"Trouble In Paradise"

"Trouble In Paradise" is Robert B. Parker's second novel in his Jesse Stone series.  Since I saw the made-for-TV movies before I read any of this series, I always see Tom Selleck as Jessie Stone since he plays him in the movies.  What fun it was to get to the sixteenth chapter of this book and have Jesse say, "Well, it's not like they all married Tom Selleck."  Since I'm pretty sure this book was written long before Tom Selleck ever started portraying Jesse Stone on TV, I had to laugh out loud.

Stone has his hands full with his ex-wife moving to Boston and taking a job as a weatherwoman on a local TV station.  Jenn isn't ready to reconcile but she's also not ready to let him go and he doesn't want anyone else.  However, he is an adult male with urges and Jenn is seeing someone else so he does have a couple of women he's seeing for casual sex.

The only excitement in Paradise is when some youth burn down a house belonging to a gay couple.  Stone finds out who did it and wants to prosecute and the affluent parents want to oust him from his job.

There's a new couple visiting the area who have indicated an interest in purchasing a home on Stiles Island -- a wealthy enclave of homes and businesses connected to the mainland only by a bridge.  As Stone gets to know them a little, he becomes suspicious of their motives and starts to check into their background but not before the male half of the couple and his friends take over Stiles Island, isolate it from the mainland, and separate the owners from their wealth.  It's done in such a way that it appears the police can't stop them but Jesse has other ideas and he also wants to rescue any hostages.

Once again Parker has written a story that hangs together well and keeps the reader on the edge of her or his seat until the very end.  pazt