Robert B. Parker's Damned If You Do

Jesse Stone #12

by Michael Brandman

A JESSE STONE NOVEL

She was barely out of her teens, not exactly beautiful, but she’d tried to make the most of her looks.

Now, defiled and alone in a seedy beachfront motel, she was dead. And Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone doesn’t even know her name. But when his investigation lures him into the crosshairs of two ruthless pimps, Jesse finds out more about the girl than he ever dreamed. Because in pursuit of justice, if anyone can see the truth in dark, dark places, it’s Jesse Stone.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller, Detective, Suspense

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2013

About the author

Michael Brandman is an acclaimed novelist, screenwriter, and motion picture & television producer.

His Jesse Stone novels, KILLING THE BLUES, FOOL ME TWICE, and DAMNED IF YOU DO, each based on characters created by the late Robert B. Parker, are all New York Times best sellers.

Together with Tom Selleck, he has written and produced nine Jesse Stone films for television, the tenth of which will premiere in the Spring of 2019.

His new series of Buddy Steel mystery novels debuted in 2017 with MISSING PERSONS. The second book in the series, ONE ON ONE, made its debut in August. WILD CARD, the third in the series, will be released in April, 2019.

He has produced more than forty motion pictures, including works by Tom Stoppard, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, David Mamet, Elmore Leonard, Louis L'Amour, and Stephen Sondheim.

He lives in Los Angeles and is married to the award winning actress, Joanna Miles. He is the father of two sons.

(source: Amazon)

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 12th addition to Robert B. Parker's 'Jesse Stone' series is written by Michael Brandman. In this book, the Police Chief investigates the death of a prostitute. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Jesse Stone is the Police Chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, a small city near Boston.



As the story opens Jesse is called to a local motel, where a young prostitute has been stabbed to death. The woman has no identification, so Jesse needs to find out her name as well as who killed her. During his investigation Jesse talks to the local crime boss, Gino Fish, as well as some pimps who run prostitutes - none of whom is very forthcoming.



Nevertheless, Jesse pushes on, determined to find the murderer and return the victim to her family for a proper burial.

Meanwhile, Jesse is worried about his former accountant, Donnie Jacobs, who's suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Donnie lives in an elder care facility called 'Golden Horizons Retirement Village', whose owners have a reputation for over-medicating patients, tying them to their beds, and generally mistreating them.



The owners of Golden Horizons have good lawyers though, and it's been impossible to shut any of their facilities down. The people who run the elder care centers get a shock, however, when they discover how clever and ruthless Jesse can be.



The new author does a good job capturing Jesse's manner of speech and personality. Brandman's Jesse still speaks in clipped sentences, for example, and continues to be more respectful to criminals than your average cop.



Other regular characters also have authentic voices, but they make very brief appearances. In fact we hardly see Molly and Suitcase, which is disappointing.





Lastly, the plot is overly simplistic with very little development. Thus, fans of Jesse Stone might enjoy the story but the book is not up to Robert B. Parker's standards.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

[Kemper · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to see anybody lose their job, but I understand why Michael Brandman was replaced as the writer of this series.

Small town police chief Jesse Stone has two big problems. First, after a young female prostitute is murdered in a seedy motel Jesse has to first identify her, and then try to find her killer which puts him in between a couple of rival pimps. Second, Jesse suspects that the local nursing home is both negligent and abusive in its care of its elderly residents, but the company that owns it has already survived one scandal thanks to an army of lawyers so getting it shut down won’t be easy.

As I’ve noted in the reviews of the other two Brandman books I’m baffled at how badly he whiffs on these because he was a producer and screenwriter of several TV movies starring Tom Selleck based on this character, and they’re actually pretty good. So having him take over after Robert B. Parker’s death seemed like a no-brainer.

He did some stuff I like such as having Jesse finally get over his awful ex-wife and address his drinking problem. Yet, he comes across as incredibly bad at his job. In these recent books Jesse seems to fixate on trivial aspects of what’s going on while ignoring major things, and he generally delegates most of the work to other people. There are also several examples of abuses of power by a police chief. So the character has become inconsistent, incompetent, and just a bad cop all around even as he’s still presented as our hero.

Part of the problem is that the world created here just doesn’t make a lot of sense. Any fictional story about a cop, particularly a series like this, is going to have stretch things past the point of reality, but this gets too far off the rails. For example, one of the suspects in the woman's murder wants to kill Jesse later in the book and word gets out. Several people act like Jesse is all on his own, and that he should drop the case. Even one of his own police officer's tells him to forget about the investigation. That’s completely unbelievable, that everyone acts like a police chief is so at risk from one minor criminal that he’d consider dropping a murder investigation. Cops just don’t operate like that, even small town ones.

