A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker, 2022 Forge Book, hardcover mystery novel
Plot Summary: (edited slightly from the publisher’s blurb)
A Thousand Steps is a beguiling thriller, an incisive coming-of-age story, and a vivid portrait of a turbulent time and place by three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker.
Laguna Beach, California, 1968. The Age of Aquarius is in full swing. Timothy Leary is a rock star. LSD is God. Folks from all over are flocking to Laguna, seeking peace, love, and enlightenment. Matt Anthony is just trying get by.
Matt is sixteen, broke, and never sure where his next meal is coming from. Mom’s a stoner, his deadbeat dad left home six years ago and is in Oklahoma, or Texas, or somewhere, his brother’s fighting in Nam . . . and his big sister Jazz has just gone missing. The cops figure she’s just another runaway hippie chick, enjoying a summer of love, but Matt doesn’t believe it, especially since another missing girl has just turned up dead, on the beach.
All Matt really wants to do is get his driver’s license and ask out the girl he’s been crushing on since fourth grade, yet it’s up to him to find his sister. But in a town where the cops don’t trust the hippies and the hippies don’t trust the cops, uncovering what’s really happened to Jazz is going to force him to grow up fast, if it’s not already too late.”
My Take:
I was living in Laguna Beach, CA in 1968 so I knew the small beach town intimately, the streets, shops, bars, restaurants. Parker knows the town too, and he got the feel of Laguna in 1968 just about right. I do think he over played the level of drugs being openly consumed, as I saw very little of that, but he has most of it spot on, right down to the names of the owners of The Sandpiper, where I used to play darts.
The book kept me turning pages, but I was “in town, a local” and that was part of it. Pretty good plot, Matt is a good character, good book. If you’ve enjoyed any of Parker’s other books, you’ll like this one.
Tip the Wink 
I enjoyed it. Not his best novel but I have never read a bad book by Parker and I have read all of them.
Steve, I have a few gaps in my Parker reading, but like you I enjoyed this one. Plus, reading it brought back a lot of memories of the time.
I haven’t read anything by T. Jefferson Parker, although I have a few of his books on my shelves. This one sounds good, and I like the cover. I am sure it was fun reading about an area you know so well.
It’s always good reading about a time and a place you know well…as long as the author does it right. I’ve read books set in Brooklyn that were very accurate and others… not so much. As for Parker, I don’;t know what it is but maybe he’s too Southern California for me. I just haven’t been all that taken with the ones I’ve tried, undoubtedly my problem rather than his. This does sound fairly interesting, especially the 1968 part.
Yes, any place I am familiar I like reading about. I think I read one by him years ago but can’t remember which one.
I’ve read a number of T. Jefferson Parker novels over the years and like Steve I’ve enjoyed them all. I’ll have to add A THOUSAND STEPS to my Read Real Soon pile.
You can probably find it at your library, George.