A Thousand Steps by T Jefferson Parker

9781250793539

361 Pages
Publisher: Macmillian-Tor / Forge
Release Date: January 11, 2022

Fiction, General Fiction, Historical Fiction, 1960s, Drugs, Sex, Abduction, Family Dynamics

It is 1968 and Matt Anthony is sixteen years old living in Laguna Beach, California. His older brother, Kyle, is serving in Vietnam and his sister, Jazz is missing. His mother becomes distant since becoming addicted to drugs leaving Matt to fend for himself. Matt uses his newspaper route to buy food and clothes. They are being evicted and his mother finds them another place, but Matt isn’t happy about where is it and what it is. He spends most of his time looking for his sister and worrying about his brother who is due to come home soon.

This book was slow paced and mostly dragged with Matt spending most of the book looking for his sister, getting mugged and beat up. The characters were somewhat developed, and it was written in the third person point of view. I enjoyed reading the historical references to Timothy Leary, The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Mystic Arts World, and Laguna Beach during that time but for me, the book fell flat. It was very slow and could probably cut out 100 pages to move the story along faster. I was drawn to the cover and wish the book was better.

Published by Forge Books on January 11, 2022

A Thousand Steps is an interesting but frustrating novel. I couldn’t quite lose myself in its setting or plot, notwithstanding that both are a bit offbeat, because neither are quite convincing.

The setting is Laguna Beach in 1968. Timothy Leary is one of the characters, although he is more a caricature than a character. Various gurus, artists, hippies, cops, bikers, and high school kids also populate the novel. I suppose that Leary and Be-Ins and acid tripping might be how people remember Laguna Beach today, but there was clearly more to the city than T. Jefferson Parker acknowledges.

In addition to the flower children, acid consumers, and obligatory criminals, the story features Matt Anthony, who is 16-going-on-40. Matt has a paper route and is always hungry. Matt’s brother is nearing the end of his tour in Vietnam. Working as a waitress, his mother barely makes enough to pay their rent. Strait-laced Matt tends to judge his weed-smoking mother harshly, particularly after she graduates to weed laced with opium. Oddly, he is less judgmental of his father, a former cop who bailed on the family and is gone for years at a time. Since Matt’s mother stayed around and raised him, you’d think Matt would cut her more slack than he gives his dad.

The novel opens with the discovery of Bonnie Stratmeyer’s body on the beach. She’s a couple years older than Matt, about the same age as Matt’s sister Jasmine. Bonnie has been missing for a few weeks. Shortly after Bonnie’s body appears, Jasmine disappears. Jasmine just turned eighteen. She fights with their mother, making it possible that she’s just asserting her independence and getting away from home, but it soon becomes clear to Matt that she has been abducted. The police are less certain, although the police don’t seem to have much interest in any crime that isn’t related to drugs and hippies. That seems about right, given the time and location.

Apart from rampant drug use, Matt is exposed to a variety of sketchy behavior, from hippies stealing his wallet to a biker gang stealing his wallet, from vaguely pornographic photo shoots to constant invitations to smoke weed. Smoking up might be good for Matt. He’s a perfect patsy, which is why he’s chosen to commit various crimes that he doesn’t know he’s committing, even though the reader will want to shake him and acquaint him with reality. He’s annoyingly uptight, even when his wallet isn’t being stolen. The portrayal of hippies and drugs in Laguna Beach is largely negative, although Parker balances the karma with an equally negative portrayal of the police.

The police and Matt’s father are the kind of “Love It or Leave It” flag wavers who can’t say the word “hippy” without adding the word “scum.” They exemplify the narrow-minded version of conservatism and selective patriotism that was abundant during the Vietnam War and is little changed today. Matt idolizes his brother who has gone to war (fair enough) but he doesn’t grow sufficiently during the course of the novel to recognize that the war was a mistake, that advocating peace and love isn’t necessarily a bad use of one’s time, or that his dad is a bully. Matt’s father returns from his six-year absence both to find Jasmine and to “put the sinful world back right,” which might include taking out hippies, Asians, and anyone who opposes the Vietnam War, including Walter Cronkite. Matt’s dad insists that Matt own a gun because without one he’s not a man. In fact, Matt must buy that gun from his dad because that’s “the Anthony way.” Matt clearly comes from a messed-up family but he shows little ability to stand up to his father or to recognize the harm that his father continues to cause.

