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Jesse Stone #14
Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins
In the wake of a huge storm, three bodies are discovered in the rubble of a partially collapsed building in an industrial part of Paradise known as The Swap. One, a man wrapped in a blue tarp, is only hours old. But found within feet of that body are the skeletal remains of two teenage girls who had gone missing during a Fourth of July celebration twenty-five years earlier.
Not only does the earlier crime predate Police Chief Jesse Stone’s arrival in Paradise, but the dead girls were close friends of one of Jesse’s right hand officers, Molly Crane. Things become even more complicated when one of the dead girls’ mothers returns to Paradise to bury her daughter and is promptly murdered. It’s up to Stone to pull off the veil of the past to see if, and if so how, all the murders are connected.
Not only does the earlier crime predate Police Chief Jesse Stone’s arrival in Paradise, but the dead girls were close friends of one of Jesse’s right hand officers, Molly Crane. Things become even more complicated when one of the dead girls’ mothers returns to Paradise to bury her daughter and is promptly murdered. It’s up to Stone to pull off the veil of the past to see if, and if so how, all the murders are connected.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published September 8, 2015
1635 people are currently reading
2039 people want to read
About the author
Reed Farrel Coleman
166 books747 followersaka Tony Spinosa
Reed Farrel Coleman’s love of storytelling originated on the streets of Brooklyn and was nurtured by his teachers, friends, and family.
A New York Times bestseller called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the “noir poet laureate” in the Huffington Post, Reed is the author of novels, including Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series, the acclaimed Moe Prager series, short stories, and poetry.
Reed is a three-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories—Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, Best Short Story—and a three-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards.
A former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America, Reed is an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra University and a founding member of MWA University. Brooklyn born and raised, he now lives with his family–including cats Cleo and Knish–in Suffolk County on Long Island.
Reed Farrel Coleman’s love of storytelling originated on the streets of Brooklyn and was nurtured by his teachers, friends, and family.
A New York Times bestseller called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the “noir poet laureate” in the Huffington Post, Reed is the author of novels, including Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series, the acclaimed Moe Prager series, short stories, and poetry.
Reed is a three-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories—Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, Best Short Story—and a three-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards.
A former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America, Reed is an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra University and a founding member of MWA University. Brooklyn born and raised, he now lives with his family–including cats Cleo and Knish–in Suffolk County on Long Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 474 reviews
September 5, 2022
4 stars for a fast paced library book that I read in 2 days. Yesterday morning I was at p 170 and finished at midnight--350 pages total over 2 days. This is book 14 in the series and I suggest that you read them in order as there are events that carry throughout the series.
This book has a murder taking place in chapter 2, by unnamed killers. They hide the body in an abandoned warehouse. But then a nor'easter blows through Paradise, Mass., and collapses the warehouse. The body is discovered. In the process of demolishing the damaged building, 2 more bodies are discovered. Now Jesse Stone has 3 unsolved murders on his hands. He does solve them , but more deaths occur. I had my suspicions as to the killers, but was not entirely sure until the end.
One Quote: Husband of a victim, talking to Jesse: "We all grieve in different ways. Maxie, I think, has been grieving her whole life, even before Ginny. I don't claim to understand it. I don't know what the pain was in her life before what happened to Ginny. Maxie would never talk about it. But there was a hurt there. Deep-as-a mountain-is-high kind of hurt."
This book has a murder taking place in chapter 2, by unnamed killers. They hide the body in an abandoned warehouse. But then a nor'easter blows through Paradise, Mass., and collapses the warehouse. The body is discovered. In the process of demolishing the damaged building, 2 more bodies are discovered. Now Jesse Stone has 3 unsolved murders on his hands. He does solve them , but more deaths occur. I had my suspicions as to the killers, but was not entirely sure until the end.
One Quote: Husband of a victim, talking to Jesse: "We all grieve in different ways. Maxie, I think, has been grieving her whole life, even before Ginny. I don't claim to understand it. I don't know what the pain was in her life before what happened to Ginny. Maxie would never talk about it. But there was a hurt there. Deep-as-a mountain-is-high kind of hurt."
March 31, 2020
The second Reed Farrel Coleman attempt at Jesse Stone still does not feel like the Robert B. Parker version as it lacks his laidback style with a witticism in this book once more.
Coleman does spend a lot of time on Jesse's alcoholism and which at times is annoying and his thriller aspects of this book like the previous one seem a tad more intricate than I am used with the average Stone novel. He does like to write a complicated story again with some serious roots into the city of Paradise's past this time Molly Crane does feature a major role as two bodies are recovered that prove to be Molly's best friends in the world 25 years earlier when they disappeared. They are found near another body that will remain a John Doe for most of the story and when his identity becomes known the solution is near.
A lot is made of the secrets and shame of little towns concerning big matters in the past and yet nowhere do we really experience this except the writer telling us this on quite a few occasions. As Coleman sticks to his smallish cast of people we never really get to experience this claim and we will have to take this at face value.
Jesse initially has three murders to solve however the body-count increases as he essentially does his job and finds out what went wrong all those years ago and why there seems to be a cover up going on. He gets an ultimatum to solve the crime, once again the expected drunk police-chief solves a crime he was not supposed to actually solve. After ten years being Paradise's chief you'd expect the Town elders to know that they actually got a very decent policeman in their midst who is capable of doing his job.
Decent thriller less than decent Jesse Stone story, but then again it is perhaps not as bad as never getting any new tales. Even though a re-read of these books might be a lot more fun. So far Coleman has not been an improvement on Parker or Brandman, Curious what Tom Selleck might think.
Coleman does spend a lot of time on Jesse's alcoholism and which at times is annoying and his thriller aspects of this book like the previous one seem a tad more intricate than I am used with the average Stone novel. He does like to write a complicated story again with some serious roots into the city of Paradise's past this time Molly Crane does feature a major role as two bodies are recovered that prove to be Molly's best friends in the world 25 years earlier when they disappeared. They are found near another body that will remain a John Doe for most of the story and when his identity becomes known the solution is near.
