Review by Booklist Review
There's something unseemly and exploitative about this book's cover, which ha. Robert B. Parke. emblazoned at the top, in the largest letters, with the actual author, Michael Brandman, presented in small print at cover's bottom. It's an obvious attempt to fool fans into buying the book, hoping that Parker, who died last year, left one behind. Brandman, a Parker collaborator (on the Spenser and Jesse Stone TV series), may be a talented author in his own right (and this mystery reads at least as well as Parker's unusually terse Stone books), but he isn't Parker. What the novel does have going for it, however, is a mystery that builds to a very satisfying and shocking resolution. Stone, the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, is beset by a string of car thefts during tourist season. Then a car owner is murdered. The dialogue often consists of one-word paragraphs, a device that gets old really quickly. The Stone series, as written by Parker, was always a cut below the Spenser series. Brandman's effort, if read on its own merits, is strong on plotting but derivative on everything else.--Fletcher, Conni. Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Brandman's continuation of Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series, the Paradise, Mass., police chief must solve a murder case that begins with a series of car thefts and arson, while engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse with a vindictive thug from his past and beginning an affair with a local event planner. James Naughton-who read previous books in the series-provides polished narration. He lends Stone a rugged, understated voice with more than a touch of sarcasm. For Stone's associates-Suitcase Simpson, Molly Crane, and Hasty Hathaway-he uses a hint of a Massachusetts accent. And for the surprisingly agreeable crime boss, Gino Fish, Naughton uses a slightly nasal, tough-guy voice. A Putnam hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
This title is the tenth entry in Parker's Jesse Stone series. Brandman, Parker's longtime television collaborator, was chosen by the Parker estate to continue the series, with mixed results. Jesse, the police chief in small-town Paradise, MA, here stoically faces a crime wave, including car thefts, nighttime pet-nappings, and high school bullying, as the summer tourist season gets rolling. Jesse also embarks on a romance with a woman who might be on the wrong side of the law. Narrator James Naughton contributes a spare, no-nonsense voice, reminiscent of the TV series Stone, Tom Selleck. Despite Brandman's authorship, this title will be popular owing to Parker's continuing appeal. Recommended. [The Putnam hc, published in September, was a New York Times best seller.-Ed.]-Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Now that summer's here, the advent of the tourist season brings the same old crime-based problems to idyllic Paradise, Mass., but now at the hands of a different author.Has anything changed since the death last year of series creator Robert B. Parker? Not really. Police chief Jesse Stone still misses his girlfriend Sunny Randall (Split Image, 2010, etc.), off in Europe on a job. Dispatcher/receptionist Molly Crane still gives him a hard time over his requests for coffee and monosyllabic responses to her questions. When somebody starts stealing cars from the streets of Paradise, Jesse's take-charge reaction is still the same. He shows the same omni-sensitive side when 14-year-old Lisa Barry holds her school principal hostage at gunpoint to protest her bullying by the Lincoln Village girls, and the same reliable intuition when he hears that Rollo Nurse, whose skull he fractured while arresting him in L.A. years ago, is out of prison and may be looking for him. He's still catnip to women like Alexis Richardson, who got the job of organizing and publicizing summer events through her uncle, selectman Carter Hansen. He still wrestles with the bottle, shares confidences with his therapist and cleans up his town with his usual laconic aplomb. The only differences are his new rental place right on the bay; Mildred Memory, a cat who finds him equally irresistible; and the unconvincing voices that bid the worst of the bad guys to do the bad things he does.Film and TV producer Brandman, who collaborated on several of Jesse's TV adaptations, obviously believes that no news is good news. Series fans will probably agree.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
