Night Passage (Hardcover)

In Robert B. Parker's case, we get the latter. Parker had already registered his continued contempt for his first creation, Spenser, by allowing the stories to get maudlin and sloppy, the margins to get wider and wider, and by publishing two installments of new Philip Marlowe adventures, as well as creating a new series starring a female private eye named Sunny Randall. To add insult to injury, here are we are now with "Night Passage", a fourth series concerning an L.A. cop named Jesse Stone transplanted to Paradise, Massachusetts, a bucolic little town on the Atlantic Ocean.

Jesse, plagued by drink and a wishy-washy ex-wife, sets out to remake himself as Chief of Policein a town where no one knows his name. But things get confusing when the department cat is murdered, followed by the killing of the previous chief of police and finally, a young, unwed mother. Jesse is, underneath it all, a good cop, so he is able to pull himself together, solve the crimes and have casual sex with a couple of ladies, thereby working on his abandonment issues.

Parker seems intent on making Stone as different from Spenser as possible, but the differences are superficial. Where Spenser is a hulking ex-boxer, Stone is slight. Spenser enjoys a beer or a glass of fine champagne once in a while but is, ultimately, in control, but Stone is a drunk just barely keeping his head above water. Where Spenser's relationship is stable to the point of saccharine sweetness, Stone's is wobbly. Spenser has Hawk. Stone has . . . Suitcase Simpson,. a gangly redheaded police officer. But none of this matters. The writer is still Parker, the soul is still Spenser.

Nearly half the novel is taken with Jesse's drive across country and settling in to Paradise. By the time Parker gets around to leveling the plot, we almost wish he hadn't; it is ridiculously unlikely and unworthy of a writer of Parker's heart and intelligence.

What makes this novel a good read are the spare, Hemingwayesque prose, the likeable secondary characters, the hints of what is to come. It's an okay start and, I'm not giving anything away, the second book in the series is a grand-slam homerun of a book. You don't need to read this book to enjoy the second (I didn't, until after), but it may set your mind at ease.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews   Was this review helpful to you?

Report this

I have yet to read any of the Spencer books (I seem to be going in reverse order somehow), and even though this is the first Jesse Stone book, it's the second one I've read. I made the comment after reading Trouble In Paradise that even though it was second in the series, the reader didn't feel lost in Paradise, as it were. That feeling still stands, but I have to admit the background of exactly how Jesse found Paradise does put the second book in a somewhat better perspective. Even though, as another reviewer mentioned, the ending sort of seemed rushed, as if time was up and the pencils had to be put down, in retrospect, it really does set the stage for the next Jesse Stone book.

I can't put my hands on it, but for some reason I felt this book was not written quite as well as the other Parker books I've read, yet it was still very interesting, compelling, and filled with in depth characterizations of the many personalities in Paradise even though while reading it, sometimes it didn't seem that way. OK, breathe, Michael ;)

One of the things I enjoyed about the book were the very short chapters; of course, it didn't stop me from reading the book in a couple of days, since it IS very fast reading, but it's nice to know that if you're reading this at bedtime you can get to a natural break without going 30 pages to finish a chapter.

I'm very much looking forward to reading many more books by Mr. Parker. I hope this review helps you come to the same decision!

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews   Was this review helpful to you?

Report this