Silent Joe: A Novel [Hardcover]

 

 

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Although a vast improvement over "Laguna Heat", Parker's first novel, "Silent Joe" really should have not opened his mouth at all. This reviewer is amazed that this book won an Edgar. There must have been very slim pickings that year.
The characters, especially the protagonist, Joe Trona, are unconvincing. Most of them hardly rise above the level of trite stereotypes. The crooked, low-class bureaucrat with the working-class name who is almost indistinguishable from the same character cast as a union boss/thug. The venal, sinful, wealth-accumulating evangelist who gambles, womanizes, consults astrologers and is mixed up in every shady political deal in Southern California. The eleven-year-old girl who has a calmness of mind in a crisis that would be the envy of every James Bond wannabe on the planet is totally unbelievable as is her allegedly crazy brother who seems to have no plan beyond revenge against their filthy rich father. The only characters who seem to have any motivation are Joe and his father Will, who is stone cold dead before the end of page twenty-two.
Joe's motivations, in fact all his character traits, are totally unbelievable. He acts like an automaton one minute and like a person with impulse control issues the next. He defers to anyone and everyone, especially his adoptive father, Will, who treats him like a servant whom he does not like very much. Joe has bizarre habits that he claims come from being "institutionalized" in a county children's home from the time he was less than a year old until he was about five. This just doesn't wash. Nobody, not even this neurotic becomes so institutionalized by age five that they only feel comfortable eating from compartmentalized trays. If human psychology were so, we would all want to eat while sitting in highchairs. One of the most unbelievable things in this book is left unstated. That is the idea that someone who is this obviously neurotic and emotionally crippled could possibly have passed the psychological tests for any police or sheriff department in the country.
Parker also seems more than willing to display his almost complete ignorance of police procedure and firearms, including referring to a "Smith" .357 when it is clear that he means a "Smith & Wesson" .357. Of course it really doesn't matter what he calls it since he says its "always loaded and always ready" and then he put it back into a floor safe with a dial combination lock! Yeah, really handy there, Joe! That's what a push-button combination wall safe is for. The police procedure followed (or I should say, not followed) in this book is, to anyone in the know, laughable.
Beyond the unbelievable and one-dimensional characters and the sloppy and unconvincing police procedures is the general tone and quality of the writing. Short, choppy sentences and sentence fragments can and do add to the pace and tension of a mystery or suspense novel, but this entire book is full of them, even when they not only don't contribute to pace and tension, but actually detract from them. Parker's background as a writer with several small-market media outlets is painfully apparent in his style. He needs to elevate the sophistication of his writing beyond the fifth-grade level of modern American journalism if he expects to engage mature mystery novel readers. Yet this is still an improvement over "Laguna Heat" in which Parker seemed to be trying to prove to us that he actually owned a dictionary and thesaurus.
The lack of a convincing plot is the most glaring defect in this work. Despite several attempts to introduce plot twists and turns, they are all so transparent, simplistic, trite and derivative that they are hardly worthy of a bad made for TV Movie-Of-The-Week. Anyone who is genuinely surprised by any element of this plot should take Remedial Mystery Reading 101 and go back to reading "Nancy Drew" until they grow some sophistication.
As a former investigator, budding mystery writer and long-time mystery reader, I have, so far, been very disappointed in all that I have read from T. Jefferson Parker. He has been highly touted by members of the local mystery book group and I was expecting better. I was also expecting better from the MWA in their choice of Edgar winners.
All in all it appears that Parker really wasn't interested in writing a police procedural despite having a sheriff's deputy as his protagonist. Like his first book, "Laguna Heat", the police procedure takes a back seat to his attempt at writing hard-boiled noir. This attempt might have come off better if Joe had been a PI rather than a cop. One might have been more willing to accept Joe's neuroses, personality disorders, odd behavior and choice of personal weapons (which even Chandler's and Spillane's cheapest gunsels would have eschewed). Noir and 21st Century Southern California is a difficult enough concoction to brew without trying to add a cop protagonist to the cauldron. It just doesn't work.

This is not a cops suspenseful tale, this book is all about Joe Trona's life, the twenty something weapons master, martial arts expert police deputy with a partly disfigured face, product of the work of a vengeful dissapointed empty-headed father that thrown him acid when he was in his crib after he learned that he was not his seed.

