One sign of a good series is when you can jump in at the third book and not feel completely lost. It's even better when you're immediately engaged with the series protagonist and swept up in the story. T. Jefferson Parker is such a writer and Roland Ford is such a character.

In this novel, private eye (ex-marine, ex-boxer and ex-sheriff's deputy) Ford is hired by the older sister of a girl that's gone missing. As he works the case, he encounters a church that his hiding something, white supremecists that are hiding in almost full view, and a client that's also hiding something. Helping him uncover the truth, save the girl and save the world are 'the irregulars': the motley group of people that reside in the casitas on the large ranch that he has inherited from his late wife and her family and he is obligated to keep.

There's a lot going on here and the story is so fully packed that it could have gone off the rails at any time. The author keeps it hanging together and I can't wait to go back and read the other books in the series.

Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for providing a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. ( )

When a book is written about locations I'm familiar with, I tend to like them a little more than I otherwise might. Thus, even though there were parts of Parker's The Last Good Guy which I had trouble buying into, I still enjoyed it, primarily due to an intimate connection with the Southern California area described. ( )

Five stars. What starts out as a simple missing person case turns into so much more. The story moves along at a fast pace, and held my interest till the very end. My first book by the author, but I will be looking for his others. ( )

Roland Ford returns. The case seemed simple. A teenage girl runaway, a distraught sister looking for her. So far so good. But is the relationship between the “sisters” as advertised? Did the young girl run away, or is she being held against her will? The “simple” case quickly evolves into a life-or-death pursuit that leads Ford into the secretive world of a charter school, an even more secretive Neo-Nazi enclave, and a celebrity evangelist. Oh, and a shady, militaristic security firm and a nuclear power plant. This is Roland Ford at his best. And T. Jefferson Parker at his best. The story is compelling, the plot twists numerous, and the writing impeccable.

DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series ( )

The lead character, PI Roland Ford, has a lot going for him. He is a Iraq War Vet, and ex-cop, and a widower whose wife died while piloting a private plane. He has lots of backstory, which I presume was a part of first two books in the series, which I haven't read. He inherited a compound with a main house and several cabanas from his wife, and he rents the cabanas to what he calls his "irregulars"--who turn out to have useful qualities such as being former CIA agents. I can't but help find this reminiscent of Travis McGee's dockside life. Roland Ford is much more sensitive and well-behaved than Travis, however. In this book, he is hired to find the runaway, or perhaps kidnaped, 14-year-old sister of a beautiful 28-year-old living near the beach in California. But this leads him into murder and things that are much darker still. And it is here that the book, despite its great forward momentum, good writing, and interesting characters, starts to falter. There are a few too many coincidences. Ford is able to track people in cars for incredible distances without being seen (and they always lead him to a place that provides the next clue). Everything is connected. He also manages to find vantage spots where using powerful night vision binoculars, he can see just what he needs to see. It is all just a bit too pat. By the end of the book, the reason for the 14-year old's disappearance and periodic reappearances still isn't explained quite well enough to satisfy this reader. And given the other things the bad guys were up to, why they would bother with the 14-year-old is hard to figure out. If not for her, they could have gone about their business undisturbed by Roland Ford, the FBI, the local police, etc. etc. etc. So obviously I have to fault Parker on his plotting. Also on dragging things out about 50 pages longer than was needed. From my initial reaction in the first few chapters of "Wow, this is an author I want to read more of," now I'm not so sure. Still, it was a quick, interesting read with some very effective moments and some nice vignettes of the minor characters who have secrets of their own that provide them greater depth and that will probably fuel future stories. I could see the next one involving Frank the illegal Salvadorian that Ford is giving shelter to and who has MS-13 issues to deal with.... ( )