This is the first novel that I have read by this author.

His style is very distinctive - the story is mainly told by dialogue through the main characters, with just a little descriptive writing. There is a little humour too, mainly in Jesse Stone's dealing with his offsider Suitcase Simpson who does a lot of the leg work, but is not yet accorded the title of detective.

Running in the background is Stone's own relationships with his ex-wife whom he is finding it hard to beak off relationships with, and Sunny, the woman he would like to develop a relationship with. ( )

(2007)Getting caught up with all of the Jesse Stone novels. Another very good one with 2 stories. Jesse's former wife comes to him with a story that she was raped and is being stalked by the rapist. Jesse has to work out what is true and not. In the process he must break up with Sunny Randall (not necessarily a bad thing IMHO). Other main story concerns a prominent radio talk host murdered with his assistant and bodies discovered in Paradise.(Booklist)Walton Weeks is a one-man media empire. He hosts a popular national radio gabfest, writes a newspaper column, and churns out best-selling books. At least he did until someone shot him and left him hanging from a tree in Paradise, Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter, the body of Weeks' pregnant lover is discovered in a nearby dumpster. Paradise police chief Jesse Stone fends off pressure from the governor and the state police in order to solve the high-profile case with the resources of his 12-person force. The potential suspects include two ex-wives, a widow, a bodyguard, and assorted staff members. Stone's problem is determining a motive. In a parallel plot, Stone attends to the needs of his ex-wife, Jenn, who alleges she was raped and claims she is being stalked by her attacker. Unable to cope with the murders and the rape, Stone calls on private investigator Sunny Randall--a sometime lover--to help with Jenn. Obsessive, sometimes unhealthy love is a recurring theme in Parker's work. In his Spenser novels, the protagonist and his lover have come through the tough times intact. Stone and Jenn have a strong but deleterious bond and are in the midst of a trying emotional journey to an unknown destination. This is Parker's most complex, ambitious novel in years. Spenser is always the toughest, coolest guy in the room. Jesse Stone sometimes seems like the toughest, coolest guy in the room, but he knows he's not. Great reading from an old hand who hasn't lost his touch. Wes Lukowsky

Synopsis: 'The murder of a notorious public figure places Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone in the harsh glare of the media spotlight.
When the body of controversial talk show host Walton Weeks is discovered hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Paradise, police chief Jesse Sone finds himself at the center of a highly public case, forcing him to deal with small-minded local officials and national media scrutiny. When another dead body - that of a young woman - is discovered just a few days later, the pressure to solve he crimes becomes almost unbearable.
Two victims in less than a week should provide a host of clues, but all Jesse runs into are dead ends. Yet what may be the most disturbing aspect of these murders is the fact that no one seems to care - not a single one of Weeks's ex-wives, not the family of the girl. And when the medical examiner reveals a heartbreaking link between the two departed souls, the mystery only deepens.
Despite Weeks's reputation and the girl's tender age, Jesse is hard-pressed to find legitimate suspects. Though the crimes are perhaps the most gruesome he has ever witnessed, it is the malevolence behind them that makes them all the more frightening.
Forced to delve into a world of stormy relationships, Jesse soon comes to realize that knowing whom to trust is indeed a matter of life and death.' From the book jacket.

Review: Jesse is still drinking, Jenn is still in the picture, and things are a tangle. Interesting story. ( )

First edition as new

Another Jesse Stone mystery by Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone #6. Murderous bad guys are caught in the end of course. I am finding the Jesse Stone series not nearly as compelling as Parker's other mysteries. A recurring theme running through the Jesse Stone stories is his ex-wife who won't go away and neither can be fully done with the other. There are books that stay in one's head for a lifetime and then there are others. High Profile is an other. ( )

Paradise, Massachusetts police chief Jesse Stone must investigate the murder of a controversial talk-show host and a young woman found dead a few days later. The medical examiner reveals a heartbreaking link between the victims.