Another crazy thing is that when Jesse starts going after the crooked rest home we hear a lot about how this company has enormous influence and power. Yet when Jesse starts using local fire and health inspections to get the place cited their response is to first try and bribe him, and then later several of the people in charge go after Jesse and other cops physically. That’s not how white collar criminals do things. Even if they had financial problems they’d just declare bankruptcy and find a way to walk off with a bunch of cash and come up with a new scheme.

There’s also some lazy inconsistencies. Jesse had a cat in the last book, and every time he goes home Brandman made a point to have him interact with the cat who is all over him. Here, we follow Jesse through his evening routine as he’s thinking about what’s going on a couple of times without a single mention of the cat. Yet, late in the book the cat just shows up again with no explanation as to why he wasn’t around earlier.

Another one is that per the earlier books in the series and the TV movies, Jesse doesn’t wear a police uniform. Brandman never describes what he’s wearing on the job here, but I assumed he was still wearing civilian clothes but it’s never made clear. In one scene, Jesse borrows a nightstick from one of his officers to beat the shit out of some people so you think that he is not walking around with all the gear that a uniformed police officer would be. However, in the very next chapter Brandman has Jesse pull a nightstick off his own service belt without ever explaining why Jesse would need to borrow one in the previous chapter, and the way it’s presented here is that he always has one on him.

It’s a parade of things like that which make Brandman’s run on this series such a mess. It’s ill-defined and sloppy in many ways while he focused on trying to do the Robert B. Parker style of dialogue. He doesn’t really pull that off either.

[Jack Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars. When summarizing Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone's character, don't forget that he is often a crusader for justice. Noble, but others in his circle may not support his efforts. They can be strongly discouraging. There's no better novel in this great little series by Robert B. Parker and carried on by Michael Brandman to exemplify this than "Damned if You Do." A second aspect of Jesse's character is persistence. He never gives up - if one route leads to a dead end, he tries another. Here the Chief shows his spurs not once but twice. In both cases his opposition is vociferous and potentially dangerous. Jesse doesn't follow advice well. He can't discard the sword of justice for two unfortunate victims. In the first case, Suitcase Simpson raises the alert. A young woman, likely a prostitute, has been found dead at a seedy, oceanfront motel. But no one knows her name. The trail leads to the mob and Gino Fish, and then to two pimps in a serious turf war. The second starts innocuously. His former accountant, Donnie Jacobs, has run away from Golden Horizons, an old-age home. Soon the Chief confronts mistreatment and code violations galore. Yes, Jesse is special. (April 2023)

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining mystery listening 🎶🔰

This is a e-book from the local library. No 12 in the series.

Sheriff Jess Stone is visiting his retired accountant in a nursing home. What he finds is appalling and starts an investigate into how the home is run. Meanwhile a young woman 🚺 is found dead in a motel. The investigation into the murder leads to Boston and the surrounding area. It all ends with a deadly shoot 🔫 out at the local mall. The nursing home is shut down. I would recommend this series and author to 👍 readers of old time murder mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 😀👒😡😮

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Police Chief Jesse Stone gets involved in two cases in this installment of the series. First, he has a murdered Jane Doe who appears to be a young prostitute. Jesse also involves himself in a case of elder abuse at the local retirement home.

This book was written in 2013, but I'm not certain what year it was set, so I had to take certain things, like the blatant police brutality, with a grain of salt. Regardless of how one feels about the subject TODAY, there were times in the past when knocking a suspects head on the roof of the car while putting them in the squad car was no doubt, typical, as was mild assault when intimidating potential criminals. Jesse Stone also chooses to look the other way from some crimes while pursuing his own idea of justice for the victims he feels are important. I just had to go with it. Once I did, the story actually turned out to be fairly realistic (or at least what my suburban housewife mentality judges as "realistic"). I would even be tempted to go back and start the series at the beginning.

[Steven Belanger · Rating 1 out of 5]

The real title is Robert B. Parker's Damned If You Do, but if you read my reviews, you know how I feel about using a name as part of the title, especially if he's dead, so I won't further go at it here. But...argh...

