California Girl

Summary

The murder of a young woman in 1960s Orange County binds the lives of three brothers from the Becker family, one a cop, one a journalist, and one a preacher, across decades of changing California. Parker uses the crime as a lens on a region transforming through the Vietnam era, drugs, religion, and ambition, returning to the wound again and again as new truths surface. The sweeping structure and sense of place lift it well beyond a standard whodunit.