Quick read. Not the best developed Jesse Stone series book. Pretty simple to figure out the likely killer.
Jenn appears again to prolong Jesse's inability to deal with the inevitable (at least I hope that it is inevitable).
Search for killer of unlikeable characters among a series of equally unlikabie victims is a bit tedious.
Good for speed-reading; not so much for plot and character development. ( )

Enjoyable read, but the Jenn and Jesse thing is getting really old. Just dump her, already. ( )

Paradise is a tiny town in coastal Massachusetts that has rarely seen murders until Jesse appeared. He appears to have brought the "Curse of the Ages." Every year there are serial murders, bodies dropping dead left and right, in very bizarre circumstances. They've barely recovered from last year when they find both a man hung from a tree and a pregnant woman lying in a dumpster. Poor Jesse is just getting the basics set on these when his ex-wife Jenn calls - she's been raped, and she wants Jesse at her side 24/7.

Jesse is a flawed character. He tries very hard to change. I think my main issue is that his flaw involves "stay with a harmful person even when you know it's harmful, because you call the obsession love'" That bugs me a great deal. Overall I do love the Jesse Stone novels! side note...Tom Selleck is the absolute perfect one for the DVD's also. ( )

This is the sixth novel by Robert B. Parker in the Jesse Stone series about the police chief of fictional Paradise, Massachusetts. Parker’s forte is witty persiflage and fast paced action. His weakness (in my opinion) is a kind of loopy Freudian approach to relationships between men and women.

The main plot of this book is pretty good, featuring the murder of a prominent radio talk show host. The badinage between Jesse and his staff (Suitcase Simpson and Molly) is vintage Parker. However, I just can’t buy the interaction between the ultimate killer and his girlfriend. Even worse is Jesse’s continued devotion to his unfaithful estranged wife. Parker can make her pretty, but he can’t make her interesting, let alone lovable, especially in light of Jesse’s relationship with the not quite as pretty, but much more interesting detective, Holly Randal.

This one is a good murder mystery, but the romantic subplots are so unbelievable I was disappointed with the book as a whole.

(JAB) ( )

The story was probably a typical Jesse Stone, which means this should have been a 3 star book. Instead, it was too irritating to listen to due to all the "He said", "She said" that ruled every conversation. It's nice to know who is talking, but they were in almost EVERY single sentence of dialog. Worse, 'said' was used when obviously 'asked' should have been. "How are you doing," he said. NO!!!

There were some other issues with obvious points being talked up, but those I could forgive. I don't expect perfect writing in an obvious series writer like Parker. From my friends' reviews, I have my suspicions that Random House or the reader (who was good) tossed these 'said's in. I can't imagine any editor who graduated elementary school would have left them all in.

Highly disappointed!

Anyone who has read the print version: Can you tell me if they're an artifact of the audio version only? ( )

[High Profile] is a high point for the Jesse Stone mystery series.

A controversial pundit and talk-show host turns up dead, shot and then staged to appear that he hanged himself in a park. A couple of days later, a woman turns up dead from gunshots in a dumpster behind a local restaurant. A high profile murder victim means high profile media and political scrutiny. Multiple victims in a small town means boiling-point pressure.

Parker has a knack for describing the mundaneness of real police work in a way that seems exciting. While his stories are sometimes driven by over-the-top plots, Parker often grounds the solving of the central mystery in good, old-fashioned police work – witness interviews, database queries, cross-referencing known information, surveillance, and re-interviewing witnesses. None of this is particularly interesting, but Parker makes it seem fun.

The one drawback to this Jesse Stone mystery is the inclusion of Sunny Randall, the heroine of another of Parker’s mystery series. Jesse’s obsessive relationship with his ex-wife is on the wane, and Sunny seems to be the perfect match for Jesse. Well, yeah – Sunny Randall is essentially the exact female replica of Jesse Stone. Putting these two together is forced and contrived and a little annoying.

Bottom Line: A high point in the Jesse Stone mystery series, primarily because Parker gets back to real police work.