A lot is made of the secrets and shame of little towns concerning big matters in the past and yet nowhere do we really experience this except the writer telling us this on quite a few occasions. As Coleman sticks to his smallish cast of people we never really get to experience this claim and we will have to take this at face value.
Jesse initially has three murders to solve however the body-count increases as he essentially does his job and finds out what went wrong all those years ago and why there seems to be a cover up going on. He gets an ultimatum to solve the crime, once again the expected drunk police-chief solves a crime he was not supposed to actually solve. After ten years being Paradise's chief you'd expect the Town elders to know that they actually got a very decent policeman in their midst who is capable of doing his job.
Decent thriller less than decent Jesse Stone story, but then again it is perhaps not as bad as never getting any new tales. Even though a re-read of these books might be a lot more fun. So far Coleman has not been an improvement on Parker or Brandman, Curious what Tom Selleck might think.
September 12, 2015
(3 1/2) I rounded this one uo to four stars because I am just so thrilled with the way that Coleman has taken this franchise and grown it. Not only is this an interesting story, Jesse just gets better and better. There is barely a cliche in the entire book. We have good character development, especially for Molly and Suit, and a terrific old and new, back and forth deal that keeps you turning pages until the very end. Good stuff!
October 29, 2024
This is tough to rate because while I don't like the story, the writing kept my interest. 4 of 10 stars
March 9, 2024
4 Stars. A great mystery and thriller combination. The mystery? Did something happen 25 years ago on the evening of July 4th just outside Paradise, Massachusetts which resulted in the disappearance of two teenage girls? The thriller? How far would any unknown individuals involved in their disappearance go in order to prevent Police Chief Jesse Stone from finding out? A vicious storm from the Atlantic makes landfall and hits Paradise right on the nose. One result? An old, abandoned factory partially collapses and Fire Chief Robbie Wilson and his crew discover three bodies in the rubble. One is a man murdered yesterday; he's badly disfigured. The two others are skeletons which appear to be from 25 years ago. The girls are identified fairly quickly but why was this other person buried in the same place? And who is he? The story is superb as we follow Jesse Stone and officer Molly Crane who was a close friend of the girls, Mary Kate O'Hara and Ginny Connolly, as they edge towards the truth. Here's a clue to prospective readers - keep an eye on each character. Most of them have a role to play in the resolution. I shouldn't add anything more! (De2023/Mar2024)
December 11, 2025
Two 16 year old girls from Paradise disappeared 25 years ago. Now, a deceased male is found in a building and the remains of the missing girls are found buried nearby. A connection? Another good Jesse Stone story full of complications and small town politics. Great series!!
October 4, 2015
“You know what I think, Chief Stone?”
“What’s that?”
“Most of the time he loses, but sometimes the devil wins.” (Page 243)
It isn’t a point Police Chief Jesse Stone can argue. First with the LAPD and now with the Paradise PD, Stone has seen things that prove to him that evil does exist in the world whether or not one wants to specifically ascribe such things to the devil. It is especially true currently with the discovery of the recent bodies in Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins.
The Nor’easter that struck Paradise, Massachusetts was a hard storm. It did damage around the area including causing the partial collapse of an old abandoned factory building on Trench Alley. This is an area of town that does not fit the picture post card idea of a scenic New England town and won’t any time soon. It is an area of decay featuring old and long abandoned warehouse buildings that in their day provided jobs and now serve to be last resort refuge for the homeless, drug users, and others.
In checking out the collapse, Office Molly Crane found a body. A body that near as she could tell in the few minutes she was surveying the scene had not been there long. She didn’t get to look at the scene much before the Fire Department folks arrived and she was ordered out of the building. Good thing to as minutes after Jesse Stone arrives on site and is briefed by Crane, more of the building collapses.
When, days later, Molly and Jesse are finally allowed back into the building they discover that the body is not alone. Two other bodies, dead for years, are also present. Two skeletons that, based on what little are left, appear to be childhood friends of Molly Crane. Two young teen friends who vanished without a trace years ago.
With Suit still recovering from recent events and limited to desk duty and Molly nowhere near the top of her game due to her close proximity to the case, it is up to Jesse Stone to figure out what happened and how everything is connected. He also has to stop a killer or killers bent on tying up their last few loose ends.
Author Reed Farrel Coleman’s latest effort in the Jesse Stone series is another good one. This read finds Jesse finally at home in Paradise (after all it has been ten years) and at peace with his drinking. In several other areas he is not remotely at peace and the guilt over those situations drives him as he works to solve the murders in a town that doesn’t want to deal with its own shameful past. Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins is another good one as Red Farrell Coleman makes it all work from start to twisted and surprising finish.
Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins: A Jesse Stone Novel
Reed Farrel Coleman
http://www.reedcoleman.com
Thorndike Press (Gale Cengage Learning)
http://www.gale.cengage.com/thorndike
September 2015
ISBN# 978-1-4104-8027-9
LARGE PRINT Hardback (also available in regular print hardback, e-book, and audio formats)
490 Pages
$37.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Public Library System who do not care if my review is objective or not and just want their books and movies back on time and undamaged.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2015
“What’s that?”
“Most of the time he loses, but sometimes the devil wins.” (Page 243)
It isn’t a point Police Chief Jesse Stone can argue. First with the LAPD and now with the Paradise PD, Stone has seen things that prove to him that evil does exist in the world whether or not one wants to specifically ascribe such things to the devil. It is especially true currently with the discovery of the recent bodies in Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins.
The Nor’easter that struck Paradise, Massachusetts was a hard storm. It did damage around the area including causing the partial collapse of an old abandoned factory building on Trench Alley. This is an area of town that does not fit the picture post card idea of a scenic New England town and won’t any time soon. It is an area of decay featuring old and long abandoned warehouse buildings that in their day provided jobs and now serve to be last resort refuge for the homeless, drug users, and others.