Conversations that Matt has with Timothy Leary and Swami Om seem unlikely. Since Matt clearly isn’t part of their scene, I doubt that anyone in that scene would pay him much attention. Beyond that, the entire plot is unlikely. The identity of Jasmine’s kidnappers and the reason for the kidnapping is just silly. The story spends too much time on Matt’s paper route and on the various chores that are making him big and strong, although there are a couple of fun scenes in which Matt gets to first and second base with his female friends. Apart from the almost-sex and action scenes that lack credibility, the story is a little dull. On the other hand, Parker’s prose is sharp and his characterization of Matt as a kid who is ready to come of age but never quite does is convincing. Balancing aspects of the novel I liked against those that troubled me, I can’t give A Thousand Steps an unqualified recommendation, but I wouldn’t tell anyone not to read it.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Thank you Netgalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Forge Books and T. Jefferson Parker for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

Laguna Beach, California, 1968. Interesting place, interesting time. People all over America come to Laguna in search of love, peace and enlightenment. And may be some drug infused awakening and insight. LSD is God. Matt Antony is just trying to live his life with the cards he is given - mom is a stoner, father is lost somewhere in the MidWest, brother is serving in Vietnam and his sister goes missing. Police doesn’t consider her disappearance important, but Matt is sure that something bad happened to her once another missing girl is found on the beach dead. The coming-of-age story in a middle of drug infused city with not-caring mother and not-present relatives.

What I liked the most is how T. Jefferson Parker portrayed the times - the description of places, people, events is truly breathtaking, it made me feel like I was there myself. Evocative and realistic. Plot wise the novel was so-so - too much repetition and same actions. It seemed Matt was a good caring guy and his approach to find his sister was based on going in circles on and on and on and on... never ending circles. Therefore I didn’t enjoy Matt character too - same thoughts and actions on and on and on.

The culmination was too quick and hurried through. It didn’t provide all the answers.

I wish I enjoyed the novel more.

Although a little repetitive in moments, this was an interesting mystery novel. The cover is also so stunning!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of this book. I was inspired to read the book because I thought it was a thriller and liked the story and cover. So far I hadn't heard from the author. I have to admit though that it took my a long time to finish the book. To be honest I wanted to skip pages inbetween because sometimes the story kept on repeating itself and was slow to read. Not a bad novel but I'm not sure whether I'd recommend it to friends.

T. Jefferson Parker's A Thousand Steps is a gripping mystery that opens in 1968 Laguna Beach, California at the height of the Age of Aquarius. We're introduced to 16-year-old Matt Anthony, whose elder brother Kyle is fighting in Viet Nam. His father is long gone and his mom (Julie) is usually high.

When Matt's older sister Jazz goes missing, he does everything he can to find her, with little help from the police. I recommend A Thousand Steps to anyone who lived through the sixties, or who appreciates a well plotted mystery and a strong coming of age.

***I received an ebook copy from the publisher at no cost***

On the surface, this book looks like it's a thriller and while that is true, it's so much more. We get to witness Matt searching for his missing sister and finding himself along the way, all amidst the backdrop of 1960s Laguna Beach, CA.

This book is original, the characters are great, and it kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more. If you're looking for a nice thriller, with a few other themes mixed in as well, this is a good book for you.

Four stars to this novel!

What an amazing story! The book opens with a local high school girl’s body on the beach. She has been missing for two months.
Matt Anthony, a sixteen-year-old paperboy, raced up to the police cars, where he got his first look at a dead body. Shortly afterward, his sister, Jazz, whom he adores, vanishes while out partying to celebrate her graduation from high school. The police believe she’s just another runaway girl, but Matt knows that Jazz wouldn’t desert him and so finds himself on an unending search of Laguna Beach to find his sister, who he believes has been kidnapped. The author does an amazing job of showing the world back in the late ’60s, where Matt must deal with all kinds of strange, legendary, and spiritual characters along with all the drugs so popular then.
The character of Matt is a likable young man who loves to fish, paint, deliver papers and eat! His Mom is an opium-addicted hippie who struggles to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. His father had abandoned Matt along with Jazz and his older brother Kyle (soon to be back from his tour in Vietnam) many years ago.
The Thousand Steps refers to the Ninth Avenue descent to Laguna’s 1,000 Steps Beach, but also to Matt’s search for his sister, which takes him to every single address in town and faces all kinds of threats and trouble. A fascinating step back in time, and you will find yourself cheering for Matt in many ways.
Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for this wonderful journey!