Years later, Will Trona, stepfather of Joe Trona a politician with clout and shady deals, is murdered before Joe Trona's eyes after that big blow, Joe Trona commits himself to discover the perpetrator and make justice.

After Will Trona murder, the author instead of developing the intrigue with alluring elements to grab the reader as it is expected in a story like this one, decides instead to delve deeper into Joe Trona's character, how he projects his feelings over the psychological wounds left by the acid thrown to his face by his father when he was a baby and some lovemaking details about a not credible affair with a starlette who anchors a TV program that interviews people like him, those who have undergone one of a kind awful tragedy in their lifes

As I said, the weak point is that the mystery of the plot is left aside in the background and not developed as it should, all we can get as readers halfway, is a strong character in the foreground immersed in a very confusing plot full of secondary one dimensional characters and shallow circumstances that pop up chapter after chapter turning everything more and more blurred, (Where this name comes from ? Have I noticed him/her before ?)

Do not expect deceitful twists and turns either as you may find in novels of this sort, just something crafted to give meaning to an ending.

Joe Trona suffered a terrible injury as a child. His father threw acid on his face leaving him horribly scarred. It is a scar that has affected his life since then. After being adopted by Will and Mary Ann Trona, his life improved considerably. As the book opens, Will is a prominent politician in Orange County and Joe is his right hand man. Unfortunately, as Will goes on an assignment, he is killed in an ambush as Joe helplessly watches. Joe, of course, will stop at nothing to find Will's killers. He must delve into Will's past to get the answers.
What is especially impressive about this particular work is the superb writing. In fact, this is easily one of the best written works of the year. Joe Trona is an unforgettable character. He is brought vibrantly alive though both actions and dialogue. The plot is reasonably compelling, yet, at times, frustratingly complex. The slightly excessive length served to slow down the pacing of the story. This is not my favorite of the Best Novel Edgar nominees, however, the superb writing cannot be denied nor should the Edgar.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Silent Joe: Edgar Award winner???
I liked this book but found some components .....undigestable. The characters are inconsistent and unbelievable. Read more

Published on Jan 14 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars SILENCE CAN BE GOLDEN
In Joe Trona, the hero of this well-conceived novel, T. Jefferson Parker has created a wonderful, likeable, semi-tragic hero who propels the reader into the dark secrets of many... Read more

Published on Jan 2 2004 by Michael Butts

5.0 out of 5 stars The Unknown Thing
The Unknown Thing, coined by T.Jefferson Parker in Silent Joe is that indescribable feeling certain women impart on your soul. Read more

Published on Dec 26 2003 by jerry3643

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Hero from T. Jefferson Parker
T. Jefferson Parker has given us another hero to root for and one whom I hope he will bring back from time to time so that we can find out he is doing. Read more

Published on Sep 3 2003 by P. Connors

1.0 out of 5 stars Didn't live up to reviews
I was very disappointed with this book and shocked that it was an Edgar Award winner. From the reviews I expected a first rate mystery but I could never really get on board with... Read more

Published on Aug 3 2003 by Anita

5.0 out of 5 stars Hurrah for Joe and Shag
This is a real slam-bam thriller. It took me a while to get into the author's stride, but once we got together, I could hardly put the book down. Read more

Published on July 25 2003 by G. B. Talovich

5.0 out of 5 stars A subtle, painful glide into the dark night of life, soul
The only novel worthy of the Edgar in the last decade, this marvelous novel explores the human psyche and invites the reader to enter the world of this novel and its lead... Read more

Published on Jun 29 2003 by inthefoam2

4.0 out of 5 stars somewhat predictable
"Silent Joe" was my reading group's book choice for January. I had never read anything by T. Jefferson Parker before so looked forward to a new reading experience. Read more

Published on Feb 24 2003 by Sandra L. von Pier

1.0 out of 5 stars I seldom put books down in the middle.......
...but the plot was sooooooo cheesy, unbelievable and repetitious that I had to give it up. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but unless I'm reading sci-fi I want... Read more

Published on Feb 21 2003 by Robotpirate

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent mystery
This book was great fun. The author definitely knows how to write a mystery/thriller. Any book that has a good enough command of plot that I don't want to put it down gets major... Read more

Published on Jan 29 2003 by mrtoad11

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