Customer Reviews

Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues (A Jesse Stone Novel)

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3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(46)

 

 

Your reaction to the simple existence of a Jesse Stone novel written by someone who's not Robert B. Parker will likely define your approach to reading it.

If, like me, you are a long-time reader of the late, lamented Grand Master Parker, you will be rightly skeptical. The stylistic differences, coupled with clearly different skill-sets, will be off-putting. The choices Michael Brandman makes early in the book will drive you crazy. You might want to fling the book out a window, even.

If, however, you come to Killing The Blues as an admirer of the Jesse Stone TV-Movies, on which Brandman and Parker were frequent collaborators, you'll likely be spared such self-righteous angst.

Brandman seems to be blurring the lines between book and movie continuity now, to the point that Killing The Blues is much like those "tv tie-in" books that support CSI and other long-running series. The settings and characters now resemble the movies more than previous books.

By itself, Killing The Blues is a very effective story of obssession, redemption and all the themes Parker made resonate so well. It weaves a few compelling plot-lines together pretty seamlessly. It's very entertaining crime-fiction commerce.

As summer approaches Paradise, Jesse is greeted with a new wave of car thefts, all Hondas. Clearly an organized-crime expansion into His Town to feed their chop-shop appetites. Jesse wants to stop the crimes, but the Paradise Board of Selectmen want to stop the threat to The Season, which creates some cross-purposes, and opportunities for Jesse to display his ironic aversion to authority.

Jesse hears from his old boss in L.A. A former victim of Jesse's dark past, Ruthless Thug Rollo Nurse, has been released, and word has drifted that Jesse will be his target. The cat-and-mouse between Jesse and Rollo form the core of the book's narration. The other threads of Brandman's story weave around it, and provide nice balance.

When Parker died, Jesse seemed headed towards a really fun relationship with Sunny Randall. That's "resolved" rather quickly, so we can watch Jesse do the dance with Alexis Richardson, neice of a town Selectman, and PR person. She wants to launch a Rock Festival in town. Sparks fly, take-out is consumed, frolic ensues.

As Jesse gets close on the car-thefts, Rollo arrives and begins to work his twisted revenge scheme on Jesse. Brandman stages these quite well, creating some real loin-girding moments for us. He also does good work in forcing us to observe Rollo's psychosis as a result of Jesse's Great Flaw. It'll keep ya thinking.

Brandman also takes a trendy whack at school bullying, starting and finishing an episode at the local Junior High providing some character beats for Jesse, but nothing significant beyond them.

So, for Parker fans, what's missing? The obvious is that Parker wrote human dialogue better than almost anyone, so anyone else using the characters is going to suffer by comparison. There's also a marginalization of Molly Crane that is saddening. She's there for comic relief, but the banter between her and Jesse is just functional, totally lacking Parker's insightfulness. She is, here, a reflection of the TV version.

And there's the whole commercial orientation. Parker loved to make money, of course, but he always had something on his mind, and used his characters to flesh out those thoughts. Brandman has a whole other direction here, and it occasionally disrupts the reading experience.

However, anyone getting too high on their horse should remember, in literature, characters always live on. Parker wrote a Philip Marlowe by himself (Perchance To Dream), after finishing Chandler's Poodle Springs, and it was huge fun. Jeffrey Deaver just published a James Bond novel. Ace Atkins (YAY!) will pick up the Spenser series. The key is how involved the Parker estate remains in the execution of these series. That influence will determine the quality of future installments primarily by ensuring selected authors stay true to what made the characters worth continuing in the first place.

So, get Killing The Blues, have fun with it, be wistful, and enjoy the ride. It's what Parker would've wanted us to do.

I thought I hated those Zombie Jane Austen novels ... but at least the writers of those could write and it was clear these were pastiches. This is just awful. I got about a third of the way through it and thought my eyes were going to bleed. It's not just that the poor characterization, lame plot and just dreadful writing was such a slap in the face of one of the greatest writers we've ever had, it's that this is in itself so awful it should never have been written. It totally feels like a high school junior read some of Parker's novels and thought he'd take a crack for a school project. If this guy considers himself a friend of Parker, he should be absolutely ashamed of himself.