And that's pretty much what I have to say about this book itself, as well. This is a giant step back from the other two Brandman novels, neither of which were exemplary to begin with. What a horribly written story! The dialogue is wooden and preposterous. The story is tired and distant. It's told and not shown. And it's got little writer edits at the end of some sentences, like Brandman's explaining it to us. (Note to Brandman: Mystery and procedural readers like to remember such things for themselves. Even if they're unimportant--because you don't know until the end what was important and what wasn't, right?)

There are too many examples to cite them all. There were so many that I had to put the book down and do something else. I actually groaned and complained out loud. And I can't find the one now I really wanted to put here, so...From page 247, after Jesse Stone saw a character, who he'd liked, die: "He hoped that the scotch would accomplish what he was unable to achieve himself...He wanted it to erase the haunting look in her dying eyes from his mind and his heart."

First, that's just bad writing. Second, that's telling, not showing. Third, if you've read Parker's--and even Brandman's--Jesse Stone works before, Stone (and the 3rd person narrator) would never think or speak like this. Fourth, we all know why people drink after they've seen someone they like die. Fifth, we all know why borderline alcoholics (or former alcoholics, which Stone is) drink after such an event. Sixth, that last sentence--melodrama, anyone? And Stone, and Parker--well, they're so anti-melodrama that this is just blasphemy, in of itself. And I know that comparing Brandman and Parker is unfair because they're different people--but Brandman is so obviously trying to emulate Parker's sparse style, and failing so miserably at it, that the comparison is just here. I feel certain that Parker would be upset with this book.

And the action sequences are just as bad. This from page 239: "Suddenly everyone was on the move. Chairs scraped loudly and tables were overturned as people began to anxiously respond. There were shouts of panic. The crowd began a confused surge towards the exits."

Again, this is just bad writing. The word "suddenly" was used tons of times in this book. That's bad. When chairs scrape, it's loud. So that's redundant--and it tells. And it overuses adverbs, which I learned in high school and college is bad to do. When people are "on the move," what is that, exactly? When settlers are on the move, they're just walking along, and slowly. There's probably lots of dust. And when there are "shouts of panic" and scraping chairs and overturning tables--that's not how people "anxiously respond." That's chaos. Stuttering is anxiously responding. And notice the word "began" is used twice in this one short paragraph. Nobody begins to do something. That's a huge pet peeve of mine, and it's used a million times in this book. You're either doing that thing, or you're not doing that thing. In this image, the people were well beyond the "began to anxiously respond" stage, whatever that is. They were panicked and running over each other. By definition, a surge is an action in progress, so there's no "began" there, either.

Literally almost every sentence and every paragraph has an instance of lazy writing, bad writing, passive writing, and...Oh, man, it was just plain horrible. What a disappointment! I don't want the reader to think I'm just nitpicking here, or in a bad mood, or whatever. I'm telling it straight--the writing of this book is that bad.

So bad I was shocked at its badness.

So bad it gives hope to all unpublished writers out there--if this can find its way into Barnes & Noble, your book can, too.

So bad I pictured Parker rolling over in his grave.

So bad it was a blight on all the Jesse Stone books I've bought and read before--all in hardcover, too.

So bad that if someone else hadn't bought this book for me for Christmas, I would've stopped reading it.

So bad that I can't even say to save it for bathroom reading, which is the advice I usually give for bearably bad books. But this isn't even bathroom reading--unless you need to use its paper. Which you probably should.

This is so bad that it reminded me of Dorothy Parker's quip: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

By the way, the characters and story are bad, too. Stone, a police chief, tells a mass murderer that he feels "surprisingly comfortable" that he's watching his back. I'm not kidding. I actually disliked Stone at the end.

The best things about this book are the title, and the cover. And that it ended.

Skip it, even if you have all the others. It is worth having a hole in your collection so you don't have to put yourself through this. It is that bad.

Don't even buy it in the remainder bin. Don't start off the new year with this. Don't do that to yourself.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third Brandman Jesse Stone novel and it does not dissapoint at all. It is a quick read with quite a few of the usual suspects around, for those who have followed the tales of Jesse Stone by the late Robert B. Parker and in the continuation novels.

Jesse finds the corpse of a young prostitute and finds himself entering a turf war between two pimps and even his usual friendly and respectful banter does need some backup by guns to get out alive.

As usual Chief Stone has an second storyline this involves the mistreatment of our eldery folks in a carehome that seems to be more about making money than real caring. Jesse find himself face to face with a big cooperation that is used to get his way. Well they will find out pretty soon who is in whoms way.

