Parker vs. Parker?Robert B. Parker cooked up an ex-convict named Jimmy Macklin who has an ambitious scheme to loot an entire island populated by some very wealthy people, and he recruits a crew to help him blow up a bridge, take out a private security force, empty a bank and then make a getaway by boat so it certainly seems like he might have taken a page out of Richard Stark’s novels about professional thief Parker.However that’s where the similarities end. For one thing, instead of being a humorless professional who wants to do the job quickly and cleanly, Jimmy is a reckless daredevil who cares more about the thrill of the heist than profiting from it. Another difference is that the book isn’t about Jimmy, it’s about the police chief Jesse Stone.In this second book of the series, Jesse has settled into his role as the head of the Paradise PD, but his personal life continues to be a controlled train wreck. The cheating ex-wife he tried to leave behind in LA has followed him across the country, and the two of them have cautiously started dating again even as both of them are doing more banging than a screen door with other people. Even as his own cops are mocking his man-ho tendencies, Jesse can’t stop himself from following his ex when she’s out on a date and fantasizing about murdering the man she’s with. The book would have been a lot better if half of it wasn’t consumed with Jesse’s love life. In fact, so much of it is dedicated to that the whole robbery of an entire island comes across as almost an afterthought. RBP also wasn’t the kind of writer who could naturally make a pulp concept like a gang looting a town work as well as someone like Stark (a/k/a Donald Westlake) could. The main problem with this whole thing is that Jesse appears to have been created with the idea of being a more flawed hero then Spenser with his drinking problem and being unable to let go of his ex-wife. (Which as I’ve pointed out in numerous reviews is a well that RBP went to way too often.) That could have been an idea that worked well, but RBP liked his heroes to seem heroic. So even as he saddles Jesse with a mountain of baggage and questionable decisions, he can’t help but write him as a guy to be admired. We’re supposed to think that his messed up relationship with his ex is a sign of a man who believes in true love rather then seeming exactly like kind of ugly domestic situation that eventually ends in a murder/suicide. Jesse was more interesting to me as a guy who had at least tried to distance himself from a bad relationship, and he seems more like a drunken chump in this book.
I love this book but this is one of the few Robert Parker books that I feel should/could have been longer. With hindsight (and after more than one reading) I feel that the gang's possession of Stiles Island should have formed the main section of the novel. The focus on Jesse and his romantic entanglements, and his battle with the booze would form a perfect subtext to the narrative and as always the psychological states of the characters are what makes RBP's writing so genuinely insightful. In a sense the characterisation of Macklin shows a fascinating case-study of an incomplete individual. So different to Jesse, whose authenticity is the defining part of his personality. Macklin suffers from self-delusion and it is literally tied to his criminality, almost amoral in its intensity. He is a thrill-seeker, addicted to danger, reducing the tasks involved in the perpetration of his crimes almost to a conflict on a personal level. Jesse, with his experienced "cop-sense" recognises this. (Is this true ? or is this fiction ?) Even the relationships of Jimmy/Faye and Jesse/Jenn show this paralleling, and although both are "unorthodox" Jesse and Jenn are struggling to be honest with each other whereas Jimmy Macklin fails to give his partner the centrality she deserves. It is revealing that although Faye is guilty (of loving the wrong man, and she recognises his failings also but still loves him) Jesse lets her go free. This makes him a special kind of cop. Even in a small town.
What do You think about Trouble In Paradise (1999)?
Trouble in Paradise (Jesse Stone #2) by Robert B. Parker (Jove Books 1998) (Fiction – Mystery). This second Jesse Stone novel finds him on the job as police chief of Paradise, Massachussetts. Jesse is recently divorced, but he and his ex still have mutual feelings for each other and are not ready to let go – even though there are two other women in town who have made it clear that their eyes are on the chief. The plot here is driven by an ex-con who plans to take over an island on which is located a mega-excusive development by taking over the only bridge to the island. Poor criminal! He must not know that Chief Jesse Stone is on the job! My rating: 7/10, finished 2010.
—David
Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels are some of my favorites. They’re mystery novels with many of the same characters. The good guy always wins, and there are plenty of guns and good dialogue along the way. Trouble in Paradise is a different character in a different series, and I probably shouldn’t have strayed.Jess Stone is the Chief of police in a small Massachusetts town. Half of the story follows him as he deals with a recent divorce, as well as punk kids and an entire island full of people being robbed. The other half, told in parallel, is the robber and his crew preparing for he big heist. There is the problem, there should be some kind of mystery along the way, but because you’re let into every detail for the protagonist and antagonist, you know everything that’s going to happen. There really isn’t much excitement.My problem may be I’m comparing it to some of my favorite characters and favorite stories, but the book feels empty and bland compared to others by Parker.The characters don’t have much personality, they could easily be replaced with someone else. Even Stone isn’t someone that couldn’t be any detective in any cookie-cutter novel. Maybe I’ll give another one a shot to see if it gets better, after all I need another book to hold me over until more Spenser books are released.
—Jeremy
Really enjoyed this second installment of Jesse Stone - the plot moved a lot faster than in the first, and I found the story itself interesting.Unlike the first novel, Jesse Stone's character only interacts with the "bad guys" minimally in this novel before the big showdown, which I enjoyed. Just the movement of the plot was stronger. Parker had me sucked in within the first chapter.While some may consider Jesse stuck in a bit of a love triangle, I didn't see it that way. He is a grown man who is not dating one particular person - and he cannot seem to shake his ex-wife. With this novel I feel as if Parker is setting readers up to understand that Jesse is damaged, in a lot of ways, and it is hard for him to give himself to another until he is fully healed.If you're a fan of the movie, I recommend you read the series. My husband actually read the series before the movies, and he was the one who said he thought I would really enjoy them. He is right, so far.
—Crys (The Hodgenator)
