Rating: 
Summary: Angst in Orange County
Review: T. Jefferson Parker is a genius. I read everything he writes, and I have never been disappointed. Black Water reaches his usual standard of excellence, and I will be proud to finally meet him at the upcoming Bouchercon in Las Vegas.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous !
Review: T. Jefferson Parker keeps getting better & better ! This is a wonderful book that has an interesting and exciting plot, excellent police investigative detail, and, most of all, very real & compelling characters. There were sequences that brought a lump to my throat as I read them, & there were sequences when the pages just turned themselves. This book is wonderful ! (Note: it helps to have read "The Blue Hour" & "Red Light")
Rating: 
Summary: Merci gets better with each book.
Review: T. Jefferson Parker's "Black Water" is the third in the Merci Rayborn series. She is an Orange County (CA) Sheriff Department detective. She is a flawed, difficult, complex woman filled with contradictions and self-doubt---just a great character. Even as we know the suspect is innocent, T. Jeff holds your interest with a suspenseful, intricate plot whose pace accelerates as new clues appear and the pieces of the puzzle start to fit. His extensive research into human memory loss adds authenticity to the story. He weaves in the character-developing subplot without interfering with the main plot. Merci must deal not only with finding the bad guys, but with headline seeking media types, skeptical colleagues, her boss and a DA looking for an easy case. Her procedural moves are convincing and lead both her and the wrongly accused suspect to Russian Organized Crime (ROC) in Southern California. There is more character interplay in this than the preceding two, especially between Merci and her new partner, Paul Zamora. T. Jeff is an articulate, fluid and descriptive writer with another winner.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: T. Jefferson Parker's books just keep getting better and better. After having won the Best Novel Edgar Award for SILENT JOE, he provides another great work with BLACK WATER. Merci Rayborn returns after the roller coaster events that transpired on her last novel, RED LIGHT. The police force is being restructured after Merci uncovered a group of corrupt cops. The force is divided by her actions and she has nowhere else to turn except to her partner, Paul Zamorra. They are both united in tragedy and it will take something more than a police scandal to separate them. She is struggling as a single mother who is trying to make the world a safer place for her son since losing her lover in THE BLUE HOUR. Zamorra is still reeling from his wife's death from terminal illness. Archie Wildcraft is a young police officer who has had a good life. He is married to the love of his life, Gwen and is living comfortably on some investments he made. His world turns upside down on his wife's birthday when an intruder comes into their home, shoots Gwen and leaves Archie fighting for his life. The police suspects that Officer Wildcraft got injured after a botched murder/suicide but Rayborn and Zamorra are not convinced. Archie is unable to defend himself since the attack left him with partial amnesia where the only thing he remembers is the love he had for his wife. He is losing his recollections of his wife, so before it disappears in the black waters of his mind he will find out what really happened. Parker writes a touching and heartbreaking story that touches every one of his characters. Merci is the struggling heroine in the story who is full of self-doubts. Every time she is down the author finds a way to lift her spirits using her son. Archie is a tragic hero. His mind is slipping but the love for his wife is so powerful that he goes into extraordinary efforts to show it. The crime in the story is eventually resolved but it is not the main thing in the book - it's the characters. T. Jefferson Parker knows how to bring his characters alive and he surpasses himself with SILENT JOE and with this magnificent novel.
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Summary: Artistry...pure unadulerated artistry!!!
Review: The Black Water...quiet...peaceful...all engulfing...try to swim to the top..Gwen says to try.... But when Deputy Archie Wildcraft reaches the top, the pain is unbearable...for there it is that he remembers he has lost the most precious of all thngs..his beautiful wife Gwen. Dead..murdered..gone forever. So under the black water he submerges himself where he does not have to think. Back to his coma. His head aches from the fragmented bullet in his brain. Yes, it is best to be under the black water. Deputy Merci Rayborn was on the scene to see Archie lying in his own blood on the walkway outside of his prestigious mansion; the gun that killed his wife in the bathroom of the house and then supposedly put to his own head, still in his hand. Murder, than attempted suicide; that is what 90% of the
investigators believe and what the evidence points to. Merci says no; Zamorra, her partner says maybe. Together they hold back the wolves and further investigate. What truly amazing things surface and now they just need to see if they are amazing enough to exonerate Arch Wildcraft. T. J. Parker carefully unfolds this investigtion, one difficult piece at a time and he will hold your attention with a tenacious grip from which you cannot free yourself. Nor do you want to! Tight....tight plot..expertly executed. Puzzle pieces that fit here for the moment and ten pages later fit somewhere else. Arch Wildcraft is a suberbly crafted character and the insight we are given into his bullet riddled brain can take your breath away. Parker is meticulous in his research in every phase of this unfolding drama. Merci is a wonderfully strong character and her ability to battle and overcome past experiences makes her more and more substantial, more real. "The men" in her life are her salvation. Her understanding ex-deputy father; but most most of all her son, Tim, Jr. His converstaions are so perfectly real and child-like that I defy you not to smile or laugh outright. They give welcome coounter-point to the serious nature of Merci's line of work. After the case is solved you will find the chapter at the end a real work of comedy deliciously mixed with art. In my humble opinion, "Black Water" is the best of Parker's Merci Rayborn series...please let it not be the last. For a real thrill, read "The Blue Hour" and "Red Light" first for a a deeper understanding of who Merci is and why she is like she is. You will enjoy every moment.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Weak Effort
Review: The last book by T. Jefferson Parker I read was his first: "Laguna Heat," which I thought was terrific back in the '80s. Parker's latest offering, "Black Water," is just plain boring. The story is uninteresting, the characterization is shallow, and there is no suspense whatsoever. I think this book (a meager 338 pages) was pieced together to meet a commitment to his publisher. I am an avid reader of this genre but will not be revisiting the T. Jefferson Parker shelf for a long time.
