Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Night Passage by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0-425-18396-3 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: July, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.79 (47 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Parker does not disappoint his Spenser fans
Comment: The new characters introduced in this book will have most Spenser fans looking forward to the next installment. The focal character,Jesse Stone, is a real person to the reader and makes you want to know how he's doing even when he's not on the page. I do wish Parker's women would grow some hair on their chests and not depend on shrinks to straighten them out. The menfolk deal with their problems in a manly fashion all by themselves. Therapy for the Parker male frequently involves the application of a fist or foot to some other person. Much more entertaining then getting in touch with one's inner child.
This quibble aside this book is a worthy departure with stylish dialog and interesting developments. The ending is a little rushed but the reader will be reluctant to see the end of Jesse and will want to read more about him . The author that can make a reader care about his characters is a success. Robert Parker has done it. END
Rating: 4
Summary: A Good Introduction
Comment: It does look like this is a good time for Robert B. Parker to come up with a new character, and judging from this first book, Jesse Stone could be a winner. He's certainly different from Spenser. While he shows some wit, he's of a darker and brooding nature, having messed up his professional and personal lives by hitting the bottle too heavily. In fact, he even goes to a job interview after drinking and surprisingly gets hired as police chief in Paradise, Mass. He figures that he was hired in spite of his condition when the truth is he was hired because of his drinking...he appeared to be far easier managed than he turned out to be.
Obviously, Parker intends to have the two series interrelate to a degree. Vinnie Morris and Gino Fish appear in the story, although interestingly, they never interrelate with Stone. Somehow, I suspect that might change in future novels.
All in all, this is a promising beginning for a new Parker hero.
Rating: 4
Summary: Just a Spark in the "Night"
Comment: It is usually not a good sign when a series author decides to branch out to a new series; it usually means that the author himself has become bored with his creation and wishes to stretch his writing muscles a bit with something new. At best, this gives the faithful reader a new reason to enjoy his favorite author. At worst, the previous creation becomes a sort of exercise in frustration as the writer focuses his attention on his new baby.
In Robert B. Parker's case, we get the latter. Parker had already registered his continued contempt for his first creation, Spenser, by allowing the stories to get maudlin and sloppy, the margins to get wider and wider, and by publishing two installments of new Philip Marlowe adventures, as well as creating a new series starring a female private eye named Sunny Randall. To add insult to injury, here are we are now with "Night Passage", a fourth series concerning an L.A. cop named Jesse Stone transplanted to Paradise, Massachusetts, a bucolic little town on the Atlantic Ocean.
Jesse, plagued by drink and a wishy-washy ex-wife, sets out to remake himself as Chief of Policein a town where no one knows his name. But things get confusing when the department cat is murdered, followed by the killing of the previous chief of police and finally, a young, unwed mother. Jesse is, underneath it all, a good cop, so he is able to pull himself together, solve the crimes and have casual sex with a couple of ladies, thereby working on his abandonment issues.
Parker seems intent on making Stone as different from Spenser as possible, but the differences are superficial. Where Spenser is a hulking ex-boxer, Stone is slight. Spenser enjoys a beer or a glass of fine champagne once in a while but is, ultimately, in control, but Stone is a drunk just barely keeping his head above water. Where Spenser's relationship is stable to the point of saccharine sweetness, Stone's is wobbly. Spenser has Hawk. Stone has . . . Suitcase Simpson,. a gangly redheaded police officer. But none of this matters. The writer is still Parker, the soul is still Spenser.
Nearly half the novel is taken with Jesse's drive across country and settling in to Paradise. By the time Parker gets around to leveling the plot, we almost wish he hadn't; it is ridiculously unlikely and unworthy of a writer of Parker's heart and intelligence.
What makes this novel a good read are the spare, Hemingwayesque prose, the likeable secondary characters, the hints of what is to come. It's an okay start and, I'm not giving anything away, the second book in the series is a grand-slam homerun of a book. You don't need to read this book to enjoy the second (I didn't, until after), but it may set your mind at ease.
 |
Title: Trouble in Paradise by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0515126497 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Death in Paradise by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425187063 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Family Honor by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425177068 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
 |
Title: Perish Twice by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425182150 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 07 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Stone Cold: A Jesse Stone Novel by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0399150870 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 29 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
