Stranger in Paradise

I was thrilled when I found this book on the “New Books” shelf of my branch library. I couldn’t wait to get home and dive into the latest adventure of Jesse Stone, alcoholic chief of police in the ill-named Paradise, Massachusetts. But to my dismay, the book was awful. I’m a proud long-time fan of Parker’s, and I’m used to his recycling his Spenser series’ plots in his newer Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone books. Since he always adds a slightly new perspective when he does this, it’s never bothered me. I truly love his exploration of Spenser’s feminine alter ego, Sunny, for the female perspective on what is traditionally a masculine job. (Unlike Kinsey Milhone, in Sue Grafton’s great alphabet series, Sunny is show more unabashedly feminine – concerned about her hair, her make-up, and even her shoes!) But in Stranger in Paradise, for the first time, Parker’s work seems tired and out-of-touch.
Parker recycled the plot device of an earlier Spenser series work (Early Autumn) in one of his Sunny Randall thrillers (Melancholy Baby) – a badly parented adolescent who needs both rescuing and nurturing. In both of those books the device worked well. He trots out that device for a third time in this Jesse Stone novel, and third time is definitely not the charm in this attempt. The book’s characters, even the well-established ones like Jesse, and Jennifer (his somewhat ex-wife) and Molly Crane (great cop, great mother, devoted wife and Stone’s right-hand woman), seem cursorily presented, and the engaging and thoughtful dialogue that usually is characteristic of Parker’s work is totally absent. No one who’s gotten to know and love Parker’s characters as I have can be less than shocked at what he has two of them do in this book – with little explanation and little follow-up. I’m extrapolating here, but long-time fans of Parker’s know that his own marriage hit a rocky patch a while back, and I can’t but suspect that he’s excusing his own behavior here through the action of one of his characters. But it just doesn’t work, most especially since that action (adultery) is so out of character for that particular literary creation.
All in all, this book was an enormous disappointment. show less

Stranger in Paradise purports to be “a Jesse Stone novel.” Maybe. After all, Paradise, Massachusetts Police Chief Jesse Stone is the principal narrator. But the real focus of the book is on Wilson Cromartie, a.k.a. “Crow,” an independent hit-man for hire who claims to be an Apache warrior.

Jesse had a run in with Crow ten years earlier when some gangsters took over the nearby wealthy enclave, Stiles Island, bound and gagged several of the wealthy wives, extorted $10,000,000 from the local residents, and killed two policemen in the rescue operation. Crow was the only gangster who escaped, and he did so with the $10 million. The book opens with Crow showing up in Jesse’s office and informing him that the statute of limitations on show more robbery has run, that Jesse has no proof that Crow was involved in any murder, and that he (Crow) “has some business in Paradise,” and wants to avoid trouble with Jesse.

We later learn that Crow has been hired by a notorious Miami based gangster to find his daughter, who ran away with her mother. When Crow’s assignment is expanded to include killing the mother, he balks since he has an aversion to killing women as beneath the dignity of an Apache warrior. In fact, Crow rather likes women and is remarkably successful sexually with them. He even seduces Jesse’s otherwise faithful-to-her-husband secretary, Molly.

Parker would like us to know what motivates his mysterious creation, and so he has Jesse discuss Crow with Dix, Jesse’s psychoanalyst. But neither they, nor Molly, nor the one other woman Crow seduces are able to fathom the stranger’s psyche.

In the end, Jesse’s and Crow’s interests coincide as they cooperate in rounding up not only the local Latin gang, but also several members of the Miami mob. As usual with Parker, this is a fast-paced tale suitable for reading on airplanes or at home in one day.

(JAB) show less

At the conclusion of [Trouble in Paradise], Wilson “Crow” Cromartie, an Apache hit man was speeding off in a boat with roughly $2 million in cash and jewels he helped to steal from the wealthy residents of Paradise, Massachusetts. Now, some ten years later, well outside the statute of limitations for his previous crime, Crow has returned to Paradise on another job, find a Florida drug dealer’s daughter. The girl was taken by her mother and the two have been living under assumed names. But the girl wants to stay in Paradise with her boyfriend, the leader of a Hispanic gang. Jesse is caught in the middle of Crow’s efforts to keep the girl safe from her mother, her boyfriend, and her father.

The lure of Parker’s mystery series show more continues to be the main character – Jesse Stone, the self-contained, if a little tightly-wound, chief of police with a weakness for booze and women. Stone is cast from the same mold as Spillane’s Mike Hammer or Dashiell Hammet’s Sam Spade; rugged, even mean when necessary, and self-loathing while noble and loyal to fault. His overactive sense of responsibility is evidence of the obsession that often bubbles to the surface.

Parker’s consistent weakness with this series is overblown and unrealistic plots, especially for a small Massachusetts town. The story starts out simply enough with a parental kidnapping and townspeople unhappy that a minority element is creeping across the town limit. By the end, there is a gun battle between a drug kingpin’s hit squad and a local gang.

Another weakness is Parker’s own obsession with sex. The sex in Parker’s books is rarely graphic but it seems that every character has difficulty keeping their pants on. In this installment, one of the consistently good and wholesome characters finally surrenders to a meaningless one-night stand – and with a hitman whom she was trying to build evidence against just days before. Jesse’s unhealthy relationship with his ex-wife and his liaisons with every female that crosses his path has a certain logic in its pathology. But Parker seems bent on making Paradise more like Peyton Place.