In checking out the collapse, Office Molly Crane found a body. A body that near as she could tell in the few minutes she was surveying the scene had not been there long. She didn’t get to look at the scene much before the Fire Department folks arrived and she was ordered out of the building. Good thing to as minutes after Jesse Stone arrives on site and is briefed by Crane, more of the building collapses.
When, days later, Molly and Jesse are finally allowed back into the building they discover that the body is not alone. Two other bodies, dead for years, are also present. Two skeletons that, based on what little are left, appear to be childhood friends of Molly Crane. Two young teen friends who vanished without a trace years ago.
With Suit still recovering from recent events and limited to desk duty and Molly nowhere near the top of her game due to her close proximity to the case, it is up to Jesse Stone to figure out what happened and how everything is connected. He also has to stop a killer or killers bent on tying up their last few loose ends.
Author Reed Farrel Coleman’s latest effort in the Jesse Stone series is another good one. This read finds Jesse finally at home in Paradise (after all it has been ten years) and at peace with his drinking. In several other areas he is not remotely at peace and the guilt over those situations drives him as he works to solve the murders in a town that doesn’t want to deal with its own shameful past. Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins is another good one as Red Farrell Coleman makes it all work from start to twisted and surprising finish.
Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins: A Jesse Stone Novel
Reed Farrel Coleman
http://www.reedcoleman.com
Thorndike Press (Gale Cengage Learning)
http://www.gale.cengage.com/thorndike
September 2015
ISBN# 978-1-4104-8027-9
LARGE PRINT Hardback (also available in regular print hardback, e-book, and audio formats)
490 Pages
$37.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Public Library System who do not care if my review is objective or not and just want their books and movies back on time and undamaged.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2015
September 14, 2015
"The Devil Wins, a Jesse Stone Novel" is a continuation of the series by the late Robert B. Parker, and is written, in this effort, by Reed Farrell Coleman.
I did not know of Mr. Coleman's other works, which include the " Moe Prager" series of crime novels, but after reading this book, I will be reading more of Mr. Farrell's novels.
In short, Mr. Coleman has taken the character of Jesse Stone and lifted the series to a higher level.
There was greater insight and depth to This book than in any of the other novels, including the ones written by Parker, I think. In the previous novels, the dialog was everything. The was little description or exposition. Jesse Stone was a almost a cartoon of the tough, but warm, conflicted but dedicated cop.
Jesse Stone, with his trademark one-word answers and closed-off personality, his brooding and prickly assertiveness remains the center of this book, as he should. But Mr . Coleman expands and illuminates the character, just as an artist adds color and nuance to a pencil sketch. The reader comes away with a greater awareness of the turmoil inside Stone, his attraction and repulsion to booze and fear of further failure in his personal and professional life. Jesse Stone is less a cartoon figure on which a plot is hung, than a real, flawed, struggling person.
As to the plot, it is nothing new; it is the usual murder in the town of Paradise, with Jesse's job as Chief of Police on the line. The story is interesting but in this book, I think everyone, all the characters are better developed, with their motivations more fully presented than ever. The outcome is a sad one. As Jesse muses at the end, sometimes the devil wins; the sweetness of victory is never quite as sweet as the bitterness of losing.
And if that does not tempt you into reading " The Devil Wins", it should.
Recommended. I hope mr. Coleman continues writing further about Jesse Stone. Ther is a lot more to tell.
I did not know of Mr. Coleman's other works, which include the " Moe Prager" series of crime novels, but after reading this book, I will be reading more of Mr. Farrell's novels.
In short, Mr. Coleman has taken the character of Jesse Stone and lifted the series to a higher level.
There was greater insight and depth to This book than in any of the other novels, including the ones written by Parker, I think. In the previous novels, the dialog was everything. The was little description or exposition. Jesse Stone was a almost a cartoon of the tough, but warm, conflicted but dedicated cop.
Jesse Stone, with his trademark one-word answers and closed-off personality, his brooding and prickly assertiveness remains the center of this book, as he should. But Mr . Coleman expands and illuminates the character, just as an artist adds color and nuance to a pencil sketch. The reader comes away with a greater awareness of the turmoil inside Stone, his attraction and repulsion to booze and fear of further failure in his personal and professional life. Jesse Stone is less a cartoon figure on which a plot is hung, than a real, flawed, struggling person.
As to the plot, it is nothing new; it is the usual murder in the town of Paradise, with Jesse's job as Chief of Police on the line. The story is interesting but in this book, I think everyone, all the characters are better developed, with their motivations more fully presented than ever. The outcome is a sad one. As Jesse muses at the end, sometimes the devil wins; the sweetness of victory is never quite as sweet as the bitterness of losing.
And if that does not tempt you into reading " The Devil Wins", it should.
Recommended. I hope mr. Coleman continues writing further about Jesse Stone. Ther is a lot more to tell.
September 14, 2015
Any similarity between the writing of Robert B. Parker and this book is purely coincidental. If you love Parker's stuff the way I do, don't even bother with this.
October 15, 2023
Entertaining mystery listening 🎶🔰
This is a novel e-book from the local library.
A dead body in found at a building being demolish. They find the bodies of two young girls 👧that have been missing for twenty-five years. It has been a cold case for that time. The local mother is told but has issues dealing with it. The other mother returns and then appears to commit suicide. The investigation leads everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Then a phone ☎ call from Arizona starts to being out the truth to three murders plus two more and two arrest.
I would recommend this series and various authors to readers of romantic, family and friends relationships, murder mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 👒😀😡💘🏡
This is a novel e-book from the local library.
A dead body in found at a building being demolish. They find the bodies of two young girls 👧that have been missing for twenty-five years. It has been a cold case for that time. The local mother is told but has issues dealing with it. The other mother returns and then appears to commit suicide. The investigation leads everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Then a phone ☎ call from Arizona starts to being out the truth to three murders plus two more and two arrest.