I will admit I was, and am an avid fan of the PARKER written Jesse Stone books. In fact as his series' got into their later incarnations I enjoyed the Stone stories (except for one) better than the later Spenser tales. Having said that there was a part of me that was excited that the books would go on, but a larger part of me dreaded the idea.

When I heard that this new author (of "Killing the Blues") worked on the Jesse Stone tv movies I was REALLY dreading this novel, and what at first looked like my prediction coming true, ended up being a nice surprise.

At first glimpse over the opening pages (or the Kindle sample) I began to fear the worst....as in quick order the "book" Jesse/Paradise, was slightly skewed so that it resembled more the "tv" Jesse/Paradise. The slight changes (no big spoilers here as this is in the first few pages) include Jesse moving from his apartment to a rental house on an inlet across from a bridge, his romance with Parker's other character, Sunny Randall, is on ice as she is now working long term on a case in England. A slight change that is difficult to miss, is that the writing style is vastly different, and this is both bad and good. The negative is that it does not have the same "feel" of the shorter chapters that end with some sort of one liner. The positive is that the author pays more attention to the story...let me rephrase that, stories - as there are multiple plot lines that kept me engaged.

Once I got past the differences and recognized that there were not to be any more and any vast changes I began to enjoy the book, and again there was much in the plot to enjoy. A released criminal from L.A. is out for revenge and causing havok in Paradise. There is a school hostage sitation and the fall out from that, and a mob element that is muscling in, using Paradise as its home. In a Parker novel, one of these might be the only plot, so I found the book rich and engaging with much to keep the story moving forward.

Having said that, there were some significant alterations that might bother some more than it did for me, though it was nice to finally get away from some of these..(Minor Spoilers this paragraph)....Jesse no longer has a dog, but a cat adopts him, which seems very un Jesse-like. In addition his wife, Jenn, is hardly mentioned, and makes zero appearance in this book...not even a phone call, so that hang up seems to be over, which while out of character for these books does serve as a relief to those of us readers who were tiring of that never ending loop. Finally, Jesse's drinking is no longer a problem. He has a scotch or beer occassionally in the book, but there is no wrestling over how many, etc. - they just seemed to take the "issue" away so he no longer has a problem (though the problem did exhist because his past treatment of a criminal is part of this book's plot).

I was surprised by the end at how much I enjoyed this book. If you are fan of the series and can get through some of the alterations you may end up liking it too. Unlike other reviews on this page, though, you might want to read it first, before putting forth your final judgement!

Okay, I pre-ordered this. My curiosity about who the family would pick to continue Parker's writings were just too much for me. Once I got my Kindle notification that it was now available for download, I eagerly did so.

Well, if I were to be kind I would just say I'm "underwhelmed". But, in all honesty, the author needs to try a little harder, whether you compare it to Parker or even as a "stand alone".

The writing is clumsy at times and where RBP could have said it in a page, this writer sometimes stumbles all over himself trying to say something. Remember that sparkling RBP dialogue? Gone...dead with Robert. Where RBP avoided..or minimized the "she said", "he said" business, this guy can't write dialogue without it.

Hopefully, the guy that ends up writing the follow-on Spenser novels is better at minimalism. This book will see well because alot of RBP followers will buy it just to see how the new book is written. They'll be a little disappointed.

This should have some kind of warning on the cover for Robert B. Parker fans: "This is NOT your guy." I tried to like this but it just ground the gears too often. Ham-handed exposition that read more like stage directions...for the love of RBP, let the characters tell us what's going on, what's gone on and why they are doing what they are doing. After stylistic differences, we have the none-too-small matter of fidelity to the Stone character. This version is way too far away from social norms (even for Jesse Stone). A lot of shooting and violence. Not exactly cerebral. The Chief of the Paradise Police Department comes off as the vigilante in charge...and his officers are paper-thin. Molly is a victim of the body-snatchers. Suit has apparently lost his marbles and his moral compass completely. The bad guys are comic book characters and a fair number of nitwits (car thief, school principal, school bully) go through some sort of magical redemption in unbelievably short order....kind of like a television episode. This guy couldn't sharpen Parker's pencils.