Here is a mystery that takes you back to the late 60s scene in California, with hippies, experimental drugs, bands, VW vans, wild parties, etc. If you're interested in this era, then you'll enjoy reading A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker.
Matt is the central character: a teenage boy with an absentee dad and a druggie mom, living by his own wits, working a paper route odd jobs, and fishing and visiting the local food pantry to get enough food to eat. (My mother heart went out to him.)
When Matt's sister goes missing, no one seems to take it seriously. They assume she went off on her own for some reasons of her own, but Matt believes something has happened to her. He is determined to find her, and doggedly looks for clues and refuses to give up searching until he does.
Along the way, he has run-ins with cops and gangsters, experiences his first tastes of teenage love, works hard to keep himself fed and clothed, and to convince the adults around him that his sister needs their help.
This book felt a bit lengthy, but perhaps that was the author's intent to portray Matt on a long and sometimes tedious path of sifting through possible evidence for clues (with many frustrating dead ends and false hopes in between) that will lead him to his sister.
Was it worth reading? Yes! It was a fascinating look into the past and a good mystery as well.
If this time period interests you, give A Thousand Steps a read.

A Thousand Steps is everything you want a book set in the late 60's/early 70's to be. I mean, where there even normal functioning families back then or did kids and teens run wild while their parents partied and worked dead-end jobs? I mean, obviously not. But so many of the stories (real and fictional) that we love from this era are all about the hippies and lost souls that kind of drift through life looking for love and meaning.

Think Almost Famous, but without the groupies and with a murder mystery. Okay, maybe that's a stretch. But the book had that feel. And Matt is just as lovable and adorable as William Miller. Poor Matt can't count on his mom because she's always high or depressed. He can't count on his older brother because he's currently off fighting in Vietnam, and he can't count on his sister because she's gone missing.

A Thousand Steps is definitely a book to check out this spring. It was interesting following Matt all around Laguna as he tried to piece together his sister's disappearance and track her down before it's too late. Special thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan Forge Books for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now, get your copy

Before I say anything else, can I just take a moment to gush over the cover?

Okay, done!

This has been pitched as a 'gripping thriller' which it is most certainly not. It's more the story of a family in the hippy-trippy time of the late sixties when everyone was tripping out on drugs, free love and fake gurus.

The story is narrated from the POV of Matt Anthony, a character that I genuinely liked, and I will tell you why a little later on.

Matt's family lives in Laguna Beach, California. The year is 1968, and Matt is sixteen years old. His mom is a stoner, his Dad left when he was 3 years old, his elder brother is fighting in Vietnam, and now his sister Jazz is missing.

There's the body of a dead girl that has washed up on the beach, and he's worried about Jazz, because it's very unlike for her to disappear without telling anyone, and take nothing with her.

When the cops don't take him seriously about his missing sister, he knows it's up to him to find his sister on his own. But he also has to worry about his mom, where his next meal is coming from, and how to impress the girl he's crushing on.

He gets involved with a shady cult, founded by Mahajad Om, a spiritual leader, and falls in with some even shadier people, who run a bookshop that is a front for dealing drugs. He even goes knocking on every door in town to find his sister, but he's unsuccessful. It doesn't help at all that the chief of police is an a**hole and has it out for him.

But at least his missing sister has brought his father back to town, and they team up to go find her. By process of elimination, they find that the only place left is in the Swami's ashram, and when they go there, they find that they were right about finding clues to Jazz's disappearance there. But will they find Jazz there alive and well, or is it already too late for her?

Matt is a NICE GUY, in all respects. Even though his mother is always stoned, and his dad is a deadbeat, he never feels angry or resentful towards them. He's concerned about his mother and wishes she can kick her habit for her own good. He loves his brother and is waiting for him to come home, and hopes he doesn't die in the war. And even though his sister is full of herself, he knows she's a good kid, and he loves her. He had promised her when they were kids that he would always have her back, and he has every intention of keeping that promise.