4 bones!!!! ( )

might all the robert parkers be the same? ( )

Fair plot as Jesse Stone and team uncover the mystery surrounding the murder of a talk radio personality and his girlfriend. Jesse's ex-wife also appears without much reason. Plot fairly good but not much character/scene development. ( )

Jesse Stone novels are like Mac & Cheese...comfort food. ( )

The relationships among Jesse Stone, his ex-wife, Jenn, and Sunny Randall (and her ex-husband) are more interesting than the murder mystery. The moral is you can't stop loving someone even when you know rationally that you shouldn't; but you are still responsible for your own actions. Lots of short chapters (63) with lots of short paragraphs and sentences, most of them dialogue. I thought I had guessed whodunit after 100 pages, but since Jesse and his staff guessed the same thing soon after, I obviously wrong. An easy read with something to think about. ( )

Parker gets involved in a case that reminds him of the time Susan was with another man. I wanted more Hawk. He is such a good badass character. ( )

Decent Jesse Stone mystery. ( )

A good story from someone who knows how to write a good story! ( )

I really like the character of Jesse Stone. Jesse solves the murder of a high profile talk show host and his pregnant mistress while his ex-wife returns to his life for protection claiming she's being stalked by man who raped her. ( )

What is up with Robert Parker, anyway? I've always loved the Spenser books and I like Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone just fine. It's Parker's style that's bugging me. OK, he's always been a bit terse and I liked that. He was funny. But now the chapters are lengthy if they're more than 3 pages long. There's hardly any time to develop characters or plot points, much less a sense of humor. Oh, there are still funny bits, but not like before.

I know Parker is getting on there in years. Maybe he no longer has the stamina or the ability to write as well as he used to. I'd frankly prefer he not write at all if the books must have chapters this short. I was just reading a review of another author that said he was "as succinct as Robert B. Parker" and I find that that doesn't encourage me to read his books. Which Parker does the reviewer mean?

I'm sorry I couldn't like this one better. I think there was a real book that could have been written from this outline. ( )

Bought this at the airport, delayed on the tarmac for 2 hours and finished it by the time we got took off. Easy quick expert read, but something a bit too slick for me. It reads almost too quickly, I want something more from it. I like Jess and his struggles, but Jenn really doesn't make sense to him and doesn't make much sene to me either. The mystery stuff was easy to solve, I felt sorry for the victim. I like these books, I find them reliable, but definitely a library book, not a keeper.

I really enjoy Robert Parker's Jesse Stone series - but I found this one to be a little disappointing. Come on, how can a bright guy like Jesse choose the narcissistic Jen over Sunny? And the denouement too is very disappointing. The bad guy appears to win the whole enchilada
- Spenser would never have let a story end that way! ( )

I love Robert Parker books because they're usually set in Boston, where I'm from. Plus, I can read them in one night. It's brain candy! :) I find them enjoyable, especially after a harsh semester of grad school classes. "High Profile" was better than some of the other Jesse Stone novels; I felt that there was more conflict with his personal relationships. Nothing was tied in a neat package. ( )

This is another very strong book from Robert B Parker - the sixth in the Jesse Stone series. Here we see a high profile murder (hence the title) occur in Paradise and the continuation of the romance of Stone and Sunny Randall - herself the main title of her own series. As one would expect from this series and from Parker in general, we have a lot of wisecracks, some great action sequences and the whole thing wrapped up in the end.

This book is, like all of Parker’s other novels, very fast moving and not too superficial. Parker has three main characters in his books - Spenser, Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone - and they are all either in therapy or dating a therapist. In fact, aside from all these characters being wisecracking, fast shooting, hard punching sensitive souls, therapy is the underlying theme between them all. Admittedly, it is a good way to move the plot along, but I am sure there are others that could be used. Older novels would have utilised the street snitch a la Johnny in Police Squad! This appears to be the Twenty First century version of that.

That aside, this is another tightly plotted murder story with a lot of human interest. The characters involved all develop further and they will continue on with this in the next books of their own series. Notably that fact that Jess and Sunny actually first got together in Blue Screen, the fifth Sunny Randall novel.

Stone is a pragmatic, quiet, recovering alcoholic who is the police chief in the supposedly quiet town of Paradise. Although, there have been several murders there now so I don’t think the town can still be called quiet!

Read this if you like detective novels with a touch of humour and humanity in them.

http://rayb.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/high-profile-robert-b-parker/ ( )