I would recommend this series and various authors to readers of romantic, family and friends relationships, murder mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 👒😀😡💘🏡
November 26, 2016
The Devil Wins – An excellent crime thriller
Robert B. Parker died in 2010 and is literary estate has allowed a few authors to continue some of his writing. Reed Farrel Coleman has taken on his voice and style with the Jesse Stone novels and has continued these excellent stories and developing the character of Jesse Stone.
Jesse Stone is making sure the town of Paradise has taken all the necessary precautions as a massive storm is heading the towns way. Stone has been police chief now for ten years and reckons he just about has the pulse of the town now. After the storm, has blown through town, three bodies have been found in a collapsed industrial unit, and Office Molly Crane is sure that two of the bodies are those of her friends who disappeared twenty-five years previously.
Under pressure from the local politicians Stone must complete his investigation in full glare of the national press as they descend on Paradise. Things become more complicated when one of the murder girl’s mothers is murdered herself things become even more difficult for him. Mixed with the fact that Paradise does not like talking about its darkest part of history, Jesse Stone is up against things.
The Devil Wins is an excellent crime thriller novel that will keep the reader gripped throughout and just when you think you know what is going on there is another twist to keep you guessing. Wonderful, and short book that it is, it is still better than many crime thrillers twice its size.
Robert B. Parker died in 2010 and is literary estate has allowed a few authors to continue some of his writing. Reed Farrel Coleman has taken on his voice and style with the Jesse Stone novels and has continued these excellent stories and developing the character of Jesse Stone.
Jesse Stone is making sure the town of Paradise has taken all the necessary precautions as a massive storm is heading the towns way. Stone has been police chief now for ten years and reckons he just about has the pulse of the town now. After the storm, has blown through town, three bodies have been found in a collapsed industrial unit, and Office Molly Crane is sure that two of the bodies are those of her friends who disappeared twenty-five years previously.
Under pressure from the local politicians Stone must complete his investigation in full glare of the national press as they descend on Paradise. Things become more complicated when one of the murder girl’s mothers is murdered herself things become even more difficult for him. Mixed with the fact that Paradise does not like talking about its darkest part of history, Jesse Stone is up against things.
The Devil Wins is an excellent crime thriller novel that will keep the reader gripped throughout and just when you think you know what is going on there is another twist to keep you guessing. Wonderful, and short book that it is, it is still better than many crime thrillers twice its size.
March 15, 2016
The story was very good, well plotted. That being said, Coleman misses the mark with the characters. Jesse's relationship with Suit & Molly is off and his relationship with Dix is a disaster. I did like Tamara, the new lady interest. Of course she was Coleman's character to define, but he really needs to work on the long term relationships. Recommended to fans of mysteries, but dont expect Parker's Stone.
September 21, 2016
Disappointing.
April 7, 2016
It's my own fault for wanting another story with the lead character. This author takes Parker's dark style and makes it depressing. The plot was fine but the characters were Coleman's not Parkers.
January 15, 2018
I went into this one expecting nothing and found my first Favorite Read to add to my shelf for the year. If you like books with strong female characters you most likely would love this. Maybe it would be best to start with #1 in the series, but I had no difficulty without having done it. If only my digital library had the whole series in audio.
October 19, 2019
Reed Coleman did an excellent job with Jesse Stone trying to solve two 25 year old murders after a series of apparently related murders rock present day Paradise. A handful of irritating firearm related descriptive errors but most people probably won't notice. Jesse's relationship with Suit is front and center in this adventure, and Molly plays a significant part of the backstory. The teasing love interest is a terrific touch that makes Jesse all the more human! Very well done story!
August 17, 2017
This is Coleman’s second book since he has taken over the Jesse Stone Series. In this installment, Coleman picks up where his last book left off and begins to focus more on the supporting characters in the police department in Paradise, giving us a better sense of the town and its people.
Luther Suitcase Simpson who was gut shot last spring as he helped Jesse out of a tight spot with a hired assassin known as Mr. Peepers, is now back at work on light duty assigned to Molly Crane’s job at the desk. Suit hates it and makes no bones about how he feels being in the office, longing to be out on in the field where Molly has taken his role in the patrol rotation. But Jesse is reluctant to let him out on the streets too early. He still has guilt feelings about what happened to Suit who was just doing what Jesse had taught him to do, take the initiative. But look what happened. Things went terribly wrong and Jesse feels responsible.
The police are helping to pick up the pieces after a Nor’easter dumped a foot of snow on the small seaside town of Paradise. An old, long abandoned factory building in the industrial part of town known as The Swap has collapsed and as firemen clear the wreckage, they discover a body wrapped in a tarp under the rubble. They call the police who in the process of retrieving the first body, discover the skeletal remains of two other bodies in a hole near the man in the tarp. The first body has not been there long but the skeletal remains have been there for years. Molly notices a telltale ring near one of the skeletons and quickly identifies them as two of her close friends from Sacred Heart High, sixteen year old Mary Kate O’Hara and Ginny Connolly, who went missing twenty-five years ago. The discovery shakes her to the core.
The two girls had gone to the July 4th celebrations and had agreed to meet friends following the fireworks and the concert in the park, but then never showed up. No one knew they were missing until 3 AM and the police were not called until early the next morning. The chief at the time hesitated to call the state police, so when he did, any possible trail left behind had long gone cold. The girls simply vanished and with no clues or tips, the commonly held thinking was they had simply run away from home.
The body wrapped in the tarp had come to a violent end. The face is half blown off and there are two bullet holes in his head. With the jaw completely disintegrated and absent of teeth, they will have a hard time identifying him. The only clue they have is a strange dragon tattoo on one of his arms.