Even though he's always strapped for cash, he doesn't do anything that will get him easy money by doing something illegal. He chooses instead to have a paper route and earn what he can by doing odd jobs (which he discovers later were illegal anyway, but he didn't know it at the time). Even at the age of 16, he understands integrity, loyalty, and is an all-around decent and upstanding guy.

The character of his mom is just a stoner ditz, and I felt myself being annoyed by her, because she's the mom, and she's supposed to be taking care of her kid, and not the other way around. The dad was just another deadbeat absentee dad, till he actually showed up and decided to take responsibility for reuniting his family and finding his daughter.

I wish the author had taken a little more effort to title the character as 'Maharaj' instead of 'Mahajad'(which is not even a word). But maybe he was being ironic (though I doubt it) because his stupid followers wouldn't even know the difference anyway. After all, the more vague sh*t a guru spews, the more enlightened the sheep think he is.

Of course, he turned out to be a charlatan, (and that stereotype is so tiresome to read about because there are real gurus out there) and that fact was relevant to the plot because a real spiritual leader would never have done that crap.

This has also been called a coming-of-age novel, but in my opinion, such a novel would need to cover at least a few integral years of a character's life that are defining for that character. This timeline is just about a few weeks, with insights into his childhood. I don't think he really 'comes of age' during the span of this novel, but he learns a lot and comes to quite a few realizations within a short period, which undoubtedly affects how he will turn out as an adult, though I think he was already more than pretty sorted for his age. But no matter what Matt experiences, he's never angry or bitter or regretful. His attitude is more like, 'Hmm, so that happened, and that's how it is. Huh! Okay. Onward!'

If you expect this to be a thriller, you're going to be disappointed, because the plot moves slowly, and there aren't any action-packed, nail-biting, hair-raising scenes. Yes, there's a mystery and some twists and turns, but that's not what the novel is REALLY about. That's the setting of the novel, really, and the real story is about Matt and his love for his family.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Forge Books for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A Thousand Steps is set during the sixties when the Age of Aquarius is at its prime, the hippies protest the war, and LSD is near religiously worshiped. During all this in Laguna Beach , sixteen year old Matt Anthony is just trying to get by. His dad is long gone, his brother off in war, and his mom lost in her own reverie of drugs and highs. Matt is doing what he can to keep himself fed and alive. The money that his mom makes as a waitress and the money he makes on his paper delivery just barely is enough to keep them afloat. There are many days that he almost starves but still he presses on. He makes the best of his life, sketching the things he sees around him and helping out for side jobs when he can.

Matt is a good kid who ends up finding a dead body. How was Matt to know that finding that body would lead him down a path he never expected? Of course the town talks about it, but when his sister Jazz ends up missing as well, the town goes quiet. Not even the cops want to help him find his sister as they just see her as just another runaway hippie.

He takes it upon himself to find his sister. He knows deep down that she is alive and not one of those runaway hippie sorts. The cops won't help him because they don't trust the hippies. The hippies won't help him because they don't trust the cops. Matt decides to take matters in his own hands as he begins his quest to find his sister.

The journey itself is one that leads him to places he never expect to be in. Some of them dark and gritty, some of them paths to a far more erotic, secret places that Matt really shouldn't be in, and some lead him so far into the world of the hippies and LSD he wonders if it all will take him down too.

His search for his sister is only made more complex when his dad shows back up, his mom gets severely injured and hospitalized, and he actually sees his sister being dragged into a van. The clues and the call keep him motivated to never give up. Matt is one that isn't willing to lose hope, and his faith is what keeps him alive.

A Thousand Steps is a book that shows the determination of a brother to not give up on his sister. It reveals to the reader the darker side of Laguna back in the 60's where not everything was sunshine and love. Those that are believed to be leading the believers into a path of Enlightenment are really not as glorified or as good as they seem and to Matt that makes all the difference.

The book was an enjoyable read that kept my attention. The dark side of the 60's and the near cultish groups in the story were something so fascinating to me. The characters were rough edged and relatable and the ending brought revelation of human trafficking that may have existed far before the normal person may have realized. In all the book is recommended not as a favorite but a great, well written book. If you are a fan of stories from the Age of the Aquarius and it's darker side this may just be the book for you. Until next time, Happy Reading!

