Rating: 
Summary: brain thorn
Review: As far as I know, T. Jefferson Parker is the first one to use "brain thorn" to describe a condition we all suffer when something is right on the tip of our toungue. Detective McMichael manages to extract the important clues right on time.
Rating:
Summary: Parker is the new Ross MacDonald
Review: Back when I was a kid, I first discovered private eye novels by reading those of the Canadian trasplant named Ken Millar, who wrote the Lew Archer novels under the pen name Ross MacDonald. Millar had a wonderful understanding of Southern California's landscape and atmosphere, as much as the other transplant private eye novelist, Raymond Chandler, and was much more prolific in addition. When I read T. Jefferson Parker's first novel, Laguna Heat, I was immediately convinced that here was the heir of MacDonald, and by extension Chandler: someone with a wonderful sense of the atmosphere of California, the people and their motivations, the landscape and the politics. Frankly, in the intervening two decades or so, he's only gotten better. Several of his recent books (most notably Silent Joe) have the possibility of turning into classics. Cold Pursuit, his latest, is another very very good book.
Tom McMichael is a San Diego P.D. homicide detective, and he's on call when Pete Braga, an elderly businessman and local politician. However, McMichael's supervisor calls him, he gives McMichael the option to pass on the case. It soon develops that Braga, back half a century ago, shot McMichael's grandfather to death, and when Braga's oldest son was beaten senseless, McMichael's father was the odds-on favorite suspect, though his best friend gave him an alibi. All of this bad blood didn't keep McMichael from having an affair with a Braga when he was a teenager, in spite of the danger from both sides of the family.
Despite all of this, McMichael takes on the case, and commences his investigation with the pretty nurse who was getting large and valuable gifts from the old guy. Things widen from there, and McMichael and his partners must follow the various suspects through a number of venues, even crossing the border to Mexico following suspected smugglers.
I enjoyed this book a great deal, and these days I look forward to the next Parker novel about as much as any other. I highly recommend this book, and echo the sentiment of other reviewers that Parker ought to be better known than he is.
Rating: 
Summary: Moody police procedural
Review: Edgar Award-winner Parker ("Silent Joe") manages to do something a little different each time out and his eleventh is a police procedural made personal by family feuding. When 84-year-old Portuguese tuna-boat captain turned Ford dealership tycoon, Pete Braga, is bludgeoned to death in his San Diego bayfront home, homicide cop Tom McMichael catches the case. Braga had killed McMichael's grandfather 50 years earlier and gotten off with self-defense. Braga's son was later brain damaged in a beating long ascribed to McMichael's father, but never proven. Then, years later, the feud derailed the first-love passion between McMichael and Braga's headstrong granddaughter.The initial suspect is the beautiful young nurse whose home is full of items from Braga's various collections, but her alibi pans out and a romance with McMichael heats up. The investigation branches out to include political wrangling and underhanded business-as-usual money deals in a proposed new airport, a Mexican smuggling operation using Braga's new Fords, and, of course, the heirs. The plot is complex (sometimes confusingly so) and McMichael's inappropriate love life comes to the attention of police department politicos, further muddying the waters. While the story is not particularly compelling or suspenseful, Parker's characters are well-fleshed, preserving a touch of human mystery and murk, and the blustery San Diego winter provides a moody backdrop.
Rating:
Summary: Strong Characters Make This A Winner
Review: Homicide detective, Tom McMichael is charged with investigating the brutal murder of 84 year old Pete Braga. Complicating the case is the fact that the McMichael and Braga families have a long standing feud, that includes violence on both sides. Parker does a wonderful job of introducing his characters to the reader without a lot of tedious details. I've read many of Parker's previous novels and it's his writing style that keeps me coming back. He tells a good story and keeps the pace moving at a good clip. His characters stay with me long after I've finished a book of his. I can still remember Silent Joe...one of my favorites. Tom McMichael will stay with me too. A decent guy trying to do a good job under difficult circumstances. A very enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: One of my Favorite Authors
Review: I agree with the reviewer who says T. Jefferson Parker should be more popular than he is. He ranks right up there with the best! Cold Pursuit is yet another great read. The plot has already been discussed so I won't repeat it, but I highly recommend any book by Mr. Parker. I also just finished reading California Girl and I'd also rate it 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Genuine Page Turner
Review: I have read many T. Jefferson Parker books and this is one of the best. You see the term "page turner" used a lot but this is one book that really grabs you and keeps you reading until the end. There is murder, a little romance and a dedicated cop who is tracking down a killer while dealing with his own demons. I dare anyone to start this mystery and not finish it in one sitting. It is really quite riveting.