The case of the missing girls has been one of biggest unsolved mysteries in Paradise history. Jesse has been in town a decade now and wonders why he never heard of it. Molly is being very closed mouthed, so close to the case it seems to have thrown her off balance. Jesse feels she is keeping something from him but is not sure what it is. And the entire town seems reluctant to help him.
After Maxie Connolly arrives in town to pick up the body of her daughter Virginia, more bodies appear, making the town council increasingly nervous. Paradise is an attractive tourist destination but it won’t be one for long with rumours of dead bodies in the news. Jess is frustrated with few clues and little help from the townspeople to move the investigation forward. The council becomes impatient and hand Jesse a short deadline to solve the murders or lose his job.
This story introduces readers to Tamara Elkin the new medical examiner in town. She is long legged and beautiful, just the kind Jesse likes, but he is still carrying a torch for Diana Evans the former FBI agent he met in New York. Diana is still trying to sort out her life after they worked a case together and Jesse has only seen her once since last spring. To add fuel to the fire, Jesse has once more received a call from his ex-wife Jenn who he hasn’t spoken to in almost a year. It took Jesse a long time and several sessions with Dix to figure out that relationship with the woman he still cares about, but he is better able to deal with these reminders from his past.
Drinking remains a big part of Jesse’s life and he still talks to Dix about it. He gives it up for weeks at a time but believes it doesn’t make him a better chief or a happy one. The desire for drink never leaves him. He likes the taste, the feeling and all the rituals he associates it with, including his talks with Ozzie Smith, caught in action on the poster on his wall.
Coleman has delivered another good addition to the series, providing the reader with a well-crafted, complex plot and adding more depth to the characters allowing them to change, grow and develop. He is making good progress in moving the series forward and giving it new life, focusing more on the supporting cast rather than letting Jesse dominate the work. Parker is gone. No one can replicate his work nor would anyone want to. Coleman has not tried to imitate him. He has a different style and a different tone. Readers must leave Parker’s Jesse behind if they want to continue with the series. I for one am happy with Coleman’s ability to pick up where Parker left off and break new ground.
Luther Suitcase Simpson who was gut shot last spring as he helped Jesse out of a tight spot with a hired assassin known as Mr. Peepers, is now back at work on light duty assigned to Molly Crane’s job at the desk. Suit hates it and makes no bones about how he feels being in the office, longing to be out on in the field where Molly has taken his role in the patrol rotation. But Jesse is reluctant to let him out on the streets too early. He still has guilt feelings about what happened to Suit who was just doing what Jesse had taught him to do, take the initiative. But look what happened. Things went terribly wrong and Jesse feels responsible.
The police are helping to pick up the pieces after a Nor’easter dumped a foot of snow on the small seaside town of Paradise. An old, long abandoned factory building in the industrial part of town known as The Swap has collapsed and as firemen clear the wreckage, they discover a body wrapped in a tarp under the rubble. They call the police who in the process of retrieving the first body, discover the skeletal remains of two other bodies in a hole near the man in the tarp. The first body has not been there long but the skeletal remains have been there for years. Molly notices a telltale ring near one of the skeletons and quickly identifies them as two of her close friends from Sacred Heart High, sixteen year old Mary Kate O’Hara and Ginny Connolly, who went missing twenty-five years ago. The discovery shakes her to the core.
The two girls had gone to the July 4th celebrations and had agreed to meet friends following the fireworks and the concert in the park, but then never showed up. No one knew they were missing until 3 AM and the police were not called until early the next morning. The chief at the time hesitated to call the state police, so when he did, any possible trail left behind had long gone cold. The girls simply vanished and with no clues or tips, the commonly held thinking was they had simply run away from home.
The body wrapped in the tarp had come to a violent end. The face is half blown off and there are two bullet holes in his head. With the jaw completely disintegrated and absent of teeth, they will have a hard time identifying him. The only clue they have is a strange dragon tattoo on one of his arms.
The case of the missing girls has been one of biggest unsolved mysteries in Paradise history. Jesse has been in town a decade now and wonders why he never heard of it. Molly is being very closed mouthed, so close to the case it seems to have thrown her off balance. Jesse feels she is keeping something from him but is not sure what it is. And the entire town seems reluctant to help him.
After Maxie Connolly arrives in town to pick up the body of her daughter Virginia, more bodies appear, making the town council increasingly nervous. Paradise is an attractive tourist destination but it won’t be one for long with rumours of dead bodies in the news. Jess is frustrated with few clues and little help from the townspeople to move the investigation forward. The council becomes impatient and hand Jesse a short deadline to solve the murders or lose his job.
This story introduces readers to Tamara Elkin the new medical examiner in town. She is long legged and beautiful, just the kind Jesse likes, but he is still carrying a torch for Diana Evans the former FBI agent he met in New York. Diana is still trying to sort out her life after they worked a case together and Jesse has only seen her once since last spring. To add fuel to the fire, Jesse has once more received a call from his ex-wife Jenn who he hasn’t spoken to in almost a year. It took Jesse a long time and several sessions with Dix to figure out that relationship with the woman he still cares about, but he is better able to deal with these reminders from his past.
Drinking remains a big part of Jesse’s life and he still talks to Dix about it. He gives it up for weeks at a time but believes it doesn’t make him a better chief or a happy one. The desire for drink never leaves him. He likes the taste, the feeling and all the rituals he associates it with, including his talks with Ozzie Smith, caught in action on the poster on his wall.
Coleman has delivered another good addition to the series, providing the reader with a well-crafted, complex plot and adding more depth to the characters allowing them to change, grow and develop. He is making good progress in moving the series forward and giving it new life, focusing more on the supporting cast rather than letting Jesse dominate the work. Parker is gone. No one can replicate his work nor would anyone want to. Coleman has not tried to imitate him. He has a different style and a different tone. Readers must leave Parker’s Jesse behind if they want to continue with the series. I for one am happy with Coleman’s ability to pick up where Parker left off and break new ground.
