Synopsis: 'When a body is discovered at the lake in Paradise, Police Chief Jesse Stone is surprised to find he recognizes the murder victim--the man had been at the same AA meeting as Jesse the evening before. But otherwise, Jesse has no clue as to the man's identity. He isn't a local, nor does he have ID on him, nor does any neighboring state have a reported missing person matching the man's description. Their single lead is from a taxi company that recalls dropping off the mysterious stranger outside the gate at the mansion of one of the wealthiest families in town... Meanwhile, after Jesse survives a hail of gunfire on his home, he wonders if it could be related to the mysterious murder. When both Molly Crane and Suitcase Simpson also become targets, it's clear someone has an ax to grind against the entire Paradise Police Department.' From author website.

Review: Fairly good story, but knew early on who killed the victim and why. ( )

I hadn't realized this book was part of a long series, when I started it. While I was able to enjoy it and follow along, it is clear, that I would have enjoyed it even more if I had some of the background. There were a lot of references, that didn't mean much to me.
That said, this is a good book. Jesse Stone is the Chief of Police of a small-town, Paradise, MA. He is a recovering alcoholic, still struggling every day, but making it. His force is a family to him.
A body is found near a lake, and it ends up being someone Jesse had seen the night before at an AA meeting. Who is this man? Where is he from? Why did he come here?
Determined to give this nameless man justice, Jesse and his team set to work. For the longest time, no headway seems to be made. Then, the force members themselves become targets of crime. Are these connected? There are a few breaks that help Jesse start to unravel the crimes. The action is fast paced and it's a good read. ( )

Hits enough of the beats from Parker’s original to be worth the time, but just barely.

Spends way too much time referencing, recalling, explaining the Spenser / Stone milieu.

Male-wish fulfillment literature gets old fast, too. ( )

I have enjoyed the Jesse Stone series and eagerly anticipate each new offering, but Fool’s Paradise was a rather dull disappointment. Sunny Randal is back in the picture, and repeated conversations involving some combination of Sunny, Molly, and Jesse form a substantial part of the story. These tepid conversations are a slog to get through. The efforts to depict banter between Sunny & Molly are so embarrassingly lame they fall short of even interesting. When these characters are not engaged in conversation, they are often involved in tedious introspection and self-analysis. Cameo appearances by Vinnie and Dix, long-time bit players, seem to function more to remind readers that they exist.

I persisted through to the end—my bad—but reading Fool’s Paradise was an “I can’t wait for it to be finished” experience. ( )

Robert B. Parker was a very popular author of borderline comedic, macho crime novels that featured a repeating cast of colorful characters. Alas, he died in 2010. However, his estate has commissioned several very good writers to continue his tradition by writing their own versions of novels featuring the characters Parker created. To date, 27 of those knock-offs have appeared! The most recent imitation of the master is Fool’s Paradise by Mike Lupica, who has taken over the Police Chief Jesse Stone franchise most recently handled by Reed Farrel Coleman.

The book starts out rather slowly because Lupica feels obligated to recapitulate the relationships and idiosyncrasies of the main characters, information with which all Parker fans are already familiar. After all, it’s possible, though unlikely, that someone choosing to read this book has not read several other Parker books. Once it gets going, the story is not too bad, and Lupica does an adequate imitation of Parker’s distinctive cadence and diction. For good measure, he even throws in a couple of cameo appearances of offbeat characters (e.g., hitman-gangster Vinnie Morris) who have appeared in other Parker novels without adding anything to the story line or plot of this one. Lupica differs from Parker in that he emphasizes Jesse Stone’s battles with alcoholism more than Parker ever did, and he uses variations of the word “fuck” much more than Parker.

As in all Parker books, the story line, centered around cases handled by the (fictional) Paradise, Massachusetts Police Department, is secondary to the verbal interplay of the characters. The story (involving the murder of a seemingly nice guy Jesse just met at an AA meeting; an attempted rape of Jesse’s second in command, Molly; several attempts on the lives of the key members of the PPD; and the dark secrets of the richest family in Paradise) moves along well enough to keep the reader’s attention for bedtime or airport reading.

(JAB) ( )