Laguna Heat is Parker's first novel, which is my favorite read--first novels. I did this backwards, becoming a fan of Parker, then searching out his first work. Yep, maybe his best. Fitzgerald said of Hemingway: Something happened to him when he was twenty, he wrote about it, and then just wrote the same story over and over. Well, that's true of most fiction writers and it's true of Parker. (That's why I like First novels - they usually represent what it is an author has to offer. Many people (most?) find an author they like and keep reading him or her - essentially reading the same thing over and over. That says much more about the reader and the publishing world, than it does about the content of the work. Okay, I'll get off my high horse.) Before reading Laguna Heat, I read Hardball by Paretsky. Funny, both are novel's about crimes that took place forty years ago. Heat takes place in SoCal, HB in Chi-town. Heat was Parker's first novel and written in 1985. HB is Paretsky's latest. Parker was the same age as the protagonist, Laguna PD detective Tom Shephard, when he wrote the book and grew up in the locale. Paretsky is close to her protagonist's age, V.I. Warshawski, and grew up in Chicago. Parker's writing captivated me. He describes the beach towns, the scenery, and the characters accurately and poetically. (I was there often.) It's 1985 and everyone smokes and drinks a lot.
Parker's plot line is so interesting, however, that I often struggled to read the descriptive narration because I wanted to turn the page and find out what happened. That's some good writing. To Fitzgerald's point: Yes, the themes in Parker's novels are the same as are the characters. Protagonist Shephard is Silent Joe is Charles Hood. The women (love objects) are all similar. The family histories are similar. Yes, it is the same story told over and over. "Manly Man" (L.A. Outlaw's heroine's word for Charles Hood) solves crimes that involve his father, corruption, and ambiguous, powerful men; has issues with his mother (dies prematurely), loses and finds and loses - strong, independent, beautiful lovers; likes dogs, hot cars, speed (the driving kind) guns (but not killing), children, and drink. Questions authority and is not particularly intellectual, a somewhat bemused personality is he. It's good stuff.