Fool Me Twice

By my count, this is the 11^th of the Jesse Stone series, and the 12^th is due out next month. Parker is such a prolific author. There are another 40 books in the Spencer series. There are two other series and he’s written nearly 70 books since 1973. You may remember Robert Urich who starred in the Spenser series on TV, and Tom Selleck has portrayed Jesse Stone. Surprisingly, only one of his books has been reviewed in the blog, by Midwest Dave – an oversight by the rest of us. I’ve read him before, but that was in the pre-blog days.

Parker provides a reliable crime novel. In this story, there were three story lines although their only intersection was through our hero, Jesse Stone, Chief of Police of podunk Paradise, Massachusetts where Stone went when he left the police force in LA. Stone has all the characteristics that are typical of the protagonists in this blog: honest, inflexible ethics, resistant to anyone in authority who takes a politically correct stance, hard drinking, sexual, all the good stuff, impossible not to like – just picture Tom Selleck.

Paradise became the site of a movie, A Taste of Arsenic, which is an ironic title given the poisonous personalities of the actors that Parker invents. The lead, Marisol Hinton, was having marital problems, having married an actor who was failing in the shadow of her rising star, and he responded by becoming a meth addict. Of course, Marisol herself was an obnoxious wench who was entranced by herself and didn’t get along with anyone. When her husband, Ryan Rooney, abused and raped her one time to many, she changed the locks on their Beverly Hill mansion, filed for divorce, and fled to the movie location in Paradise. Her estranged and violent husband, did not want to lose his meal ticket. He had a solution – the million dollar insurance policy on Marisol’s life, of which he was the sole beneficiary. He was going to have an encounter with Chief Stone.

Courtney Cassidy was the 17-year-old daughter of the town’s wealthiest parents and biggest political contributors. The Cassidy family was even more dysfunctional than the relationships on the movie set. Courtney flaunted her family’s wealth and power, so it was no surprise that she came to Stone’s attention when she kept texting and talking on her cell phone while she was behind the wheel. Despite her incorrigible and unrepentant behavior, Stone thought that she was the victim of her parents’ inattention, so against everyone’s advice, he took her on as a project.

The third story line was bizarre. The head of the local water authority was a physically tiny man, 4’7” tall, and he was passionate the resource that he provided to his customers. He was upset about the quality of the infrastructure that delivered the product, and he was frustrated that despite his best efforts, the State powers would not invest a penny. Plus, everyone made fun of his stature which interfered with his career path. He decided to embezzle the money that he needed to do the repairs by slightly cheating on the water meter readings, and he got away with it for a couple decades. After the repairs were paid for, he continued his deceit, not for his own good. Rather, he’d donate the money to water-related charities around the world. But, things were not that simple, and Stone had to investigate the matter when complaints started coming his way.

This was an enjoyable, quick read. It is the epitome of what I call “airplane books,” which are novels that can be read in a couple hours on a cross country trip, ones that will keep your interest, but not interfere with a nap or a night’s sleep. I will read more of Robert B. Parker. Millions of readers can’t all be wrong.