High Profile

Best thing about Jesse Stone .... he is played by Tom Selleck in all the Jesse Stone made for TV movies. If you haven't read any Jesse Stone novels by RBP, START AT THE BEGINNING! Night Passage (22 September 1997) Trouble in Paradise (21 September 1998) Death In Paradise (1 October 2001) Back Story (10 March 2003) a Spenser novel that includes Stone Stone Cold (1 October 2003) Sea Change (7 February 2006) mentions Spenser albeit not by name Blue Screen (13 June 2006) a Sunny Randall novel that includes Stone Spare Change (5 June 2007) a Sunny Randall novel that mentions Stone High Profile (6 February 2007) Stranger In Paradise (2008) YOU WILL LOVE THEM!

Robert Parker is one of those guys who writes so fast that he's got to have several series of books in order to keep from tiring out his main character. After all, his mainstay, Spenser, is the same age as Parker. Back 10 or 15 books ago, Spenser used to mention that he was a Korean War veteran. Most of those guys are AARP members, wonderful heroes and worthwhile people, but not that scary any more the way the main character in one of Parker's books should be. So he created a second and third character. One's a younger female version of Spenser named Sunny Randall. The other is younger too, a homicide detective from LA who drank himself out of that job and wound up working as the police chief in Paradise Massachusetts. Both of the characters mentioned here appear in this latest book, though Stone's the main character. When a nationally syndicated conservative talk-show host winds up dead in Paradise, shot three times in the chest and then hung from a tree, Stone has a lot of things to deal with. When the guy's assistant, a comely female, is found dead in a dumpster behind Paradise's diner, things really become a mess. The media descends on the town, the governor shows up to make sure the investigation is going in a direction he likes, and to make things worse, Stone's ex-wife (with whom he's still in love) announces she's been raped, and demands protection. Stone summons Sunny Randall (with whom he had a romance in Blue Screen last year) to protect the ex while he investigates the killings. I enjoyed this book more than most of the Parker novels I've read recently. The plot actually had a twist or two, and while the ending was predictable, it's still a good book. I would recommend this book to almost anyone, it's a good story.

Always like Jesse Stone (I can see Tom Selleck while reading the books.) This is a good one, with Sunny thrown in at no charge.

Excellent book. Like most Parker books, his narrative style creates a vivid picture of the scenes and actions which take place in them-a talk show host 'hanging' in the balance, former spouses shooting evil glares at one another, a pompous politician who believes he should be the first to know all (don't know about you, but I like it when a politician gets humbled). Then there's the man who must be ecstatic as he finds out he may actually be able to become a father when all hope had been lost. I especially like the developing character of Molly in Stone's police department. What a great combination of loving mom, kickass cop and strong, old-fashioned Irish woman. Go Molly! I am disappointed at which woman Jesse chose. Doesn't mean the other is permanently out of the picture though. Think carefully, Jesse . . . Overall, a very good mystery novel with many emotional personal stories.

It will come as no surprise to longtime fans of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels to learn that Parker just keeps getting better with each new book. In addition to the classic Spenser series, the prolific Parker now has two active mystery series: one involving Paradise, Massachusetts police chief Jesse Stone and the other featuring female Boston detective Sunny Randall. Great writers --- and Parker long ago assured his place among America's greatest mystery writers of all time --- are not afraid of breaking the rules. Parker did that last fall when he had Jesse Stone appear in one of his Sunny Randall books, BLUE SCREEN. And Sunny returns the favor in Parker's latest novel, HIGH PROFILE. HIGH PROFILE is a Jesse Stone story. It begins when a controversial radio talk show host, Walton Weeks, is found dead, hanging from a tree in Jesse's town of Paradise, Massachusetts. The victim was shot three times, but it turns out that he was dead for two days before being hung. The case becomes complicated when the body of a young woman, who turns out to be Weeks's assistant, is discovered in a dumpster behind a restaurant in Paradise a few days later. Jesse is stuck with a high-profile case as the national press descends upon the town along with representatives of the governor. It turns out that the dead talker was a supporter of the governor's. As if this was not pressure enough, Jesse's personal life is on the brink of unraveling. He is trying to limit his drinking to two drinks a day while dealing with his inability to stop loving Jenn, his mercurial ex-wife still in his life, and make sense of his emerging relationship with Sunny, who he calls "his new perfect woman." But Sunny has problems of her own, namely her inability to stop loving her ex-husband, Richie. When Jenn arrives at his door in danger, Jesse has to protect her around the clock somehow while still doing his job as police chief. His not-too-perfect solution is to use Sunny, his new love, to guard Jenn, his true love. As he says more than once, the situation is "a f------ mess." This also describes his homicide investigation. Despite the fact that Weeks was famous and married three times, nobody shows up to claim his body. And his associates are strangely calm about the tragedy. Nor is anybody especially interested in or upset about the death of Carey Longley, the assistant. Even the young girl's parents profess not to care. So Jesse starts doing what he does best: pulling at loose ends. Despite the fact that the series is not even a decade old, we are already delighted to hear Jesse bantering with the other colorful members of his police department, including his right-hand assistant and dispatcher, Molly, and the ever-eager-to-please young cop, "Suitcase" Simpson. But the more Jesse digs into the mystery of Weeks's life and death, the more he is reminded of what is happening in his own life with Jenn and Sunny. He thinks: "This is too close. Jesse could hear himself breathing. This