Rating: 
Summary: Stick To Spenser!
Review: Stone Cold is another example of Parker offering junk in an effort to capitalize on his successful Spenser novels. Character development is poor and the suspense is totally missing. You know who the killers are in the middle of the book and couldn't care less about them or the victims for that matter. It's a shame they didn't succeed in killing Jesse Stone because then Parker couldn't write crap like this again. Don't waste your time and money, even when the book comes out in paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, an exceptional read.
Review: Parker, I suspect, has finally past his prime. His Spenser character needs to retire. But Jesse Stone is something else. Just maybe Parker is actually starting to get on course with Stone. This book is actually worth reading without being disappointing. Try it, you will certainly like it.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Works of Parker's Career
Review: STONE COLD, the fourth of Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone novels, is not a mystery. We're introduced to the villains of the piece right on page one. We don't know their names and we don't know much about them, but we know what they're doing. They are a man and woman, passionate lovers whose idea of foreplay is to commit a carefully plotted murder. The victim is randomly selected by wind and whimsy, scouted and dispatched with two simultaneously administered gunshot wounds to the chest. Either shot could be the fatal one. That's part of the thrill for them.Stone is the police chief of the village of Paradise, an affluent Boston suburb where murders of this type are simply not supposed to happen. They are a policeman's nightmare: unpredictable and apparently related only by the methodology of the acts and the perpetrators. Stone determines the identities of the murderers soon enough, but not because he is Supercop. It's a combination of dogged police work and luck, pure and simple. The murderers are Anthony and Brianna Lincoln, independently wealthy, confident and twisted. Knowing who the murderers are and proving it are two different things, however. Stone and the murderers play an engaging, if chilling, game of cat and mouse, with Stone having only two advantages. One is that his adversaries underestimate him. The other is that, unbeknownst to the Lincolns, Stone is aware that they have marked him as their next victim. In the meantime, Stone grapples with another matter of no small import. A local high school girl has been gang-raped by three of her fellow students who have photographed the act and threaten to distribute the pictures if she tells anyone. Stone wants to help, and does. But he finds that all he can do is not quite enough. Stone, as with many alcoholics, labors under a Messiah complex, believing that he can ultimately resolve all of the evils in the world through force of will. He cannot, though he does make a difference. It is learning to live with the distance between what is and what would have been ideal that makes STONE COLD an arresting work. And then there is Stone's personal life. He is slowly coming to grips with his alcoholism while attempting to deal with his unresolved feelings and passions for his ex-wife. Stone has heretofore been relegated to the position of being one of Parker's "other" creations, relative to Spenser, who has been with us now for well over a quarter-century and has crossed over from books into film. Parker has been slowly developing Stone, carefully hewing him into something other than Spenser with a badge. And he has largely succeeded. Stone is confident but lacks Spenser's self-assuredness, which in some ways makes him a bit more vulnerable and perhaps more endearing than Spenser. What is most remarkable, however, is Parker's ability to not only sustain the quality of his writing but also to continue to develop his characters. STONE COLD and Parker's 2003 Spenser novel BACK STORY are among the best works of his career. Certainly they are among the top ten, if not the top five. That Parker at this late date can continue to keep older characters fresh and interesting while developing new and different ongoing projects successfully demonstrates that it may well be impossible to overestimate Parker's place in the hierarchy of detective fiction. If you haven't been reading the Jesse Stone novels because of what they are not, STONE COLD is the perfect place to jump on. Parker, no matter where he turns his hand, is capable of producing work that is nothing less than an absolute delight. Highly recommended. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating:
Summary: Parker goes all Rodney King in his latest book
Review: Stone Cold takes Parker's usual, "If the bad guy annoys you beat the crap out of him" to a whole new level. Usually Stone, or Spenser, confronts the bad guy who has eluded justice in an alley, or behind the woodshed, goads him into taking the first swing and then beats the crap out of him. Very Mickey Spillane. In Stone Cold four people are beat up in police stations while in police custody. Our hero, Police Chief Jesse Stone, administers two of the beatings himself while another cop watches. The recipients of the beatings are already under arrest and the evidence is airtight. Stone initiates the beatings by walking into the room where the prisoners are being held, waves them over to him and knees the guy in the groin as he approaches. Two other beatings are conducted in a police interrogation room while Stone stands by and watches. One of the vics isn't even a suspect. But he is a jerk, which in Parker's book is enough to warrant a beating. Rodney King and Abner Louima watch out. Jesse Stone makes house calls!
