Reading as part of my Florida collection:Robert Parker dovetails his typical Massachusetts setting for his Jesse Stone character with locations in Southeast Florida involving a crime involving yachts, wild kids and sex. Not that it had to be Florida. He could just as well had the alternate location in Virginia or New Jersey. To do that, though, more narrative would've been required. So, Parker takes the easy route and assumes the reader is carrying a stacked knowledge of Florida stereotypes. Big house, rich and arrogant people, beach bars are about as detailed as Parker gets in this book involving Florida.What I found odd was the lack of narrative in describing scenes in Massachusetts, too. In fact, this book is nearly fifty percent dialogue. The writing of that is Ok, but it's difficult to often know much of anything involving the surroundings. Seems to me a deadline to get the book in to the publisher got too close and Parker slung this out. The format I picked up this book in was the taller $9.99 version. A ton of kerning happened to stretch this book to fit it and is further indication that Parker may have quickly written this to meet a deadline.My usual complaint of fluffing a contemporary book up is certainly the case here. This time, though, it's the dialogue that needed severe trimming. There's a side story involving Stone's relationship with is ex-wife that doesn't fit well.overall this book does have Florida locations, but are not well written and locations are very general. The overall book seems to me to be a whole lot of dialogue looking for a good story.
What do You think about Sea Change (2007)?
Jesse has stopped drinking (though it comes up over and over again with different people, and he misses that first sip, and he acknowledges that he drinks too much - can’t control it)... Jenn has more or less moved in - she is doing a special on Boat Week (that is actually a month long of sail boat races and partying) and is committed to monogamy (but do we trust it will last past the next temptation?). Where is the dog? Hmmmm and he continues to see _______, his psychologist.The mystery? Floren
—Kathy
This is a tawdry story of the raucous lifestyle of the yachting fraternity that is visiting Paradise to take part in the annual race. It’s the usual thing of drink and the drunk along with some drug taking and sex but as long as it doesn’t get too out of hand then the police are at arm’s length until a dead body is washed up in the harbour that is. The state of the body means that it has been in the water for some time and hard to identify and yet nobody has been reported missing either on shore of off one of the boats.Eventually identification was made and the body was of Florence E Horvath from Fort Lauderdale who turned out to be one of three daughters of a Mr & Mrs Plum also of Fort Lauderdale who besides Florence have twin daughters. The Plum’s are rich as are the boat owners who think because it’s their boat then anything goes wherever the boat may be. Harrison Darnell was one of those owners whose boat is a target for Jess Stone who came across a video tape of the deceased and wanted to check to see if any of the background rooms on the tape matched to boat. The tape was a sex tape.The deeper Jesse dug the worse the deprivation got, the sex side of things the worst. Local girls were enlisted to provide entertainment for many of the men most of it consensual and legal but not all of it turns out to be. On top of that everything was taped and as Jesse got deeper into the investigation the more he was reviled by what was going on right on his doorstep, and other places too. We have all the usual characters of Paradise involved in the story, Molly, Suit, Jenn, Dix and Rita but also a lot of help from a cop in Lauderdale one Kelly Cruz who does some great work for Jesse.But she too cannot get to grips with the investigation as it unfolds as it seems that this type of human or inhuman behaviour is common place wherever the boats, and especially Harrison Darnell’s boat, may anchor. A grubby story about a grubby subject but Jesse sticks to the task no matter how unsavoury that task may be. But Jenn is on the up in the TV world and is back with Jesse which means more visits to Dix to try and work out how he actually feels about this. He wants her back but her past still haunts him and the fact that she has been in many men’s beds since their divorce but they still love each other. Complications at work and play.
—Steve
So I came to this book with my hands on my hips whining "I want Robert Forster narrating this! This other guy is not as good!" It took me until the second CD and then I finally started warming up to Scott Sowers. Then by the end of the CD I really liked his narration. Yes, I like Robert Forster slightly better, but by not that much.There's a murder and a rape charge in this book. All good, but I wanted to know what's going on with Jesse and his ex-wife Jen. At the end of the last book they were going to try to see if they could get back together. The problem is there wasn't a whole lot of scenes with the two of them. Also in the last book Jesse quit drinking. He's good through the whole book and then at the end he thinks he can start again because he had no problem stopping and Jen pours him a full glass. I was thinking no, stop! I've been surrounded by alcoholics and I know he just fell off that slippery slope down to the canyon below. Ugh! I'm going to get the next book in the series. I've been really enjoying these books, surprise, surprise!
—Carolyn F.
