Paradise, Massachusetts, police chiefesse Stone is an addictive personality. Booze cost him his job as a homicide detective with the LAPD, and after that blew up, he traveled across the country to be near his ex-wife, television journalistenn. He refuses to believe it's over between them, and she doesn't help with her come-hither, leave-me-alone mood swings. But the qualities making his personal life hell also make him a good cop. You don't wantesse to get you in his sights if you're a criminal. The baddies in this case are a couple who target their victims based on looks, stalk them, and kill them with two simultaneous shots from identical .22 caliber pistols. While hunting the psychos,esse is also after three middle-class juvenile predators who raped a classmate. Stone is much like Parker's Spenser, but with self-doubt overriding self-confidence. That formula worked fine in the first two Stone novels, but this one is less successful. Too much dime-store psychology between Stone and his Zen therapist; too much love-for-the-ages blather between Stone and his ex; and too much squad-room violence between Stone and his prisoners. Stone is a worthy character, but this is not the novel to make the case. But that doesn't mean Parker's fans won't want the chance to decide for themselves. --Wes Lukowsky Copyright 2003 Booklist

After waiting in Spenser's long shadow for three cases, alcoholic small-town police chief Jesse Stone (Death in Paradise, 2001, etc.) comes into his own big-time when he goes up against a husband-and-wife pair of serial killers. The genteel culprits, who use murder as foreplay, are neither mystifying nor entirely credible. What's compelling is Jesse's patience and pain as he works from one corpse to the next in little Paradise, Mass. What can he learn from the fact that each victim's been shot twice by two different .22's or from descriptions of a red Saab that was spotted at two crime scenes? And once he's satisfied himself as to the smiling perps' identities, what can he do to bring them down? These would be tough questions even if Jesse weren't already laboring under the weight of another case in which answers come faster than justice--the rape of Candace Pennington by three of her high-school classmates who threaten her with worse if she talks to anybody, and who's saddled with a mother no daughter would talk to anyway--and the eternal wait for Jenn, his newscaster ex, to fall back into his arms in between the embraces he exchanges with a local realtor, a future murder victim, and one of the rapist's attorneys. Jesse preens less than the better-known Spenser and earns his male posturing more completely through his appealing vulnerability. Good-bye, Mr. Second String: A star is born. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Jesse Stone, police chief in Paradise, MA, has to cope with teenage rapists, serial killers, alcohol, and stunted emotional relationships. The title refers to all these things: the coldness of the legal system that grants guilty, young gang rapists freedom while the teenage victim continues to suffer; the coldness of serial killers who kill for pleasure; the strength of Jesse, who quits drinking-stone cold; finally, the coldness of his ex-wife, who selfishly keeps Jesse on a string while she continues to enjoy life with other men. Robert Forster reads both productions, which seem to differ only in packaging; his slow, relaxed delivery works well with Parker's plainly constructed sentences and Jesse's reticence. Jesse's mind moves quickly, but his speech is direct and to the point; his few words may reflect the essence of his inner controversy or they may be the result of an unaffected mind-the listener must decide. Forster understands this and with his voice manages to convey both Jesse's complexity and simplicity. This most enjoyable listening experience is recommended for popular collections.-Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

It's taken four novels, but finally Parker's Jesse Stone series has produced a book as good as top-drawer Spenser. This outing finds the laconic, troubled cop tackling three problems: to capture the pair of serial killers who are murdering random victims in small-town Paradise, Mass., where Stone is chief of police; to bring to justice the three high-school students who gang-raped a younger schoolmate; and to come to terms with his love of both alcohol and his ex-wife, Jenn. The serial killers, revealed early to the reader and soon enough to Stone, are a married yuppie pair who taunt Stone, whom they take as a dumb hick cop, as he collects evidence to bring them down; his pursuit of them leads them to kill someone close to him, then to target Stone himself, and eventually to an emotionally cathartic climax in Toronto, where the killers have fled. That story line serves as a fine little police procedural, but Parker is at his max here when following the rape plot, especially in scenes in which Stone, in his cool, compassionate way, tries to help the besieged victim as best he can. Meanwhile, under intense media attention and pressure from town elders for the ongoing serial killings, Stone works his way toward an understanding of the roles that booze and Jenn play in his life. Told in third-person prose that's a model of economy, with sharp action sequences, deep yet unobtrusive character exploration and none of the cuteness that can mar the Spenser novels, this is prime Parker, testament to why he was named a Grand Master at the 2002 Edgar Awards. (On sale Sept. 29) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved