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ART JEFFERSON

jefferson_art3 jefferson_art2 jefferson_art4 jefferson_art_mv1 jefferson_art_bk_ssees jefferson_art1
 
Full Name: Art Jefferson
Nationality: American
Organization: FBI
Occupation Agent

Creator: Ryne Douglas Pearson
Time Span: 1993 - 2018

ABOUT THE SERIES

Art Jefferson is an agent with the FBI.

He is a cop, not a spy. He is proud to be a Federal one but he is first and only a cop. He has been in service for over a quarter century earning a tremendous amount of respect and a fair number of commendations, all doing what a cop does best which is hunt down bad guys and bring them in. There is not one bit of interest in this 50+-year old man that wants anything at all like the covert world of cloaks and daggers.

Unfortunately, when your Federal beat is the second largest city in the United States and terrorists and international criminals and just plain kooks who have no care about borders and jurisdictions all decide to play their games on your turf, you start learning about the other law enforcements besides the Bureau and the LAPD. You get to know agents from the State Department, the CIA, DIA, NSA, and more. That would be bad enough but all of these inevitably have some officious s.o.b. who thinks he can tell you how to do your job better than you already know how. That's when diplomacy and tact play such a major role.

Which is a shame because Jefferson has no interest in that. He is not obnoxious. He is not insulting. He is not in-your-face get-out-of-mine. He is usually calm about such matters. And then he goes and does things his way and that usually works out for the better.

Jefferson is a tall, broad-shouldered black man who was raised by his grandmother in Alabama before being allowed at too young an age to see the sights of Vietnam. He survived that, came home, went to college, and then found a home with the FBI. Many different cities and a lot of different cases and he was eventually posted to LA. He was definitely making it his turf, knowing a good number of the players on both sides of the law when a heart attack took him down. Desk duty followed, along with doctors telling him to lose 25+ pounds and watch his blood pressure. Running was not easy, either, with his lungs not working like they should.

But Jefferson was not meant to ride a desk. He hated it. He fought it. And he finally got back out onto the streets. And that is when the problems from the other parts of the world mentioned earlier started showing up.

The four recorded adventures of Jefferson are by no means just about him. They are ensemble pieces where the actions of many different players from the bad guys all the way up, sometimes, to the White House are told. But eventually it always comes back, as the saying goes, to the "boots on the ground" and those boots are filled by Jefferson. It is he that the bad guys shoot their bullets at or try to blow up or run over.

Luckily for Jefferson that he has the help of Francine ("don't call me that") Aguirre, a fellow agent albeit a lot younger who uncovers important information in the first case and is promoted to his partner as the series goes on. Having Frankie around to watch your back has proven very fortuitous for Jefferson. It is a shame she has to watch him eat the kind of things he does.

BOOKS

Number of Books:4
First Appearance:1993
Last Appearance:2018

1 Thunder One Thunder One
aka Cloudburst
Written by Ryne Douglas Pearson
Copyright: 1993

Shortly after the US President is assassinated in L.A. by two Libyan terrorists, a 747 is hijacked to Libya. Qaddaffi soon orders the plane and passengers returned but in the cargo hold is a nuclear bomb. Art Jefferson is the lead investigator in L.A. uncovering the plot.

2 October's Ghost October's Ghost
Written by Ryne Douglas Pearson
Copyright: 1994

30 years after the US tried to oust him from office, Castro decides it is time to return the favor and his plan involves a nuclear bomb that he made sure did not get returned after the Kennedy embargo. Art Jefferson is the lead agent when a Cuban defector tries to reveal the plan.

3 Capitol Punishment Capitol Punishment
Written by Ryne Douglas Pearson
Copyright: 1995

A white supremacist wants to stage a two-front attack on the US using a deadly nerve gas. One hit is in LA and the other DC. To reduce his chances of being caught, he convinces a black radical group to carry them out. Art Jefferson is one of the lead investigators.

4 Simple Simon Simple Simon
aka Mercury Rising
Written by Ryne Douglas Pearson
Copyright: 1996

A teenage savant with an incredible ability to break codes has broken NSA premiere encryption. A black-ops team is sent to eliminate him and while they get his parents, they miss him. Art Jefferson is the lead agent and finds the boy, making him now the next man on the hit list.

5 Simon Sees Simon Sees
Written by Ryne Douglas Pearson
Copyright: 2018

Twenty years ago Simon Lynch was an autistic boy who broke the NSA's super code. Now after two decades of trying to understand how he did it, the government is close to understanding. Unfortunately, someone is out to keep them from succeeding and retired FBI agent Art Jefferson is needed to keep Simon alive.
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MOVIES

Number of Movies:1
First Appearance:1998
Last Appearance:1998

1 Mercury Rising Mercury Rising
aka Simple Simon
Director: Harold Becker
Writers: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Ryne Douglas Pearson
Actors: Bruce Willis as Art Jeffries, Alec Baldwin as Nick Kudrow, Mike Hughes as Simon Lynch, Chi McBride as Tommy Jordan, Kim Dickens as Stacey
Released: 1998

When a nine-year old autistic savant is able to break the most sophisticated code NSA had ever created, one they were lauding throughout the Capitol, they send people to wipe him and his family out. Art Jeffries is against the idea.

MY COMMENTS

The Art Jefferson series is a very interesting one for unlike just about every other series, it is a mixture of a solo hero and a group effort. Jefferson is often alone or helped by one person, luckily it is the terrific Frankie, but even as we follow this hero and partner, we also are taken to a whole different world where we watch the big boys play their games (often unwell) and the bad guys scheme and plot. Truth be told, it is I who marked these books as the Art Jefferson series, not the author nor the publisher. Still, I stand with my decision. Art Jefferson is, imho, the main character in the books and the one I most enjoyed following. Whatever else was going on, I looked forward to the story coming back to Jefferson.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

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