This is NOT a Robert B. Parker novel. It follows in the sordid footsteps of Bourne books by Lustbader with Ludlum's name bigger than the title or the real author. Just a shameful ploy to sell books.

Let's give the big man a rest and cherish what he gave us in life rather than turning him into a brand.

Jesse Stone was a Robert Parker character because he spoke sparingly, didn't tell everyone everything he knew, and SHOWED us his character through his actions. A complex character, to be sure, but you always wanted to know how things were going to turn out--in the plot and for Jesse. This book is the opposite of that style. The author doesn't show you what's happening. Instead, he tells you with a million little contrived backstories, inartfully inserted so as to break the narrative drive. Also, it's a swamp of pop-psychology adjectives and behavior and pretty much every character in it is made out of low-grade cardboard. And the sexual attraction between characters was apparently ordered from the Acme Company.

Don't encourage this type of thing. Don't buy this book. Tell your Parker-loving friends not to buy this book. If you must, leaf through it when it appears (in hardcover or paperback) in the remainder pile at some bricks-and-mortar bookstore. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Don't waste your time on this thing. Go back and re-read the real Robert B. Parker. In this continuation of the series, Jesse Stone steps way outside the law and the general level of brutality is kicked up a few notches. Of course, the tough(er) guy finds time to steer a few screwed up teenagers on the path to redemption, straighten out a school principal, and adopt a cat--recognize the themes?--to show his soft side. Michael Brandman has pasted together a sad pastiche of of Spenser, Stone, and Mike Hammer to create something that looks a lot like a cribbed term paper. Don't be fooled by the dust jacket. Parker didn't write this and the publishers should be ashamed of themselves. A villain who breaks the necks of dogs? A police chief who sneaks up on car thieves and cracks them on the skull? Teenage screw-ups who get straightened out by a few--very few--wise words from a stranger? Brandman should stay in television.

If you're a Robert Parker fan, you'll be very disappointed in this book. This Jesse Stone bends the law in ways that Parker's never would. He comes across as the town moral police. There's no wit. The characters are flat. There's no suspense. Don't waste your money.

Now we know why we read Parker. Carefully drawn plots, characters that resonate, and a writing style that was unduplicated. Not able to compete, the Parker estate designated hit man has created a comic book character --the mystery is gone, Instead, Jessie is a cop on steroids, and murder, mayhem and sex follow him through Paradise. Not content with one plot and perhaps a traditional who-done it--we are treated to a deranged ex-con who Jessie brain-damaged in a previous life out to get him, junior high school bullies and a redemptive principal who doesn't get it until Jessie educates her, a sex starved teacher with a perp walk though the school auditorium, a gangland chop shop with attendant murders operating in the Paradise woods; Jessie holding a perp as a hostage and then more good guy redemption, finding him a job with the local car dealer--and Jessie manfully slogs his way through this, guns blazing, fists, flying, and his sex drive on full throttle. And oh yes, some long moral lectures thrown in for balance.

Robert Parker could have taken any one of these themes and made it into a plot with a believable character. This reads like a summary of next season's Jessie Stone t.v. series.
The guy can write dialogue. He's been doing it for the Stone t.v. series and occasionally, the Jessie that Parker created sounds plausible, but his narrative writing style is appalling. It probably works for script summaries but it dies on the page.

Robert Parker is gone. The new Jessie STone will thunder along fighting the forces of evil that darken Gotham, opps, Paradise, and the novels will be reclassified as thrillers. The publishers will be happy, a whole new legion of readers who never read Parker will find the pumped up sometimes rogue police chief of Paradise, a fast unintelligent read and those of us who miss Parker will switch to Reginald Hill.