Customer Reviews

Stranger in Paradise (Jesse Stone Novels)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This is definitely one of the oddest Jesse Stone novels that Robert Parker has written. In Stranger In Paradise, Stone is confronted by William "Crow" Cromartie who has come to town to bring the daughter of Miami gangster back to her father. The catch is, Crow has been instructed to kill the girl's mother and he doesn't kill women. Instead he solicits Stone to stay out of his way while he protects the girl and takes care of the other bad guys. Catch number two is, last time Crow was seen in Paradise he was speeding off with 10 million dollars leaving behind a string of bodies. Needless to say Jesse gets caught up in the matter and he and Crow become uneasy allies. Jen, Jesse's ex-wife is very much in this novel, are Molly Crane and Suitcase Simpson. And they all act oddly.

This novel was certainly entertaining and the situation rather messy. It wasn't one of my favorites though.

I am a gigantic fan of Robert B. Parker. I've read all of the Spenser books, the Stone books and the Randall books. And I'm slowly "re-reading" the Spenser books as audiobooks.

It is not lightly that I give this book two stars.

The Stone novels were always different than the Spenser / Sunny Randall novels. Spenser and Sunny always have that buddy network to fall back on (especially Hawk and Spike, respectively) Jesse has always been alone, except for his on-again off-again ex-wife, who actually makes his sense of being alone even stronger.

That whole formula is thrown out. Instead, we have a combination of a re-make of Spenser's April Kyle and Paul Giacomin stories told under Jesse Stone this time around. This time around we now have Amber.

Rather than Spenser's Hawk (a mysterious, unstoppable African-American who operates on the wrong side of the law that the ladies find irresistible and shares witty racial banter with Spenser) we now have Stone's Crow (a mysterious, unstoppable Native American who operates on the wrong side of the law that the ladies find irresistible and shares witty racial banter with Stone). Hawk. Crow. C'mon!

Parker often recycles previous plots (how can he not - he's written so many books!) but this was just too much for me. The story is easy to read, interesting and enjoyable, but it has too many recycled features for my taste.

I've been a fan of Robert B. Parker's novels since 1978, which might be part of the problem with his latest offering STRANGER IN PARADISE. I love the author's writing style, his usual commentary on society and the individual, and his one-liners. All of those are present in the latest book, but in some ways too many of the same plots are revisited in this one.

This is the seventh Jesse Stone novel. Stone is a former Los Angeles policeman turned drunk turned small town Paradise, Massachusetts police chief. He's also struggling through working out a relationship with his ex-wife Jennifer, which has been one of the on-going subplots of the series. That particular subplot has gotten a little irritating at times because it doesn't seem to be going anywhere but constantly looms over every book.

The book had a lot of potential. Wilson Cromartie, a villain from an earlier book, puts in an appearance to tell Jesse he's going to be around town for a while. Ten years ago, Crow - the name he's called throughout the book - was part of an armed robbery gang. At the end of that, Crow chose not to harm the women hostages the gang had but managed to escape with ten million dollars.

This time around, Crow is in town working on a case, looking for the daughter of a big-time Mafia guy in Florida. I really enjoyed the way Crow and Jesse got a feel for each other and acknowledged how dangerous the other could be. When it comes to pared-down prose and tough guys, nobody delivers the goods the way Parker does.

As it turns out, Amber Francisco is a fourteen-year old mess being raised by her white trash mother. I didn't quite see how the mother went from living the high lifestyle in Florida to living a life barely getting by in Paradise, but I went with it. In addition to living the poor lifestyle, Amber has also hooked up with a young, violent Latino gang in the area.

Parker plays fast and loose with the plotting. Several things are going on throughout the novel. The past encounter with Crow threads throughout, but I'm not quite sure I'm willing to buy everything Parker promotes this time. One of the things that most jarred me was the attraction to Crow by one of the former hostages from that armed robbery ten years ago. Parker sets Crow up to be this sexual fantasy figure for that woman and they have a "one-time deal" encounter.

Not only that, but Crow's sexual magnetism wins over the one character in this series that I thought would never stray outside her marriage. Parker has explored the nature of sex and attraction throughout this series, and I've gone along with it. But, to me, this encounter really cheapened what I thought was a fantastically solid character. This decision really bothered me, which is a good thing on one level because it shows how realistically the author has created his characters.

But the sexual theme seems to hit a high note in STRANGER IN PARADISE. Especially the topic of cheating and how people didn't have to feel guilty about it. That jarred. Usually Parker ties his explorations of the subject to the plot, but this time I don't think that existing criteria was met.

Furthermore, when Crow makes the decision to save Amber and free her from her father rather than kidnap her and take her back home as he's been hired to do, the book started resonating themes from earlier Parker books. In EARLY AUTUMN, Parker's iconic private eye hero Spenser chooses to rescue a young boy from parents that only use him as a pawn in their on-going battle. In CEREMONY, Spenser rescues young April Kyle from parents that don't care about her by moving her from street hooker to high class call girl. The story with Amber smacks of both those books but doesn't dig into the plot as deeply as either of those did.

Truthfully, Crow echoed Parker's earlier creation of Spenser's friend, Hawk. Both of those characters have the same animal magnetism, skewed senses of honor, and no remorse over killing people or doing what they want to do in spite of the law.

STRANGER IN PARADISE is a fun romp. I sat down and read it straight through. I always save Parker books till a day on the weekend so I can read them without interruption. In that respect, the book was fantastic as always. I love the repartee and the familiar characters. But with all the build-up regarding Amber Francisco, I don't know whether to expect her return in future novels in the Jesse Stone series, or never hear from her again. And I don't honestly know which I'd prefer.

