Robert B. Parker (Jesse Stone Series (1-13)

Jesse Stone Series (1-13) - Robert B. Parker

Jesse Stone is the lead character in a series of detective novels written by Robert B. Parker. They were among his last works, and the first series in which the novelist used the third-person narrative. The series consists of nine books, starting with Night Passage (1997) and ending with Split Image (2010), which Parker completed before his death in January 2010 but did not live to see published. The series was initially continued by Michael Brandman.
In April 2014, Reed Farrel Coleman assumed the writing of the series. The novels have been adapted as eight TV films by CBS, airing from 2005 to 2012. The Jesse Stone character starts out at about 35 years old. A former minor league baseball shortstop, who injures the shoulder of his throwing arm, he was raised in Arizona and California. Having been dumped by his beautiful wife, Jennifer Stone, he was asked to resign from his job as a homicide detective for the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division because of a drinking problem that begins after his divorce. Showing up drunk to an interview for a job as police chief for the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts (loosely based on the real town of Nahant, Massachusetts), Stone is hired because the corrupt president of the town board of selectmen thinks he will be easy to control. Stone quickly notices that the town has big league crimes, struggling with the mob, white supremacists, wildly errant wives and a triple homicide, and that his job will be more difficult than he expected. But, he proves up to the task, beginning with making a corruption case against the town council president and arresting him. The series chronicles Stone's cases as chief of the Paradise Police Department, as well as his struggles with alcohol and his complicated relationship with his ex-wife Jenn. He is respected and well liked by the police officers in the town police department. He develops a good working relationship and friendship with the State Police Homicide Commander, Captain Healy. The character of Jesse Stone, a deeply troubled man, was a departure for the author. Parker, comparing Stone to Spenser, the protagonist of his first series and the one for which he was best known, said, "Jesse is a much more damaged individual who is coming to terms with himself as he goes along."