"NIGHT PASSAGE" by Robert B. Parker (A-)

I am a late arrival to the Robert B. Parker fan club, as he has been writing detective stories for decades. Here is another novelist who is a great read. Parker is a minimalist writer who uses sparse language, terse dialogue, and tight characterizations. He crafts short chapters that quickly move the story along with a fluid writing style that is both sharp and interesting. There is not a boring moment in this book.

Thankfully for all of us, he is also a prolific writer. This gives me great hope, for I now have a treasure trove of more than 30 Parker novels to add to my list of future must-reads. A word to the wise, though: you will have to be careful about looking for books authored by Parker. There must be dozens of mystery writers named Parker, and it will be easy to get confused looking for his books in a library or book store. Just remembering the surname will not be enough, or you will end up as I did recently with a private eye novel by another Parker.

Parker is every bit the equal of Robert Crais with the single exception that his characterizations are not quite as strong. Nor are they as interesting. Even with the made for television movies I have had trouble with Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone as a lush and a man emotionally damaged by the breakup of his marriage. Not quite the image of the hard-boiled private eye that I am looking for. Or maybe not quite the display of a softer, more sensitive side of a tough guy that I am looking for. I find this to be more of a display of masculine weakness rather than strength. However, I suppose that this can be viewed as a personality flaw that adds a certain depth and nuance to the character.

This is the first novel by Parker with Jesse Stone as the hero, and it predates the three or so subsequent novels which have been made into CBS movies starring Tom Selleck. Selleck is 62 years old and much taller than the fictional Jesse Stone, who is only five eleven and 27 years his junior at the age of 35. Nevertheless, Selleck is such a commanding presence that I will always get his image in my mind's eye when I read the books.

LA homicide cop Jesse Stone is nurturing a scotch, actually several scotches one right after the other, over the breakup of his marriage to Jennifer, a sparkling woman he had met at a health food café. Though vastly different in backgrounds, they had found much to admire and love about each other. Unfortunately, Jennifer, a wannabe actress, fell into an affair with her agent, Elliott Krueger, and now Jesse's marriage is over. It wasn't the way he wanted it or what he ever thought would happen.

His nature was too closed in as a long time homicide cop and Jennifer naively hoped that a relationship with Krueger would advance her film career. She was much younger and far more immature than Jesse, and she was most decidedly ambitious in her desire to make it as an actress.

The drinking started in earnest and first his partner requested to be transferred. Then his captain gave Stone a warning, and finally he was fired for cause. He applied for a new job and was interviewed in Chicago by the Head Selectman and the acting chief of police of Paradise, a small oceanside town in Massachusetts. Jesse wonders why he was hired since he was so drunk that he slurred his words during the interview. Now Stone is alone with his thoughts about his former life left on one side of the country and a new job as a police chief waiting on the other side of the country. It will be a long, lonely cross county drive.

Tom Carson, the former Paradise Chief of Police, had been told to resign or else by Head Selectman Hastings "Hasty" Hathaway. Hasty is a genteel bank president and a prominent member of the community. Carson was mysteriously informed that he had to be let go because his ongoing investigation had uncovered something that Hasty clearly did not want to be uncovered.

Jesse arrives in Paradise and settles in as one of the bucolic town's
more prominent citizens. Everything is running smoothly until the station receives a 911 call from the home of Carole Genest. She called because of threatening actions by her ex-husband. Stone responds to the call and gets to meet Jo Jo Genest, the town bully with a build like a mack truck. He quickly earns Jo Jo's enmity when he puts him down in front of his wife with a surprise move.

The plot thickens with scrawled graffiti on a dead cat, a nude body lying on a high school parking lot, a sex-starved housewife, a shadowy group of militants, and mobsters lurking on the fringes of town. Jesse will soon be wondering if there is anyone in Paradise who he can trust, including Abby Taylor, the town counsel, and the members of his own police force. 1997, G. Putnam's Sons, 322 pages.