Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... Amity Public Library | FIC MYS PARKER Jesse Stone Series #2 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Independence Public Library | MYSTERY - PARKER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Lyons Public Library | M PAR | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mount Angel Public Library | PARKER, R.B. Jesse Stone #02 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Sheridan Public Library | Parker, R. Jesse Stone #2 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | MYS PARKER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stayton Public Library | M PARKER | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodburn Public Library | PARKER | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Robert B. Parker and his legendary Spenser series have long been considered the ne plus ultra of detective fiction. But the critics' praise for Jesse Stone's debut in Night Passage proved there was room for an addition to the Parker literary canon. "A novel as fresh as it is bold?Parker's sentences flow with as much wit, grace, and assurance as ever, and Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist. His speedy return will be welcome" (Newsday).Stiles Island is a wealthy and exclusive enclave separated by a bridge from the Massachusetts coast town of Paradise. James Macklin sees Stiles Island as the ultimate investment opportunity: all he needs to do is invade the island, blow up the bridge, and loot the island. To realize his investment, Macklin, along with his devoted girlfriend, Faye, assembles a crew of fellow ex-cons --all experts in their fields--including Wilson Cromartie, a fearsome Apache. James Macklin is a bad man--a very bad man. And Wilson Cromartie, known as Crow, is even worse.As Macklin plans his crime, Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone has his hands full. He faces romantic entanglements in triplicate: his ex-wife, Jenn, is in the Paradise jail for assault; he's begun a new relationship with a Stiles Island realtor named Marcy Campbell; and he's still sorting out his feelings for attorney Abby Taylor. When Macklin's attack on Stiles Island is set in motion, both Marcy and Abby are put in jeopardy. As the casualties mount, it's up to Jesse to keep both women from harm.Filled with "light, shade, texture, and complexity" (The Boston Globe), Trouble in Paradise is the work of a master.
Author Notes
Robert Brown Parker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1932. He received a B.A. from Colby College in 1954, served in the U.S. Army in Korea, and then returned to receive a M. A. in English literature from Boston University in 1957. He received a Ph.D. in English literature from Boston University in 1971.
Before becoming a full-time writer in 1979, he taught at Lowell State College, Bridgewater State College and Northwestern University.
In 1971, Parker published The Godwuff Manuscript, as homage to Raymond Chandler. The character he created, Spencer, became his own detective and was featured in more than 30 novels. His Spencer character has been featured in six TV movies and the television series Spencer: For Hire that starred Robert Urich and ran from 1985 to 1988.
He is also the author of the Jesse Stone series, which has been made into a series of television movies for CBS, and the Sunny Randall series. His novel Appaloosa (2005) was made into a 2008 movie directed by and starring Ed Harris. He has received numerous awards for his work including an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1977 for The Promised Land, Grand Master Edgar Award for his collective oeuvre in 2002, and the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. He died of a heart attack on January 18, 2010 at the age of 77.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Tough and tight, Parker's second Jesse Stone crime novel (after last year's Night Passage) finds the chief of police of modest Paradise, Mass., battling a ruthless gang of thieves even as he jousts with personal demons. Two parallel plotlines tell the story. One follows career criminal James Macklin and his moll, Faye, and their planning and subsequent execution of the heist of all the money and valuables on super-rich Stiles Island, which is connected by bridge to Paradise. Meanwhile, there's Stone, a cool customer who's not afraid to step on wealthy toes but who can't get his love life in order and can barely control his taste for booze. The crime line is the stronger of the two, traced in prose as lean as any Parker has wrought, a grand little caper tale in its own right as Macklin collects a rogue's gallery of accomplices, isolates Stiles Island by dynamiting its bridge and harbor, then preys upon its inhabitants. Stone's romantic entanglements, particularly his troubled relationship with his ex-wife, add texture to the novel and are notably less sentimental than the amours of his Spenser stories. They manifest at times in a histrionic way, howeveras when the ex assaults a woman trying to get Stone firedthat retards the surge of the crime story. Stone remains a magnetic character, as silent as Spenser is chatty but equally strong, though likely too enigmatic at this juncture to engender the sort of reader affection that Spenser enjoys. Parker fans and all who love muscular crime writing will appreciate this tale, as the Boston-based crime master once again shows how to do it well, and with style. BOMC main selection. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Parker's 30th novel brings back Jesse Stone, alcoholic police chief of Paradise, Mass. (Night Passage, 1997), whose customary round-robin of sorrows (the mother of a pair of anti-gay arsonist teenaged boys who's determined to break him for harassing her poor kids) and joys (the sometime return to Jesse's bed of his actress-ex, Jenn, now reading the weather forecast on Channel 3, and the welcome presence of several other ladies with clingy pants and short skirts) is interrupted by plans for a big score. The plans are made by Jimmy Macklin, a con who's got his eye on Stiles Island, Paradise's wealthiest and most easily isolated enclave. Generously borrowing earlier capers everywhere from Hammett's ``The Gutting of Couffignal'' to Sanders's The Anderson Tapes, Macklin, who seems more excited to be planning the score than to be counting the take, methodically gathers his troops (a crooked sailor, a cracker electrician, an explosives expert, and a stone killer) and prepares for an all-day assault on Stiles Island. Meantime, a couple of telltale clues (as in the amusing episode when Macklin, suitably disguised as a prospective buyer on Stiles Island, pays a visit to Jesse to check him out, and the two men compete in a raceas it were)put Jesse onto the gang with satisfyingly predictable results. All right, it's no Asphalt Jungle. But Parker writes so economicallyeven the women this time out have caught Jesse's tersenessthat he almost has you believing this old, old story is happening for the first time. (Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection)
Booklist Review
Jimmy Macklin is fresh from three years in prison, and he has no intention of returning. He also has no intention of living the straight life. In prison, he heard of a small, extremely wealthy island community across the bay from Paradise, Massachusetts--just the place for the kind of elaborately planned score Jimmy loves. He thinks of himself as a great general, working out his battle plan, but he's not nearly as good as he thinks. His first mistake is to assume that a small town would have a typically ineffectual police chief. Jesse Stone is neither typical nor ineffectual. A drinking problem and a painful divorce brought Stone to Paradise from the LAPD, but now his ex-wife, Jenn, has followed him east. Personal troubles aside, he's faced with Macklin and a crew of criminal experts comprising a demolition expert, an experienced ocean captain (to drive the getaway boat), and a fearless, resourceful killer known as Crow. This is the second entry in Parker's new Jesse Stone series, following Night Passage [BKL Jl 97], and it builds significantly on the foundation laid in its predecessor. Stone's emotional vulnerability is more visible as he struggles to come to terms with his feelings for Jenn, but he never misses a beat as he battles Macklin and his crew to an exciting conclusion. Parker fans will also enjoy comparing the amoral, ruthless Crow to Spenser's sidekick, Hawk. This is typical Parker, which means it's an enthralling, one-sitting read--and it's guaranteed to generate great demand. --Wes Lukowsky
Library Journal Review
Parker brings back Jesse Stone, his popular new protagonist from Night Passage, in time to face a group of ex-cons intent on blowing up a bridge. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.