The usual pedestrian way of storytelling is observed until we get to the climax and then the story picks up speed. I admit that this book is probably a lot lighter than its original writers version. But With Jesse Stone this continuation writer who is heavily involved with the TV version with Tom Selleck playing Jesse Stone manages to remain faithful to the character and still offers a lot of fun and entertaining dialogue through Jesse Stone.
Not a highflyer quality wise of a book, but great companionship on the beach of if you just want to spend some time with one of my favorite characters.

[Larry · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Jesse Stone novels were pretty pedestrian even when Robert B. Parker wrote them. Michael Brandman, who has written the screen plays for the television movies, is neither an improvement nor a diminishment of Parker's work. (Note: The TV movies are pretty good, largely due to the presence of Tom Selleck, a good support cast--e.g., the actor who plays Geno Fish, a nice visual sense of place, and a good musical score. The novels have none of those features, obviously. It's not often than I like the movie version better than the novels.)

[Daniel Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. These short Jesse Stone books are pretty straightforward investigations and don’t have a lot of twists.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always preferred the Jesse Stone series over Spenser and was sad that the series never blossomed into many more books. The relationship between Jesse, the town council, and Suitcase and Molly was fun and often led to humorous exchanges between them.

After Parker died the series was taken over by Michael Brandman who had been a writer and producer of the eponymous TV series. (Tom Selleck was really good, and I wish they would make more.) Brandman’s first venture into recreating Stone was not successful. This one is.

Jesse investigates the murder of a young prostitute in a local motel while simultaneously looking into conditions at the local assisted living facility, Golden Horizons where his friend and former accountant is living.

Increasingly, Baby Boomers are reaching the age where they need geriatric services such as alzheimer support and assisted living facilities. For those who have the traditional family with children and a spouse, there is usually someone to care, or, at least, look out for them. Unfortunately, those who opted to stay single or who have no relatives, often find themselves at the mercy of unscrupulous nursing home operators who have no problem bilking their savings and insurance while providing the bare minimum of services and no one is around to protest. Brandman has done a service by raising the issue in the context of a good mystery. Of course, it's all fantasy and the idea that the problem at Golden Horizons could be fixed so easily bears no resemblance to the real world.

The main plot turns on a war between two major crime groups for control of the prostitution business and the dead girl got caught in the crossfire enabling Jesse to unravel the scheme.

Nicely read by James Naughton.

[Jill Manske · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know how sometimes you have to write a report for school or work and you really don't want to do it, your heart's not in it? Well, that's the feeling you get from reading this book. I've read two of Michael Brandman's other Robert B. Parker books and thought they successfully captured the spirit and style of Parker's writing. But "Damed if You Do" was pale in comparison. The dialog between characters was stiff and formal, certainly not the way people generally talk. The plot was uninspired and felt like leftovers. I was a HUGE Robert B. Parker fan and was deeply saddened by his death. So, I was pleased when a couple of writers decided, with the Parker family's blessing, to take the reins. Ace Atkins has been terrific in carrying on the Spenser series. Brandman, not so much. Because I'm such a devoted Parker fan, I'll probably give Brandman another chance, should he write another Jesse Stone book. But with lower expectations.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I prefer the movies. The writing is abrupt for want of a better word. The story is cliche and the ending where Jesse Stone let's the murderer get away and yes he was a murderer. The best part was the butler Augustus. A second reading did not improve the book. It reads like a tv script without directions.

[Janie Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book #12 in the Jesse Stone series. I have really enjoyed this series a lot. I look forward to the last 2 books and hopefully I will get to those soon.

Synopsis

The woman on the bed was barely out of her teens. She wasn’t exactly beautiful, but she’d tried to make the most of her looks. And now, alone in a seedy beachfront motel, she was dead.

Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone doesn’t know her name. Whoever she is, she didn’t deserve to die. Jesse starts digging, only to find himself caught in the crosshairs of a bitter turf war between two ruthless pimps. And more blood will spill before it’s over.

This one had 2 separate stories running at the same time as do a lot of these books in this series. I again enjoyed the plot to the story. I always find them engaging even though this series is a pretty laid bac series. There is not a lot of action in them but still very enjoyable. They are very quick, fluid reads and I believe that to be due to the use of so much dialogue. It keeps the stories moving pretty good.

I really enjoy the characters in this series. There are so many to enjoy. I can however tell a bit of a difference with the characters now that they are written by Michael Brandman instead of Robert Parker. I find that Jesse is much more bold, which I enjoy that part, but I find that the conversations there are between Jesse and Molly or Jesse and Dix seem a bit strained now, not as easy going as before, so that feels kinda wrong. Other than that though I really enjoy all of the characters.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. A good story but not fully up to snuff with its originator RBP. An interesting story with two plot lines: an evil nursing home owner and a dead prostitute/pimp turf war.

