Deputy Sheriff Charlie Hood—the hero of L.A.
Outlaws—left readers clamoring for more, and in The
Renegades, T. Jefferson Parker more than
delivers.Some say that outlaws no longer
exist, that the true spirit of the American West died with
the legendary bandits of pulp novels and bedtime stories.
Charlie Hood knows that nothing could be further from the
truth. These days he patrols vast stretches of the new
American West, not on horseback but in his cruiser. The
outlaws may not carry six-shooters, but they’re strapped
all the same. Along the desolate and dusty roads
of this new frontier, Hood prefers to ride alone, and he
prefers to ride at night. At night, his headlights
illuminate only the patch of pavement ahead of him: all
the better to hide from the demons—and the dead outlaws—
receding in his rearview mirror. But he doesn’t
always get what he wants— certainly not when he’s assigned
a partner named Terry Laws, a county veteran who everyone
calls “Mr. Wonderful.” And not when Laws is shot dead in
the passenger seat and Hood is left to bear witness by
someone who knew that Mr. Wonderful didn’t always live up
to his nickname. As he sets out to find the gunman, Hood
knows one thing for sure: The West is a state of mind, one
where the bad guys sometimes wear white hats—and the good
guys seek justice in whatever shade of gray they can find
it.