Since 1997 Robert B. Parker, the author of the wildly popular “Spenser” suspense novels, has developed another character that has stood the test of time and become a person to pay attention to. Starting with “Night Passage” in 1997, Jesse Stone became Chief of the Paradise, Massachusetts Police, leaving California with its problems born of drinking. Jesse is an alcoholic whose main problems center on Jenn, his ex-wife that he obsessives over. He was fired from the Minor League profession of baseball shortstop when his shoulder is permanently damaged, leaving Jesse without a rudder to steer by, until he joined the L.A. Police department and ascended to the Robbery and Homicide division. He was good at being a cop. Then his drinking destroyed his future again, with no place in the world of policing as he knew it.
But, he was hired by the town of Paradise, Massachusetts because the city council believed he could be controlled because he was a drunk. They were wrong. “You can fire me, but you can't control me,” he told the elders when one of them tried to pull off a major crime that Jesse discovered in time to thwart.
But the drinking continues at night when he goes home. And then Jesse's creator, Robert Parker died….
In eight books Robert B. Parker developed Jesse Stone to a point where somebody could pick up the story of Jesse, with him still drinking but only off the job and while obsessing over Jenn. But there are other people in Jesse's life, too. His trusting staff of police officers; Healy, the state's chief of Homicide, and women. Lots of women.
In fact, women throw themselves at Jesse. In every book he's got a woman or two who fills in for Jenn. And he could be an Olympic medalist at sex. Really, he sees women as sexual creatures only, rating them as to their attractiveness, no matter as to their age. Attraction, and affection however, he keeps to his code; the women must know he is still in what he calls love with Jenn.
There are a total sixteen of Jesse Stone novels, and one more coming soon. They were mostly penned by Reed Farrel Coleman, who has the Parker family blessing. Under his pen, and some few others who have taken a shot at it, Jesse has grown, both more aware of how his drinking is a destructive force to his happiness, and how Jenn clinging to a past with Jesse is just as destructive and hard to beat.
It took two months to read all of the Jesse Stone novels so I could talk about the second messages in each book. Gangs, child prostitution, drugs, and contracted killings are a few of the issues that Reed Farrel Coleman has introduced into Jesse's life, and with each confrontation he continues to grow more as a person.
As Dix, Jesse's psychiatrist, states quite plainly when he talks of Jesse's condition, “Mess is not very useful in my line of work”, Dix said. “But it is not unusual for someone in your circumstances to take on all the blame for those circumstances, not out of guilt, but because it gives them the power to change it.”
Jesse is a classic hero who has a place to work toward, but with many obstacles in his way. Self imposed or externally provoked, he sticks to his hard won code of conduct and rights what is wrong. His way is not the easy way, be it with women, or the law. His future is an uneasy dance between obsession and control. I'm convinced that happiness is part of his cure.
Jesse is a good man driven by the law to be a better man. The people who appear in his life are believable. Take some time to discover his life in Paradise.
There are sixteen Stone books, and each of them could be a stand alone novel, a place to begin. A new novel is due to be published: “Fool's Paradise” (Penguin Publishing Group ISBN-13-:978-1-4328-6858-1) from 2020 is the last one. Jesse Stone novels:
“Night Passage,” 1997
“Trouble in Paradise,” 1998
“Death in Paradise,” 2001
“Sea Change,” 2005
“High Profile,” 2007
“Stranger in Paradise,” 2008
“Night and Day,” 2009
“Split Image,” 2010
“Killing the Blues,” 2011
“Fool Me Twice,” 2012
“Damned if You Do,” 2013
“Blind Spot,” 2014
“The Devil Wins,” 2015
“Debt to Pay,” 2016
“The Hangman's Sonnet,” 2018
“Color Blind,” 2018
“The Bitterest Pill,” 2019
“Fool's Paradise” 2020
“Stone's Throw,” 2021