April 30, 2022
A Little Disappointed
I love all the Jesse Stone books I’ve read so far, but I guessed the bad guy way too early. It was an interesting plot, about a murder of two teenagers 25 years earlier, and how it affected Molly, the policewoman who worked for Jesse. It was an okay read.
I love all the Jesse Stone books I’ve read so far, but I guessed the bad guy way too early. It was an interesting plot, about a murder of two teenagers 25 years earlier, and how it affected Molly, the policewoman who worked for Jesse. It was an okay read.
November 1, 2016
From the publisher: In the wake of a huge nor’easter, three bodies are discovered in the rubble of an abandoned factory building in an industrial part of Paradise known as the Swap. One body, a man’s, wrapped in a blue tarp, is only hours old. But within feet of that body are the skeletal remains of two teenage girls - - soon discovered to be the bodies of girls who went missing during a Fourth of July celebration twenty-five years earlier. Not only does that crime predate Jesse Stone’s arrival in Paradise, but the dead girls were close friends of Jesse’s right hand, Officer Molly Crane. And things grow o\een more complicated when the mother of one of the dead girls returns to Paradise to bury her daughter and is promptly murdered. It’s up to Police Chief Jesse Stone to pul away the veil of the past to see how all the murders are connected.
Jesse has been the Chief of Police in Paradise, Massachusetts for over a decade, having left his days as an LA homicide detective behind him.” (His drinking at that time of his life being the predominant cause.) But he had found a home in Paradise, in more than the literal sense. His colleagues, among them Molly, Captain Healy (head of the State homicide bureau), and Fire Dept. Chief Robbie Wilson, are wonderfully brought to life by the author (who picked up this series after the passing of Jesse’s creator, Robert B. Parker, and done complete justice to him, and the series). Molly has four kids and a husband, and has recently been promoted to detective, replacing his good friend, Luther “Suitcase”\ Simpson, usually referred to as Suit, after he was seriously wounded in an incident where he took a bullet for Jesse, literally.
The reappearance of ghosts from 25 years ago makes it clear to Jesse that “the past was unrelenting and no grave was deep enough to keep it buried forever . . . “those two girls found down there needed a voice, and he meant to give it to them.” And three murders certainly present a challenge to him, not helped by more bodies that soon turn up. Jesse’s private life is looking up, however – he had been divorced for many years from his [cheating] wife when he meets the new ME, Tamara Elkin, who had come to Paradise from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of NYC, in what she describes as “a long story” left for another time.
The title derives from some philosophizing about fate and the devil being unseen factors driving what we do, and what is done to us, one character saying to Jesse, speaking of the devil [no pun intended], “Most of the time he loses, but sometimes the devil wins.”
The author wraps it up with a couple of unexpected twists that I for one did not see coming, and doesn’t let up on the suspense as to the identity of the remaining ‘bad guys’ until very late in the book, in very satisfying manner. (Parenthetically, I loved his reminiscences of Ozzie Smith, the great shortstop, called “the Wizard of Oz,” a poster of whom hangs in his house.)
A fast read that lives up to the previous novels of the Messrs. Parker and Coleman, and one that is recommended.
Jesse has been the Chief of Police in Paradise, Massachusetts for over a decade, having left his days as an LA homicide detective behind him.” (His drinking at that time of his life being the predominant cause.) But he had found a home in Paradise, in more than the literal sense. His colleagues, among them Molly, Captain Healy (head of the State homicide bureau), and Fire Dept. Chief Robbie Wilson, are wonderfully brought to life by the author (who picked up this series after the passing of Jesse’s creator, Robert B. Parker, and done complete justice to him, and the series). Molly has four kids and a husband, and has recently been promoted to detective, replacing his good friend, Luther “Suitcase”\ Simpson, usually referred to as Suit, after he was seriously wounded in an incident where he took a bullet for Jesse, literally.
The reappearance of ghosts from 25 years ago makes it clear to Jesse that “the past was unrelenting and no grave was deep enough to keep it buried forever . . . “those two girls found down there needed a voice, and he meant to give it to them.” And three murders certainly present a challenge to him, not helped by more bodies that soon turn up. Jesse’s private life is looking up, however – he had been divorced for many years from his [cheating] wife when he meets the new ME, Tamara Elkin, who had come to Paradise from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of NYC, in what she describes as “a long story” left for another time.
The title derives from some philosophizing about fate and the devil being unseen factors driving what we do, and what is done to us, one character saying to Jesse, speaking of the devil [no pun intended], “Most of the time he loses, but sometimes the devil wins.”
The author wraps it up with a couple of unexpected twists that I for one did not see coming, and doesn’t let up on the suspense as to the identity of the remaining ‘bad guys’ until very late in the book, in very satisfying manner. (Parenthetically, I loved his reminiscences of Ozzie Smith, the great shortstop, called “the Wizard of Oz,” a poster of whom hangs in his house.)
A fast read that lives up to the previous novels of the Messrs. Parker and Coleman, and one that is recommended.
June 6, 2020
Once again I confess to an addiction. I will read all of these books.
September 19, 2015
Parker’s 9-book Jesse Stone series is one of our favorites. We heartily welcomed the 3-book continuation to feature the Paradise Mass. Police Chief by Michael Brandman, who was particularly well qualified as playwright of the eight (with a ninth in the offing!) made-for-TV Stone movies. We weren’t about to skip the 13th book, “Blind Spot”, despite the switch to author Reed Coleman. However, we did not enjoy his first attempt, as he shortchanged the characters, especially Jesse as mostly a drunk, in favor of a deeply complicated plot. We found Coleman did a lot better with this latest, #14 “Devil Wins” – while he still discusses Jesse’s drinking habits more than we might prefer, the characters are much more center stage, with some excellent scenes featuring policemen Molly and “Suit” Simpson. Jesse also meets an interesting new ME, Tamara Elkins; and she takes the initiative to befriend our hero, with “benefits” in mind, but as yet not consummated. Hmmmmm !
