Trouble in Paradise (Jesse Stone Novels Book 2)

TROUBLE IN PARADISE, # 2 in Parker's Jesse Stone series, is a quietly seething thriller with explosives to boom. In this type of deep plot action, here's how one chapter should end and the next one begin:Chapter ending:>> When the police car was halfway across, the bridge began to ripple. The ripple turned into a heave. And, as the sound of the explosion came rolling into the real estate office, the bridge went up and the police car went with it, somersaulting slowly in among the pieces of the disintegrating bridge. One of its doors blew away and the hood tore off, and the car languidly turned over and planed onto the gray harbor and disappeared....<<Next chapter beginning:>> "Exploded?" Jesse said on the radio. "Twenty calls at least, "Molly said. "At least five people said there was a police car on the bridge when it went." <<I'm thinking that the above quote would be all I'd need to read in a review, to decide to pick up this novel. As I read the above passage, arriving at it through a steady-speed-progress from the beginning of the book, my first question, after being impressed with the explosive clarity of Parker's syntax, was, "Did Jesse's two patrolmen survive that percussion and splash?"Of course I won't tell you what happened before or after the bridge appeared to take a short flight toward heaven then slammed into hell.Temperature-rising-subplots twined perfectly from Macklin's gang's preparatory machinations to Jesse's personal and professional life's percolation. Various relationship scenes provided entertaining psychological miasma for wading through balsamic sex-pot stews. Jenn was showing daily as a TV weather girl in Jesse's territory, working to keep him while dating openly on the side. Since that didn't keep her busy enough, she attacked Kay Hopkins, a well-heeled, town snob-lady who had caused Jesse grief. Kay's nose slipped from its upward slant as blood spewed from Jenn's landed fist. What does Jesse do with that?What caused that cowgirl episode was a previous scene which was even more entertaining than Jenn's fist action which landed her in jail. In that earlier scene, Jesse deftly dealt with a group of town snobs (including the Hopkins) and their lawyer. The situation opened in Jesse's office, appearing to be featuring Jesse's tail caught between a lid and a pot. Fear not. Jesse turned the rip-tide with finesse wrought hot. Loved it!As if those perks in a work of fiction weren't enough, TROUBLE IN PARADISE introduced a "Crow" bad guy, honor-coded-predator, who could be Hawk's dark twin.This Jesse # 2 had all I could hope for in an engrossing escape read, with an ending firing on all cylinders in Parker's redemption repertoire. (For a true short account featuring redemption and transitions to paradise, see  This is Someone's Loved One: An Undertaker's View )(My review is up of # 1, NIGHT PASSAGE. I enjoy reading Parker's series in order, though I have skipped around at times. See my Spenser Listmania for sequences and blurbs.)Getting ready to order DEATH IN PARADISE, # 3 Jesse Stone,Linda Shelnutt

While the Jesse Stone novels probably aren't as well known as Mr. Parker's other series, I like the Jesse Stone novels the best. Stone is the police chief of Paradise and besides dealing with an ex-wife he still loves and loves him in her own way, and trying to watch his drinking, he still manages to take care of things in Paradise. That is until a gang of criminals come, isolates an area of Paradise only accessible by boat or bridge, then commences to rob the bank, every store, and even households. Now Jesse has to figure out how to get to the cut off area, rescue the hostages, and capture the criminals. Another great book by Mr. Parker.

This is the second Jesse Stone book I have read (out of order) and I don't remember him being the vulnerable person in the other book he seems to be here. I have thoroughly enjoyed the book, although it could have been written with less f-words, although the usual twists you expect were not there. However, just because twists weren't there doesn't mean the book doesn't have its share of stumbling blocks for Jesse to encounter. His sex life causes him some problems, and his ex-wife certainly creates problems, his addition to alcohol is a problem, and there are people in the town of Paradise who are unhappy because he does his job with out regard to those who think the world spins around them. But these are the superficial events to the book's main event: a gathering of six hardened criminals who intend to cut off the island of Stiles (in Paradise's police jurisdiction) from the shore long enough to knock off its bank and steal from its rich citizens, and a hostage situation is created. Good book. I don't usually read a book of this size in twenty four hours during a weekday, but I did this one.

I loved the 1st book in this series because we watched show with Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone & this book gave me more understanding of how he got there in the first place. It also seemed more exciting. This book just went on & on to the point I just wanted it to hurry up & end. It's a bummer since I was hoping to keep reading series, but now I won't. TV show I'd recommend a lot though.

Jesse seems to have a thing about western movies. The first book was themed along a western storyline, new sherrif moves into town, ending with a classic standoff scene. In this one, the bad guy gang forms up slowly and then attacks the town, and only Jesse can save the day.Problem is, as much as I *love* the Parker wit and dialogue in general, I kept hitting huge problems with this plot line. First, after so many books on the Spenser and Jesse series, I am really getting tired of every single one going over this "we love each other but can't live together" theme. It is beating a dead horse that is decomposing and barely dust any more. Let it go already.Next, the book has all sorts of unlikely situations moving the plot along in jerks and starts, and then at the end everything miraculously ties up for Jesse without him even doing much of anything.A typical Spenser device, the good-hero-stands-up-for-abused-minorities situation, isn't even resolved. So we get the traditional "look at those jerk bigots" situation that Parker loves to throw into each book and it doesn't even get handled.Not only that but there are TWO different situations involving females that really drive me crazy. Both involve women and involve a pretty blatant wrongdoing - but because women are involved it is hushed up. Because Lord only knows that women can't be held accountable for what they do - they're just girrrrrls. The guys end up dead - but the situations with women cause criminals to go free. It bugs me to no end.I really really had high hopes for this series and still have high hopes for its future. I love Parker's style of writing in general. But the direction of his plots is really getting both repetitive and lacking in coherency. I really worry that Parker trying to write 2 or 3 books a year on different series is starting to mean less attention is paid to each one ...

Trouble in Paradise não foi adaptado para o cinema. Traz um casal de bandidos que recruta comparsas para roubar todos os ricaços de Paradise. Paralelamente, Jesse precisa lidar com um incêndio criminoso à casa de um casal gay. O autor mostra bem os preconceitos. O livro também é cheio de ação, explosões e artimanhas. Gostei da referência fofa ao ator Tom Selleck feita no baile do clube de Iate. Aliás, fiquei semanas ouvindo "Tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree", música da cena. O único ponto que me desagradou no livro foi a reaproximação da Jenn. Mesmo Jesse envolvido com outras, ela vem para bagunçar o mundo do ex-marido. Irritante! No mais, o final é surpreendente, e desta vez, notei que Robert B. Parker deu uma humanidade extraordinária ao Stone. Ele é um cara forte, mas com medos... Sobre a edição econômica, ela é menor que a primeira, mas não atrapalha o manuseio.

Great story but ended rather abruptly.

Another terrific story. I could visualise a lot of this and empathise with much of the sentiment and feelings....but there were still some things that were hard to "get".Good story though.

My husband quite enjoyed these books. A high comment from him. Will be happy to buy more in this series in the future.

I havn't finished reading it yet but have, so far, found it interesting & intriguing and am keen to see where it leads,