CALIFORNIA GIRL

CALIFORNIA GIRL
T. Jefferson Parker
384 pages
ISBN: 0-06-056236-6
William Morrow
October 2004
$24.95

Where is the genre line between fiction and mystery? CALIFORNIA GIRL makes me question the classification. The characterization is exceptionally well-established before the murder even occurs. The reader knows the main characters and the victim before the crime.

CALIFORNIA GIRL puts your mind into a time machine back to 1968 in California. The novel actually begins a little before that with two families whose boys fight over a baseball cap. During the fight, the little sisters become involved as the fight is ending. One of them will be the CALIFORNIA GIRL.

With the hippies, Timothy Leary, Charles Manson, Beach Boys, the record albums, the surfer scenes, the music, the John Birch society, Vietnam, the drugs, and the smells and problems of the 1960s come riveting back to the reader.

The novel centers on the boys in one of the families. The Becker boys are David, Nick, Clay, and Andy. Clay was who caused the fight by taking Casey Vonn’s new baseball cap and tossing it over the fence to a German shepherd who tore it to shreds. The two younger sisters of the opposing family, the Vonn’s watch the fight until it almost ends. One of the sisters hits Nick Becker from behind which possibly causes him to see double. This happened in 1954.

Throughout the next years, the Vonn’s mother commits suicide and the family is loosely held together. The Becker boys each grow and go in different directions. David becomes a Presbyterian minister, Nick decides to be a police officer, Clay wants to fight the war in Vietnam, and Andy becomes a reporter after spending two years in college.
What changes things for everyone is when Janelle Vonn is found murdered, beheaded.

Besides solving the mystery of who killed Janelle and why, this novel is about the people and how they change, make choices, and try to make the best choices in a changing time. The true artistry in this novel is the development of each character. The case is solved through getting to know each character better.

When any fiction novel starts the reader to research and question where the line between fictional writing and factual people and events, that writer truly has a gift of making the reader think and visualize the movements as they are happening. And yes, I did look up what happened to Timothy Leary.

The only concern I have is whether anyone who had not lived through the turbulent 60s would truly feel and taste the flavor of CALIFORNIA GIRLS.

This novel is wonderful, 5-star, fantastic, and definitely outstanding.

T. Jefferson Parker is a California native and has written numerous books. CALIFORNIA GIRL is his tenth novel. Where has this writer been all my life? Wow!