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Summary: Tight, Tense, Compelling.....
Review: The sound of the rock breaking the sliding glass door woke Sheriff's Deputy, Archie Wildcraft and his wife, Gwen. He grabbed his service revolver and a flashlight, locked his wife in the master bath with the phone, just in case, and went outside to investigate. The last thing he remembered was the bright light in his eyes just before the explosion. Orange County Detective Merci Rayborn and partner, Paul Zamorra couldn't believe the carnage they found at the scene, Archie, barely alive and in a coma, a bullet lodged in his brain, and Gwen, brutally murdered, and lying on the bathroom floor. All evidence leads both the Sheriff's office and District Attorney to believe it was a failed murder/suicide. Archie's gun killed his wife, there's gunshot residue on his hand, and Gwen's blood on his robe. The shell casing they found was right where it should have ejected when he shot himself in the head, but curiously, so was a size sixteen footprint. Merci, alone is convinced he didn't do it; that he was framed, and works to keep the case open and find out what really happened at the Wildcraft home that night. And then, everything changes when Archie Wildcraft miraculously wakes up..... Turn off the phone and lock the door, T Jefferson Parker is about to keep you up reading all night. Black Water is an eloquently written, compelling thriller. The well-paced, intricate plot is suspenseful, and full of powerfully, intense, vivid, and riveting scenes. But it's Mr Parker's brilliant characterizations that make this novel stand out, and his ability to breathe life into even the most minor players draws the reader into the story and never lets you go. These are well defined, fascinating, real people, warts and all, and Mr Parker allows you to get under their skin and experience their raw emotions. With it's stunning climax and very satisfying ending, Black Water is an intriguing thriller that doesn't disappoint. This is the third book of a marvelous series, and those new to T Jefferson Parker and Merci Rayborn should start at the beginning with The Blue Hour and read them all. For those who are already fans, make sure you put Black Water at the top of your "must read" list.
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Summary: A Good Story - But The Kid.....
Review: This is the first one of the Merci Rayburn books I've read. It's a good solid story, albeit a little slow and plodding at times. The only thing I really disliked about the book was Merci's kid, Tim. He's 3, and she makes a point very early on to say that Tim likes to be contrary. She says, "the sky is blue", and Tim says "the sky is not blue". This is cute the first 3 or 4 times, but it happens about 150 times in the book. Sorry...I like kids, but little Timmy needs a to go to him room and stay there. Other than that, a solid mystery with good character development. Let's just leave Tim at home on the next one, OK?
Rating:
Summary: A Good Story - But The Kid.....
Review: This is the first one of the Merci Rayburn books I've read. It's a good solid story, albeit a little slow and plodding at times. The only thing I really disliked about the book was Merci's kid, Tim. He's 3, and she makes a point very early on to say that Tim likes to be contrary. She says, "the sky is blue", and Tim says "the sky is not blue". This is cute the first 3 or 4 times, but it happens about 150 times in the book. Sorry...I like kids, but little Timmy needs a to go to him room and stay there. Other than that, a solid mystery with good character development. Let's just leave Tim at home on the next one, OK?
Rating:
Summary: Latest Merci Rayborn murder mystery a complex pleaser!
Review: This is the third (and most current) of the Orange County (CA) Homicide Sergeant Merci Rayborn series. The story starts out fast with the near murder of fellow Deputy Archie Wildcraft and the concurrent slaying of his wife. Rayborn and partner Paul Zamorra investigate and all the early clues point to Archie himself as a murder/suicide attempt. Merci won't believe it and away we go. Adding to the suspense, Wildcraft wakes up from the coma induced by the bullet (still there) in his head, checks himself out of the hospital and despite his serious condition, proceeds to investigate the crime himself. So to the usual intensity of Merci's crime solving we add the lovesick revenge hunt by Wildcraft, who of course is himself being hunted result of pressure by the DA to apprehend and charge him, all of which only serves to heighten Parker's compelling and suspenseful story telling. Toward the end we're turning the pages as fast as they will go! There is a lot to like in this book. Merci definitely improves with age and familiarity, a fact not unnoticed by the potential suitors in the stories. With her a widow of her son Tim's father, Tim Hess Sr., and partner Zamorra a widower to his wife's death a year or so ago of cancer, we get to watch a little love interest grow there as well, although Paul seems to be maybe looking elsewhere? Merci's dad Clark and toddler Tim add some domestic interest, and the unfolding feelings about Merci left over from the scandals she revealed at the end of Book 2 ("Red Light") add to the continuity of the series and expose a wide range of attitudes among the colleagues. We have no doubt this series has a long successful life ahead of it, and we for sure can't wait til the next installment!
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