Trouble in Paradise (Jesse Stone Novels Book 2)

Excellent reading. I watched the movie first then started reading the book. To me that was good since I like Tom Selleck as an actor it gave me more of a visual read. Of course it doesn't always happen that way.

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 ...