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  • L.A. Outlaws (Charlie Hood Novel Book 1)
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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
446 global ratings
5 star
45%
4 star
39%
3 star
12%
2 star
3%
1 star
1%
L.A. Outlaws (Charlie Hood Novel Book 1)

L.A. Outlaws (Charlie Hood Novel Book 1)

byT. Jefferson Parker
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Top positive review

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John R. Linnell
4.0 out of 5 starsThere's a Little Bit of Everything in This One
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 26, 2008
This is my first novel by this author and it was fairly enjoyable. Not stay up 'til 2 AM enjoyable, but looking forward to it when I would pick it up everyday enjoyable. The main character is a hoot.

Suzanne Jones, a/k/a Allison Murrieta. She can hot wire any car after entering with a specially designed tool and she knows which ones not to bother with because of burglar proofing designs. She can play the con and she specializes in holding up KFC,s, Burger King's, etc. In disguise of course. Always leaving a card: "You have been robbed by Allison Murrieta." She also has a Robin Hood aspect to her character.

As Suzanne, she is a school teacher. A very good one. She has three children. They have three different fathers. One is still in residence although his days are numbered and he is cool with that.

Suzanne/Allison starts to get into trouble that is hard to get out of when she comes across a what was supposed to have been a payoff of a gambling debt. The gambler was paying off his debt in jewels. Some bad guys got wind of it. Everybody died in a hail of bullets. The jewels were still at the scene. That is until Allison tip toed in and took them.

As she is hastily departing the area, she is pulled over by a LA Deputy Sheriff. Charlie Hood. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Well, maybe not, but it brings these two together as they deal with some very bad people who are out to recover the jewels. Charlie at first thinks they are after Suzanne because she saw something while driving by the jewel massacre. Suzanne knows better.

You need to find out for yourself how it plays out and the only major problem I have with the book is the ending. Saying that gives nothing away and perhaps other readers will disagree. It is worth reading regardless, inspite of some minor problems I have with the over dwelling on the history of the ancestor outlaw, Joaquin Murrieta.

That's why it is four stars, rather than five.
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4 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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David A. Freas
3.0 out of 5 starsI may read more Charlie Hood books, but only when I'm desperate for reading material.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2018
I am not a big fan of anti-heroes so I had mixed feelings about Suzanne/Allison. I wanted to see her pay for her crimes but, because she was a bit of a Robin Hood, wanted to see her escape punishment somehow. If keeping the reader in that good/bad limbo was Parker’s aim, he succeeded in spades.

Too many times, the flow of this story is broken by flashbacks of Suzanne/Allison’s ancestor, Joaquin Murrieta. They didn’t add anything to the story, just lengthened it and slowed it down unnecessarily. The same applies to the extra storylines involving Hood’s father.

And too many of the skills and connections the characters have appear a little too conveniently when they are needed.

I suspected the one bad guy early on, right after Parker dropped a clue to his identity that was a little too obvious.

Parker’s writing is a bit dismal and cynical in tone. The story is full of greed, liars, and brutality. Even when the storyline sounds hopeful, there’s an underlying sense of desperation, sadness, and failure.

The climax of the story was realistic but disappointing. And of the five chapters that follow, only two are really needed. Like the flashbacks, those unneeded chapters lengthened the story but didn’t add anything to it.

And a caveat: The description of Suzanne/Allison and Charlie Hood being on the run for their lives is a lie.

This story had the potential to be great, but it only reached okay. So, I may try another Charlie Hood book in the future, but I won’t seek them out.

And Amazon continues its amazing ability to tell me how many pages a book has on the website but can’t number the pages in the download.
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5 people found this helpful

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From the United States

James Kindle Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Robin Hood Meets the Sheriff
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 10, 2009
Verified Purchase
I am a T. Jefferson Parker fan.

This book does not live up to his generally high standards.

An LA County schoolteacher, descended from a legendary Robin Hood like figure, leads a double life as a martial arts trained armed robber also adept at car theft and fencing stolen goods (cars to diamonds). She is an adrenalin junkie. She is also a Robin Hood like figure.

The plot is wildly improbable. A young Deputy Sheriff, Hood, moves from routine patrol to homicide and back. He is one of only three LA County Sheriff's investigators assigned to track down an implacable, machete and shotgun wielding hit man who is employed by an all powerful, all knowing "Mr. Big" who becomes entangled with the Robin Hood character,whom he, through the hit man impalcably pursues until she is able with a deus ex machina intervention to id him....whew. Add to all of this a torrid love affair between Deputy Hood and Robin Hood/schoolteacher with Hood knowing but unable to prove her criminality.
Finally, there is a gratuitously offensive sub-plot about a Marine with an IQ of 72 (who would not be accepted into today's USMC) who, of course is entangled in an Iraq war crime investigated by Hood in pre-LASD days.