When Jesse Stone talks I see in my mind's eye Tom Selleck.

[Keith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Robert B Parker since I was 10 years old. I've rarely read a book of his that I didn't love. When he passed away, I was nervous about other authors carrying on his legacy. Ace Atkins hasn't disappointed, and until now, neither had Michael Brandman. This book however missed the mark on all fronts. One of the things that I've thought distinguished Jesse Stone from Spenser was the fact that he was less likely to get into a brawl, and more likely to follow the system to accomplish his goals. In this book however, Jesse gets into a fist fight with retirement home administrators (no exaggeration... if you can believe it), and borders on police brutality. In addition, he willingly becomes bait so that a rival pimp can kill another. It felt so contrary from the character that I've read for so many books. Robert Parker wasn't known for overindulgent prose, and that is one of the reasons that I've liked his books; however, Brandman takes it to a new low. Jesse sat down. Jesse didn't agree. Jesse chase ball. Ugh, I'll stick to Ace Atkins who at least seems to stay true to the characters he writes.

[Jolinda Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jesse Stone, Paradise Police Chief, solves a murder, tackles unscrupulous assisted living facility operators and places himself in the middle of two pimps vying for turf in this latest Parker novel written by Brandman. It's not Robert Parker (sigh) but it's a good read and still like a comfortable visit with an old friend.

[Evelyn]

I don't know how Jesse gets what he gets but he gets it. And then no afraid to get it. He does have friends, which is great!

Page 94 . . . "thomas Walker. Fat Boy Nelly. Jimmy Sloan. Gino Fish. All of them."
"okay," Dix said.
"They're all hiding something. They're lying and withholding. Everything I get from them is either inconclusive or subject to reinterpretation. Nothing is as it appears." . . .

(I don't think I find as much personal in these books as I did with Robert B. Parker . . .)

[Wilde Sky · Rating 2 out of 5]

The murder of a young woman is investigated.

The writing in this book was so clunky that I found myself not really caring about the plot / characters.

[JoAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not feel Jesse's character at all in this story. It felt bland...

[Shaun Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Jesse didn't say anything." makes up about half the word count of this entire book. It really felt like I read that phrase on every single page there was dialogue. Sometimes more than once per page. And there's a million ways to say that phrase without it being the same thing over and over.

Anyway, this is the first Parker novel that Michael Brandman penned that I've read and it's a little easy to see why he only got three books before they handed the series off to someone else. It's perplexing, since Brandman wrote for the Jesse Stone TV movies, so one would think he would know Jesse Stone more than anyone save for Parker himself, but while Brandman approximated Parker's writing style, it still left something to be desired. The dialogue is still brief and snappy, but everyone, even the criminals, speak with such a refined air that it's hard to believe these people are real.

The core story (well, both of them) are alright enough. The murder mystery is a bit generic, but Jesse's battle with a corporation running retirement homes is somewhat interesting, but again the bad guys behave so oddly that's it's ultimately tough to believe it all.

All in all an average read, and although I read it in bits and pieces over a few days, I'd say total reading time was under 3 hours, so it's a breeze to get through and is still a decent enough read, but nowhere near the best of Jesse Stone.

[Hobart · Rating 2 out of 5]

At least half of one of those stars is due to loyalty to the fine men and woman (pretty sure there's just one) of the Paradise Police Department.

Brandman knows Stone. He knows Suitcase (though you'd have a hard time proving it based on the evidence here) and Molly. He has a decent handle on the city, and the supporting characters.

What he doesn't know is how to write a mystery. Or a police procedural. Possibly not a novel -- maybe he should stick to scripts.

There are two cases that Jesse's working on in this book -- one he stumbles onto when helping a friend, he develops a hunch about conditions in a local retirement home. He talks to two citizens about it -- both of whom serve mostly as exposition dumps and confirm his hunch. Jesse proceeds to harass and bully his way through bringing the retirement home in line. There's no challenge for him here, there's no struggle, there's no effort, really. It does allow Brandman a chance to talk about some real problems, cite some statistics about a social ill and move on.

There's a murder mystery also -- he detects a little here. Mostly he susses out one clue, and the rest is delivered to him by Gino Fish and Vinnie Morris. Always nice for a small town cop to have a mobster and a shooter to call on for answers.