Rating:
Summary: Caring, Detection, Introspection and Action in Paradise
Review: Stone Cold is clearly the best of the Jesse Stone series, and one of the finest Robert Parker books in many years. If I leave my emotional attachment to Spenser behind, Jesse Stone now surpasses Spenser as an interesting character. Mr. Parker's dialogue was never better than in this superb book. The novel has several, nicely intertwined story lines. If you like all of the story lines, you'll think this is a great book. If you dislike any of them, you will grade Stone Cold down one star for each one that you don't care for. If you are new to the series, I suggest that you start with Death in Paradise and work your way forward to this one. I must admit that I love the constant allusions to Paradise Lost and other books about those who are out of touch with God's grace. In this novel, we have two villains who are very much like Milton's residents of the nether regions who have fallen from grace because of their fascination with themselves. There are also three young men who are like those whom Dante describes as being overcome by lust in the Inferno. Lastly, there are Jesse and his ex-wife Jenn who seem to be looking for something that they cannot even define, like the lost souls of those who have never known God's grace such as the barbarians in the Inferno. The major plot line features a pair of serial killers who enjoy the feeling of power and superiority that their type of murder provides. In the process of gratifying themselves, they terrorize Paradise, and leave Jesse without two of his closest friends and colleagues. He also finds himself staring down their gun sights. The story is developed as a simple police procedural (without much progress for some time) which makes the book more complex and interesting. The most touching plot line though is about a young woman who is raped and threatened by three insensitive bullies. Jesse tries to do the right thing, and discovers the limits of how much one person can do for another under dire circumstances. The continuing plot line involves Jesse's troubled relationships with women, and shows him at his most confused. At the same time, his problems are better developed here than in earlier books by showing how he relates to different women in different ways and what he says to his psychiatrist about them. For those who don't enjoy psychiatry, it may get a little deep when Jenn and Jesse are sharing what their psychiatrists have had to say about their relationship. Of primary interest for the future is that Jesse seems to start to come to grip with some of his failings, weaknesses and attitudes. He begins to show the potential to use his pain to learn and make progress. I came away looking forward to the next book in the series. Because the dialogue is so smooth and delicious, you'll find yourself finishing the book very rapidly. Stone Cold will hit you just like a perfect martini . . . great going down and warming afterward.
Rating: 
Summary: The magic is showing again.
Review: I've been a fan of Robert B. Parker for what seems like ages and have been sorely disappointed and verbally assailing in my reviews of some of his more recent offerings. The jazz, the juice, the stuff that makes RBP, well, RBP, seemed to be gone. Where was the drama, the thick plots, the wit? My feeling was RBP was waning into literary obscurity. So, now, STONE COLD comes along. Not a Spenser novel but a Jesse Stone novel. Well, whatever RBP did to inspire himself relative to creating this storyline, he needs to stay with it. STONE COLD returns RBP to his roots, that of vehement distaste for the "bad guys," love for the hero, and some good old fashioned retribution. For those unfamiliar with Jesse Stone, he is Spenser's career contemporary albeit his personal antithesis. Jesse is the police chief of Paradise (a community on Boston's North Shore), a functional alcholic, and milktoast in the hands of his ex-wife who is blatantly audacious and Jesse's personal nemesis. Suffice it to say that Jesse is quite human, at times, a little too much so. A man's body has appeared on the beach, two bullet holes in his heart. There is no evidence to speak of and the investigation runs short before it begins. Shortly thereafter, another victim turns up, this time in the parking lot of the Paradise Mall. She was shot twice in the chest as she unloaded her groceries. Jesse has a bad feeling confirmed when he receives the news that the bullets in both murders came from the same gun. A serial killer. In the meantime, in a parallel story, a local high school girl has been raped and has come to Jesse for help. What Jesse does here is pure Parker. This is what Parker's fans love. Jesse's incredibly