I have a feeling that I've read this one before. But I absolutely love all Robert Parker's books. Especially the Spencer & Jesse Stone novels. This one, as usual, has the small town policeman's view, always w/ a twist. He's been on a large city force, and has a different view from the others on his staff. He's quirky, inciteful, and I love the prose. Altogether, a lovely read!

It's the same formula that Parker uses with his Jesse Stone novels all the time and it is just plain fun. There is a murder. This time it is an under aged prostitute. Jesse has not gotten over Jenn and he never will, but he keeps the flame alive while enjoying the wiles of two other lovely ladies. Oh yes. He always gets the bad guy in the end and cares less about how he does it. Wise cracks and "devil may care sarcasm" abound. Gotta read some more Parker. He never fails to satisfy.

Not a bad crime novel. There is very little mystery to any of it. You know who the criminals are, what they are going to do and how. The only mystery is what Jesse can do about it. Parker further deveops Jesse as a character. You get a little puzzled by the whole ex wife thing. Why doesn't he just forget about her? I am left wondering.

But a readable book.

Robert B. Parker, best known for his Spenser series, delivers one of his finest, most absorbing works yet. This third entry in the Jesse Stone series finds Stone--a former LAPD cop fired for drinking on the job--serving as chief of police in the town of Paradise, Massachusetts, and investigating the murder of a teenaged girl whose decomposed body turns up in the local lake. As he follows slender threads of evidence into an ugly world of exploited teens, several subplots crisscross, keeping things lively.
But Jesse's struggle with alcohol and his loving, troubled relationship with his ex-wife are at least as compelling as the external plot events. Parker gives his characters an inner life, he paints an understated, believable picture of a tough guy wrestling with tough issues. This smooth-reading book goes down easy but packs a punch in the end. --

I love Robert Parker's Jesse Stone! And again in "Murder in Paradise" he has written another Winner Plus! So great you want to read it again as soon as you get to the end. And I adore all of the Jesse Stone TV Movies. And they adapted this book for TV too and it is even(believe this or not) Better then the book! You will not be disappointed in any way. Buy it today and enjoy!