Rating:
Summary: tour de force police procedural thriller
Review: In 1952 San Diego, a Braga killed a McMichael in what was called self-defense. A few months later Pete Braga's son Victor was beaten up so severely that he sustained brain damage. He would always have the mind of a ten-year-old. The rumor went around town that Gabriel McMichael beat up Braga's son but it was never proven. In the present San Diego Police Homicide Detective Tom McMichael is on duty when Pete Braga's body is found in his home, beaten to a bloody pulp. When he arrives on the scene, McMichael finds the nurse with blood on her face, clothes and shoes but she explains that she was trying to revive her client. Paintings and jewelry from the Braga home are found in the nurse's apartment but she has proof that he gave them to her as gifts. McMichael is forced to look at Braga's enemies, including those from his own family. In the course of his investigation he almost gets himself suspended for dating a suspect and then almost loses his life when the killer kidnaps him. COLD PURSUIT is a tour de force police procedural thriller that starts off fast and just keeps increasing in speed. Readers will love the protagonist, a loving father and a man who is willing to own up to his mistakes. It's fascinating watching Tom connect the dots in the investigation, so much so readers will ignore why he was not removed due to a conflict of interest as he uses professional police methods and intuition to crack the case. T. Jefferson Parker has once again proven he is a gifted writer who delivers a best seller. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Left me cold
Review: Not up to the level of earlier works. At about the 3/4 of the way in flipped to the end to confirm suspicion and gratefully ended the effort. Characters could not hold our interest and the mystery was TV grade.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Whodunit
Review: San Diego homicide cop Tom McMichael is investigating the murder of eighty-four-year-old city patriarch Pete Braga who was found bludgeoned to death. In a long ago past Braga shot McMichael's grandfather in a fight over a paycheck, then right after the shooting Braga's son was found badly beaten. Was it revenge? The investigation leads to many suspects, including members of both the McMichael and Braga families in this whodunit that will keep you up all night long as it did me.
Rating:
Summary: Comes in Like a Lamb and Goes Out Like a Lion
Review: The story features San Diego homicide detective Tom McMichael who, on the first page, is given a difficult choice. Pete Braga, long-time family enemy of the McMichaels, has been murdered. McMichael's lieutenant offers him the case but lets him know he can decline. He thinks it over for just a moment and accepts the case. McMichael is now in "Cold Pursuit" of Pete Braga's killer, the same man who killed his grandfather in 1952. Braga was an ambitious man in life, with a net worth of a little over 12 million dollars. He served as mayor of San Diego, was the Port Commissioner and part of the Tuna Boat Foundation. The elder McMichael worked for Braga on his tuna fishing boat. They had argued over wages and got into a physical brawl, which ended with the death of McMichael's grandfather. Braga claimed it was self-defense and never served any time for the death. The McMichaels believed that he killed in cold blood. The feud continued with the Bragas believing that as payback, Gabriel McMichael, then thirteen-years-old, attacked Pete Braga's son, Victor, and beat him so bad that he was left with the mentality of a ten-year-old. Tom McMichael grew up knowing both sides but never having proof of either. He had once been in love with Braga's granddaughter and both families had ended the young lovers' affair. Tom eventually met Stephanie, married and had a son, Johnny. After seven years together, they divorced and he was still reeling a year later. Totally devoted to his son, he felt he would never adjust to the weekend and Wednesday night visits. He wanted to be a full-time father to his son. He was still single though Stephanie had remarried a dentist, the same one she'd had the affair with before the divorce had been final. The evidence in the case initially points to Pete Braga's nurse, Sally Rainwater, though she is soon taken off the suspect list. McMichael and Rainwater get a lot closer and then, suddenly, she is again a suspect. McMichael can't decide if he feels she's innocent because it's his gut feeling or if it's because he wants her to be innocent so he can continue their relationship. "Cold Pursuit" starts out slowly and builds much the way a real case would. Though it lags in places, it feels real. T. Jefferson Parker brings you into the world of a homicide detective. He leaves the glitz for Hollywood and brings you an authentic case. You'll feel as though you walk beside Detective McMichael as he moves from one clue to the next, sharing each piece of information with you and daring you to solve the crime first.
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