Rating: 
Summary: Dynamite read
Review: Jesse Stone is the police chief of Paradise, a small suburban town on the North Shore of Massachusetts. He's still in love with his ex-wife who he sees every Wednesday night even thought their marriage broke up years ago because of her adultery and his boozing. Jesse knows that this is his last chance at the job and with the only woman he ever loved. He was fired in Los Angeles because of his drinking during business hours and was not dependable.
Usually Paradise is a quiet place but not today. After the weekly softball game, Jesse is called over to the nearby river where he seas a floater. By process of elimination, he identifies the body and Jesse puts in a lot of man-hours following the meager trail that will lead to Billie's killer.
In DEATH IN PARADISE, Jessie struggles to come to terms with his alcoholism even as he struggles with one of the trickiest cases of his careers. One has to like Jessie, a man who has known much heartache, but still keeps on hoping things will improve. Robert B. Parker has written an exciting police procedural that piques reader interest from first page to last. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Second in a Series: Death In Paradise
Review: Robert B. Parker is one of my guilty pleasures. Whether it is his long running Spenser series, or the two new series he has started featuring Sunny Randall or Jessie Stone, the books are all pretty much the same. Mr. Parker can be counted on to tell an interesting, relatively simplistic story where evil walks among us and will be struck down as fast as possible. Much like a great Steven Segal movie, the hero will do this almost single handily without a hair out of place and our hero is always a sure hit among the many ladies. When you don't want to have to think to follow along as a reader and you want a guaranteed escape from current reality, Mr. Parker is sure to come up with some enjoyable mind candy. This offering serves as yet another case in point. Mr. Parker returns to the mean streets of small town life in Paradise, Massachusetts in his recent novel featuring Jesse Stone. Jesse is still the chief of Police and still torn by his love of drink as well as his love for his ex-wife, Jenn. Following up on his theme in Trouble In Paradise, the previous novel of the series, Jesse is still fighting the good fight. He wants Jenn back in the worst way, but is trying to stay strong in his resolve to allow her to find her own life and then decide if he still belongs. Their Wednesday night dates are still on and they remain open to seeing other partners. At the same time, he is still battling the idea that he is an alcoholic and that he will have to deal with it. Both issues get pushed slightly backward as a body is discovered floating in the lake after a softball game. Jesse thinks he knows who it is and suspects that it is the body of a young teenage runaway. But her family won't acknowledge that she ever existed and due to the condition of the body, identification will take time. As he and his small force of ten officers begin to work the case, a side story of domestic violence comes to his attention. Splitting his time between both cases becomes a full time effort as he tries to find one killer as well as preventing death in the other case. Jesse has his hands full and hardly breaks a sweat as he goes about his business working both cases. Mr. Parker keeps up his long tradition of shallow characters, plenty of apparent action and almost continuous dialogue in this novel. At 294 pages in length, one would expect that this novel would not read as fast as it does. However, with so little narration and almost continuous dialogue consisting of very short sentences, it becomes an amazingly fast read. Mr. Parker won't change the world through his novels or how you look at it, but he can make you forget about it for a bit. Reminds one of a really good chocolate candy bar-great going down, but plenty of empty calories. Enjoy the break!
Rating:
Summary: Jesse Stone Returns!!!
Review: Robert B. Parker returns with his alcoholic chief of police - Jesse Stone. This is the third book in a series, starting with Night Passage, succeeded by Trouble in Paradise. Once again, he's written a winner, a great book that flies along at the speed of light, with witty, engaging characters. If you are new to Robert B parker, you might want to start with the first books in this series, or start with his Spenser novels. But, even if you read this without prior knowledge, you won't be too lost. The best part about Parkers' writing style is that he doesn't add a lot of unneccesary description, and the dialogue is straight to the point. It's a thrill to read!!
Rating: 
Summary: Marginally Better
Review: This story line was a little more plausible. Parker really is a very good storyteller, he just perpetuates such strange ideas. Like the idea that a selfish is worthy of working to keep. The ex-wife in this story is actually worse than Susan Silverman, yet the hero stubbornly refused to acknowledge her worthlessness, although he does flirt with the idea. An okay read.
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