Parker is my favorite author, though, and I look forward to subsequent books in this series as well as others. He's still delivering straight-forward tales of crime, detective, and tough guys. It's a combination I just can't stay away from.

Parker sometimes makes his characters [mere] hooks on which to hang recurring stances or approaches to life...e.g. tough guy, few words, Freudian insights, as he does here. Further & worst, he fails to characterize Crow enough to distinguish him from Hawk, long-standing black colleague of Spenser.

This book still has the witty repartee of Stone with his subordinates and Stone with almost everybody else. He is still having problems with Jen. He is still trying to resolve his drinking issues. He is still going to his shrink. He comes into partnership with Hawk, sorry I mean Crow. The whole thing was really strange. Crow and Stone try to help a 14-year old girl who doesn't want to be help. Crow kills bad guys without hestitation. I guess we are supposed to think that is ok. Crow loves to help women and loves to go to battle. Crow sets up gun fights, but when the gun fight occurs he is strangely absent. He has no hestitation to kill people from long range. He sleeps with any woman he wants to because he is "powerful." Give me a break.

The minor characters are lame too. The father of the girl is a crime boss. He wants the girl back but the mother dead. Parker really never explains why. Then the crime boss gives up on the girl at the end. Stone says it because they have legal stuff on him this time, but they never really explain what crimes he committed. He didn't even bring a gun to the fight.

In summary, the plot is weak and the characters are weak. The witty repartee is still good. He seems to be headed toward buddy novels, but I like Jesse working alone with some help from the state police. It just seems more logical to me. Fortunately, the book is fast read and I only wasted a few hours on it.

Parker, a wonderful writer, really hits the skids with this one.

Jesse Stone is an interesting character, & his situation as police chief of a small town after alcoholically derailing his career in Los Angeles could be the background to a wonderful series.

Unfortunately, any action takes second place to Jesse's puzzling fixation on his awful ex-wife. She's not very smart, she's shallow, manipulative & promiscuous. However she's beautiful, & the strength of Jesse's character is immediately undermined because he can't see past this. Parker is somewhat fixated on obsessive love, it appears through most of his books. No explanation is given to make us understand what Jesse sees in Jen, unlike for example in the Spenser books. Very boring interaction between them takes up too much of the book.

The plot in this book was good, had it been expanded. I wanted to know a lot more of what was happening to the characters.

Perhaps Parker is trying to pare his writing down to echo Jesse's silent stillness, but Jenn's noisy presence detracts from the effect.

This series would be much improved if Jenn became the corpse in the next book.

Parker let me down this time...repeats everything. on & on& On.....Needs to think up new plots or do away with Jesse.

I have real doubts about Parker's ability to write anything but short sentences, but that is nothing compared to the generally minimal plots, constant immorality, and ridiculous scenes with a nitwit psychiatrist. "Jenn and Jesse" could be boyfriend and girlfriend in a teen novel. The plot for this particular book makes little sense and doesn't draw in the reader at all. Molly's infidelity with Crow is sickening. The constant theme of screwing around is extremely annoying and belittles these characters and whatever humanity and principles they possess. Jesse is easy to like as a policeman, but that is where it ends. I do find an occasional cleverness in the dialogue, and I find Jesse's battle with alcohol an interesting aspect of his character.

I have been reading a lot of mystery series over the last 2 years because an illness has kept me mostly housebound, and I can tell you this series is pretty much at the bottom of the list. I have only read it because I needed distraction from my illness, and so I read almost anything. Otherwise, I would not waste a moment on it.

I was super excited to read this book but ended up dissapointed. I couldn't get passed the "Jesse said and Crow said and Molly said after EVERY sentence. Incredibly redundant, which makes it difficult to follow.

Are you familiar with the copious works of Robert B. Parker? If so, you have already read this novel, perhaps more than once, with slightly different characters uttering precisely the same terse, snappy dialog and with a nearly identical plot.

Spenser is now Jesse Stone, formerly a minor league baseball player rather than a second string boxer, who loves Scotch whiskey the way Spenser loved donuts, and who is now a small town police chief instead of a private eye. But he thinks, acts, and talks just like the same old Spenser we have known so well for so very long.

Hawk is no longer a black man. He is now an Apache Indian (named Crow as a not-too-subtle hint) who thinks, acts and talks just like the same familiar Hawk. Susan's transformation is a bit more complex, as Parker has split her persona into two characters: the insightful Dr Dix, a male shrink, and the glamorous TV journalist, Jenn. They never meet, of course, but together they offer up the same impeccable foil for Jesse Stone as Susan did for Spenser.

Drop these familiar characters into the venerable Spenser plot machine, hire a contract editor to turn the crank, and out pops Stranger in Paradise. All 72 brief chapters in less than 300 pages, double spaced, much of it blank white paper, and thus custom tailored for network television. Were it published in the NY Times Sunday Magazine, this entire book would run to about thirty pages. With ads. If you pack it along on a flight from Boston to LA, therefore, be warned that it will only sustain you until somewhere over Cleveland. Toss in Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (pseud) and then, while crossing the Great Plains and Rockies, relish the contrast.

Why, then, do I give it two stars? Because this book is a masterpiece of fluff, so utterly perfect in form that you would not want to change a single word, and it kept me reading right through to the end. Yes, the plot is somewhat less believable than X-men. Sure, the characters are thin vertical lines when viewed from the side. Truly the spare, laconic style could never be mistaken for anyone except Robert B. Parker. That the whole exceeds the paltry sum of these parts is why they call him The Master.