Rating: 
Summary: Not bad at all for a late bloomer.
Review: We are again seeing some of the prose for which Parker is noted. But he is assuming that everyone of his fans know enough about baseball to understand what he is talking about. There are places in the text with Jesse on the field where it is plainly hard to follow the action, especially at the beginning of the novel. Towards the middle and the end it isn't so bad.For an alcoholic who is "trying" to recover, Jesse certainly makes a point of drinking a great deal. At least his ex-wife talks him into getting some help. But this novel gets better as it progresses. If you want a light read which makes sense, and is also a very good read in the process, this is the novel for you. It is a boilerplate affair but it still makes for a good mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Small town facing big city vices
Review: This is the first Jesse Stone novel I've read, but it certainly will not be the last. To call it a mystery would be inaccurate, for it more closely resembles a police procedural and character study than anything else. Parker's dialog is perhaps his strongest ability as a writer, but there is plenty of interesting plot and character development to keep the all but the most petulant reader satisfied. Death in Paradise is, in a word, FUN! Parker has created believable worlds in all of his books with characters and places that ring true and the same is true in Death in Paradise. I get the sense that Parker has or is walking in Jesse Stone's shoes now and again. Stone's realizations about love, addiction, need and purpose are right on the money to the point of appearing to be autobiographical. His familiar, quick style moves the story along very well and his dialog is always a treat. When a Parkeresque-recognizable Boston crime lord appears, I almost expected Hawk or Susan to walk around the corner and say "Hello!" Parker fans will be pleased, newcomers will be intrigued to read more.
Rating:
Summary: Great look at a fascinating character--Parker is back
Review: When his after-softball game party is disrupted by the discovery of the body of a teenaged girl, murdered in his town, police chief Jesse Stone vows to track down the killer. But who is she? No one locally has reported a missing teen. The body is too badly decomposed to yield fingerprints. Only persistent detective work and a good bit of luck will give them a name, let alone a killer. Stone is an intriguingly damaged protagonist. After being divorced for four years, he is still stuck on his ex-wife, unable to create a true relationship with any other woman. Alcohol cost him his job in Los Angeles homicide, but he can't give up that addiction either. Stone must confront himself, as well as whoever killed the young woman, before he can solve this mystery. Author Robert B. Parker has created a page-turning and powerful story. At times, I found myself wanting to reach out and shake Stone until he got himself straightened up. Parker certainly knows what it means to be stuck on a woman and is convincing in his discussions of alcohol as well. Solid police work, and an insight into baseball as a metaphor for American maleness add to this fine novel. Although it lacks the characteristic dialogue of Parker's Spenser novels, DEATH IN PARADISE also gives Parker an opportunity to develop a new character away from that well-plowed ground.
Rating:
Summary: Another Home Run by Robert Parker!
Review: Death in Paradise by singing 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' storyteller Robert Rarker is another ball park home run-- The Paradise fella's soft ball game has just ended and Chief of Police Jesse Stone (sharing a few beers) with some of his teammates, swapping a few stories in the early evening twilight of double-plays when their conversation is suddenly put on hold after hearing an excited voice shout out from the edge of a nearby lake. An instant later, the police chief is staring down at the lifeless body of a girl.
Death in Paradise is one book I recommend with pleasure!
Rating: 
Summary: Thugs and therapy: it's Robert Parker time again!
Review: Once you resign yourself to the fact that every Robert Parker detective thriller will throw bouquets of roses at the psychiatric industry (Mr. Parker appararently believing that, along with a good dry cleaner and reliable auto mechanic, we should all have a handy therapist or shrink within easy reach), you can relax and enjoy the snappier aspects of this reliable author's craft. These always include razor-sharp banter; sophisticated humor; involving detective plots that are sufficiently complex but never incomprehensible; and some qenuine depth on the part of the good AND bad guys. All of this good stuff is strongly in evidence in "Death in Paradise", the third Jesse Stone thriller, which is a fast, enjoyable read. Alas, you also get the afformentioned sales pitch about the importance of signing up with a good shrink (it must have really killed Mr. Parker not to be able to harp on that theme in his recent Wyatt Earp novel), but hey, those passages kind of just roll off the back now. And to be fair, though the shrink/therapist scenes and discussions get tiresome fast, I do enjoy the fact that Jesse isn't perfect and is a long way from getting his life completely together. It makes him more interesting to read about.
Rating: 
Summary: Parker Stopped Writing Mysteries After Small Vices
Review: I enjoyed the new characters Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall when they were introduced, but it turns out in the third Jesse Stone novel that the guy from the first two Jesse Stone novels went away, and was replaced by a drunk. Make that violent drunk. In the first two novels, Stone had a drinking problem, but he also was a smart and perceptive guy. Violence? Well, sure, Stone is a violent man. Prior to Death in Paradise, what made Stone (and, in the past, Spenser) interesting was how the character controlled his violence so that it produced a result that moved the plot along. If you insist on reading this book, contrast the way Stone thinks about creative ways to solve problems which come close to the line in the second novel with resorting to being a thug in this third novel. There is no mystery here: you can figure out who the bad guy is long about page five. Teenage prostitution? Been done, in earlier works, and done better. Say, God Save the Child and Ceremony, just to name two. In the current books, whether Spenser or Stone, apparently the mystery is figuring out how a book with no characterization and a plot which branches as much as a pool cue gets published. All the characters stand around, silently communicate with their eyes, and say, "yeah," a lot. Same for Potshot. Same for Hugger Mugger. Very, very boring. Read any of Mr. Parker's books up to and including Small Vices (Spenser) or Trouble in Paradise (Stone)--there are plenty to choose from, more than thirty books, including the best in the whole mystery genre (The Judas Goat, Early Autumn, Taming a Sea Horse, Walking Shadow, Thin Air, Perchance to Dream, Poodle Springs), but don't buy this book. Don't read this book. And don't buy or read anything else he's done for a couple of years. He's coasting. And it shows.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother buying this BOOK!!! Borrow it from someone!!
Review: I enjoy a good mystery, but this book was nowhere close. The story was more about a guy that had a drinking problem and 2 different women he's sleeping with, big deal!! I've read other mystery books that had a better story line. If you want to sleep better, this book will do it!! VERY DISAPPOINTING
Rating:
Summary: Death in Paradise...another good Parker read.
Review: Like all of Parkers books, I found Death in Paradise a fast, and enjoyable read. But I do get a 'shades of Matt Scudder' feeling with all of the booze problems. Let's get this guy dried out, and his love life straightened out by the next book. A few interesting characters in the mix would help to liven things up a bit also.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the effort
Review: This was a short story, generously spaced with large print, and very disappointing. Familiar Boston characters are recycled and if you couldn't guess the ending by page 100, you fell asleep sooner than I did. Perhaps it is time for Mr. Parker to leave behind his tortured, alcohol dependant, over-sexed police chief. There is something so naturally repellant about a man that constantly pines/obsesses about his ex-wife, while lining up a series of warm bodies to replace her at the same time. I don't care if he wins his wife back; I don't care if he solves the crime; I don't care if he stops drinking and I don't care if he ever grows up. I doubt that I will purchase any more Jesse Stone books and, now that I think about it, even the last two Spenser were pretty slim in plot. I so dearly love the early Spenser books and perhaps ending my Parker reading with their memory would be best.
Rating: 
Summary: Ho Hum
Review: Jesse Stone is drinking more, sleeping around without emotion and sleep walking through a not-so-mysterious death investigation. It feels like Parker has lost the touch for a compelling plot and characters that we can care about. Something is missing.
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