Even if you weren’t [...]]]> The world lost a great author yesterday when Robert B. Parker died at his home in Massachusetts.  Dr. Parker was the author of over 50 novels.  He was 77 years old and is survived by his wife and two sons.  Ever the working man, Dr. Parker died sitting at his desk.

Even if you weren’t a fan of Parker’s work you may very well know one of his characters – Spenser of Spenser For Hire fame brought to life by Robert Urich.  Spenser was subsequently played by Joe Mantegna in several made for TV movies.  Spenser is a wise cracking private detective in the Boston area.

In addition to Spenser, Dr. Parker created recurring characters Jesse Stone (now portrayed in TV movies by Tom Selleck) and Sunny Randall.  Stone is a small town police chief and Randall is a female private detective also in the Boston area.  While Spenser, Jesse and Sunny don’t directly interact, several of the secondary characters are present in all three series.

Robert B. Parker was my favorite author and I’m certainly saddened by his death.  In addition to incredible storytelling, Parker’s control of the English language is second to none.  The dialog in his novels kept me coming back and re-reading his novels multiple times.  From a selfish perspective I hope he had a couple of novels completed before his death.

Rest in peace Dr. Parker – you will be missed.  Thank you for everything.

This is the 5th Jesse Stone novel and was published in 2006.  There was a made for TV version of this story starring Tom Selleck that aired on May 22, 2007.  Selleck was given an Emmy nomination (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie) for his performance.

PLOT SUMMARY:

In [...]]]> BOOK DETAILS/INFORMATION:

This is the 5th Jesse Stone novel and was published in 2006.  There was a made for TV version of this story starring Tom Selleck that aired on May 22, 2007.  Selleck was given an Emmy nomination (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie) for his performance.

PLOT SUMMARY:

In Paradise, Massachusetts, the body of serial divorcee Florence Horvarth washes up on the local shore. As Stone investigates her death, he uncovers a shady world of sexual degeneracy involving incest, pedophilia, statutory rape and voyeurism. Stone also finds himself perturbed by the perceived complacency of Florence’s parents, Willis and Betsy Plum, and irritated by the idiocy of her twenty year old twin sisters, Corliss and Claudia. Meanwhile, he worries about what impact the case could be having on his tenuous relationship with ex-wife Jenn, a local weather girl.

COMMENTARY:

I normally try to keep up with Parker’s books as they come out but I somehow managed to miss this one.  I got it for Christmas this year and once I started this one couldn’t put it down.  GREAT story and I love the dialog that Parker continues to give us.  I’m not a huge fan of Jesse & Jenn back together again as I prefer Jesse on his own, but I have to say that it really doesn’t take away from the story.

The father in this story is a complete monster.  How you could do that to his own little girls is beyond me.  The fact that the mother just sat back and allowed it to happen is incredible to me as well.  With the exception of a couple of Spenser novels that deal with prostitution this is the first time I can remember that Parker delves so deeply into the “sex” side of things.

Something that I really enjoy is when Parker crosses his three main characters.  I don’t recall a reference to Sunny in this book but he makes several references to a PI in the Boston area who wouldn’t take the case cause it didn’t suit him.  Sounds like a certain gumshoe that we know rather well