Actually, I had doubts but this book was really good! Yes, I'm a 70s babies so I could actually image the people & places, the author was describing---thanks to all the Woodstock documentaries in the 80s! Anyhow, the main character seemed like a highly unlikely hero. Similar to a Columbo-type character. The tenacity of this teenager (Matt) is off the charts! He just can't believe his sister just left him and his off-beat Mom! Matt knows that their life could be a whole lot better and he knows deep down that she didn't leave by her own free will!

This is all I can write---READ it! You will be highly entertained by the cast of characters and maybe you can recognize a little "Matt" in yourself or sibling(s)!!

A Thousand Steps by T Jefferson Parker is a 2022 Forge Books publication.

Set in Laguna Beach during the late sixties, this novel follows a teenage Matt Antony as he searches for his older sister, Jasmine, aka, Jazz, who has suddenly vanished.

Matt has a lot on his plate- his brother is winding up his tour in Vietnam, hoping to make it home alive, and his mother is falling deeper and deeper into the drug scene, leaving Matt to fend for himself.

Fearing his sister has met the same fate as a popular girl whose body was recently found after having gone missing, Matt navigates the LSD fueled world of Timothy Leary, dubious law enforcement, and odd religious temples, searching for his sister, while going through the usual teenage angst of a guy his age.

When I added this book to my reading list, I thought it was strictly a mystery/thriller. A missing girl, the usual stuff for this trope, etc., but I got more than I bargained for with this one. This is just as much a coming-of-age story as it is a mystery/thriller.

Matt’s character pulls at the heartstrings, his desperation nearly palpable. His physical hunger is juxtaposed against his emotional starvation, but he really is one cool kid, as he is forced to progress from being naïve and somewhat innocent to becoming older and wiser than his years.

The mystery is mired in the strange cultural shifts of the late sixties, and the author did a terrific job of bringing the era to life- not the mythologized version- but the wild, gritty, underbelly of it.

Overall, this is a well-executed combination of both historical fiction and mystery, with a poignant coming-of-age element that stands out and sticks with you. The historical setting, the war, drugs and the cult-like groups will bring back memories for some. While it is a little before my time, I’m wondering if people still feel as nostalgic about that time now, especially when viewing it through Parker’s lens.

4 stars

I had a hard time enjoying this story because the author seemed to repeat things. This made me want to skim and not take in the story. It was just okay for me. The setting was interesting, but the writing style could not keep me engaged. I appreciate the ARC from Netgalley.

T. Jefferson Parker's latest mystery takes us back in time to 1968 Laguna beach--a summer of surfers, free love, drugs, the Vietnam War, anti-war demonstrations, and all the other accoutrements of a changing society. For 16-year-old Matt, it also is a summer of food insecurity, a drugged out mother, and the body of a high school classmate washed up onto the beach.. The community is in shock. And then Matt's sister doesn't come home one night. The police say she's a runaway, but all Matt can think of is the dead girl on the beach. After a few days and little police intervention, Matt launches an investigation of his own--and OH, the places it takes him! This is a solid coming-of-age story set in uncertain times for both the culture at large and Matt's family in particular. With his brother in Vietnam and his sister missing, he is truly on his own except for the help of his first-ever girlfriend. Thanks to #AThousandSteps #NetGalley for a pre-publication ebook copy of A THOUSAND STEPS in exchange for my honest review.

I was drawn to this book because of the psychedelic inspired cover but it was such a slow read..
For a book marketed as a thriller, not much happened in the first third part of the story. I’m an Indian and there’s this whole bit about a Guru in a meditation world or something, and he’s called Mahajad — this seemed to be such a blatant error because the correct Hindi word is Maharaj. I couldn’t read beyond the first 30 % of the book and had to unfortunately DNF it.

A Thousand Steps was a coming-of-age thriller set in 1960’s Laguna. Summer of Love is over, but the after-glow is still present in the massive amounts of LSD drugs circulating.

This was a new author for me and the psychedelic cover art drew me to then novel. Great read.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a real page-turner by an author I hadn't read before but will certainly read again.

I’ll start with saying the premise of this one was intriguing; how could you not be? A historical fiction set in Laguna Beach in the 60’s that centers around a teenage who is trying to find his missing sister - sounds like a winner. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into it. This is a slow burn and I found myself skipping pages when descriptions got too long. I’m also not sure why this is labeled a thriller.