Stranger in Paradise

                       

I was at a used bookstore with LuLu and the Lump when a woman in line noticed a Robert B Parker book in my hands. We had a short but pleasant conversation about the author even though she was a Jesse Stone fan but could not stand Spenser, the kook.

She recommended this book (Stranger in Paradise), which in fact I had just finished, and had some spot-on observations about it. More on her later.

I always feel like a hypocrite when I review a Robert B Parker novel. I've been rightfully criticized for devoting too much space to the author at the expense of  his work, but I don't think you can review only the text in front of you, not with him. More than any author I can think of his work is a product of the man himself and the events of his life.

His nontraditional (they live/lived in separate houses) and bumpy marriage to his wife has created a steady diet of dysfunctional relationships in his books, and the outing of both his sons unleashed a torrent of gay characters for awhile. Likewise his obsession with psychotherapy sometimes rises to the point where it becomes a cheap way to tell the reader what was going on, rather than show them.

But . . . I love the guy. His writing is smooth and crisp, and so sparse that your mind has only a second to dwell on the beauty of it before moving on to the next chapter.

He is my favorite author, the man who wrote one of my ten favorite books, and I named my only son in honor of him.

Stranger in Paradise is the latest installment of the Jesse Stone series. Set in fictional Paradise, Mass., Jesse Stone is an ex-LA cop turned small town sheriff. Ten years ago a violent and lucrative robbery took place in the town. Now one of the men behind the robbery, Wilson 'Crow' Comartie, has returned. Not to return for another crack at the local P.D., but to find the daughter of a Miami crime lord who may be in the area. Soon enough the unlikely team of Comartie and Stone unite to fend off street gangs, hit men, and the mafia.

I enjoyed the book. It was fun and quick and laden with action that makes a Parker book tick. There's the usual witty back and forth, the unchangeable moral code of the main character, the contradictory but understandable respect Stone has for Crow, a man who on the surface seems his direct opposite, and a bevy of reoccurring minor characters that really flesh out the novel.

[I loved the character of Crow but c'mon. A sexy minority hitman of unquestionable violence but with a moral code? Where have I seen that before? Oh, yes. In about 30 Spenser novels, a black guy by the name of Hawk.

Hawk. Crow. What's next? An Asian hitman named Dove?]

The 'good' comprises 97.8% of the book.

The 2.2% of 'bad'? An over the top P.C. storyline involving school bussing. (gasp! A private island of millionaires doesn't want  busses full of the siblings of inner-city gang members sent to their neighborhood, citing a fear of increased crime and reduced property value?! Republicans! They must have voted for Bush! Legitimate gripe be damned, they're racists! What's that? Don't worry about the subsequent gang homicide. That was just one of their older brothers making a 'statement'. Nothing to see, nothing to see)

There's a minor character who acts . . inappropriately and out of character, and I'm sure many folks will no longer view him/her in a favorable light. (I have my issues with the action myself). However, this could also count as a positive for the book and series, as it doesn't open up a can of worms about the character now and for the future.

Finally, the lady at the store couldn't believe that ten years into the series the main character is still hung up on his sex-addicted loser of an ex-wife.

I smiled and agreed. But secretly I was thinking . .

What's a Parker novel without a dysfunctional romance?