Book Reviews of California Girl

This story is not one of Parker's best. The best way to describe it is muddled. Character viewpoint is erratic and with little planning. The first of Parker's books where I almost chucked it in the trash.

Love all of Parkers books! Great California scenery and good story lines.

Interesting read. Good character development and quite a cast of characters! Little hard to get into for me but well worth it.

Another wonderful book by a favorite of mine. This book spans 30 years and covers the lives of 4 brothers and the murder of a young girl they all knew. I loved this book. Very well done....

Another good story from a master of words.

Winner of the 2005 Edgar Award for Best Novel. The times, they are a-changin'...The Orange County, Calfironia, that the Becker brothers knew as boyd is no more---unrecognizably altered since the afternoon in 1954 when Nick, Clay, and Andy rumbled with the lowlife Voons, while five-year-old Janelle Vonn watched from the sidelines. It is the era of Johnson, hippies, John Birchers, and LSD. Clay becomes a casualty of a far-off jungle war. Nick becomes a cop, Andy a reporter, David a minister. And the decapitated corpse of teenage beauty queen Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned warehouse. A hideous crime has touched the Bekcers in ways that none of them could have anticipated, setting three brothers on a dangerous collision course that will change their family---and their world---forever. An no one will emerge from the wreckage unscathed.

An excellent and unusually mature mystery novel. The story of three brothers who grew up in Orange County in the 70's-- one a priest, one a cop, one a reporter. The county beauty queen, who they all knew, is found decapitated and they're al somehow involved in the mystery.

I loved this book! Brilliant epic tracing the lives of 4 brothers. The main plotline is regarding the murder of a young woman, interwoven with the social/cultural changes occurring in the 1960s in southern Califonia.

This was a great read evocative of the time and Orange County. Excellent characterization. Couldn't put it down.

Very well written - a murder mystery spanning over 30 years.

I didn't like this book. Too slow.

GOOD FAST READ. INTERESTING ENDING

GREAT BOOK

This guy just keeps getting better all the time. A very good mystery!

I found this book hard too put down, and I really like this author.

I just finished tis book and enjoyed it a lot. I have read most of Parker's previous books, too.

I have not read this book.