Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins by Reed Ferrel Coleman

Reed Farrel Coleman was hired by the estate of Robert B. Parker to continue the Jesse Stone series.  The Devil Wins is his second project into that venture and is taking the Jesse Stone character to new heights.

Three bodies are discovered in an old abandoned factory in Paradise, Massachusetts where Jesse Stone is police chief.  The body of a man wrapped in a blue tarp is only hours old but a few feet away the skeletal remains of two teenage girls are unearthed.  DNA analysis reveals what all long time Paradise residents know… the skeletal remains are what’s left of two teenage girls, Mary Kate O’Hara and Ginny Connolly who disappeared twenty five years earlier during a Fourth of July celebration.  The dead girls were pals with Jesse’s best officer, Molly Crane whose motivation to become a cop stems from the disappearance of her two childhood friends.  The fresh body is identified as Warren Zebriski, also a former teenage friend to Molly and her two deceased girlfriends.

The town council is all over Jesse to make an arrest.  They want to fire Jesse because of his drinking and lack of respect for their perceived higher authority.  One council member, Bill Marchand believes in Jesse and holds the council at bay while Jesse investigates.  Molly is emotionally shaken but brings Jesse up to speed on events of twenty five years earlier.  But as he struggles to connect events from a quarter century ago to events of today, Mary Kate’s mother who had moved away after her daughter’s disappearance, comes back to Paradise to claim the body.  While visiting Paradise, she is murdered.  Jesse can’t have this in his town… not on his watch.  But as Jesse investigates in his usual ‘stir the pot’ style, he inevitably becomes the killer’s next target.

   

Reed Farrel Coleman has a different style than Robert B. Parker… not better, just different.  Parker is famous for the smart ass quips from the main character and relies primarily on the protagonist’s actions to understand his motivation.  Coleman, however, delves deep into back stories for character development.  The reader gleans new insight into Jesse Stone’s broody temperament and his reasons for drinking.  The contrast is like reading the book vs watching the movie.  But Jesse has the same code of honor… protect the underdog, break the rules whenever deemed necessary… we’ve come to admire.  While I miss the sass and simple straight forward approach that is Robert B. Parker, I enjoy Coleman’s more expansive and enlightening style as well.  Just don’t pick up Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins and expect much of Parker’s legacy.