Bottom Line: Worth the read for the main character, even if the plotlines and the amount of sex borders on the preposterous.

3 ½ bones show less

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.

I enjoyed this book as well as the other ones about Jesse Stone, Actually show more it is the only Robert Parker character that I like. I'm glad that someone is going to continue to write this series as they want to make more TV movies from the stories and they have used all the Jesse Stone stories Parker wrote befor he died. This book, like all the Stone books,draws you into the story. I would recommend this book to all that want a good, well written mystery. show less

BEWARE! SPOILERS AHEAD!

It's a good story. Wilson Cromartie, aka Crow--last seen escaping from the Trouble in Paradise--comes back to town. He's agreed to retrieve a Florida gangster's daughter (Amber Francisco or Alice Franklin, depending on context), then decides not to do so because it would obviously be the wrong thing. Complications ensue.

Another story line involves the town's reaction to a local charity setting up a school for disadvantaged children in a Paradise mansion. Officer Molly, taking notes at a meeting, characterizes this as "No spicks on Paradise Neck." The neighbors start complaining about graffiti on walls in the town and someone starts rumors about a gang war.

Meantime, the Crow storyline actually becomes a (very show more limited) mob war as the Florida gangster brings in professionals to fight the local gang headed by his daughter's boyfriend. This event occurs on the causeway to Stiles Island, very near the school/mansion. The main consequence is the death of the boyfriend.

We learn that the leader of the protests has a personal/financial stake in the mansion that's become a school, something I'd have thought every longtime Paradise resident would have recognized. Someone should have clued Chief Stone.

Jesse Stone and Crow make arrangements to save Amber from her difficult life.

And as the story winds down someone takes out the gangster in his Florida home.

As I said, a good story. But a two or three things bother me:
* Parker never ties the two story lines together, although the potential ties are obvious.
* Officer Molly, completely out of character, has a brief fling with Crow. And apparently has no remorse about it.
* Amber doesn't show up again in Parker's subsequent Jesse Stone novels. show less

I had a bowl of popcorn last night. It was ok, and went down quickly. But by next week I won't remember anything special about it; it will blend in memory with the other bowls of popcorn I've eaten (at the rate of about one per month). That's because the ingredients are always the same. So it goes with Robert B Parker's novels.

"Jesse Stone" (police chief protagonist of Stranger in Paradise) has come to feel a lot like "Spenser" in different geographical circumstances. Likewise, this book's tough-guy gunman "Crowe" is practically "Hawk" (Spenser's avian- labelled ethnic sidekick). Granted, Jesse's ex-wife "Jenn" differs from Spenser's girlfriend "Susan" by being both promiscuous and none-too-smart; but both gain decades of unqualified show more devotion from their respective protagonists without the troublesome bonds of marriage. Adding to this comforting predictability is that lives of the characters don't change much from one book to the next. Jesse was 34 in the first Jesse Stone novel (Night Passages), and more than ten years has passed since the third one (Trouble in Paradise, meaning he now must be about 50. Yet he still has a serious alcohol problem, still hangs onto his job as police chief while bucking the local establishment, and still bends the law in favor of his ideas of right and wrong. Further, after two decades or more he still has the hots for his ex-wife Jenn and sleeps with her when her bed isn't occupied by other men.

In Stranger in Paradise Jesse rescues a troubled adolescent girl. If the idea seems like Parker's Early Autumn and Melancholy Baby, well, it is, but the circumstances are different, and there's enough snappy dialogue and danger to keep the reader's interest, if you like that sort of thing. I found the climax a bit disappointing, as if Parker had run out of steam, and just needed to end the book. That too is part of the Parker formula. But in fairness, I realize it'd be too much if the elaborate plan Jesse Stone engineered (to get the two groups of bad guys shooting at each another) resulted in a slaughter. There's a lot of shooting, but hardly anyone gets hurt, and most everyone goes home safely. Then a windfall of cash and a subsequent off- screen homicide tie up the loose ends. Meanwhile, there's plenty more popcorn in the pantry for next time we're in the mood for harmless entertainment. show less

This latest addition to Parker's "Jesse Stone" series (concerning the police chief of fictional Paradise, MA) deploys elements that readers of the "Spenser" series will find familiar. There's a troubled teenager who needs not only rescuing but mentoring (and who could be Paul Giacomin or April Kyle), a taciturn gunman who lives by his own inflexible code (who could be Hawk or Vinnie Morris or Chollo), and a complex trap set for the bad guys (which could be the climax of any number of Spenser stories. It's hardly a stretch for Parker, but it's a welcome change of pace for the series . . . in part because it pushes the semi-functional relationship of Jesse and his ex-wife Jenn firmly into subplot status (where, by now, it belongs).

There show more are other welcome departures here, too. Molly Crane and Suitcase Simpson, two of Jesse's cops, get some welcome attention and character development. Jesse functions (plausibly) more as a police chief and less as a detective than he has in other installments. Above all, Parker takes almost indecent delight in a scene where Jesse and Molly meet with a citizen's group concerned about their property values.

Overall, a solid entry in the series, and well worth your attention if you're a Parker fan. show less