“The Renegades” by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton, $26.95)

T. Jefferson Parker doesn’t write series.

In his 25 years as a top-notch mystery writer, Parker has had only one three-novel series. But in his 16th novel, the twice Edgar winner returns to Charlie Hood, a young sheriff’s deputy forced into a coming-of-age passage in last year’s superb “L.A. Outlaws.”

A different kind of outlaw surfaces in “The Renegades,” an excellent view of crime, conscience and maturity. With a strong focus on characters and their motivation, Parker delivers a gripping thriller that combines the tenets of the western novel with the mystery genre.

Charlie relishes his new assignment in Antelope Valley, a desert community north of L.A., “the new frontier … in high desert, ferociously hot and cold, and dry” where “the cities are booming but not quite prosperous.” He doesn’t mind that this is “the Siberia” of the sheriff’s department, and eventually he wants to be back in the L.A. force. But after his role in helping to tag a corrupt lawman, he just wants “to forget and not be seen.”

A loner who likes to prowl the dark roads, Charlie doesn’t have a choice when he is assigned a partner, Terry Laws. But on a routine call, Terry is gunned down in the front seat of their patrol car. With his “heroic chin and an open face and a quick smile,” Terry seems the most unlikely of targets.

Nicknamed “Mr. Wonderful,” Terry was a devoted father, a bodybuilding champion, the main organizer of the Toys for Tots program.

To help track down the killer, Charlie joins forces with Internal Affairs. It doesn’t take him long to find the cracks in Terry’s seemingly perfect ways. A high-profile arrest that helped make his career also became an albatross that changed Terry and made him question his ethics. Charlie’s investigation leads him to Terry’s usual partner, Coleman Draper, a deputy reservist whose genial personality hides his true nature.

Parker’s affinity for melding characters with their landscape is showcased in “The Renegades.” Charlie grows strong in the desert where “the Joshua trees look like crucified thieves.”