Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues (Jesse Stone Novels Book 10)

Here's the situation. I've read each of the novels in the "Jesse Stone" series one time. I've seen all of the "Jesse Stone" TV movies at least five-to-six times. Innocents Lost only three times so far, but I'm getting the urge to watch it again in the immediate future. Anyway, I love the books, and I love the movies, but I do have a difficult time separating one from the other. In other words, I get them mixed up with each other, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.The author of the novels, Robert B. Parker, who was famous for his excellent "Spenser" series, died in January of 2010. That's almost two years ago. It's seems much longer to me as I'm sure it does with most of his long-time fans. Fortunately for us, Mr. Parker wrote two-to-three books a year, so there were still a few to be published in both the "Spenser" and "Jesse Stone" series when he passed away. The last book, Sixkill, finally came out this past May. Thankfully, the publisher, in conjunction with the Robert Parker estate, are continuing both the "Spenser" and "Jesse Stone" series with new authors tackling the job of creating exciting stories with the same characters in them that we're all familiar with. Mystery writer, Ace Atkins, will be writing the new "Spenser" novels, and Michael Brandman, who is well known as one of the producers and co-writers of the "Jesse Stone" TV movies, will be continuing, yep, the "Jesse Stone" novels.Though I'm now down to reading a novel every one-to-two weeks, I actually read Killing the Blues in only two days, which is a record for me. I couldn't put the book down. For me, it was like watching a new "Jesse Stone" movie on television, but without all the camera angles. The book certainly fulfilled my expectations, which is all any reader can ask for.In Killing the Blues, Jesse Stone has to deal with a series of car thefts that quickly escalate into a murder, a released convict who has revenge on his mind for our local police chief, a new girlfriend who happens to be Selectman Carter Hansen's niece and who's planning a summer rock concert in Paradise, a tray cat looking for a home, a young girl who takes a principal hostage and opens up a larger can of worms in regards to bullying and sexual abuse by teachers, and Jesse gets a new rental house on the rocky bluff with the footbridge leading over to it (the same house we see in the television movies).Car theft in Paradise is a new experience for the locals, especially since the thieves are stealing Honda Accords and not the luxury automobiles most of the rich are driving. Several thefts occur in less than a week, but everything escalates when a victim is murdered while trying to prevent his car from being stolen. Jesse takes it personally and silently vows to avenge the widow by going after the man at the top of the car-theft ring. To do this, however, he will near the help of criminal, Gino Fish.While working for the LAPD years before, Jesse arrested a man named Rollo Nurse and beat him senseless due to his inner rage at his wife, Jenn. Rollo went to prison, but not with every cell in his brain intact due to the pistol whipping. Once he's paroled, Rollo decides it's time that Jesse Stone paid for what he did to him. Rollo hops on a bus and reaches Paradise a few days later. Then, he begins a deadly campaign designed to get Jesse's undivided attention and to let him know that death is waiting right around the corner for him.While Jesse is investigating the sudden rash of car thefts and the unexplained killing of dogs in the community, a young female student takes the principal of her junior high school hostage. Jesse talks to the girl, which reveals more physical, emotional, and sexual abuse hidden beneath the surface of the educational system. Jesse's personal life might be in shambles, but as a police officer, he knows exactly what has to be done to correct a given situation and always pushes ahead with his coply intuition.The author, Michael Brandman, does an excellent job of bringing to life Robert Parker's characters in a fun-filled, suspenseful novel. In some ways, I feel that Mr. Brandman knows Jesse Stone almost as good as Mr. Parker did and effortlessly captures the inner essence of this wounded individual who tries to do the right thing whenever possible. Now, in reading the novel, it may seem as if you were watching a new "Jesse Stone" movie. That didn't bother me in the least. I had all the actors in mind who play the regular characters in the show and saw them vividly in each scene of the book. For me, it's like visiting family for a few days, and it's always a good experience.I enjoyed the fact that the author attempted to update the "Jesse Stone" novels with what's going on in the series, though there were some major differences. Unlike the show, Jesse has never left his position as police chief of Paradise in the books. Also, he's lived in a rented condo until this novel, when his desire to be more isolated spurs him to rent a house on the rocky buff you've seen in the last several movies.Now, this is also where some confusion comes in on my part in getting the shows and books mixed up. Reggie, the dog, doesn't exist in this novel. Instead, a stray cat starts hanging around Jesse's new home and soon chooses the police chief as her new owner. Captain Healy of the State Police lives next door to Jesse here and makes friends with the cat much faster than our hero does. Healy calls himself the Cat Whisperer. Hasty Hathaway is back in this book. Though he owns the used car lot, he has now been elected back to the town board. This is a clear jump from the TV movie, Innocents Lost. Last, but not least, Jesse and Carter Hansen seem to get along a little better here than in the television series, which leads in to the Paradise police chief striking up a relationship with the Selectman's niece, Alexis Richardson.It's possible that not every fan will enjoy this new "Jesse Stone" novel as much as I did. I guess it will depend on how much you either like or don't like the television movies. All in all, I think this is a fabulous continuation of the series, and I'm certain Robert Parker would be pleased to know that his characters have a new father and are doing well. There is a question in my mind as to whether or not Killing the Blues will be the next "Jesse Stone" movie in 2012.

