About the Book

Songwriter Erin McKenna, the wife of a crooked LA County sheriff's deputy, is kidnapped by drug cartel chief Benjamin Armenta. Remarkably, Armenta's demands aren't for ransom or police favors. He orders Erin to compose a unique narcocorrido -- a folk ballad that records the exploits of the drug dealers and outlaws who have populated Mexican history for generations. Under threat of death, Armenta wants Erin to tell his life story in music and to write "the greatest narcocorrido of all time." As the mesmerizing music and lyrics of Erin's song cascade from the jungle hideout, they serve as a siren song to the two men who love Erin: her outlaw husband, Bradley Jones, and lawman Charlie Hood. Here, amid the ancient beauty of the Yucatecan lowland, the long-simmering rivalry between these men will be brought closer to its explosive finale.

Book Synopsis

For fans of Michael Connelly and CJ Box, the fifth audacious and white-hot novel in the Charlie Hood series from New York Times bestseller and Edgar-award winner T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Room of White Fire, that redefines the landscape of the thriller and shatters every expectation you ever had about the good guys and the bad...

When Benjamin Armenta, leader of the powerful Gulf Cartel, kidnaps songwriter Erin McKenna, his demands are as unique as the jungle fortress in which Erin is imprisoned. She's ordered to compose a narcocorrido, a folk ballad that will romanticize Armenta as one of the greatest desperadoes in Mexican history. Allowed to wander the hallways of the castle with only a guitar and a mysterious old priest to keep her company, Erin must produce the loveliest song these men have ever heard. Or she'll be skinned alive.

As Erin's music wafts through the jungle, it serves as a siren call to the two men who love her: lawman Charlie Hood and Erin's outlaw husband, Bradley Jones. They have the power to rescue her, but their long-simmering rivalry could very well compromise Erin's deliverance and cause the ending of a life-and-death ballad to be rewritten in blood.

Review Quotes

"Ambitious, daring...brilliant." --The Associated Press

"T. Jefferson Parker has burgled the crumbling palace of Edgar Allan Poe for inspiration." --The Wall Street Journal

"Parker, the winner of three Edgar awards for crime fiction, again delivers a tale that is not only well-plotted and suspenseful, but subtle, surprising and endearingly perverse." --Washington Post

"T. Jefferson Parker has carved out a niche for himself as the Hemingway of thriller writers...His writing is a wonder to behold." --Providence Sunday Journal

"A spectacular close a crime series that obliterated the boundaries of the genre." --BookReporter

"If you're interested in the best of today's crime fiction, [Parker's] someone you should read." --The Washington Post

"Parker could well be the best crime writer working out of Southern Caifornia." --Chicago Tribune

"The Charlie Hood novels are nothing less than addictive." --Tucson Citizen

"The most groundbreaking crime series in decades." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"This is gripping literary entertainment with a point." --Los Angeles Times

"Some of the finest writing you'll ever read." --Chicago Sun-Times

About the Author

T. Jefferson Parker is the author of numerous novels and short stories, the winner of three Edgar Awards, and the recipient of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for mysteries. Before becoming a full-time novelist, he was an award-winning reporter. He lives in Fallbrook, California.