The plot was again somewhat complicated, but suspenseful and interesting. A John Doe’s body is found murdered, along with the skeletal remains of two girls missing for over 25 years – as it turns out, good friends of Molly. The task of identifying the victims and then drumming up clues is not easy, but of course our hero is up to the task, eventually using bait to lure the final villain in a rather twisty ending.
MUCH better, Mr. Coleman – please proceed with #15 !
The plot was again somewhat complicated, but suspenseful and interesting. A John Doe’s body is found murdered, along with the skeletal remains of two girls missing for over 25 years – as it turns out, good friends of Molly. The task of identifying the victims and then drumming up clues is not easy, but of course our hero is up to the task, eventually using bait to lure the final villain in a rather twisty ending.
MUCH better, Mr. Coleman – please proceed with #15 !
December 18, 2015
I have mixed emotions about this book. I loved Robert Parker's writing. Anyone trying to carry on the series would have a hard time. I'm generally not a fan of other writers trying to continue a series. Add to that I received an ARC. I'm generally not a fan of continuations but I thought I'd give it a try.
It was all right. I don't think he quite got the characters' voices. The plot was convoluted but not that engaging. Two girls had been murdered years before but their bodies never found until a nor'easter hit Paradise. Found near them is a contemporary body. Jesse investigates and the bodies start piling up. There's a side story with the mother of one of the dead girls that seemed unnecessary.
I hate resolutions where the protagonist's friends are the perpetrators. It's just too "red shirt."
It was all right. I don't think he quite got the characters' voices. The plot was convoluted but not that engaging. Two girls had been murdered years before but their bodies never found until a nor'easter hit Paradise. Found near them is a contemporary body. Jesse investigates and the bodies start piling up. There's a side story with the mother of one of the dead girls that seemed unnecessary.
I hate resolutions where the protagonist's friends are the perpetrators. It's just too "red shirt."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2016
I truly couldn't put this book down. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Paradise x 7 murders. The first two murders took place twenty-five years ago and now due to a nor'easter a body was found alongside the remains of two missing girls. The body is beyond recognition to include dental identification.
The killer has every intention of keeping his identity a secret until the mother of one of the victims come to claim her daughter's body & becomes murder victim number four. While Jesse is trying to resolve the murders that ignited this macabre, others are determined to benefit from these murders; results in murder number five. The two other murders are for self-preservation.
Well written and provides insight about people not really knowing the intentions of others as well as not knowing what others will do. Simply written and entertaining.
The killer has every intention of keeping his identity a secret until the mother of one of the victims come to claim her daughter's body & becomes murder victim number four. While Jesse is trying to resolve the murders that ignited this macabre, others are determined to benefit from these murders; results in murder number five. The two other murders are for self-preservation.
Well written and provides insight about people not really knowing the intentions of others as well as not knowing what others will do. Simply written and entertaining.
October 4, 2015
Reed Farrel Coleman continues the Jesse Stone series begun by Robert B. Parker, taking the characters in slightly new directions as they deal with their pasts.
Paradise, MA is rocked when three bodies are uncovered following a violent storm. The man was recently murdered, but the two girls disappeared decades ago. As usual, Jesse uses his wits - inspired by late night drinking - more than his brawn to discover the perpetrators.
The blend of Jesse's side of the story with cryptic chapters about the murderers allows the reader to know a little more than Jesse and prevents a tedious "reveal" at the end.
Paradise, MA is rocked when three bodies are uncovered following a violent storm. The man was recently murdered, but the two girls disappeared decades ago. As usual, Jesse uses his wits - inspired by late night drinking - more than his brawn to discover the perpetrators.
The blend of Jesse's side of the story with cryptic chapters about the murderers allows the reader to know a little more than Jesse and prevents a tedious "reveal" at the end.
September 22, 2015
Another home run in the legacy of Robert B. Parker. The author, who passed on five years ago, created a cast of compelling central characters. He told their stories in a witty and unique style. A handful of select authors have been retained to carry the characters forward, adopting Parker's style, voice and skillful plotting. Usually, this approach simply doesn't work (in the case of Tom Clancy, for example). Coleman, however, hits all the right notes in this thriller about murder in a small coastal town.
October 1, 2015
Bravo for continuing the series and giving voice to Jesse once again. Is this a darker Jesse Stone with more drinking demons, or simply the view of a twenty-five year old cold case from someone who sees life in relation to the next drink, or the last bottle? Either way a contemporary killing spree in Paradise, seemingly tied to the old case has Jesse on the hot seat for his job again and provides a taut resolution. More please.
December 21, 2015
Before the book, I want to say how impressed I am that that the Parker estate has chosen Reed Farrel Coleman to continue the Jesse Stone series...Coleman has masterfully captured Parker's style & tone to provide us with the continuing story of Jesse...thank you & I'll I will be reading more of Coleman's Moe Prager novels...Jesse & Paradise must confront 25 yr.-old murders of 2 young girls who were friends of Molly's as well as a John Doe & other bodies as they pile up...GREAT READ!!!
September 18, 2015
I think Reed Farrell Coleman and Ace Atkins come closest to emulating Robert B. Parker's style and wit.
February 8, 2018
Six-word review: Past infecting the present, Jesse wins.
Ordinarily continuing a series after the originator has died is a non-starter for me. The Lustbader attempt to continue the Bourne series is an example of such an attempt not working. In this case, Coleman's Jesse Stone continuation is very well done.
The book opens with a Nor'easter blowing through Paradise, Mass., a second tier suburb of Boston. Jesse Stone, ex- LAPD detective and current Paradise police chief has finally come to the realization that he is OK here and has let go of LA. He's also come to grips with his drinking and can no longer be considered a drunkard.