Not recommended.
3 people found this helpful
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FredZ
1.0 out of 5 stars Unable to use.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 10, 2012
Verified Purchase
Item was received without the last disc. I do not listen to these books immediately and was not aware of this until now. The seller will not refund or replace because of the elapsed time.
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Gracie
1.0 out of 5 stars horrible book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 6, 2016
Verified Purchase
Stupid, unbelievable plot. Undeveloped characters. Parker was one of my favorites with his earlier books. Don't believe I will spend another dime or minute on this awfulness. Like James Patterson, he has fallen so far.
2 people found this helpful
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Tumbleweed
1.0 out of 5 stars but it's pretty damn dark
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 13, 2017
Okay, picture this. You're at a dark house maybe a quarter mile off a small country road. Desert all around, big dunes. Night time, a bit of moon out, but it's pretty damn dark. And a ghostlike killer with a machete is very likely out there, in which case he's hunting you. He's so good at killing he has got MS-13, the most violent street gang in the U.S., scared of him. You have a flashlight and a gun. Now, what do you do? Well, having an obvious death wish, you turn on the flashlight and shine it around. Don't you? Let that quiet, ghostlike killer know right where you are, and give yourself a little night blindness to boot. Walk a little way out into the desert and shine the light around again. Then fire up your cell phone in order to make sure the killer gets another solid fix on you. And that's the "hero" of the story. Basically a nice guy, but as dumb in that situation as a gunny sack full of turnips.
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Mr.
1.0 out of 5 stars Bad in so many ways
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2012
Wow, this was so disappointing!
So, Mr Parker:
1) If you really have to use both first and third person storytelling in the same book, try to make the "me"-person the main character - to me it was Hood that got the most attention.
2) Try to not make your "clues to the reader" so obvious that only retards can miss them. Try to describe peoples observations so they at least fit in during the circumstances, instead of stating them out out of the blue, making it obvious that "Oh, this will be useful in about a hundred pages!". (Example: company name on a van.) And regarding the clues to the identity of the "mysterious bad guy behind it all", I desperately hoped for a twist to come - "come on, sincerely, you can't make it this obvious!" (Like "Oh, by the way, he has an obvious physical condition that no other character has, and at least two persons
comment on, just like that".) But oh yes, you could.
3) The ending - *sigh*. Oh, what a tiresome cliché... "oh, a heroine that is somewhat strong and enjoys sex on her terms - she must be punished!"
Wake up, Mr Parker, this is the 21st century!
2 people found this helpful
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mcdanlaw
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't read this for your first T Jefferson Parker book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 16, 2011
I have just read LA Outlaws. I am a big T Jefferson Parker fan and will remain so, despite this book. My first complaint, and one which does not seem to bother other reviewers, is that it the book is written partially in FIRST PERSON and partially in THIRD PERSON. That is NOT acceptable for any serious writer. I have seen this in other books, by much lesser writers, but thought that Parker was far too sophisticated to insult his readers this way. Parker's books are not usually just "action-suspense" fare, but are thoughtful,serious,and very well written. Other reviews state that this book is not believable and more like a comic book, and I agree. I intend to write this book off as one excusable mistake.
2 people found this helpful
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Reacher Creature
1.0 out of 5 stars First and Last Parker book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 2, 2009
Wow....as I said, this was my first and last Parker book. I've seen his books in the library and thought I'd start with this one. Man, this was a bad choice. The characters seemed very flat and very boring. I honestly couldn't see where the plot was going.

One of the main characters is a cop named Charlie Hood, who's a cop, and for some reason, I didn't think he was that smart. He just seemed very odd to me. Parker had him use phrases like (when he was thinking of a woman he pulled over eariler) "He felt skinned." What?! What does that even mean?

For me, this was a very odd read. I suggest you get this at the library like I did.
4 people found this helpful
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C. J. Holdzkom
1.0 out of 5 stars Pure Schlock
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 4, 2008
Parker has written some terrific books, "Little Saigon", "Lie Down With Serpents" but this work is pure drivel. Absurd plot, sophmoric phrasing and just plain awful. His last endeavor, something about rain forcasting was pretty bad but this is to be avoided at all costs.
7 people found this helpful
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Aaauger
1.0 out of 5 stars Fun with Wealth Redistribution
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2008
Your beliefs and values will dictate whether you get past the first two pages. If you think that people who have managed to accumulate wealth are the equivalent of criminals in other thrillers, read on. If not, you may find the premise of the main character amoral, immature and annoying.
5 people found this helpful
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