“Night and Day” is the eighth entry in Parker’s enjoyable Jesse Stone set. Compared to some of the others, the storyline is a little tame, although three sets of events bother Jesse enough to seek righting some wrongs, crimes or not. First, a middle school (female) principal is caught literally inspecting a bunch of the girl student’s panty underwear, prompting numerous complaints to say the least – but her husband, a high-powered attorney, tries to keep the lid on that virtually all-book long. Meanwhile, a peeping Tom is seen spying through some bedroom windows – and his actions soon escalate into home invasions and nude photo ops with unwilling women! Lastly, a couple who is hosting wife-swapping parties at their house, and traumatizing their kids in the process, comes to Stone’s attention via the visits of their teenaged daughter. All this action gives Jesse’s cop shop plenty to work on, in the process providing plenty of digressive material for Jesse to discuss with his shrink rather than pursue his troubles with ex-wife Jenn. Another Parker character, PI Sunny Randall, puts in a few token appearances as well, mostly as Jesse’s latest girlfriend – and will things finally start to get more serious there?So: a typical novel in the series, a quick pleasant read, with not much blood and guts, but with our world-wise favorite small town police chief prevailing in the end, as totally expected! I have to say straight away that this Jesse Stone story is the best one that I have read yet, the style of writing by Robert B Parker is something that I like and the characters are evolving all the time. The three main characters, Stone, Molly Crane and Luther ‘Suit’ Simpson are becoming the mainstay of these Jesse Stone books and themselves turning into a tight police unit in Paradise. The villains this time are a peeping tom or Night Hawk as he calls himself and a group of Paradise residents who are members of a swingers club and although separate cases needing separate investigations there seems to be a link the Jesse Stone and his crew have to find. But for me it’s the dialogue, wit and comedy combined with a clever story line make this a very enjoyable read and the more I read Robert B Parker’s books the more I enjoy his style.He also combines the Paradise police stories well with the ongoing saga in Jesse’s private life, namely ex-wife Jenn, she pops up again having run off with yet another man. But Jesse has a friend who is also in a similar situation to help him out along the way one Sunny Randall, a private detective who has a husband who is a male replica to Sunny as Jenn is to Jesse. Of course she also has some suggestions with Jesse’s ongoing investigations into Paradises problems so Jesse and Sunny complement each other in many ways both professionally and socially. No frantic car chases no mass murders just an everyday observation of the goings on in Paradise and Jesse Stone’s attempts to see justice done no matter how high and mighty some of those Paradise residents seem to be.
What do You think about Night And Day (2009)?
A great Jesse Stone procedural. Shows why he is the Chief of Police
—irena
Not great, but still enjoyable, entry in the Jesse Stone series.
—Mahert
Great to listen to in the car on our road trip.
—xhejk
Yay! Hope he is truly finished with Jenn!
—PlusHax