Michael Brandman's "Killing the Blues", the first Jesse Stone adventure not written by the late Robert B. Parker, is an enjoyable police thriller only slightly roughed up by a few questionable choices.The main plotlines are just fine. In the central storyline, Jesse is stalked by a deranged criminal seeking revenge for the excessive police brutality inflicted on him back when Jesse was an out-of-control alcoholic in Los Angeles. I liked this plotline, as it took the history firmly established by Robert Parker- that Jesse was a mess back in the old days, prior to his arrival in Paradise, Massachusetts- and extrapolated a new consequence for Jesse to confront as a result of that time.Another plotline has Jesse helping out a troubled student who threatened her school principal with a gun. Looking past the episode and trying to discover the reasons behind it, Jesse soon uncovers a messy situation involving many students and the dark secret making them all act out in inappropriate, damaging ways. This was more of a direct imitation of the kind of plotline Robert Parker did many times before (his characters helping troubled youth was always a favored Parker theme), but it was handled well, with Jesse behaving just as readers want him to in such a situation.The final main plotline features Jesse playing hardball with a crime boss who is setting up a car theft ring in Paradise. When a civilian is killed during the course of one of the car thefts, Jesse puts the law aside and does what needs to be done to shut down both the operation and the crime boss, with unambiguous finality.Some will probably describe this last plotline as going too far, in that it paints Jesse as a vigilante just as brutal as the criminal he is chasing. But it always seemed to me that, in every five or six entries of all his series, Robert Parker demonstrated that his characters were willing to administer their own justice when- in their view- the law just wouldn't suffice. Heck, I'm still reeling from the scene in "A Catskill Eagle" (about 20 Spenser adventures ago!) when Spenser and Hawk execute (yes, as in "kill") a couple of unarmed, defenseless pimps because of Spenser and Hawk's (probably correct) prediction that the pimps would have ultimately murdered the prostitutes in their employ for helping our heroes with their case. So, tough and gritty as it is, I had no problem with this particular storyline in the new Jesse Stone book. Guiltily enjoyed it, in fact.My problems with "Killing the Blues"? There aren't many, but they're worth noting. And they're all tied into the unfortunate decision to make the Jesse Stone books now fall more into line with the occasional Jesse Stone television movies starring Tom Selleck.Least harmful among the changes instituted here was having Jesse move into a cottage at the end of a footbridge, just like the one in the TV movies. Though annoying, this wasn't a terrible move, though it minimized the important function Jesse's comically under furnished condo (a framed action photograph of Jesse's favorite baseball player was the only adornment) performed in the previous books: reminding us that Jesse's job with the cops and his discomfort with the kind of cozy aloneness most other people often enjoy are both central motivators in his life.The other changes are more problematic, as they all but negate the carefully-built continuity of the previous books. Two quick examples: Molly Crane, cop and administrative aide to Jesse, is now deliberately described and characterized in a bland way so readers can picture either the Molly of the previous books (an Irish Catholic with many children, who does her best to handle a libido-fueled independent streak) or the Molly of the TV movies (a likable but generally underused African American character who's mainly there to annoy Jesse with her quips). I miss the distinctive Molly of the previous books.Also brought in is the watered-down, TV-movie version of Hasty Hathaway, the town selectman who served as the villain- and a quite dark, dangerous one- in the first Jesse Stone novel, "Night Passage". It would have been interesting to have THAT Hasty Hathaway return in "Killing the Blues", but instead we get the one from TV, a Hasty Hathaway whose crimes weren't all that serious and, after serving a little time in prison, now runs a used car dealership in Paradise.I guess we're supposed to edit our earlier memories of the Hasty Hathaway in the novels because it simply doesn't make sense for the murderous, sociopathic Hasty Hathaway of the novel "Night Passage" to now be back in Paradise, haggling over the price of his used cars with Jesse. I guess we have to shrug and assume that both Jesse and the courts are more forgiving than we thought.To conclude on an even-handed note, I do think that Michael Brandman did an overall nice job with the thankless task of continuing a well-liked print series established by a beloved author. I just hope he eases back on the "aligning the books and movies" thing, and lets the literary Jesse and the movie Jesse be their own distinct entities.So, yes, I'll hang around to see what Mr. Brandman does next with this character and series I've always enjoyed. Even though, ahem, the author makes one other alteration in the series that I'm pretty sure the dog-loving Robert Parker would grumble about: He gives Jesse a cat.But I won't complain, because the cat is very cute. Who says this longtime Parker fan isn't flexible?

