was. There is some action but the mystery of the book will hold your attention. You won't want to put it down. If you have never tried Parker this is a god place to start.
Rating:
Summary: This is a winner!
Review: This is the first book by T. Jefferson Parker that I have read, and it is a winner. Great plot, solid characters and a satisfying ending make this a book well worth reading. About the only negative comment that I can make is that Joe Trona, the main character, is a bit overdone. He has too many glaring positives to be entirely believable. I will read other Parker books (for certain) and I hope that they will meet or exceed the standards set in SILENT JOE.
Rating:
Summary: Book and reader first rate!
Review: This is the first book by T. Jefferson Parker that I have read. It makes me want to read more. Michael Connelly used to be my favorite of this genre, but Parker is now right up there with him. James Daniels was terrific. Most readers don't add a great deal to the book, but Daniels' portrayal of all the characters was first rate. Your road trip will fly by listening to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Lame Joe
Review: What a lame thriller ! A great premise is executed with lack of style and sensibility. The protagonist - Joe Trona , has overcome a great ordeal in his early childhood just to become a killing sex machine - good for him. The plot of political and high society intrigues is O.K, but doesn't come close to noir classics, the love story is preposterous and the action scenes are unbelievable. If you really into physical and mental scarred heroes, look for Carol Starkey in Robert Crais' excellent Demolition Angel.
Rating:
Summary: This author just keeps getting better and better
Review: When he was nine months old, his father poured acid on his face, scarring Joe for life. For the next four years, Joe lived in an orphanage until Will and Mary Ann Trona adopted him. Twenty years later, Joe works as a jailer for the Orange County prisons system and as a driver-bodyguard for his beloved father Will, now a county superintendent. Joe drives Will to a dark area where the latter picks up a frightened twelve-year-old girl named Savannah. However, before they leave, gang members accost them, killing Will. Joe kills two of them while Savannah flees into the night. Joe quickly learns that the deadly Cobra Kings murdered Will. Joe finds out that Savannah was a kidnapping victim, but cannot see the link to Will. Feeling guilty over his failure to protect Will and a need to rescue Savannah, Joe begins to make inquiries. His investigation takes Joe way beyond the Cobra Kings to an uglier picture of his benefactor and a return to his own childhood nightmares. SILENT JOE is a fabulously complex blending of psychological suspense with a private investigative tale that works because of the main character. The suspense-loaded story line centers on the heroic, but scarred (emotionally as much as his visage) Joe, who is learning more about himself, and his adoptive father and family even while deliberately stepping deeper into danger. T. Jefferson Parker always writes a page-turner, but this is the award-winning author's best novel and hopefully Joe will return for another engagement. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting exercise
Review: You have to give Parker points for taking risks. I'm sure I've never read a myster with a hero/narrator quite like this one. Isolated from the rest of humanity by a gruesome childhood disfigurement, Silent Joe is just the kind of person you expect to grow up to be pushed out to the margins of society, and grow up to be an angry, selfish monster. But he lucks out because of internal assets (eidetic memory, extreme strength of will) and of his loving, wealthy adoptive parents. The end result is not quite believable, almost like a comic book superhero.
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