dysfunctional relationship with Jenn, his ex-wife, continues. Still carrying the torch for everything Jenn, Jesse finds solace in many other women "friends." His syrupy need to get Jenn back is old and you really want to slap him around and say, Wake UP!" But, this character flaw makes him human and, at times, the underdog (read: loveable). Net, net...Parker is back in this one. He introduces the bad guys early and allows the reader to follow their plans as they play cat-and-mouse against Jesse. Consequently, the suspense in this book is evident at two levels, the murder case and whether or not Jesse is going to "make it" to the next day. The thing we love about Jesse is his compassion for the job and desire to see justice. Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Quick and light
Review: Jesse Stone is police chief of the small town of Paradise. Jesse has a drinking problem, which he says does not interfere with his job, but was enough to get him kicked of the LAPD. He also has romantic dependency problems with his ex-wife Jenn. One moment he is all machismo, often found in Parker's male protagonists, the next minute he's a sad sap mooning over a woman who would rather sleep with other men than stay in their marriage despite saying she still loves him. Not that Jesse has any problem getting other women to sleep with him. They don't even mind when he tells them he is in love with his ex-wife and that he would go back to her in a shot as soon as she crooks her little finger. In the midst of all this emotional turmoil, dead bodies pile up on Jesse's doorstep. It seems a serial killer is loose in Paradise. No problem, Jesse is on the case and in short order great strides in finding the culprits are made. Jesse has a little cat and mouse game going with the killers, but in the end they are no match for Jesse.There is also a subplot where Jesse rides to the rescue of a teenage gang-rape victim. This is a pretty quick read due to fairly large margins and a large font. The protagonist comes off as a bit of a superhero and the storyline is a bit too pat to be believable. This is not to say this was a bad book, it was just so unbelievable at times that I had to shake my head. It was a nice, easy, uncomplicated read. You just have to take it for what it is.
Rating:
Summary: Overpriced
Review: This plot was really not very complex or complicated and definitely not worth paying $24.95 for. It's not as if there is any character development in the book. I would have paid $9.50 for it but with the current pricing it is vastly overpriced.
Rating:
Summary: Jesse Stone. Finally!
Review: It's difficult to compare any novelist's hero to Spenser. Heroic. Larger than life. A summa cum laude John Wayne. Big. Funny. Occasionally (and regrettably less frequently now) introspective. Literate. Well read. Able to quote Chaucer and Yogi Berra in the same paragraph. So Jesse Stone would fail in that comparison, albeit coming from the same pen as Parker but without the moral compass, the clarity of right and wrong, the comfort in the ying and the yang of his lover Silverman. Juxtaposed against that Jesse, close to promiscuous, haunted by his relationship with Jenn, his ex-wife, and a borderline drunk. Here though, in "Stone Cold," he begins the ascent from his own pit, his rut in the emotional trail. He accepts the love of women. Molly, his faithful aide, loves him and yet tells him where the line in the sand is drawn. And he ponders that. And Marcy, (...), also shows him the line in the sand. And it is not inconsequential that one loves him and won't sleep with him and the other will, but won't love him. Darn good, Mr. Parker. His treatment of the teenage rape victim is extraordinary. The manner in which he solicits women's thoughts and fears from Marcy, Molly, and the ever present, ever carnal Rita Fiore, is casebook stuff from more than just Parker's whimsy. And his treatment of Candace, the rape victim, seems to me to be the stuff of true love and compassion, even up to the point where when she leaves, he let's her and her family disappear, not willing to intrude on their self sought exile. Dix his therapist, tells him that "there's a point where security and freedom begin to clash." And that's the story of Jenn, his ex-wife, whom he clings to, even though repeatedly she breaks his heart. Good stuff. He comes of age. 5 Stars.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Jesse Novel
Review: Excellent story. Especially good in the procedures of police work and of course Jesse screwed up love life. He really needs to get over his ex-wife. As with the previous Jesse novels each one gives us new insight into Jesse life. So while Spenser will always be my favorite Jesse is getting closing the gap.
| 