So having read all the Spensers, including the Ace Atkins ones, and all the Sunny Randalls, including Mike Lupica’s, we turn to monosyllabic chief of police Jesse Stone, and as usual Parker doesn’t disappoint. But this is the first ‘non-Parker’ Jesse Stone novel, written by Michael Brandman, who wrote most of the Tom Selleck movie scripts. Maybe that’s it. It reads like a movie script. ‘Jesse left.’ ‘Molly drove away.’ Clunky writing in the extreme, and something of Jesse’s charm has been lost as well. The plot is ok - nothing wrong with that - but at one point I actually decided to give up on it. I didn’t, because I love Parker and his characters. But this is definitely sub-standard Parker. Be interesting to see what the other authors have made of him. Brandman is not the man to replicate Parker’s sparse but elegant prose, the mark of a man who works hard to make it look easy. Hmm.

There is always more than one crime to be solved which keeps Jesse Stone very busy. I'm still reading and enjoying this book. It arrived on time and as a new book it was excellent value for money.

I imagine it's hard to write a novel, harder still to follow on well in the shoes of a quality author with an established and popular character such as Jesse Stone. I feel this story did a good job of capturing much of the essence of the original stories. There are 3 simple but effective parallel plots which play out unpredictably but nonetheless in an authentic way. Good story. Good stuff. Perhaps a little brief, perhaps just right.

Completely hooked on entire series- characters are well drawn and in general plots are engaging. Read all books in order although enough background in any title to piece together who is who. For me last two books lost the essence of writing style of the original author and I will probably not be looking for the new book

Well it's not Mr Parker but it is still an enjoyable read. Jesse is confronted first by car thieves at the start of the summer season and then by a former inmate he incarcerated years ago. He also finds time to sort out bullying at the local High School and start a new relationship. I think it is fair to say the plot is busier than the previous novels and that Mr Brandman is not as pithy a writer as Mr Parker so it depends on what you like but I found it enjoyable