After the storm blows itself out he is called out to a collapsed building holding a dead body wrapped in a tarp, obviously murdered. When he and Officer Molly Crane are finally allowed in the building, they are directed to two additional bodies or rather skeletons that have obviously been there a long time. They turn out to be the corpses of two of Molly's friends who had disappeared 25 years ago. Stone is immediately put under pressure to solve the case as it reflects badly on the town, at least in the mind of the mayor and the selectmen. It is unclear whether the three murders are connected.
To complicate matters, the mother of one of the murdered girls comes back to claim the body and is also killed, though at first the death is called a suicide. With a shorthanded department, a town not eager to uncover the past and an aggressive media to say nothing of no evidence linking anyone to any of the crimes, Stone works the cases to a successful conclusion with the help of his State Police colleague and friend Captain Healy.
Coleman does a good job of capturing the strengths and flaws of Jesse Stone as well as Parker did. Coleman's Jesse is mostly indistinguishable from Parker's. Coleman also plots the story in a suspenseful manner, keeping the reader guessing as to how Jesse is going to solve the mystery and trap the murderers.
While reading the previous books in the series helps one to understand some of the nuances of Stone's relationship to the town and its people, this book can also stand alone. I've read most of Parker's character-driven books out of order and never felt I was missing whatever I needed to understand what was going on.
Ordinarily continuing a series after the originator has died is a non-starter for me. The Lustbader attempt to continue the Bourne series is an example of such an attempt not working. In this case, Coleman's Jesse Stone continuation is very well done.
The book opens with a Nor'easter blowing through Paradise, Mass., a second tier suburb of Boston. Jesse Stone, ex- LAPD detective and current Paradise police chief has finally come to the realization that he is OK here and has let go of LA. He's also come to grips with his drinking and can no longer be considered a drunkard.
After the storm blows itself out he is called out to a collapsed building holding a dead body wrapped in a tarp, obviously murdered. When he and Officer Molly Crane are finally allowed in the building, they are directed to two additional bodies or rather skeletons that have obviously been there a long time. They turn out to be the corpses of two of Molly's friends who had disappeared 25 years ago. Stone is immediately put under pressure to solve the case as it reflects badly on the town, at least in the mind of the mayor and the selectmen. It is unclear whether the three murders are connected.
To complicate matters, the mother of one of the murdered girls comes back to claim the body and is also killed, though at first the death is called a suicide. With a shorthanded department, a town not eager to uncover the past and an aggressive media to say nothing of no evidence linking anyone to any of the crimes, Stone works the cases to a successful conclusion with the help of his State Police colleague and friend Captain Healy.
Coleman does a good job of capturing the strengths and flaws of Jesse Stone as well as Parker did. Coleman's Jesse is mostly indistinguishable from Parker's. Coleman also plots the story in a suspenseful manner, keeping the reader guessing as to how Jesse is going to solve the mystery and trap the murderers.
While reading the previous books in the series helps one to understand some of the nuances of Stone's relationship to the town and its people, this book can also stand alone. I've read most of Parker's character-driven books out of order and never felt I was missing whatever I needed to understand what was going on.
June 24, 2018
I can't believe this is #14 of the Jessie Stone series. There is no Statute of Limitations on murder. Isn't that a blessing in itself !!!!!
Page 35. . . He recalled how he had been taught to keep extensive and thorough notes, especially during a homicide investigation. Jesse's murder books were legend. No detail was too small to escape mention, because you just never knew what would lead you to the killer. . . .
Page 36 . . . It was only after the state police came in to help that the girls' bank records were checked--something a big-city department would have done immediately. . . .
Page 46 . . . The morgue, with its somber, antiseptic chill and stainless steel, was a different experience. Somehow the sterility of the place, the forced distancing of the bodies from their humanity, had a paradoxical effect on Jesse. They becamse more than cases to him here. . . .
Page 58 . . . Silence was a great asset for a cop. He had learned that early on. If you keep quiet, the people you're interviewing can't bear it. They will fill up the empty space with their own chatter and sometimes, if you're lucky, they fill it up with answers. . . .
Page 59. . . For his decade-plus in paradise, Jesse had been able to count on Molly to be Molly. Sure, he loved her, but it was love at arm's length. Sure, he knew her husband and kids, but he didn't involve himself in their lives. It was love born of his need for routine, and no one, not even Johnnie Walker, was more reliable, more rock-solid, than Molly. Until now. She had always been there when he needed her. He trusted her. Her judgments. She wasn't anything like the other women Jesse had been attracted to in appearance or attitude. She wasn't blonde or classically beautiful. She wasn't needy. She didn't need or wanto be rescued. Suddenly, that had all seemed to change.
It was more than that, too. . . .
Page 35. . . He recalled how he had been taught to keep extensive and thorough notes, especially during a homicide investigation. Jesse's murder books were legend. No detail was too small to escape mention, because you just never knew what would lead you to the killer. . . .
Page 36 . . . It was only after the state police came in to help that the girls' bank records were checked--something a big-city department would have done immediately. . . .
Page 46 . . . The morgue, with its somber, antiseptic chill and stainless steel, was a different experience. Somehow the sterility of the place, the forced distancing of the bodies from their humanity, had a paradoxical effect on Jesse. They becamse more than cases to him here. . . .
Page 58 . . . Silence was a great asset for a cop. He had learned that early on. If you keep quiet, the people you're interviewing can't bear it. They will fill up the empty space with their own chatter and sometimes, if you're lucky, they fill it up with answers. . . .
Page 59. . . For his decade-plus in paradise, Jesse had been able to count on Molly to be Molly. Sure, he loved her, but it was love at arm's length. Sure, he knew her husband and kids, but he didn't involve himself in their lives. It was love born of his need for routine, and no one, not even Johnnie Walker, was more reliable, more rock-solid, than Molly. Until now. She had always been there when he needed her. He trusted her. Her judgments. She wasn't anything like the other women Jesse had been attracted to in appearance or attitude. She wasn't blonde or classically beautiful. She wasn't needy. She didn't need or wanto be rescued. Suddenly, that had all seemed to change.
It was more than that, too. . . .
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