If this took me any time at all to read, I'd probably be more upset. The Stone novels for years were the best things that Parker produced. Towards the end, there was a resurgence in the quality of the Spenser novels which seemed to result in lesser Stone novels. But we'd still occasionally get one worth reading. Brandman has consistently fallen far short of even Parker's worst. It's really sad to see such a good franchise ruined like this.

[Gloria Feit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third Jesse Stone novel since Robert B. Parker’s death, and it follows the customary formula: two subplots and the police chief’s sense of “justice” and his fast retorts. To begin with, Jesse observes mistreatment in an assisted living facility when visiting his former accountant, and takes steps to rectify the situation in his own indomitable fashion.

But more to the point of police work, he is summoned to a local motel to find a young woman dead with a knife wound through her heart. This brings Jesse smack in the middle of a festering war between two pimps fighting for control of prostitution not only in Paradise, Jesse’s jurisdiction, but Boston as well. How he goes about solving the dilemma is pure Jesse.

The author recreates the fast-paced dialogue, characteristic of Parker’s novels, using the same approach to moving the stories ahead, including short paragraphs and chapters alternating between the subplots. Once again, it is a happy thought that the franchise still lives, even as we mourn the loss of the originator.

Recommended.

[AndreaH · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick somewhat satisfying outing by Brandman.
When a young woman is found murdered in a local hotel room, police Chief jesse Stone makes it his mission to find out who she was and who she belonged too.
Turns out she was a linchpin between two pimps: one really old-school, one newfangled. And Jesse isn't making any friends as he tries to discover the girl's name.
Meanwhile, when his former accountant goes missing from an Alzheimer's home, Jesse discovers a boatload of malfeasance in the treatment of the patients. His ways of solving the problem seems so obvious but hasn't been tried before.
What didn't work for me as the lack of character development. Frankly Stone seems to be morphing into Spencer, re: his interactions with Gino Fish and the pimps, with Molly, and with Suitcase. And missing was all that internal tension that made Jesse Stone such an interesting character in the first place.
Not a criminal outing, but not even close to true.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I miss Robert B, so Michael gave us his refreshing spin on Jesse: his cat Mildred Memory returns again and some quips that are all Michael's Jesse: "There's something rotten in Denmark"(chapter 11); "You bet your sweet bippy"(chapter 16); "Do you suppose a Hogwarts team descended and cast a spell"(chapter 20);"You talkin' to me"(Chapter 40);"stick it where the sun don't shine"(chapter 42); and "the jig is up"(chapter 47). Remember Robert B gave Jesse a Smith & Wesson .45 for a service weapon in many of his books along with a assortment other concealed weapons, Michael likes a Colt Commander .45. All told I enjoyed all the action & the Goldern Horizons should take Jesse seriously to say the least.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This time around, Brandman actually captures the flavor, the dialogue style, and the characters is a better way than I have seen him do before. Jesse Stone deals with a murder in his town that has links to Boston and an assisted living facility that is abusing its patients. Along the way, Stone talks like we saw his speak in the Parker versions, builds the storyline in much the same manner, and each chapter is written in the crisp and sharp manner we saw in the original Parker written novels.

This one makes me say, Jesse Stone may actually be back.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Police chief Jesse Stone needs to solve a murder of a Jane Doe and prove the inadequacies of Golden Horizons retirement community.

The narrative, which some may call minimalistic, is crisp and easy to read. Fast flowing action is present throughout. Brisk and authentic help to define the characters.

Aside from a few questions, involving regarding chief Stone's secretary, the plot is well explained.

Overall, a quick fun read.

[Gloria ~ mzglorybe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast little read featuring the police chief, Jesse Stone of Paradise, MA. In this installment Jesse is looking for the murderer of a young woman who was probably engaged in the worlds "oldest profession."

A two plot storyline, Stone also uncovers the mistreatment of residents at a nursing home while visiting an elderly friend of his. This sets him off into investigating the facility and its owners.

Entertains, but predictable. Not a lot of action but ok for a weekend read.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert B. Parker's Damned If You Do: a Jesse Stone Novel by Michael Brandman.

I could only give this book 3 stars. It just didn't grab me as the Jesse Stone books did when Parker was alive and writing himself. I'm sure Brandman gave it his best shot but didn't draw me in.

[Jo Hanahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good (and quick read) Jesse Stone book.

[Peter Ackerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty basic connect the dots mystery. Also, read more like a Spenser than a Stone.